“Uhm, thanks I guess,” the girl said, sounding unsure.
Lily got up from the bed and started looking for a ski mask or anything similar to cover herself with. “Could I go too?” Tristen asked.
She paused in her searched and looked at the teen as if she was crazy. “Go too? Why?” She asked before she could stop herself.
Tristen shrugged, looking sheepish now. “I don’t know. Just to go out I suppose. I’ve been locked up for two months and all that. Plus I’m tired of just sitting around doing nothing,” she replied.
“Tristen, I don’t think it’d be a good idea. We’d be tracking the people that are after you, in a secluded area. It just doesn’t seem safe,” James reasoned. “Not to mention, well… you’re human and would only slow us down,” he added, hesitantly.
The girl sighed and slumped in her chair with a look of defeat on her face. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she admitted.
Yeah, James was right but Lily couldn’t help but feel for her. She knew all too well what it was like to sit around and do nothing, and it sucked. “You can come,” Lily said.
“What?” Everyone seemed to say at once.
“Lily, you can’t be serious,” James argued, looking at her like she’d grown another head.
It irritated Lily beyond measure. “Actually I am,” she said, crossing her arms like his.
“She’s a human,” he argued.
“So is or was Jessie and she could hold her own more than enough,” she shot back at him.
“Jessie was a trained soldier not a teenage girl,” he replied then gave her a serious look. “Lily, stop and think about what you’re saying.”
“Look, I get you think I’m an idiot James but I have. It’s daylight for at least another hour, hour and a half. So if we run into a bad guy, it will be either wolf or human. We both will be there, making it impossible for anything to get near her. She’ll be perfectly safe. Now we’re going. With or without you, that’s your choice,” Lily said, refusing to back down.
“Lily,” James started but she ignored him.
“Come on Tris, get ready,” Lily told her sister.
“Well I’m not going,” Windy jumped in. “It’s too damn cold out there!”
“I wouldn’t let you go anyway,” Lily told her with a smile. “Your dad would kill me.”
“Are you sure I should go,” Tristen asked but Lily could see the eagerness on her face.
Donning a white ski mask, sunglasses, a scarf, and gloves she nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
They went outside, Lily and Tristen waved to Wendy as she left for her room while James still followed them grumbling the whole way. “Let’s start at where they freed the vamps,” Lily told Tristen as they walked around the building. “I know some of the vamps so I can follow their scent,” she explained while the teen watched her with wide eyes.
“Can you smell them through the mask?” She asked.
“Yeah, but it’s kind of harder,” Lily admitted. She sniffed the air, catching the scents of several vampires. Veronica included but what surprised her most was another familiar scent. “Jessie,” she hissed the name as a curse.
James rushed over, sniffing the air then growled. “You’re right. It’s her but her scents changed. Do you think they changed her?”
“Wait, who’s Jessie? Is she one of the bad guys?” Tristen asked confused.
“Jessie is, or maybe was now, a human. She worked for the Aequivalere and taught me the basics of fighting and self-defense. She was, or I thought she was, my friend,” Lily said bitterly. “Then she helped kidnap James so Silvano, a vampire, to get me to do what he wanted.”
“Oh, so definitely check in the bad guy box. Got it,” Tristen replied. “So you’ve had like the worst couple of years in like, ever.”
Lily laughed, a full blown belly laugh and grinned at the teen though she doubted she could see it through the ski mask. “Yeah, Tris. I would agree with that.”
“It wasn’t all bad,” James argued.
“That’s true, I had A. J.” Lily said with an evil grin.
James scoffed and shook his head. “Yeah, but who do you have to thank for A. J.” he insisted as he sniffed the air. “I recognize a few of these scents from last night.”
“So you two are together then,” Tristen asked.
“Yes, but she just doesn’t want to admit it yet,” James replied before Lily could answer.
“Whatever Wolf boy,” Lily grumbled as they followed the scents.
“That wasn’t a denial,” Tristen said when Lily didn’t say more and James burst out laughing.
“Keep talking kid and I’ll send you to your room,” Lily threatened her.
Tristen giggled, then made a mime of zipping her lips closed as they walked. They followed the scents through the woods and suddenly the scents disappeared. “This happened last time,” James said sniffing the air.
“What did?” Tristen asked.
James explained the scent blocker that Xavier used. “That stuff is super sticky though and they have to practically bathe you in it for it to work. There would have to be some kind of residue right?” Lily said as she looked over the place.
“It could have been but with the snow it may be covered or dissolved,” James replied with a huff.