Page 6
CHAPTER
SIX
Kade leaned against the wall of the science building, their go-to spot for these Felicity deals. One hand pinched a cigarette, the other typed out a text to his aunt: hey i was a total dick to u after mum died right?
He hit send right as Felicity came careening around the corner, wobbling in her high heels. Her hair was messy, her mascara smudged. She’d been showing up like this more often this year. At least the bruises were getting smaller. Kade could see a tiny one poking out from under her skirt, bright yellow and ugly.
“Price has gone up,” she announced before he could say anything. “My stash is dwindling. You’ll have to steal shit from house parties until my mom restocks.”
“Great,” Kade said dryly, almost meaning it. “I’ve been meaning to cut back.”
He really had. Getting blind drunk got less appealing the more his life improved. Not that it improved a lot— but he had a friend now. Sort of. And he had a purpose: helping Theo figure out how to get them both out of this ritual before spring. His schoolwork was improving, thanks to Theo’s incessant whining that they should study together. He was learning how to drive. The more his life filled, the less he had to drown everything out with overpriced booze and loud music and stupid fights.
Then Theo had snapped at him in a way he hadn’t in weeks, possibly months, and what did Kade do? Text Felicity for an after-school appointment. Old habits.
Kade continued, “What’s the damage?”
Felicity twisted her backpack straps against her shoulders, pretending to think. “Sixty.”
Kade blew out a plume of smoke and cackled. “Go to hell. I’ll steal from house parties.”
“I’ll tell everybody not to let you in.”
“Like you could keep me out,” Kade whispered, shoving an arm in front of his face like he had a cape. The move was a lot weaker without one.
Felicity still laughed. It had none of the usual bitchy delight as usual.
Kade sighed. “It’s not fun if only one of us is putting the effort in, Sloan. What happened to the show must go on ?”
“That’s for actors,” Felicity said, a beat too late. “I’m a model.”
There was something in her eyes now, determined and reluctant. Kade had never seen her reluctant before. Not openly, anyway. Felicity gave the constant impression that everything she did was with her whole chest: no doubts, just action.
“I…” she started. Then she stopped, her lips tightening. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”
She was being strangely polite. Kade hadn’t heard her talk that way to anyone, not even adults. It put him instantly on edge, glancing around to check Aaron or a teacher or a camera crew were going to jump out and bust him for buying booze illegally.
“What the hell would you want to talk to Monster about?” he asked. “Want some tips on how to self-destruct? Because it sounds like you’re doing great on your own.”
He blew a line of smoke in her face.
Felicity barely blinked. “About Theo. About you two hooking up.”
Kade choked on his next mouthful of smoke. He coughed, slapping his chest, eyes watering.
Felicity cocked her hip, waiting.
Kade stared up at her, still coughing. He opened his mouth to deny it—then snapped it shut. What the hell else could he say? No, those people who have seen me in Theo’s Lexus were wrong. See, he needs blood to live, and I go into withdrawal if I go a few days without his venom …
“Oh shit,” Kade managed. “You figured it out.”
She rolled her eyes, flipping her hair over one shoulder. “I’ve been shutting down any rumors about you two. You’re welcome . ”
“I doubt that’s for my benefit.”
“Well, it’s the last thing he needs. People knowing about you two. His parents…” Felicity pressed her lips together again. The middle of the lipstick was fading, leaving the center of her mouth pale pink while the edges remained dark.
“Is it serious?” she asked.
Kade laughed shrilly, glad Theo wasn’t around, for a hundred reasons, but mainly because he would have been able to hear Kade’s heart thundering.
“ God no.”
Felicity made an annoyed humming noise, like someone swatting a bee. “Ugh. I was hoping you could, like. Be there for him.”
“Why can’t you be there for him?” Kade croaked. He threw his cigarette down and crushed it under his boot. “You know, his oldest friend? I know you guys have drifted apart, but like. Still .”
“I’m not good for anybody right now,” Felicity said, oddly sing-song. Then she dropped back to her normal tone to continue, “I just—he needs someone. I can’t do it. And Aaron’s…not a good idea, either.”
She smiled at him with a ferocity that made Kade sway back. It wasn’t the smug poison he was used to. This smile stung, sure. But it was all directed inwards. Kade knew that smile intimately. He’d seen it in the mirror.
Part of him wanted to jeer in her face. Hold it over her head. But another part of him—smaller and softer and too damn stubborn, still gasping no matter how hard he tried to smother it—wanted to comfort her. Just a little.
“Sounds like you want to step up,” Kade said slowly. “You know. Not be a selfish asshole for five seconds.”
Felicity giggled. If she aimed half a pitch up, it would almost hit her party-girl laugh. This laugh teetered straight off a cliff.
“Have you tried that? Hard than it looks. Fighting our nature.” She took a step closer and grabbed his jacket collar, the leather creasing under her tight grip.
“If we try to hold someone, we just cut them on all our sharp edges,” she whispered. “Right, Monster?”
“Right,” he muttered. He pulled against her hand. Her toned arms flexed, keeping him close. Kade laughed nervously. “Gonna let go, Sloan?”
“Or what? You’ll break my nose?” She grinned harder. Then she let go, rocking back on her high heels. “Sixty.”
It took Kade a moment to remember what she was talking about. He fumbled in his back jeans pocket for his wallet, shelling out all his cash. “I have fifty-seven.”
She pulled her backpack off and produced a decent-sized bottle of whiskey.
“I’m having a party tomorrow night,” she announced. “A Thank-God-I’m-Single party. You should come. See if you can talk Theo into it.”
He took the whiskey gingerly. “Aren’t you scared I’ll steal your booze? ”
“I think we both have bigger things to worry about.”
“Uh-huh.” Kade eyed the bruise yellowing on her thigh. “Is this your weird way of being there for him? Giving him an excuse to go apeshit?”
“Everybody needs to go apeshit sometimes.” She shot him a wan smile. “Right, Monster?”
He watched her walk off, trying to suppress the roiling in his stomach. He wasn’t surprised that Felicity Sloan had hidden depths. He was just surprised and appalled by how much they looked like his.
He slipped the whiskey bottle into his bag. It was glass, so he’d have to walk carefully. Last year Sundance had caught him red-handed because a bottle of vodka clinked against his pencil case. That was the main reason he stopped bringing his pencil case.
He eyed the woods longingly. He wanted to walk deep in there and open his whiskey. But in a few hours he had a break-in. Theo was relying on him. So he started off toward his house, checking his phone as he went.
There was a reply from Sundance. I don’t know if I’d call a 10 yr old a dick. U were very sad and angry. It spilled out on me.
Kade bit his tongue hard enough to bleed.
yeah , he sent back. thought so.
Theo ripped the doorknob off the back door of Hersay’s funeral home .
Somewhere in the building, an alarm sounded. Theo tore open the door and blurred in.
Kade stood outside, frozen in shock. He’d been making jokes about lockpicking when Theo went full Hulk on the door.
There was a low crunch from inside the building. A moment later Theo appeared at the back door, looking expectant.
“Yeah,” Kade said. “They’re gonna notice that.”
“Hurry up,” Theo said.
Kade couldn’t tell if that was part of the plan or if he just walked up to a funeral home after hours and decided to cash in on his vampire strength for once. He barely got to use his vampire powers in real life, which was bullshit. The most he’d gotten to use his powers out of a life-or-death situation was the one time Kade talked him into throwing uprooted trees around in the woods, which led to one of the biggest smiles Kade had ever seen on him. It took Kade’s breath away to watch him with bark in his hair, throwing around tree trunks and laughing like a little kid.
Theo frowned. “What?”
“Nothing,” Kade said, putting the memory of Theo’s grinning face out of his mind. “Let’s get this over with. That alarm might go to the cops automatically.”
Theo held the door open. Kade stepped into the back of the funeral home. It looked the same as last time: same vase of plastic flowers, same painting on the wall of dogs playing poker, same magnet on a storage fridge door: CRACK OPEN A COLD ONE.
“Still want to put that on a shirt,” Kade muttered.
Theo ignored him. His gaze ticked over the storage drawers.
Kade swallowed. “Smell anything?”
Theo nodded. “He’s in there.”
He pointed at the storage drawer furthest away from them.
Kade thought back to Lemmings’s cut-off eyelids and resisted the urge to vomit.
Theo surged forward. Kade leapt in front of him, hands up.
“Wait,” he said. “You shouldn’t—I can look! You’ve done the heavy lifting, you can go wait outside.”
Theo scowled. He looked offended, like Kade had insulted him by saying he probably shouldn’t look at his dad’s mauled corpse. But mostly he looked raw . His chin kept twitching like he was near tears. And there was something else in his face, something horrible and hopeful , like he wasn’t entirely sure it was really his dad in there. Like he was expecting his dad to sit up, healed and fanged, and tell Theo to fill him in on what the hell was going on.
Kade got smacked with a memory from his mum’s funeral—ten years old and staring down at his rented shoes. Not looking into the casket no matter what his aunt told him about closure . If he didn’t look at her, she wasn’t really dead .
Kade swallowed. “Theo.”
Theo stepped past him and yanked the storage drawer open, revealing the man from his head to his belly button.
Or, where his belly button should have been…
Kade gagged.
The man’s stomach was a gaping hole, the organs cleaned out by the creature or, more likely, the funeral workers. One of his nipples was missing. Several fingers hung on by a thread.
“God,” Kade said. He covered his mouth. “Jesus.”
Theo didn’t reply. He was staring down at the man’s face, which was almost gone. They’d cleaned it up, but they couldn’t grow new skin, couldn’t insert more flesh. Half the man’s jaw had been torn away, exposing a set of dentist-perfect teeth. The eyes were gone, gouge marks in their place. His scalp had been hacked off, only a few blond curls left.
If not for the blond curls, so similar to Theo’s own hair, Kade would have doubts. But there he was on the slab: Victor Fairgood, ripped to shreds.
Kade shuddered. He wanted to puke. He wanted a drink. He wanted to run out of this place and never come back. Mostly, he wanted to get Theo out of here.
He pulled at Theo’s hoodie-clad shoulder. “Come on, mate. Cops might be on their way.”
Theo didn’t move. Kade would have better luck yanking on a stone.
He stopped pulling. Got beside him, trying to get into his eyeline. “Theo. No clues. And the body’s still here, you made sure no one’s taken it. You did good. Time to go.”
Nothing. Theo stared down at the ravaged face, those few bloody curls. His chin had stopped twitching, his expression totally numb.
Kade wanted to cry, watching him. He took Theo’s jacket sleeves, shaking him gently.
“ Hey ,” he said. “We might get arrested. Time to go !”
Theo didn’t answer. Kade sucked in a breath and wrapped his hand around Theo’s wrist, skin to skin.
Pain sparked down his fingers, instant and agonizing. Kade flinched hard, jerking back as the stench of burned flesh filled the room.
Theo jerked. He looked down at Kade’s burned hand like he’d never seen it before. His face twisted in shock. “Are you crazy ?”
Kade motioned at the back door, still ajar. “Move!”
Theo blinked at him, black tears collecting at the edges of his eyes. For a moment Kade thought he was going to tell him to get out. Then he launched into motion, slamming the body drawer shut and stepping back.
“Let’s go,” he snapped.