I snapped my head to the side, finally breaking my stare-down with Slade. I released the pressure from his neck but held him in place with my magic. “Wh…what? How do you know that?” Becca wasn’t a supernatural being. She was as human as they came.
“He told me.” Becca’s gaze darted between me and the demon. “What I’d like to know is how you knew.”
I pulled back my power and stepped away from Slade. Before he moved, I jabbed my finger into his chest. “If you try anything, if you try to hurt her, I’ll end you.”
Slade swallowed and nodded. “I know.”
“I can do it,” I said.
“I know.” He licked his lips and swallowed. “Only truly powerful demons, like Lucifer, can manifest power like you just did in the mortal realm. I’m good, but not that good. Not good enough to take on a pissed off Dazamon.”
“I know,” I mocked. I hadn’t actually known any of that, but he had to be mistaken because I sure as hell didn’t win the crown.
“Well, apparently I don’t know shit.” Becca placed her hand on a cocked hip. “So, someone better start explaining.”
We awkwardly navigated to her small living room, and I stared down Slade while Becca grabbed us all beers.
“Here you go.” Becca placed a cold bottle of beer on the coffee table in front of me before walking over to sit beside Slade on the loveseat. His hand slid over her knee, and he thanked her before plucking one of the bottles from her hand.
I blinked.
Slade and Becca remained on the couch, a perfect picture of domestic bliss.
“I really need you to explain this to me, Slade.” I waved my hand between the two of them in case there was any doubt.
“Nuh uh.” Becca shook her head. “You first. I’m the one missing the most information.”
“Well, first I need to…” I cleared my throat and glared at Slade. “I kind of wanted to have this conversation in private. You know…just the two of us.”
“Tough.” Becca slid her hand onto Slade’s thigh.
Gross. “Okay. Well, I need to apologize. I realize I’ve been a pretty poor friend, not just over the last few weeks, but for a while. I haven’t been there for you, but expected you to always be there for me, and I’m sorry.”
Her expression softened. “You lost your mom, Sloane.”
I swallowed and looked away. “I know, but that doesn’t make it okay. I’m sorry and I want to be a better friend.”
“Like, be on time?”
I winced. “Like, try my best to be more on time.”
Becca snorted.
“And listen to you and pay more attention to the things that are important to you.” I only had a month or so left to live, and I had to make it count.
“Okay…” Becca glanced at Slade. “Right now, what’s important to me is to understand what’s going on. Where have you been? How did you know Slade was a demon? How did you just pin a two-hundred-pound block of demon muscle to my hallway wall without breaking a sweat?”
“It’s a long story,” I hedged.
“Good thing I have time and a whole fridge full of beer,” she said.
Turned out, my story took three beers and less than an hour. I outlined everything that had happened since I met Ryker, leaving nothing out. It helped that Becca had already accepted the existence of demons. She didn’t need time to process that specific aspect of my story.
While I spoke, Becca moved to sit beside me and when I finally got to the end and described my sacrifice, she reached out and rubbed my shoulders.
“So, after all that, you lost?” she whispered.
“Yeah.”