Page 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Kade stared at the outfit lying on his bed.

A black, flowy shirt with a bright red cravat. Tight pants with bleeding hearts embroidered in the pockets. An ornate Colombina face mask, as blue as the bottom of a lake. And to top it all off: an honest-to-god silk cape.

This outfit screamed drama, secrets, trouble . The kind of clothes a vampire would wear for the most important night of his life.

Kade sighed longingly and looked down at the ripped jeans and ratty T-shirt he was wearing.

U STAY SOFT / U GET EATEN, the old shirt declared. It needed mending. The O was wearing away yet again.

Sparky scratched at his bedroom door. Kade turned, but it was already swinging open.

“How do I look?” Theo asked, adjusting his gloves. “Not very monstery. But party-ready?”

Theo was beautiful. Devastatingly so. He was wearing the shirt Kade had made for his birthday: a simple white dress shirt tailored to fit Theo perfectly. Embroidered tendrils of green coiled around the collar, forming ferns.

Theo grabbed two cigarettes from their bedside table. “Just so you know, I’m going to take your stunned silence as a compliment.”

Kade nodded mutely. Theo had been extra upbeat today, clattering around the house like he was trying to distract Kade from the gaping maw Sundance left behind. As far as they could tell, one of Theo’s parents had grabbed her the night before, while she was walking to her car after work. Her matching blue mask sat on the sewing table with all the others Kade had brought last week, before Felicity, Milly, and Russel went missing. Half their group had been taken in one damn night.

Sparky nosed at Kade’s hand. He glanced down at her adoring, worried gaze. There was love there. He’d never doubted it. Even before he knew Theo loved him, he knew Sparky would die for him. If she wasn’t being mind-controlled by her maker, at least.

“Sorry you can’t come,” he told her.

Sparky whined.

Theo touched her head, inches away from Kade’s fingers. “I know, girl. You’ve been doing better when we train. But you kicked my ass last time Victor was around, and your training hasn’t been going great. We can’t risk that tonight. You’re on laundry room duty.”

Sparky whined louder.

“Go on,” Theo said, opening the bedroom door. “We’ll be back later. Promise.”

Sparky slunk out the door, turning to give them one last baleful look before Theo shut it behind her.

Theo held out the second cigarette, still unlit. Kade leaned in, letting Theo slot it gently into his mouth. Theo stepped closer, pressing the flaring tip of his cigarette to Kade’s.

For a second the only sound was their breathing. It filled the room, which was suddenly smaller with Theo standing so close, watching him so intently. They breathed out at the same time, smoke mingling between them, and Kade shivered. Their past selves didn’t smoke. They never got to have this. Their past selves didn’t get to have a lot of things.

Kade tore himself away from Theo’s gaze and picked up his mask from the bed. “Where’s yours?”

“In the car.”

Kade nodded, tying his mask in place with the dark blue ribbons. “Alright. Let’s go.”

“Whoa, hey.” Theo caught his arm, the buttery leather of his glove soft on Kade’s elbow. “Forgetting something?”

He motioned down at the clothes Kade had spent all week making.

Kade sighed. “I don’t want to tempt fate.”

Theo stared at him, uncomprehending.

“It’s exactly what a doomed teenage vampire would wear when he’s about to die tragically with his boyfriend,” Kade explained. “If I wear it, I’m just playing into the narrative. If I wear casual…” He plucked at his faded shirt. “Less of a story moment.”

Theo tried not to smile, smoke curling around his twitching mouth. His gloved fingers tugged at Kade’s shirt, right in the spot Kade had just been touching. Over the damaged O in SOFT .

“Well,” he said quietly. “You look good.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kade swallowed. He couldn’t meet Theo’s eyes when he was being all sweet and sincere like this. He chewed his lip, which would never be chapped again. Then he paused.

Theo was still holding his shirt.

Kade looked up.

Theo’s smile was gone. His grip on Kade’s shirt was so tight his gloves creaked.

“Whoa, hey.” Kade stubbed their cigarettes on the carpet, and it was telling that Theo didn’t even complain. “What’s wrong?”

Theo laughed. It was, Kade figured, a pretty stupid question to ask a teenager on the night of the horrifying ritual his parents had been planning since before he was born.

“Other than the obvious?” Theo cupped Kade’s face, stroking leather over the edges of his mask. “I miss your blush. I miss your smell, you smell different now. I can’t believe—I can’t believe I killed you and I still can’t touch you.”

“You are touching me,” Kade whispered. Not for the first time, he wished he had the burn scars back. The one on his hand, he could live without. The kiss scar on his neck…he’d mourn that for the rest of his existence.

Theo shook his head. “I want to touch all of you!”

Kade’s breath hitched.

“Not even—” Theo sighed, looking away like he always did whenever that topic came up. “I just want to hold you. I want to kiss you properly, you deserve a first kiss.”

The longing in Theo’s eyes made Kade squirm. He wanted to find a dark hole to hide in. He wanted to throw himself into Theo’s arms, burns be damned. He wanted, he wanted , he’d been wanting so long . Wrapped up in Theo’s arms at night, a sheet between them. Theo’s gloved finger in his belt loop in the school halls, pulling him close. The closest they ever came was Theo kissing his neck before a bite. And Kade could never enjoy it like he wanted, the agony chasing out the pleasure before it had a chance to settle.

Theo started to pull away.

Kade caught him by his embroidered collar.

“We can’t kiss,” he said slowly, thumbing at the fern he’d sewn into the fabric. “But…”

“But?” Theo frowned. “Kade, what’s happening?”

Kade thought about dropping it. They had a party to get to. Friends and aunts to save. The night lay out in front of them, a terrible darkness with vague shapes moving in the distance. Kade didn’t know if he’d ever get this chance again.

“This might be the last time we see each other,” Kade said in a rush. “Unless Victor brings us back in another hundred years, I don’t know. So I was…I was wondering. Do you want…?”

Hands shaking, he touched Theo’s belt.

Theo blinked, all want and regret. “Kade. We can’t.”

“We can,” Kade blurted. “Sort of. Not properly , but we can do…things. As long as we don’t go skin to skin.”

He cringed, closing his eyes. He couldn’t help it. He felt like he had peeled himself down to raw nerves, waiting to see what Theo would do with them.

Theo didn’t speak for several mortifying seconds. Kade’s mind whirred with a hundred horrifying responses, none of them sounding anything like:

“I know.”

“You know ?” Kade’s eyes flew open. Theo was watching him, blond brows furrowed.

“Sure,” Theo said. “Had a lot of time to think while you were sleeping. My mind wandered.”

He smiled, embarrassed. But there was something else in his expression, something that made Kade surge forward and bury his masked face against Theo’s shoulder, wrap his arms around Theo’s waist.

Theo hesitated. Then he lifted his arms to hold Kade tight. Keeping his head up, so his chin didn’t accidentally press into Kade’s cheek.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Kade mumbled.

Theo rubbed his back. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I really want. But we have, like, twenty minutes?—”

“Not a problem.”

Theo laughed. His arms tightened around Kade, ducking to whisper in his ear. “I’d forget myself. I’d try to kiss you, or—or touch you, and I can’t heal you anymore. So no.”

Kade nodded. His throat was thick, bitterness clogging his throat.

“Right. Yeah.” He pulled back, putting some sensible distance between them. “Honestly, probably good you said no. It’d just tempt the narrative.”

Theo caught him before he could get too far. He dragged him back in, pressing a careful kiss to Kade’s mask.

“We’ll be okay,” Theo said. “Tomorrow, we can do whatever we want. Tonight…”

He trailed off, the apprehension he was trying to hide finally shining through. They’d spent a year waiting for this. Depending on who you asked, they’d been waiting their whole lives.

Depending on who you asked, they’d been waiting even longer than that.

The Harley house was full of monsters.

Unfortunately, Lock only had one party supplies store within a four-hour radius. Kade counted four Frankensteins, six ghosts, and eight slutty witches in the exact same dress. And, of course, dozens of vampires. Everybody wore the same variation of masquerade masks available at the Party City three towns over. There was so much fake blood Kade’s mouth watered.

“Felicity’s going to be so pissed she didn’t get to be the sluttiest witch,” he told Theo, desperate for something that would make him feel less doomed. “Her outfit would’ve made all of these girls look like shit.”

Theo didn’t laugh like he’d hoped. He was scanning the dark living room, eyes darting from face to face. Searching for Finn.

A pointed whisper reached his ears. “Do you boys see anyone?”

Kade started to jerk toward the voice.

“Subtle,” Theo reminded him, too quiet for human ears.

Kade’s gaze roamed totally casually over Beverly Sloan, who was positioned down the hall at the main entrance. She was wearing an over-the-top ballgown to hide the array of weapons underneath it, and she glared witheringly at anyone who tried to talk to her. It was so effective that no one called her out on it.

Kade shook his head. Her lips thinned, and Kade heard her swear.

Skeeter had the back entrance. She and Beverly both wore the matching blue masks Kade gave them. At any other time Kade would find that deeply cool, like they were a crew of thieves about to undergo a heist. But he couldn’t stop thinking about the unused masks sitting on his sewing table.

“Not like Finn to be late to his own party,” Theo said, looking around the cavernous living room full of their masked classmates.

“Maybe he’s feeling shy,” Kade suggested. “Or hey, maybe he had a change of heart. Maybe he decided vampire powers aren’t worth killing his classmates over and he’s told your parents to shove it.”

Theo didn’t answer. He was still watching faces: devils and ghouls and murder victims and a never-ending stream of vampires; lights flashing purple and red over the room. They even had a smoke machine.

Kade tugged his sleeve. “Dance with me.”

Theo frowned. “What?”

“Dance with me,” Kade repeated. He tried to smile. “We can watch the crowd without looking like total weirdos.”

Kade waited for Theo to say something like, since when do you care about looking like a weirdo? But Theo’s intense gaze softened, and he slid his gloved hands around Kade’s waist.

Kade pressed his mouth into Theo’s shoulder with a shaky sigh. He’d spent so much time wanting to be special, wanting a story— and now he was smack-dab in the middle of one and all he wanted was to dance with his boyfriend at a party. How the tables turned.

He clutched Theo tightly, hoping against hope that this wasn’t the last time. He wanted a lifetime of dances with this boy. More than one lifetime, if possible.

Theo’s confused voice pulled him out of his yearning.

“Does everyone seem…” Theo wrinkled his nose. “ Really wasted? The party just started.”

Kade looked up. His classmates did seem more drunk than they should have been. He counted several of them stumbling around, even slurring. A sophomore bumped into them, and Kade caught the distinct stench of hard liquor on his breath.

“God, it’s like paint thinner,” Theo complained.

Kade nodded. “Maybe Finn has a stash. Or?—”

Before he could finish, his eyes caught on a pale face in the crowd. It was tense and urgent, pushing through the throng toward them.

Kade swallowed, curling his fingers reflexively around Theo’s arms. “Incoming.”

Theo twisted to look. Then he dropped Kade’s waist and stepped in front of him, raising his arm protectively.

But Aaron barely looked at Kade as he came to a stop in front of them. He was panting, limp hair flopping in his eyes. He was wearing cargo pants and a duffel bag strapped to his back. Unlike their stumbling classmates, there was no trace of liquor on his breath. His eyes were clear and panicked.

“Hey,” Aaron snapped. “Where’s Liss? Her mom’s here but she won’t talk to me. Even though she’s one of the only ones who can talk to me!”

Kade looked at Theo. Theo looked at him, jaw flexing.

Blue light ran down Aaron’s face. “Is she okay?”

“Aaron,” Theo started.

Kade winced. Theo’s tone was too obvious, too apologetic to mean anything but what Aaron was dreading. Aaron picked up on it in an instant, expression hardening as he whirled around.

“I’m okay, by the way,” Kade called. “If you were worried.”

Aaron shuddered. For a moment he stilled, looking at Kade’s intact chest with something sickeningly close to relief. Then Aaron turned back, pushing through the throng.

Theo surged after him, dragging him into a dark, empty hallway near the main entrance.

Aaron shoved at Theo’s iron grip. “Get off me!”

Theo ignored him. “Just tell us what the plan is.”

Aaron glowered. “How many times do I have to say it? I. Can’t. Tell . You.”

“And you wouldn’t even if you could, got it,” Kade said over the thumping music. “While we’re doing unanswerable questions, why don’t you have the crossbow hand? Is it in the bag? If I had a crossbow hand I’d wear it all the time.”

Aaron ripped his arm out of Theo’s grip. This time, Theo let him.

“I wish you did have the crossbow hand, Renfield,” Aaron snarled. “I wish you got all of this. I wish?—”

He stopped, snapping his teeth shut. His green eyes shone with fearful tears, and Kade was struck once again by the same festering, uncomfortable pity that Aaron had triggered these past few months.

“I shouldn’t have come,” Aaron muttered, clutching the duffel bag strap. “I should—I have to go.”

He turned for the door.

Theo grabbed his arm again. “Aaron.”

Aaron whirled around and shoved him bodily up against the wall.

Kade started forward, adrenaline spiking as he imagined hidden knives, arrows, a crossbow that popped out if you pressed a button. But Theo looked at him pointedly, the obvious hitting Kade as he came to a stop: Aaron couldn’t shove Theo into a wall unless he let him.

Aaron was obviously having the same realization. He laughed, the noise echoing jagged and ugly around the hallway.

“I was always jealous of you. Always thought you were what…” Aaron stopped, a twisted version of that loathsome smile Kade hated for so long spreading over his face. “What my dad really wanted.”

Theo hesitated. “I thought the same thing about you sometimes.”

“Yeah. Well.” Aaron laughed again, green eyes gleaming. “Here’s to disappointing our parents.”

Theo’s mouth twitched. Almost laughing with him, Kade realized.

Aaron let him go and slumped out of the hall, the duffel bag weighing heavy around his neck.

Kade watched him walk out the main entrance. Beverly Sloan stepped aside to let him through.

“He’s going to the tree,” he said. “Right?”

“I don’t know where else he’d—” Theo broke off as feedback screeched over the speakers. Kade and Theo curled inwards, slapping their hands over their ears. It was like nails on a chalkboard, but inside their skulls.

The feedback stopped. Finn’s voice echoed through the house: “Welcome, girls and ghouls and fangy fools!”

“Where the hell is he?” Theo growled.

He took off toward the living room. Kade followed, glancing back to watch Aaron vanish into the woods surrounding the house.

Lights raced over the living room, illuminating plastic scars and fake blood as they pushed through the crowd.

Finn’s voice boomed through the house, deep and impossible to track: “I hope everybody’s ready for a monster mash! Things are getting wild in this bitch. I might not be in the room, but I’m watching… and the best monster gets a prize that’s to die for!”

A cheer rose. Kade tried not to flinch. The doom was back with a vengeance, his stomach twisting with it. Like watching his dad get louder and louder at the dinner table when he was a kid, that inexorable dread. Something bad is going to happen .

Kade leaned as close to Theo as he dared. “We should light a fire.”

“What?”

“Get everyone out,” Kade explained. “We could go into the kitchen while everyone’s distracted. That’s a realistic place for fires to start. We could totally get away with that.”

Theo stopped. His eyes were closed, frowning as he concentrated.

Kade stepped on his foot. “Oi!”

Theo shushed him. His head was cocked. Listening for Finn’s voice. His real voice, not the tinny echo broadcasting from the speakers.

Kade didn’t dare join him. The heartbeats were too loud.

“This way,” Theo said, and took off toward the cordoned-off rooms that lay beyond the party areas.

Kade cursed and followed. He wanted to tell Theo to slow down, to wait, to point out they hadn’t even danced yet, they could at least spare one last dance in this horror show of a last night on earth?—

Then he froze and inhaled deeply.

Blood. Just a speck of it, far too close. A drop, barely noticeable through the crush of heat and sweat and face paint.

Theo ducked into the hallway.

Kade turned.

Blond curls behind a bright white volto mask. An impeccably pristine woman strode toward him, lifting her hand out of her cape.

The scent hit him like a shovel. Kade jerked back. But it was too late: Carol Fairgood grabbed his face and rubbed her bloody thumb over his lips.

And Kade forgot about everything. He forgot Theo. Forgot Aaron and Felicity and Finn. Forgot everything that wasn’t the woman retreating toward an open window. He heard himself snarl as he pushed warm bodies out of the way, ignoring their yelps.

They didn’t matter.

Nothing mattered but following the scent of blood out the window into the dark night.

Into the forest.