Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Kyle is sure it won’t remain a secret much longer.
Nico also explained how the humans donated blood based on their assigned number, which replaced the use of real names. What strikes Kyle as most interesting is that Kaleb was given such a high number, he never once donated blood. He can’t help but wonder if that was intentional somehow. Did Tristan have a part in deciding what number Kaleb received?
Was Tristan, in some twisted way, protecting Kaleb?
Raya has been pacing up and down the aisle with perfect balance, unaffected by the soaring speed of the bus, as graceful as a ballerina. “No, there isn’t much more to say about Mance,” she says when Kyle asks her once again if they have anything to worry about. “I’m quite sure his time has come to an end. Finally. He’s a dirty, washed-up pervert with an unfortunate power over the dead. A pervert Tristan both summoned and took care of, apparently.” She finally sits on the edge of the seat behind Nico, peering down at Kaleb, her eyes turning sad. “I still don’t know if this whole thing was part of some diabolical master plan of Tristan’s … or just absolute madness that turned out this way.”
Kyle sits with that thought. How much of his own life has been part of Tristan’s master plan, if any of it at all?
“Sorry, said his name again.” Raya sighs. “Your body keeps reacting. You’re too easily shaken by mention of him.”
Kyle snorts. “Can you blame me?”
“Of course not. But it doesn’t mean you can’t try.”
“To what? Feel nothing?” He could almost laugh. “He led me to believe my brother was dead, all this time. Kept me and my brother apart. Ended my mortal life as I knew it.”
“We all have dark beginnings,” states Raya impatiently. “If you had a day and a night to listen to mine, you’d be through the floor. Dead and through the floor. Halfway to Hell.” She makes a swatting gesture with her hand, as if to flick away the memory. “I’ll give you the same advice I gave Kaleb. You must become stronger than your feelings. One day, maybe not so far from now, your life may depend on how you react to them.”
Kyle peers down at his sleeping, bandaged-up brother, the gauze covering most of his face, his limp arms. “You … gave my brother advice?”
“Yes. Unsolicited, albeit, but I believed he needed it.” Raya gazes at him. Something soft touches her eyes. “Or maybe … I needed him just when he and his music came into my life not long ago. I’m not usually so taken by mortals. But Kaleb …” She peers at Kyle now. “I think you should know I … only just found out who he is. Mere nights ago. I didn’t understand the extent of what Tristan had done. Learning about it … is what recently ended our lifelong friendship.”
That brings Kyle’s eyes fully to hers, solemn and silent.
Raya places a hand on Kaleb’s head, fingers brushing through his exposed hair. “Keeping you and your brother apart all those years … that’s just the start of the horrors Tristan has done.”
“Just the start?”
“I feel like I’ve lost Tristan to … something. Something dark. This plot he concocted with Mance, it may have been to satisfy some bigger, secret purpose I wasn’t aware of … a bigger purpose I’m still not fully aware of. I suspect everything that has happened tonight … was intended to happen.”
Kyle peers back down at his brother.
The way he almost looks like he’s sleeping. The gauze, the bandages, they’re just bed sheets over his face, one eye peeping out, peaceful. His breathing, the pattern of it, the rhythm and cadence, even that’s the same as it used to be.
Kyle doesn’t want to think about ulterior purposes. Doesn’t want to think about other horrors Tristan has done, nor what his brother went through over the years. He just wants to bask in this inexplicably warm and comforting feeling right now.
This feeling that no matter where he is, as long as Kaleb is by his side, Kyle feels at home.
A feeling Kyle hasn’t known in decades, since the night his family was lost, that night when his life was turned into a living nightmare of blood, fire, and running away.
With Kaleb in his arms again, there is no more running.
His family is back.
Then: boom.
The bus lurches, swerves. Elias grips the wheel, corrects it. “What the fuck was that—?” he starts.
Another loud boom, a heavy thump, overhead.
Kyle looks up, gripping his brother tighter. His Reach casts out automatically, senses nothing.
Nothing …
“Vampires,” murmurs Kyle, realizing. “They followed us.”
“You kidding me?” blurts Elias from the front. “You sure I didn’t just hit something on the road?”
Raya rises, stares upward, perhaps picking up on something of her own. “Only one,” she reports, eyes fixed to the ceiling. “I can hear them. Their heart is like a … a fluttering bug.”