The Bride of Glass (Glass Vault Book 2) Page 2

  The guy’s green eyes met hers, and a smile tugged at his lips. “Yeah, we recently cut the trees surrounding the building, so it’s more noticeable to customers.”

  Josselyn’s eyes darted back and forth between the guy and the door with curious thoughts about what this place was. “What is it?”

  “It’s a museum with glass statues displayed in different artistic ways. We are currently closed, but you can check it out if you want.” The blond guy pointed toward the door with a large grin spread across his face.

  Excitement filled Josselyn’s chest, or maybe that was a little bit of the beer taking hold of her emotions, but she wanted to go inside and take a look. She ran her hand through her short blonde hair. “If it’s okay with you, I will.”

  The guy walked back to the door and opened it for her, and she walked inside. “Take your time,” he purred before leaving her standing in the hallway. He strutted back outside while the door closed.

  Josselyn stared at the wooden door, not knowing what to think. “What a weirdo.” Slowly, she turned around and looked down a long hallway. Clutching the bottles at her chest, she decided to take another one out, popping it open and taking a sip.

  She walked down the long hall, which led to another hall, which led to another before she froze. Displays were everywhere, aligned in a circular fashion from her left, looping all the way around to her right. “Now the party can officially start.”

  Josselyn stepped to her right, passing several fairy-tale displays where the statues were not in a very fairytale-like state. She stopped in front of one with a large bridge, three grotesque trolls sitting underneath, and a goat broken into small glass pieces on top of the arch. The precision in the glasswork both impressed her and had her shaken.

  The second beer bottle became empty as she walked by the next display, which was Jack the Ripper, and a shiver passed through her entire body when she thought about that case, so she quickly hurried on.

  In the next display was a large sign with the words, Sleepy Hollow, written across it. I love that movie and book, she thought to herself. She was in the middle of digging out beer number three when a sudden tug had her looking down. There was nothing there. Then a strong force pulled at her, and the beers crashed to the floor, making a loud clank and then crack as the bottles shattered all along the ground.

  The invisible wind pulled one more time and her feet dragged across the floor. She screamed and clawed at nothing. Then she smacked to the ground, falling in the cool liquid, and with one hard pull, she was yanked into the display.

  The tugging stopped, and Josselyn jumped to her feet, hauled ass to get out of the display and struck a wall.

  When she looked up, it wasn’t a wall. It was nothing, but she couldn’t walk through it even though she was staring at grass and trees on the other side.

  She shouldn’t be seeing grass and trees, she should be seeing displays. “Where the fuck am I?” She ran as hard as she could at the wall, but it didn’t budge, only bounced her back. Each time she ran harder and quicker, and the rebound was tougher than the last.

  Josselyn looked down at herself and screamed when she realized her blonde hair was no longer short. It was now long and curled, and her clothing was an old fashioned gray dress, swaying against her body and bare feet. She freaked out for a moment, trying to calm her nerves.

  When she turned around, there were more trees and bushes, and Josselyn didn’t know what was happening. She took off running in the new direction, passing through bushes, stopping for a second to see the large Sleepy Hollow sign that was in the display. The wind blew at her hair as she stared at the wooden sign.

  She didn’t care—she just ran, jogging in between two rows of houses that looked to be rotting from the outside. One row on her right, and one row on her left. She didn’t stop, didn’t think, she ran even more.

  The wind suddenly paused, and a graveyard full of old headstones lay ahead. She came to a stop—not knowing what direction to go because the graveyard was scaring her even more. After warring with herself, she decided to walk through it until she saw the heads. Everywhere. No bodies. Only bloodied heads, and then the sound. A vibrato coming to life. Pound, pound-pound, pound. The ground rumbled, and Josselyn lifted her head and couldn’t move, couldn’t think.

  A man on a horse approached. No, not a man. The Headless Horseman. Josselyn closed her eyes. “This can’t be happening. It’s only a dream.” For one split second, there was a pain beyond recognition at her throat, and then it all faded away.

  Katrina awakened in a wooden chair in her living room. “What was I doing again? Oh yes, I need to start cooking. I need to get everything finished before the Taker returns, and I have to fall silent again.”

  Chapter 3

  Maisie

  I managed to avoid the other immortals from the Glass Vault when they all went in separate directions.

  I followed Perrie pretty much the entire time without her noticing me, pretending like I was wreaking havoc on Earth, as August, no wait—Quinsey, no wait—Vale barked out his demands. I should be shocked by the whole Vale-being-some-type-of-demon thing, but after dying and coming back to life so many times, nothing can spark surprise in me these days.

  Then I lost them.

  Now, today of all days, I stumble upon Josselyn Shaw AKA Katrina. She barely gives me more than a side glance, but I know she’s watching me since I haven’t joined in on her glass freezing people excursion. A young man with black hair runs by, and she reaches out to touch him.

  His skin turns into a clear glass, unlike the colored ones that were back in the Glass Vault. The neck cracks, and his head slowly slides off to the ground causing a clink-clink ripple effect. Hmm, that’s the tenth time she has done that in a row, and the heads never break. My main thought is, why do the heads fall off her statues if she isn’t the Headless Horseman?

  “Darn, that was to be mine. I’ll get the next one,” I yell, trying to pretend I want to help destroy these lives.

  “Not if I get to them first.” She grins widely as her long blonde hair sachets with the wind.

  “I think it’s easier for you to see since I only have one eye.” I may have worn eye patches before to show that people with one eye can liven up their look, but now that I do have only one eye, it isn’t so bad since I was already used to the patch.

  Josselyn ignores the comment and walks away. I was only giving her a true statement.

  Okay, what do I do now? I continue to walk behind Josselyn and contemplate how to get Perrie out of this mess. After a couple of days out of the Glass Vault, I was able to pull myself out of my locked-and-lost-in-my-own-head stupor. That means there has to be a way to do the same for her.

  When we first walked out of the museum, I was hidden, safely tucked away somewhere in my own brain. It was like I was completely turned off emotionally except for Crazy Maisie as I now like to call her.

  She went insane—constantly skipping up to civilians, talking gibberish, grabbing onto their clothing and singing until they turned to glass. I know Snow White liked to sing for no reason, but this was ridiculous.

  Somehow, like I always did before, I traveled my way back to the surface and kicked Crazy Maisie aside to wherever she came from. I haven’t seen her since.

  Everyone in town is gone—my parents, my uncle, and schoolmates. I cried silently on the inside because I missed them so much, but I had to cut it off. It was already done.

  I couldn’t stop it when we went down our old street because I was still Crazy Maisie. Perrie was farther behind down the road while I skipped up to my old house to sing my own family into glass, but when I got there, some little, creepy, immortal kid had already done the job.

  Not realizing it was my own family until after I came back to the surface, contentment filled me because I hadn’t turned them to glass. Uncle James hadn’t turned to glass by himself next door either, he was with my parents at the time, so it helped knowing he wasn’t alone. The only thing left to do is f
ind Perrie and use her lightning powers combined with my singing skills to get Vale back in his vault somehow.

  Josselyn keeps on walking, and I lose sight of her when she turns a corner, leaving me back to being alone. I sigh in relief.

  The ground trembles beneath me, causing my teeth to clatter together, and the only thing I can think to do is pick up a glass head lying unbroken on the cement. One would think the glass would be cool to the touch, but the warmth penetrates my hands.

  I sing to the head with its already frozen mouth open in horror. “Little head, you have to turn into glass.” The ground continues to shake, and I freeze in place, trying to sing some more as a large troll from the Glass Vault pounds his way across the street. “Glass is the only way to be to help us conquer the lands.”

  The troll doesn’t give me one look as her matted hair blows off crumbs of dirt with the breeze. If we must have on clothing matching our display scenes, then couldn’t the trolls at least have had on some type of ripped cloth? I shiver in revulsion, gently laying the glass head back on the ground.

  “That was close,” I say to myself.

  “Maisie?”

  I stand up quick to a straight position and whip around to find where the male voice came from.

  “Who is Maisie? My name is Snow,” I say, trying to get back into character, role play, or whatever the heck this is.

  My eye meets a chest wearing a tight, ripped, black t-shirt. Slowly, I lift my head to give a delighted, creepy smile showing all teeth and see the face with several scars. Neven. Crap.

  “Hello, um, Frankenstein’s Monster. How are you on your mission to end it all?” I don’t even stutter when I meet his brown eyes that slightly tilt upward at the edges.

  Neven palms his forehead with his scarred-up hand and shakes his head. Then his shoulders rack back and forth with something.

  “Are you okay?” I reach to touch his arm but quickly pull back.

  Then it breaks. A laugh. A hard rumble of laughter escapes his mouth, and I dart my eye side to side to plot my best escape, but his hands quickly come down to the sides of my upper arms and hold me in place.

  Neven’s laughter stops. “Cut the shit, Maisie. I have been following you around for a while now, not sure at first what state of mind you were in. For a moment, I thought you were you, but then I wasn’t sure until I just saw you with that glass head.” His eyes peer over at where I safely set the head next to its body.

  “So, you are you?” I ask.

  Neven lets out a small smile and tugs at the back of his shaggy, black hair. “Yeah, I have been me since we stepped out the door, but everyone else seemed to be lost in their own little world.”

  Oh, thank goodness for that. I’m so excited I could wrap him in a hug right now, but who knows who or what else might creep out, so we better leave things as they are.

  Instead, I nod my head and sadly think about Perrie’s first strike of lightning toward a person, and the first glass statue taking form. If she pulls out of it, I don’t know how she’s going to cope with what has happened, but I know she can.

  “We can’t stay out here and talk like this. Let’s find somewhere and go.” Neven searches up and down the street.

  I think back to what all I passed by. “I know a place. Follow farther behind me and look grim.”

  His face is already set in his normally non-smiley face.

  “Okay, that’s perfect.”

  One of Neven’s black brows shoots up. “This is my normal face, Maisie.”

  “It’s perfect.” I grin.

  Turning around, I walk back down the street while Neven staggers behind until I spot the barber shop with its red, white, and blue pole. The sign reads, open, so that means it should already be unlocked. Gripping the handle, I pull back the glass door. All the windows are covered in thin mini blinds. Hopefully there isn’t anyone inside.

  I look inside the building and jump back, slamming my head against Neven’s chest. He quickly pulls me behind him. “What is it?”

  “Nothing. Only two glass statues over there,” I say to his back.

  He shakes his head, and I know he’s rolling those light brown eyes of his. I slide from behind him and walk inside the shop.

  Neven lets the door close and locks it before we walk into the small area. I head to the back to make sure there are no signs of immortal life. There’s only a small bathroom and another room appearing to be a breakroom.

  “No one’s here.” There are two barber chairs. I walk to them and sit in one of the pleather, red seats. Neven drags the other chair closer to mine and sits down.

  Looking around the small room, I notice the phone, but nothing works. Phone lines, car engines, electricity, it’s all gone. Who would I call anyway? It would go over really well when I say there’s a demon loose on the street with immortals tearing down the city with different powers. It sounds like a pretty good movie. I shrug to myself.

  I turn to Neven, who is sitting in his chair sulking. “Mopiness isn’t going to do anything, Neven.”

  He shoots me a glare. “Well, what are you doing, Mais? Walking up and down streets pretending like you’re murdering people? That’s not any better than me sitting here thinking.”

  “You know you could have just said you were thinking.”

  He rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “I’m trying to figure out what we can do, but I can’t think of anything.”

  “I can’t think of anything either. I contemplated several times trying to snap people out of their trances, but I didn’t want it not to work and then they run off and find Vale.”

  Neven grinds his teeth. “You know I’m going to kick August’s ass hard.”

  “You mean Vale,” I point out.

  “Whatever. Same difference. Vale is going to be sent back to hell.”

  “Hey, you know that almost rhymes.”

  “You know people are dead, right? Everyone is gone. My mom is gone.” Tears bead at his eyes. I start to feel bad for making light of everything, but what else can I do?

  I know how close he was to his mom, so I rise out of my chair and stand in front of him. I haven’t talked to Neven in such a long time because I thought he cheated on Perrie. Perrie is my best friend and cousin, how could I not have taken her side?

  When we were all awoken inside the Glass Vault, Perrie shot me with a small line of light. Then when we stepped outside there was only one mission, to sabotage. I’m not sure why her electric current left me with a memory of her except maybe because we are related. But we did do a blood oath one time by pricking our fingers when we were twelve to be official sisters versus cousins. We touched the small tips of our fingers together because we weren’t ready to go gashing our palms. That must be the answer.

  After I broke away from Crazy Maisie, it all hit me, and I felt lost. The memory of Perrie with Vale was worse than my multiple deaths. I won’t let myself feel that way again. You can only move forward. I know it wasn’t Neven who cheated on Perrie. It was Vale who pretended to be Neven.

  Neven won’t stand out of the chair, so I take a seat in his lap and lean to the side so I can wrap my arms around him. “I’m sorry, Neven. I shouldn’t have stopped talking to you, but when I thought you cheated on Perrie, I even felt betrayed. I know it wasn’t you, and I’m sorry I didn’t figure it out sooner.” I lay my head against his warm chest.

  He lifts his long arms and circles them around me, while I listen to him as he sobs softly. I didn’t tell Perrie how much I missed him because I knew it would hurt her, but I did. I missed his laughter, his rare smiles that would pop up throughout the day, his friendship, but Perrie’s was more important to me. She would have let me continue talking to him, but I couldn’t, not after finding out what I thought he had done.

  Neven’s sobs finally stop, and he lifts his chin off the top of my head. I look at his face and then hop off his lap. “Are you okay now?”

  Pursing his lips, he closes his eyes and shakes his head, but then he starts laughing,
rubbing at his eyes with his inner elbow. “I don’t think I’ll ever be okay, Maisie, but you made the day a whole lot more interesting.”

  I’m glad to have made someone’s life somewhat better, but now we have to get more people released from their brain prisons. “You know what we have to do now, right?”

  He looks me straight in the eye, awaiting my answer. “What’s that?”

  “We have to get Perrie back.”

  Chapter 4

  Before—Vale

  Vale knew he had to have her the day she poked him in the chest with her weapon during orchestra class. When her cello bow contacted his chest, a gateway opened. It may have been an obsession, but her fluorescent bit of light had a subtle potential for darkness that could become manipulated to match his own. He thought before he could have anyone lead the destruction, but it had to be her. Her throat he ached with longing to cut into that day as her light called to his darkness.

  Perrie Madeline. Vale slowly began to sink his way in, but not too quickly. She was too wrapped up with Neven Lee who would never satisfy her in the long run. That was something only he could do.

  Vale walked out from the Glass Vault, followed by the red-head. She was dressed for the first time in a pair of jeans and t-shirt. He could care less about knowing her true name because she meant nothing to him, so he only referred to her as Red. His father, on the other hand, seemed to believe otherwise about her.

  Red slid her hand down Vale’s arm, and he drew it out of her grasp. She was a touchy one. He may have enjoyed their past plotting and fucks, but now he had one focus. Get Perrie Madeline into the Glass Vault, but her soul wasn’t ready. And if he slit her throat outside of the museum, she wouldn’t become immortal.

  He felt it every time he saw her—that little glow of light waiting to be shut off. For him to eclipse it. But he could wait. The Glass Vault still needed to be filled. The process had been slow, but when the time was right, the pace would pick up.