Dead Matter

“So have you boys been getting to know each other?” I asked. “Did you hit the mall outside this little faux fortress? Maybe a little retail therapy at the Hot Topic, buy yourself a skull-and-bones hoodie to match?”

Aidan scowled at me from within his hood. He looked over at Co

Co

“Way to side with your broth…” I said, but Co

“Wait,” I said, looking at him. “He still doesn’t know? You haven’t told him yet?”

A little of the graveyard craziness from the other night returned to Co

“Maybe if you told him what you know,” I said to Co

Co

“You want me to tell him?” I said, turning to Aidan. “Cause I’ll do it, no problem.”

“Tell me what?” Aidan asked.

I went to speak but Co

Aidan held the picture gently, as if he were afraid it might crumble. “I don’t get it,” he said

“We’re brothers,” Co

“Really?” Aidan gazed at the picture. “Do we look alike?”

Co

Aidan turned to Beatriz and showed her the picture. “I mean, I don’t remember what I looked like before and we’ve got that whole no-reflection thing going on, so I don’t really know, but for real?”

Beatriz nodded. Aidan stared at Co

“If it helps,” Co

Aidan couldn’t stop looking at Co

I looked at Aidan. “I saw you once, you know.”

He looked nonplussed. “Where?” he said. “Around the city? I’m pretty sure there was only that night when you and your girlfriend chased me from Co

“No,” I said. “Not then. I saw you in the past.”

Aidan’s face lit up. “Oh, yeah?”

I nodded. “This was back before your little sun allergy kicked in. You only looked a couple years younger than you do now, even though it’s been-what?-twenty years? It was like that picture you’re holding, down on Cape Cod. You were dragging your brother across a parking lot at one of the beaches. He got all scraped up. You felt awful.”

“That sounds… a little bit familiar,” Aidan said, smiling, his fangs giving it a little menace. “I wish I remembered more.”

Co

Aidan shook his head. He got up and went to a large trunk along one of the stone walls of his chamber. He threw it open and began fishing through mounds of keepsakes. It reminded me of an old pirate chest, but one full of modern trinkets. When Aidan stood from it, he walked back over to us and sat down.

“This,” he said, opening his hand, “this is the first thing I remember owning, but like I said, I have no memory of it.”

A shiver went down my spine. In his hand Aidan held a Batman PEZ dispenser.

“Oh, I know PEZ dispensers,” I said with a grin. “Don’t I, Co

Aidan looked blankly at the two of us. “I don’t get it,” Aidan said.

“About a year ago,” Co

“I’m confused,” Aidan said. He looked at me. “When you said you saw me in the past, what are you talking about?”

I was already peeling off my gloves. “Let me show you,” I said. “You might not be able to recall your memories, but I can.”

I held out my hand and Aidan put the Batman PEZ dispenser in it. I closed my fist around it and pushed my powers into it. An image flared to mind immediately, the bright light of the sun at the shore blinding me. I was the older of two boys playing on the crowded beaches of Cape Cod, clearly the brothers Christos. Co

Aidan was buried practically up to his neck as Co

When Aidan finally gave in to the sensation, he drifted until he felt himself being raised to the surface, coming up in a field of tall weeds on the edge of a vacant area of parking lot. Two men speaking in a tongue I barely recognized as Romany were waiting for the boy, one of them incanting a spell. When he stopped, arms began to fade away but not before the other man drew duct tape across the boy’s mouth and wrists. The back of an open van stood nearby and the two men grabbed Aidan, throwing him into it before getting in and driving away.

I’d seen enough and pulled myself out of the vision.

Aidan, Co

“You look kind of creepy when you do that,” Beatriz said.

“What did you see, kid?” Co

I recounted to them what I had just seen. When I mentioned young Aidan thinking about sand snakes, the vampire Aidan gave a grim smile.

“Sand snakes,” he repeated. “I remember that.”

“Damn gypsies,” Co

“I sort of recall that,” Aidan said, his eyes filled with wonder. “It all still feels like a dream that happened to someone else, but I have a memory of that.”

Co

There was a knock at Aidan’s door, and he sprung up in a flash and was off to answer it. Before I could turn to see who it was, Brandon and Aidan were already back and standing in the center of the room. Beatriz stood as well.