Book of Love (32 page)

I laughed, but it came out as a series of
pants and whines. I lay back against the wood of the tree, rain
dripping on my head. It didn’t seem to bother me the way I would
expect. I licked the rain as it ran down my jowls, enjoying the
freshness of it on my hot tongue.

I found I couldn’t stop chuckling, my whole
body shaking. The next moment I was much smaller, the rain now
cooling against my glistening skin. My laughing changed
dramatically, this time coming out as a croak.

I leapt forward and over a
branch—
I loved this.
Why did I need Jane or Emily at all? I was a lone wolf, a
lone stallion, or whatever I wanted to be. I never needed to go
home if I didn’t want to.

The sound of the forest filled my ears like
an orchestra of life. The rain on the fall leaves making a papery
thud. The dreariness I always felt didn’t creep in as it always
used to—not here.

A beetle struggled to get over a fallen leaf
and it caught my attention. After my initial confusion, my question
from earlier was finally answered. In a flash, I reached my tongue
out and snatched the beetle. It flung back and into my mouth, the
crunch of the shell delightful as the beetle juice spread across my
tongue.

Amazing!

I backed myself into a nook where two roots
dug into the ground, allowing my eyes to close, my belly full. My
human thoughts continued to tumble away from me. I didn’t need
anyone anymore. All I needed was this.

Jane:

Someone grabbed my arm, a foreseen image of
death pulsing through my head. I jumped, dropping my books to the
ground. I winced as one hit my toe, turning and exhaling. It was
Liz.

Her lashes fluttered.
“Hey, girl! Haven’t seen you since Saturday, and being that it’s
Thursday—that’s like—that’s like,
five
days.
Where have you been hiding?” I
noticed the hall was already empty, indicating she had deemed it
acceptable to talk to me.

I knelt and picked the books up off the
ground, continuing to organize them into my cramped locker. I
tucked them in one at a time, careful not to ruin the two origami
doves I’d hung there. “I’ve just been tired, is all.” My voice
sounded strained. Her death today was back to skin cancer, her
newly bronzed skin glowing under the otherwise brutally washed out
lights of the hallway.

She nudged me. “You little liar. I bet Max
keeps you up late at night,” she whispered, winking at me.

I snorted and rolled my
eyes. “Liz,
really.”
I’d been keeping myself up at night, But not because Max had
done so. I was unable to process the gravity of what was happening.
I couldn’t decide if I’d felt liberated or trapped by the fact my
new boyfriend was bound to me for the rest of my life.

She slouched against the
lockers in disappointment. “Yeah, what was I thinking? You’re not
really the sexual
type.”
Her eyes lit up, a mischievous grin on her face.
“You should try to be sexi
er
. Come on, I’ll help you. Men like
that, and let’s face it, if you don’t change this dreary look you
seem to be owning…” she glanced with disgust at my pilled-out long
sleeved shirt and faded jeans, “…he’ll
leave
you. Don’t you know how that
works?” She looked genuinely concerned.

I shut my locker and leaned against it,
mimicking her stance. “Liz, he’s not like that. He won’t leave me.
Besides, we haven’t even decided that we’re dating yet. We’ve just
hung out a few times. That’s all.”

Unless you count the kiss. And I guess all
the couple talk.

Liz looked confused, as though it was
inconceivable to be around a man like Max and not be wrapped up in
a never-ending make-out session. She smiled then, and I saw the
pity behind her eyes. She thought I was just being naïve—if only
she knew.

Even if I wanted to tell Max to shove off
and leave me alone, he still wouldn’t. He was supposed to be my
angel. The idea itself made me shiver. This was moving rather
fast.

She moved on to something
new. “So, what is Emily doing with that Greg guy?” Her lips pressed
together, her brows further perplexed. “I never would have thought
they’d be the type to be attracted to each other. I must say,
though, they are sort of
cute.
Much better fit than Wes was for—”

“
What?
With Greg?”
I grabbed her arm.

My heart stopped as a weak feeling pulsed
through my bones. I hadn’t talked to Emily since Monday, but it was
no surprise that something was up. Wes was gone from classes for
the third day in a row, and Emily’s makeup application had gone
back to normal. I would be blind not to notice. I just had bigger
issues to be concerned with, and my sister’s psychic abilities were
sort of at the bottom of the list, as crazy at that seemed.

“
Earth
to
Jane,”
She said it in a bratty tone—like she always did. She
snatched her arm out of my grip. “You are
so
impossible,” she groaned, shaking
her head.

I snapped out of it. “Did you see them
together?”

She snorted, her face
dramatic, like it was when she talked with her friends and was
about to announce a juicy bit of gossip.
“See
them together? Jane, I had a
hard time discerning that there were two people in that heap of
limbs. They were practically
doin’
it in the courtyard.”

“
What?”
I gasped. I felt my
stomach twist. I knew as well as anyone that Greg was dangerous. He
was a
murderer.
A
member of some dark cult I never hoped to come face to face with,
though that’s hardly my luck.

She nodded gravely, and then pouted. “I was
going to go for him too!” She stamped her foot like a two-year-old.
“What is it with you guys? Is there some perfume you’re wearing
that I need to know about? Why do you get all the hotties? You’re
not even…”

I knew she wanted to add the fact that my
sister and I weren’t even hot to begin with, but I saw her swallow
her words. I tuned her out, not caring about her trivial
pursuits.

What was Greg up to?

I began to wonder where Max was as I scanned
the hall. He had met me at my locker everyday after class, but
today he was late. Liz was now humming to herself as we stood
together, the halls empty.

She grew bored of the fact I wasn’t giving
in to her whines for attention. “Well, I better get home,” she
finally announced.

I nodded, too concerned to respond. She
walked away, not all too concerned with me, either.

“
Max,
where are you?”
I whispered under
my breath, feeling dread wash over me, my head alive with
notions.

Max:

I silently stormed up behind Greg, my jaw
fixed. He was sauntering in a way I knew meant he was up to
something, pleased with some sort of evil plan. I grabbed him by
the back of his jacket and threw him into a locker, just before he
turned the corner to meet with Emily.

“
What
are you doing?”
I
hissed.

He smiled at me, though I
had him choked against the wall. “Fitting in like you are,
Brother.”
His answer
sounded rehearsed and hollow. He was hiding his thoughts away from
me.

I pressed my arm harder against his neck. “I
know you well enough to know that’s not the case. What are you
doing with Emily?”

Greg laughed. “Isn’t…
it
cute?”
His
words were choked as my arm pressed against his voice box. “We’re
dating sisters, Max. It’s kind of…
sexy.”

I let go of Greg and he fell to the ground
in a pile of black leather. He rubbed his neck with his hand,
leaning his head against the locker, seemingly unconcerned by the
fact that I wanted to kill him. He knew better than to think I’d
give up being with Jane for that.

“
That
hurt,”
he pouted.

I shook my head. “You’re an angel, Greg.
Give up the act.”

He stopped rubbing his
neck and stood. “Oh, yeah, you’re
right!”
He was being sarcastic. “For
a moment, I almost thought I was
human
again. It must be all
this
pretending.”
He narrowed his eyes, his face close to mine, menacing
me.

My whole body was rigid, my fists tight at
my sides.

“
I can do what I want,
Max.” He smiled at me. “You should really try to show me a bit more
brotherly love. I’m stronger than you, yet you don’t see me
throwing you around.”

I wanted nothing more than to hit Greg, but
I knew how much that would hurt me.

“
Now you
know how it feels, Max. How it feels to be the weak little brother,
the poor outcast of the family that didn’t fit in. You were all so
cute together, the perfect unit, if not for
me,
” he spat. “Oh, and
perhaps that stupid
alchemist.
”

I took a deep breath, calming myself and
keeping my emotions in check. “We loved you, Greg. We tried to make
you see it, but you refused. You wanted to believe we hated you,
but we didn’t. It’s all in your head. You just want to be angry.
You just want a reason to hate—just like you want a reason
now.”

He laughed once. “Love.
There was no
love.
I envied you, Brother. I saw the way Mother’s eyes glimmered
when she held you, a glimmer that never came when she held
me
. If I were the first
born, then I would have been the one to steal her heart, but no,
you had to beat me to it.” He was shaking his head with jealousy.
“You got everything, Max. But now—now I’ll take everything you care
about in return, starting with what’s left of Jane’s
family.”

“
Leave
her family alone,” I warned. “Leave
Emily
alone.”

He chuckled, straightening
his leather jacket on his shoulders. “I won’t harm her, Brother.
Emily’s far too much of a talent to simply throw away. It’s not
everyday you come across a natural mind reader. I’m just going
to
teach
her.”

I exhaled hard, my heart pumping cold hate
into my blood. “Do not convert her, Greg. You know what that
does.”

He shook his head. “She wants to be like me.
I know she does. Who wouldn’t? And with her on my side, we’ll be
unstoppable.”

Emily couldn’t protect herself against his
mind control. She didn’t know what she was getting into. Someone
circled the corner then, and I turned my head, seeing Emily glaring
at me. Her eyes were dark, her mind so wrapped in Greg’s lies, that
she was losing hold of herself.

Her thoughts screamed at me, gripping and
tightening their hold on my brain. I winced.

Greg pushed me away from
him. “See, Max.
She likes it.”

I looked at Emily, begging for her to stop
as the shrill sound pulsed through my bones like electricity. I
tried to cover my ears, but it did nothing. I pleaded with my eyes
but her lips remained a concentrated line. Her face was already
turning white with death, her talents heightened by the addition of
evil.

“
She…
does not…
understand
…” I gasped.

Emily stopped the attack on my mind,
allowing me to speak.

I was breathing hard. “You have her so doped
up, Greg.” I pointed at Emily. “This is not Emily. This is you
inside her head, like a puppeteer.”

Greg shrugged. “What’s wrong with that? It’s
nice to have control.” He advanced toward me, backing me against
the locker on the other side of the hall. “Too bad you let the
intensity of your power fade, Max. If only you had come with me and
taken lives, you could have had the same power she will have.” He
looked upon Emily with pride. “This is just a taste of what’s to
come, Max. When I’m done with her, you’ll wish you never came back.
You’ll wish you remained on that dreary mountain, all alone. No
pathetic teenage love affair will justify the destruction you’ve
brought upon her family.”

“
No
matter how many souls you recruit, you will still be lonelier than
I ever will be, Greg. No one loves you without your manipulation
pulsing through them.
No one
could.”
My words were filled with
spite.

He laughed. “So, you admit
it? Our family never loved me.” He drew in a breath of air. “Good
to know the
truth.”

I shook my head. “You’re delusional, Greg.”
I did not want to play this game, not again.

Jane:

Something felt increasingly wrong as I stood
against the locker, watching the clock on the wall slowly tick,
counting the seconds of Max’s tardiness. He was now fifteen minutes
late, and since he always made a point to be punctual, it concerned
me.

Maybe he’d decided I was no longer worth the
chase. Maybe he’d finally seen that all I am is human, while he was
suspended in a never-ending purgatory. Who was I kidding to believe
we could be together? Like a flowering spring tree, things were
destined to come to a natural end.

My heart pounded hard for no reason, at
least not that I could see beyond my petty fears of abandonment. It
was then that I heard something—something from far away, but still
within school grounds. I pushed myself away from the locker,
opening my ears in my attempt to hear more. I took a careful step
forward, and then another, shutting my eyes and concentrating on
the disturbance.