by Bill Blume
“Hang on.” Gidion pulled out his cell phone and pulled up the Facebook page for the game shop. “Um, they don’t have anything going on tonight.”
“Then we’ll just say it was Magic: The Gathering.” Seth looked over his shoulder again. “Okay?”
“All right, but we don’t even know how to play that.”
Seth made this exasperated growl. “It’s not like Andrea does either, and she’s not going to go on their website. Just say we were checking it out to see if it was something we’d want to do? That work?”
Only after Gidion said, “Sure thing,” did he realize what he’d just agreed to do. Seth wasn’t just getting him to lie to his parents. He was getting him to keep this from Andrea.
Before Gidion could ask what was going on, Seth said, “Thanks,” and walked out from between the stacks. He considered going after him, but it wasn’t like he could protest now. Besides, Gidion had never offered an explanation when he was the one asking.
He tried to put what he’d just agreed to out of his head. If he was lucky, Andrea would never ask him anyway. He pulled out his rabbit’s foot as he climbed the stairs and ran his thumb through the soft fur as if to summon its luck, the same as rubbing a genie from a lamp.
Seth’s doubts about finding a place to sit upstairs weren’t unjustified. Most of the computers that students had access to were located on the second level. That, and the second floor wasn’t very big, just a wide balcony that wrapped around the library like a horseshoe.
“Come on…” He kept rubbing the rabbit’s foot, but he came up with nothing on the left side. On his way to the other side, he passed another student on the hunt, coming from the opposite direction. Not promising.
The upstairs desks without a computer were dark, wooden carrel desks, the kind that had those cubicle-type blinders. They offered some excellent privacy, but for anyone hunting for a seat, it forced you to be way too obvious you were searching. Just as he was about to give up, Gidion heard a zipper.
He honed in on the source, a guy who’d just packed his bookbag and slipped it on as he stood to leave. Gidion powerwalked the five steps to the space being vacated and dropped his bag on the desk the instant the guy was out of the way, claiming it with a thud.
Gidion kissed the rabbit’s foot. “Thank you, Tamara.” He’d have to tell her how the good luck charm had worked.
For now, he just needed to get some research done, and as much as he liked Seth and Andrea, he was glad to have them out of the way so he could get this done.
He plugged in some earphones into his phone, went straight to YouTube, and typed in his search: how to hack into Windows. He was on his fourth video, still hoping to find something that sounded like it might work, when a muffled voice next to his ear startled him.
“You forget the password to your computer?”
He dropped his phone onto the desk as he jumped in his chair and squeaked.
Andrea laughed. “I didn’t think your voice could go that high.”
Too late, he picked up his phone and turned off the screen as he pulled out his earphones. “You trying to give me a heart attack?”
“Not my fault.” She leaned against the side of the carrel to stare down at him. “You just get so intense when you focus on something. I’ve been standing here for a minute waiting for you to notice.”
Just perfect. He looked past her, but it was just the two of them. “Where’s Seth?” As soon as the question was out of his mouth, he wished he hadn’t asked. Not that he had to lie right now, but the idea of lying to Andrea without knowing the reason why made him feel like scum.
She looked nice today, despite having dressed for the weather. The red sweater she wore reminded him of the bat design she’d worn on the top of her Batwoman costume at the Zombie Walk this past October.
“No idea where Seth got to. I came up here looking for him.” She tapped the dark display of his phone. “So you planning to hack into the school computers? Or does this have something to do with your usual clandestine activities?”
Seth never pressed Gidion to explain why he needed the alibis. He was just too laid back to do that, but Andrea’s petite nose couldn’t have been more counter to her nature. She’d once made a less than subtle inquiry as to whether his girlfriend knew what he did when he went out at night by himself. He happily shut the door on her with the truth. Tamara knew exactly what he did. Hunting vampires was how he’d met her, after all.
“I’m just helping my Dad with something,” he said.
“By breaking into a computer?” She didn’t bother hiding her skepticism.
“Yeah.” He wanted to leave it at that, but Andrea gave him that look that made it clear she wasn’t going to be satisfied with a morsel. “He’s got an old computer he wants to get rid of, but he can’t remember the password. Wants to see if there’s anything he might want before he has it erased.”
“Pity. Was hoping for something much more interesting than that.”
“Sorry to disappoint.”
“So,” she said, drawing out the word as she looked around them in a way that suggested she was trying to see who, if anyone, might be listening to them, “how are you and Tamara these days?”
“Fine.” He shrugged.
“Just fine?”
He shifted in his chair. Why did the question make him feel like someone had just poured lemon juice on an open wound?
“Yes, we’re fine.”
She still wasn’t looking at him. Instead, she stared at the top of the desk where his phone was still resting. “Well, most girls at school don’t realize you’re off the market. Had a few asking about you the other day.”
“Asking about me? Why?”
The look she leveled at him silently asked if he’d been dropped on his head too many times as an infant.
“What?” Sometimes, he didn’t understand Andrea, or girls in general.
“They want to date you, stupid.”
“Well, I have a girlfriend.”
“Yes, in Arizona.” She scowled at him. “As far as most of them are concerned, that means you’re available. They see a cute guy—the nice kind who holds doors open for them—going to waste.”
“Really? And who are these girls?”
She crossed her arms and had this victorious, catlike grin. “Is that interest I’m hearing?”
“No, it’s just me being curious which girls I should avoid.”
Seth walked up behind Andrea, and in an act of near instant karma, scared the bejeezus out of her. “Why is Gidion avoiding girls?” Seth asked.
Andrea shrieked and then swatted Seth on the arm. “Not nice.”
Gidion didn’t miss the unspoken question in the way Seth looked from him to Andrea. If she noticed how tense Seth was, she didn’t say. He looked out of breath, as if he’d rushed over here.
“Your girlfriend is trying to hook me up.”
The answer brought a slow smile to Seth’s face. “Well, it’s like I’ve been saying, man can’t live on Skype sex alone.”
Before Gidion could say anything. Andrea turned to look right at Seth. “I need to run to the bathroom before class. I’ll see you later.”
“Sure thing.”
Andrea marched off. Gidion didn’t miss the stiff way she moved. She normally moved around in a more carefree manner, like she was dancing in a slow music video.
“Did she ask anything about tonight?”
The question brought Gidion’s attention back to Seth.
“What? No.” Gidion realized Seth wasn’t smiling anymore. Hell, he looked pissed. That’s when it dawned on Gidion that Andrea had left without trying to sneak a goodbye kiss or calling Seth her “Teddy Bear.” “What’s going on with you two?”
“Nothing. It’s fine.” Seth walked off. “See you later.”
Gidion tried to put the whole thing out of his mind and continued searching YouTube for a way to hack into the laptops he’d taken from Bonnie and GQ Drac. It wasn’t until he headed to class tha
t it occurred to him that he was meeting with Andrea after school today to study.
Just great.
Chapter Ten
Gidion spent most of World History class distracted by questions about Seth and Andrea, what secrets might be found on the vampires’ laptops, and the most nagging question…which girls he’d held doors for at school. He paid for the distractions, too. When Ms. Aldgate asked him a question, he didn’t even realize it until she walked up to his desk to glare down at him. His only saving grace was that once she repeated the question about the Normandy Invasion, he knew the answer.
He assumed he was off the hook right up until the bell. The instant Ms. Aldgate signaled they were allowed to go, everyone scrambled to stuff their notebooks into their backpacks. By this point in the school year, they all knew better than to try to leave until she told them to.
“Gidion.” Ms. Aldgate stopped him just short of zipping shut his backpack. Something in the way she spoke reminded him of Dad. If she’d gone into police work instead of teaching, Ms. Aldgate would have scared more than one perp to the ground with just her voice. Everything about this woman, from the tight bun of her long black hair to the way everything on her desk was placed at a right angle, made it clear she believed precision was a virtue. “I need a word with you before you go.”
“Ouch,” Andrea whispered to him just before slipping on her backpack and walking out. “Good luck.”
Yeah, luck. He had that in spades lately and most of it bad. Definitely was time to invest in a new good luck charm, because the rabbit’s foot wasn’t doing crap for him beyond finding primo seats in the library.
Gidion slipped on his backpack and walked up to Ms. Aldgate. She stood behind her desk, rearranging items on it. It wasn’t until she’d repositioned her desk calendar for the third time and her eyes shifted to the last student to file out of the room that he realized she was just stalling to make sure no one would be there to listen to them. She confirmed his suspicion when she went to the classroom door and closed it.
The whole thing reminded him of this past September. He’d just started hunting, and one of his earliest kills had been a vampire attacking Ms. Aldgate down in Shockoe Bottom. That had turned into a mess after he discovered it wasn’t a random attack. Learning why they’d wanted her dead had led to him to the local coven, which he then wiped out.
“Another late night hunting?” She fixed him with a hard stare that let him know she didn’t approve. Given that his hunting had saved her life, he would have expected some slack, but she wasn’t a teacher known for going easy on her students.
“No,” he said. “Sorry, I was just a little distracted.”
“If you and Andrea weren’t the two best students I have in this class, I’d consider moving you two to different sides of the room. Just understand that if I see either of your grades start to slip, I will.” Before he could ask what that had to do with anything, she continued as if her point should have been obvious. She sat on the front edge of her desk and crossed her arms. The gesture let him know to keep his trap shut. “That’s not why I wanted to talk to you, though. I’ve been thinking on this a lot, and while I’m grateful for what you did to help me last year, you need to stop hunting.”
Okay, this wasn’t what he’d expected her to talk about.
“That’s got nothing to do with me being distracted in class. I promise.”
She held up a hand for him to stop. “This isn’t about class. This is about your father.”
Gidion’s insides froze. He suddenly wished they could go back to the discussion about him being distracted in class. “Dad doesn’t know about me hunting, and he doesn’t need to.”
“I agree, but he’s a good man.” She looked down, and there was something in the way she avoided looking at him that seemed more like a student than a teacher. “We went out with some friends this weekend.”
She stopped there and looked up at him. Her lips were twisted with confusion, but he couldn’t make out why.
“Gidion, I like your father, and I’d like to see him again.”
In spite of himself, Gidion smiled. The idea of the two of them becoming a couple had actually been his idea, after all. The way she shifted and fought back a smile of her own was downright cute. Go, Dad!
“Are you asking for my permission to date my dad?”
He started to laugh, but something in her expression silenced him.
“No, I’m asking you to stop hunting, so I can eventually date him with a clean conscience. You need to understand that I haven’t gone out with anyone since I was divorced years ago. Lies have a way of ruining even the best relationship.” She pulled off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “What happens if you get hurt or killed?”
“I’m not going to.”
That jerked Ms. Aldgate to her feet and sent Gidion stumbling back. “You don’t know that. You wore turtlenecks and shirts with tall collars for two weeks after what happened last year. I saw the bruises to your throat from where I’m assuming you’d been choked. Don’t tell me you won’t get hurt, because we both know you can’t control that.”
“Look, my hunting has nothing to do with you now.”
That only made her glare at him even harder. “I’m having to lie to your father, and I won’t do that. I respect and care about you both too much. What I’m asking you to do is be honest with him so I can. Either quit hunting or tell him what you’re doing. If you don’t, then I’ll tell him.”
“What! This is—”
“I’ll give you until the end of the month.”
Gidion glanced at the calendar posted on the wall behind Ms. Aldgate’s desk.
“That’s Friday.”
“That’s also more than fair.”
She was out of her damn mind. She had to be.
Gidion didn’t wait for her to say anything else. The bell rang to signal the start of last period. He flung open the door to her room just in time to see a few students ducking into other classrooms as teachers closed their doors. Others vanished around the corner of the hallway.
As soon as he made it out into the breezeway, he realized he didn’t have a hall pass for being late. He refused to go back to Ms. Aldgate to get one. His next class was P.E. Odds favored he’d be able to change clothes and get in the line for attendance before the coach marked him late.
He made it to the locker room without running into any teachers or principals. His hands shook as he changed into his gym clothes. Every option trapped him. If he told his dad what he was doing, there was no chance he’d ever get to hunt again. He could lie, tell Ms. Aldgate he’d stopped, but she’d figure it out. The first injury his clothes couldn’t hide and she’d know. The option to quit hunting wasn’t on the table. He refused to stop. All he had to do was think about Mom’s wedding portrait, her red hair and her smile. He saw her every day. He couldn’t quit and then look at that picture ever again without believing he’d betrayed her.
Chapter Eleven
The coffee mug warmed Gidion’s hands almost enough to burn. When he set the café mocha on the wood tabletop, the cool air inside the café numbed his palms and fingertips. The Urban Farmhouse was more crowded than usual. By the time he and Andrea made it there, the cushioned seats and more popular corner tables were all taken. They had to settle for a table near the sliding doors that led to the patio, which even shut still made it the coldest part of the café.
Andrea tapped her pen on the side of his mug, producing a series of low pings. “For a guy drinking something with four shots of espresso in it, you sure don’t seem that alert.”
“No, sorry.” If he hadn’t already committed to give Andrea a ride home from school today, he’d probably have skipped their study session. Neither of them really needed it. Gidion doubted it would improve his chances on tomorrow’s quiz anyway. If he couldn’t focus now, he didn’t see how he was going to tomorrow, not in the same room with Ms. Aldgate.
“This have anything to do with what Ms. Aldgate wanted
?” The way Andrea said that made it seem like she already knew the answer. Even though he’d finally warmed up to Seth’s girlfriend, Gidion sometimes found Andrea’s nosy nature a bit much. The more a person held back from her, the more she turned all Richard Castle. Usually, he fed her a half-truth to shut her down, but at the moment, he had nothing.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. She answered with a silent stare of concern, not her usual response. “Really. It’s nothing.” He pointed to her laptop, where she stored her notes. “Let’s just get to it.”
They tossed out random questions for the next hour. Not surprisingly, she answered almost everything right. If his survival had depended on his answers, he would have resembled Hiroshima.
He even blanked on the name for the Enigma machine which the Germans used to encrypt and decrypt their messages during World War II, and he’d figured out a week ago how to use the Riddler’s real name, Edward Nigma, to help him remember that one.
“I’m screwed. Wonder which of us she’ll move?”
“You, of course. My grade isn’t going to suffer.” The confidence in her voice sounded prophetic, right up until she laughed. “Relax. You’ll do fine.”
He was so focused on wondering how he was going to pass the quiz that it wasn’t until later that evening, after he’d dropped Andrea at her house, that he realized he hadn’t told her about Ms. Aldgate’s threat to separate them in class if their grades went down. If she overheard that, then he wondered how much of the rest she’d heard.
Chapter Twelve
With Dad working his evening-midnight double, Gidion had the house to himself. As soon as he got in the door, he threw a frozen pizza in the oven, set the timer and ran upstairs.
Page strolled up the stairs and followed him into his room. She hopped onto his bed, doing a slow spin until she’d found just the right way to position herself. Gidion scratched her beneath her jaw before he reached under his bed to pull out a long, flat plastic tub. He kept most of the belongings he took from his kills in here, including the stash of goodies he’d taken from GQ Drac and Bonnie’s luggage, van, and pockets.