Violent, Volatile
I wandered down the hall, hoping to see where everyone was. Ari’s heartbeat was in the living room along with one of the guys, but I couldn’t tell who.
“Good afternoon.” She peered up from an open textbook, smiling as I walked in.
“Morning,” I replied sleepily, then furrowed my brows when her words connected.
“It’s way past morning,” she said, reading the question on my face. “Apparently, your body’s slowly adjusting to vampire time. Which makes sense, ‘cause you were awake for forever when you came to bed. I swear you wouldn’t stop humming for like three hours.”
“You were awake?”
“Not until you woke me up singing and whispering nonsense. It took me forever to fall back asleep.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? We could’ve hung out!”
“Because I wanted to sleep and if you noticed me awake, you would’ve talked my ear off.”
Meh. It’s true, so whatever. Can’t be mad! I started rifling through my bag for an outfit when I noticed Sean reading one of her textbooks.
“Why are you studying?” I asked, catching his reluctant attention. “You’re not even in school. Are you?”
“No. I graduated last year. But I never knew so much goes on underwater. It’s really interesting.” He turned the page and kept reading.
“Nerd.” I chose an outfit and stood. “Where’s Dennis?”
“Dunno.” Sean shrugged.
I briefly wondered where he might be before leaving to get showered, dressed and ready for the day.
When I returned Ari and Sean were still being nerds and no other heartbeats were in the place.
I dug through my bag for happy pills and had just finished taking them when the door opened and Dennis walked in.
“Hi, Dennis!”
“Hey.” He barely acknowledged me which was sad, but I felt a little better when he passed the couch without a word, ignoring Sean and Ari completely.
“Where were you?” I asked.
He paused near the hall to look at me. His eyes drifted to my low-cut shirt for a second, but he didn’t mention it. “Running errands,” he said coolly. “I’ll be in my room.”
I watched as he walked away, wondering what was making him so antisocial today.
“I feel like food,” Sean said.
“Oh, thank god.” Ari hopped up as if she’d been waiting for a chance to eat all day. “I’m so hungry, but you guys hardly eat. I didn’t wanna complain. Let’s make something.”
“Make lasagna! She makes amazing lasagna from scratch,” I piped up. “It’s the best thing ever.”
“Really?” Sean looked at her in awe. “Wait, aren’t you lactose intolerant?”
“I have pills, but I save them for my favorite meals. I guess I can take one today.”
“Can you teach me how to make it? It’s my favorite.”
“Sure, as long as you have the ingredients.” She barely contained a smile as they went to the kitchen.
I plopped on the couch and decided to flip through channels for something live and fun. “This looks exciting.” I settled on the local news.
An entire block was roped off, surrounded by a few police cars and multiple news anchors. Not to mention a bunch of nosy people standing around trying to see past the barricade.
“This is breaking news,” a woman was saying.
“What we’re about to show is extremely graphic.
Viewer discretion is advised.” She ducked beneath the caution tape and motioned for the camera to follow.
“The mangled remains of a body were discovered less than an hour ago. The victim’s severed head was found several feet from the body.
So far, no witnesses have come forward and police have no leads on a suspect, despite what authorities are calling one of the most gruesome crimes this town has ever seen—”
“Eww.” I scrunched my nose as the woman worked her way around blood, debris, and what looked like charred pieces of skin.
“It appears the victim’s throat was slit with this silver cross.
” She paused to give the camera a chance to zoom in on something left on the ground several yards away.
One end was distorted, while the other was drenched in blood.
“It’s unclear whether the victim was killed by decapitation or died beforehand.
No other weapons were found at the scene.
” She pressed a hand to her earpiece, turning away from the camera as it moved to something unimportant.
I half-stood to get a view of the whole scene. And then I realized that was impossible and sat back down. They need a better camera holder, ‘cause right now I can’t even see the dead person. This angle sucks.
The camera got shaky for a moment before it zoomed back to the woman.
“We’ve just been informed the victim was also burned in several places.
Police have said this was likely a targeted attack due to…
anatomical location of the burns, as well as signs he was skinned pre-mortem.
” She looked on the verge of being sick.
“The victim has been identified as this young man.” The screen changed to a familiar face. I gasped and shot up from the couch.
“What?” Ari came into the room right as it returned to the crime scene. “Ew!” She recoiled and covered her face.
“It’s Kiro!” I pointed frantically.
“He’s dead?” Sean walked in and took one look at the screen, then started laughing.
“How is this funny?” Ari screeched.
“So many ways.” Sean grinned. “I’ve never seen him do one this bad.”
“You’ve never seen who do what this bad?” I asked.
“No one,” Sean said. “Forget it.”
“This is so gross,” Ari whimpered. She peeked through fingers as they panned the crime scene, then smacked Sean’s arm when he cracked up laughing again.
“I’ll be back.” I walked down the hall, heading straight for the last door. I ran a nervous hand through my hair and knocked.
“Come in.”
I entered and closed the door. “Did you kill Kiro?”
“I ran into him a few hours ago. He annoyed me.” Dennis was leaning against the dresser, arms crossed and expression unreadable.
“Be honest. You went looking for him, didn’t you?” My voice came out more confident than I’d expected.
“Maybe.”
“You killed him because of what he did to Mateo…?”
“If that was why, I would’ve done it a long time ago,” he said. “You’re really not used to this, are you?”
“Used to what?” I went to sit in the chair across from him.
“Do you really think I’d kill him for something that happened almost a year ago?” he asked.
“No,” I said quietly, shifting under his steady gaze.
“I don’t give a shit about the other stuff. We both know he wasn’t gonna leave you alone.”
“It would’ve been fine. I don’t need protecting anymore.”
Dennis sighed and uncrossed his arms. “Why do you find it so unfathomable that someone might care about you?”
“What do you mean?” I asked the carpet. As much as I wanted to look at him, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“You seem to think it’s impossible. You don’t say it, but I’ve noticed.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stop playing dumb or I’ll get it from your mind.”
“I’m not playing dumb. I don’t get it,” I insisted, finally working up the nerve to meet his eyes. “I really don’t.”
“Don’t get what? Why I don’t like seeing Kiro treat you like a piece of meat? Why it pissed me off that he kept threatening you?”
“Yes! That’s the thing, is that it bothers you. I don’t get why you care, I don’t get why Ari cares, I don’t know why anyone would care and I don’t understand any of it.” I stopped abruptly—none of that was supposed to be out loud.
“Care about what?” His tone was so careful, it made me feel even worse. “You?”
“No,” I mumbled, but of course it’s me. It’s always gonna be me. I’m always causing problems and driving people away with my mental issues.
“Why would you say that?”
“Because there’s something wrong with me.
” I was suddenly fighting back tears. “I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s there and it’s gonna scare you away once you notice it.
That’s why I put up a wall, because if my own parents didn’t want me, then who the fuck would?
” I’d never admitted that out loud. Never said it to anyone, not even a therapist. My vision blurred as I wiped away falling tears.
“Can we pretend I didn’t say any of that? I don’t wanna talk about this.”
A few seconds of silence passed.
“C’mon.” He sounded unusually gentle. He extended a hand and I reluctantly took it.
“Where are we going?”
“To get blood.” He had me up before I could resist.
“No, wait, I don’t wanna go.” I tried to go back in the chair but he ushered me across the room. “It’s daylight, we’re gonna melt!”
“You’ll be fine.” He caught my hand and continued down the hall, pulling me along.
I was gonna keep complaining, but the urge died when I saw the way Sean was looking at me. Pity. He’d overheard my outburst. I tried not to show the embarrassment and sense of weakness that washed over me. This is exactly why I hate talking about emotions.
“Where are you guys going?” Ari watched as Dennis towed me to the door.
“To get blood.” I tried my best to sound normal, since she clearly hadn’t heard a word.
“Will you be gone ‘til bedtime again?”
“No,” Dennis answered for me. “It won’t take that long.”
“Okay, good.” She grinned and I smiled back. “I miss you. You keep running off to do vampire things lately.”
“You could come with us if—”
“I don’t wanna be a vampire.” She shut it down before I could finish. How rude. “Dennis, did you kill that guy?”
“Of course not,” he said, so pleasantly you’d think it was true.
“I’ll take that as a yes. And tortured him?”
“You know,” his lips turned up in a mocking smile, “you should be a detective. Your intuition is impressive. There’s no way you could’ve seen that on the news.”
“Stop being mean.” I shoved him outside to hide the deranged laughter. “Ignore him,” I told Ari, hoping it wouldn’t get to her as much as usual.
“He only does it for reactions,” Sean said. “He thinks scaring you is fun.”
“I think he was serious.” Ari adjusted her glasses and stared after him.
“Well, yeah. He always is.” Sean caught my warning look and added, “Not serious. He’s not serious at all.”