Evil - Tijan Page 0,29

learn.

When I got to the house, instead of going to my room, I went to Kellan’s. It felt strange going up there without him there and especially because the last time I’d been there had been when I’d stayed with him. The place seemed to hold his presence in it, even though he wasn’t there. I felt him everywhere. Strongly. Suppressing a shiver, I glanced around and tried to focus on what I needed to do. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was looking for, but I wanted some idea of where he might’ve been. Maybe he had written down some information…maybe not. I doubted it, but I was willing to try. When I didn’t find anything, I wasn’t surprised. My brother was a very clean person/demon. Then I sighed and gave up. As I went to my own room, something was nagging at me, almost tickling the back of my neck. It was like I was forgetting something…

Then I groaned and called my sister. When she answered, I asked, “Has Leah been at school this week?”

There was silence and then, “No. I didn’t even notice.”

“He’s probably there. Don’t you think?”

“Are you going over there?”

“I guess. I mean, I have to, right?”

“It’d be good if you talked to him soon.”

“Okay.” I nodded. “I’ll go over there.”

“Okay.” Her voice sounded curt, as if she had been interrupted.

I asked, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly and hung up.

And that meant she was doing something. I shook my head and left again for my car. I could only handle one of my siblings at a time. As I went outside, Vespar was walking toward me. His eyebrows shot up. “Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.” I threw that over my shoulder as I passed him swiftly. He turned to ask again, but I shut my car’s door and quickly reversed to drive away. Vespar still stood there as I turned onto the road. I could feel his confusion.

As I drove to Leah’s, I tried to remember the way. I’d only been there once to pick up Kellan. I never asked questions, and he never offered any answers. He’d reeked of sex, though, and a part of me didn’t want to find him in the same manner. As I pulled up to her house, I tried to sense Kellan from my car. I sensed him good and plenty. His presence wrapped around me like a blanket. It was powerful, so powerful that when I went to the door, I half expected him to answer it himself. He didn’t. Leah did, looking pale and gaunt. Her eyes had a scattered look in them, like she was in the middle of a stampede and didn’t know where to go for safety.

“Is my brother here?”

Before she could answer, Kellan asked from a back room, “What’s wrong?”

Leah vanished into a back room, and I turned to scrutinize my brother. He looked tired. Why did he look tired? I asked as much, but he clenched his jaw and countered with, “Why did you come here?”

“Because Gus asked me to find you.”

“Why?” He narrowed his eyes and rubbed his jaw, but glanced toward the room Leah had gone into.

I looked, too, and wondered what had happened between them. Why was he here? What was wrong with Leah? “Is this about her stepfather?” Then I looked around again and saw how sparse it seemed. It was as if only Leah lived there. I couldn’t feel anyone else. “Where’s her mother? Her real father?”

Kellan grimaced. “Our siblings got too excited last week.”

I waited for more of an explanation, but he didn’t offer any. “That’s it? What does that mean?”

“It means…” He weighed his words. “It means that when they came here, Leah’s stepfather wasn’t alone. Her mother and real father were also here. They’d all been having an argument, but Vespar didn’t care. Neither did our sister.”

I reeled from what he said. That meant…no wonder the blood had affected me so much. I’d tried to become numb this past week because of that night. I didn’t know what to do, or if I should do something. I asked, shaken, “So…what are you doing here?”

“I’m trying to make her better.” Kellan still watched the door, as if he could see her through it. “She asked me for help, to stop her stepfather from hurting her. She didn’t ask for this. She’s hurting even more.”

“Wipe her memories. You do it all the time.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. After what we did to Matt, I