Let Him In (Let Him Trilogy) Read Free Page A

did nothing to flatter his skeletal frame. The pointy silver studs on his black belt glimmered in the light of the setting sun.
    “Samuel.” 
    Not looking up, his brother shuffled his feet, making the silver skull buckles on his black ankle boots clink. 
    “Samuel, come here.”
    “Can hear ya just fine from where I’m standing,” he grumbled. Removing his thick black glasses, he wiped the lenses with the hem of his tee shirt before putting them back on. “At least until The Powers That Be decide to screw us out of that sense, too.” 
    Zane inhaled and exhaled heavily. “The deterioration of your eyesight is your doing, Samuel,” he replied. “You can reverse it at any—”
    “No, I can’t.”
    Alexis rolled her ice-blue eyes, framed with thick, black liner. “You mean won’t .”
    “That’s right,” Samuel replied, dodging a child of kindergarten age as she dashed by with a fluffy mound of pink cotton candy in one small hand. The frantic steps of the woman calling after the giggling little girl slowed when she caught sight of Zane. Smoothing her frazzled blonde bob, she swept her unblinking gaze over him. When their eyes met, she smiled. With a dismissive blink, Zane averted his gaze. The woman resumed her chase with a sharp exhale of breath. 
    Alexis arched one pencil-thin brow. “Dinner and dessert?”
    “Act your age for once.”
    “It’s called a sense of humor and considering most girls of twenty-two have them I am acting my age.”
    Zane yanked her toward Samuel, who spun around to run off and collided with a heavily bearded biker just as the beer-bellied man threw a dart at one of the brightly colored balloons lining the game booth’s back wall. “Sonofabitch!” he bellowed as the dart bounced off the counter and onto the ground behind it. He faced Samuel, fisted hands planted firmly on his meaty hips. “Look what you did!”
    Samuel held up his hands. “Sorry—”
    “Not as sorry as you’re gonna be, ya little freak!”
    “Aw now, sugar,” Alexis cooed, slipping out of Zane’s grasp. She tossed him a wink before sauntering over to the biker. “There’s no need for all that. It’s just a silly little game, after all.”
    The biker’s tightened jaw relaxed and his narrowed eyes widened as he gave Alexis a slow, head-to-toe once-over. Moving to the counter, she propped herself up on her elbows, hooking her index fingers around the belt loops of tight red jeans that were so low the strings of her red thong were visible.
    “Zane, take baby brother to get a funnel cake or something.” Returning her gaze to the biker, Alexis flicked the corner of her red mouth with the tip of her tongue. “I’ll make things right with this hulk of a man.”
    “N-no,” Samuel stammered, seizing the wallet from his back pocket. He grabbed a five dollar bill, thrust it at the biker. “Please, just take—”
    Alexis snatched it from his shaking hand. “Great idea, Sammy. The least we can do is buy our new friend dinner.”
    Zane gritted his teeth as she slid the money between the  flesh spilling over the narrow strip of red fabric posing as a tube top. She looked as cheap as the merchandise found inside a Dollar Tree store. He hated it, she knew he hated it, which meant she would never stop doing it no more than Samuel would stop feeling sorry for himself. Despite the fact that he had willingly assumed the role of protector and provider upon their father’s abandonment shortly after their mother’s death, his siblings despised him. Ten years and neither of them had ever shown him an ounce of respect or appreciation.
    You must live in the moment, my child. Fruit from the trees of the past and the future must not be consumed.
    Zane winced at the thunderous voice inside his head. The weaker they were the stronger the father of his kind became, and since Zane did not care to find out if Blodbad’s loud, incessant droning could render him both insane and deaf, he decided it was time to obtain