Bitter Demons

14. This Better Be Good

The ride to the party didn't help me feel any closer to the futures from Cypress. Meredith droned on and on about what it means to be a future. I felt like I was being lectured the whole time. Caroline was pretty quiet up front next to Mrs. King, but if I had to choose, she would be the future I would prefer to hang out with.

Luckily, it didn't take long for Meredith to ditch us once we arrived at the Chen's lake house. The boys from both football teams had arrived ahead of us, and it was obvious a few of them had been waiting for us to arrive. Whatever popularity I'd been experiencing the past few days since the confirmation ritual, Meredith had it ten-fold. Since her mother was still the reigning Prima, she was possibly years away from her final initiation ceremony, but if I had to guess, I'd say she was several steps farther than me in her journey.

Her beauty and allure was lost on me, but as she walked onto the front deck, the sea of guys there literally parted to let her pass. Every head turned and guys jumped at the chance to offer her a drink. Caroline and I stood back on the grass and watched.

"Does that happen everywhere she goes?" I asked.

"Pretty much," Caroline said. "You should see my mom."

That last part she said under her breath, but I caught the bitterness in her tone.

"You don't like them very much, do you?"

Caroline looked up, her eyes wide. She shook her head. "I don't not like them," she said. "I mean, it's my family. I love them."

"That's not exactly the same thing," I said.

She scrunched up her nose.

"No, I guess it's not."

"It's no big deal," I said. "To tell you the truth, I'm not the biggest fan of your sister, either. I thought she'd never stop criticizing me. She's kind of full of herself."

Caroline laughed. "You have no idea how good it is to hear you say that," she said. "It's like everyone's always under her spell. Guys fall all over her at school. Teachers adore her and she always gets perfect grades. And she's Mom's favorite, by far. Meredith is a little princess."

"But you're a future, too." I spotted a couple of white plastic chairs on the lawn and moved us over toward them to sit. "How come you don't get the same kind of attention? I mean, I'm still new to this whole thing, so I don't know how it all works or how many steps there are to becoming Prima, but I would think you guys would be about equal."

She snorted and plopped down in the chair. "Yeah, right," she said. "I'm a second. Seconds very rarely ever actually become Prima."

I sat next to her. "Why not?"

"Well, let's say my mom dies tomorrow," she said. Pretty morbid thought, but I was listening. "Meredith's already eighteen and she's been through the first four steps already. All she has left is the fifth and final step."

"Which is what?" I asked. This is exactly the kind of information I'd been looking for, and I hoped she would keep talking.

"Initiation," she said. "That way if Mom died, Meredith could be initiated immediately. Like before the funeral, even."

"Wow," I said. I had already been through two steps. That meant just three more total before I was the Prima and Jackson was lost to me forever. I swallowed hard. "That's wild."

"The Order is pretty serious about their rituals," she said. "Getting a new Prima initiated would be the first thing on everyone's mind. So, like I was saying, Meredith would take over as Prima. After you have that level of power, you're pretty set, you know? Primas never get sick or anything like that. Even a bad car wreck that would kill most people would barely hurt a Prima."