Growing Wildflowers | WLW

Monkshood

The blood.

I know Jamie is talking about the boxes of blood. What else would be so concerning in Aurora's fridge? I take each step toward her, trying to think of an excuse. Why would Aurora have dozens of blood bags in her fridge? That would surely be against company protocol. If Jamie wants her last piece of evidence to determine what killed her friends, this is it. She knows about vampires and now I need to kill her. I don't have time to run it past the elders. She'll call the press before I can get a hold of them. I have to do this now. My chest clenches. I shouldn't have allowed myself to get so close to the situation. To her. The look on her face when I wanted to kiss her flashes through my head once more as I take the final step to close the distance between us.

I'm expecting her to look scared but instead she sighs and shakes her head like a parent who's about to tell me "I'm not mad, just disappointed." I glance inside the fridge to get a better look at what she's staring at but it's not blood. Aurora must have cleaned the blood out of the fridge earlier because all that's left is human food.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Gwen," she groans and motions to the fridge again. "Look at how much single-use plastic you guys go through. And this?" She pulls a jar of hazelnut chocolate spread from the door. "Full of palm oil. It is literally responsible for the deaths of orangutans." She sighs and bends over to pull a package of ground beef from the bottom shelf. She holds it up for me to see, flashing another disappointed look.

My lips pull into a grin, relief flooding my body. "I'll talk to Aurora about our carbon footprint the next time I see her," I offer.

She punches my shoulder. "Liar." She smiles playfully and slips her fingers through mine to pull me back to the couch. "I can't believe my closest friend is someone so...eco-unfriendly."

"You should see what I usually eat," I say without thinking and when I pull my eyes away from the TV, she's looking at me, her expression colored with confusion. "I mean..." I clear my throat, "My um.. Dad or whatever... John. He leaves a huge carbon footprint. Lots of red meat and stuff."

"Why aren't you staying with him?" she asks.

I take too long to respond. I can tell because she tilts her head to the side a little while I think of a convincing lie. "I stay with Aurora while I'm in school. I'll go stay with John again when I'm done wrapping some stuff up."

I flip the TV over to cable on accident and a news anchor takes center stage on the screen, the word "Breaking" in bold red letters above her head.

"A series of vicious attacks have taken place over the course of the last two weeks, Cindy, and this last one might be the most gruesome. Viewer discretion...is advised."

Jamie scoots closer to me on the couch, her eyes glued to the screen.

"Thank you, Jessica. As you can see behind me, this is the fishing dock where the deadliest attack in Bolton County history has taken place. Eight were killed, leaving not a single survivor of the fishing crew, and unfortunately, that's all the information we have. The Bolton County Chief of Police will brief Bolton when more information is uncovered. Thank you." The camera switches back to the news anchors in the studio as they ask anyone with information to call their hotline.

My mind is racing as Jamie looks at me, her eyes rimmed red. She opens her mouth to say something, closes it again. She sniffles, takes a deep breath.

"Are these connected?" The question takes me off guard, the way she asks like I have inside knowledge. I do have inside knowledge, but she's not supposed to know that. I stare at her for a moment too long because she senses my hesitation and rubs her forehead. "I mean... I don't know. You know more about this stuff than I do. Do you think this is all connected?"