Mortal Defiance by Nichole Chase
Chapter 1
Heavy raindrops pounded down onto a hundred umbrellas, making it nearly impossible to hear the priest’s voice as he performed the last rites over the coffin. People shifted from foot to foot in the cold mud as they watched Claire’s body being lowered into the ground. Ree saw Melanie rub the back of her hand across her nose and give a large sniff. Reaching out with the hand that wasn’t holding the umbrella, Ree wrapped her arm around her friend’s waist, and Melanie leaned against her.
Just on the other side of the coffin, Paden stood morosely with his family. Ree couldn’t see his face because he hadn’t looked up from the ground since he had set Claire’s coffin down. She could feel his overwhelming guilt and sorrow mixing with the anguish of his gathered family. Being at a funeral was the last place in the world Ree wanted to be. The pain of the people around her was stabbing into her heart, making her gut wrench. She did her best to squeeze her power into a tight ball at the center of her chest, attempting to tune everyone else out. If it had been nighttime, she would never have allowed herself to take her defenses down, but even through the rain it was bright enough to keep any Dark Ones from being out. Her jaw clenched at the thought of the people that had murdered her friend.
Her chest constricted and it became difficult to breathe when the distorted face of her brother flashed through her memory. She squeezed her eyes shut, but it did nothing to erase the image from her mind. When she was able to face the world again, she caught Paden looking at her. Rainwater ran over his face, dripping onto the ground below him, while his emerald eyes made her heart stutter. Unable to tear her gaze away from his, she didn’t realize everyone was leaving until her mother pulled on her arm.
Mrs. McKenna was not handling Claire’s death very well. Her face had a blank stare that spoke of the drugs her doctor had prescribed for her nerves. Ree wasn’t sure how much Valium her mother had taken before the funeral, but she walked and talked like a zombie, mumbling and stuttering her words while stumbling around the church and cemetery. Even her fingers on Ree’s elbow were loose, only tightening when she thought Ree wouldn’t follow. Taking her eyes from Paden’s, she placed an arm around her mother’s waist and walked with her small family toward their car.
“Help your mom get in the passenger side, Ree.” Her father, Steven, opened the door and shielded them from the rain with a giant black umbrella. Her mother sat down in the car morosely, her face tight with anxiety, despite the medication. Ree leaned over and snapped her mother’s seat belt into place before gently closing the door. She looked up at her father, and he attempted a smile that only managed to pull the skin tight around his mouth.
“She’s going to be okay, sweetheart.” He opened the backseat car door for Ree. As he was closing the door, she heard him mutter, “Couldn’t have happened at a worse time.”
She closed her eyes in agreement. Just when her mother had been willing to stray from the comfort of her home, tragedy had struck a close family friend. It brought back all of the pain and sorrow of her own family’s grief, causing her mother to spiral downward. Her panic had been so intense, Ree’s father thought she was having a heart attack and had rushed her to the nearest hospital in Atlanta, where they were staying. After several tests, doctors realized she was simply inconsolable and sedated her.
As her father pulled away from the curb and into traffic, Ree caught a glimpse through the raindrops on her window of a black Mercedes pulling alongside them. She couldn’t see in the dark, tinted windows, but she knew it was Roland. After a moment, she watched as he decelerated and took up a spot a few cars behind her family.
Because Paden would not be able to leave his family for a while, it had been decided Roland would take up a guard post at the McKennas’ house. It hadn’t been talked about much, but Ree knew Sophie and Roland were worried Tristan might try to enter his old home. While the McKennas were at the funeral, Sophie had been laying protective barriers around their house with magic. Ree would go home and try to add to the layers herself. Terror at the thought of Tristan showing up caused her breathing to become shallow. How could she possibly explain to her parents her brother’s new monster status?
No one spoke on the way home, which left Ree haunted by the image of Claire’s listless body. She had been unconscious as her friends escaped from the cemetery, so hadn’t known what had happened to the younger girl’s body. Apparently, after the Dark Ones had drained all of her blood, Claire was of no use. They’d left her body lying in the dirt at the foot of a monument. Roland had called a police officer that was supposed to be ‘in the know’ about the monsters running the streets. After staying to make sure the body was found by the authorities, Roland had made it back shortly after Ree had fallen asleep.
The rest of that weekend had been a blur. Her mother calling her frantically in the middle of the night after hearing about Claire. Being trapped in the house with her family, because her mother would panic if she couldn’t see them at all times. Sophie and Roland taking turns walking the perimeter of her home, as if they were guarding a castle. Paden’s short phone calls, where he seemed to be as distraught about not seeing her as her mother. Juliette and Melanie staying over one night in an attempt to relax and relieve the tension that was pummeling her. Her father asking her to help with her mother when she had fallen asleep on the couch clutching a photo album of Tristan.
The thought of going to school the next day was a relief. Even though she knew she would be looked at strangely, whispered about, and treated like a general outcast, at least she wouldn’t be swamped by her mother’s sorrow. Breathing was difficult when her mother was awake, much less functioning on a normal level.
After getting her mother in the house, Ree retreated to her room. Dark was descending on her house, and she wanted to change out of the wet clothes she had worn to the funeral. Since coming home, she had found it difficult to let her guard down enough to sleep. She even wore tennis shoes in bed in case she needed to wake up and react quickly.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, she finished tying her shoes and looked at her jean-clad legs. Her mouth pulled open in a large yawn that was interrupted by a light tap on her window. She froze and turned toward the window, every nerve in her body tingling as adrenaline washed through her system. Moving slowly to keep the wooden floorboards from squeaking, she glided across the room to the edge of the window. Another tap sounded through her room and she stopped, not sure what to do. Letting the power flow from her, she realized who was standing in the rain just as he whispered to let him in.
“What on earth are you doing here?” Her voice was harsh as she yanked the curtains aside. Paden stood there, soaking wet, still in the suit he’d worn to the funeral. Water dripped from his hair to travel over the planes of his face as he shrugged up at her. She popped the latch on her window and moved so he could hoist himself over the ledge and into her room.
“God, Paden, you’re soaked!” She grabbed a blanket from the chair next to the window and wrapped it around his shoulders. The white dress shirt clung to the sharp angles of his chest, causing her heart to beat faster. He didn’t say anything, just watched as she tried to dry him off. “What possessed you to come in through the window?”
His eyes were shadowed, but there was a distinct hesitance in his voice when he asked, “Can I stay here tonight?”