Love Like War (LGBT) ✅

Chapter 4

4.

He gunned it down to the twins' house, fairly sure he'd managed to break all of Keeter's speed limits in less than five minutes, but a few speeding tickets would pale in comparison to the rest of his record and he really couldn't bring himself to care about that right now. The house in question was easy to find, Bonnie illegally parked and blocking the drive a clear sign.

Conor was outside, sitting underneath the porch overhang, and the rain only helped to highlight what a sorry sight he was. He looked up at the sight of the sheriff's car, straight to the passenger side, and his face fell when Rachel wasn't there.

"Hey," Aiden said, winding down the window, "want to get in?"

"I've never been in the sheriff's car before," Conor said, joining him inside and pressing a button to roll the window back up.

"Clearly, you've been doing something right, then."

"Yeah," Conor deadpanned, "which is why my twin sister is in the woods at ass o'clock in the morning, being killed by a pagan cult."

"They're not pagan," Aiden said, too tired to concentrate on the other problems. "Didn't Callie tell you that? Wait, scratch that, where is Callie?"

"Also in the woods at ass o'clock." Conor paused when he saw the look Aiden gave him. "Her words, not mine."

"Okay, I'll go find her." Aiden pulled the key out of the ignition. "Why don't you go back to bed, yeah?"

"Go back to bed? My sister's out in the woods and she might be dying right now, how can you even suggest that?"

The hysteria proved Conor hadn't been as in control of his emotions as Aiden had first thought, but he was a smart kid and he had to know that he'd only be a hindrance if he followed Aiden in. After five minutes, though, it became clear that he couldn't see that. In the end, Aiden wasn't even a little bit ashamed when he handed him the phone in order to fob him off to Draco.

"You want me to call your friend at half three in the morning?" Conor asked. "I don't think he'll even be awake."

"Trust me, Psych students never sleep."

"And how's that going to help when he's all the way over in Virginia?"

"Conor, have you ever stopped to think about how Callie and I are just two kids writing an essay? Draco's got his doctorate and he thinks that he might be able to stop these, well, we'll call them pagans, and you're doubting calling him?"

The kid didn't hesitate after that.

And Aiden, having no doubt Draco could keep him on the phone, slid out of the car and started jogging over to the tree line. The house was on the outskirts of Keeter, bigger in size for it but also closer to the woods, which was convenient for the witches but, as far as they knew, geographical location of their victims had never played a part in how they chose them. Still, given the heavy rain, he was glad that he didn't have to walk too far from there.

The trail that they'd taken was easy to follow. The branches snapped back and the grass still springing back from being trodden on, because being under mind control apparently meant that taking a more convenient, less spiky path was an inconceivable notion. Aiden lamented the rips in his favourite jacket, so, when the opportunity arose to take another path, he took it—it helped that Callie had, too.

"What took you so long?" she hissed.

"I could've come earlier if you wanted, but then I would've been dragging Conor with me."