Carmine threw on the first decent-looking shirt she could find. She did her makeup as best she could, but she still looked pretty ill. How could no one in her family have noticed how bad she looked? She could hardly believe it. After all, vampires at school had commented on it! Carmine guessed it was because she’d been spending so much time in her room lately. And now that her mom didn’t need to drive with her to school, Carmine guessed that neither of her parents had gotten a good enough look at her to realize something was off. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d been complaining about feeling bad. Still, it would have been nice for someone to notice.
When Carmine was finished, she checked herself in the mirror one last time. She looked good. Well, not good exactly, but at least she didn’t look like she belonged in an intensive care unit. She hurried down the hall, grabbed a bagel and her keys, and was out the door before anyone had a chance to get a really good look at her.
She hopped in the car and immediately texted Anna.
Can you get to school early?
I think so. Why?
I need to talk to you. Meet me in the cafeteria?
Ok.
As soon as Carmine got that last message, she threw the car into reverse and headed down the driveway. She drove as fast as she dared, making it to school almost ten minutes before class started.
Carmine sat down at a table to wait. She picked at her bagel, but really, she was too nervous to eat. The only thing that kept her from tossing it in the trash was the realization that she was obviously too sick to be skipping meals.
It seemed like forever before Anna got there, even though Carmine knew it was only a few minutes. Anna saw her and waved, heading straight over.
“What’s wrong?” Anna asked as she sat down.
“I had another dream last night.” Carmine told her. She closed her eyes for a minute. This was really going to be embarrassing. Anna apparently thought Carmine’s expression was due to nerves.
“It’s ok.” she told Carmine.
“It’s not that.” Carmine said. “I mean, it’s not that I’m scared. Well, maybe a little, but that’s not what’s bothering me.” Carmine got the feeling she wasn’t making much sense.
“Then, what is it?”
“When you asked if he was cute – that boy, I mean.” Carmine trailed off, studying her friend.
“Yeah?” Anna said when Carmine didn’t continue.
“You already had an idea of what was happening, didn’t you?” Carmine asked. Anna looked guilty.
“I had a guess.” she admitted.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Carmine asked. She was pretty sure she would have told Anna if it were happening to her.
“I wasn’t completely sure. And I didn’t want to scare you.”
“Really? Anna, come on.” After all they’d been through, scaring Carmine should have been pretty far down on Anna’s list of concerns. Hadn’t she proven by now that she was tougher than that?
“Besides, would you have listened to me?” Anna asked. “Or would you have just gotten mad and walked off?”
Carmine opened her mouth, then closed it again. She was about to say that of course she would have listened to one of her two best friends. But they both knew it wasn’t true.
“I’m sorry.” Carmine mumbled, looking down at the table.
“It’s not your fault.” Anna told her. When it was obvious Carmine didn’t believe her, she added, “Really. It’s part of what…you know…they do.”
“So what am I supposed to do?” Carmine asked. She tried not to sound pathetic, but she wasn’t sure it was working.
“First, I think we should tell Mia. This seems like it should be a group decision.”
“Ok.” Carmine said hesitantly. “But don’t tell the guys, ok?”
“Ok.” Anna promised. “I won’t see Mia until lunch, so hopefully she gets to the table before the boys do. If not, meet after school?” Carmine nodded; the sooner she could figure out how to get rid of this thing, the better.
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Carmine wanted to catch Mia’s eye during English, to see if she could maybe meet up with Carmine privately before lunch. But it was going to be next to impossible with Zev sitting right behind her. Zev would hear anything Carmine said, and he could easily look over Mia’s shoulder if Carmine decided to just pass a note instead.
It wasn’t that Zev was overly nosy or anything. But Carmine knew the weird secrecy would get his attention. Ever since the boys had risked their own lives last year helping Carmine and her friends, they’d all tried to keep the secrets to a minimum. Carmine thought that was a great idea – not having secrets last year would have made everything way less complicated. That being said, she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell three high school boys about her dreams. Especially those kinds of dreams.
In the end, Carmine decided to just give up. She couldn’t even wait until after class to talk with Mia – she and Zev were too busy making plans for this weekend. Carmine rolled her eyes. She’d never understand those two.
And of course, Luke was the second person out to lunch after Carmine. So the plan of getting a few minutes to talk to Mia was immediately shot. Her best bet would be to pull her aside and ask about meeting after school.
When everybody was talking loudly to each other, Carmine leaned over to Mia.
“Hey, can I ask you something?” she mumbled, keeping her voice down.
“Sure. What’s up?” Mia asked just as quietly.
“I had another dream last night.” Carmine said, giving another glance around the table. Everyone was still preoccupied.
“Really?” Mia started smirking. “I thought you didn’t have them so often.”
“Yeah, well...” Carmine trailed off. What was she supposed to do – admit she lied? She didn’t think so! Mia looked at her for a minute but didn’t say anything. So Carmine continued. “I talked to Anna about it this morning. Meet after school and I’ll explain?”
“No problem.”
“Everything ok?” Luke asked suddenly, causing Carmine to jump.
“Yeah, fine.” Carmine said quickly. “I was just asking Mia a question – no problem.”
“Nothing’s going on like last year, right?” he asked, laughing. But Carmine thought he was only half joking.
Carmine remembered all that had happened last year – the threatening note, the banshees, the headless rider – and suppressed a shudder.
“No, nothing like that.” she told him.
“Well that’s good.” he said. He grinned in that overly self-assured way of his before suddenly growing serious. “If there was, you’d tell us, right? Me and Zev and Conner? You wouldn’t just leave us in the dark like you tried to do last time, right?”
“Of course not.” Mia told him, eyes wide. And Carmine was almost convinced she was telling the truth.
“Really?” Zev asked, looking at Carmine and Anna.
“Yeah.” Carmine said. Anna nodded but didn’t say anything, so Carmine decided to add, “We couldn’t have done it last year without you guys.”
“Good.” Zev said, nodding. “So everything’s ok? You’re sure?”
“Positive.” Carmine said. She knew he wasn’t quite convinced so she told him, “We were just finishing a conversation from yesterday.”
“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better.” Luke told her.
“This wouldn’t have anything to do with you being sick, would it?” Zev asked suddenly. Since when did he get so perceptive? It was only then that Carmine realized the entire table had focused on her.
“It’s just something Carmine realized last night.” Mia told him, rolling her eyes. “Do you have to know everything?”
“Only important, might-get-us-killed things.” Zev replied coolly. Obviously, Mia’s attempt to make him feel like he was being nosy had failed miserably.
“Well, if one of those comes up, we’ll let you know.”
“Please do.” Zev grinned. Carmine could tell he was pretty sure he thought he’d won whatever contest he and Mia were having.
Carmine might not have had much of a chance to talk to Mia at lunch, but at least she knew the basics. And she promised to meet Carmine and Anna after school. Carmine didn’t really want to wait that long, but there wasn’t much she could do. Besides, she guessed at this point a few more hours wouldn’t hurt.
When school finally let out, Carmine made her way to the courtyard. She tried to hurry, but it took more energy than she had. She ended up going at more of a fast walk, and even that made her feel a little dizzy. When she finally made it outside, Mia was already sitting at one of the red plastic tables.
“Hey.” Carmine said as she sat down.
“Hey, Carmine.” Mia replied. “I talked to Anna a little in history. She said you have a problem?” That last part sounded like a question, even though it probably shouldn’t have – they both knew what was going on.
“Yeah. It’s about what we were talking about yesterday.”
Mia nodded. “Having second thoughts about your dreams?”
“Yeah.” Carmine said. She wanted to explain it all as soon as possible, but she kind of wanted Anna’s support. If Carmine and Anna were right, Carmine really didn’t want to have to explain all this on her own. Fortunately, it didn’t take Anna long.
“Sorry I’m late.” Anna said, setting her backpack on the ground as she took a seat.
“No, you’re not late.” Carmine told her. Class had only been out for like three minutes. Carmine had only been out as fast as she was because she decided not to go by her locker first. But really, it was just like Anna; if she wasn’t five minutes early, she considered herself late.
“So what happened to make you change your mind about all this?” Mia asked. “I thought things were going ok for you.”
Carmine stared at her for a minute. She tried to decide if Mia was being snappy on purpose, but she couldn’t tell. Finally, Carmine took a deep breath. “Last night was kind of weird. I mean, I had another dream. Only, this one was different.”
“Really? What happened?” Mia asked. Now, she was interested.
“He – the boy I keep seeing – talked to me. And it just made me kind of worried.”
“Why? What did he say?” The look of concern on Anna’s face made Carmine feel guilty; maybe she should have told her friends about this when they asked. But it wasn’t like it was completely her fault – she didn’t realize there was anything wrong back then.
“I told him that I’d mentioned him to you guys,” Carmine started. “But he said other people wouldn’t understand. And that got me thinking – how could he know what other people would think if he was just my dream? I think it’s possible he could have been in other people’s dreams before mine, you know?”
“Of course not.” Mia said confidently. “That’s impossible.”
“Actually, I don’t think it is.” Anna told her quietly.
“What?” Mia stared at Anna like she’d lost her mind. Anna shifted uncomfortably in her seat before continuing.
“When I was growing up, people believed in more than just vampires.” she told them. “They believed in fae, and werewolves...and succubi.”
“What’s a succubi?” Mia asked.
“They’re a kind of demon.” Carmine said automatically before Anna could respond. “A succubus haunts your dreams – like a ghost. Except the dreams themselves aren’t actually bad.” Carmine could feel her cheeks start to burn, and she looked down at the table.
“They get into your dreams.” Anna picked up where Carmine left off, once it became obvious that Carmine wouldn’t be continuing. “But the dreams are so good, you don’t want to wake up. They take over your life.”
“So you guys think this thing is a succubus?” Mia asked.
“Incubus.” Carmine corrected automatically. Then she rested her forehead on her hands and stared down at the red-lacquered table.
Even though she and Anna had already basically agreed on what was going on, it was still hard for Carmine to hear. She had really been hoping she was wrong, but Anna’s saying it out loud just killed those dreams. Now Carmine really was going to have to acknowledge that some kind of demon had actually gotten inside her head. In spite of all her reading and real-life experiences with the supernatural, she was still having a hard time believing that her dreams had really been invaded. How could this have happened to her?
“A what?” Mia asked. Carmine looked up. Mia was staring at her blankly. “I thought you said it was a succubus.”
“It’s the same thing.” Carmine told her wearily. She remembered when mythology used to be fun. “Succubi are female, incubi are male.”
“Weird.” Mia mumbled. “So you think this is an incubus then?”
Carmine didn’t say anything; she was too busy feeling sorry for herself. Why would it go after her – what was so special about her? There were plenty of other people around here, why couldn’t it have picked on any of them?
“I think so.” Anna said after some hesitation. “We had a rash of these kinds of attacks back in my hometown – a teacher, the man who ran the inn...a couple others. They looked a lot like you’ve been looking.” she added, staring at Carmine.
“So what do I do?” Carmine asked quietly.
“I’m not sure.” Anna confessed.
“Then what are you saying? That I should just stop falling asleep?”
“Maybe.” Mia said. Carmine couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.
“Oh great.” Carmine rolled her eyes. “’Cause that won’t be a problem or anything.”
“I know it’s going to be hard for a couple days.” Anna told her. “But hopefully it’ll only be a little while before we figure something out. Just try not to worry.”
“Try not to worry? This thing’s in my dreams, Anna. I can’t just not go to sleep anymore. I’m not like you guys.”
Anna and Mia didn’t say anything, but Carmine noticed they didn’t quite meet her eyes.
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and then Add to home screen.