Dylan(80)

I should get up. Find my brothers.

I roll on my back, and the ceiling starts spinning in lazy circles. Dizzy, I close my eyes again.

When I reopen them, Tessa is there.

“You’re sick,” she tells me, sitting by my side, holding my hand between hers. She says I was running a high fever, but now I’m better. The antibiotics are working.

Tessa. She’s here, always here. She’s the only sharp, brightly focused point, the only constant. She gives sense to the nightmarish jumble of images and sounds.

As I sleep, because sleeping seems to be the only thing I do all day, I think I hear Dad’s voice, and I blink.

He’s there, standing by my bed, his hair grown shaggy, hanging around his lined face. He’s forty-two, but looks over sixty these days. He scratches at his three-day beard with dirty nails and sighs.

“Pestilence,” he mutters. “Need to cleanse this house from sin and misfortune. Burn everything. Erase everything, liberate the soul.” He leans closer to me. “I can smell the disease on you. Smell pain and sorrow. I can help you. I can help all of us past the sky gate. Let us be free.”

I blink once, twice, and he’s gone. “Dad?” I call out, my voice a scratchy whisper. “Dad? Are you there?”

I carefully push myself into a sitting position. The room tilts sharply, and I grab for something not to fall. “Fuck.”

“Hey.” Zane appears in my line of vision, tilting together with the room and everything in it. He makes a grab for me and eases me back on the pillows. “What are you doing, fucker? No getting up yet.”

I figured as much myself. I lie panting, still searching the room with my eyes. “My dad.”

“What about him?” Zane frowns at me and leans against my closet, arms folded over his chest. He’s wearing a black Deathmoth T-shirt, the white letters showing through his unzipped jacket.

“Has he been here?”

His frown deepens. “Here, in this room?” He looks at the door, then back at me. “You were asleep for a couple of hours. I was in the kitchen with Dakota and your brothers. I didn’t see or hear anyone entering the house.”

I chew on this. Another dream, then.

I swallow the bitterness welling in my throat and let out a long breath. “If my dad comes home…”

“Does he have a key?” Zane doesn’t look happy about this.

Neither am I. “It’s his house, so yeah. If he comes, just take Teo and Miles and leave quickly. Take them someplace safe.”

“The hell, Dylan. You think he’s dangerous?”

“I don’t know. Something’s off.”

“Has he ever threatened you or beaten you? Why would you think he’d do it now?”

“Dammit, Zane, I don’t know.” My heart is pounding in my throat, in the back of my skull. “Please, man. Just do it.” I close my eyes, the effort of looking up at him too much.

I don’t care what my dad does with me. The main thing is to keep my brothers safe. And Tessa.

“Is that so?” Zane asks. “You think we’d go and leave you behind?”

I frown.

“Tough, fucker. Not gonna happen. Besides. Your brothers and Tessa would never let us live it down if we let anything happen to you.”

I swallow hard and open my eyes again, squint up at him. “Didn’t realize I said anything out loud.”

He chuckles and draws back. “You’ve been talking in your sleep a lot. Sleep, fever coma, whatever. You’ve been saying these things over and over again. About needing to make sure your brothers are all right. About Tessa.”

Damn. I clench my fingers, grabbing handfuls of blanket, and look past him, at the wall. A flush is trying to make its way up my neck. “Have I now?”

“Relax. It’s cool.” He grins. “Finally fessed up to Tessa? You’ve been telling everyone how much she means to you, but have you fucking told her? Does she know?”

“Everyone?” Alarm makes my voice even hoarser. “Who’s everyone?”

“The guys. We’ve all been around these days, taking shifts. Tyler and Erin, Asher and Audrey, me and Dakota. Rafe. Your neighbors.”

“And Tessa?” I clear my throat. “Was she here?”

Maybe that was a dream, too.

“Fucker.” Zane shakes his head. “She’s been here all day every day, and every night, too. Girl only leaves to go to work and return. Audrey loaned her clothes, ’cuz she hasn’t even been back to her apartment yet. Doesn’t want to leave you alone even for one fucking moment.”

A grin spreads over my face. It makes my cheeks hurt, as if I haven’t used those muscles in a long while. “She doesn’t, huh?”