Page 26 of Malice

“Morning, sunshine,” I say, sitting up in the armchair across from the bed. Leo groggily sits up, looking around. I hand him a glass of water and sit back down in the chair. “You’re safe, don’t worry.”

“Wren?”

“Yeah. It’s me. I take it you don’t remember much of last night?”

He puts his head in his hands. “I feel like death.”

“You’re alive.” I push my hair back. “Just like Antonio is.” Right on cue, the door cracks open and Antonio comes in. It’s around seven AM and the blinds are still open. It’s cloudy today, but enough sunlight is coming through the window to prove none of us here are vampires.

Leo looks at Antonio, lips parted as if he wants to talk but no words come out.

“You smell like puke and cheap whiskey,” Antonio says, making a face. “Heard you had a fun night.”

Leo blinks once. Twice. He looks at me and then at Antonio again. “They said he was dead.”

“They said he was a vampire,” I counter.

“That's the same thing,” Leo says.

“It’s not the same thing,” I go on, speaking slowly as I try to control my emotions. “Undead. But not dead.”

Leo sits back and takes a sip of water. “Why would they lie?”

“Because I was dead,” Antonio tells him and shows him the scars on his wrists. “They used my blood to paint the sigil on the ground then left me to bleed to death.”

Leaning forward, Leo runs his fingers over one of the scars. “These aren’t fresh.”

“Yeah, it’s complicated,” I reply nervously.

“What the hell happened?” Leo’s eyes widen and he looks at us nervously.

Deciding it’s best to just get the truth out there in a rip the band aid off style, I take a breath. “Turns out, the Order has been in control of a demon for like half a century but it was only operating at partial strength so they wanted to bust it out into the real world but needed to open a portal to do so, and my blood was the key so Vivian and Marco let Gia run away to cause a distraction and get me out of the house and away from Xavier. They used Toni too and, like he said, they let him bleed to death after using his blood to draw the sigil which then needed my blood to unlock. Toni died and I made a deal with the demon to bring him back and instead of devouring my soul, it will rip up the contract if I can sever whatever connection the Order has that basically puts it on a leash.”

Silence falls over the room.

“Where am I?” Leo asks, looking around.

“My house,” I answer, and the look on Antonio’s face says he’s surprised at how quickly I feel at home here.

“You took me to the vampire HQ?” Leo retorts.

“I don’t think I’d call it that,” I say. “It’s the house we live in on the outskirts of Charlotte, if you want to be technical. And with everything that happened, it’s the safest place to be.”

“Safe from a demon?” Leo asks and I force myself to take a breath and not get frustrated. He’s still hungover, maybe still a little drunk, and this is a lot to take in.

“Safe from the Order,” Antonio answers.

Leo takes another drink of water and then sets the glass on the nightstand. “Walk me through exactly what happened.”

“Okay,” I say and take a breath. “Let’s start with the night Ryder shot Devon. I can prove to you this has been the Order’s plan all along.”

“Is he…?” Leo asks quietly, flicking his eyes to Alan. Leo, Antonio and I are in the kitchen, having finally come downstairs after going over things multiple times. I’m starting to get really fucking annoyed with how unwilling Leo is to grasp this, and now it’s late in the morning and I’m wasting time.

I need to find the sigil.

Frustrated, I had to leave my brothers for a while and go run a couple miles on the treadmill and then shower and get dressed. I don’t have much time before I need to leave to meet Delphi for lunch.

“He forgets everything he’s heard the second he leaves the house,” I tell both brothers, having just learned that myself only a few minutes ago. “So we can talk freely.”