Page 47 of Marked By Shadows

Alex shook his head. “That was for real so weird. I’ve seen some odd stuff, but the way it changed from the cat to something… I’m not sure how to describe it. A mass of pain and anger?” He stared out the window, then sighed as his phone jingled. “Lukas has been blowing up my phone all afternoon. Now I know why.”

“You think Detective Manning called him?”

“Oh yeah.” He unlocked his phone and opened his texts. After a moment he snorted out a laugh, then turned the phone my way. There was a picture of Lukas with a “What the Fuck?” expression on his face. Above the picture, the text read:My expression when the police call asking about my little brother. Call me, asshole.

“Hey it’s better than him screaming and raging, demanding you come home,” I said. “Sky seems to have a calming influence on him.”

“Maybe,” Alex agreed. He hit dial on the phone and turned it to speaker. Lukas answered after the first ring.

“Why does it take you all day to call me you piece of shit,” Lukas growled as he picked up the phone.

“Hey, asshole,” Alex said with humor.

“Really? Really? Gone like two days and already in trouble with the police?” Lukas snarled through the phone.

“Love you too, big brother. And no, not in trouble. Don’t know much about the girl or her boyfriend. Only met her once.”

“Right, because you two aren’t trouble magnets.”

Alex sighed. “I’m going to hang up on you if you don’t stop being a jerk. We have nothing to do with this.”

“So you’re going to stay out of the way and let the police do their job?” Lukas demanded.

“We have been,” Alex agreed. “Shopping and crafting mostly. I can send you a picture of the quilt we’ve been working on all day when we get back from dinner. It’s why I didn’t call. We were bonding through sewing.”

Lukas groaned. “Can’t you just come home?”

“Convention starts tomorrow. We get a sneak peek at cool fabrics and stuff. I’m excited. And Micah is all starry-eyed.” Alex looked at me. “I’m not a fan of the tiny house we are staying in. It’s smaller than Micah’s. Sort of feels like if I turn around I’ll bump into a wall and break something. But the rest has been good so far.”

“Tiny house? I thought you guys were at a B&B.”

“The B&B has a couple of tiny houses in the backyard for extra private spaces,” I added. “I thought it would be quieter for Alex and me.”

“Yeah? How’s that quiet working out for you?”

I heard Sky’s voice in the background but couldn’t make out her words.

“Fine,” Lukas growled, more away from the phone than at us. “If anything else weird happens, I want you to come home.”

“Define weird,” I said.

“We are not in control of weird,” Alex argued. “And weird is a very broad description of lots of things. Weird could be seeing a clown on a street corner or having the BBQ place we’re going to run out of napkins. Doesn’t mean we are leaving.”

“Why can’t you be the kid brother you used to be?” Lukas demanded.

“Not sure what you mean,” Alex replied. “I never really did let you boss me around.”

“You followed me a lot.”

Until Alex had enlisted and gone off to make his own way. That was when the differences had really arisen. “I don’t need to live in your shadow,” Alex said. “I make my own now.”

“Fuck,” Lukas cursed.

“Hey,” Alex interrupted his brother’s cursing, “Micah and I are having fun. That’s important, right?”

“Are you?”

“Yes. I discovered the magic of precut fabric squares today. And I am sort of good at this thing called free motion quilting,” Alex said.