Chapter 32

The days passed.

Classes went by. Each one was barely different from the rest. Mara renewed her efforts to set fire to the chemistry lab tables, despite being temporarily distracted by the section on acids. Nate tried to convince her that they should go to a movie the next weekend; Val tried to convince her to come to the next party. Lizzy stayed well out of her way.

There was a concert coming up. It was the same winter concert for which they had all been preparing, ever since school started in August. Aleda found herself practicing for that more than she studied or did her homework. Mom had promised that if she could play all of her pieces perfectly then she could use Mom’s special violin, the one she’d had when she was a kid. It was more fun than struggling through precalculus problems, that was for sure. In reality, she was finding herself less and less concerned with schoolwork; especially since that night she had first encountered the feeder in the woods. The memory of that night, and the subsequent nights after that, had almost completely taken over her thoughts. She was beginning to understand how a person could choose to spend forever hunting those things, despite everything else. Hell, it wasn’t even all that scary anymore. She’d killed three of those things, and not a scratch on her!

Of course, that didn’t change the fact that she’d be stuck in that life and then probably die by the time she was forty. Much better to find some nice comfortable job as something else, she decided. Something human.

 

 

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The concert was on a Friday night, late enough for everybody’s parents to be home from work, but not so late that they’d all be awake until some insane hour. Aleda had even worked out a detailed plan on how exactly she was going to manage to dress properly for all of her musical groups. Now she found herself gathering up everything she would need for the concert with five minutes left until she had to leave. She had bought herself a nice pair of black pants for that night, and she was wearing a white shirt, cummerbund, and horribly dorky bowtie—Jazz Band was playing first.

She slipped on a pair of black flats and paused in front of the mirror. Makeup was good. Hair looked good. She had tied it back completely for that night so it wouldn’t get in the way of her instruments at all. It wasn’t the prettiest hairstyle in the world but it would stay out of her face. She also grabbed a new black blouse from her closet, for when she had to play in the orchestra. The chorus robes, at least, were already at the school.

Mom called up from the living room. “Honey! Three minutes!”

“I know, Mom, I’m coming!”

“You don’t want to be late!”

“Augh, coming!”

She shoved the blouse unceremoniously into one of her larger purses and ran downstairs. “Coming, coming, coming, I’m ready!”

“Do you have all your clothes?”

“Yeah, Mom.”

“Flute?”

“Yeah!”

“Violin?”

“Violin,” she repeated, and went quickly to the corner where the instruments were kept. Mom stopped her and grinned.

“Here, take this one,” she said. Aleda looked down at the threadbare case in Mom’s hands and her breath caught in her throat.

“Really!?” she asked, bewilderedly accepting Mom’s prized violin.

“You worked your butt off for this concert, even if you did neglect your homework because of it,” Mom said. “You earned it.”

“Thank you! Oh my goodness, thank you!” Aleda threw her arms around her mother’s neck. Not only was the violin her mother’s most precious possession, it was an excellent instrument, bought for her by her inattentive but wealthy parents when she was younger than Aleda. She pulled the strap of the case over her head with a grateful smile.

“Alright, little angel, let’s get you to this concert of yours,” Papá said. He came into the hallway from the master bedroom, straightening his tie. “You would not want to be late.”

Actually, she probably could have been a few minutes late. The concert started at seven, but all the students who were performing had to be there half an hour early. It gave them time to get everything ready and tuned, and, in the example of the Jazz Band, time to figure out how the hell to tie on the cummerbunds.

At least the bowties were clip-ons.

The band room, when she got there, was full of students. Most of them had their instruments out and were doing their best to get them tuned amid the cacophony of dozens of voices and other instruments all trying to be heard. It was a bit overwhelming if a person wasn’t used to it, but Aleda had done this dozens of times—not only for her own concerts, but also when she had been backstage with Mom. She didn’t have to do much this time. It was the work of a few seconds to get her flute put together and tuned properly, and she had already put on all of her necessary accessories. Now all she had to do was sit around and wait for the concert to start.

“Heya, Leda!”

She turned and smiled. Nate didn’t play an instrument, but he was in the Chorus after all. “Hi!” she said, and walked over to him. “What are you doing back here? Chorus isn’t on until after intermission.”

“I wanted to see you, silly girl,” he said with a goofy grin.

“Well, I guess that’s allowed,” she conceded teasingly.

“Are you all set for the concert?”

Aleda laughed. “Geez, I hope so—it’s a little too late to do something about it if I’m not!”

“Not like anyone out there would notice if you screwed up.”

That comment made her pause. “Wait, what?”

“Oh, come on,” Nate said. “Half the people out there are tone deaf. And they’re all parents, so everything their little babies do is perfect.”

Aleda wrinkled her nose. “Well, I don’t know about your parents, but I guarantee my Mom will catch every wrong note I play.”

“Sheesh. No pressure,” Nate said dryly.

“Yeah, well, it’s what I get for having a music teacher for a mother,” Aleda sniffed. Nate gave her an encouraging squeeze on her shoulder and left to get a seat in the audience with his parents.

 

 

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Jazz Band was on second, just after the woodwind ensemble. Unfortunately, the Orchestra played right afterward. If Aleda had figured right, she would have exactly two minutes to get changed while the curtain dropped and the stage hands made some slight adjustment to the chairs on stage… and she had a feeling that slipping on her black blouse would be slightly more awkward than slipping off her Jazz Band paraphernalia. There wasn’t much choice but to make sure everything was ready to go and then run.

She sat and watched the woodwinds from the wings of the stage with a few of the others. They were pretty good. Not fantastic, but still enjoyable. They played several nice songs that Aleda recognized as rearrangements from more famous compositions. When they were about halfway done, according to the program she’d grabbed from the hallway, she scurried back to the band room to get her instruments ready. Her flute was already set to play, although she did pull out the right stack of music and tuck it underneath the flute where it sat in the corner. A soft thumb drawn across the strings of Mom’s violin told her it was perfectly tuned—as expected—so she pulled out the bow and chinrest and got them ready to go as well. It would be a little longer to keep the bow tight than she would like, but there wasn’t much choice tonight. Now she just needed some rosin…

She fished around in the case. It seemed to have a lot more compartments than hers did, and one of them must contain rosin for the bow. Let’s see, now… Extra strings. Metronome. Tuning fork, inexplicably. Ah-hah! Aleda snatched up the small case of rosin in triumph, knocking against the side of the case in her haste. Something moved.

Wait just a minute…

There was some sort of extra compartment just below the one that had held the rosin. The pull-tab had torn off long ago, so she pried it open awkwardly with her fingernails. The lid finally lifted to reveal a surprisingly long compartment. Aleda took one look at what was inside and immediately snapped it back shut. There was a dagger in that compartment.

She kept forgetting Mom had carried this violin around while she was a mercenary in New York. Of course she would have stashed things in the case. Come to think of it, there had been rosin in the tattered purple backpack, too. Go figure. She wondered if Mom even remembered the dagger was there after all this time. She finished getting the violin ready to play and pulled out the other set of music with a certain amount of amusement. Leave it to her family to leave weapons lying around in awkward places.

 

 

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And then the concert started. For all the effort that had gone into preparing for it, the actual event seemed almost anticlimactic. Aleda played well—not perfectly, but well—and Mom and Papá cheered enthusiastically for her after each song. As soon as the curtain went down on the Jazz Band she raced for the band room, almost nailing a kid with her flute. She grabbed the blouse and found an empty classroom to change in, peeling off the bowtie and cummerbund on the way. She barely made it backstage again in time for the next performance, which was awkward considering that she sat right in front of the conductor. But made it she did, and again played quite well through the whole thing.

After that, she didn’t have to be on stage until after intermission. She finally took the time to tuck away her instruments properly and headed out to the main lobby where she had heard they would be serving cookies and punch. She managed to stuff two of the cookies in her mouth before her parents found her.

Mom came up and hugged her. “You did great, honey!” she exclaimed. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Fangf…” Aleda started, sending crumbs everywhere. She swallowed the cookie. “Thanks, Mom. And thanks for letting me use your violin,” she added.

“You know me—anything for a better concert!” Mom joked.

Nate wandered over after a minute.

“Hey Leda. Sounded good up there,” he said, walking up to Aleda and putting his arms around her.

She stuck out her tongue at him. “Please, you couldn’t possibly have heard me with all those other people up there.”

“Yeah, well, I’d never admit that, now would I?”

Aleda playfully shoved him a little. “Oh, hey!” she said suddenly. “I’ve got something to show you. Come here.” She glanced at her parents before walking away. Mom winked at her, and Aleda had to roll her eyes.

“What is it?” Nate asked impatiently as she dragged him down the hallway to the band room.

“You’ll see. Hold on,” she insisted. She led him to her mother’s violin case. She looked around quickly, making sure nobody else was around, and reopened the panel she had found before the concert. “Check it out,” she said, holding out the dagger. “I think it was Mom’s.”

Nate’s eyes widened and he took the dagger from her, holding it gingerly by the handle. “Why the hell was this in a violin case?”

Aleda shrugged. “I guess Mom must have stashed it there when she was my age, and then forgotten about it. I’ve told you about her and Papá and New York, right?”

Nate nodded.

“Well, that’s why.”

“That’s pretty cool, I guess. Hey, do you want to get anything from your locker while you’re here? It’s just down the other hall,” Nate said, still fiddling with the dagger.

Aleda raised her eyebrow at him, then grinned. “Yeah, why not?”

They walked quickly down the hallways, turning a corner so that they were out of sight of the main lobby and their parents. As soon as they were safely hidden Nate pulled her close and kissed her insistently, both of them giggling a little. “We have to be quiet,” Aleda reminded him with a grin. “Our parents will hear us.”

Nate made a face and pulled at her hips. “So what? It’s not like they care.” He kissed her again, a little harder.

“Yes… Well…” Aleda said when she could break away for long enough to speak. “If Mom hears us… she’ll be teasing… me… for a month.”

“Now who’s being loud?” Nate asked, grinning like a goofball and his hands traveling further up her sides.

Aleda was just about to resume their activities when she heard a noise from around the corner. She tensed and drew away from Nate automatically. “Did you hear…?”

“Shh!”

Cautiously she walked back to the corner of the hall, letting just her head appear to look down the darkened corridor. There was a girl walking down the hallway, and her heels clicked softly against the tiled floor. A very recognizable girl.

“It’s Lizzy,” Aleda breathed into Nate’s ear. “She must be back to put something else in m--.” She broke off.

Nate frowned. “What? What is it?”

Her skin crawled. “I… I don’t… There’s something wrong!” she hissed. She pulled at his arm, trying to drag him back towards the well-lit lobby, but he resisted.

“Leda! What are you doing? Somebody will see us!”

She shot him an exasperated look and looked back down the hallway. Silhouetted against the faint glow from the lobby was another figure, moving towards them from out of another hallway that ran parallel to their own. Lizzy was already past it, but it was moving fast. Aleda threw herself back against the wall, eyes wide.

“S**t!”

“What!?” Nate demanded. She looked down at his belt, a glint having caught her eye, and she realized he still had her mother’s dagger. He probably thought it made him look cool. She snatched it out of her belt and tucked it into her own.

“I’m going to need that,” she said.

Another glance told her that Lizzy was still unaware of her new follower, but it was about to catch up. She had to get that thing away from the crowd, or there would be hell to pay. She walked out into the middle of the hallways’ intersection, knowing full well she would be visible in the dim light. Lizzy saw her immediately and turned to run, but that put her face-to-face with the thing that was pursuing her. She shrieked and started running towards Aleda, quickly followed by the sucker behind her. The sucker caught her just as they passed Aleda and she grabbed at the other girl, tearing her out of the thing’s grasp before it could do any worse damage. She pushed her in Nate’s direction. He ought to be able to do something to keep her safe, anyway, and Aleda didn’t need any distractions.

The sucker caught up two seconds later. Aleda didn’t question how she knew what kind it was. She just pulled the dagger out of her belt and brought it around to jam it through the thing’s ribs. It snarled in pain and turned on her, but didn’t collapse. S**t. She must have missed the heart, assuming this was one of those kind that would die from anything through the heart. And her dagger was still embedded in the thing’s back. Aleda backed away, her eyes trained on the creature pursuing her. She managed to get it into the next hallway, well out of sight, but that still left her the problem of how to destroy it.

What was it that Ryan had said? Stabbing things through the heart generally worked well. But that hadn’t worked this time. What else?

Head, that’s what. No matter what it was, if she could get its head off she would destroy it.

But for that she’d need a dagger. And for that, she’d need to get behind it.

She glanced behind her. Not much hallway, but it should be enough. She took off at a run, moving as quickly as she could. She had seen just how fast those things could be when she had followed her parents on that hunt. Just before it caught her she stopped dead in her tracks, spinning around and out of the way with thoughts of Talia and an unwilling training dummy in her head. The sucker went past her, just like she’d hoped, and she had pulled the knife out of its back before it had a chance to realize what had happened. A moment later, though, it did realize, and it turned and grabbed at her. Aleda held her dagger but the demon held her arms in a vise-like grip, its sharp fingernails digging into her skin. Blood began to trickle down her arms as she struggled to free herself. Sweet mercy, that thing smelled like blood. It ducked its head down to taste her arm and she took the opportunity to bring her other hand up… and the dagger with it.

The angle was awkward but the blade was sharp, and it sliced through the thing’s neck. It was a damned good thing these suckers didn’t have a heartbeat, or she would have been covered in blood in an instant. It staggered back, releasing her in its surprise, and she pressed into it with all her strength. Finally the bone gave way and it’s head fell from its shoulders, an expression of complete bewilderment covering its features in the few moments before it collapsed and fell into a small scattering of dust on the floor.

She looked over the dagger. No blood.

That was handy.

Nate and Lizzy were back where she had left them, staring at her in shock. Aleda allowed herself a cocky grin.

“Not scratched too badly are you, Lizzy?” she asked smugly. The other girl had suffered no more than minor scratches where the sucker had caught her. Aleda felt a warm glow settle in her stomach. She had finally saved somebody. A little too late for her old history teacher, maybe, but she’d finally done it.

Lizzy opened her mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out. Aleda finally saw the wire cutters in her hand, and looked at them pointedly. Lizzy glanced down. She turned them over in her hands, a little sheepishly, then shrugged and dropped them into the large trashcan at the end of the hall.

Lizzy offered Aleda a tentative smile, and Aleda smiled back. There would be a truce.

“Hey, Leda?” Nate asked while they walked back down the hallway.

“Yeah?”

“Your arms are all bloody, you know.”

“…S**t.”

Well, it was a good thing she had a robe to wear for Chorus.