43. LEOPOLD
Xander borrowed a pickup truck from someone and parked it in the drive. Coral went out and came back with extra folding chairs. I stayed in the kitchen with my hive, who’d gone very still and was watching the bathroom door, Bruno cradled in one of their arms. The guest hive had treated them for mild taser burns, but both hives had told me it was nothing to worry over.
When I went upstairs to pee and change my sweaty clothes, I found Conrad painting the walls of the master bedroom while Headprincipal Farrow sat on the floor in the middle of the room.
“Conrad, you’re not holding that brush right,” I overheard Farrow say before hurrying on to the bathroom.
While my hive wouldn’t leave the kitchen, everyone else refused to leave us, and so I brought out my projector, closed the shutters in the living room, and started a monster movie marathon for them.
I couldn’t really sit still for long. Instead, I went outside to pick some early zucchinis and helped the guest hive make popcorn before collecting fresh mint and lemon balm for a big pot of tea I brewed for my hive and whoever else wanted some.
Farrow and Conrad spent several hours in our new bedroom, the door closed.
“The painting of the walls is done,” Farrow announced when they finally came down.
“Just painting shouldn’t have taken that long,” Xander mumbled before Coral hissed at him.
“Shh! Some of us are watching that.”
I was tired when night finally rolled around and Conrad and Xander carried in a big vat.
“Is there acid in that?” I asked.
“Leopold, that would be very rude indeed.” Headprincipal Farrow and Coral, a popcorn bowl in his arms, had joined us in the kitchen. “Acid would give the mound indigestion I should think, and I wouldn’t want to put it through that.”
“What exactly is a mound?” I asked.
“Hmm.” Farrow looked at Coral. “How would one describe them?”
“Like a moorland that sees and feels and comes after you if you disrespect it.”
“That sounds…huh.”
“You should stay here, Leo. We’ll stay with you. You have rings under your eyes. You must be tired after all of this.”
My hive was standing by the table and watching Xander and Conrad move the vat before Conrad unlocked the door. They were holding hands, had been touching themself for most of the afternoon and evening.
“No, I want to see. But you don’t have to come.”
“We have to see,” they mumbled from one mouth.
I totally got that.
***
The thing was, we didn’t all fit in the cars, so we got two 47 cabs, just for the four blond hivelings, my hive, and me. One of my hivelings rode with the other hive, but four remained with me. The drivers were pretty unimpressed, but then that was to be expected of a 47 cab.
“We are sorry about carrying you out of the house earlier,” one of the hivelings said to me in the back of the cab as we left our house behind.
“You were freaking out. Don’t apologize.”
They nodded. “We have not been who we want to be for you over the last forty-eight hours. After…after we escaped, we went from one day to another, but when we met you, you gave us back joy and laughter, and we were happy. We want to be worthy of that.”
My throat constricted. They were a hive of five, and yet they had been terribly alone.
“You know, I haven’t been who I wanted to be for way longer. I could tell you were giving me more than I was giving back, but I didn’t really do anything about that. I left you alone with this shit. I want to make you happy, but I also want to be there when something like yesterday happens. I failed you because I didn’t see something was haunting you.”
“You—oh. Oh no. That’s not what happened.”
The headlights from another car hit me in the face.
“Yeah. That’s exactly what happened. But—” I reached for the hands of the two hivelings on either side of me. “Today was long, and if you’re okay with that, let’s just agree that I’ll be here for you and you can hold on to me all you want, and then tomorrow we can talk. How does that sound?”
I was looking at the one on my right, but there were sniffles from more than just him.
“Yes. We can do that. Thank you.”
I sighed and leaned back in the upholstered seat.
“No problem. Oh, hive?”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
***
St. Auguste didn’t have a curfew, given that there were nocturnal students, but there were certain areas that were supposed to be quiet when most of the students slept.
The fancy administrative wing where Farrow and I had our offices was one such area, and it was where we were going now, Xander and Conrad carrying the vat from which I could hear the sounds of the person inside. Perhaps he was trying to call out for help, even with his mouth duct taped shut.
As our footfalls echoed along the fancy marble of the first floor, the dimmed lights casting strange shadows, I wondered if my hive had tried to call for help as well, if he’d been ignored like we were ignoring his tormentor.
“Leo, if this upsets you, we can still take you home.”
They were close to me, touching, also holding their own hands. Two of them were watching the vat.
I shook my head. “No. I want to be right here with you, hive.”
“Instructor Arick might wish to make you into a case study of mated love, Leopold,” Farrow said.
“Sorry, headprincipal, but that’s not happening. No one is turning what my hive went through into a fucking case study.”
Farrow’s brows rose. “Apologies, fierce lion heart.”
Conrad sniggered. “Headprincipal.”
I blushed. Had I said that out loud?
“You have a lernean’s sense of how to pick the good ones, hive,” Coral said.
The hive’s hold on me tightened slightly. “Leo is like finding gold at the end of a rainbow. We know we are very lucky.”
Xander cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to say earlier, but a little bit of yoga every day might help your stamina, Leo. The run earlier seemed to take a lot out of you. Sorry if I’m being too direct.”
“That’s just because my hive was way too fast. Anyway, where are we going?”
Farrow stopped and indicated a big metal door with a keypad next to it.
“That way. It’s going to be so happy that we brought it a treat!”
“Just get the fucking door open, Farr, this vat is getting heavy.”
Farrow cackled. “Is that so? Consumption isn’t known to bother vampires, but you look spent.”
“Sweetie, you don’t wanna test me tonight,” the big vampire said.
Heading down the stairs, the two of them were surprisingly silent.
At the bottom, concrete dominated, and the lights were movement activated. In the case of St. Auguste, this fairly utilitarian-looking design surprised me. A school for supernaturals should have had something special in its basement, coffins maybe, or prison cells for the unruly.
But I was applying human thinking, and thanks to Instructor Arick, I knew. After a left turn, the lights that followed us switched on to a considerably dimmer setting, and at the end of a short hallway, a room opened into something that was really special and befitting Freak High.
It was a superhero lair from the action movies, the ceiling much taller than elsewhere, and set up all around the space were monitors, humming computers, and at the far end, I could make out rows of servers. Colorful lights blinked, cables crisscrossed all over the floor, oblivious to the danger of anyone falling over them.
Perhaps, on second thought, it had a little more in common with a villain’s lair.
What I didn’t see were chairs of any kind. On the half circle of narrow tables, keyboards were lined up, some of them looking like they needed deep cleaning the way soil had collected on them. I saw a big stash of bottled water and spray bottles with water, and when I stepped forward to make out what I first thought was a pile of clothes, I very nearly screamed.
The pile moved .
“Farrow,” said a female voice over a speaker. It didn’t sound like a real voice but like those soulless ones that made train announcements.
“IT, good evening. I hope we aren’t interrupting anything?”
“There is a service update,” the voice said.
“I’m sure that’s—Conrad, what is that? Is it a good thing?”
The pile came closer, and—
“Fuck. Oh no. Those’re bones.”
“A very nice skull,” Coral said.
“Human, we think,” the blond hive said.
“Service updates are always a mixed bag, am I right?” Conrad said as he and Xander put down the vat.
“Yes,” the female voice said while the thing still approached. “I remember you. You’re not food or faculty and not a student either, but I’ve once made spores myself, and I enjoyed that. Will yours take root in Farrow’s body like ours did in hers?”
And because life wasn’t creepy enough, that thing grew or stretched upward, and the skull stuck into it like a diamond in a piece of rock moved as well until it was on eye level.
Had that been a person, and had this thing…colonized her?
“Goodness, I should hope not,” Farrow said.
“And it’s not exactly spores, but close enough.”
“Aaah,” the thing that was a mound said. As it deflated, I spotted a speaker that sat in its…body? The closest thing I’d ever seen that was like it was moss. Moss didn’t normally move around though or come in this massive size. “Are these others…food?”
“No, IT, although we did bring you food,” Farrow said. “But perhaps introductions first? Leopold, come here, you mustn’t be shy. You are colleagues.”
The mound rippled excitedly, and from its shapeless body, it extended…a skeletal hand. Bones for fingers, gray-white knuckles. I shivered.
“Leopold, I know. Are you the Secretary Hill Leopold? Or another? The identifier is assigned to several at this institution, though all but the secretary are students.”
“I-I-I… Yeah. Hi. That’s me, the secretary. Do you mind if we don’t shake hands? I’m a bit of a germaphobe.”
“That’s fine.” The skeleton hand vanished back into the mound’s blob-like body. “Did you get the gift of thanks I sent? It is because of you I didn’t have to leave this sweet darkness to turn off Farrow’s computer before turning it back on again. I sent you water and sugar. I know human growth likes both.”
“Human growth? I mean, yeah, it was great. Loved the water.”
“I like water as well. I can send you more. Things are always cheaper online when you order in bulk, and one-day shipping is wonderful when the air gets too dry.”
“Oh wow, so generous. Erm. This is my hive. They help me with my work here.”
The mound held out its bone hand again. “Hello. You are attracted to fluorescence, aren’t you?”
My hive, being badass, shook that bone hand. “Yes, you could say that.” One of them stroked my back.
A thumping noise from the vat interrupted the bonding I was doing with…the school’s IT department.
“Oh, dearie, the food is awake,” Farrow said.
A ripple went through the mound. “You bring me food that is alive? Farrow, I would give you my spores in thanks.”
“Y’aint fucking going to put your spores anywhere near him,” Conrad said.
A sound like joints popping echoed from the mound. Laughter?
“I can contain myself, but I am grateful. May I have a look?”
“Knock yourself out.”
Conrad opened the vat and put it on its side.
“Oh! This is lovely! This food will last us a long time, a long, long time.”
While it said it, the IT thing slithered into the vat, moving like a snail would, only faster. I could see it left small traces of soil in its wake so maybe that was what it was, soil and bones and hunger.
The noises from inside the vat were dimmed, but we could all hear the man in there trying to scream through the duct tape while a thing made of death and darkness started eating. I hoped he’d heard that it planned on eating him for a long time.
***
The hive was silent on the way back up the stairs, but I got the sense that a weight had been lifted off them.
“What now?” Xander asked when the basement door fell shut.
“The Dazzle,” my hive said, looking at Coral.
Coral shrugged. “I put up a sign. We can close every now and then.”
In the dim light, wearing all black, I finally made the connection.
“Coral, are you—about a year ago, did you come here, meet a human in the foyer, and pretend to be a student?”
He cocked his head. “What? No. I don’t think I’ve ever come here. It’s nice though, big windows, clean floors, creepy monster in the basement. All the things one wants in a school.”
“You thought he was Tate’s mystery man,” my hive said. “That would have been a funny coincidence.” “Tate is Leo’s friend, and he met a strange man dressed all in black and tipping generously at the cafeteria. Tate says he wore guyliner.”
“Your friend met someone wearing a black coat here?” the blond hive asked.
“Oh, you told them about the coat, hive? Yeah, that’s what Tate said at any rate. Guy just vanished though.”
Two of the blond hivelings chuckled. “Did he?”
Before I could ask them about that, Farrow waved his hand like a conductor.
“Well, since you are all here and have shown one of St. Auguste’s own such support, may I invite you all to supper at the cafeteria? We even serve brine water there, Coral.”
“I could eat a big salad,” Xander said, and my stomach growled as if on cue.
“Well, this settles it. Come, my darlings, let St. Auguste nourish your body much as we do our students’ minds.”
“You’re such a weird old sack, Headprincipal Farr,” Conrad said and put an arm around Farrow’s shoulders.
Everyone started following Farrow and Conrad to the cafeteria, but my hive slowed, let the others overtake us.
“We can take you home if you prefer? We can cook for you.”
“You want that?” I asked, catching sight of their faces. They seemed brighter now, as if someone had lit a million tiny candles under their skin.
“We…are not sure.”
I smiled. “You like cozy, right? The other hive is coming. I bet it’s going to be cozy, and the food is pretty good too. If I’m hungry, then so are you.”
A few of them nodded. “Then we’ll go.”
“Let’s. Oh, hive?”
“Yes?”
“I think you were wrong. About how saying I love you makes it less strong. I think the words are like seeds. The more you plant, the more flowers grow from them.” I picked one of them to hug and kiss, because I was just human, and could only love them with one.
After hesitating, they kissed me back, closing around me in a hive hug I knew I would cherish forever. They were sore now, I knew that, but if they allowed it, I would do what I could to make them heal and be themself again.
“We love you too,” they said, speaking from four mouths.
The fifth was busy kissing me. The fifth was mine to love.
***