Elysian (12 page)

“Maybe some other time.” I tick my head toward the door. “Looks like Mia and Melissa’s little get together is in full swing. I’d better head downstairs and hold down the fort. Who knows what trouble a bunch of eighth graders can get into. You want to hang out?”

Logan looks into my eyes with a hint of worry. He must suspect something since I’m a little standoffish.

“I need to run an errand.” He pulls me in and holds me so tight it feels sexual, erotic on an unexpected level. It’s heaven having his rock hard chest so close to mine. “Whatever you do, don’t stop believing in us, Skyla. We’re going to happen. Those visions were given as an assurance.” He drops a heated kiss over the top of my head.

I pull back and take him in. “Are you going to see Chloe?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I’m so pissed at her, she’s the last person I want to see tonight.” He walks over to the exit and opens the door to the attic. “We’ll figure out a way to get that pendant from her. She’ll gift it to you sooner than later.” A faraway look takes over. “She has to.”

We part ways, and I drop through the closet on my way downstairs. The music is so loud the steps hum beneath my feet as I descend toward the mayhem.

An entire gaggle of adolescents have amassed in the family room. The lights are all on, so already I’m apprised of the fact that Mia and Melissa don’t have the faintest idea on how to throw a decent party, but I’ll be the last person to give them tips on mood lighting.

A pair of cold hands cover my eyes from behind, and I spin to find Brielle laughing her head off.

“You’re late to the party!”

“Technically, I don’t think I was invited. What are you doing here? Trolling the junior league for fresh meat?”

“Very funny.” She averts her eyes. “I was hanging out with Drake and Em before they went upstairs.”

“What do you mean,
went upstairs
?” A boiling rage builds in me over this Em and Drake situation.

“They wanted to be alone.” She hitches a long auburn lock behind her ear. “I get it. Besides, Chloe and Ethan did the same, so I thought I’d hang out and supervise.”

Crap. Just knowing Chloe is here defiling the party with her sweaty self makes me want to hang somebody—preferably her.

“Brielle?” I pull her into the kitchen where the body count is virtually nil—most likely because Tad left us with an empty refrigerator. “Do you love, Drake? Are you still, you know, interested in him that way?”

Her cheeks flush as she sweeps the floor with her gaze. After knowing Brielle for over a solid year I don’t think I could ever name a time when I had seen her blush let alone look the slightest bit depressed.

“I do.” She lets out an exasperated breath. “I get it. He wants Em. For whatever reason—and I do mean
whatever
—he finds her attractive. I’m totally jealous. There I said it.”

My heart breaks for her. It takes all my strength not to run upstairs and wrap my hands around Drake’s throat, but, then again, I’d hate to see him going at it with Emily. My heart might stop beating from the disturbing visual.       

“Anyway”—she shakes it off—“I don’t want to talk about my love life. I want to talk about
yours
. We both know Em’s drawings are never wrong.” She gives an impish grin. “You, Skyla Messenger, are going to do the deed, and I’m dying to know with whom.”

“You and me both.” That’s the God’s honest truth.

“Oh, come on. You must have some preference, some perverted hierarchy of who you’d like to do it with first.”

“No,” I say it bored. “Really, I don’t. Besides, my mind has totally been in other places. I won the war, I think.” I open the fridge to pluck out a couple of water bottles and note it’s decidedly bare, so I pour us each a glass from the sink. Landon sink water tastes like shit because Tad is too damn cheap to change the filter. I bet it hasn’t been changed since Chloe lived here—just the thought makes me want to gag. I’m drinking dead
Chloe
water. Gah, I wish she were still dead. I wish my blood was useless and none of us would have ever been in this mess to begin with. My stomach sours at the thought because I wonder what would have become of Logan if that were the case. Would my mother have brought him to Paragon, to another point in time if it weren’t for the fact I was Celestra? Would Marshall care at all about me? But something tells me he would.

“You know what I think you should do?” She steps in and takes the water from me. “I think you should sleep with all three of them.” Brielle dispenses her nonsensical wisdom while looking over the rim of her glass. “That way”—she makes a face at the smelly water before returning it to the sink—“you can see who you’re most compatible with in bed.”

“What? That’s ridiculous. It’s not like I’m going to dismiss the other two because one happens make me feel a little better.”

“It’s not just that. Trust me”—Brielle lends a dramatic pause—“you want a man who knows his way around both his equipment and yours.”

“I’m sure each of them could figure it out.” A brief visual of Gage and his equipment runs through my mind, and I blink it away.

“You’re right, it wouldn’t be fair.” Brielle looks off in a daze for a moment. “It’s obvious Dudley would dominate in that arena. I swear to you, I’ve been with a lot of guys, and not one of them knew half the things that man did. He was just…it was incredible—it was out of this world.”

“He sort of
is
out of this world,” I whisper.

My face explodes like a firecracker on the Fourth of July. I had long suspected Marshall would win the gold in the fornicating Olympics. It doesn’t help that he’s got the face and body of a sexual demigod.

“All right, enough.” I run my fingers under the sink and sprinkle both her and me with water in an effort to cool us off. “I’m not having some sexual triathlon, so you can pull your head out of the gutter.” I crane my neck to get a look at the crowd behind her. “Speaking of the gutter, have you seen my sisters?”

“Oh, they’re out in the back.” She bites down on an apprehensive smile. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?” Oh, God, here we go. I plunk my glass on the counter to save myself from cleaning up the shards once it slips from my hand.

“The Counts are virally pissed at Celestra”—she tilts her head—“and Noster, but that’s beside the point. They’re regrouping on an awesome scale like I’ve never seen before.”

I cease breathing. I’m not sure which unnerves me more, the fact the Counts are regrouping or the fact Brielle just used the word awesome in its appropriate context.

“Wait. What does this have to do with my sisters?” A mild rise of panic surges in me.

“They’re chapter leaders.”

“What?” I jump back. “They are
not
. They probably fed you a line of bullshit, so they can make out in the woods with their overeager boy-toys.”

“All right, don’t believe me, but there’s a whole group of them out there. I think they’re in charge of the entire junior council here on Paragon.”

“Who the hell would put my sisters in charge of anything?”

“Pierce is their superior, and, of course, Morley Harrison is his. By the way, how’s Ellis? Gage told me what happened.”

“He’s shitty,” I snap. “Just like my sisters are going to be once I get ahold of them.” I bolt out the back, and Brielle follows close behind.

The damp night air swills in my lungs with its oily haze. Wait…oily haze? Bluish tint…. Oh dear God, there is so a Count catastrophe underway right here in the Landon backyard.

“Shit, shit, shit!” I pant as I spot a large circle of junior Counts congregating just shy of the woods. “Mia!” My voice shrills into the night, and the coven of wickedness disbands for the evening.

Mia races up to me in a short mini-dress and heels. My heart nearly stops as I take in her bare shoulders, her miles of long, thin legs.

“You’re practically naked!” I cry. “And what’s with the evil meet and greet?”

“
Skyla
”—Mia averts her gaze—“I can’t tell you. We’re diabolical enemies.” She giggles as Melissa crops up.

“We are not enemies. We are
sisters
,” I hiss.

Chloe and Pierce, A.K.A. stupid Holden, head in this direction, and my heart starts in on a series of unnatural thumps. “Get inside and tell all your little friends to leave.” Good God. I thought Chloe was getting it on with Ethan. But, then again, that was probably a two-minute endeavor.

“We can’t tell these people to leave.” Melissa shoots daggers at me as if she’s ready and willing to take me on.

“Oh yes you can. Do it or I
will
.”

“Chloe was right,” Mia barks. “You Celestra think you’re the boss of everyone.”

The girls stalk off toward the house just as Chloe approaches.

“Where’s Gage?” Chloe chirps as she glances behind my shoulder. “Or is he not in rotation tonight?”

Holden chuckles as if Chloe actually said something funny.

“None of your business.”

“Oh, Skyla.” She mocks me with her faux disappointment. “Did you leave Gage all alone on a Saturday night?” She clicks her tongue. “I, on the other hand, would never bore him to tears—for sure I wouldn’t
abandon
him. This is precisely why you don’t deserve him.”

My stomach cinches at the thought of Gage spending a Saturday night all by his lonesome.

“No, you’d just mutilate him for the hell of it,” I snipe, and this time it’s Brielle who giggles. I poke a finger into Chloe’s chest. “What the hell are you doing out here with my sisters?”

The dark navy sky peers through the fog as though observing our argument from afar.

“What your sisters and I do is none of your business.” Chloe glows like a hot poker, proud of her ability to highjack the rest of my family. “They like me. We get along just perfectly.” She wraps an arm around Holden. “If I were you, I’d tell Celestra they’d better watch their back.” She and Holden head toward the side gate. “Oh wait”—she turns around—“that’s right, there aren’t enough of you to matter.” She starts in on a cackle that rises in the sky like smoke.

“My sisters think I’m the enemy.” I shake my head at the thought. This is the final frontier. Chloe is hell-bent on setting herself as a stumbling block between my family and me. 

I speed into the house with Brielle hot on my heels, and find Mia in a lip lock with a dark-haired boy. He has his hands firmly planted over the back of her jeans, and he’s got the audacity to moan in my presence.

“No, no, no!” I swat him away until he staggers down the hall.

“Call me!” Mia shouts with a dreamy look on her face.

“Everybody out!” I switch the lights on and off until a stream of bodies make their way to the door. “The party’s over!
Brielle
”—I shout to her—“would you mind turning off the music and evicting the guests?”

“Not at all.” She sticks her fingers in her mouth and lets out a high-pitched whistle before cutting out the tunes.

“You’re seriously no fun,” Mia quips. “You know that, right?”

“I’m plenty of fun.” And I’m going to prove it to Gage as soon as I knock some sense into my sweet baby sis. “Listen up because I’m only going to say this once. The Counts are not people you want to mess with. There was a
war
—people died. This is some serious shit, Mia. If you get mixed up in all this crap it could cost this family everything.”

“Wow, the Counts are really powerful, aren’t they?” You can practically see the stars spray out around her as she loses herself in a daze. “I think it’s so cool we have enemies and everything. I’ve got all these great ideas for our next get together.”

“No! No next get together. Forget this whole Count unity thing. Dad would
not
approve.”

Her features sharpen into mine, and it’s like looking in a mirror. “In case you haven’t noticed, Dad is
dead
.”

My heart lurches when she says it. I don’t remember Mia being so cold and cruel.

“How can you say that? You just saw him at Mr. Dudley’s party. He’s very much alive.” Sort of.

“We need to work on your definition of life, Skyla. It was just a visit.” She wrinkles her nose as if holding back tears. “Look, I’m proud to be a Count. And I
will
organize meetings if I want to because tonight Chloe and Pierce nominated Melissa and me as the leaders of the Sophomore Senate. We run the twelve to fifteen age bracket and will continue to do so until we’re reelected next September.” She perks with pride. “So, kiss off, Skyla. I’m not your little bitch.” She stalks her way upstairs.

“How’d it go?” Brielle asks cautiously, mostly because she just stood there and witnessed the entire exchange.

“It went.” To hell, just like our relationship is about to.

God, I hate Chloe.

And Holden Kragger, too.

***

Brielle asked if she could spend the night, so, of course, I said yes. Apparently Demetri the demonic dater is next door getting busy with her mother, and she doesn’t want any part of that unholy congregation. Brielle agreed to hold down the fort while I slip out for a while. Chloe was right. I am a lousy faux girlfriend to Gage.

I drive through the mist as a smooth velvet sky hovers above, black as those erotic paintings of Marshall and me. From the looks of things, the entire Soullennium is made of sexually charged supernatural beings.

My heart sinks as I spot the Harrison house. Ellis’s giant monster truck is missing, most likely because it’s still parked in the lot next to Marshall’s. I glance over at the Oliver house and note both Gage and Logan’s trucks are gone as well. I wonder where Logan went? And where the heck is Gage?

My stomach swills with bitter acid. Of course, they’re gone. Probably having a good time somewhere with girls who know how to appreciate them—how to devote all of their attention to just one person.

I send a quick text out to Gage.
Hey you! So what are you up to? ~S

I try to make it sound all cute and carefree when in reality I’m about to blow like a pressure cooker from sheer jealousy of this nonexistent girl occupying his time. At least she’d
better
be nonexistent for her sake. God, that’s how insane Gage must feel, and Logan, and perhaps even Marshall. I’m starting to feel like a lousy person all around.