Chapter Forty
Ash
With all the kills out of the way, and a quick visit to Cal’s parents’ old house, to collect anything he really didn’t want to lose, we finished things Cross family style.
Dad Gray was pissed he couldn’t stay and watch it burn, but it was in a housing estate, and Em had been right, luring them away from here, and all these eyes, was the best way to get away with it.
“I’m just saying, I could be like a concerned passerby,” dad Gray grumbled from the back of the car, as dad Dory sighed.
“With your dick in your hand? Nobody’s buying that, Gray.”
A huffy sigh. “I could have just stroked one off over my pants.”
“Your dads are something else,” Cal whispered to me, his grip on my hand tight and trembling, because despite my dad’s enjoyment of the fire, we’d had to sneak their bodies back in, and burn his childhood home to the ground.
Did we do it at four in the morning, when we knew people wouldn’t see us coming or going?
Sure. Was the fact that the house was detached in any way relevant to us burning it? Don’t ask.
“Back to ours for breakfast, boys?”
We looked at each other, then Ren, who was practically hanging out the window to watch the fire disappear in the distance.
Yep. Definitely a Cross at heart. I mean, even I’d enjoyed the fire, always had enjoyed watching flames, but I never felt like setting them.
I enjoyed the grace and power of fire, but it didn’t mean I wanted to feel it.
Dad’s scars were a testament to just how fucking deadly flames could be.
“Blaze is probably desperately rubbing one out while he watches the feed on the neighbour’s camera,” I whispered to Cal. Blaze hadn’t been able to join us for this, so the five of us, along with Ethan and Em, had carried out the final steps of the destruction of the real psychos in our midst.
“I could eat,” Ren suddenly piped up, and that was the decision made.
I loved going home to eat with the family, and at last I’d be bringing my own family along.
My boyfriend, the love of my life, the person I’d die with, and our son.
The kid we never saw coming, but had taken under our wings, because he needed the kind of love only our family could provide.
Unconditional, limitless, and enabling, I mean, supportive.
Mum was a whirlwind of excitement, hugging everyone, and complaining about the smoky smell of my dads’ clothing.
When she saw Ren, she pulled him into a tight hug, calling him our sweet boy, and promising him he’s family now.
He looked stunned, blinking rapidly at her, and clenching his fists as he hugged her back just as fiercely.
Say what you want about my family, but this is who they are.
Loving. Accepting. Open. I mean, they only met him once, but he’s with us, so he’s family.
I expected her to be weird with Cal, but she simply pulled him into a hug too, kissing his cheek.
“Welcome, Callum. I’m so happy to be able to call you family.”
He blinked at her, and frowned at me, and I knew what the problem was because I know my man so well now.
“He prefers to be called Cal, mum.”
He shot me a glare, so whoa, maybe I got that part wrong. Whatever.
“But… what I did…”
Mum hissed in a breath and shook her head.
“If Ash forgives you, then we do.”
“If not, you’ll disappear too,” dad Gray said with a grin, slapping Cal’s back and moving toward the coffee.
The place was noisy, busy, and once food was on the table, it was a fucking crapshoot, with everyone reaching for things they wanted, and getting in each other’s way.
I fucking loved it. It was exactly what a family dinner should be.
“So what’s next for you boys? You’ve got your own little family now,” dad Dory said, smiling at Ren, who was still staring wide eyed at the family around him.
He was closest in age to my twin brothers, Nix and Cole, wait…
nope… Pyro, apparently. Something had changed with him for sure.
He had always been easygoing and relaxed, but now he was holding a knife in a firm grip, and watching each of us like he expected an attack at any moment. It was freaky. Even for us.
“C… Pyro? You wanna relax? Cal and Ren are family. They’re not threats.”
Dad Gray tutted, and leaned closer to Pyro, whispering something to him, and I swear that look in my brother’s eyes hardened. There was something chilling about that look in his eyes. What the fuck had happened to my little bro?
He and Nix were the calm, quiet ones. Nix was always off in his own little world, wearing skirts, and whatever else appealed to him, and avoiding all the drama in life.
He was happy as fuck, and I loved that. But with Pyro, formerly Cole, I have no idea what’s going on.
He was always the one we jokingly referred to as ‘the normie’, only he was acting anything but.
He was actually acting more unhinged than even Ethan.
Fuck. I knew that dickhead was a bad influence.
“So, anyway,” I said, clearing my throat and risking looking away from him, even though I was starting to feel like he’d attack us first. Nix was singing to himself, playing a game on his phone, and that was a perfectly normal state for him.
Hey, at least one of the twins was acting like his usual self.
“Yes?”
I grinned at mum. “It’s okay if we stay in the house we’re living in, right? Me, Cal, and Ren? We like it there.”
She glanced at my dads, who were already nodding. “Of course. And if you need help moving your things there, then maybe your brothers can help. Right, Nix? Pyro?”
Pyro slammed the knife he’d still been holding on the table surface, making at least half of the group jump.
“I’m not a fucking slave!”
He stormed out of the room, and silence fell, as each of us tried to figure out exactly what his problem was.
“Nix?”
He sighed. “I’ll go after him, but he’s so angry lately. I don’t know if he’ll even talk to me.” His lip trembled a little and he swallowed hard. “I miss him. He’s part of me.”
Dad Dory nodded, standing up and heading out of the room after our brother, and Em reached over and patted Nix’s hand, something she would never have done before she and Ethan broke each other.
“He’ll be okay, I promise. We all are. We have our bad days, but we have way more good ones. Right?”
“Fuck, yeah!” Her demented husband Ethan declared, grinning widely as he tried to describe the murders he’d committed earlier today. Murders of Cal’s family. Did the man have no discretion?
“You okay, baby?”
Cal shrugged. “Got to be, right? This is my life now.”
“Want me to get under the table and blow you?”
“If I get a vote, that’s a no,” dad Gray said, laughing as mum, Em, and Ethan all agreed.
Ren was watching us closely, probably still trying to figure out how to fit into a crazy large family like this.
A family that didn’t think twice about inviting him in, no wait, welcoming him in.
Maybe I would help him kill his folks, if that’d help him heal too. That’s what dads do, right?
Cal
I think Ash’s family are literally all a little insane, but you can’t deny the love and support in this family. Need a lift? You’ve got one. Need someone to help you gut and burn your enemies, they’re all up for it.
I was worried about fucking Ren up, but I think that ship might have sailed long before we even met him.
For now, he looked like he was still pinching himself at how he was just added to the family without a second thought.
Just like I’d been. I was afraid they were going to turn on me, because of what I’d done to Ash, but his mum put it so plainly.
He’d forgiven me, so they would too. Maybe one day I’d even forgive myself too.
“Any more bacon?” I asked, feeling delightfully filled up on food and family, and a little desperate for it to never end.
“I think that’s the last of it. I can fry some more up?”
I shook my head at Ash’s mum, because I’d never ask her to do that. I wasn’t even sure I wanted bacon at all, just for this to last forever.
“Wilms, why don’t I get a couple of blowtorches, and I can-”
“NO!”
Gray practically pouted beside his wife, and yet, he didn’t go rogue and do it anyway.
He didn’t even really argue. I’d been terrified of the guy, was still borderline terrified, but it seemed he was actually willing to listen to reason, and to follow someone else’s lead.
Maybe only hers, or Dory’s, but it still counted.
Dory returned, looking a little tired and frustrated.
“He okay?” I asked, even though it wasn’t my business, but clearly we all wanted to know.
Dory sat down, dragging his lukewarm coffee closer, even as Gray removed it and went to top it up for him. Dory waited until he returned before he answered.
“Believe it or not, he’s pissed at missing out on the killing, and especially the fire.”
From the shocked silence in the room, I had a feeling that wasn’t the norm for Cole, or Pyro, as they seemed to be calling him now. With this family’s penchant for renaming people, and fire names, I had no idea who’d decided on it, but it definitely wasn’t the time to ask.
“He… I don’t know what’s more shocking. Murder or fire. He’s never been interested in either, just like Nix isn’t.”
Nix shrugged, looking so much more childlike than normal with that gesture.
“He likes to draw dead things.”
Uh oh. I’d say we’re heading for the good old homicidal triad here, but then the whole family’s already batcrap crazy. Maybe this is just par for the course.
“Does he… does he make the things dead first?” Wilma warily asked Nix, who’d started humming merrily again.
“Nix, your mum asked you a question.”
Nix shrugged, focusing on his phone until Gray swiped it, and held it away from him.
“Nix?”
The boy sighed, reaching for his phone as he spoke.
“He likes them better when they look dead. That’s what he said. He doesn’t hurt them. He finds them dead.”
Ew. Okay, this was not the place for Ren right now. The kid was too fragile and suggestible for these people to be his influences. He likes things that look dead? That was another level of creepy for me.
“Ash?”
He nodded, standing up with me. “We should get Ren home, but thanks for breakfast. If uh… Pyro needs to talk, he can ring me and I’ll come see him. I uh…” he glanced at Ren, and everyone seemed to get the message pretty fast, including our kid, who groaned.
“I’m not going to start killing things just because of a conversation!”
“No, he’ll do that because he watched us kill people,” Ethan offered cheerfully.
Fucker. I think he’s worse than all of them put together at this point, and yet he’d apparently started out like me. A ‘normie’ as they called it. Was I destined to end up just as bloodthirsty and twisted, or could I halt my devolution before it was too late? And what about Ren?
Ren went to his room, with his phone and the laptop we’d given him, because apparently that stuff is just available in abundance in this damn family.
The kid was old enough to get into real trouble with that stuff, and that bothered me.
Kids needed boundaries, even while we were trying not to wave rules and orders over his head.
“That laptop has controls on it, right?”
Ash stared blankly at me as he passed me a coffee, and we headed over to the sofa to sit down.
“Controls?”
“Yeah, like protections to stop him getting into adult stuff. It’s safe for a kid, right?”
Ash still looked confused as hell. Was this that bizarre a concept for these people? Had none of them wandered into sites they shouldn’t see as kids? I found that really hard to believe.
“Ash, he’s eleven. He’s too young to get into porn, or the kinda shit your family’s into!”
Fuck me. I had to go get that damn laptop back. I stood up, but Ash caught my arm and dragged me down to sit beside him.
“He’ll be fine. We never had boundaries like that, and we’re fine. If he gets into trouble, or attracts pervs, we’ll handle it. I was na?ve once and my parents solved it. It’s what parents should do.”
He met my stare, while I wondered how the fuck he thought any of that was a good argument, while he probably pondered something sexual, having moved on already. He was a deviant to the core, but he was my deviant now.
“Ash.”
Finally he shrugged. “Kids make choices, Cal. They do the right thing or they do the wrong thing, but their parents are there to back them up, and protect them. That’s us now. And look, Ren’s had choices taken away from him his whole life. Let’s let him make some for himself right now.”
I hated it when Ash made sense, because how the hell was I supposed to argue with that? I’d sound like a prick who wanted to control away all Ren’s decisions and wants.
“I just think there are harmful things on the internet he probably shouldn’t see at an impressionable age.”
“Like?” Ash raised his eyebrows at me, a challenge he knew I’d accept.
“Porn!”
“Sex is natural. How’s he supposed to know how it works if he can’t watch some and learn?”
I’d watched a little porn while I was out of the range of my parents’ reach, and some of it should never be learned, in my opinion, but was that simply the judgement of my upbringing speaking again?
“Ash.”
“What? What’s worse than what he’s been through? He was drugged, and about to be r…” he glanced at the door, and lowered his voice, “he almost went through something way worse than any porn he’ll get to watch. Let him enjoy life without limits. He deserves that.”
“Limits exist for a reason.”
“Like having your sexuality repressed, and attempting to beat it out of you? Those kinds of limits?”
Ugh. There was no winning an argument with a member of the Cross family. They were right, ergo, everyone else was wrong.
“I’ll check on him in a bit, just to make sure he’s not-”
“No. You’ll give him privacy, and show him you trust him. Cal, he’s never been trusted and cared for. He’s never been respected. Let him feel what that’s like. If he makes mistakes, that’s part of being a fucking human being. We’ll fix them for him.”
I leaned back against the sofa and hugged my coffee.
“Just so you know, that’s called enabling.” Stubborn to the core, that’s me.
“I’ll enable your fucking cock in a minute. Can you just shut up so we can relax a bit? Alternatively, I can silence you in a way you haven’t tried yet.”
His low chuckle at my glare said it all. He was doing his best to wind me up, and for once I wouldn’t take the bait. Instead I leaned my head on his shoulder, and we took a moment to breathe, and enjoy the calm, because there was no way this would last.