Marisela, aiming a bottle of pepper spray at Brennan’s face, the other gripping her phone. On the floor beside her, just next to a pile of shoes, was Brennan’s freezer, lid open, contents displayed: approximately a dozen packs of hospital-grade human blood strewn across the ground. Next to the freezer was the broken lock that used to keep it shut, and a hammer.
“You know,” Mari said, “at first I honestly thought it was a coincidence when we saw you the day a bunch of blood went missing from Dr. Huong’s lab.”
“Mari, what are you doing?” Cole started.
Mari kept the pepper spray trained on Brennan’s eyes. Brennan had no clue if pepper spray worked on vampires, but that was not a theory he wanted to test out anytime soon.
“Cole, get the fuck away from him,” Mari said, her voice deadly low. Something in the tone made Cole’s spine straighten. He took half a step toward her, maybe on reflex, but it still hit Brennan like a stab in the gut.
“Listen, Mari—”
“Don’t say my name, you literal fucking freak. Back up!”
“Freak” stung.
“Mar, take a few deep breaths, okay?” Cole said, but it was meek. He was shrinking into himself. “I feel like you’re lashing out unfairly.”
“I am lashing out in a perfectly fucking rational way!”
“What are you even doing here?” Brennan asked.
Mari flushed red, embarrassment mixing with anger. Which meant the answer was probably Tony. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is, as Cole’s best friend, it’s my responsibility to make sure his crushes aren’t serial killers, so it’s my job to check their rooms for dead bodies—”
“Oh, my god, Mari—”
“But then it was like, who the hell has alockedfreezer hidden in theircloset? And, who the hell has astockpileofhuman bloodin their closet?”
Fuck. Shit. Mari’s eyes were a dangerous blaze, daring him to try to lie his way out of it. And Cole stood halfway between the two of them, head down, shoulders drooped, infuriatingly silent.
“I know it looks, uh, not good,” Brennan tried. “But I have a valid explanation for—”
“But then I realized,” Mari interrupted loudly. “I don’t want to know. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care!” She took a step forward, thumb poised over the pepper spray’s trigger. “I want you to stay away from me, and my friends.”
She reached for Cole and pulled him by the hand toward her, stepping protectively in front of him with the pepper spray shielding them both. Worse, Cole went without protest, head still down, unreadable.
“I’m a vampire,” Brennan blurted. Then shoved his hands over his ears as if he could shut out the response. Shit.Fuck.
Mari was stock-still. “Sorry. What?”
“I know how it sounds,” Brennan said, forcing every ounce of desperate honesty into the words, needing her to believe it. “But it’s true. It’s new. I got hit by a car and a vampire turned me, and now I need blood to survive.”
“Okay,” Mari said, voice low, nodding slowly. Then, “You’re delusional.”
Brennan squeezed his eyes shut. “Fair enough,” he said. “I would think the same, if it weren’t happening to me.”
Cole’s voice was quiet but clear. “It’s true.” He still wouldn’t look up from the floorboards.
Mari whirled around toward him, taking her eyes off Brennan for the first time since they’d arrived. “What the fuck are you talking about, Cole?”
“It’s true,” Cole repeated. “He’s a vampire. But he isn’t hurting anybody—”
“Youknewabout this?” Mari demanded, gesturing to the pile of blood, some stolen from the school, most from the vampires’ blood drive.
“Maybe we can just,” Cole said, “um, sit down and have a conversation about—”
“Um, this is not asit-down-and-talksituation,” Mari said. Cole sank further into himself at the dismissal. Mari turned back to Brennan. “If what you’re saying is true, this is a fuckingpriestsituation. More likely, it’s a situation for antipsychotics. You need fucking help.”
“I wish antipsychotics would help!” Brennan said. “But I need blood. Animals don’t cut it.”
