Seth might never find out. Riley couldn’t text him anyway, a fact that Seth had once again conveniently forgotten. Somehow they still didn’t have each other’s numbers. Seth didn’t even know for sure if Riley had a phone.
Did vampires use cell phones? Maybe they communicated via trained bats instead. Had Seth been seeing more bats than usuallately? Maybe that was why there were fewer squirrels. Maybe there was some inverse bat-to-squirrel ratio.
He wasn’t making sense, was he? Was this what shock felt like?
Anyway, no text, but Seth did have a missed video call from Benny. He must have forgotten which day Seth closed up shop.
After a moment of deliberation, Seth called him back.
It didn’t take long for Benny to pick up, his handsome, tanned face beaming at Seth through the phone screen. He’d buzzed his dark hair short again.
Seth caught a brief glimpse of Helio scowling behind Benny’s shoulder before he scuttled out of view.
“Seth!” Benny’s smile tipped down into a frown. “Are you sick or something? You look rough, dude.”
Seth didn’t have it in him to pretend to be hale and hearty, so he ignored the question, cutting right to the chase. “Hey, Benny, do you believe in the otherworldly?”
“Like outer space?” Benny scratched at his chin, his dark brow furrowing. “Would be hard not to. Pretty sure we’ve been up there already.”
Seth cleared his throat. “I mean, like, the paranormal. Ghosts. Magic.” Seth swallowed hard. “Maybe…vampires?”
Benny’s face brightened. “Oh yeah. For sure. Well, you know, Helio’s fae. And then there’s the devils in town. It’d be weird if there was nothing else out here. Plus, I think Sascha said his brother-in-law is a vampire.”
Fae. Devils. Brothers-in-law.
Seth’s head spun. He let if fall back against the counter.
“Nix?” he finally squeaked, thinking of the gorgeous redheaded flirt who came into town a few times a year. He was married to Sascha’s oldest brother, Ivan. “Nix is a vampire?”
Benny shook his head, raising his voice to be heard over the loud protestations of Helio, who seemed to be objecting heartily toBenny’s honesty. “No, Nix is a sex devil, pretty sure. The other brother-in-law. The one married to Alexei.”
Seth was having an out-of-body experience. He could see himself on the floor, chatting to Benny about sex devils and vampires, as if he was looking down from above. Maybe he’d passed out when Riley had jumped him. Maybe he was dreaming.
He cleared his throat. One insane statement at a time, right? “When you say Helio’sfae…”
“Well, he doesn’t like the word ‘fairy.’”
There was more grumbling, and Benny turned away from the phone, presumably to face Helio. “He asked though. I’m not going to lie to Seth.”
“And the devils?” Seth asked before things could devolve into a full-blown couple’s argument.
Benny turned back around. “Oh. You know, Kai and the others. Thought you knew about them. Actually, I think they prefer to be called demons, so maybe use that word instead.”
“Demons,” Seth repeated.
“I really thought you knew.” Benny scratched at his chin again. “It’s been, like, six years.”
“How?”
“They leave their blinds open more than they think.”
“No, I mean, how—”How does all this exist? How did you get wrapped up in it? How could I not know after all this time?Seth pressed a hand to his forehead. “You know what, never mind. I need to go.”
“Wait, buddy?—”
Seth hung up. He had more questions than he’d started with, but the nausea that had been simmering under the surface was letting itself be known in full force. Seth wrapped an arm around his stomach, trying to keep himself from hurling.
Seth had just found out that the town he’d loved so much, the one he’d left reluctantly to pull himself out of his supposed rut,was crawling with nonhuman entities. People he’d fed pastries and danced with and grown very, very fond of over the past years.
