Burning Houses

Three weeks. Three weeks and always the same dream. He could feel the fire on his skin, could feel it burning, bubbling, and pealing back. All he could do was scream. It was always the same man that made the nightmare, the same voice. “Burn witch.” He would whisper. His hands were flames, searing flesh where he touched, grabbed, and groped.

Eventually the hand would grab his throat, pulling Reid’s body back into his, forcing his way inside of him, moving violently, burning him from the inside until all he could taste was the flames. Until he choked on the ashes of his own body.

Reid woke with a jolt and found himself in one of the plush chairs of the university library. They were set up for reading but more times than not students would use them for napping between classes. The lights were dim and the windows showed only the pitch of night. With a sigh he scrubbed a shaky hand over his face. He’d been finding every excuse he could not to go home- every excuse to avoid his brothers- but he missed them so much that it hurt. He wanted the comfort of his own bed, of their livingspace together, and the protection of his lovers. But he couldn’t risk it, couldn’t let it spread to them.

He had read the book over and over. But there was nothing like the fire he choked on night and again. With an exhausted groan he rolled to his feet and reached for his bag on the table. The chair he had left sizzled and when he turned to look back, it was on burning, catching fire right before his eyes. For a moment he thought it was a dream again, but the fire took too long to spread, the smoke making him cough as he staggered back. His eyes flashed, intent on putting it out, but the fire only crackled with anger and grew. It spread to the wall of books and from there began to consume the entire room with growing vigor.
For a long moment he waited, frozen and expecting that awful man to immerge for him. And then the fire alarm sounded, screaming to life and jolting him back to reality. His legs burst into action, launching him in a sprint through the building and out into the night. It was raining and the cold drops made it feel like his skin was sizzling. One of the librarians outside shouted at him, but he didn’t stop- running across the dark campus and away from the sirens and the growing flames.

-

“Reid’s sister called again.” Pogue grumbled as he followed Caleb upstairs. “Said he’s not answering his phone.”

Caleb snorted in annoyance. He was fully aware that Reid had stopped answering his phone- they all were. At first he said he had things to do and that was enough for the rest of them. They all knew that every so often the blond had to cut loose, get away from his classes and his responsibilities. It had been better in the past to let him go, to wait and know that he would return as he always had. But days had become weeks this time and Reid was only getting harder to find. Caleb hadn’t seen him at all in a week.

“What did she want this time?” He tried not to sound annoyed but Reid’s older sister was hardly high on his list of cares at the moment. Even if he didn’t have other problems, the woman was a bit high maintenance.

“Her boy’s graduating Spenser. She’s sending him up here this weekend.” It had been a plan for a while. Reid was supposed to show the kid around. Reid’s father had had his first daughter quite young, and she in turn had had a son only a few years after Reid’s birth. Chastity and patience simply weren’t virtues of the Garwin family.

Caleb sighed and rubbed his neck. “Right.” He stopped in the hallway, staring down the corridor at Reid’s bedroom door. He wanted to respect his brother’s privacy, he did. They had come so far in these last years. “Has he talked to you?”

Pogue shook his head and Caleb felt his worry. “Not in more than a week. Ty has a morning class with him- says he shows but there’s something off. He said Reid looked tired…more so than usual for a morning class that is.”

Caleb crossed the hall and with a little craft he unlocked Reid’s bedroom door. Inside was the usual mess of belongings, rumpled bedding, and piles of clothing. He walked around but saw nothing that would tell him anything. And then, just when he was ready to leave, he smelt it- smoke. It was in the walls, the carpet, the clothes. Tentatively he walked up to the bed and grabbed corners of the piled comforter. He shook it out and bits of soot and ash flung everywhere- hovering in the air like dirty snow before drifting down again.

“What the hell?” Pogue uttered from the doorway.

Caleb had no idea what to say in return.

-

The next day they had waited outside Tyler and Reid’s class, hoping to catch the boy on his way out. He hadn’t shown and to make matters worse the university library had been burnt down. There was talk of arson and a blond male student.

It had been by sheer luck that Pogue saw Reid’s car parked alongside one of the town’s shabbier bars. He pulled his bike in beside it and marched in. He had expected to find the blond up to his usual tricks- but he wasn’t at the pool tables. He wasn’t even on the dancefloor or fooling around with some lucky stranger in the bathroom. No, Reid was sitting at the corner table, looking worse than Pogue had ever seen him.

There were bags under those blue eyes and his cheeks looked sunken in. Something about the way his clothing seemed to hang on him as he slouched in the booth made Pogue nervous. He saw Reid tense when he sat down across from him. Had he only just realized he was there?

“Where have you been?”

Reid’s lips pressed, they were raw and cracked. Was that supposed to be a smile?

“There was a fire at the school.” Pogue watched the boy tense. “In the library. No one was hurt.”

A bitter exhale passed those abused lips, making Pogue even more uneasy.

“Did you set the fire?”

Reid shivered and reached out, fingers circling the glass in front of him. He was about to lift it when Pogue’s palm capped the top of it, pressing it back to the table. “You’ve had enough.” That was when he noticed the soot smudges on Reid’s fingers. He snatched the blonde’s wrist, pulling his hand toward himself. “You’ve been setting fires?” Pogue asked again. Always a question, never an accusation. Reid could tell him that a leprechaun had done it and the older boy would have accepted it, would have fought anyone else who called him a liar, just as long as his brother could be innocent. It was one of the reasons Reid had trouble lying to Pogue.

He could spit lies at Caleb any day, because the brunet hardly believed him when he told the truth. But Pogue… Pogue wanted the reason and no matter what it was, he’d take care of it.

Reid flinched under the other’s grip and Pogue saw it. Before the younger blond could speak or pull away, Pogue had pushed his long sleeve up his forearm. His once pale skin was red and welted, marked with fresh burns in the shape of hands that held his arms. Pogue shuddered and wasn’t sure if it was fear, disgust, or anger.

Reid jerked his arm free and muttered a curse. He reached for the glass on the table again but Pogue was faster. The older boy needed a stiff drink, needed a moment to think. He downed the glass and then coughed with confusion. His eyes found Reid once against slumped in the corner. “It’s water.” Pogue said with disbelief. Reid never drank water, especially not at a bar.

“You should go home.” He spoke at last, his voice like gravel in his throat.

Pogue frowned. “Like hell I should! What’s going on Reid? Who did that? Why would you let someone burn you?” His voice was soft thunder, but down into hushed rage by his clenched teeth. But when Reid opened his eyes, Pogue saw the frustration, exhaustion, and fear glistening in tears over blue. The tears didn’t fall. Pogue didn’t know what he would do if they had. Reid didn’t cry. Hadn’t cried since they were in elementary school.

“I didn’t let anyone.” He whispered in a hiss before shaking his head and pushing himself up from the booth. “Just leave me alone.”

Pogue seethed and followed Reid out of the bar and into the parking lot. “We’re going home, Reid! You’re going to explain this!”

“Fuck you!” The blonde spat, his steps wobbly on the pavement. His head ached, his body hurt, and there was no chance of outrunning Pogue.

Desperate to make him stop, to have him listen, Pogue grabbed Reid’s arm, pulling him to a stop. The blond groaned in pain and then spun on him, eyes flashing black and hand thrusting forward. Pogue sucked a breath, waiting for that slam of power to throw him back but it never came. Reid’s eyes widened, black fading out of him as pain lanced his features. His mouth opened wide but his breath only hitched in his chest.

And then his eyes rolled and his knees buckled. Pogue caught his fall, pulling his body up into his arms and frowned at the lack of weight. Not waiting for the boy to wake, Pogue fished Reid’s keys from his pocket and set him in the backseat of his own car. On the way to the house he called Caleb and by the time he got there the brunet was waiting for them.

Pogue carried Reid up to Caleb’s room. They drew down the covers and laid him out on the sheet. As they carefully stripped him of his shoes, socks, and hoodie, Pogue told his bestfriend what had happened. Caleb crawled onto the bed, pulling Reid up into a sit and stripped off his shirts. Silently he cursed Reid’s love of layers. He felt his whole body seize as he laid eyes on that torso. He was so much thinner, too much for only a few weeks. And the burns, they went running in red welted rivets over his ribs and back, hand prints on his shoulders and arms, bruised bite marks on his shoulder blades.

With a shudder, Caleb carefully laid Reid back down. He looked so fragile on his bed. It seemed so wrong. All of the times he had had the blonde there in the past, he had been so full of life, so vivid and even dangerous. Now he looked like he might break. Caleb’s jaw twitched as he stared at those hand prints and thought about the bite marks on his back. Finally he reached down, carefully working the heavy belt of Reid’s pants open.

“Cay…” Pogue started, his temper barely leashed as he took a step back.

“If you don’t want to know, then leave the room.”

Pogue hesitated, caught between his need to take care of his brother and that voice inside that just wasn’t sure it could handle seeing him like this.

“Get Baby Boy from school.” Caleb said, fingers pausing on the fly of the other boy’s jeans. “He has classes late today, but he needs to come home. We need to figure this out.” He wasn’t really sure he wanted Tyler to have to know something like this, especially when they weren’t really sure what was going on, but Pogue needed to leave and needed something to do.

The other boy swallowed and even with his back to him, Caleb heard it. He waited until the door closed behind Pogue to finish opening Reid’s pants. He hooked his fingers inside carefully and lifted the boy’s hips, pulling the jeans as well as his underwear down his legs- throwing them off the bed. Reid’s legs were in much the same condition as his arms and back, but his hips… his hips were a mess of bruises with more handprints- ones that overlaid each other. Carefully he lay down beside Reid and rolled him gently onto his side. His hand stroked the curve of his ass, softly pulling the cheeks apart just enough to see the smear of old blood painting private skin.

With a miserable sigh he rolled Reid onto his back again, ready to use his magic to wash away those horrible marks when the boy suddenly convulsed. The blond sucked a breath of air as though he were being strangled and Caleb could have sworn that he saw waves of heat rolling from the boy’s mouth. And then, right before his eyes, he watched a new welt grow, sizzling up as it marred a stretch of skin on Reid’s chest, working its way down toward his navel like the tip of a finger.

Caleb hissed with anger, his eyes flashing black.

Reid felt the fire shiver around him, felt that hand jerk away from his skin. “He can’t save you.” That awful voice promised. “No one can. You deserve this.”

He sat up when he woke, fingers fisting in sheets as he panted for air. He was in Caleb’s room. If his sleep wasn’t occupied by hell these days, he’d think he was dreaming. And then he realized that he as naked, naked and healed- though still hardly looking his best. He shivered and resisted the urge to grab the cover and pull them over himself. He felt Caleb staring at him long before he turned his head to see the boy sitting on his knees on the bed beside him.

“You shouldn’t have brought me here.” Reid whispered, trying not to meet those hard eyes.

“This is your home.” Caleb’s voice was stern and if possible, darker than Reid had ever heard it before. “Who is it?”

Reid shuddered. That voice was midnight deep and he almost thought he heard the blade of vengeance on that tongue. “I don’t know.”

“Reid.”

“I don’t.” The blonde whispered. He sighed and clawed fingers into his hair. “They’re just dreams.”

Caleb growled, actually growled. “They far from JUST dreams. Look at you.” He shook his head. “How long has this been going on?”

“Three weeks.” Reid stared at the sheets as the silence sunk in. He jumped when Caleb’s hand laid gently against his naked hip, fingers dipping toward the soft skin around his sex. “Three weeks?” Caleb whispered and sounded broken at the thought. The idea made Reid shiver but he still couldn’t look at him. “It wasn’t that bad at first. It was just the fire.”

“The fire?”

Reid nodded. “Everywhere. Burning me. Eventually it became him burning me, whispering…”

Caleb frowned. ‘Him’ Reid had said. “Who?” Caleb pleaded again, it was a foreign sound to his strong voice.

The blonde groaned and pushed at his chest, trying to shove him away. His lack of strength was alarming. Caleb thought of something else awful, his other hand reaching out to stroke light colored hair back, his palm stroking cheek down to rest against the side of the boy’s neck. “Reid, why didn’t you Use to get rid of the marks?”

He tensed and then tried to smirk cockily. “Are you usually advocating NOT using?”

Caleb didn’t smile. “Pogue said you tried to Use on him-”

“He had it coming-”

“but you passed out instead.”

Reid’s expression shifted, suddenly he looked defensive and angry. It was comforting to see something normal about him again. The blonde grumbled a curse and the pushed himself off the bed and away from Caleb’s touch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Maybe he lied.”

“That fire yesterday, did you set it?” Caleb had gotten up, lingering near the bed and watching the naked boy pace nervously.

Reid cringed. “Not on purpose. I woke up and the chair… I didn’t mean to.”

Caleb nodded. “I understand.”

That was alarming. Reid had expected more of an argument, more accusations, more anger.

“But why didn’t you put it out?”

Reid flinched, suddenly wishing Caleb had just been angry as usual.

“Maybe I wanted to see it burn!”

“Liar.”

Reid clenched his teeth until his jaw ached. Caleb was the last person he wanted to see him like this, the last person he wanted to talk to right now. “Where’s Po?” He snapped.

Caleb tried not to feel slapped. “He went to get Tyler.”

“Good.” He shot back. “I’ll talk to him when he gets back. Now where are my fuckin’ clothes?” He paced and then started toward the pile of clothing behind Caleb, beside the bed. But Caleb caught his arm before he reached them, pushing him upright and up against the wall. He was careful, but still felt his chest tighten with fear that Reid would be afraid of him. He could bear the thought. Reid had always been so feisty, so headstrong. It was a relief when the naked boy strained between his body and the wall but never coward.

“If you want to talk to Pogue instead, that’s fine. As long as you talk to someone.” The brunet spoke softly, his head dipping down to brush their cheeks together, to have his words breath over Reid’s ear. “But you’re not leaving this house.”

Reid licked his lips and it was so good to find them no longer dry and broken. “You’re not my caretaker. I’ll go if I want to-”

“You can’t Use.” Caleb said it so easily, even though it made his insides twist. “And you’re cursed.”

Reid hissed. “Shut up! I can Use if I want to.” He knew it was childish, but he hated hearing Caleb say it, hated the idea of the other boy knowing.

A hand pressed his shoulder back to the wall. “Then Use. Push me away.”

Reid growled and for a moment did nothing, and then his right fist swung, cutting across Caleb’s jaw to send him staggering back a step or two. “I don’t need to use to shake you!”

Caleb sighed and rubbed his jaw. “You’re helpless.”

“Fuck you!”

“Reid.”

“I’m not…” He shuddered and leaned back against the wall. “I’m not afraid.” It was a lie, but it made Caleb softer as he approached again. He reached up and stroked the boy’s cheek. “Good.” The oldest replied. “Because I’m going to figure this out.” He leaned his forehead to Reid’s. “And I’m going to kill him.” It was a quiet promise, not something idly said between impassioned lovers, but an oath to a brother.

Reid shivered and nodded stiffly. He felt so tired, and it was finally catching up with him.

Caleb smiled gently and tugged the boy from the wall, pushing him toward the bed and his pile of clothing. He could hear Pogue and Tyler coming in the front door. “You’re not leaving this room until we’ve fixed this.” He ordered, wondering vaguely if Reid would turn and punch him again.

The blonde made a disgruntled sound as he pulled on his jeans. “Whatever. Don’t come crying to me when I burn your bed.”

“Sleep in the tub then.”

Reid blinked. It the closest he’d ever gotten to an invitation to Caleb’s bathroom. “You said it.” He smirked and abandoned his shirts for a quick path to the adjoining bathroom. Before Caleb could take it back the door had closed.

Inside, Reid found himself staring at his own reflection. He sighed heavily. The burns and bruises were gone, but he could still feel them. And what was worse- Caleb had seen them. Caleb knew, not just what had happened to him, but that he didn’t have enough magic left in him to Use. He felt the weight of it bear down on him. The power was his life, and he could feel it fading away.

-

So thanks sooo much to Jenner and bloodravyn for the comments. They're so encouraging!

I know this chapter was a bit different from the others- and terribly lacking in the doins but I hope you'll bear with it and maybe even enjoy it! Let me know what you think! Reviews always welcome!