“Can you make a new necklace?” If I had another one, I could live a normal life, be like everyone else—except for the coming back from the dead thing.

“I can…” She paused, and I knew there was a “but” coming. “But it will take time.”

“How much time?”

“More than you have. You’ll need to feed again before then, maybe even a few times.”

Feed. That was an awful way to look at it, but it proved she knew all about my secret. “I don’t want to hurt any more innocent people.”

“I might have a solution.” She leaned in close. “What if I told you I knew some bad people? Bad witches who need to be stopped before a lot of people get hurt?”

“Bad witches like Dylan?”

“Yes.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You want me to kill them?” She couldn’t be serious.

“Better them than an innocent child, right?”

“But if they’re witches, couldn’t they overpower me? Use a spell or something?”

“Leave that to me. I’ll make sure they can’t use magic on you.”

I shook my head, having a really hard time accepting all of this. Nora seemed to have everything planned out for me, but I was still full of questions. “I can’t control when the urge comes over me. How will we work this out?”

“Take this.” She reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a cell phone.

“Your phone?”

“Your phone. It’s a prepaid one. I have my number programmed on speed dial. It’s the only number in there. When you start to feel an attack coming on, call me. Immediately. Don’t hesitate, or we may be too late.”

I held the phone in my hand and stared at it like it was a bomb. How had she done all this?

“Don’t tell anyone you have the phone. Not even your boyfriend. He’ll ask questions, and he shouldn’t know we’re working together. He wouldn’t understand. Not yet at least.”

Another thing to keep from Ethan. Just great.

“Can’t I tell him we’re friends? I’m already keeping secrets from him. I don’t want to add another to the list.”

Nora sighed. “Sure. Go ahead, but don’t tell him I gave you a phone. He’d never understand that. No one gives someone they just met a cell phone.”

“Okay.” That made sense, and I wouldn’t really be lying. I’d be withholding information he really didn’t need to know.

Nora looked at her watch. “You better get back in there. We don’t want someone coming to look for you and finding us together like this. It looks too suspicious.”

“Right.”

“Keep the phone on you at all times, and use it when you need to.” She turned and walked away before I could say thank you or goodbye.

I put the phone in my pocket, covering the bulge with my apron. I replayed the plan in my head. Kill witches who’d gone bad? I didn’t have any other choice. Until Nora made me a new necklace, I was going to be a witch killer.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

GLORIA was coming toward the back door when I stepped inside. She tapped her watch. “Cutting it close.”

“Sorry. The breeze tonight felt amazing. It’s been so hot. I think that’s why I fainted. I’m not used to this heat.” Gloria had no idea I’d spent the last two months of my life in bed in my air-conditioned house. My body had forgotten what heat felt like.

“Well, if you start feeling faint again, you sit that little butt of yours down. You hear me? I don’t care if the place is packed. I’ll manage on my own if I have to.”

“But if it’s packed, where will I sit?” I smiled so she’d know I was kidding. “I’m fine. Really.”

She kept a close eye on me all night, and every so often, she’d hand me a glass of ice water. The first time she did it, I thought it was for a customer, but she said, “Drink up.” I obeyed to keep her off my back. I liked having someone to care about me the way my mom used to, but it was hard, too. I wasn’t a cancer victim anymore. I was…I still had no clue what to call myself.

At about seven-thirty, a crowd of kids from school walked in. Luckily, Shannon wasn’t with them. But as they took a seat in the back, one guy separated from them and sat at the counter. A guy with platinum-blond hair.

My night was about to get a whole lot weirder.

I carried the coffee pot back to the counter. I didn’t make eye contact with him, but I mumbled, “What are you doing here? If Ethan sees you, he’ll kill you.”

Dylan looked around. “I don’t see him anywhere.”

“He works in the kitchen now.”

“Good. Then we don’t have a problem.”

No, we still had a problem. A big problem. “I know who you are,” I said, feeling the irony of being able to use those words on someone else.

“Yeah, I know. I gave you my name.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about.” I pretended to refill the sugar, keeping my head down so it didn’t look like I was talking to him.

“Oh?” He sounded amused, and it bothered me more than I cared to admit.

“Yeah, and if I were you, I’d stop following me around.”

“Or what?” He leaned across the counter and whispered, “You’ll kill me?”

I slammed the lid back on the sugar and faced him for the first time. “Whatever you’re ordering, we’re out. Don’t come again.”

I turned and walked away, giving the table by the bathroom their check. I busied myself with other customers, not even glancing in Dylan’s direction. He didn’t know who he was messing with. I was dangerous. He might be a witch, but now that I had Nora helping me, there wasn’t much he could do to me. He had no idea Nora had come up with a plan to focus my attacks on people like him. People who hurt others. Witches gone bad. I knew I was putting a lot of faith in Nora with no real proof that what she’d said was true, but the alternative was too horrible. Without her, I was still on my own and hurting innocent people. I had to believe she was telling the truth—for my own sanity.

Gloria walked up to me and handed me a napkin with writing on it. “The guy at the counter left this for you.”

I looked at the counter and saw Dylan was gone. “Thanks.” I took the folded napkin. My name was written on the front. What, no more yellow Post-it notes left? He was losing his touch. I debated throwing the napkin away without reading it, but my curiosity got the better of me. I unfolded it.

Don’t trust her.

He had to be talking about Nora. She knew Dylan. She said he used to be like her, but then he started using evil magic. Something like that. Of course he’d try to turn me against Nora. Dylan was the bad guy. He wanted to hurt me, and I didn’t know why. All I knew was I had to stay away from him.

Or did I? Maybe he was one of the witches Nora was going to have me… My throat constricted. I didn’t want to kill anyone. Not even bad people. But since I didn’t have a choice in the matter, I was going to have to get over this. In the long run, I’d be helping people. Keeping them safe from harmful spells, right?

Gloria handed me a tray of food. “Table nine.”

“Thanks.” I stuffed the napkin into my apron and took the tray. I tried to forget about Dylan and my problems for a while and focused on being polite, making good money in tips. Most of the customers were here on vacation, so they were in good moods. Unless they were on the last leg of their trip and were heading home soon. Those customers were pretty grouchy. I was surprised so many people were still vacationing this late in the season, but I guess if you don’t have kids starting school or you’re retired, you can vacation whenever you want.

By the end of the night, Gloria had managed to make me drink six glasses of water. I must have needed it, because I didn’t take a single bathroom break all night. Apparently I really was dehydrated. With all my other issues, I hadn’t even noticed.

Nine o’clock rolled around, and I started cleaning up. The diner stayed open till 11:00, but Gloria said it was always dead this time of night. There was no need for Ethan and me to work late on a school night when she and Jackson could easily handle things on their own. I wiped down the counter and all the tabletops.