The smell got to me first. Acidic. Rotten. Like leaving meat several days in the trash and not taking it out. The toilet bowl’s liquid was discolored. Danielle had vomited and then passed out. Her pale face was oddly slack and her lipstick smudged. Her hair was a mess. She was wearing nicer clothes. But how long had she been like this? We came in last night and hadn’t heard anything.
Gabriel leapt forward and crouched, testing for a pulse. Then he ducked his head down toward her chest. “She’s breathing. She’s alive,” he said. He started shaking her, trying to get her to wake up, but no response. She was a lump on the floor.
When the shock of realizing this was Danielle had worn off, my eyes bugged out when the next thought came. “If that’s her, where’s Marie?”
Victor released me, dashing toward Marie’s bedroom. He knocked quickly, called her name. When there wasn’t a response, he eased the door open, peeking around the corner. He paused, and then shoved the door open wide, rushing in.
Marie was lying across the bed, in clothes similar to Danielle’s. Her hair had been pulled back. Her eyes were closed. It didn’t appear she had vomited, but she wasn’t waking up.
“What’s wrong with them?” I asked.
Victor checked Marie’s pulse and then pried open an eye. He reached back, giving a solid slap against her cheek. “Marie!” he cried out. “Wake up!”
Marie’s head rocked back, but she didn’t stir.
Gabriel stood in Marie’s doorway, checking in. “Are they drunk?” He scanned the room. “Is there beer in here?”
“I didn’t see any,” Victor said. He hunched over, picking up Marie and repositioning her in his arms. “We need to get them to the hospital.”
“Call Kota,” Gabriel told me. He went to the bed, helping Victor.
I stabbed my finger at the phone.
“What’s wrong?” Kota asked after he picked up. If I was calling this early, he knew something had to be wrong.
“It’s Marie,” I said. “She’s passed out. Danielle is, too. They’re at my house. Victor says we need to take them to the hospital.”
Kota groaned into the phone. “Drunk?”
“We don’t think so. There’s no cans or bottles.” Despite the mess in the bedroom, it was pretty clear there wasn’t anything that was alcoholic. And she didn’t have to hide it if she’d been drinking. There were soda cans, and some coffee bottles, and food stuff but nothing like beer.
“Put me on speaker.”
I pushed the button, holding the phone out as Victor and Gabriel were angling Marie through the hallway to carry her down the stairs. “Kota?” I said, checking to make sure he could hear me.
Gabriel noted the phone. “Hey Kota,” he said. “Where do we take them?”
“If they’re still breathing and their pulse seems normal, take them to the downtown hospital. If it looks like one is trying to slip away, take them to the closest one you can get to. Drive Victor’s car into the garage and then load them up.”
“Where are you?” Victor asked.
“I’m on my way with Silas. Sang, check out the window. Is anyone watching the house?”
I ran to Marie’s window, angling to check up and down the street, and spotted a familiar brown sedan. I returned to the boys as I spoke. “Mr. Morris’s car is across the street and up the road from your house.”
“The other one is following me right now. So he’s not watching for me. Waiting for Nathan, maybe.”
“He was here when I got in. What should we do?” Victor asked.
Kota paused. I heard thumping, like he was tapping against the steering wheel while he was trying to think. “I don’t want to chance Mr. Morris spotting us taking them to the hospital. Gabriel, Victor, take them and start heading downtown, but do it slowly. I’m going to get North on the way. If he starts following you two, North will intervene.”
“What about Sang?”
“She stays home. We’re almost there.”
I sent panicked looks to Gabriel. Marie was going to the hospital without me? Shouldn’t I be with her?
Gabriel seemed to sense how I was feeling. “Sang wants to stay with her sister.”
Mild relief swept through me. Maybe I was getting the hang of the silent communication thing.
“Sang,” Kota said. “Listen, sweetie. You can’t help her right now. I’ve got a feeling it might be that drug going around school. Whatever it is, you and I need to go through her room and look for the cause. It’s better if you’re there with me. The doctors are going to start treatment when she gets there, but if we can find a source, she’ll get better faster. Okay? We can come see her after, and Victor and Gabriel will send updates.”
I swallowed. Maybe I should have trusted him, as his plan did make sense. I’d just needed to hear it.
“Everyone move. We’ll be there in five minutes.” Kota hung up.
“Sang,” Victor said. “Go downstairs and make sure the shades are pulled tight. We don’t want a chance of anyone seeing us carrying them around.”
I raced ahead, doing what I was supposed to, making sure all the blinds were closed tight. Victor had to run out and pull the car in to the garage.
“We need a distraction,” Gabriel said to me as we stood in the living room and waited for Victor to finish. “We need to make it look like we aren’t just pulling into the garage for no reason, if he’s watching us at all.”
“Do you want to make it look like you’re moving some furniture?” I asked. I pointed to the downstairs side tables, the television. “Put something in the trunk. Something that will fit barely and you have to make it look like you tied it down. It’ll give us a reason that we brought it into the garage, like it was heavy and awkward.”
Gabriel brightened. He trapped the back of my head with a palm and planted a kiss on my brow. “Fuck me, your brain is hot.” He tugged me toward the living room. “Let’s steal the television.”
I grinned at his comments. I managed to hide it as he directed me to one side of the television, and worked with me unplugging it and lugging it toward the door.
We told Victor the plan and he agreed with it. “Let’s get the girls out, first,” he said.
We’d just managed to get Danielle and Marie downstairs when Kota and Silas showed up. They were both in jeans. Kota had on a green polo from the day before and Silas a blue baseball shirt that was crumpled. Both looked tired, like they’d had a late night just like we’d had.
Silas took one look at the girls on the floor and frowned. “Are we sure they’re not dead?”
“They’re not,” Victor said.
“Almost a shame,” Silas said.
Gabriel elbowed him in the gut. “That’s her sister, you know.”
Silas looked at me, rubbing his stomach. “Sorry. Didn’t really mean it.”
I understood. They’d been a lot of trouble. I was on edge, wondering if they were dying or what had happened. What would the Academy do if they didn’t wake up for a while? Wouldn’t Danielle’s parents come looking for he
r? What would we tell Derrick?
“Let’s get them into the car,” Kota said.
Silas carried Danielle, and the others angled Marie into the back of Victor’s car. After, Silas and Kota lifted and tied the television into Victor’s trunk. They left it partially open so it would be obvious.
“North should be close,” Kota said to Victor.
Victor nodded and Gabriel got into the car with him. They waved bye to us and headed down the road.
I stood with Kota by the living room window, watching Victor’s BMW roll down the street. A black car with tinted windows followed them. Mr. Morris’s brown vehicle remained.
“Is that one new?” I asked. “The black car?”
“He’s been trading off with the blue car,” Kota said. “At first we thought it was Mr. Blackbourne’s tail, but Mr. Blackbourne’s been reporting in that he still has one. So this guy is new. Or the same guy with a different car.”
“And still obvious,” I said. “Mr. Hendricks seemed to like that. Preventing you from doing ... whatever it is you do?”
“Or keeping us contained while he’s up to something.” He released the blinds so they fell back into place and turned to me. His eyebrows scrunched together behind the black-rimmed glasses and his worried frown tightened. He reached out, his fingers tracing my collarbone. “Good lord, what happened to your neck?”
My hand fluttered up, covering what I could. My mind went blank trying to figure out the answer.
Silas had been in the kitchen and walked into the living room. He looked between us and then zeroed in on Kota’s disturbed face. “What’s wrong?”
Kota stepped forward, capturing my chin between his fingers. He turned my head one way and then another, checking out the damage.
Silas peered over Kota’s shoulder, frowning. “Was that Jay?” he asked, his tone deepening. “Or Rocky? Was it—“
“No,” I said, although too quickly. “Well, maybe one.” I knew one had to be a hickey mark from Rocky and couldn’t lie about that. But Jay hadn’t grabbed me hard enough to bruise. I didn’t know what to say about the other marks. I didn’t even know which ones were which. I hadn’t had time to really examine what they were seeing. “It’s a long story but I’m fine.”