I shrieked as he lunged toward me, throwing my hands in front of my face and stumbling back with my eyes squeezed shut.
“Tess.” Horror dawned in his voice as he looked at me and realized exactly how pathetic I was.
“You’re l-like a brother,” I managed to say before a violent sob ripped through me. Derrick moved toward me, hand outstretched, but I jerked away from him. “Like family. Not like that. Never like—I mean, I—like—”
“No! No, no, no. I didn’t mean—I would never mean—” He reached for me, but he stopped when I flinched.
“I think . . . I think I should go.” I moved past him and started down the hall.
“Go?” He followed on my heels. “Go where?”
“Home.”
“Tess, no. I can explain, okay? Would you just listen? Tess!”
Fumbling with the latch, I threw the door open and plowed right into Josh Worthington.
“You killed him.” Josh’s eyes were crazed with grief. “You killed him! Why?”
I scrambled back and tried to slam the door, but Josh burst through. I barely had time to shriek Derrick’s name before Josh landed on top of me. The door bounced shut behind him as my head cracked against the wooden floor of the foyer.
“Why!” he demanded, one hand closing around my throat, the other raised in a fist. “Why are you doing this?”
“Get off of her!” Derrick grabbed Josh’s arm before he could strike, but Josh turned. I didn’t see what he did, but Derrick’s body hit the floor with a thud.
Derrick! Prying at Josh’s fingers with both hands, I tried to loosen his grip enough to draw in a breath.
“You killed him!” Josh’s fist slammed into my face so hard, stars flashed across my vision.
I kicked at him, scratching, clawing, anything to get out from under him. The press of something cold, metal, and circular against my temple stopped me cold.
Tires squealed in the driveway, a car door slammed. Matt threw open the door and took in the scene with wide eyes. “Josh! Stop!”
He closed the door behind him, throwing the latch with a click, and any hope I’d had at Matt’s arrival sank. He wasn’t here to help me.
“She killed Aaron!” Josh roared, his grip tightening around my throat. “And he’s still hurting, I can feel it! He’s in agony!”
“Josh.” With a pained groan, Derrick climbed to his feet, holding out his hands. “Stop, you don’t want to do this. Think about where you are. Whose house you’re in.”
“He’s screaming!” The gun dug into my skull. “He’s still screaming!”
“When?” Derrick demanded. “Tonight? She’s been here all night, Josh. She didn’t kill anyone.”
“You’re lying! I saw her!”
My heart pumped panic through my body. If he would loosen his grip for two seconds, just two seconds, I could breathe. You can heal, I reminded myself, trying to quell my fear.
From a headshot?
“Josh,” Matt begged. “Put the gun down. Y—you’re hurting her.”
“Not enough.” The gun made a clicking sound.
“Hey!” Derrick yelled. “You want the screaming to stop? Well, then pissing me off is a really bad idea. Get off of her!”
What was he doing?
“What do you mean?” Josh’s hand loosened.
I gasped, sucking in a mouthful of air too fast. I sputtered, coughing, and oh, God, it hurt. “Derrick, don’t!”
Derrick ignored me. “You mean you haven’t figured it out? Wow, you really are thick. You said she’s got more motivation to want you guys dead than anyone, but you and I both know that’s not true.”
I tried to squirm out from under Josh, but the press of the gun against my head reminded me that moving was really not a good idea.
“Hernandez . . .” Matt said nervously, “I don’t think—”
“Shut up, Matt!” Josh shouted.
Derrick edged closer, hands held out, eyes darting to me. “I’ve been having blackouts, and every time I come to, another one of you is dead. It started the night of the eclipse. You never stopped to wonder how she got to my house when the rest of you were stuck in the woods?” He glanced at me and swallowed hard. “You want the screaming to stop, let her go. It’s that simple.”
“Nice try, Hernandez,” Josh sneered.
“Think.” Something in Derrick’s voice sent shivers up my spine. “You’ve known us your entire life. She doesn’t have this in her. But me? You know that’s a different story.”
“He’s lying,” I cried desperately. Trying to save me by putting himself in the line of fire. Like I could live with myself if he got hurt. “Josh, listen—”
Josh backhanded me. “Shut up!”
“Don’t hurt her!” Derrick yelled.
My face throbbed and tears pricked at my eyes, but I continued. “What happened to Aaron—Derrick couldn’t do that. He could never do that. He—”
“They hurt you, Tess.” Derrick cut me off, his eyes glued to the gun as Josh raised it to point at Derrick’s chest. “You have no idea what I would or wouldn’t do.”
Josh leveled the gun at Derrick, tears streaming down his face. “Make the screaming stop.”
“Yeah, yeah. Of course.” Derrick’s hands raised in surrender. “But first, you have to put the gun down. Because if you shoot her, it’ll never stop, Josh. I’ll make sure of it.”
Josh’s finger twitched on the trigger.
“Stop this!” Matt shouted, voice hysterical. “It wasn’t Hernandez, Josh, I saw you! I saw you kill Aaron, I saw it!”
Josh swung around. “I would never hurt Aaron.”
“I know that! Don’t you see? It’s screwing with us!”
Gun safely off Derrick, I bucked upward, knocking Josh off balance. He went down hard on one arm. I grabbed at the hand with the gun, slammed it against the floor, and shoved the weapon away.
“Bitch!” He recovered, shoving me back down. He punched me so hard, blood splattered his face. Matt was on him in a second, hauling him off me.
Derrick yanked me free of the fray. “Tess? Tess!”
I tried to answer him, but between the buzzing in my ears and the white-hot beacon of pain that was my face, I couldn’t manage.
“Is she okay?” Matt demanded, dropping to his knees beside me. “Shit! We have to call 911.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
“No!” Derrick said. “You can’t call.”
We’d never be able to explain me healing.
“Josh,” I gasped as the throbbing in my face eased. “Where’s Josh?”
“He took off.” Matt motioned to the open door behind him, not even looking up from his phone. “Whaddya mean we can’t call? Look at her, she needs—”
“The gun!” I insisted. “Does he have the gun?”
“No.” He glanced up at me. “I—Holy shit!” Matt saw me and scrambled back. “Y-you healed.”
I slumped back to the floor as dizziness overwhelmed me.
“Josh broke three ribs less than a week ago, and he ran in here tonight. Ran.” Derrick’s voice sounded rough, though his arms supported me gently enough. “I’m willing to bet you all heal. Maybe at different rates or something, or maybe the injuries need to push past a certain extent to trigger. I don’t know, but whatever this is, it doesn’t want you to die. Not until it’s your turn.”
Matt nodded, his eyes distant, as if lost in thought. “You’re not calling your Mom, you’re not pressing charges.”
“The hell I’m not.” Derrick snapped, arms tightening around me. He eased off the pressure when I flinched. “We were just threatened at gunpoint, Roberts. We’re—”
Matt flashed his teeth at Derrick. “You need to know what I know. You said as much at Harrison’
s funeral.”
“Oh, I think we know everything we need to.” Derrick’s eyes glittered darkly.
Matt raised an eyebrow at him. “Willing to bet her life on it?” When Derrick didn’t answer, his grin broadened. “Didn’t think so. You don’t call, I’ll tell you everything. Clear?”
Derrick worked a muscle in his jaw. “Clear.”
“Good.” Matt walked into the living room with the casual authority of someone who knew he was exactly where he belonged and collapsed onto the couch, propping his feet up on the ottoman. “Let’s talk.”
Derrick helped me up. “In a minute. Mom gets home early sometimes.” He gestured to the table laying on its side and the shattered lamp, and I blinked. When had that happened? “If she walks in and sees this . . .”
“Good point,” Matt stood. “I’ll help, and uh . . .” He glanced at me. “You might wanna clean up a bit.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“The blood,” Derrick clarified. “It’s all over your face.”
Oh. “I’ll be right back.” I ducked into the bathroom and grabbed a washcloth. When I glanced at the mirror, I gasped. Lines and splatters of blood crisscrossed my face. I wiped off the gore with shaking hands as the enormity of everything that happened tonight caught up with me.
I’d almost died at the bonfire, told Derrick how I felt, been utterly rejected, strangled, and almost shot at. It was too much.
A knock on the door drew my attention, and I realized I was on the floor, curled up with my knees tucked against my chest. Derrick opened the door. He’d changed his shirt and cleaned up all traces of my blood. “You okay?”
“No.” I forced myself to my feet. “But what else is new.”
“Tess . . .” Derrick moved toward me, but I stepped around him.
“Let’s go hear what he has to say anyway.”
Chapter 38: Derrick
Sunday, October 2nd
“IT STARTED OUT as a prank.” Matt settled back on the loveseat, making himself comfortable.
I leaned against the ottoman between where he sat and where Tess was curled up on the couch looking traumatized. My heart was still in my throat from rounding the corner to find a gun to her head. In that moment, I would have said or done anything to save her.
And in that moment, anything hadn’t looked like enough.
But she was safe now, and my relief felt at odds with an all-consuming rage growing stronger with every heartbeat. Something had used Tess earlier, like a puppet, then I’d made everything worse, and then everything blew up with Josh.
But yeah, knowing “it started as a prank” made everything better.
Matt continued, heedless of the anger boiling within me. “Anytime someone got blackout drunk, they’d wake up in their own personal horror movie. Those woods are already creepy because of all the ghost stories, so it worked, you know? It was funny.”
I wasn’t sure what my expression conveyed, but given the way he looked at me and paled, it wasn’t amusement.
“So . . . uh, anyway,” Matt continued, giving us both a nervous look. “Last Halloween, Felicity got completely wasted. And you know, we weren’t sure what to do, because the cheerleaders never got that bad, you know? But David said she was cool, and Josh had that book from Stalker Ed’s, and—”
“Where is it now?” I would have noticed a book detailing human sacrifice in Mom’s evidence log.
“Probably burnt to a crisp. I would have grabbed it, but I was kind of trying not to die.” Matt shrugged. “I’m sure you can get another copy.”
We already had, but explaining that we already knew about the book because it was literally the last thing Ryan ever said could make Matt hesitant to talk about it anymore. I shot Tess a look and she nodded. We’d keep that to ourselves for now.
“So anyway,” Matt continued, completely missing our exchanged glances. “We set everything up and scared the crap out of Felicity. She was pissed at first, but once she calmed down, she thought the whole thing was hysterical.”
“Ha, ha.” Tess said flatly.
Matt looked down. “We won our next game on, like, an epic level. You guys aren’t athletes, so you wouldn’t understand, but there was something different about the way we played.”
I had vague memories of a win everyone got way too excited about from a year back, but football had never really been on my radar. “So you decided the only explanation for playing well was magic?”
“No. We thought we were fucking awesome. Until the next game, when we got crushed, and David ended up with a concussion.”
“So you started doing the ritual all the time,” Tess guessed.
“We still didn’t actually think the ritual worked. But why not try it, you know? But then the cheerleaders stopped going to the bonfires, because—”
“They didn’t like getting roofied?” I guessed, injecting as much venom into my tone as possible. I should listen, ask questions, get details, but instead I kept picturing Tess, terrified and tied to a stake while they debated whether or not raping her would screw up their good luck charm.
Matt shook his head. “We only drugged Tess because she wasn’t in on the joke. We didn’t want to take any chances she’d freak out and call the cops. We never meant for anyone to get hurt,” he insisted. “The match wasn’t supposed to light. No one was supposed to die. It was just a prank.”
“Get out.” I didn’t even realize I’d stood until Matt jumped to his feet, his head held high.
“No.”
“You could have killed her! Match or no, she could have died a dozen times over that night. You let them drug her,” I held up a finger, “mix it with alcohol,” another finger, “and then you let him drag her into the woods, disoriented and confused and then leave her there, cold and alone and vulnerable!”
“Josh didn’t drag her anywhere. If anything, it was the other way around.”
“She was drugged!”
“He said she was into it!”
I lurched forward, but Tess’s voice froze me in my tracks.
“Derrick, stop.”
I turned to her, my heart pounding so hard I thought it was going to beat right out of my chest. “The only reason Josh stopped was because he thought a virgin would work better for his stupid good luck ritual. You understand that, right?” I shook my head in disgust. “And now Matt wants you to feel sorry for them because when they tied you to a stake, drugged and drunk and terrified, it was a ‘prank?’ Yeah, they’re going to die, Tess. Fucking let them.”
“You have to help us,” Matt insisted. “Look, I get it. What we did wasn’t great, but we don’t deserve to die for it.”
“Gonna have to disagree with you there.”
“Whatever.” Matt stepped toward the door. “If we don’t put it together in time, we’re all gonna die. Even her. But if you don’t think you need me . . .”
“Stop.” Tess glanced between us. “I need to talk to Derrick.” She looked at me. “Alone.”
Gritting my teeth, I followed her into the kitchen. “I know what you’re thinking, but Tess, you don’t understand.”
“I don’t understand?” Her eyes glittered with rage. “I don’t understand! It happened to me, Derrick! I understand plenty.”
No, she didn’t. She didn’t know they killed her so they could win a football game. She didn’t know there was something walking around in her skin, speaking her words before she got a chance to say them, and I couldn’t tell her because Matt was sitting in the other room. “We need to get him out of this house right now.”
“You don’t get to do this.” Her voice sounded thick with rage. “You don’t get to get upset and lash out and throw a fit on my behalf and put the burden of being the rational, level-headed one on me. We need him! Fuck you for making me admit that out loud.”
&n
bsp; “Tess.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for making everything worse and awkward, but you can’t—”
“What I said before . . . Tess, I can explain, just not right now.”
“You called me a parasite! What more is there to explain?”
Damn it! This wasn’t happening.
She cleared her throat, trying unsuccessfully to hold back tears. “And you’re right.”
“What?” I threw up my hands in frustration, so thoroughly done that the single question was all I could muster.
“My mom. Sh—she said so, too. I take and I take until there’s nothing left but resentment then anger then hate, and I try to stop, I do.” She wrung her hands together. “So I didn’t tell you when things got bad at home. But when you found out, you packed my bags and wouldn’t take no for an answer. You never take no for an answer, Derrick!”
“Tess.”
“I tried to balance it.” Her voice quaked. “I did everything, anything you asked, but it wasn’t enough. It could never be enough because you have everything, and you could never need me as much as I need you.”
“Tess, you have been my best friend for seventeen years. I refuse to believe we can be broken in a matter of sentences. No matter what I said up there, you know me. If you seriously think I ever kept score—”
“No.” Her hands flopped to her side. “But I do this to people. I pushed you too far, I took too much, and then I pulled you into this nightmare of a situation. And if anything you said to Josh earlier is true, I have really screwed with your sanity. Because this thing, it’s not you. It could never be you. It’s evil. But if I put you on its radar, if you’re in danger because of me—”
She was not going to apologize for her last thought. “Stop. That’s not—”
“—then we don’t have a choice. I can’t let you die because of me, Derrick. So we’re going to solve this. But I can’t do it on my own. I need you. You see details and patterns that I don’t. And if I can sit there and listen to him justify what they did to me, you sure as hell can.”
“Tess.”
“And maybe it’s not fair, and maybe asking you to do this makes me a leech or a parasite or whatever other insult you want to throw at me, but that’s fine. I’d rather need you than—”
Blood and Other Matter Page 24
