Accidental Sire(79)

Unfortunately, knowing that her "kids" had superpowers and could beat her up seemed to freak Jane out a little. That was what I was attributing my recent raise to, since previously I wasn't really getting paid for my hours at the Council office. Also, I was named Employee of the Month for preventing Jane from using the copy machine. Apparently, there had been an incident. I'd been awarded a slot on the plaque for "preventing serious damage to company property and coworkers." Ben got a bonus for helping Gigi complete a special section of her project early, and Sammy named a quadruple espresso with plasma drizzle the "Overby Overdrive." So yeah, I think we scared Jane pretty badly.

The weeks seemed to melt together. Ben and I completed our assignments online. I maintained the high B average required by my scholarships, but Ben edged me out with a low A. Morgan and Keagan didn't call as often, with exams and holiday plans and all manner of distractions taking up their schedules. I missed them, but I was spending a lot of time with Ben, so I couldn't exactly claim I was holding up my end of the friendship.

Ben sneaked into my room just before sunrise more often than not, and we weren't even having sex the majority of those nights. He just wrapped himself around me and fell asleep with his face tucked into my neck. It was an adjustment for me to sleep with someone else. Hell, I went on a camping trip with my boyfriend freshman year, and I made him sleep in a separate sleeping bag with a cooler between us. I'd never trusted someone enough to let him that close. It was nice being able to relax like that with another person, to be still with him, and to know that he wouldn't hurt me.

Of course, on those days when he slept with me, Ben woke just before sundown to haul ass back to his room. Jane was cool and slightly scared of us, but she still had the power of yelling really loudly.

Before we knew it, it was Thanksgiving week, and Jane was going into a cleaning frenzy, getting the house ready for Jamie to come home from school. Of course, Jane was hosting a meal, because no one else seemed to have a house large enough to accommodate everybody. To my surprise, Ophelia was planning to stay here at River Oaks, rather than at the house in town that she'd shared with Georgie. I was pleased to see my friend again, but I noticed that talking about her made Georgie a little . . . edgy. Edgier than usual for Georgie, like "cut off from her Nintendo DS for twenty-four hours" edgy.


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We sat on the porch, waiting for Jamie's pickup truck to roll down Jane's gravel drive. Georgie was rocking on her heels, biting her lip, and unbraiding and rebraiding her hair. I tried to ignore these tells for as long as I could, because I didn't know if we had the kind of relationship where we had heart-to-heart talks. But honestly, I could only watch her pigtail herself so many times.

"Hey, Georgie, can we talk about whatever's bothering you before you braid yourself bald?"

Georgie scoffed. "I'm not bothered. You're bothered."

"Georgie, you're braiding my hair now, and I don't think you even realize it."

She yanked her fingers out of my hair and grimaced. "It's difficult," she admitted. "I feel like a different person when Ophelia is around. With Jane and Gabriel, I'm allowed to be the child I never was as a human. Ophelia always treated me as an equal, which I appreciated, but . . ."

"It's a lot of responsibility to put on a kid, asking her to be a grown-up before she's ready," I said, nodding.

"Exactly," Georgie said. "And Ophelia and I tend to feed off each other, egging each other on to be more cruel, more threatening. With Jane and Gabriel, I'm . . . reserved."

"This has been a filtered version of you?" I asked, frowning at her.

"My point is that I don't want to slip back into that pattern with Ophelia, but I don't want to hurt her feelings by behaving differently around her. I'm not sure what to do."

"Has it occurred to you that Ophelia may have changed while she was away at school?" I asked her. When Georgie's little brow crinkled, I added, "Oh, yeah, undergrads coming back home for the first time? They make a point of being as obnoxiously different as possible. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Ophelia came back with a nose ring, drinking soy blood substitute."

Georgie cackled, bending at the waist and propping her hands against her thighs. "Is it wrong that I'm hoping for that now?"

"No, and here she comes," I said, nodding at the headlights bouncing along the driveway. "Jane! They're"-a Jane-shaped streak whizzed past us as Jamie's truck slowed to a halt-"here."