Page 73 of Surface Scratch
Nick snapped the photo album shut and got up from the bed slowly, taking a moment to look his brother up and down. “I was out of the state when I got the news, but I got here as quick as I could.” He held the photo album against his chest as he stepped closer. “But you’re right to be angry. I’ve been a terrible brother to you. If I knew back then what I know now, I never would have left. I’m sorry. But I’m here now to help you.”
Caleb’s shook his head, his hands shaking. “You think you’re helping me? You’ve turned my life into a fucking nightmare. You and those freaks from the alley.” Tears stung his eyes. “You have no idea what I’ve had to do.”
Nick jutted his chin out as he loomed over Caleb. “I actually have a very good idea of what you’ve had to do,” he said, his voice edged with venom. He held up his left hand and tapped his throat.
Caleb’s mouth fell open, not just at the angry purple scar that ran across his neck, but at his hand. Both his ring finger and pinky were gone, and his middle finger only existed as a nub at the first knuckle. His anger faltered. Had the drugs done that to him?
“Nick, what happened?” he asked.
“I think you know,” he rasped. He pulled at Caleb’s hoodie, his cheek twitching as he peered at the marks on Caleb collar and neck. “The same thing that’s happening to you.”
Caleb pushed his hand away. “I don’t know what happened to you, but you’re wrong.” He bit back the concern and sadness welling in his chest. “Just get out.”
“I’m not leaving without you.”
Caleb shoved him back and pressed the release on the switchblade, keeping it tucked against the side of his leg. He didn’t want to hurt Nick, but he needed to show him that he was serious. He could figure out how to reason with him later.
“Are you going to stab me?” Nick mused. “I’ve been through worse. Give it a go. Let’s see what kind of man you’ve become.”
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Caleb said, wincing at the pain in his hand.
Nick grabbed the front of his hoodie again, dragging him away from the door. “Do it, I dare you,” he rasped before shouting at the door, “Henderson, get in here!”
Caleb pulled at Nick’s hand, trying to pry his fingers loose. Nick’s brown eyes burned into his own, that same haunted look returning to his face. What had he been through that led him to this point?
“Let go of me!” Caleb shouted at him. He heard the door behind him groan and snap open as the gray-haired man broke through the flimsy lock. “Please, Nick, it’s not what you think. Please let me go.”
Nick let the photo album fall to the floor, several of the old images falling onto the ground. He stepped on them as he spun Caleb around to face the gray-haired man named Henderson, holding Caleb’s arms behind his back.
“Nick, please!” Caleb begged as Henderson approached him, holding what looked like a black cloth bag in his hands.
He jerked wildly as Henderson force the bag over his head, turning his world dark. He felt hard plastic tightening around his wrists as zip ties clicked into place. “Nick, stop! Please, don’t do this.” Caleb threw himself forward, half expecting to hit the ground in front of him.
A pair of strong hands caught his shoulders before something hard jabbed him in the stomach. He doubled over, his knees weak as the wind was knocked out of him.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to help you whether you like it or not,” Nick rasped into his ear through the thick fabric as he gripped the back of Caleb’s neck with his good hand. “We’re going to kill Marcus Graves.”
Chapter Twenty-Three - Marcus
“Do you want to come to the movies with us? I bet there’s something out all of us can enjoy,” Marcus asked Ophelia from the living room as she stared listlessly into the fridge for the third time that hour, as though she were waiting for its contents to change.
“I highly doubt that,” she said as she shut the door, this time walking away with a can of lemon flavored seltzer water. “I really don’t want to deal with you two getting all gross on each other in a theater. Go by yourselves.”
Marcus cocked his head. “You really think I’d turn a movie night with you present into a make-out session?”
Ophelia climbed over the back of the couch and fell onto the center cushion. “I saw that alley footage,” she reminded him as she cracked the can open.
Marcus rolled his eyes. “That was a heat of the moment thing. And you’re supposed to mind your business.” He glanced down at the movie listing he had pulled up. Still no text back from Caleb.
“You say that, but the alarm was going off like crazy. Justbrrrr, brrrrr, brrrrrrrrr. I thought someone was trying to break in, but no, it was you guys getting freaky in the snow or whatever.” She pulled out her phone and mumbled against the can, “You two aren’t exactly subtle.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, you mean other than the constant fuck-me eyes you guys make at each other?” she took a long drink. “I saw there was another set of bedsheets just thrown in the trash. Super gross. At least put down a tarp or something.”
Marcus waved away her comment. “I’m pretty sure kids your age shouldn’t be concerned with what their parents do in the bedroom,” he said. When he took Ophelia in, he hadn’t really thought what life would be like living with a teenager. Especially one like her.
“Conduct disorder” was what the doctor he took her to called it when she was eight. He gave Marcus a list of medications that could make her seem more normal and recommended therapy, but it was all nonsense. Marcus had been alive long enough to have seen dozens of others like her, both human and vampire, and it was one of the reasons she was so well liked among his friends and fit in with them so well.
