Josie Griffin Is Not a Vampire by Heather Swain Page B

a question.
    Tarren nodded. “Makes sense.”
    “Anyway Johann stopped her,” I said, and then it hit me. Today was the second time someone from my group kept me safe. I might not have known what they were, but it was clear, they weren’t going to hurt me. I studied Tarren for a moment. She was so small that I could probably have wrapped my hands around her waist. “You guys really watch out for one another, don’t you?”
    “Yes,” she said. “We do.” Then she lifted her glass. “And now,” she said, clinking hers against mine, “you’re one of us.”
    Slowly I raised the cup to my lips and took a long drink which filled my body with a warm, happy buzzing. “Seriously,” I said. “What’s in this stuff?”
    “Flutterby milk,” Tarren said then laughed. “I mean, butterfly milk.”
    “And how do you milk a butterfly?” I asked, half joking.
    “Like this,” she said and without taking her eyes off me, she reached up and snagged a blue-winged critter flapping by. “First you catch it.” She brought the bug close to her mouth. “Then you ask for its forgiveness.” She whispered something near its soft, fluttering wings. “Then…” She snapped her fingers closed. I cringed, not wanting to see the mess in her hand as she opened her fingers one by one, but in the center of her palm was a little pool of shimmering liquid. “You turn it into the essence of itself.” She tipped her hand and poured the milky stuff into my glass.
    I stared at my cup, not sure what to do.
    “It might sound funny,” Tarren told me. “But that’s kind of what I think our group is.”
    I stared at her, uncertain. “The group is a smashed- up butterfly?”
    “No,” she said. “It’s a place to find your essence. We can’t let the world define us. We have to be true to what’s inside us no matter what some stupid Council says wecan and can’t do.” She reached out and tapped her finger against my sternum. “What’s inside there, Josie Griffin?”
    “I…I…” I stammered because the truth was, ever since Kevin and my two best friends betrayed me, I’d been trying to find my center again.
    “You should come back to group,” she said.
    “What makes you think I’m not coming back?” I asked, embarrassed that my reticence about the group might have been obvious.
    “You seemed pretty weirded out by everything. And after you ran away from us at Buffy’s we weren’t sure we’d ever see you again. You are coming back this week, aren’t you?”
    I looked into my glass and thought about my essence. Who was the real Josie? And could this group help me find her? I lifted the glass to my lips. It was still delicious. “I’ll be back,” I told her.
    “Good,” she said and gave me a quick wink. “It’ll be nice to have another girl around.”

chapter 10
    i nearly attacked my laptop when I got home because I was dying to post about how little Tarren saved me from Drey the douche. I didn’t think anybody would comment on the post I’d made the night before, but I was wrong. PissyGrrl said, “Are the guys in your group cute?” Sadie said, “Have you done a drive by of Madison’s house lately?” And BitterBrit wrote, “Is there group therapy for people who get dumped?” I couldn’t believe it. They’d completely missed the point. They were so caught up in their own drama they barely noticed what I posted. Only KKLaLa, as usual, had something interesting to say. “Zowie!” she wrote. “Those freaks in your group are weirder than my friends. And talk about a nightmare family! J’s mom makes mine look almost normal. Maybe you could sic the freaks on Kevie Boy. They could rip his heart out like he did yours.”
    I chuckled at the thought of Kevin, who fanciedhimself an amateur demon hunter, being hunted by the paras and I posted a reply to her comment, “I wish! I’d love to be able to hex his butt!” Then I spent the next ten minutes writing a post about my first day of scrubbing toilets at