There was space between us—wood, plaster, and glass—but I heard every sound as clearly as if she were standing next to me. Every movement, the smell of the lake still on her skin, the subtle rub of her clothing as she moved across the room, everything was razor-edged and on the verge of driving me mad. I knew I should leave, but the only thing I wanted to do was hold her. Be there so she could let it out.
But that wasn’t going to happen. If I didn’t get out of here before my brother showed up—which was inevitable—I couldn’t be held responsible for my actions. Or the demon’s. The monster, always so predictable, had pulled a 180 by saving Sam. I was grateful, but it was more incentive to get the fuck out of Dodge. I didn’t know what it might do next.
Thinking I could breeze into town, see Rick, and leave without complications was ridiculous. Thankfully, it was something I could rectify. Grabbing my coat from the bed, I hurried down the stairs, taking them two at a time.
“Freeze, pal.”
I stopped mid-stride, a few inches from the door. So fucking close. I slowly turned to face my uncle. “You promised. You swore they wouldn’t be here, Rick.” A knot of anger formed deep in my chest. My control had improved with age, but that didn’t mean I wanted to wave my biggest trigger in front of the demon’s face. “Are you trying to put me on America’s Most Wanted? Cause that’s what’s going to happen. The shit I wanna do to my brother is sure to get me on the ten o’clock news.”
“I’m sorry. I should have encouraged you to stay away. The last I heard from Kelly, Samantha was supposed to be in school. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t even know she’d dropped out until Kelly called me on the way to the hospital. Apparently she’s been living on the other side of town for the last month.” Rick frowned and a pang of guilt needled me. Three years had aged him more than it should have. The lines on his face were deeper, his hair now thin and solid gray. But there were other things. Signs of decay.
Cancer. The doctors had given him a month—possibly less.
He alternated between leaning against the doorframe and using the old china cabinet to support his weight. The knickknacks inside were full of dust and still in the same spots as the night I’d left. “As far as Chase being in town, he found out you were coming home at the last minute and insisted on being here. I warned him to stay away, but you know your brother…”
Of course I did. Stubborn, cocky, and invincible—or so he believed. He’d pushed me at every corner as we were growing up. Determined to prove he wasn’t in danger. He was wrong, though. My twin had no idea how close he’d come to death the night I left town. “Every time I see him, I imagine myself covered in his blood.” I smashed a fist into the wall next to him, and Rick flinched. The last thing I wanted to do was upset the old man, but he needed to understand that I couldn’t stay any longer. I couldn’t control the demon and its sick desire to end Chase’s life. “This thing inside me hates him. All it wants is to rip him apart.”
When we were five years old, I pushed Chase down the basement stairs. That was the first time I got a taste of the demon’s hatred for him. The sound he made as his balance shifted. The distinct cracking of the bones in his left arm as he crashed down the concrete stairs. The surprisingly soft thud that filled the stairwell as his body fell still at the bottom. It was one of those defining moments in life. A span of six or seven seconds that I’d never, ever forget.
The night I kissed Sam in the woods behind the house pushed things over the edge. It’d been the tipping point. The line. Those few moments with her—happiness like I’d never imagined—had driven the demon into an enraged frenzy. That kiss was what I’d wanted more than anything, as well as the single most regretful moment of my life. It’d changed everything. It’d changed me. Changed me so drastically that I’d found myself standing over my brother’s bed in the early morning hours with a kitchen knife in hand, at war with the demon inside. I’d won—barely—and did the only thing I could think of to spare the people I loved. I’d left.
“The best thing I can do for you—for everyone—is get out of town. I wasn’t supposed to see Chase. I wasn’t supposed to see Sam… This has gotten too complicated already.”
Rick placed a hand on either side of my shoulders. He wobbled a little, but used me to steady himself. Seeing him like this tore me apart. He’d always been a rock. Now, he looked like a gentle breeze would knock him to the ground. “I want you here. You know that. But I think you’re right. I know how hard it is for you to see Sam. And your brother, well, that’s difficult on an entirely different level. He may think himself ten feet tall and bulletproof, but you and I know better. I’ll never forgive myself for telling you to leave, but—”
Rick had been the one to talk me into leaving town in the first place. I’d only been seventeen at the time, but we both recognized the need for distance. After tearing myself away from Chase’s bedside that night, I ran straight to my uncle, who gave me a wad of cash and a gentle shove toward the door. The guilt had likely been eating at him ever since.
“I can’t control this thing when he’s around. And Sam… She’s an entirely different issue for me.” I clasped a hand over his. It was so cold. “You didn’t let me down, Uncle Rick. You helped me do what was right for everyone.”
“I sent a child onto the street on his own. What kind of a father does that?”
“The kind that can make the hard choices. I owe you.”
I’d never once questioned Rick’s motives. The old man loved me. There was never any doubt in my mind. But he loved Chase, too, and he’d done what was best to keep us both safe and sane.
The demon flashed the encounter at the diner through my mind again, only with a slightly different ending. In this version I attacked Chase, ripping the still-beating heart from my brother’s chest as Sam stood by and cheered. At the completion of the morbid vision, the demon settled down again, content. Of course, the things that settled the demon had an opposite effect on me. They left me feeling edgy and sick. My muscles began to ache, signaling that the demon was ready to feed again. Not the scavenger bits of anger and fear, but true violence. “I need to leave. Chase will be here soon. I don’t want to take any chances…”
Rick nodded, grim. “I understand.”
“I can’t come back again.” This was it. The last time I’d see him. I’d come back for the funeral, but it would be from a distance. “The thing is always nudging me toward darkness, but when I’m here—when I’m near Chase—it’s worse.”
Rick hesitated, like there was something more he wanted to say. Another moment passed, and he pulled me into a hug. “I’m proud of you, kid. I think—I think you’re going to be all right. Stay away from your brother and everything will be all right…”
Chapter Six
Sam
I stuffed the car keys into my back pocket and slammed the rental car door. The sun was shining and there was a chill in the air to tell us winter was on the way. I hadn’t slept last night, so by the time 9:00 a.m. rolled around, I was the walking dead. To make matters worse, my aunt didn’t drink coffee. The woman wasn’t human… I ended up being late to work to sate my caffeine addiction, because going without wasn’t an option.
“Sam,” someone whispered. “Psst. Over here.”
I whirled around, almost losing my footing in the loose gravel, and squinted into the darkness of the alley. A hunched figure hovered in the shadows by the dumpster. “Hobe?”
A small-framed man in his early thirties with a nasty nervous tic and a serious acne issue stepped from the dark. He refused to look directly at me and kept both hands stuffed in his pockets as he came closer. If I didn’t know Hobe, I probably would’ve crossed the street to avoid him. Not dangerous in a bruiser sort of way, he had an entirely different kind of vibe. Creepy in that “it’s always the quiet ones” way. Our boss usually made him work mornings to clean up because he tended to freak out the customers.