Soul to Keep Read online

  “It’s rude to stare,” I said. “You probably know that.”

  “Calm down. I’m just observing. You’re the only one up.”

  “Portia’s asleep?”

  “Yup. Put her laptop up and tucked her in myself.”

  I glanced up from my computer screen. Tokyo didn’t have any pants on, just a black T-shirt and a really small pair of underwear. Typical Tokyo. It was like she was allergic to clothes. “That’s sweet of you.”

  “You got a lot of homework?” She came over and stood behind me. I swear these vampires knew nothing about privacy and personal space.

  “Yeah. That’s why I’m the only one up because this is usually the only time I can get any quiet.” I paused a moment, hoping she would take the hint and leave me alone. I just needed to handle twenty more minutes of tinkering and then I was going to try to get some sleep. But that would have been too easy. Tokyo picked up the assignment sheet.

  “Oh, you have Miller?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She’s good.”

  “If you say so.”

  “A bunch of my girls have taken her courses. They loved her.”

  “Yeah, well, she’s not for everyone.”

  “You got her Monday, Wednesday, Friday at least. Shorter periods.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’re doing a double major, huh? Is that you or your dads? They want you to live the dream, be the dream, chase the dream? The quadrilingual OBGYN, out to save the world one set of sex organs at a time.”

  Maybe it was late and I was just tired and cranky and already had things in the week ahead waiting for me, but it was only Monday, and I was not in the mood to have even part of this conversation, especially not with someone like Tokyo.

  “I know you guys know all these things about us, but this is the first time you’ve spoken to me beyond hello in practically three years. Usually when you speak to someone for the first time, it’s polite to let them tell you about themselves.”

  I expected a comeback. Something, but when I looked up she was just looking down at my assignment sheet. Whatever she was about to say seemed to evaporate in her mouth. She shrugged and then smiled her usual casual smile. Nothing bothered Tokyo. She put my assignment sheet on the table with a little pat.

  “You’re right. Good luck on your project.”

  “Thank you.” Now please leave.

  “Does Ginger know you’re up?”

  “I suppose she does. I’m up this late every night.”

  “Yeah, you—”

  I spun around and looked up at her. “I what?”

  “Nothing. Don’t stay up too late. Ginger’ll freak. Or Camila will on her behalf.”

  I snorted a bit. That was pretty funny. “Night, Tokyo,” I said, but when I looked up again she was gone.

  ❖

  As soon as the bell went off, I grabbed my things and marched to the front of the lecture hall. Two days, and Dr. Miller had yet to respond to my e-mail. But I was done being ignored. Either she was going to take my request seriously or I was going to hand in a fraction of the assignment.

  I had to wait for two students to finish their quick conversations with Dr. Miller, but I eventually got my turn. I glanced at the girl standing to her left, letting her know I was next. I felt a little bad when she smiled at me. Not bad enough to let her cut though.

  “Miss Babineux. Just the person I wanted to speak with.”

  “I assume you got my e-mail?”

  “I did and I found you a partner. With a few caveats.”

  “And those would be?”

  “I will be grading your presentation for this class and this class only, but I will recommend to the chancellor’s office that they send someone over to see your presentation to evaluate its merits as a university program.”

  “And what else?”

  “If you send me one more e-mail like that, demanding that I bend to your personal ambitions, I’m failing you or having you removed from my class. It’s that simple.”

  I wasn’t entirely sure Dr. Miller actually had the power to do that, over one e-mail no less, but I didn’t want to argue with her. I needed that class for my first major and I needed the A I was going to get in that class to ensure my place on the dean’s list.

  “Miss Dryer registered late and is a little behind. I’m letting her assist you to make up for missing the first quiz. Plus, what you’ve outlined sounds so fascinating, I’m sure you’ll both enjoy the A.”

  “Hi,” the other girl said cheerfully and then she held out her hand. “I’m Brayley.”

  I shook it. This wasn’t her fault. “Nice to meet you.”

  “Fast friends already. See you Friday!” I glanced at the back of Dr. Miller’s head for a second as she practically skipped out of the classroom. She was the last to go, leaving us to ourselves.

  “Looks like we’re partners.” I took a moment to really look at Brayley as she spoke. She was white. Average build, smallish breasts. Taller than me, like most everybody. She had brown hair cut up in an asymmetrical bob. It was a cute style, but beyond that she wasn’t very pretty. Her face was too dull for her haircut, and her lips were too thin for the amount and shade of lipstick she had on. The sparkly dark pink wasn’t working for her. And her mascara was clumping together. When I thought about it, she wasn’t unattractive. Her makeup just sucked. She seemed a little overdressed in an MU hoodie considering it was really hot for the beginning of October, but maybe she ran cold.

  “Did she tell you about my project?” I asked.

  “You plan to come up with a multi-part, comprehensive, intersectional sex education program that you’re hoping the university will offer for incoming students?”

  “Correct. Are you up for that?”

  “Yeah, definitely. I think it’s a great idea.”

  “Why were you late this semester?”

  “I was busy giving my unwanted baby up for adoption. I got my trichomoniasis cleared up while I was at it. If only I’d had a comprehensive sex ed class when I was a freshman.”

  “Not funny.”

  “I thought it was. My grandpa died suddenly and I wanted to be there for my mom.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Him and I weren’t really close,” she said with a bit of an odd shrug.

  “Well, I hope you’re ready to get started.”

  “It’s not due until the end of the semester. We have time.”

  I looked at her for a moment and then turned and started walking for the door. I didn’t have time to wait for yet another person to take me seriously.

  “Jill. Wait.”

  I whipped around to face her again and she almost ran into me. “Have you looked at the syllabus for this class? It’s an advanced human sexuality course and she’s not covering disease or reproduction. Everyone in the room is going to come up with different variations on women’s sexual liberation and the mating rituals of cavemen. Perhaps, maybe one brave person will tackle the complexities of gender. I want to cover all that and more, things that are affecting us now. This grade and this presentation are important to me. If you want to help we’re starting tonight.”

  “I like your accent. Where are you from?”

  “Ugh, you’re serious. Montreal.”

  “Oh, cool.”

  “Yes, it is fascinating.”

  Brayley laughed then slapped me on the arm. “Tonight at the library, seven?”

  “That works fine. I’ll see you then.” Hopefully, Brayley would pull her weight. If not, she wouldn’t be sharing in the grade. It was that simple. We both walked out of the lecture hall. I had to use the restroom, but when she turned in that same direction, I headed for the front door. I wasn’t in the mood for any more awkward small talk.

  James was waiting for me outside on the steps. “How’d it go? What did Dr. Miller say?”

  “Fine,” I grumbled, just as Brayley walked by.

  “Seven,” she said. “I’ll be on time.”

&nb
sp; I nodded and gave her a tight smile.

  “Who was that?” James asked.

  “My new partner.”

  He laughed and nudged my shoulder as we started walking toward the cafeteria. “What’s the problem? I thought you wanted help. I thought you demanded it.”

  “Yeah, I do. I guess I should have been more specific. Where’s Van?”

  “He’s meeting us.” Our friend Van had a crush on James. I thought they were acting on it, but there were all sorts of conditions. Van’s parents were very conservative and expected him to marry an Indian girl. He wasn’t ready to tell them he was gay. And James wasn’t ready to tell his coaches and his teammates or any potential NFL scouts that he was gay.

  “How are things going there?” I asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t have to pressure James for details. We were both bad at keeping secrets from each other.

  “He stayed in my room last night.”

  “And?”

  “And I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “I wish I could give you some advice.” We both laughed then.

  “Yeah, I don’t know. What’s that saying? Those who can’t do teach. Maybe those who can’t do shouldn’t teach those who can’t do either and refuse to learn.”

  “When I’m ready, maybe you can give me some pointers. At least you have someone who wants to spend the night in your bed.”

  “We had sex,” he blurted out.

  “I figured.”

  “I need to just follow your plan. School. Football. Feeding and fucking the undead. No time for anything else.”

  “It’s not a bad plan. It’ll keep you busy.” So busy you didn’t want to have time for anything else.

  Chapter Four

  Tokyo

  Unjust House Arrest Day 3

  I’d spent the last forty-eight hours in a miserable cycle. Daylight in my avian form, flying all over campus, keeping an eye on the girls. Nighttime, stuck in the house keeping an eye on the girls. One of Camila’s feeders, Beth, totally had an admirer that was a hair away from being a stalker, but as far as I could tell, the girls were perfectly safe. And I was bored out of my fucking mind.

  There had been no more attempts on any of the feeders at Texas U. Jessi was recovering just fine, though I’m sure Mary-Anne was worried as shit. Still, there had been no evil demon sightings, no strange behavior, no surprises. Nothing the slightest bit exciting to make my punishment feel at least a little worthwhile. I got it. A feeder being kidnapped and possessed was real fucking bad, but we were talking about a one-time thing. I needed a fucking break.

  Moreland humored me via text for a whole hour before she abandoned me for Luke and Krystal. I couldn’t blame her. Her pets were fun and limber. I checked up on Ansley and Juniper, my only feeders outside of the house, whom Ginger kindly agreed to let me visit once a week for thirty minutes until she decided I’d learned whatever stupid fucking lesson she was trying to teach me.

  I even did the rounds with my makers, who I rarely checked in with unless it was a special occasion or that weird homesickness that came calling from time to time clawed at my neck. Hattie, my primary maker, whose powerful blood gave me my rank amongst my sister-queens, was glad to hear from me, but didn’t waste a fucking second chewing me out when she found out that I’d gotten in trouble. Again. That put an end to my “calls home.”

  I’d sat in on the girls’ weekly chapter meeting, run by one of my girls. I was proud of Chelsea for getting elected to chapter president, but fuck, were those meetings boring. Same shit as always. Community service on Saturday morning, pick a song for the homecoming lip sync battle, get started planning group costumes for Halloween, some frat was having a party, should they go. Twice a week, the girls had this thing called sister counseling where they could vent their troubles to two members of the sorority and it would be kept in confidence, but only kinda ’cause they still spilled all the relevant beans to Ginger and Camila as soon as the sessions were over. So there were reminders for that.

  The whole time, I just sat there in the corner, resisting the urge to stab myself in the eye. After the meeting, I pulled my youngest baby, Yazmeen, aside for a quick feeding and a dry hump, but she had a paper to write so I couldn’t keep her long.

  We had every channel imaginable, and everything I tried was horrible. Or a repeat. And that was why I always went out. People were fun to play with. I needed people to entertain me. So if I couldn’t bother the girls, and my sister-queens and I were sick of looking at each other, I went out. It wasn’t fair really. Kina went with me most of the time, and she didn’t get blasted for being away from the house or not caring about the girls’ well-being. She’d ditched me already, in fact, taken off to our favorite strip club with Natasha and her husband, Rodrick, who were usually always down to tie me up and spank me around when Moreland was busy, but they were at the strip club with Kina!

  Driven insane by the walls of my own underground apartment/prison of boredom and doom, I found Faeth where I knew she’d be on a Wednesday night. Right on her couch, half watching her TV. The original Point Break was on, but she wasn’t paying attention. Instead, she was absently tuning her already tuned guitar. The stupid thing hadn’t been out of tune the whole ten years I’d known her. I flopped down beside her and tried to get into the movie, but I couldn’t. Too fucking boring.

  “How can you stand this?” I asked as I slid to the floor. Her carpet needed to be cleaned.

  “Stand what?”

  “Just sitting here. Surely that guitar is not that interesting?”

  “It is. Gives me something to do with my hands, but I’m in my head too, yeah? Taylor’s birthday is next week.” Faeth tapped herself on the temple. “I’m planning her birthday party.”

  “Highlight of your life, huh? A nineteen-year-old’s birthday party?”

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. This is where I want to be.”

  “Then why didn’t you volunteer for this bullshit, keeping close to the girls in case of accidental kidnapping? I mean you practically never leave the house unless Kina and I drag you out or if the Highnesses need you for an errand.”

  “Don’t forget all the spying I do on the girls.”

  “And there’s that.” Faeth had joined me the last two days in bird form. Forty-two girls were a lot to keep track of. “You live for this shit. Why do I have to stay in?”

  “Because you couldn’t keep your mouth shut, yeah?”

  “Whatever. Was I wrong though?”

  Faeth shrugged.

  “This neutral bit isn’t going to work for you forever.”

  “You were both right. How about that?”

  “I said whatever.”

  “What time is it?” Faeth asked, changing the subject.

  I glanced at the clock on her DVR box. “One a.m.”

  “Go do a bed check. Gives you a chance to stretch your legs, yeah?”

  I would have snapped if Faeth hadn’t shot me her signature smile. She was such a big oaf. In her natural form she was tall, and the years she’d spent on her father’s sheep farm in New Zealand had shaped her into somewhat of a muscled beast. But she was so beautiful, and such a young, innocent vampire, it was hard not to love her. And it was hard to keep from trying to corrupt her at every turn. Our baby vampire sister.

  “I’m gonna choke you.” I said, finally.

  “Where do you want to be?”

  “Nowhere, just not here.”

  “You’re ungrateful. That’s the problem.”

  “For what? This?” I waved my hands up and down my body.

  “Mhmm.”

  “Whatever. I’m going to check beds. Wanna fuck when I get back?”

  Faeth’s hands stilled a moment and she cocked her head to the side. “Hmmmeh,” she said with another shrug. “Why not?”

  “Sweet.” Just as I was about to vanish, Kina appeared on the other side of the door. She knocked out of court
esy.

  “Come in, yeah?” Faeth yelled.

  Kina vanished through the door. She felt all kinds of off.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I asked.

  She flopped down in the chair beside me. “Nothing. I’m just thinking about Mary-Anne’s girl.”

  “Did you find anything out?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Have you seen anything like this before?”

  Being born and turned in the sixteen hundreds gave Kina a whole lot of mileage. “Yes and no. Shit, I feel like I should draw a diagram. There are these different planes and we’re here on Earth, in our galaxy in the middle, for the sake of this argument. Usually, when something crosses the planes it’s random. Or it’s undead like us and it’s never gone between to begin with. Unless.”

  “Unless what?” I asked, but I felt Faeth put down her guitar between us. She leaned forward.

  “Unless it’s planned. I don’t know, I would feel better if this was a random possession and exorcism. Evil has toyed with humans forever, but this feels orchestrated. It kidnapped her.”

  Kina had a point. I’d heard of a few incidents over time, but usually it had to do with evil being invited accidentally or a human stumbling into the wrong place at the wrong time. Those possessions had been more of a desperate grab. A kidnapping changed things.

  “What can we do?” Faeth asked.

  “Nothing. I tried to speak with our Master just now, but he said what Ginger said. Keep our eyes open and watch over the girls. I’m sure he’s spoken to Paneo about it. This is definitely more her area of expertise.” Dalhem’s demon-sister had global reign over all six demon-masters and their blood-bound children. There wasn’t much we could do without their command.

  “I’m sure they’ll get to the bottom of this,” I said as I reached over and gave her knee a squeeze. “I’m going to do bed checks, then Faeth and I are gonna play hide the dildo. You want in?”