the universe; he had felt her desire for Sage, her desperation. It attracted him like a magnet.
Lore had spotted Maria with his eagle eye from the skies, and as he’d dove down, he realized she would be the perfect trap after all, someone so alone, so vulnerable – and so close to Scarlet. If anyone knew of a way to find Scarlet, it must be her. Lore decided he would befriend her, use her to find Scarlet, and when he was through, kill her. In the meantime, he might as well have fun with her. This pathetic human would believe whatever fantasy she wanted.
“Um… I don’t understand…” Maria said, as they walked, her voice shaky, nervous. “Explain it to me again. You said you’re like… like new here?”
Lore laughed.
“In a way,” he said.
“So like are you going to be in our school?” she asked.
“I don’t think I have time for school,” he replied.
“What do you mean? Aren’t you my age?” she asked.
“I am. But I finished school long ago.”
Lore almost said centuries ago, but he stopped himself at the last second, luckily.
“Long ago? What do you mean? Are you like advanced or something?” She looked at him with wide, admiring eyes, and he smiled back at her.
“Something like that,” he said. “So your friends are back there, at the party?” he added.
Maria nodded.
“Yeah, all of them except… Well, I’m not friends with her anymore, so yeah, all of them.”
“Except who?” Lore asked, intrigued.
Maria blushed.
“Well, my former best friend. She’s not there. But like I said, we’re not friends anymore.”
“Scarlet?” he asked, then immediately regretted giving too much away.
Maria looked at him, suspicious.
“Like, how do you know all this? Are you, like, stalking me?”
Lore began to feel her retreat from him, and he didn’t want to lose her. He looked at her, held her cheeks, made her stare at him, and flashed his eyes at her. She blinked, and as she did, he wiped out the last thirty seconds of their conversation from her memory.
Maria blinked several times, and he took her hand, and they continued walking.
Close call, he thought. Let’s start again.
“So your friends are back there, at the party?” he added.
Maria nodded.
“Yeah, all of them except… Well, I’m not friends with her anymore, so yeah, all of them.”
“Except who?” Lore asked, intrigued.
Maria blushed.
“Well, my former best friend. She’s not there. But like I said, we’re not friends anymore.”
Lore paused this time, thinking through his words.
“What happened between the two of you?” he asked carefully.
Maria shrugged, and they continued to walk in silence, their boots crunching in the hay.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Lore said, finally. “Anyway, I know what it’s like to be estranged from a friend. My cousin Lore. We were once as close as brothers. Now we don’t even speak.”
Maria looked up at him with compassion.
“That’s awful,” she said. “What happened?”
Lore shrugged.
“Long story.” Centuries long, he wanted to add, but he restrained himself.
Maria nodded, clearly feeling sympathy for him.
“Well, since you seem to understand,” she said, “then I’ll tell you. I don’t know why, like I don’t even know you, but I feel you’d understand everything.”
Lore smiled reassuringly at her.
“I seem to have that effect on people,” he said.
“Anyway,” Maria continued, “my friend, Scarlet, she, like, stole a guy that I liked. Not that I care about the guy anymore.”
Maria stopped talking and Lore sensed she wanted to say something more, and he read her mind:
Well, not since I met you, that is.
Lore smiled.
“Stealing someone’s mate,” Lore said, shaking his head. “There’s nothing worse than that.”
He squeezed her hand tighter, and Maria gave him a half smile.
“So you’re not friends anymore?” Lore said, fishing.
Maria shook her head.
“No. I like totally cut her off. I kinda feel bad about it. I mean, she’s like still stored in my favorites and we’re still friends on Facebook and everything. I haven’t quite gotten that far. But I haven’t called or texted her. We used to text a hundred times a day.”
“Have you tried to text her at all?”
Maria shook her head.
“I don’t really want talk about it,” she said.
Lore sensed that he was pushing too hard. There would be plenty of time for him to seduce her, to find out all he needed to know about Scarlet. In the meantime, he had to make her trust him – to trust him completely.
They reached the center of the corn maze, and they stopped and stood there. Maria looked away, and Lore could sense how nervous she was.
“So, like, now what?” she asked, her hands trembling. “Maybe we should get back?” she added.
He read her mind:
I hope he doesn’t want to go back. I hope he kisses me. Please, kiss me.
Lore reached down, held her cheeks, leaned in, and kissed her.
At first, Maria resisted, pulling back.
But then, she melted into his kiss. He could feel her melting into him completely, and he knew that now, she was totally his.
Chapter Seven
Scarlet flew through the morning sky, wiping her tears, still shaken from the incident under the bridge, and trying to understand all that was happening to her. She was flying. She could hardly believe it. She did not know how, but wings had sprouted, and she had just taken off, lifted into the air as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She couldn’t understand why the light was hurting her eyes, why her skin was starting to itch beneath the sun. Luckily,
