Trembling(17)

Mr. Sutherland was a member of the Sons. It was so obvious to me now. He was after me. And now I had to spend every day this week in his classroom for detention. Surely he wouldn't hurt me in front of these other students. Would he?



It made sense. He was here to watch both Jason and me. That was why we both had him as a teacher. And he had planted that bell in my purse himself. He'd wanted to get me into detention somehow. He was planning something. What was he planning? Why had he done it? What were the Sons going to do to me?



He'd even mentioned the Sons. He'd gotten the name slightly wrong, of course, but that hardly mattered. He'd sent me the message loud and clear. I knew what was going on. He must know that I knew. I stared at the books I was supposed to be alphabetizing, too terrified to move. At any second, I expected Mr. Sutherland to whip out a gun and shoot us all. Any second.



But detention just dragged on. Mr. Sutherland didn't do anything else suspicious. And eventually, I even went back to alphabetizing. By the time it was time for me to leave, I had even gotten all of them back on the shelf, in alphabetical order.



Mr. Sutherland dismissed us from detention, but as I was heading for the door, he said, "Azazel, would you stay a second?"



No. I wouldn't. I couldn’t. This was it. If I stayed, he would take out his gun. Calmly shoot me between the eyes. Step over my body. Leave the school. No one would ever hear from him again. "Okay," I said.



Mr. Sutherland handed me a slip of paper. "This is my address," he said. "I wouldn't give it to just anyone, but I feel like we have a little bit of a connection. You're a special girl. I have more books like the one I lent you at home. Stop by sometime. I can let you borrow them."



Go to his house? Was he crazy? Did he think I was stupid? If I went there, he'd kill me for sure. I wasn't going anywhere near his house. He should realize that. Luckily, at that second, my cell phone rang. That was probably Jude, who was waiting to take me to work. "I have to go, Mr. Sutherland," I said. "Someone's waiting for me."



"Okay," said Mr. Sutherland, smiling easily. "Just hang onto my address though. Drop by anytime."



It took all my will not to run out of the room. Instead, I walked. I took very large steps, and I got out of there as soon as I could. I got into Jude's car, still clutching the slip of paper that Mr. Sutherland had given me.



"Hey," said Jude. "You look freaked. What happened?"



I shook my head. I couldn't talk about this with Jude. I wanted to beg off work and go see Jason immediately. Jason would have to believe me now. And he'd know what to do. "Nothing," I said.



I'd be safe at work, though. It was a public place. There were lots of people there. The Sons wouldn't risk trying to kill me in such a populated building. I could go to work. I would. If I didn't, it would look weird. Jude might get suspicious. I couldn't put Jude in danger.



"What are you holding?" Jude asked. "Looks like you've got a death grip on it."



"Mr. Sutherland's address," I said. "He asked me to go to his house."



Jude made a face. "Eew," he said. "Why'd he do that?"



I shrugged. "He wanted to give me some books."



"Oh," said Jude, looking disappointed. "I thought maybe he was like a pedophile or something. It would have been fun to get him fired."



If I thought getting Mr. Sutherland fired would have made any difference, I would have been all for it. "Let's just go to work," I said. "I hate detention."

* * *

When I got home from work, it was after midnight, so I knew that both Jason and Hallam would be asleep. I was planning on waking Jason up anyway, though. What I'd found out was too important. He needed to know. After I'd told him, he'd probably want to wake up Hallam as well, but for now, I'd just tell Jason. I didn't know what was going to happen. Were we going to have to go on the run again? I didn't want to. I'd been happy here in Florida. We'd been settled. Still, it clearly wasn't safe here. We'd have to do what we had to do.



I was shocked when Jude dropped me off, and I saw that the lights were still on in our apartment. When I walked in the door, I heard the sounds of laughter. Jason and Lilith were sitting next to each other on the couch. Lilith was laughing so hard that she was resting her forehead on Jason's shoulder.



I couldn't believe it. Why were they still awake? Jason knew we had school in the morning. I cleared my throat.



Jason and Lilith both looked up at me.



"Hey Zaza," said Lilith, her voice still full of laughter.



God. Why couldn't she stop calling me that? I glared at her.