Phantom Eyes (Witch Eyes) (5 page)

“That,” he panted, “is why you never let them distract you. Now what the hell was
that
?”

I waited for the sky to stop spinning before I even started to consider his words. The way I’d moved, the way my body had responded … that wasn’t me. More mysteries. More things about myself that I didn’t und
erstand.

“You’re a good teacher?” I offered, because soothing Drew’s ego usually seemed to work.

Twin snorts from both Drew and Jade, who looked up from her phone. “He’s a terrible teacher. Almost as bad a teacher as he was a student.”

“Hey, there was no one better at cutting class than I was,” Drew said as he lifted up his shirt to wipe off his face.

I turned my head, because while the view was nice, Drew was one of the last people I’d want to check out. At least not as long as he might catch me. I’d never hear the end of it.

Jade turned her head away, too. The relationship, or not relationship, between Drew and Jade had confused me ever since I’d come to Belle Dam, and I’d given up trying to figure them out. They claimed to hate each other, but they were always
around,
hovering at the edges of the other’s orbit. But each of them denied that there was anything between them. Maybe they had even convinced themselves.

Drew offered me a hand up. “Explain it again.”

With his help, I climbed to my feet. My body felt calm for the first time in days.
Sated,
like this was how I should be feeling every day. “She showed up last night and we had a chat. For someone that hated me on principle a couple of days ago, she was almost friendly. But I think she kept me around for a reason. I just don’t know what it is yet.”

“Maybe she’s changing her mind about what she did. If she took your power, she could give it back, right?”

“I don’t even know if that’s what I really want,” I said. “Maybe she did me a favor. I could go somewhere far from here and start over. Be normal.”

“Yeah, but you can’t protect yourself,” Drew pointed out. “Is it really worth it?”

“He can be
normal,
” Jade interjected, turning a cold stare onto Drew. “How many times has he almost died? Maybe this is a good thing. He’s cured.”

Drew’s eyes narrowed. “Just because he doesn’t have his gifts doesn’t make him normal. It doesn’t mean everything’s going to be okay. The world doesn’t work like that.”

We weren’t talking about me anymore, were we? The air between the two of them was charged with sharp emotion. “Do you guys need a room? Because,” I gestured back towards the house, “I’m pretty sure there’s about seven hundred of them inside. You could pick one. Hell, pick a few.”

Drew was the first to look away from their impromptu staring match. I took a closer look when his head dipped down. Was he …
blushing
? Exactly how big were these lies that the two were telling?

“Do you think Lucien would come after you?” Jade asked, studiously ignoring Drew’s presence.

“Probably. He’s up to something, too. I’m useless to him now, so in theory he could kill me whenever he wanted. But he hasn’t. I don’t get it.”

“So Lucien’s got a backup plan,” Jade said slowly. “One that involves you, I guess?”

I nodded. That made about as much sense as anything.

“So what do you want to do?” Drew asked impatiently. “Run? Or are you going to stay and fight? Because I’m not going to waste my time teaching you if you’re just going to bolt at the first chance.”

“I don’t even know where to start,” I said. Because that was the crux of my problem. Fight or flight. Someone needed to stand up to Lucien and Grace, and all the other monsters in Belle Dam.

“Start with Grace,” Drew said immediately.

“Start with Matthias,” Jade said, at almost the same time. When we both turned to stare at her, she shrugged. “You said he helped you last night. At least he’s picking a side.”

“He didn’t really pick much of anything,” I said. “I owe him a favor.”

“Yeah, and what kind of favor is powerless you going to be good for?” Jade asked. “From everything that Drew’s told me about him, he’s not going to get involved unless there’s some benefit to him.”

From all Drew’s told her? I turned to him, raising my eyebrows. He pretended not to notice me, instead staring at the house. “Daddy’s home. I’ll catch you later.” And without another word to either one of us, Drew shifted out of his human form and into something four-legged. I expected to see a wolf emerge from the silvery blur of Drew’s power, but Drew changed it up on me again.

“A snow leopard?” I said out loud as Drew trotted away from the house and into the woods. I’d done a report on leopards when I was ten or eleven, and they’d been my favorite animal for all of ten days until I realized that falcons were way cooler. “What a drama queen.”

Jade started laughing and couldn’t stop. After a couple of minutes she wiped at the tears in her eyes, her hand on my shoulder. “You have no idea,” she chuckled.

eight

Jade stayed for dinner. Jason didn’t say anything at all, which would have surprised me, but then again Jason had turned around and walked out of the room as soon as he’d realized I wasn’t alone. Jade and I were left to fend for ourselves for the rest of the night, which was fine between us.

There was a living room down the hall from my room, one of three nearly identical rooms I’d found in the house, but this one had a fireplace and a working television, so we holed up in there. Jade had come prepared and brought movies—comedies about teenagers coming of age in stupid ways, which were some of my favorites.

We were halfway through the second movie and a bowl of microwave popcorn when Jade paused the movie and turned to me with serious eyes. “I know you don’t want to talk about—”

“No.”

“Braden, come on,” she pleaded. “You should know he hasn’t gone home since … well, since that night.” She spoke quickly, like she expected me to cut her off. But I didn’t say anything at all. Every time I got some distance from Trey, any time I thought I could clear my head from what was going on around me, there were flashes. Images in my head. Catherine’s smirk, the detachment in her eyes. Purple motes of darkness. And then John. On the ground. Empty.

I nodded, because that was all I could trust myself to
do.

“Trey wants me to leave,” she added, and my head snapped up, staring at her. “He even called the school to see how many credits I had. To see if I could graduate a semester early.”

Jade might be leaving? I hate that my first thoughts were selfish, but they were what they were.
What am I going to do without her?
We weren’t the closest of friends, but she was always
there
for me in a way no one else ever had been. If anything, Jade and I were so close because our friendship was
normal.
What I could do, and who her family was, had very little to do with why we wanted to hang out together.

My heart lurched in my chest, and I had to duck my head down again.
But it would be safer for her if she did. Trey was right, this town wasn’t safe for any of us.

“When I leave, I don’t think I’ll ever come back,” Jade said quietly, going to stand over by the window. “I mean, I’ll miss it a little, but I’ve never wanted any of this. I don’t want to have kids just so they can play a starring role in Bigotry part two. I’d rather go off and be fabulous somewhere far from here. My aunt did that, did I ever tell you about that?”

I shook my head.

“She lives in New York. She’s this crazy artist, which is weird because she and my mom look so much alike, but they’re totally different. Anyway, she ran away after high school. She comes to visit every so often, but whenever she’s with mom, it’s always strained.”

I looked at the movie on the screen, paused just moments before the big reveal, where the heroine’s whole world was to be ripped out from underneath her. My stomach soured and I flicked
the television off. “Done with that,” I said under my breath. And I was.

Jade followed me back into my room, crawling onto the other side of my bed when I flopped down. We stared at the ceiling, not each other. “Maybe—” she hesitated. “Maybe we could go.” Her words picked up speed as she warmed up to the idea in her head. “Together. New York’s a big city, we could start over. No crazy parents, no demons leering at us from across the room. I’ll take my diploma early, and you can always finish school there.”

“Come on, be serious.”

Jade rolled over and lay flat on her stomach. She turned her head towards me, hair falling in her eyes. “You turn eighteen in a few months, right? My mom might try to drag me back, but she’d have to find us first.”

Her hand slid over mine, squeezing once. I sighed, closing my eyes. I knew this was just a momentary whim of Jade’s, but I couldn’t help but wonder
what i
f
?
I’d come to Belle Dam without knowing anyone and look how that had turned out. What if I had someone there who had my back. Someone who liked me regardless of what I was capable of. “We can’t just pick up and leave. Can we?”

She twisted her wrist until her palm was facing up, and mine down, and then she slid her hand under mine. Slowly, though, like she expected me to pull away at any second. “Why not? There’s nothing tying you down here anymore.”

Wrong. There was Jason. And Drew. Riley, who was still broken and who I’d promised to try and fix. Trey. How would they be if I left? Would they stick together? Or would Lucien and Catherine pick them all off one by one?

She squeezed my hand again. “You remember the first time we met?” I nodded. “I don’t remember what I was talking about, but you had one of your attacks. That probably should have been the end of it, but I couldn’t get you out of my head that night. I was
worried,
you know? And then the next day at school, you were like this lost puppy. But I could tell you understood. You weren’t meant for a small town life any more than I was.”

“I’ve never lived in a big city,” I pointed out. Jade wasn’t making much sense.

She waved a hand dismissively, her expression a frown. “I never said you were. But you weren’t meant for
here
either. We’re bigger than this place.”

“Maybe,” I shrugged.

She scooted up on the bed, and nestled her head against the side of my shoulder. “You know he’d follow us, right? If that’s what you’re worried about.”

I wasn’t worried about Trey. “You have to stop,” I said, resting my cheek against her hair. Jade smelled like vanilla and spice. “I can’t … Trey and I … I just can’t.”

“I know,” she said. “Not right now. Just … he’ll be there someday if you change your mind, y’know? And you guys can figure out what you’re both like when your life isn’t being threatened all the time. Maybe you won’t even like him. I’m telling you, he snores. And he’s a total slob.”

“Jade … ”

“I’m just saying,” she added defensively. “Just something to kick around in the back of your head.”

“For your birthday this year, I’m going to teach you what ‘subtlety’ means.”

“I’m surrounded by idiots, Braden,” she said, squeezing me. “Subtlety gives them an excuse not to pay attention to what’s really going on under the surface. I like when people confront their feelings up front.”

“How’s Drew?” I asked.

I was a good friend who didn’t point out how long of a pause she had before she responded, “No one likes a know-it-all, Braden.”

“What would we even
do
in New York? Do you know the first thing about how to live on your own?”

“Do you? I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but it’s a better option than staying here and waiting to see what my mother and her demon are cooking up next.” She barely suppressed a shudder.

“I don’t know what
I
would do,” I amended. “I mean, I always thought, in the back of my head, that the witch eyes would kill me sooner or later. Especially since I’ve come here. But now they’re gone, and I have to worry about everyone else trying to kill me. I never really thought about what I’d do if things were different. Who am I if I’m not the kid with the freaky eyes? If I’m not the kid with the overprotective uncle and the house in the middle of nowhere? If I’m not the enemy of half the town?”

“You’ll figure it out,” Jade said, a confidence in her voice that neither one of us seemed to believe. “That’s all I want. I deserve to figure out who I want to be, and make the decision for myself. Not because of my last name or because my family has fallen into the same damn cycle over and over again. All I know is that the only thing I can learn by staying here is how to lie, cheat, and kill. I don’t want that.”

“I’ll think about it,” I murmured quietly as a content silence wrapped around us. I drifted off to the sounds of Jade’s even breathing. At least she didn’t snore like her brother.

nine

Jade left sometime the next morning. I remembered waking up long enough to tell her goodbye before gravity dragged my head back down to my pillow. It was almost the afternoon by the time I woke up, and I felt good. Rested. The twelve hours of sleep I’d gotten was really working for me.

The fridge was full of leftovers when I walked into the kitchen. I portioned a little bit of everything onto a large plate and tossed it in the microwave. My appetite was still out of control, but that was fine. It was better than when I couldn’t stomach eating anything.

I devoured everything on my plate and went back for seconds. Last night hadn’t gotten me any closer to figuring out my next move. It came down to fight or flight. One way or another, I was going to have to make a choice. Did I want to stay, and try to fix the problems I’d caused? Or could I really just run away, and never look back?

Jade had suggested talking to Matthias, and Drew had suggested going back to Grace, but neither one of those options felt like the right choice yet. I didn’t want to deal with Grace again until I knew what I was doing—until I knew I could convince her to restore my powers. And Matthias … he’d saved my life the other night. But he’d done that because my head had been filled with thoughts of vengeance. What would he do if he thought that I was going to run?
“Hiding from Captain Crankypants?” Drew asked from behind me. I stopped my contemplation of the microwave and turned to see him perched on the countertop like he’d been there all along. Or like he’d magically appeared there.

“Only because I can’t run away with my tail tucked between my legs,” I said, eyeing him. “What do you want?”

“If you’re serious about that exercise thing, there’s no time like the present,” he said. “I figure I can make you cry within an hour or two.”

“You want to work out with me again?” Drew stared at me like I was the simplest person he’d ever encounter. “After what happened yesterday?”

“Look, that was weird, but maybe it’s a side effect of your new life. Maybe you’ve secretly been allergic to sunglasses your entire life, and now you’re like … a scrawny, midget-sized version of a pro wrestler.”

“Or maybe you’re still an idiot.” I paused. “No, you’re definitely still an idiot.”

“I’m an idiot that doesn’t get pushed around, though,” Drew pointed out. “I—” And then he stopped, cocking his head to one side.

“What is it?”

Drew shook his head immediately, holding out his hand like he wanted me to shut up. His eyes were locked somewhere to my left. When the microwave beeped to signal that my food was done, I jumped, and whatever spell Drew was under was broken.

“You didn’t tell me Gentry was hanging around,” was all he said, taking off deeper into the house.

I trailed him through the halls, realizing halfway there that we were heading for Jason’s study, the one he used the most often. It was where he’d had me meet with the eye doctor right after I’d gotten out of the hospital, and where we’d met with the funeral director and the priest for John’s services.

Jason’s voice carried into the hallway. “Braden won’t be your concern for much longer!”

“I can help you,” Trey insisted.

“What the hell is he doing here?” I demanded in a whisper.

Drew glared at me and mouthed an exaggerated “Shut up!”

“She might say he’s not worth her time, but we both know that’s not true. You know as well as I do what happens when she smells blood in the water.”

“If Lucien doesn’t want him dead, then she won’t kill him. And Lucien was never one to part with his toys before he’s squeezed out every last bit of usefulness.”

Trey’s voice got even louder. “Are you kidding? He may have partnered up with my mom, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to do what he tells her. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not exactly known for her listening skills. Your brother was gone for half his life and she still went
after him with a vengeance when he came back.”

“Leave my brother out of this,” Jason snapped, strangely sharp.

“Then what about your son?” Trey pushed. “You know I’m right. She doesn’t care that he’s not a threat anymore. You tricked her, and she’s not going to just let that go.”

Okay, that was it. I’d had enough of this. I went to push my way past Drew and force my way into the conversation, but the shifter glided out of my way and merged into my wake. “Stop talking about me like I’m not even here. If you’re going to plan stuff, I should be involved.”

Jason exhaled in annoyance, the very picture of an exasperated father. “You couldn’t keep him occupied, Drew?”

Drew puffed up, Jason’s words triggering the undercurrent of hostility that was always running through his veins. “I don’t work for you. And I’m not his babysitter.”

“Thank God,” Trey muttered under his breath.

“Well?” I demanded, looking between the two of them. “I’m right here. If you’re going to start planning out my future, why don’t we get started.”

“Now do you see what I have to deal with?” Jason said in an aside to Trey. The two of them. Conspiring! They
hated
each other! What the hell was going on? They couldn’t just go around changing sides now.

Trey’s resulting smile was brief and humorless.

“I’m not kidding,” I snapped. “I swear to God, if you
don’t start filling me in, you can’t blame yourself when the plan goes all to shit. Would you rather I just go pester Catherine all over town until she gets annoyed and she death-whammies me? Or
maybe I should just save everyone the trouble and go jump off the cliffs out back. Would that make it easier on everyone?”

Trey winced, and even Drew looked uncomfortable. Also notable, neither of them would actually look at me. Jason stared down at the floor, his expression thunderous. Silence hung in the air, but the tension radiating off of Jason made it clear we were all waiting for him to react. No one wanted to precede that.

I took a step back, just in case. I didn’t know what I’d said exactly, but whatever it was, I was the only one who didn’t see the deeper meaning. I’d never seen Drew look so uncomfortable.

“If you ever threaten to kill yourself again,” Jason said, his voice so low it crept down along the marble floors, “I will lock you up where you can’t do
anything.
It will be a beautiful cage, but make no mistake that it will be a cage, and I will leave you there for the rest of your life and not lose a minute of sleep over it. Do you understand?”

“Jason—”

“Do you understand?!” he roared, an explosion of emotion that had both Trey and Drew rearing back in alarm. I was the only one who didn’t move, but only because my feet were rooted to the ground.

No one spoke. No one even breathed. I think we were all trying to come to terms with the fact that Jason Thorpe, the cold, clinically detached steel facade of a man, looked dangerously close to losing the last bits of his control.

He took a deep breath, still staring down at the floor. “Goodbye, Gentry.”

“Jason, seriously. Let me help. Let me do
something.
”

“
Goodbye
, Gentry,” Jason repeated firmly.

Trey took one last look at me, eyes full of emotions I didn’t want to see. I turned away, mirroring Jason and staring down at my shoes. Scuffed gray tennis shoes that were falling apart at the sides. I had a closet full of shoes upstairs, but I still wore the same ones I’d brought with me to Belle Dam.

Trey walked out of the library. Jason waved his hand sharply, and the library doors slammed shut behind him.

“Keep up with what you’ve been doing,” Jason continued, looking over at Drew. “I haven’t seen this much color in his cheeks since before the hospital.”

“Exc
use me?” The words carried a not-so-subtle undercurrent of
Hey, fuck off and die in a fire.
The change in Drew was instantaneous. The moment Jason addressed him, his body went taut and his expression flattened out into a scowl. He shifted his stance, the same one he’d been in when he first taught me how
to throw a punch.

“You’re teaching him to defend himself, right? It couldn’t hurt, especially now.” Jason’s eyes flicked to me. “He’s been very … spirited lately. I’m hoping the exercise will channel his energy into more constructive endeavors.”

Constructive endeavors?
I still hadn’t told Jason about the other night, or about anything really. So what exactly did he think I was getting up to that was so destructive? Or did he already know, somehow?

Drew moved forward until the two of them were nose to nose. He had several inches on Jason and glared down daggers at him. “Just so we’re clear,” Drew said, in a voice every bit as dangerous as Jason’s could be, “I don’t work for you. I don’t
like
you. I’m here because of Braden.”

“There’s no need—”

“You killed my father,” Drew said, seething. He was like a pot about to boil over, his body humming with tension and his eyes glowing the electric, silvery sheen that only appeared when he used his powers. “So save your petty words and your fake charm, and remember that none of it matters at the end of the day. Because you’re a murderer. If there’s any justice in the world, I’ll be there when you have to pay for what you’ve done.”

“Drew!” I moved forward and grabbed his arm. It was like trying to move a statue. “Come on.”

Sometime before I was born, Jason had killed Drew’s father and basically ran his mother out of town. The Armstrongs had been a long-established family in Belle Dam, second only to the Thorpes and Lansings. I didn’t know the whole story about what had happened with Drew’s father, but I knew it had been bad.

It was easy to forget that Jason had done things in the past—horrible things. I knew he wasn’t the hero of the story. His hands were just as bloody as Catherine’s. That was how life worked in Belle Dam. Evil begot evil, stains begot stains.

Drew was right. Jason killed his father. And I was an idiot for never realizing it before. All the times I’d asked him to meet me here at the house because it was more comfortable for me. Drew always wanted to meet in the woods, or he caught up to me som
ewhere in the city.

How does he stand to be around me?
Maybe it was different when no one knew who Jason was to me, but as the secret got out, his actions never changed. He never acted differently around me. How could he do that? How was it so easy for him, when I couldn’t be in the same room with Trey without wanting to scream and explode?

Drew threw off my arm and stalked to the library doors without another word. I flinched when the door slammed behind him and held my breath in the aftermath.

I counted to thirty before I trusted myself to speak. So many different feelings were welling up in my stomach that I wanted to scream and vomit at the same time. “Jason—”

“He’s right,” Jason said, so quiet I almost didn’t hear him. He stood by the door that Drew had stormed out of only a couple of minutes before. “I’m not … I don’t expect you to understand the choices I’ve made in my life, Braden. What happened with Drew’s father was … a mistake.” He shook his head, eyes closed for a moment, like he could shake the memories free like they were nothing more than cobwebs. “I’ve made many mistakes,” he added, voice growing bitter.

“We don’t have to do this right now,” I said, unsure where
this
was even going. Jason didn’t confide in me. That wasn’t how our relationship worked.

“You say that like we have all the time in the world,” he said, flashing a humorless smile at me. “It’s alright. I know what you think of me.”

“You’re acting like you’re going to die or something,” I said, my voice shaking.

“No,” Jason said, that sad smile reappearing. “I’m acting like I have to send my son away again.”

It was true that Jason had been
off
since he’d come back home, but now he was really starting to scare me. What was he going on about? Why was he sending me away?

“You should … sit,” Jason said, gesturing to one of the couches. Warily, I crossed the room and started to lower myself down. He sat next to me, a gulf of space between us, positioning himself awkwardly. His body was shifted towards me, but his face was angled away.

“When you fought with Lucien,” Jason said slowly, deliberating every word carefully, “before you woke up in the hospital, you almost died. I thought for sure that you would, and it would be my fault. I’d lose my son again, just a few days after I got him back.” He looked down at his hands, perched in his lap like he didn’t know what to do with them. I’d never noticed them before, the long, tapered
fingers that were so like my own.

“I don’t … I’m not … ” Jason rolled his head, an audible pop as his neck cracked. “You thought I was more interested in replacing Lucien than I was in your recovery,” he continued. “I let you think that. I thought it would be easier. But I wasn’t looking for another seer, or a prophet, or anything like that.”

“No,” I found myself arguing. “That’s not true. You went searching for a
curandero.
Everyone knew.”

“Ahh,
that,
” Jason said, sighing. “That was a fool’s errand, but I suspect you knew that already.
Curanderos
are healers first and foremost.”

“You were hoping for a cure. For me.” My mouth was so dry I could have spit sand. “So where were you the rest of the time? If that was the exception, then what were you doing? What were you searching for?”

“Family,” Jason said simply.

“You lost your
family
?”

“Not mine,” he replied quietly. “Yours. Jonathan knew where they were, of course. Of course he did.” He shook his head, a flash of a smile at some hidden memory. “He kept in touch with them, even after all these years.”

“What do you mean,
my
family?” I whispered, harsh and tremulous.

“We’ve never talked about your mother,” Jason said. “What do you know?”

“I know she wasn’t from around here. Lucien found her for you.” The fact that my parents had been some sort of breeding stock for a demon’s designs was another thing I tried not to think too much about.