Vision of Shadows (24 page)

“I didn’t
,” Archer protested. “If you think I would do that then maybe you’re the one who needs your ass kicked, cousin.”

“Shut up, both of you,”
I screamed.

Both Archer and Payne paused for a moment. Then they started on each other again. Insults were hurled, many involving specific parts of the male anatomy. 

Varick repeated his order to stop. They did. I had to admire his ability to do that.

“How long
, do you suppose, until your uncle arrives?” Varick asked.

“Grandpa,” Hunter said
. “She didn’t call her uncle.”

Shock registered
, not only on Varick’s face, but on Archer’s as well. Only Payne seemed unsurprised by this. It took Varick only a moment to recover.

“Why don’t you tell us then what you plan on doing, young lady,” he said.

It would seem intimidation was
this
McKnight’s special talent. I couldn’t help but wonder if the source for his power was located in his moustache. That seemed like a bad question to ask.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Someone is trying to kill me. I don’t know who or what, but I really don’t like it.”

“Bristol,” Archer said as he struggled to sit up. “I’d never hurt you. I don’t get the whole attracted to the enemy thing, but I know you’re important to Payne. I wouldn’t do this, I swear. And Hunter, you can’t believe that I’d risk hurting you. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.”

Hunter took his hand. “I know. I believe you,” she said. “I
believe
him,” she said to me.

“Ok
ay, fine,” I said. “I’m sorry I cracked your head open. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

“I would’ve done the same thing,” Hunter added.
“It never occurred to me whoever she brained wasn’t the right person until I saw Archer. What were you doing here anyway? Why were you down there?”

“I uh…
” Archer started, but he looked confused. “Uh, I don’t remember. I was supposed to meet up with Chase later, so I was trying to get my homework done. I may have fallen asleep. The next thing I remember I was lying on the floor downstairs, bleeding.”

I looked to Hunter
, who nodded in my direction casually. Archer was telling the truth. Great, now I not only had something trying to kill me, but I felt guilty about smashing the pitcher over Archer’s head.

“How hard did you hit him?” Payne asked.

“Pretty hard,” I said. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Archer said. “At least if my cousin has to date a Blackburn, she’s not a wimp. How did you say they were attacking you again?”

“Things were blowing up,” I said. “Out of nowhere, kablooy.” I made an explosive sound and demonstrated it with my hands.

I noticed the panicked look on Archer’s face. I would bet my last cookie that Archer had a power as well, and it was to make things go boom. 

“You need to get Archer to the hospital,” I said. “He could have a concussion.”

“Don’t worry about Archer,” Payne said. “If you wanted to do any brain damage, you should have kicked him in the
ass.”

“Remind me to kick yours, dear cousin,” Archer added as he forced himself to stand
. “Just as soon as there’s only one of you.”

“Oh
, geez, you two,” I said. “Why can’t you guys just say something like, are you okay? Or, I’m sorry I accused you of trying to kill someone. Do you have to be such…such…”

“Boys?” Hunter offered.

“Thank you,” I said. “Have you noticed the more of them you put in the same room, the stupider they talk?” I moved to Archer. “Go to the doctor and get your head looked at. I’m sorry.” I leaned in and gave Archer a kiss on the cheek. Then I stepped back and looked at Payne. “See how it’s done?”

Archer looked embarrassed by the tiny peck I’d given him. He clearly had no idea how to deal with anything but hostility from a Blackburn. 

“Are you able to walk to the car?” Varick asked. “Payne, will you see that your young friend gets home okay?”

“I’ll take her myself,” Payne said.

“Take the Mercedes,” Varick instructed. “Get her home safely. Bristol, I must admit that you surprise me. Most Blackburns would not accept the word of a McKnight so readily.”

“I don’t know what other Blackburns would have done,” I said. “I just know that I believe Archer wasn’t responsible. I’m not out to get the McKnight family. I happen to be rather fond of a couple of them.”

Varick considered me. “I’m beginning to believe that. We shall have to have you over for dinner one night.”

“Thank you, Mr. McKnight,” I said. “You have a lovely home.” My eyes darted to the destruction at the door. “Or at least you did before I arrived. I don’t know what is after me, but I’m sorry to have brought this to your home.”

Then Varick did something I never would have expected. He smiled. “Things can be replaced. I’m pleased you weren’t hurt. I hope to see you again, Bristol.”

Varick led Archer out the shattered doorframe. Once he was gone, I turned to Payne and Hunter.
“You get to drive his car?”

“Yeah, guess I do,” he said. “You want me to take you home?”

“What do you think?” I asked. “I’m hungry. Being attacked burns a lot of calories. I need food. And we need to talk. The three of us. Feel like tagging along?” I asked Hunter.

“I could eat
.” Hunter smiled. “Payne gets to pick up the check.”

Payne drove us
to Frank’s, a nearby diner he told me made the best onion rings. Personally, I’m a fry girl. The important thing was Payne and I agreed on a critical point. Red meat was essential. Hunter on the other hand ordered a chicken Caesar salad. I decided to stay friends with her anyway.

We managed to snag a booth
toward the back, away from prying ears. By silent consent, we kept the conversation to non-supernatural stuff until after the food arrived. 

“Why don’t we fill Payne in on everything?” Hunter said.

“I filled Hunter in on all of the missing details,” I said. “She knows about me now.”

“I figured,” Payne said, “since Hunter told you her secret.”

“How did you know?” Hunter asked.

“What am I
, blind?” Payne asked. “I saw the way Bristol looked to you for confirmation about Archer. I’m not surprised. I figured the two of you would hit it off.”

“I’ll just bet,” Hunter said as she reached over and gently patted Payne’s cheek, making him grin. “And that reminds me
.” She grabbed his nipple through his shirt and twisted.

“Ow!” Payne jumped. “What the hell?”

“I’m sorry. Did that hurt?” Hunter asked. “It can’t be nearly as bad as the time those dogs ripped into you while you rescued my Barbie doll, huh?” 

Payne glared at Hunter, then me, then Hunter again.

“Oops,” I said before snatching an onion ring. “You’re right, these are good. You ready to hear about today?”

Still glaring, Payne nodded.

“Well, let’s start with school,” I said as I wondered how many onion rings I could steal. They
were
pretty good. “First off, guess who got themselves locked in a closet?”

From there, I explained everything from Jay to Archer. When I was done, Payne’s burger remained untouched. His onion rings were almost gone, but that was because I’d stolen them. 

After taking a few moments to contemplate what he had just been told, Payne asked, “Did you ever figure out who locked you in that closet?”

“No,” I answered
. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say Pricilla, but that might be less to do with knowing she did it and more to do with my hating her with every fiber of my being.”

“I don’t know,” Payne said.

“Why?” I asked. “You think Princess P is above such things?”

“Princess P?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah, Princess P,” I explained. “As in perfect, pretty, perky, pesky, pinhead, prissy and probably a whole plethora of perturbing Ps. She’s a walking cliché. The perfect figure, perfect hair, perfect blue eyes—which, by the way, she always has trained on you, Payne.”

“You sound like you want to kill her for admiring me from afar,” Payne said with a quick but wicked grin. “I think I like the idea that you want to fight her over me.”

“Like it would be much of a fight,” I responded. “Not that I would fight someone like Pricilla over you. If you were fool enough to even look at her, then she can have you. I’d just kill the both of you in your sleep.”

“Well then,” Payne said, “it’s a good thing for me that my eyes are only interested in looking at you.”

Payne tried to pull me closer for a kiss, but I elbowed him in the ribs. “Whatever. You’re out of onion rings, by the way.”

With a roll of his eyes, Payne ordered more. 

“I think you want it to be Pricilla,” Hunter offered. “I’ve never been a big fan of her either, but I just don’t know if you can pin this on her.”

“If it was just Pricilla,” Payne
said, “then it wasn’t anything more than a stupid prank. I’m more interested in what happened at my house. You both could have been killed. We need to know more about these shadow things.”

“Well, I’m pretty sure they’ve been watching me since I arrived in Spirit,” I said
. Panic spread across Payne and Hunter’s faces. “What am I supposed to do, though? They haven’t come in the house. They haven’t made any move against me.”

“Until today,” Payne clarified.

“There’s that,” I agreed. 

“Plus,” Payne said, “it still leaves the question as to why
. And what do we do about it.”

“I have a plan,” I announced. “Trust.”

“Trust?” Hunter repeated.

“Yes,” I responded
. “Trust answers both of Payne’s questions. This family feud’s been going on for a long time. Our families blame each other for everything. Blackburns and McKnights don’t trust each other. Maybe
they
don’t want us to. So I think that’s exactly what we do. Trust each other.”

Hunter and Payne watched me closely for several seconds. I seemed to have an ability to render them both speechless. I could only assume I had impressed them both with my insightful wisdom. 

“Are you insane?” Payne asked in what I noted was a tone severely lacking in the expected reverence for my insightful wisdom. “These things, these shadow creatures or whatever the hell they are, nearly blew you and Hunter to smithereens. If you’re right, they’re responsible for my cousin’s murder. You’ve been nearly killed twice. And you want to use
trust
?”

“Look, I’m open to other suggestions,” I responded
. “But yes, right now I think we need to trust each other. I’m putting my trust in the two of you.”

“Well, really
,” Payne complained. “Bristol, I trust you. Hunter trusts you. You made a good impression on my grandfather, which isn’t easy. Trust isn’t a problem for the three of us. But when we’re talking about some creature made of shadows that wants you dead, forgive me, but I want something a bit more powerful than trust to use against it. I want something I can beat it over the head with.”

“Well, here’s the thing,” I
said. “I’m not quite sure these things have heads.”

“Oh dear Lord,” Payne said right before his head crashed onto the table. 

Hunter chuckled. “You know, I don’t know what I think of your theory. But I’ve got to say, it’s amusing to see you ruffle my normally unflappable cousin.”

Payne looked up with one eye. “Glad this is so amusing to you, cousin. You were in the line of fire today too, you know.”

“Trust me,” Hunter replied, “I remember. But for now, Bristol is right. We have to trust one another. But that doesn’t mean we have to stop looking for something a little more potent against these things.” 

“Agreed,” I said as we clinked our glasses together.

When we were done, we made our way out to the car. I took a moment to admire the beautiful SUV that stood before us while Payne opened the door for me. It was large, slick, and black with a leather interior.  I know it was petty of me, but I hoped we passed Pricilla at some point. Her head would explode.

“So, do you think your grandfather is going to let you drive again?” I asked.

“He might,” Payne answered. “He told me he would get me my own car if I kept an A average by year’s end.”

“I like the yellow Lamborghini,” Hunter added
. “But I don’t think that Grandpa will let either of us drive that.”

“He’s got a Lamborghini?” I asked. “Wow. How many cars does he have?”

“Well, there’s this,” Payne said. “The Cadillac he’s driving today. He owns a couple of limos and a couple of Rolls, but he only uses those when he has a driver. He has a few more Mercedes as well and, of course, a Lexus or two.”

“Of course,” I agreed. 

“I don’t know,” Payne shrugged. “Maybe four dozen or so in total.”

“You know he can only drive one at a time, right?” I said. “What can one man possibly need with so many cars?”