[Caliban Leandros Series]: These Things We Do (For Love)
“Is that thing still alive?” She slurred, catching herself on the door frame. “Should have put it out for the dogs by now.”
Niko didn’t look up much, just kept writing with his mouth shut and one eye on the makeshift crib he’d set up. Cal’d already shown a knack for getting out of safe places and into dangerous ones, and he was determined not to let it happen again.
Sophia wasn’t stalled by his silence. “Least it’s not crying. Would kill it if it was crying. Christ! Stupid brat. Should have smothered it the day it was born.”
Niko tucked his head further down so his hair covered his face. You named him, could at least use it, he was tempted to say, but kept his mouth shut and examined the next problem as Sophia wobbled over to the kitchen and cracked the refrigerator.
“Nothing to eat, never anything to eat, you, boy, why didn’t you get anything?”
“I didn’t have the money,” Niko said, patiently. “And I was busy.”
“Busy with what? What’s a brat like you have to do?”
“Taking care of Cal. Now I’m practicing math.”
Sophia made a rude noise and plucked the paper from the table, glanced at it, then ripped it neatly in half. “Don’t bother. No one cares if you can add or subtract, boy, it certainly won’t matter to me. Get a job, get some money. Better use of your time.”
“Someone has to take care of Cal.”
“Why? I don’t care what happens to the little beast. Like an unwanted kitten.” She leaned on the side of the crib, leaned over. “Aren’t you. Little runty mutt, costing me more money than you’re worth. You know how we dealt with kittens we didn’t want, when I was a girl?”
Niko held back that he could not imagine her ever being a girl, and stood up. “Don’t touch him, Sophia.”
It was already too late, though; grey eyes opened, stared up and Caliban screamed. Sophia swore, loudly.
“Dammit! Dirty little thing, damn you, should have dropped you in the snow the day you were born-“ She plunged a hand into the crib and picked his baby brother up by the back of his clothes, arms flailing and scream changing from one of just fright to panic.
“Sophia,” Nik said, taking a step forward and alarmed to find his way blocked by the crib and their mother already halfway around the table. She pushed him back when he tried to get in her way.
“Should have killed it two years ago,” she said, hotly, cursed again, her mascara smeared as well now in an ugly black circle. “Should have drowned it like a little unwanted kitten. Sick of it, sick of the little beast, I won’t-“
Niko didn’t know how it happened, only that he moved more quickly than he ever had, from table to counter to catch Sophia halfway down the hallway to the bathroom, and brought the boning knife to her back.
“Hurt him and I’ll kill you,” he said, in the coldest voice he’d ever heard, and hardly knew it as his own. Sophia froze. Hissed.
“Don’t be absurd. You couldn’t kill a rat.”
He could feel his heart thudding hard in his ears, blood pounding in his head. Angry, angry, angry - he’d never been so furious. She thought she could say those things about his little brother, the one he raised and kept safe, without getting anything from him. He’d been silent long enough.
“I could kill you,” he said, voice shaking. “I will, if you hurt Cal. I’ll kill you. I love him, I don’t you.”
Cal wouldn’t stop screaming, crying so desperately Niko was afraid Sophia would dash his head in on the wall before he could do anything. Babies’ skulls didn’t harden until they were, what, five? He didn’t remember what the books had said. He held the knife steady and still, surprised that his hand didn’t shake when the rest of him was trembling. Neither of them moved.
Then Sophia laughed, harshly. “Two little monsters. Both of you. Should put you both on the streets and be glad to see the back of you.” Niko still didn’t move. “Fine. Take the baby beast.” She turned and shoved Cal at Niko, who dropped the knife and took his baby brother carefully, staring at his mother with mutinous hatred in his iron-grey eyes. Cal kept bawling, and Sophia shoved past him, back toward the kitchen. “And shut it up or godammit I will put tape over its mouth.”
His brother quieted as soon as Sophia was gone, and Niko adjusted him to rest on his hip. It was lucky that Cal was a small baby, and pretty light. Niko thought he’d be able to carry him for a while longer.
He slipped into his bedroom and sat on the bed, settled Cal next to him and ruffled his brother’s hair, gently. Cal hiccupped and sniffed once, loudly. “It’ll be okay, little brother,” Niko said, soothingly, “It’ll be okay.”
When Cal fell back asleep, curled up in a little nest of blankets, Niko crept out into the hallway to fetch the small knife and slipped it into one of his socks. He wasn’t going to be caught unprepared again. Not while there was a danger to his brother.