Evil

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER TWELVE

I hadn't even shut my bedroom door or turned on my light before Kellan grabbed my arm. He whisked me against him and everything swooshed around us. When I opened my eyes again I saw that we in the woods, near a lake.

"How—you can do that?"

He stared at me. "I can do a lot of things, Shay. I'm less human than you think."

The way he said it, like it was a promise, sent the same shivers down my back that I'd always gotten around my brother. Then I sighed and turned away. He wasn't my brother. He was a liar.

I started walking even though I had no idea where I was going.

Kellan called after me, "Anywhere you go, I'll find you. I can bring you right back here, anywhere I want, anywhere I choose. It's on my turf, sister dear. This is my time right now."

I turned sharply and glared. We both knew he wasn't talking about our actual location right then and there. "What are you talking about? Your turf? This isn't my turf? Are you trying to say that I don't belong?"

He was in front of me in a flash, gripping my arms tight. "You belong to me."

"I'm not even your sister...am I?"

He quieted, but didn't move away. His eyes gleamed softer, but I still saw the demon was fierce in him. There was something he wanted to say, but he held back. Why did he always hold back?

"Am I?"

Then he let go and stepped away. It felt like a rejection, though I didn't understand why.

Kellan took a breath and calmed down. I watched as his body seemed to become more fluid, less rigid, in front of me and knew the demon was fighting him. The demon wanted to lash out, to do what it needed to do. Kellan took control then and looked back, with a slight apology in his eyes.

"Are you going to explain anything to me?" I couldn't believe this. He still didn't say a word.

Then he did. Softly. "I am not your brother, no. I am your family, Shay. We don't share blood, but we are bonded."

Finally. Answers. My eyes closed and I felt relief flood my body. At least he was saying something honest. My voice cracked. "How long have you known?"

"All your life."

His answer blew me away. "What?"

"It's why I'm here. You're the reason why I'm here. Your mother and their father aren't either to me. I have no blood connection to the Braden name."

"What?" My entire body reeled in shock. Then that meant... "What does this mean?"

"My father is full demon and sent me to the Bradens. He wanted me here. That's all I know."

He was lying. I saw it as surely and swiftly as if I had been the one who told the lie. "You just said that I'm the reason you're here."

"You are."

"But then—you aren't making any sense. Why aren't you making sense? What are you still hiding from me?"

He smirked. "I'm hiding a lot, but so are you."

"No—" But I was and I knew it. The reason was because I didn't trust him, not fully. I loved him. I had grown up with him as my family, as my brother, but I didn't trust him. Then something shifted in me. The messenger wanted out. I felt it rallying, shaking the cage, and I gasped when it exploded inside of me. She was so strong...

My eyes switched and I saw everything in black and white. The only colors were his eyes. They were a vibrant reddish brown and seemed to smolder in front of me. Kellan's body was black, dark. Everything was white around us. I was white except for my own eyes. The reflection in Kellan's eyes showed that mine were pitch-black. And I hissed, she hissed, "Demon!"