Bad Bloods (10 page)

“Letters?”

I yanked it out of my pocket, the one that
didn’t hold my fake ID, and I shook it in front of me. “Letters,” I
confirmed, hearing my voice scratch against my throat. “They’ve
always wanted me back, and I’ve stayed here. They—”

“Give me that.” He held out his hand like I’d
actually hand it over.

I shoved it back in my pocket as a
response.

His hand fell, and his head dropped with it.
The heat is what rose. His anger and the heat. His powers scattered
tiny heat waves across the living room. One of the kids cried.
Someone else pulled them toward the basement. Robert’s fingers
shook. I wasn’t budging.

“You will stop seeing them or you will stop
seeing us,” Robert said, finally.

Steven shot up. “You can’t do that—” Even he
knew who I’d choose, but Steven silenced when Robert held his palm
up.

Robert, with one flick of his hand, could
blow anything up. Walls. Cars. People. But Robert would never aim
at Steven. He would never aim at any of us. And he dropped his hand
as soon as he raised it, as if—for one second—he forgot how the
normally harmless gesture could kill someone. Now, he folded his
arms across his T-shirt, his brown eyes darker than I remembered.
“You broke my trust.”

“I’m not the one who broke the trust,” I
snapped. He hadn’t kicked me out after escaping a blood camp, but
he was trying to after I saw my parents. His reasoning was
unreasonable.
He
was unreasonable. And while I thought we
were all liars, sinners, and murderers, Robert pretended he wasn’t.
“You lied to us.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Lied to you? About
what?”

“The Northern Flock?” It left my throat in a
scream. “The horrible leader? The wicked group of children more
dangerous than the government?” Robert paled with each list.
“Bullshit.”

I turned on my heel to leave the house, but
Niki blocked the front of the door, and before I could shove the
minion away, Robert grabbed my arm. I twisted out of his grip, and
he stumbled back, placing his hands in front of his chest like he
hadn’t meant to scare me.

He lowered them slowly, staring at me like I
was a wild animal—not a bad blood—and I realized most of the world
didn’t see a difference anyway.

“What?” he stuttered. “What are you talking
about?”

“I met them, Robert,” I sighed, nearly
stomping my own foot on the ground. “All of them.”

Silence engulfed us, even though the entire
flock was standing around us, listening, watching, and in them, I
saw Daniel’s flock. Ami looked like the doll version of Vi. Ryne
and Jake were nearly identical. Briauna might have been friends
with Kally. And Robert stared back at me, reminding me of one
person.

“They are just like us,” I squeaked. “They
are just as young and powerful and weak and messed up as us.” The
words tumbled out of me, frantic. “They should be our allies—”

“Get out.” Robert jabbed his finger at the
door. “Get. Out.”

“No.”

“No?” Robert’s pointing hand never fell. It
shook as he yelled, “This is
my
house.”

“I killed them too!” I yelled back. “Or have
you forgotten the family that lived here?” The memories flooded
back, one by one, the dog, the mom, the dad, the kid. “Don’t you
remember how I—”

“Shut up.”

“What?” I wouldn’t shut up. “You can expose
me all you want, but I’m expected to keep your secrets locked up?”
I would never be locked up again. Not even for Robert.

“Stop,” he said, quieter this time. “Stop
right now.”

“Tell them how you were covered in blood that
night.”

Robert paled.

I gestured to everyone. “I could tell them if
you want.”

The door exploded. One second, it was as cold
as snow, like all the heat evaporated, and the next, the house was
boiling, and wood scattered everywhere. Niki screamed. Others
ducked. And I was perfectly still, only looking down as a piece of
the splintered door slid across the wood floor. It stopped against
my shoe.

When I looked up, Robert looked back at
me—his brown eyes as wide as they had been that night. His cheek
even bled. I could see him. I could see that night.

Steven grabbed Robert’s arm, somehow crossing
the room in all the chaos. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he
asked, spitting at his own leader. When he looked at me, his hazel
eyes were slits. “You too.”

Robert slumped out of Steven’s grip and
almost fell to the floor. Steven grabbed a nearby chair and put
Robert in it. Our leader gripped the edges like he had to hold
himself in.

Steven watched him watching me. I looked at
everyone. Melody sat on the floor now, screaming her lungs out,
tears flowing down her round cheeks, and Ami checked each kid for
injuries. None of them were bleeding. They had been too far away.
But Niki was right next to the door, and her bicep was cut, deeper
than Robert’s face was. I wondered if I had been hurt, but I didn’t
feel anything. Robert looked at me like he had the opposite
problem; he felt too much.

“We could get caught,” Niki hissed, ignoring
her own injury as her red eyes darted around the room, searching
for a way to cover the door.

Steven was already stretching out a piece of
wood, forming it with his powers to replace it. Another chair,
turned into a door. “We’ll be fine,” he said. “As long as we
refrain from killing each other,” he added.

“She’s the one exposing us to the enemy,”
Robert said it like a child would, in a half-hearted, defeated
sneer.

“Don’t,” Steven warned, but Robert
persisted.

“Isn’t that who you were with? The Northern
Flock?” Robert asked, a twitching frown shooting across his lips
when I didn’t respond. “You’re one of them now, right? Or isn’t it
Daniel that saved you from the camp? At least say it to my
face.”

His words did nothing to me. “Is that why you
follow him?”

“He’s in the Northern Flock, Serena,” Robert
said every word slowly, like it mattered, but he failed to
recognize that it didn’t. The flocks were the same.

“You’re right,” I agreed. “And they’re the
ones who are going to save us.”

Robert leaned back at this, finally releasing
his chair, but it was Steven who leapt between us and demanded more
answers. “What are you talking about?”

“The rumor? The one about Henderson’s
daughter?” I didn’t look at Robert as I explained. “Henderson wants
a replacement, and he wants me to do it.”

“What?” Robert’s voice cracked.

“And Daniel’s friend set it up,” I said,
catching his eyes over Steven’s shoulder. “Do you know what I told
him?” Robert froze like he was actually conjuring a response, but I
didn’t give him time to. “I told him I’d only do it if you two saw
each other again—if you could stop hating each other—because all I
could think about was
you
.” I was shouting again, but this
time, Steven was holding me back and Robert could only stare. “All
I could think about was how much this flock needs you and how much
you need an ally if I’m gone.”

Robert tensed, and his bottom lip opened up
like he wanted to speak but couldn’t.

“We’re all going to die if you two can’t be
allies.” My voice wavered. The idea of either of them dying killed
me. It didn’t matter how much we fought. Robert and I raised one
another. I loved him as much as I could love anyone, but the
opportunity Daniel gave me would allow me to keep loving
people.

Robert’s glower deepened as he processed my
words. “We…” he started, his voice trembling before he glared at
the wall. “I don’t need allies.”

I studied him, trying to imagine what was
happening behind his forced glare, but I only saw emptiness. It was
impossible to fathom what caused them to hate one another so much
they’d allow others to die for it, and I didn’t even care to think
about it anymore. I was too tired. I was done guessing.

“If you don’t need allies, then you don’t
need me.”

I stomped toward the empty space where the
door used to be, and Niki tried to stop me. Her blood even smeared
on my arm as I brushed her off and stepped out onto the front
porch.

“Where are you going?” she asked as if she
had the right to know.

“Like you care.”

“It’s too cold,” she said it like she did
care. “Don’t leave.”

Her thick dreads blended in with the night,
but her beady red eyes cut right through it. I tried to recall the
moment she started hating me, when our relationship changed, but
she only reminded me of Robert, and I realized everything reminded
me of Robert. Even Daniel.

Robert was a shadow in all of my
memories—helping me with my powers, coaxing me out of my fears,
welcoming me home over and over again—and I wanted him to continue
to be in my memories. It was the singular reason I wanted Daniel
and him to meet again. I wanted Robert to live, and if you wanted
to survive Vendona, you had to make every sacrifice possible. But
Robert wouldn’t do it, and I wondered if Robert wanted to live at
all. It was then I realized why he reminded me of Daniel, why
Daniel was so familiar when I met him. They were like me—already
dead—and we had nothing left to do but die again. So I did what I
always did.

I ran like death waited with open arms.

I didn’t go back
to the Northern Flock’s house. I didn’t go to Calhoun’s house or
even my parents’ house. In fact, I didn’t even know where I was
going until I ended up there.

The only bridge in Eastern Vendona supposedly
helped cars pass over a flood point in the countryside leading up
to the ocean, but I’d never seen the water. During the winter, the
concrete space only collected cold air and cold stares. Despite the
poor population of Vendona, most citizens somehow justified judging
the homeless, and I imagined I looked homeless beneath the eastern
bridge. In the thirty-six hours that passed (I knew this, because
you could see a clock tower in the Highlands from the bridge), I
realized one thing: Niki was right. It was too cold, and curling up
didn’t help. The only thing that would help was Robert, snuggled up
next to me, the way we had stayed warm when we were kids.

At first I thought I was hallucinating, that
I was only imaging Robert there with me, but then my once-numb
muscles began to ache as they warmed up. My fingertips burned as
they found his coat, preparing to push him away, but I couldn’t
help but clutch onto him, shaking. I was so cold. Too cold. And he
was a born heater. His powers always made him warm, and I was too
frozen to pull away.

“Just warm up,” Robert said, his breath
skimming my cheek, his fingers stroking my hair.

I closed my eyes and listened to him. His
voice had deepened over the years, and his arms were stronger,
larger now. But he still sat the same way, his right leg propped up
in a bend, his left leg curled under me, his arm wrapped around
either side of me after he pulled me into his lap. He always rested
his chin in the cranny of my neck. It hurt, but I never told him. I
was always afraid he’d move away then.

“Everyone’s out looking for you,” he said it
like he wasn’t sure if he should, like I’d beg him to leave me to
get the others back inside. “I should’ve known you’d come
here.”

We’d stayed here in the beginning, after all.
It was practically my home, even if we lived off the streets for
years after that night.

“Do you know why I took you?” he asked,
causing our first night to flood in like liquid fire through my
veins. I wasn’t sure if it was his powers or mine, but I knew both
of our emotions were out of control. Everything was. Our lives were
complete chaos, and it all started on that night. But he never knew
why I was sitting on my front porch, and I never knew why he was
covered in blood. I just knew we ran.

“I needed somebody,” Robert explained, his
voice faltering on the last word. “I needed a reason to stay
alive.” He skimmed my chin with his hands, and I caught his eyes,
shadows of themselves. “You did too.”

I clung to him, regaining all the feeling in
my muscles. Still, my throat ached when I found my voice. “What
happened that night?”

His brown eyes softened, but his hand never
left my chin. “You don’t remember?”

I couldn’t say if I did or not.

“I suppose I’ve always known that,” he
decided, dropping his hand from my chin. He stared at the ground
like Vendona would swallow us up. “You don’t want to remember.”

My mind was blank as I reached back into my
pocket and yanked out my new ID. Before I could hesitate, I grabbed
his hand and placed the ID in his palm. His eyes locked on it, his
expression never budging. Vendona had swallowed us up a long time
ago.

“I can save everyone,” I said, even though
there was no guarantee.

His shoulders tensed, but air escaped him in
a painful sigh.