Chapter Seventeen - Good Boys Don't Bite

Dinner passes much in the same way that breakfast did. People stop by their table to whisper awkwardly through rumors of Etienne’s disappearance. Rowdy humors each one, nodding along with interest while the rest of the girls pay attention with varying degrees of believability. It’s not until Ivy and Gregory Foss stop by that everyone perks up.

“They’re bringing all the alumni back to watch us,” Ivy whispers. “We got a text from our sire that Danny and Halverson will be here in about thirty minutes. Can you believe it?”

“Why not just close early?” Jackie asks.

Everyone else jerks to stare at her, though Rowdy tries to keep her expression soft all things considered.

“They can’t just stop Conference,” Rowdy says. “I think it would take a literal atomic war to do that.”

“And even then, they’d just continue it underground or something,” Benny adds.

“Think an act of god,” Justice says.

“An act of Satan.” Muse giggles.

Jackie’s face scrunches. “Okay, I get it. Jesus.”

“Oh, him too,” Hannah says.

Gregory pats the table, “You know what this means, though, right? Devon will be here. And Marie. At least if they’re sending the youngest two from each clan.”

“Are there even enough of us to warrant that?” Jen asks.

Rowdy lifts her head just as Tami comes by, a box of tissues in one hand and her empty mug in the other.

“Are you all talking shit?” Tami asks.

“Yes,” the table answers.

“Good. Reinforcements are on the way to keep you all under control for the last two weeks of autumn.”

She winks at them as she disappears again. The only indication of where she’s gone is the swinging kitchen doors.

“Is she seriously going to get thirds?” Benny whines. “That’s not fair, I want thirds.”

“I want that cheeseburger,” Jackie grumbles.

Rowdy catches Gregory’s sleeve as he and his sister go to talk to the next table up. “Did you say Marie and Devon are both coming?”

“That’s what K’ahreenia said in her text. They’re both riding in with Halverson and Danny.”

It feels like gravity pulls her gaze up to where Benny’s already waiting for her. Their conversation happens purely through eyebrow twitches and lip pursing, but it’s over in two seconds and then they each sigh.

“You said they’ll be here in thirty minutes?” Rowdy asks.

Ivy nods. “Probably more like twenty now.”

The overwhelming responsibility of being there to greet Leena’s two siblings gets Rowdy up to her feet, mug forgotten and head already swiveling to find a path to the door.

“We’ll go wait for them.”

Rowdy has to hand it to Ivy and Gregory; there’s already a small group waiting out at the main drive. Their names are called out in greeting as Rowdy and Benny get close.

“We’re just here for Marie and Devon,” Rowdy says.

“Be here for whoever you wanna be here for,” Nick, the guy nearest them, replies. After thirteen years of camp together in Locke House, Rowdy lets his snark roll right off her back. His inability to modulate his tone hasn’t bothered her since at least her second year.

Benny bounces along beside her as they make a place for themselves just a little to the side of everyone else.

“Any second,” Benny says. She stands up on her tiptoes to look over their group. The rubber soles of her shoes protest, but she leans up higher.

There’s a breath of silence, and then all at once, the roar of car engines starts to echo off the walls of the canyon.

Nick leans over, his dark hair getting in his eyes. “Ivy and Greg said they’re all coming here because Etienne killed that human and then went on the run.”

Rowdy hums.

“I think it’s something worse, though,” he continues. “My sire was telling me this summer that Etienne has certain . . . appetites.”

A solid, cement knot forms in Rowdy’s stomach, but they’re saved from the conversation going any further as the first car comes crunching up the main drive. The red sports car looks a little ridiculous in the middle of the woods, but it’s certainly not the most expensive one that comes rolling along.

By the time the engines cut, the drive is packed from the front doors of the office all the way back to the gate. Most of the alumni find their own clans and stay there, little groups forming, half connected to one another as if it’s the first day of camp all over again.

She grabs for Benny’s hand just as Devon and Marie hop down from a lifted off-roading truck. Marie wipes her hands on her jeans as she pushes the mud-splattered door shut behind her.

Rowdy raises her free hand and tugs Benny into a run. The air rushes past her ears as her muscles stretch, and then she stops them a few feet short.

Devon and Marie flinch back from the two of them but cover it quickly with more hand wiping and awkward chuckling.

“Ah, hey,” Devon greets. “We were just talking about you two on the way up.”

Rowdy holds out her hand and he shakes it. “Good to see you.”

“You too. So, Etienne finally ran out on the camp then?”

Marie grabs her before she can answer and gives her a hard hug. “Madame Broussard was furious she wasn’t allowed to come with us. She wanted us to just bring y’all home with us for the rest of autumn.”

It hits Rowdy then that both of them are wearing yellow in one way or another. Marie’s Peter Pan collared top is butter, and there’s a beaded bracelet on Devon’s wrist that’s alternating daisy and goldenrod.

Marie must notice too, because she folds her arms. “We always bring a little something of hers with us wherever we end up going.”

“I understand.”

Rowdy feels the barely there weight of Leena’s hair in her hand, and her mouth starts to form words she knows she probably shouldn’t say with everything so fresh when Benny cuts her off.

“The Guard probably wants to get everyone accounted for. Just you know. Considering.”

Terrible, agonizing anger pound through Rowdy like hurricane gales, but she keeps her mouth shut. She tells herself Devon and Marie are still grieving too, and that making a scene the second they’ve arrived won’t fix, change, or better anything. Her fingers tighten on Benny and she’s sure it hurts, but Benny doesn’t pull away from her as they move as one to where the Guard is waiting just outside the mess hall.

Camp Harcourt is only abuzz with rumors and theories for the first two nights the alumni are playing chaperone. With all of the regularly scheduled social events cancelled and the only real markers of time passing being the trudge to and from the mess haul for mugs, everyone loses interest in speculating. That, and the over-thirteens shoot shrewd, knowing looks every time anyone tries to bring it up.

The topic swiftly changes to who the human was, a rumor that Frank puts to rest the third night at lunch.

Tearfully, he recounts to the slightly less than doubled group how he and Candy were secretly dating for the last three years. He tells them all how devastated he is to never hear her voice again on their late night calls, and how he’ll be assisting the Guard in bringing Etienne to justice as swiftly as possible.

Rowdy waits until the noise dies down and the mess hall starts to clear out before she goes up to him.

“I’m sorry about your girlfriend,” she says.

Frank’s expression pulls tight, but when she doesn’t say anything else he relaxes some. “It was you in the boathouse, wasn’t it?”

“Yep.”

“Were you going to—?”

“Nah. I think you’re irresponsible, but I wasn’t going to tell anybody about it.”

He lets out a weak laugh and then ducks his head. He scrubs at his eyes, and Rowdy pretends not to notice.

“She was a really sweet girl, you know? I was going to turn her when she was ready and then he went and ruined everything. If I had the chance, I’d—”

“I came to say something to you, actually.” Rowdy gets in front of the conversation before he can get more upset.

“Oh?”

“Don’t go looking for du Bois by yourself. I . . . Benny and I tried, and it got us into some trouble with the Guard. It won’t change anything even if you do find him, anyway.”

Frank starts to argue but she shushes him.

“I know you’re older than me, Frank, but I need you to trust me. Candy will still be gone on the other side of whatever you’re thinking of trying to do. Okay?”

Frank’s face falls, and his shoulders slouch. The fire in his eyes cools.

“I could have protected her,” Frank says. “I should have.”

“You couldn’t have known. Don’t blame yourself.”

He looks up at her, eyes dripping pink misery. “You know all about that, I guess, don’t you, Dawes.”

A grim smile twitches at the corners of her mouth. “Too well.”

From across the mess hall, Benny says her name and she half turns toward her and the rest of the girls.

“Seriously, don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“Okay.”

Rowdy doesn’t believe him, and she’s sure he doesn’t fully mean it, but she lets it go. Whatever Frank has to learn on his own is his business, she decides, and she heads for the group just as Devon and Marie break away from them, Marie with her phone pressed against her ear.

“What’s on the schedule for the rest of the night?” Benny asks once Rowdy’s joined.

Rowdy shrugs. “Up to you all.”

“Curie is holding some kind of mixer,” Jackie says, though her tone drags.

The twins tip their heads and say, “Sounds terrible.”

“Normalcy?” Jen offers.

“An attempt at normalcy and nothing better than that,” Hannah corrects with a scoff.

Devon and Marie step back into the gap they’d left looking grim.

“We just got off the phone with Madame Broussard,” Devon says. “The du Bois estate is sending out a search party to join in the efforts to find him. I guess they’re running around like fangless freaks over this.”

“Sounds right,” Benny says as she slings her arm over Rowdy’s shoulders and tugs her in.

Devon and Marie share a look.

“Is there . . .do you all know something about his disappearance?” Marie asks.

“Wish I did,” Rowdy admits.

The group agrees verily, though Jackie only shrugs and makes herself busy fingering the zipper on her jacket.

“You said the Guard already talked to you about all of this?” Devon pushes.

“Yep. Interrogated us like we were adults without anyone present, but I doubt that’ll be swept under the rug,” Rowdy says.

The group murmurs, heads shake, and Rowdy knows they’re not doing the best job at playing their parts, but she can’t blame them. It’s already been too much.

“Oh, that’s not great,” Marie says with a sigh. “Well, either way. More vamps around in the next couple of nights. They’ll be stopping here every few days to check back in.”

“What, like he’d come back?” Jackie squeaks. Her eyes go round and the fear on her face looks genuine.

Both Devon and Marie rush to reassure her that they’d never let anyone hurt them, but Jackie keeps up the charade even as they all decide to just go back to Locke and avoid any awkward social situations post Frank’s admission.

The next week passes in a blur. The du Bois family comes and goes, Rowdy making herself scarce when she can smell them getting closer to the campgrounds. With such devoted chaperones, sneaking off to the boathouse is more than forbidden considering their weed is dwindling and there’s certainly not enough to offer as trade for keeping their smoking mostly a secret.

The girls spend more time on the porch than any year before, draped over camping chairs and the porch railing. They’re invited to mixers and gift practice, and still find themselves staring up the stars through every time block instead.

Rowdy knows in the back of her mind that it would be smart to repair and reinforce some relationships, but the relief of sitting and doing absolutely nothing is consuming and it feels like something very quickly slipping away from her.

On the last Thursday night of Harcourt Autumn, Benny sits up suddenly from where she’s been splayed out on the porch floor on her back, a dirty magazine rolled open in one hand and an empty mug in the other.

“We should go swimming.”

Rowdy hums.

Jackie’s already getting to her feet and nudging Jen along from where they were perched on the railing. Hannah sticks her head out from inside the cabin, a towel already slung over her shoulder.

“We’re going swimming?” she asks.

They all turn to look at the twins, who nod without looking up from the lunar moth they’ve been staring at for the past hour.

Everyone else turns to Devon and Marie. The two of them shrug.

“Do whatever y’all want,” Devon says. “Your last full night should be as fun as it can be all things considered.”

There’s a clambering for towels and sandals, and just as they’re about to head for the path, Marie pulls Rowdy to the side and holds out a blindingly yellow towel for her.

“This was—”

“I’ll take her with us,” Rowdy says. She folds the towel over her arm and a rush of Leena’s scent, less strong than her hair but still obviously and wholly her, wafts up across her face.

Marie’s hands linger on the towel, but after a breath, she folds her arms and sniffs.

“Thanks, Rowdy. For, you know . . .”

“Yep.”

“She really loved you. Sometimes, I thought you were more her sister than I ever was.”

Rowdy doesn’t argue, her own bubbling anger starting to simmer again before she lets her shoulders sag and shakes her head.

“We all failed her in different ways. You shouldn’t put the onus solely on yourself.”

Marie’s eyes fly wide and her mouth drops open. She sputters for a few seconds before her expression carefully closes.

“Yeah. Right. I guess we all tried everything we could.”

“A lot of people tried before us. We’ll figure out how to carry our pieces of it as we go,” Rowdy says, nodding.

Marie’s smile is wrinkled and watery. “I never had you down for a human fortune cookie.”

“Barely a human anymore.” The sadness in her voice surprises even Rowdy, but she doesn’t try to make an excuse or force fake sunlight. Marie’s smile remains unreturned.

Benny and the others stop and wait for her just inside the woods, eyes glowing and faces bright from lunch. They gesture for her to hurry up, and she holds up a finger.

“Are you coming with us?” Rowdy asks as she looks back at Marie.

“Nah. I never really liked the lake. That was always Leena’s thing. Devon’ll be there in case y’all need him for anything. Though, I think there’s probably nothing that scares you girls anymore.”

“There’s definitely still things that scare me,” Rowdy says more quietly. “Just don’t tell anyone. Reputation, you know.”

Marie’s giggling follows her and the others as they stomp their way down the path to the water. When Rowdy steps in with Leena’s towel still in her arms, everyone except Benny gives her a questioning look.

“Leena’s coming with.”

Jen looks taken aback, and Rowdy rushes to explain. “Not actually Leena. Just, this was her camp towel so . . . one last swim for all of us.”

“But I’m coming back next year, aren’t I?” Jackie asks.

“If they can find a replacement for Etienne,” Jen says. “But me too. I mean, for another few years anyway.”

A little ways down the beach, Devon says, “The Elders are working on a replacement. Don’t tell anyone though. They’re trying to get the du Bois estate off the job before they can come up with a good argument for why they should keep it.”

The group shares a shiver at the thought before Rowdy starts for the water again. Even knowing the towel will inevitably get soaked and weigh her down, she keeps it tight against her as she alternates between kicking and floating her way to the dock.

Nobody overtakes her along the way, and she can hear their distinct splashing as they near it. Benny gets there first, takes Leena’s towel from Rowdy’s outstretched hand, and spreads it out across the wood. It makes a delightfully cheery dripping sound as the water finds its way off the fabric and back to the lake again.

The dock bobs hard as they all get up onto it, the surface barely large enough for them to stretch out. Rowdy finds she doesn’t mind how Benny’s knee touches her shin or how Hannah’s shoulder touches hers. Jackie’s feet sandwich themselves between her legs as she stretches out. The twins sit with their chins resting on their knees, but they lean sideways, Muse on Justice and Justice against Benny’s bent thigh. Between them, spread out like a picnic blanket, Leena’s towel shines bright and obnoxious even in the near pitch dark.

“I’ve been seeing her,” she whispers. “Leena.”

She feels Benny knock their knees together with a dull ache. “Hallucinating her?”

“I guess so. I don’t know.”

“Me too,” Benny admits. “I see her in everything all the time. This happened when my grandma died when I was still a person. I always heard her singing to me as I was waking up for school.”

Their eyes meet, and Benny gives her a weak smile.

Rowdy’s tears are cool on her cheeks, and she doesn’t bother wiping them. She turns back to the towel. She’d asked Leena if killing Etienne would do anything, and Leena had told her it would. As Rowdy waited there on the side of the highway, the last person to be picked up from camp, she realized this wasn’t really true. Nothing changed for her. Leena was still gone, would remain gone, and no amount of doing things the old way or the right way or the best way would fix that.

The moon comes out from behind the clouds for three breaths. The first one Rowdy takes in smells like an old, cherished thrift shop. The second, a freshly rained on meadow in the spring. And the third like the fresh hope that the next Harcourt Autumn won’t be ran by another sick freak like Etienne du Bois.