Page 3 of Soren

Soren’s eyes were blue again, his teeth their normal size. But his expression was wary, as if he was waiting on Gabe’s reaction, and Gabe knew he hadn’t imagined what he’d seen earlier.

“What— Who—” Gabe had trouble finding the words.

“Gabe—” Soren started.

But Gabe knew this trick. If Soren started talking, he was going to fool Gabe again. Convince him everything was okay. Trick him into believing whatever he wanted.

“Monster,” Gabe accused, not caring that his voice was too loud. “You… That guy. You’re fuckingmonsters. Get out.”

“Gabe,” Soren said again.

“Get. The fuck. Out of here.” Gabe couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. What the fuck was going on? “Get out!” he shouted again.

He saw the nurse talking to a security guard. Gabe didn’t care. He just needed the other man gone. He needed to get rid of this new, unknowable threat.

Soren wasn’t safe.

Then why had Gabe felt that way in his arms? Even before Soren had used his weird voodoo on him, Gabe had felt…soothed. Secure. Was that all a lie?

It didn’t matter. Soren left soon after, the hospital staff kicking him out for agitating their patient. Gabe didn’t miss the hurt look on the blond man’s face. But what did that look even mean?

The man wasn’t even a man. He wasn’t human.

Soren couldn’t really care.

one

Gabe

Oneyearlater

“Dearest, darlingest, most bestest brother of mine.”

Gabe looked up from his plate, narrowing his eyes at his younger brother across the table. Danny had many nicknames for him. “Golden boy.” “Jerk.” “Asshole.”But “dearest, darlingest, most bestest brother of mine” definitely wasn’t one of them.

“I have a favor to ask you,” Danny said, his big brown eyes all wide and hopeful.

Gabe swallowed his bite of chicken carefully, unease growing in his gut. “Okay…”

“See, Roman and I have decided to have a proper honeymoon.”

Gabe’s eyes darted reflexively to their other dinner companion, Danny’s husband, whose bright-blue eyes were focused on Gabe in a way that was definitely intended to say, “Don’t fuck this up for me.”

Gabe ignored him easily enough. He was used to Roman glaring at him.

He turned back to his brother with a smile. “That’s great, Danny Boy.”

Danny nodded, grinning wide, his freckled cheeks pink. “It is. Super great. We’re, um, spending three weeks in Bali.”

“Three weeks?” Gabe’s brows lifted. A little over a year ago, his brother would barely take a full weekend off, working way too many nights in a row as a nurse in their town’s ER. Gabe worked as a doctor in the same hospital, and he’d hardly ever had a shift without his brother’s face popping up at some point. Danny had reduced to two shifts a week since settling down with Roman, but he’d still never taken any sort of significant vacation.

“Three weeks,” Roman confirmed in a tone that just begged Gabe to make a fuss over it.

Gabe would never. Not anymore. He was done getting in Danny’s way. He wanted his brother to have…well, whatever the fuck he wanted. “Okay. That’s still…great? Good for you, kiddo.”

Gabe couldn’t even be jealous of their vacation. Not really. Danny deserved it. Gabe hadn’t realized until he’d finally seen his brother happy just howunhappyhe’d been before.

And how much of that was your fault?Gabe pushed the thought aside. Guilt was such a familiar feeling for him he barely recognized it anymore.

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