Bad Bloods (33 page)

“The eastern one?”

I had nearly forgotten Robert had taken her
there too, but I nodded. “We’re from the eastern side originally,
and Robert thought we could get into the Eastern Flock. I didn’t
even know what a flock was.” I still wondered how Robert had known,
how long he’d been researching the situation, how much he suffered
with his powers. “Three days passed before Ida found us.” Serena
tensed at the name. “I think she was going to take us out of our
misery, especially me—I was sick from the cold—but she must have
changed her mind, because she took us to Abigail. Abigail was the
leader. She took us in. Taught us a few things. The ambush happened
two weeks later.

“That day, Luke was sick.” I took in a
breath, trying to calm down. “He probably caught whatever I had.”
Just like Blake. “And the Western Flock had strict rules. They kept
all the sick kids in the basement, so no one else would catch it.
That’s why we weren’t together that night.”

The night everyone died.

I could still hear Robert shouting, jarring
me out of my sleep, and feel him grabbing me, dragging me toward
the stairs. But unlike my dream, the reality of what followed was
sickening, and I recalled it all for Serena.

“The smoke blinded me, but nothing stopped
Robert. His bravery was something I always admired.” I forced the
image of my brother’s face out of my mind. “He never stopped
fighting for us. He promised to keep the three of us together, and
even though I begged to leave out the front door—even though that
meant leaving Luke behind—he dragged me to the basement. He would
never leave Luke behind.”

“You were just trying to survive,” Serena
said.

I nodded. “I know.” I placed a hand on my
chest as the rest of the night flooded in. “Sometimes, in the
middle of the night, I’ll wake up with sweat drenching my chest and
think it’s the blood and muck I was covered in that night.” The
first dead person we saw was Victor, who opened the front door. The
first alive person to die in front of us was a cop. The second was
the person who killed the cop to protect us.

“At the top of the basement stairs, a cop met
us. I thought we were going to die, but then Montana—she came out
of nowhere.” With her dark hair, fangs, and porcelain skin, she was
a modern-day vampire. “Henderson showed her in the photo for the
death toll, but what we didn’t see is so much more important.”
Goose bumps trailed up my arms as I remembered her dark abilities
and warm personality. She could stop time, only for a little while,
and I imagined that was how she saved us. It was also why she died.
She’d spent her singular moment getting us out of the way. “She was
strong and stubborn but loving. She was an untouchable angel with a
devil’s mark. She was beautiful.”

And she had remained beautiful in death
too.

“Robert disappeared down the stairs, as if
her death couldn’t even shake his focus off Luke, and I ran as fast
as my legs could take me,” I continued. “I’m amazed I didn’t trip
down the stairs, but I just wanted to see Robert.” I cleared my
throat. “I thought he’d be with Luke, but he never made it to Luke.
A cop had him.” I recalled how the officer had tried to strangle
Robert, how a gun came out, how I squeezed my eyes and did nothing
as the weapon went off. “I think I heard the body hit the floor?
I’m not sure. My ears were buzzing, and my eyes were burning, and I
was shaking—or the foundation was shaking—and the only thing that
brought my focus back was Robert’s scream.

“It was Nicholas. He saved us. Stabbed the
guy, but caught the bullet.”

The curly haired twin was still one of my
favorite people I had ever met, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell
Serena that Nicholas was the one to teach me about not saying
goodbye.

“Robert—” I swallowed my nerves. “He got
trapped beneath Nicholas. I pulled him out.” The next part was
impossible to explain. “We found Luke a few seconds later. I
think”—my brow crunched—“I think Robert thought we were finally
safe, but Luke was already shot. We found him clutching his teddy
bear.”

My voice caught in my throat. Sweat had even
collected on my palm, but Serena never let go. When I looked at
her, I saw tears in her eyes. Tears that should have been mine.

I looked away. “Robert wanted me to heal
him.” Luke was still alive, somehow. “But I—I couldn’t. He was
sick, and the injury was too much, and I was scared, and nothing
happened.” This time, I had to let Serena go. “Robert fell down
next to him, expecting him to heal, I think. And when nothing
happened, Robert started screaming at me just like our father had
done, and I—”

I couldn’t say the rest out loud, but I could
see the way Luke looked at me when I touched him, the way he smiled
like he always did, the way his smile fell as he let go. I knew he
was going to die before he did. My powers could do that to a
person. When I met Serena in Shadow Alley, I had almost done it to
her. If the injury was too much—or the sickness ran too deep—my
touch overwhelmed their system, and they died. Robert didn’t even
see Luke die because he was too busy screaming at me. But I think
he knew. His eyes shifted at the same time Luke’s had—like we were
all connected, and now the connection was broken.

“That’s when the cop came in,” I skipped
ahead. “I saw him over Robert’s shoulder, and I pushed him, and I
was shot.” My hand found my right shoulder, the only scar on my
body, the only injury that never fully healed. “Honestly,” I choked
on one thought I never let out before, “I wonder if I could’ve
healed myself that night but decided not to. I wonder…I wonder if I
wanted to die.”

After all, I thought we would get shot again
and die anyway. But Robert stopped that. “Robert blew the guy up,”
I concluded, “but when he faced me, he wasn’t the Robert I knew.”
When he killed our parents, he immediately came to save me, to hug
me, to tell me we’d be okay, that we’d always stay together. “That
night, he snapped. He—” I recalled every word he said.

“He said it was my fault,” I sputtered. “He
said we had to leave our family because of me, that Luke had died
because of me, that all of our suffering had come down to me.”

“You know that’s not true.”

“Serena,” my voice cracked.

“He was a child too,” she said. “He didn’t
know what he was saying.”

“I—” I considered everything. “I know that.”
But I didn’t want to know that. “But I should’ve died that night. I
should’ve died a long time ago.”

“No—”

I stopped her. “Abigail died. She was a
leader who saved dozens. I’m a leader with fewer kids, but I didn’t
die. Nicholas died saving us. I saved Tessa, but I didn’t die.
Victor died opening a door. I opened that door, Serena. And I.
Didn’t. Die.”

“You didn’t put the guns in their hands.”

“Is this your plan?” I asked, standing up
even though my knees felt as if they’d buckle at any moment. “You
wanted to hear my story so you could tell me what to think about
it? How to feel?”

“That’s not why,” she interrupted, nearly
screaming as she stood up.

“Then why listen? Why ask? Why come back at
all and talk to me if all you’re going to say is cliché bull—”

“It’s not your fault!” This time, she did
scream over me, but it was her tears that silenced me. “It’s not.”
She sat down, and her voice dropped with her.

“I wish I could believe you,” I said, feeling
the bitter tone leave me.

“You will,” she said, too calm, too
calculating.

I backed up against the door, but her grays
eyes never left me. She wasn’t afraid to look at me, to see me, to
hear my story. It was her own that was shaking her, and I wasn’t
sure I wanted to hear it.

“I think I knew,” she said. “I think I knew
you were both in the Western Flock.”

I couldn’t breathe. She’d finally figured out
she met Robert that night, something Robert and I had seen from the
beginning. When Robert escaped, he found her on her parents’
doorstep. He took her. I followed him, but Calhoun found me. Serena
had been with us from the beginning of our end.

“I knew this whole time,” she confessed, “but
I refused to see it.”

“Why?” I asked, but she didn’t answer. She
didn’t say a thing, and her silence—when paired with my
confession—tore at me. “Because it’s too much?” I couldn’t even
help my snarl, my pain, my reasoning for never telling anyone in
the first place. After they knew, all they had was pity. Love ended
like all those lives had.

Serena shook her head, and my stomach twisted
as I tried to guess what she would say. “Then, why? Why didn’t you
see it? Why’d you pretend this whole time?”

“Because it’s not your fault the Western
Flock was ambushed that night,” she whispered. “It’s mine.”

It
was 3:45 in the morning when time stopped. I could feel it in the
prickly sensation on my skin. I had felt it once before. I had
sensed her many days ago, and I squirmed, ready to run, but I
stopped.

I knew she was there before I ever saw her.
It was their energies that gave them away—a field I felt more
strongly when I was a child, so much so that her presence awoke me
from my sleep—and now, I was left to stare into the empty darkness,
knowing she’d finally found me the way I found her.

We sensed one another, and I knew this day
would come. I always knew. It was why I stole my father’s
pocketknife. I couldn’t stay invisible forever.

“I know you’re there,” I said, and as if I
dedicated the angel of death, she curled out of the shadows. At
five years old, I recognized my inner demons in another person.
Montana was the answer I had been looking for.

“Hello, child.” Her icy blue eyes were as
unnatural as I felt, but I pretended she was different from me. I
held up the pocketknife between us, the moonlight reflecting off
the metal. At five years old, my violence was years beyond me. In
fact, I think I had stolen that too—along with the souls—of all the
strange people I’d touched and sensed.

“Do you know what a bad blood is?” Montana’s
voice was as warm as the summer wind, but her stare reminded me of
how cold it was outside. Her explanation was even colder, and she
never bothered to look at my weapon. The vampire girl told me
exactly what I was.

A bad blood.

I wasn’t human. I never was, and I never
would be. On top of that, I wasn’t the only one who could sense bad
bloods. With the flick of Montana’s hand, a rainbow-haired girl
appeared by her side. Her chocolate skin was as beautiful as her
plump curves. She looked like a fairy from my mother’s stories,
while Montana played the part of the deceiving monster.

The two women sat in front of me like friends
would, smiling, inviting, accepting. But Montana frightened me. Her
striking height and muscular arms warned me of her strength, but
her fragile smile was as bright as her inhuman gaze. I looked at
them for a full minute before I looked at my clock. Still 3:45 in
the morning. Time had truly frozen.

I didn’t know what I was up against at
all.

“Stay away,” I screamed, but Montana didn’t
flinch. Demons never had fear.

Ida was the one whose eyes widened, and she
pulled Montana back, whispering in her ear. When Ida turned back to
me, she smiled. Her teeth were colored like rainbows too. “We
aren’t here to hurt you.”

She then told me other stories—stories so
unlike my mother’s stories that I felt as if I were living in a
nightmare. Bad bloods weren’t accepted into society. Cops took the
bad blood kids away, and they were never seen again. My father was
a cop. He wouldn’t protect me. My family wouldn’t be my family
anymore, but they could give me a home. They could show me safety.
They needed me.

Before I knew it, Montana was sitting right
next to me. When I moved the knife, ready to strike her, the blade
flew out of my hand and up into the ceiling. It stuck there, and I
was stuck too. Montana’s eyes caught mine, and I was frozen like
the time.

She placed her hand on my cheek, and as if
she had bewitched me with a charm, I leaned closer to her, so close
that I could smell the rosemary on her. I could feel her nails on
my skin, and every bit of her enchanted me. Her lips were so
beautiful. Her abilities swarmed into me, her soul unbelievable,
her vision of the world so bright.

“You must visit our flock.” Her voice, like
moonlight. “It’s a safe place, a place where you can help us.” Her
gaze, like stars. “We need people like you.”

“Someone like you can help us find others and
save them,” Ida said, sitting on my other side, but all I saw was
Montana. All I felt were her powers. She was like a vampire, but
she was so much more than that. She could see only the beauty in
the world. Nothing was ugly when she touched me. “I can mentor you.
I can teach you anything you want to know.”