“What do you mean you’re not coming home tonight?” Tyler exclaimed as he paced the living room floor. This couldn’t be happening. His brother was actually going to stay out all damn night and not come home?! “You said you’d be home after practice. I have Varsity Blues all cued up and ready to go. And I already ordered the pizza!”
This wasn’t happening. There was no way Skylar was going to follow through with this. Leave Tyler here all by himself for nearly an entire day? He wouldn’t! That ache in his chest throbbed painfully. It had been there since this morning when Skylar left for class, and this was only making it worse.
There was a loud sigh on the other end of the line. “Tyler,” Skylar breathed, obviously exhausted. “Jessie has been on my ass for the last two weeks trying to get me to spend time with her.” Not that he could blame her. Since Tyler had been brought back, all he’d done is spend time with him. “People are going to start thinking I’m spiraling, or something, if I don’t start being more social. C’mon, Tyler, it’s just one night.”
Jessie. Of course it was fucking Jessie. His brother was going to blow him off for a piece of ass. “I’m not asking you to disappear,” Tyler argued. Though wasn’t that a nice thought? Go somewhere no one knew who they were – no one knew he was supposed to be dead? It sounded amazing. “I’m just asking you to come home.”
Another sigh came through the phone. “Tyler, I can’t keep doing this,” Skylar explained, his voice just above a whisper. “I know you’re stuck there, and I’m sorry, but I need to save face. It’s only one night. And you might like the change of pace. A little alone time isn’t going to kill you. Remember, you used to love being alone.”
In another life, maybe he had. But now, all he wanted was to spend time with Skylar. If dying had taught him anything, it was that life was too short, and you needed to cherish every moment you had. “You don’t have to stay out all night,” he argued, his voice quieter this time. “You can see her, and then come home.”
Again, Skylar repeated, “It’s only one night, Tyler. I’ll be back in the morning. I don’t have class tomorrow. We can spend the whole day together, okay?”
The whole day together did sound good. But he could barely focus on that with his brain moving a mile a minute thinking about Skylar not being home tonight. “Okay,” he muttered after he heard his brother say his name. He could hear Skylar’s mood instantly brighten as he chirped a goodbye before the line went dead.
He hated this.
He couldn’t breathe.
His heart felt like it was beating out of his chest.
What was this? A panic attack? No. He knew panic. He’d lived in it before. Tight chest, racing thoughts, spiraling until he couldn’t think straight. This wasn’t that. Up until now, he hadn’t felt much of anything since he’d come back.
No fear. No pain. No grief. Nothing.
And this? This felt like he was dying all over again.
Morning? That was too long. Another twelve hours. What the hell was he going to do for that long without his brother?! He didn’t even sleep anymore. If he did, he’d be curled up in Skylar’s bed right now, pretending he was there. But he didn’t even have that!
She was taking everything away from him. His whole existence was built around Skylar. And now, it was crumbling. Jessie was shattering his whole world. And he didn’t know how to stop it. He didn’t know how to cope with it. Skylar had chosen someone else over him. The thought was unbearable.
Moving on legs that felt like they were being weighed down with cinder blocks, Tyler made his way into the bathroom. His reflection in the mirror looked even more off than it had in the recent weeks. Now, it was like someone else was staring back at him – something darker. Leaning against the counter, Tyler stared at his reflection, eyes squinting as he watched the mirror.
Panic slammed into him, causing him to rear back. For a second, he swore that he saw his reflection smile back at him. But it wasn’t smiling at him with his own teeth – no, there were razor sharp teeth in his mouth. Quickly, his hands shot up to his mouth, fingering each individual tooth.
It was fine. Everything was fine. His teeth were normal. It was a trick of the light. Maybe he was finally having side effects from not sleeping. Maybe tonight was the night that he would be able to close his eyes and actually fall asleep.
With one final quick glance into the mirror, Tyler started stripping out of his clothing before stepping under the hot spray of the shower. Usually, taking a shower calmed his nerves and made him feel better after a long day. Today, it was doing nothing for him. Honestly, he wasn’t sure there was anything that could be done to dull the ache of his brother choosing someone over him. The pain was nearly debilitating.
Only after the water ran cold did Tyler step out of the shower. After all, it didn’t matter if there was any hot water tonight – Skylar wasn’t coming home. No one else was here to need a shower. He wrapped the towel low on his hips before he made his way out of the bathroom, ignoring the mirror as he walked by.
Instead of heading into his room, Tyler took a hard turn toward Skylar’s room. He didn’t usually come in here without permission, but tonight he was willing to make an exception. Even when he watched Skylar sleeping, he usually just hovered at the door. But tonight, he needed the closeness. Skylar wasn’t here physically, but that didn’t mean Tyler couldn’t sit in his room and feel his presence. He didn’t think Skylar would mind. This was his fault, anyway. He didn’t have to stay the night with Jessie. He was choosing to.
Once he was inside Skylar’s room, Tyler felt a little better. It didn’t help much – he was still achingly aware of the pain in his chest – but it was something, at least. His eyes ticked all around the room, looking for anything to keep him grounded.
There was so much of Skylar in here. His eyes landed on the desk, brows knit in confusion as his focus locked on an unfamiliar book. Skylar didn’t read. All of the reading material Skylar was willing to pick up had to deal with school, and Tyler knew all of Skylar’s textbooks. This was not one of them.
Interest piqued, Tyler moved toward the desk and snatched the book up. Mortis Codex. Tyler hadn’t ever heard of this book. His eyes scanned the papers surrounding the book, taking in as much as he could all at once. This wasn’t natural – it wasn’t real. Magic? Dark magic, at that. But this was only something that happened in movies! Magic wasn’t real!
Then again, people didn’t come back from the dead either. At least not naturally. Was this how Skylar had done it? Did his brother use black magic to bring him back from the dead?! It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t even asked the hard questions. Tyler had just been so happy to be back – to see Skylar again – that he hadn’t even questioned how it had happened. Sure, he’d made a joke about his brother selling his soul, but that had been the extent of the conversation.
Now though, it was hard for Tyler to ignore. It was staring him right in the face. And while Skylar hadn’t sold his soul for the spell, there was no telling what he’d gotten himself into without his knowledge. Skylar had always been an act first, ask questions later kind of guy.
Completely invested, Tyler took a seat at Skylar’s desk and started rummaging through all of the information he could get his greedy little fingers on. There were detailed notes on how to perform the ritual, when to perform the ritual, and what ingredients were needed. He flipped the book open to page 666 – and no, he wasn’t going to focus on how ominous that was – and took in everything he could about the spell.
It was as if time stood still as he poured over the information. Success stories where the people involved seemed to just ride off into the sunset and everything was sunshine and daisies. And then there was an even bigger pile of failures that generally resulted in everyone involved ending up in the ground.
Tyler wondered where he was going to fall on this list.
This was at least more data for his journal. He could write his own story. He’d make sure they were added to the success pile. And then this Venus person, whoever the hell that was, could tell people about him and Skylar too.
Skylar – a sharp pain shot through his chest, making him wince. His eyes landed on the book, fixated on the part that required blood to bring him back. Tyler didn’t know a lot of Latin, but he had taken a course in high school, so he knew some words.
Sanguine. That was blood.
Dolore. Pain.
Desiderio. Desire.
All of a sudden, everything clicked. He’d just been missing this piece of the puzzle the whole time! When Skylar performed the ritual, he’d bound them with blood! He’d bled for him. It hurt Skylar, but he’d done it. For him. Because he’d wanted him back. There was no way he’d do that unless it meant something. Not unless this was real.
There was nothing wrong with Tyler. He was just reacting to Skylar! This hadn’t just been a ritual. It was a choice. A commitment. Yet, now he was acting like none of it mattered? Why?! Maybe he was nervous. He didn’t have to be. Tyler just needed to find a way to let Skylar know he wanted this, too.
But he didn’t want to spook him. He needed to be subtle about it. After all, this was a lot to take in. They were brother, after all. This wasn’t natural. But he didn’t care. Other people had no say in what they did with their lives. The only opinions that mattered were their own.
It all made so much more sense now. A weight lifted from his shoulders, leaving a restless buzz under his skin. For weeks, he’d been fighting the feelings swelling inside him for Skylar. He’d been pushing it down and ignoring the way his thoughts kept circling back to Skylar. But now, he didn’t have to.
His body responded almost before his brain could catch up, heat coiling low in his belly, sharp and sudden, stealing the air from his lungs. His pulse kicked hard in his chest, that familiar ache twisting into something deeper – something needier.
Without thinking, Tyler moved to his brother’s bed, laying on his back as he closed his eyes and imagined that Skylar right there with him. His hand pressed over his heart, tracing the sharp pain that reminded him of the miles between them. Slowly, it drifted lower, hesitant at first, feeling muscles ripple beneath his palm, imagining warmth and tension that wasn’t really there – but could be. It was like he was waiting for something to stop him. But nothing did. His pulse thundered, the heat in his belly intensifying, making every imagined breath and touch feel impossibly urgent.
“Sky…” he breathed as he tugged the knot in his towel loose, exposing his overheated flesh to the cool air of the room. That should have been enough to make him stop. But it wasn’t.
He hissed softly as his hand wrapped around his shaft, hips pumping on their own accord. The ache in his chest pulsed in time with his heartbeat, spreading, bleeding into something warm. Every thought, every sensation, kept circling back to one thing. Skylar. “Ungh…yeah…please?”
His head turned to the left, cheek pressed into the pillow where Skylar had been sleeping the night before. Skylar’s scent still lingered on the sheets, wrapping around him. It was grounding and intoxicating all at once, pulling him further under.
His hips bucked faster into his hand, Tyler squeezing gently when he reached the tip and using the precum oozing out of him as lube to slide back down his aching cock. “Sky, please,” he begged the empty house, willing his brother to walk through that door right now and replace his hand with his mouth.
This was wrong. He knew that. But the thought barely registered, drowned out by the overwhelming pull toward something he couldn’t name. And didn’t want to resist. His breath hitched, uneven, as the tension built, coiling tighter and tighter until it was all he could feel.
The image of Skylar’s mouth on his dick was Tyler’s undoing. After a few more strokes, his world narrowed, collapsing in on itself until there was nothing but heat, pressure, and the echo of Skylar’s name in his mind.
When it finally broke, it hit him all at once. It was sharp and overwhelming, ripping a sound from him throat before he could stop it as hot, white ropes of cum painted his belly and spilled onto Skylar’s sheets. The fact that Skylar would be sleeping on this sheets soon enough had another jolt tingling through Tyler’s spent member.
For a moment, everything went still. Tyler lay there, chest rising and falling, the quiet room pressing in around him again. The ache didn’t go away. If anything, it felt worse. Like a constant reminder that as much as he wished his brother was here, it was just all in his head.
Using the towel he’d had wrapped around himself, Tyler wiped away the evidence of his pleasure. He then headed across the hall into his own room where he discarded the towel in the hamper before he tugged on a pair of gray sweatpants and a black tank top. His skin still felt sensitive where the fabric rubbed against him as he walked, making him feel uncomfortable.
But that was nothing compared to the ache in his chest. It was almost as if this newfound information made him ache for Skylar even deeper. He took a detour down the steps and into the living room to grab his journal, making sure not to even acknowledge the television in the room as he snatched up his belongings and headed back to Skylar’s room.
Once he sat down at the desk again and started writing, the ache in his chest was almost unbearable. A quick glance at the clock told him that it was nearly midnight. There were still several hours left before Skylar would even think about coming home. And Tyler was worried he wasn’t going to be able to last another minute.
His fingers curled around the burner phone Skylar had purchased for him without a second thought. Quickly, Tyler pulled up the only number programmed into his phone and typed out three little words before hitting send.
*~~*
A low moan escaped Jessie’s lips as she parted for air. “I missed you,” she mumbled, diving back in to devour Skylar’s lips once more. She felt like they hadn’t seen each other in weeks. When she’d asked him to come over tonight, she honestly thought he was going to make up some excuse and bail on her. But when he’d agreed, she couldn’t have been more excited. She’d kicked out her roommate for the night so she and Skylar could enjoy it.
It had been a bit of a hassle. After all, she and Tori weren’t as close as she and Becky had been. They weren’t even really friends. For the most part, they kept to themselves. Tori didn’t like cheerleading, and Jessie knew nothing about the debate team, so they were basically from two separate worlds. And Tori hadn’t been thrilled about needing to leave the room tonight for Jessie to get some action. But she’d have to get over it. Because Jessie surely wasn’t passing up this opportunity.
Her hands pressed against Skylar’s chest, pushing him further against the couch cushions as her lips slid from his lips to his cheek, then down his jaw to his neck. Her fingers slid down his chest, gripping the hem of his white Henley before tugging the fabric off Skylar’s body. Her hands were right back on his pecs as soon as she’d discarded the shirt, nails biting into his flesh just enough to leave marks. “Did you miss me, too, babe?”
“Yeah,” Skylar breathed, his fingers flexing on Jessie’s hips. He was trying to get into this. Really, he was. But there was just something bothering him. He felt…guilty. He couldn’t stop thinking about how sad Tyler had sounded on the phone earlier today. And he was all alone.
Things were different now. Tyler couldn’t just leave the house anytime he wanted to like Skylar could. As far as anyone else knew, Tyler was dead. And if anyone saw him walking around town, they would obviously have questions! And sure, he could probably pass himself off as Skylar like he’d done with Adam the day he showed up at the college, but it was risky. There was always a chance someone would see Tyler and then see Skylar later and put the pieces together. This town wasn’t all that big, after all.
So yeah, guilty was the right word. He’d practically begged Skylar to come home, and in the moment, Skylar had only been worried about himself. Now, he was feeling remorse. Not that he regretted it. He really had wanted to see Jessie. And the movie they’d been watching had been pretty decent. But now, it seemed like he was only doing this for his pleasure.
And where did that leave Tyler? Alone in a huge house wondering why he got ditched? And he knew Tyler would ask how his night had been tomorrow. What was he going to say? Oh yeah, man, it was great! Jessie and I finally got to have sex for the first time in months because I wasn’t grieving your death anymore since you’re back. Thanks, Ty!
Yeah, that would go over so well.
He’d been in his own head so deep that he hadn’t even realized Jessie’s hands were on his belt until she tugged it out of its loops. God, he didn’t want this to stop. But he had to. He knew he did. There was no way he could sit here and get off without thinking about Tyler, and there was just no way that was going to happen.
Just as Jessie’s fingers started working the button on his jeans, Skylar’s phone vibrated loudly on the end table where he had it sitting face down. His whole body jerked at the sudden noise. Without really thinking, Skylar snatched up the device and read the text message.
A familiar number lit up the screen with three little words. I need you. His heart started racing and he felt his mouth go dry. Tyler needed him.
That was all he needed to know before he’d made up his mind. “I…uh…I have to go,” Skylar muttered, not even sure if the words were coming out of his mouth. He was frozen. What could Tyler possibly need? Was he okay? Did something happen? His mind was going a mile a minute, and Jessie wasn’t even listening to him.
Quickly, Skylar moved his hands to grip Jessie’s biceps, stopping her from unfastening his jeans. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, shaking his head. “Something came up. I have to go.” He didn’t give her a chance to protest as he pulled his shirt back over his head. “I’ll call you tomorrow. I’m so sorry.”
Skylar didn’t even wait for Jessie’s response before he was out the door and headed toward his car. He’d gotten a new Jeep over the weekend – gray this time with hardly any miles on it. Tyler had really liked their old one, so he wanted something his brother could eventually enjoy too. He heard Jessie calling his name as he closed the door behind him, but he couldn’t focus on that right now.
I need you.
The words were seared into his memory. His brother wouldn’t just send out a distress call without having a reason. And Skylar was determined to get to the bottom of that reason. His foot weighed heavily on the gas pedal and he ate up the miles between Ebonridge University and his old family home, praying that Tyler was okay until he got there.