Page 4 of Coerced

Shift the hold, cut off his air, and choke him dead. No, even better, snap his neck—

An orange softball hit me right between the eyes. With a grunt, I let Fanishell drop like a rock and tried to get my breathing under control. Hank was always saying that was the first step to calming down instead of exploding, so I kept practicing it.

Once in a while, it even worked.

“Matt, you better catch Joss.” Jax stood close to me as he talked to Farley. “I think she’s going to fall.”

Sure enough, Rangers Girl tipped right over. Farley caught her before her head bounced off the floor.

“Gemma can fix her,” I muttered. “Just don’t let her touchme.”

“That might be hard because you’re bleeding pretty good,” Jax pointed out.

“I ain’t safe right now!”

I hid my arms behind my back so she wouldn’t see. Maybe the bleeding would stop before she noticed.

Yeah, and maybe the Maple Leafs would make it to the Stanley Cup Finals this year.

Glancing around, I saw everyone was staring at us.

I don’t really care if their stupidity gets them killed, but I know I should. Gemma wouldwantme to care.

Blowing a heavy breath out through my nose, I climbed on top of the table and cupped my hands around my mouth. Blood ran down my arms and dripped off my elbows onto the white tablecloth.

Crap. She’ll notice that for sure.

“It don’t matter how far back your daddy was a demon. You areallprey to them,” I called out. “Take it from someone who’s been in the Real World and knows what the Diabolical are like. If you turn on each other, you’re gonna get gobbled up one by one.”

“Enough!” Ms. Chapman’s voice crashed through the room.

Steeling myself, I jumped off the table and straightened my shoulders. If I was going down, it wouldn’t be as a coward. When I made eye contact with her, though, the principal only gave me a quick nod. I wasn’t sure what to make of that, but at least I wasn’t getting yelled at or punished.

“I will not tolerate bullying in any form, including demonstrating bias against generational status. Anyone caught doing so will face harsh consequences, starting with Cole Fanishell. Now clean up and move on to your classes. Breakfast is over.” Her speech done, she headed in our direction.

“Wow. His first week back, and Cole’s going to be suspended again.”

I ignored Jax to see where Gemma had got to and found her and Gigi kneeling next to Rangers Girl. Good. That would give me a few seconds to check out the damage from Fanishell’s little monsters.

“Jax, come here for a minute.”

I moved so he was mostly blocking me if she looked over. I found six or seven chewed-up places on each arm, but most of the blood poured outta a big hole in my left forearm.

“Dude!” Jax winced as he looked at my tat. “Took out the dragon’s face. That both sucks and bites!”

“It’ll be fine once the skin heals. Help me hide this!”

“With what? It’s not like I carry a roll of bandages in my back pocket.”

“You got a hanky? Like a cloth one? I forgot to grab one this morning. Or a bandana?” When he shook his head, I got desperate. “Gimme your sock.”

“No! It’s dirty from being in my shoe. It’ll give you an infection or something. Besides, I’m wearing no-shows. It wouldn’t be big enough to wrap around your arm. Just let her heal it.”

“It might make her cry, dummy,” I hissed. “Gimme your sock!”

“Screw you, numbnuts!”

“Ah, is this a bad time to talk?”

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