Pulse

Chapter 33

Lucie

I was running on around four hours of sleep.

After getting home last night (or early in the morning, more like it), I hadn't been able to really fall asleep until three in the morning, as the gnawing feeling about Cian was still tearing its way through my heart's flesh. Vinny had told me that Cian was fine, and it's not that I didn't trust Vinny, it was just...I actually didn't know.

I stumbled down the stairs; Mom was in the kitchen, Dad likely already off to work at his office. I slid myself onto a barstool and sighed into my hands. Mom looked up at me from pouring cereal. Lately, since I'd recalled the accident, she'd been getting a little better, starting to ease back into her old routine of horrible jokes and goofy smiles. She was taking a lot less pain pills now, as if they made pills that eased a broken heart. "You off to school?"

I glanced at the clock, then nodded. "Soon enough."

Mom grunted in approval and handed me the bowl of cereal. She wandered into the living room, snatching up the remote (which someone, for some reason, had left on the kitchen island) as she went. Calling over her shoulder, she asked, "Want to tell me why you got in so late last night?"

My eyes darted away. "What? I don't know what you're talking about. I was in bed at nine o'clock like the perfect child I am."

"Don't lie to me, Lulu," replied my mother as she reappeared in the kitchen, her eyebrows risen towards her hairline. One hand was on her hip, the other dangling the television remote precariously from her fingers. "Not only did I hear you last night, but I can tell when you're tired. It better have been for a good reason. Now eat your cereal and get out of my house," she said, her lips turning up at the ends. She turned back to the droning newscaster echoing from the living room's direction. "Go get educated! Chase your dreams!"

"I'm leaving," I said with a roll of my eyes, and took my cereal bowl with me on the way to the car. It was best to get out before she decided to punish me after all.

As I was backing the Subaru down the driveway, watching the pink hues ascend over the clouds, my phone buzzed on the dash. Startled, I nearly spilled milk and Cinnamon Toast Crunch all over my shorts. Mentally scolding myself for not being more graceful, I sighed and reached for it, squinting at the caller ID.

Angel Boy

Cian was calling me? A smile couldn't help but grip my lips as I hit answer. "Your first phone call!" I exclaimed. "Well, Cian, how does it feel?"

"Uh," said a voice that was not Cian's, but his little brother's instead. It sounded so shaky, so fearful, that it twisted something inside of my chest. "Sorry, Lucie, it's not Cian speaking."

"Vinny?"

"Listen, I gotta talk fast. Electronic devices zap my energy and I don't have long before this thing falls through my hand. Basically, Cian's not okay"—he was momentarily cut off by a loud groan from the background, and a scream quickly muffled by something that could have been a pillow—"uh. Yeah. That's the demon venom in his system. Get over here now. We've got to do something. I don't know how much time he has left before the wound kills him."

"What—the wound? As in, like, the demon from last night? Oh God. Oh, Vinny, oh God."

"Please hurry, Lucie," Vinny said from the other line. Static was growing and growing, thundering in my ear. The groans I assumed were Cian's cut through the noise. "Please, because I don't know what to do."

"I'm coming," I said, revving the engine. School would have to wait.

"You're coming?" Vinny exhaled.