There was, though, something I hadn’t anticipated. The next day at school, I heard a quiet voice behind me. “It’s…oh…uh…”
I turned. I had seen her around before, but it hadn’t registered the previous night. She was the girl I’d rescued from the vampires.
“I called the cops, but you were gone and…uh…”
Vampires, it seems, don’t turn to dust when you kill them. They turn to rot. “They didn’t like what they found.” I kept my voice quiet.
“How can I thank you?”
“By not mentioning it.” My lips twitched. “I don’t want to be arrested for vigilanteism.”
She turned pale again, then nodded. “Got it. I…”
“I’m sorry we weren’t there a bit sooner. What was his name?”
“Adrian.”
I stored that one up on the ledger. I knew I had to think about those I could save, not those I couldn’t save. But I’d also remember…and I did understand.
Thinking I was one of them had taught me to care. And if…well. I’d just have to work on him. I wasn’t sure how, I wasn’t even sure where to start. Maybe the party had been a start in and of itself.
Loki hanging out with mortals, playing pranks on them. And then I knew. It hit me.
“What…?”
Must have shown on my face. “Just an idea. And please…be careful. I don’t want to have to rescue anyone twice.”
Which I didn’t. And then I detached from her and headed to class.
Sitting on an idea actually kind of hurts. You want to act on it or at least enthuse about it, but I had to pretend everything was normal.
The worst part was that Martin came in, and sat down next to me. I shot him a look I hoped said he wasn’t welcome.
Maybe I should stop playing hard to get. If he’d just wanted a roll in the hay, that might have been the answer.
But there I was, sitting on an idea like it was an egg I wished would hatch already and trying to studiously ignore him.
At least we didn’t have that many classes together. But how did he manage not to be behind the way I had been?
Maybe he was reading minds or something. Demons could probably do that. And maybe if he was I could get him busted for cheating.
That would be amusing.