Page 26 of Twisted

The last of the ashes fall into the sink and I blow them away from me, imagining the message being carried to my brother.I wait a beat and then turn on the water, rinsing the ashes down the drain.Leaving the fan on, I close the bathroom door and go to get into bed.The room is dark and my eyes haven’t quite adjusted yet.

I’m moving the decorative pillows onto the ground when I hear something.I freeze and spin around just in time to see the door open.Automatically going on the defense, I summon a ball of energy and throw it, thinking it’s Xavier.

“Fuck!”the person at the door yells, and there’s just enough of a flash of light to see that the person I just hit wasn’t my vampire husband.

It’s Devon.

CHAPTER12

“Shit, sorry,” I say, wincing.Stepping over a pillow, I turn on the bedside lamp.The energy ball is literally a golfball sized circle of crackling raw energy that leaves a nasty burn.It hit him on the bicep, singeing the hem of his t-shirt.

“What the hell was that?”

“An energy ball.”I shrug.“Magic.”

“I would say that’s pretty damn cool if it didn’t hurt so much.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry.Come here.”I usher him inside and close the door behind him.He sits on the bed and I go into the bathroom, getting hit with the smell of burned bay leaf as soon as I open the door.Turning on the cold water, I get a washcloth from the cabinet and wet it.

“Here,” I tell him and gently press the cool rag to his skin.“I thought you were Xavier.He heals,” I add, though even if he didn’t, I still would have burned him.

“Good thing I’m not?”he questions.

“What are you doing here?”I ask.

“I wanted to check on you.”

“Why?”

“Your mental health is going to impact—”

“Bullshit,” I interrupt before he can go on.“I’m nowhere near ready to carry your child.”

“Fine, I just…” He trails off and shakes his head.“They all left and I thought I’d see how you’re holding up because this is a lot and there’s nothing that can be done to help you accept it.”

I nod, knowing he means since I can’t be held spellbound, there’s no skirting around how fucked up this whole situation is.I’m married to his brother and he’s going to knock me up.

“If they were here would you have come by?”

He shakes his head.“I don’t think we’re really supposed to be friends.”

“I see.”

“You’re interesting,” he goes on.“And I want to know how you killed that rack-shash whatever.”

“A rakshasas,” I say with a smile.“I stabbed it through the heart with a consecrated blade.Then we burned the body and threw the bones into a river.It was so hot and we were being kind of too lazy to dig a hole.”

“You said that so casually.”

I let out a snort of laughter.“You live with vampires.Surely you’re no stranger to covering up murder.”

He raises his eyebrows.“Not me personally.I, uh, spent a lot of my life overseas or away at school.”

“Right.You’re being groomed to become one of theElite Immortals,” I say, mocking.“You really want to be a vampire?”

“It doesn’t seem so bad, does it?”He sweeps his hand out at the room.“Not in this family, at least.”

I just nod and bite my lip, looking at him curiously.“How do you know they’ll make you one?”