Page 49 of Call of the Blood

“Declan, I’ve always been better than you at video games. You were busy being an extrovert, and I was an introvert. I’d say those things are still true as well. We have different priorities.”

“You’re barely an introvert now,” he said, narrowing his eyes on me, and for a moment, I was worried we would drag up the fight we had earlier in this vacation. He smirked, though. “I mean, you will still eventually crash and be done with all this social stuff, but you seem much better than you used to be.”

“Yeah, once I’m back in Savannah, I won’t want to speak to anyone for a month.” I sighed. “And you’re my brother. It’s different.”

“And I have this week off, so we’ve got all sorts of time! And tomorrow, you, me, and Lexi, we’re going out. Dinner, midnight movie showing. The whole thing.”

Speaking of a bad topic.

“Sounds like I’ll just be the third wheel on a date, but fine.”

“Please behave. Please.”

“How are you feeling since you found out she’s a werewolf?” I asked, tilting my head. Everything was fine and good with my brother until Lexi was brought up.

“Do you want an honest answer or for me to be mad that she hid it?” It was a very fair question.

“Honest,” I answered somewhat truthfully. I did wish he was more angry, but Declan was always more carefree than me.

“It’s the strength and immortality I’ll have to get used to. From what I hear from everyone else who knows her, she’s never acted differently in front of me. She was raised to be careful with her strength; it’s second nature to every moon-cursed born to it, from what she’s explained.” Declan looked at the DVD he was holding. Not a game. A movie. But it had handwriting. “And immortality… which leads to the kids problem.”

“You want kids?”

“Definitely,” Declan answered, huffing, pushing the DVD into the old player he had. “And it’ll be so much harder with her. We could adopt… but either way, we might have children who are either born werewolves or want to be one when they grow up.”

“And you wanted normal,” I said.

“I wanted normal,” he agreed. “But I really love her, Everly.” He gave me a desperate look. “Like I don’t think I’d get over her if I let her walk away. We’re perfect together… when she’s not in the same room as you.”

That made me wince.

“You’re not the problem, but I need you to realize that she isn’t, either. She caused a bit of a mess, and we’re cleaning it up, but in the grand scheme of things… she didn’t cheat on me.”

“The bar is down here, and I need it up here,” I said, first my hand near the floor then raising it above my head.

“See, it’s stuff like that, Everly. That’s the problem.” Declan shook his head. “And what would you know about it? When was the last time you were in a relationship? Do you see yourself dating in… the next century?”

“Uh…” I certainly wasn’t going to tell him I was now sleeping with Alexius.

“So, let me make my own choices that do not hurt you,” he said, smiling.

“Fine,” I conceded. “I will say nothing else about this unless you ask. So stop asking.”

“So, you’re not coming out with us tomorrow,” he said, sighing.

“I will. If you two stay together, I know where it ends. She’ll be my sister-in-law. I need to be ready for that. We need to be cordial if I want to meet any future nieces or nephews.”

“Yeah, though I’d like if it was better than thinly veiled anger or fear of each other,” he said, grabbing his remote. “Now, onto what I found in Mom’s stuff you sent me.”

“Looking through all of that had been so hard,” I muttered, remembering the long and tedious task. I was out of it for so much of it.

“Watch,” he said, nudging me.

I did, and it took only a few minutes for me to be captured, eyes going wide as I realized what this was.

“Mom and Dad came from that VHS home movie era, yeah? Mom must have had a bunch of us as kids digitized and put on this to preserve them better. I found the VHS tapes, too, but they are in rough shape.” He smiled, leaning back.

Me at the kitchen table with the first PC my dad let me take apart. Declan’s middle school graduation and a girl next to him. I think his first girlfriend.