Page 22

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

“Kade, I swear to god, if you burn me one more time?—”

Theo cut off with a yelp as Kade shoved the point of the stalk into his neck. The car swerved. Kade cackled, falling against the passenger door. The fire eye fell with him, and Theo sat back up with a scowl.

“Quit it! You’re such a baby!”

“Vengeance,” Kade hissed. Any threat underneath it was ruined by laughter. It was almost a giggle now, weirdly sweet and croaky, cheeks creasing with the force of it.

A small crack made Theo look back at the road. He’d dug his fingers through the steering wheel again, through the leather right into the plastic.

“Oooh,” Kade crooned. “Careful. Daddy won’t like what you’re doing to his Lexus.”

“It’s my Lexus,” Theo protested, twisting uncomfortably in his seat. His dad wouldn’t like what he was doing to the car. Theo would have to ask for money and then pay someone under the table to replace the steering wheel. Maybe it cost less to just replace the plastic?

He sucked in a calming breath, then grimaced as Kade’s soft, metallic scent washed over him. Maybe it was a Pavlovian thing, but Kade’s scent made his mouth water like no one else’s.

“We need to corner Cheech,” Theo said. “Force him to tell us what’s going on. If he won’t, then we get him to tell us who will?—”

Kade slung his legs up on the dashboard.

Theo swatted his boots. “Get off! I let you sit up front and this is how you thank me?”

Kade put a big show into bowing. “Holy shit, you’re right, thank you for letting me sit up the front like a person .”

“We’re gonna find out what the hell is up with this prophecy,” Theo continued, ignoring him. “We’ll find out what this burning shit is about?—”

“Win the big game,” Kade added, twisting the fire eye around his long fingers.

“Obviously,” Theo replied, turning them down the road that would take them to Kade’s house. “I’ll feed on you right before. We can’t take any chances. No going feral on the other team, no letting my powers slip out?—”

Kade let out another croaky laugh. Something twisted in Theo’s stomach, huge and hungry .

“I was JOKING,” Kade exclaimed. “Seriously, screw the big game! You just got told you might release a hoard of hungry vamps who go on to burn down the town and you’re like whatever, go Nightfowls? ”

“You heard Skeeter. I let the whole town down.”

“That’s on them for getting invested in high school basketball ,” Kade said with a shudder. “Do you even like it?”

It was such a strange question Theo turned to stare at him. “ Obviously . I’m the best.”

“Uh-huh.” Kade’s tone turned bitter. “For a second I thought you might be a three-dimensional person instead of an asshole jock out of an eighties movie. My bad.”

Asshole jock out of an eighties movie ? The steering wheel creaked in Theo’s grip as he pulled up outside Kade’s house. Had Kade’s image of him not changed at all in the past week? They’d snuck into a morgue together. Broke into two houses together. They’d almost died . Theo had seen Kade’s shocked expression when Theo put his body between him and the monster, not to mention when Theo gave him knitting needles. They’d shared that cigarette, had a few laughs in between the horrors. And he still thought Theo was an eighties movie jock?

“Wow,” Kade said. “Pulling up right next to my house. People will talk , you know.”

He reached for the door handle. There was something flat and oddly disappointed in his face .

“Look,” Theo said hastily. “I’m…I’m sorry. Okay?”

Kade paused. He watched Theo cautiously. It reminded Theo of a stray cat that used to hang around the back door. Theo had left dinner scraps out for it until it finally let him close enough to pat it. Then one night Theo woke up to a cat yowling, and he never saw it again.

“If I never bit you,” Theo continued, “you wouldn’t be, like…holding out for my venom. I kinda screwed you over. Like, I know it’s a good high, and you get to tag along on my little vampire adventure or whatever, but this hasn’t been that exciting, man. It’s scary and it sucks. I’m sorry for trapping you in this.”

Kade rubbed the door handle. Even his thumb was gangly, stroking an anxious line into the plastic.

“It does suck ,” he said slowly. He raised his thin brows pointedly.

“What?” Then it clicked. Theo sighed. “Vampire, sucking, ha, ha. Sorry for trying to be nice .”

Theo’s phone vibrated. He checked it—a text from Felicity. wanna get mcdonalds tonight? my treat. mom’s being SUPER annoying tonight.

He frowned. Yet another invite from Felicity, who until recently hadn’t tried to hang one-on-one for years. Something was going on, and it looked like she was even ready to talk about it. He knew it had something to do with her mom.

Theo started to write out a reply. Then he stopped.

Kade hadn’t moved. He was the stillest Theo had ever seen him, watching Theo with that stray-cat expression again. Like he was waiting for an excuse to run.

Kade paused. “Why’d you take the succulent?”

Theo froze. “What?”

“From the Lemmings place,” Kade said. “What’d you do with it?”

Theo looked away. In middle school their teacher had come up and slapped a book on a distracted Kade’s desk. Do I have your full attention?

You can’t handle my full attention, Kade had snarled back.

And it was true. Everybody knew it: if Kade “Monster” Renfield was giving you his full attention, you’d have a bad time. He’d either be kicking your ass or slamming you with an insult.

And here he was, pinning Theo with his defiant gray eyes. Theo wanted to hide. Theo wanted Kade to keep looking at him forever. Theo wanted, stupidly, to touch his jaw. Feel the bone shift under his skin. Let his touch drift sideways and touch his chapped lips.

He imagined Kade’s skin scorching and winced.

“Nothing,” he lied.

“Come on.”

Theo thought about telling him to get out again. But Kade’s voice was oddly soft under its usual intensity, and anyway, who would he tell? Who’d believe him, even if he did ?

“It’s in my room,” Theo admitted. He tucked his phone away. He’d answer Felicity later.

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” Theo said honestly. “It would’ve died.”

“So? Let it die. It’s a plant.” Kade cracked his neck, the loud snap of his joints making Theo wince. “You’ve had no problem tripping me in the hall for the last six years?—”

“I’ve tripped you twice .” And the second time was an accident , Theo thought.

“And making fun of everyone, and making Gertrude from maths class cry?—”

“It’s math ,” Theo said. “And how was I supposed to know she has a lazy eye?”

“But you can’t let a plant die,” Kade finished.

Theo swallowed. “I like plants.”

Kade nodded. His chapped lips twitched. “ Any plants?”

“Not, like, flowers ,” Theo tried. It was a lie, but he was confident he could pull it off. “Cannibal plants with venom and shit. And, um. Fungi.”

“Mushrooms?”

“Mushrooms are cool,” Theo argued, “and not even technically a plant! We only know a really small amount about mushrooms. Like, ninety-seven percent of the information is still undiscovered.”

“Wow,” Kade said. “Tell me more about mushrooms. ”

Theo glared. He’d actually thought Kade might be cool about this.

“Shut up.”

“No, really.” Kade jumped in his seat, settling into it like a kid eager to hear a bedtime story. His smile only looked a little mocking. Mostly, it looked delighted. “Regale me with the three percent of information we have about fungi, golden boy.”

Theo stared at him. He was ninety percent sure Kade wasn’t making fun of him.

“You can’t tell anybody,” he said cautiously.

Kade rolled his eyes. “I’ll add it to our ever-growing list of secrets.”

Kade’s smile softened. How had Theo never noticed how vulnerable his shaved head made him look, all that pale scalp under that dark stubble? He’d spent so many years watching Kade snarl and hunch into his shoulders, he never knew how beautiful the boy could be when he wasn’t baring his teeth.

Kade raised his eyebrows expectantly. What were they talking about? Right. Mushrooms.

“So there are these mushrooms that glow in the dark,” Theo started. There was a flash of movement over Kade’s shoulder, and Theo froze. “Shit.”

“What?” Kade whirled around just in time for a woman to knock on the window. “Oh, shit.”

The woman glared at them, face lined with worry. Her dark graying hair frizzed around her head like Kade’s used to. Her work uniform had a logo on it from the metal mill. He could picture her there perfectly, her stance sure and solid as she operated machines ten times her size. She looked like the kind of person you wanted on your side in a barfight.

Theo pulled up his politest smile and hoped he didn’t look as panicked as he felt.

“Hello! Hi! I’m Theo. Uh, Fairgood. You must be Mrs. Renfield. Miss?”

“Sundance is fine,” she said, her British accent so faded Theo barely noticed it.

Sundance gave Kade a pointed look, tilting her head almost imperceptibly at Theo.

Kade shook his head. Whatever that meant, it made some of the worry leave Sundance’s lined face.

“I found him in the woods,” Theo said. “I’m the one…I, uh, got him to the hospital.”

“And got him out,” Sundance said slowly. She leaned on the car door, sizing him up. “ Without parental consent.”

“Come on, Aunt Sundance,” Kade sighed. “You know how bored I get in hospitals.”

She grunted. “So you needled him into it? And got him to drive you home?”

“What can I say? Theo’s a generous guy,” Kade said sardonically. It was such a departure from the soft delight he’d had about Theo’s mushrooms that Theo’s cold heart clenched.

You’re not friends, he told himself, trying to make the sting of betrayal go away. You’re trapped together. Who cares if he doesn’t like you? You don’t like him.

It felt flimsy. Kade was surly, sure. Annoying. A bit of an asshole. But Theo couldn’t not like him after the crazy shit they’d been through. Not after Kade showed him glimpses of softness under his spikes. Not after he’d had Kade’s skin open under his teeth. Not after the knitting needles or the cigarette or every time Theo had to hide a laugh about Kade’s dumb antics.

He did like Kade Renfield. He liked him so much it scared the shit out of him.

Kade slapped Theo’s shoulder. Theo jumped reflexively. It didn’t hurt, but any contact made him hyper-aware of how Theo could burn him with one clumsy mistake.

“Well, thanks for the ride, Fairgood!” Kade announced. “I should?—”

Sundance cut him off. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

Kade glared at her. Sundance ignored him, gray eyes drilling into Theo.

“Uhhhh,” Theo said. He looked at Kade helplessly. He should say no, right? Kade didn’t exactly look eager. It was late, it would make sense if Theo had already eaten. And he still had that text from Felicity inviting him out to McDonald’s and probably an important talk about whatever the hell had been going on with her for the past few weeks .

“Theo just ate,” Kade blurted. He scratched his neck, and Theo had to fight a stupid urge to laugh.

“A drink, then. I got water, juice, tea.” Sundance knocked on the doorframe. “Come on, gotta thank you somehow for bringing my kid home to me. Even if you signed him out without me.”

Kade ducked his head. He lifted his hand to his jaw, skimming empty air before dropping it. He used to play with his hair, Theo remembered. Sometimes he looked like he was hiding behind it.

Theo watched him fidget and realized with no small surprise that he wanted to take Sundance up on her offer. He’d never seen the Renfield house when he wasn’t freaking out over Kade dying of blood loss.

Sensing the silence had gone on too long, Kade looked over at him. His dark brows were furrowed, like he was waiting for Theo to come up with an excuse. I have somewhere to be. A dinner. A date. Anywhere but here.

“Alright,” Theo said instead.