Coldhearted (9781311888433) (40 page)

“
Oh, no, I got something.”
He lifted up his hand to reveal a werewolf’s mask that he’d been
holding away from her view. He shrugged. “It’s not great, I
know...”

“
No, it’s cool,” she said.
“Better than my clown nose.”

Quinn took his free hand, reached up, and
gently pinched her covered nose. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said
softly. “You know…considering…”

She nodded, knowing that he was talking about
her split from Mason. But he didn’t know about her soon-to-be
death, if another way wasn’t found to subdue Tristan.

“
Well, Diana and Madelyn
wanted me to go, and I didn’t want to disappoint them.” She gave
him a look. “So tell me, Quinn McDermott, why are you hanging
around me, if I’m single?” She smiled. “I’m no longer hot material,
right?”

He smiled back and shook his head. “Oh,
you’ll always be hot material, Edie, but uh…well, I think I’ve
changed.” He seemed nervous. “Yeah, I, uh, wouldn’t mind actually
having a relationship with a girl, you know? A single girl,” he
clarified.

She tilted her head to the side. “Oh, well,
any particular girl?”

Instead of answering, he secured the werewolf
mask over his head.

“
Is it Jules?” she
asked.

He shook his masked head.

“
Is it…Candie?” she
teased.

He growled, telling her “hell no!”

Instead of being afraid, she giggled. “Quinn,
I like you.”

He lifted up his mask, letting it rest atop
his head, and stared into her eyes. “Really?” he asked with a
hopeful smile.

“
Yes,” she said, “but…I’ll
always love Mason.”

Quinn pulled down his mask, covering his
face. He was refusing to talk to her, but he stayed by her side,
even when a few giggling witches came walking past, enticing him
with their short skirts and long legs. The witches gave Edie the
stink eye—one of them being Candie (who kept a healthy distance
from Edie)—as if Edie had stolen yet another hot bachelor from
Grimsby High. The witches sauntered into the gym and left the door
open to allow pulsating pop music to blast out.

Edie retreated, trying to save her eardrums
from rupturing, when she backed up into someone. “Oh, sorry,” she
apologized, and then turned around to see a ghost.

“
Boooooo!” it sang, waving
its fingers at her in a hypnotic way.

“
Hey, Jules,” Edie said. She
playfully tapped Jules’s thick glasses that were peeking out
through a pair of cut eyeholes.

Jules’s arms fell and her shoulders slumped.
“I was trying to scare you.”

“
She sees real ghosts,”
Quinn said, from behind the mask, his voice muffled. “Why would”—he
gestured at Jules’s low budget costume of a white bed sheet—“this
scare her?”

Jules growled at him. “What about you, wolf
boy? Only your head transforms on a full moon? And didn’t you wear
that last year?”

Quinn lifted his mask, letting it rest atop
his head. “I’m a believer in recycling,” he deadpanned.

Jules sighed and turned back toward Edie.
“Like the nose,” she approved.

“
My uncle wore it while
writing The Bloody Circus,” Edie informed.

“
Cool,” Jules
said.

They separated to allow some zombies to
slowly walk toward the gym and behind them were Diana and
Madelyn.

“
Hey, guys!” Diana yelled,
waving as she approached. She was wearing a white lab coat, stained
in fake blood, with a stethoscope around her neck.

Quinn advanced toward her, wearing his
werewolf mask. “Dr. Christensen, can you help me? I woke up this
morning and discovered all these…changes…to my body. What’s
happening?” he demanded dramatically, shaking his fists in the
air.

Diana played along. “Young man, you’re going
through puberty. It’s all right to be scared, but there’s nothing
to fear. Except of course for the sudden urge to act like a
complete idiot around girls,” she added with a smile.

Quinn playfully growled, and then lunged,
going for Diana’s neck with his fake teeth. Diana squealed and ran,
with Quinn chasing her, until they finally made their way back
toward the rest of the group. Madelyn took a protective stance in
front of Diana, and Edie latched onto Quinn, her arms around his
waist. Surprise, surprise, he wasn’t struggling to break free.

Madelyn was wearing an old-fashioned dress
and bonnet straight out of a Jane Austen novel, but she wasn’t
demure-looking with that badass grin on her face.

“
Back off, wolfie,” she
playfully warned Quinn.

Quinn held out his hands in frustration. “How
can I? Edie’s got me in a death grip.”

Edie let go of him, and then playfully pushed
him further away. “I did not. I couldn’t restrain anyone.” She
flexed her non-existent muscles. “Like wet spaghetti, I am.”

“
You’re stronger than you
know.”

She knew that deep, manly voice, but turned
anyway to find Russell, standing before the closed gym doors. He
glanced at everyone before locking eyes with Edie.

He smiled, sweetly and seductively. “Where’s
the rest?” he asked, gesturing at the only bit of costume that she
was wearing: the red clown nose.

Edie shrugged. “I didn’t feel like dressing
up. Not really in the mood.”

Diana came up behind Edie and put her arm
around Edie’s shoulders. “I’m a doctor, Edie, so I know what I’m
talking about when I say: It’s a party! Have fun!”

The rest cheered and hooted, rushing toward
the gym. Edie had no choice but to move forward as well,
considering Diana was practically pushing her.

Quinn stopped right in front of the door and
turned toward Russell, looking him up and down. “No costume, Mr.
B?”

Russell shook his head. “Sorry, no.”

“
Wanna wear my mask?” Quinn
took it off, handing it to him. “Damn thing’s like wearing a
straightjacket for your face.”

Russell smiled and waved the hairy mask away.
“No, thanks.”

Quinn turned toward Edie. “What about
you?”

She furrowed her brow and pointed to her
nose. “I’m already in costume.”

“
Yeah, but you could be a
mash-up. Like a werewolf-clown. Now that’s scary.”

She nodded, agreeing. “Okay.” She took off
her nose, secured the mask, and then placed the nose over the
werewolf one. She could barely see out of it. “How do I look?” she
asked in a muffled voice.

“
Scary,” Jules
said.

“
Scary,” Diana and Madelyn
agreed in unison.

“
Sexy,” Quinn said,
grinning, and then he turned toward Russell. “Hey, what do you
think of Edie, Mr. B?”

Russell hesitated, and then said, “Scary,” to
her relief.

“
She doesn’t need a mask for
that,” a whiny voice said.

Edie turned and discovered Rochelle, dressed
as a sexy nurse, and Ravenna was right beside her, wearing a hot
pink princess dress and tiara atop her head.

Quinn strode forward and stood protectively
in front of Edie. He folded his arms over his chest and appraised
the girls. “Hmm, let me think, you’re...bitches…this evening?”

Ravenna gasped and turned toward Russell.
“Mr. B! Write him up!”

Russell made a what-can-you-do kind of face.
“Sorry, I’m on punch duty, making sure no one spikes it. Speaking
off…I’d better get back.” He went to the door and held it open for
everyone, even Rochelle and Ravenna. “Okay, kids, get inside and
behave. And remember: this is a high school dance, not a
nightclub.”

Everyone moved forward. Quinn, Jules, Diana,
and Madelyn entered the gym and got caught up with the crowd,
disappearing from Edie’s view. Still outside, Edie found herself
next to Rochelle. Edie was wondering why Rochelle had been bold
enough to make fun of her, considering that she’d been avoiding
Edie out of fear all week.

Edie immediately found her answer: Mason.

He seemed to appear out of nowhere, dressed
in just his normal, everyday clothes, the colors red, orange, and
brown being the most prominent. He went to stand next to
Rochelle.

She grinned at Edie, as she wrapped her arm
around his. “Where’s your date, freak?” She threw her head back,
laughing. “Oh, right, no one worth anything would want to be seen
with you.”

Edie waited for Mason to defend her, but he
just stood there, silent, and refused to look at her.

Russell came to her rescue instead. “One more
word out of you, Lafayette, and I’m banning you from the dance, got
it?”

Rochelle swallowed, nervous, and said nothing
more. She turned and walked inside the gym, tugging Mason along.
Ravenna was just standing still, until she realized that she should
be trailing after her friend; she finally moved, running after
Rochelle and Mason into the gym, leaving Edie and Russell alone
outside.

Russell went to grab Edie’s hand, just as the
door opened. It was Diana, and fortunately she didn’t see Edie jerk
her hand away from Russell’s.

“
Edie!” Diana grabbed Edie’s
hand, tugging her forward. “C’mon, girl! We’re all dancing, even
Quinn! He looks like such a dork!”

Edie laughed and let Diana pull her along,
leaving Russell behind. The music was loud and Edie could barely
hear Diana, telling her where their friends were. Diana realized
that Edie was deaf and pointed toward the group onto the dance
floor. She was right.

Quinn was dancing like a dork, but Edie
suspected that he was doing that on purpose because he was having
fun. With a body like that, Edie didn’t think he did anything
dorky.

Edie joined the group, after she and Diana
had made their way through the crowd.

“
What’s the cure for a
broken heart, doctor?!” Edie asked Diana over the music.

Diana threw up her hands, and yelled,
“Dancing!”

So Edie danced and loved every minute of
it.

****

After she’d danced her feet off, Edie was
sitting alone at a table, while the others kept at it, as if they’d
entered a dancing competition and couldn’t stop. As she sipped her
alcohol-free punch that Russell had personally poured for her, she
scanned the gym, taking in the decorations: hanging skeletons;
spider webs, spiders, and other creepy crawlies; cackling
animatronic witches; a mummy in an open coffin; werewolves;
vampires; zombies; and to top it all off, a fog machine that made
the atmosphere appear more spooky than it needed to be. The
students had no idea that an actual ghost was walking among them,
unseen. Tristan hadn’t appeared or spoken to Edie all evening, but
she knew that it was only a matter of time before he’d make an
appearance on stage.

Well, before all chaos broke out, she
decided to relax, and pulled off her werewolf mask. She fanned her
face with it, and then set it down, next to her drink. As she was
adjusting her clown nose back on, she noticed Mason was standing,
on the other side of the table.

Immediately, she looked for his date.

“
Where’s Rochelle?” Edie
said bitingly. She wished that she’d been wearing the werewolf mask
for the full effect.

He looked embarrassed. “I…well, I don’t
know. I told her to get lost. She was getting on my nerves, but I
shouldn’t have led her on.”

Edie did a quick survey of the gym and found
Rochelle. She’d rebounded with a vampire, letting him bite her
neck, while Ravenna, bored and alone, kept filling up on fruit
punch and snack sandwiches.

“
Led her on?” Edie
repeated, confused.

He sighed. “I only asked her to go with me
because…well, because I thought if you saw us together, you’d…”—he
grunted—“dammit, Edie! I thought you’d wake up and realize that
Tristan is going to do whatever the hell he wants, and you
shouldn’t give in to him because that only emboldens him. I was
trying to make you jealous…with Rochelle. I wanted you to fall into
my arms, and tell me that you love me, and that you didn’t give a
damn what Tristan said, or what he threatened, or what he might do.
I wanted…I want you. I want you back so badly. I haven’t slept all
week, barely eaten. It’s been torture being so close to you and not
being able to touch you, to talk to you. My heart hurts, Edie.” He
advanced and crouched in front of her. “Edie, I love you and it’s
killing me that we’re being forced apart.” He clasped her hand with
a gentle, warm embrace. “Edie, baby, it doesn’t have to be this
way. We’re not slaves to his will. He’s not all powerful. He can be
overcome, but you can’t do it alone. He gets in your head, I know
it. He messes with you. If you won’t take me back, at least let me
help you. Edie, I’d do anything for you. I’d die for you.”

She was speechless, crying. Mason, despite
the danger that he was in, settled down into a chair next to her.
He pulled her close, holding her, while his hand massaged her
back.

Instead of being comforted, she felt a cold
hand grab her neck, threatening her.

She pushed Mason away. “No,” she said,
finding her voice. “I love you, but we can’t be together, not even
as friends.” She wiped her tears away. “He won’t allow it.”

Mason removed his hand from her back and
cupped her cheek. “Edie, I don’t care. I love you. Love conquers
all, right?”

Now he was crying. Edie brushed his tears
away with gentle thumb strokes. Despite having a seer’s knowledge,
despite knowing the repercussions of her actions, she acted like a
damn fool and kissed Mason’s warm lips. She realized in that moment
how much she’d missed his mouth on hers.

Mason didn’t ask any questions, didn’t want
to talk, and returned her kiss with the passionate fervor that he’d
displayed when they’d made love. Then, as now, it was as if they
were the only two people in the world. Ever since their forced
separation, she’d been feeling dead inside, but Mason’s lips on
hers was like the breath of life.