Mr. Bossy Devil - Lindsey Hart Page 0,36

a dang cockroach or something, with huge antennas and a big black shell, but then the bastard bug opens its pincers and literally takes a chunk of skin right out of Raiden’s forehead. That takes the wind right out of me, and my scream gets frozen in my throat.

“What the…ouch!” Raiden slaps madly at his forehead, right as I bring my hand back and swing. Too hard. I hit him, smack dab in the middle of the forehead, and the sound of skin smacking skin rings through the woods.

The bug must have gone flying when Raiden slapped at it. I withdraw in horror, and when I see the blood…oh my god, when I see the blood, I nearly pass out.

Raiden stares at me, staring at the blood on my hand. He then lifts a trembling hand to his forehead, brings it down and stares at it. I’m not sure what happens then—if the bug was some type of poisonous bastard or if it hit a nerve that is lethal—but Raiden’s eyes roll up in his forehead, and he slumps backward in a heap on the ground.

CHAPTER 13

Raiden

When I come out of a black, hazy fog, Zoe’s face is just inches from mine. She’s crouched down, her brows nearly knit together, and her eyes wide with worry. Oh, and I realize she’s put her clothes back on.

I swipe a hand up to my forehead and stare anxiously at the smear of red on my fingertips. “What happened?”

“This crazy black beetle looking bug bit you. I think it was one of those spruce beetles the people from the lodge kept telling us to look out for. The thing flew out of nowhere, and it made that weird clicking noise they were talking about. I only realized after it bit you that it must be one since they said it might take a real chunk out of you.”

“Nice. I love having a bite taken out of my crime.”

“Did you pass out because it’s poisonous? They never said it was poisonous.” Zoe starts working her bottom lip between her teeth. Her hands churn around in the air around me without even touching me. I realize I’m sitting up. How the heck did I get to be sitting up? Did I pass out and land flat on my ass?

“No. I think…I just saw the blood and thought…I don’t know what I thought. I’ve never passed out from the sight of blood before.”

“I know. We cut our hands when we were kids and did the blood brothers thing.”

“Hardly sanitary.”

Zoe winces. “Anyway, uh, are you okay? Most of the bleeding stopped. It’s a nasty-looking bite, though. You’re going to have a crazy lump there for a while.”

“Should be a good story to tell my mom tomorrow at lunch.”

Zoe’s face shifts back to ultra-panic mode. “About that—”

“Please don’t tell me you’re bailing.”

“N–no, not bailing. Not like that. I…” Zoe sighs hard. I guess she figures getting out whatever it is she has to say is better than keeping it locked up because she goes on. “I just think maybe this is the universe’s way of telling us this is wrong in just about every conceivable way. This. Us. The first time, you…well…yeah. And this time…the bug—”

I smear my hand over my forehead again and nearly groan at the sting. There is a massive lump there—what my mom would, and probably will call, a goose egg. I don’t know how something small enough that I couldn’t even see it coming could do this kind of damage.

“So, you think those two incidents are some higher power telling us we shouldn’t do whatever we’re doing.”

“See!” Zoe leaps to her feet. “We don’t even have a name for it because we can never give it a name.”

“I could give it a name if you wanted me to.”

“No! I don’t want you to. The first time, I said this shouldn’t happen again, then this madness—rabies or something—got me today, and I…I had this massive lapse of judgment because it was spreading to my brain.”

“What was?”

“The temporary rabies.”

“I see.” I have no idea what Zoe is talking about. She used to be pretty no-nonsense, so I’m not sure how she thinks she has rabies. “What bit you?”

“What?”

“To get rabies, you have to be bitten by something rabid. And I think it takes a while to get to your brain, but when it does, you literally die, I think. You start foaming at the mouth and acting strange.”

“Exactly!”

“I didn’t see any foam. Drool, maybe…”

“Shut up!”