Evil (32 page)

His words choked off into a gurgle.

Damien leapt in the air, plunging the dagger through his back. He backed away after, waiting to see what happened. Everyone did, except Kellan. He didn’t seem shocked, amused, anything. He was watching his father with a hard expression in his eyes, like he knew what was going to happen wouldn’t work.

I held my breath, and then his father started laughing. He looked down at the end of the dagger. The tip of it stuck out of his chest. “This was supposed to kill me?” He reached for it and began to pull it the rest of the way out of him, through his front. “Kellan, you couldn’t have thought that would work—”

“No, but this will.”

While we were distracted, watching his father start to pull the dagger out of his chest, Kellan had gone to Giuseppa and held her up by her arm, literally lifting her in the air. She was too weak to fight and new blood poured from her throat. Kellan was covered in it. His father realized what was going to happen and he sucked in his breath. His hand fell away from the dagger, and he started forward. “No, Kell—”

He was too late.

Kellan threw Giuseppa through the hole, and as he did, another explosion like when the hole was created occurred once again. “NO!” Then, just as quick as it happened, it was done. This time, instead of exploding outward, it imploded. Giuseppa vanished, and so did his father.

Kellan’s father was gone. The hole in the air was gone, and everything was in shambles around us.

“What just happened?” Damien asked.

Aumae started to murmur to herself, stepping forward, clutching her blanket over her shoulders, “One sacrifice to call him—”

Kellan finished, “—one sacrifice to expel him.” He stopped, closing his eyes, and hung his head for a moment. He hurt. I felt it from him and because he did, so did I. I was aching. I started forward. “Kellan.”

He stopped me, holding a hand in the air. “Don’t, Shay. I don’t deserve any comfort you’re going to give me.”

His words hurt, like a knife twisting in my chest.

He added, “She called him forward. If I threw her body in there, he’d have to go. She was the reason he was here and I don’t deserve any kindness from you. I murdered Vespar and Gus. They were our brother and sister. That…you’re right. I do care and they meant something to me. They don’t mean what you mean to me, but they meant something and…” He stopped again, drawing in one more ragged breath. “You were disgusted when you watched her kill Matt. You can’t pretend otherwise.”

“She
murdered
him. Killing and murder are different. One’s in cold blood, and that’s what she did. She planned it, and she executed it. That was different.”

“No.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t. I executed her. I executed Vespar.”

“But they called your father here. They sent those demons after us.”

“And Matt helped torture Vespar and Gus, too. He was human, just like half of Gus and Vespar were. No, Shay. I know you’re going to turn a blind eye because that’s what you do for me, but I can’t let you this time.”

“Kellan.” I couldn’t hear anymore. He was twisting that knife in my chest, over and over again. Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. “Stop.” He was going to leave. I felt his withdrawal from inside of me, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop it. “Kellan, don’t go.”

And he walked away…

“I don’t get it.”

I was sitting at the kitchen table with Aumae and Damien later that night. The owner, whose name was Kent Ocean and that Kellan had moved to the basement without telling anyone, sat with us. He was cradling a mug of hot tea between his hands, clenched with white knuckles and shaking arms. Aumae brought him out of the basement and coaxed him to sit with us. He hadn’t been tied up or anything. There’d been nothing keeping him down there, except pure fear. When he realized Kellan wasn’t with us, he noticeably relaxed, but he was still cautious and every now and then, like just now, his arms began shaking. He couldn’t seem to control them, but he offered a trepid apology, “So sorry. So sorry.” He kept repeating those words until Aumae reassured him enough times that we weren’t going to hurt him.

It hadn’t mattered. He kept uttering those words until his shaking stopped and another bout hit him, but this time I saw that the hot tea was spilling onto his arms. He still didn’t stop. He didn’t even react to his burning skin.

“Oh dear.” Aumae took the mug away, patting his shoulder. “We’ll just, huh, how about some cold water instead?”

I cleared my throat.

She amended, “I mean some room-temperature water.”

He glanced up, pale, and his lips parted to say thank you. He couldn’t. His bottom lip was shaking as well. A brief stutter was the only thing that sounded from him.

I pitied him. He hadn’t asked us to come here. He hadn’t done a thing to us, and we muscled our way into his house, taking over. I wondered what Kellan had done to scare him so much, but rethought that. I’d rather not know, though his parting words still lingered with me.

“…you’re going to turn a blind eye because that’s what you do for me.”

“Excuse me.”

Damien and Aumae gave me knowing looks as I stood from the table and headed toward the master bedroom. Kellan left the property, but returned ten minutes earlier. Mr. Ocean jerked away from the table, but Kellan scanned the group, lingered on me, and turned down the hallway. We heard the shower running moments later and when I went in there, Kellan was just standing in the shower. He’d left the door open, and his clothes were still on, plastered to him now.

I knew he felt me, but he didn’t say anything. I perched against the counter, watching him.

He stared straight ahead to the tiled wall, so I waited until he spoke, almost dully, “You’re the only good part of me, and I’m going to fuck that up.”

“Kellan.” I started for him.

“No.” He shook his head, and I held back. He added, closing his eyes, “I have no more secrets from you. I love you. You love me. We’re bonded, and yet, we haven’t bonded enough.”

I grew warm, remembering how he kissed me, touched me before. An image of him over me again, but this time moving inside of me started an ache inside of me, but it also sparked something else. My own fear. I was scared. What would happen then? Who would come for us? Who else was left to come?

“Your father.”

Kellan swung those dark and so bleak eyes my way. As he did, it was like everything clicked in place. When he looked at me, how he was looking at me, made the world make sense. It didn’t before, if he wasn’t with me or at my side, but now, as he was looking at me—I knew everything would be fine. It had to be.

The side of his mouth lifted up in a half-grin. “How do I look at you?”

“Like you’re dying of thirst and I’m the last drop of water.”

He grunted. The half-grin grew. “That sounds right.”

“Kellan.” I sighed, moving closer. I stopped just on the outside of the shower. If I took one step closer, I’d be inside. The water would move onto me, and I’d be at his side. I waited, my chest growing tight. “My father is still coming for me, isn’t he?”

He nodded, his eyes growing lidded.

“What does that mean?”

“Someone sent the demons after us, but your father found us when we rescued Vespar and Giuseppa. But Shay,” he stopped, swallowing. A haunted look came over him. “We could hide. We could use spells to shield us, maybe go back to that house and stay there. Your father didn’t know about it, and maybe he won’t find us there, but…”

There was always a but. I grew tense.

“Do you really want to do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to hide for the rest of your life?”

My life. He said my life, not his, not ours. Mine. That told me so much—I was going to die, but he was not. We had one lifetime, mine. I knew Kellan could hear my thoughts, or at least, sense them, but this time, he remained quiet. He didn’t correct me or deny, and that, too, spoke volumes. It was like blow after blow kept coming. I wanted them to stop. I wanted to be the one to deliver the blows.

“What are you thinking?” His voice had grown hoarse.

“You know what I’m thinking.”

He leaned toward me, the water splashing off his head and sprinkling over me. “Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?”

Was I? Did I want to hide, or did I want to fight? A lifetime with him…or nothing at all? It could all end. I knew the risks. I ground out, “We’ve been hiding all our lives. I’m done hiding.” I stepped inside the shower, the water coating me as well, and I pressed against him. “It’s time to fight.”

His eyes darkened, and then his lips were on mine, and nothing else mattered. We became one that night.

“For the record,” Damien said two days later. “I think this is incredibly stupid.”

Kellan stood next to me, holding my hand, and grunted. “For the record, no one asked you.”

“Shut up.” I held tight to Kellan’s hand, speaking to both and right then, the ground began to quake. “He’s coming.”

Two nights ago, Damien came to the bedroom. He stood in the doorway, his hands folded in front of him, and we could both feel the confession coming. It came off him in waves. Shame. Guilt. Embarrassment. And then he started by saying, “I’ve been lying to you.”

I knew a whole lot of shit was about to be laid on our laps and I closed my eyes, just for a moment. I needed to prepare myself, and after a few more seconds, I nodded to Damien. “Tell us everything.”

He did, later standing across the table from Kellan and me. Aumae joined us as well. We kept the lights off except for one single lamp that was behind Damien from the living room. It seemed fitting, casting him in shadow and lighting up the rest of us. Damien coughed, looking away before starting. He drew in a breath, and held it there, grimacing. “I have to first explain that there’s a war going on in the heavens. I didn’t want to be a part of this. I wasn’t a part of this, but your father,” he looked at me, a wall shifting to the side to show new emotion, “
and
my father, Sachiel, is on one side.”

“Wait.”

Had I heard him right?

Kellan cursed. “Of course. That makes sense now.”

“You’re my brother?”

“Half-brother. We have the same father.”

My head was pounding. There’d been so many turns and twists when it came to siblings. I looked at one that I thought had been my brother to another that was my brother. I began laughing. There was nothing else I could do. Anything else I was feeling didn’t matter. I held up a hand, shaking my head. “This is just becoming ridiculous now.”

Damien kept going, an apology in his eyes to me, “I’m not as powerful as you because my mother was full human. I lived with my family until I was little. Nine years old. That’s when Sachiel found me. I was leaving the house with my grandpa and Sachiel—”

The vision came back to me. I remembered when I first experienced it. I’d been getting into my car. That felt so long ago now.

“Who are you?”

I held my breath and closed my eyes. The ticking from someone’s watch pounded loudly in my ear. When I opened my eyes, I saw an older man across the road. He walked beside his son, and they were headed into a house. The voice didn’t come from him, but it was connected to them. I just didn’t know how.