Page 12 of Malice

“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.”