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With a sudden shift in logic, Phury saw things in a different light

Shit, all along he&039;d tortured hi he&039;d lived in the cold, pervasive shadow of their faoddamn it he had suffered, too, and suffered still And while he respected the sanctity of his twin&039;sclosed out as if he were an absolute stranger And a hostile one at that

When he stepped out into the pebbled courtyard, he stopped dead "Zsadist"

Z kept on walking toward the Escalade

"Zsadist"

His twin paused, put his hands on his hips, and didn&039;t turn around "If this is about you and the lesser shit, don&039;t try to apologize again"

Phury reached up and loosened the collar on his shirt "It&039;s not"

"I don&039;t want to hear about the red s kicked the fuck out of the Brotherhood"

"Turn around, Z"

"Why"

There was a long pause Then he gritted out in a hard voice, "You never said thank-you"

Z&039;s head shot over his shoulder "Excuse me?"

"You Never Thanked Me"

"For what?"

"For saving you Goddamn it, I saved you from that whore Mistress of yours and what she did to you And you never thankedlouder and louder "I searched for you for a fucking century, and then I got your ass out of there and saved your fucking life¡ª"

Zsadist leaned forward on his shitkickers, pointing his finger out like a gun "You want credit for rescuing me? Don&039;t hold your breath I never asked you for the fucking favor That was all about your Good Saotten you out, you wouldn&039;t have Bella!"

"And if you hadn&039;t, she wouldn&039;t be in danger of dying right now! You want gratitude? Better pat yourself on the back, because I&039; it at the ht as if looking for other ears to fill

Phury blinked, then found words co out of histime "I buried our parents by myself I was the only one who took care of their bodies, who s¡ª"

"And I never knew theers to me, and so were you when you showed up¡ª"

"They loved you!"

"Enough to stop looking for me! Fuck them! You think I didn&039;t know he stopped? I went back and traced the trail from that house you burned down I kno far our father went before he gave up You think I give a shit about hio!"

"You were more real to them than I was! You were everywhere in that house, you were everything to the-hoo, Phury," Z snapped "Don&039;t you dare poor-me it with me Do you have any idea whatfor you!"

"You chose to cos worked out, don&039;t bitch to me about it!"

Phury exhaled hard, absolutely stunned "You ungrateful bastard You ungrateful motherfucker You mean to tell me you would rather have stayed with the Mistress?" When there was nothing but silence, he shook his head "I&039;d always thought the sacrifices I&039;d made orth it The celibacy The panic The physical costs" Anger resurged "Not to ot fro shit out of you And now you tell me you would rather have stayed a blood slave?"

"Is that what all this is about? You want oing on by being grateful?" Z laughed low and hard "Whatever You think I&039; you srave? You think I like what I saw the other night in that alley?" Z cursed "Fuck it, I&039; yourself Quit searching for crutches and spouting lies, and take a good long look at yourself"

On some dim inner level Phury realized that this collision between the two of them had been overdue And that his twin had a point

But so did he

He shook his head again "I don&039;t think I&039;ment I&039;ve been invisible in this family all my life"

There was a stretch of silence

Then Z spat, "For fuck&039;s sake, get off the cross Someone else needs the wood"

The disain, and Phury&039;s ar Z on the thick of the jaw, the crack like a ho spin and landed on Rhage&039;s GTO like a tarp

As the brother righted hi stance and shook out his knuckles In another second and a half, they were going to be locked in a vicious bodily argu traded back and forth until one or both of them collapsed

And exactly where the hell was that going to get them?

Phury slowly lowered his arms

At that h the courtyard&039;s gates

In its headlights, Zsadist rearranged his jacket and calmly walked over to the driver&039;s-side door of the Escalade "If it weren&039;t for what I just promised Cormia, I&039;d bust your mouth open"

"What?"

"Get in the fucking car"

"What did you say to her?"

As Z got behind the wheel, his black eyes cut through the night like knives "Your girlfriend is worried about you, so she made me promise I&039;d take care of you And unlike some people, I keep et in" Z slammed the SUV&039;s door shut

Phury cursed and went over to the passenger side while the Merc caot out of the backseat The kid&039;s eyes went saucer as he looked up at the mansion

Clearly he was here for his trial, Phury thought as he slid into shotgun next to his deathly silent twin

"You knohere Lash&039;s parents&039; house is, right?" Phury said

"Of course I do"

The shut up went unsaid

As the Escalade headed for the gates, the wizard&039;s voice was dead serious as it banged around in Phury&039;s head: You have to be a hero to earn gratitude, and you are not one of the knight-in-shining-armor types You just want to be

Phury looked out the , the angry words he and Z had just exchanged echoing like gunshots in an alley

Do them all a favor and walk away, the wizard said Just walk away, mate

You want to be a hero? Make it so they don&039;t have to deal with you ever again