Page 6 of Twisted
“Seven.They’re easy to kill.”
“Especially for you,” Ryder replies, his lips pulling into a grin.His dark brown eyes sparkle under the dim bar lights.Fuck you.You don’t get to talk to me like you know me after what you did.“I’ve seen you in training.You’re scary.”
“I can be when I want to be,” I say in a level tone, though inside, I’m screaming and the voices are conflicted.I want to cuss him out, curse him with impotence, and make that thinning spot on the back of his head turn into full-on baldness.And I want him to choose me.To tell me he made a mistake and he’s sorry and he realized what an idiot he was.I want him to say he’ll do anything to earn my trust back so I can see that he loves me, really loves me.
But he hasn’t…so he won’t.
“I got to watch training last week,” Gia, our youngest sister, pipes in.“Wren is scary but in a good way.”
“You are an excellent hunter,” Antonio tells me and then narrows his eyes playfully.“Even though you did beat my record for knife throws.”
“Should I be sorry?”I laugh.
“I want to see you fight demons someday,” Gia goes on.
“Someday,” I press, hoping that if the day comes and Gia is still a hunter, I will be the one to go out with her so I can keep her safe.“Seven demons at once…that’s…that’s a lot.”
“It really is,” Ryder goes on.
“And we weren’t expecting it,” Leo says.
Larissa leans forward, pushing her shoulder back in a way that shows off her ample chest.Her thick blonde hair is cut short, just barely touching her shoulders.She’s a pretty woman, which matters because we've both been trained to use our looks and femininity to our advantage.“Well, good thing we had our Little Orphan Annie there.”
And just like that, the feeling of being included is ripped out from underneath me.“Don’t call me that,” I retort, rolling my eyes.It’s a bit of a silly, childish nickname, but it stopped being funny the first time I heard it.
“Yeah,” Larissa says, smirking.“Don’t piss her off or she’ll put a curse on you.”Silence falls over the table and, out of the corner of my eye, I can see Gia look from Larissa to me and back again.She’s only eleven and hasn’t been permitted to go on a hunt yet, but she comes to all our debriefings, listening intently, dreaming of the day she’ll be handed a gun and an enchanted dagger, sent out into the dark knowing there’s a good chance she’s never coming back.
It’s fucked up, I know.Even though I was raised in this life, I haven’t failed to see how wrong it is.But hey, someone’s got to do it, right?
“Maybe Harry Potter is a better nickname,” Larissa says and takes another swig of beer and laughs.“His parents died because of dark magic, too.”
“My parents were killed by demons.”I ball my fist and the light above the table starts to flicker.A hush falls over our little group, and Ryder looks from the light to me and back again.He knows how deep this cut runs, and how for some reason I cannot fathom, Larissa loves to pick off the scab and rub salt in this wound.
“Dude, that’s some party trick,” he laughs, trying to ease the tension.
“That’s enough,” Leo tells his twin and takes the beer from her hands.“Let’s get some air.”
Larissa narrows her eyes but then gets up when she sees Antonio give her a look that says shut the fuck up.
“You want another beer?”Ryder asks me.
“Uh, yeah, sure.Thanks.”I smile, though I don’t like beer, and I rarely drink much in public.It can be hard keeping my powers in check, and getting drunk or even just tipsy makes it even harder.He gets up, leaving just Antonio and Gia at the table.
“Don’t,” I tell my oldest brother, rolling my eyes as I shake my head.
He holds up his hands.“Wasn’t gonna.”
Silence falls over us and then Gia turns toward me.“Can you really curse people?”
“I mean, I could,” I admit honestly with a shrug.
“What could you do to them?”
Feeling Antonio’s eyes on me, I give her a wink.“Anything I want, really.Hey, want me to read your tarot cards?”
“I’ll leave you two to it.”Antonio gets up, going over to another hunter who’s playing darts.I get my cards out of my bag and hand them to Gia.Her blue eyes light up as she carefully cradles the cards to her chest, closing her eyes as she thinks with intention, just like I taught her.
“Tell me something I need to know,” she whispers, and then pulls a card from the top of the deck.“The Tower.”She turns to me, nose wrinkling as she thinks.“That’s not good, is it?”
