Page 10 of Never Say Die
Aiden thought,Shay, and he didn’t look away.
CHAPTER FIVE
Sleep came unexpectedly. At one point, Aiden had been awake, watching Shay tear Thomas apart, and the next he’d jolted in place, hands plastered over his chest, catching himself as he fell out of a nightmare. Morning snuck through the blinds. He couldn’t tell if he’d nodded off ten seconds or three hours ago, but the last thing he remembered was Shay propping himself against the opposite wall, chin slicked red, eyes half-lidded.
Thomas’s hollow body stretched across the hallway, mostly hidden behind the kitchen counter. Aiden stared. He followed splintered bone and shredded skin, and swallowed bile. Thomas’s face tipped toward him, lips slackened, eyelids peeled apart. He had never been this close to the dead before. Managed to ditch his grandfather’s open-casket Catholic funeral. Even after he’d knifed Shay, Aiden had kicked him away, unwilling to stay for the grand finale. Damn, he should’ve, though. Since Shay hadn’t fuckingdied. He patted his pockets. No phone. Braced on his palms to glance at the counter. No phone there either.
Okay.
So, there was a corpse in his apartment, his phone was gone, and Shay was a vampire or a Chupacabra or. . . orsomething, and Aiden desperately needed a drink.
Something rustled on the other side of the counter. He knew that sound: bed sheets shifting. Carefully, Aiden got to his feet. He winced, stepping over the stagnant blood pooled around Thomas’s body, and crept into the largest part of the studio. His breath quivered. Shay’s sleepy hands were splayed on the comforter, the rest of him nested in Aiden’s cheap bedding. He looked as he always did, freckled and boyish. Nothing like the beast from last night. Aiden rubbed a palm over his mouth, glanced at the backpack stuffed in the corner, over his shoulder at the butchered body, then back to Shay.
After what he’d seen a few hours ago, skipping town seemed pointless. If Aiden ran, the police or Shay would catch him. If he stayed, the man in his bed might kill him. He knelt, braving a touch to Shay’s knuckles. Shay opened his eyes and Aiden jerked his hand back, frozen at the edge of his mattress.
Shay knitted his brows. “You kicked me off a cliff,” he rasped.
Aiden licked his chapped lips. “Yeah, well, you ate Thomas.”
They watched each other, silent but for the sound of their breathing. The pizzeria came alive downstairs and cars sped through the intersection outside. Shay’s eyes were Easter blue again, his skin plump and flawless, like a newly packaged version of himself, changed just enough to be noticeable. He sighed and rolled onto his back.
“Should I even bother asking why the hell you. . .” Shay’s mouth slackened, opening and closing, as if he had more to say. Aiden glimpsed newly sharpened canines—two up top, two more below—longer and deadlier. “. . .stabbedme?”
Aiden’s throat worked around a swallow. “I regret it,” he said, and once he started, he couldn’t stop. “I—I had this plan, this shitty, ridiculous plan, but I immediately, like,immediatelyregretted it. I just. . . I found these—these rituals, you know? And a soul is worth a lot if?—”
“You tried to sacrifice me to the fucking devil?” Shay lunged toward him. His fangs cut the air in front of Aiden’s nose. He winced, just barely. “Seriously, Aiden? What the actualfuckis wrong with you—you’re kidding, right?”
“Clearly, I did a bang-up job since you’re still alive,” Aiden snapped back, surprised by his own courage. “And youeatpeople now, so yes, this is grade-A run-of-the-mill devil-shit, Shay. And. . . I mean. . .” he snarled, furiously thankful he could fight with Shay again, “I’m sorry, but I found a wayin, okay? You didn’t give me much of a choice.”
Shay laughed, one, barkinghah. “Murder was your only option, huh? You couldn’t have picked someone else? Literally,anyoneelse?”
I don’t love anyone else. Aiden tightened his mouth, knees widening as he sat on his heels. “Look, it didn’t work. You’re back. I’m…”So fucking glad. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry for?—"
“Stabbing me?” Shay deadpanned. “Kicking me off a cliff? Murdering me?”
“For everything.” He chewed hard on his lip. “And I didn’tmurderyou. You’re right here. You broke into my apartment and tried to snack on me last night, remember?”
“Oh, my bad. After bleeding out in the ocean, I drowned. Don’t look at me like that. You got what you wanted.” Shay paused, glaring at him through his lashes. “I remember it. I… I remember dying. Waking up on shore. Coughing up my bodyweight in water and…You. I remembered you. So, yeah, I came here. I came looking for you, for answers, and. . .”
Aiden steeled his expression, but regret ached in his chest. “And?”
“I was starving.” His gaze shifted to the body in the hall. “Ididn’t. . . I didn’t know what to do. It hurt, everything hurt. I. . . I just. . . I knew what I needed, but…”
“But?”
“But I expected to feel worse about it. I expected not to know myself, but I did. Nothingpossessedme. I wasn’t influenced. I. . . I did that. . . I. . .” He gestured to Thomas with a trembling hand. “How did Idothat?”
Aiden tipped his head, glancing around Shay’s perfect fucking face. “Those new fangs,” he said, simply, and sighed through his nose. Anxiety lodged in the center of his throat, the same place it’d been since the night of the ritual, but Shay was back, and Thomas was gone, and he was grateful for that. “I need my phone.”
Shay flexed his jaw. “We can’t go to the police?—”
“I’m not an idiot. I need to make sure Georgia and Dylan don’t stop by before we makethatgo away.” He nudged his chin toward the hallway. “We need an alibi, too. Thomas had family in Canada, didn’t he? Friends. An ex. Something.”
“An ex, yeah. Ex-girlfriend, I think.”
“Good. That’ll work.” Aiden held out his hand. “Phone.”
“You’re excruciatingly calm right now,” Shay said, skeptically. He reached under the pillow and retrieved Aiden’s hidden iPhone. “How, exactly, do we make any of this go away? You—” He pushed to his palms and flinched, curling one arm around his middle. “Put a knife in me,” he gasped out, snaring Aiden in a hard look. “Yeah, it hurts like a bitch. Thanks for asking.”
