Page 21

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

There was a soft pressure around Kade’s hand. The room stunk of cleaning fluids. Something was beeping.

Wait. Kade recognized that beeping.

He cracked an eye open and groaned. He’d landed himself in hospital again. Great.

The pressure vanished from his hand. Kade looked down and saw Theo pulling his sleeve back up. He’d been holding Kade’s hand, he realized numbly. He’d pulled the sleeve over his fingers so he wouldn’t burn him.

Kade had no idea how to handle that. He decided not to.

“Whassappened?” he slurred.

“What happened is you’re an idiot ,” Theo snapped. “Who the hell?—? ”

He fell silent as a doctor and a nurse came into the room.

“Mr. Renfield,” the doctor said. He had half-moon glasses and his voice was shockingly deep, like an opera singer. “I’m Dr. Gupta. This is Nurse Rain. How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Kade said automatically, watching the nurse walk around his bed to examine a machine next to it.

Dr. Gupta nodded. “And your arm?”

Kade looked down. The arm that didn’t have an IV in it had a thick bandage around it.

“Uhhhh,” Kade said. “It’s…also fine.”

He looked to Theo for help. Theo was busy staring up at the doctor with his best I’m-innocent-Officer expression, which didn’t make Kade feel any more secure.

“Any dizziness?”

Kade shook his head.

“Headache?”

Kade shook his head again. When did he cut his arm? The last thing he remembered, he was passing out in Theo’s embrace while riding the best high he’d ever felt. It had happened so fast he hadn’t realized what was happening. He liked to think he would’ve made Theo stop.

Dr. Gupta clicked his pen off. “Well! I’d say you’re in the clear. Right now we’re just waiting on your aunt to get back to us so she can pick you up. ”

Kade grimaced. He’d promised he wouldn’t land himself in hospital this year.

Nurse Rain unstuck the tape from Kade’s arm. “Little pinch,” she warned.

Kade winced as she pulled out the IV. She was gentle about it, unlike some of the Lock doctors Kade had dealt with. They must’ve already known Kade by reputation, because they’d already seemed annoyed or wary of him.

“I hope I don’t see you again, Mr. Renfield. No strenuous activity for the next couple of days. Drink plenty of water and don’t fall on any more rocks.” Dr. Gupta gave Theo a lingering look, his face carefully blank. Kade’s heart sank. The doctor didn’t buy it. But whatever Gupta’s suspicions were, he didn’t voice them. He just gave them both a tight smile and left, Nurse Rain trailing behind him.

Kade waited for the door to close. Then he turned to Theo, rubbing the spot where the IV had stuck him. “A rock? I have fabric scissors! Just say I fell on them!”

“I just said the first thing that came to mind!” Theo spat. Then he frowned. “You have fabric scissors?”

Kade busied himself with prodding at the bandage on his arm. His neck didn’t hurt, so Theo had healed that, at least. “Why’d you cut me?”

“I couldn’t exactly drag you into the hospital with a bite in your neck!”

“So you cut me?” Kade pressed down on the bandage. It throbbed .

Theo grabbed his sleeve, jerking his hand away. “Quit it! You needed stitches.”

Kade groaned, flopping back against the plasticky hospital sheets. “My aunt is going to freak out. I promised her no more hospital visits.”

Theo dropped a plastic bag full of Kade’s clothes, still dotted with blood. “Get up. I’m driving you home.”

Kade lifted his head hopefully. “Really? You’d sneak me out?”

“If you get up in the next thirty seconds, then yes. Otherwise I’m leaving you behind.”

Kade scrambled to grab his clothes.

It didn’t make sense.

That’s what Kade heard the nurses whispering when he went to find a vending machine.

The cut was deep, sure, but it didn’t hit an artery, so it wasn’t enough to explain the blood loss Kade had experienced. But from what they could find, it was the only cut on his body.

“From what they could find ,” Kade whispered to Theo. “What did they do, strip me naked?”

“No, they just checked artery sites!”

“So my groin.”

“No! I don’t know, it’s pretty obvious if you’ve been bleeding really bad from—” Theo cut himself off with a frustrated groan. “Just get your chocolate and get out of here. I’ll be in the parking lot. ”

“Sure, wouldn’t want to be seen with Monster,” Kade snapped as Theo stalked down the hospital corridor, head down, like it would stop anyone from recognizing Lock’s golden boy.

Kade watched him go with a flicker of irritation. If they weren’t technically sneaking out of the hospital, he would yell something after him. Really make people look.

Instead, he turned back to the vending machine. He’d have a big dinner when he got home, but before that, he needed some good old-fashioned sugar. He fished in his jacket pocket for his wallet and pulled out the pointy end of the knitting needle Theo had stepped on. He gave it a quick spin, relieved that the hospital staff had let him keep it. He wouldn’t put it past them to classify it as a weapon. Especially with him involved.

The break room was right next to the vending machine. Voices drifted out as Kade typed in the numbers for a Snickers bar.

“It’s been a weird day,” said a nurse. “First Renfield and his mystery blood loss, now this? What the hell is happening this week?”

Kade’s finger paused on the button pad. Now this?

“I’m just glad she came into the ER and not the morgue,” Nurse Rain replied in a hushed whisper.

Kade froze. The morgue ?

“Two murders in one week would be depressing,” Nurse Rain continued. “Was it the guy who killed Jeremiah Lemming? Like, do we know? ”

“She just said it was fast. I mean, him. He was fast.” A nervous giggle that reminded him of Felicity Sloan, but with less acid. “He bit her. Like, better than stabbing, I guess?”

“I’d take a bite over a stab any day,” came Nurse Rain’s reply. “As long as I get my rabies shot afterward?—”

Kade didn’t hear the rest. He was too busy running down the hall, stuffing the Snickers bar into his mouth as he went.

Theo leaned against his car, head tilted. He snapped to attention when Kade sprinted up, concentration fading into an annoyed frown.

“Dude, they just said don’t do any strenuous activity.”

“We need to get back in there,” Kade said, garbled. He swallowed his too-big mouthful with a wince. “Were you listening?”

“What?”

“You can hear the break room from here, right?”

Theo looked caught out. “You mean the staff room? Maybe. I don’t know. There’s a game on in the waiting room.”

“Jesus, save me from super-hearing Yankee jocks.” Kade swallowed the last of the chocolate and wiped his hands, ignoring that he was getting stains on his best jeans. “Somebody else got attacked , Sherlock. ”

Theo’s eyes widened. “What? Where? Are they alive?”

“She’s alive. Let’s go tune in your super hearing to something that isn’t the big game.”

Kade took off, ignoring how his head swam. The chocolate would take care of it. He was so busy running he almost missed Theo’s mutter of , it’s not the BIG game, before he caught up. Not feigning behind, or walking ahead pretending not to notice him. Theo stuck right to Kade’s side, falling into step beside him. Apparently panic made him forget that he used to get Kade to walk on the other side of the street. His shoulder brushed Kade’s, and Kade told himself the shiver it induced was just blood loss.

It was easy finding out what hospital room someone was in when your partner in crime had super hearing. It just involved a lot of standing in the hallway, waiting for someone to say something relevant.

“We could just start going into rooms,” Kade suggested. “It’s not a big hospital.”

“Sure,” Theo said, faux brightly. “Hello, did you get attacked by a mysterious creature? No? Sorry to bother you, have a great day. Not suspicious at all .”

“You just ate. You shouldn’t be this bitchy after—” Kade cut off as Theo’s head shot up like a bloodhound scenting a rabbit. Or a duck. A deer? Kade didn’t know what bloodhounds tracked. Whatever they wanted, right? Could they track people?

“Can bloodhounds track people?” Kade asked.

“What?” Theo said, distracted. “Of course they can, they have sniffer dogs finding bodies. She’s down this way. It’s Skeeter Bass.”

“Skeeter Bass ,” Kade repeated, loud enough that a receptionist glanced up from her desk.

Theo shushed him and led Kade down a corridor. Then another one. They got to the room Kade was just in, a nurse already stripping the bed free of its Kade-stained sheets and Dr. Gupta talking to her in a low, concerned voice.

“Oops,” Kade whispered.

They hurried to the next door and knocked.

“Um…” came a familiar voice. “Come in?”

They pushed the door open. Skeeter Bass sat propped up in the bed, her neck thick with bandages. Her braces-heavy smile faded into confusion as she realized who it was.

Skeeter was head of the debate club. One time she got so mad at losing a War On Drugs debate she picked up the microphone and started hitting her opponent with it. It would be enough for Kade to think she was cool, if he only knew which side she’d been gunning for.

Theo waved. “Hi, Skeeter. How are you feeling?”

“Um, fine?” Skeeter’s gaze flickered between them, trying to make sense of Theo Fairgood and Kade Renfield coming to see her. Together , no less .

“I really am sorry about your shoes,” she told Theo.

Theo gave her a blank look. “Oh! Don’t worry about it. Seriously. They got even more ruined later.”

“Are you still sick?” she asked. “I heard about the game. Must’ve been really bad if you made us lose to the Wayside Hawks. My mom kept going on about how you let us all down, but I think if you’re sick, it’s alright. And Stacey J. said you looked super bad this morning, so?—?”

“The game got rescheduled,” Theo said flatly, smile rictus stiff. “We’re still going to win it.”

“Oh,” Skeeter said. “Um. Great.”

Kade hid a snicker. “He’s my reluctant ride to the hospital,” he explained, lifting his bandaged arm. “We heard what happened. Thought we’d drop in and see how bad the damage is.”

Skeeter scratched the bandage on her neck. “It’s…fine.”

“You sure? Looks pretty gnarly.” Kade gestured at the heavy layer of bandages pushing into her chin. “Messed up thing to do to someone. What’d he look like?”

“If you want to talk about it,” Theo added. “It sounds like a lot.”

Kade glanced over at him, surprised. Theo’s voice was strangely soft, if a little awkward. Then Kade remembered Theo had been through his own version of this and wanted to smack himself. Of course he’d know it was a lot. He’d been hoisted into the air, feasted on, and dropped in a lake. He’d probably have nightmares, if he could sleep.

“It’s not not a lot,” Skeeter said with a breathy laugh. She flushed, dark freckles turning splotchy. “Um, I already told the cops everything. It… he was too fast.”

“He bit you,” Kade said. “Thought you’d at least get a glance.”

Skeeter’s flush darkened. “Has anyone ever bit you in the neck? There’s not a lot of—” She stopped, chewing her cheek. “Sorry.”

“No,” Kade said, faintly impressed. “Go off. Like, you can totally tell me to piss off if you want. But we kinda need—we really want to know about him. Anything you can remember. Was he tall? Thin? What color was his hair? Did he smell like anything?”

“I…don’t know.” Skeeter fumbled at the cross on her neck. “He was so strong. And it hurt so much. He was…tall? He had to bend down. Or maybe my…my feet lifted up? I didn’t see his hair or anything. He was on me.”

“How’d you get away?” Theo asked.

“I don’t…” Skeeter sighed. “I pushed him. It didn’t do anything. And then he jerked back. I heard something burning, it smelled like milk when it boils over? And I pushed him again, and he dropped me. I don’t know why, I wasn’t pushing hard, he was so strong . I…”

She glanced at a plastic bag on a chair next to her bed.

Kade stepped toward it, only stopping when Theo shot his hand out to grab him by the back of his shirt .

“What?” Theo said. “You can tell us, we won’t think you’re crazy.”

“Did he have wings?” Kade blurted.

Theo trod on his foot.

She gave him a strange look. “Did he have what?”

“Nothing,” Kade said. “Joking. What were you saying?”

She hunched uncertainly. “I was gardening. I still had a plant in my hand. He only let me go when I touched him with it.”

WEAKNESS , Kade wanted to shout. THE MONSTER HAS A WEAKNESS! THE PLOT THICKENS!

“What plant?” he and Theo asked as one.

She held out a hand. Theo let Kade go, and he shot over to hand her the bag. She unfolded the bloody overalls with a grimace, digging into the deep pockets. She uncovered a spiky weed Kade had never seen before in his life. Red thorns and tiny black flowers clung to the stem.

Skeeter started, “It’s?—”

“Fire eye,” Theo finished for her, sounding way too excited. “It only grows on this side of the country, near tree roots. It?—”

He cut off, the bright interest in his face turning guarded. A sensible response, Kade thought, to having two people stare at you like you’ve grown another head.

“What? I read about it somewhere,” Theo said defensively. “So you think he stopped because of the fire eye?”

“No, that’s insane. I just—I don’t know why he pulled back. Or why it…burned him. I definitely smelled something burning.” Skeeter winced, tugging at her mousy brown hair. “That’s crazy. I sound crazy .”

Kade laughed. “Mate, this doesn’t even make the top five craziest things to happen this week.” He pointed at the strange, spindly plant. “Can I take this?”

She hesitated. Then she nodded and dropped it into his waiting palm.

Kade twisted it in his fingers, pressing his nail into one of the bigger spikes. He knew exactly what he was going to do with this.