by Alicia Rades
“I will,” he promised. “Eventually.”
9
Venn ~ Four Years Ago
I remembered it like it was yesterday. I’d spent years of endless nights replaying the events over and over again so that each detail could never escape my memory. I suppose I tortured myself because somewhere deep down inside of me, I had hoped I could go back and change it. But no matter how much I replayed it, nothing would ever change. Each morning I woke, I was still alone. My brother was gone.
Gramps had been drinking that night. I wished I could say there was a reason for it, like he was trying to drink away the memory of Grams, but he’d picked up the whiskey bottle long before Grams died. The fact was, the man was trash, and there was no reason for it.
“Give me the damn remote,” he muttered under his breath as he snatched it from Tyson’s fingers. He plopped down into his old, tattered recliner and took a swig of whiskey straight from the bottle.
My brother and I exchanged a glance from where we sat beside each other on the couch. You never argued with Gramps, especially when he got in these moods. He’d never hit us or anything, but you sure didn’t want to hear the old man yell. The neighbors five doors down could hear it through the walls. I was sure of it.
Gramps clicked the remote, and the TV switched from cartoons to boxing. “Ya damn kids and your stupid cartoons,” he grumbled like we couldn’t hear him. “I don’t know why I waste the cable bill on ya.”
Tyson’s hands curled into fists as Gramps continued to mumble under his breath about how much of a burden we were. It was like he blamed us for our parents’ deaths and that we didn’t have anywhere else to go.
Three more years, I told myself. Three more years until I turned eighteen and could legally get out of this hell hole. Tyson and I did our best to stay out of Gramps’s way and to clean up after him, but we could never get the smell of vomit out of our mattresses that had been there since we’d moved in, or the mysterious rotting stench that came from the kitchen drain. Our clothes were all hand-me-downs, and Tyson was in serious need of a new pair of shoes. They were ready to fall apart. We had to scour quarters from Gramps’s recliner to do laundry, and only managed to find enough to do a load every two or three weeks. Gramps didn’t care if his own clothes smelled like garbage and had ketchup stains on every white beater he owned. All he cared about was his boxing.
I placed a gentle hand on Tyson’s shoulder, shooting him a glance that begged him to calm down. At thirteen, he was still trying to get the whole anger management thing down. Heck, I was no expert, but at least I knew to keep my cool around Gramps.
Without a word, Tyson stood and crossed in front of Gramps to head to our room.
“Get out the goddamn way!” Gramps yelled.
Tyson all but sprinted down the hall to avoid him. He shut the door quietly, but Gramps heard it.
“Don’t you go slamming doors around here, boy!” he shouted.
I heard Tyson groan from the next room and decided to join him. I’d much rather be with him than out here with Gramps.
Slowly, I got to my hands and knees and inched my way across the carpet so I wouldn’t interrupt Gramps’s programming.
“Where you going?” Gramps demanded.
I stopped dead. “Uh, to my room.”
“Microwave me a pizza pocket, will ya, Jason?”
I was used to Gramps calling me my father’s name. At this point, I hardly noticed. I made it past the TV and got to my feet. The kitchen was small and cramped. I held my breath as I opened the freezer, hoping we weren’t out. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found a single pizza pocket in the door.
“What’s taking so long?” Gramps demanded. “It’s just a pizza pocket!”
I rushed to grab a plate, then shoved his food in the microwave. Two minutes later, I was back in the living room, handing him his dinner. He took one bite and spit it back out, straightening in his chair.
“Goddamn, that’s hot!” Gramps yelled. “You trying to burn my tongue off?”
I stepped away on shaky feet. “N-no.”
“Get outta here,” he snarled. “And take your goddamn disgusting pizza pocket with you.”
Gramps shoved the food into my hand. I was dumbstruck. I didn’t know what else to do, so I just turned away and headed down the hall to my room.
Tyson was curled up beneath his blanket, pretending like he was asleep. I placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly.
He groaned. “Go away.”
“Are you hungry?” I asked.
Tyson sniffed the air and sat up at the smell of food.
“You want to split it?” I asked.
“Gramps won’t get mad?”
The last time we’d snuck food into our room, he threw a fit for hours—said it would attract mice.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “Are you hungry?”
Tyson gazed down at his hands. “Yeah, I guess so.”
I ripped the pizza pocket in half and gave him the bigger chunk. He nibbled on it quietly.
“I’m sick of living here,” Tyson said, breaking the silence.
I sank onto my bed across from him. “I know. I am, too. Once I turn eighteen, we can leave. I’ll become your guardian or something.”
Tyson remained quiet for several moments. “What if… what if we left tonight?”
I just stared at him, unsure if I heard him correctly. “You want to run away?”
He lowered his voice so that even if Gramps was standing outside the door, he wouldn’t be able to hear. “This isn’t a life, Venn. Mom and Dad wouldn’t have wanted this for us.”
I frowned. “Mom and Dad are gone. They don’t have a say anymore.”
“Well, we should,” he argued. “We should have a say in our own lives.”
“It’s not that simple,” I said.
Believe me, I’d thought about leaving Gramps’s place plenty of times, too, but I knew it wasn’t realistic. As soon as someone found us, we’d be right back where we started, and Gramps would never forgive us for putting him through that. And if we told the state what a hell hole this was, we could end up somewhere worse.
At least Gramps never laid a hand on us. That was what I kept telling myself. To be honest, it didn’t make my life any less miserable.
“The only person who has a say is the state,” I pointed out. “If they want us here, we have to stay. It’s the law.”
Tyson finished off his pizza pocket and crossed his arms. “Not if they don’t find us. If you want to stay, fine. But I’m done.”
Tyson threw the covers off himself to reveal he was already fully clothed, with his tattered shoes on and everything. He reached beneath his bed to pull out his backpack, which was so full that it got stuck for a second.
“You can’t be serious,” I hissed.
“Yes, seriously.” Tyson stood and swung the strap of his bag over his shoulder.
I caught him by the wrist before he could reach the window. “Where are you going to go? Do you have any idea what kind of monsters roam the streets at this time of night?”
Tyson scoffed and pulled a pocket knife from his jeans. I had no idea where he’d gotten it. Probably traded it with one of his buddies at school. “I’m not afraid of a vampire. I can handle myself. Besides, we’ve been out at night plenty of times and been fine. It’s like the vamps don’t even know we’re there.”
“You should be afraid,” I snapped. “These aren’t the city streets we grew up on, Tyson. Nocton isn’t safe at night.”
“Well, I can’t exactly run away during the day,” he shot back, ripping his arm from my grasp. “Are you coming or not?”
“Tyson, you can’t go,” I said firmly, putting my foot down.
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Watch me.”
He flung open the window, but I sprang forward to catch him around the waist. He threw an elbow back and caught me in the corner of the eye. I longed to cry out, but I knew that would only get Gramps’s attention. He didn
’t need to know what was going on in here.
“Let me go,” Tyson demanded, squirming out of my grasp.
I clawed out at him, but my vision was still blurry from the blow. I couldn’t hang on.
Tyson slipped from my grip and hurried out onto the fire escape. I blinked the world back into focus and rushed behind him, but he was already racing down the rickety metal stairs.
“Tyson!” I hissed, but he kept going. I made a split-second decision. Screw the rules. Screw what Gramps might think. I had to go after my brother.
I crawled out the window and sprinted down the fire escape. Tyson reached the bottom level and jumped onto the pavement below before I’d made it down one story.
“Tyson!” I called again. I tried to stay quiet to avoid attracting any attention. The dark street below us was empty, but there was no telling what kind of monsters lurked in the shadows.
“Come on, Venn!” Tyson spun around, his arms wide out, like he was on the top of the world.
I reached the bottom level of the fire escape, which ended a good ten feet above ground. The ladder that was supposed to descend to let you all the way down was broken off. Gathering my courage, I took the leap.
My ankles ached as they twisted under me, but I caught myself with my hands and hurried back to my feet.
“This is great!” Tyson exclaimed again. “Let’s go.”
“Tyson, get back—”
I never finished the sentence before a figure leapt out of the shadows. It all happened so fast that I never saw it coming. One second Tyson was standing there with his arms spread proudly, and the next he was on the pavement, writhing beneath a vampire with a newborn bloodlust in his silver eyes.
My blood ran cold, and for a second, I just stood there. Looking back on that night, I always wondered what would’ve happened if I hadn’t frozen up. Would I have reached him in time to keep the vampire venom from entering his veins?
It felt like an eternity had passed, but that eternity had lasted a mere millisecond. When I caught sight of those pearly-white fangs glistening under the light of the street lamp, I sprang into action. No bloodsucking parasite was going to touch my brother!
A primal urge to protect rose up inside of me, and a strong tingle like I’d never felt spread across my skin. The buildings around me seemed to grow taller as I fell onto all fours, but I couldn’t make sense of the different proportions around me or the way colors swam differently in my eyes. All I could focus on was my brother and the vampire rolling around the pavement with him, trying to get a shot at his neck.
I didn’t realize at the time how strange it was that Tyson was able to fight back, that the vampire didn’t just snap his bones under his supernatural strength. I wouldn’t realize it until hours later that that was the moment Tyson’s shifter genes switched on and he came into his own supernatural strength. I didn’t even realize the same thing was happening to me—my first ever shift into a wolf.
Protect. Protect. Protect.
That was all that went through my head as I sprinted forward and slammed into the vampire. He rolled across the pavement, but he sprang to his feet a second later, like he hadn’t felt a thing. Blood covered his fangs and dripped down his chin as he curled back his lips to snarl at me like some wild animal.
Anger unlike anything I’d ever felt before swept through me when I realized that the blood dripping down his chin was my brother’s. He’d managed to get a bite, and I hadn’t even noticed.
“Venn,” Tyson’s voice called to me through the darkness.
Relief washed over me, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the angry vamp facing me, looking as if he was about to attack. A deep growl bubbled up from my throat, and I bared my canines at him.
In the blink of an eye, the vampire lunged, taking me down from all fours and onto my back. I yipped and howled as he squeezed, as if trying to break bone. I kicked my wide wolf paws at him, trying to use my sharp claws to tear at anything I could find.
I swiped at the guy’s face, barely able to make out the black fur coating my body. I knew something was different, but I didn’t have the luxury of questioning it at the moment.
The vampire reeled backward and hissed. It was enough to allow me the upper hand. I pressed my back paws against his chest and kicked outward. The vampire flew through the air and landed with a thud beside my brother.
I realized my mistake a moment too late. Tyson was lying on the ground, clutching the bleeding wound on his neck. The vampire took one look between us and decided to go for Tyson—the weakest of the two.
Faster than I could process, the vampire grabbed Tyson and tossed him over his shoulder like a ragdoll.
“Venn!” Tyson cried as sheer terror swept across his features.
I sprinted after them as the vampire disappeared into the dark alley with my brother. I ran as fast as I could, trying to follow the sound of my brother’s voice. Even long after the footsteps faded, after my brother’s cries were no longer anything more than an echoing in my own mind, and after my legs started to ache and my chest started to burn, I still pressed on.
I must’ve been wandering the streets of Nocton for hours, but it felt like years. Thick fog had settled over the streets, so much that the street lamps above my head seemed almost invisible. It was like walking through a dream. The streets were so quiet, so lonely. It didn’t feel real.
“Tyson!” I tried to call out, but it only came out as a wolf’s howl. It was like an ominous chord cutting through the night, signaling death.
He can’t be gone, I told myself. I will find him. I will find him.
I must’ve repeated those words to myself a thousand times before they seemed to lose all meaning. My limbs felt so numb that it was as if they’d fallen off my body. I tried to push forward, but eventually, I could no longer move my feet. I curled up at the side of a brick building I didn’t recognize and began to weep. I had no idea where I was and no idea how long it’d been. How had I lost him?
“Tyson,” I whispered, but again, no words came out. It sounded like a whimper.
That was when I heard a whimper return, one that wasn’t my own. I sprang to my feet immediately and forced myself to follow the sound of the voice. It sounded so familiar. Could it be…?
I turned down an alleyway between two tall buildings. Another whimper came, and I was certain this time that it was real. I rushed forward toward the noise, and a lone figure began to take shape.
A child sat curled up beside a dumpster. His chest rose and fell quickly, and little sounds kept escaping from his lips like he couldn’t control the agony inside of him.
My heart turned to water in my chest. As it did, my limbs grew, and I finally stood upright again. The cool night air brushed across every inch of my naked body, but I didn’t care. I’d found my brother.
I knelt beside him and placed a gentle hand to his shoulder. “Tyson?”
He started when I touched him, and his gaze darted to mine. Silver momentarily flashed across his irises before they returned to their normal dark brown. He blinked a few times, as if trying to process whether I was truly there or not. The wound on his neck had healed from the vampire’s saliva, but his skin had paled, as if he’d lost a lot of blood.
When my brother looked at me—like he was part my brother and part something else entirely—I felt as if my spirit left my body. My limbs moved without my command, and all I could feel was an icy coldness enter my chest. It was like I was watching the scene from up above.
“Venn?” Tyson asked through labored breaths.
“It’s me,” I whispered. “Are you okay?”
Stupid question. Of course he wasn’t okay. He was lying there shivering in the cold after being attacked by a vampire. No one would be okay after that.
Tears rose to Tyson’s eyes. “It hurts, Venn. It hurts so bad. Like fire…” He bit down on his lower lip, like the pain was too much to allow him to finish the sentence.
I wrapped him in my arms and pulled him close to me.
“We need to get help.”
Tyson shook his head. “I’m too far gone, brother.”
I knew it was true. I’d heard stories about the transformation before, but I wasn’t willing to believe it was something that would ever happen to us.
“No,” I protested. “We’ll get you to a hospital, get the venom out of you.”
Tyson went into a coughing fit, and it felt as if my heart was breaking into a million pieces. I pulled him tighter, like I could wish the venom away with enough love. But even I knew spells didn’t work that way.
Finally, Tyson found his voice. He gazed up at me. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.”
I shook my head as tears streamed down my cheeks. “It’s not your fault.”
“You warned me.” He sucked in a deep, pained breath as silver flashed across his eyes once more.
My shoulder shook in sobs. “No, Tyson. Stay with me!”
“You have to go, Venn,” he cried.
“I’m not leaving you.” I buried my face into his shoulder.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he insisted in a groggy voice.
“You won’t hurt me,” I told him.
“You know how new vampires are,” he said. “You’ve heard all about the bloodlust. There will be nothing I can do to stop myself.”
“You will.” I only said it to try to convince myself. I wasn’t ready to lose my brother, the true only family I had left.
Tears streamed down Tyson’s face, and he shook his head. “I won’t. You have to leave me. Please.”
The pleading look in his eyes was almost too much to bear. It was like he was asking me to let him suffer and die alone. I couldn’t do that.
“I’m staying right here,” I promised.
Tyson’s brows knitted together in anger. “I will bite you, Venn. So help me, I will.”
This time, I couldn’t convince myself otherwise. Tyson was telling the truth. He’d use his new fangs just to get me to leave, to protect me from himself.
Now who’s the one protecting who?
In that moment, I’d never hated myself more. I was the big brother. I was supposed to protect him… and I’d failed.
