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“Backbone?” I blurted, then felt my cheeks heat. “I-I don’t mean-”
“See, there’s your version of ‘too nice. ’ You don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, even behind his back. Backbone is exactly right. ” She reclined on her bed. “Anyway, enough of that. Simon’s looking for you, as usual. Go play, Chloe. I’ll keep your brooding spot warm. ”
Sure enough, Simon was looking for me. Apparently, the guys had been unable to try getting into the basement that morning-Andrew had insisted on hanging out with them, kicking a ball around outside.
Now Andrew was locked up with his laptop in the study, so Derek had slipped into the basement. Simon was keeping watch, which was easier to do unobtrusively if he had someone to hang out with. We were in one of the unused rooms, checking out a wall of photos, when Andrew passed by. He saw us looking at the pictures.
“They’re from the previous owner,” he said, coming in. “None of us, as you see. ”
“Gotta fly under the radar,” Simon said.
Andrew nodded. “Supernaturals always need to be thinking of that, Chloe-all the ways we can accidentally expose ourselves or call attention to ourselves. Even publicly associating with other supernaturals can be a danger. That’s not to say you won’t have supernaturals as friends. You will, and that helps. But we’re always careful. ”
I said I understood.
“Now these are family photos of the man who owned the house. Todd Banks. The founder of the Genesis project. Dr. Lyle had the original idea, but he died before genetic modification was a possibility. It was Todd-Dr. Banks-who took his ideas and began the experiment. He was also the first to sound the alarm about the potential pitfalls. He warned the Edison Group, but they were too enamored with the possibilities to admit they’d made mistakes. Dr. Banks left and founded our group of concerned ex-employees. He bequeathed the house to us on his death a few years ago. ”
As Andrew talked, I noticed a photo of Dr. Banks…with a dark-haired boy off to the side. He looked about thirteen in the shot, but I still recognized his face. It was the Volo half-demon ghost.
“Is that Dr. Banks’s son?” I asked as casually as I could.
“His nephew. That would be…” Andrew’s brow wrinkled. “I can’t remember his name. I never met him. I know he lived here for a while, with his cousin and his uncle. That’s the older boy, which I only know because the younger one was blond. ”
I remembered the body in the bed. The horribly beaten body…of a light-haired boy a few years younger than the half-demon I’d met.
“You said Dr. Banks left this house to your group. What happened to the kids?”
“They went to live with another relative. A grandparent, I think. ”
Both boys were dead, and I knew it. The question was, did Andrew? Or was this a story he’d been told?
Were the boys part of the Genesis project? It seemed like it. Yet the kid I’d seen had been older than me. Even if he’d survived his uncle, he had to have died a couple of years ago, given his age in the photo. That meant if he was alive today, he’d be a few years older than Derek, who was supposed to be one of the first subjects.
“Was there a woman living here with them?” Simon asked.
“Hmm?” Andrew said as he waved us from the room.
“Chloe heard a woman’s voice last night, and we thought it might be a ghost. Was there a woman living with them?”
“Not as far as I know. I could be mistaken, though. Now, I should get dinner going. I know you’re supposed to eat at regular times, Simon. And I know you two have something special planned afterward. ” He winked at me and I’m sure I blushed.
As Andrew headed for the kitchen, Derek snuck up from the basement. The three of us went upstairs, ducked into the guys’ bedroom, and closed the door.
“It’s storage,” Derek said. “Two big rooms full of stuff and one locked room. ”
“Locked?” Simon perked up.
“I busted it open. It’s a workshop. Nothing but tools. ”
“So why would it be locked?” I asked.
“I’d love to say it’s suspicious,” Simon said. “But if this Banks guy had kids around, then I’m not surprised. My dad isn’t exactly Mr. Handyman, but he kept a lock on his tool-box. You know parents. Paranoid. ”
“Yeah,” Derek said. “Especially after their son flattens his finger trying to nail a drawing to the wall. ”
“Hey, I’m not the genius who suggested it. ” Simon glanced at me. “Tape wouldn’t hold it, and Science Guy explained that the paper was too heavy for the adhesive. So I got some nails. ”
Derek rolled his eyes.
“So that’s it?” I said. “Storage and a tool room? No clues at all?”
“Didn’t say that. There are labeled boxes of clothes and stuff. Three names: Todd, Austin, and Royce. Todd’s stuff is adult. ”
“Dr. Banks,” Simon said. “The guy who owned this place. And let me guess, the other boxes were for teenage boys. ”
When I explained what Andrew said, Derek nodded. “Royce is your half-demon’s name, then. His clothes are bigger. So Andrew said he moved away after Banks died? Maybe he was killed later and came back. ”
“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure it was Austin ’s body I saw last night. ”
A family, dead. Including two teenagers. All with connections to the Edison Group, maybe to the Genesis project. And we were taking refuge in the same house.
“We can’t go anywhere,” Derek said.
That’s what we were all thinking, of course. Run. But where? None of us thought Andrew was secretly aligned with the Edison Group, holding us here while going through this elaborate ruse of plotting an attack on them. But what had happened to Dr. Banks and Royce and Austin? Did it have anything to do with us?
“I’ll keep looking,” Derek said. “Maybe ask Andrew a few things. You guys-”
“We’ll be gone for a while after dinner,” Simon said.
“Oh. Yeah. That’s right. ” Derek’s gaze flicked my way, but before I could meet it, he’d turned to Simon. “So, uh, Andrew was good with that?”
“Yep. You lose that bet, bro. Sure, he gave me a whole bunch of warnings-gotta walk through the woods, not on the road, Chloe can’t go into the store, blah-blah. But we can go. ”
“Huh. ” Derek looked over his shoulder, like he’d been hoping Andrew would say it wasn’t safe. After a moment, he nodded and said, “Okay, then. ”
“We’ve got some time to kill before dinner,” Simon said. “How about picking up those self-defense lessons?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll get Tori…and don’t make that face. I’m getting her. Derek, you joining us?”
“Nah. ” He turned and headed down the hall. “You guys go on. ”
Simon gave us a self-defense lesson in the backyard, teaching some basic holds, which Tori, with her binding spell, thought was kind of useless. But she only whispered that to me and didn’t rub it in with Simon.
There was a moment during that lesson, when Simon was trying to show Tori a hold and they were standing side by side, me sitting on a patio chair watching them, and…For a second, I thought Maybe they could be related. I don’t know what it was, the angle of their faces, I think, something about the cheekbones, the mouth. Dark eyes, same height, same slender build.
Then Simon stepped away and whatever I’d seen disappeared. I decided I was taking a few superficial similarities and letting my imagination fill in the rest.
Dinner came. Dinner went. I headed upstairs to get ready.
I always thought I wasn’t the kind of girl who gave a lot of thought to stuff like this-first date, first kiss. Don’t get me wrong. I wanted those things. But I didn’t fantasize about the big day and what I’d wear and how I’d act. Or so I thought.
But I guess I still always had this image of my first date. I’d buy a new outfit and maybe get a haircu
