The Healing Power of Sugar: The Ghost Bird Series: #9 (The Academy Ghost Bird Series) (46 page)

“Maybe,” he said. “He seems like a nut case. He thinks he’s protecting you. He’s looking in from the outside. I don’t really know if this plan he suspected of Mr. Hendricks was actually real. We would have known about it, I think. I’m wondering if Volto is just crazy. But maybe he’s misjudging Mr. Hendricks like he’s misjudging us.”

That seemed to happen a lot around us. “I’m sorry, Luke,” I said quietly. “Maybe the others were getting worried, too. I didn’t mean to think you could have done all this. I really was just…I was just…”

“It’s my own fault,” he said. “I was working in secret. The truth was, I didn’t know who to tell, because I wasn’t sure how he was listening to us at all. I’ve been spending time in our homes while everyone was gone checking for listening devices, and setting up traps, testing to see if Volto used the information. I didn’t know he was onto me and would delete our phones. Maybe he realized the information I was leaving around couldn’t be real. Or maybe he was watching me.” He nudged my elbow. “Let’s go in. I’m tired. My nose hurts.”

I agreed and followed him upstairs. North was still asleep on his back. Gabriel was, too, spread out wide while he had space to himself, humming softly in his sleep.

Luke chuckled. “I’m going to go clean up,” he said. “I’m not sure if it’s broken, but I want to stop the bleeding at least. Then we can call Dr. Green.” He groaned. “We’ll have a lot of explaining to do.”

I nodded, yet was watching North. He appeared to be dead asleep, but something was off. He seemed pale. He kept swallowing. I wondered if his throat was bothering him.

Luke went into the bathroom. I placed Volto's mask onto the window seat and then climbed onto the pull-out bed next to North, sitting on the edge.

North opened one lid a smidgen. He glanced at me, looked at the bag of marshmallows in my hands. “No,” he said.

I ignored him. I opened the bag and pulled out a marshmallow.

“No,” he said more firmly, and sat up. “Sang, where did you find those? Put them away.”

“You hid the ones down stairs, didn’t you?” I said.

“I’m not telling.” He checked out the bag. “Those aren’t the same kind. So you didn’t find the other ones?”

The sound of a car door opening and shutting startled me. I jumped up, dropping the marshmallows on the bed. I went to the window.

“What is wrong with you?” North asked. “It’s probably just Kota.”

It was Kota, coming in with a tired, ill-looking Silas. Victor’s car pulled in behind them and Nathan and Victor joined them, coming in.

“We’re all getting sick,” I said.

North grunted. He scooped up the marshmallows and tried to put them back in the bag. “No sugar,” he said. “I can make you some tea.”

“Marshmallows are better,” I said, coming back to him. “Won’t you trust me?”

He hesitated, holding onto one of the marshmallows he’d just picked up. He examined it. “Baby, you can’t eat sugar like this. You’ll rot your teeth. You’ll make your stomach hurt.”

There was a thunder of footsteps as the four boys started coming up the stairs. Silas was the first to appear, bare-chested, already having stripped his shirt off. He spotted the pile of clothes in the basket and dropped his shirt into it. “Why did we go back to wearing uniforms again?”

“I don’t know,” Kota said, coming up behind him. He looked at North and I on the cot, and then at the marshmallow bags. “Were we hungry?”

“She wants marshmallows.”

“Give them to her,” Kota said with a small smile.

“Kota,” North said, as I took the bag from his hand. “She can’t have the sugar all the time.”

“It’s not just about sugar,” I said, popping the marshmallow into my mouth, finally finding some relief. The powder around the marshmallow seemed to melt in my throat and the pain and scratching eased.

“How can you eat that now?” he asked. He reached for his own throat, grunting loudly.

“You should try one,” Kota said to him.

North made a face, but then pulled a marshmallow out of the bag. He put it in his mouth, chewed and swallowed.

His eyes widened in surprise. “What is it doing?”

“The gelatin soothes a sore throat,” Kota said. “Marshmallows can work in lieu of cough medicine. Sang knows what she’s doing.”

North harrumphed.

Silas, Victor and the others laughed, waking up Gabriel.

“Pipe the fuck down,” he cried out, flipping over. He spied me through squinted eyes and reached for me. “I get the bed with Sang,” he said. “We’re sick.”

“We’re
all
getting sick,” Victor said.

“I’ll bring up some sleeping bags,” Kota said.

“I’ll make some tea,” North said, and got up. “Silas, take the roll-away. Make sure she doesn’t eat too many marshmallows.”

Just then, the door to the bathroom opened. Luke stood there, his nose looking awful, already starting to get bruised. There was still blood around the edges. There were a few drops of red along his bare chest.

He looked out at us all, and made a pouting face. “Don’t eat them all,” he said with a whine. “Save some marshmallows for me.”

There was an uproar then. What happened to Luke? Why was his nose broken?

I sighed, sat on the bed and ate a marshmallow, while Luke started to explain.

~
A
~

K
ota called Erica to let her know the boys and Sang were over and that everyone had come down with something. She told Kota that if they needed anything, she’d stop at the pharmacy on the way home from work and just to let her know.

Luke felt the bandage over his nose. He was miserable with fever and now the pain, wishing he’d been a little faster and had avoided Volto’s punch. Dr. Green had been by, took some swabs from everyone to determine if they had strep, and confirmed that Luke’s nose was, in fact, broken. He made him a makeshift ice pack with a bag of peas from the freezer, but he wanted Luke to go in for an X-Ray.

So Luke was in the car now with Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green, heading toward the Academy hospital. He had filled them in on everything he’d told Kota and the others, too. Now it was just the long journey to the hospital to check on his nose. That probably also meant a lot of waiting around before he got to go back and join the others in what would probably be a week of recovery.

“I still can’t believe we didn’t see this coming,” Mr. Blackbourne said from the driver’s seat. His steel eyes were constantly focused on the road, his hands at two and ten, a proper driver always. He never slouched, never sat back. Luke often wondered how he could keep up like that.

“There’s been too many things happening at once,” Dr. Green said. His sandy hair was messy and in need of brushing. “We assumed it was Hendricks. Hendricks assumed it was us. Turns out, he wasn’t ready to get going like we thought. He almost forced himself out ahead of time. Something is important enough for him to want to stay until the end. We’re not sure if what Volto had to say is true. Hendricks seems reluctant to get out quickly, but was feeling forced to do so this last week.”

“Volto had said it was some guy putting pressure on him,” Luke said.

“He didn’t say who it was, and McCoy was sleeping in on Monday morning. Mr. Morris was in class. I don’t think Hendricks was ready for this supposed plan. He was very vigilant, though, and wanting to know who was ratting everyone out, and ready to throw a lot of people under the bus.”

“It might be a payoff,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “There’s something he’s waiting on that won’t happen until later. We’ve been pushing, he’s fighting back.”

Dr. Green tapped the armrest. “So we’ve been pushing too hard? And that means he’s not done…”

“It means we’ve got time to catch him,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Only now, we might have changed how we operate. Whatever he’s doing, something is still processing. He’s careful, he doesn’t want to get caught, so he’s willing to go, but because he’s stalling, it means there would have been something he’s leaving behind. Our job is to find it.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, looking at Luke now, examining his face. “How’s your nose?”

“Bruised and hurt,” Luke said. “Like my pride. I was too slow.”

“Why did you wait so long before you jumped him?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Luke said, sighing. “He was explaining himself. He was trying to lure Sang away. I was letting him talk.” He relaxed his head against the headrest, searching for an angle that didn’t put pressure on his nose. He’d taken pain medicine, but there was still a lot of pressure.

Mr. Blackbourne glanced at Luke again. “Were you waiting for him to succeed?”

“You should have heard her,” Luke said. “The moment he started talking like she should leave, she was so…her face turned so red. She was so angry, she couldn’t even talk.” His eyes teared a little, and he blinked, not expecting to have gotten so emotional.

She had been so beautiful, with her crazy hair and her steadfast, determined glare on Volto.

“You told me you were worried about her,” Mr. Blackbourne said quietly. “That this new plan involving her…that she might leave because of it.”

“It’s still a possibility,” Luke said, believing it to be true. He’d wanted to believe in the plan. At first, he’d gotten really excited. He had pictured the future with her, of dating her, and much more, only his roadblock had been the Academy itself. He found himself daydreaming often of the Academy allowing her to stay on the team, and how he could stay with her and with his friends.

When they finally learned what Mr. Blackbourne and North had been up to, he was sure this was the way to go. Share her? He’d get to keep her and that was what mattered. He could picture it: their future together.

What he hadn’t thought of until later, was Sang’s strange reluctance now to hold his hand around the others. She stiffened whenever anyone touched her if anyone else was around. Alone, she was perfect, comfortable. In front of everyone, she froze.

She was uncomfortable, it was obvious. Maybe she wasn’t into the idea.

And if she wasn’t, then would she pick any of them? Or would she leave?

“She won’t leave,” Dr. Green said, reading his mind, a small smile on his face. “Did you see how she eventually opened up at the football game?”

“Did you see her playing with children?” Mr. Blackbourne asked. “Around the adults and people our own age, she was shy. She had no problem with the kids. That’s good. She’s opened up a lot since she’s been with us. She’s happier.”

“And she didn’t give in to Volto,” Dr. Green said. “She fought for us, in her own way, trying to convince him to back off. That doesn’t sound like someone not interested in staying with us.”

Luke wasn’t so sure. “She’s been different lately.”

“She’s been through a lot,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Haven’t you?”

Luke blew out a breath and shifted, uncomfortable with sitting in the same position. He considered lying down in the back of the car. “Are you telling me I should stop assuming and just ask her?”

“I’ve asked her,” Mr. Blackbourne said, pulling off the highway and onto the road that lead to the hospital. “She’s worried about upsetting everyone else by saying yes. That’s what’s holding her back.”

Luke sat up then. “Really?’

“She thinks it’s selfish to say what she wants.”

Luke tried to blow a raspberry and then choked when it vibrated his nose painfully. He covered it, and groaned.

“Don’t do that,” Dr. Green said, turning in his seat and looking back. “No raspberries for you for a while. Those hurt when you’ve got a broken nose.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“So are we any closer to figuring out who Volto is?” Dr. Green asked.

“No,” Luke said. “He was wearing different boots. He’ll be more careful now. He might have been slightly taller than me? He had some power to the punch, so he’s probably fit. With the outfit, it was hard to tell.”

“So it is a male?” Mr. Blackbourne asked.

Luke shrugged slowly. He really couldn’t be sure. “A tall girl with small breasts?”

“Or a girl wearing a sports bra and boots,” Dr. Green said. “I don’t mean to confuse us, but I had a few female suspects on my list, including Marie.”

“No way,” Luke said in a dramatic emphasis.

“She does have a gripe against us,” Dr. Green said. “And she might just tell Sang to get lost and get away from us, despite her cool exterior.”

Luke could see Marie telling Sang to get out for her own good but would Marie really put in the effort? Would she be so skilled?

Sang had some skills. She surprised him a lot with new talents that he hadn’t expected, like when she carried Sprinkles out quickly when they bought the skunk out from those drunk guys. And the time she helped him steal that camera.

He secretly considered that their first date. He’d been waiting for the following year, and to get her to do it again with him, only in a fake set up house and surprise her with a picnic inside. He smile at the idea, and then stopped when smiling so much hurt.

“I don’t see it being Marie,” Luke said.

“There’s a lot of people on our suspect list,” Mr. Blackbourne said. “Now we need to narrow it down. Outside of finding out why Mr. Hendricks is sticking around, we need to get to the bottom of Volto.”

Luke was silent for the rest of the ride, wishing he’d gotten to that black ski mask Volto wore, so he could have finally put to rest who he was. He scared Sang, not to mention the rest of them. Plus, he was crazy…or she was crazy.