were close… we were the only thing we had. Our parents rejected us as soon as they figured out we were ‘unnatural.’ They wanted to kill us, but we managed to escape and survive merely by the fact that we weren’t as easy to kill. They claimed demons had taken us over.” He looks over at me. “I loved my brother dearly growing up. It was us against the world. Us against everything because we were monsters in a world that’d never seen a monster before.”
“I’m sorry. That had to be horrible,” I say as I pull my clothes off.
I still hesitate before taking my leg off when the light is on. I know he can probably see me just as well or even better when the lights are off, but if it’s dark, I can’t tell if he’s looking at me and I can pretend he’s not.
“Thanks. But we survived. It was many years ago. Then he turned into a pretentious annoyance. Like a mosquito or a…”
“Vampire?” I helpfully suggest as I set my fake leg in its spot by the side of the bed. Then I remove my arm and set it in its spot before trying to slide under the covers. I can’t because there’s a giant creature on the bed taking up the entire spot left for me. Artie had dived under the covers when Marcus lifted them, even though the room is certainly not cold.
“Not vampire,” Marcus says, sounding offended I’d suggest such a thing.
“I can’t fit on the bed.”
“Just lie on top of him,” Marcus says as he tugs me toward him.
I let him pull me over the top of Artie who seems to think that this is an ideal situation. “Where’s Hela?”
“On my head,” he grumbles.
I reach up to his pillow and feel Hela snuggled right up against his head. So there I am, squished between Artie and Marcus, and even though I generally can’t sleep very well with no room to move, tonight it feels welcoming.
“Your father has already hovered around the room twice. I’m not sure he even sleeps anymore,” Marcus says.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever been safer,” I tease as Artie takes that moment to stretch by putting his foot right against my back and shoving me into Marcus. “Never mind! You guys are abusive!”
“We are? Artemus can sleep on the floor. I brought his bed!”
“How dare you?” I hiss before reaching over to Artie and scratching under his chin even though he’s currently trying to deskin me with his rough paws. “It’s okay, Artie, I’d make him sleep on the floor before you.”
“Really? You’d fit better.”
I glare at him. “Nope,” I say as I snuggle up against Marcus. When we first started sleeping together, I made him switch sides on the bed so when I’m on my side, I can wrap my arm around him, but it pushes my weight into my other arm.
I know if Marcus figured that out, he’d break his neck to make me switch sides, but right now, I want to pull myself into Marcus, I want to hold him to me and squeeze him tightly because I’m not sure I’m as all right as I’m pretending to be. I knew he was back. I knew he was coming for me, but now… now for him to have gone to this much work just because of me. And what’s his obsession with me? Why am I alive today? Why wasn’t I one of the ones the police found? Why wasn’t it my body the medical examiner was picking apart?
Marcus reaches out and pushes my hair back before cupping my cheeks. “It’ll be okay,” he says, voice gentle and sweet.
I nod. “Thank you.”
“How about I tell you more about my brother?”
“I’d love that.”
So I listen to a story about his brother trying to steal a chicken and somehow, Marcus’s dry humor makes the whole situation ridiculous and hilarious, enough that I manage to push all those other thoughts back and focus on him and only him.
Just the way I wish it could always be.
As I walk through the doors leading out to freedom, my classmates and friends crowd around me. They’re talking about plans for the weekend, and I keep telling them that I already have some friends who asked me to do something because I don’t want to tell them I’m more interested in going with Orin and my sister to the theater than a party thrown by the seniors. I try to blame it