Chapter Six

Charlie was upset that her parents wouldn’t let her go with Xana, Roxy, and Xana’s parents to the Chambers’ Poconos place during Christmas break. Milo thought she’d be safer at home too. He said traveling a lot wasn’t a good idea.

            Staying home meant Charlie was stuck with her mom and Casey. Neither of them got her Christmas gifts, even though she gave them some. At least she got presents from her dad, Roxy, and Xana.

            Charlie was increasingly grateful for her new friends. Both of their families were very kind to her. Even though Mr. Chambers still made her slightly uneasy. The few times she’d seen Xana’s dad, he kept his distance, but she could tell he wasn’t like Marco. He let Mrs. Chambers speak her mind. He took his wife and daughter seriously, and they clearly weren’t afraid of him. Charlie had always feared enraging Marco. But Xana said her parents fought all the time, and there was no violence. Yet they still respected each other’s opinions, and resolved their issues.

            Marco always had to be right, even when he wasn’t. Charlie believed she was now learning how relationships really worked. It made her more upset that she let herself get fooled by Marco, no matter how much her friends and Dr. Michaels told her it wasn’t her fault. Because it had to be her fault. Right?

            The day Xana and Roxy got home, Charlie was invited over to Xana’s for a sleepover since they hadn’t seen each other in a while. It was going to be the first time Charlie went to Xana’s place. She had only been to Roxy’s and out to dinner with Xana’s family.

            Her dad was kind enough to drive her over.

            Charlie first noticed the lights lining the stone wall that surrounded the property. They reached the front gate, which was adorned with two giant Christmas wreaths. Her dad rang the buzzer by the gate, and then they were let in. They began heading down the driveway. The trees lining it were lit with Christmas lights. The driveway ended with a roundabout that had a fountain in the center, which flashed red and green lights.

            Charlie got out of the car and was awestruck. The house really did look like an old castle with its grey stones and two turrets in the front. And it was glowing with multicolored Christmas lights.

            She looked at her dad, who was still in the car. “Roxy will take me home tomorrow.”

            Bob nodded. “I’ll leave once you get inside. Love you.”

            Charlie smiled. “Love you too.”

            Xana’s mom let her inside. A large and expertly decorated Christmas tree was in the entrance at the bottom of the huge staircase.

            “Um. Your house is lovely.” What else could she say?

            Maggie grinned. “Thank you. I designed it myself. I always dreamed of living in a castle, and Xavier gave me that.” She made a motion with her head. “The girls are in the living room.”

            Charlie followed her behind the stairs. They passed a room that Charlie saw was a library when she peeked in. The next room was the living room.

            Xana and Roxy were sitting on the couch in their pajamas. They saw her, jumped up, and gave her a group hug.

            Charlie instantly felt relaxed. Her dad was great, but this felt like home. She definitely felt most like herself among her friends.

            “I missed you guys,” she told them.

            “We missed you too,” Xana said. “It sucks that you couldn’t come to the Poconos with us.”

            “Yeah. Why didn’t your dad go, Roxy?”

            Roxy sat back down on the couch. “Every November, the Shape Shifters in America have a meeting. The Weres meet in December, the Vampires meet in January, the Hunters meet in February, and in March representatives from each group go to the world meeting. They discuss their laws and various problems in the Supernatural community. And there’s always the argument about whether or not they should make their existence known.” She didn’t add that she was bitter that her dad wouldn’t let her go. She was eighteen, and would be Pack Leader someday. She should learn how things work, and be involved.

            “Wow,” Charlie said. She never knew about that. “Where can I change into my pajamas?”

            “There’s a bathroom over there,” Xana told her and pointed.

            After changing, Charlie asked Xana about the rooms in the house.

            Xana very professionally told her, “When you walk in, to your right is the library. You’re now in the living room. That glass door leads to the back deck.” She pointed to a doorway to the left. “That leads to the dining room. Beyond that is the kitchen, which is pretty huge for when my dad has a party or something. When you came in, if you went to the left, you’d see a ballroom. There’s a stage, and both men’s and women’s bathrooms with stalls. The second floor has my bedroom, my parents’ bedroom, and their offices. The third floor has several guest rooms. All of them have their own TV and bathroom. The basement has our washer and dryer, and our own little movie theater.”

            “You are really rich,” Charlie said.

            Xana picked at her cuticles. “It comes with having an old Vampire for a dad. I know it’s weird.”

            “It’s just crazy,” Charlie said. “You’re still you, even though I now know you have a s**t load of money. You’re not a snotty b***h.”

            Xana smiled. “Sweet. You wanna go watch movies in the home theater?”

 

 

            “Are they really in danger?” Jeremy asked Milo as Milo hit the buzzer at the Chambers’ gate.

            “James really loved the Vampire who Turned them. Isobelle. Most Vampires who want to be Turned aren’t all right in the head.”

            Maggie’s voice came over the intercom, and Milo announced himself. They were buzzed in.

            “And some take the murder of the one who Turned them very seriously,” Milo went on as he drove. “James has had many years to build up resentment, and plan revenge.”

            They reached the end of the driveway.

            “You think something will happen to Xana,” Jeremy said. He felt a little sick with worry. “Like, will he have her killed?”

            “Can’t be sure,” Milo said. “No one has been able to get information. Right now James is lying low.”

            “But we don’t have a Kill Order for James, “Jeremy said as they got out of the car and walked to the front door.

            “No. We do for Roger if we find him.”

            “I may have to kill someone?” Jeremy felt sicker.

            “I can do it if it comes down to it.”

            Xavier opened the door. “I take it you have news?”

            “Yes,” Milo said as they stepped inside.

            Xavier nodded. “The girls are in the basement. We can talk in the living room.”

           

 

            While Roxy was showing Charlie a movie she and Xana had watched a thousand times, Xana went up to the kitchen to get more drinks and snacks.

            Xana was surprised that she couldn’t hear the murmur of the TV from the living room. Her dad pretty much loved every decade of television"he remembered its invention.

            She snuck into the dining room so she could hear what was going on, because there were definitely voices, but no laughing tracks.

            The first clear thing Xana heard was her dad asking, “What’s the news?”

            “There’s been evidence of Roger in the state,” Milo said.

            Xana’s heart sped up. If Milo was there, talking about a companion of James’, it must’ve been serious business.

            “How can you be sure?” Maggie asked.

            Milo sighed. “Roger has an MO with his rapes and murders. Women have been found with two long cuts on their bodies. The medical examiner noted that the cuts looked like they’d been done with teeth, or something made from bone. There have also been prostitutes making reports of a Vampire assaulting them, and cutting them with his fangs. Most cops don’t believe the Vampire thing because they’ve all been drug addicts. But they do believe there’s a connection, and have his description out.”

            Xana seemed to lose her sense of sound. She had heard of things like that before. She had been told on the Internet that she would experience that"with much more detail. It was described as happening in her room, at her school, or in the parking lot of the Wawa she frequented. Sometimes she was kidnapped. Sometimes she was killed. Sometimes she was kept alive to be assaulted again and again for her tormentor’s fun.

            The threats were serious. Xana really was in danger.

            Xana sucked in a deep breath, and when it was let loose, it came out like a sob.

            The people in the living room heard her. They all entered the dining room, and the light came on.

            “Xana, sweetie, what’s wrong?” Maggie asked her daughter worriedly.

            Xana took a few deep breaths to contain herself. “I’m fine, Mom. Um. I came up to get snacks.” She quickly walked off to the kitchen.

            Jeremy stopped Maggie from going after her. “Let me talk to her.”

            “Why you?” Xavier wanted to know.

            “I’m closer to her age, and not her parent.” Jeremy shrugged. “She’s more likely to open up to me.” He hadn’t liked how pale Xana looked. “I can probably find out what’s bothering her.”

            “And you’ll tell us?” Xavier asked.

            “If she’s actually in danger, yeah.” Jeremy went after Xana. He found her standing over one of the kitchen sinks, shaking a little. “What was that in there?”

            Xana turned to him. “It was nothing.”

            “All the color left your face, and still hasn’t come back. It’s not nothing.”

            “Well, it’s really none of your business,” Xana snapped.

            “If you’re in danger, it is,” Jeremy corrected. “And not just because it’s my job. I do actually care.” Xana didn’t speak, so he went on, “Have you told anyone what’s bothering you?”

            “Just hearing what that Roger guy does freaked me out.” It wasn’t a lie. She was just leaving out some information. “And you guys fear it’ll happen to me.”

            “There’s more to it than that.” Jeremy knew all about withholding information. He still did it with his mom. Sometimes so she wouldn’t worry, and sometimes he just didn’t feel like telling her things. “You’re terrified.”

            Xana pulled at her shirt. Jeremy did have the connections to be able to do something about her problems. And at this point, he’d obviously believe her. “I didn’t take it seriously at first.”

            “What?”

            “Trolls send threats on the Internet all the time,” Xana told Jeremy. “I never acknowledge them because that’s what they want. If you ignore them, they usually stop. But not this one person.”

            “What was this person threatening you about?”

            “I can show you.” Xana headed up the back stairs located by the kitchen.

            Jeremy followed. He’d never seen the second floor of the house. The hallway was painted a royal purple, and family pictures hung on the walls. Xana definitely lived a privileged life. It looked like her parents had taken her on many vacations, she and her mom would do day trips, and at night her dad (and sometimes other Vampires) joined them.

            Jeremy followed Xana into her room. It had a purple fuzzy carpet, and was painted pink under all the movie and TV posters. She had her own TV, a pink couch, and a desk. Shelves held books, DVDs, and video games. The duvet on her queen-sized bed had pink and purple polka dots.

            “Pretty girly. Well. Beside the horror posters,” Jeremy commented.

            “Nothing wrong with girly,” Xana said as she stepped into her large closet. She opened the shoebox where she hid a notebook under a pair of shoes she didn’t wear often. She went back to Jeremy, and gave him the notebook.

            “What’s this?”

            Xana sat down on her bed. “When I started to get scared, I printed out and dated all the messages. I figured if anything happened to me, this could help. All of my passwords are in there too. And I figured if someone started following me in real life, this could be used as evidence so I could get a restraining order.”

            Xana was definitely a smart one, Jeremy thought as he flipped open the notebook and read through the messages. He was beginning to understand why Xana was so afraid. Not only were the descriptions of what the person wanted to do to her horrifying, but it sounded exactly like what Roger was known to do.

            “We need to tell Milo and your parents,” Jeremy insisted.

            “Why?”

            “Milo has the resources to help, and your parents need to know about this. Do your friends even know?”

            “They have their own s**t to worry about. Now that Roxy is eighteen, she wants to learn how to run the Pack, but her dad won’t do anything, and there’s the whole Mate thing with Larry. Charlie’s still adjusting to a new school, a horrible mom and sister, and she has to worry about hiding from a stalker Vampire. I didn’t want to burden them with what may not have been serious.”

            “Well, it’s serious now.”

 

 

            “You’ve been gone for a while,” Roxy said when Xana came back to the home theater without snacks.

            Xana paused the movie. “I guess I should tell you guys something.” She went on to tell them about her Internet threats, and what Jeremy just made her tell her parents.

            “It didn’t bother you that school, your room, and Roxy’s room were accurately described?” Charlie asked.

            Xana raised her hands briefly and let them flop into her lap. “Denial? Thinking about it made me scared.”

            “But that means someone has been following you,” Roxy pointed out, absolutely terrified for her friend. Would all those things happen to Xana? Could Milo or Xavier keep her safe? They’d better.

            “Maybe,” Xana mumbled.

            “So what happens now?” Charlie questioned.

            “Milo’s going to do an investigation,” Xana answered. “My dad doesn’t want to go to DC for the Vampire meeting, but we all know he has to go as a Clan leader. I don’t want a bodyguard.”

            “Why not?” Roxy thought that was suitable.

            “It’s embarrassing. I don’t want some hard a*s, always waiting for danger, following me around all day. People think I’m weird enough already.”

            “You are weird,” Roxy told her. “And who cares what other people think?”

            “I don’t want to be noticed! Everyone will stare all the time.”

            Charlie nodded. “I understand. Milo has to check on me all the time. It’s annoying. Like, I just want to live my life. Even if there is danger, it’s kind of suffocating. Which I know is ironic because of Marco, but…”

            “It’s not the same,” Xana finished for her. “You were manipulated back then, and now you just want privacy.”

            “Well, I’ll watch out for you,” Roxy declared.

            Xana managed a smile. “I know you will. Just like how I know Milo will find this guy before anything happens.”

            “But what if something does happen?” Roxy worried.

            Xana felt sick to her stomach. “Hopefully nothing will.”