Deanna snorted as she came in.
“You’re back. What happened with Rio?” Ethan asked. He’d already told Preston and Nell everything.
“He has no idea what he is, that’s for sure,” Deanna said. “I couldn’t outright ask, but a few subtle questions revealed enough. Just an adorable, oblivious human. Bash should be back soon, by the way. He sent me a text.”
“Did you just call someone adorable?” Nell questioned.
“Be useful, will you?” Preston pushed a box of decorations into Deanna’s arms, then did the same to Nell. “Before Bash’s arrival means everyone finds a convenient excuse to ditch me.”
Deanna rolled her eyes but turned on her heels to head for storage. Nell trailed behind her.
“You can keep those,” Preston said of the art supplies.
“Really?” Ethan sat on the floor next to the coffee table to look through them.
“What else are we going to do with it all? I’m going to get that big banner down from the front window.” Preston headed off, leaving Ethan alone.
Pulling one sheet from the others in the stack, Ethan chose a chunk of charcoal as inspiration struck, as though his hand had a mind of its own. He didn’t even think of the structure or flow as he started to draw, working quickly so that when Nell reappeared, the picture was nearly complete.
It looked like a tall, broad silhouette within a long, dark alley. So much of the paper was covered in charcoal, but the shading made the image strikingly clear, as though something out of a book of scary tales.
“Wow, it’s amazing how quickly you did that,” Nell said, sitting beside him on the carpet.
“Thanks.” Even though Ethan felt a strange foreboding about the drawing, he raised his head to smile—only to realize no one else was in the room with them. “I’m not supposed to be alone with you.”
“Do you feel like biting me?” Nell asked casually.
“No. I mean, you smell really good, like, all the time, all humans do, but… I think I’m okay.” Ethan eased as he realized how true that was, and Nell beamed back at him.
“Then don’t worry. If Preston’s rats trust you, I think my oh-so-tempting neck within nibbling distance will be fine.”
Ethan chuckled, only now noticing the rats having climbed onto the coffee table to watch him, moving up his arm as if wondering how it had been going so fast a moment before.
“See? They don’t do that with anyone but Preston and Luke.”
“I guess.” Marveling at the rats, that finally stopped skittering once they reached Ethan’s shoulders, he eventually turned to Nell again and marveled at her too. “You really are easygoing for a human among monsters. Not that… I-I mean….”
“I know what you mean,” Nell saved him. “Once I discovered my affinity for magic, I sort of rolled with the punches.”
“And you don’t mind the less… legal practices?”
“What can I say? Sometimes the greater good and the truth is more important than the law. Like with you. You don’t regret trying to put that child murderer away even if you had to lie to do it. I bet the only thing you do regret is getting caught.”
“Well….” Ethan had never been asked that before, but he’d thought it plenty of times. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Although sometimes Siobhan just likes to steal things, Luke and Preston like watching something blow up, and Deanna likes making someone sweat, but you know… no family’s perfect.”
Ethan laughed, causing the rats to scurry away from him, or maybe that was to reattach themselves to Preston as he entered, folding the Halloween banner. Deanna came in about the same time and realized who Ethan had been alone with.
“You behaving over there, leech?” she asked, though not with any real bite anymore.
“I’m fine. But do you think we could find a better nickname?”
Deanna huffed, and Ethan wasn’t sure if that was a yes or a no.
The last few boxes were ready to be hauled upstairs, but before Ethan could get up to help, leaving his drawing on the table, his cellphone rang.
Leo.
“It’s my uncle,” Ethan said when Preston looked on curiously and Deanna narrowed her eyes. “Bash knows I’ve been messaging him. I just… I think I should….”
“Go on,” Deanna said, giving Ethan a nod that he could step away to answer. They really did trust him, far more easily than Ethan had ever known, even when he’d won over inmates in prison.
“Thank you.” Hurrying into the hall, Ethan took a deep breath before clicking accept. “Hi, Uncle Leo.”
“Ethan!” Leo said with a gush of emotion. “Where are you? I’ve been worried sick! When you didn’t come home after being released from Glenwood Penitentiary, I feared the worst.”
“I texted you,” Ethan said, like it was any defense when he’d been ignoring his uncle for weeks and hadn’t spoken to him while in prison either. He’d been too ashamed.
“It’s not the same as hearing your voice and knowing you’re okay. Now, where are you? I know you’re not in Glenwood.”
“I….” Ethan glanced around, but even though he couldn’t see anyone, he felt compelled to move and find somewhere more private. He headed upstairs. “I’m in Centrus.”
“What?” Leo said in alarm, as though Ethan had said the ninth level of hell. “What are you doing there?”
“I wanted to be home. I have a job, a place to stay. I’m fine.”
“Tell me where exactly. I’m coming to see you.”
“No.” Ethan glanced around again once he reached the top of the landing. The only room he’d been in so far was Bash’s, so he slipped inside. “Not yet. I’m not settled, and things are complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“Just… complicated.” Ethan couldn’t tell him the truth over the phone—maybe not ever. Leo would think he was crazy, and if Leo believed him, that would almost be worse.
Not every human could be like Nell.
“Ethan—”
“I’m not in trouble. Not how you think. Just give me a few weeks, and then we can meet.”
Maybe. If Bash allowed it.
If it was safe.
“A few weeks is too long. It’s dangerous for you alone, especially there.”
“I’m not alone. And why do you hate Centrus so much? I grew up here. I feel safe here, and I’ve made some really amazing friends.”
“That’s even more dangerous.”
Ethan sagged onto the edge of Bash’s bed, where several items of folded laundry had been stacked. “You don’t have to coddle me anymore, Leo. I’m fine. I’m a grown man.”
“Ethan—”
“No.” He could hear the authority he’d lived with for most of his life that he once found comforting, but over the years, he’d felt more and more suffocated by it, like Leo never would have let him out of the house if he’d had his way.
Ethan knew it was just love, but he needed his freedom. If it hadn’t been for the vampire part, he’d be glad for everything that had happened to bring him here.
“I’ll call soon, I promise, and when I’m ready, I’ll see you. Until then, please understand. I love you,” Ethan said, and hung up before Leo could argue.
Alone in Bash’s room, Ethan suddenly realized how quiet it was, and he was hit by an intense loneliness having pushed Leo away, who’d once been his only lifeline. He just couldn’t handle him right now. He’d been doing so well.
But then he’d also nearly molested Bash that morning—or enthralled Bash to molest him. How could he be sure if it was safe to be around him? What if he didn’t have as much control as he thought?
A deep breath brought with it a wave of Bash’s smell to calm Ethan, but it also reminded him of all he craved and couldn’t have. Maybe it wasn’t only the vampire part that sucked.
Ethan smirked at the pun, but his expression fell, because this room, this bed, the laundry, even clean and folded, smelled so much like Bash. Ethan wanted to dig his nose into
it. Then he was, forgetting Leo and his phone as he unsettled a pile of undershirts.
Maybe it was the bed, Ethan thought, pressing his nose to the comforter next, then crawling up toward the pillows. Bash had been sleeping with Ethan, but this was the bed he’d slept in for who knows how many nights before that. It positively radiated Bash’s scent, and soon Ethan was lost in it, sprawled out across the comforter, wishing Bash was there.
“Why hello,” Bash said from the doorway, startling Ethan into a lightning-fast sitting position. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No!” Ethan scrambled from the bed, smoothing out his clothes as he felt his cheeks flush hot enough to push steam out his ears. “I am so sorry! I just… I-I… I hate that I haven’t seen you all day,” he admitted, flooded with emotion at the mere sight of Bash, so beautiful leaning against the doorframe, “and I’m sorry I can control myself so well with everything else, but not you. I’m sorry about this morning too, but I’m also not because….”
Ethan moved swiftly toward Bash, rushing on before the scrunch of Bash’s features could morph into a scowl or signal that he was about to tell Ethan to stop.
“You do something to me I can’t explain. Maybe because of what we are, maybe something else, I don’t know, but I can’t help myself around you, and I know you’re engaged, and this is dangerous because of my sire, but I… I don’t care.”
With a final surge forward, Ethan grasped Bash’s face and kissed him, delving for his tongue, not chaste or slow or anything sensible, because when it came to Bash’s pull over him and his smell….
His smell. Which seemed less prominent for some reason, but that didn’t make any sense. How could Bash’s smell be less powerful when Ethan had his tongue in his mouth?
This didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel the same at all.
“Ethan!” he heard a gruff bark from Bash—even though Bash’s mouth was very much occupied.
Snapping back, Ethan stared at Bash in front of him, who blinked owlishly back, before Ethan looked over Bash’s shoulder at another Bash standing in the hallway.
“How…? What…?” Ethan stumbled away in his stupor, certain he must be losing his mind.
“Ethan, is it?” the Bash that didn’t smell right said, smiling in a way that wasn’t Bash-like at all. He peered back at the other Bash before returning to Ethan practically gleeful. “You’re him, huh? Pleasure to meet you, Ethan. I’m Bari, Bash’s twin brother.”
Chapter 16
BASH DIDN’T often lose his cool, but he could feel his teeth elongating and the prick of his claws as he clenched his hands into fists. “What are you doing here?” he growled, sweeping forward to enter the room and get between Bari and Ethan.
“Twins?” Ethan gaped, lips reddened and wet from the heated kiss Bash had interrupted. “You never said you were twins!”
“It didn’t seem important,” Bash spat, “and most people can tell the difference.”
“I didn’t let him explain!” Ethan defended. “I was trying to confess something to you. I could tell it wasn’t you as soon as we kissed, I swear.”
Bash winced, especially since Bari snickered. He was not in the mood for his brother’s endless amusement and enthusiasm right now.
“Does that mean you didn’t hear any of what I said?” Ethan asked.
“About what?”
Ethan’s face fell.
“Bash,” Bari broke in, “while the baby vampire is adorable, and I must hear absolutely everything about you two, what did he mean that you’re engaged?”
Shit. “About that….”
“I CANNOT believe you didn’t tell me I’m getting a brother-in-law!” Bari erupted, as angry as he ever got, which wasn’t much, but he was still offended.
“I wanted to tell you in person,” Bash said.
“When? After I got my wedding invitation?”
“We haven’t gotten that far, which is why there was nothing to tell you yet. Negotiations are still in the air.”
“Well I can see why,” Bari said haughtily. “You have no interest in the man. For goodness’ sake, Ethan’s love confession just now—”
“I didn’t say love!” Ethan blurted.
“Really, dear—” Bari smirked at him. “—that is clearly what it was, and it was lovely. And how upset you were about our kiss—” He whirled on Bash. “—proves you feel the same.”
“Nothing is going on between us,” Bash insisted.
“The tingle in my lips says otherwise.” Bari leaned closer to Bash, always so easygoing about getting into other people’s space. “And aren’t you lucky? He is a fabulous kisser.”
“Bari—”
“How can you say nothing is going on between us?” Ethan sputtered. “We slept together!”
Bash and Bari both turned to him with mirrored expressions of shock.
“A-and we would have slept together again this morning, without any enthralling on my part, if you hadn’t—”
“Ethan, enough.”
“Goodness, I have missed a lot,” Bari said with another encroaching grin. “All Bash messaged me about were the bad parts—vampire in town, fledgling in the house he wasn’t sure he could trust, prophecies and doom. He kept all the good parts to himself.” His eyes slid down and back up Ethan’s body, making Ethan duck his head.
If Bash had known keeping his brother informed would result in this impromptu visit, he would have held back more. “It isn’t that simple,” Bash said, but his attention diverted to his laundry and comforter that he hadn’t noticed until now. “Why is my bed a mess?”
“Uhh….” Ethan’s head snapped back up.
“Oh, it was adorable,” Bari said. “This little cutie was trying to rub your scent all over him. Very primal. Had you kissed the right brother, dear, let me say, I think it was a lovely gesture.”
“Can we pause, please?” Bash bit out, but a squeal interrupted any further responses as Deanna came flying into the room and threw herself at Bari for a tackling hug.
“There’s my girl!” Bari accepted her eagerly.
“How dare you not tell me you were visiting!”
“Now, now, you can’t use those sisterly powers of coercion on me all the time.” Bari pulled back to give her nose a boop. There was a reason Deanna had been Bash’s choice for Second. She was like a sister to them both.
“Did Ethan mention his prophecy yet? Or that Rio is a Focus?”
“Excuse me?” Bash turned to Deanna with a fresh gape as he tried to process all that.
“Who’s Rio?” Bari asked. “Not someone you were shaking down, I hope?”
“Trust me, Mr. Hernandez would not need any shaking to give Deanna what she wants,” Bash groused, though this whole debacle made him rub his temples to stave off an imminent headache.
“Oh? Now that I want to hear about.”
“Can we get back to Focus and prophecy, please?”
“That’s the reason I was waiting for you,” Ethan said meekly.
“Sure it was, darling.” Bari patted his arm.
Struggling to ignore his brother, Bash encouraged Ethan and Deanna to continue, and their explanation included how apparently being around an actual Focus made it possible for Ethan to have prophecies too.
“Deanna, I think you should stick close to Hernandez for a while.”
“Already on it.”
“Since he may be of use later.”
“Oh, I’ll use him however I please.”
Bash sucked his teeth to keep from commenting. He forgot that the only thing more annoying than Deanna trying to get him laid was when she was after someone for herself, especially since it was so rare.
“You said you believe Father may have been a Focus as well.” Bari hummed in thought. “Why didn’t being around him help you remember your visions better back then?”
“I wondered that,” Bash said. “Mother died so young, with so little explanation. I think he pushed her too much. He was smart enough not to do the same thing tw
ice.”
The siblings held a moment’s pause for mention of their mother, but they’d had more than enough years to mourn her.
“I think after my first vision, he worked to purposely suppress me, at least a little. That might even be why you never developed powers as a Seer.”
“No offense, but I hope that doesn’t change anytime soon. Knowing the future never looked like much fun. Although… I don’t quite know how to explain it, but I feel… energized being around you both.” Bari glanced between Bash and Ethan. “Like I just woke up from a power nap.”
“Me too.” Deanna scrunched her brow, similarly looking between them. “Noticeably more than I remember the last couple days or being around either of you alone.”
Bash and Ethan looked at each other, and it was clear that Ethan didn’t know what to say any more than Bash did. All Bash could hope was that their increasing abilities were a good thing.
“You told us what you saw,” Bash said, “but what were your words exactly?”
Ethan recited the phrases.
Power and Sight can open the path
But alone they are lacking to temper his wrath
The champions together must answer the call
And win with the one who erases it all
“Erases it all,” Bash repeated, and in that moment he knew, but it involved a secret he hadn’t told anyone yet, not even Deanna. “It won’t matter unless we find Ethan’s sire, but once we do, I know how to beat him.”
“What?” Ethan perked up. “How?”
“When the time comes, I’ll take care of it.”
None of them were happy with that answer, but Bash was saved from any rebuttals by the buzz of a text message.
“It’s Jay. Maximus is back from Glenwood. I’m going to take care of this.” Bash rose taller to cut off any complaints, pointing a sharp finger at Ethan. “You patrol with Siobhan as planned, see what else you can find out. Our time may be limited.”
“Okay.” Ethan looked upset at being dismissed when he obviously wanted to talk, but Bash didn’t have time for him right now.
By the Red Moonlight Page 15
