Felix looks at his wrist, then the shed. “Okay.” He wipes it on the front of his shirt, then extends it to Kade. “I can’t get all the sand off. Maybe I should go to the bathroom first.”
Kade shrugs; a bit of sand isn’t gross. He takes Felix’s warm, grubby hand in his own, and presses his nose to Felix’s forearm, sniffing along it. The lavender scent fades toward his elbow, and wafts twice as strong at his wrist. It’s the same place his mom has her scar.
“It’ll hurt,” Kade says. Wounds always do.
“I’ll be okay.” Felix gives him a wobbly smile. “Ben kicked me in the stomach. That hurt.”
Kade bares his teeth at that image, heat rushing through his body. No one hurts his friend. And they won’t again. “I promise to protect you.”
He licks over Felix’s wrist, salty sweat and grains of sand on his tongue. “I’m gonna bite,” Kade says. Felix nods.
Then he presses his teeth against Felix’s skin. Felix swallows noisily. Kade drags his teeth down. But the skin doesn’t break. His teeth slide against Felix’s wrist, slippery with spit, and he bites down harder.
Felix’s skin tears. He shudders, and the coppery tang of blood coats Kade’s tongue.
“Oh,” Felix gasps. He stares at Kade, lips parted, and Kade thinks, again, how pretty he is.
“You should bite me too,” Kade says, pulling away. Crimson droplets well along the thin lines on Felix’s wrist, and Kade licks them off. “So we’re even.”
“Okay,” Felix breathes. He takes Kade’s hand and sniffs along it. “How do you know where to bite?”
Kade looks at the reddish marks he’s left on Felix’s wrist, pointing to the same spot on his own. “You smelled really strong here.”
Felix sniffs at his wrist, then along his forearm, and back to his wrist. “You smell like something here. I’m not sure what.”
“Then you should bite there,” Kade says.
Felix licks over his skin, a light, wet touch. Then his teeth press down, sharp, and he pauses, lifting his mouth away. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’ll take whatever hurt you give me,” Kade says, nodding at his wrist. Felix replaces his mouth there, biting down.
Pain jolts through his body, along with a hint of something else, something delightful that sparks down his nerves. His breath rushes out of his body. Is this what bonding is? He hadn’t felt that tickling, feathery sensation before, that sent shivers all the way to his toes. And he feels connected to Felix, somehow. Like they’re best friends, or something more.
Felix pulls his mouth away, staring anxiously at him. “Does it hurt?”
“Not so much,” Kade says. “Felt good.”
“I’m glad.” Felix leans in, his breath warm on Kade’s skin as he licks the droplets of blood away. Then Kade brings his wrist to his own mouth, licking over it just to be sure.
They compare their bite marks after that. Kade’s is straighter, and the one he left on Felix’s wrist, a little slanted.
“So that’s a promise,” Kade says, linking his fingers with Felix’s. “Wanna go to the science lab? I got something to show you. Jones has some secret plants.”
Felix beams, and they head away from the playground.
An hour later, after Mr. Jones shouts at them for opening his plant cabinet, Kade drags Felix to his mom’s car. He swings open the front passenger door, Felix by his side. Mom raises her eyebrows.
“I’m staying with Felix until five,” Kade says. Chris and Sam climb into the backseat, chattering between themselves. “I promised to protect him.”
“You did what?” His mom leans over the center console, surprise darting across her face.
Kade shows her his wrist. At his nudge, Felix shows her his, too. Mom’s jaw drops open.
“When... When I said that’s what the bonding mark means, I didn’t expect you to go out and get one,” she says. “This is a life decision, Kade.”
Kade shrugs. “I’m sure about it.”
Next to him, Felix blushes a bright red, but he doesn’t pull his hand away when Kade holds it again. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Brentwood.”
Kade’s mom bites her lip, looking at the clock, then back at Felix. “You’re Felix Henry, aren’t you? The mayor’s son?”
Felix looks down at his feet, nodding. “Yeah.”
Mom closes her eyes for a brief moment, sighing. “Oh, Kade.”
Kade glares at her. “What?”
“Nothing,” she says, but her gaze lingers between them. “I’ll pick you up at five. Okay?”
“Okay,” Kade says. He doesn’t know what his mom is hiding, but he squeezes Felix’s hand anyway, just in case. Felix squeezes back. “See you later.”
At five, Felix’s dad pulls up in a huge black car. Its chrome grill sprawls out in an elaborate trellis, and its engine purrs, the sound of it vibrating in Kade’s ribs. These cars are rare; he’s only seen one before, in the workshop his dad works at. His dad had said, “That’s an expensive mistress right there.”
He can’t see through the tinted windows. Felix steps forward, though, and the back door swings open. Inside, a burly man sits by the other window. An older boy, also blond, waves from the middle seat. Felix lets go of Kade’s hand, angling a small smile at Kade before he climbs in.
“Father,” he says in a small voice, almost drowned out by the car. “This is Kade. I exchanged bonding marks with him.”
The man turns to look at them both. Kade recognizes his face from TV. Mayor Henry looks solemn, though. Kade hasn’t been paying attention to what he actually does in town.
“Bonding marks?” the mayor says, nostrils flaring. He looks sharply at Felix.
Felix repeats himself, stretching out his wrist shyly. Both his father and the blond boy look at it. “Mrs. Mulberry says to tell you I’m an early bloomer.”
The frown on his father’s face deepens. He flicks a look at Kade, then Felix. “What do his parents do?”
“His father’s a mechanic. His mother’s a housewife,” Felix says. Kade tries to grin, daunted by the size
