Chapter 28
Chapter
Twenty-Eight
The bathroom door leading into the bedroom opens. Xavier comes out, wearing only a towel. Light spills into the room, giving me a better look at my hand. The line pulses along with my heart beat and then fades. I blink a few times, staring at my hand.
“You okay?” Xavier asks.
“Yeah, I, um, I…” I hold my hand up. “Do you see a line?”
He speeds over. “No.” He puts his finger on the center of my palm, right over the little red dot. “Did you see one?”
“I thought I did.” I let out a breath. “Maybe I was still half asleep.”
“Or maybe the demon is reminding you that you’re on the clock.” He closes my fingers into a fist and puts both hands around mine, kissing my hand before turning on one of the bedside lamps. He brings my hand close to his face. “I don’t see anything, but that doesn’t mean you imagined it, Wren.”
“I know.” I sigh. “I think it’s just the demon reminding me that I’m running out of time.”
“You’re not. We are going to figure this out.”
“Yes,” I agree, not wanting to voice my doubts.
Sighing, I lay back down. Xavier drops his towel and gets in bed with me, his naked body still warm from the shower. The heat will only cling to him for so long, and it’s both comforting and odd to have a warm body next to me.
Unable to fall back asleep, I get up and change into workout clothes. It shouldn’t be hard to get Antonio to agree to go for a run with me, and we really should get back to training like we used to do.
“You made quite the impression, brother,” Theo says when Xavier and I go downstairs. He’s sitting in the front living room, clearly positioned there so he could see us as soon as we came down.
“As did you,” he adds, his eyes landing on me.
“Me? What did I do?”
“Well, according to the tabloids, you’re having an affair.”
I laugh, waiting for him to laugh, too. “With who?” I ask, unable to help the humor in my voice. Accusing me of an affair is the most absurd thing I can think of.
Theo holds up his phone, showing a picture of me standing next to Antonio at last night’s event. We’re in the back of the hall, and my hand is on Antonio’s arm. He scrolls down and shows a video of us sneaking out onto the patio. I’m holding an overflowing plate of food and two drinks.
“This is ridiculous,” I say, shaking my head. “That’s my brother.”
“Nobody knows you have a brother,” Theo throws back.
“Well, nobody knows I don’t,” I say, as if it’s obvious. “So we’ll just tell them.”
“You’re missing the point.” Theo looks at Xavier, expecting backup. “What were you two doing sneaking away like that anyway?”
“Eating food,” I say simply. “Vampires don’t eat, and I wanted to feed Antonio.”
“The goal wasn’t to bring media attention to an Order member,” Theo says.
“Then he should’ve stayed home,” I counter.
“I’m sorry, I’m just stuck on the fact that people think I’m sleeping with my brother.
No one’s going to take this seriously.” I glance at Xavier.
A rumor that his wife is having an affair won’t look good for him, but it’s not out of the question.
He’s a highly desirable celebrity in some ways, and now that he’s received an endorsement for mayor, of course people are going to try to dig up dirt on him.
“This blows the Order’s lies right out of the water,” Xavier says, calm as ever. “Clips of Antonio show him alive and well.” He tips his head. “Or undead and well.”
“There goes using his death to our advantage,” Theo says, and I agree.
Though I’m not entirely sure what advantage that really gave us beyond surprise.
I imagine seeing their “dead” son dressed in a Gucci suit, parading around an event where seats cost five thousand dollars, is the last thing Vivian and Marco would have ever expected.
“Call Dimitri,” Xavier tells Theo. “Have him make the appropriate documents we need for Antonio. The public loves a family affair.” He grins and cups my chin. “Having the support of my wife’s older brother just cements my position.”
“You know this is going to piss the Order off so much,” I say, smiling.
“After your run,” Xavier tells me, “have Mabel take some photos of you with Antonio. I’ll have Victoria run PR on it.
Get this taken care of.” He looks at Theo.
“This is part of the game, brother. Accusing my wife of having an affair with her own brother is weak. I expected more of my opponents, so we need to be prepared. It would only take moderate work to connect Antonio to Larissa, who is currently sitting behind bars for attempted murder.”
“What’s going to happen when they find out she’s a witch?” Theo asks.
“They won’t,” Xavier says. “There’s no evidence of magic, so let them accuse her and sound crazy.”
His eyes meet mine briefly, acknowledging that he remembers me telling him the cops have body cam footage of me fighting demons with magic. He doesn’t bring it up, and I know he won’t unless it’s absolutely necessary.
I eat breakfast, and then head upstairs. Antonio is still asleep in his room.
“Rise and shine, buttercup,” I say, flicking on the light. He groans and pulls the blanket over his head. “How late were you and Devon playing video games?”
“I don’t know,” he grumbles. “Not having any sunlight really messes with my head.”
“Same,” I say. “I’m still not used to it. But get up. Come workout with me, and then we need to prove to the world we’re not sleeping together.”
Antonio pulls the blanket down just enough to look at me. “Sometimes I think there’s something seriously wrong with you.”
I laugh. “Someone took photos of us together at the event last night and tried to insinuate that we were sneaking around having an affair behind Xavier’s back.” I roll my eyes. “Which makes zero sense, because we came and left as a family.”
“Do I at least look good in these photos?” Antonio asks.
“You’re in a designer suit. Anybody would look good.”
“Speaking of looking good looking…” he starts.
I hold up my hand, stopping him. “You are not hitting on my friends.”
“How did you know I was going to ask about Delphi?”
“Witchcraft,” I say as I leave his room.
Not wanting to wait for him, I go downstairs to the workout room and start lifting weights.
For the next hour or so, I lift weights, pushing myself more than I probably should.
I’m worried that if I stop moving, if I get too still, my thoughts will take over and I’ll be unable to deny the truth.
And the truth is that I am running out of time.
Yes, I know how to destroy the key, but we’re no closer to finding it than we were before.
“So how do we prove you’re my sibling and not into some Jamie and Cersei Lannister stuff?” Antonio asks, putting the last weight back and wiping his brow. He finally joined about half an hour ago.
“I’m not sure what the actual plan is,” I tell him. “Whatever is done will be very carefully thought out because we don’t want the media finding out who you actually are.” I glance at myself in the mirror. “We don’t want them finding out who I actually am either.”
“It was never supposed to be you,” Antonio muses out loud for the second time now.
“No one would have batted an eye if Larissa had gone like she was supposed to.” He looks up, spacing out as he thinks.
“Mom and Dad were really careful to keep things from us after that night, but I know they got shit from the higher-ups in the Order. And maybe this is me not wanting to deal with the truth, but I just don’t believe they would sacrifice their children for a demon after they fucked up everything saving Larissa.
” He gives me a telling look. “She’s definitely not the favorite. ”
I laugh, but there’s truth in what he’s saying. I think about that, remembering the desperation in Vivian’s eyes. She didn’t seem torn up at the sight of Antonio’s body. I don’t know how any mother can look at their child’s lifeless eyes and not just break.
Knowing we can’t make sense of it, we cool down, and I go upstairs to shower and get dressed so Mabel can set up some sort of photo shoot or whatever.
“Victoria will be here shortly,” Xavier tells me once I’m out of the shower.
Wrapped up in just a towel, I sit on the bench at the foot of our bed.
My mind wandered as I stood under the warm water, and I feel like there’s a part of me that is trying to get myself to accept the real possibility that this is it.
This is where the game ends for me, and even though I lost, the rest of the world could be seen as the winner because the demon, as powerful as Vaelric, stays in his cage.
I can try to rationalize it all I want, but I know in the end, the Order occasionally having a source of power to tap into is truly the lesser of two evils here.
Right?
“Okay,” I tell him and pick up my phone.
I open it to the local animal shelter’s Facebook page.
“Would you be really mad if I adopted a cat?” I ask, showing him a photo of a senior tabby in need of a home.
“I’ve never had a pet because we were moving from job to job.
And I’ve always wanted one. Cats just seem fitting since I’m a witch, you know? ”
Xavier looks at the phone, and for a moment I think he’s considering it. Then he looks at me. “Stop acting like you have to check things off your bucket list, Wren. You’re not dying.”
“I mean, technically I’m dying every day. Human, remember?” I awkwardly laugh and flip the phone back around, not wanting to be serious right now. “Maybe we should get two cats. And then next summer, if I’m still here, a dog.”
“I will buy you a fucking horse if that’s what you want, but you’re not dying, Wren. And you’re not giving up.”
“I don’t want to die,” I tell him, tears springing to my eyes.
All the emotion I was holding back, hidden behind sarcastic, lame jokes, breaks to the surface.
“I really don’t. I don’t know how I would die either.
I imagine being stripped of my soul would be horrible and painful, and I’m terrified.
” My voice breaks, and Xavier sits on the bed next to me, cradling me in his arms.
“I will do whatever it takes to save you. I told you that and I meant it.”
“But how?” I ask. “An entire coven tried to kill Vaelric and couldn’t. The best they could do was trap him.”
“Maybe it takes more than witchcraft to kill a demon like that,” Xavier says, gently pushing my wet hair back.
“And you know what you have? You have us—vampires. You have your brothers and that obnoxious ex-boyfriend I would love to get my hands on and sink my teeth into. And you have a werewolf pack that, for some reason, looks at you like you can do no harm. You are far from alone.”
Tears burn in my eyes and for a fleeting moment, I take solace in his words. But then the truth hits me: Xavier‘s right. I’m not alone.
Val has made sure that.