Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
“What do you do all day?” Antonio picks up his fork, eyeing the plate of pasta Alan just put down in front of him.
“Lately, it’s just been trying not to die,” I answer.
It’s a little after noon, and I just woke up, showered, and joined the land of the living.
And by that, I mean Antonio. Mabel did a good job babysitting, though I think she’s starting to look at Antonio as a life-size doll and not my hunter brother.
“So not much different than a normal day.”
“Yeah.” I twirl pasta around my fork and take a bite. “Honestly, the days have kinda all blended together. I found my parents’ graves.”
Antonio’s hand freezes in the air, spaghetti hanging off his fork. “What?”
I nod and finish chewing. “In Connecticut. I guess that’s where I’m actually from. I have a grave, too. Everyone thought I died.” My eyes widen. “Guess we have that in common now.”
“You say that way too casually.”
The door leading in from the garage opens and Devon comes in, stopping short when he sees Antonio. There’s blood splattered on Devon’s collar and a little bit smeared on his chin. He hasn’t quite grown out of being a messy eater, I guess.
“Who are we doing the locator spell for this time?” he jokes, a grin coming to his handsome face. “Don’t tell me you lost your sister again.”
I look at him, and the second our eyes meet, I know I can’t keep the truth from him. Behind the monster, I still see the man Devon used to be—and still is. He was my friend and the first person I trusted here.
“I found her, and then the Order found me,” I say, voice hollow.
“Your heart is speeding up,” Devon notes, turning his head a bit.
My eyes close in a long blink and for the first time since it all went down, the weight of it crashes down on me.
“The Order used me,” I go on, fighting through my emotion. “It’s what you found out…what you couldn’t remember. My blood was the key to opening the portal for the demon to escape.”
“He knew?” Antonio snaps right as a look of horrified recognition takes over Devon’s face.
“I couldn’t remember,” Devon says, and if his face could pale, it would right now.
“That…that’s why I was going to see Wren that night.
I found out. I talked to someone and they told me.
” Devon blankly stares at the wall before flitting his gaze back to me.
“That’s why I wanted you to skip town with me. ”
“Who did you talk to?” Antonio questions.
“He doesn’t remember,” I reply, feeling a little defensive of Devon. What happened isn’t necessarily Antonio’s fault on its own, but if they hadn’t come, if they hadn’t been trigger happy, well, I don’t know what would have happened.
Would I have even believed Devon? I wouldn’t run away, but I could have prepared.
“Why?” Antonio presses.
“It happened right before Ryder shot him with the crossbow,” I explain. “Then he turned. Because of the injury and the trauma and, I don’t know, the ritual of becoming a vampire, he can’t remember the last few hours of his human life.”
“Oh,” Antonio says, casting his eyes down. “I, um, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Devon says quickly. “I always knew I was going to be turned, and I can’t imagine going back to being a weak human now.”
I give him a pointed look, silently conveying my don’t fucking start this again speech. “Anyway, it happened. They opened the portal and the demon got out.”
“So there weren’t unpredicted earthquakes last night?” Devon asks.
“No,” Antonio and I say at the same time and then Antonio playfully elbows me.
“Should I tell him or do you want to?” he asks.
“Go ahead,” I say. “Get used to saying it.”
“I died,” Antonio tells Devon. “For maybe ten minutes.”
Devon’s eyes narrow and he looks at me. “That’s not possible. You can’t be brought back without some sort of brain damage if you’ve been dead that long.”
“No,” I agree. “You can’t.” I fight the urge to crack another joke, using humor as a defense mechanism. “Not unless something powerful does it for you.”
“Did you?”
“No. Witches can’t raise the dead. I, uh, I made a deal with the demon. Ya know, the same one who needed my blood to escape.”
“What kind of deal?” Devon asks slowly, taking his time with each word because he knows he’s not going to like the answer.
“My soul in exchange for my brother’s life.” Saying it out loud sends a chill through me. It didn’t fully seem real when I was drugged up and struggling to keep my eyes open. But now that I’m completely with it, the reality fucking terrifies me.
As it should.
“But the demon is being controlled by the Order, and if I can unclip the leash, so to speak, it will tear up my contract and I’ll be good.”
“And if not?”
I shrug. “The demon can do what it wants with my soul. Take it and kill me, let me live the rest of my life always looking over my shoulder. Or, uh, bring me to the dark side.”
“You’re not going to let that happen, are you?” Devon takes a step closer, blinking several times as he looks at me. He doesn’t have to blink, but the habit doesn’t just go away overnight. Plus, I think he’s hoping this is a dream.
Maybe he’s hoping the last month or so has all been a dream. A bad dream.
“We’ll figure it out,” Antonio says with the confidence of a seasoned hunter. Everyone in this house knows it’s not that easy.
Devon widens his eyes. “I leave you for less than twenty-four hours and this happens.”
“Hey…could be worse,” I try.
“I’m scared to ask what your worse is,” Devon retorts. “Where is your sister?”
“I don’t know,” I admit and feel panic rise inside me.
“So we should set up another locator spell?” Devon asks.
“Yes, but I need something of hers and I don’t have that stuffed animal with me.” I look at Antonio. “It was in your car and your car was, uh…at the restaurant.” My ability to compartmentalize is starting to collapse. So much was going on before things went to hell in a hand basket.
The Charlotte wolf pack doubting Xavier.
The attack on the vampires during a business meeting.
There’s a traitor in the coalition.
Those things alone are enough to stoke panic in even the most stoic people. Xavier and his brothers have run this city since its conception, basically. It’s not surprising someone will challenge him along the way, but it won’t end without bloodshed.
Now we know the entire Order is evil.
All that and I still feel like I’m forgetting something.
Oh, my husband framed Larissa for mass-murder.
Though, I’m having a hard time admitting that’s a bad thing.
Part of me hates that I’m bitter enough to relish in the fact that she took the fall for the work of a demon.
She’ll have to face a trial and a jury and something of this caliber will be national, if not international, news.
There’s no way the Order can fully expunge her this time.
“My keys were still in my pocket when I, uh, woke up,” Antonio says. “But not my phone.”
“They didn’t want anyone to trace you. I don’t know where mine is. I didn’t have it with me when I came to.”
“What exactly happened?” Devon pulls out a barstool and sits at the large island counter next to me.
“You want the short version or the detailed version?” I ask.
“Give me something in the middle,” he says and I take a breath, going back to us finding Gia at the hotel, living her best life and Door Dashing ice cream for dinner. I decide to go with the detailed version, hoping that by recanting the whole thing, something will jump out at me.
Nothing does.
“I helped Wren with the last demon,” Devon tells Antonio. “They’re related somehow, right? That demon to this new one?”
“Yeah,” I answer. “It seems like Vaelric has been trying for some time to break out of the Order’s grasp. She was probably trying to figure out a way to have a demon from her legion bust her out before the Order could.”
“I have a possible stupid question,” Devon interjects. “Are demons male or female?”
“Not a stupid question,” Antonio answers. “And not really. They’re spiritual beings of noncorporeal form that take on the shape of something familiar. In this case, it appeared as a woman. It’s just easier referring to them as they appear.”
“Vaelric could appear differently to you,” I elaborate. “A demon that powerful can sense things about you and will try to appear to you in a form that you wouldn’t consider threatening.”
“Creepy.”
“Very.” I let out a sigh and push my food around my plate. It’s good and I’m hungry, but I don’t have much of an appetite. “Wait a second,” I say as something does click into place. “Vaelric said the Order has had control of her for the last fifty or so years. For nearly half a century.”
“Okay?” Antonio says, waiting for me to go on.
I close my eyes, thinking back. It’s all so vivid but then again I was so drugged up everything from that hour is like a fever dream.
Only I am positive I was with it and not succumbing to the effects of the medication while I was in the demon realm.
“But then she said something else. About being caged or leashed for centuries but she said the sigil has been cloaked from her for centuries.”
“Holy shit,” Antonio breathes, leaning back.
“I’m not following,” Devon says, looking back and forth between us. “That obviously means something to you hunters.”
“Yeah, it does,” I say. “It means the Order wasn’t the one who bound the demon.”