Silver Claws: Blood Twins

Chapter 18

18.

I was right about the broom, at least about getting hit by wood. We got back home a little after school was let out and Hannah greeted us sweet as pie. Even gave us a bit of goat cheese and crackers for a snack. Rhea and I exchanged glances. We got away with it, she shot.

When we sat down to the dinner table, I was reliving the feeling of hitting those targets and looking down at the roast beef when Hannah smacked me in the back of the head with a wooden spoon. Quick as a wink she’d given Rhea a couple more. Clever woman, waiting until our attention was on meat.

“Don’t skip school!” she said. “I told you not to bring attention to yourselves. You can’t even go a day without gettin into a ruckus. Where were you?”

“How did you know?” I asked, covering my head with my hands. That didn’t stop her, she just dinged my fingers. It was a thick spoon. My knuckles cracked with pain.

“I know things. Don’t you ever doubt that. Now where were you?”

“Out pickin berries,” Rhea said. Thock!  Hannah was fast, Rhea tried to snatch the spoon away, but Hannah had already slipped it into her apron.

“You may think this is all fun and games, but you have to grow up quick. Who were you with?”

“Lars,” I said. Rhea shot me a wicked glance. “We were out throwin’ sticks and stones.”

“Lars! That little monster?”

“He’s no monster,” Rhea said. “He’s just not been well understood.”

“Understood? That boy’s half wild.”

“There’s reasons for that,” Rhea said.

It wasn’t what she said, or even the way she said it. It was that when I tried to get in her head, Rhea was thinking her ABC’s. She had never hid her thoughts from me. She had picked around in Lars’ head to find out why such a big boy was in the class with the little uns. She had searched his thoughts to find out why he was always so angry. She didn’t have to hide that. I didn’t like that our pack of two had become three with Lars around all the time, but now Lars and Rhea seemed to be sharing secrets and forming their own pack of two.

“Sounds like you’ve gone from pushin’ him to pickin’ daisies for him,” Wilf said, chewing on his beef.

“I have not!” Rhea said. She stood up and I thought she was about to stomp out. Good. If she wouldn’t share her thoughts maybe I’d get her share of the beef.

“Sit down!” Hannah said. “Shut your gob. Eat. And let me take a round out of your brother.”

“Me?” I said.

“Yeah, what were you doing out there. With Lars?”

“I was keeping an eye on Rhea, like you said. She needs watching. Specially round him. She gets all googly eyed.”

Rhea raked my arm with her nails. Human nails, but sharp. Four lines of scraped skin appeared on my forearm. I almost returned the scratch, then remembered human boys weren’t supposed to use their nails. So I made a fist and swung at her knee. She moved and all I got was the bench and a handful of aching knuckles.

Thock! Thock! Hannah had smacked us both again. “Settle down you two. I swear you’re gonna give me a swoonin’ fit the way you keep acting. Now what were you three up to out there?”

“Tell us,” Wilfred said.

“We were shooting a gun,” I said.

Wilf raised an eyebrow. Hannah wheezed out a couple of swearwords. “You were shooting. With Lars?”

Rhea was looking at me like I was crazy. You can’t keep your blabbering mouth shut, she bolted that mind thought right into my brain.

“Yes were were,” I said, calm as an undertaker. “We need to practice. And it turns out Lars is a good teacher. I hit every can.”

“From how far away?” Wilf asked.

“Fifteen yards,” I answered. “so I gotta thank Lars for that.”

“That’s some nice shootin’,” Wilf said.

“Nice shootin’!” Hannah gave him a whack, too. “Don’t you go encouraging them.” She leveled the spoon at us. “And don’t you go skipping school for target practice.”

I rubbed my head. I didn’t know how Nero would fare if he came against our guns, but I knew he’d leave squealing if Hannah took after them with her spoon.