"You're lying," Cheekbones says, voice choked.

"You were standing over a dead body on the school stage," Lilith retorts.

"Alright, back up." I look at Cheekbones. I put Petey's head down on the floor. "Tell me this is a misunderstanding. Did you find Petey's body, or did you actually kill him?"

"I-" Cheekbones blinks, rattled. He looks up and stares at the silver nails poking out between my fingers. Then my words catch up to him. He stares at me, half in betrayal and half in confusion. "What?"

"One answer. Found him or killed him?" I step towards him instead of circling around him. His face contorts. Interesting. "What did you kill him with?" I step closer. His face twitches again. "Poison? What kind did you slip into his protein powder?"

"Excuse me?" Cheekbones stops making faces at me that would only work on anyone who was below the age of six. Behind us, Lilith is remaining put. "His protein powder?"

My eyes bear straight into his as I get closer. I count off my fingers, one with each point and step. "I haven't had a chance to read the autopsy report, but when I revived him, Petey had no signs of trauma on his body." Irrelevant, considering Petey is only a head right now. "Wasn't drowned or affected by magic either. So either he ingested something, or someone did something else internally to him. His protein powder's easiest to get to."

Cheekbones's floored. "I didn't do anything to him. I've never met the guy alive before."

"You did his death makeup. You emphasized his lips." The amount that was on Petey's lips could provide for a nation. "Listen, I'm being a devil's advocate right now. I'm checking all the angles. Answer, give me proof, and we're cool."

He's upset. He hitches his shoulders up to his ears, like his jacket's a shell and he's a turtle. "I already told you I didn't do it. Can't you...can't you trust me? Why do I even have to offer proof?"

"Maybe they were dating," Lilith interjects, casually, from the peanut gallery. "It could explain some things, such as why he'd get with you."

"That--" Cheekbones guy looks at her, incredulous, and then me, pleading. "I didn't date him. I'm not into--"

"Don't tell me." I point the silver nails at him. "You killed Petey because he rejected your Greaser get-up. He was your first love and you've been pining after him for years. When he said that he would never accept you for who you were, it was the final straw. You stabbed him in the throat in the school auditorium with a--"

"I am not a C-list murder plot twist or a game of Clue or a giant Cliché," says the werewolf who is currently sprouting fangs and claws again. He grabs at the nails. "Listen to me--"

"Hey!" I was half-joking, but now, in panic, I almost bruise my elbow by trying to knock it into his rock-hard T-shirted chest. "We're cool here, calm down--"

He snaps.

"I can't calm down! I didn't kill him and you don't believe me!" Cheekbones shouts. He's stepping into my space, wrestling the nails from my hands, and slamming his forehead to mine.

I'm reeling from the impact on my skull. The nails have dropped to the ground. Cheekbones is grimacing but he's not shouting anymore.

We're chest to chest, and forehead to forehead. "I didn't kill him," Cheekbones repeats, quieter, head heavy against mine. "I'm here because I love you. I don't want anything to happen to you. I thought you understood." It takes me a second to realize that he's blinking fast and breathing heavy. He makes a strangled noise from his throat. His lower lip quivers. "I didn't kill him. You have to trust me."

"Wait." I'm stupefied and also somewhat incapacitated from the headbutt. I am an idiot. And an asshole. "Wait. Wait, wait, wait, are you--"

"No, I'm not," he says, telling me exactly, yes, he is.

Holy cow. I forgot murder is bad.

"He's crying," I say, a little panicked, to Lilith. "I made him cry."

Lilith has taken off her heels. She stands up as if she didn't fan the flames. "I'm single," she says, calm. "So I can't help you any more than I already have. If that's all, I'll be heading home. I'll send my bill to your Clan. Sorry about the deader dead body, but you understand I need to look out for my own."

"Wait, what--" She's leaving? Just like that? "You can't go! You need to--"

The door slams behind her. Speechless, I whirl back to Cheekbones.

"You can't just accuse me of murder," Cheekbones says, voice tight like a dam about to burst.

This is not what they taught me in How to Make Werewolves Cry 101. For one, you threaten the full moon and use it as a hostage. "I wasn't really, I was just, maybe, putting up the potential possibility that--"

"I'm not a killer," Cheekbones bites out. "Just because I could kill doesn't mean I want to. Why does everyone-- And we're not even strangers. Why would you assume--"

"I just thought-- You know me--well, you wouldn't know me--well, I know now. I made a bad decision. Shit, please don't cry." Cheekbones rubs his eyes, spitting out something about me not believing him. "I believe you. Super believe. You didn't kill Petey."

Cheekbones blinks a lot before he can finally look me in the eye. Vulnerability explodes out of him as his voice wavers. "You promise you believe me? Pinky-swear on it?"

What is with this? Fifth grade? No, no, no. I am the absolute worst. Someone should bleach me in acid. No one should leave their children with me. His mother was right to almost rearrange my face and choke me to death. "I do." He looks at me, eyebrows furrowing. I grasp his pinky with mine. "I really do."

"Okay," Cheekbones says, and pulls his away. He breathes in deeply and breathes out. He doesn't look like he wants to be here.

"Listen," I say, nervous. Oh man. "I believe you. Trust me. I was, I wasn't thinking. I ripped Petey into two and now he's in three and I don't even know where his body is now. I just..." I wave my hands around. "I don't know what to do. I'm out of leads. I don't even have my kit. I had to do something."

"Mm." He doesn't move. I want to walk into a crematorium and never come out. He turns his head away to scrub at his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Hey, no, no." I step immediately right back into him. I grab his wrists in a loose hold. He stills like a petrified deer. "Talk to me. Tell me what you're thinking, if that's okay? I want to listen."

Cheekbones takes a breath. "I shouldn't be here." Upset, his gaze bores into mine as if I have all the answers. "This was all a mistake, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't," I say. "It isn't." I press my mouth against his knuckles. I place my hands on either side of his face. "I'm glad you're here because dead people vengeance is a party for two, not one. Besides," c'mon, make him smile, c'mon, "we could consider this our first fight? That's cool, kinda."

Cheekbones's shoulders slump. "Is it? I guess?"

I don't know what to say. "I'm...also sorry I ogled a vampire."

He makes a face. "I don't understand what you saw in her. She smelled like disease and death to me." His expression drops. "You...aren't, um, not into me, right? She was saying about--"

I leap on that. "Fallacy. Not all necromancers are into dead people. I'm into moving alive people with veins that pump blood. I probably smell like desperation for someone with a pulse."

"Yeah, you do," Cheekbones says.

I'm shocked. "What?"

"But," Cheekbones continues, as if I never spoke, "that's not a bad thing."

"Is that attractive to you? Tell me that's attractive."

A smile's appeared on his face. "Who knows?" He reaches out and holds my hand in his. The smile fades when he catches sight of Petey's head on the ground. He lets go of my hand. "You must be tired now. Don't worry about your cousin. The school's open nights only. Head back to the hotel room to sleep and we'll look together when the sun's up."

"You heading home?"

The expression on Cheekbones's face looks determined. "See you tomorrow," he says. "Don't let the dead guy's head bite."