Page 48 of Bleed the Shadows
“I went to school dances just like everyone else,” I said. “I could point Owen in the direction of my closet, but I want to be supportive and shit.”
“Owen’s your little brother?”
“Yep.”
“How old is he?” She turned to look at me and a swarm of butterflies took flight in my stomach.
Fuck me.
“Sixteen. Just got his license.”
She laughed. “Oh boy, my little sister’s about to get her license.”
“Now we know how our parents felt when we started to drive.”
“Totally.”
I pulled off Main Street and wove my way through the neighborhoods that ran behind the business district until I pulled next to the curb in front of my parents’ house.
“Which one is yours?” she asked.
I pointed at the blue two-story Cape. “That one.”
She followed my gaze. “It looks so… normal.”
I laughed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I don’t know. I guess I just thought?— ”
“That I was raised by wolves?”
“Maybe,” she admitted.
“Nope, just your average American family. Like you.”
“Then how…?”
I lifted my eyebrows. “How…?”
“How did you end up… doing what you do with Bram and Poe?” she asked.
I tried to find the words to explain and settled on the truth. “I don’t really believe there has to be a reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I think maybe we are who we are. Sometimes things happen that give us an excuse to be that way, but deep down, we’re probably just built the way we’re built.”
“I don’t believe that.” She sounded defensive. “I wouldn’t be out here trying to get rid of Ethan Todd if Chris hadn’t killed June.”
“Maybe not him, but…”
“You think I had a hidden murderous streak that would have manifested sooner or later?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just think when you get right down to it, we’re all animals. We fight to survive, and when our survival’s taken care of, we get bored and look for something else to occupy our primate brains.”
She looked at me long and hard, but she didn’t dispute what I’d said.
I reached for the door. “You coming?”
