Evil Read Online Free Page A

skinny boy with scraggly blond hair. He looked like he hadn’t showered in a week, and there were two holes ripped in his red T-shirt. The jeans were skin tight, not designer tight, but washed too many times tight. They rested an inch above his socks and sneakers.
    He looked up in horror, and the look doubled when he saw who I was. As I closed the door and stepped to the side, two athletic-looking guys raced around and braked at the sight of me.
    I was a Braden after all.
    “Sorry, Shay.” One of the guys rushed out, his chest heaving underneath a blue polo shirt.
    The other guy ran a ragged hand through his own brown mop of curls. “Yeah, sorry. We didn’t know you were in the car. We weren’t thinking.”
    “So, if it was someone else’s car and someone else had been in it, you’d still have thrown the boy? Do you do that a lot? Throw people at cars?”
    The first guy flushed. “No, I mean…look, this isn’t…I mean…”
    “Shay.” Kellan stood on the other side of my car. He’d materialized like he always did. As he gazed questionably at the two guys, he came around to join us. When he stood above the boy on the street, Kellan looked once at me, confused, but the look disappeared. He was amused, and he only leaned against the car, just behind me. As I looked from my brother to the other two, images of a panther keeping company with hyenas came to mind.
    It wasn’t too far off from reality.
    “Um, I mean…hi, Kellan.”
    “Pete.” Kellan tucked his head, content to let me handle the situation. Whatever situation it was, I wasn’t quite sure.
    “Look, you can’t throw people at cars.” I decided what the situation was. The boy was an obvious victim. The two idiots were bullies, and I was the one who needed to stop it.
    A part of me cringed, knowing that Kellan wouldn’t have cared either way.
    It didn’t matter. I’d just decided my role, and I clarified it again as I repeated, “You’re bullying him. How old are you?”
    Pete looked like his mouth had become glued shut as his eyes skirted from me to Kellan and back again. The other guy had yet to make a noise since my brother’s appearance.
    “His name is Scott,” Kellan informed me. He didn’t move from his leaning stance.
    I kept my back to him. “Why would you even throw—what’s your name?” I turned and glared my question. The boy seemed to tremble, but I wasn’t sure if it was because Kellan’s feet rested just around his, entrapping him, or if my attention was too much too handle.
    “What’s your name?” I repeated slowly.
    Pete jerked forward. “Look, uh, this is just…ah hell.”
    I was starting to get irritated. “What’s his name? Does he have a name?”
    Scott came alive. “His name is Luke. We were just…we didn’t mean anything bad by it. The kid was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    “Like my car?” My irritation was growing, and in the back of my head I knew that Kellan was enjoying it. That sparked my irritation into anger.
    I drilled holes in Scott and Pete, but something paralyzed them. They couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. They just stared, in horror. Luke had been sniffling during the entire exchange, but even that quieted. Everything just stilled, and my anger was nearing its exploding point.
    It was like a battle had been waging inside of me. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do. And then I decided to do the right thing, to save the boy, but nothing was happening. They wouldn’t talk. I didn’t know what to do because I knew Luke would be bullied again the next day, maybe even the same afternoon.
    Kellan was loving it.
    I took two threatening steps toward Pete and Scott. “You will leave Luke alone. You will be kind and courteous to him from now on. You will befriend him. You will do this, and you will be loyal to him, to each other, until you die.”
    I felt a spark ignite from my hand and explode in the air. Just as quickly as everything had quieted, everything slammed back