The Awesome (26 page)

Jeff, Lauren, Lubov, and I slumped into each other’s sides as we waited for Mom to wake from her ordeal. I was tired, but the posture was more a result of boredom than anything else; hours of late late late shows would make anyone’s eyes bleed. I figured Jeff would take off when the sun came up, but he stuck around, asking all of the important adult questions I didn’t think of when the doctors came by, like “will she need physical therapy” and “how long will she be impaired?” The doctor’s answer to both was “I don’t know yet.” It was clear by the lack of forthcoming information we’d be sitting and waiting awhile. Who knew how long Mom’s stay would be.

By noon, pins and needles stabbed my butt, making me feel like I’d sat on a porcupine. I got up to pace, glancing at Jeff every few seconds. He seemed deep in thought, worry lines appearing on his brow when he thought no one looked. I would have asked him what he stressed about, but I figured he’d be Mister Enigma about that, too, so I went another direction with my questions.

“So if you could get Mom out of there with a whisper to Max, why didn’t you? Why’d you come get me? Seems like a lot of extra work.”

Lubov stiffened at Max’s name, but Jeff put a hand on her knee to reassure her. I don’t know if he blasted her with magical vampire juju or what, but she relaxed and went back to thumbing through her
Glamour
magazine. Maybe she’d pick up a new makeup tip that wasn’t ‘Roll your face on the Revlon counter and see what happens.’

“He wouldn’t listen to me without you there. He knew you couldn’t lie to him as his ghoul. I think he wanted you to confirm or deny my claims.” He hesitated before adding, “I was also afraid it’d get violent, and though I knew I could handle Max on his own, his entourage... well. I needed more assurances that Janice would get out alive.”

“So you called in Team Bad Ass.” I grinned at Lauren to let her know she was part of Team Bad Ass, but she had no reply. Lounging in an uncomfortable hospital chair all night long was hard on the undead, too.

“I used all of my resources. Take that as you will.” He cast me a wan smile that revealed no fang, and I returned it before my stomach let out a hunger gurgle that sounded like Swamp Thing’s mating call. Apparently, with Max’s hold broken thanks to his deadification, my whole bionic-woman-never-needing-to-eat thing was over. At that moment, I’d have skinned a cat alive for a bagel and cream cheese.

“I’m totally starving. I’m gonna hit Dunkin’ Donuts for some chow. Lauren, you want a sausage thinger? Or...”

I didn’t finish the thought because the doctor burst through the double hospital doors. At first he had no expression, but the moment he neared us his whole face lit up. Something was good. Something had made him happy. I picked up my stomach from the floor and took a deep breath.

“She’s awake,” he said. “And she’s asking for all of you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

T
HEY WEREN’T GOING
to let Mom out for a while, and though I loved her a lot and was more than willing to visit during the day, I went home with Jeff the next morning. I had my reasons for wanting to go, the first of which was getting Lauren to a place where she could comfortably scarf dead animals without the temptation of human brains everywhere. The girl was plenty nice, but starve her too long and who knew what would happen? She’d either go on a person bender or raid McDonald’s for their pretend cow patties. I wasn’t risking it.

There was also Ian to consider. I wanted to see him. I’d texted him after we got Mom’s prognosis and told him I’d be home the next day so maybe we could get together. He sent me a smiley face and heart emoticons in return, and it made me grin like an idiot. I was so smitten with my new boyfriend that I acted all gag-worthy and lame. Mom knew it, too. When I told her why I was going home, she grinned at me from her hospital bed and said, “Aww, Margaret Jane has a boyfriend. How cute!”

I let her get away with her smart mouth because she was all broken and crap, but next time, she’d get a karate chop to the lady junk.

I kissed her on the forehead and packed my stuff to go. Lubov stayed in the hospital’s waiting room while Jeff drove us, mostly because she wouldn’t fit in the truck. The trials of being a giantess, I guess. She waved to me as we left, a smile on her mouth. At some point she’d taken the time to reapply her battle paints, and I couldn’t help but think her lipstick shade was called Retina Stab.

“I will be seeing you soon, Maggie. You are good girl.”

“Uh huh. Bye, Lubov. Take care of yourself.”

The drive back to the house was relatively quiet because we were all exhausted. When we pulled into the driveway, Lauren hopped out of the truck, but I paused to eye my new vampire overlord. I hadn’t considered Jeff my master because my brain had already slotted him into the category of ‘half-dead dude boning my mom.’ The reality was he could control me if he wanted to, and because I was smarter than the average bear, I knew I should keep a quasi-copacetic relationship with him until his tag wore off.

Otherwise, he could make me clean toilets with a toothbrush. Not cool.

“So, uhh. Thanks for helping. With Mom,” I said, throwing the house keys to Lauren so she could open the door.

“You don’t need to thank me. I care for your mother.”

“I’m being polite. Shut up and let me.” The second statement pretty much negated the first, but he seemed more amused than put out. Maybe he was getting used to my particular flavor of charm.

“It’s quite fine. If you’d like, I’ll come back and get you so you can visit your mother tonight.”

“I’ll call you. Wait, you don’t have a cell phone, do you?” He shook his head. Of course he didn’t. Stupid Luddite vampires. “God, you fangers are so out of touch. Mom’s got hers in her coat pocket at the hospital. I’ll call it and let you know if I need a pick-up, okay?”

“Fine.” He watched me hop down to the ground. “When things are improved, I’ll help you with your new gift. You might not have it forever, but while you do, you might as well grasp its nuances.”

“I’m pretty sure I got this. If you didn’t get the memo, I kick ALL the asses,” I said.

He smiled faintly. “Oh, you do, but half of this conversation you’re saying aloud, half is in my head, so I think there are a few areas in need of improvement.”

That took the wind out of my sails. I grunted, tossing him a wave before following Lauren into the house. The second I stepped in, I wished I’d stayed out. It smelled like Chinese food heave in the living room. Why couldn’t I cry like a normal chick? That was so much more sanitary.

“Oh, my God. So friggin’ gross,” I said, but Lauren shrugged and disappeared into the kitchen.

“It’s nasty, but it doesn’t bother me all that much. Being dead has a few benefits after all.” If she wanted to spin that as a perk, I wasn’t going to stop her. Zombie power, yo. Represent.

Between the two of us, we got the house into shape within the hour. As I wrapped up the trash, I found myself smiling at Lauren’s back. I never would have guessed that I’d like having her around so much. She was nice, she’d helped my mom, and having someone nearby that could bench press Toyotas was bound to be handy. Pickle jars would never again be an issue.

“Thanks for what you did last night, Lauren. Lubov would have pasted me without your help.”

“Oh, it was nothing. Well, it was scary, but at least I learned that not everything is awful about being dead. I can be useful.”

I patted her shoulder in my best empathy overture yet. Sainthood was an ‘Atta girl’ away. “You don’t look dead. Like, you don’t have to tell people you are, you know. It’s not like you smell or look rotten or whatever. You could go out and do human stuff and it won’t be a thing. They might think you’re sick with your skin tone, but who cares?”

“Maybe one day.” She hauled the trash toward the porch, pausing in the doorway to smile at me. “Dr. Dempsey wants to monitor me to make sure that I won’t go brains-crazy. When we know that, maybe I can look into doing person stuff again.”

“That’d be cool.”

“Yeah, it would.”

Between the fight yesterday, the hospital stay, and the housecleaning, I smelled. I couldn’t shower thanks to my bandages, but I could bathe, so I claimed the bathroom in the name of destinkification. My limited range of motion made it tougher than it needed to be; by the time I dressed myself an hour later, I was in a full-blown snit. Shirts and bras were impossible. So were socks. I had to settle for fuzzy pajama pants with an elastic waist and an oversized tee shirt.

Brushing my hair was equally as annoying. I couldn’t lift my arms for very long, so every tangle was a slice of personal Hell. I was two second away from shaving my head when the doorbell rang. My gut promptly dropped to my knees. I’d killed the vampire leader of Boston. It wasn’t so farfetched to think that one of his monster friends might come calling. I traded out the comb for a Glock, easing my way toward the front window, the gun pressed against my thigh.

A silver BMW glinted at me from the driveway. I shoved the weapon into my desk drawer and ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time. I wanted to tackle Ian when I opened the door, but he stood there with a tray of coffee and food so he was spared any monkey business.

“Hey!”

“’Sup?” He offered me a kiss, and I greedily accepted, my hands cupping his cheeks to hold him close. He chuckled and pulled away, tongue slicking over his bottom lip like he wanted to capture my taste. It made me want to kiss him again.

“You’re supposed to be at school,” I said, stepping aside so he could come in. “I mean, I’m super happy to see you, but this is a surprise.”

“I told my ’rents what happened and asked if I could skip. They were fine with it and sent your mom their best. They’re weird, but pretty nice most of the time.” He put the coffee and food on the table and turned to eye my injuries, frowning when he saw the bandages crisscrossing my chest. He reached out to trace the one at my shoulder but pulled back at the last second, like he was afraid he’d hurt me.

“I won’t break,” I said, stepping up to hug him, my arms wrapping around his waist. He did his best not to touch anything battered, which meant his hands ended up on my butt because it was the only part of me not sporting a cut or bruise.

We stood like that awhile, his lips grazing my wet hair. It felt good—no, not good. Perfect. Whenever he was near, a part of me wanted to wriggle on the floor like an excited puppy. I wouldn’t ’cause that was dumb, but I thought about it a lot. And thinking about it made me happy.

“I dunno why you keep coming back around, but I’m glad you do,” I said.

“Stop saying that. I like hanging with you. You’re different.”

“You mean I’m weird as shit.”

Ian poked me in the butt. “No, I mean, you’re real and interesting. It bugs me when you say that ’cause it makes me think you believe you’re broken.”

I didn’t know how to tell him he was wrong. I was socially awkward, I didn’t have a lot of friends. My mom was a whackjob, my career trajectory lent itself to close encounters with the freak kind. I had to shoot a person last night and I didn’t feel bad about it which made me think I might be Hannibal Lecter in training.

Didn’t that sound broken? Maybe he didn’t know me well enough to see how deep the damage went.

“You’re thinking too hard,” he said, as if reading my thoughts.

“Huh?”

He pressed at a spot between my eyebrows with his thumb. “You get a wrinkle here. My mom gets it. My dad says she’s thinking too hard when he sees it.”

Okay, so maybe he knew me a little. I smiled and he leaned down to kiss me again, but when his lips were about to touch mine, he paused, so close I could feel his breath on my face. “I know you think you’re weird. But it’s a good weird, okay? You’re awesome.” And then his mouth was on mine and my hands were on his shoulders. We kissed until I forgot how to breathe, and when he pulled back and I looked into his face, seeing the smile there, my fears faded.

Ian did know me. He knew me because he said I was awesome. And I was awesome. Maggie Cunningham, The Awesome.

Fuck yeah.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS