They chatted for hours, laughing, crying some more, never letting go of each other. Eventually the sun cast bright rays inside the room. Neither Riley nor Victoria had moved from their places on the beds. They hadn’t spoken, either, and Mary Ann assumed they were resting their minds.
She’d never been as happy as she was at that moment, hearing about her mother’s childhood and talking about her own. They lay on the bed, in each other’s arms, breathing each other in. She didn’t want their time together to end. In fact, she no longer saw Aden when she looked at “the body.” She saw Eve, with long dark hair, sharp cheekbones, a small nose and a heart-shaped mouth. An illusion of her own making, most likely, but she didn’t care.
Eve smoothed a strand of hair from Mary Ann’s cheek and hooked it behind her ear. “After I gave birth, they swathed you up and placed you in my arms. I remember looking down at you and thinking how beautiful you were. I could feel myself fading but managed to find the strength to lean down and kiss your forehead. My mind then locked on a single thought: one day. Just give me one day with her. That’s all I needed to have led a full life.”
“And now we’ve had that,” Mary Ann said with a grin.
Eve returned the grin with another hug. “Now we have.”
“And the wonderful thing is, there’s so much more we can do! So much more we will do. Sure, Aden will look funny when I put makeup on him and style his hair, but he’ll—Eve? Anne? Mom?”
Eve had lost her smile, had even closed her eyes. “What’s happening?” she asked, and at first Mary Ann thought she was speaking to her. “Aden? Do you know?” Silence, then, “Ahh.” Her/his expression crumpled, became resigned. “I understand now. And it’s for the best. For you, for Aden.”
“What’s going on?” Mary Ann peered down at her mother with concern. Those eyes were glazing over, blue seeping into brown. Riley was suddenly behind her, her comfort, her support. “Aden, don’t take the body away from her yet. Please.”
“I love you, Mary Ann,” Eve said softly, sadly, peering over at her with those lovely hazel eyes. “This isn’t Aden’s doing. It’s mine. My time to go. I was granted my final wish, and now it’s someone else’s turn so that Aden can have the peace he’s always wanted. The peace he deserves.”
“You plan to go back inside his head, right?” she asked desperately. “You’ll still be there. We can still talk.”
“I’m so sorry, angel. I’m…leaving the body. I can already feel myself separating. Aden, honey,” she said, closing her eyes, “you have to let go. I love you, but this is right. This is how it’s supposed to happen. I realize that now. You gave me back my daughter, granted my last wish, and now I’m giving you that which should have always belonged to you. You.”
Another of those pauses.
“Aden, my sweet boy. You’ll be fine without me. I know you will. You’re strong and smart and all a mother could desire in her son. I will miss you more than I can ever say. All I ask is that you take care of my angel.”
“Eve. Mom!” Mary Ann gripped her shoulders and shook until Riley pried her hands loose. “Don’t do this. Please, don’t do this. Stay. I need you. I can’t lose you again.”
Those lashes flicked open once more, and Eve reached out, touching her face, smiling gently. “I love you so much. You are the best thing I ever did, my greatest joy, and my only reason for living. I will cherish you always. Please don’t forget that.” She pulled Mary Ann up to her face and kissed her forehead, just as she’d done to her as a newborn. Saying goodbye.
“No. No!” Mary Ann shouted, jerking free of Riley and throwing herself at her mother.
Victoria was suddenly there, moving so quickly she couldn’t see her, pushing her back. “You will not hurt him,” the vampire said, hovering protectively over Aden’s body.
Her gaze moved back to Aden. Aden…no longer Eve.
He sat up in a rush, gaze as wild as hers, a tormented “No” screaming from his lips. “Eve! Can you hear me? Eve! You have to come back. I thought I wanted to be free but I was wrong. I was wrong. I need you.”
Mary Ann waited, silent, hoping he would smile at her and tell her Eve was still there, still talking to him. But the minutes dragged by, time seemingly alive, a presence beside her, constantly whispering in her mind: just a few seconds more. Reality never changed.
Finally, his shoulders slumped and he dropped his head into his upright hands.
“She’s gone. She’s really gone.”
TWENTY-THREE
A week later
ADEN WALKED THROUGH THE FOREST, flanked by Victoria, Mary Ann, Riley and Shannon. School had just ended, but they might as well have remained in class, as quiet as they were.
Everything had changed the night Eve had left him. Afterward, they’d driven to the houses his and Mary Ann’s parents had lived in all those years ago. Aden’s parents had moved, as Eve had assumed. Mary Ann had kept her eyes squeezed shut the entire time, silent, refusing to even speak about her mother.
So, after that, they had driven to St. Mary’s. With some finessing Victoria and Riley were able to get a printout of all the people who died the day of Aden’s birth. A list of fifty-three people, many of whom had perished in a bus collision that day.
The list had been in his possession this entire week, but he couldn’t seem to make himself care. Depression had settled heavily on his shoulders. He missed Eve, wanted her back.
Which was silly. He had the answers he’d been searching for all these years. The people inside his head had been ghosts, all killed on the day of his birth. He could free the remaining three now, had always thought he wanted to be alone, but being without Eve made him feel empty. And all too soon, if he figured out who Julian, Elijah and Caleb were and what their last wishes had been, he would be without them, too.
They deserved freedom, their dreams coming true, and so did he, but…This was too hard! Even the other souls missed Eve. They’d been quieter than usual. Something he would have thought he’d enjoy. Until now.
Aden sighed. Poor Mary Ann. Like him, like the others, she had yet to recover.
Sadly, things weren’t going to improve for either of them anytime soon. Tomorrow was Halloween. A holiday he’d once enjoyed, since it was the one night of the year that weirdness was actually encouraged. Admired, even. This time, however, Halloween marked the night of—he shuddered—the Vampire Ball. He was finally going to meet Vlad the Impaler. Aden thought having his entire body waxed might have been preferable.
“Did you guys hear about Tucker?” Mary Ann asked, drawing his attention, breaking the silence.
“No.” Aden kicked a pebble with the toe of his boot. “Did something happen?”
“He disappeared from the hospital this morning. He was in his room one minute and gone the next, but no one saw him leave.”
“Okay, that’s freaky. Same thing happened to a boy w-who lived at the D and M with me and Aden,” Shannon said. “This morning, Ozzie disappeared from juvie.”
Shannon knew nothing about the events that had transpired recently, nothing about Victoria’s and Riley’s true identities, but even he recognized that something bizarre was happening. “I hadn’t heard that, either,” Aden said. Tucker and Ozzie both on their own, both probably gunning for him. What a nightmare. “I’ve got a therapy session today, but maybe I can talk to Dan about it afterward. See if he’s learned anything else.”
Therapy. Ugh. His new doctor, the one he now saw because Eve had taken him back in time and he’d changed the future, was…strange. Monotonous, seemingly uncaring and all business. Aden halfway feared the man was going to try and lock him up for a while, just to observe him through those dead, emotionless eyes. He was treading very carefully right now.
“Shannon,” Victoria said. “You will race home now and you will remember that Aden walked with you.”
Dread beat through Aden as Shannon’s eyes glazed over and he picked up speed. Soon, the boy disappeared beyond the trees.
“What’s going on?” Aden asked.
“I wish Tucker and Ozzie were the worst of it,” Victoria said. “Dmi—another vampire and I found Mr. Applewood, the baseball coach, and his wife, last night. Chewed up.” She wrapped her arms around her middle, her ring glittering in the sunlight. “No one knows yet, but when they’re discovered, the police will think there’s a pack of wild animals on the loose.”
“So it has begun,” Riley said gravely. He carried two backpacks, his own and Mary Ann’s, and now he shifted both to one shoulder, freeing up one of his hands. To better reach for a weapon if needed? “I feared it had when I realized several kids were absent today.”
“Goblins?” Aden asked, recalling what they’d told him about the fearsome flesh-eaters. They liked their victims living and fresh. He, too, shifted the two backpacks he carried—his and Victoria’s—to one side.
Victoria nodded. “I suspect so.”
His stomach rolled. “We’ve got to stop them.”
“I agree,” Riley said. “But the only way to do that is to find where they’re sleeping during the day and kill them while they’re vulnerable.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Mary Ann said, kicking a pile of acorns.
Riley opened his mouth to reply, probably to protest and command her away from the actual fighting, but thought the better of it.
“We’ll need weapons,” Aden said. “We’ll also need time. Time I don’t have, because of chores and watchful eyes at the ranch. But I don’t want you guys going without me.” He might not have possessed superstrength like Victoria or superspeed like Riley, but he was not without skills. Plus, he would place Victoria’s life before his own, ensuring her safety. Riley, he suspected, would do the same for Mary Ann, perhaps even placing Mary Ann’s life before Victoria’s. Therefore, they both had to be there.
