nothing about zombie babies. You can prove this?”
“Yes.”
“Well.” He had tugged again and nearly fell into the doorway. Suddenly Rachael was halfway to the door with him. “Prove it.”
He hauled her out of the hobbit hole, past the porch, and into the yard, and they both blinked in the late afternoon sun.
“See? See?” He pointed at her, and had never felt triumph warring with despair so strongly. Ever. “You’re not a pillar of screaming, shrieking flames. See?”
“Your proof is that I’m not on fire?” The lines he loved (when he thought she was the coolest girl ever, as opposed to what she was) appeared on her cute, wide Christina Ricci–esque forehead. “I think you’ve been reading the wrong books about vampires, because in actuality, they are incredibly vulnerable to—”
“Just stop it. Okay? Cut the shit.” It was the sunshine, so bright, bouncing off the chrome and steel of their rental cars. It was his sweat glands getting their signals crossed. He was so angry his eyes were leaking. It was one of those things, because he was not crying. Not over the fucking vampire queen.
“It’s not just that,” he continued. He was tired. So tired. “You always seem to know exactly how I feel. When my mouth says one thing and my brain another, you always know what I’m talking about. Always. Roommates I’ve lived with for years don’t know what I’m talking about. The day we met I thought about how intuitive you were . . . but it’s not intuition. It’s just more vampire bullshit. But no more.”
“Edward.”
“God, I had the clues right in my fucking face all week and couldn’t see. Your body is perfect, there’s not a mark on you. Of course you don’t have a mark on you! You’re dead, you heal from everything. Everything!” He smacked himself in the forehead, hard. “How stupid could I be? Jesus!”
“Edward.”
He slashed his hand at her. “It’s over, Rachael. And you will be, too, if you stay. So you gotta go. Now.”
For a wonder, she touched his face. It took everything . . . everything in him to jerk back from her small, delicate fingers. “Edward, Edward. I’ve deceived you, yes, something one accountant and Picard lover should never do to another. But I’m not doing something strange and evil with babies . . . or zombies . . .”
“Rachael, will you please cut the shit?”
“Well, I’m not. And later, I’m going to ask you why you thought that. And I’m not even a garden-variety vampire, never mind their ruling sovereign.” She laughed again. “I’m a nobody, really. I’m the kid in the play who has no lines.”
This time, he was the one to laugh. “That might have worked a couple of days ago, Rache. Not anymore, though. I saw you. Don’t you get it?”
“Edward, you must . . .” She trailed off when he twisted away from her outstretched hand, and hurt flashed into her expression like a cramp. Now he was the one who wanted to reach out. Which just proved what a fucking fool he was, and had been, all this time.
“Go. You have to go. Just . . . get out of this city, this state. Don’t ever come back. She’ll kill you if she can find you. Don’t get found. Don’t, Rachael.”
“I’m not a vampire, Edward.” She smiled a little and glanced to her left. Nothing over there except another meticulously maintained mansion. And the summer moon, which looked like an enormous silver disc, almost looming over them. “And I can prove that.”
Thirty-six
“Once upon a time, about a zillion years ago, there was a great ape and a dire wolf. Or a hominid and a canis.”
“Rachael . . .”
“Shut up!” she screeched. “Shut up, it’s my turn, you had your turn and now it’s mine so you be quiet and let me talk now!”
Edward flinched back. He looked awful, pale and drawn; his face looked as bad as hers probably did. For certain, he was as stressed. Her teeth had been on edge the moment she’d opened the door. But she had never considered leaving the door closed, never considered ignoring him until she was ready for him.
And why would she? It wasn’t his fault. None of it. But that didn’t change the fact that it was her, har-de-har-har, time of the month. Not just that but her time in a strange city with no friends, no friendly faces. She knew she would have to endure her Change alone, and just that fact