The Unfortunate Story of Roddy Mayhem, Julie Steimle [i can read book club TXT] 📗

Wilderman. There had been no time before.

Another cop came to my room later. A woman this time. She had the most average face of anyone I ever saw—at least at first. But as she approached me to ask me a few questions—a plain clothes Italian policeman lingering in the doorway—I realized her imps were weird. They were tempting her to steal my wallet. I mean, what kind of cop thinks stuff like that? And with her first question, I realized she was far from ordinary.

“Do you know if your friend being purposely targeted for teasing at your school?”

Damn, she jumped ahead. Someone must have told her all the rest.

I nodded. “Yes. Me and my friends all were. But Wispy is…” I swallowed to hold back tears.

“Susceptible.” She nodded, jotting down notes. Meeting my gaze, the lady cop leaned nearer to speak to me more privately. As she did, I noticed a red crystal on a chain slip out from under her collar—one just like the pyromaniac wore. She said, “We’re going to have police guarding her while she rests here. She’ll be safe. But, can you tell me anything else that might make a difference or might prove a threat to her that we should be aware of?”

I thought of the death angels. I had not seen one since we went into the emergency room doors. I wasn’t in the place where people were dying. But I could feel them near. Yet then another thought occurred to me. “We kind of left a gang back in LA. They were connected to some dangerous folk who might be looking for us.”

“By what name?” she asked, pencil over her note pad.

I cringed as I said, “The Unseelie Court.”

The man in the doorway nodded to her and then stepped out into the hallway.

Sighing, the woman smiled at me, so genuine. “Thanks for your honesty.”

I stared at her. Then I noticed she was wearing an engagement ring. A fine diamond. I wondered if the Italian dude was the groom-to-be. He’d be lucky if he was. The lady cop pulled a card out of her pocket and handed it to me. “Contact us here if you ever need any help.”

I peered at it. It was glossy white with a huge gold seven on the front. On the back was a website and a telephone number. It didn’t look like any police card. It was more of a business card. And why the big number? Then a phrase clicked in my head as I stared at the number. I asked, “Are you one of the Holy Seven?”

She smiled at me. “You’ve heard of us?”

I barely nodded. “Kind of. I met Dan and James.”

This time the lady cop grinned widely, nodding. “Ah… so that’s what they were doing in LA. I see.”

I was still confused though. I didn’t see her with a sword—at least not until I started to look for one on her. At her hip was a weirdly shape holster which didn’t exactly hold a gun. The handle was a strain for my eyes to focus on.

“You can see it now?” she whispered with a knowing smile.

All of a sudden that cop looked like the most gorgeous gal I has ever seen. Brilliant like an angel. She hadn’t physically changed or anything, but her eyes were sharp and knowing. Clever. Her smile was also radiant and open. And damn, she was healthy. In fact, I was suddenly jealous of whichever guy she was engaged to. He was a lucky jerk.

I pointed to her red crystal. “Those two guys had a crystal like that.”

She reached for it, not aware it had fallen out, and she gently tucked it back into her shirt, blushing. “I’m technically not supposed to wear it on the job.”

Raising my eyebrows, I mentally questioned why she was breaking the rules then—for a cop. Her imps, however, were normal healthy. Not too fat and not too thin.

She winked at me. “The Holy Seven live by the exception.” She patted me on the shoulder. “Take your time resting. Let the nurse know when you want to go back to the school. We’ll take you back.”

Death Angels

 

 

 

 

 

 

Twelve

 

 

I stayed the entire afternoon—at least until Wispy woke, when I heard her imps let out gleeful cries, affected by her consciousness. Then, when no one was looking, I snuck into the room to see her.

She stared at me the moment I came in—wide, horror-eyed.

I said nothing as I sat on the end of her bed, peeking to make sure the nurses didn’t know I was in there. I sighed, my grief welling up inside as well as my joy she was ok.

“Why did you save me?” she whispered, looking like she would throw up. “I’m trash.”

My eyes burned with tears as I glared at her. “Don’t say that!”

But she averted her eyes down at the bed. Her stupid imps were shrieking all sorts of nasty things at her—already forgotten that such treatment had led to her attempted suicide.

I grabbed Wispy, holding her arms tight while swatting away the imps. “No. Stop listening to your imps. You are not trash. You are my only family.”

“You have Piranha,” Wispy’s voice barely came out under the imps’ shrieks.

I pulled her close and hugged her, wishing I could cover her ears from their shouting. “I want you both!”

Her tears wet my shoulder. She sobbed in my arms. We didn’t say anything. I didn’t need an explanation. We were both dying inside. And our imps, for once, shut up.

After a long sob, I finally said to her, “They’re going to make me go back to the school soon.”

She shook her head, thinking they would make her go back.

“Whose fault is this?” I hissed in her ear.

She grabbed my horns, shaking me by them. “No! She did not mean it. Lorelei was only being used.”

I paled. Lorelei. Of course. The pushover must have told the other girls Wispy’s confidential secrets. Kendra would have threatened her with fire. And Leah with Moyra would have tortured her with nature and bugs and just their pure hateful emotion.

But Wispy shook my horns more. “No, Roddy! Your horns will get even longer! I don’t want to see you go full demon.”

Stiffening, I shuddered. I reached up and felt my horns, checking the length. “Have they grown longer?”

She nodded angrily. “For your revenge on Kendra.”

I frowned, slumping. “It wasn’t that bad of a revenge.”

Wispy shook her head. “No. Yours was worse. Kendra could have been cut in that ‘accident’ you caused.”

A sick feeling set in my gut. She was right. I had chosen a dangerous method of attack. Perhaps Piranha choosing the oil route was better because it was only trouble which the fire freak could recognize. But it also felt so unfair. Kendra and Leah and Moyra and Morgan and all those other creeps could be downright nasty and they don’t even get horns for it. If the universe were just, they’d be sporting huge horns for every crime they committed.

But thinking of crimes, I turned to Wispy and said, “I’m sorry.”

She closed her eyes, sighing.

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize what Dervish and all those jerks were doing to you.”

Her body stiffened in my arms. I realized then, she had been keeping this secret from me specifically. But why from me? Why did it matter that I knew?

“If I could make them pay, I would,” I said.

I could feel a shudder go through her. Her imps were shouting at her, calling her trash and a whore again.

I swatted them away, swearing at them.

Wispy looked up at me when I did that. “You’ve gotten faster.”

I shrugged.

Then, wrapping her arms around me, she said, “Just don’t let them find me.”

I knew whom she was talking about. All of them. Dervish. Thug. Mutton. Speed. Probably even Jester. They had all kept her like a pet cat. Or a toy. But I also knew she meant those girls at school. Moyra, Kendra, and Leah—and of course that jerk Morgan.

Then I wondered—had anyone…

“Did anyone try anything with you? I mean…” I asked, pulling back.

Wispy cringed, averting her eyes.

I jumped off her bed, walking backward with anger at all those vile creeps. They had seriously messed with Wispy. “The police will protect you here.”

“Don’t kill anyone Roddy!” she shouted after me, trying to get out of her bed. But she was hooked to so many machines that she did not get far.

I was already out the door. I bumped into that Italian cop on my way into the hall.

“Hey!” he called after me as I bounced off of him and spun around him to get back on track.

“I have to get back to the school,” I said, still going.

He followed me. “Do you even know where it is?”

Halting, I stiffened. I realized then that I had no clue where Gulinger High was. I didn’t really even know New York. I looked back to him. “Do you?”

Taking in a breath, he pulled out his cell phone. “Hi. This is Officer Calamori. Can I get a ride for Mr. Mayhem to take him back to Gulinger?”

He knew Gulinger too? I was surprised.

“That’s his name,” Officer Calimori said, rolling his eyes with annoyance. “Get Officer Johnson on it if he is still in the vicinity. Both teachers had already gone back to deal with the situation.”

Hearing this, I approached him. “The situation? Was there more that happened?”

Shaking his head, Officer Calamori gazed sympathetically on me as he ended the call. “No. But an attempted suicide at Gulinger Private Academy is a big deal.”

“So you know it?” I asked.

He nodded. “I’m an alumnus.”

Nodding to myself, I started to wonder if everyone in New York City was in fact a former Gulinger student. That was a ridiculous thought, of course, since the school was supposed to be a secret and it wasn’t that big. They probably just put cops who knew about it here at the hospital to watch Wispy and myself.

Officer Calamori gazed at me with a weird look, almost with fondness though his imps were teasing him to ask me weird imp related questions that would definitely irk me—especially questions about my horns. From his imps I could tell that he knew a great deal about us.

So I said as tactfully as possible, “You a ghoulie or mafi?”

He grinned at me. “Ghoulie. And yes, I have seen my fair share of imps.”

He had read my mind. I stepped back.

“I’m not that kind of mind reader,” he added, smirking at me.

“What kind are you?” I asked, paling. I had begun to hate mind readers after so many at the school had been just mean.

He replied, “One that can read what you really think while you lie.”

That did not quite make sense.

But he grinned. “Tom Brown is my best friend. One day he can explain it to you. I don’t have time right now. The point is, I’m supposed to stay here and guard your friend Wispy.”

I hugged him. I couldn’t help it. When I pushed off him I walked backwards to where I still needed to go. “I think something worse happened to Wispy at school.”

“So do I,” Officer Calimori said gravely, nodding.

“I want justice.” I halted where I was.

He nodded. “So do I. Which is why you need to wait.”

I cringed. His