Death, Doom and Detention

I’d had it. I pointed to the door. “You can leave now. Isaac is the victim here, Cameron. Just like Jared was.”

“I just find it really interesting that nobody thought to mention this before.”

“I had a few things on my plate. You can’t expect me to remember every little death threat.”

“Yes,” he said, his voice frighteningly calm, “I can. This changes everything.”

I frowned. “How does this change anything?”

He stepped closer to me. “Now we know for certain they simply wanted Jared out of the way. They want you dead, Lor. They.”

“Oh.” He had a good point. “Then let me do my thing, yeah? Maybe I can get something.”

Cameron stepped back but still kept up the menacing act. Brooklyn nudged me and nodded toward Isaac’s shoulder. When I looked at Syd, she gave an approving nod.

I leaned in and placed a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry about all of this. You’ll be fine,” I said, patting his arm before resting a hand on it. Brooke said something in the background to keep his attention while I concentrated.

Blue eyes, sharp and crystal clear, appeared underneath a mop of sandy brown hair. “Ready for round two?” a boy asked.

“Do I know you?” Isaac asked him.

He was tall, his face somehow disproportioned. It was the new guy, Vincent.

He said something. A word I didn’t understand, and Isaac’s vision blurred. The scene was hard to make out, but I saw a hand, two fingers red, dripping with blood. Vincent lifted them, rubbed them across Isaac’s forehead. “This is the most powerful blood available on Earth, big guy. You’ll either do what we ask, or you’ll die. Comprende?”

When he’d finished, he slipped his fingers into his mouth and licked off the remaining blood. His eyes drifted shut as he let a feeling of ecstasy overtake him. After a moment, he blinked back to Isaac, his expression blissful, intoxicated. But he stopped and leaned in closer. “Who’s in there?” he asked, squinting. Then a seedy smile slid across his face. “Is that you, Lorelei?”

I gasped and jerked back. Cameron caught me before I slammed into something important, like a heart monitor.

“Are you okay?” Isaac asked.

I coughed to cover my spaz attack and said, “Yes. I’m fine.”

“Isaac was just telling us about the knife he had,” Brooke said to me.

“Right,” he said. “I don’t even own a knife. I remember images, like blurry snapshots of the last few days, and I remember being in Mr. D’s office, him opening a drawer and dropping a knife into it. That’s the first I remember seeing a knife. It struck me as odd because I got the impression he thought it was mine.” Isaac gazed at me, pleading with me to believe him. “It wasn’t mine, Lor. I swear.”

I patted his arm again, this time for real. “I believe you, Isaac. I know you would never hurt me.”

“Or stab her repeatedly,” Brooke offered. “Or strangle her with your bare hands.”

Turning to her, I slid a finger across my throat giving her the cut signal. I’d covered all that with the you-would-never-hurt-me line. At least she had my back. In a morbid, sadistic kind of way.

Isaac turned to Syd, his expression sad, full of regret. “I could have killed my dad last night. What is wrong with me?”

“Lorelei will figure it out,” Syd said, her faith startlingly humbling.

Isaac turned to me in question, and I had no idea what to say to that.

“But we should leave so you can rest.”

“Thanks for stopping by,” Syd said, her eyes questioning.

I nodded to her. “He’s going to be fine.”

A relieved smile spread across her face.

We thanked the Johnsons for allowing us some time with their son. They were happy he was okay and yet worried about why he’d tried to kill himself in the first place.

I would’ve loved to reassure them, but what did I know? Whatever Vincent did to him, it seemed to be over. But who could say for certain?

We stepped into the morning sun. The day was chilly despite the brightness around us. Typical winter weather in New Mexico. Sunny and brisk.

“What did you see?” Brooke asked.

They all stopped and gathered around me. While I hesitated to say anything in front of Ashlee, it wasn’t because I didn’t trust her. Far from it. She’d kept my secret for weeks now. I was more worried for her safety. Then again, my touching Isaac to try to get a vision was hers and Sydnee’s idea. I at least owed her an explanation.

“I saw the new kid,” I said, looking up at Cameron. “He spread something across Isaac’s forehead. Blood. He said a word and Isaac seemed to come under a spell. Then he told Isaac to either do what they asked or die. Right before he licked the blood off his fingers.” I shivered in revulsion. “It was like a drug to him.”

Cameron seemed to pale before my eyes. “Did he say whose blood it was?”

I shook my head. “No. But he did say it was the most powerful blood available on Earth.”

He cursed softly under his breath and turned from me. “You should have told me about Isaac yesterday.”

“I was going to,” I said, my defenses rising. “But you were busy with that whole beating-the-crap-out-of-Jared thing. I’ll just walk back to school.”

I stepped around him, but for every step he took, I took three. Outwalking him would be impossible. And he would never leave me anyway. I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly behaving like an impetuous child.