Sunder

by Tara Brown

  Miles gave him a look, blurting out the oddest sentence, “Your brother Gunnar murdered a whole family, not just those girls that had gone missing. That’s why the witches called the hunters. They knew their magic couldn’t kill one of you born vampires. So they called the hunters and laid the traps.”

  Briton stopped, mid-thought and step. He grimaced. “Are you certain?”

  Miles nodded. “I am. There were children involved and things too horrific to speak of. He snapped, and there was no going back for him. Your father defended him to the death, for your mother.”

  “My father let him live? But the hunters came because of Gunnar’s actions. My father knew this? How many of the other vampires and wolves died at the hands of the hunters, fighting to protect my brother? How many deaths lay at my father’s feet?”

  Miles grimaced. “Over one hundred. The bitten died first, dragged from their houses into the sunlight when the hunters arrived, but you know that part. The few born who had been here were those that died from the poisons the hunters carry, along with whatever wolves hadn’t been saved. The witches lowered the guards, warning the wolves of it. Some agreed with killing off the vampires, others did not. The ones who believed the vampires were being treated unfairly—we never warned them because we were scared they would tell your parents. I didn’t know the witches intended for your parents to hear of it. The plan was to trap your family. I didn’t know that plan existed. I assumed they would die in the fight, and I would save you.”

  Briton didn’t have a response to it. He felt sick, and yet, he couldn’t believe his father would defend Gunnar’s actions. He shook his head. “He will want revenge against the witches. You have to get them out of here.”

  “Where will they go? He can find them anywhere. No, it is he that must leave.”

  “But he won’t, Miles. He won’t go anywhere until he feels like he is vindicated. I have watched him for two thousand years, and he hasn’t evolved in that way. He is still the barbaric Norseman he always was. Yes, he controls the blood lust but his temper is what it has always been.” Briton sighed. He didn’t want these troubles. He wanted to enjoy his week with the girl he loved.

  “Then he must go back inside of the box. It is the only way.”

  The thought of it was worse than any other. He couldn’t imagine stuffing his parents back into the coffins. When could they ever come out again? They would always want revenge. They would always be savages. His brothers would free them. They would never understand. If they had defended Gunnar, no one was safe from their insanity. How had he been such a fool?

  They walked to Betsy’s small house, just a few blocks over from Briton’s. The old man crossed the road. “Think on what I said, dear boy.”

  Briton waved and walked to his house.

  He tried to force his brain to bounce back to Liv, but it was stuck on replay, rehashing his family’s problems.

  When he got inside of the house, his mother smiled at him from her chair. He walked to her, feeling the heavy weight of the baggage of his family overwhelming him.

  “What is that look on your face?”

  He relaxed into the chair, closing his eyes. “I am in love, Mother.” It was the easier thing to confess.

  She hugged him tightly, whispering into his ear, “Tell no one. Your father is planning something. He believes you are against us.”

  Briton turned sharply to look into her dark eyes. She nodded very subtly.

  “I would never.”

  Her face softened. “I know that. But he is paranoid. Someone betrayed him.”

  “Perhaps because he let Gunnar savagely murder that entire family.”

  Her eyes darkened. “How do you know about that?”

  “A lot of time has passed, old stories have a way of coming back to haunt you.”

  “I know. He wasn’t right in the head. Something was wrong. He was a sweet boy. Your father believed the witches had done something to him, to make him that way.” Her voice was nearly inaudible.

  “Really? The witches would do that?” he asked, confused on what to believe.

  She nodded.

  He got up from the couch. “Goodnight, Mother. Sleep well.” He said it knowing she wouldn’t. She never did.

  “Goodnight, my love.”

  He turned and walked from the room. His brain was working double overtime to rationalize the accusations that had all come about. It didn’t matter who was right or who was wrong; what mattered was who was going to start the next war.

  He had a horrid feeling he was a pawn in it all, but he didn’t know who was moving the pieces on the board, or why.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Liv

  I was in a constant state of jittery angst. He was like a form of meth, and I was the addict. I couldn't lose the shakes I got when he was gone. My brain ran different types of scenarios constantly, desperate to find ways to be with him or obsessed with where he was. It was unhealthy, but like any crackhead, I kept whispering to myself, one more hit. I could see it was getting to a dark and dangerous point when I noticed my new substitute teacher was talking, but I didn't understand him. He asked how I felt about the story we were reading. I looked down at my book, but my eyes fuzzed out. I had an answer, but I wasn’t sure it was the right one. I wasn’t sure what we were reading so I answered, “I think that one week is long enough to fall in love.”

  My eyes cleared from the haze and my brain started to function again. I had been thinking about him—when I was going to see him again. I looked up after a moment of quiet to see the disgruntled face of Mr. Barnes, my history teacher. When had I arrived in this class? I looked around. Josh was smiling and Liz looked worried. The class sat quiet, staring at me. Only Liz understood my demons. Liz, with her grey eyes hiding the fear roaming inside of her.

  “That is a fascinating opinion, one I suggest you hang on to for creative writing. Now, if you will answer the question I asked about China’s percentage of atheists and why there are so many. Answer that, and we can continue on with our class.”

  I gave him a blank stare. He pushed his glasses up and waited.

  I licked my lips and nodded. “Because when they became a communist country, the leader of the party forbid its members to belong to a church and practice religion. They promote atheism.” I was talking out of my ass. I saw naked skin writhing against more naked skin. I saw dark eyes that pierced my soul. I saw things that made me blush. I didn’t even remember the day. I didn’t recall how I had gotten to school.

  “I guess that will do. Pay attention, this will be on the test.” He sighed. “The percentage is thought to be as high as fifty-eight percent. Moving on.”

  He started to become a constant sound again, but I tried to remain alert. My face was bright red and the eyes around the room continuously darted back to me. Liz leaned over and whispered, “That was decent.”

  “I read about it three days ago, I barely remember it. I seriously thought I was in lit.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  Josh whispered from the other side of me, “I need to talk to you after this, k?”

  “Yup.”

  When class ended I left quickly, waiting for Josh outside. He looked different, worried maybe. “Is there something going on?”

  I opened my mouth but nothing came out. How did I tell him I knew I was a freak and in terrible danger of falling in a scary kind of love with another freak? I closed my mouth. He grabbed my arm and pulled me down the hallway, whispering into my ear, “I know what you are. I’ve known for a while. Judith told me to make sure I made you comfortable at school. You look weird today. What happened? Did you change yet?”

  I shook my head, grateful he knew everything. At least someone did. “No. My eyes keep glowing, and I can hear and see shit I shouldn’t be able to. But that’s it.”

  He wrapped an arm around me. “Pretty soon we’ll be running free and then nothing will matter.”

  I snuggled into him, smiling at the fact I wasn’t alone. I wonder
ed how much he really knew. “Do you know the other ones like us?”

  He looked down on me, I could see he did. “Do you?”

  “Yeah. I met some.”

  He steered me down a hall where no one else was and stopped. “They ran them all out of town a long time ago. Made them leave the haven so they didn’t bring the hunters down on us. They can’t control themselves the way we can. I don’t know any, but Briton Thorlackson is apparently one. His dad was one of the cursed.”

  “They’re all back. The Thorlacksons are all back.”

  His eyes widened. “You sure?”

  “I watched Liz bring them back, Briton made her do it.” I stopped myself from saying anymore. I wasn’t certain if I was betraying Briton or not. It felt fine to tell Josh, but what if it wasn’t?

  He cocked an eyebrow. “Wow. Where were they?”

  “In a cave. The witches hid them there to protect them from the hunters.” I needed to shut it down. I needed to stop before I let too much out of the bag I might have been meant to keep sealed.

  “Then of course the witches died in the fire, sealing the vampires in there for good. Yikes. That Thorlackson is going to be pissed. I heard they were the better of the vampires. The bitten are the worst, out of control completely.”

  I wriggled my lips, hesitating but then needing the answer. “Can they bite us?”

  He shook his head. “No. We are something called shadow twins. Like yin and yang. We complete each other. It’s kind of like one can’t kill the other, and one can’t live without the other, and yet, they don’t like each other. They are never attracted to each other and they struggle to be friends, but can never be enemies. It’s weird, like the curse really was a curse. We are brothers and one of us is light and the other dark. That’s how it was explained to me anyway.”

  “Who is your dad?”

  “Colin Michaels. He was cousins with cousins of the Michaels who live here. He showed up one day, left me with Jamie and took off.”

  My jaw dropped. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”

  He shook his head. “Meh, whatever. I like it here. I like Uncle Jamie, he’s a cool guy. He’s the leader of the pack, so it’s cool to be his son for all intents and purposes. My dad would actually have been the leader of the pack, but he didn’t want the right. We think he stays wolf all the time, doesn’t want kids.”

  I reached out, putting my hand on his arm. “I am so sorry. What about your mom?”

  His eyes twinkled when he answered, “The moms don’t make it unless they are one of the born.” His face lifted, his jaw setting in an odd way. I could see he was looking past me. I turned to see Briton standing in the hallway, staring at us. His eyes were focused on my hand resting on Josh’s arm. I let it drop, “Hey.”

  He cocked an eyebrow. The look on his face was weird, but the rest of him made me remember a thousand dirty things from the night before. I felt myself blushing, my heart beating faster. It all sort of stopped when I felt Josh’s chest puff out slightly, pressing against me a little bit. I hadn’t realized how close we were.

  The tension was ridiculous.

  I smiled at Josh. “See ya tomorrow?”

  He nodded, still looking stoic and hardened.

  When I walked over to Briton, I noticed his stare was still stuck on Josh. I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even want to know what that was.” I looped my arm into his and led him away from the quiet hallway. We left from a side door. He still looked annoyed. It was sort of sexy to see him so pissed—sexy because all I could think about was sex. I nudged him when we got outside. “What are you doing here?” I wanted a sexy answer, like he couldn’t wait to see me and was as obsessed as I was.

  Instead, he glanced back at the hallway through the window and muttered, “You started the auditions for who will fill my spot when the week is up?”

  My jaw dropped. “Excuse you?”

  His dark eyes glowed like there might be a hint of red in them. I reached up and held his cheeks with both my hands, cupping his face. “Go screw yourself.” I turned and walked back into the school, fast. I could hear his footsteps behind me, but I headed right for the busiest spot in the hallway and turned for my locker. Liz stopped dead in her tracks to come and see me. The smile faded from her face.

  I could see her reliving every second in the cave. She started to tremble. I walked over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her to the girls’ bathroom.

  She splashed water on her face, staring into her silver eyes and muttering, “I keep having nightmares about him. At least my mom said I can’t become one of them. My blood blocks the venom.” The door burst open. Liz screamed when she saw Briton, but he acted so quickly I barely caught his movements. Suddenly he was there, pressing his face to Liz’s. He whispered to her, “You remember nothing from the cave. You remember me as a teacher and nothing more. You recall nothing about the whole evening. You and Liv went to a party. It was fun. You drank too much and have decided to forgo alcohol from now on.” He stepped back. I could see she was lost.

  “What did you just do?”

  He flashed a glare at me. “I will wait for you outside. Be fast.” He left the washroom as quickly as he had come in.

  Liz scowled. “What happened? What was I saying? Dude, I think I’m still hung over.”

  My jaw dropped again. At this rate I wasn’t going to have a jaw soon. It was just going to fall off. “Uhm . . . we . . . we were talking about history class. It was so crazy today.”

  She cocked an eyebrow, giving me a confused look. “Yeah, crazy boring. So are we still on for this weekend?”

  I racked my brain for the plans we had made. Of course. We had discussed it this morning. I nodded. “Yeah, wait. No. I have plans. I forgot.” Or did I? No, I did. He might be crazy weird, but he was my crazy weird. And I only had a week of his weirdness and mad sex skills before I would turn, and he would become the enemy.

  She scowled. “You promised.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. But starting next week, I have nothing but free time.”

  She pointed a black fingernail at me. “You better.”

  “I will, I swear. Jeesh. So crabby.”

  She rolled her eyes. We walked out of the bathroom and then the school. True to his word, he was standing at the foot of the steps, still glaring at me. My stomach dropped. I smiled at Liz, trying to be nonchalant. “My friend is here to meet me.”

  She looked over. “You’re friends with Mr. Thorlackson? Dude. He is hot. Can I be friends with him too?”

  I laughed and nodded. “I’ll let you know.”

  “Well, I want details at the very least.”

  I shouldered my bag and muttered, “I’ll text you later.”

  “Use a meme creator first, so my details have pictures.”

  I laughed harder and walked down the steps.

  He wasn’t laughing. He was pissed. That sort of made me pissed. He assumed something from what he saw. I could feel my back hair getting up. I strolled over, feeling less and less of the strange thing that tied us together, like the magnetism was dying off. When I got close enough, I stopped. “He was telling me about his dead mom and dad who abandoned him. Just so you know what we were talking about in the hallway—why I was touching his arm. It’s called soothing and most people do it when the person they’re talking to is troubled or sad.”

  He didn’t move. He was going to be one of those people, I could tell. He wasn’t going to tell me how sorry he was or try to understand. He was going to be a dick about it, like his jealousy was completely justified.

  But he surprised me when he nodded. “I’m sorry. That was an asinine thing to do.” He flashed me that smile and everything was back. I liked that he wasn’t what I had assumed.

  I smiled back. “It was, but I’m glad you came to see me. Now, can you tell me the reason for coming to see me? I did ask that but you got all mean and surly. I thought we were supposed to be discreet?”

  He took my hand in his, laughing and walking
in amongst the sidewalks filled with kids. We blended, truth be told.

  He slid a hand up my arm and pulled my tote bag off, carrying it for me. With his other hand he delicately stroked my fingers. “I knew school was ending, and I hoped you wanted to see me as badly as I wanted to see you.” It made me grin but then he muttered, “I don’t recognize myself when I’m with you. It’s like I close off the man I am and somehow, magically I become the man I want to be. Even if this can’t last, I will always have that. I will always remember being enough and being loved and loving back.”

  And there it was. There was the thing I needed to hear. My changes were coming, I could feel myself losing him, but then he would say something like that, and I would remember it all. All of the love and the passion that we would squeak into the week or so we had, it would have to fuel a lifetime.