Page 18

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

Felicity was posing when Theo opened the front door. One toned arm draped against the doorframe, smiling like she was at a photoshoot. She’d changed into a sundress, and she smelled like soap and strange wine.

“Fancy seeing you here,” she crooned. She waved down at Sparky, who growled. “Hi, beast.”

Theo sighed, pushing Sparky behind him. “Is anyone with you?”

“Can’t you tell with your vampire senses? Mommy’s on the roof of Mr. McGuilicudy’s house with a sniper rifle.” She stopped, snorting. “It’s just me, dipshit. Mom stormed out after you left. She was really pissed at Mrs. Fletcher.”

She shoved past him, looking around the living room which was open into the kitchen. “Sooo what was the big deal? Where’s Monster? ”

“His name is Kade,” Theo said. “Don’t call him that again.”

She gave him a surprised look. It even looked genuine.

“I always thought he liked it,” she admitted. “He bared his teeth often enough. Oh hi, Kade! You look—oh. Shit.”

Theo turned to see Kade appear from the hallway, a shirt wrapped around his injured arm. The fabric was already soaked in blood.

Theo gestured at Felicity. “Cool enough?”

“Enough,” Kade said, sounding almost as tired as Theo. “Come on. I guess.”

Kade led her into his room. Both of them kept giving Theo looks—Kade wary, Felicity gleeful to hide her growing nerves. Theo ignored them. He didn’t want to deal with any of this. He wanted to go back to laying his head on Kade’s shoulder, feeling his warm weight. Solid. Undeniable. He’d tried to tune into Kade while he ran here, but he couldn’t concentrate enough to even tell whether Kade was alive . He’d spent the whole sprint over here thinking he might be too late, that he’d arrive and find Kade impaled with a silver crossbow bolt, even though that wouldn’t make sense. You didn’t need silver to kill a human. You didn’t need anything. You could do it with your hands, with a little effort. But Theo imagined it on the run through the woods as dirt and branches caught in his hair: Kade sprawled out on his bed, gray eyes half-lidded and staring, unseeing, at the ceiling. A bright spot of crimson on his chest where the arrow struck him. Like a bird shot out of the sky.

“This is getting kind of ominous,” Felicity said, voice getting higher and higher as Kade pushed his door open. “Like, am I gonna walk in and find—oh SHIT.”

She froze, staring down at Mr. Fletcher’s unconscious body.

“He’s alive,” Theo said.

Relief flooded her face. “Oh my god. Lead with that, I thought I was on shovel duty!” She smacked Theo in the chest and took a few cautious steps toward Mr. Fletcher, eyeing his bloody ear.

Sparky tried to get in the room. Theo pushed her back with his foot and closed the door in her face.

“Stay,” he told her, ignoring those big sad eyes.

Felicity nudged Mr. Fletcher’s inert body with her foot. Then she squinted. Trying to see if he was breathing, Theo realized.

“He is alive,” he insisted. “Look! His chest moved!”

Felicity squinted some more. Kade looked over at Theo, concerned.

“He has a heartbeat ,” Theo said. He turned to Kade. “Do you have any rope? Or sturdy scarves? I want to tie him up before he comes to.”

“What?” said Felicity and Kade in unison, both their faces scrunching up in such similar confusion that Theo frowned .

“Nobody’s telling us what we want to know,” Theo explained. “So we’re going to make him. Scarf time, then I heal Kade’s arm.”

He looked at Kade expectantly. Kade threw up his good hand, then turned, grumbling, to his drawers.

Theo tied Mr. Fletcher’s hands with an ugly knitted scarf that Kade had been meaning to throw out. Then he fetched Felicity’s water bottle from the couch and headed into the kitchen.

Sparky nosed at his elbow, jumping up to put his front paws on the sink.

“Don’t,” he told her, pushing her down. He lowered his voice, letting irritation leak into it. “I expected better from you, you know. You didn’t protect him.”

She cocked her head with a whine.

“He could’ve died ,” Theo said, hand shaking around the water bottle. “He could have died because you didn’t try hard enough. You get that, right? You’re a bad dog .”

She dropped to the floor, ears plastered to her head. A tremor shook through her body, from her soft head to her back paws, still puppy-huge.

“ Don’t ,” Theo snapped. “You’re not getting out of this just because?—”

He heard Felicity’s quick step behind him and fell silent.

“Oookay,” Felicity said. “Is that my water bottle?”

Theo jerked his head at Sparky. “Go to Kade. Go on. ”

Sparky slunk off, tail between her legs. Theo fought down the wave of rage and deep guilt as she vanished into the hallway.

“Kade needs to stay hydrated,” he told Felicity. “With all the blood loss.”

“Right,” Felicity said. “Of course.”

“I’m gonna need to bite him soon,” Theo explained. “And he’s already bleeding. So.”

Felicity gave him a pointed look. It was her ‘ you’re being an idiot’ look, which Felicity gave a lot of people and was very good at.

Theo screwed the water bottle lid back into place. “What?”

Felicity sighed. “Bite me , dipshit.”

Theo screwed up his nose.

“What? Is my blood not good enough for you?”

“No, it’s…” Theo trailed off. It made sense. He wouldn’t burn her. “Are you sure?”

Felicity pursed her pale lips. “Are you hungry?”

He nodded.

She held out her wrist. It was flushed where Kade was pale, elegant where Kade was gangly. Theo took it, thinking of the mole at the base of Kade’s neck.

He raised it to his mouth and bit down. Blood gushed over his tongue, hot and filling. It was better than deer. Better than rabbit, better than badger, better than squirrel.

It wasn’t as good as Kade. Not even close.

Felicity grunted in pain. It quickly turned into a sigh and she leaned heavily against the counter as the venom took hold. A lazy grin spread over her face, eyelids fluttering.

Theo felt uncomfortable. He pulled back, rubbing his thumb over the holes until they faded into clear skin.

Felicity’s eyes fluttered open and she gave an ecstatic giggle. Her pupils were huge.

“Holy shit,” she whispered. “If that’s what it feels like, no wonder Kade is hooked.”

Theo’s newly full stomach squirmed the way it did every time he remembered Kade was addicted to his venom. It made him feel gross. Kade had too many habits that hurt him. Theo didn’t want to be one of them.

Felicity followed him back into the bedroom, twirling the water bottle. Kade was sitting on his bed, watching Mr. Fletcher and holding his injured arm out awkwardly so it didn’t drip on the sheets. Sparky sat beside him, head on his lap.

Theo nodded at Sparky. “Out.”

She slunk out, looking just as miserable as last time. Luckily Kade was too busy watching Mr. Fletcher to notice.

“Fletcher keeps making awake noises,” Kade said. Then he nodded at his bloody arm. “Okay. You can heal me, but then you have to bite me. You were going to do it before, and you’re looking really?—”

“I already bit Felicity. ”

Kade stopped. “Oh.”

“You’re already bleeding.”

“Right,” Kade said, looking at the blood dripping down his arm. “No. Yeah. That makes sense.”

Theo tried to think of a way to make that hurt look leave Kade’s eyes. I only bit her wrist. I’d rather bite you.

“You taste better.” It felt like the worst option as soon as he said it.

“Ouch!” Felicity laughed, flopping down on Kade’s bed next to him and flinging the water bottle into his lap. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you two were bite-exclusive. What’s that in vampire culture—promise rings?”

Theo ignored her, sitting down a sensible distance from Kade. “Ready?”

Kade hesitated. Then he took the bloody shirt off his arm.

The wound was deep. Even freshly fed, Theo’s mouth watered. It wasn’t just that Kade was the other part of the ritual. It wasn’t that they were bound together. Kade tasted so good because he was Kade . His strangeness and sweetness: the parts he hid behind all that spiky darkness. It didn’t matter that they were two halves of a ritual. Even if they weren’t, he’d still be able to pick Kade’s heartbeat out of a crowded gym.

“You can,” Kade mumbled.

Theo looked up. “What?”

Kade nodded at the cut. “Be a waste if you didn’t.”

Theo glanced at Felicity, who was watching them with her pointy chin in her hands, her gaze curious and eager.

He pressed his tongue along the wound. Kade let out a whimper.

Cauterize , Theo thought dreamily as he pulled back to see the stripey burn that had covered the cut. He pressed his fingers over it next, another burn over the top of the old one, then both started to fade. When Theo lifted his hand, Kade’s arm was blood-smeared and whole.

Kade rubbed the bloody shirt over it. “You can suck it. Shut up ,” he added as Felicity tittered next to him. “The shirt, you can suck the shirt .”

Theo thought about it. If he was alone, he would have hunched over that shirt and sucked Kade’s lukewarm blood right out of the fabric. But he wasn’t, so he crossed the room and knelt in front of the unconscious Mr. Fletcher.

“Awake noises?” he asked Kade.

“Like…” Kade grimaced. “Groaning? He moved a little, then slumped over again.”

Theo concentrated. He couldn’t tell if Mr. Fletcher had more blood in his brain than usual, or if it was swelling, or any other danger signs he should look for after someone had their head bashed into the wall hard enough to knock them out.

He pulled Mr. Fletcher’s eyelids back. One pupil was blown.

“Crap,” Theo muttered. He laid his hands on Mr. Fletcher’s head and focused. His palms tingled, fingers fizzing with power.

Mr. Fletcher’s eyes fluttered open. His pupil was mostly back to normal.

Theo waited. First the confusion set in. Then the panic. Mr. Fletcher yanked at his hands, which were tied behind his back. He gritted his teeth in a smile.

“Boys,” he said, and then blinked rapidly when he noticed who was sitting next to Kade. “And…Felicity. It’s good to see all of you. I think there’s been some mistake.”

“ I think you tried to kill me with a box cutter,” Kade said.

Mr. Fletcher sighed. “I may have overreacted. You understand. Felicity?”

“I understand that my mom is weird as shit,” Felicity said, twirling a strand of hair around her pinkie so hard the skin went white. “I understand that I was trained in gymnastics and archery and knives as a child, and no one told me why I had to keep doing it, and everyone said I’d get in seeerious trouble if I told anyone about some of the weirder shit we did. I understand that we have this…stupid, grandiose self-importance about ourselves even though as far as I can tell, anyone who’s alive right now has done screw-all to earn it. I understand that we’re in the middle of a shitstorm that everyone’s been terrified of for generations and the only one who’s told me what we’re up against is Theo. ”

“We can’t ,” Mr. Fletcher said. “Felicity. Boys. We can’t tell you.”

Felicity threw her head back and groaned. “Theo, break his fingers.”

Theo knew she was joking. Still, he considered it. He could always heal him after.

He didn’t particularly want to break Mr. Fletcher’s fingers. He wanted to let him go. Send him slinking back to his family. Felicity’s blood had given Theo an energy hit, but it didn’t lift the mental fog. Today was so damn long . He desperately wanted to stop. To sit down on Kade’s battered couch and watch some mindless TV like Kade had suggested so many times.

But the guilt was still in him, that deep anger driving him forward. How dare you? Your father’s killer walks free. It could be anyone. You HAVE to do this.

Theo reached behind Mr. Fletcher’s back, grabbed one of his fingers and twisted until it snapped.

Mr. Fletcher screamed.

Kade screamed with him, shooting up off the bed. “Theo! What the shit!”

“I was joking ,” Felicity said weakly, face stuck in a horrified smile.

Mr. Fletcher thrashed, tears tracking into his neat beard. “God,” he spat. “ Christ . I can’t ?—”

“Tell us everything you know about my sire,” Theo demanded, shoving back the numb horror he’d felt when Mr. Fletcher’s finger cracked in his grip. “Then I’ll heal you. ”

Mr. Fletcher shook his head, face twisted in agony. Theo tried to look at him and see nothing but an obstacle between him and finding his sire, the man who had voted on killing him last year, the man who had sat there all summer and watched Theo choke down food he couldn’t digest. But he was also the man who gave Theo rides to basketball practice in middle school, let him watch R-rated movies and taught him how to fish. The loudest voice in every room, booming and friendly, and Theo had reduced him to a crying mess on the ground.

“We’re on the same side ,” Theo growled. “Please!”

Mr. Fletcher shook his head again. “Couldn’t even tell your dad. Don’t know how he knew. He just kept coming?—”

Theo snapped another finger.

Felicity gasped. Kade paced, rubbing his head anxiously, muttering under his breath. “ What the shit what the shit what the shit .”

“Small car,” Theo recited. “Tall bar, small tar. What was it?”

“Scars,” Mr. Fletcher rasped. “Small scars! He has small scars, and he’s known your family for years. That’s all your dad said.”

“ Everybody’s known my family for years,” Theo said. “What scars? Where, on his face?”

“I don’t know,” Mr. Fletcher sobbed. “Victor didn’t say. I still don’t know how he found out, but he said he needed to make sure. He was going to meet him?— ”

“Where?”

“At his house. They were going for a walk in the woods, the day he died?—”

Theo leaned back. “Mom said he went on that walk alone.”

Mr. Fletcher jerked, a pained cry wrenching out of him. Like Theo had broken another finger. Which was strange, because Theo wasn’t even touching him now.

He jerked again, shoulders hunching.

Theo frowned, concentrating. There was something… shifting inside Mr. Fletcher. Warping. Cracking.

“What’s happening?” Theo asked. “I can hear something… twisting inside you.”

Mr. Fletcher laughed, the noise bright with pain. “ It is our burden to bear ,” he recited, wet eyes fixed on the ceiling. “ No one will throw themselves into this terrible fight except us, the chosen, the burdened ? —”

He folded in half with a scream. Something had fractured deep inside him, Theo heard it snap.

“What’s happening?” Felicity asked, voice high and strained.

“So stupid ,” Mr. Fletcher laughed, shaking with pain and laughter. He coughed, the movement making him flinch. “God. They should’ve gotten rid of this tradition along with the sword training.”

“What tradition?” Theo asked. “Mr. Fletcher?”

“Secret society of hunters,” Mr. Fletcher gritted, shuddering. “Emphasis…emphasis on secret . Never actually seen this happen. Hoped my parents were lying. Scaring me into keeping quiet. Nope! I can feel…I can feel… ”

He spasmed. Another bone cracked inside him, liquids sloshing in places they shouldn’t.

“Theo,” Kade said urgently. “Theo, what do we do?”

“I don’t know,” Theo snapped, hovering his hands helplessly over Mr. Fletcher’s torso. “There’s—it’s inside him, I don’t?—”

Mr. Fletcher sagged sideways, forcing his bloodshot eyes open to fix on Theo.

“You have to kill him,” he croaked. He coughed, blood and spit landing on Theo’s nice shirt. “Before—before spring. There’s no getting out. He’ll die either way. Don’t give them the chance?—”

The coughing overtook him. Viscera flowed over his chin. Chunks of pink flesh came out with the blood. Choking on his own organs.

Theo stood, a numb mess of horror and hunger.

Kade gripped the back of his shirt. “What do we do? What do we do ?”

Theo shook his head. He felt like he was watching this through a screen, like it wasn’t happening to him. Vampires, murderous history teachers, secret societies of hunters, dead dads. How could any of this be real?

Mr. Fletcher gave one last cough. Then he slumped over.

No one asked Theo to check for a heartbeat. Mr. Fletcher’s glassy eyes were answer enough: the man was dead.