He shakes his head. “Just because you’re used to people taking shit out on you, doesn’t mean it’s alright. I need to do better, and I will. I,” he cuts himself off and groans, thumping his head back against the wall and gazing up at the ceiling.
Dorian walks in a moment later, so I imagine he was eavesdropping outside of the door. He leans against the counter, looking down at me with pity for a brief flash before sighing and hopping up to sit, strumming his fingers on the edge.
“Luce and mine’s story isn’t a happy one, but it’s probably long past the point when we should all be getting to know each other. He took me in when I had nowhere else to go. I was lucky. I mean, how many twenty-two year olds would be willing to take in a punk ass fifteen year old? But that’s just the kind of guy Lucien is; remarkable.”
Luce scoffs, but Dorian ignores him. “It still kills me, and I feel guilty as shit about it, but it was sheer dumb luck that saved me. I was found beaten to a bloody pulp and they thought I was a missing boy they’d been searching for. Luce rushed in to find his younger brother, but got me as a piss poor replacement, a disappointment. To my surprise, he took one long look at me, thanked them, and brought me home.”
I blink, not expecting the way this story is going at all. “But why?”
Lucien parrots monotonously, “I couldn’t save him, but I can still save you. Throwing you to the wolves won’t bring my brother back.” He captures me in his gaze, amber eyes hard with painful memories. “I told that exact thing to Dorian when he asked, so I shouldn’t have been such a hypocrite. I should have respected you more for doing what you did. You didn’t know us and had no obligation to take us in. Thank you, Cambria.”
I give him a weak half-smile, turning to Dorian as he picks up where he left off. “We didn’t talk about it again, even though I had a million questions. But I was still better off taking my chances with this broken stranger than I was returning to the hellhole I barely crawled out of.
“When I was seventeen, we finally found the guy that killed his little brother. Luce got his revenge, but I doubt he’ll ever find his peace with it.” He turns to Lucien in sympathy. “I, on the other hand, gained everything in his loss. A home. A brother. A mentor I respected that didn’t beat the shit out of me. But still, some scars are so ingrained into our beings that even time can’t heal them, and I get thrown right back into the shoes of a weak little kid anytime some jackass touches me when I’m not expecting it.”
I sit up a bit more, facing Lucien. “I’m sorry about your brother.” Biting the inside of my cheek until I taste blood, I force myself to spit out the painful truth that started the downward spiral of my life. “My parents never forgave me after I killed mine.”
Not only do their heads whip to me in shock, but Atlas gives up hiding out on the other side of the door to come into the overcrowded space and lean against the doorframe. I turn to stare at the shower wall in front of me so that I can hurry up and spit the words out without seeing their faces.
“I was just a little kid at the time, so I suppressed most of the details. But that’s when I discovered I had the ability to steal others’ gifts. Cody was teasing me and I lashed out. Next thing I knew, he was on the ground. I had no idea what was happening at the time, so I didn’t act quickly enough.” I steel my heart and finish on a rush. “I ended up hurting sixteen more people before anyone figured out what was happening and was just hoarding all of their abilities inside myself instead of transferring them or giving them back. Cody died before I figured out how to calm down and release the energy back out. The others made it, probably because they were adults, but Cody was dead by the time I worked it out.” A traitorous tear slips out. “A greedy little attention whore that couldn’t stand sharing the spotlight with her brother.”
The words aren’t remotely the truth, logically I know that, but after a lifetime of them getting beaten into me, it’s hard to remember that sometimes.
I blink in surprise as I suddenly find Dorian’s lips on mine in a fierce kiss, but it works to snap me out of it before I fall too far down the rabbit hole. His fingers tangle into my hair for a moment to hold me against him before he pulls back as abruptly as he arrived, looking at me with glacial eyes.
“That is a damn lie, and you know it. I don’t know exactly the sort of shit you went through growing up, but I can hazard a guess. Just because you hear something a thousand times doesn’t make it true, Cambria, but if that’s what you need then fine. It’s not your fault. You were a kid and the people that should have protected you didn’t. You deserved better and didn’t get it, but you survived. So even though you’re legally responsible for us, how about we all agree to take care of each other instead, okay? The three of us don’t have anyone besides each other either, so why not piece together our own family instead?”
I’m openly crying and swipe a hand over my face, annoyed with myself for letting them see me like this at all. “I mean, I don’t have anything else going on today, so I guess I’m free if you are.”
He breathes out a laugh in relief, grabbing my hand and helping me stand as Atlas tosses me a towel. I wrap it around myself and snatch a washcloth to attack my blotchy face. It’s incredibly cramped in the small room with all of us, but we may as well get used to it if we’re going to be living together.
Atlas musses the top of my hair and I bat his hand off in annoyance before he steps out into the hallway. “I’ll go make some dinner out of your weird food.”
Dorian and Lucien file out after him, leaving me alone to brush my hair and collect myself. I don’t think they even know how grateful I am that they were here, for what they did for me. If it wasn’t for them, I would still be on that street right now and Rickon would have had my head when he came to.
Maybe adopting my fully grown, emotional support humans was the best thing that could have happened to me.
