Slaughter Daughter by Eve Langlais

31

The guy didn’t even arguewith my demand. I asked for proof, and Braedon said, “Where are you? I’ll come pick you up.”

He knew the motel I named, so I had to ask, “Hook up here often?”

“No!” he exclaimed.

“The beds are comfortable,” I offered.

“Is that an invitation?”

“Maybe.” Because, quite honestly, I didn’t know what I wanted. Not anymore. “I don’t know if I was followed. Meet me at the gas station around the corner from it.”

Since I couldn’t leave out the front door, I had to climb out the window of my ground-floor room. I didn’t fall, which I counted as the first piece of good luck.

I ran across the parking lot, well lit this time of night. The chain-link fence separating it from the strip mall clinked as I dug my fingers and the toes of my shoes into the holes. My shirt snagged and tore going over the top, but I kept going, dropping to the ground on the other side.

I crouched, absorbing the shock. Yay me. Then I took off running, making it around the building to the front before walking to the gas station. Five minutes later, Braedon appeared.

“You were close by,” I remarked, sliding into the front seat.

“I was hungry and looking for a snack when you called.” He pointed to the boxes of pizza and donuts in the back.

“Ooh. Can I?” I asked, a little more enthusiastically than warranted.

“Go ahead,” he said with a chuckle. “Got a bottle of iced tea in the bag.”

I half crawled into the back to drag the food onto my lap. Vending machine chips only went so far.

“I thought you were pissed at me,” he admitted as he drove.

I finished my bite of cold pizza—odd if he’d just picked it up—before replying. “Not you, just life in general. It feels like it’s the world against me. I’m tired of it, but at the same time, I can’t keep running.” Because so far, trying to escape hadn’t worked. Maybe it was time I stood my ground and forced the truth. If Jag and the others were behind my problems, then I owed it to myself to find out. “Your friend agreed to meet us?”

“She did.”

“Where?”

“The campus. She says that’s where it all began.”

What began? And why there?

We went through the college’s formal front gates, more decoration than anything given that no actual fence hemmed in the campus. At this time of night, the buildings appeared dark and abandoned. To save power, only the solar lights lining the roads and paths illuminated the way.

Braedon drove us to the building with its sign repainted since my last visit. Hennessy House. Not even midnight, I’d expected it to have lights on, but only a single attic window glowed.

My room. The one that, despite Kalinda insisting we keep it, I’d not once visited.

As I entered the main level, the smothering quiet proved eerie. The last few years, I’d lived in places much like Hennessy House. A few things always remained true. One, you could always expect a light on in the living room. Always. A safety thing for the students to see as they navigated the area to their dorms. Two, illuminated public areas decreased the rate of assaults.

Maybe the dark areas had to do with energy saving? I certainly didn’t sense anything nefarious lurking in the shadows, but then again, I’d recently learned that my gut instinct wasn’t worth shit.

No one lay on the couch with their phone or a book. The reception desk sat empty—or so it seemed until I peeked over it and noticed someone lying on the floor asleep. So much for security.

Braedon didn’t seem spooked as he unerringly headed for the stairs as if he’d been here before.

I yawned. Damn, I could have used a nap. I felt utterly drained. The couch looked tempting.

“You coming?” I realized Braedon held the door to the stairwell open, waiting for me.

I shoved past the sudden fatigue to join him. He trotted to the first landing with me on his heels. A glance down the hall showed not a single glow under any of the doors. A coldness trickled past me, making me shiver.

My eyes drooped. Weariness tugged at me. Wanted me to sit down for a moment. Rest a second. I kept moving upward, pushing past it to the floor that’d almost become my home. I had to wonder how my campus life would have progressed if I’d ignored Kalinda that day.

I couldn’t believe she’d used me, too. I’d genuinely thought she’d tucked me under her wing because she liked me.

Braedon didn’t knock at the attic room’s door, simply entered as if he had every right.

I hesitated. What the fuck was I doing? I could sense that something about this place was off. Something not quite right. Yet, if I left now, I’d never get any answers.

The deep breath I took sustained me as I stepped into the room and exhaled roughly as I saw my mother.