Chapter Four - Good Boys Don't Bite

Rowdy’s heart threatened to start beating again as she and Benny sat down across from Etienne Dubois. On her other side, Leena seemed more than comfortable, like she’d already been there for hours despite having gone in only eight minutes before them.

“Did you get dinner?” Etienne asked as he floated down to sit in front of them. He glowed in his linen suit against the dark leather of his chair. The way his hair perfectly coifed itself into a perfect wave made Rowdy want to punch something, but the darkness in his eyes made her take pause.

Rowdy nodded, teeth locked together, and Benny took her turn as their mouth piece.

“Yep. Deer tonight, right?”

“Indeed.”

“It was good. A little gamey, but animal always is.”

Etienne gave Rowdy and Leena a knowing sort of glance when they didn’t add to the conversation.

“I’m sure you two are wondering why you’re in my office.”

“We’re not,” Benny said. “Frankie caught us in the boathouse after hours and said you would have to write up some report about it.”

The muscles in the corner of Etienne’s mouth twitched upward, and Rowdy punched the switch in her head. She filtered through Benny, who wanted to run, Leena, who wanted to melt into her chair, and focused solely on Etienne. The fucker could block for the most part, but it only took Rowdy a second to find a way through the block; water finding a weak point to begin to leak. Once she was in, the weakness readily widened until it was clear as day exactly what Etienne wanted. It was so strong that the image exposed itself instantly, sick and deranged enough to make Rowdy have to swallow around dinner as it came back up.

“Nothing like that,” Etienne said, his voice all graceful composure. The desire within him grew and made Rowdy tremble with rage.

“There’s a rumor going around that Leena has left Curie Cabin and moved into Locke House.”

Rowdy widened her senses from the stream between her and Etienne to include Leena again. Leena didn’t want her to say anything. The small jolt of pain that followed Rowdy clamping down on her tongue barely registered as Leena dipped her chin in thanks. She then covered their exchange by stretching her neck further forward then backward. All across Leena’s skin, flashes of scars danced as she stretched.

Etienne didn’t miss her movement. He wanted to reach out and touch her neck, to rub his fingers into her muscles and find where he could press his thumbs into the marks he’d left. Rowdy suppressed another gag but didn’t shut herself off. Having this burned into her mind could make all the difference for Etienne’s fate, as long as she could prove her maturity with it.

“Leena has told me her side already,” Etienne continued through the silence. “But I would like to hear it from you two what you were told about her reasoning.”

Benny sat up a little taller. Her want rampaged through Rowdy’s brain, blurring everything else and forcing Rowdy’s legs to brace in preparation for a sprint.

“If she’s already told you then I don’t understand why we need to say anything else,” Benny said, her voice shaking.

Etienne smiled, his face icy despite the warm pull upward. “I want to ensure she was not coerced into your cabin.”

“We’re friends.”

“Yes, and I believe this is the first time anyone has ever secretly changed their sleeping arrangements.”

Rowdy felt a slight weight in her palms, and then long fingers against her scalp. The image from Etienne overwhelmed her, the physicality of it enough to make her stomach tie itself in knots and her stomach heave.

Leena’s body wasn’t entirely unknown to her. How many nights had she spent holding her after Etienne did what he wanted? But feeling her in this way made Rowdy feel like she was the one committing the act.

Rowdy slammed the switch off the moment she could breathe enough to get to it. Her body sagged in the silence before she could stop the relief.

Etienne’s attention shot to her.

“Were you attempting to use your gift on me, Rowdy?”

Leena stiffened, her posture going so taut it looked as if she’d gone from jelly to stone. “She’s been having trouble keeping it off, Etti. It’s not her fault.”

The sound of her voice sucked all the tension from the room. Etienne’s entire body turned toward her as if pulled by a tide. “I will have to notify your dames and sire that this change has happened between the three of you without a conversation between me and the other staff here first.”

Leena nodded sagely. “I’m real sorry, but I couldn’t stay in Curie anymore. The girls . . .”

“They are rude to you?” Etienne guessed.

“It’s not like that. I’m just different from them, and even though I’m still different from Rowdy and Benny, they get me better.”

They were allowed to leave a few minutes after Leena’s explanation satisfied Etienne. The three of them walked toward Locke House in a huddle, Leena between them where she could be shielded from view.

“Benny, I gotta tell you something when we get somewhere safer,” she said, her voice sweet and heavy.

“About what?”

Leena looked over her shoulder at the two of them, her hair blowing back from her face on the breeze before flowing delicately across the bridge of her nose and her cheek. She was all sad, blue eyes.

“Rowdy wasn’t struggling to intuit in there. It’s just that what she felt from Etti was hard for her to feel, but I want to tell you why. And we can’t do that where anyone could hear us.”

The new moon provided little help as they felt their way back to Locke. As they reached the steps up to the porch, Leena took a hard right toward the east, her hand catching Benny’s and Benny’s catching Rowdy’s, and without a sound they went past Locke and toward Curie instead.

“Boats?” Benny asked.

“The lake. He can’t track me that far if he stays in the staff bunk.”

Rowdy squeezed Benny’s hand when she started to question her more, and she shut up. The ferns and willows dragged along their shoulders and shins as they wove through the woods to the lake.

“We should go in,” Leena said as she pulled to a stop at the sandy shore. “Race to the middle.”

“What? Why out to the middle? I didn’t bring a towel, and I just washed my hair,” Benny whined.

“We should go,” Rowdy said. Her voice ached in her throat from lack of use. Without waiting, she stripped down to her underwear and walked straight in.

The water held none of the warmth she’d hoped for from the early autumn sun. It was all glassy ice around her. Still, it didn’t take long to adjust even though the blood lingering in her from dinner thickened.

There was quiet splashing behind her as she started to swim.

“Rowdy, wait!” Benny’s harsh whisper barely made it through the rush of water.

Leena beat them both even though she later admitted to being the last one in. When Rowdy reached up for the wooden platform, despite it being tethered somewhere deep down on the lakebed, it bobbed sharply under her grip.

It continued to rock after she and Benny joined Leena on its sun-bleached top. Even as the surface calmed and the night returned to its usual quiet hum, Rowdy didn’t feel any amount of ease. Four years of dreading this moment finally caught up to her.

“BB, Rowdy already knows but I want you to know too. I didn’t tell her first and you second for any reason other than shit happens.”

Benny glanced between the two of them and made an unsure croaking sound. “Something about something I’ve done?”

“No, not about you. About me.”

All at once, Benny scowled hard. “Leena, don’t you dare try to come out to me—”

“Rowdy’s the only person I’ve told, so I’m not practiced or anything in going through this.” She cut her off gently. When Benny started up again, Leena reached for her knee and the quiet expanded again.

In that silence, the dread expanded too. The sickness from Etienne’s earlier wants bubbled up fast and hot in Rowdy’s throat. For Leena’s sake, she swallowed it back down and then offered her hand.

As Leena started to describe all the things Etienne had done to her, starting from her very first night at camp, Rowdy tried very hard not to picture it or feel the unwanted touch Leena’d been forced to feel for so long. It was one thing, Rowdy thought, to experience the aftermath with another girl, to help clean up everything after something like that, but hearing how Leena cradled each word of what she’d gone through alone made that sickness turn violent.

Still, Rowdy didn’t interrupt her. She kept her head down and her fingers tight on Leena’s, and she listened. She witnessed. The memory of the smell of Leena’s blood from a few of those nights came up just like dinner kept trying to. That was always what stuck with her after: hot iron and dusty rose. Leena was the only person who smelled like melancholy.

It took a long time for the sounds of the night around them to hum back to life in the wake of Leena’s stories. Rowdy watched Benny, everything within her rapt in case she needed to go on the defense.

“Why did you tell me all this?” Benny finally asked.

“There’s more of us he uses. I think if we found all of them, we could make him stop. Force the Guard to get involved, maybe.”

Benny glanced at Rowdy, doubt so clear on her face it made a pit open up in Rowdy’s stomach just at the sight of her.

“I’m not trying to say anything here, so please don’t take this the wrong way, Leena, but what you just told me is beyond disgusting. Why would anyone else admit to going through that on the off chance the Guard shows up to haul him away?” Benny’s defeat was so palpable that Rowdy double checked that she’d really been able to shut away her power.

“The off chance?” Leena’s hair whipped away from her face danced around her head as if it were alive, the movement much more intense than it should have been.

“Don’t whip up a storm, girl, I’m fucking devastated for you. But I don’t know anyone who’s even half as brave as you are. I wouldn’t be.”

“They just need to know they aren’t alone, and then they’ll come forward.” Leena glowed as she spoke, her skin flashing brilliant orange as electrical heat radiated off of her.

Benny glanced at Rowdy again, but she refused to lift her eyes this time.

“I mean— If nobody has before, why would they now?” Benny pressed.

The air between the three of them heated enough to make Rowdy’s skin pucker up into goosebumps.

“They have tried. The problem was that they all kept doing it alone. If I can just get everyone together so they can see that this impacts all of us, then we have a better chance at something being done.” Leena’s voice started hard but softened the longer she spoke.

Benny leaned in close, despite the heat Rowdy found herself inching back from, and took Leena’s face in her hands.

“I love you. Please don’t do something that’s going to get you into an even worse situation.”

“Worse? Do you really think this could get worse for me?”

“You know what I mean. This is horrible, I just don’t know how to help right now.”

Rowdy’s chill melted slightly. “It’s a lot to take in.”

Benny and Leena snapped to look at her as if they’d both forgotten she was there at all.

“What do we do now?” Benny asked. The line between her thin eyebrows creased deeper when Leena sighed loudly.

“We start talking to people, duh.”

“We should get back before somebody notices we didn’t go inside,” Rowdy cut in. “Last thing we need is another nose up our asses.”

Leena didn’t move. She planted herself down more firmly on the wood and leveled her eyes. “Do not run away from me, Rowdy Dawes. You promised.”

“I promised we could have our emotional conversations and I wouldn’t leave in the middle of them. Clearly, this one is over now.”

“It’s not,” she insisted, but Benny’s loud splash as she got back into the water was decidedly final.

“See?”

“See, nothing. You two are cowards.”

Rowdy nodded, then shook her head. “I think the denial at first is just hard. Give her a little time. Benny’ll come around.”

“She better. Some friend.”

Heat flashed through her as Rowdy set her arms around Leena and pulled her tight. There air did feel minutely less charged than before, but the longer she held her, the more the storm did calm.

“Benny’ll come around,” Rowdy repeated.

Leena scoffed and shook out her long hair. Little burst of lightning sparked off the ends but didn’t light anything up.

“Hey, you’re getting really good at not setting yourself on fire.”

Rowdy let herself get pushed in.