“It’s working.” A faint smile touched Callum’s lips as Matthew’s fangs started to recede.
Callum stuck a hand in my brother’s hair and pulled Matthew’s mouth away from his wrist. At first, Matthew snarled and raised his claws to rake Callum’s side.
Malcolm raised a hand, a snowball erupting in his palm. He pelted Matthew with it and a second snowball, causing my brother to lose focus and turn his freckled glower in our direction. We tensed and Evan stepped forward, ready to toss up an ice shield between my brother and the rest of us. But when Matthew’s eyes collided with mine, his expression changed.
And then his entire body began to morph.
His long claws retracted slowly, transforming back into human hands. His feral look became muted by shock as he blinked and brought a finger to his wet lips, then raising a questioning brow when he recognized the red substance. His jaw dropped.
“Hales?” his jaw trembled.
I shot forward like a cannonball, shoving Callum aside so that I could wrap Matthew up in my arms. His shoulders felt broader than I remembered, even though he was gaunt and stick thin, malnourished at this fuck of an institute.
Tears? I didn’t have tears—I had river rapids gushing down my face. I couldn’t hold back the horrid sounds that emerged from my chest, the garbled sobs as I clutched my brother.
“You’re back,” I whispered, when I finally had caught my breath and could speak again.
Matthew pulled away slightly—blood drying on his chin and forming a dull brown crust—and asked, “How long have I been gone?”
I swallowed hard, my throat sore, and debated how best to tell him. I pulled back and swiped at my eyes and cheeks, and tilted my head, giving him a soft smile. But his eyes traveled past me and looked at Evan.
“Dude? What happened to you?” Matthew’s eyes traveled up and down Evan’s huge form, the net still magically embedded in his face. “Did you get into a fight with a fishing net and lose?”
“Something like that,” Evan smiled before he surged over and pulled Matthew out of my arms, wrapping him in a hug.
“Evan?” Matthew was still confused. “Did you …” He pulled back as realization hit him. “You made the change.” He let go of Evan’s arms and stumbled backward a step, eyes darting around the room, then to the chains that still bound his ankles. “I … I didn’t.”
The sound of his throat bobbing as he swallowed that bitter realization was the only sound in the room.
He stared down at his own pale hands, his thin arms. Slowly, one of his hands morphed and grew into a horrific vampire claw, as if he willed it to happen. “I’m a vampire.” He slowly let the claw recede and stared at his own hand once more.
I tried not to let pity bloom inside my stomach, because I knew what it felt like to see that look blossom on someone else’s face. Every time I’d seen it after Matthew’s accident and then Dad’s death, I’d wanted to punch the asshole pitying me right in the gut. Matthew might be a vampire. And he might not love it, yet, but hopefully with time he’d see some of the benefits.
“Plus side is you can now always beat me in a race.” I caught his attention.
“Here. You can prove it,” Malcolm gave Matthew a smile before he crouched near my brother’s feet. He carefully shot out a narrow beam of white-hot fire and melted away the chains that held my brother to the wall, leaving only ankle cuffs.
“Ready, set, go!” Matthew said in a rush before he zoomed around the room. He was back in front of me before I could even take a step. And he looked awed.
“What else can I do?” he asked.
For the first time since Matthew’s transformation, Callum spoke, “You’re immortal. And you’ll heal quickly without the need to write any spells for it.”
I opened my mouth to tell him that Potts had actually completed the Unnatural Spell on Matthew, but I stopped myself. Callum might be an ally, but allies could always turn to enemies. I still didn’t know exactly how he was connected to Claude. And I wasn’t certain I wanted this little vampire army he was building himself to be armed with the ability to shift into animals at will.
I decided to save that fun little fact for another time.
Perhaps one when the police weren’t after us.
Timing was everything. Gray’s voice broke through the earpieces again. “Guys!” he yelled.
Malcolm and Andros slunk out of the room and I could hear Malcolm mumbling to Gray, though my mind couldn’t comprehend the words, because I was still just reveling in the fact that I had my brother back.
Matthew wheeled back around to stare at me and I marveled at how much his freckles stood out, now that he was so pale. “Too bad vampirism doesn’t make you any prettier than you were,” I teased.
He chuckled as he tossed his arm over my shoulder and gave me a noogie, just like he used to. “Yeah, well when you’re born a ten out of ten ...”
“On the disgusting chart,” I retorted, my heart so full of happiness that some of that joy leaked out of my eyes.
“You mean the disgustingly handsome list?” he quipped, finally dropping the noogie once my hair was a bird’s nest.
“You know I don’t,” I said, reaching up to fix his mess and yanking at my tangles.
“Where are Mom and Dad?” Matthew asked casually, eyes scanning the room. “Wait! Does this mean Dad’s cure worked?”
The sudden silence in the room blasted my eardrums just as loudly as a concert speaker.
“We’ll give you a minute,” Evan said, before opening the door and holding it as everyone else cleared the room. Callum was the last to leave and my eyes held his for a long moment … and I realized that I’d nearly killed the only possible person who could cure my brother.
I’d come so close to defeating my own purpose, and the fear of that made me grip Matthew’s shoulders harder, hug him longer.
One tiny choice. I’d made one tiny choice, and that had changed everything.
By the time everyone had cleared out of the room and Matthew pried my grip from him so he could stare at me, the look on his face told me he had figured out what had happened to Mom and Dad.
I didn’t have to say it.
Tears welled up in my eyes the same as they did in his. And then I smashed back into my brother—the only family member I had left.
43
Running on ice was a bitch. My boots slid out from under me, and I nearly faceplanted. It made me fucking furious that I had to hug the wall and step carefully when all I wanted to do was run. Especially since we could hear Pinnacle guards moving in on the first floor, the clomp of their thick boots echoing against the tile as they got closer. Closer.
“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath as I barely avoided falling, just outside the door next to Matthew’s room. I glanced side to side, looking for my crew, but no one was in the halls.
That’s when I realized that every door was open. A gust of wind blew past—one of Callum’s vampires, a woman; I could only tell by the shape of the hair streaming behind her like a banner. She shoved open a door at the end of the hall and I heard a crash, a howl, and then a loud snap.
“Are they … killing them?” Matthew sounded horrified.