Tristan waited until Gabriel left the cabin to be on night watch duty before seeking out Nate. He found him upstairs in his newly renovated cave. “Hey.” Tristan stood in the doorway and waited for Nate to pause his game.
“What’s up?” Nate turned around.
“We need to talk.” Tristan entered the room.
Nate rolled his eyes. “I hate our ‘talks’.”
Tristan sighed. “Trust me. So do I.” He leaned against the wall. “Have you been able to find any potential weapons?”
“No.”
Tristan pushed away from the wall. “I have a feeling you’re not really trying, Nate. Scarlet’s getting worse.”
“I’ve contacted anyone and everyone I know of who might be able to help us find the fountain. I’ve got websites, blogs, ads, and bounties dedicated to tracking it down. Gabriel’s looking over every ancient map he can find and you’ve been pouring over old ship logs and journals. We’re doing everything we can, Tristan.”
Tristan’s jaw tensed. “To find the fountain maybe. But not to help me find the right weapon.”
“I’m not going to help you kill yourself.”
“Oh, come on.”
“No way.”
Tristan groaned, “Please?”
“Don’t beg, dude. It’s lame.”
“So, what then? Are you just gonna let her die? Again?” His voice cracked and he immediately tried to get himself under control.
Nate sighed. “I’m not sure what the right thing to do is.”
“The right thing is to save her life.”
“At the cost of yours? Uh-uh. I don’t think so, dude. Gabriel would kill me. And then Scarlet would kill me. And they could just keep on killing me over and over again because I don’t ever die. Do you know how much that would suck?”
“Think about this.” Tristan took a step toward him. “That
very
thing you just mentioned…dying over and over again? That’s what Scarlet’s been doing—for
five hundred years
.”
Silence fell between them.
“You don’t have to do it for me,” Tristan sighed, “but …could you just…do it for her?”
Nate hesitated before shaking his head. “I can’t help you find a way to kill yourself. It feels…wrong.”
Tristan clenched his jaw and moved to leave.
“Hey.” Nate said.
Tristan turned around.
“Gabriel said you’re in more pain this time? That you can’t even sleep?”
Tristan shrugged. “It’s no big deal.”
Nate narrowed his eyes. “It’s not just you. Scarlet’s illness is accelerating faster than it should. What changed?” He squared his jaw. “What happened in her last life?”
Tristan tried to look innocent.
No such luck.
“Don’t play with me, man. I know how the curse works, and I know she shouldn’t be as connected to you as she is,
all of a sudden
. What happened?”
Tristan looked around the room as he exhaled. “Let’s just say…I didn’t practice very much…self-control last time.”
Nate nodded. “Is that why she died so early?”
“I don’t know.” Tristan swallowed. “But I think it’s why she ran away.” His chest felt hollow as he thought about the last time Scarlet died.
Nate shook his head and closed his eyes. “You are one tortured soul, man.”
“Then why don’t you help this tortured soul out and find a way to kill me.”
Nate looked at him apologetically. “Nope. If you want to die, you’re on your own.”
Knowing he wouldn’t be able to change Nate’s mind, Tristan uncrossed his arms. “Fine.”
He left the room, memories chasing after him with their guilt and sorrow.
As he descended the stairs his hands began to shake.
Gabriel yawned as he looked out his windshield at Scarlet’s house. He wasn’t thrilled with the stakeout plan, but Scarlet insisted she stay in her own house with Heather—even if that was stupid and could potentially get her killed.
He turned on the radio and searched through channels, all while keeping his eyes on Scarlet’s front door. There was a full moon out, shining brightly on the dark neighborhood street, and casting soft shadows against the dense forest just behind her house.
It was quiet.
And boring.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Gabriel jumped as someone pounded on his car window.
Upon seeing the knocker, he sighed and rolled his window down.
“What are you doing here?”
Tristan nodded. “We need to switch out.”
“Tonight is my night to watch. You watched last night.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t sleep. So, you might as well go back to the cabin and get some rest. I’ll stay here.”
“You can’t sleep…at all?”
Tristan said nothing.
“Dude, that’s weird. You should be able to sleep. We don’t live that far away from her.”
“I know, Gabe. I don’t know what’s going on but I do know there’s no way I’m going back to the cabin tonight. So, you can hang out here with me all evening. Or you can go home and get your beauty rest.”
Gabriel rolled his eyes. “My beauty rest? Real—“
“
Shhh
!” Tristan pointed to Scarlet’s house and panic immediately filled Gabriel.
A male figure was creeping up from the woods, making his way to the edge of Scarlet’s house.
“Is that the guy?” Gabriel asked, squinting into the night.
“Definitely.”
Gabriel quietly opened his car door and got out as Tristan stepped away. The twins hid in the nearby shadows, watching the intruder make his way back to the front door.
Gabriel whispered. “Let’s go!”
Tristan hesitated. “No.”
“No?”
“No. Let’s scare him off, and then follow him back to wherever he came from.”
“Follow him? Are you crazy?” Gabriel made a face of disbelief.
“Maybe. But we want to know what he’s after, right? So, let’s follow him.”
“And how, exactly, are we going to scare him off?”
Tristan looked around. “I have a plan.” He picked up a rock and sent it flying through the night air, where it landed on Scarlet’s porch with a thud.
Gabriel dropped his head to the side. “Throwing rocks? That’s your big plan?”
The figure paused, looking around.
Tristan threw a second rock, this time hitting the stranger’s back.
Clearly spooked, the figure shuffled off the porch and started creeping back toward the forest.
“Nope,” Tristan said, leaving the shadows. “My plan is in my trunk.”
“You have a “trunk” plan?”
Gabriel left his hiding place and headed to Tristan’s black car, watching the assailant reach the edge of the woods. “If we’re going to follow him, we need to go
now.
He’s getting away.”
Tristan looked at the stranger casually. “No, he’s not. That cluster of trees is pretty much a dead end. He’s either got a place somewhere nearby, or he lives in a tent. We’ll track him.”
“We’ll
track
him? With what? Our noses?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, we’ll follow his footprints.”
Gabriel, angry the stranger was getting away, shook his head. “Brilliant. We’ll throw rocks at him and then we’ll play Sherlock Holmes in the woods.”
“He’s not going to get away. I know you haven’t had to kill your food for a century now, but you’re a hunter, Gabriel. We both are. So, we can do this. Remember when we used to do this for survival?”
“You mean back before modern medicine and toilet paper? Yeah, I try
not
to remember that.”
Tristan rolled his eyes. “Well, then
I’m
a hunter. And I’m going to hunt down Scarlet’s visitor. Are you with me?”
Gabriel exhaled. “Fine.”
Tristan meant confront, not
hunt
…right?
He popped the trunk.
Gabriel glanced down. “
Seriously
, Tristan? You drive around with a trunk full of weapons?”
“Of course.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m the family bad guy.”
Gabriel rubbed the side of his face and muttered, “How are we even related?”
“Oh, please. Don’t act like you’re pissed that I
happen
to have a car full of artillery right when we need it. Grab a weapon.”
“What?”
“You might want a weapon, in case Scarlet’s stalker tries to stab you. He was kinda knife-happy last time I met him.”
Gabriel and riffled through the artillery. Bows…daggers…axes. “Why do you have so many weapons?”
Tristan shrugged. “You never know when you’ll need a backup.”
“What do you do in your free time that requires a
backup
?”
Tristan smiled tightly. “I kill stuff. Just pick a weapon and let’s go.”
“Calm down, Braveheart.” Gabriel searched through the weapons. “I’m trying to find something not quite as fatal as…a
scythe
? Really?” Gabriel held the wicked half-moon blade up and looked at Tristan. “What are you, the Grim Reaper?”
“Yes. Yes, Gabriel. I’m the Grim Reaper. You caught me. I drive around in my car full of weapons collecting souls.”
Gabriel shook his head as he finally decided on one of the compound bows.
Tristan reached for the other compound bow. “What’s wrong? Afraid to use the scythe?”
“The scythe still has blood on it and I like my weapons clean.”
“You would.”
Gabriel shuffled around the trunk again, searching for faux arrows—arrows designed to injure but not kill. “All these arrows are sharp—and have blood on them.”
“Yes, well, I left my cotton candy arrows at home next to my teddy bear.”
Gabriel turned to Tristan. “We’re
not
going to kill that guy.”
“We might.”
“Tristan, that’s homicide.”
“It’s self defense.”
“It’s not self defense. He didn’t come after you.”
“But he came after Scarlet. And, technically, Scarlet is a piece of me. So, yeah. It’s self-defense. Are you coming with me or not?”
“I don’t want to kill him. I just want to hurt him. Or detain him.”
“Or maybe you could just give him a big hug.”Tristan started marching into the woods. “You can stay there and clean weapons or whatever, but I’m going after our intruder.”
Gabriel grabbed a few arrows and groaned as he shut the trunk. Tristan was insane.
The boys entered the wooded area and Tristan began looking for tracks.
Seriously.
Gabriel squared his jaw. “Tristan, it’s nighttime. You’re not going to find anything.” He sighed in frustration. “I knew we should have just grabbed him when he was at her front door.”
Tristan said nothing as he crouched low to the earth.
Gabriel watched his brother. Long ago, they’d hunted together for food, for survival, and for freedom.
Avalon, Georgia wasn’t lacking any of those things.
Gabriel shifted his weight, feeling like an idiot standing in the woods with a bow.
“Bingo,” Tristan said, pointing to a set of deep footprints in the mud.
Gabriel’s mouth fell open. “I can
not
believe you actually did that.”
Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Maybe if you weren’t such a pretty boy you could do it, too.”
Gabriel scoffed. “Just because I don’t want to track down crazy people in the woods on a full moon doesn’t mean I’m a pretty boy. It means I’m normal.”
“Whatever,” Tristan muttered.
They snuck quietly through the tall trees, led only by the moonlight and muddy indentations of shoe tracks. They walked for a few minutes in silence until they came to a clearing and spotted a shadowed figure darting into the trees.
Tristan and Gabriel exchanged a look and Gabriel instinctively went into hunt mode. He pulled his compound bow up and slowly crept to the right, as Tristan snuck away in the opposite direction.
The sound of rustling leaves and a hooting owl broke the silence as Gabriel looked around.
A noise to his left caused Gabriel to turn with his bow raised, poised to shoot.
But only in defense. He had no intention of killing anyone.
Taking a human life was no small thing, and Gabriel wasn’t a murderer.
A sharp pain shot through his body and, with a grunt, Gabriel looked down. A long dagger stuck out from the right side of his chest and blood began seeping through his shirt.
Someone had thrown a knife into him.
What the hell?
Wincing in pain, Gabriel lowered his bow and yanked the blade from his chest, tucking it into his waistband. He scanned the shadows for his attacker, drawing the compound bow back up with new resolve.
Maybe he’d been a little hasty in his decision
not
to murder anyone tonight.
As his wound began to heal, Gabriel’s eyes shot through the dark shadows.
Suddenly, Scarlet’s intruder appeared just yards away from him. Coming at him. Charging, almost.
Taking careful aim, Gabriel shot two arrows, one into the figure’s thigh, the other into his side—but neither slowed his opponent down.
Gabriel wasn’t ready to kill the guy—at least not yet.
After all, Gabriel was immortal. It wasn’t exactly a fair fight.
But the stranger kept charging. And in his hand was another knife.
Awesome.
The intruder lunged and, right when Gabriel was about to release another arrow into his attacker’s body, he heard a
thwack
.
The stranger fell dead at Gabriel’s feet—a long and deadly arrow jutting from his back.
Gabriel looked up from the body before him and saw Tristan with his bow still raised.
“Tristan!” Horror filled Gabriel’s eyes. “You just
killed
him.”
Tristan lowered the bow. “I know.”
“He’s a person, Tristan! This isn’t medieval England where you have to protect your bread and your goats! You can’t just shoot people dead.”
“I can if they creep into Scarlet’s room and try to kill my brother.”
Gabriel dropped his arm, the bow hanging at his side. He shook his head. “What are we going to do now? You just committed murder and now there’s a dead body—”
The corpse at Gabriel’s feet began to crumble.
The twins watched in disbelief as the intruder’s skin and bone slowly lost their color and turned to ash.
A gust of wind blew through the dark trees and the ash swirled away into the night, leaving behind only the stranger’s clothes and the three arrows his body no longer held.
Gabriel blinked. “What just happened?”
Slowly, Tristan shook his head. “No idea.”
The brothers slowly walked in a circle. The ash was almost completely gone. It was as if no corpse had ever been there.
“He just…he just disintegrated.”
Tristan nodded.
“Have you ever seen anything like that before?”
“No.” Tristan stopped walking and crouched to where the stranger’s clothes lay. “I told you he wasn’t human.”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “I guess not.”
“Well.” Tristan rose from the ground. “Problem solved. No body, no crime. So, you don’t need to worry about going to jail or anything.”
Gabriel shook his head. “He wasn’t
human
. What does that mean?”
Tristan slowly exhaled. “It means our crazy little world just got creepier.”
Tristan kicked at the clothes on the ground until his shoe caught on something black.
A Head Ghost.
Tristan cursed and ran a hand through his hair.
Gabriel blinked. “He had another one? Where is he getting them?”
Tristan shook his head.
“What should we do now?” Gabriel exhaled.
“I don’t know…maybe we should take the Head Ghost back to Nate, but leave the clothes just like they are. We can come back here in the morning.”
Gabriel nodded and picked up the Head Ghost before the brothers quickly made their way back to their cars.
Gabriel started his engine and began to pull away, when he noticed Tristan wasnt leaving.
“What are you doing? We should go home and talk to Nate.
Now
.”
“I don’t want to leave Scarlet yet.”
Gabriel furrowed his brow. “Do you think she’s still in danger, even though we killed that guy?”
“I’m not sure. But either way, I won’t be able to sleep tonight. So, you go ahead. I’ll stay here and we’ll figure stuff out in the morning.
Gabriel contemplated staying with Tristan, but he was too eager to hear what Nate had to say about the non-human that turned to ash.