Chapter 4

 

He could barely keep from smiling at the blonde bundle of energy in front of him. As much as he tried to deny it, he had missed his crazy sister. Good thing he had agreed to come. And good thing he had come even sooner than planned.

“You’re here! You’re really here!” Talia exclaimed, trying to suffocate him again. He pulled back as carefully as he could. He liked these ribs.

“I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow! When did you get here? How did you find me?” she demanded. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and pouted. “You should have told me you were coming sooner!”

“I hopped an earlier flight. Got to Maryland about an hour and a half ago. Got here,” he paused, checking his watch, “two minutes ago.” He quirked an eyebrow and allowed half a smile to pass across his face. “As for me finding you, you should really know better than that. I’ve always been able to find you.”

She punched him in the arm. “Come on, tell me! I only ever told you my address, not where I worked!”

“No, sorry. Have to keep my mysterious persona intact,” he said with a smirk.

She huffed at him in frustration. “I’ve got to clock out and get my purse,” she informed him. “And I hope you weren’t expecting dinner. After all, I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow.”

It was definitely good to see his sister again.

Diane gave him an odd look when he followed his sister through the store. He nodded a greeting to the woman and looked around the store. What was it like working here? Walking around in a well-lit, air-conditioned building all day? The place was freezing, although not as bad as the airport earlier. He should be extremely wet right now, not cold. Outside was even worse. This really wouldn’t do. He had hunted in Siberia, for goodness’ sake! And yet here he was, pouting like a baby because he was too chilly. He muttered a few choice imprecations at his own weakness as he walked after his sister into the parking lot.

Talia stopped at a particularly suspicious Ford. He raised an eyebrow and stared at her in disbelief.

“Yes, yes, I know!” she said, unlocking the doors with some effort. “It’s a piece of crap! But it’s a car, and it’ll get us back to my apartment, which is more than I can say for… Wait, how did you get here, anyway? Where’s your bike?”

“Bus, most of the way. Then walked. I dropped the bike off at your apartment…wasn’t sure if I’d get a chance to hunt before I had to come rescue you.”

“Walked?” she asked. “What do you mean, ‘walked’? You walked here? From where?”

“The bus stop. It was a mile.”

As if a mile was any kind of strenuous expedition. He was used to walking much further, over much rougher terrain than paved sidewalks. A motorcycle only took a person so far into the deep jungle.

Talia stared at him for a moment, her face a rictus of bafflement.

“You… you are insane!” she said. “I can’t believe you. You show up, completely out of the blue, I haven’t seen you in almost twenty years – twenty years – and now you’re telling me that you just walked a mile, in Elkton, at night, and just happened to find me at the Old Navy?”

He smirked at her. This was entirely too much fun. “I did tell you I was coming,” he reminded her, earning himself another frustrated glare. “And now is hardly the time to start worrying that I might get mugged.” He glanced at his sister. She had, for the moment, abandoned her glare. Now she was gripping the steering wheel and mumbling a stream of obscenities at the road in front of her.

It did not take long for her to drive them to her apartment. His smirk disappeared as soon as he saw the development. Blocky, identical, brick boxes. So this is where they were living for the next year. And not a single tree to be found. He felt sick. How could he have ever endured living in a city? The entire place looked paved. Even the sparse grass was brown. He sat in the car for a few moments, trying to will himself to get out and walk into that dead patch of earth.

“Well?” Talia asked. She stood outside the passenger door with her hands on her hips. “You’re the one who said he’d come, and now you’re here, so come on!”

He groaned and got out of the car. In the name of all that was good and holy, why had he agreed to this? He ran an ineffectual hand through his shaggy black hair and got out.

“Much better,” Talia said. She turned and walked toward one of the buildings. “Anyways, this is where I live. We live. Hey, how ‘bout that? The other tenants are okay. I usually head over to Wilmington or sometimes Newark when I want to go out, though.”

He looked at his surroundings doubtfully. He made another attempt to brush the dark hair out of his eyes. It fell back into his face. Talia rolled her eyes at him.

“Honestly, when’s the last time you cut your hair?” she asked.  “I assume you cut it yourself. It’s almost to your shoulders!”

He shrugged. He recalled chopping some off the back with his hunting knife a while ago but he wasn’t sure when that had been.

Talia groaned and turned her attention back to unlocking the door. “You’re going to have to let me do something about that for you. Were you trying to fit in with all the monkeys? You look like a hippie!”

“Says the girl who organized a ‘Friends of the Beautiful Earth’ club in high school,” he said, glaring at her.

“Ugh! That was so long ago! There,” she said, “Our apartment. Try not to shed all over the furniture.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Your hair is braided past your butt.”

“Girls’ privilege,” she retorted. “And take a shower. You smell like a monkey, too, and I’m not cutting greasy hair!”

He sighed. Living with Talia again was certainly going to take some getting used to.