Page 33 of The Devil

A few hours later, I awake to find Evan fully clothed and sleeping beside me. He’s not nearly as loud as David and not at all as absent as Lucius. He’s already gone up in my estimation, so I take a few moments to look over his handsome face, and his well-built physique, the whole time willing myself to fall for him instead of being hung up on a man who is very much unavailable. After all, a fallen angel can’t fall in love, they’re far too busy trying to tempt some other poor soul into giving everything to them.

The sound of my phone ringing brings me bolt upright. Anyone calling you at three in the morning can’t have good news, right? I glance at the ID and find Meri’s name flashing up in front of me. A list of potential names that might have come to harm flashes through my head, all of them meaning a great deal to me.

“What? What’s wrong?” I gasp, waking up Evan in the process. He immediately frowns over my worried expression.

“I didn’t know whether to call you, but then I thought fuck it, and did anyway,” she sighs. “Lucius has been in a car accident. He’s in the hospital. David has already left for New York and I… Well, do you think…?”

“Meri, do you want me to come with you?” I shut my eyes and let a tear run silently down my cheek. And yes, his name had appeared on my list too. Evan sees it and grabs my hand in a supportive way. My eyes move to look directly at where our skin is touching, though he doesn’t seem the least bit perturbed by the shock on my face.

“Yes please,” she says quietly.

“I’ll be a few hours, unless you can meet me there?”

“Yeah, I can get there, see you in about an hour?”

“Sure, and don’t worry, Meri,” I try to reassure her, “I’m sure Satan will return him if he makes his way down there.” We laugh nervously but we’re both secretly scared of what we might face when we finally see him. “See you in a bit.”

Evan looks at me for some sort of explanation, but at first, I can’t find the words with which to speak. Instead, I jump out of bed and begin getting myself fixed up to look more hospital appropriate. As soon as I get out of the bathroom, he’s up and pacing, waiting for me to tell him what’s going on. I feel so horribly guilty that I close the gap between us to grab hold of his wrists so I can offer him some reassurance.

“Evan, I’ve gotta go. Meri’s cousin is in the hospital, and I need to offer her my support.” I see instant disappointment in his eyes, but being the kind of guy that he appears to be, he nods with understanding. “But I really want to thank you for last night. You were beyond great, and I appreciate it, I really do.”

“Hey, no worries, it’s what any decent guy would have done.”

I nod back before picking up my jacket and bag. When I reach the door, something tells me to turn around, so I do, only to see Evan looking sadly at the floor. I sigh over my hesitancy, but then, in a moment of madness, I walk back over to where he’s standing and place my hands over his cheeks before pressing my lips over his. His body tenses at first, but soon after, he pulls me into him and kisses me right back.

“I’ll see you back at college?” I ask.

“You bet,” he replies with a broad smile, after which, I bolt for the door because I really do need to get going.

When I meet Meri at the hospital entrance, a little over an hour and a half later, I can tell she’s been crying. She looks marginally worse than I do. I never knew she cared that much about Lucius; they had always fought like cat and dog and held each other in contempt. Still, I give her a hug and tell her not to worry, that we don’t know anything yet. On the inside, however, I’m preparing to die a little more if anything has happened to him.

We meet Aunt Jen and Paul on the third floor and collectively sigh in relief when we see them looking calm, happy, and relaxed. They’re laughing over something in a magazine. After the initial feeling of relief, I turn to face my cousin so I can give her the stink eye for getting us all worked up over nothing, by the looks of things. She ignores me, and instead, takes hold of my hand and begins marching over to greet them. Aunt Jen is the first to notice us, but given her expression, I feel like I’m intruding on a strictly close family affair.

“Helena? What are you doing here?” she asks as she wraps her long, willowy arms around me. “Not that it’s not great to see you and all, but you didn’t need to concern yourself.”

“You mean Lucius is ok?” Meri cuts in, still sniffing and looking red-eyed.

“Oh, Merial, did you dramatize his little accident into something it wasn’t? What am I going to do with you?”

She hugs her daughter who looks at me, wincing while mouthing an apology my way. Part of me thinks I could easily make this into something more dramatic by stabbing my cousin for involving me in this ridiculous charade.

“He’s got a nasty cut to his leg and a bang on the head. They’ve kept him in for concussion, but I think he’s going to be released anytime now.”

Just at that moment, a pretty blonde nurse comes walking out through a set of doors with a clipboard and a kilowatt smile for each of us.

“Mr Hastings?” she says, prompting Paul to stand and shake her hand. “Your son is fine; he has a few stitches but no concussion. We’re just sorting the paperwork and then he can go home. I think my nursing staff will be sorry to see him go, he’s quite the charmer.”

I’ll bet he is!

He thanks her before she turns around to head back through the doors she just came from.

“Well, I’m obviously not needed, thank you, Merial,” I announce with sarcasm dripping from every word, to which she winces again. “I’ll head back home then.”

“Wait, Helena?”

When I turn to face the voice that just called for me, I’m surprised to see that it came from Paul. I barely saw him over that summer and when I did, we kept conversation to a polite minimum.

“Do you think I could talk to you for a moment?”

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