AEGIS ↠ EMBRY CALL [R.U]

57| TEXTS

There was an uncomfortable silence that settled between the two of them as Callas continued to stare at her phone. There was a part of her that wanted to ask why he had her phone, and for how long he had had it. Did he go through all of her messages? Did he see everything? He surely must have if he was able to get on her phone and show her the messages, even when she had a code on it. Reed wasn't impressed, that much was clear and understandable, but neither was Callas. Even with their 'no more secrets' promise, she wasn't ready to tell him about it, not now at least. He invaded her privacy, sure, with good intentions, but he invaded it nonetheless. The feeling of her throat being closed up and stuffed with her own heart began to fade as she balled her fists together tightly, allowing her nails to puncture the skin, not enough for it to bleed, but enough for it to be the only thing she felt. Callas moved her gaze from her blinding phone screen to his face, matching the same expression as his own.

"I wasn't ready to show you that, Reed," she told him slowly.

"You should have! I'm your brother, I should know—"

"Oh, give me a break!" Callas yelled, standing up from the bed. "Are you kidding me with this bullshit, Reed? You've kept secrets from me! You all have! You told me you would give me time. This doesn't look like time to me! How dare you use that line on me, I barely know who you are anymore! I barely know who any of you are!"

"Callas—"

It was all coming out now. "While we are on the subject of what we 'should' and 'should not' know, how about you tell me why our mother was murdered? Huh! She was murdered and no one thought to tell me that? What? Did you think I wasn't going to find out?"

Reed yelled at her, "Enough!" His breathing deepened. "Yes, I've kept secrets, but for good reasons," his voice was hard as he spoke, "I did what I had to do to keep you safe... from me. F-From this life!" Reed moved his gaze from her. "You know me more than anyone else does, don't say that you don't. Don't ever say that." He shook his head, his voice quietening down as he turned the phone screen off and threw it down on the bed, moving to sit with his legs hanging off and his elbows on his knees while he held his face in his hands. "But Mum, she... It was Dad's idea, I only found out when I overheard him talking to Nana and Gramps a few years after it happened, a few nights before he wanted to pack up and leave La Push. I didn't think much of it at the time, I was a kid, I wasn't going to confront him on it. What was he meant to say to me? 'Sorry Reed, your mum was killed by a vampire, oh yeah, they're real and I'm a wolf, surprise'? How could you explain that to a kid?"

Callas closed her eyes, sitting down next to him. Reed wasn't wrong; he was a child when it all happened. It wouldn't have been fair if their father told Reed the truth, it would have messed him up. Something then brought her mind back to a few days ago. "I think it was Will," Callas admitted in a small voice.

"What?" Reed turned to look at her. "Why?"

"Because he told me, the night he broke in, that not even Mum was as clueless as to knowing who he was. I read the article, Reed." She looked at him. "The one that talked about the deaths and 'bear attacks', I read them. They thought someone put tubes in their neck to drain them, but if I've learnt anything from books and movies, it's a trait that vampires have... draining their victims of blood through their neck. Her heart was surgically removed, but I can't get my head around that. She was the only one to not have a heart when they found her."

Reed immediately wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry," he apologised in a whisper. "For being a crap brother, for pretty much manipulating you. I've never done this before. All I wanted was to keep my promise to Dad. I just wanted to protect you, I never meant for any of this to happen, this is all my fault," he rushed out, running his right hand through his overly tangled, curly, brown mess of hair. "I just..." He sighed. "I just didn't want to disappoint him or Mum, you know? If they're watching over us, which I'd like to think they are, but realistically? I know they aren't. They're gone. I just don't want to disappoint them, not anymore."