Twisted

If he’d shown any hint of remorse…but no, Joe Stone was ashamed of who and what Aden was, even denying him the opportunity to see his mother, his sister. And now Aden felt as if he were bleeding inside. Bleeding and unable to suture the wound. There was a steady drip, drip inside him. He had a sister; Riley had seen her toys. Joe apparently loved the little girl in a way he’d never loved Aden.

Drip, drip.

For years he’d dreamed about meeting his parents. About his dad coming to his rescue, telling him how much of a mistake letting him go had been, about how loved he was. Then, when none of that had happened, the want had sharpened into indifference, and eventually the indifference into dislike.

One look at Joe and the want had returned.

Yet no matter what Aden had said, Joe had regarded him as a liability. I’ve made something of myself, he’d wanted to say. I’m king of the vampires now. More than that, I earned the title. It wasn’t handed to me. Would his father have regarded him with horror then? Probably.

That wouldn’t stop him from wanting to be king. Or acting as king. Already he’d gotten texts from Sorin and Seth. Shannon sat in his cell and stared at the wall—until someone entered with blood for him. Then he attacked. Ryder was on the mend, yet inconsolable about what he’d done, and begged everyone who approached him to kill him.

Sorin wanted to grant his request; Seth wanted to eliminate Sorin.

Aden had commanded them both to leave the boy alone and let him heal. Oh, yeah. And to suck it. They were supposed to help him, not hinder him.

Hey, I think I know them, Julian said excitedly, cutting into Aden’s thoughts.

Focus, he had to focus. He peered down at the photo in his hand and saw two men. Both were of average height. One had thinning dark hair and glasses, the other had a full head of dark hair and no glasses. They were standing side by side, though they weren’t touching. Or smiling. The back of the photo read Daniel and Robert.

So. Here were the Smart brothers.

Do you think that’s really me? Julian asked. The one with the hair and without glasses, I mean. I would not have sported a comb-over.

How do you know? Caleb asked. Or rather, grumbled. But at least he wasn’t crying. We don’t know anything about our former selves.

“I’m glad you recognize the guys, but do you remember anything about them?” Aden asked. “Or why there are spell books in this box?” Lots of spell books. And the papers? All about casting spells. Love spells, black magic spells. Spells to raise the dead. Spells to find the dead. Was that how Robert had done what he’d done?

If so, why didn’t Aden need spells to do what he did? Joe had claimed even his grandfather had used magic. Julian sighed. No. I don’t remember.

Eve hadn’t, either. Not at first.

Still. It was only a matter of time now.

“And the Boy King is back from la-la land,” Riley muttered.

Boy King? Aden flipped him off, and Victoria batted his hand to the mattress. They were on one bed, and Riley and Mary Ann were on the other. Since leaving Joe’s house, the pair hadn’t spoken a single word to each other. They were stiff, unwilling to even glance at each other.

“Julian thinks he knows these guys. So, who’s who?”

A yawning Mary Ann stood and clomped over to study the photo. “I saw pictures of Daniel on the internet. That’s him, and that’s Robert.”

No way, Julian said.

Caleb snickered, and Aden was heartened by the sound. If Julian was Robert, as Mary Ann suspected, then Julian had indeed been the guy with thinning hair and glasses.

“He was known for communicating with the dead and helping the police find bodies. I printed out a few stories.” She dug through a nylon bag Riley had fetched earlier and handed Aden a thick stack of papers. “Should have given these to you before. Sorry.”

“No problem. We’ve all been pretty busy.”

“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “For you to absorb his soul into your mind, he would have had to die near the hospital. Which makes sense. His brother worked there, so Robert was probably visiting Daniel. What if he visited, raised one of the corpses in the morgue, and that corpse killed them both?”

“From what you told me before, only Daniel was found dead in the hospital that night,” Riley said. “And he’d been mauled to death.”

“Right,” Mary Ann agreed.

Well, well. Conversation.

Riley raised his arms as if she’d just made his point for him. “So where was Robert’s body?”

“Never found.” She shrugged. “He just disappeared.”

“Well, he had to have died that night, too. And nearby, just as you said, or Aden wouldn’t have absorbed him,” Victoria said.

“What if Aden absorbed Daniel?” Riley asked.

Julian grabbed onto that rationale like a lifeline. The one with the hair? I’m liking Riley’s theory.

“But Daniel had worked at the hospital for years,” Mary Ann replied. “Why hadn’t he raised the dead before then? Someone would have noticed.”

Riley arched a brow, looking her up and down with a darkness Aden had never before seen from him. “Maybe he had latent abilities. It happens.”

She popped her jaw. “Maybe. So?”

So, they all knew he was referring to her draining.

“Please don’t make me referee,” Aden told them. “Anyway, I think we can all agree Julian was one of the Smart brothers.”

If by one of you mean the handsome one, then yes, I agree, Julian said.

Junior made a mewling sound in the back of Aden’s mind. The ever-growing monster was hungry. Again. And he was getting harder and harder to appease, craving more and at shorter intervals.

“I’ll read the stories,” Aden said, “and see if anything jumps out at Julian.”

“Going back in time helped Eve remember,” Mary Ann reminded him. “Maybe you should let Julian take over and take you back and relive one of the stories through his eyes.”

Time travel. Nearly everyone in this room had suggested he go back at some point, and he couldn’t seem to make them understand the consequences. “Change something in the past, and you change something in the future—a something that could leave you snot-crying for what used to be.”

“Look at us, Aden,” Mary Ann said. “Can things get any worse than this?”

“Yes.” Indubitably.

“Well, I don’t see how.”

Okay, how about this? “I could wake up and never have come to Crossroads. Never have met you.”

Dark hope turned her eyes into fathomless pools. “Maybe that would be a good thing.”

Victoria’s chin trembled, as if she was fighting tears. “She’s right. If you had not come to Crossroads, my father would not be after you.”

“Think about it, Aden,” Riley said.

What was this? Gang up on Aden hour? “There’s another way to help Julian,” he said. “And we’re all going to be fine. Aren’t we, Elijah?”

Silence.

Hated silence.

“Talk to me, please.” He hunched forward, resting his face in his upraised hands. “At the very least, argue the pros and cons of what they’re wanting.” Not that Aden would ever consider going back. “Don’t just leave me hanging.”

A sigh, familiar, adored, necessary. I’m not going to tell you what I’ve seen, Aden.