Page 9

CHAPTER

NINE

“At least we know you didn’t kill him.”

“Yay,” Theo said dryly. “Great.”

He slumped down against a rock, staring at his hands. If he cut his palm open right now, what would ooze out? Black blood, like the vampire who had turned him? If he slashed his stomach open would his organs be dark, like the old man cut open in the funeral home? What was he?

“Soooo,” Kade said. He toed at a patch of moss near Theo’s foot. “Are we going to talk about the whole Fletcher thing?”

“There’s no Fletcher thing,” Theo told him. “You’re reaching.”

Kade spun a lit cigarette in his fingers like a small, dangerous drumstick. “I’m not reaching, I’m suggesting. You got any other ideas about possible hunter families who suit the title Warren ? Because I sure don’t! ”

“But—”

“I’m not saying walk into school and sink your teeth into your childhood bestie. I’m saying let’s look into it! Let’s unravel this dark little mystery and see where it leads!” Kade sucked on his cigarette and whirled, tipping his stubbled head back to whoop at the trees. It went long and loud, birds startling and taking off en masse. Kade cheered louder, cupping his hands around his mouth so his yell followed the birds as they vanished into the sky.

“THIS IS THE COOLEST THING TO EVER HAPPEN IN THIS STUPID, SHITTY LITTLE TOWN!”

Theo shot to his feet. “This is not cool. Somebody wants to kill me. Someone killed Jeremiah Lemmings! They basically carved YOU’RE NEXT, THEO, into his chest! How are you excited about this? I’m doomed!”

“You’re not doomed ,” Kade told him. His mouth curled like he wanted to sneer, but the grin got in the way. “You just need to keep it quiet. Lemmings was a vampire for who knows how long, and we had no murders, so obviously you can keep eating deer! And while you munch on bambis, we can dive deeper down this rabbit hole and find out what’s going on. Who killed the old man? Why the warning? Who the hell turned you? God, I can’t wait. It’s so cool. I wish it had happened with someone who wasn’t an asshole .”

“Back at you,” Theo snapped. “You know I could die, right? I did die! You’re acting like this is a movie! This is my LIFE! No wonder you don’t have any friends.”

Kade’s teeth clamped around his cigarette. His grin sharpened into the thing Theo was used to seeing in school: the smile that appeared before he threw himself at someone with his fists up, ready to lose.

“At least I don’t spend my whole day worried about what people think of me,” Kade said, voice thin and dangerous. “You pretend you don’t care what everybody thinks but it’s so obvious you do, all of you jocks do, that’s why you’re bullies. Guess what? People who are secure in themselves don’t bully people, they just get on with their lives and let other people BE!”

Theo’s chest heaved. “At least I don’t antagonize people every second of every day just to feel something.”

“Antagonize,” Kade repeated. He ripped the almost-finished cigarette out of his mouth and stamped it into the dirt. “How the hell do I antagonize people?”

“You do it every day! You open your mouth and it’s some stupid quip, or a reference nobody understands, and—” Theo gestured down at his clothing. “What is this? Just dress like a normal person! Let people be . If everybody let you be you’d start screaming for attention by the end of day one.”

Kade’s eyes shone. His cheek dented inwards, and Theo smelled blood.

“Right,” Kade spat, stalking forward. Theo jerked back, but Kade kept going until they were nose to nose. His breath was hot and smoky on Theo’s cheek. “So it’s good that people trip me in the halls? Steal my textbooks? Leave burning shit on my front door? Make fun of me every day, say I should drop dead , call me a creep, a freakshow, a monster ?—”

“If you hate me this much, why are you still here?”

Kade stuttered to a stop. He lifted a hand to his scarf, touching the bandage through the fabric.

Theo winced. He forced it out of his expression before Kade could look at him again, his father’s voice clear in his head: never let them see you flinch.

Kade lifted his head, defiant. As if there was any other way for Kade Renfield to be.

“You know what,” he snarled. “You’re right . It’s time I got out of your swoopy boyband hair. But! I want one thing before I go.”

Theo opened his mouth to tell him good luck getting anything from him, but Kade was too fast.

“I want another bite,” Kade said.

Theo stopped, watching for any sign of his usual sarcasm. There was none. Kade was serious.

“ Why ?” Theo asked. Then a memory came back—Kade in the closet, babbling. Best high I ever had, he’d said. Kade on his bedroom floor, slurring for more.

Kade unwound the scarf from his head. He pried the cheek bandage off first, and Theo held back another wince as the finger-shaped burns were revealed. Then the bandage in the dip of his neck. The bruising was terrible, the bite was worse. Theo marveled at the angry shades of red and purple.

Theo started, “But?—”

Kade let out an ugly laugh. “What, you’re worried about hurting me now ?”

“It’s bad ,” Theo tried. “Like, it’s—dude, it’s so bad. People will see.”

“Oh, if people will see ,” Kade muttered. He twisted his head, baring his burned throat. “Come on. You look tired. This is way better than deer.”

“This is why you agreed to come with me to the funeral home,” Theo said, his cold heart sinking. “It wasn’t about helping me, or turning your life into some stupid mystery story. You wanted me to bite you again.”

Kade shrugged. “Now use ’em or lose ’em, vamp boy.”

The blood was so close underneath his battered skin. That was all bruises were: blood, pooling. A dozen different shades collecting on Kade’s long neck. There was that mole he’d spotted in Kade’s bedroom, hidden under stark purple.

Theo swayed in and hesitated. “You’re sure?”

“What am I, your prom date? Yes , I’m sure. Now shut up and?—”

Theo lurched forward and bit him in the neck, right over the worst and most delicious of the bruising. Kade cried out at the sharp pain, fighting instinctively as Theo pressed his hands against Kade’s shoulder blades.

Theo sucked, his jaw humming with vibrations. Kade’s cry melted into a groan. Theo clutched him, sucking harder. This was what he was missing when he ate those deer—animal blood tasted stale, almost sickly. Kade tasted like fine wine. Liquid gold. Warmth in a blizzard.

Kade sagged against his shoulder.

Now , Theo told himself. Stop .

He allowed himself one more drag, blood flowing thick into his mouth. Then he pulled back, and the tingling in his jaw died down. He held Kade steady as he tried to lean back in, a whine spilling from his pale lips.

Kade’s eyes cracked open, gray barely visible around his full pupil. For a moment he just looked at Theo, dazed.

As if in a dream, Theo reached up and touched the bite wound on Kade’s neck. His fingers buzzed, but he barely noticed. This strange new version of Kade made Theo feel protective. Kade was an asshole, sure. But he was so vulnerable like this, and Theo wanted…

He blinked. The skin under his fingers wasn’t torn. The jagged bite wound on Kade’s neck was gone, the burned skin healed except for the places Theo’s fingers were touching. As Theo dropped his hand, the burn marks vanished from his touch vanished.

He was healed.

Kade turned. “Whazzat?”

Something stung Theo’s cheek, hot and sharp. He leapt back with a hiss. “What was that ?”

Kade swayed on the spot. “What? Give a guy a second to—” He stopped, eyes going huge as he saw Theo’s face. “The hell?”

Theo rubbed his stinging cheek. It felt like a burn. Thin and shallow, right next to his nose.

“What even…” Kade trailed off. He reached up to touch his earrings—twin silver swords with vines twisting around the hilt. Long and thin, just like the burn.

“No,” Theo said. “Come on . Silver, really?”

Kade took an earring out and stared at it, considering. Then he lashed out, still clumsy with blood loss, zapping Theo in the forehead with the tip of the earring sword.

Theo reared back with another hiss as pain bloomed under his hairline. “Quit it!”

Kade snickered, going to flick him again.

Theo caught his arm. “I said cut it out . You got what you wanted, now leave me alone.”

Kade’s smile faded. He jerked his arm out of Theo’s grip. “Right. Well, see ya, blood boy. Wouldn’t wanna be ya. Eat shit, etcetera. Can you even eat anymore? Questions I’ll never know, because digging into this shitty little mystery is not worth hanging out with you.”

He fumbled at his scarf, fingers stubborn and clumsy as he tried to wrap it back around his head. He didn’t realize he’d been healed.

“Wait,” Theo called as Kade turned away.

Kade paused, wobbling on his lanky legs .

“Your burns,” Theo said. “They’re gone.”

“They’re what?” Kade felt his face, gingerly at first, then shoving at his unblemished skin. “Bloody hell. When did that happen?”

“Before you burned me ,” Theo said. “I didn’t—I touched the wound. And it…”

He shrugged. He didn’t know how to explain the buzzing in his hand—so much like the vibration in his jaw when he pushed venom into Kade’s bloodstream—and more importantly, he didn’t want to. If Kade wanted out of this nightmare, good riddance.

Kade wavered. His gray eyes gleamed, unreadable. For a second Theo thought he’d ask, and Theo prepared to shoot him down.

“Great,” Kade said flatly. He threw his scarf around his neck, fast and careless, like he did everything else. “Well, see ya, blood boy. Wouldn’t wanna be ya.”

He walked off, flicking Theo a middle-finger salute.

Theo watched him vanish into the trees and reached up to touch the burn on his forehead. Super speed, super strength, flight—he had to have super healing, right? Any moment now, these burns would fade into smooth skin.

He pressed harder. They kept stinging.

He dropped his hand with a sigh, thinking about one of the last things Kade had said: could he even eat anymore? He always liked eating. The idea of never getting to do it again depressed him .

He’d go out and buy something, he decided. Then he’d figure out what he was doing next.

He had barely made it out of the woods when he spotted Felicity heading down the long path that led to his house.

He jogged to catch up with her. “Liss!”

She startled, whirling around. Her long blond ponytail almost snapped him in the face. She was wearing sweatpants and no makeup, two things she hadn’t done in public for years. She stunk like deodorant and sweat and something else he couldn’t identify.

“Oh my god,” she said, her grin strained. “Make some noise when you walk!”

She shoved him. It was about as effective as a canary shoving an elephant. Theo moved with it anyway, glad she wasn’t actually annoyed. Felicity walked on the knife edge of playfully irritated, but when she got genuinely pissed off, her wrath was deadly.

“What’s up?” he asked, glad for the distraction. “Where’s Aaron?”

She struck an unsteady model pose, eyelashes fluttering. “What, am I not enough?”

“You’re great,” he assured her. “I was just—we haven’t hung out for ages. Just you and me.”

Felicity toyed with her ponytail. “And whose fault is that? ”

Yours , Theo didn’t say. He’d tried to initiate all their usual hangs after she started seeing Aaron. She was the one who made excuses, pulled away, brought Aaron along to all their hangouts. After a while he just assumed that if he saw Felicity, Aaron would come along too. Which was fine. Aaron was their best friend, too. Had been for years. But he still hung out one-on-one with Aaron. He missed his Felicity time. Now she had a boyfriend and a career and out-of-town model friends she saw on weekends.

Felicity frowned, pointing at his face. “What are those ?”

“What are what? Liss, are you…okay? Is your mom hassling you again?”

Or are you partying too much, he thought. He’d thought Aaron was being overprotective, but maybe Theo needed to take Aaron seriously and add it to her list of issues.

Felicity peered at him, her blue eyes striking in the afternoon light. Her hand flashed out.

Theo caught it automatically.

Felicity stared at it, then at his face. “Wow. Now with super kung-fu grip. You been watching karate tutorials along with that mushroom foraging ASMR?”

“It’s not ASMR,” Theo argued, dropping her hand.

“Uh-huh. And those aren’t burns.” Felicity pointed to his face. The small burns from Kade’s earrings stung. “What did you do, make out with some nettle? ”

“Allergies,” Theo lied.

“Since when do you have allergies?”

“People can get them later in life,” Theo insisted. When she tried to argue, he continued: “I was going to get McDonald’s. Want to come?”

She blinked. He waited for her to ask if he was having a cheat day, to teasingly threaten him about telling his parents.

“Okay,” she said instead.

Theo drove them to McDonalds in his Lexus. They ate in the parking lot, Felicity propping her feet up on the dashboard while Theo made a mental note to clean it later. His dad got him this car, after all. He had to take care of it.

Felicity stabbed a fry into his hand. “You aren’t eating.”

“I’m getting to it.” Theo dug a fry out of the carton resting in his lap. He held it up, considering. Hot. Salty. Crunchy. He and Felicity used to sit in the parking lot—no car, this was before either of them could drive—and eat one small fries each after school. The only junk food they had all week. They used to hold it over each other when they fought— I’ll tell your family about our McDonald’s trysts! They never meant it. There were some secrets they’d take to the grave.

Kade’s voice rang through his head. Can you even eat human food ?

One way to find out , Theo thought.

He slid the fry into his mouth. It tasted like cardboard.

Felicity adjusted her shoes on the dashboard. Her sweatpants fell down her calves, and Theo spotted an impact bruise he hadn’t seen for a long time.

“Whoa,” he said. “Where did that come from? Did you pick up gymnastics again?”

Felicity twisted her leg, following his gaze. He expected a snort, some fun-slash-worrying story that Aaron was going to stress over. But Felicity just held her leg up, examining the bruise with a bitter look in her eyes.

“Actually, yes,” she said. She gave him a wry grin. “Mom wanted me to keep working on my falls tonight. Decided to sneak out here instead. I’m going to a party later, want to come?”

He frowned. “But…you told your mom you’d never do it again. She begged .”

“A girl can’t change her mind?” Felicity stretched and winced. “God. I forgot how much it messes with your muscles. So, you coming?”

The idea of being in the midst of so many people made Theo want to crawl into a hole.

“Next time,” he said. He looked her up and down, all that gymnast muscle replaced by a model’s willowy thinness. “Will they even let you into competitions after you’ve been gone this long? ”

“Not doing it for the competitions,” she said dully. “It’s about the discipline .”

She made a face, like she was quoting something she didn’t fully understand.

Theo started, “But?—”

She cut him off. “How was the rest of the party last weekend? Totally lost you after, like, ten.”

He eyed her warily. She picked at her fries, jaw tense. She wanted him to let it go.

“Wasn’t feeling it,” Theo replied finally. “Went for a walk.”

“Ooookay,” Felicity said, in a tone that meant tell me more, dipshit. Which was rich, considering the weird news she’d just dropped on him without elaborating.

Theo ate another fry. It was awful. A wave of sadness overtook him at the knowledge that he could never enjoy McDonald’s again. He didn’t want fries anymore. He wanted Kade Renfield’s neck, warm and tantalizing, his blood better than any animal, his scent more powerful than anyone else’s in town.

Felicity stabbed him with another fry. He’d zoned out again.

“You know you can tell me anything,” she said, sounding so sincere it worried him. “I know we haven’t…like. Yeah. But you can tell me anything.”

“I know,” Theo lied. He ate another fry, wishing he could open his blunt teeth and let all the vampire crap spill out. Once, they had no secrets from each other.

“You can tell me anything too,” he said. “Seriously. ”

“I know,” Felicity said, too fast. She popped another fry into her mouth and rearranged her feet on the dashboard. Theo watched her wide, easy sprawl and thought about Kade curled up tight and cramped in the backseat so no one would see him.

Guilt churned in his stomach. Kade was an asshole, but he didn’t deserve Theo snapping at him. No wonder you have no friends. He wasn’t that bad. He’d dragged Theo out of that lake. And his over-the-top jumpy enthusiasm in Milly’s bookshop was…weirdly endearing, if Theo was being honest with himself. Annoying, but endearing. He hadn’t seen it before this week. Usually Kade was all snarls and jeers, flipping teachers off or careening around a party yelling along to the music.

Watching Kade jump up and down waiting for Milly to tell them the great big secret about Lock had been…cute. It made Theo want to scratch at that thorny surface and see what else was hidden underneath. And seeing Kade all floppy and vulnerable after biting him made Theo want to… protect him. Curl around him and growl at anyone who dared to come close. As if Kade needed protection. As if he was Theo’s to protect.

Theo sighed. “Do you ever get the feeling you’re not what your parents want? Like, deep down.”

“You are what your parents want,” Felicity replied bitterly. “You’re hot, you’re smart and—how do your parents put it? Vicious . You’re the whooole package.”

Theo shifted uncomfortably. “I really thought your mom was getting over it. The gymnastics thing. You said you’d never go back to it.”

“We’re not talking about me,” Felicity snapped. She rubbed her thigh, and Theo remembered the callouses she would get from the bars, the bruises on her sides and knees and legs and elbows from hitting the mat.

She turned to him, smiling thinly. “You’re exactly what your parents want, Theo. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it.”

Theo thought back to Kade sagging against him. Of holding him up, easy as anything, his hands embarrassingly gentle.

“But what if I’m not?”

Felicity stared at him. She didn’t look surprised. Theo had a sudden fuzzy memory of having this same conversation with Felicity in middle school. There was an uncanny sense of déjà vu when she replied: “Then get good at pretending.”

She smiled at him again. Theo smiled back, wishing with everything in his dead body that one of them could say something, anything true. What her mom had said to convince her back into gymnastics after all these years. Why she was partying so much lately. Even something as small as why she was stressed enough to wear sweatpants and no makeup in public.

She reached over and touched his face. “Your allergies cleared up fast.”

Theo rubbed his cheek and forehead. They were smooth again, no trace of Kade’s earrings left .

“Just in time,” Felicity said, leaning back into her seat and flashing him that smile that got her recruited to her modeling agency. “Wouldn’t want your parents asking questions.”

“Got that right,” Theo said.

His stomach churned.

He ate another fry.