“Oh hey, Kyrian. Cherise … Nick, how you feeling, son?” Madaug’s father, Dr. St. James, came into the office and put a kind hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Madaug told me what happened. You poor thing. And on your way to help Ms. Liza close her store. She’s so heartbroken.”

“Yes, sir, and I feel terrible about that. I keep telling her it wasn’t her fault, but she won’t listen.”

“Yeah, Liza’s bad that way.” Dr. St. James jumped then reached into his pocket. “Work as always. And I better answer this. Y’all take care. I’ll see you later.”

“Good night,” Nick called after him.

His grandfather scowled. “How do you know Dr. St. James’s son?”

Nick shrugged. “We became friends while I was tutoring him.” Kind of true. But if he told them that they had bonded due to a mind-control game that had turned players into zombies that Madaug had unleashed on the school, it might not go over well.

“Tutor? Madaug?” his grandfather asked incredulously, as if he couldn’t believe Nick could read, never mind help someone else. “But Madaug’s a genius.”

“In computers and science. He reeks in English and social studies.”

Yeah, they didn’t want anything to do with him and his mom. It was obvious by the revulsion on their faces, and disdain in their eyes.

“C’mon, Jill and Joey, we need to leave.”

His mother didn’t say a word until they were gone, then she turned around and hugged Kyrian. “Thank you so much for that, Mr. Hunter! You are the best.”

Kyrian shrugged her hold away. “No problem. I live to please.”

“And that you definitely did tonight. Thank you so much.” She ruffled Nick’s hair. “And you be careful and I’ll see you later.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

As soon as the secretary handed her the papers, they all went outside, where Kyrian had his car parked on the street in front of the school.

Nick slowed down as he saw a parked police car and the officers walking around with a picture they were showing to his classmates. Police at his school was never a good thing.

When they got to Stone, he pointed to Nick. “He’s right there!”

Nick went cold. What the heck was going on?

The police made a beeline right to him. The biggest of the two narrowed his eyes. “Are you Nicholas Gautier?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you’re coming with us.”

Nick laughed nervously. “I don’t think so.”

“Yeah, well, we do.”

“No,” his mother said sharply. “My son isn’t going anywhere.”

“Yes, ma’am, he is. We have a warrant for his arrest.”

“For what?” he and his mother asked simultaneously.

“Rape and theft.”

CHAPTER 14

The look on his mother’s face would haunt him forever as the cop grabbed him and shoved him against the hood of his squad car, right in front of the school for everyone to see. Nick grimaced as the cops rudely frisked him, then cuffed his hands behind his back. Once he was secured, the biggest officer grabbed him by the hair and wrenched him off the car.

“Mama, I didn’t do it. I didn’t. I swear to God!”

“That’s what they all say.” The cop looked over at his partner. “Wouldn’t it be nice if, just once, they confessed and made our job easier?”

Tears glistened in his mother’s eyes. He could tell she wanted to believe him, but the doubt there …

How could she even think he’d do something like that? Even for a nanosecond. She’d been with him for fifteen years. How could she not know him better?

He did his best not to look at any of his classmates or the smirking faculty members who had no doubt he was guilty. That thought sickened him.

The only one who wasn’t judging him guilty was Kyrian. “Don’t worry, Nick. I’ll have you out of there as soon as you’re booked.”

Booked. That word slammed into him so hard that for a minute, he thought he’d vomit.

“Good luck with that,” the smaller officer scoffed. “With what we have on him, he’s not going anywhere until trial.”

What could they have on him? He hadn’t done anything. Heck, he’d only been out of the hospital since yesterday.

As they were placing him in the backseat, Caleb came running up to his mom. He frowned at her as she told him what was happening.

Caleb winced, then kicked the front bumper of the squad car.

“Hey!” the smaller cop snapped. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“What?” Caleb challenged. “I can’t touch your car?” He kicked it again.

“Boy, do you want to go to jail?” the taller officer asked.

“For what?” Caleb braced his foot against the front fender. “It’s a free country.”

“Not when you’re vandalizing state property it’s not.”

Caleb arched a defiant brow at him. “State property? My tax dollars bought this car then. Doesn’t that make it my property?”

“Oh, that’s it, you little punk.” The cop went for Caleb.

Caleb scoffed. “C’mon, really? What are you charging me with?”

“Vandalism.”

Caleb rolled his eyes, then shouted out to their classmates. “Come, see the violence inherent in the system! Help! I’m being repressed!”

“Get your ass in the car!” the cop snarled, his Yat accent coming out full force.

They put Caleb in on the other side.

Nick gaped at him. “What are you doing?”

Caleb glanced askance at the cops as they called in his arrest. “Where you go, I go, Gautier. And there’s no way you’re going into a jail without backup. You’re about to find out why Adarian lives in a prison.”

Nick wasn’t sure what to think of that, other than the fact his father was a mass murderer. “What do you mean?”

The cops opened the doors and got in.

There are some things that defy explanation—kind of like … you know, you. Not to mention your loco mindset when you did whatever it was that you did when you saved Kody, or why the color of the dryer lint always matches the color of your missing sock. He projected his answer to Nick’s mind. A Malachai in jail is definitely one of those inexplicable things.

Caleb turned his attention back to the police. “So what tort am I being held for again?”

They didn’t respond to Caleb. Instead the larger cop sighed irritably. “I hate the smart-mouthed kids the most.”

Caleb leaned forward in his seat. “So who’s the meanest person you’ve ever arrested?”

“What are you doing?” Nick gasped.

Caleb cracked an evil grin. “You have things you can’t resist doing. This is one that is a moral imperative to me.” Must rankle bullies.

You’re going to get jack-slapped.

Caleb frowned at him. Jack-slapped?

Slapped so hard you forget everything you know, i.e., you don’t know Jack … jack-slapped.

Caleb rolled his eyes.

Nick didn’t say anything else as he sat there, trying to figure out why they would think he’d raped someone when it was the most repugnant crime he could think of. Who had accused him?

And why?

When they got to the jail, they were gruffly hauled out of the car and into the building.

As soon as they stepped through the doorway, Nick saw a familiar face, but he wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Virgil Ward, attorney at law. And in Virgil’s case, blood-sucking attorney took on a whole new meaning, since he was also a vampire. His dark hair was short, but slightly shaggy. With it brushed back from his face, he didn’t appear much older than Nick or Caleb … to Nick, anyway. But Virgil managed to project a much older persona to everyone else. Those around him saw Virgil as someone in his midthirties. Dressed in a tailor-made, expensive black pinstriped suit and a pair of black Ferragamo shoes, he wore a dark purple shirt and a dark gray, purple, and black tie that had miniature skeleton bunny heads and crossed bones all over it.

“Gentlemen,” he said, inclining his head to the officers escorting them. “These are my clients. I trust you’ll take good care of them.”

The larger officer growled in frustration. “I should have known.… I suppose you want them put into the special holding section.”

“It would be prudent.”

The other officer growled again. “They’re not going to start eating each other or one of us, are they?”

Virgil laughed. “They’re not zombies, men. But one of them does have special dietary concerns you might want to note.”

The larger officer grumbled.

Virgil winked at Nick, then projected his thoughts to him. Don’t worry, kid. I know it’s your first time here. But we’re set up to deal with our special needs detainees.

Special needs? Dude, I don’t ride the short bus.

Good for you. ’Cause some days, I definitely do.

That was not comforting when coming out of the mouth of your attorney.

As they walked past a group of deadly-looking gangbangers, one of the bigger members lunged at Nick with a snarl as if he was going to attack him. The moment the man did, it sent an electrical charge through Nick. One that put all of his senses on high alert and made his heart race with gleeful expectation. Suddenly Nick saw and heard everything with a shocking clarity. And instead of cowering, he lunged at the gang member, wanting to taste his blood.

The man’s eyes widened, before he backed down.

Against his conscious will, Nick tried to break out of the policeman’s hold so that he could go back to the gangbanger.

Caleb cut him off. “Look at me, Nick.”

For several heartbeats, he couldn’t understand what Caleb had said.

“Nick!” he shouted.

That finally broke through the cloudy haze. “W-w-what?”

“Remember what I said about your father?”

Yeah … Nick felt it, too. Being around this many people who were corrupted by hatred and rage and violence, it was like being a wind-up toy that someone had snapped the spring in. His powers were fully charged and he felt more alive than he ever had. It was a heady concoction.

He looked at Caleb. “Do you get the same…” He wasn’t sure what to call it.

“Thrill? Not to the extent you do. That fun little nugget is unique to your species alone.”

And he was right. He totally got it now why his father stayed in prison. It was like breathing in fresh air and sunshine. Bad analogy since only an idiot would breathe in the foul body odor, urine, and vomit stench that permeated the building, but that was the closest example he could think of.

The cops took them to a special booking room that was reserved for Virgil’s clients. They were rudely searched, fingerprinted, and then photographed. Honestly, Nick wanted to cry as it brought back his one and only other arrest when he’d been a kid. And while they’d hauled him to the station in their car, they hadn’t “booked” him. It was so humiliating. He glanced over to Caleb as guilt stabbed him. He was the only reason Caleb was here.

God love Caleb for his loyalty.

Nick cringed as he looked down at the bright orange jumpsuit they’d forced him to change into. Heck, they’d even confiscated his shoelaces. “I’m sorry, Cale. I didn’t mean to get you into this.”

He shrugged. “Trust me, this is neither the worst nor the most humiliating thing I’ve ever gone through. And while we’re here, you should pray that this is the worst thing that ever happens to you.”

Point well taken. Still, it stung. While he hadn’t always been the best person and had done some questionable things, he’d never really thought he’d ever be arrested for real, with real felony charges that carried a hefty prison sentence if he was found guilty. That was the kind of thing that happened to people like his father and the scum his father ran with.

And now it had happened to him.

They were escorted to a room that had a single holding cell. Luckily, it was empty. The cops put them inside it, then had them hold their arms through the bars so that they could uncuff them. Once the cops were gone, Virgil came in to talk to them.

“Rape and theft, huh?”

“I didn’t do it.”

Virgil didn’t respond to his statement. “They claim they have you on surveillance.”

Nick shook his head. “It’s a lie. I didn’t do anything.”

Caleb leaned against the bars. “When did the alleged crimes occur?”

Virgil pulled out his PDA and opened a file. “The theft was late last night just before midnight at a jewelry store, where you took cash and a single necklace. And the rape occurred around 3 A.M. Where were you at those times?”