Page 40 of Soul Sucker

He nodded at her and Vadim. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much. You?”

“Nothing much.” Dave scratched at the peeling label of his beer bottle. “I’m going down to San Diego next semester.”

“To do what?”

“Continue my studies, duh.”

“Dave’s studying to be a doctor,” Ella told Vadim who had sat beside her, one hand wrapped around his plastic cup of wine.

“That’s an excellent career choice. What specialty?” Vadim asked.

Dave concentrated on his bottle. “Supernatural studies.”

Ella put down her beer. “Really?”

He shrugged. “It sounded kind of interesting.”

“I suppose it might be,” Ella said cautiously. “What exactly do you have to do?”

“First response team stuff, for unusual or abnormal medical situations, liaising with SBLE. You know the drill.”

“I didn’t realize there was anything official like that around here.”

Dave looked up at her. “It’s a new thing. Hiding all that stuff away is becoming far too difficult, so our government decided to open up some opportunities for those who are interested.”

“And you were interested?”

He dropped his gaze. “Well, having a sister who was never there kind of sucked, you know?”

* * *

Vadim lookedfrom Ella to her brother and tried to work out exactly what was going on between them. If he lowered his shields, he’d probably get a better sense of the emotions swirling around, but then Ella would know he was snooping and call him out on it. It was interesting watching her interactions with her family. Even just using his human faculties, he could sense there was a ton of unspoken conflict simmering beneath the surface.

“Have I met all your siblings now?”

Ella tore her gaze away from her brother and looked at him instead. Her expression was uncharacteristically solemn.

“I’ve another brother, Scott. He got married last year to Julie.” She waved a vague hand toward the edge of the pool where Vadim now noticed Alexei was chatting to Madison. “They’re over there, somewhere. I’ll grab him when I see him.”

“Your family seems very nice.”

Her smile was quick. “I suppose they do.”

Beside Ella, Dave sat forward. “What Ella means is she wasn’t around that much to appreciate them.” Vadim raised his eyebrows encouragingly and Dave continued. “She was five when they took her away to that fricking boarding school.”

“That must have been difficult for you all.”

She patted her brother’s arm. “We all got over it eventually. It was a good place for me to be.”

“Sure, that’s why you kept running away, and Mom kept insisting on taking you back. Dad would’ve let you stay, you know that.”

“Mom was right to do it. If I’d stayed here I would have attracted some funky creatures from Otherworld into our house. We would all have suffered.”

“All I remember is you crying and kicking and pleading not to go back.” Dave finished his beer and abruptly got to his feet. “You’re way too nice, Ella. I’ve never forgiven them for sending you away.”

Vadim waited, but she made no effort either to contradict Dave or persuade him to sit back down. After a moment, he nodded at Vadim.

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