Page 27 of Malice

“What if he remembers?” Leo presses.

“He’ll sound crazy telling everyone.” I shrug and refill my coffee, letting out a slow breath as I sink down into a barstool at the island.

“The demon,” I start, trying to redirect the conversation. All I know is the name, it needs a pretty powerful ritual to be freed, and it can be used in some way.”

“Why trap the demon and not kill it?” Antonio muses out loud.

“It’s not unheard of to summon a demon and then put it in a cage, so to speak,” I remind us all. “It’s super risky, because they almost always get out.”

“Tricking a witch into opening the cage is a surefire way to get out,” Leo scoffs. “You agreed to free it. At least the Order has it on a chain.”

“I’m not being tricked. I knew what I was doing. And I get it, both choices are bad. But the Order having a demon at their beck and call is worse.”

Leo’s brows go up. “Worse than a demon being on the loose?”

“We hunt demons on the loose all the time.”

“Not ones like this,” he says, and he’s not wrong.

“There’s a first time for everything. We’ll figure it out.”

Leo rolls his eyes. “Your optimism is annoying, you know. And borderline delusional.”

“And I thought your other brother was the voice of reason,” Theo says, seemingly appearing out of thin air after moving into the kitchen at vampire speed without making a sound. “Maybe I like this one better.”

Theo’s teasing is a joke, but what he said holds a truth I don’t want to think about yet. Leo has always been more on my side. He’s been reasonable and has always questioned the Order. It would kill me to come to the realization that when things got real, he picked them over me.

“Maybe you guys will be best buds,” I say, falling back on using humor as a defensive mechanism. “Theo. Leo. Your names even rhyme!”

“Doubt it,” they both say at the exact same time, making Antonio and I chuckle. Leo looks at Theo suspiciously. Oh, right. He hasn’t been around any of my in-laws yet. In hindsight, Antonio adjusted pretty quickly and very well.

I guess dying has that effect on you.

Theo turns and says something in Spanish. He’s speaking quietly, but I know he’s talking to Xavier, who can hear him from wherever he is in the house. Without saying anything, Theo speeds back out of the room.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be team vampire,” Leo murmurs.

“You don’t have to be in order to see the truth,” Antonio counters. “You gotta look at it logically, and right now, the Malus family has helped more than they’ve hurt.”

Leo looks at him like he’s insane. “They run a mafia.”

“I feel like that’s an antiquated term,” I try.

“It’s not,” Leo says back. “Everybody knows it and the hashtag mafiabutmakeitimmortal is trending.”

I snort- laugh. “Oh come on, that doesn’t prove anything. But yeah, I won’t deny it. Xavier makes sure everyone in the city gets along and follows rules.”

“His rules.”

“Look,” I start, voice raising. The light above us starts to flicker and I put my hands flat on the counter. “You don’t have to like Xavier or anyone else in this family. But no one batted an eye when I brought you here and they welcomed Antonio with open arms.”

“And mouths—full of fangs,” Leo mutters under his breath.

“That’s enough,” Antonio tells him. “Wren is right: you don’t have to like them but we need to deal with what’s at hand. We have twenty-eight days to find this demon sigil and break it so Wren’s soul isn’t consumed by the demon.”

His words hang heavy in the air.

“You’re right,” Leo finally relents. “But we can’t do anything sitting around here.”