That was an emergency situation and he was seventeen and one is not even remotely similar to the other.
They were impossible to reason with while in meltdown mode. Puberty was hitting them hard. Fourteen, for people with normal brain chemistry, was taxing on parents. Guiding six psychopaths through the hormone shifts associated with this particular time in their lives was an exercise in time and patience.
Whenever he refused the twins anything, he had to prepare himself to weather an emotional tsunami of rage and manipulation that followed. While each of his children dealt with disappointment in different ways, the twins had an advantage that was wholly unique to them. When it came to getting what they wanted, they were criminal masterminds, working in tandem. Even when they hunted. They were like velociraptors; one distracting while the other went in for the kill.
Thomas had tried to separate them for their assignments—another attempt to diminish their obsession with each other—but they’d proven too distracted, endangering both themselves,the assignment and Thomas’s mission. Part of Thomas wondered if that had been a manipulation tactic as well. He’d recently read an article in theWall Street Journalwhere the author had used the term weaponized incompetence. Is that what they’d done? If so, Thomas had fallen for it.
But there was nothing to be done about that now.
“Hey, Dad,” Avi said, his expression a mask of innocence, an affable smile on his face.
Dad. Not Thomas. His lips twitched in an aborted smile. They wanted something. Something big. They often called him dad in public, but it was usually Thomas in private, but if they were calling him dad where nobody could hear them, it was a targeted attack and it was already under way.
Thomas narrowed his gaze. Of all his children, Avi seemed the most at home with his situation. He had a genuinely pleasant demeanor, was casually efficient in his training and seemed truly happy all the time. He lacked the drive to stalk, to torture, to kill. The same could not be said for Asa. Like August, Asa was a true hunter. He had a need to control and dominate that was especially heightened at this age.
“What’s up?” Thomas asked, pulling his glasses off and rubbing at bleary eyes.
They looked at each other, silently communicating for a long moment. This is why they worked so well together. This twin telepathy that Thomas had long since given up trying to understand. This ability to read each other’s minds was why he’d already allowed the twins to make their first kill.
He’d wanted to wait, he’d forced the others to wait until their sixteenth birthday, but he feared attempting to control Asa’s urges would only lead to him veering off course. And since Asa wouldn’t hunt alone, the boys made their kill together. At first, Thomas was disappointed in the deviation from his plan, he hada regimen, a structure to their training, but now he realized it was just another facet for him to study.
“You know Jake?” Avi asked.
Jake was the twins pet snake who was currently living in a very large terrarium in the basement. A basement which also housed Atticus’s spider and reptile collection and was currently tended by a specialist who came several times a week to ensure their proper care now that the boys were away at school.
He sat forward, steepling his fingers on his desk. “Please do not tell me there’s a sixteen foot reticulated python loose in our house.”
Thomas’s stomach churned at the thought. A snake that big might be easy to spot in most houses but could easily go unnoticed in their home for days, weeks maybe. These snakes had been known to kill. And as difficult as his children’s teen years were proving to be, Thomas wasn’t willing to sacrifice any of them to be the dinner of an impulsive birthday present.
He fought the urge to heave another sigh. He was far too young to feel this tired.
The boys exchanged another long look, then they, as one, stuffed their hands into the pockets of their jeans and shook their heads.
Sometimes their synchronicity still spooked him. But at least the snake wasn’t on the loose. “Is he okay?”
The only thing more terrifying than a snake loose in the house was the twins harming an animal for sport. That was a violation they couldn’t come back from. Avi nodded, chewing on his lip for a moment before he said, “He’s hungry.”
Thomas raised his brows. To the casual observer, they would look innocent, sheepish even, but he could see the knife’s edge of excitement in their shrewd gazes. He often found it amusing that they still attempted to manipulate him after all these years. Theyprobably thought they were nailing their performance. Today it wasn’t quite so funny.
“Did you not feed him?” Thomas asked.
“We did…but we don’t think it's enough food.”
Asa nodded. “He’s, like, really big.”
“So he needs something really big to eat,” Avi said.
Asa gave his twin a pained look and an elbow to the ribs.
Thomas narrowed his eyes. “What are you two up to?”
This time it was Asa who sighed as if the jig was up. “Remember how you said we couldn’t play with acid?” he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other before scratching at the bumpy skin of his cheek.
They were currently being ravaged by hormone based acne, leading to nanny number one threatening to put oven mitts on their hands to keep them from picking.
Thomas tried to keep up with the rapid shift in the conversation but he was having a hard time making the leap from their pet snake to acid in any way that didn’t make his skin crawl. “It was only two weeks ago. Of course, I remember. I haven’t changed my mind.”
“Yeah, we know. We’re not stupid,” Asa snapped, then immediately clamped his mouth shut. Thomas caught and held Asa’s gaze, giving him what the boys called ‘the look’. Asa deflated, muttering a sorry that he clearly didn’t mean.
