Scowling, Nero violently kicked the leg of Naretha’s bed, denting the metal and causing the mattress to sag. He didn’t apologize before stalking out of the room, though Naretha was now muttering about the awkwardness of this new slanted position she lay in. Adara eyed Calder, waiting for him to follow his boss, but he remained where he was, examining his bruised arms and avoiding her gaze.
Tray, still holding Eliana, looked like he was about to speak; before he could, though, two figures suddenly appeared before him, triggering splutters of surprise.
“I teleported ten feet, Lav!” Hartman announced, his orange eyes wild with delight. His freckles were vibrating at an elevated speed and his bright hair looked windswept. “Ten feet—and through a wall!”
“Don’t call me Lav,” was Lavisa’s dry response.
“We almost ran into Nero, but then I teleported in here before he even saw me! Awesome, right?”
“It was nauseating,” Hastings commented, appearing much paler than usual. He stood directly beside Hartman, doubled over and clutching his stomach as his reddish hair hung over his face.
Eliana scrambled out of Tray’s grasp to grab Hastings’s arm and steady him. Tray straightened his ruined white t-shirt, clearly trying not to look too perturbed.
“Get him a bucket—or something,” the blue-haired girl pleaded. The nurse swiftly hurried across the room to grab the garbage can; Adara was too busy studying Tray to notice Hastings retch into it.
“What happened to you, Nerdworm?” she inquired, her eyes raking over the circular hole in his shirt that exposed his chest and the oozing, ringed burn. “Did you join a cult?”
His features warped with disdain. “It’s an acid burn, Stromer.”
Adara said nothing more, having noticed Eliana had the same type of marks on her shoulder and arm. Despite the injuries, she continued to keep Hastings upright as he finished puking into the wastebasket. When he stood straight and wiped his mouth with the back of his forearm, his face held no emotion—not disgust or embarrassment or discomfort. It was as if he hadn’t been sick at all.
“Hastings,” the female Wacko greeted as she finally sat up in her bed. She was about to swing her legs over the side when Calder held up his hand in defense and Lavisa lunged into a fighting pose. With twisting lips, Naretha slumped back and eyed them all with contempt.
“How about one of you primies do something useful and go get Aethelred?” Calder suggested, his hand still extended toward Naretha.
“I’ll go, now that I can teleport ten feet at a time,” Hartman said, wiggling his eyebrows proudly. “Don’t tell Nero,” he added to Calder. “I don’t want him to know I’m improving.” The other boy made no promises before Hartman disappeared from the room.
At the sight of the remaining primaries, an exciting idea formed in Adara’s mind. “Did the Wackos kidnap Kiki—or, better yet, did they kill Kiki?”
“Oh, God,” Seth moaned, clutching his head between his hands. “I don’t actually know. I was too busy trying to help Tray—”
“By slapping me,” his twin injected bitterly.
“Kiki is fine,” Lavisa said. “I saw her, and she wasn’t injured.”
“Well, what about my boy, Greenie?” Adara demanded as a sincere tinge of alarm entered her mind. “If he’s dead, I will slaughter this Wacko.”
Naretha puffed out a breath of boredom, as though she thought she was beyond death, while Adara’s friends exchanged nervous looks.
“I didn’t see Ackerly after I woke up,” Tray said worriedly.
Lavisa bit her lip, actually looking like she had emotions for once. “He got lost in the masses once the Wackos showed up.”
“None of you know where he is?” Adara paused, her eyes bulging as she stared at the blank white wall. Her voice rose when she spoke again. “None of you know where the hell he is?”
“I don’t think he’s dead,” Eliana said, but her voice was weak.
Adara emitted a frustrated noise that was a cross between a groan and a scream and then shoved past Calder toward the room’s exit.
“You’re not going to let Dr. Pain heal you before you go?” he called after her as she plowed through Lavisa and Seth.
“I like these scars,” she spat back at him, throwing up her arms to reveal her road rash again. “They were a nice gift from you, Pixie Prince.” With that, she shouldered open the door to the nurse’s office and rushed out into the hall without any other form of goodbye.
Before the door fully closed behind her, she heard the nurse’s voice echoing down the hallway, asking, “Do you want me to heal you, so you can go, Calder?”
“I should stay here to make sure the Wacko doesn’t escape before Aethelred shows up,” the Pixie Prince answered, almost absently, his voice like soft waves lapping against a shore. “You don’t need to heal me, either. I like these scars.”
Sweating and internally destroyed, Avner jogged back across the school’s campus toward the Physicals Building, alone. Zeela was too shaken to accompany him, and he’d instructed Jamad to escort her back to her room safely—or maybe she was escorting him, since he’d seemed equally as distraught by Maddy’s disappearance.
The same level of dismay overwhelmed Avner, but despite what he’d always tried to deny, he was the leader—not just of JAMZ but of their friend group—and he had to display an appearance of strength and resilience. So, instead of joining his two friends to mourn, he was going back to the basement of JAMZ to check on everyone and make sure no one else had been injured tonight because he’d invited them all to play a stupid game.
When he pushed through the double doors of the Physicals Building, he was about to dart toward the basement door when he noticed that, to the right, his sister was exiting the nurse’s office.
Her dark hair fell in front of her face as she stalked forward blindly, staring down at the large blotches of red that ran down her forearms. Her jeans were dirty, as were her Converse, and when she finally glanced up at him, a scowl was already plastered on her face.
“Wonderful—as if this night could get any worse,” Adara fumed, sticking her tongue out at him as she passed. He assumed she’d exit the building, but instead, she headed toward the basement door. “I heard JAMZ didn’t go as you planned,” she added when she noticed he was now following her down the hall.
“It was a disaster,” he confirmed, flustered. Hurrying ahead of her, he opened the basement door to let her go in first, and she shot him an ungrateful glare before doing so.
“Where are you coming from?” she asked as they trekked down the stairwell.
“The… There were Wackos here—”
“I’m aware,” she said, presenting her forearms to him.
Confused, he swallowed but didn’t question her before continuing. “They came to JAMZ—to kidnap Hastings, I think. They didn’t get him, but they accidentally took Maddy with them.”
“Your stretchy friend?”
“Yeah,” Avner affirmed, grimacing as they landed in the corridor of the basement. It was dimly lit with fluorescent lights now, and a cluster of voices could be heard from the room ahead. “We ran out to the gate to try to save her, but by the time we got there, they’d already left…with her. Ira—the guard—couldn’t save her. They had some kind of mind controller with them, and he convinced her to let them come and go. Bastards…”
“Whoa. Did Perfect Avner just use a swear word?” Adara gasped, spinning toward him with her eyebrows arched. “How naughty of you.”
He rolled his eyes, but his attempt at a smile felt more like a frown. “I’m just worried we won’t be able to get her back… What happened with you? I thought you’d be in your room, sleeping, since you couldn’t come to JAMZ.”
“Did you think that—really?”
He paused for a moment, contemplating, and then shook his head. “Not really. You didn’t try to fight the Wackos, did you?”
“Of course I did,” she huffed, crossing her arms delicately, as not to provoke furthe
r injury to what appeared to be road rash. “I was unsuccessful, unfortunately. Me, Big Boy, and the Pixie Prince snuck out of the Residence Tower and saw the Wackos come in through the gate. We chased them down and tried to stop them, but I got knocked out by that douche bag with the sleeping powers.”
“Big Boy is…Nero?” Avner guessed, and Adara nodded. “And…Pixie Prince?”
“Calder, obviously.” She sighed dramatically when he let out a brief chuckle. “What’s so funny?”
A faint smirk remained on his lips. “Don’t tell me…you’re crushing on those two jerks?”
“Crushing—no!” she exclaimed, but in Avner’s mind, it only confirmed his suspicions. “God, I hate them. They’re my sworn enemies—you know that. We were only together because you banned all three of us from JAMZ. They might be the biggest assholes at this school, but they are powerful. Nero took on that huge monster Wacko alone, and Calder knocked out the salt girl. You didn’t meet her because we captured her.”
That information ignited an idea—a spark of hope—in Avner. “You captured a Wacko? That’s—that’s perfect! We can trade her back to them for Maddy!”
“I highly doubt that,” Adara said darkly, her humor fading. “No offense, but I assume they’ll keep her for questioning and then send her to some Regg lab for testing. Don’t deny that happens, because everyone knows it does. Maybe you can talk Periculy into the exchange, but don’t tell Nero about it. He plans to parade the Wacko girl around school like a trophy—mostly to piss you off, I think.”
“He would…” Avner muttered, his fingers on his chin as he stared off in rumination. “And if he knew I wanted to use her to get Maddy back, he’d make sure that didn’t happen. Our rivalry runs deeper than yours—trust me.”
“Hm. Tell me more,” she pried, cocking her head to the side.
With an exhale, Avner scratched his temple and tried not to meet her eyes. Over the past few weeks, they’d gained a tinge of red to them, and it was creepy enough to coax him into talking. “All right… I might have under-exaggerated the situation with Nero.”
“Go on.”
He bit his bottom lip in the rare way he did when he got embarrassed. “I… Well, it wasn’t one of my finest moments. Nero got here a year after me and was immediately attracted to Orla, Kiki’s sister, like most males are. They quickly began to have a fling and I…well…I accidentally slept with her.”
Adara blinked, but her face was otherwise unchanged. “How do you accidentally sleep with someone? Enlighten me, please.”
Shuffling awkwardly, Avner rubbed the back of his neck. “She…used her Affinity against me, you know…”
“She raped you, you’re saying?” she clarified bluntly.
“Well…no… I mean, I wanted her…kinda…but I was already dating Zeela at that point, so…I didn’t really want her. Zeela knows, before you try to blackmail me. It was a rough time.”
“Mm, yes,” Adara pondered. “I can imagine any time you were raped would be considered a rough time.”
“It wasn’t—it—it was just a large misunderstanding, okay?” His cheeks betrayed him by heating under her critical gaze. “But…it’s what sparked the rivalry between me and Nero, even though I had no intention of ever being with Orla.”
“Right—because she raped you.” Avner threw his head back, groaning with frustration. “Oh, come on, you expect me to believe Perfect Avner willingly cheated on his girlfriend? Is there a less believable lie?” The answer to her question was already clear in her tone, but she waited patiently for his response, anyway.
“It’s not a lie, Dar. I’m not perfect,” he argued, almost feebly.
“Mm, and saying that only makes you more perfect.” She considered him where he stood, and he knew he must have looked broken and raw—weak.
Avner had always been the strong one—the only one who could stop Adara’s irrationality or comfort her, even when she pretended she didn’t want it. To be seen as a distant, unlovable being in her eyes bothered him as much as her burning grudge against him, but he feared there was nothing he could say to sway her mind on either matter.
“I want to go find Greenie,” she finally said, allowing her hands to fall to her sides. When she registered his curiosity, she added, “Ackerly, that green kid I always hang out with. He’s either down here or the Wackos took him, too.”
“I think I saw him pass out when that Wacko with the sleep Affinity came in,” he recalled, walking past his sister to enter the JAMZ room. “C’mon…”
The warehouse-like room was currently filled with the echoing moans of disoriented students. Many had awakened and sat on the floor, while some stumbled toward the exit and others were still unconscious. Than, the history teacher, and Sherman Sherwin, the chief of Physicals, had apparently been alerted of the situation and were both milling around the room in their pajamas, trying to coax everyone back to consciousness. Avner noticed Than was currently shaking Kiki Belven’s shoulder, attempting to awaken her, and Adara must have, as well, because she snorted.
“Hopefully Nasty B is dead,” she muttered, and Avner gave her a admonishing look.
“Kiki hasn’t been so bad to you here, has she? I mean, she seems kinda lonely, honestly, since she and Seth broke up.”
“Don’t you dare feel sympathy for the witch. Breaking up with Seth was her own doing… Hey, there’s my Greenie.”
Adara’s face lit up when her eyes locked onto the green-haired boy sprawled on the floor near the orange mats. After kicking a few sleeping kids to the side, she plopped to her knees beside Ackerly and placed her hand on his chest. It was rising and falling faintly, indicating he was well and alive. His glasses had shattered when he’d fallen, though, and a thin piece of glass was imbedded in his cheek, right beneath the bone.
“Poor kid—he hates blood,” Adara said as she gingerly removed his glasses, revealing his peacefully closed eyes. Avner had never seen her so gentle with anyone. “Probably best if we yank it out before he wakes up.”
“Adara—”
Avner didn’t get to stop his sister’s hand before she reached out and carelessly plucked the shard of glass from Ackerly’s cheek. His slumber was so deep that he didn’t flinch or move, even as blood began to trickle down toward his ear.
“Dammit. He’s not going to be pleased,” she grumbled before tearing off the sleeve of her black t-shirt.
“What are you doing?” Avner questioned, his eyes protruding with incredulity. “That’s your favorite shirt…”
“You remembered,” she said, grinning back at him momentarily before she used the torn sleeve to dab the blood off Ackerly’s face. “Calder already ruined it, anyway. See?” She motioned toward the back of her shirt, which was ripped and rubbed raw.
Perplexed, Avner studied the shirt, unable to come to a conclusion that didn’t disturb him. “What was Calder—why did he… What—what happened to your back?” he blurted, noticing the red through the holes and then pulling up her shirt to see the long trail of road rash that stained the skin above her spine. “Adara—”
“I’m fine,” she snapped as she pressed the sleeve of her shirt to Ackerly’s shallow wound. “Calder and I just decided to have sex on the pavement. Is that a problem?” When she spun her head back to him, Avner must have looked beyond appalled, because her eye roll was more exaggerated than usual. “Jokes, Brother. He dragged me across the pavement after I passed out because he’s too weak to carry me. Is that better?”
“Still gives me the urge to electrocute him,” he said under his breath.
Adara’s smirk was sadistic now. “There’s the Stromer rage. Unleash it, Av. Don’t hold back.”
“You’re the psychotic one, not me,” he said, but his tone was light. “Think he’ll wake up on his own?”
“I’ll probably have to carry him to Dr. Pain,” she replied, removing the cloth from his cheek. Triumph washed over her face when it didn’t ooze more blood.
“I could shock him awake,” Avner suggested
casually. “Just a little shock.”
Adara’s eyebrows shot up as she swirled toward him. “You can?”
“Yeah—I do it to Jamad every morning. Might not be healthy for his organs, but he says it energizes him.”
“Reckless, Perfect Avner.” She was biting her lip, her eyes alight with uncontainable anticipation. “Well, do it.”
Avner sucked in a breath before rubbing his hands together and then holding them above Ackerly’s chest. With a tap of his finger to the young boy’s shoulder, his whole body jerked and his green eyes flew open wildly, chest heaving.
“I—uh—Adara?” Ackerly panted, squinting to look at her. She glanced down at his broken glasses on the ground beside him and frowned.
“Your glasses are broken, Greenie,” she informed him. “One of the Wackos knocked you out—”
“You—what are you doing here? I thought you were back at the tower.”
“It’s cute you have faith in Adara to do the right thing, but she never does,” Avner said ruefully, and Adara’s glare turned poisonous. “You feel okay, right?”
“I—I feel great,” the boy answered, shaking out his earthy hair as he stretched his shoulders. “I just…can’t see. You’re Avner, right?”
“Let’s go, Greenie,” Adara prompted, springing to her feet and then extending her hand toward him.
“Um…okay…” His voice was uncertain as he took her hand and allowed her to pull him up. Blinking and scrunching his eyes, the kid looked more like a blind person than Zeela.
“Don’t worry; I’ll hold your hand,” she assured him impatiently. “I know someone who might be able to help you see again.”
24
Hearts
“I will not touch her.”
Blood: An Affinities Novel (The Affinities Book 1) Page 32