“What I do is none of your business.” I wrench free and level him with a glare that would set him on fire if this was a cartoon.
“You’re my sister?—”
“Don’t!” I hiss, poking his chest. “We both know you’re not. So don’t go using the brother card whenever it suits you. I’m nothing to you, remember? Those were your words before we moved here.”
Shoving my finger away, he steps into me. “Sis.” He drawls the word with a sneer that borders on a toxic smirk. “I’m an asshole with no regard for secular morals, remember? Those were your words. So what makes you think I give a flying fuck about your opinion? Let’s get one thing straight?—”
When I glance around, distracted, he grabs my chin and pulls me back. I bat him off. “Listen.”
Confused, he looks up and scans the yard and the tree line. Chills erupt over my skin as the wind moves my hair around my shoulders.
“The silence...”
“The silence?” His throat jumps and he slowly turns beside me.
“The crickets stopped chirping,” I point out, inching closer to the house and glancing toward the trees as thunder sounds again in the distance.
When I look up at the darkening clouds, a sense of foreboding and an urgency to run grabs hold of me.
Something bad is about to happen.
I reach for Dominic’s arm. “Please, can we go inside?”
Surprised, he looks down at my hand on his skin and nods. “Let’s go back.”
I turn to leave when a breeze sweeps over my shoulder, like a cold breath. My fingers fall away from Dominic’s arm as a shudder runs through me. But I don’t turn around to look at him, not now when the sky is almost black and the wind whips my hair around my face.
Every instinct warns me to run for safety.
Whatever is behind me—stroking my hair away from my shoulder—is evil, toying with me like a cat with a mouse.
Dominic’s usually warm fingers feel cold to the touch.
“I do find his attraction to you delicious.” He steps closer, his T-shirt grazing my back. My lashes flutter as I hold my breath. “The human doesn’t want to feel this way about you.” His low chuckle drifts closer to my ear. “He fights it.”
His fingers drift down my arm in a slow path toward my wrist, and he smiles against my ear before whispering, “He knows…”
No…
Panic threatens to drag me under, and I run blindly toward the doors, stumbling up the porch steps. Once inside, I slam the door shut and lock it. I even pull the keychain into place.
What the hell happened out there? What was that…thatthingI felt move past me? That took hold of Dominic? Is that what it did? Took hold of him? It certainly wasn’t my stepbrother who whispered those things in my ear. Why would he taunt me like that?
I press my forehead to the wood and squeeze my eyes shut.
He doesn’t know.
He doesn’t know?—
A loud bang startles me, and I scream as I jump back.
“Camryn?” Dominic shouts on the other side, rattling the handle. He bangs again, and I yelp. More bangs follow.
Mom enters the hallway and looks between me and the door, confused. “Is that your brother?”
“Let me in, Camryn!” He bangs again, then kicks it.
Mom shoulders past me to unlock the door, but I don’t wait around to see Dominic’s rage or the evil glee of whatever thatthingis as I flee upstairs to my room.
