Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(10)

“The best thing I can do for you—for everyone—is get out of town. I wasn’t supposed to see Chase. I wasn’t supposed to see Sam… This has gotten too complicated already.”

Rick placed a hand on either side of my shoulders. He wobbled a little, but used me to steady himself. Seeing him like this tore me apart. He’d always been a rock. Now, he looked like a gentle breeze would knock him to the ground. “I want you here. You know that. But I think you’re right. I know how hard it is for you to see Sam. And your brother, well, that’s difficult on an entirely different level. He may think himself ten feet tall and bulletproof, but you and I know better. I’ll never forgive myself for telling you to leave, but—”

Rick had been the one to talk me into leaving town in the first place. I’d only been seventeen at the time, but we both recognized the need for distance. After tearing myself away from Chase’s bedside that night, I ran straight to my uncle, who gave me a wad of cash and a gentle shove toward the door. The guilt had likely been eating at him ever since.

“I can’t control this thing when he’s around. And Sam… She’s an entirely different issue for me.” I clasped a hand over his. It was so cold. “You didn’t let me down, Uncle Rick. You helped me do what was right for everyone.”

“I sent a child onto the street on his own. What kind of a father does that?”

“The kind that can make the hard choices. I owe you.”

I’d never once questioned Rick’s motives. The old man loved me. There was never any doubt in my mind. But he loved Chase, too, and he’d done what was best to keep us both safe and sane.

The demon flashed the encounter at the diner through my mind again, only with a slightly different ending. In this version I attacked Chase, ripping the still-beating heart from my brother’s chest as Sam stood by and cheered. At the completion of the morbid vision, the demon settled down again, content. Of course, the things that settled the demon had an opposite effect on me. They left me feeling edgy and sick. My muscles began to ache, signaling that the demon was ready to feed again. Not the scavenger bits of anger and fear, but true violence. “I need to leave. Chase will be here soon. I don’t want to take any chances…”

Rick nodded, grim. “I understand.”

“I can’t come back again.” This was it. The last time I’d see him. I’d come back for the funeral, but it would be from a distance. “The thing is always nudging me toward darkness, but when I’m here—when I’m near Chase—it’s worse.”

Rick hesitated, like there was something more he wanted to say. Another moment passed, and he pulled me into a hug. “I’m proud of you, kid. I think—I think you’re going to be all right. Stay away from your brother and everything will be all right…”





Chapter Six




Sam

I stuffed the car keys into my back pocket and slammed the rental car door. The sun was shining and there was a chill in the air to tell us winter was on the way. I hadn’t slept last night, so by the time 9:00 a.m. rolled around, I was the walking dead. To make matters worse, my aunt didn’t drink coffee. The woman wasn’t human… I ended up being late to work to sate my caffeine addiction, because going without wasn’t an option.

“Sam,” someone whispered. “Psst. Over here.”

I whirled around, almost losing my footing in the loose gravel, and squinted into the darkness of the alley. A hunched figure hovered in the shadows by the dumpster. “Hobe?”

A small-framed man in his early thirties with a nasty nervous tic and a serious acne issue stepped from the dark. He refused to look directly at me and kept both hands stuffed in his pockets as he came closer. If I didn’t know Hobe, I probably would’ve crossed the street to avoid him. Not dangerous in a bruiser sort of way, he had an entirely different kind of vibe. Creepy in that “it’s always the quiet ones” way. Our boss usually made him work mornings to clean up because he tended to freak out the customers.

The Viking was Harlow’s only nightclub. The club opened two years ago—despite an enthusiastic campaign from residents to keep it out—and had become a hot spot. Even people from four towns over visited.

“Boss man is on the war path.”

“I’m running late for my shift. I know, I’m sorry.” I wasn’t a morning person, but I was stuck coming in early, before the club opened, to do grunt work because I’d been late four times last week. Normally Martin stuck me behind the bar. I wasn’t the prettiest, but I knew how to water down a drink better than anyone. The big boss was nothing if not cheap. “What’s his deal today?”

“This Gentleman Stalker thing. He’s pissed. Says it’s bad for business.”

I’d heard about that. Some of the girls who had gone missing were from Huntington campus. It just reinforced that I’d made the right choice. I could have ended up like them. In fact, I had a feeling I almost had.

The decision to leave school was prompted mainly because I’d been attacked one night on the way home from a party. No one knew about the Gentleman Stalker at the time, but who knew? I could have ended up his first victim.

Yesterday, after the accident, I’d even had myself convinced that the near miss at school and the sudden streak of bad luck here in Harlow were somehow connected. But with the clarity of a new day, I realized that was insane. That would mean whoever attacked me on campus had followed me all the way home. There’d be no point. I’d never even seen his face.