Deviate Me (Tangled in Blood Ties #1)

Chapter 1

One

Killien

Things are getting a little bit out of control.

Maybe more than just a little bit, honestly. Damien won’t stop mutilating himself. He’s just unstoppable, the goddamn brat. Last week he got his navel pierced and now he’s already setting up an appointment to get both of his nipples done.

I can’t say I’m surprised, though. He started doing this back when we were still human.

His ears were the first, followed by his left eyebrow.

Then came the two lip rings, the septum, and, almost two months ago, the one on his tongue.

It suits him, but just thinking about it makes me squirm. I hate needles.

For an older stepbrother, I’m way too protective of Damien. Not that it helps—the little shit still does whatever he wants, especially now that we’re bloodsuckers. In the past six months he’s gone off the rails. Lost.

Bye bye, innocent younger brother.

He sits on the sofa across the room, legs curled up against his chest, phone in hand, and deep blue eyes fixed on its screen.

He looks tiny when he sits like that, all fragile and cute.

His dark brown curls are a bit messy, almost covering his eyes.

Whatever he’s doing, I can’t know. Probably getting that appointment with our piercer friend.

Good thing he’s a vamp too; we can’t risk going to a regular place. A lot of things could go wrong.

“Killi?” he says, finally taking his eyes off the phone for a second. My heart beats faster when he calls me that. It’s the nickname he gave me when we were kids.

“Yeah?” I lean against the peeling white wall behind me, arms crossed over my chest.

He knows I’m upset, but won’t give a shit. Sometimes I curse the day I agreed to get those matching tattoos behind our left ears—mine is a D and his is a K. It’s almost like I enabled him to keep doing this crap. I guess I didn’t think it through.

“I’m hungry,” Damien whines.

Of course. When are you not?

We’ve been struggling ever since our maker took off and left us behind, like four weeks ago.

Just thinking of Ledger makes me rage. Son of a bitch.

I’d punch his stupid face if he walked through the front door again.

But I’d also be glad that he’s back to guide us through this mess. It’s complicated.

I mean, we know what to do. Damien is really good at hunting, actually.

But we’re trying to lie low, just in case.

Our kills are as few and far in between as we can manage.

Damien and I have been on our own for a long time, since we ran away from home like six years ago.

But this is different; we’re not human anymore and it’s all still new to us.

“Are you fucking listening?” he asks, glaring at me with that penetrating blue gaze of his.

“I heard you—I always hear you.” I roll my eyes at him, not really knowing what to say.

“We should go hunting, Killi.” Damien drops his phone beside him on the battered grey sofa and jumps to his feet. He’s only wearing boxer briefs, for some reason I wish I could understand. If I say something, though, he’ll only do it more often—just to piss me off.

Not that I’m looking, anyway.

“Where should we go this time?” I sigh, forcing my eyes away from his shiny navel piercing, the subtle curves of his abs, and the faint outline of his ribs. His lean body doesn’t look fragile anymore, like it used to just a few years ago.

“We could try the rundown park, there are way too many junkies we can munch on—or, maybe a bar?”

He’s not wrong.

Like I said, Damien’s really good at this whole vampire thing.

He knows how to get his way around others; they just do whatever he says.

Not like he didn’t when we were still human, though.

Everyone bends to the will of the almighty Damien Moore.

And he’s no more than a goddamn brat—but a lovable one, at least.

“I’m gonna shower first,” Damien says as he strolls towards the bathroom.

Once the door is closed behind him, I cross the open space to sit on the sofa, leaving the small, outdated kitchen behind me.

My eyes travel around the room, taking in the old paint chipping away on the walls and the scuffed wooden furniture, while I avoid looking at what I really want to: Damien’s phone.

But I must, because I have to check that he’s not getting in any sort of trouble.

I slowly reach for it, biting the inside of my cheek as I do so.

Of course I know how to unlock it. The password is my birthday.

His last active conversation is indeed with the piercer—Jacob.

He’s a good guy, and I think they are kind of dating.

I can tell, even if Damien won’t say it.

There’s something different about how they look at each other lately.

And Jacob is way more touchy-feely with him than he is with other clients.

He doesn’t have his hands all over people like he does with Damien.

He certainly didn’t with me when I got the D tattoo from him.

It’s fine by me, I guess. Not that I have a problem with it.

My stepbrother’s had more boyfriends than I can count.

It’s nothing new, after all. What’s actually new, though, is that he’s started to show interest in girls too.

I saw him making out with more than one girl before feeding from them in the past months.

It’s kinda happening to me as well, though.

It freaks me out a bit, but I’m starting to find guys attractive.

Not because there’s anything wrong with it. But . . . that was never me.

Damien isn’t helping either. I’ve seen him almost naked more times than I would like.

He just doesn’t care that he’s a grown ass man now.

The image of his lean body has been etched on my memory forever.

And my eyes seem to linger on him for way longer than they should. It’s almost like I can’t help myself.

I feel nauseous again just thinking about it.

I’ve been doing a lot of questionable things lately, but staring at my little stepbrother like that just crosses a line.

I don’t really care about killing humans—it is what it is—and I try my best to only kill bad ones.

But I do care about Damien, just like I always have.

We raised each other, pretty much, although there’s only a two-year gap between us.

My mom just ignored us while she drowned her problems with alcohol, and my stepfather was always out working.

Whatever it was that he did for work, something shady for sure, even before the whole drug dealing thing started.

That’s why I know we can survive without our maker.

We’ve been left to our own devices before, and we made it this far, didn’t we?

The fact that Damien tried to mug a vampire and we got kidnapped by him doesn’t change anything.

Anyone could have made that mistake. Vampires don’t walk around with neon signs over their heads.

Damien’s phone vibrates in my hand, startling me for a second. I can’t help but check it. It’s like a compulsion. I need to know he’s not getting into trouble.

It’s just Jacob, though. He sent a bunch of emoji’s. Black hearts, a devil, and a drooling face.

Eww. Did Damien send him a nude or something?

I won’t open the conversation, just in case. I don’t wanna know.

Yes, I do.

Well . . . maybe. But I shouldn’t.

The phone vibrates three more times and my eyes look at the screen on their own accord.

Thinking of how I’m gonna pierce

those pretty nipples of yours

Your blood is gonna smell

so damn good, honey

Can’t fucking wait

Shit. I don’t want to think about my brother’s nipples. God fucking dammit!

I jump off the sofa and head towards our bedroom before my mind spirals into God-knows-what.

I sit on my single bed and stare at his against the opposite wall.

This room is no better than the living space, with only the necessary pieces of furniture, which look like they’ve been through hell and back.

It’s all empty white walls, battered and discolored hardwood floors, and ugly popcorn ceilings with dingy light fixtures that look like they belong in the ‘80s.

Why do we still share this room when there’s another one available since Ledger took off? I guess we’re just used to it. We’ve always slept in the same room. I fear that I’d feel alone if he wasn’t close by at night.

Also, we can’t know if our maker will show up again.

This is his house, after all. Small, rundown, and in a rather bad part of town, but it’s been our home since we were turned.

Ledger could return and act as if nothing ever happened, so we’re keeping it all just like he left it.

For the most part, I hope he never comes back.

As scary as it is to be on our own in this new reality, I prefer it when it’s just the two of us.