Masquerade (Heven and Hell #1)(94)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“Fourteen and a half,” Logan corrected.

I saw pain flash through Sam’s eyes, but he recovered and smiled. “Yeah, fourteen and a half.”

“I went to that place Mom and Dad rented for you…” Logan said. Then, more quietly he said, “I’ve been looking for you for a while.”

“Yeah?” Sam asked, concern masking his features. “Something wrong? Mom?”

I noticed he didn’t ask about his dad.

“Mom’s good. She really misses you.”

Sam didn’t react to that. Then I realized something. Something I couldn’t believe; I hadn’t noticed right away…

“So why are you looking for me?” Sam asked.

“Uh…” Logan slid a glance at me then turned back to his brother.

He doesn’t have an aura, Sam.

Sam jerked like he’d been shot. “You – you’re not…”

Logan nodded. “I’m like you now.”

“No,” Sam gasped.

“Can’t you tell?” Logan asked.

Sam’s muscles bunched beneath his shirt. I wanted to go to him, but I knew he wouldn’t want that right now. He gave a curt nod to his brother then said, “It wasn’t supposed to be both of us.”

“It is.”

“That’s not possible,” Sam said.

“Guess we have more screwed up genes than we thought.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam said, truly meaning his words.

I took a chance and went to Sam’s side, reaching my hand toward his. He took it, grasping hard.

“Who’s she?” Logan asked, looking at me.

“Heven is my girlfriend.”

Logan was surprised by this. His eyes widened and his lips parted. “Does she…?”

“She knows,” Sam nodded.

Logan looked at me. His eyes were darker than Sam’s, so was his hair. He was also shorter and thinner, but I had a feeling he would be filling out soon.

“How long have you been looking for me?” Sam asked him.

“About six months.”

Sam sucked in a breath. “I should’ve called you…”

Logan hurried to say, “Dad wouldn’t have allowed that.”

Sam stood there, in shock and regret.

“We were just about to go get some pizza. Want to come? You guys can catch up.”

“I’m starving,” Logan said.

Sam chuckled. It was a good sound and eased some of the tension that was inside me. “Let’s go.”

I bent to pick up the box, trying to settle what was left of my nerves. I didn’t want Sam to pick up on them. At all. Sam made a sound and hauled the box out of my hands. I smiled.

He kissed my nose.

“Gross,” Logan complained.

Sam laughed.

For some reason I didn’t really feel like laughing.

Sam

My baby brother was like me. The thought made me sick. I accept what I am, I accept the hellhound in me…I even kind of like the stuff I can do. But would I choose this? I don’t think so. And I certainly would never want this life for Logan.

They cast him out. My parents did to him what they did to me. I would expect that of my rigid, cold father…but not my mother. I told myself that the only reason she agreed to my leaving was because she was afraid for her youngest son. I told myself that if I had been an only child, she would have gone against my father and fought for me to stay.

Now I knew I was wrong.

She hadn’t loved me at all.

She cast Logan out just like me, both her sons. How could anyone be so cruel?

I glanced over at him, sitting on a bunch of hay with his one bag of possessions. He had grown bigger in the past two years. He was taller, leaner and looked more like a man than a boy. How much I had missed.

A vivid memory, swift and strong, flashed into my head. We were outside in the yard having a sword fight with big sticks and laughing. He seemed so much smaller then, much more innocent. It made me feel sick to know that most of his innocence was now gone.

“So, what happened, Logan?” I asked, sitting down in the barn loft across from him. Below, the horses shifted restlessly.

He shrugged and sat down the flashlight he had been flicking on and off. “Pretty much what happened with you.”

He flicked his dark brown eyes up to me but then returned them to the floor, shuffling his feet in the hay. “I just changed one day, Mom freaked out and Dad got all pissed. He said it made him mad that both his sons would have such weak genes.”

“There’s no way that the court would have emancipated you at the age of fourteen.”

“They didn’t.” He said, his voice low. “I ran away.”

“You did what?” I could help the way my voice raised in shock. “Why would you do that, Logan? If they were going to let you stay…”

Logan didn’t look up at me when he spoke. “Mom probably would have let me stay; I heard her and dad fighting all the time. She was never the same after you left…she cried all the time.”

His words left a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I had been wrong, maybe Mom did love me…

“Anyway, I couldn’t stand the way they fought all the time, the way dad tried to ignore me. So I left. I figured they wouldn’t miss me anyway.”

“Logan, you have to call them. They are probably worried – they’ve probably been looking for you.”

“They aren’t looking for me. Do you really think dad would call the cops and admit that a son of his ran away? Sure, Mom’s upset, but she won’t go against Dad.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yeah, I do.” Finally he looked up. His face showed the misery he had been trying to hide. “I followed her one day. She went to the school and told them that I was visiting grandma and grandpa for the rest of the year. They don’t care, Sam. I thought you would understand.”

I sighed. “I do understand.”

“I’m not going back there, you can’t make me.” He said, his chin jutting out.

“I’m not going to make you. You can stay here with me.” I wondered how I was going to protect Heven from whatever she needed protected from and take care of my little brother. But he was my family, family that I thought I would never see again. He needed me. He probably was confused and knew next to nothing about being a hellhound. This was my chance to help him and get some of the family back I thought I lost.

“You’re living in a barn?” Logan asked.