I turned my head just enough to look at him. “Please tell me Samantha Smith wasn’t an honors student.” I’d missed a ton of school thanks to all my cancer treatments. If I was put in honors classes, I’d fail for sure, and the school might look deeper into “my” record.

“Actually, she was a solid C student. I’m sure you’ll make it look like she had a sudden change in appreciation for a good education.”

“I don’t want any sudden changes. I have to perform to her ability, or people might get suspicious.”

“Relax.” Ethan squeezed my hand. “Everything’s going to be fine.” He let go of me, which was odd because he always held my hand when he drove. “Um, there’s one more thing. Samantha Smith was the star cross-country runner at her old school in Phoenix, so you might want to dust off your running shoes and do a few laps around the cottage this evening to warm up.”

“What?” I nearly jumped out of my seat.

Ethan burst out laughing. “I’m kidding!”

I smacked his arm. “That’s so not funny.” But I couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, tell me more about Ethan Jones from Florida. What’s he like?”

“Oh well, he’s exceptionally attractive, has a 4.0 average, and is a total chick magnet. I don’t need to change a thing.”

“No, not a thing.” My tone was full of sarcasm. Though truth be told, Ethan was all those things.

“Nah, really he’s an A/B student. No extracurricular activities, which is good since I’ll be working at the diner after school.”

Things seemed to be working out. Everything except my problem. The problem I couldn’t mention to Ethan. I tried to tell myself I’d adjust to being alive again. My body would get used to it, and I wouldn’t need to steal life from others after a while. I knew I was fooling myself, but I repeated it over and over in my mind. I was so lost in my thoughts I almost didn’t hear Ethan say, “What the hell?”

The car stopped in the driveway. I looked at the cottage. It was surrounded by rocks. A circle of rocks. All strategically placed. Someone had made a big circle around our house. It was something straight out of The Blair Witch Project.

CHAPTER SIX

“DID you do that?” I asked, knowing there was no way Ethan had anything to do with the rocks. He was as surprised as I was.

“No, and no one knows we’re here—other than the water and electric companies. I mean, my family hasn’t been here in years. None of them would think I’d come here when I left home. I’m sure it’s the last place they’d think to look.”

Ethan’s family had had sort of a falling-out about a year ago. Something about his uncle gambling away all his savings. The family had even staged an intervention, but when that didn’t work, his aunt and uncle had moved away, leaving the cottage in their son Rick’s name. The cottage had been abandoned long before all that, and since Rick didn’t like the Poconos he up and left.

“I don’t get it.” I shook my head. “Why would someone take all that time to arrange a bunch of rocks like this?”

“Maybe it’s a prank.” Ethan opened his door. “It could be some local kids messing around. This place does look eerie all by itself in the woods.”

I nodded. He was probably right. Some kids were bored and decided to scare some younger boy or girl by convincing them this was a gathering place for witches. That had to be it.

“You stay here. I’ll go inside and look around, make sure no one broke in while we were gone.”

“Okay.” I locked the car doors behind Ethan. For a moment, I thought how ironic it was that I’d be scared of some kids. I was a killer. They should’ve been afraid of me. Then again, I felt fine right now, and I touched Ethan all the time without hurting him. It was only when I felt the life draining out of me that I was a danger to other people. Not that that made it any better.

I scanned the woods. It was hard to see with the sun setting, so I couldn’t be sure if the people who did this were still lurking around, trying to scare each other. I didn’t see anyone. Not even an animal in sight. We were all alone. Secluded on our little hill.

Ethan came back out of the cottage, shrugging his shoulders. I opened my door and met him in the driveway.

“Everything looks fine.” He kissed my cheek. “See, just a prank.”

I eyed the rocks. “Real funny.”

Ethan moved one of the rocks out of the way, and we went inside. It was starting to get dark, and I was wiped from my first day as a working stiff. Pun completely intended. All I wanted was a hot shower. Of course, we didn’t have hot water. We had lukewarm water. It would have to do.

“You can shower first,” Ethan said, reading my mind. “Who knows how cold the water will be the second time around? I don’t want you turning into an icicle.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead. I’m going to play around with the TV some more. See if I can’t get us a station that works.”

I grabbed my pajamas and headed to the bathroom. I set the faucet all the way to hot, hoping for a miracle. When I stepped inside, I was shocked by the chill in the water. It reminded me of the coldness I felt before I needed to… What exactly was I doing? Feeding off humans? I shook away the thought as I washed off as quickly as possible. As I shut off the water and grabbed my towel, I realized I hadn’t felt that coldness of death creeping up on me since last night. Maybe I was getting better. Maybe I wouldn’t need to kill anymore. I hugged my towel to me and prayed that was true.

“Woo hoo!” Ethan yelled from the living room. “Babe, we have a channel!”

I laughed as I pulled on my pajamas—thankfully, Ethan had volunteered to take my clothes to Goodwill after I died, but instead he’d kept them for me. I stepped into the kitchen and made my way to Ethan, who wrapped me up in his arms.

I caught a glimpse of some crime show on channel two. Ethan hated those shows, but he was so happy to have anything to watch. He always could find the good in any situation. I let my towel drop to the floor and took his face in both my hands. “I love you.”

He smiled and kissed me so hard my head spun. I struggled for air, but this time, it was by choice. Ethan picked me up, wrapping my legs around him. The next thing I knew, we were in the bedroom. Our bedroom. My heart raced. Was this it? Was this the way it was going to happen?

Ethan gently placed me on the bed and stepped back for a second, studying my face to judge my reaction to the change of location. My mind was a flurry of thoughts, but the one at the forefront was that Ethan was too far away. I reached for him, and he joined me on the bed.

“Are you—?”

“Don’t ask me.” I returned my lips to his.

He pulled away. “But I want to make sure—”

I smothered his mouth again. I didn’t want to ruin the moment with the “Are you sure you want to do this?” talk. I was sure. For the first time since I’d come back, I felt like myself again. I wasn’t letting this feeling go.

Ethan’s kisses got softer, and I knew it was his way of giving me a chance to change my mind. That wasn’t going to happen. I pulled him closer, noticing he smelled faintly of sweat and brown gravy. A customer had spilled his gravy all over the booth, and Ethan had had to mop it up. I didn’t think I’d made a face or anything, but Ethan leaned back and sniffed his shirt.

“Wow, I need a shower. Maybe we should…” He was afraid to suggest we stop or even wait, so he was leaving the decision up to me.

“You know what? It’s not late. Go shower. I’ll be here when you’re finished.”

He kissed me one more time. “Five minutes tops.” I’d never seen him run so fast.

I laughed to myself as I lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. I thought I’d be more nervous, but this didn’t seem so nerve-wracking after all the other stuff that had happened to me. I was happy, and Ethan was perfect. Still, the air in the bedroom felt heavy. I got up and opened the window to let some fresh air in. The windows had locks on them, so they only opened about five inches, but that was plenty. There was a slight breeze, and I bent down, sticking my nose in the opening and breathing in the night air.