by Deanna Chase
Kids filed out, barely even pausing to glance back at her.
“I know I’m failing,” she muttered, heart sinking and realizing immediately what it was he wanted to talk about.
His lips were thin as he nodded. “Utterly. I’m thinking maybe it’s time I call your parents in for—”
“It’s just me and my dad.” She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on with me.”
When he crossed his arms, she was blasted with the scent of sweet milk. She’d begun to think it had nothing at all to do with Wickham in particular and everything to do with the fact that her school was literally overrun by hive.
The sweet-milk smell made her stomach growl, and she suddenly had a terrible craving for caramel. He lifted a brow.
She shifted on the balls of her feet. If her dad had to come in, that was it. No social life, no nothing. It would be over for her, at least until college. Which, all things considered, should have been the least of her worries. Maybe being locked up wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Then again…
“Look, I can tell you’re a bright kid. I’ve asked around—you’re not failing any of your other classes. In fact, you’re excelling in most. Which leads me to believe something’s going on here. Namely, Cain.”
Her heart spasmed in her chest. “What? I can hardly stand him and I know he hates me.” Recent events made her question whether that was even true anymore, but it definitely wasn’t any of Wickham’s business.
“So that’s why I saw him drop you off at school today?”
She frowned. This was getting weird. Like Twilight Zone weird. Why was her teacher fishing for deets about her and her love life? More importantly about her and Cain?
It didn’t make sense and made her weird-dar go off. Which was why her words came out a little snappier than she’d intended. “And that’s your business why?”
He narrowed his eyes at her tone. “You’re my business. I didn’t get into teaching just to watch someone with so much potential fail because of a guy. That’s why, Ms. DeLuca.”
Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she counted slowly to ten, wondering if there was a point to this inquisition.
Wickham brushed his fingers through his hair. “Look, that’s not the point of this conversation. My point for asking you to stay was to find out if you’d be interested in extra credit. Right now you’re swinging a solid D plus. If you do this, it’ll bring your grade up to a C minus.”
She licked her lips as new kids started filing in, watching her and Wickham with curious eyes. “What kind of extra credit?”
“You going to Homecoming?”
She shrugged. “I don’t have a date. Not really sure. I was thinking about it though.”
“Good, actually.” His grin was weak with relief. “If you don’t have a date, you won’t be obligated elsewhere. I’m heading the setup and cleanup committee. I’d need you to come and hang decorations three hours prior to the event and then stay afterward to take down. Which of course means no after-party.”
This was both good and bad. Good because her dad would never have to know just how close she’d come to totally blowing her GPA and any hope of getting accepted into a decent college out of the water. Bad because she’d for sure miss the party of the year.
One option sucked a little less.
“Yeah, I’ll do it.”
Pulling a roll of hard caramel candy from his pocket, he popped one in his mouth and grinned. “Good.”
Well that totally explained the smell. Jeez…
The class was almost full at this point, and she knew she was going to miss her next bell. Wickham grabbed a pad and pen off his desk, then started to write something.
“And Ms. DeLuca, a bit of unsolicited advice—stay away from that boy. He’s trouble.” His brown eyes gleamed with a mysterious flicker of something she couldn’t name.
The worst of it was, he really meant it. She heard it in his tone. And that totally pissed her off. It was none of his business.
Spine instantly rigid with disgust and fury, she snatched the tardy slip he handed her and didn’t bother responding.
The bell rang and Wickham was back in teacher mode, calling the class to order as she walked out. Her stomach grumbled as she headed for the nearest candy vendor and bought a roll of hard caramel candy.
Lunch couldn’t come soon enough.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Hey.” Flint dropped down into her seat, casting a quick glance at the table behind them. The twins were there.
Seth waved hi. Or maybe it was Eli.
She still couldn’t tell them apart.
And why weren’t they with Cain? She thought they always went hunting together?
“Hey.” Abel sounded glum as he took a bite of his ham sandwich.
Flint looked at Janet, who was staring down at her pudding cup. Rhiannon was giving Flint big eyes, as if to say “what the…?”
All she could do was shake her head and shrug.
Flint unrolled the first of her three tacos and said, “How’s the wrestling-stud quest going, Rhi?”
Rhiannon growled, tossing her carrot sticks onto the tray. “Awful. Tara Dean,” she said, drawing out the name, “already asked him and he said yes. The moron.”
Janet laughed. “Though in his defense, he totally looked desperate to make the switch. Did you see how big his eyes got? And then when he looked at Tara—oh man, it was pathetic.”
Her friend was sounding like her chirpy self again, and Flint grinned.
“Well, his loss. I asked Joe.”
Abel screwed his face up. “Who?”
“You know, gap-tooth Joe.” Rhiannon tapped her front tooth.
“Oh, you mean John,” Janet said. “Gap-tooth John. Joe has the scar.”
“Whatever.” Rhiannon shrugged, looking completely bored. “I almost don’t want to go anymore.”
“ Nuh-uh.” Flint shook her head. “Homecoming was your idea. I don’t even have a date and I’m going because of you. You can’t bail now. Plus—”
Abel’s head shot up and he cut her off just as she was about to whine about Wickham’s extra-credit assignment. “Cain didn’t ask you?”
Flint gave him a get-real look. “Why in the world would you think he’d ask me?”
Eyes as big as saucers, Abel shook his head. “Why not? Because he’s only been acting crazy around you lately. Suddenly wanting to hang out with you… I just thought,” he muttered.
Flint pursed her lips when Ja dropped her head, staring down at the sandwich in her hands.
Abel checked his watch. “I gotta bail. Promised to help my friend before class.”
“Mmhhmm…” Rhiannon twisted her lips. “Help. Don’t think I haven’t seen you passing Monique your homework assignment before class so she can copy.”
Standing, Abel ignored her and instead asked Flint, “You stopping by the circus tonight?”
“No. Dad’s home for the night. One of his rare nights off. I think we’re doing the whole domestic family thing.”
“Oh, okay then.” He turned to go.
“Bye!” Janet chirped at his back.
He just waved and sauntered off.
“Bye,” Janet mimicked herself in a high-pitched falsetto. “Epic fail.”
Rhiannon just patted her shoulder, a shared look passing between the two girls before Rhi got up and nodded, then left as well.
“Okay, talk.” Flint unwrapped her second taco and took a huge greasy bite of it, nearly sighing with relief as the food hit her belly.
Janet’s shoulders slumped. “About this morning?”
“Of course.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Ja dropped her head and whispered. “Look, I’ve been thinking about what you told me this morning. How you smell Cain.”
Stomach dropping to her knees, Flint paused with the food at her lips. “Yeah.”
“That’s totally not normal, Flint. Not to say that it’s forbidden for a monster and a hum
an to you know, hook up. Obviously. But I would really advise you to stay away from him. Just in case.”
That was so not what Flint had been waiting all morning to hear. She’d wanted to know about the secrets of monster mating and if there was a possibility that it wasn’t… well, monsterly. All she kept thinking about now was kissing Cain, and then everything pretty much went blank from there. Though her visions usually involved some brimstone, fire, and the pits of hell. Which was the world’s biggest buzzkill.
“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” she ground out. “Look, I’m not trying to make vampy babies with him, so what’s the big deal? Besides, Layla’s as human as I am.”
Janet frowned and then waved her hand, as if waving away her words. “He can’t make vampy babies with you, and I don’t think you understand what exactly you’re getting yourself into. Adam had to go before the Order to claim her as his… think of it as a ‘get out of jail free card,’” she said, finger quoting.
“And that means?”
“Meaning that the Order gave her a stay of execution because Adam claimed her as his. That also means if she ever steps out of line, he has to kill her.”
Flint grimaced.
“Exactly,” Janet whispered, “and only God knows why, but she loves him. She understood and lives by the rules, can you do the same?” Ja’s grip was strong and firm when she clasped Flint’s wrist. She sighed. “You know too much, Flint. You can’t tell anyone. You do, and we can’t protect you anymore. Only Cain can, and I’m not sure he’s going to claim you.”
She wasn’t even eighteen. Flint didn’t want to be claimed and didn’t much care for the term. But she also finally understood why Ja was always warning her off.
“I swear I won’t tell. I’m not getting myself into anything. Look, we barely say two words to each other, and even when we do it usually devolves into fighting anyway. I’m just curious.” Nibbling on the corner of her lip, she kept telling herself to shut up, to stop talking, but there was nobody she could talk to about him. No one that knew the whole truth anyway.
“It’s just, I can’t stop thinking about him. I don’t want to. Half the time he’s a huge jerk, but then he saves me from a tornado and takes me to his bunker.” She smiled, remembering. “And he holds my hand…” The tips of her fingers tingled. “And he sniffs my hair, which should probably be creepy, but it’s not, and he…”
Suddenly realizing that she was gushing like an idiot, she clamped her mouth shut only to notice Janet gazing at her with a horrified expression in her dark brown eyes.
Dropping her brows, Flint yanked her wrist out of Janet’s grasp. “What?” she hissed.
Janet’s lashes fluttered as she patted her hair back into place. “He’s doing that? He knows better. Adam will kill him. He shouldn’t be doing that with you, Flint.”
“So it’s okay for Adam, but not for Cain. That’s not…”
Janet shushed her with a flick of her wrist. “You have no idea how hard it’s been on Adam. I may not always understand him, or sometimes even like him, but what he did to her… it almost broke him. He loves Layla, but he loves his sons too and doesn’t want the same thing for them.”
It hurt like a mother to hear her friend say that. Looking at Janet, it was easy to forget that beneath the teenage exterior, she was actually a ghost/spirit/thing, that her allegiance most definitely didn’t lay with Flint. Why should it? The circus was her family, she was just like them. Not a human at all.
“No. No.” Janet shook her head, black bangs swishing like a blade across her forehead. “I see where your mind is going. Stop right now. I’m not saying that because I think he’s too good for you, or whatever you’re thinking.”
“I wasn’t thinking that,” Flint muttered angrily, because she’d been thinking that exactly.
Janet just gave her a droll look. “I know humans, okay. Don’t insult my intelligence by telling me that wasn’t what you were thinking. Fact is, you’re too good for him.”
“Yeah.” Flint snorted.
“I’m serious.”
Two chairs were suddenly pulled out. One beside Flint, the other beside Janet. The twins sat down.
“Seth?” Flint looked at the blond next to her.
He grinned. “I’m Eli.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m sure you guys heard, right?” Janet glanced at both of them. “Help me out. Tell Flint that it’s not about her.”
Seth nodded, his blond hair slipping into his silver-gray eyes. He brushed it aside. “She’s right. He shouldn’t do that.”
There wasn’t much that could make her choose to stop eating nowadays, but this was one of the few things that stole her appetite. Flint dropped the half-eaten taco onto the tray.
Eli shook his head. “Cain’s not an idiot. He knows the rules. Heck, he made them.”
That was new. “Why?”
The twins blew out identical breaths, studied each other with a grim twist of their lips, and then Seth gestured for Eli to continue.
“Because in a lot of ways a berserker”—he tapped his chest—“is infinitely more dangerous than any other breed of monster out there.”
Heart thundering in her ears, Flint wasn’t sure she was ready to hear this. To hear that her fears were justified. That there would be fire and brimstone and maggots flopping out of eyeballs.
Okay, that last part was gross… but what exactly did happen when you kissed a monster? Did they turn into the stuff of nightmares? She had no idea.
“Why?” she asked with a tongue that felt suddenly swollen.
“Because.” Seth sighed. “Once the rage grips us, it’s like a boiling pot of water spilling out of control. We can’t control it at that stage. Eli and I”—he pointed at his brother—“we’ve got a connection, we feed off each other. When I’m weak, he’s strong and vice versa. Cain doesn’t have that. When he’s weak we either have to beat the piss out of him to wake him up, or he goes on a rampage and he can’t remember anything until he snaps out of it.”
She swallowed hard. “What triggers it?”
Seth drummed his fingers on the tabletop.
Eli picked up where he left off. “Strong emotion. Good, bad, and ugly.”
Janet chimed in. “All monsters go crazy. You’ve seen Layla, right?”
Flint’s jaw came unhinged and Seth placed his finger over his lips, as if sensing she might speak too loud and draw attention.
“Adam did that?” she hissed.
All three heads nodded slowly.
“Yeah,” Seth said, “except ragers get crazier.”
“Fact is,” Eli interjected, “you draw him. We see it. We all see it. We don’t know why, but…”
“You should stay away from him,” Janet finished. “We can still stay friends, you can graduate, go to college… nothing has to change. Just… don’t do anything to get in trouble. Be his friend, flirt if you must, but stop the rest, Flint. It’s too dangerous.”
Heartsick, Flint whispered, “Stay away from him.”
Janet glanced at her watch. “I’ve got class. Look, we need to talk about this more. I don’t want you to feel like we’re bullying you, we’re not. We’re saying this because we like you.”
The twins nodded.
“But our world is dark and I’d hate to see you become like so many of us.”
“How’s that?” Flint asked.
Standing, Janet grabbed her trash. “Jaded.”
Flint looked at the guys after Janet left. Eli picked at a rough edge of the table; Seth chewed on the wooden tip of a toothpick.
“You guys did that to him this morning, didn’t you?”
Neither one spoke, but neither tried to deny it.
She tapped her finger on her lap. “Have you guys found them”—she shot her eyes toward the empty table where the hive used to sit—“yet?”
Both sets of lips turned into fierce snarls, and for the first time, Flint could finally see just how similar to Cain these two really were.
“No,” they said.
She wasn’t sure why she was trying to help. Why she was even going to tell them this. After all the talk of stay away from Cain, they probably wouldn’t want her help. But if she told them, and they could find the hive, then the threat to her would finally be done.
“I smell them.”
Seth sat up, eyes narrowed, irises growing large. “We know.”
Eli had gone absolutely still beside her.
“I’ve told Cain before… you what? You know?”
Eli sighed. “He told us already.”
“I can help. You can use me to track down their lair, or whatever. If you can fix a place where you think they might be, I can sniff them out. This could work.”
Already Seth was shaking his head. “No way.”
“Why not?” Her lips screwed into a tight frown.
Eli rolled his eyes. “You’re not one of us. Have you forgotten what that she-devil did to you?”
Glancing over her shoulder, aware of several pairs of eyes staring at them, Flint lowered her voice and hissed, “Of course not. I’m not trying to fight. I want no part of that. All I’m saying is maybe I can help.”
Both twins narrowed their eyes into razor-thin lines.
“This doesn’t concern you,” Eli said.
Clenching her jaw, pissed beyond reason, Flint forced herself to count silently to three before answering. “You can fight them, so you don’t fear them. I couldn’t defend myself against that thing, and for whatever reason it’s after me. Of course it concerns me. It wants me.”
Seth spit out his toothpick. “You’re just a pawn, Flint. If they’d really wanted you, we’d know.”
“Then what do they want?”
Seth shrugged and Eli ruffled the tips of his blond hair with his blunt fingers. But neither answered her question.
“Fine.” She stood, grabbing her tray. “Whatever.”
She didn’t say good-bye. She didn’t trust herself to be nice at the moment. What she really wanted to do was cuss them out until their ears bled, but the truth of it was… deep down in that secret part of her, the mature and grown-up side of Flint, she knew they were right.
