“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.
“You realize this changes everything,” he said, keeping step with me.
“You said that before.”
“They wanted him out of the way to take you out. Plain and simple.”
I stopped and looked up at him. “You said that before too. But accepting it is not going to be easy. I plan to fight it tooth and nail. Pretend it isn’t real. Give me my fantasy, will ya?”
“And with his blood, they have the means.”
“With his blood?” I asked, a noxious dread creeping over me.
Cameron looked away, lost in thought. “They must have harvested his blood when they took him down.
I have yet to figure out how they managed to do that, by the way.”
“Can we get back to his blood?”
The others stepped close again.
“As far as I know, Jared is the only archangel stuck on Earth. There would be no blood more powerful than his. It would make for a great elixir.” He bowed his head, his brows drawn in a sharp line. “They could get anyone to do anything they wanted with it.”
“With Jared’s blood?” Brooke asked, her nose crinkling in distaste.
When he didn’t answer, I stated the obvious. “But Isaac didn’t do what they wanted.”
“His size,” he said with a nod, “his personality, his faith. Any number of things could’ve given him the will to stop himself from killing you. If they’d chosen any other student.”
“But they have,” Brooke said. “There are others. So many kids have been acting strange for a few days now. Have you noticed how many kids are out sick?”
“Ever since that party Friday night,” Ash said.
Glitch nodded. “And there was blood by the campfire at the clearing.”
“If they were made to ingest it…” Cameron’s voice trailed off.
“The new kid was there,” Ash said.
That surprised me. “I didn’t see him.”
“It was late. Isaac told Syd that the new kid showed up after almost everyone had gone home. He was there just long enough to meet a few of the guys. Said he was interested in playing football next year. Then he left.”
Cameron breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Vincent could have harvested Jared’s blood earlier, then performed the ceremony there. Got them to ingest the blood, especially if they were drunk.”
“Ew,” Brooke said. “That is so wrong.”
“I need to know who was there late,” Cameron continued. “If he got to anyone with a weak constitution, Lorelei is still in great danger.”
Ash gave an uncertain shrug. “I can try. I’m not sure Isaac will remember.”
“That’s okay,” he said. “Just try.” He looked down at me. “We need to know who that shooter is from your vision.”
I nodded and started toward Cameron’s truck. “Our conversations are so uplifting anymore. So full of hope and promise.”
Glitch followed and wrapped an arm over my shoulder. “We’ll figure this out, Lor.”
Brooke hurried to my side too. “That’s right. Don’t you worry about a thing. We have Cameron on our side. And an unconscious archangel who apparently has ecstasy for blood.”
“Actually,” Cameron said, looking up in thought, “it’s probably more like heroin.”
I sighed softly. In the long run, this wasn’t about me. None of it was. It was about this war. It was about my grandparents and the Order of Sanctity. The people of Riley’s Switch. The entire human race, if the documents of the Order were to be believed. Which, I had seen enough strange events in the last few weeks to believe anything those documents had to offer a thousand times over.
We rode back to school in silence, all of us stewing in our own thoughts. Add some potatoes to us, and we’d be a meal.
The rest of the morning progressed relatively smoothly. Besides the plethora of odd looks. I hoped the looks meant they were curious about how I got my hair so healthy-looking and not about how they’d been programmed by an evil nephilim descendant to kill me. Either way, the looks were odd. And there were a lot of them.
I broke down and texted Grandma for a status update on Jared. No change. Cameron was starting to get worried. I could tell. He didn’t want to tackle this alone. Facing nephilim hopped up on the blood of an archangel was a lot to put on a guy.
We realized pretty quickly the creature whose name shall not be spoken aloud wasn’t in school. So that was a bummer. Then I had the bizarre impression that she was at the house with Jared. Alone. While I was at school. I had to call Grandma between fourth and fifth to make sure she wasn’t.
Which, she wasn’t. So, I was good.
Hopefully, she was in therapy. She’d probably need it after what she saw.
We heard more kids were getting sick, having to go home left and right. One even had a seizure in the gym. The paramedics had to be called.
“Okay, there has got to be something in the water,” I said.
“Like your boyfriend’s blood?” Brooke asked, crinkling her nose again.
By lunch, over 25 percent of the student body was out sick. It got to the point where parents were picking up their kids for no reason other than to avoid whatever unexplainable ailment was going around.
I could hardly blame them. It was all over town. My grandmother texted me, asking me if I was ready to go home yet. I told her no. We were no closer to finding out what was going on, who was behind the shooting in my vision. I couldn’t give up now.
As Brooke and I walked to lunch, Cameron close on my heels, I had the distinct feeling I knew how the presidents’ daughters felt over the years. Always watched. Every move scrutinized. I thought about trying to outrun him for a few glorious seconds of freedom, but the run probably wouldn’t last even that long. I might get a couple
