Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 436(@200wpm)___ 349(@250wpm)___ 291(@300wpm)
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.