Twisted (27 page)

Joe stiffened, suddenly on alert. And surprise, surprise, he wouldn't look in Aden's direction. He looked everywhere
but
at Aden.

“Rest of the house is clean,” Victoria said. “And no one suspicious is watching from the other houses.”

They'd been together a long time. She knew how Riley operated, and what information he desired without being told.

Aden looked Joe over, his expression remaining blank. “This is him?” But oh, he couldn't hide the anger in his tone. He was also intrigued.

“Yeah,” Mary Ann said. “That's him.”

Riley gave him a moment to gather his thoughts.

“I'm not who you think I am,” Joe said, still unwilling to glance at Aden, who spent the next few seconds
guiding Victoria beside Mary Ann and blocking both females from Joe's line of vision.

“Not a very good liar, Joey. I'd stop trying to sell that story. You already admitted to knowing Paula.”

“Or I pretended to.”

“Whatever.” Riley lowered the gun, pointing the tip at the carpet. “Oh, and if you don't think I can aim and fire faster than you can grab one of my friends, test me. I dare you.”

Joe's lips pressed into a thin line.

“Who do we think you are?” Aden asked, jumping back into the conversation.

“Your…father.” He nearly choked on that.

“And you're not?”

Silence. Then, “Why are you looking for him?”

“That's something I'll discuss only with him.”

Again, silence. Silence so tense Riley could have cut through it with a knife. He was shocked when Aden walked forward, slow and deliberate, and crouched in front of Joe.

Joe flinched but otherwise made no motion to dodge his attention.

“Tell me who you are,” Aden said.

Mother of—Aden had just used Voice Voodoo, as Mary Ann called it, and he'd leaked enough power to
force even a wolf to do what he wanted. Most times, wolves were immune.

And apparently, so was Joe. “No,” he said, at last looking Aden in the eye. “So you're one of them.” Emotion now, and a lot of it. Disappointment, incredulity, anger.

The muscles in Aden's back rippled under his T-shirt. “One of who?”

“The vampires. Who else?”

Those two words—
the vampires
—were a revelation. Joe knew what was out there. Joe knew about the otherworld.

“So you know they exist?” Aden choked out.

“At least you don't try to deny it,” Joe said flatly. But his anger was draining, along with the rest of the emotions, and fear was taking over.

“Are you my father?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“This again.” Another pause, this one longer. Then Aden gave Joe the answers he wanted. “I have three souls trapped inside my head. I can do things, weird things, like travel to past versions of my life, wake the dead, possess other people's bodies and predict the future.”

“And?”

Aden laughed bitterly. “
And
, you say, as if all of that isn't enough.
And.
I want to know if anyone else in my
family was—is—like me. I want to know why I'm like I am. I want to know why my own parents were unwilling to help me.”

The slightest narrowing of his eyes, Joe's lashes the same chocolate color as Aden's. “And you think answers will help you understand?”

“They wouldn't hurt.”

“Do you hope your parents will apologize? Tell you they were wrong? Welcome you back into their arms?” Now Joe was the one to laugh bitterly. “I can tell you right now, you're gonna be severely disappointed if so.”

Riley didn't have to see his king's face to know he'd just been cut to the bone. Aden might never have admitted it, but he would have loved those things. Probably craved them in secret. A secret buried so deep he'd kept it from himself. But being rejected like that, no matter what lies he'd told himself about wanting nothing to do with his birth parents, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from caring now.

“Believe me,” Aden said, reverting to his own emotionless state, “I want nothing to do with the people who left me to rot in mental institutions. The monsters who placed me in the care of doctors who hurt me and foster families who tried to beat the normal into me.”

“That wasn't what was supposed to—” Joe pressed his
lips together, but he'd already said enough. Riley had already figured it out, and now Aden knew without a doubt.

“That wasn't supposed to be what happened to me?” Aden spat. “Was I supposed to die? Or did you think leaving me in the care of the state when I was so young was going to work out for me?”

Breath hissed through Joe's flaring nostrils. “That's right. Am I your father? Yes. Was there someone else like you? Yes.
My
father. I was dragged all over the world as a child because of the things he drew our way. And you call
me
a monster? You have no idea what a true monster is! I watched huge, ugly beasts kill my mother, my brother.”

“And that excuses your behavior with me?”

Joe continued as if he hadn't spoken. “When I was old enough, I moved away from my dad and never looked back. He tried to contact me a few times before he died, killed by the same things that had killed the rest of my family, I'm sure, but I wanted nothing to do with him. I wasn't going to live that way anymore. I had my own family to take care of.”

“You didn't take care of
me!
” Aden shouted. “Why did you risk having kids, if you knew you could pass on your father's abilities?”

“I didn't know. He was the only one. I thought… I hoped… It wasn't genetic, shouldn't have been genetic. He did it to himself. Messed with things he shouldn't have messed with.”

“Like what?”

“Magic, science.” Joe leaned down, getting in his face. “As for abandoning you, how could I not? You were just like him. About a week after you were born, they started showing up. Stray goblins at first, trying to crawl through your window, then the wolves, then the witches. Rogues, all of them, without true ties to their race, but I knew it was only a matter of time until you drew them in groups. Just a matter of time until we were running…until your mother was dead. Me, you.”

“What about the girl?” Riley asked. Aden didn't know, not yet, but didn't betray his lack of knowledge by speaking.

“An accident.”

“Is she—”

“I won't talk about her!”

“Well, I don't believe you about your reasons,” Aden said. “I managed not to draw those monsters to me for over a decade.”

“Because of the wards,” Joe replied.

Aden balled his hand into a fist. “I got my first ward a few weeks ago.”

“No. You got your first ward as an infant.”

“Impossible.”

“No. Hidden.”

Nostrils flared. “Where?”

“Your scalp.”

“The freckles,” Victoria suddenly gasped out. “Remember?”

Aden rubbed at his head. “Then why did they stop working? For that matter, if you gave them to me, if they kept the monsters away, why not keep me with you?”

Joe closed his eyes, his spine sagging. He sighed. “Maybe the ink faded. Maybe the spell was somehow broken.”

Aden and Mary Ann shared a look, and Riley figured they were remembering the first time they'd met, when an atomic bomb of power had been unleashed, summoning everything Joe had named and more.

“And as for why we didn't keep you with us,” Joe said, “I wasn't willing to take the chance. I had to keep your mother safe.”

“My mother.” Absolute longing radiated from Aden. “Where is she?”

“That, I will never tell.” Firm, final.

Riley refused to accept. “If you didn't want to be found, you should have changed your names.”

Joe's gaze met his for about half a second. “I did. For a while. But Paula…” He shrugged. “She insisted.” Had she
wanted
Aden to find her?

Aden straightened as if a board had just been strapped to his back. “I've heard enough.”

Actually, Riley thought he'd reached his limit. He might be veering close to a breakdown. Here was his dad—who still didn't want him. Who didn't want to help him, who didn't so much as throw him a bone.

“What about Joe?” he asked.

“Leave him. I'm done with him.” With that, Aden walked out of the room, out of the house.

Riley motioned for the girls to follow him. When they were out of view, he tossed the gun on the floor. Rather than make a move for it, Joe stayed on the bed. “He's a good kid, and now he's leader of the very world you despise. And guess what? The monsters of your nightmares obey his every command. He could have protected you unlike any ward, and in a way no one else in the world could have, yet you just tossed him away like garbage. Again.”

Blink, blink.
“I…I don't understand.”

“Well, understand this—he deserved better than you. A lot better.”

Now Joe bolted to his feet. “You have no idea what I went through when—”

“Make all the excuses you want. It won't change the facts. You didn't protect your own son. You're greedy, selfish and an all-around bastard. Now give me your shirt.”

The swift subject change threw the guy for a loop. “What?”

“You heard me. Give me your shirt. Don't make me say it again. You won't like the results.”

Joe jerked the material over his head and tossed it at him. “There. Happy?”

Riley caught it. “Not even.” There were thick scars all over Joe's chest—scars in the pattern of claw marks. There were also other wards, and Riley recognized the biggest. It was an alert. Whenever danger approached, his entire body would vibrate. No wonder he'd known to run when Riley neared. “Understand this, Joe Stone. If we want to talk to you again, there's no place you'll be able to hide now.” He brought the shirt to his nose and sniffed. Though he could no longer shift and didn't know if he could track, his brothers could still do both. “We've got your scent.”

With that, he, too, walked away.

T
HE REST OF THE DAY
,
the entire night, and most of the next morning, Aden spent locked inside another motel room with Victoria, Mary Ann and Riley. They pored through the photos and papers Tonya Smart had given them, taking only a few breaks to eat or stretch their legs.

Aden pounded back a pint of Victoria's blood, appeasing Junior, Victoria downed a pint of his and a Big Mac, Mary Ann three Big Macs, and Riley a chicken nugget Happy Meal.

When teased, he'd said, “What? I like chicken,” then went back to scowling at everyone and generally acting as if he was on his period.

No one mentioned Riley's wolf. Maybe because they knew the top of his head would explode. And no one
mentioned Joe. Not even the souls. Maybe because they knew the top of
Aden's
head would explode.

Joe. His father. He'd looked into those dark gray eyes, and he'd known. Part of him had even recognized the man. His father, he thought again. His. Father. The man who'd given him up. The man who hadn't loved him enough to keep him. The man who had thrown him to the wolves—literally. The man who had admitted the truth only upon threat of death.

If he'd shown any hint of remorse…but no, Joe Stone was ashamed of who and what Aden was, even denying him the opportunity to see his mother, his sister. And now Aden felt as if he were bleeding inside. Bleeding and unable to suture the wound. There was a steady
drip, drip
inside him. He had a sister; Riley had seen her toys. Joe apparently loved the little girl in a way he'd never loved Aden.

Drip, drip.

For years he'd dreamed about meeting his parents. About his dad coming to his rescue, telling him how much of a mistake letting him go had been, about how loved he was. Then, when none of that had happened, the want had sharpened into indifference, and eventually the indifference into dislike.

One look at Joe and the want had returned.

Yet no matter what Aden had said, Joe had regarded him as a liability.
I've made something of myself,
he'd wanted to say.
I'm king of the vampires now. More than that, I earned the title. It wasn't handed to me.
Would his father have regarded him with horror then? Probably.

That wouldn't stop him from wanting to be king. Or acting as king. Already he'd gotten texts from Sorin and Seth. Shannon sat in his cell and stared at the wall—until someone entered with blood for him. Then he attacked. Ryder was on the mend, yet inconsolable about what he'd done, and begged everyone who approached him to kill him.

Sorin wanted to grant his request; Seth wanted to eliminate Sorin.

Aden had commanded them both to leave the boy alone and let him heal. Oh, yeah. And to suck it. They were supposed to help him, not hinder him.

Hey, I think I know them,
Julian said excitedly, cutting into Aden's thoughts.

Focus, he had to focus. He peered down at the photo in his hand and saw two men. Both were of average height. One had thinning dark hair and glasses, the other had a full head of dark hair and no glasses. They were standing side by side, though they weren't touching. Or smiling. The back of the photo read
Daniel and Robert.

So. Here were the Smart brothers.

Do you think that's really me?
Julian asked.
The one with the hair and without glasses, I mean. I would
not
have sported a comb-over.

How do you know?
Caleb asked. Or rather, grumbled. But at least he wasn't crying.
We don't know anything about our former selves.

“I'm glad you recognize the guys, but do you remember anything about them?” Aden asked. “Or why there are spell books in this box?” Lots of spell books. And the papers? All about casting spells. Love spells, black magic spells. Spells to raise the dead. Spells to find the dead. Was that how Robert had done what he'd done?

If so, why didn't
Aden
need spells to do what he did? Joe had claimed even his grandfather had used magic. Julian sighed.
No. I don't remember.

Eve hadn't, either. Not at first.

Still. It was only a matter of time now.

“And the Boy King is back from la-la land,” Riley muttered.

Boy King? Aden flipped him off, and Victoria batted his hand to the mattress. They were on one bed, and Riley and Mary Ann were on the other. Since leaving Joe's house, the pair hadn't spoken a single word to each
other. They were stiff, unwilling to even glance at each other.

“Julian thinks he knows these guys. So, who's who?”

A yawning Mary Ann stood and clomped over to study the photo. “I saw pictures of Daniel on the internet. That's him, and that's Robert.”

No way,
Julian said.

Caleb snickered, and Aden was heartened by the sound. If Julian was Robert, as Mary Ann suspected, then Julian had indeed been the guy with thinning hair and glasses.

“He was known for communicating with the dead and helping the police find bodies. I printed out a few stories.” She dug through a nylon bag Riley had fetched earlier and handed Aden a thick stack of papers. “Should have given these to you before. Sorry.”

“No problem. We've all been pretty busy.”

“I've been thinking,” she said. “For you to absorb his soul into your mind, he would have had to die near the hospital. Which makes sense. His brother worked there, so Robert was probably visiting Daniel. What if he visited, raised one of the corpses in the morgue, and that corpse killed them both?”

“From what you told me before, only Daniel was
found dead in the hospital that night,” Riley said. “And he'd been mauled to death.”

“Right,” Mary Ann agreed.

Well, well. Conversation.

Riley raised his arms as if she'd just made his point for him. “So where was Robert's body?”

“Never found.” She shrugged. “He just disappeared.”

“Well, he had to have died that night, too. And nearby, just as you said, or Aden wouldn't have absorbed him,” Victoria said.

“What if Aden absorbed
Daniel?
” Riley asked.

Julian grabbed onto that rationale like a lifeline.
The one with the hair? I'm liking Riley's theory.

“But Daniel had worked at the hospital for years,” Mary Ann replied. “Why hadn't he raised the dead before then? Someone would have noticed.”

Riley arched a brow, looking her up and down with a darkness Aden had never before seen from him. “Maybe he had latent abilities. It happens.”

She popped her jaw. “Maybe. So?”

So, they all knew he was referring to her draining.

“Please don't make me referee,” Aden told them. “Anyway, I think we can all agree Julian was one of the Smart brothers.”

If by
one of
you mean the handsome one, then yes, I agree,
Julian said.

Junior made a mewling sound in the back of Aden's mind. The ever-growing monster was hungry. Again. And he was getting harder and harder to appease, craving more and at shorter intervals.

“I'll read the stories,” Aden said, “and see if anything jumps out at Julian.”

“Going back in time helped Eve remember,” Mary Ann reminded him. “Maybe you should let Julian take over and take you back and relive one of the stories through his eyes.”

Time travel. Nearly everyone in this room had suggested he go back at some point, and he couldn't seem to make them understand the consequences. “Change something in the past, and you change something in the future—a something that could leave you snot-crying for what used to be.”

“Look at us, Aden,” Mary Ann said. “Can things get any worse than this?”

“Yes.” Indubitably.

“Well, I don't see how.”

Okay, how about this? “I could wake up and never have come to Crossroads. Never have met you.”

Dark hope turned her eyes into fathomless pools. “Maybe that would be a good thing.”

Victoria's chin trembled, as if she was fighting tears. “She's right. If you had not come to Crossroads, my father would not be after you.”

“Think about it, Aden,” Riley said.

What was this? Gang up on Aden hour? “There's another way to help Julian,” he said. “And we're all going to be fine. Aren't we, Elijah?”

Silence.

Hated silence.

“Talk to me, please.” He hunched forward, resting his face in his upraised hands. “At the very least, argue the pros and cons of what they're wanting.” Not that Aden would ever consider going back. “Don't just leave me hanging.”

A sigh, familiar, adored, necessary.
I'm not going to tell you what I've seen, Aden.

Finally, a response, and Aden was as relieved as he was irritated. After all this time,
that's
what Elijah had to say? “So you've seen…what? What happens if I go back? What happens if I don't? The end of this entire mess?” He was used to hiding his conversations with the souls, yet here he was, talking as if the souls were in the room, too, and he wasn't embarrassed.

He knew why. He was going to lose them and was savoring every moment he had with them. Another sigh.
Yes. I've seen the end.

Stuttering heart, sweating palms, blood going cold in his veins. “What is it? What happens?”

Another dose of the silent treatment. Maybe they'd time-traveled back to five minutes ago, he thought bitterly. “Help me, Elijah. Please.”
Otherwise I'll have to try and force a vision,
he thought.

My refusal
is
helping you. I've been getting things wrong, Aden. Leading you in the wrong direction, making things worse.

“Not every time.”

Even once is too many.

Junior growled.

All kinds of sweetness suddenly filled Aden's nose. He lifted his head. Victoria had scooted closer to him, was tracing her fingertips up and down his arm. As they were, he had a direct view of her thrashing pulse, the scabbed-over punctures in her neck. His mouth was a waterfall, but he would
not
let himself go corncob on her vein.

“We'll revisit the time-travel thing later.” Riley lumbered from his bed. “Right now, I want to see the wards on your head.”

If by “later” he meant “never,” then yeah, Aden was on board with that plan. Elijah hadn't told him anything useful. And until Aden attempted a vision on his own, well, there was no reason good enough to give himself a second chance to screw everything up.

The scent of Victoria's sweetness was replaced by the earthiness of Riley's as the shifter—ex-shifter—loomed over him. Hard fingers combed through his hair, tugging at the strands.

Riley said, “They've faded quite a bit and worked longer than they should have, but I know what they are. Joe wasn't lying. These stopped you from being mobbed by creatures.”

“Until I met Mary Ann.” Joe had expected Aden to be grateful about that. As if that were enough.
Why couldn't he have loved me?

“The explosion of energy, or whatever it was,” Mary Ann said, nodding her head. “That's what stopped the wards from working, guaranteed.”

Riley let Aden go and plopped beside Victoria.

She rested her head on the wide berth of his shoulder. “The magic you guys created together must have overpowered the one Aden's dad, a mere human, created,” she said.

“Don't call him that,” he snapped. “His name is Joe.” Seeing Victoria and Riley together always roused his jealousy. But just then, he experienced something more. Their ease with each other, their taking comfort from each other…disturbed him.

Her cheeks leached of color. “I'm sorry.”

Great. Now he was taking his bad mood out on her. “No need to be sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that.” As he spoke, he watched as Riley rubbed her arm up and down. Again he was struck by their ease with each other.

That should be me.
Instead, they relied on each other. Had for years. Decades. Another thought hit him, a subject that had been bothering him since it had first come up, a subject he'd buried as more important issues arose. A subject he couldn't dismiss at the moment.

When Victoria had wanted to rid herself of her virginity, so that her first time would not be with the guy her father had picked out for her, she would have gone to…

Riley.

Only Riley.

Aden jackknifed to his feet, his hands fisting, Junior's
growling more pronounced. And that's when Aden knew beyond a doubt. Junior wasn't just hungry. He truly was reacting to Aden's emotions.

“Aden, your eyes,” Victoria gasped out. “They're violet, glowing.”

“Get your hands off her,” he said, shocked by his voice. Layered, one his own, one raspy with smoke. Both enraged. “Now.”

Riley's eyes narrowed. At first, that was his only reaction. Then, he dropped his arm at his side and stood. “Yes, my king. Whatever you wish, my king. Anything else,
my king?
”

“Riley,” Victoria said, her gaze never leaving Aden. “Leave the room. Please. Mary Ann, make him leave the room.”

Riley just stood there. Mary Ann jumped into action, at least. She grabbed Riley's hand and tugged him out the door. He didn't resist, and a second later, there was an ominous
click.

“You know,” Victoria said, wringing her hands.

“I know.” Harsh, menacing.

“I—”

“Don't want to hear it.” Aden swiped up the box of papers and books, stalked to the bathroom, slammed the
door behind him. On top of everything he was already dealing with, his girlfriend had slept with one of his friends. A long time ago, sure. But he'd always comforted himself with the fact that Riley and Victoria were friends, only friends. Now he couldn't do that.