Stake You

Chapter Sixteen

I barely slept all night, and I knew I looked like shit the next morning, but I had nobody to impress anyway, so it didn’t matter.

“I think we should check in at school until roll call, sneak out, figure out a way to break into Sully’s house, and wait for him to come home. We’ll deal with him, hopefully using the element of surprise to hurt him before he hurts us, and then we can forget about all of this.” Base didn’t look in my direction once as he spoke.

“Looks like you have it all figured out,” I said, hoping he could feel the bitterness in my voice.

“Someone has to. Hey, not to worry, I’ll be out of your hair soon.”

I stared at him, unbelievably hurt, and he had the sense to change the subject.

“We should probably get going before your mother comes home.”

“Crap.” I choked on my tea. “I forgot all about her.” How could I forget about my own mother, when everything I did was about her? I was going to kill a vampire to keep her safe, after all.

We hurried to get ready, but she arrived before we left, so I snuck Base out the back way and had to deal with her hangover alone.

“I need to go to school,” I said, pretending not to notice her panda eyes.

“Stay home today,” she begged. “I don’t want to be alone. I need you, Dev. I was so stupid last night; I questioned him about leaving her. He wouldn’t even listen to me. He got so mad.”

“What did you expect?” I shouted, livid at the way she jumped with fright. “He’s a married man, for God’s sake! Stop being the idiot who lets him walk all over you for once in your life! It’s like you actually want me to think this is okay. You haven’t even tried to make our lives better, but you seem to be going out of your way to make both of us miserable. Why can’t you be happy as you are, Mam? Or with a man who actually treats you like a human being? What’s so bloody well damaged in you that you can’t maintain any kind of a relationship, not even a crappy one?”

Her bottom lip shook, and I knew she would sob, but I was beyond caring. “Why would you—”

“Stop feeling sorry for yourself,” I spat. “You made your bed, now deal with it yourself. I’m so sick of being the one who picks up the pieces. You have no idea what I’m going through, and you don’t even care. All you’re bothered about is your addiction to the drama.” I shook my head, worn out by the tears in her eyes. “I have to get to school. Try and eat something, okay?”

I wrapped my arms around myself once I let myself out the door. I felt like shit for talking to her like that, but it was too much. Just too much.

“That was harsh,” Base said to my right.

I shrugged. “Truth hurts.”

“So were you talking about her or you just then? I couldn’t tell.”

I took a deep breath before walking faster, hoping to lose him while he was being such an idiot.

“Why do you always take your shit out on people?” he persisted.

“I don’t,” I snapped at last. “But I’ll take it out on you if you’re not careful.”

“Nothing new there,” he retorted, and we walked in angry silence for the rest of the journey. The streets were cold and empty, mostly, and I kept a close eye out for Sully’s car. Not that he had to be driving it, but it was better than glancing into stranger’s gardens to make sure he wasn’t hiding there.

The school was empty, but when I got to my locker, I stopped in shock. The door had been ripped off and mangled, actually folded up into a metal knot looking form, and I realised I had driven Sully to show his hand. I crept toward the locker, half-afraid of what I’d see. All of my books were destroyed, actually torn up into little pieces, and covered in red. The inside of the locker looked as though it were bleeding as drips of red slowly fell to the bottom.