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“Don’t try a guilt trip onthat you can manipulate me the way you manipulate everybody else It makes me sick Who says Daniel Ryves died forfor ht with her, I was soed to the man who stole her from him What did Daniel Ryves see when he looked at me? Do you think he liked it?”
Nick was telling the truth He didn’t feel guilty, and he didn’t feel sad It wasn’t hard to stop calling another liar Dad and start calling hi fury, the desire to hurt so to stop hi it Not anymore
He saw the shadow pass through Alan’s kind eyes He saw, quite clearly, Alan’s decision to lie again
“I’m sure that when Dad looked at you,” he said, “all he saas his son”
Nick drew back his fist and punched Alan in the face
There was an outraged screaotten She exclai her way up the stairs when the deed was already done
She didn’t have a hope, but Alan was no clumsy amateur He’d rocked back when Nick’s fist connected, and he was falling when Nick glanced at Mae There was a twist of ot before Alan pulled a gun on him
The barrel was cold against Nick’s jaw Alan’s grip on it was steady
“Don’t do that again,” Alan said, blood bloo down his chin
Mae hesitated on the stairs and did not come any closer
Nick turned his face in toward the gun and spoke into the barrel as if it was a microphone
“If it was adoption,” Nick sneered, letting his mouth brush the steel, “why didn’t you tell me about Durham? Why didn’t you tell your precious Aunt Natasha about your adoptive faone to stay with your real family at Christician’s son make three”
“Nick,” Alan said, and made a small sound of frustration “You’re my real family It was just that — please try to understand It was just that I wanted to re was all right I just wanted to have a few days of pretending I never wanted to drag htmare with me!”
“Too bad,” Nick said “She got dragged in”
Alan’s hand did tre to faint, but he just stood there treray color of ashes Nick let his , see that he didn’t care Alan’s hand tightened on the gun, and for a ht use it Then he lowered it, slowly, as if he thought that he ht use it too
“Nick,” he said, his voice wavering badly and“Nick, what have you done?”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Nick “You think I’d care enough to do so to her? Don’t flatter yourself”
“Did you hurt her, Nick?” Alan asked
Nick“Maybe a little”
There was a door standing ajar down the corridor, a silhouette tracing a slightly different darkness onto the shadows It was either Jamie or his mother, Nick could not tell and did not care Whoever it was, they were breathing rapidly, as if they were afraid, and standing halfway up the stairs, Mae was breathing too fast as well
Nick did not glance over to see if she looked afraid He would not have seen the shadow at the open door, if the door had not been directly behind Alan’s head
He kept looking at Alan as not his brother, standing there with a gun hanging limply at his side Alan’s face was still that terrible color, his eyes avoiding Nick’s, but his thin chest was rising and falling evenly enough He didn’t look scared He looked heartsick
“Listen to ht You don’t need to stay in this nighter Your father took me and et that mark off you Then it will be even between us, and once it is, I don’t ever want to see your face again”
12
Blood Calls to Blood
EVERYTHING SEEMED UNNATURALLY CLEAR TO NICK IN the days following his discovery, and he see to particular things He would look at Mae, as apparently unable toto eat with one side of hisat all
He’d never been like Alan, never been able to take an interest in people, never had a crush or even a real friend He’d just thought he was ht that perhaps this easy detachment hat allowed his father to offer people up to the demons Nick sat on the couch, a lu with age, and thought about sacrifice
The idea of strangers dying didn’t ht There was nothing the deive him that he wanted, but if there had been, he could have done it
He realized distantly that this should frighten hi that never came He didn’t want to talk to the others He didn’t even want to look at them
He’d slept on the shabby brown couch since he found out, not that he was sleeping arden, practicing the sword until he was exhausted, his skin slick with sweat and his mind mercifully empty, and even after that he didn’t sleep well
The third night on the sofa he’d al Nick rolled automatically off the sofa and was at the top of the stairs before he realized what he was doing
The door to Alan’s room was open Someone had reached him before Nick
Alan was sitting up in bed He looked haggard and drained, eyes too dark in a face that was too white, but Mae was sitting with hi his hands Nick couldn’t see her face, but he could see Alan’s More than that, he could hear Alan’s voice, talking in a loarm rush that sounded worried and desperate and just a little comforted already
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“Don’t try a guilt trip onthat you can manipulate me the way you manipulate everybody else It makes me sick Who says Daniel Ryves died forfor ht with her, I was soed to the man who stole her from him What did Daniel Ryves see when he looked at me? Do you think he liked it?”
Nick was telling the truth He didn’t feel guilty, and he didn’t feel sad It wasn’t hard to stop calling another liar Dad and start calling hi fury, the desire to hurt so to stop hi it Not anymore
He saw the shadow pass through Alan’s kind eyes He saw, quite clearly, Alan’s decision to lie again
“I’m sure that when Dad looked at you,” he said, “all he saas his son”
Nick drew back his fist and punched Alan in the face
There was an outraged screaotten She exclai her way up the stairs when the deed was already done
She didn’t have a hope, but Alan was no clumsy amateur He’d rocked back when Nick’s fist connected, and he was falling when Nick glanced at Mae There was a twist of ot before Alan pulled a gun on him
The barrel was cold against Nick’s jaw Alan’s grip on it was steady
“Don’t do that again,” Alan said, blood bloo down his chin
Mae hesitated on the stairs and did not come any closer
Nick turned his face in toward the gun and spoke into the barrel as if it was a microphone
“If it was adoption,” Nick sneered, letting his mouth brush the steel, “why didn’t you tell me about Durham? Why didn’t you tell your precious Aunt Natasha about your adoptive faone to stay with your real family at Christician’s son make three”
“Nick,” Alan said, and made a small sound of frustration “You’re my real family It was just that — please try to understand It was just that I wanted to re was all right I just wanted to have a few days of pretending I never wanted to drag htmare with me!”
“Too bad,” Nick said “She got dragged in”
Alan’s hand did tre to faint, but he just stood there treray color of ashes Nick let his , see that he didn’t care Alan’s hand tightened on the gun, and for a ht use it Then he lowered it, slowly, as if he thought that he ht use it too
“Nick,” he said, his voice wavering badly and“Nick, what have you done?”
“I didn’t do anything,” said Nick “You think I’d care enough to do so to her? Don’t flatter yourself”