Page 2

CHAPTER TWO

Kade shook his head with a scoff as he sat down with Theo at their new cafeteria table.

“They just can’t keep their eyes off us,” he said flatly.

Theo looked up just in time to see several kids turn away hastily.

“New world order,” Kade muttered in that faded British accent Theo had loved even before he knew him. “About time they got used to it.”

Theo nodded. It was still an adjustment: Theo had spent his whole life getting friendly waves from teachers when he walked into class. Gleeful nods from his classmates and high fives from his teammates. People said hi to him in the street and held the door open for him.

Then his dad died. Theo quit basketball. His dad’s grave got mysteriously robbed. His mom went on an ‘extended holiday’ and Theo moved in with Kade Renfield, of all people. He got a night shift stocking shelves at the local grocery store and some people swore they saw him running through the woods on the nights he wasn’t working: barefoot, no moon to light his way. Not to mention the whole mess with Aaron.

Theo didn’t get waves anymore. No nods or greetings or held doors. The sympathy about his dead dad and suspiciously absent mom had dried up pretty fast since he came to school wearing Kade’s U STAY SOFT / U GET EATEN shirt.

But as long as he had a few people in his corner, he didn’t mind that most people avoided his gaze in the hallways.

He did mind that most of the town thought that Kade had ‘corrupted’ Theo, and they wanted to make their dissatisfaction known. Theo stuck by Kade’s side whenever he could, but sometimes people got sneaky. And other times people were just stupid. Like Finn Harley, Theo’s old teammate who excelled at jump shots and absolutely nothing else in life, shoulder-checking Kade so hard that Kade went sprawling onto the cafeteria floor.

“Oooh,” Finn sniggered. “Watch it, Monster. I think you caught me with your claws.”

Kade bared his teeth at him and hissed. It was less fierce than usual. He’d admitted to Theo during a sleepless winter night that he was getting really, really tired of the whole ‘Monster’ thing. It started out as a way to spite people: you think I’m a monster? I’ll show you my goddamn teeth. But that was getting old. Kade wanted to be something else now, and he hated that this town wouldn’t let him.

Finn’s smirk dropped off his face when Theo picked him up and slammed him into the wall.

The cafeteria fell silent. Everyone looked up to watch Lock’s former golden boy stick up for the boy he’d once tripped in these very halls.

“He’s growling at me,” Finn protested, with the guilty squirm of someone who hadn’t seen Theo when he shoved into Kade. “You’re defending him, dude?”

Theo’s hands creaked in Finn’s letterman jacket. He thought about how easy it would be to lift Finn into the air. He could rip him apart without even trying. He wasn’t going to. But he could .

Dad would be proud, he thought as he watched a drop of sweat slide down Finn’s neck. Unfortunately for Victor, Theo had given up on making him proud when the requirements included hurting Kade.

“You want to know something about growling, Finn?” Theo asked. “Animals do it to warn you. When they want you to go away. When an animal doesn’t growl—that’s when you should be worried.”

He leaned in. Finn flinched.

“Finn,” Theo said softly. “Do you see me growling?”

Finn shook his head.

“If I let you go,” Theo continued, “are you going to play nice?”

Finn nodded.

“Good,” Theo said. He let go of Finn’s jacket, pretending to brush it off as he stepped back. “Don’t come near him again. I’ll know.”

Finn swallowed. Theo listened to the spit drag down his throat, blood rushing through his veins. Listening in on people’s insides usually meant he’d gone too long without feeding. When was the last time he ate?

He turned back to Kade, who was on his feet again. Theo had expected him to look triumphant. But he mostly looked uncomfortable: narrow jaw clenched, skinny shoulders high. Like he wanted this to be over with already.

“You don’t look tired,” Finn said.

Theo sighed. “What?”

Finn shrugged. He glanced over at his teammates, who were all over at Theo’s old table pretending like they weren’t watching. No one had come to Finn’s aid when Theo slammed him into the wall.

“Just expected you to look tired,” Finn said with the jeer of somebody who knew this was either going to be great or send him to the nurse’s office.

“Working nights,” Finn continued. “Going on all those runs through the woods. You didn’t run into Skeeter that night, right? At the Founder’s Day party?”

Theo frowned. The air in the cafeteria had gone even more still than before.

“I didn’t go to the party,” he said. “Why? What happened to Skeeter?”

Finn’s bravado dimmed. Theo could smell the nervous sweat under his armpits. For a moment he thought Finn was going to continue, but then Finn looked around. Saw how many eyes were on them.

“Uhhh,” Finn said. “Never mind.”

Theo watched him stalk out the cafeteria doors, ignoring the twinge of dread in his stomach.

He headed over to Kade. “You okay?”

“I’m good,” Kade said. But he still had that tightness about him, eyes tracking like he was waiting for the next attack.

Theo squeezed his hand. Kade wore gloves most of the time now: knitted gloves, sheer gloves, black leather gloves with red hearts on the back. Theo stared at them often, hoping Kade would touch his face, maybe push a hand through his hair. It happened sometimes, mostly when Kade was blissed out mid-bite.

Kade squeezed back, some of the tightness seeping out of his shoulders. “I’m fine. Quit looking at me like that.”

“I’m not looking at you like anything,” Theo insisted, keeping hold of Kade’s hand as they sat down at their corner table. He’d made Kade hide in the backseat and duck into bathrooms to talk to him in public—he had a lot of PDA to make up for.

Kade picked up his fork. “Can I have your brownie? They gave me the corner slice.”

“I think I can spare it,” Theo said dryly.

Kade stole the brownie off Theo’s tray, eating it off his fork like a hunk of meat. “What were they saying about Skeeter?”

“I don’t know.” The back of Theo’s neck prickled. The normal cafeteria chatter was back, but under it were whispers, numerous and hushed. Theo only caught snippets:

…can’t believe…

…thought Theo was gonna tear into him…

…woods, right? I heard her parents said…

Before Theo could home into one conversation, Felicity slid noisily into the seat beside him, her scuffed sneakers knocking into his ankles. Last year she said she’d rather be caught dead than wear sneakers outside of the gym. Now she was wearing them four days out of seven. She still wore makeup, but it was less soft. No more glow. No pinks. Now she was all dark reds and steely silvers, painting her eyeliner into savage points and cutting holes in her tights.

“Sick eyebrow gap,” she told Kade, digging into her meatloaf with a zeal Theo had missed during her model years. She took out a short vine of fire eye and started twisting it around her fingers, a habit she’d picked up since autumn.

Theo eyed it. “Can you not do that when I’m around?”

“What? It’s not touching you.” Felicity dangled the vampire-burning vine over Theo’s hand, like she was going to scorch him with it. “Kade has some in his pocket right now!”

“For emergencies,” Kade said. “And I don’t get it out when Theo’s right there.”

“You’re such a baby,” Felicity said, tucking it away. The movement made her sleeve rode up to expose a bandage around her forearm.

Theo snagged her arm. “What’s this?”

Felicity grinned. “Mom’s teaching me how to dodge. I am not good at it.”

“I can heal it later.”

Felicity pulled her muscled arm out of his grip. “Cluck at someone else, mother hen. I told you, I like the scars.”

She fluttered her scarred hand at him. She’d gotten cut during their fight with Victor. Not even while doing anything cool, she’d complained when Theo healed her broken arm. After all those months of what turned out to be hunting training with her mother, Felicity had been caught with a piece of glass while shoving herself up after getting thrown into the wall.

Kade grunted into Theo’s brownie. “Does your agency like the scars?”

Felicity gave a long and musical hum. “Been thinking I might drop them. They don’t know what hot actually looks like.”

“What? But it was your thing.”

“I can have other things,” Felicity said with the same razor smile she’d given him before she tried to do a backflip of a banister during her last house party. Luckily Theo had been there to catch her.

“Ooooh,” Felicity said. “Corner brownie. Can I have it?”

“You’re an even bigger freak than me,” Kade told her, nudging it over. “Hey. Did something happen to Skeeter Bass at the Founder’s Day party?”

“Skeeter?” Felicity snorted. “Who knows? Nobody tells me anything anymore. Maybe she smacked someone after losing in debate again.”

“It’s probably nothing,” Kade said, gray eyes focused on his meatloaf. “Just assholes saying shit.”

But Theo could see the worry he was trying to cover up. He had that same creeping dread as Theo. Something was wrong. The cafeteria was tense and drawn, and it wasn’t because Theo shoved his old teammate into a wall.

Theo ducked his head and tuned into the whispers. Waiting for the jumble to turn to something that made sense.

…said she ran away. As if Skeeter would ever do that. She had perfect attendance, she was going to win an award for it…

…cops aren’t looking into it? What’s it going to take before…

…this town’s going to the dogs…

“Oh look,” Felicity said. “My ex is coming over. Hi, ex.”

Theo’s head snapped up.

Aaron came to an abrupt halt in front of him, hair flopping weakly over his face. No eucalyptus hair gel to clue Theo into his approach anymore.

“Jesus,” Aaron muttered. “Tone it down. Someone will notice.”

Theo stared. It was the most Aaron had said to him since his first day back at school with his stump hand.

Theo had cornered him in the gym locker rooms and offered to heal the skin over the stump. Aaron had glared at him, eyes flat and blank. Then he’d eased his backpack on—slowly, carefully, hiding a wince the whole time—and stormed out without a word.

“Um,” Kade said. “Sunshine? Kinda hurting my hand.”

“What?” Theo looked. He was squeezing Kade’s hand so hard the leather glove was creaking with pressure. “Shit. Sorry.”

He let go, rubbing Kade’s thumbs in apology. Then he looked up at Aaron. “Skeeter Bass is missing?”

“Wait,” Felicity said. “ What’s happening?”

Aaron glanced at her with her red eyeliner and scuffed shoes, cut-off sleeves and unstyled hair. A fond look washed over his face, there and gone so fast that Theo almost thought he imagined it. When Aaron looked back at Theo, his face was all steel.

“Do you know anything about it?”

“No,” Theo said. “Do you?”

“Oh wait,” Felicity said. “He can’t tell us. Because he’s an idiot who voluntarily took some stupid family curse instead of eavesdropping at the door and letting his best friend fill him in after. Good job, babe!”

She flashed him a thumbs-up, and quickly turned it into a middle finger, her nail black and chipped. Kade had given her an inexperienced manicure at his house last week after she tried to teach him how to throw knives. Theo had done a lot of healing that day.

Aaron sighed. Another fond expression crossed his face: that specific fondness he got when she was shitting on him.

“Bye, Liss,” he said quietly. He turned to leave.

“Wait!” Theo stood, stepping in front of Aaron so fast that Aaron gave him another warning look.

Theo lowered his voice. “We’re running out of time. I know you don’t want that. No matter what you feel about me, or about vampires, none of us want that ritual to happen. We could?—”

“I’m not going anywhere near you.” Aaron’s face creased with such loathing that Theo stepped back. Then the moment passed, and Aaron lapsed back into his usual cool haughtiness. “You’re poison. My family is going to fix this. Nobody else can.”

He strode off, chin held high.

Felicity watched him go, chewing Kade’s corner brownie. “What a poser. My mom gave up on that ‘we’re the only ones’ shit right after I told her what Mr. Fletcher tried to do to Kade.”

Kade grimaced at the memory. “Has she found a way to talk to you about any of it yet?”

“ I want to try notes. But she insists her great-grandmother’s sister died when she tried to do that with her fiancé. So.” Felicity shrugged, wiping crumbs off her chin. “We know everything she does. Now we’re just waiting on Milly to finish translating the rest of the prophecy.”

Kade grunted and lifted a hand to scratch his head, where he was letting his hair grow out. Theo dragged his gaze from Kade’s gloved fingers to the exposed skin of his wrist, blood pumping so loudly that it drowned everything else out.

“I think that’s my cue,” Kade said, voice breaking through the roar. “What do you say, blood boy? Time for a bathroom break?”

Theo blinked hard. The room was full of people, cramped and deafening.

“Unless you want Liss,” Kade continued. “Less fuss. No healing after.”

Felicity presented her thin wrist, like he was going to feed from her in front of the whole cafeteria. “Oooh, yes please.”

Theo rubbed his forehead. Liss’s blood was fine. Good. Great , even. But she wasn’t Kade. Her blood didn’t light him up inside. Didn’t make him clutch her closer and breathe in her scent. When he fed from Felicity, it was just that: feeding. Fulfilling a biological need. When he fed from Kade, he wanted to climb inside his veins and stay there.

“No,” he said, standing. “I want you.”

For a moment Kade just sat there, staring up at him. He had this look on his face that Theo had seen more often in the past months: dazed, joyous, a little sad. Like he was already missing the moment before it was over.