There was an uncomfortable silence that settled between the two of them as Callas continued to stare at her phone. There was a part of her that wanted to ask why he had her phone, and for how long he had had it. Did he go through all of her messages? Did he see everything? He surely must have if he was able to get on her phone and show her the messages, even when she had a code on it. Reed wasn't impressed, that much was clear and understandable, but neither was Callas. Even with their 'no more secrets' promise, she wasn't ready to tell him about it, not now at least. He invaded her privacy, sure, with good intentions, but he invaded it nonetheless. The feeling of her throat being closed up and stuffed with her own heart began to fade as she balled her fists together tightly, allowing her nails to puncture the skin, not enough for it to bleed, but enough for it to be the only thing she felt. Callas moved her gaze from her blinding phone screen to his face, matching the same expression as his own.
"I wasn't ready to show you that, Reed," she told him slowly.
"You should have! I'm your brother, I should know—"
"Oh, give me a break!" Callas yelled, standing up from the bed. "Are you kidding me with this bullshit, Reed? You've kept secrets from me! You all have! You told me you would give me time. This doesn't look like time to me! How dare you use that line on me, I barely know who you are anymore! I barely know who any of you are!"
"Callas—"
It was all coming out now. "While we are on the subject of what we 'should' and 'should not' know, how about you tell me why our mother was murdered? Huh! She was murdered and no one thought to tell me that? What? Did you think I wasn't going to find out?"
Reed yelled at her, "Enough!" His breathing deepened. "Yes, I've kept secrets, but for good reasons," his voice was hard as he spoke, "I did what I had to do to keep you safe... from me. F-From this life!" Reed moved his gaze from her. "You know me more than anyone else does, don't say that you don't. Don't ever say that." He shook his head, his voice quietening down as he turned the phone screen off and threw it down on the bed, moving to sit with his legs hanging off and his elbows on his knees while he held his face in his hands. "But Mum, she... It was Dad's idea, I only found out when I overheard him talking to Nana and Gramps a few years after it happened, a few nights before he wanted to pack up and leave La Push. I didn't think much of it at the time, I was a kid, I wasn't going to confront him on it. What was he meant to say to me? 'Sorry Reed, your mum was killed by a vampire, oh yeah, they're real and I'm a wolf, surprise'? How could you explain that to a kid?"
Callas closed her eyes, sitting down next to him. Reed wasn't wrong; he was a child when it all happened. It wouldn't have been fair if their father told Reed the truth, it would have messed him up. Something then brought her mind back to a few days ago. "I think it was Will," Callas admitted in a small voice.
"What?" Reed turned to look at her. "Why?"
"Because he told me, the night he broke in, that not even Mum was as clueless as to knowing who he was. I read the article, Reed." She looked at him. "The one that talked about the deaths and 'bear attacks', I read them. They thought someone put tubes in their neck to drain them, but if I've learnt anything from books and movies, it's a trait that vampires have... draining their victims of blood through their neck. Her heart was surgically removed, but I can't get my head around that. She was the only one to not have a heart when they found her."
Reed immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry," he apologised in a whisper. "For being a crap brother, for pretty much manipulating you. I've never done this before. All I wanted was to keep my promise to Dad. I just wanted to protect you, I never meant for any of this to happen, this is all my fault," he rushed out, running his right hand through his overly tangled, curly, brown mess of hair. "I just..." He sighed. "I just didn't want to disappoint him or Mum, you know? If they're watching over us, which I'd like to think they are, but realistically? I know they aren't. They're gone. I just don't want to disappoint them, not anymore."
"But we aren't."
"What?"
"They might be gone, but we can still fight."
"Fight?"
"Yeah." Callas nodded. "I might not be a wolf or a Cullen, but I'm a Quinn, and Quinns don't go down without a fight. If Will comes back, if he tries anything, I'm sending him back down to hell, right back to where he crawled out from, myself."
"You can't do that." Reed didn't know where Callas was getting those ideas from, or the short bursts of energy that added to her confidence.
Callas stood up from the bed, turning around to face him. "Says who? Huh? Who says that I can't be as badass or as heroic as anyone else? Why do I have to sit on the sidelines?"
"It's too dangerous. I'm not risking your life."
"What, so you can risk yours and I'm just meant to be okay with that? Bullshit! Besides, it's my life!"
"Cal—" Reed stood up, covering her mouth with his hand. "Keep it down."
"Why? I know they're listening, they're a bunch of nosey bastards and I don't care if they hear me say it. It's the truth, so what? They can suck it up, they've been through worse."
"What's got into you?"
"I'm sick of being a damsel in distress. I'm saving my own ass this time, Reed. Whether you like it or not."
"Would you just..." Reed covered her mouth and he sighed again. "Maybe not sound like you're trash talking them?"
Callas pulled her head away from his hand. "Oh, boo hoo." Reed gave her an unimpressed look. "Look, I just found out I'm eternally tethered to someone, I'm allowed to be a little-pissed off."
"You're upset about that?"
"As much as I am about you going through my phone."
Reed looked back to the phone on the bed. "Right."
"How long have you had that, by the way?"
"Since you came back from the hospital."
"W-What?"
"Well, you were preoccupied with the current living arrangement to even bother asking for it."
"How did you even get into it? I have a code!"
"First of all, I'm an officer, we have a way of getting into locked equipment. Second of all, having my birthday as a code isn't that hard to crack!"
Callas opened her mouth to argue but closed it realising he was correct. If Reed was able to get on her phone, she was more than likely going to have to change the password, anyone could get into it. Reed placed his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze, smiling faintly at her. Callas smiled forcefully back and placed her hands in her jean pockets, still hating the damp feeling that was still left in the knees. He removed his arm from her shoulder and moved back over to the bed, picking up her phone before he handed it over to her. She slowly took it from his hand, not looking at him as he moved closer to the bedroom door, getting ready to leave her alone for a while, giving her time to look through her phone instead. Reed paused briefly, turning back to her, leaning his shoulder against the door frame, his dark curls fell in front of his face as he tilted his head and crossed his arms over his chest.
"You have to talk to him though, you know that, right? You can't run away from this forever."
"Is that a challenge?"
Reed raised an eyebrow at her response and shook his head. "No. It's a fact."
"I know," she spoke quietly, looking down at her socks.
"It would be good for the both of you."
With a sigh, Callas agreed, nodding her head, her eyes still glued to her patterned socks. They seemed a lot more interesting than having any type of conversation with Reed that was about Embry and herself at that moment in time. Reed, however, seemingly happy with her answer, nodded as well before he left the room and turned to walk down the stairs. She waited until she could no longer hear his boots against the steps before she sat down on the bed and unlocked her phone, tapping onto her messages. She frowned at the date the unknown number had last sent a message and furrowed her eyebrows at how the message had started. It wasn't addressed to her. Without any hesitation, she clicked on it. Her eyes scanned over the message multiple times. Her right hand quickly moved to grasp onto her neck, swallowing as her pulse quickened with fear.
Unknown:
Hello, big brother Reed. I don't appreciate you ruining the moment between Callas and myself. Things were just starting to get interesting. I was planning on answering a few of those questions that she has rattling around in that brain of hers, but, no, of course, you just had to ruin it, didn't you? Well, how about we play a game? It will go a little something like; tell Callas the truth, the real truth, with no withheld information before I do. The catch? If you don't, I'm sinking my teeth into her skin, turning her into the one thing you hate the most. What an oxymoron she will be. On one hand, she will always be the one who holds your heart, soul, and life in her hands—as a sweet little sister does—but she will also be the one who is your natural born enemy. Like me. Doesn't that sound fun? If you don't do it soon, big brother, things will start moving at a rapid rate. So fast, that not even you, with heightened senses and superior stamina to the average human, will be able to keep up with it. I do hope you play the game correctly. Or else there will be hell to pay. Her life is on the line, big brother, play wisely.
If what Will had said was true, maybe the only reason why she knew the truth wasn't because Sam had agreed that she was ready, but because he didn't want to have to be the one to order her death. If Callas had become a vampire like Will, Sam wouldn't have hesitated to make the decision to protect La Push from her. It wouldn't have mattered if she was Reed's sister. But what about the imprinting? Would that have mattered? Would that have made a difference? What would Will have told her? What answers? What questions was he talking about? A shudder than through her body, the bruises and faint marks from the bike incident and from where Will had slammed her head into the counter began to throb. Squeezing her eyes shut tightly, Callas turned her phone screen off and laid back down on the bed, placing both of her hands over her eyes while her phone rested on her stomach.