Page 5 of The Devil You Know
Evan was quiet long enough that Seth wasn’t sure he’d reply. “From my parents and Jim? No. I didn’t change my number—they just don’t call. I don’t want to argue, and I’m not going to ‘change my mind,’ so we’d just be retreading old ground. What’s the point?”
Seth heard the sadness in Evan’s voice. He knew his boyfriend had accepted the reality of the situation, but he’d never stopped hoping, deep down, that things could be different.
“Parker found ways to contact me after I left that they couldn’t trace. He’d email me from school or call me from his friends’ cell phones. We talked every month or so. I knew he wanted me to come home, but he didn’t ask.”
“Would you have gone?”
Evan hesitated, then shook his head. “I couldn’t. It would have been suicide of the soul. Parker knew that. He didn’t ask it of me.”
“It’s been a while since you left. Do you still hear from him?”
Evan looked sad. “Not as often, or as regularly. We never went more than a few months without connecting until you and I went on the run. It hasn’t been as often since then. I didn’t tell him what we were doing, of course. I’ve kept everything vague for his safety. Even if he doesn’t know the whole truth, keeping secrets put some distance between us.”
Seth reached out and took Evan’s hand. “I’m glad we found each other. If I’d stayed in Indiana and you’d never left Oklahoma, we might never have met.”
There was no way to balance their losses, but if that trauma had put them in a place where their paths crossed, then something good had come out of the worst days of Seth’s life.
Evan squeezed Seth’s hand. “I think about that too. I’m glad we found each other, although I’d never have wished what we lived through on anyone.”
“I love you,” Seth said, feeling like he was whispering a secret to the moon that shone brightly through the RV’s window.
“Love you too,” Evan returned as exhaustion slurred his words. “But now—gotta sleep.”
Only a few minutes later, Seth heard the deep, regular breaths that let him know that his boyfriend was asleep, but Seth remained staring at the ceiling, adrift in memories, for a long time.
2
EVAN
A few daysmade a big difference. Evan’s wound healed quickly, and he did his best to remind Seth that they didn’t dare sit still for too long or Osborn would find them, distraction spells notwithstanding.
“I just don’t want to go into this with you off your game,” Seth grumbled as they rehashed the same argument.
“Neither do I. But I feel much better. And we need to get moving before Osborn closes in on us,” Evan pointed out.
He patiently allowed Seth’s daily wound check and treatment. Evan knew the worst was behind them and that they couldn’t use the injury forever as a reason to take it slow.
Seth’s phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID. “Hi, Teag! What intel do you have for me?” He changed to speakerphone mid-sentence.
“—our theory that the witch disciples were each other’s enemies was wrong—or at least, flawed,” Teag Logan said. Teag’s magic made him an expert hacker, and his research was always excellent.
“From what I’ve found, your Cleveland guy, Osborn, teamed up tight with the St. Louis witch disciple for several twelve-year cycles. They were brothers. I’m not sure what the venture was—considering what we’ve seen elsewhere, probably some trafficking scheme involving people with paranormal abilities.”
Teag paused. “Something happened—I’m not sure what—and when the dust settled, Osborn was still standing, and the St. Louis witch was dead. On the bright side, that means you have one less witch disciple to hunt.”
“We appreciate the information. Any chance you might be able to dig up details about what Osborn and the St. Louis witch were doing? It might matter,” Seth said.
“I can try. The good stuff is hidden, but that just makes it a challenge,” Teag said, and Evan could hear the grin in his voice.
“Did you find out anything more about the victim who’s next in line?” Evan asked.
“Derek Nelson is a twenty-nine-year-old officer with the Cleveland Metropolitan Police. He’s a legacy—Nelsons have been in the CMPD for more than a hundred years,” Teag reported. “He’s the oldest of three—one of his siblings works for the National Park Service, and the other is in college. His father was the witch disciple’s victim six years ago. So by the way the timing went until now, Derek would have six witch-free years left—”
“—before he ends up gutted on an altar,” Seth finished the sentence.
“The reports we turned up blamed some kind of large, feral dog for the father’s death,” Evan mused. “At least, that’s what the articles online said.”
“That’s the line that got spread to the public,” Teag answered. “When I hacked the CMPD system, I found emails questioning the nature of the attack and wondering if it might not have been a human hiding his work by adopting the ‘style’ of an animal killing.”
