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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Fifty-three days after Kade Renfield died, he watched the sun come up with his boyfriend.
It was his favorite part of the day. Dawn washing over Theo’s curls, turning him even more glorious than usual.
Theo caught him looking and smiled. “Morning.”
“Morning, sunshine,” Kade replied softly. He shifted up the bed, burying his head in Theo’s neck and wrapping his arms around him. Theo stroked his angular shoulders, humming contentedly. Most of their first proper night together had been like this: holding each other close, not daring to let go. They hadn’t even gotten naked. Even after all that build up, double-dead parents really harshed the vibe. For the first night, anyway.
Theo kissed Kade’s split eyebrow. “It’s Saturday. What do you want to do?”
Kade hummed. They already had their homework finished. They’d completed everything on their to-watch list. Kade had no craft projects lined up and no shifts at Milly’s bookstore until tomorrow afternoon.
“How about a hike?” he suggested. “Might get lucky and find some puffball mushrooms.”
“Sure. Do we invite the others?”
Before Kade could reply, the doorknob clicked. They waited. Sure enough, Sparky pushed the door open, wagging triumphantly at her trick.
“Hey girl,” Theo said as she jumped up onto the bed. “Want to come on a hike?”
Kade watched him scruff her ears, an ease flowing through him which he’d never known before this summer. It was never for long, a handful of seconds at most. Sundance on the couch singing along to the MASH theme song, her knee bumping his. Flying through the woods, warm wind on his face. Theo kissing his bare knuckles.
But as always, the ease ended. A spark of hunger jolted through him, so intense he had to close his eyes. He was getting better. But most days the hunger was just as bad as on that very first day, digging his nails through his jeans so he didn’t start feeding on Sundance right there in the living room.
Theo touched his arm. “Babe? You okay?”
Kade pulled up a smile. “I gotta go see a microwave about some deer blood. Want any?”
Theo shook his head.
“More for me.” Kade kissed Theo’s cool wrist and slid out of bed to find clothes. “Don’t wait up.”
Theo stroked Sparky, watching him get dressed in silence right up until the end. Then he said, “You fixed your shirt.”
Kade looked down at the shirt he’d just put on. It was the same one he’d worn to Finn’s party. The fire eye had punctured a line through the middle, so Kade had sliced it into a crop top. The last part of the phrase was gone. Now it just read U STAY SOFT.
Theo touched the hem, ghosting his fingers over the letters.
“Suits you,” he said.
He ran into Sundance in the kitchen. She was on the ceiling, muttering as she scrubbed a stubborn spot of water damage.
“Hey,” he called up to her as he fetched a container of deer blood from the fridge. “We’re going on a hike. Wanna come?”
“Rain check,” she replied. “I’ve been meaning to clean this crap for years. I’m doing the gutters next.”
“Suit yourself,” Kade replied. He started to grab a mug from the cabinet. Then he paused and put the full container in the microwave. He would’ve gone back for seconds anyway, no use wasting a mug.
Sundance floated down. Other than an aversion to hunting, she’d adapted well to the vampire lifestyle. She liked having more time to get things done. She was even looking into night classes. Poetry , of all things. Kade never knew she was interested.
She wrapped him in an inhumanly tight hug. Yet another thing that had changed since they died: every time she saw Kade, he got a hug. Life’s too short to not hug your kid, she liked to say. Then, if he was around, she’d hug Theo.
“Home later?” she asked into his shoulder. “I’m up to your favorite seasons of MASH . BJ’s arrived and Frank is gone.”
“The sweet spot,” Kade muttered. He kissed her forehead and leaned back, one eye on the microwave timer. “Count on it. We won’t be long.”
Aunt Sundance gave him another fond squeeze. Then she floated back up to the ceiling with her washcloth.
Kade sent a message to the LockSuckers group chat at eight in the morning. An hour later, four of them had shown up to their hike: Felicity, idly throwing knives into trees as she walked. Skeeter, who was admiring the birds. Ryan Emmerson, who was taking advantage of not being able to feel the heat by wearing layers and layers of leather.
And Russel, who still hadn’t worked out what emojis meant, and had eggplant-reacted to the hiking invitation. He and Theo were lingering at the back of the group, distracted by local fauna.
Kade took a sip from his thermos and nudged Skeeter, who was watching Felicity fiddle with fire eye up ahead. “How is she?”
“Um,” Skeeter said. “She’s okay? We had a good talk last night. Then she freaked out and started smashing up the garage. But she cleaned it up after.”
“Whoo,” Kade said faintly.
“Whoo,” Skeeter agreed, eyes fixed on Felicity twisting the thorny fire eye vine around her fingers. Skeeter had moved back in with her shocked parents after Finn’s party, but she spent most of her sleepless nights at Felicity’s place, discussing chess and training and sometimes convincing Felicity to go to bed before three a.m.
Felicity wasn’t taking her brief stint as a vampire well. She trained until she collapsed, gaining back all the scars that dying had wiped clean. At first Kade thought it was guilt over Aaron. Then he’d caught her watching them. She’d see Skeeter scale a tree or Theo fly up to retrieve an ax or watch Sundance feed and she’d get this look on her face that had nothing to do with guilt. It was longing . She missed being a vampire, even if her vampirism had been so terrible and bloody. The only one who got to turn human when Victor died and the only one who might’ve chosen this undead life anyway.
She hadn’t brought it up with the boys yet. But Kade had heard her whispering with Skeeter. She was thinking about getting Skeeter to turn her after graduation.
“My ears are burning,” Felicity called from up ahead, threading the fire eye around her wrist.
“Just talking about what a sore loser you are,” Skeeter replied.
Felicity barked a laugh. “ Moi ? Have you met yourself? Last time I won a game of chopsticks you threatened to cut my hair off!”
Skeeter pointed to the tree line marking the end of the woods. “Race you.”
Felicity laughed and tucked the fire eye into her pocket. “Eat my dust.”
Skeeter took off. Felicity ran after her. She was no match. But she gave it her all, arms pumping, heart rate climbing as she chased Skeeter through the trees.
Ryan Emmerson came over from their detour to take a photo of a rotting log. They had gotten passionate about death and decay in the last few months, and were thinking about becoming a morgue technician.
“I’m annoyed I can’t get tattoos,” Ryan said. “Or if I dare take my earrings out, they close up immediately. I want a septum piercing but I don’t want to re-pierce my nose every time I take it out.”
Kade tugged at his crop top. “Preaching to the choir, baby goth. All my tattoo ideas are useless now.”
“There must be a way,” Ryan said determinedly, watching Felicity run. “If I knew the whole ‘killing your sire turns you human again’ schtick, I would’ve put my hand up.”
Kade winced. “Heat of the moment. We just wanted them dead.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Ryan kicked a rock. It pinged off a tree twelve feet away. “Milly’s vampire friend in North Carolina is doing research. No bites yet, but at least she’s trying.”
“That’s awesome.” Kade took another sip from his thermos, waiting. He recognized that nervous hunch. Ryan had more to say.
“Are you still thinking of going?” Ryan asked. “’Cause of the…?”
They trailed off, nodding at Kade’s thermos of blood. None of the others needed to bring a thermos everywhere with them, just in case. Nobody else needed a babysitter when they drank human blood.
“Probably,” Kade admitted. “Nobody in Tennessee knows how to help crazy newborns.”
Ryan frowned. “You’re not crazy.”
Kade shrugged, watching Skeeter streak back toward them with Felicity in her arms.
Felicity climbed down, smirking. “Eat it, Bass. I’ll beat you one day.”
“In five hundred years, maybe,” Skeeter replied.
Felicity blew her a kiss and mimed biting a chunk out of her chin. Then she paused, looking at the ruined greenhouse they were coming up to. The burned struts were still there, clumps of ash still sticking to the dirt.
The Fletcher house stood empty beyond it. Mrs. Fletcher hadn’t bothered to sell it when she left town. Hadn’t even packed. She just left, leaving the doors unlocked behind her.
Felicity glanced back at Kade, a silent question in her eyes. The fire eye wasn’t back out again, but he could tell she was itching to start fidgeting again. If she turned into a vampire again, she would have to pick a new favorite thing to fiddle with.
Kade shrugged.
Felicity glared, letting him know how unhelpful he was being. Then she turned toward the others, flinging her arms up.
“Who wants to go hunting? I want some venison. Skeet, you’ll carry it home for me, right?”
“Sure,” Skeeter said warmly.
Felicity turned to Kade, expectant.
“Maybe later,” Kade said.
Felicity nodded. She’d already gotten a thermos out, ready to fill it for Kade to drink later.
The others headed further into the forest. Theo appeared behind Kade, sliding an arm around his waist.
“You can go,” Kade offered.
“I have food at home.” Theo rubbed the strip of skin showing under Kade’s crop top. Soothing him, but also checking to see if this was still allowed. Kade often found him watching the spot he was touching, waiting for Kade to blister.
They walked slowly, the burned flower patch looming ahead. Kade waited to see if Theo was going to divert them, but Theo’s footsteps were slow and certain. Like it wasn’t Aaron’s house through the trees and their past selves’ bodies buried under the spot where Kade had bled out.
“Finn texted me,” Theo said. “Wants to schedule another basketball session.”
Kade sighed. “You heal a guy’s bite marks one time, and now he won’t leave you alone.”
“Yeah, yeah. He’s not as insufferable since his near-death experience.” Theo kissed his cheek. “I heard you and Ryan talking back there.”
Kade sighed louder. “Can’t a guy have one private conversation on a vampire hike?”
“I can’t help it,” Theo said. “I’m tuned into you. You could go to the other side of the world and I’d still hear you.”
Kade ducked his head, hiding his smile behind his thermos. Most of the curse’s effects had gone away since they completed the ritual. But Theo could still sense him if he concentrated. Kade no longer had a heartbeat to listen to, but Theo still heard his voice louder than everyone else’s.
They came up to the edge of the burned flower patch. Kade’s lifeblood was gone, the scent covered by moss and dirt. Kade was surprised. For some reason he’d expected it to linger.
“I’ll come with you,” Theo offered.
Kade rolled his eyes. “We have school.”
“Summer break soon,” Theo pointed out. “And if things are still bad after graduation, I can take a gap year.”
“You shouldn’t put off college if I’m still having trouble in a year .”
“Babe,” Theo said. “I can go to college anytime. Not getting any older, remember?”
He gestured at himself. Theo Fairgood, eternally sixteen. His curls were still the exact same length they were the night of that fateful Founder’s Day party. Even his clothes were similar: a pair of ironed jeans and a tight t-shirt. The only thing that had changed was his expression. No cockiness, no false bravado. His gaze was utterly unguarded. Nothing hiding the deep love he had for the boy in front of him.
Kade swallowed, throat suddenly thick. “You sure?”
Theo shrugged. “We have time.”
“Yeah? You still gonna put up with me in five hundred years?”
“Four hundred,” Theo replied instantly. “Then let's see other people.”
Kade laughed wetly. Theo stepped close, leaning their forehead together.
“Kade,” Theo said. “Love of my death. We’ll watch the sun burn out.”
They stood like that for a long time, surrounded by the forest that once haunted Kade’s dreams, full of choking darkness and an inevitable death at the hands of the boy he loved. Now it was just trees.
It was strange, not being doomed anymore. Kade quite liked it.
It took a long time for Theo to pull back, a surprised noise rumbling in his throat.
“Wow,” he said. “Look.”
Kade followed Theo’s pointing finger. Two pink flowers sat in the middle of the burned remains of the greenhouse, their stems twisting together. They were new, the petals not quite open. Still blooming.
Kade swallowed, blinking black liquid out of his eyes as he pictured the two boys curled underneath the dirt, a mirror of the boys standing on top of it.
“I thought they only bloomed one week a year,” Kade said quietly.
“Must be magic.” Theo kissed him again, long and deep. Then he stepped away. “Let’s keep going. There’s some really cool moss up ahead that I want you to see.”
Kade grinned wetly, his grief replaced with a rush of wild joy. “With an offer like that, how can I refuse?”
Theo held out his hand.
Kade took it.