“Not regular classes, it’s Saturday.” He sighed. “There are students doing make-up exams and some remedial classes. After the upcoming investigation, I didn’t think I’d be here on a Saturday.”
“What investigation?”
“You’d know if you hadn’t fucking hung up on me the other day.” He huffed.
Pissy. Just what I expected.
“I was busy. Explain.”
“Your lovely stepsister accused me of inappropriate behavior with her,” he growled. “So, I was suspended pending an investigation.”
I sat up straight and felt my face get hot. “Did you do it?”
“Fuck no! I can’t believe you’d even ask me that.” He sounded pissed off and hurt.
I wasn’t concerned about his anger. Taryn was mine.
“I’ve seen the way you look at her when you think no one is watching.” I reprimanded him.
“How in the hell would you be able to see that?” He asked, in confusion.
“There are cameras everywhere,” I said distractedly as another rash of 911 calls came out of Dallas.
“You’re one creepy son-of-a-bitch.”
“That’s not relevant,” I growled. “Why are you at school if you were suspended?”
“Temporarilysuspended.”
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn’t see it. “Fine. What’s going on there?”
“They called me back in,” he continued. “Not officially, but because half the staff didn’t show up.” I could tell he was worried. “I just had to lock a student in the classroom because she bit another student and was acting like a dog with rabies.”
“Was the student ill, and did her eyes change?” I asked worriedly.
I began running a cross-reference on emergency room triage notes with police assault reports and traffic cam footage.
“Shit,” I murmured.
It seemed that every subject who developed corneal opacity showed the same progression—disorientation, agitation, then targeted biting behavior.
“They looked cloudy. Almost like someone developing cataracts. And one other thing… she fought like—” He stopped, searching for a word that wouldn’t sound ridiculous. “Like pain wasn’t registering.”
That matched the data.
“Lucas,” I said, firmly, “listen carefully. I don’t know what this is yet. But I think that contact matters.”
“Contact how?”
“Bites. Blood. Saliva. Anything that involves the breaking of skin.”
There was movement on his end—doors closing, voices muffled.
“You’re saying this spreads?”
“I believe that is correct. Yes.”
A pause. Then, quieter, “You should know that I swung by Taryn and Ben’s and no one was home. She didn’t show up to the game last night.”
