Page 26

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

For one stupid, childish moment, Theo felt a stab of joy.

Then reality sunk in. That bone-deep knowledge was back, telling him something Theo used to be proud of: I am his.

Theo shook his head. “Dad…how…I saw your body . You…”

He looked at his mom, who was wiping tears off her cheeks. She caught him looking and grinned, a wild laugh bubbling out of her.

“Isn’t he magnificent?” she said, gazing up at Victor. There was a light in her eyes, a naked and near-holy devotion he’d never seen before. Like he could ask her to draw a knife across her carotid artery and she would ask how deep.

Theo kept shaking his head. He couldn’t stop. Next to him, Sparky whined. Her whole body shook .

“I saw a body,” Theo croaked.

“You saw a body,” Victor corrected, still holding a squirming Kade by the shirt as he hovered high in the air. “You snuck in to see Lemmings, of course you’d sneak in to see me. Especially after that note I left.”

“I’ve seen you eat,” Theo tried, trying to remember the sparse family dinners his father had attended. “You’re…you don’t eat much, but I’ve seen it.”

“Yes, and I’ve seen you eat at every one of the Fletchers’ foul dinners this summer.”

“Baby pictures,” Theo whispered. “I saw…baby pictures…”

“You saw someone’s baby pictures.” Victor gave him a look, almost pitying. “Theo, really. You’re being a little slow about this, son.”

“You’re my sire,” Theo said numbly. He thought back to the terrifying movement in the dark, being crushed to that creature’s steely chest. The agony of teeth in his neck, the sheer terror of the fall. Drowning. His dad had let him drown . His dad had been the one who dropped him, who slit his wrist and shoved his vile blood into Theo’s mouth and forced him to swallow.

Over by the wall, Aaron groaned. He tried to push himself up, then slid right back down. The hunting knife clattered to the polished wood.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” Victor continued. “You’re very special to me. You know that. But I can’t risk anyone ruining my plans. Come with me, my boy.”

He said it softly, like he wasn’t holding Kade aloft by the collar with a hand over his mouth. Kade writhed in his grip, face red with effort. Theo could hear him grunting, inhaling desperately through his nose. That hand over his mouth was pressed tight .

“Theo,” Victor said expectantly. Theo got the feeling he would hold out a hand, if they weren’t both currently occupied.

Theo wet his lips. His voice came out tiny and pathetic, like a small boy afraid of getting in trouble. “I can’t.”

Victor sighed. “It’s just until the time is right. Then you can come back.”

“And kill Kade?”

Victor’s lips thinned. Something very old curled up inside of Theo. Prey animal, he thought hazily. Kade had that on a crop top somewhere. Theo had watched him stitch the words into the fabric.

“I was always worried you were too soft,” Victor said. “But when the time comes, you remember who you are. You’re one of us. Always have been. And Fairgoods are…”

He trailed off, waiting. Kade kicked him in the shin. Victor didn’t look at him, too busy staring Theo down, eyes full of terrible understanding. Like he knew everything Theo was feeling right now.

He raised his eyebrows expectantly.

“Vicious,” Theo whispered.

Victor smiled. “Come up here. ”

Theo looked pleadingly at his mom. She gestured up at her husband hovering over them.

“Go on, honey,” she told him.

I thought you wanted to see the garden , Theo thought. Then he rose into the air, feeling more monstrous than he ever had with his teeth in Kade’s neck. It wasn’t a long way up, but it felt like a lifetime. A lifetime of tripping classmates in halls and panicking when he lost a game or failed a test or people dared to comfort him, afraid his parents would find out.

Victor held Kade out. “Feed. You’re looking peaky.”

Theo reached out numbly. His hand curled in Kade’s shirt.

Victor dropped his hand from Kade’s mouth as he handed him over.

Theo waited for Kade to speak, but he didn’t. He’d stopped squirming as soon as Theo reached for him. He just stared, eyes wet, as Theo held him up.

Sparky yipped. Her muscles quivered, front legs jerking up.

Victor shushed her. “Stay.”

She lay back down.

Be the prey or be the knife , Theo thought. He thought of crouching behind a bush with his father, hands sweaty and small around a rifle, willing a deer to run. He thought about Kade’s eyes, shiny and gray and beautiful, just like when he’d left him there in the woods. Theo had told him to stay away and he’d come to save Theo anyway .

Kade curled a hand around Theo’s sleeve. Theo could hear his heart hammering in his chest, feel his heat through his shirt. Kade was shaking.

Shaky guy, Theo thought. Loud heart.

He flew so fast he blurred. When he stopped, he was at the wall with Aaron, standing protectively in front of Kade. He stooped and grabbed the hunting knife from where it had fallen next to a half-conscious Aaron. Then he planted his feet. Waiting for something he couldn’t dare to imagine.

Irritation flickered over Victor’s face. He floated to the ground. Carol was there waiting for him. She slipped her hand into his.

“Why did you leave the note about your body?” Theo whispered. “Why did you try and make me hurt Russel?”

“I told you,” Victor said impatiently. “I wanted to see what you’d do. I was hoping you would kill the gardener. For me.”

He took a step forward.

Theo spread his arm in front of Kade protectively. “I thought you wanted me to join the vampires!”

“I want you to join me ,” Victor corrected, eyes gleaming. “I thought if I raised you this time—your whole life, not just after you were dead—I could instill some better instincts. And if that failed, I would win you over through that—” His lip curled. “That soft heart. But I failed on both counts. You picked him over your family, again.”

Theo stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Ah,” Victor said. “The Sloans didn’t tell you, then?”

Kade tugged on his sleeve. “Theo.”

Victor cut him off. “He is not worth throwing your family away for. He’s nothing , Theo. A means to an end. To be used and consumed.”

“You shut up about him,” Theo whispered. He couldn’t raise his voice. If this were one of the stories Kade liked, he would be shouting. Declaring his rebellion proudly. But here he was, cowering over Kade, like if he just made himself small enough, they would vanish from this place.

Victor sighed again, squeezing his wife’s hand absentmindedly. “Is this going to be a fight? I hope not. I hope I can just…take him away. And you’ll come with me. And when the time comes, you’ll do what your birthright demands.”

“You’re not gonna touch him,” Theo managed.

Beside him, Aaron groaned. His head lolled sideways, staring at Theo. There was blood on the back of his head, Theo could smell it over his rotting hand.

Theo turned back to his dad. The front door wasn’t far. Just down the hallway and around a corner. He could make it out with both boys if he ran fast enough.

“Dad,” he tried. The word shattered in his throat. “Just let us go.”

Victor’s face hardened. Like this was the final straw. Betrayal was one thing, but begging— begging was weak. Soft . Everything he’d tried to train out of Theo.

Victor dropped his wife’s hand.

Kade tugged the back of Theo’s shirt. “Theo?—”

Theo cut him off. “Any ideas?”

Kade’s mouth moved wordlessly. He gave Theo another pointed look, like he wanted to speak but didn’t want Victor to overhear. Near the stairs, Sparky whined again.

“I want you to know,” Victor began, lifting once more into the air. “You did this to yourself.”

He flew at Theo.

Theo charged. They crashed together in midair. Theo flailed out with the knife—too slow. Even with Victor’s hands on his throat, Theo didn’t want to stab him.

Victor wrenched the knife from his grip and threw it backward into the living room.

Kade ran for it. Aaron stumbled up, fell, stumbled up again. There was a bloodstain on the wall where he’d been lying.

“My love,” Victor said, hand around Theo’s throat.

“On it,” Carol called.

Theo watched her run for the knife. Watched her and Kade wrestle for it, watched Aaron clumsily tackle her. She stomped on his mangled hand and he screamed, so agonized that Theo flinched.

He clawed at his dad’s hand. Kicked out. Victor was unrelenting, hand tightening on Theo’s throat.

“This could have been easy,” Victor said. “This could still be easy. You’re a Fairgood. You don’t have to turn your back on that.”

Theo kicked again. It was like kicking a wall of stone.

Victor sighed. He flew them upward, shoving Theo up on the ceiling Theo dusted once a month since he was twelve with a feather-duster strapped to a broom. As Victor pressed him into it, plaster cracking around Theo’s head, Theo realized that he hadn’t dusted as well as he thought.

Below them, Kade and Carol struggled over a knife. Aaron had his good arm locked around Carol’s leg, tears streaming down his face, on the verge of passing out. Carol fumbled for a vase perched on the living room table and smashed it into Kade’s torso.

Victor slammed Theo into the ceiling three more times. Theo’s head cracked against it, pain exploding through his skull. Plaster rained down onto the knife fight below them. Kade had the knife now. Carol held a piece of shattered vase.

Theo scrabbled at Victor’s grip around his neck. “ Dad .”

“I had such high hopes,” Victor said over him. He dug his fingers into Theo’s shoulders, ten bright holes of pain that made Theo howl. He lifted a hand to grip Theo’s hair tight enough to rip out a human’s scalp.

“Sixteen years,” he continued. “What a waste.”

He yanked Theo down, flipping them over. Then he flew full speed into the ground. Floorboards cracked around Theo’s body.

Theo twisted. Kade and Carol had stopped circling each other long enough to gape. Aaron used this opportunity to flop over and bite Carol’s ankle. She kicked him and he fell back, barely conscious.

Victor cracked a fist into Theo’s face, snapping his head sideways. He slammed Theo into the ground again. The floorboards cracked and cracked. Theo felt black blood fill his mouth and thought of foundations, of roots, of rot.

“Mom,” Theo croaked over a split lip. “Help.”

She crouched in front of Kade, holding a piece of shattered vase. Blood dripped down her fingers, the sharp edges cutting into her palm.

“I wish I could, honey,” she said, eyes on the knife in Kade’s shaking hand. “But I’m the reincarnation of lady Cyth. When we let her out, I’ll absorb her and get all my old memories back. Isn’t that wonderful?”

“Reincarnation,” Theo repeated, head ringing from being slammed into a hard surface. There was plaster in his scalp, soft woodchips from running over a tree, varnished woodchips from the floorboards. “That’s not a thing. Is it a thing? Kade?”

Kade said something, but it was lost in Theo’s ringing ears as his father slammed him into the ground again.

Theo stared up into a pair of brown eyes so like his own and found he couldn’t say anything. The despair was so vast, the betrayal so deep. He couldn’t see a way out of this. He was doomed, it had him when he was born. There was no escape.

Victor started, “Now. This is your last chance to reconsider. Are you going to be a good boy and accept your fate, or will you continue this charade?”

Theo squirmed. His cheek was swelling, he could feel it. His cheek bled into his mouth, black blood down his throat. He swallowed it back.

“I won’t let you take him,” he whispered.

Victor sighed. He raised a hand over his head?—

Then he jerked.

Theo looked down. A knife stuck out of Victor’s stomach. Someone had shoved it straight through his back and out the other side.

A familiar voice rang through the living room. “A little low.”

“Shut up, mom,” Felicity barked.

Theo looked up.

Felicity stood in the living room doorway, a throwing knife gleaming in her hand. There were more in her belt. She was wearing cargo pants he’d never seen before and a zipped-up leather jacket he’d bought her for her birthday last year.

Beverly Sloan stood beside her, a flamethrower heavy in her arms.

“Remember,” she told Felicity. “Be careful .”

Felicity screamed and ran. She threw two knives, dragging more out from her belt. One landed in Victor’s shoulder, the other in his stomach.

“CAREFUL,” her mom repeated, but Felicity wasn’t listening. She leapt up, all gymnast grace, ready to leap onto Victor’s chest.

Victor didn’t even stand. He just struck out, the way one would strike an annoying fly. Felicity went spinning sideways, landing on the floor next to Aaron with a dull thud.

Now Victor stood. He brought Theo with him, closing his hand once more around Theo’s neck.

“Beverly,” he said, eyeing the flamethrower in her hands. “Always a pleasure.”

Beverly curled her lip. “You son of a bitch. This whole time—this whole time . Carol, you crazy bitch.”

Carol blew hair out of her eyes. She’d earned a cut across her collarbone since Theo last looked at her.

She started, “I am the beloved?—”

Beverly cut her off. “Leave. Now .”

Victor laughed. It was low and almost pleasant, and Theo shuddered to hear it. It meant he was about to take someone down. “If you think you can take me out with that little matchstick, you’re sorely mistaken.”

She lifted the flamethrower. Not at Victor, like Theo had expected. But at Kade and Carol, still circling with their blades.

“I don’t,” she said. “This is for them.”

Felicity sat up, cradling her elbow. “Mom! ”

Beverly shushed her. She stared Victor down, elegant hands perfectly steady around the flamethrower.

Victor cocked his head. He looked at Theo dangling from his grip. Then at Kade with the hunting knife, Aaron semi-conscious at his feet. At Felicity reaching for another throwing knife.

He didn’t look impressed. But then he looked at his wife, bleeding and clutching a shard from her favorite vase. She stared back at him, eyes wide and reverent.

Victor’s jaw clenched. He gave Beverly a tight smile.

“Until next time,” he told her. He looked at Theo, who was still squirming with a hand locked around his throat. He let go slowly, one finger at a time.

Theo dropped to the ground.

“What a waste,” Victor said quietly. He motioned toward his wife, who ran after him, still holding the vase shard. She slipped her other hand into his. Before Theo could wonder if she would look at him, Victor’s hand blurred around her waist and they were gone. A breeze blew through Theo’s hair with the force of it. The front door banged open.

Theo blinked at the space where his parents had been standing. Woodchips and blood.

Sparky ran to him, licking his hand and jumping up.

Theo pushed her off. Then he lurched over, pulling Kade behind him once more.

He turned to Beverly. “We’re not dangerous.”

“Cool it,” she told him, dropping the flamethrower to her side. “I’m not going to kill you. The Fletchers, however?—”

Kade cut in. “Uh, guys? Aaron’s having a seizure.”

Theo turned. Aaron was lying on the ground. Felicity held his head with her one good arm. He was spasming, eyes rolling in his head. Foam dribbled out one corner of his mouth. A wet spot spread down his jeans.

“Shit,” Theo heard himself say. He dropped to his knees next to Aaron and grabbed his head. For a moment nothing happened. Aaron continued to jerk against the floor. Sparky whined, nosing at Aaron’s twitching hand.

“What’s happening?” Beverly asked. “Why isn’t it working? Do you need to bite him first?”

Kade squeezed Theo’s shoulder. “You need to concentrate. Remember?”

“Right,” Theo mumbled. He closed his eyes, trying to break through his haze. His head hurt. The room span. Finally, he felt the buzz in his fingers.

Aaron’s jerking slowed. He stilled, heartbeat slowing. His eyes fluttered open.

“Hi,” said Theo.

Aaron punched him. Theo’s head barely moved, too out of it to remember to move with the impact.

Sparky growled.

“ Don’t ,” Theo warned her.

Sparky’s jaw snapped shut. She dropped back to the ground and trembled .

Aaron fell back, groaning. His rotted hand was still mangled, and now his good hand was hurt, too. His thumb sat at a strange angle, already swelling.

“Good job, asshole,” Felicity barked, holding her injured arm carefully. “Now you have TWO busted hands!”

Aaron struggled to his feet. He wiped furiously at his cheeks, wet with tears and foam.

“This doesn’t mean we’re even,” he spat.

“His dad’s dead too, asshole,” Kade told him. He was holding his shoulder, bleeding where Carol jabbed him.

“Dead dad club,” Felicity said, dazed. “We should make shirts.”

Theo stood. The room wheeled around him. His skull was cracked, he could hear bones shifting.

“Aaron,” he said. “Let me heal your goddamn hands.”

Aaron recoiled. “Get off me! Don’t ever touch me again. You’re…”

He stumbled back, almost falling into the hole Theo had made with his body. Then he righted himself and ran out.

Felicity said something to her mom. Theo didn’t hear it. He was pretty sure he was going into shock. When he zoned back in, Kade was kneeling in front of him, shaking him lightly. Sparky sat next to him, watching Theo anxiously.

“Oh thank god,” Kade said. “I thought you were in some…vampire trance or something. Are you okay? ”

Theo shook his head and swallowed the black blood in his mouth. His cheek was still bleeding.

“My entire life is a lie,” Theo said.

He waited for Kade to wince. Maybe make a joke to make Theo feel better. But Kade just stared at him, gray eyes full of terrible recognition. Like he understood. It should have made Theo angry. Should’ve made him snap at him, the same way he’d been snapping at anyone who dared suggest they knew how he felt. But as Theo sat there next to the hole his father had made with Theo’s body, plaster dripping down from the ceiling, he couldn’t muster anything but exhaustion. Maybe Kade did know how he felt. Maybe their messed-up link that led Theo to find Kade tied up at the tree went both ways. Maybe Theo’s cold heart was leaking and Kade was catching the drops. He hoped not. No one should have to feel like this.

Theo asked, “How did you know to come?”

“I had a vision.”

“You saw my dad?”

“Yeah,” Kade said uncertainly. “And, uh…um…”

Beverly spoke up. She had been examining her daughter’s injured elbow.

“You two should see something,” she said.