Burning Emerald by Jaime Reed Page B

never looked a female in the eye unless he fed, so I didn’t take offense.
    Once the pleasantries were over, he told me that Brodie was still missing in action, and I wasn’t sure if I was happy or sad about that fact.
    â€œDo the police have any leads on a suspect?” Michael asked.
    Haden looked puzzled. “Nothing so far, but I don’t expect the police to come up with anything useful. This wasn’t an accident. Someone was trying to get to Sam and Caleb, and if it was a Cambion, then he won’t stop until he finishes the job.”
    Michael staggered around the room, pulling out drawers and opening cabinets. “We’ll have to stay here in shifts. I’ll take the morning and you take evenings.”
    My head volleyed between the brothers. “You think he might come back?”
    â€œWe’re not leaving anything to chance.” Michael smiled, stuffing alcohol wipes and rubber gloves in his coat pocket. He was so weird. “Let us worry about this. You gather your strength. Caleb needs you more than ever.”
    With Michael and Haden’s help, I snuck into Caleb’s room for the next couple of nights and tried to nurse him back to health. I had to up my food intake threefold in order to sustain us both. Holding Caleb’s head in my arms, I would offer all life force as a sacrifice. I entered the room full as a bloated tick only to be carried back to my room depleted. These night visits turned me into a lifeless zombie, too weak to stand on my own, which lengthened my stay at the hospital. On the upside, I lost ten pounds within a span of three days.
    No matter how often I fed, how much energy I donated, it wasn’t enough. Capone was getting stronger, but he needed more than what I could give. I would offer every last drop I had to keep Caleb alive. Haden and Michael voiced their concerns, but no other alternative presented itself. I was no good to Caleb weak, but that utility went both ways.
    Hour by hour, Caleb resembled a soulless, capsized vessel, and I was slowly going down with the ship. Though still new to the world of dating, the thought of being without my Cake Boy dropped me into a void with no bottom. All I had was hope. And time.
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    On the fifth day, the doctors sent me home with a clean bill of health. They might as well have left me there because I camped out in Caleb’s room. Mom’s absurd demand that I return to school at some point kept me from building a fort out of blankets.
    My first night home was one of melancholy and isolation. Mom kept her distance, but her shadow passed under my door every few hours. She told me that Dougie had dropped off a card. Thank goodness Mom was there to intercept my messages; I wasn’t up for company. Questions abounded, and I could barely eat, let alone wrap my lips around a decent explanation. Things would only get worse in the morning when I returned to school.
    I couldn’t stay in one place for too long, and my skin prickled at the slightest touch. Lilith whined and clawed at my insides, pining for Capone as I did for my own companion. Conversations whispered in my ear; laughter and arguments tickled the hairs on my arms with their ghostly presence. Phantoms emerged, transforming my room into a crowded house party of memories, multiplying and taking more than their share of space.
    I was a nervous wreck, crying at random over the dumbest stuff: running out of shampoo, burning my tongue on the soup Mom had brought me, and staring at the jar of quarters sitting on my dresser. For months, I had collected those coins as tokens of Caleb’s affection, a code only we could understand and truly cherish. Two hundred and fifteen “I Love Yous” safely deposited in an old mason jar, gaining interest by the hour.
    I sat on the floor and poured out the jar and counted the quarters, carefully tending to each one of my children. When the numbers didn’t add up, I tore my room apart trying to