“You done eating yet?” Rusty asked Henry, sounding exasperated.
Henry gazed down at his plate sadly. “Yeah. I just ate the last bite. No more strudel until next week.” He stood up. “Wanna go to the library with me? We could work on our reports for biochem.”
It was a good idea. The library would have reference materials we could use to flesh out our papers.
“I’m in,” I said, as Henry’s phone rang.
Rusty took his tray, balancing it on top of his own after I took the glasses and placed them on mine.
“Dad?” Henry asked as he walked alongside us to the tray return, a look of concern on his face. His face brightened suddenly as he broke into a wide smile. “That’s great! Well, not for him. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear this. Hm? Oh, I was just having dinner with my friends. Yeah, Rusty and two other guys, River Montgomery, and his math tutor. Yes, that’s right, he’s the heir. No, nothing special. We were just about to go to the library and do some studying. Okay, then, talk to you later, Dad.” He slid his phone back into his pocket.
“What was all that about?” Rusty asked him, turning away after depositing the trays. I did the same and followed along.
“My dad was calling to say that my uncle was most alarmed at what was happening. He’s called the dean and withdrawn his financial support. He also asked why he wasn’t informed that my cousin had ties to the people who had the accidents,” Henry said, lowering his voice.”And then called my cousin to inform him he was to pack tonight to return home. A car is coming to collect him to take him to the airport. My Uncle bought him an e-ticket so his boarding pass will be on his phone. The Family is going to question him about the accidents, too. If they come back to him, we want to know so we can be prepared for any repercussions that may crop up down along the line.”
“But if the Sponsor did feed on them, he might be protected,” Rusty pointed out.
“Especially if he made a deal.” There, I’d said it aloud, admitted to what I feared most.
“You mean, to be Made?” Henry asked. “If he were, surely the Old One would have told Father and my dad and uncle and the others would know about it.”
“Unless the Old One is also up to something,” Rusty said darkly.
None of us had anything to say further after that. If that were true, it was way above our paygrade, and I, for one, did not want to know unless it meant asshat Roy was free to come after us for our part in his disgrace. We hurried to our rooms and fetched our books, then headed to the library.
My phone pinged with a message.
Shannon: Got the same room. See you @4:30
I texted him a thumbs up in reply. Regardless of what the deal was with Roy, we all had to pass our classes. I worked for two hours, then reluctantly said my goodbyes.
“I have to go to a meeting,” I said when they expressed their wishes for me to remain.
“Oh,” Rusty said. “A meeting, yeah?”
“Exactly. I have t go grab a change of clothes, so I gotta dash.”
“Be careful,” Henry said. “Don’t forget about breakfast.”
“I won’t,” I promised, taking my leave “I’ll text you in the morning to let you know I’m up.”
“Okay. See ya!” Henry answered, quickly going back to the book he was taking notes from.
“Bye,” Rusty said, “Better you than me.”
I was a terrible friend. I wished it was one of them and not me.
10
Nine p.m. came far too soon that night. As I trudged my reluctant way to the boardwalk, I contemplated how I had gotten here. It all came down to one crappy decision followed by another one. The lure of easy money led me to accept work as a lookout for some very shady people. That, in turn, led me having to run away when the cops showed up en masse for a bust during one of my employer’s transactions. I ended up trying to hide in the wrong place, seeing something I shouldn’t have. That should have been the end of the line, save for Father taking an unexpected shine to me. He asked me if I would do anything, anything at all to live. I was stupid enough to say yes, never once dreaming of what I was agreeing to.
Now, here I was, walking in blind to another situation, albeit one I already had a fair inkling involved something monstrous in every sense of the word. The boardwalk was empty, the venues all shutting at eight-thirty as students had a nine o’clock curfew. I could see staff inside the places, finishing the closing procedures. Not a single one looked up from what they were doing to look outside the window. Then again, even if they did, they probably knew better than to say a single word about anyone or anything they’d seen. That’s probably how Roy got away with what he did if he was guilty of what we thought he was.
“Glad you could make it,” came Professor Lambert’s voice.
“I knew he would, even without you mentioning I would be here.”
My head came out of the clouds with a loud thump as I came back down to Earth with a sense of hyperawareness. Father was here, my Father, the one who had sent me here.
