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Okay, so the thing wasn’t an idiot. That didn’t mean we couldn’t manipulate the shit out of it.
“Why don’t you come with us?” I asked. “We can get you something to eat, give you a nice soft bed to sleep in.” Maybe slip a shit ton of sleeping pills into his food and chain him down.
A wicked, toothy smile split my brother’s face into something monstrous. “Not hungry.” He motioned to the bodies behind him, and it was all I could do not to react when my stomach churned violently at what the creature had just implied.
Swallowing hard, willing the bile back down, I eased forward a step. “Matty? Can you hear me?” I was done talking with the shadow. That thing was as evil as anything I’d seen, but if I could just get through to my brother.
His black eyes narrowed, then his head tilted to one side. “Not here.”
Ice sliced through my heart. Was that piece of shit saying what I thought it was?
“Don’t listen to it, Never,” Lily warned, inching closer. “He’s still in there.”
I wanted to believe that. Really and truly, with every fiber of my being. If I could just get a glimmer of proof. Anything.
I took another step toward the creature. Its gaze darted between me and Lily like it was deciding who was the bigger threat.
Honestly, it was Lily. Because as long as that bastard was camped out in my brother’s body, I was at a disadvantage.
I didn’t know if I could kill it if it came to that. Not if it meant killing my brother.
The yawning pit of sorrow in my middle reinforced that truth.
“Matty, come on, kid. Talk to me,” I said quietly. “Give me something.”
The expression on his face softened, just a touch, before his eyes melted from black to blue. “Never, don’t—”
The next twenty seconds were a blur of action and screaming and panic. He charged me, and despite my years of fighting demons, I let him drive me back because my brother was in there.
Lily launched at him from my right, tackling him to the ground with a vicious snarl. I crouched, snagged my blade from my boot, and then I just stood there, frozen, knowing what I needed to do but unable to act.
A pained yelp filled the air, and Lily scrambled back, blood pouring from a wound on her shoulder. Matty’s mouth was dripping red. That was what snapped me out of my cowardice. I didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t let that thing keep hurting and slaughtering people.
I darted forward, slicing low with the blade, feeling equal parts satisfied and horrified when I felt it drag across my brother’s thigh.
The bellow that echoed off the neighboring brick walls was anything but human, and I had only a second to register the sound before I was on the ground, with Matty on top of me, using his newly superior strength to grab my wrist and twist until the blade in my hand was pointed directly at my chest.
“No,” I ground out, gritting my teeth and putting everything I had into pushing back against the force trying to drive that blade into my heart.
His face was twisted in a cruel, gleeful expression that made my skin crawl. Then again, that might have been the panic racing through every vein in my body. My arms shook with the effort to keep the blade from plunging into my chest, but I was losing the battle.
The tip of the blade slid into my skin, burning as blood welled around it.
“Mathew Michael Hinkins,” I hissed. “Get your ass out here this moment.” It was the only thing I could think to say that might drag my brother forward.
Probably wishful thinking.
He laughed. He still sounded like a stranger, but then there was a flicker of... something. Just a tiny moment of hesitation. I shoved with everything I had. At the same time, Lily crashed into Matty, driving him into the wall beside me.
The blade clattered to the concrete, and I scrambled to my feet, snagging it off the ground despite the blood pounding so hard through my body that my heartbeat was the only thing I could hear. Matty was on his feet a split second later, charging me, and I did the only thing I could do.
The blade caught him first across the chest, but it didn’t even seem to faze him. I stumbled back, and when he came at me again, instinct took over. I drove the blade hard into his stomach. The motion of twisting the blade was pure muscle memory. Acid burned up my throat, but still, the monster driving my little brother’s body barely flinched.
I backed away, feeling woozy. Had I really just stabbed Matty?
A deep red patch bloomed across his middle, matching the slice on his chest and the gash on his thigh. The other two wounds were superficial. The stomach wound? That was a little more serious.
My knees threatened to fail me. Hot tears pricked my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “Get the fuck out of him!”
