Death, Doom, and Detention

me.

“Can I get a ride with you?” Ashlee asked. “Syd has our car.”

“Sure,” Brooke said, “if you don’t mind riding in the back with Glitch.”

Ash lifted one shoulder, her gaze landing on an oblivious Glitch. “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Suit yourself, but it’s not very comfortable.”

“That’s okay,” she said with a shy smile.

“I get the left wheel well,” he said, walking off. Still oblivious.

I so wanted to head-butt him.

VINCENT

When we got to the hospital, we went straight to Isaac’s room. He was surrounded by his family, Sydnee, and a nurse who was checking his vitals. I started to back out again when I heard him talk.

“I’m so sorry, Dad. I just don’t remember what happened.”

I took a cautious step inside and Isaac looked over at me. “Lorelei?”

Everyone turned. “Sorry,” I said, backing out again. But Brooke was right on my heels, trying to peek over my shoulder. “I’ll leave you alone.”

“No.” Isaac looked at his family apologetically. “Can I have a minute with Lorelei?”

“Sure, son.” His mother leaned over for a kiss. The image was adorable. A huge, scruffy football player being kissed by his mom.

His dad patted his shoulder. “We’ll be right outside.”

After his family stepped outside, the whole gang stepped in, including me, Brooke, Cameron, Glitch, and Ash. Sydnee had stayed, and we waited until the nurse left before starting our conversation.

“Thank you for coming,” Syd said.

Isaac looked at me with those big brown eyes of his, and all I could see was the teddy bear I’d grown up with. The one who picked me up and dusted me off when Joss Duffy knocked me off the monkey bars.

The one who, soon afterwards, had a talk with said Joss Duffy, and oddly enough, said Joss Duffy never bothered me again. “Lorelei, I’m so sorry. Whatever I did—”

“What exactly did you do?” Cameron asked, his voice razor sharp.

I cringed. “It’s okay, Cameron. Nothing happened.”

“I’d like to hear Isaac’s side of it.”

I realized Isaac had become anxious. His expression was wary when he looked at Cameron. I’d heard that pretty much everyone in school was afraid of him, but it was just so hard to believe this huge guy would be afraid of anyone. “From what I’ve been told,” he said to Cameron, “I threatened her with a knife.”

Cameron bit down and he turned a heated gaze my way. “Did we forget to mention that?” He stepped closer to the bed, making his own threat with the set of his shoulders.

“And here we go,” Glitch said. He sat on a heating unit by the window to watch the show.

Sydnee stood protectively at the other side of the bed, and I stepped to intervene. “I can toss you out of here, Cameron, if you don’t behave.”

He placed the most cavalier expression on me I’d ever seen. “You can try.”

“Cameron,” Brooke said, tugging his arm. She laughed softly, as though trying to excuse Cameron for his bad manners. “Lor has this. Really.”

I decided to ignore him. “I’m sorry, Isaac. Just pretend he’s not here. Do you remember what happened at all?”

He shook his head as Sydnee took his hand, her face lined with worry. “I can’t seem to recall the last few days, in fact. But some of the guys told me I’d threatened you. That I carved your name into a desk and said I was going to kill you or something.”

The heat from Cameron’s gaze intensified. He so wasn’t helping.

“You didn’t threaten to kill me, Isaac. You said they want me dead.”

“Who?” Cameron asked.

“I don’t know.” He plastered his palms over his eyes.

Cameron leaned closer. “Would it help if we went outside?”

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.”