Page 5

CHAPTER

FIVE

The morning after Theo died, he awoke in the woods.

He sat up. A deer carcass lay next to him, its head pillowed neatly on his legs. Its throat had been ripped out.

Theo screamed. He shoved the deer head off him and stumbled up. He was alone. His clothes were sodden with water and blood. The last thing he remembered…

Kade’s startled face, drained of color. Being dragged up into the air. A searing pain in his neck, fire in his veins. Then the plunge.

Theo felt his neck. The skin was smooth.

“Okay,” he croaked. “So I got drugged. I saw stuff. This is fine.”

This was when he realized he wasn’t breathing. He sucked in a breath. Blew it out. The more he did it, the less natural it felt. Like flexing a muscle you didn’t normally use.

He wiped the worst of the viscera off his shirt and started walking. He could hear cars in the distance, rumbling toward town. Far-off animals snuffling at bushes. Birds in distant trees. Breathing got more annoying, but he made himself keep doing it.

He emerged through the tree line. The cliff lay to one side, the lake looming underneath. Next to it sat the house, just as Theo remembered it. He could actually hear his mom inside, making coffee. She said something to his dad about depositions.

Theo blinked. It was impossible. This whole morning was impossible.

He sucked in a breath and realized he’d forgotten to inhale for the last minute and a half.

“I am having a bad trip,” he told himself. “I need to sleep it off, and I’ll be fine.”

He headed toward the front door. Then he paused, looked down at the blood staining his clothes, and headed to a tree around back so he could climb in his bedroom window.

The shower was weird. Theo turned the heat up as high as it would go, but even with steam leaking under the shower door, he was still cold.

Also, he had no pulse. He only realized it after getting dressed and googling NOT brEATHING WHAT DO I DO?? No matter where he pressed—throat, wrist, ankle, the back of his knee—no pulse thudded back at him. He held his breath for as long as he could and found himself getting bored around three minutes. Exhaling was not a relief. He should be sweating in panic, but the only dampness on his skin was from the shower.

He lay in bed for twenty minutes, trying to sleep. None came. He was in the middle of texting Felicity hey what’s a drug trip like when his parents’ murmurs drifted up from the kitchen.

“So strange,” Carol said. “Why kill him? Jeremiah was a strange one, but he never did anything to anybody.”

Theo froze. There was only one Jeremiah in Lock—Jeremiah Lemmings, a sixty-something man who lived at the edge of town and never left his house.

Victor sighed. “Wrong place, wrong time, I guess. More stevia?”

“Thanks.” Clinking noises. “And they didn’t even get a description?”

“No. Whoever did it was fast . Messy, too. They said there was blood everywhere.”

Theo’s unbeating heart sunk into his stomach. Someone had been killed last night. Murdered by someone fast. Blood everywhere.

I didn’t, Theo thought. I couldn’t. Right?

But the bite. His still heartbeat. The deer , its throat ripped to ribbons .

“Okay,” he told himself when yet another Google search— vampires real or bullshit?? —turned up useless. “Kade was there . Obviously he had something to do with this. He’s a monster, right? Maybe he’s…an actual monster. And he did something to me.”

It wasn’t the best theory he’d ever had. But it was the only one he had.

He thought about climbing back out through the window. Then he remembered he sort of died last night, and his parents were probably worried. Not to mention royally pissed off about the mess.

He steeled himself in the hallway, glad he couldn’t sweat. Then he poked his head into the kitchen. “Morning, I’m going out, I’ll clean when I get back.”

“Hold it,” Victor said.

Theo winced. He tugged his hoodie up over his head and turned back to the kitchen, ready to accept his fate. Cold fear gripped his stomach. They seemed like they were in a good mood, but that never stopped them from coming up with punishments.

Victor leaned back against the kitchen island, tapping a newspaper against his hip. He never had breakfast—it made him queasy—but he liked to sit in the kitchen with them and do his crossword. It looked less fun now the kitchen was trashed, plastic cups piled on the floor and in the sink, various liquids staining the countertops. Carol sat across from him, a stranger’s bra perched next to her morning coffee as she read a stack of papers .

Victor cleared his throat. “What’s a four-letter word for shirking his responsibilities ?”

Theo tensed. “Theo. I really have to go, I swear I’ll clean when I get back, I know this is totally unacceptable?—”

“Someone puked in my favorite vase,” Carol told him. “You said you’d make sure people knew this was a calm party.”

“I tried, mom! There’s only so much you can control teenagers!”

“At least you didn’t drink,” Carol said, narrowing her eyes at him.

“I would never,” Theo assured her nervously as he headed into the front hall. “I’ll clean that up later, love you, bye!”

“Wait,” Victor called, jogging after him.

Theo groaned. He’d just seen the main door. Half of the flower decoration he’d spent so long putting up had been torn down. Battered wildflowers dripped petals into the front hall.

Victor sighed. “ Don’t tell me you’re upset.”

“Of course not,” Theo replied, and turned.

Victor was looking at him strangely.

Theo pulled his hoodie up, defensive. “I’m not upset. I just—I put a lot of time into it. To make the house nice. It was an important party.”

“What?” Victor blinked. “Right.”

He fiddled with the top button of his dress shirt. Theo had never seen him in a T-shirt, and he rarely saw him without a tie. Appearances above all else : another Fairgood family motto. He always gave Theo’s hoodie and sweatpants judging looks. This wasn’t judging. This was…confused.

Victor came closer. “You look different.”

“What? No I don’t.”

Victor stared at Theo a second longer. Theo tensed as Victor tugged the hoodie down, ruffling a hand through his blond curls.

“Guess you’re just getting older.” Victor didn’t sound convinced, but he dropped his hand.

“Guess so,” Theo said. His throat clicked. “I really gotta go.”

“Sure,” Victor said.

Theo’s shoulders sagged in relief. He didn’t know why Victor was being so lenient—he was surprised Victor had even let him get out of that kitchen without cleaning up—but he wasn’t about to complain. Whatever punishment was waiting for him, he could deal with that later. As long as they let him leave now.

“Bye,” he said, and rushed out. He heard his dad snicker in the front hall as he jammed the keys into his car, heard him mutter crazy kid .

“You don’t know the half of it, Dad,” Theo said to the windshield.

Kade’s house was on the other side of town. The poor side, his mom would say after a few drinks, and Victor would hide a smirk and tell her not to be so crude.

Theo only knew it because Aaron followed Kade home last year, after Kade threw a dodgeball in Aaron’s face during one of the only gym classes they’d seen him attend.

We’re just gonna scare him, Aaron had said.

They’d left a burning bag of crap on the porch. Theo didn’t know that happened outside of movies, but they did it. They knocked on the door and sped off in Theo’s car. But not fast enough to miss the door opening, Kade’s pointy, guarded face collapsing in shock as he realized what was happening.

Theo didn’t go to the front door this time. He didn’t even take a second to admire the wisteria twisting around the porch, vivid and gorgeous. He crept around the back, following Kade’s scent: smoke and sweat and metal blending to mask something that he knew instinctively was Kade, despite not even being in the room with him. It smelled…soft.

Kade’s room was a mess: laundry scattered everywhere, mugs and shoes piled in strange corners, posters of abstract symbols and models in strange clothes. Kade lay on his bed, an arm draped over his eyes. As Theo watched, Kade rolled over, uncapped a bottle of Gatorade sitting on the nightstand, and took a swig.

He slid the window open and eased in. It was surprisingly easy to creep silently to Kade’s bed and loom. As he stood, something strange itched in his stomach. It bled out into his veins, like the fire from last night’s bite. His hands twitched at his sides. Kade was so pale , the veins blue and prominent on his translucent skin.

Kade opened his eyes and screamed.

“Shut up ,” Theo hissed. He tensed, waiting for a parent to come running. Nothing came. Did Kade even have parents? He had an aunt, right?

Kade struggled up, pressing a hand to his chest.

“You scared the shit out of me,” he croaked. “Holy shit, mate, I thought?—”

Theo grabbed him by his shirt. It was another stupid one, black with pink stitches spelling out WAIT I HAVE ANOTHER BAD IDEA , and Theo almost ripped it as he hauled Kade up and slammed him into the wall.

“I know what you did,” he growled.

“What?”

Theo shook him. “Do you know what happened to Jeremiah Lemmings?”

“The old guy who watches his yard from a peephole in his living room wall and screams if you get too close? What happened?”

“He’s dead!”

“He’s OLD,” Kade yelled. “Did you go to the hospital?”

Theo blinked. His grip loosened. “What?”

Kade strained away from him. “You woke up and you just—walked off! I thought you were dead , man. You—you had no pulse . You were underwater for a while. Your eyes… what does Jeremiah Lemmings have to do with any of this?”

You were underwater for a while . Theo remembered the burn in his lungs, almost imperceptible in the burning everywhere else in his body. Did he…drown?

“Wait,” he said. “I woke up? Where was this? How’d I get to the forest?”

“I just…I…” Kade ducked his head. His shoulders were stiff. He had a mole at the base of his neck Theo had never noticed before, a small dark smudge against all that white. A vein beat next to it, thin and blue.

“I dragged you out,” Kade said. His face twisted. “Ugh, that sounds so stupid. I was really drunk, you know. Apocalyptically wasted. Jumping in after you seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“You jumped in after me,” Theo repeated. “ You jumped in. From the cliff . To save me .”

Kade grinned anxiously. “Did I mention I was wasted?”

Anger flared in Theo’s gut, almost as hard as the hunger. He lifted Kade up higher and higher and higher , and suddenly Kade was pressed against the ceiling. He screamed. Theo screamed with him.

“What is HAPPENING?” Theo yelled.

“I don’t KNOW!” Kade slapped him on the shoulder of his hoodie, hard. “Put me DOWN!”

Theo let go. Kade fell on the bed and rolled onto the worn carpet with a yelp .

Theo landed next to him. “So you’re not…you didn’t do this to me?”

Kade shook his head. Theo remembered when Kade had long hair, an untidy puff of black curls haloing his head. He never took care of it. Theo used to stare at it in class, annoyed, thinking of putting hair care pamphlets in his bag just so he didn’t have to look at all those split ends. He’d been relieved when Kade showed up to school with a buzzcut six months ago.

“Is this real?” Kade croaked as he got up. “Is this some really screwed up prank?”

Theo sighed. “What were you doing on the cliff?”

Kade’s wiry shoulders came up again. “Having a bad trip.”

Theo had to force himself back on track. The vein in Kade’s neck was thumping even louder now. His skin was so thin. So breakable.

“Um,” Kade rasped. He backed up against the wall. “Theo? What’s going on here, mate, you look weird.”

Theo grabbed Kade’s jaw. He heard another yell as he twisted Kade’s head to the side, the sizzle of burned flesh—but he didn’t pay attention.

He sank his teeth into Kade’s neck. He hadn’t even noticed his teeth sharpening until now, but they pierced Kade’s skin effortlessly. Blood surged into his mouth, hot and welcoming. A soft buzz worked up his cheeks, flowing into his teeth like electricity through telephone wires .

He let go of Kade’s face, fisting his shirt to pull him closer.

The yell faded. A soft moan replaced it, Kade’s trembling hands coming up to grip Theo’s sleeves.

Theo hummed happily. There was a bitter taste that was a little like whiskey, but it was a whisper in the cacophony of blood. It pulsed into his mouth, swallow after swallow. He’d thought Kade would be cool to the touch. He was wrong. Kade was all heat, Kade was a volcano, Kade was a forest fire, Kade was party drugs lighting him up from the inside, Kade’s hands were slipping from Theo’s sleeves, head flopping back drunkenly?—

Theo lurched back. Kade made an unhappy noise, leaning into him. Blood leaked from his neck. His eyelids fluttered. There was a lumpy circle burned into his neck where Theo’s mouth had touched him, another puffy mark on his cheek where Theo had held him still.

“Crap,” Theo said. “Oh, shit. Shit!”

He let go. Kade crumpled to the ground with another upset noise, trying and failing to get his arms under him.

“’M good,” he mumbled, his British accent even more obvious when he was out of it. “’M good, gimme another one.”

A drop of blood rolled into his shirt, staining the W of WAIT . Theo stepped forward, everything in him screaming to lean down and drink. Then Kade reached up, hand flopping like that drunk girl who had propositioned Theo last year at his birthday party. Theo hadn’t gone through with it, too uncomfortable with how out of it she was.

Also , said the last sensible shred of Theo’s brain, blood loss usually leads to death .

“Crap,” Theo repeated. “One second!”

He ran out to the kitchen, grabbed a cup from the drying rack, and filled it with water. He opened the cupboard and took the first sugary thing he saw—a jar of loose M&Ms—and carted them back to Kade. Water and sugar was their go-to when his mom passed out from her blood thing.

“Here,” Theo said. He tipped the glass against Kade’s lips, careful not to touch his skin.

Kade mumbled something against the glass.

Theo pulled it back. “What?”

A grin spread over Kade’s face, loose and blazing. “That was one hell of a high, Fairgood.”

The burn marks stood stark on his skin, bright red and puffy. The ones on his neck, he could hide. The ones on his face…

“I’m so sorry,” Theo blurted, and he fled.