Page 142 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

Promise, I urged her. Anything to get what we needed.

“You’ll see Jeffrey again,” Vanity crossed her arms, head cocked to the side as she regarded Lydia. The woman was a husk of what she had once been. Shriveled up, her cheeks hollowed, her green eyes muddy and dark. She would do anything to see her adopted son. The man she’d stolen. The one she’d killed for so she could keep him, against his will.

Dark roots had bled into the bleached blonde she’d sported the entire time I’d known her. The color crept in like sickness. Without makeup, without her pure-white designer armor she looked ridiculously small.

Not a figure from nightmares.

But a cautionary tale.

Funny how technically speaking she had been Amanda’s identical twin. They looked nothing alike now, even with her dark natural hair creeping back in. It was like the ugliness that had festered beneath the surface of her skin was finally becoming visible. Prison had done her no favors, and for a woman as vain as Lydia—that was the highest punishment of all.

“I swear on my life,” Vanity waited.

“How do I know you’re not lying?” Lydia’s eyes narrowed, and I knew Vanity could sense my amusement, because her surprise flickered through me. The tiny Luca in the back of my head painted my thoughts pink, pink, pink. Maybe she’d thought I’d be as scared as she was.

Tell her she doesn’t. Tell her that she doesn’t have a choice. It’s us, or nothing. Those are her options.

Vanity relayed my words and I watched with apathy as Lydia waffled back and forth, deciding what to do. Pitiful. Without people to take advantage of, she was just a nasty little hag. Unable to help myself, I remembered Blair’s words months ago right before he’d shot her and ended her reign of terror.

No amount of money or designer clothing could ever cover up the fact that you’re just a sad miserable hag who is nothing but the dollar-store version of my mother.

Stop it, Vanity chided me. Don’t make me laugh.

“Fine,” Lydia agreed, after what felt like an eon waiting for her to get over herself.

“Don’t even think about giving me the wrong word. I’ll know. And I’ll leave—and never fucking come back,” Vanity threatened.

Lydia hissed her displeasure, and I held back my amusement. Her eyes flickered with uncertainty before she sighed, and deflated, the pure yellow of her prison uniform making her skin nearly green.

“Love,” she said, lip curling.

“What?” Vanity blinked, surprised. “The key to freeing him is love?”

“The word, dear,” Lydia said, rolling her eyes. “The password.”

“You’re such a bitch,” Vanity blurted out, then slapped a hand over her mouth in surprise. She probably hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Apparently she wasn’t quite as scared of Lydia as she’d thought. She lowered her hand and leaned forward, clearly having found her backbone. “Did you pick that so that whoever held his talisman couldn’t say they loved him without killing him?”

Lydia shrugged. “I also figured no one could ever love him, so it was the word least likely to be used by accident.” Those words were meant for me. She could probably still sense my presence, my eye glimmering from Vanity’s face. When I’d been Lydia’s property she’d religiously worn colored contacts, not that she’d ever let me front the way my siblings or Luca did.

I was grateful, once again, that I hadn’t brought Luca with me. Grateful, because, as I’d just made my decision—the idea of never hearing him say I love you would have killed me. Funny how those words had never meant anything to me before. The fact he was unaware of the password meant there would be no rift between us, and one day maybe, years from now—one of my sisters could let him know, and we could pass on together, like we were supposed to.

“Oh my god.” Vanity stared at her, genuinely flabbergasted. Then, without a word, she rose from her seat and headed toward the metal door. I could see the guard outside of it, just waiting for a knock to let her out. The chains attaching Lydia to the metal table rattled.

“You promised!” she called—shrieked, more accurately.

“I know.” Vanity turned around and offered her a saccharinely sweet smile that immediately quieted her down. “I never break my promises.” Lydia nodded, appeased, and Vanity rapped on the door.

The guard let us out.

We were silent for the entire walk through the facility. Silent as we rode the elevator that had brought us into the depths of the underground prison. Silent as Vanity gave back her visitor badge. Silent as we moved down the gravel walkway, and started on the long winding path that led back to the parking lot.

“I’m never fucking bringing Jeffrey here, I hope you know that.” Vanity swore with a wry laugh.

I thought you didn’t break your promises.

“I’ll make an exception, just this once.”

I laughed.

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