Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

148

Link opened his eyes with a petrified, shrill scream as he sat up clutching his chest. He looked up at the woman who was nonchalantly sipping her tea while holding the daily paper in her other hand. Link flew up to his feet in a frenzy, slamming his hands down on the table to get her attention. She slowly turned her head to look at him, a look in her eyes knowing that he was going to blow up.

"Why couldn't you just tell me that my mother was supposed to have twins, huh? Do you realize how much more that ripped my heart out knowing I could have had an actual sibling, a twin no less, but didn't?!" His eyes were flooding with tears, pain evident in them.

Link had always resented the fact that he was an only child and never had any blood siblings to call his own. He had step siblings, but that was never the same. Not to mention every time he went to Rhett's house when they were boys, and he would see him with his older brother, he would feel pangs of jealousy rip his heart out.

A single tear rolled down his cheek and he hastily wiped it away before he began pacing. He didn't ever hope to imagine that finding out what he was would be this painful. Not quite like this.

"There's a good reason why I showed you instead of told you. I was hoping you would set your emotions aside and make the ever prevalent connection. Have you ever heard the phrase 'screaming like a Banshee?"

Link paused, his eyes narrowing. Of course he'd heard it before, but he was in total denial and he wasn't afraid to admit it. There was just no way!

"What are you trying to say? Because I've already scoped out every possibility in the book and I'm definitely not one of them. That would require me to actually be a female. To which I'm clearly not," he said as he gestured to himself. Mercedes folded her hands together over the table, an amused look in her eyes.

"Did you 'scope out' the possibility that your twin sister carried the gene but passed it on to you before she died? You did share a womb, did you not? You did share blood, did you not?"

Link blinked several times. He didn't think about that at all, and everything made so much more sense after that. He wound up being the Banshee instead of his sister, which is why Mercedes was in awe that he was the only male Banshee to ever exist. He cupped his hand over his mouth, his breath hitching. His shoulders rose and fell as he breathed.

"Being a male Banshee is extremely rare, Charles. I can see the terror in your eyes, and I can only promise that everything is going to work out. You'll find yourself wanting to put others before yourself, and you will be saving your friend."

Link could only nod his head, keeping his eyes lowered.

"If... If you don't mind, I'd like to call my wife and tell her."

"Go right ahead," Mercedes said as she averted her attention back to the paper.

Booted footsteps encircled him, fogging up his brain with the incessant ringing. It was as if the person that was pacing around the room was nervous about something, and Rhett could feel it seeping off of said person like a pungent odor. His eyes slowly opened and he found himself strapped to a chair, bound by the ankles and wrists. The knife was still lodged in his stomach and he was amazed that he was able to even retain consciousness after losing so much blood. It was truly a miracle.

He had no idea where he was or when he got there, other than the fact that the small room was dimly lit and there weren't any windows. The air was stuffy and thick, carrying a certain metallic smell that he knew to be his own blood. He wrinkled his nose, knowing that simple movement costed him more energy than he had to spend. His eyelids began to droop but he forced them back open, knowing that now was the time to act rather than never.