Page 54

“No, she’s just a bitch,” Abel muttered from my lap.

“I bet your dad was a witch,” Addison said from his place beside me.

“I don’t know who my dad is.” It had never really bothered me until that moment. Who was my dad? Was he alive? Dead? Did he even know I existed? Had he been more to my mother than a roll in the sack? Had he been a witch?

“That doesn’t make sense,” Quinton said from beside me.

I blinked in surprise at his nearness. He was beside me now, on the opposite side of Addison. He was on his knees with his elbows on the arm of the couch. His head rested on his hands as he stared at me with those serious eyes. When had he moved and how had I not noticed?

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

“If your dad had known about you or even if he just knew there was a chance he’d gotten your mother with child he would have stuck around to see if you held magic. We don’t leave our children, not for anything, not anymore. And the fact that you’re a girl.” He shrugged. “It’s like Abel already told you. Our females are precious to us. Your father wouldn’t have left you with your mother. He’d have taken you with him even if it meant stealing you away from her.”

He talked so casually about stealing children, as if it were an acceptable thing to him. It made me think about those three women they’d mentioned and what kind of life they had lived and were living now.

What did I say to that? I didn’t have the right words so I let it go. I wasn’t about to get into a conversation about morals with Quinton, not when I didn’t think I’d enjoy what he had to say.

“What did you do to Chucky?” I asked a question that would likely drive me insane if I didn’t get an answer for it. He’d said he had done it with magic. How do you make someone sick like that with magic? If he’d said he had mixed some Comet in with Chucky’s applesauce I would have understood it. But magic? I didn’t understand that. Hell, I still wasn’t certain sure I believed them that magic was real. I had seen no proof and I needed proof.

“I heard the twins talking about this Chucky person. At first, he just sounded like any old asshole. Then I heard about what he did to you on the first day of school. That should have never been allowed to happen to you, Ariel. It pissed me off and made me angry with Ty. We argued all summer long about you, Tyson and I did. I thought it would be best to stay here for the summer and give you that time to get to know us. He disagreed, saying you could get to know us when school started. He was wrong. And if we would have stayed here this summer what happened to you at school would never have happened. You would have come into your magic already and known how to use it to protect yourself. Not only that but Tyson wouldn’t have just sat there and watched it happen. He would have put a stop to it. Instead he was angry with me and took it out on you. I apologize for that.”

Both twins went tense and alert. Something Quinton said had startled them.

“Now, about what happened with this Chucky person. I found his picture on the school’s website. I printed it out and put together a little spell. I hadn’t meant for it to spread to others but,” again, he shrugged casually, “shit happens. I think I might have put too much of my own blood in the bowl which made the spell more powerful than I had intended. My bad.”

My b

ad?

My bad?

He’d meant to only make one person sick and instead he’d made a handful of people sick, to the point it seemed contagious. They were puking up blood. Blood! And all he had to say was “my bad.” Seriously?

I gaped at him with my mouth hanging open and everything.

“What if they don’t get better or they make even more people sick?” I asked in horror.

People vomiting up blood, people stealing children – it was all the same to him and it meant nothing.

The corner of his mouth moved up in amusement. I didn’t find anything amusing.

“The spell only lasted forty-eight hours, Ariel. Relax.”

Relax? He wanted me to relax? My left eyelid twitched. He really was crazy. Someone should tell him now would be a good time to stop talking. Maybe while he slept I could sneak into his room and super glue his lips shut.

“You don’t like me, I can see it in your eyes. That’s okay. You don’t have to like me, and you certainly do not have to like the things I do. That’s alright with me. But I would prefer it if you liked me because, babe, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna like you a whole lot. But the things I do, I can’t help that. It’s my job to take care of us all, and now you’re a part of that. Part of my job as the person who takes care of us all is not allowing some douchebag motherfucker to hurt you in any way. That Chucky kid fucked with you so I fucked with him back.”

He moved away from the couch and gained his feet.

“I’ll not apologize for the things I do, Ariel, so you had better get used to it because you’re stuck with us from here on out.” And with that he turned around and walked out of the twin’s bedroom.

“What just happened?” Addison whispered as the door clicked shut softly behind Quinton.

“I have no idea, twin, but I think maybe Quint’s finally lost his damn mind.”

Their bodies shook against mine and it took me a second to realize they were laughing. I didn’t find anything funny and they refused to tell me why they were laughing.

Whatever, boys were stupid.