Page 10

CHAPTER

TEN

Theo retched. Another thread of black bile landed in the toilet. He imagined Kade standing next to him in the school bathroom stall with a notepad. A novelty one with a black unicorn on it, or something equally stupid.

Ten hours , imaginary Kade said. Interesting. Eat this watermelon next. No, whole. You can’t unhinge your jaw? Boring.

“Screw you, Renfield,” Theo gurgled. His stomach cramped. Another string of black bile dripped into the toilet bowl. He hadn’t even gotten the opportunity to puke it out overnight. He’d spent last night watching cooking shows—he had to find better things to do now that he couldn’t sleep, and working out felt useless now—and got ready for school feeling better than he had in days. It was on the drive to school where everything went wrong. By the time he pulled into the parking lot his stomach was churning. He’d ducked into a bathroom on the way to Homeroom, just in case. The second the door closed behind him his stomach did a barrel roll so intense he fell over onto the tiles.

At least it hit after I got to the bathroom , Theo thought. Throwing up black bile in the middle of the hall would have sucked .

He waited for the next spasm. It didn’t come.

Someone cleared their throat. Theo startled. He’d been so caught up in puking he hadn’t heard anyone come in.

“It’s just me,” said Mr. Hawthorn. “Are you sick? I can help.”

“Not sick,” Theo croaked. “It’s me. Uh, Theo. Fairgood.”

“Theo, hi. You seem like you’re having a rough morning.”

Theo groaned into the toilet bowl. “You could say that.”

“And you’re not sick?”

“Nope. No, I’m fine.”

“Right.” Mr. Hawthorn paused. Theo listened to the soft step of his polished boots, lingering near the sinks. “I read this study recently, about how sports kids are at higher risk of EDs?—”

“I don’t have an eating disorder, Mr. Hawthorn.” Theo unpeeled his forehead from the toilet, expecting sweat. There was none. One bonus of vampirism.

“Oh. Good!” Mr. Hawthorn’s boots squeaked against the tiles. He smelled clean, like pine needles. “How was the Founder’s Day party?”

Theo frowned. “What? Fine. I…I kinda wandered off.”

“I heard.”

Theo sighed. The troubles of living in a small town: everybody knew everybody’s business. Especially a teacher who heard his students gossip whether he liked it or not.

“Sounds like you’ve had a difficult week,” Mr. Hawthorn continued. “Do you want to come out of there and talk about it?”

Theo eased to his feet. His stomach settled. He rolled up a wad of toilet paper, wiped his face clean of black goo, then flushed it down the toilet.

When he emerged, Mr. Hawthorn was leaning against the sinks, shirtsleeves pushed up to his elbows, tattoos peeking out like they always did in the summer months. Theo still didn’t know what those black tendrils were. An octopus?

“Hi,” Mr. Hawthorn said, with that easy, understanding smile. “So, tell me?—”

The door swung open. Coach Cheech walked in, tired and sweaty as usual, fiddling with his watch and swearing under his breath. His swears trailed off as he noticed the two of them standing next to the sinks.

He raised his bushy brows. “Did I interrupt an important bathroom talk? ”

“Of course not,” Mr. Hawthorn said smoothly. “We were just?—”

Coach Cheech cut him off. “Great, then get out. I want blissful silence during my piss, it’s the only quiet time I get all day.”

He strode toward the urinals. Mr. Hawthorn gave Theo an apologetic smile and led him outside. If he disliked Coach Cheech—an opinion shared by most staff and students—he didn’t show it. Then again, Theo had never seen Mr. Hawthorn treat anybody with anything but patient respect.

“So,” he started once they were in the halls. “Want to tell me what’s on your mind?”

Before Theo could figure out what he could say, the bell rang. Theo winced at its shrillness.

Mr. Hawthorn frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay? I can call your parents.”

“No! Seriously, I’m fine.” Theo smiled as convincingly as he could. The last time his parents had to pick him up from school, he got the silent treatment and left alone for three days to fight a fever. Well, not alone— his mom brought him soup and water, and she even stroked his forehead a few times. But his dad would just come and stand in the doorway, check he was alive, and look disappointed.

I really expected you to be over this by now , he’d said.

I know , Theo had replied miserably, wheeling in and out of consciousness. I’m sorry .

“I should get to Homeroom,” he said as Mr. Hawthorn opened his mouth. “See you in class, sir.”

Mr. Hawthorn nodded. “Anytime you need to talk…”

“I know. Thanks.” Theo waved as he left, pushing into the wave of students trying to get to class.

It should’ve been a relief, playing basketball out the back of Aaron’s house several days later. They’d done it a million times before. But there was none of the adrenaline Theo was used to, no endorphins, no blood pumping.

Basketball was easy now. Too easy. Theo made basket after basket without getting winded. Aaron tried to laugh it off, but Theo could see him getting frustrated.

“What, you taking steroids now?”

Theo laughed. “Sure, man. All day, every day.”

Aaron pulled his shirt up, wiping his face. His chest was flushed. Theo watched the blood rise under his tan skin. He’s not a good guy, Kade had said. But of course he’d say that. It’d be hard to think of anyone as a good guy if your only interaction with them was them slinging insults at you.

Kade hadn’t been at school in the days since the bite. Theo was trying not to think about it.

“Hey,” he said, batting the ball against the concrete. “Is Liss, like…okay? I thought she’d never get back into gymnastics. Her mom brought up the whole ‘it’s what yo ur dad would’ve wanted’ and she still didn’t give in. What happened?”

Aaron’s face flattened out. He dropped his shirt back down. “I don’t know. She won’t talk to me. Just showed up exhausted with blisters on her hands.”

“Weird,” Theo said. He’d keep a closer eye on her in the next few weeks. If he was too busy with vampire shit and something slipped through the cracks, then Aaron would pick up his slack.

He asked, “You got any guys named Warren in your family tree?”

Aaron gave him an odd look. Probably expecting more Felicity questions. “I don’t think so.”

“Cool. Your family loves rabbits, right? Or, like…you’ve killed a lot of them.”

“You gunning to get invited hunting, Fairgood?” Aaron flashed his teeth. “It’s pretty exclusive. Even our girlfriends don’t get to come. Just wives.”

He feigned right. Theo followed him easily, stealing the ball and throwing it toward the net. It sailed through effortlessly.

Theo whooped. “There it is! How does it feel?”

“Lucky shot,” Aaron said waspishly, the smallest frown twisting his thin lips.

“Or maybe I’m just that good,” Theo taunted.

He turned to run after the ball. It had rolled off the court and toward the forest, where the Fletchers’ one and only greenhouse was hidden behind the house.

Theo gave it an interested once-over, as always. The point of a greenhouse was to let the sun in, but the material around this greenhouse was so opaque Theo couldn’t even see what was growing in it.

“I don’t care how much my parents like you,” Aaron called from the court. “They’re not letting you see the ghost.”

“Or the drugs,” Theo called back.

“Or the bodies,” Aaron replied, grinning.

They had come up with many reasons for the mysterious locked greenhouse hidden on the back of the property none of them were allowed to enter. Even the gardener was barred from entry. Aaron had only seen his father go in once, and he’d snapped at Aaron when he’d asked about it.

The ball rolled dangerously close to the door.

Theo gave the locked greenhouse one last longing look and then snatched the ball before it could touch the milky white door. Then he jogged back to Aaron, throwing him the ball.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Aaron paused. His eyes flickered down Theo’s body, taking in his absolute dryness where Aaron’s skin was dewy with sweat.

Crap , Theo thought. He’d have to be more careful.

He flexed his leg. “Hey, actually I’m, uh, getting a cramp. Raincheck?”

He hooked a thumb back at the house. It was only a few long, winding roads over from Theo’s, the lake in the distance, the greenhouse tucked in at the mouth of the forest. Like Theo’s, it was the only house in a quarter mile.

Our own little wilderness , Mrs. Fletcher liked to say.

No one can hear you scream , Mr. Fletcher would continue, shooting their guest a wink.

Mr. Fletcher was sitting at the kitchen island when they walked in, humming and soothing a hunting knife down a whetstone. His grip was confident and quick, knife flashing easily against the shiny stone.

“Hello,” he said distractedly, tossing them a smile as Aaron headed toward the fridge. He caught sight of Theo and his smile grew. He was always smiling and chuckling, laugh lines carved deep in his face. It was a stark contrast to his only son—Aaron moved his face so little he’d probably make it to fifty without a single laugh line.

“He llo ! Theo, I thought you’d gone home. I saw you out there on the court, you were incredible.”

“Ah, you know me,” said Theo, more pleased than he should be. His new skills weren’t earned from hard work, after all.

“Gonna kill those Wayside Hawks on Friday,” Mr. Fletcher continued. He nodded over at Aaron, focus already drifting back to his whetstone. “You need to work on your blocking. And you jumped like a pansy.”

Theo averted his eyes. It wasn’t the most homophobic thing Mr. Fletcher had ever said, but it never failed to make him uncomfortable. He looked over at Aaron hidden behind the fridge door.

He wished Aaron would actually talk about this stuff. The closest they came to it after Aaron’s not-quite bisexuality confession was that one time he asked Aaron if he thought an actor was hot, and Aaron had given him a look like Theo had betrayed him.

It’s fine for you and Liss, he’d said later, so rushed Theo almost missed it. Like, your parents might be disappointed but they’ll deal. My parents will kill me, man.

Aaron leaned around the fridge door, a carton of orange juice in hand. “Dad, Theo wants to get an invite to the next hunting trip.”

Mr. Fletcher chuckled. “Like hell, kid. Why the sudden interest? I thought your family didn’t hunt.”

“We hunt,” Theo said hastily. Neither of his parents were ardent hunters like the Fletchers, but Theo’s dad had taken him to hunt deer during middle school. They’d shot exactly one deer—his dad’s kill, after Theo’s shaking hands and shitty aim lost them a buck—and Theo had to hide his rising nausea as his dad showed him how to skin it. He hadn’t hidden it well enough, apparently. Whenever his dad brought it up, he looked at Theo like he’d failed a test.

I worry sometimes , he’d told Theo as he washed the blood off his hands with the garden hose, that you don’t have the killer instinct to make it in this world. You do know that’s what it takes, right? Kill or be killed. Be the prey or the knife.

I know, Theo had replied, watching all that red trickle into the dirt. I have what it takes, Dad. I promise.

But they’d never gone out for a hunt again. Theo’s dad didn’t bring it up, and Theo tried not to show his relief.

Aaron resurfaced from his orange juice carton. A drop of sweat rolled down his neck. Theo could smell the salt.

“Also wanted to know if we have any Warrens in the family tree,” Aaron said. “Don’t bore him too much, old man.”

Mr. Fletcher blinked rapidly. Then he grinned. “ Ohhh , you’ll regret asking me about the family tree, boy. You know I love my family history. Let’s see…Warren…I don’t think we have any. Why?”

Theo mumbled something incoherent. What was he doing, questioning these people he’d known his whole life? Kade was reaching for something that wasn’t there. And Theo didn’t have to report back to him anyway—he’d taken himself out of their shitty little mystery. Theo was on his own now, free to make his own conclusions. So what if he didn’t have any other leads? He’d come up with some.

Aaron hummed into the orange juice container. “Why’d you pull me away from Monster the other day? Thought you’d like to see him shaken around a little.”

Theo froze, darting a look over at Mr. Fletcher. He was a cheerful guy, but he could turn on a dime sometimes, and Theo wasn’t the best at figuring out when that was. Aaron’s parents were mysterious when it came to their son pushing people around—the general rule was as long as you don’t get caught, anything goes. But there were no hard rules.

“I just don’t want you to get in trouble,” Theo said slowly.

“Glass,” Mr. Fletcher said, eyes on his strop as he pressed the knife against the leather.

Aaron groaned, slumping toward the kitchen cabinet for a glass.

“Knocking some people down a peg is worth a little trouble,” Mr. Fletcher continued, frowning down at his blade. He ran a thumb over the sharp edge, then returned it to the leather. “God knows that queer needs a little shaking up. Needs a lot more than that, after what happened to that old man.”

Aaron snorted.

Theo frowned. “You don’t think he actually did it, right? Killed Lemmings?”

“Why not?” Mr. Fletcher shrugged.

“Kade doesn’t have the guts,” Aaron protested as he poured his juice. He wiped at his sweaty neck, and Theo’s empty stomach clenched. “He’s a coward, deep down. That’s why he throws himself into all those stupid fights. Funny if he did do it, though. Then he’d go to jail. Two losers taken down in one week.”

He shared a conspiratorial look with his dad, who looked back at him like he’d said something he shouldn’t, but not something he disagreed with .

Theo laughed nervously. “Since when do we not like old man Lemmings? He’s weird, sure. Was weird. But he didn’t deserve to die.”

Aaron snorted again.

Mr. Fletcher held his hunting knife up to the light, examining the shine. “Some people deserve to die,” he murmured, distracted.

Before Theo could ask him what the hell that meant, Aaron had downed the last of the juice and was running at him, slapping Theo in his chest.

“Rematch,” he called, running out the door. “Catch up, steroid boy.”

Mr. Fletcher watched, amused, as his son pelted out of the room. “Kick his ass, kid.”

“Always do,” Theo said. He pinned a smile up, like his stomach wasn’t churning with wariness and hunger. He was playing basketball at Aaron’s house, a house he knew almost as much as his own. Everything is fine, he told himself as he slowed his steps and let Aaron sink basket after basket. He repeated it to himself every time his gaze fell to the vein beating hard in Aaron’s neck, hot and appetizing as a steak.

The empty feeling in his stomach only intensified on the walk home. It was growing claws, scraping his veins. Hunger in his fingertips, his skin, his tingling scalp. He felt weak but somehow still restless with energy— basketball had done nothing to fix that. He wanted to lie down on the backroads and rest.

He stepped off the road and walked toward the forest, hands shaking. He wanted to run as fast as he possibly could. He wanted the trees to streak past, he wanted to run until his mind was quiet, he wanted to chase . He wanted?—

His nostrils flared. There was a scent drifting out of the forest, soft and liquor-sour and strangely metallic. Not like a hunting knife. Cheap metal, crappy jewelry painted silver.

Kade Renfield emerged from the trees, pale and slumped. His skinny knees showed through his torn jeans, the laces of his combat boots undone. He looked just as exhausted as Theo felt, with none of the jumpy adrenaline. He startled when he saw Theo, jerking like he was about to turn around and head back into the woods. Then his gait smoothed out as he headed toward Theo with tight shoulders. An animal with its haunches up.

“You haven’t been at school,” Theo called as Kade came closer.

That dangerous smile gleamed across Kade’s face, less sharp than usual. “Aw, you worried about me, Fairgood?”

“No. Just wanted to check you weren’t…” Theo tried to find something that didn’t sound ridiculous. “I don’t know. Infected, or something.”

“Nope! Been great since you bit me.” Kade smiled harder, like that would distract Theo from his trembling hands and the bags under his eyes. He gestured at his face, long fingers tapping his own cheek. “My earrings didn’t permanently scar you, huh? Tragic. They’d really fix that boy band look.”

Theo sighed. “What are you doing here?”

Kade laughed bitterly. “What, am I not allowed in the rich kid neighborhood? Afraid I’ll get my poor stink on you?”

Theo gritted his teeth against the onslaught of salt-liquor-metal-soft that assaulted his nose. “It’s just not your regular haunt.”

“You can say that again.” Kade shoved his hands in his thin pockets. “Didn’t mean to end up here. Just started walking. I…needed a distraction. What about you, hanging at Fletcher’s place?”

“Basketball practice,” Theo said.

“Yeah?” Kade’s flinty gaze flickered over him. “Bet everyone is impressed by your sudden and unexplainable rise in talent.”

“Shut up.”

“No, I bet you’re loving it. The star goes supernova .”

“I’m the best,” Theo tried. “People know that.”

Kade snorted. “Yeah, but go jumping higher than humans can physically jump and the hunters who killed Lemmings will put two and two together.”

He cocked his head. His pulse beat in his neck. Theo could see it flutter under his pale skin .

“You good, mate?” Kade asked, the mockery audible underneath the fake concern. “You look hungry.”

“I’m fine,” Theo snapped.

You look sick, he didn’t say. He didn’t want to drag this out. If Kade kept arguing with him, Theo didn’t want to know what would happen. Not now, with this hunger sizzling under his skin. It had been days since he fed on Kade, but it had only been one day since his last deer. Surely he didn’t need to feed every day . He’d run out of deer.

“I have somewhere to be,” he said. “Try not to get your stink on any of our houses.”

Kade sneered. Then he twisted to look at the woods he’d just walked out of.

“ I have somewhere to be, ” he mimicked. “The deer of Lock better watch out.”

Theo thought back to being twelve years old, hands trembling around a gun. Move , he’d mouthed at the deer as he held the gun up. Run .

And it had. After Theo fired a round into a tree right next to it. He told himself he’d meant to hit it, but he still wasn’t sure.

“I have to go,” Theo said stubbornly, and stalked past him.

Kade called, “Happy hunting, blood boy!”

Theo ignored him. Everything in him wanted to turn around, rush back, sink his teeth into Kade’s neck. He breathed deep, inhaling the scent of dirt and bark and bugs, the trees waiting up ahead. Anything was better than Kade’s scent, strange and heady and overwhelming, beckoning him back.