Chapter 27- Sylvie’s Last Stand

It had been a few weeks since Mariana’s appearance, and I hadn’t seen Katherine at all (thankfully). I decided not to tell Alec about Mariana. In all honesty, I needed to practice my lying. Dave had proposed to my mom (aww!) and they were planning an early June wedding, which I would probably still be in town for (sacrifice is at the END of June, remember?). My mom said I could bring three friends, so I chose Jade, Tegan and Alec-no surprises there- and Nathen got to bring his little friend Farrah, who I constantly teased was his girlfriend.

Maybe I should stop here. Maybe I should just lead you to believe that everything went great after that. Maybe I should tell you that my mom married Dave, I tricked Katherine and killed Damien, and everyone was happy and Alec and I grew up and had seven children all named Joe. I mean, I’m already on a roll of deception, so why not? But, I’m sorry to say that even though I’d like all that to happen, this is NOT the ending, and what happened wasn’t exactly as I just said (especially the seven kids named Joe). But if you’re looking for a happy ending, you might as well stop here and believe that there is one. But if you want to know the real ending, get some coffee and get comfy, ‘cause there’s a whole lot more that happened. Starting with Valentine’s Day.

You know how Valentine’s Day is supposed to be the most romantic day of the year? Well, there’s never really been a lot of romance in my life. I’ve never even gotten a card from anyone but my mom and Nathen. Alec was the only boyfriend I’d ever had, being a thirteen year old girl and everything. I spent the entire day at school watching everyone in my class getting valentines and candy grams from their secret admirers and listening to my friends babble on about how some guy likes them but they don’t know who. Even  Jade got a candy gram from Paul Mills, who claimed he didn’t like girls yet. As if. That night, I was helping Nathen sort his Valentine’s Day candy he got in cards from his friends after school when I heard a knock at the door. I ignored it and stayed with Nathen; I figured it was probably Ned down the street who was in love with my mom, or maybe one of Sarah’s friends. So, when my mom called out “Kieyra, someone’s here for you!” I was completely confused as to who could be looking for me.

“I’m busy.” I yelled. I wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone right now. Valentine’s Day depressed me.

“He says it’s important.” He? What guy would be here? I ran to the door and saw Alec standing in the doorway, smiling.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

 “Isn’t it kind of an American tradition to spend Valentine’s Day with the one you love?” I blushed.

“Yeah, I guess…” I turned to my mom.

“Go. Have fun.” She rolled her eyes. “Be back before ten.”

“Thank you!” I squealed, hugging my mom. I guess maybe I was a little too excited, but I had reason to be. I’d never really been on a date before, except if you counted when I was the third wheel on Tegan’s date with Damon Jensen. And since that was one of the worst days of my life, I didn’t know what to expect on a real date. Alec took me by the hand and led me outside, closing the front door behind me.

“I bought flowers, but my neighbor’s dog ate them.” I laughed.

“It’s okay. It’s the thought that counts, right?”

“Right.” I opened the door to Alec’s car and slid into the passenger’s seat.

He drove for about half an hour before pulling into the parking lot of a restaurant. I knew just from the outdoor décor and the five stars on the sign that I was pretty underdressed-jeans and a t-shirt- but then again, so was Alec.

“If you’d told me where we were going, I would have dressed a little nicer.” I said.

“Well, personally, I think you look beautiful.” I rolled my eyes.

“Well, you’re not a restaurant owner with the power to create a dress code, now are you?”

“Don’t worry, he knows me.” When we went in and sat down, the waitress looked at us as if there was some sort of prank being pulled on her.

“Um…may I help you kids?” she asked.

“Yes, I’ll have the lobster.” Alec said to her, his smug grin never fading.

“You do realize that they’re a hundred dollars a piece, right?” she raised her eyebrow in disbelief.

“In which case, I’ll have five. Kieyra?”

“Um, I’m good, thanks.” The waitress just shook her head and left, mumbling “they don’t pay me enough for this”.

“Five lobsters? Are you out of your mind?” Alec shrugged.

“Like I said, the owner knows me.”

An hour (and SEVEN lobsters) later, Alec had explained that the owner of the restaurant was a warlock he’d met about ten years ago and became friends with. Since Alec had saved the guy’s life once, he’d always said that eventually he’d make it up to him. Apparently, this is what Alec had asked for (aw, how sweet!).

After we left, Alec took me to the movie theater back in town, where we saw some incredibly cheesy movie that neither of us really watched. Honestly, I think he might have been paying more attention to the movie than I was. After the movie was over and we were leaving the theater, I spotted a familiar head of ginger colored curls and my blood turned to ice, as it usually did when I saw Sylvie French.

“It can’t be. She promised.” I said to myself under my breath.

“What?” asked Alec.

“Sylvie.” At the mention of her name, she turned around and smiled.

“Oh, hey Kieyra!” the way Sylvie said it made it sound like we were old friends or something.

“Um…Hi?”

“Come here, I want to show you something.” Even though there were a million voices in my head yelling “It’s a trap! Don’t go!” I did a stupid horror movie sorority girl move and followed Sylvie out of the theater.

When I went behind the theater with Sylvie, not only did I realize that, yes, this was a trap, but I was also quickly reminded of Sylvie’s power to send people to the ground in agonizing pain, not without a rather painful demonstration of course.

“What are you doing here?” I managed to ask between screams and gasps for air.

“Damien wanted me to deliver a message.”

“What?”

“That if you’re a smart girl you’ll give him what he wants.”

“Then what if I’m not smart?”

“Then Damien will kill everyone you’ve ever loved and make you watch them slowly die.” I looked around. There was nothing back behind the theater except for a bunch of trash and a broken table leg. Wait-tables are made of wood, right? Wood was harmful to vampires. I’d never seen it happen before, but I was near certain that a wooden stake through the heart would kill one of us. I managed to stop squirming enough so that I could use my powers to lift the table leg and cause it to come flying towards us, piercing Sylvie in the chest. She fell to the ground and the pain I was feeling stopped immediately. Sylvie just lay there, unmoving. It took me a few minutes for reality to sink in.

I…Killed…Sylvie French!

Was it wrong to be happy? I did a little three-second happy dance over Sylvie’s body, then checked her pulse just to make sure she was really dead (which she was). Alec came running back behind the theater.

“Hey, I heard screaming, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I’m perfectly fine.” I said, still grinning. Alec glanced at Sylvie.

“Is she…dead?” he asked.

“Kind of? Is that such a bad thing?” I asked, kind of worried that Alec wouldn’t be as happy about my killings as I was.

“Not at all. It’s just…I thought you were opposed to murder.” He smirked. I rolled my eyes.

“Come on, let’s hide the body before the authorities find it.”