Dead Is a Battlefield (8 page)

“Thanks for hanging out with me today,” I said.

“I had a great time,” Connor said. He grinned. “I don’t suppose you’d want to do it again?”

“Connor, there’s something I need to tell you.”

His grin faded. “That’s never good.”

“I don’t think we should go out anymore.” There wasn’t any easy way to say it, so I just said it.

“You didn’t have fun?”

I put a hand on his arm. “I had a great time, but . . .”

“But you have a thing for Dominic Gray,” he said bitterly. “Just like every other girl in Nightshade.”

“I was supposed to go out with him today,” I confessed. “But he stood me up. And that’s when I realized how horrible it was to mess with someone’s feelings. I don’t want to do that to you.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. Finally, he cleared his throat. “I understand, but if you change your mind . . .”

“I won’t,” I said, but softly.

Mom’s face appeared at the front window. I reached over and gave him a peck on the cheek. “I had a wonderful time. Gotta go.”

Even though the thing with Connor had ended before it had even really begun, I couldn’t wait to tell Eva all about it.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was between classes
on Monday when Dominic decided to try to talk to me.

“Hi, Jessica,” he said.

I kept walking, but his longer legs meant he could keep pace with me in the hallway at school.

“Leave me alone,” I said.

“What’s wrong with you?” he demanded. “I can’t believe you’re mad at me because I was sick.”

“Sick? You are sick. A pathological liar, in fact.”

“I had the flu,” he said. “I couldn’t even get out of bed. The whole weekend was a blur.” He raised his voice, which attracted the attention of half of Nightshade High.

“You looked pretty healthy when I saw you hand in hand with Selena,” I said.

I marched away, ignoring the stares.

Raven came up to me before class. “What was that all about with my brother?” she asked.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said. I couldn’t tell her the truth. That her brother, the great Dominic Gray, was nothing but a liar.

I was home baby-sitting Grace and Katie after school when the doorbell rang. I peered through the peephole and saw Dominic standing on our front porch.

“Oh, now you show up?” I said to him through the door. “Go away.”

“Jessica, open up,” he pleaded. “I want to talk to you for a minute. To explain.”

I opened the door but didn’t invite him inside. “You have two minutes.”

“I don’t remember,” he said.

I raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You don’t remember what? Asking me out?”

“I remember that,” he said. “But this weekend was all a blur. I’ve been feverish, achy. I thought you saw Selena at the festival with someone who just looked like me. Until . . .”

“Go on,” I said.

“Until my own sister told me she saw me there. With Selena. I’m so sorry.”

“Do you like her?”

He stared at his feet. Was he embarrassed or lying?

“I don’t know.” He finally met my eyes. “When I’m not with her, I feel like she’s just another girl. Not special. Not you.”

Although his last words gave me a thrill, I knew it wasn’t enough. “But when you are with her?”

“When I’m with Selena, I can’t think of anything or anyone else. It’s like magic.”

Magic?
Something about that word sent up a warning flare in my brain, but I ignored it. Dominic looked so miserable.

I sighed. “Do you want to come in and hang out for a while?” I couldn’t believe I was making a move on the guy right after I finally convinced him that I didn’t have designs on his hot rock-star body.

He grinned. “Sure.”

“My little sisters are home,” I warned. “And it’ll probably be boring.”

“Hey, don’t oversell it,” he said.

We both laughed.

We found Gracie and Katie in the family room. Gracie didn’t even look up from the book she was reading.

“Jessica,” Katie said, and launched herself at me. “I’m hungry. Will you play Monopoly with me? Who is that?” The questions came fast and furiously.

“Katie, this is Dominic.”

“Is he your boyfriend?” Katie was my favorite little sister or I would have killed her. Instead, I blushed.

“No,” I said, so forcefully that Dominic faked a stab to the heart.

“Ha-ha,” I said to him, and then turned to Katie. “C’mon, we’ll make a snack.”

“Monopoly first,” she demanded.

“No, snack first,” I said firmly.

She skipped ahead of us and climbed onto the barstool in front of the counter that separated the family room from the kitchen.

“Gracie, snack time,” I said.

She finally looked up from her book. “Oh, hi, Jessica,” she said. “When did you get home?”

I laughed. “It’s nice to see you, too, Gracie. Now kitchen. You can read more after your snack. Or maybe you want to play Monopoly with us?”

“No, thank you,” she said. Her gaze sharpened. “Who is that?”

I repeated the introduction and she handed me her book before heading for the kitchen.

“I hope you like Monopoly,” I said.

“Love it,” Dominic said.

“I want banana buddies,” Katie demanded. She already had the peanut butter and bread out on the countertop.

“What’s that?” Dominic asked.

“Peanut butter on toast with a banana mouth and raisin eyes,” I told him.

“My dad used to make us those,” he said.

“I can make something else,” I said, remembering what Flo had told me about his dad’s death.

“No, we can’t deprive Katie of her favorite snack. Besides, I like being reminded of him,” he said. “I’ll make the toast.”

Once the toast was made, Katie and Dominic amused each other by decorating the peanut butter with silly faces.

We ate our snack at the kitchen counter. My knee bumped Dominic’s under the counter and I jumped.

“Where is everyone else?” I asked Katie. The house was unusually quiet. Not that I was complaining. I could only imagine the grilling I’d get if Sarah and Sydney were home.

“I dunno,” she said.

“Katie,” I said in a warning voice.

She sighed. “Sarah and Sydney
said
they were at the library studying, but they’re probably just giggling about boys. Fiona’s at karate and Kellie’s at dance class.”

Katie went to set up the game and Gracie returned to her book.

“All those girls she mentioned are your sisters?” Dominic asked.

“Every single one,” I said. “Are you scared?”

Dominic reached over and slowly rubbed the corner of my mouth with his thumb.

I looked up and met his eyes and a deliciously warm feeling spread through my body. He leaned in and I thought he was going to kiss me.

“You had peanut butter on the corner of your mouth,” he said, pulling away.

“Oh,” I said. What was I thinking? He could have any girl he wanted. He wasn’t interested in me.

Katie’s voice shattered the moment. “Jessica, hurry up!” she shouted from the other room.

I gave him a little smile. “This is your chance to make your escape.”

“No way,” he said. “I love Monopoly.”

“Then we’d better get in there,” I said. “Katie takes Monopoly very seriously.”

“I like you better than that other boy,” Katie said to Dominic as she rolled the dice.

He gave me a mischievious glance. “What other boy, Katie?”

“Evan,” she said placidly. “He never played Monopoly with me.”

“A grave strategic error,” Dominic commented.

She nodded. “Exactly.”

Dominic didn’t seem the least bit intimidated by the thought of competition. If anything, he was amused by it. It felt like he wasn’t taking me seriously.

“Are we going to play or what?” I asked.

“It’s your turn,” Katie pointed out.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, and then rolled the dice.

I watched him laughing and joking with my sister. Was this the real Dominic? I had thought I was a pretty good judge of character, but it was almost as if there were two of him, Selena’s Dominic—the guy who hung on her every word and ignored everyone else around him—and this guy.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I was walking through
the halls of Nightshade High when I saw a group of girls surrounding Selena. She handed Shannon something and Shannon let out a squeal.

“Jessica, Jessica, come here,” Selena said.

I was kind of stuck. If I didn’t do as she asked, I’d look stuck up, but I had a feeling there were strings attached to that particular gift.

“Hi, Selena, what’s going on?”

“Tickets to my aunt’s new cooking show,
Cooking with the Countess.
” She handed me four tickets. “Third-row seats.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“You’ll be there, won’t you?” she said.

I glanced at the information on the ticket. It was for Friday night at midnight. “I don’t know,” I said. “My parents usually don’t let me stay out that late.”

“Everyone is going to be there,” Shannon piped in. “Selena gave tickets to practically everyone in school.”

I squared my shoulders. “I’ll be there.” I’d convince my parents somehow.

I asked Eva to go with me, but she was already going with Edgar and the rest of his perfume groupies. Raven said she’d join me and that we could get a ride there from her brother.

Dominic and Raven picked me up at eleven and came in to say hello to my parents.

“What time will the taping be over?” Dad asked.

“I’m not sure,” I replied. “I think it’ll be a couple of hours.”

“Drive safely,” Mom said. “And call us if there’s a problem.”

We got to the studio early, but a bunch of people we knew were already there.

Eva and Edgar arrived not long after us. Their seats were in the front row, with all his Look of Love groupies, who I’d started to think of as the Lovelies. I wasn’t surprised to see they were all wearing purple T-shirts with the store logo, but Edgar had taken it a step further and wore purple jeans.

“I just don’t get it,” I said.

“You mean, why all those girls hang around him?” Dominic asked.

“That, too,” I said. “But mostly I don’t get why Eva seems so infatuated.”

He shrugged. “The ways of love are strange.”

Selena turned around and waved to us, then looked miffed to see Dominic sitting next to me.

When the curtain opened, it revealed an immaculate kitchen stage.

A moment later, music swelled and Circe made a grand entrance. She wore a long black evening gown and matching gloves. Her silver hair was teased into an up do, which was topped by a glittery tiara.

“What’s with the ball gown?” Raven whispered. “Not very practical for cooking.”

“And satin isn’t at all flammable,” I whispered back.

An assistant gave Circe a low bow and then wrapped a white apron, trimmed with black bows, around the chef.

She raised one satin glove in the air. “Shall we begin?”

“Begin what?” a voice called out. It was Selena. Clearly a plant.

My suspicion was confirmed when Circe turned a beaming smile upon the audience and said, “Why, making magic, of course.”

The crowd roared with approval.

Circe beamed.

I almost forgot about the cameras until the monitors showed a shot of Edgar and Eva kissing.

“Gross,” I muttered.

“You have something against kissing?” Raven asked.

“No, something against Edgar,” I admitted.

I stopped talking when I felt Circe’s strange emerald eyes on me.

“I am making an appetizer, a wonderful soup to start, a main course, and a special dessert,” she announced. “This is a dessert created for my husband, the Count, for our three-month anniversary.”

She had a commanding presence and clearly knew her way around the kitchen, but I felt uneasy. The sound of shattering glass came from backstage somewhere.

Some guy with a clipboard signaled to the assistant and the taping stopped abruptly.

The two conferred briefly and then went to investigate. A few minutes later, the assistant was back. Obviously, she’d gotten the short end of the stick, because she dragged her feet all the way to Circe.

Whatever she said, Circe looked like she was going to explode. Selena hurried up to her aunt and put a hand on her arm, and then Circe turned with a broad smile to the watching audience. “There will be a slight delay,” she said through gritted teeth. “Please enjoy a delicious complimentary appetizer while we address this minor glitch.”

Despite her reassurances, the appetizer was not delicious and the delay was not slight. We waited for over an hour. The assistant scurried around and served the audience, but the demand exceeded her speediness. Selena finally took pity on her and started handing out appetizers, too. She came over to offer us some from a tray.

“These are from my aunt’s secret recipe,” she said.

“Thank you,” I said politely as I took one. There were little
ooh
s and
ahh
s of delight from the crowd, but when I bit into mine, I had to restrain myself from spitting it out.

“It tastes horrible,” I whispered to Raven.

“It can’t be that bad,” she replied. She took a big bite and then spit it out in the little cocktail napkin Selena had given her. “It’s worse.”

“Shhh! She’ll hear you,” I cautioned.

Everyone else was eating the snack with every appearance of enjoyment.

Dominic hadn’t tried his yet. He held it up and sniffed it delicately, then put it down. “I’m not sure I want to try it after the reaction you two had.”

Selena was heading back our way. “Do you want another one?” she said. “My aunt wants to make sure everyone gets at least one.”

“What’s in it?” Dominic asked.

“I can’t tell you the ingredients. It’s from her new cookbook. Top secret.” She looked over her shoulder nervously.

He handed the appetizer back to her. “Sorry, I have allergies. Can’t be too careful.”

“I guess it will be okay to tell you some of the ingredients,” Selena said. “Black truffles, porcini, and goat cheese crostini.”

“Aren’t truffles mushrooms?” Dominic asked. “That’s what I’m allergic to.”