“Gramps taught me basic First Aid. I figured a snake bite would be almost the same as being poisoned by a needle. What are you doing?”
A soft crackle followed by a small shock entered his body through the gash as he siphoned his energy and sent it back into his body. He channeled as much of the surrounding life force as he dared without sucking any from Selena. Tiny sparks flew out of the moonstone into his skin. She gaped. Her eyes darted from his face to the wound. The blood clotted and the cut closed. Energy zinged through him from his hip to his shoulder blades. When only a welt remained, he pulled his sword away.
“H-how…” She blinked several times.
Dillan’s world spun. He closed his eyes and breathed through his mouth to avoid the coming nausea the power drain brought.
“How’d you know the needles were coming,” he rasped out. His mouth had gone dry.
“I…I’m not sure.” He heard the shrug in her voice. “I just felt like someone was watching me.”
“Like at the festival.”
“Yeah.”
Not wanting to get caught helpless, he forced himself to open his eyes. The world spun a bit, but he managed to blink it away. He returned his sword back to a charm, refusing to show any more signs of weakness in front of the girl who just saved his life. She pulled his sweater down and jumped to her feet.
“I think it’s over. Can you stand?”
“Yeah.” He used the tree for leverage, pushing himself up. The simple move cost him dearly. Besides breathing heavily, the sweat on his face turned cold. “Give me a sec.”
“Do you have a spare pair of jeans?”
“Do I look like the type who brings around spare jeans?”
She pointed at his legs. “That’s a lot of blood.”
“Just get me to a bathroom and I’ll wash it off before it dries.” Not dwelling on how bad the trek back to the amphitheater would be, he pulled out his bandana and handed it to Selena. She looked at him then at the bandana.
“Use that to yank out one of the needles,” he said, still leaning against the tree. “And be careful.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s poisonous.” She pulled out one of the needles and wrapped it in the bandana then handed it back to him. He shoved it into his back pocket.
“What are you going to do with that?”
“I have to show this to Rainer.”
“Now? We’re in the middle of a field trip.”
Still feeling the effects of the blood loss and the drain from healing himself, he didn’t answer. The tree he leaned against was his friend. He swiped at the sweat rolling down the side of his face.
“We have to find Penny. If whatever those needles came from is still out there, we have to make sure she’s safe. What if she got hit like you did?”
“Let’s get back to safety, and then we’ll put together a search party to find her.” He didn’t have the patience to argue. Selena was his priority. Pushing away from the tree, he hooked an arm over her shoulders and guided her back to the trail.
…
Fifteen minutes later, he stood in a bathroom in only his boxers washing off the blood from his jeans and drying it under the hand dryer. The aftereffects of the energy drain had waned, a small miracle considering he’d closed a wound. He studied the welt for a second. Maybe not all his original powers were gone. He didn’t dare to hope. To keep Kyle’s cover when he and Selena stumbled out of the forest, Dillan explained that he’d cut himself and needed to clean up before they went to the nurse. Selena and Kyle went with it for, what he suspected, were totally different reasons. This hiding shit thing was getting harder by the second.
Now the two friends stood watch outside while Dillan cleaned up. He still couldn’t believe Selena had thrown caution in the wind and sucked out the poison from his body. She’d saved him. He couldn’t decide whether it was sexy or reckless. The latter aimed at himself since he—the once rising star in the Illumenari—had fallen so far from grace that he’d let a girl save him.
Once the wet spot on his jeans was gone, he slipped his pants on and walked out of the bathroom. Kyle stood beside the door.
“Where’s Selena?”
He pointed at the opposite door with a stick figure in a skirt. “What the hell happened out there?”
Not knowing how much time they had before Selena came back, he filled her best friend in with the least amount of explanation it took.
“You let her suck out the poison?” he hissed.
“I had no choice. She was already on the wound before I could push her away.” He raised his hand to stop the coming tirade. “Look, I get it. I screwed up. But you’re missing the point here. Selena ran into the woods after Penny, and we were attacked.”
“How is that possible when I just saw Penny meet up with Tina and Constance?” Kyle tilted his head toward the group of girls. “I thought they’d gotten separated when you ran after Selena.”
“This doesn’t feel right.”
Selena picked that time to walk out of the bathroom. She waved her wet hands and said, “Their dryer is busted.”
The girls Penny stood with giggled, catching Selena’s attention. She hurried to them. Dillan shared a look with Kyle before they trailed after her.
“Penny! Where’ve you been?” Selena grabbed the other girl’s shoulders.
Dillan and Kyle flanked her. He eyed Penny closely. The look of shock on her face seemed genuine.
“I was with Constance and Tina most of the day,” Penny answered. Her confusion sounded real to his ears. He needed his fingers on her pulse to determine if she was telling the truth, but based on the natural cadence of her voice, he didn’t doubt her response. Unease writhed inside his gut.
“What’s with the panic? Did something happen?” Penny continued, more subdued than usual. Her eyes looked glassy.
Selena’s hands dropped to her sides. “Don’t you remember being on the Presidential Trail with us?”
“She’s been with us most of the day,” Constance said. The other girl—Tina—nodded in agreement. Something wasn’t right here. And judging from the tension surrounding Kyle, he felt the same. Penny was with them. Unless she magically had a twin sister, this whole situation reeked of a Supernatural manipulation. Damn. The Maestro. He’d read the conjurer could control humans, too. How could he miss this? He should have anticipated the escalation. If it couldn’t get corpses to nab Selena then the humans closest to her seemed the next viable choice. He and Kyle were safe since their Illumenari blood negated mind control via conjuring.
Thinking fast, he took out his phone and typed into the screen MAESTRO then PENNY and discretely showed it to Kyle. He flicked his gaze at the screen. Dillan erased the unsent message as Kyle’s lips disappeared into a tight line.
“How…” Selena took a step back.
“Selena,” Penny’s voice softened, “is something wrong? You’re really pale.”
Dillan grabbed Selena by the arms from behind and said, “I think Selena got things mixed up.” To Selena he said, “Maybe you’re just tired. Right, Kyle?”
“Yeah, even I feel turned around,” he said.
Penny tilted her head. “Are you sure?”
Selena nodded. Dillan supported her weight as she leaned against him, moving one of his hands to her hip.
“Everyone!” Rainer announced from the entrance. “Please start filing into the amphitheater. The program is about to start.”
Students shuffled past their group. Dillan exchanged a glance with Kyle. He nodded at him once. An awkward silence passed before Constance and Tina said they’d save Penny a seat. The two girls headed for the theater, whispering to each other.
“Do you want to sit together?” Penny offered.
“I think,” Selena cleared her throat, “I think I’ll sit with Dillan and Kyle.”
“You sure?”
She gave her a smile. “I’ll text you later.”
Penny shrugged and walked away.
“That’s not Penny.” Selena spoke to the floor.
“How can you be so sure?” Kyle asked.
“In the years we’ve known Penny, when did she ever act less than peppy?”