"Here," she said, handing it to me.
"Thanks." I sniffled into my tissue. Then I let out a deep shuddering breath. "Whew. I feel better."
"Rough couple of weeks, huh?"
I glanced at her. She looked the best I'd ever seen her. Her skin was still pretty pale, but there was a light rose flush on her cheeks. Even her pink stripe looked brighter.
"Did they fill you in?"
Jenna nodded. "Yeah, but I can't believe it. Archer really didn't strike me as the secret demon hunter type."
I snorted and wiped my nose again. "You or anybody else. You were with the Council. Are they freaked?"
"Big time. From what I heard, Archer and his whole family disappeared off the face of the earth. No one knows what happened, but it seems pretty clear they were all in on it." Jenna ran a hand through her hair.
"It's crazy to think he was hiding that all this time."
"Yeah," I said, looking down at my hands. "It just sucks because . . ."
I sighed.
"You hate him for what he did, but you miss him," Jenna finished.
I looked up at her, surprised. "Exactly."
She reached up and swept her hair to one side, revealing a pair of light blue puncture wounds just below her ear. "I know a little something about falling for the enemy."
With a sad smile, she let her hair fall back.
I shifted on the bed to make more room for her, and we both leaned back against my pillows.
"So tell me about London."
Jenna rolled her eyes and kicked off her shoes. "I never even got to
London. The Council has a house in Savannah they use when they have stuff to do at Hecate. I just hung out there while they asked me a bunch of questions, like what vampire made me, and how often did I feed. I'm not gonna lie: it was pretty scary at times. I was sure they were bringing in
Buffy at any moment to give me the ol' stake and shake."
I choked on a laugh. "The what?"
Blushing, Jenna looked away and rubbed one foot on top of the other.
"It's just this thing this girl there said."
"A pretty girl?" I asked, bumping shoulders with her.
"Maybe," she said, but she was grinning from ear to ear. All I could get out of her was that the girl's name was Victoria, she worked for the
Council, and she was a vampire too.
"They have vampires that work for the Council?"
"Yeah," Jenna said, more animated than I'd ever seen her. "They work all sorts of cool jobs, mentoring younger vamps and acting as security for
VIPs in the Council."
"Speaking of which, you didn't run into my dad by any chance, did you?"
Jenna shook her head. "Nope, sorry. But I overheard Vix say he would be out here in a few days."
"Vix?" I asked, doing my startled eyebrow thing.
Jenna blushed all over again, and I laughed. "Wow, does Bram know he might have to share you soon?"
"Shut up," she said, but she was still smiling. "Hey, where is Bram?"
"Saved him for you," I said, hopping off the bed and going to the closet. I fished Bram out from underneath some laundry and tossed him to
Jenna. She caught him with a smile. "Ah, Bram, how I've miss--"
Her expression changed, and I watched that pretty flush seep from her cheeks as she stared at the stuffed lion.
Or, more accurately, at the necklace around his neck.
"Where did you get this?"
"The necklace? It was a present."
"From who?" She raised her eyes to mine, and I saw real fear in them.
An uncomfortable prickling sweat broke out on the back of my neck.
"Why? What is it?"
Jenna shuddered and pushed Bram away from her. "It's a bloodstone."
I crossed the room and picked up Bram, pulling the necklace over his head.
The large flat stone looked nothing like a bloodstone. It wasn't even red.
"It's black," I said to Jenna, holding it out to her, but she scooted back against the headboard.
"That's because it's demon blood."
Everything within me went completely still. "What?"