Page 10 of Clouded by Envy

Placing her hands on her hips, annoyed, Bray asked, “Is that sarcasm?”

“No, it’s not sarcasm, but if you say you’re abatand then go parading around in a birdbath, what the hell am I supposed to think? Like I said, you have a face—a body—andwings.”

If Bray’s hand was large enough at that moment, she would have smacked the human across his face—hard.

“Then to top it off,” he added, “you were sitting on Luca’s shoulder, practically sucking his blood.” He placed his hands gently on Luca’s cheeks and tilted the boy’s head to the side, checking to make sure there were no bitemarks.

Bray rolled her eyes and inched closer to the bed. “I don’t have fangs—not long ones anyway.” She opened her mouth and tapped at a canine tooth. Wes’s scowl only deepened.

Luca looked at Wes. “Why are you even in here?”

“Because you left the light on, Lu.” Wes shook his head as if he just answered the dumbest question in all of Laith—no—Earth. “You aren’t the least bit freaked out about whatever it is that’s going on here?”

“No, Bray’s nice.”

Wes whipped his head over his shoulder to face her. “Bray?”

“I saidhecould call me Bray. You will have to call me Brayora.” She was finding it increasingly difficult to stay calm, her fingers and toes twitching.

“I won’t be calling you anything except for—you need to go away to wherever you came from,” Wes said hastily.

Tilting her head in the direction of the window, Bray said, “Well, open the window then—and I’ll fly back to my tree.”

“What tree?” Wes didn’t even follow the direction in which she was looking.How could one human have such an appalling lack of manners?

“The only tree in the backyard.” She motioned at the one window in the roomagain,in case he still didn’t understand. He still didn’t look. “What other tree do you think I’m talking about?”

“There are trees right next door on either side of the house.”

“Whatever.” Wes knew which tree she had been talking about. He was trying to make things difficult.

“She can’t go back out there—she’ll get cold,” Luca said while pretending to shiver, and Bray found it hard to hold back a smile.

Wes rolled his eyes and rubbed at his temples. “It’s seventy degrees outside, Luca.”

“Exactly.” Luca gave Wes a pointed look.

“I’m fine. I’ve been sleeping out there for a whole year.” Bray and Brenik would sleep inside the house most of the time with Ruth, but they had also slept out in the tree sometimes because they’d loved listening to all the night sounds that reminded them of Laith.

“Where did you sleep before?” Wes asked, bewildered.

“In here. The tree was just a place where we could relax. We would sleep and stay inside this house most of the time.”

“We?”Wes’s puzzled expression became even more confused.

“My brother and I.” At that moment, Bray wished Brenik was there to help her explain things.

“There’s more of you?” Wes hurried to the window, squinted his eyes and looked in the direction of the peach tree that was now camouflaged by the darkness.

“Only the two of us,” Bray assured him. “The rest are in Laith—or were.” Bray had no idea if any bats were left—she had never seen any others besides Brenik and her mother.

Bray gazed at the ceiling and told them the story of how she and Brenik escaped their world and came to Earth. How a wonderful woman named Ruth took them in and taught her and Brenik so much—until she passed away.

“See, Wes,” Luca started, “this house really must belong to her, then. We can’t let her go back to sleeping outside.”

“Um—yes, we can,” Wes answered without pause.

“No, we can’t!” Luca argued.

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