Between Shadow & Ruin (Fangs & Fae Saga Book 2)

forty.

I wiggled out from between Val and Zane, feeling the cool night breeze hit my legs from the window we'd cracked open as I pulled on some sweatpants. I tended to the fire in the fireplace to keep Val and Zane warm and reached for my cigarettes along with another joint. I headed outside, towards the clearing as I felt the pace of my breath quicken. I was having a panic attack as the thoughts of that last conversation raced through my mind.

Just breathe, Liz...I thought to myself. I grabbed the joint and my hands shook as I put it in my mouth. I struggled to steady the lighter as I held it in front my face. My eyes were watering, and it was hard to see in the dark, but I managed to get it. I took a deep breath in, pulling in the smoke and holding it, trying to calm my breathing. I released the smoke and sat down on the ground with my back on a tree and took another puff.

Tears fell again and again; I didn't bother to wipe them. I smoked the joint and focused on my breathing, trying to not think about how I could possibly fuck up something that I hadn't even decided on.

"Liz," I heard faintly. "Liz, chére, what are you doing?" I looked towards the trees as I wiped my tears and saw nothing. I hadn't heard someone call me 'chére' since Odette passed fifteen years ago.

"Fuck, I must be too high... I'm hearing things," I said out loud to myself as I rubbed my eyes.

"I know you can hear me," I heard the same voice say. I groaned audibly as I tried to move my legs. They were heavy. "Elizabeth Delacour. I expect you to answer me when I'm talking to you!" I heard louder. The voice seemed to come from nowhere, but also from directly in front of me.

"Who is that? What do you want?" I said, looking up. I saw a faint shadow of a woman with light hair in a bun neatly tied on the top of her head. The shadow knelt down in front of me.

"Elizabeth, what are you doing? You know you have to be careful!"

"What?" I said, blinking. "What are you talking about?"

"I've survived this long by making sure I covered my tracks and here you are, covered in blood. Où étais-tu!?" I looked down at myself and saw my shirt was soaked in blood.

"What the hell?" I said. "What is going on?"

"I don't know, you tell me young lady! I thought I taught you better than that!" I blinked again at the figure. Confusion hit harder as the person I saw in front of me had been dead for fifteen years.

"Odette? What is going on?" I looked around, I was no longer in the woods, but outside of the first house we had in Massachusetts.

"'Odette'? Oh! So, you're calling me by my first name now? Merde. What has gotten into you!? Get up and get into a shower. I'm going to have to burn your clothes. Allez. Take them off!" I stood up, walked to the bathroom and Odette removed my clothes. She turned on the water and threw me in the shower. The water was ice cold and ran red as it reached the drain.

"O – Mom. What is going on?"

"What's going on is you were passed out on the front porch, covered in blood like some sort of païenne! You know you're not supposed to be feeding on humans right now! I know it's hard, but I just got you through a Ripper binge! Zut alors, do you want to Rip through half the state again!?"

"No... I... I haven't gone Ripper in a long time... I was just in the woods, smoking a joint. What am I even doing here? I thought you were dead!" She kept forcing me back under the ice-cold water.

"Excuse me? It's been a week since I found you. And you were doing what? Ca va pas la tête? Young lady, I don't know what kind of night you had, but I will be dead if you continue these antics. You're lucky I found you before one of the kids did. Dépêche-toi and get out of there, we have things to do."