Page 175 of Envious Of Fire
Kyle glances at Nico. “You took good care of him?”
“Good care of him?” That makes Nico laugh. “He’s, like, almost forty.He’sthe one who took care ofme.” He looks Kyleover. “That makes it even stranger that you’re the older of you two. You look more my age.”
Kyle shrugs. “Side effect of immortality, I guess.”
“So you’re immortal?”
“Eventually,” answers Kyle.
Then he realizes that’s exactly how Tristan answered that, long ago, when Kyle was the one asking the questions.
Nico finds his answer funny. “Yeah,” he decides with a nod and a snap of his fingers, “I can see it. I see Kaleb in you. In the eyes, of course, but also in how you talk. Tell me …” He leans over the aisle, coming surprisingly close, demonstrating a level of trust Kyle wasn’t expecting. “Did he ever play violin for you? Like, as a kid? Was he always this cool?”
Kyle chuckles at the question. “Yeah,” he decides to say, despite all of the times Kaleb tramped into his bedroom griping about his lessons, hating the music and the tedium. He wonders about so many things himself, questions he wish he could ask Kaleb on this bus ride. Does he still love jewelry? Does he still like Kyle’s bad drawings of monsters? Would he want to see how much he has improved? “He’s always been … this cool.”
“I was gonna take him with me out to San Diego, get a job at my brother’s bakery. I sold him the life … hitting the beach, chilling out every day, scoping babes on the sand …” The way he stares ahead at the dark, open road, Kyle would think he’s seeing sunshine over gently rolling waves on the shore. “It was sharing dreams like that, man … that’s how we got by.”
Kyle listens with mounting fascination as Nico tells him all about their lives in the cells under the House of Vegasyn. How they had fun. Worked out together. Impromptu violin concerts in the commons. How he could always find Kaleb sitting at a desk surrounded by books in the library. Hearing about Kaleb’s life nearly brings Kyle to tears several times, amazed at how Kaleb’s spirit persisted through his time in the cells.
Nico also mentions the last time he saw Kaleb. “We were planning an escape. We made the attempt, at all costs. And the only one who was brave enough to speak up was this man right here.” Nico smiles proudly. His smile falters. “But if that night hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be here right now. He wouldn’t have a lion’s claws drawn across his face.”
“I might not have learned he’s alive,” Kyle points out.
“And he’d never know you were alive, either.” Nico stares ahead through the dark windshield. “Being brave has a price … Just wish he wasn’t the one to pay it.”
All of the human prisoners were either victims or witnesses of vampire activity, stashed away from society to help preserve the secret of their existence.
Kyle is sure it won’t remain a secret much longer.
Nico also explained how the humans donated blood based on their assigned number, which replaced the use of real names. What strikes Kyle as most interesting is that Kaleb was given such a high number, he never once donated blood. He can’t help but wonder if that was intentional somehow. Did Tristan have a part in deciding what number Kaleb received?
Was Tristan, in some twisted way, protecting Kaleb?
Raya has been pacing up and down the aisle with perfect balance, unaffected by the soaring speed of the bus, as graceful as a ballerina. “No, there isn’t much more to say about Mance,” she says when Kyle asks her once again if they have anything to worry about. “I’m quite sure his time has come to an end. Finally. He’s a dirty, washed-uppervertwith an unfortunate power over the dead. A pervert Tristan both summonedandtook care of, apparently.” She finally sits on the edge of the seat behind Nico, peering down at Kaleb, her eyes turning sad. “I still don’t know if this whole thing was part of some diabolical master plan of Tristan’s … or just absolute madness that turned out this way.”
Kyle sits with that thought. How much of his own life has been part of Tristan’s master plan, if any of it at all?
“Sorry, said his name again.” Raya sighs. “Your body keeps reacting. You’re too easily shaken by mention of him.”
Kyle snorts. “Can you blame me?”
“Of course not. But it doesn’t mean you can’t try.”
“To what? Feel nothing?” He could almost laugh. “He led me to believe my brother was dead, all this time. Kept me and my brother apart. Ended my mortal life as I knew it.”
“We all have dark beginnings,” states Raya impatiently. “If you had a day and a night to listen to mine, you’d be through the floor. Dead and through the floor. Halfway to Hell.” She makes a swatting gesture with her hand, as if to flick away the memory. “I’ll give you the same advice I gave Kaleb. You must become stronger than your feelings. One day, maybe not so far from now, your life may depend on how you react to them.”
Kyle peers down at his sleeping, bandaged-up brother, the gauze covering most of his face, his limp arms. “You … gave my brother advice?”
“Yes. Unsolicited, albeit, but I believed he needed it.” Raya gazes at him. Something soft touches her eyes. “Or maybe … I neededhimjust when he and his music came into my life not long ago. I’m not usually so taken by mortals. But Kaleb …” She peers at Kyle now. “I think you should know I … only just found out who he is. Mere nights ago. I didn’t understand the extent of what Tristan had done. Learning about it … is what recently ended our lifelong friendship.”
That brings Kyle’s eyes fully to hers, solemn and silent.
Raya places a hand on Kaleb’s head, fingers brushing through his exposed hair. “Keeping you and your brother apart all those years … that’s just the start of the horrors Tristan has done.”
“Just the start?”
“I feel like I’ve lost Tristan to … something. Something dark. This plot he concocted with Mance, it may have been to satisfy some bigger, secret purpose I wasn’t aware of … a bigger purpose I’mstillnot fully aware of. I suspect everything that has happened tonight … was intended to happen.”
