Page 11

CHAPTER

ELEVEN

Kade felt like hammered shit.

It had been four days since Theo sunk his fangs into his neck. Three days since the tremors set in. Then sweating. Then nausea.

He was out of sick days. And he’d gone to school hungover before. This was basically a terrible hangover, he told himself as he shivered on his walk to school. A hangover that felt suspiciously like withdrawal symptoms, even though he’d never drunk enough to have withdrawals, and drinking didn’t do shit to fix it.

“This has nothing to do with Theo Fairgood,” he told himself in the bathroom mirror before the bell rang for second period. “Even if it does, screw him. He can suck shit. Let him figure out this shitty town’s weird-ass mystery by himself.”

A shudder wracked his lanky frame. He gripped the bathroom sink and fought down a wave of nausea .

“This is just a fever,” he blurted. “Totally normal fever. Just need to sweat it out.”

He grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser and wiped his forehead. He missed his hair, black and frizzy. It was annoying, but it was great to hide behind. He couldn’t hide anything with his buzzcut.

The bell rang.

“Be cool,” he hissed at the mirror.

His reflection stared back, pale and sweaty, hands shaking at his sides.

“Great,” Kade muttered, and stumbled to the bathroom door.

Kade had ditched class for less. Who cared that he had no more sick days? Or that he’d promised his aunt he wouldn’t ditch so much this year after they threatened to suspend him?

He ditched because he was bored. Or he had a craft project he wanted to finish. Or the idea of sitting in a room with people who hated him made him want to claw his skin off.

And here he was: sitting in Biology, sweat dripping down his back. Trying desperately not to gag at the dead frog in front of him, its belly cut open but not yet pulled apart. He should’ve bolted the second he saw those poor dead things get wheeled into class.

“Everybody calm down,” called Mrs. Twigg dryly, adjusting her milk-bottle glasses. “We’ll get through this together. Now, if you look at the board, you’ll see how to properly pin…”

She trailed off as Theo stalked into class looking like someone pissed in his designer sneakers. His enraged stride only faltered as he took in the trays of frogs on the desks, everyone crowding around them in pairs.

“Fairgood,” said Mrs. Twigg, scanning the classroom. “You’re with…hmm. Who doesn’t already have a partner?”

Oh no, Kade thought, churning stomach sinking to his shoes. He shrunk down in his seat, but it was too late.

“Renfield,” she said, his name souring like it did every time she had it in her mouth. “Good luck,” she added. It was unclear who she was saying it to.

For a moment Theo just stood there, white-knuckling his backpack. His jaw twitched. Kade hoped against hope he’d turn on his heel and storm out, save them both the strife. Instead he walked—all six feet of rigid, seething jock—down the rows until he reached Kade’s lab table.

Kade averted his eyes as Theo sat down, hoping it came across as ‘cool and unaffected’ instead of ‘nervous prey in the presence of a lion.’ But not before he noticed Theo’s chalky skin, his limp hair, the tightness around his eyes. He looked almost as bad as Kade, minus the sweat.

He glanced at Felicity, who was at the table next to them and should have been smirking at her friend’s misfortune. But she wasn’t even looking over them, bent over her own frog with weary determination and shockingly oily hair. Aaron sat next to her, watching her pin the frog with a concern that almost made Kade think that Aaron had a heart underneath all that jock bully bullshit. Felicity had looked rough for the past week. There were rumors she’d started gymnastics again, but that didn’t explain her exhaustion unless she was really, really overdoing it.

Kade turned back to his own table, twisting one of the pins between his fingers. “You look like crap,” he told Theo.

“Shut up and pin the goddamn frog,” Theo snapped.

Kade huffed, trying not to gag as he pinned the frog’s front legs down. “Thought you ate yesterday,” he said, voice tight as his throat flexed against bile. “You look like you want to suck this frog.”

“It’s…” Theo lowered his voice. “It’s cold .”

“Right, I forgot. That’s gross.” Kade bent over the frog, wishing for a full head of hair more than ever as he felt Theo’s piercing gaze on the side of his face. There was only so much he could hunch into his jacket, the leather squeaking against his sweaty skin.

“You look like shit, too,” Theo said.

Kade thought fast. He tossed Theo a twisted grin. “I think you gave me a vampy STD.”

“What?” Theo’s annoyance gave way to uncertainty. “That’s not a thing. Right?”

Kade couldn’t help himself. He snickered .

“Should’ve worn protection,” he whispered, noise lost under the flurry of grossed-out teenagers cutting a dead animal open. “Dental dam. Or those plastic fangs kids wear on Halloween.”

“Stop talking.” Theo grabbed the pins from the tiny tray of tools and pinned the rest of the frog’s limbs into place. He grabbed the tiny pair of forceps and paused. “It’s not actually ?—”

“No, dipshit, it’s a regular-ass fever. I just need to sweat it out.” Kade tried to look stoic and badass. His sickly shudder ruined it.

“Looks like you’re on top of that,” Theo said slowly. “You’re dripping on the frog.”

Kade lurched back, but not in time to stop a line of sweat from dripping off his chin and into the frog’s open stomach. He winced. “Oh shit, poor Victor.”

“You named it Victor?”

“What, you don’t think he looks like a Victor?”

Theo gave him an incredulous look, eyes narrowing like he wasn’t sure if Kade was joking. “That’s my dad’s name.”

Kade barked a laugh. “Really? That’s awful. Does he wear a sweater vest?”

“He’s a very important lawyer,” Theo snapped.

“So that’s…a yes?” Kade aimed another grin at him. “I don’t know the lawyer to sweater vest ratio.”

Theo sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. Kade could pinpoint the exact moment when he realized a hungry vampire breathing in a room full of people was a bad idea—metal cracked in Theo’s hand, the forceps splitting in Theo’s iron grip.

“Shit,” Kade said, watching Theo’s hand shake in pure rage around the ruined instrument. “I’ll, uh…Mrs. Twigg, we need another pair of forceps.”

He raised his hand. A combination of panic and weak, shaky limbs made his elbow sweep out, too wide. It caught on the frog and tool tray, and Kade watched helplessly as Frog Victor careened down to the linoleum, tools following him down. The tools hit the ground with a clatter, Frog Victor splatting to a wet stop.

The classroom chatter died. Mrs. Twigg pursed her lips, not a hint of surprise on her face. Kade Renfield, screwing up class again.

Kade knew his lines. This was the part where he flipped everyone off or picked Frog Victor up and made him dance while everyone cringed and threw things at him. But he was so tired . Also, he was pretty sure if he made Frog Victor dance, Theo would rip out his throat right there. He looked about five seconds from doing it anyway, screw all the witnesses.

“What… you…” Theo bared his teeth, thankfully still blunt. “What the HELL is wrong with you, Renfield? Can you not get through one class without fucking it up for the rest of us?”

Shocked gasps went up around the classroom. A moment too late, Felicity let out a tired giggle, twisting her pale hair around her manicured fingers .

An ugly feeling bloomed in Kade’s churning gut as Kade sat there, trying not to sway in his lab seat. He didn’t want to be here, surrounded by people who hated him, his head swimming with fever. A voice not unlike his aunt’s told him stay quiet, don’t yell back, stop being a problem.

That didn’t sound like Kade ‘Monster’ Renfield.

He bared his teeth back. “Aw, didn’t you hear? Fucking things up is my specialty.”

Felicity’s giggle turned into an exhausted laugh. “Preach it, Monster.”

Theo jerked around to glare at her. “Shut up , Liss.”

Felicity’s plucked brows shot up her tanned forehead. Beside her, Aaron’s face twisted.

“Wow,” Felicity said flatly. “Fuck you too.”

Mrs. Twigg snapped her fingers, two sharp clicks that dragged everyone’s attention back at her. “You know the rules,” she said, pointing up to the rule board that had been hanging over the board since the start of time. “No swearing in my class. All three of you—detention.”

Felicity let out a disgusted groan, “But I didn’t…”

Mrs. Twigg snapped again. “Pick up your frog, boys.”

Kade ignored her. He was too busy listening to the exchange behind him, Aaron leaning in to tell Theo, “Bad luck, man. Don’t let this make you late for warm-ups. ”

“I’ll be there,” Theo muttered. Then, to Kade: “Are you gonna clean up your mess or do I have to do it?”

Kade didn’t want to chance bending down right now. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to stand back up. But he couldn’t let Theo know that, so he just shrugged and hoped he came across as an asshole rather than someone fighting off the urge to faint.

Theo jerked his chair back, grumbling under his breath as he bent to scrape Frog Victor off the floor. His foot came down hard, clumsy, right on top of Kade’s half-open backpack.

A sharp crack rang through the classroom. Kade looked down and saw a pair of knitting needles jutting out of the zipper at an awkward angle. They were his good ones. More fool he for bringing them to school, hoping to finish a project while he shut himself up in the bathrooms. For an exhausted second he thought he might burst into tears in front of everyone. Then he looked up and saw Theo’s face, eyes wide with shock. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, almost as much as Kade.

Tired , Kade realized. And lacking control. He looked down at the snapped pair of forceps lying on the desk.

“Great combo,” he mumbled.

Theo straightened, dumping the trays back onto the desk. “I…what?”

He stooped like he was going to touch the needles protruding from Kade’s backpack. “Are those knitting needles ? ”

“Nope,” Kade snapped. He kicked his crumpled backpack under his desk and nodded down at their frog’s body on the ground. “Are you going to let him lie there or what? Let’s get this over with.”

Theo paused. Then he bent down and picked up the frog, fingers spasming around it, like he was having to hold himself back from crushing it entirely.

“Welcome back,” Coach Cheech said, not bothering to look up from the board as Kade slouched into detention only a few minutes late. Pretty impressive, considering how much he wanted to curl up in a dark corner and cry himself to sleep. The detention turnout didn’t make him want that any less—it was just Felicity and Theo, together at the back of class, Felicity smug and tired and still trying to be as acid-hot as ever, Theo glaring like Kade forced him to swear in front of stuffy Mrs. Twigg.

Coach Cheech stepped back from the board, where he’d written SHUT UP TIME: 45 MINUTES.

“Sit down, jackass. No one’s making you write anything today.”

Kade slumped gratefully toward the nearest seat. He still felt bad for Frog Victor. Little guy didn’t deserve to get his body tossed around like that. And even after they put him through all of that, they’d still dissected him, Theo trying not to snap and bite someone, Kade trying not to sweat or puke. It was the worst class of his high school career, including that gym class where someone pissed all over his gym shorts and Coach Cheech yelled at Kade until he wore them.

Kade’s head swam as he walked. He stumbled, arms coming up to catch himself. Unfortunately, the nearest thing to steady himself was Coach Cheech.

“Whoa,” Coach Cheech said, grabbing Kade’s shoulders. “The hell, Renfield?”

“Sorry,” Kade said. It came out slurred. He straightened up, unclenching his hand from Coach Cheech’s shirt. He’d accidentally pulled the shirt collar down, exposing chest hair and a necklace Kade had never seen before. He froze as he noticed the shape: it was a golden flame, the same symbol that was on the book Milly Hart had shown them in her bookshop.

Was Coach Cheech involved somehow? He couldn’t be a vampire, he was too sweaty. Vampires didn’t smell like Cheetos and onions. Was he a hunter?

Kade shrank back as Coach Cheech scrutinized him, muddy brown eyes pinning him like poor dead Victor. It was a strange look for Cheech—Kade was used to him looking at everything through half-lidded eyes, dull and careless.

“Seriously,” Coach Cheech said, voice low. “You drunk?”

“Unfortunately not,” Kade rasped.

“You sick? I can’t have you infecting my players.”

“Since when do you give a shit about your players, Coach? ”

“Since that team gets the school a third of its funding.” Coach Cheech nodded at the front row of seats. “Don’t infect my star player, Renfield.”

Kade fell into a chair. He waited for Coach Cheech to return to his desk at the front of the class, then turned to glance back at Theo, surprised to find him already looking. His limp blond hair was a mess, like he’d been running his fingers through it. He looked unhappy, and…concerned?

“You look dead, guv’nor,” Felicity told him in a terrible British accent. Her voice was oddly soft.

Kade tore his gaze away from the displeased twist of Theo’s mouth. Usually he’d sling an equally terrible accent back, but he wasn’t feeling it today.

“Not all of us can be models, Sloan,” he said flatly.

“Yeah, but you look like you’re about to keel over. Better not have infected Theo in class today, the town will riot if the golden boy can’t play tonight.” Felicity leaned forward, resting her pointy chin on her elegant hands. Her knuckles were bruised, faint purple through the foundation.

She asked, “Going to the game tonight? You could germ-bomb the rest of the school.”

Kade snorted, resting his head on his desk. He could already feel the sweat leaving a mark on the wood.

“You know what,” he said. “Maybe I will. Might see something stupid. Even stupider than basketball usually gets.”

Felicity narrowed her eyes at him, waiting for a joke. She didn’t know what he was getting at. But Theo did. Kade watched his jaw twitch angrily. Theo was the best . He’d always been the best, and there was no way he was going to let his new vampire powers stay dormant during the big game. He was going to do something stupid. And people would notice. And when the right people noticed the town’s golden boy was a vampire…

“Like,” Kade said. “ Lethally stupid. But hey! Not my problem.”

Theo scowled at him. Kade grinned back, mind whirling: with fever and darkness; an impossible fall into a lake; Theo’s cold skin; burns blooming on his face; words carved into a dead man’s chest; the symbol on Cheech’s necklace; a hundred terrifying possibilities dancing just out of reach.