by S. D. Grimm
Nick peered in and drummed his fingers on the door. Then he pulled out two drinks. A bottle and a can. The kitchen light turned on with a flicker.
I nearly jumped. Nick just glanced up at the ceiling. “You’re kinda like that.”
“Like what? The light?”
He looked my way and shrugged. Then he tossed me the can. I caught it. Dr Pepper. Did he know my favorite pop? He must, because he was drinking something entirely different. Beer of all things.
I was only two years younger. I rolled my eyes.
Nick took a long drink and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. Then he pointed at the light. “I turned it on when we walked in. It just took a while to make the connection.”
“Great. I’m being compared to faulty electricity or a slow-moving current.”
“Listen, Cade, I’m not sure what’s wrong with your powers, but sometimes they short out.”
Fabulous. I stared at the drink in my hand. Cold against my palm.
He arched an eyebrow. “You don’t want caffeine this late? I thought it didn’t affect you.”
“It doesn’t. But you’re drinking beer.”
“What of it?” The challenging look in his eye sparked something in me that made me want to give him a hard time.
“Well, you’re underage.”
“Not if you add up all the years I lived before this.”
I chuckled. “Well, then I want a beer.”
“No way.”
“I’m two years younger.”
“Not if you add up all the years we’ve lived before this.”
“By your logic, I’m old enough for alcohol.”
He pointed the beer bottle at me. “By my logic you are under my care. So, no, you can’t have beer. And you don’t have all your memories back yet, so you’re still sixteen.”
“Your logic sucks.”
“For you, maybe.”
I rolled my eyes, opened my pop, and took a drink, then I pointed to the wooden box. “So what’s in here?”
Nick walked over and unlocked it. “This box is one of our most important assets.” He lifted the lid and it opened like a tackle box with layers of stacked compartments. I peered inside while Nick pointed to different bottles and pastes. “Antivenoms, monster reversal potions. We’re immune to a lot, but the humans we protect aren’t. So we keep a lot of it on hand. Just in case.”
I had a feeling I should be sitting down for this, but I was in it now. And I wanted answers. “What does that even mean?”
“Well, this one here.” He pulled out a bottle full of a clear liquid that clung to the sides of the glass a little more than normal water would. “It’s altered werewolf saliva. You put it on the wound if someone is bitten. But you have to do it within an hour or the bite sets.”
“Sets?”
“The person will become a werewolf or die.”
Everything in my brain wanted to set off warning bells that this reeked of crazy. But I knew too much now. Enough to know that these bump-in-the-night things were real. I shuddered. “How do you know all of this?”
He smiled and tapped his forehead. “Memories.”
“You made all this?”
“I have to re-create what’s lost. But Phoenixes were pretty extensive in their research and willing to share. This has been a safe house for centuries. There was a lot still buried in the secret cellar.”
I shook my head and supported myself against the kitchen island. “Safe house? Secret cellar?”
Nick touched my back. “You okay?”
What he was really asking was whether I was about to spiral into another memory. “I’m all right. I think.” I sort of laughed.
That eased the concern in his eyes at least. He half smiled. “You have a lot to remember, little brother.”
“Little?” I cocked an eyebrow—I had to be an inch or two taller than him. “I think you mean younger.”
He granted me a chuckle, but didn’t alter his statement.
I picked up a strange stone. Translucent. Pretty, with so many shades of blue. Not a normal sapphire, but it reminded me of one. Except for the strange darker part in the middle that seemed to follow me as I moved the stone, like an eye. “What does this do?”
Nick shrugged. “I’m not entirely certain.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “How do you not know?”
He offered a sideways smile. “It didn’t exactly come with a manual.” He set his empty bottle on the counter next to the sink. “I’m going to turn in. There are three rooms upstairs—they have beds. Feel free to take one. I did get clean sheets for them. You’re welcome.”
He held out his hand. I locked the box and tossed him the keys, noticing that there was no furniture down here. So, my brother’s priorities were beer and beds. Good to know.
Nick pocketed the keys. “Tomorrow evening, we’ll make copies.” He opened the cupboard below the island and revealed a safe. He put the boxes inside.
“Evening? So what’s the plan for the morning?”
He closed the cupboard and started up the creaky stairs. His laugh resounded off the stairwell. “Sitting at a desk surrounded by the rest of Grand Haven high school’s finest.”
“What?” I followed him upstairs. “You expect me to go to school? I just found out that I’m this amazing monster hunter and you’re sending me to school?” A new school at that. “I thought you taking me out of the foster system would be more…fun.”
“Hey, I can’t get in trouble with the state. Besides, it’s a way for you to make a connection with Ava.”
“Me?”
“She’s a sophomore, like you.” He turned in the doorway of what looked like the biggest room in the stuffy upstairs. “And let’s remember, you might know that you’re supposed to hunt monsters, but you barely know what it means to be a Phoenix.”
“So enlighten me.”
“That’s the plan.” He headed into his room. “Tomorrow.” He shut the door, but his voice still bled through. “After you find Ava.”
“What makes you so sure I’ll find her?”
“You always do.”
“What if—”
“Just remember, when Phoenixes get their memories back, it’s delicate. Don’t push her.”
“Let her remember?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure that’s best?”
“Good night, Caderyn. Sweet dreams.”
Right. Silenced again. I peered into the other two rooms. One, closer to Nick’s, was slightly smaller, but the bed looked really awesome. The other had the advantage of being slightly larger and didn’t share a wall with the other two rooms. But the comforter was purple. Not really my thing. I took the middle room and fell onto the mattress, my head closest to our shared wall.
I stared up at the ceiling. “You better not snore.”
“Earplugs in the top drawer,” his wall-muffled voice answered.
I opened the desk drawer and found a new pack of earplugs. And a really old notepad. I flipped open the first page and saw a drawing. The dark made it fuzzy, so I turned on what seemed to be an ancient, ugly lamp.
Brown spots dotted the page, distorting some of the pencil marks. A drawing of Ava. I knew it as soon as I saw her picture. Pounding pain throbbed behind my eyes, and her face changed to something real. Smiling. Laughing. Then screaming.
I jerked out of the memory and stared at the pad of paper, willing myself not to vomit. Something dripped out of my nose, and I wiped it away. Red. That’s when I realized the brown spots on the paper were old, dried blood.
My blood.
Chapter Eight
Nick
I took off my boots and flopped onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling, aware that I still wore blood-spattered jeans. A huge sigh escaped me, and every muscle seemed weak. I just wanted to lie here and focus on the one good thing that had happened today: Cade had killed a wraith.
For a flicker of a moment, his speed had started to return.
He might not
be able to call them at will or control them yet—heck, he might not have even noticed that he’d used super-human speed tonight—but he’d used his powers. He still had them. Just knowing that sent relief pulsing through me. I hadn’t failed him yet.
We still had time.
Not much. What little levity I’d just experienced waned as reality thudded into me like a medicine ball. Gwen’s voice echoed in my head, taunting: Careful, Nick. Cade doesn’t have much time left. If you slip up again, you could lose him forever. Is that really the kind of gamble you want to make?
I closed my eyes to shut her words out. I had one purpose: protect the two Phoenixes who would save our entire race. That kind of gamble wasn’t okay, but I didn’t have a lot of choice. Gwen had come out ahead every time so far.
She was right. If I messed up this time, it could be Cade’s last cycle as a Phoenix. I rubbed my hand over my face. The ache in my heart pulsed. I wouldn’t let that happen. I slammed my fist against the bed and sat up. As soon as we found Ava and reminded her who she was, I could begin training her to take out Gwen. This time, we’d win. We had to.
I rubbed my hands over my thighs only to be reminded that the black, sticky blood on my jeans belonged to one of those nightmare-inducing monsters we’d fought tonight, and wraith blood had a tendency to stain.
I groaned and stood, exchanging jeans for exercise shorts and a T-shirt. Better to clean up first. Besides, I’d given Cade a lot of information tonight. I should stay awake at least until he fell asleep in case he lapsed into another memory seizure. My chest squeezed at the thought of him thrashing on the floor earlier.
He was getting worse.
Just like Gwen had said he would.
There was nothing I could do except help Ava to finally kill Gwen.
Only Ava could kill her for good.
If anyone else killed Gwen, she’d pop back up like a recurring nightmare.
I glanced into his bedroom in time to watch him drop a pad of paper and start shaking.
I raced into his room and kept him from falling off the bed. “Cade?” He shook, his eyes open, not seeing anything but the memory.
“Leave him alone!” I screamed as if she could hear me. As if it would make a difference. She wasn’t here. Not yet. She wasn’t strong enough to come after us, so she’d stay in hiding. Wait until the right full moon to call her monsters and hunt us down.
In the meantime, she was stealing Cade’s life. His memories.
Cade’s shaking slowed and he started gulping breaths of air. His eyelids fluttered and he looked at me. “Nick.”
He was still in that in-between phase. Not quite back yet. Not fully out of the clouds of his memories. I fisted my hands and tried to swallow past the ache in my throat. I couldn’t let him see my weakness. He wasn’t ready to know the full scope of what was wrong with him. “You’re okay.” My voice shook a little anyway.
He nodded. “I’m exhausted.”
“I bet.” I smiled to ease the worry that started to wrinkle his forehead. “If you puke on the floor, you clean it.”
He pushed my shoulder. “I get it.” He rolled over on the bed, his words coming out slower than normal. “You could be a little nicer, though.”
“Nicer?” I laughed and started to leave so he wouldn’t see the shakiness in my arms. “It won’t include cleaning up your messes.”
“Jerk.” He bit back. Then he sat up. “Nick?”
I faced him from the doorway.
His slightly squinted expression told me he’d remembered something important. It was always a delicate balance with Cade, never knowing how much to press in case he went back under. “Ava, she’s my twin.”
I nodded.
“Do I always remember her first?”
“Yes.”
“And why shouldn’t I push her memories?”
“Ava has a defense mechanism. If we push too fast or scare her away, she’ll suppress the remembering. And we need her to remember as quickly as possible. And your memories…should stay buried as long as possible.”
Cade’s eyes narrowed. “And I’m supposed to just do your bidding and trust you?”
There was my brother. Always pushing back. Never one to do as he was told. I couldn’t help but smile. “I’m protecting you. That’s my job.” I started to walk away. “Find Ava. Get her to trust you. That’s yours.”
“Good talk.”
His words followed me out of the room and speared my heart a little. It wasn’t like I wanted to keep things from him.
I had to act fast before he decided he didn’t trust me and before he remembered that he never did what I asked.
I stepped into the bathroom and leaned over the sink while my thoughts spun. In a hundred lifetimes, I’d never seen my brother this bad before. When the meaningful memories started hitting him, he’d be worse. How much more of this would he be able to take before she’d completely break him? I clutched the sides of the counter and gritted my teeth, willing those thoughts to leave me alone.
They wouldn’t.
This whole thing was my fault, and if I didn’t find Gwen and make sure she was dead for good, Cade would never be free.
I rubbed my hands over my face and washed blood out of my jeans. No matter how hard I scrubbed, they wouldn’t come entirely clean. Water, ice-cold, ran over my hands, numbing my fingers. And a tiny tug in my brain—my thoughts—pulled me to a stop.
I stood rigid, feeling every racing heartbeat.
Gwen.
She sensed me.
A shiver spread through my core.
How much time would he have? Two, three full moons at most. If Cade remembered things that quickly, would it break him? I needed Ava. We were running out of time.
Chapter Nine
Ava
I lay awake in my bed that night, not listening to the sounds of Danny snoring in the next room—because he was still at the hospital. At least it was just for one night. Of all the things that had happened tonight, I kept replaying Wyatt’s short visit. The way he’d tended to Ajax reminded me of something so strangely familiar. And his words echoed over and over in my ear: No problem, Ava. Any time. Really. You sound the alarm, I’ll be here. He’d sounded so sincere, but it was never that easy. No one could keep a promise like that. Perhaps it was best to cut ties with him now, before I started to get attached.
My eyes started to close.
The room began to spin, and I stared into a memory again. Old and haunting. The same yellow glow from the light of a candle cast moving shadows on my bloodied hands. This time, emotions raced into me as if they were my own. I wasn’t just seeing the scene before me. I was reliving it, like some strange dream where I could feel the breeze and taste the tang of blood in the air. In the memory, my heart hammered and my hands shook. An ache spread through my chest that made my eyes sting. I stared down at that same muscular chest again and pressed the wet cloth over it.
His hand touched mine. “You have to get the bullet out, Ava.”
Ava.
Ava.
My name whispered over and over in my skull. In this strange otherworldly memory, the person’s name was Ava. My name. My memory? No. It couldn’t be. I looked at my hands. They looked like my hands. Only older. Rougher. They weren’t my hands. A tingling sensation spread through my chest, pulling me out of the memory, but I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my hand against my mouth. I had to know. I had to stay here, in the memory, for a moment longer.
I looked at the young man’s face.
My eyes popped open and I sat up, alone in my room. My heart galloped wildly. Booming in my chest, harder, faster. And I pressed both of my shaking hands over my mouth to hold in a scream. The memory had pushed to the back of my mind. But I’d seen his face. Wyatt. Wyatt Wilcox was the young man in my strange memory? This couldn’t be real. I stood. I paced. Bit my knuckle.
Why was this happening?
How was this happening?
“Ava, honey, are you all right?” Jean called f
rom the hallway, her soft steps padding across the carpet toward my room.
I opened my door a crack, pressing my shaking hands against the frame to still them. “I-I’m okay. Just a little—I mean it’s so quiet.”
She laughed kind of sadly and patted my shoulder. Something about that touch calmed me a little. “I know, but he’s going to be just fine. They’ll release him tomorrow as long as he’s eating.”
“Hospital food? It’s like they want you to stay there forever.” I made a gagging face and she laughed.
“Get some rest. But, really, if you need to talk, please don’t hesitate. I’m here for you.”
“Thank you.” I tried to say the words, but they mostly got stuck and pushed out in a tiny whisper. She left my door open as she left, giving me the option of whether or not to close it. I kept it open just a little and climbed into bed. Light out. Eyes closed. I tried desperately to even my breathing and not think about what had just happened in that strange memory. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And the memory flooded back like a dream I couldn’t control.
I gently pressed the cloth over the gaping wound in Wyatt’s chest. My voice shook. My chest ached. And I was doing everything I could to remain calm. “The bleeding isn’t stopping.”
His labored breathing wasn’t, either.
I pressed the wet cloth against the wound, and Wyatt made a sound that was between a groan and a muffled scream. His eyes flicked to me as if it would take too much energy for him to move his head. My eyes burned, and I blinked back tears.
An eerie howl rose up in the night followed by others, and they seemed to be closing in. Wolves. I sucked in a breath, scanning the dark tree line. I had to get him back inside, fast. “I have to get the bullet out. We can’t wait.”
He swallowed. His neck wet with sweat and covered in dirt and grime. He grabbed my hand in his. Cold and slick. He squeezed. “Don’t…waste…your time.”