Page 66 of Grave Devil
I throw Sonny another glance before following Nox out of the infirmary. He smirks even with his eyes shut. I hope he stops taunting her so she can rest. If he wakes her up, Nox will have his head, deer skull and all.
Downstairs, in the parlor, we find Aries and Draven with a half-empty bottle of Blackwell gin between them.
“How is she?” Draven asks.
“Healing,” Nox replies as he accepts a finger of whiskey from Aries.
I take one as well. “They are tethered. We have to accept that.”
Aries gets up to take the seat next to me on the velvet settee. He drapes an arm across my shoulders. “What do you need from us, baby?”
I sigh into his embrace, happy to be close to him again. “To put your jealousy aside. To remember that he’s my brother and that I will do literally anything to keep him safe. And to help me do that.”
“Of course, Bones.” Nox settles back against the couch next to Draven. “What a mouth he has on him though. He’s definitely the diva of the family.”
I look at Draven. He’s been my best friend and sometimes my lover for over twenty years. He’s drowning in his own darkness right now. More than usual. I want to comfort him, but I also can’t allow him to hurt Sonny. “Tell me everything’s going to be fine, Dray. Please. Tell me.”
He takes a drag off his cigarette and exhales slowly, blowing smoke rings into the space between us. “I would rather cut off my own arm than harm a hair on that boy’s head. I know he’s a man now, but he’ll always be little Sonny Crane to me.”
I sigh in relief. “Oh, thank fuck. I love you, Dray. Fucking hell.”
“But,” he continues, “I will not hesitate to check his ass if he gets out of line with Mia.”
“Agreed. I promise you I will do the same.” I want to cry again, but this time it’s not from sadness but just from fucking relief at seeing the people I love agree to put aside their differences. Because the worst is yet to come. And the last thing we need is to be at each other’s throats.
DRAVEN
The rain is coming down hard tonight. It’s as if Melancholia is crying for us all. I take cover under the overhang on the veranda and light up a poison-dipped cigarette. With each drag I take in, I feel the tension start to slowly leave my body. But the raven knows it’s fleeting. I’d have to inebriate myself a hell of a lot more to chase away the demons on my back.
As I gaze out into the darkness, so dark that there aren’t any visible stars, the hairs on the back of my neck prickle. He’s here. The monster I spawned from is here. He’s never far, but tonight he’s particularly close. Perhaps he senses the dark energy here in this house. It’s emanating from the damn rooftops.
“Show yourself or be gone. I’m in no mood for your incessant stalking tonight.” I’ve been avoiding him for months, pretending he’s not there. I figured if I lied to myself and denied that part of me, then it would just cease to exist. But his presence has only gotten stronger. What started as just an apparition, barely visible in my peripheral vision, has turned into solid dark matter with glowing eyes and visible limbs that cast shadows under the moonlight.
The one who follows me hisses. He darts behind me first before crouching on the wet grass below the veranda. “Mine,” he rasps.
I snicker. “No, I am not yours. I belong to the people inside this house. You have about as much hold on me as the man my mother married.”
The creature stands, and I instinctively step back when he towers over me. He has black horns similar to Nox. His massive frame barely fits inside his black cloak. Through its opening, I can see that his body is sculpted to perfection. He’s nothing but solid muscle and tendons, as strong as he is agile.
“No,” he continues. “She was mine.”
My stomach drops. “My mother… did you love her?”
The dark entity, who I look nothing like, nods his head. “Of course, I did. She was mine. I was hers. I shouldn’t be allowed to exist without her.”
It’s become very clear to me, in this moment, that my sadness, my melancholy, is from him. We may not resemble each other physically, but his spirit is like a dark mirror to mine.
I offer him a cigarette. “Where is she?”
“In a place I cannot go.” He takes the cigarette and allows me to light it for him. “Mmm. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these.”
“I’ll never be able to go there either.” I think about the After more than a man should.
“Because of me?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Because of Mia.” I nod toward the mansion. “She is cursed to wander this realm even after her death. And I won’t leave her. So I will die by poison and wander with her.”
He nods, understanding. It is odd, but I can sense this connection to him. This invisible thread that pulls me towardhim. I am made up of his dark matter, and it’s responding like a magnet in his presence.
