Thanks to End-of-ur-world and Dulce Ambrosia for their reviews on the last chapter

Chapter 8

Drew couldn't sleep. He'd doze off for a couple of minutes, only to wake up finding his sheets in a tangle at the end of his bed. He sighed and rose to his feet with a hunters grace and began to pace the floor. Brakken still wasn't home yet. Don't be an idiot, he told himself. Of course Brakken wasn't home yet. Drew had gone to bed early for lack of a better thing to do. It seemed as if sleeping was the only thing that could deter him from this frenzied state--and yet he couldn't sleep.

He began to pace across the floor, his footsteps brushing the carpet softly. If he didn't have inhuman hearing, he never would have heard each step as it whispered across the carpet. He could have continued this for hours, wearing the carpet thin if a noise hadn't caught his ears; the soft click of the door being shut on the floor beneath.

Drew left his room and hurried down the hall to the stairwell. He didn't know exactly what he was going to do when he found his brother--he just knew that he would do something. The primary vision in his mind was an image of Drew throttling his brother. He had lots of rather violent images in his head--most of which he would never act on but dearly would have like to at that moment.

When Drew finally did reach the stairwell, a deathly calm had settled over him.

Brakken was kicking off his running shoes, completely unaware of the brother staring down at him. Drew slipped down the stairs. Brakken looked up when Drew was no more than a foot away.

"Hey--"

Drew didn't give him the chance to finish. He gripped Brakken by the front of his t-shirt and slammed him into the wall. He expected Brakken to fight back, but he only looked at Drew with disbelief and anger.

"What do you think you're doing?" Brakken snapped.

"Did you bite her?" Drew asked, gripping Brakken's shirt with white knuckles. He totally ignored Brakken's question. He needed to know--even if the truth hurt him. He was pretty sure that Brakken had.

Brakken tried to shove him off but Drew was too angry to be pushed. He reluctantly gave up, giving Drew the look of a cornered animal. His eyes flashed silver-blue in the moonlight pooling from the one window. Drew knew that he was only waiting for a single instant when Drew's guard was down--then he would attack.

"What do you care?" Brakken asked.

"Just answer the question," Drew replied through gritted teeth.

"Was she your next girlfriend in line?" Brakken sneered in a taunting voice.

Drew knew what he was up to. He didn't fall for it. He kept his senses outward, focusing only half his attention on Brakken's words. The rest of his attention was spent elsewhere, watching the tenseness in Brakken's muscles, watching his little movements. He wouldn't allow his brother to win this fight by becoming distracted.

"You can't have everyone, Drew," Brakken told him. "You've probably dated over half the girls in school--and when I choose one that you were planning to go for--you can't take it. You're so territorial. You always have been. I mean, it's just food. One girl is as good as the rest."

"Did you or did you not bite her!"

"Yes," Brakken snapped, his shoulders tense. "I bit her. And she tasted good. Why shouldn't I? Ever since I broke up with Jen I've had to find my meals on the street. I'm getting tired of it. She was easy prey because she was attracted to me. She would have fallen all over her feet for me. I would've been a fool not to take advantage of that fact."

"I could kill you right now," Drew hissed.

"But you won't," Brakken replied with a raised eyebrow and an incredulous glance. "You wouldn't have the guts. Drew the bad boy...but not as bad as you'd like to believe, are you?"

"Why Clara?" Drew didn't loosen his hold. "You could have had any girl in school. Why her?"

Brakken shrugged. "Why not her?"

"You don't deserve her," Drew ground out. "She's just food to you. You won't treat her well enough."

Brakken snorted. "I treat my girlfriends far better than you, brother. Or have you forgotten? I don't break up with them every time they talk too much and only grumble and act moody when I'm around them. She's better off without you."

The words hit home. Drew let go of the front of his brother's shirt with a dark look. He turned away from his brother, leaving his back exposed but his ears were tense for the sound of movement. Drew rubbed at his eyes. They were stinging with fatigue. He hadn't gotten much sleep in the past couple of weeks.

He heard the rush of air, but didn't move to avoid the blow. It wasn't a hard hit, just a dull thunk on the back of his head—Brakken's way of showing that he was miffed.

Drew slumped into the couch, the fight leaving him. He didn't know why he cared so much anyway. Clara was just a human. And yet it boiled his blood to even think of his brother sinking his teeth into her neck. He was more than angry—he was jealous. Clara and he had connected somehow. He didn't really understand it himself. But he found he didn't want anyone else to ever get that close to her—least of all his brother. Not to mention that taking her blood for food was just wrong. It was like a crime. And there were so many girls out there that Brakken could take—ones that Drew didn't care about.

"Why do you care?" Brakken's voice was so calm; so casual as he voiced Drew's very thoughts. But there was an underlying thread in his voice. A thread of warning. "Don't tell me that you're becoming...attatched...to a human."

"Of course not!" Drew snapped out defensively.

Brakken strode toward him . It was dark, but Drew could make out his every feature. His face was lined with suspicion and another emotion that Drew couldn't place. "You are, aren't you?"

"Don't be stupid," Drew replied.

"Oh, I'm far from stupid," Brakken said, choosing the couch opposite Drew. He looked almost lazy the way he leaned back into the folds of the couch. Drew wasn't fooled. "You weren't playing a practical joke on her this afternoon, were you? You were trying to keep her away from me."

Drew only glared. He'd already given himself away. There was no point in denying it. There was no point in admitting it either. So Drew just settled for a dark look instead. His muscles were tense and his jaw clenched.

Brakken tsked condescendingly. "Too late now."

"What's too late?" Drew asked, the blood draining from his face. He forgot to hold his silence. "What did you do to her?"

Brakken raised another eyebrow to show he'd noticed Drew's blunder. He leaned forward in his seat, propping his elbows against his knees. "What did I say, you mean?"

"All right," Drew growled, weary of the word games. He sighed. "What did you say?"

"I told her that you were dangerous. That you'd done things that I couldn't speak about. I told her that she should keep away from you to be safe." Brakken said with a shrug.

Drew swore. "How could you?"

They both knew that Brakken's claims were groundless. Drew had never done anything as dangerous or criminal as Brakken was suggesting. He was starting to regret all the things he had done. He could only imagine what Clara must think of him. He couldn't stand the thought that she might be afraid of him--and that she might now detest him.

"You never seemed to mind when I embellished your bad boy reputation before," Brakken responded. "You actually seemed to like the idea. Why should now be any different?"

"Unless..." Brakken added in a deadly calm voice. "Unless you're in love with her."

"Don't be silly," Drew replied in a strained voice. His heart beat had just kicked up double time. Of course he wasn't in love with her. He hardly knew her. And yet, he was acting like a guilty culprit. He looked to the floor.

Brakken knew how to read his brother well. Drew was rarely able to hide anything from him for long. Brakken folded his arms across his chest and fixed his brother with an unnerving. "Good. Make sure your feelings stay that way. I'd hate for the authorities to pick you up. The sentence for falling in love with a human is death."

Drew's head snapped up from where his eyes had been wandering across the carpet sleepily. He upraised his brother with a searching look, his words laced with menace. "Is that a threat?"

"Hardly," Brakken snorted. "Just a concerned brother."

Drew wasn't sure he could trust him.

"All the same," Brakken added, stretching. His words became obstructed by a yawn. "I think I'd better keep tabs on her. I wouldn't want to see you get into trouble."

"It's none of you business," Drew snapped, realizing just what kind of power Brakken held. He knew what Brakken could do to him if he wanted. Now he was feeling like the cornered animal. All he wanted to do was to lash out. But he knew it would make little difference.

Brakken neither agreed nor disagreed. He was only eying Drew with another curious glance.

"What are you looking at?" Drew said moodily.

"You," Brakken replied. "I used to think that dad was going crazy. There was no way it could be true. But maybe he was right about you."

"Right about what?"

"He said," Brakken cleared his throat and began to divulge the information without a wince or even an apologetic glance. "That you had grown up too soft. He said that you were too likely to get lost in human culture and forget your place."

Drew's eyes widened, wondering at his father's meaning. He couldn't quite fathom what Marden was up to. "Funny," he said in a half-whisper, musing. "He said almost the exact same thing about you."

"Don't lie," Brakken snorted. "I know what you're trying to do and it won't work. You can't make me angry at dad."

Brakken got up and walked away.