but I wasn’t sure if it was because Kellan’s feet rested just around his, entrapping him, or if my attention was too much too handle.
“What’s your name?” I repeated slowly.
Pete jerked forward. “Look, uh, this is just…ah hell.”
I was starting to get irritated. “What’s his name? Does he have a name?”
Scott came alive. “His name is Luke. We were just…we didn’t mean anything bad by it. The kid was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Like my car?” My irritation was growing, and in the back of my head I knew that Kellan was enjoying it. That sparked my irritation into anger.
I drilled holes in Scott and Pete, but something paralyzed them. They couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. They just stared, in horror. Luke had been sniffling during the entire exchange, but even that quieted. Everything just stilled, and my anger was nearing its exploding point.
It was like a battle had been waging inside of me. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. And then I decided to do the right thing, to save the boy, but nothing was happening. They wouldn’t talk. I didn’t know what to do because I knew Luke would be bullied again the next day, maybe even the same afternoon.
Kellan was loving it.
I took two threatening steps toward Pete and Scott. “You will leave Luke alone. You will be kind and courteous to him from now on. You will befriend him. You will do this, and you will be loyal to him, to each other, until you die.”
I felt a spark ignite from my hand and explode in the air. Just as quickly as everything had quieted, everything slammed back into reality.
Pete and Scott’s terror morphed into friendly smiles. Each helped Luke up and threw an arm around his shoulders. As they walked toward the school, Kellan noted, “That was…a nice thing to do.”
“We’re nice people.” I grabbed my bag and headed toward the school.
Kellan kept pace beside me, his hands stuffed in his jeans. “We’re not nice people, Shay.”
“Shut up.”
“We’re not people, Shay. And what you did just there, a normal person couldn’t have done that.”
“Shut up.” I didn’t want to hear about what I’d just done. I didn’t know what had come over me.
“You just bonded those three guys for life. You did it with magic, Shay. You don’t ever use that stuff.”
“Shut up, okay?” I shrugged him off, but Kellan caught my elbow. We turned a quick corner, another, and he shoved me against the wall.
“What is your deal?” I pushed back at him. “I thought this is what you wanted. You want me to use my powers, like you do, right? Like Gus and Vespar? Isn’t this what you wanted last night?”
Annoyance flashed over his features before he gripped my arm tighter and leaned close. “You’re on edge, Shay. Your powers don’t come naturally to you like they do to us because you don’t use them. We use ours all the time. I’m not going to accidentally kill someone if I get a little angry.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to kill someone…on accident.”
Kellan stiffened. I grew wary as fury formed in his eyes.
“You have something you want to say?” He grew quiet. Too quiet.
A chill slithered down my spine. “You’re right, Kellan. We don’t do nice things. You’re a demon. We’re all demons.”
His eyes pierced mine. “We’re not demons, Shay.”
“No, we just come from demon blood. There’s a big difference, isn’t there?”
Kellan pulled me from the wall and against him. “Our mother was conceived by a demon. Yes, we have demon blood in us, but that doesn’t make us demonic or evil or murderers. It just makes us not nice people, but we’re not demons, Shay.”
I kept quiet. He was reassuring himself, too.
Kellan took a breath, brushed some hair away from my face, and tried to compose himself. He added, forcing a lighter tone, “And you’re wrong. This isn’t what I wanted last night. I want you to stop denying who you are. It’s dangerous. You snapped just now. You altered those guys for the rest of their lives. If you’d stop denying yourself, you wouldn’t have done that by accident. You need to control yourself.”
Holding my breath, I unwound Kellan’s grip from my arm and pushed him back a step. He teetered backward, then took another step away.
“Fine, you’re right.” My voice was unsteady in the wake of such intensity. “I’ll…practice my powers. I won’t do something like that again. I promise.”
Kellan didn’t say anything. He turned and nodded once, with his back slightly turned from me. He ducked his head and pushed his hands into his pockets.
I knew what that meant when he took that stance. He was off, and he needed to re-center himself. I shook my head, more to clear my thoughts than to deny what had happened. But then again…what had just happened?
Kellan shook his head. “I’m not really sure.”
“What?” I looked up, confused.
“You just asked what happened. I don’t know why you snapped. What were you feeling?” He swung those composed sapphire eyes to me again. The old Kellan was back, smooth, controlled, and oh so dangerous. He wasn’t riled any longer.
I narrowed my eyes at him, thinking it hadn’t been hard to push Kellan’s buttons.
He doesn’t get that pissed with me.
Gus was right when she’d said those words.
“Shay?” Kellan prompted.
“Oh yeah. Uh…what was I feeling?” I shrugged, “I don’t know. I guess…I wasn’t sure actually. I just wanted—I was frustrated. I wanted to help that kid, but I knew I really couldn’t. Those guys would be beating him up later this afternoon and then you were there…I don’t know. I just ‘snapped,’ I guess. It won’t happen again.”
Kellan nodded and pulled me in for a hug.
I closed my eyes and rested my head against his shoulder for a second. He was a lot of things, probably none of it was good, but he was my brother. And I knew that Kellan would do anything for me. Anything.
“Anyway,” I pulled away and muttered awkwardly.
“Go ahead.” Kellan read my mind and gestured around the corner. “I’ve got some things to do. I’ll see you in humanities.”
Humanities it was. That wasn’t until seventh period, the only period I shared with Kellan and my other siblings. Kellan was a senior. I was a junior, where Gus and Vespar were both sophomores—twins. We tried to share one elective class a semester, and humanities was the chosen class this time.
I turned and left. I didn’t want to ask what he’d be doing the entire day. I didn’t want to know. And really, a big reason why I snapped was the pressure I always felt from Kellan. It was for the best if he was gone, for right now.
“That’s new,” Giuseppa drawled as she stopped by my locker.
I turned and looked. Sure enough—Scott, Luke, and Pete were walking down the hallway. Both Scott and Pete had their arms on Luke’s shoulder, leaning in as if sharing a joke.
We weren’t the only ones watching. Everyone in the hallway stopped to stare.
“It’s the talk of the school,” Gus informed me. She flipped her golden curls over her shoulder and hugged a book against her blue tank top. She eyed me, knowingly. “It’s almost like someone magically told them to be friends.”
Rolling my eyes, I retorted, “Shut up. I already got an earful from Kellan this morning.”
“Yeah, well, you should listen to him. You changed their lifelines permanently. That’s serious, not something I could pull off. I know that much. But still, Shay, there are others who are tuned into that stuff. They’ll know a big player’s in town now.”
I scoffed at the idea of being a ‘big player.’ “I’m hardly that, Gus. I just… It’s not that big of a deal. He’s not getting his underwear stuffed into his mouth anymore.”
“Whatever. It’s kind of funny, though.”
“What is?” I was wary.
She gestured around the hallway as three slim silver brace
lets jangled around her wrist. “Look at them. They don’t know what to do. Two big jocks are now buddies with one of the nerds. Classic, Shay. Classic. It’s like all their asses were turned upside down.”
I wasn’t sure about the imagery, but Gus thought it was funny. Just then, as my sister continued to laugh uproariously by herself, Leah and two other girls approached us. Or, well, Leah approached us cautiously. The other two stayed back, a few yards away.
Gus immediately stopped laughing as she eyed Leah down, hostile.
Leah fidgeted with the sleeve of her top. She wore a violet wrap-around light cloth shirt and kept tugging down the end of her sleeve, only to push it back up, and tug it down once more. The girl was terrified.
“Um…” She eyed us nervously and pushed forward bravely. “I was wondering… Do you know where your brother is?”
Gus stood to her fullest height, all five feet and ten inches. Comparing the two, Gus was the supermodel with her willowy figure, but I knew Leah was popular among the school. She was shorter by a few inches, slim, and her hair hung in two brunette braids that rested over her shoulders. There was a reason why Kellan had chosen to sleep with her, more than once.
“If he doesn’t call you, I wouldn’t go calling him,” Gus warned thickly.
Leah backed up a step, but remembered her need. “I need to talk to him. He wouldn’t talk to me yesterday, and I really need to talk to him.”
“Why? If you’re pregnant, it’s not his. I guarantee that.”
Leah flushed. “That’s not what this is about. I just really need to talk to him.” She glanced over her shoulder. I saw both of her friends give her supporting smiles, but neither of them budged forward. Leah was on her own.
“If you think you’re dating him, you’re not.” The hostility increased in Gus, but before she could say anything else, I intervened and pulled my sister behind me.
“This would go a lot easier if you told us what you wanted from Kellan. We might help you.”
Gus growled, which drew attention from every male in the hallway…who wasn’t already watching.
I elbowed my sister as Leah tugged her sleeve down again. “Um, well, Kellan said that he’d help me with this thing if I needed it. And, well, I guess…it’s like, it’s now, you know?”
“Not in the least,” Gus muttered through gritted teeth.
I rolled my eyes, resigned. I understood Gus’ reluctance to help. Bradens didn’t help, not usually. And no one ever sought Kellan out, much less for us to help in his stead. Still…I’d started the day out with a theme of helping. I might as well continue…?
“What do you need help with?” I willed the girl to bolster her courage and just blurt it out.
“Um…” She still faltered and then rushed out, “My stepdad just got home from a business trip. He’s a drunk and he…”
And everything clicked. Even Gus perked up. We both knew what Kellan had offered to do. I finished for her, dryly, “And Kellan offered to rough him up if your stepdad hurt you, didn’t he?”
She nodded, grateful.
I felt Gus’ glee as she asked, “What’d he do to you?”
“Kellan?” Leah asked, confused.
Both of us flinched. “No, you idiot. Your father. What’d he do to you?” Gus cringed again.
“He did some stuff. Could you call Kellan for me? I don’t have his number. I don’t even know if he has a phone, but…I…it can’t happen again. Kellan said he’d stop him.”
“We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.” Giuseppa was all smiles now. It wasn’t a sight Leah was used to, nor myself, but I was pretty sure it shocked Leah the most as she instinctually retreated three steps before she stopped. Her friends quickly moved backward with her.
“I…” Leah wasn’t sure what to say. Her eyes skirted between us again.
I smiled, or tried to smile, though I was a little apprehensive about what Giuseppa had in mind. “He’ll be taken care of by tonight.”
“You’ll talk to Kellan?”
“We’ll do it ourselves,” Gus muttered underneath her breath.
“He’ll be told. Promise,” I tried to reassure her.
“Okay.” Leah jerked a nod before she quickly melted among the rest in the hallway.
“We’re not telling Kellan, right?” Gus asked anxiously. She was the one to eye me nervously now.
“I just told her that he’d be told.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t say when. Let me handle this, Shay. Please. I haven’t had fun in a while.”
I tried to figure out what my sister intended to do. I stared her down, despite the innocent look she flashed my way. I knew my sister, and I knew she wasn’t going to pray for him. I warned, darkly, “Do not kill him. Do not do anything that’ll bring attention to us.”
Gus rolled her eyes and retorted nastily, “Right, Shay. You should be the one talking after what you did today. And no, I don’t intend to do anything like that. But the guy will leave his stepdaughter alone after I’m done with him. Promise.”
“You’re not going to kill him.”
“Promise,” she repeated forcefully.
“Fine,” I relented and was rewarded with a flash of perfect teeth. As she turned to leave, I called out, “And no Vespar involved.”
Gus braked, didn’t turn around. And then continued, but not before I heard a few choice words.
The bell sounded, and I heeded. The rest of the day was like usual. I watched, silent, as everyone else played their social games. The quiet ones stayed with their cliques and sent furtive glances at the popular ones. The geeks did their own thing and managed to avoid all contact with any jock. The popular girls whispered together or hung off the arm of their boyfriends. I caught sight of Leah one time, and she managed a tight smile my way. All of her friends looked my direction and then bent their heads over their table. The guys looked and quickly averted their gazes.
I wasn’t a part of their social hierarchy. According to my bloodline, I was supposed to use them as pawns. I knew Giuseppa and Vespar did. I knew they loved the game. They loved the “mind screwing,” how they put it. And I knew Kellan did it, but his appetite seemed a bit deeper. I wondered if he was happy with the shallow mind playing with the Leahs in our school.
I’d never wanted to do that. I’d never felt compelled and, if anything, I wanted to do the opposite. I wanted to stop it.
I felt a burning on my wrist and touched my sleeve. I felt the tattoo burning my skin. I wondered if it was rotating or staying in place. It moved at times, like when it knew I was paying attention to it. And other times, it was just there, like a reminder for something. I just didn’t know what.
When I got to humanities, the tattoo stopped burning. Thank God.
I dropped my books and slumped into my usual table. We sat on the left side, by the windows, and in the middle. The populars liked to sit in the back, which was fine by us. It never mattered because my siblings surrounded me.
Vespar and Giuseppa slid into their table, just in front of me, and bent their heads close together. Kellan dropped his books beside me and slid into his own chair. He turned, studied me intently like he always did, and then lounged back in his chair.
Just then, Mr. Hawkins strode into the room and dropped his lecture book on the table before he took up a marker and turned to the board. “Okay, class. Tell me what you know about religion.”
Silence scattered over the class and their conversations. And then, after a beat of silence, Leah spoke up, “I’m Catholic. Is that what you mean?”
Another girl raised her hand. “Was this part of our reading? I thought we were supposed to read chapter seven in our book? I don’t remember any discussion on religion there.”
Mr. Hawkins ignored her and looked at Leah. “Yes, Leah. Catholicism is a form of religion. You’re correct. Now tell me about being Catholic.” He smiled encouragingly and pushed up his thin wire-rimmed glasses. He tugged down one of his sleeves from his white polo shirt. His bicep muscle flexed, mom
entarily, and then it relaxed as Leah spoke up, falteringly, “Uh…I guess…I give confession.”
“Purgatory!” Scott yelled out laughingly.
“Yes, Mr. Lorrells, but there’s more to Catholicism than purgatory. There’s so much more to religion than Catholics. Tell me something more class, please.”