The Undead Pool

Ivy straightened, her expression shifting from alarm to fear when Jenks made a wide arcing path around the garden, arrowing to us. “That was Nina’s bike,” Ivy said, pale.

“Someone is stealing it?” I said in disbelief, and Ivy stood, the mug of hot chocolate spilling down the steps.

“Nina!” she cried, racing inside.

“Nina is gone!” Jenks shouted, and I froze at Ivy’s cry of heartache. It iced through me as I stood on my back porch, falling to the pit of my soul and tightening into a black knot.

I bolted inside. “Ivy!” I called, running through the back living room and into the hallway. Their bedroom door was open, and I came to a sudden, breathless halt when Ivy almost ran into me. Her eyes were black, and fear had made her beautiful. A pixy girl hovered over her, tears slipping like sun from her eyes as she wrung her dress and apologized in high-pitched, fast words. “Where’s Nina?”

Ivy shoved past me on the way to the kitchen. Her katana was in her hand. Jenks and I followed her as the pixy who’d been on watch wailed, a black dust slipping from her. “Gone,” Ivy said as she pulled out a drawer for her set of throwing knives. “He took her. He waited until I left, and then he walked her right out of the church.”

Felix? Her voice had no inflection and her movement was vampiric fast as she jerked to a stop, stymied from tucking her knives away when she realized she was in silk pajamas, not leather pants.

Ivy turned, expression riven with grief. “He must have been there all the time, waiting for me to leave.”

“I’m so sorry!” the pixy girl wailed. “She looked okay. She talked to me and looked okay. She said she was going to get some ice cream to surprise you.”

Ivy stood shaking, one hand full of knives, the other holding her katana, her hair falling to hide her eyes. “I can’t let him destroy her. Not now.”

“She said it was a surprise!” the pixy cried, and Jenks hovered helplessly.

“It’s okay,” I said to the little pixy. “Go back to the lines.” But she didn’t, clearly upset. I gave Jenks a pleading look, and he darted down to take the crying girl outside.

“He’s going to kill her,” Ivy said in the new quiet. “I can’t lose her, Rachel. Not to that madness!”

Her head came up, and my resolve strengthened. “Give me five minutes to get dressed.”

“She could be dead in five minutes!” Eyes black, she ran for the hallway.

I stumbled out of her way. Fear hit me hard, and my heart gave a pound as I heard her throwing on clothes, her breath coming in quick, almost sobbing pants. Felix was awake? Ivy didn’t have a chance.

“Ivy.”

I found her in the hallway, katana in one hand, stakes in the other, the knives now tucked away.

“This is a vampire issue,” she said, then turned her back on me and walked steadily to her death.

“Do something!” Jenks shouted from the ceiling, and I ran at her.

Ivy gasped as I tackled her, and we slid into the sanctuary. “You are not going without me!” I shouted, and then the world spun as she shoved me off her.

“I can’t leave her to that!” she screamed, pinning me to the oak floor, straddling me with her sheathed blade under my chin and her hair mingling with mine. “Rachel, I love her!”

The hard leather was cold against me, and her hand on my shoulder warm. “Ivy,” I said softly, tears blurring my vision. “Look at me. He didn’t call her to him to kill her. He wants her alive. He needs Nina alive in order to see the sun.”

Ivy’s face twisted in fear, and the scent of vampire incense poured over me, making my neck tingle. I was losing her.

“Ivy!” I called, and her gaze came back to mine. “He won’t kill her unless by mistake. We have some time. We can get her back. Give me a chance to get dressed and grab my charms so I can come with you. You’re not alone. We’ll do this together.”

Fear showed in her eyes, and she took a heaving breath, the blade beginning to shake against me. Jenks’s dust glowed in her hair, and for some dumb reason, I felt more love—more loved, maybe—than I ever had before.

“He probably took her to Cormel’s,” I said to give her something to focus on so she could find herself. “That’s where Felix has been staying. You have to figure out how we are going to get in. That’s what you do.”

Her hand shook, and with a thump, the sword hit the floor and slid four feet. My breath came in a gasp as she spun away off me. Shaking, I sat up. She was huddled on the floor, her knees to her chin as she held herself together and cried great gasping sobs of heartache and frustration. “How can I save her?” she moaned. “How? It’s like heaven in his arms. Hell in his mind . . .”

I glanced up at Jenks, then pretty much crawled over to her, pulling her to me so she didn’t have to cry alone. She was real and solid, her fear and grief shaking in her. The world had shifted. I didn’t need her anymore. She needed me, and I wouldn’t fail her.

“We will get her back,” I said, my arms holding her against the tremors, my words a breath in her hair as she shook. “I promise.”

Eleven