Twisted

with his birth parents, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from caring now.

“Believe me,” Aden said, reverting to his own emotionless state, “I want nothing to do with the people who left me to rot in mental institutions. The monsters who placed me in the care of doctors who hurt me and foster families who tried to beat the normal into me.”

“That wasn’t what was supposed to—” Joe pressed his lips together, but he’d already said enough. Riley had already figured it out, and now Aden knew without a doubt.

“That wasn’t supposed to be what happened to me?” Aden spat. “Was I supposed to die? Or did you think leaving me in the care of the state when I was so young was going to work out for me?”

Breath hissed through Joe’s flaring nostrils. “That’s right. Am I your father? Yes. Was there someone else like you? Yes. My father. I was dragged all over the world as a child because of the things he drew our way. And you call me a monster? You have no idea what a true monster is! I watched huge, ugly beasts kill my mother, my brother.”

“And that excuses your behavior with me?”

Joe continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “When I was old enough, I moved away from my dad and never looked back. He tried to contact me a few times before he died, killed by the same things that had killed the rest of my family, I’m sure, but I wanted nothing to do with him. I wasn’t going to live that way anymore. I had my own family to take care of.”

“You didn’t take care of me!” Aden shouted. “Why did you risk having kids, if you knew you could pass on your father’s abilities?”

“I didn’t know. He was the only one. I thought… I hoped… It wasn’t genetic, shouldn’t have been genetic. He did it to himself. Messed with things he shouldn’t have messed with.”

“Like what?”

“Magic, science.” Joe leaned down, getting in his face. “As for abandoning you, how could I not? You were just like him. About a week after you were born, they started showing up. Stray goblins at first, trying to crawl through your window, then the wolves, then the witches. Rogues, all of them, without true ties to their race, but I knew it was only a matter of time until you drew them in groups. Just a matter of time until we were running…until your mother was dead. Me, you.”

“What about the girl?” Riley asked. Aden didn’t know, not yet, but didn’t betray his lack of knowledge by speaking.

“An accident.”

“Is she—”

“I won’t talk about her!”

“Well, I don’t believe you about your reasons,” Aden said. “I managed not to draw those monsters to me for over a decade.”

“Because of the wards,” Joe replied.

Aden balled his hand into a fist. “I got my first ward a few weeks ago.”

“No. You got your first ward as an infant.”

“Impossible.”

“No. Hidden.”

Nostrils flared. “Where?”

“Your scalp.”

“The freckles,” Victoria suddenly gasped out. “Remember?”

Aden rubbed at his head. “Then why did they stop working? For that matter, if you gave them to me, if they kept the monsters away, why not keep me with you?”

Joe closed his eyes, his spine sagging. He sighed. “Maybe the ink faded. Maybe the spell was somehow broken.”

Aden and Mary Ann shared a look, and Riley figured they were remembering the first time they’d met, when an atomic bomb of power had been unleashed, summoning everything Joe had named and more.

“And as for why we didn’t keep you with us,” Joe said, “I wasn’t willing to take the chance. I had to keep your mother safe.”

“My mother.” Absolute longing radiated from Aden. “Where is she?”

“That, I will never tell.” Firm, final.

Riley refused to accept. “If you didn’t want to be found, you should have changed your names.”

Joe’s gaze met his for about half a second. “I did. For a while. But Paula…” He shrugged. “She insisted.” Had she wanted Aden to find her?

Aden straightened as if a board had just been strapped to his back. “I’ve heard enough.”

Actually, Riley thought he’d reached his limit. He might be veering close to a breakdown. Here was his dad —who still didn’t want him. Who didn’t want to help him, who didn’t so much as throw him a bone.

“What about Joe?” he asked.

“Leave him. I’m done with him.” With that, Aden walked out of the room, out of the house.

Riley motioned for the girls to follow him. When they were out of view, he tossed the gun on the floor. Rather than make a move for it, Joe stayed on the bed. “He’s a good kid, and now he’s leader of the very world you despise. And guess what? The monsters of your nightmares obey his every command. He could have protected you unlike any ward, and in a way no one else in the world could have, yet you just tossed him away like garbage. Again.”

Blink, blink. “I…I don’t understand.”

“Well, understand this—he deserved better than you. A lot better.”

Now Joe bolted to his feet. “You have no idea what I went through when—”

“Make all the excuses you want. It won’t change the facts. You didn’t protect your own son. You’re greedy, selfish and an all-around bastard. Now give me your shirt.”

The swift subject change threw the guy for a loop. “What?”

“You heard me. Give me your shirt. Don’t make me say it again. You won’t like the results.”

Joe jerked the material over his head and tossed it at him. “There. Happy?”

Riley caught it. “Not even.” There were thick scars all over Joe’s chest—scars in the pattern of claw marks. There were also other wards, and Riley recognized the biggest. It was an alert. Whenever danger approached, his entire body would vibrate. No wonder he’d known to run when Riley neared. “Understand this, Joe Stone. If we want to talk to you again, there’s no place you’ll be able to hide now.” He brought the shirt to his nose and sniffed. Though he could no longer shift and didn’t know if he could track, his brothers could still do both. “We’ve got your scent.”

With that, he, too, walked away.

TWENTY-SEVEN

THE REST OF THE DAY, the entire night, and most of the next morning, Aden spent locked inside another motel room with Victoria, Mary Ann and Riley. They pored through the photos and papers Tonya Smart had given them, taking only a few breaks to eat or stretch their legs.

Aden pounded back a pint of Victoria’s blood, appeasing Junior, Victoria downed a pint of his and a Big Mac, Mary Ann three Big Macs, and Riley a chicken nugget Happy Meal.

When teased, he’d said, “What? I like chicken,” then went back to scowling at everyone and generally acting as if he was on his period.

No one mentioned Riley’s wolf. Maybe because they knew the top of his head would explode. And no one mentioned Joe. Not even the souls. Maybe because they knew the top of Aden’s head would explode.

Joe. His father. He’d looked into those dark gray eyes, and he’d known. Part of him had even recognized the man. His father, he thought again. His. Father. The man who’d given him up. The man who hadn’t loved him enough to keep him. The man who had thrown him to the wolves—literally. The man who had admitted the truth only upon threat of death.