Chapter Twenty-Eight

The sun set an hour ago, as I was driving home from Nok’s, it took all my happiness with it, plunging it into the darkness as my fear and grief overwhelm me. It’s not fair. I didn’t ask to be attacked. I didn’t ask for any of it.

When there’s a knock on the door I’m not in the mood to answer it, but then I hear the sound of a radio and a deep voice I recognize but can’t place.

“If somebody doesn’t answer this door, I’m afraid I’m going to have to break it down.”

I scramble out of bed so fast I trip and almost face-plant the floor. I stumble down the hall, down the stairs, and grasp the handle, all the while crying out, “Just a second!”

When I pull open the door a flashlight beams its brightness directly into my eyes.

“Shit,” I curse, blinking and using my hand to shield myself. “Dude. What the fuck?”

“Sorry, miss,” the officer says, lowering the light and looking over my shoulder.

I recognize him immediately and glance at my sister who is sitting on the stairs. She looks as tense as I feel.

“Officer Deacon, right?” I put on the charm, fiddling with my hair that’s likely a nest on my head. I’m so not attractive enough right now to try and be charming.

“Ahhh, the little mud shark,” he says and grins as his pale eyes creep down my body, stopping at my cleavage for a long moment. “I’m here to investigate a disturbance.”

“A disturbance?” I ask, moving my body slightly behind the door for protection. I’m wearing nothing but a pair of Nok’s boxers and his T-shirt. I’m not dressed enough for this. “What disturbance?”

“Somebody reported screaming coming from your house,” he shines the light into the dark hall.

FUCK.

“Yeah… I’m sorry about that. It was my sister.” The lie falls easily from my mouth and I see my sister slink upstairs out of eyeshot.

“Your sister?”

I nod and let my eyes fill with tears. “She’s… umm… she has a tumor in her brain. It’s terminal. It puts pressure on certain spots in her head and can make her a bit loopy.”

His cautious eyes become sympathetic and he lowers his flashlight and his guard further. “I’m sorry to hear that, and while I sympathize, she can’t just be screaming willy-nilly.”

“It’s a rare thing, sir, she gets hallucinations sometimes and…” My chin wobbles convincingly. “She thinks she sees things that aren’t there.” I let out a choked sob. “I’m sorry, sir. It’s just been a long few weeks and she’s spiraling and it’s hard to watch.”

“Maybe she should be in some kind of hospice…” he mumbles, looking uncomfortable by my display of emotions. “Am I okay to come in and look around? It’d give me peace of mind.”

“You can,” I pull the door but then stop. “But please, be quiet, if she wakes up again now… I can’t medicate her again.”

He hesitates, looking over my shoulder again. He displays kindness but oozes something else, something more ominous.

I don’t like him. I don’t feel protected by him.

“Where are your parents?”

“Mom’s at work, Dad’s dead.”

“Wow, you’re a real tragedy, aren’t you?”

I lift my shoulder. “You could say that. I promise I’ll be quicker with her meds this time. I’m not the best at it. Mom will be so mad if she hears of how loud I let her get.”

“Ah, parents can be hard on us, especially when they’re under pressure. I imagine having a sick child can make us a bit snappier than most.”

I smile as sweetly as my inner bitterness allows. “Do you have any kids, Officer Deacon?”

“I do, a son just a couple of years older than you.”

“You must make him so proud,” I comment, really I don’t give a fuck.

The light dims in his eyes as he loses his gentle smile to some kind of pain that I’m really good at seeing in people. It looks like grief, regret, anguish… so much of all three.

“Well… I suppose there’s no reason to keep you.” He shines the light over my shoulder once more and then takes a step back, his posture more slumped now. What just happened? “Have a good night, Miss Deville.”

“You too, Officer Deacon.”

He turns away and lifts his pants by his belt, making them rattle while shifting them into the correct place.

“False alarm, it’s all good here,” he speaks into the radio attached to the front of his left shoulder. When dispatch replies a muffled something, he turns back to me and smiles that faux kind smile that creeps me out. “Be careful while out and about.”

“I will.”

“You didn’t hear it from me but…” He glances around, smiling now as though he holds the key to all the world’s secrets and whatever transpired before between us no longer does. “This place could be next on the Sigil killer’s list and there have been a few sightings of an unknown man wandering around.”

My breath catches in my throat. I hope he’s wrong, I really do. “I’ll be sure to carry my mace spray with me.”

“Good girl.” He starts the long walk down my drive to his car, giving me one last wave before driving away.

I close the door and press my back to it.

Why does he think this place could be next? What does he know?

I look at my sister who is sliding down the stairs on her bum.

“I hallucinate?” she asks smarmily, raising a pointed brow.

I laugh but it’s forced. “I said the first thing that came to mind.”

“Ooookayyyy.” She slides the rest of the way down and I help her to her feet. “So… the killer could be in town huh?”

“Seems like it.”

“I’ll look into it.”

I nod, frowning. “Me too. I know a couple of people who might know more about it. See what local cops think they know.”

She claps her hands with excitement. “I love a good mystery.”

“There’s nothing good about any of it,” I snap, stalking past her and into the kitchen.

“Your voice sounds sexy,” she tells me, totally ignoring anything else I said, “it’s all husky from the screaming I did with your throat.”

Flipping her off, I down a glass of water and slam it onto the counter, ignoring the darkness around me. I don’t often turn on the lights when I’m home at night. I feel safer in the dark. The dark hides the monsters and a monster is exactly what I am.

I pad back upstairs and go into my sister’s room to grab my phone. I have a few missed calls and a single text. I like that Nok has given me space, though I think I might have pissed him off. I did leave there abruptly, but I had to. My anxiety was… it was too much.

I was worried he might follow but he’s not an overbearing person. He likes my attention when I want to give it, he doesn’t beg for it in between. I’d like to say I’m the same but if I want his attention and he’s not listening I’ll turn his face towards me or stand in his line of sight until he looks at me.

Just like today, he said he was going to stay at home with his brother for a while, so I showed up and rubbed up against his dick until he took me to bed, and then I woke up from that horrific nightmare.

He didn’t seem to mind. Not in the slightest.

Nokosi: You left your bra here.

Lilith: Your moobs need it.

Nokosi: I do not have moobs.

Lilith: Sure.

Nokosi: Want me to drop it by?

Lilith: Not tonight. You should rest. I’m taking a pill and going to sleep.

Nokosi: I wish you wouldn’t do that.

Lilith: Sleep?

Nokosi: Keep popping your sister’s sleeping meds.

Lilith: Don’t start. Not with that.

Nokosi: I’m just worried about you.

Lilith: I don’t need you to worry. We’re not about that. That’s not us.

Nokosi: Noted.

I’ve annoyed him, I know I have but I can’t deal with him bitching at me for my choices too. Mom gets on at me enough about it but how else can I sleep? Nokosi helps me sleep, he helps me rest… or he did. Until today. Until the nightmares took place in our haven too.



***



Willow

“What did she do?” I ask Nokosi as he angrily rolls the white paint up and down the garage wall. I work on the edges with a brush, feeling woozy from the smell, but I felt woozy anyway.

He doesn’t answer, so I keep painting for a bit longer, silent and patient.

When he huffs again, I cross my eyes and blow out my cheeks.

“What are you, a middle-aged wife whose husband forgot their anniversary?” I throw my paintbrush into the tray and look at him with a frown. “What’s wrong? What did my sister do?” He glances at me out of the corner of his eyes. “You can talk to me. I’ll take it to the grave… which is coming sooner rather than later.”

His lips twitch with a faint smile and he finally stops his aggressive rolling and drops it on top of my brush. “Do you always joke about your death?”

“Should I always cry about it?”

He scratches his jaw with paint-splattered fingers. “I guess not.”

“So… you want to tell me what my bitch twin did?”

He wets his lips. “She just… it’s hypocritical of me to say.”

“So? Say it anyway.”

“She shuts down whenever we talk about…” He throws his hands up in the air and sits on an upturned bucket. “Anything. Be it in regard to you, her past, her future… and now she’s being off with me. She ignored me all day in school today to talk to this girl that she has never spoken to before.”

I nod to show him I’m listening. “Mackenzie?”

“That’s the one.”

“Is it so bad that she wants to make friends?” I question, smirking at him and his jealousy. “Is it because it takes her away from you?”

“That’s not what it is,” he grumbles but even I know that’s exactly what it is. Maybe we are more alike than I thought.

“What is it you want from my sister, Nok?” I ask, sitting cross-legged on the concrete floor, dancing the tip of my finger in a splatter of paint beside me. My bum is going numb.

He clears his throat. “Excuse me?”

“Do you love her?”

“I hardly know her.”

I grit my teeth and repeat with force, “Do you love her.”

“If I do or don’t… that’s a conversation I’ll have with her when the time is right.”

“But you think she’s special?”

He groans and wipes his face on his T, lifting the hem so I get to see what lies beneath. I love it when he does that. I’m not so much of a monster that I can’t appreciate a handsome male when I see one. “Let’s just drop it.”

“Not a chance.” I bum shuffle closer to him, stopping when I’m within touching distance. “Is she special to you? Or is she just your step on the way to finding the right woman?”

His hazel-ish brown eyes shine in the dim light, flickering as he thinks on it and I’m curious as to what’s going through his mind right now. “I’m only eighteen—”

“So? Age is—”

He raises a hand to cut me off. “I always thought love was a pussy excuse for losing your game in the dating world.” His eyes don’t come to mine, they close for a moment as though daring himself to speak and when they reopen the fiery determination there sends a thrill through my body. “And yet here I am, finding myself terrified that your sister might just suddenly decide she’s bored of me.”

“If only you knew,” I mumble under my breath, feeling almost sorry for him because his feelings replicate my own so well. “She’s ignored you for one day. Not a year. It’s not a big deal.”

“Has she said anything to you?”

I shake my head, wishing that she had, wishing that she would tire of him so we can go again. “Nothing.”

“But even if she had, would you tell me?” His charming yet annoying smile returns.

Laughing, I pick up his roller and stand with it poised and ready for action. “Definitely not.”

“I’ll look after her, you know that, right? After you’re gone. I’ll protect her.”

My heart thuds painfully in my chest. I want to scream at him. I want to tell him that it’s not his job to. I want to tell him she’s mine and always will be. But I find myself thinking of my sister and how happy she has been lately. Am I so selfish that I can’t allow her one young love?

“Thank you,” I whisper and start rolling the white onto the dirty gray wall. “We probably should have cleaned the wall better before adding gloss.”

“I did say that.”

I put my finger to my lips and shush him, making him laugh under his breath.

Nokosi Locklear isn’t a bad guy… but he has the chance to derail our lives. I can’t let him do that. No matter what, my plan still stands.

He’s going down, it is as it is.

But I can allow her a little more time. It would be a kindness she deserves.

“Don’t hurt her, Nok,” I say firmly, and his brows hit his hairline, “you’ll regret it if you do.”