When All is Null and Void

Chapter Twenty-Five

Then Titus broke into the conversation.

But in the end, who had come away with Danielle's phone number? Caleb was the victorious one. Sort of. They hadn't found the Void leak in the kitchen, even if his ring had been fluttering around like it was near. Maybe that had been Caleb's heart. His cheeks warmed at the thought.

"The goal wasn't to flirt," Titus said to Caleb while they circled the first floor of the house for the fifth time. What did a Void leak even look like?

Caleb waggled his eyebrows at Titus, emboldened by spite. "You're just jealous she didn't ask you for yourphone number."

"I'm not," Titus said. "She's definitely not my type." Titus steered Caleb toward the stairs as he caught sight of Danielle in the far corner of the room, mingling with a girl whose inky-black hair was braided on two sides. The girl was talking up a storm, and Danielle's arms wered crossed over her chest. She glanced over at him, and Caleb attempted a wave. She raised an eyebrow, and Caleb shot up the stairs. Neither Titus nor he had reason to be up here, since apparently this was where the dens of iniquity resided. Doors were locked on either side of the hallway, and weird sounds Caleb had no interest in walking in on emanated from within.

"What if it's in there?" Titus said, when Caleb pushed him away from one of the unlocked doors.

"Then I guess we're going to let it stay open."

Titus and Caleb exchanged a heated conversation with their eyes. Titus eventually acquiesced.

The only unoccupied room was at the far end of the hall, up another set of stairs. If anyone caught them, he'd claim they were lost, that they'd been trying to find a bathroom not in use. Feeble, especially since Titus and Caleb were together, but these were high schoolers, and no one would question it. Especially drunk kids.

They entered the attic bedroom with a double bed and sports posters on the wall. Caleb had hoped maybe the Void leak would be floating in the air for them to close. It would have been easy. "You look around here," Titus said. "I have to pee."

Caleb started digging around, opening drawers, riffling through socks and underwear—an experience he could have lived without. He didn't really know why a Void leak would choose to hide in an underwear drawer, but Titus told him they couldn't pass anything up

He was digging under the bed with the wan light from his phone when he heard a shocked voice say, "What are you doing?" the bedroom light flicked on.

Caleb banged his head on the bed frame hard enough stars danced in his vision. Glancing over the mattress, Danielle stood in the doorframe, hand on hip, a furiously interested expression on her face. Caleb's cheeks burned, because he definitely couldn't use his excuse anymore. Not with his hand still underneath the bed, like some creeper. Out of the corner of his eye, Caleb saw the bathroom door remained closed. Jerk.

"Well, uh," Caleb stuttered. "What are you doinghere?" He threw his words at her with well-aimed precision, but she caught it without a struggle.

"I'm not the one going through Jason's things." She cocked her hip to the side, and her foot tapped an impatient tattoo on the carpet.

"I'm..." he had no reply. Standing up, Caleb let the disgusting, saliva-drenched vampire fangs fall into his palm. Why had he left them in.

"That's what I thought," she said, turning on her heel.

"Stop!" Caleb said. "I'm looking for something." He hoped maybe Danielle might turn around and offer assistance, but she cast him a scornful glance over her shoulder.