As for school, Gus had been right. Two of Matt’s closest buddies were in a shoving match in the school parking lot at the end of that day. Matt stood by, dumbfounded. We’d changed him permanently, like he’d been rewired inside or taken the fight out of him, but he was no longer their leader. Instead, the winner had been Dylan Cavanagh. He was another football player, typical douche, and he walked around school with his arm on some trophy. Those girls all looked the same to me: skinny, pretty, long legs.
The last day Dylan had started eyeing Gus and me. I used to enjoy playing with guys like him, teasing, making them confused. Now, I stayed away, although I doubted Gus would do the same. I was sure she would play her usual games with him, but I didn’t want to know what those were.
In the last week, I learned I didn’t want to ask any more questions. The entire event of going against Vespar in class and everything that unfolded afterward had left a bad taste in my mouth. And learning that Kellan knew things about me didn’t sit well in my stomach. Everything had become chaotic, and I wasn’t sure how much more I wanted to take.
“Kellan’s not at school again,” Vespar commented as he stopped by my locker. He had a guarded look on his face, but he still managed to glance around with a smirk.
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“Where is he? Did you two have a fight?”
“I thought it was because of you.”
“What do you mean by that?” He straightened and looked directly at me.
“You’re the one he wasn’t happy with. Not me. Or do you not remember last week correctly?”
A sneer flashed over his face, but it was gone instantly. “I remember you calling me out, and that he decided you could talk however you liked to me. Or am I wrong, Shay?” He leaned closer to me, almost in my face.
I glanced around and saw that everyone seemed to be aware of us. A few quickly looked away, but some stared blankly, enraptured by the tension between my brother and me. “Better watch out. You’re doing what I did to you, and by the way, I didn’t mean it how you took it. I didn’t mean to go against you. I just…” I couldn’t tell him that I wanted to break free, break away from the Braden rules. Vespar would think that was even more of an insult, like I was better than him, than the Braden name.
Vespar rolled his eyes and shifted so no one could see our faces. He spoke in a low voice, “I stand by what I said at the house. You’re pissing on us, and you don’t care. That makes me mad, but Gus wants us to make up. She wants things right, so fine. Whatever. As far as I’m concerned, you and I are fine. I hold no ill will toward you. Okay?”
It felt more like an order than a truce offering. I nodded, though. “Fine.”
Relief rolled off his shoulders, and he straightened. A little more bounce seemed to be in his frame again. “So, really, where is Kellan?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Vespar. I wasn’t lying. He’s not happy with you.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean? You disrespected him to his face. You told me that he had his hooks in me. You don’t think he didn’t hear that? He’s staying away for a reason, and things were fine with him and me. It’s you. I’d be worried if I were you.”
He frowned.
Giuseppa chose that moment to throw an arm around her brother and laugh as she poised next to the lockers. “How are things going? Are we all a loving family again? I certainly hope so.” When neither of us commented, her eyes danced between us, and a small frown appeared. “What’s wrong? What now?”
Vespar shoved her arm off and stalked down the hallway. Dylan chose that moment to turn into our hallway, right in front of Vespar, with his arm around a different girl. He stopped, saw a Braden coming his way, and glanced to the side. Then his shoulders straightened, and his feet stayed firm. Vespar saw it all as he kept approaching, reached out, grabbed Dylan’s shirt collar, and slammed him into the lockers. Two girls screamed and scattered out of the way.
“Oh God,” Giuseppa groaned. “What did you say to him?”
I watched as Vespar punched Dylan and then threw him onto the ground. None of his friends rushed to defend him or even help him from the floor. Then my brother continued on his way, his shoulders seemingly less tense.
I arched an eyebrow. That was interesting. “I just told him that Kellan must be staying away because of him, not me. Kellan and I were fine.”
“What?” Fear sparked in her eyes. “You said that?”
“It’s true. Vespar was out of line, not me. I spoke the truth, and then Vespar called me out. You think that made Kellan happy? Then he called out Kellan later when he asked why he let me talk to him that way. That’s like a slap in Kellan’s face. Then the next morning, he told me Kellan had his hooks in me. He heard him. Vespar’s got a problem, and he knows it. I can’t believe he said half of what he did.”
She froze, and the fear grew. “You’re right. Oh my God.” She glanced over her shoulder, as if she could see Vespar, who had already vanished into another hallway. “What’s he going to do? He didn’t think that out at all.”
I shrugged and exchanged my books. “It’s not my problem.”
As I started to leave, Gus blocked me. “Yes, it is. Our brothers can’t be fighting. Do you know how bad that is?”
Not as bad as it’s going to get, I thought to myself, but gave her a clueless look. “What are you talking about? You’re the one who said this would happen anyway. You said that Vespar would do it now, but he knows Kellan would kick his ass.”
“They could kill each other. And I was joking. Kind of.”
“Or Kellan could kill Vespar. He can’t touch Kellan, and everyone knows it. And why would you joke about that?”
She swallowed tightly. “Come on, Shay. Please do something. Say something to Kellan. Please. I can’t have us broken up. I love Vespar, but I need you two, too. It’s the four of us against everyone else. Don’t let something happen to that. You can stop this.”
“Why not you? Answer my other question.”
“Because…okay. Yes. I think Vespar wanted to fight Kellan last week, but he doesn’t anymore. He’s over it. I’m over it. And I really was joking. I really don’t want us to fight. That would be horrible. And because Kellan loves you more. Everyone knows that. He’s almost obsessed with you. If you weren’t his sister…” She shuddered. “You get my drift.”
I did, and I wasn’t fully comfortable with that. I didn’t have a good feeling about it, but another side was… I wasn’t going to focus on that. It didn’t help anyone. I could also tell that a part of Giuseppa hated admitting that to me.
“Shay.”
I sighed in surrender. “I’ll find him after school and see what’s really going on.”
She relaxed. “Thanks.”
Then I gestured to Dylan, who had gotten back to his feet and stood in a circle of his friends. He was throwing dark looks our way. “What about him? I don’t want to turn someone else into another zombie.”
Gus smiled. “I’ll take care of him.” She didn’t have good intentions from the way she said that, but I needed to pick my battles. The old Gus was back, appeased now that everything was going to be fine.
“Just don’t kill him,” I murmured under my breath before I left for class.
“There are other ways.” My sister sounded more excited than she should’ve been.
Kellan wasn’t at school that day, and I didn’t have hope that he’d show up later in the afternoon. I sent a few text messages to him, but he didn’t respond. When I called, it went straight to voicemail. As I was leaving, trying to figure out where I might start looking, I wasn’t expecting to find Dylan Cavanagh, so I almost bumped into him when I reached for my door. Before I made contact, I managed to jerk backward. “What are you doing?”
He straightened from my car and stood over me, reaching his fullest height. “I have a bone to pick with your family.”
He rubbed a hand over his jaw wher
e Vespar had punched him. I saw it had darkened even more and was now an ugly shade of black and purple. “Really?”
“Yeah.” He puffed up his chest. “It’s not right that you guys get to walk wherever you want, do whatever you want. Kellan’s been gone from school all week, and no one will say anything about it. You guys aren’t special, so you shouldn’t be treated like that. Vespar’s going to get his ass kicked, too.”
“Really?”
His eyes narrowed. “Yeah.” He expected me to cower before him. I wasn’t at all, and that wasn’t adding up to him. “Me and some of my buddies are going to take down your brother. You might want to warn him.”
“Really?” I scoffed for the third time.
“Yeah.”
Then I smiled. “Good luck with that. Now, move.”
He did, but only because he was confused. As I drove away, I saw my sister swaying her way to him in my rearview mirror. Her hand lifted to trail over his shoulders, and he was already entranced by it. Shaking my head, I kept driving. No matter who did it, somehow Dylan would be put down like he was a dog. I had no doubt that he’d come to school the next day with his tail figuratively between his legs.
They always had to learn.
When I got to the house, instead of going to my room, I went to Kellan’s. It felt strange going up there without him there and especially because the last time I’d been there had been when I’d stayed with him. The place seemed to hold his presence in it, even though he wasn’t there. I felt him everywhere. Strongly. Suppressing a shiver, I glanced around and tried to focus on what I needed to do. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was looking for, but I wanted some idea of where he might’ve been. Maybe he had written down some information…maybe not. I doubted it, but I was willing to try. When I didn’t find anything, I wasn’t surprised. My brother was a very clean person/demon. Then I sighed and gave up. As I went to my own room, something was nagging at me, almost tickling the back of my neck. It was like I was forgetting something…
Then I groaned and called my sister. When she answered, I asked, “Has Leah been at school this week?”
There was silence and then, “No. I didn’t even notice.”
“He’s probably there. Don’t you think?”
“Are you going over there?”
“I guess. I mean, I have to, right?”
“It’d be good if you talked to him soon.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll go over there.”
“Okay.” Her voice sounded curt, as if she had been interrupted.
I asked, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” she said quickly and hung up.
And that meant she was doing something. I shook my head and left again for my car. I could only handle one of my siblings at a time. As I went outside, Vespar was walking toward me. His eyebrows shot up. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere.” I threw that over my shoulder as I passed him swiftly. He turned to ask again, but I shut my car’s door and quickly reversed to drive away. Vespar still stood there as I turned onto the road. I could feel his confusion.
As I drove to Leah’s, I tried to remember the way. I’d only been there once to pick up Kellan. I never asked questions, and he never offered any answers. He’d reeked of sex, though, and a part of me didn’t want to find him in the same manner. As I pulled up to her house, I tried to sense Kellan from my car. I sensed him good and plenty. His presence wrapped around me like a blanket. It was powerful, so powerful that when I went to the door, I half expected him to answer it himself. He didn’t. Leah did, looking pale and gaunt. Her eyes had a scattered look in them, like she was in the middle of a stampede and didn’t know where to go for safety.
“Is my brother here?”
Before she could answer, Kellan asked from a back room, “What’s wrong?”
Leah vanished into a back room, and I turned to scrutinize my brother. He looked tired. Why did he look tired? I asked as much, but he clenched his jaw and countered with, “Why did you come here?”
“Because Gus asked me to find you.”
“Why?” He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his jaw, but glanced toward the room Leah had gone into.
I looked, too, and wondered what had happened between them. Why was he here? What was wrong with Leah? “Is this about her stepfather?” Then I looked around again and saw how sparse it seemed. It was as if only Leah lived there. I couldn’t feel anyone else. “Where’s her mother? Her real father?”
Kellan grimaced. “Our siblings got too excited last week.”
I waited for more of an explanation, but he didn’t offer any. “That’s it? What does that mean?”
“It means…” He weighed his words. “It means that when they came here, Leah’s stepfather wasn’t alone. Her mother and real father were also here. They’d all been having an argument, but Vespar didn’t care. Neither did our sister.”
I reeled from what he said. That meant…no wonder the blood had affected me so much. I’d tried to become numb this past week because of that night. I didn’t know what to do, or if I should do something. I asked, shaken, “So…what are you doing here?”
“I’m trying to make her better.” Kellan still watched the door, as if he could see her through it. “She asked me for help, to stop her stepfather from hurting her. She didn’t ask for this. She’s hurting even more.”
“Wipe her memories. You do it all the time.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. After what we did to Matt, I can’t do more magic. It’d alert too many things we don’t want to come here.”
Things.
Messengers.
I swallowed hard—what I had painted. Then I closed my eyes. “What are you going to do to Vespar and Gus?”
“Nothing.”
I looked at him and saw he was frowning at me. “What? Nothing?”
“Why would I do something?”
“Because this is wrong! What they did was wrong.”
Kellan tilted his head to the side in wonderment. “Shay, we’re demons. That’s what we do. We do bad things. I do bad things, too.”
“But…” I didn’t.
He nodded. “You do, too.”
“I don’t try to hurt people. And I don’t have demon blood, remember? You won’t tell me what I am.”
He gripped the back of my head in the next instant. It happened so fast, I only had time to jump in shock before Kellan pushed me against the wall. He leaned forward as his hand had a tight grip on the back of my skull, keeping me in place. “Even if you don’t share the same blood, you’re one of mine. No matter what anyone might say, you’re mine. Understand?”
Mesmerized by the ferocity in his eyes, I nodded. I couldn’t say anything. His words seemed to penetrate inside of me and squeeze hard. It was like my entire body was under his control. Then, something shifted inside of me, and I gasped, arching my back and thrusting Kellan away from me. I was angry. It was anger and hatred boiled up in me. My hand shot up, and energy burst out of me. It slammed Kellan across the room, then I said, heated, in a stranger’s voice, “Get away, demon! Die.”
Kellan’s face snapped up, and his eyes showed his demon. The pupils were diluted, and the entire orb was black and red. He hissed back, “Do not interfere!” Then his eyes changed, and my brother took control again. He spoke more calmly, “Shay, take control. Shay, stop it. Take over. Put it to sleep.”
My body trembled, and I felt the fight inside of it.
“Shay.” He flung his hand up, and something sparked me. My body hit the wall again, and when I looked back, Kellan was right in front of me. His hand cupped the side of my face. “Shay?”
I nodded. Weak. “I’m okay. What was that?”
He grimaced again and looked even more exhausted than before. “I should check on Leah.”
“No.” I stopped him with a hand on his arm. Something propelled me toward her room. “I can help her. I know it.” I didn’t know how, but I felt it. When I opened her door, Leah was curled in a fet
al position on her bed. She had wrapped a blanket over her and didn’t move, not even when I sat on the edge of her bed. With a hand placed on her arm, I closed my eyes, bent my head, and something warm went through me into her. I didn’t know what it was, but it felt right. As it ended, I looked back up and knew that Leah slept in peace.
She looked the same as I had entered the room, but everything had changed. I didn’t know what I did, but I knew she’d be fine. Somehow, her parents’ death would make sense to her, and she’d be all right now.
I went back and closed the door behind me. Kellan stayed where I had left him, tense. Then his eyes seemed to search mine, into me, when he asked, “What’d you do?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that you need to give me answers. What am I, Kellan? You tell me now, or I’ll let loose whatever I have inside of me. Whatever that is, hates you. And I know that it wants to hurt you. It would do it now if I let it. Because I love you, and even though I don’t share the same blood, I am still family to you. I won’t let that happen, but I can’t hold it off much longer. It’s getting stronger, Kellan.”