by A M Boone
“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t want this to end,” I choked out. “Don’t do this.”
His eyes widened, and a dusky blush came over his cheeks. Did I really have this much power over him?
“Well,” he said softly, “truth be told, neither do I. But I have to. Now, come here.”
My legs were twenty times heavier. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to move. Didn’t want to end the little life I’d made for myself.
Did I even love Anthony anymore? After those two years of hell, he just sauntered back into my life like he owned it and expected me to be okay with this?
Vincent stood up. “To break the contract, we have to do the same thing we did to create it.”
A kiss. The last one we’d ever have.
He gently pressed his lips to mine. Unlike our first kiss, this was light, subtle, with skin barely grazing skin… He ran his finger over my mark, and ice went through my veins. I gasped. His presence left mine, and I was left empty.
“There we go. Have a nice rest of your life with your husband, Eliana.” And he slipped my wedding ring back on my finger.
I glanced at myself in the mirror hanging in his living room. Brown eyes. No mark on my neck. It really and truly was over.
“You can leave whenever you want, and we’ll never see each other again.” He sat back down, trembling. He didn’t want this. I didn’t want this. Something about him, about having his magic, his blood, run through my veins… Without it, I was empty. Even though I still had to deal with the fact that Tony miraculously came back from the dead, and was the hooded figure terrorizing me for the past two months…
Felicia opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.
“Wait,” I said. “I’ll make another deal!”
“Oh?” He perked up a little. “What is it you desire?”
How stereotypical. But I couldn’t help but grin.
“You.”
He froze. “What?”
“I want you. I want to be with you, I want—”
“Get out.”
“W-what?”
“Get. Out.” His voice went from strained to barely held back rage in less than a moment, and I stumbled back. If he lost control of his powers here…
Felicia grabbed my hand and dragged me towards the elevator. “We’ll leave you alone for now,” she said, her voice wavering. “Call me when you’ve calmed down.”
The elevator ride from Vincent’s apartment dragged on and on. It’d be the last time I’d see him. The last time I’d sleep with him, be in his apartment, hang out with his best friend…
“What did I do wrong?”
“You didn’t. That was just what Daniel asked for when they contracted.” She shrugged. “Guess he didn’t want to be reminded of that.”
“Oh.”
And once again, I magically managed to ruin the moment.
“Was he telling the truth?”
“Yeah,” she said, putting her hands behind her head. “If his mom, or any of the other leaders of the Demonic Realms found out he made a contract and didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, he could get thrown in jail or worse.”
I stayed silent.
The elevator doors opened, and Felicia shooed me out.
“Maybe it’s for the best that things turned out okay.”
For a given definition of okay. I sighed.
“Well, thanks for being my friend,” I said, smiling sadly.
“No problem.” She glanced around, then stared at her hands. “I’d just put this all behind you. Since your husband’s not dead, you won’t go to jail, and now that you’re no longer linked to Vincent, Harriet and her lackeys won’t try to kill you anymore. Win-win!”
Sure as hell didn’t feel like one. It felt like the end of a relationship. The end of everything we’d created. My heart ached, and an emptiness gnawed in the pit of my belly.
Felicia took me back to my parents’ house, and Daddy greeted me at the door.
“Ana, you—your eye. The contract…?”
“It’s over. He broke it. Since Tony’s alive now, he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, so we had to end it.” The words spilled out of my mouth like vomit. Just kill me now.
“Thank god. He was no good for you.”
I sighed and flopped on the couch. There was nothing left to do now but wait for the case to be thrown out.
* * *
Later on that day, Tony stopped by. He’d changed out of the cloak and hood, and was wearing a white button down and black slacks. Strange. When we were… together, we were the monarchs of hoodies and jeans.
Momma gave him a smile. “I’m so glad you’re all right. Are you here for Ana?”
He nodded. “Thank you, Celia.” He hugged her, and I couldn’t bring myself to look at him.
“Hey, Ana,” he said, sitting next to me.
“Hey.”
What did I say to him? He was my husband, the man I’d married, who I’d loved with all my heart, but now… But sometimes, when I looked at him, all I could see was the horrible clone that’d made my life a living hell for the past two years.
Did my heart belong to Vincent? He saved me from that godforsaken doppelganger and changed my life forever.
Or should I go off with Tony? Pretend I never learned anything, and just live my life like a normal human?
Or even Santi? He was safe. Kind. Comfortable and lovely. And didn’t have any baggage.
“I wanted to talk. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Just… shocked.”
“He broke the contract, didn’t he?”
“Is it that obvious?”
“Well, seeing as you went from one red eye to none…” He laughed, and I laughed with him. That was Tony. That was the man I married. “Anyway. I wanted to tell you everything that happened. From the beginning.”
“I want to know everything.”
“Okay.” He shifted a bit. “I can explain. During our honeymoon, I was kidnapped and replaced with a copy. The copy wasn’t perfect, and that’s why he—it—treated you like garbage. God, I’m sorry.”
“But…”
“The last night we were in Vegas, after we got married, I went out for some air and to see The Strip. And… I saw a naked woman in a dark alley, drinking some poor schmuck’s blood. She noticed me, and told me to either be quiet and come with her, or die. Seeing as though I didn’t want to die, I went with her.”
“I see.”
“She bit me, drained my blood, and gave me a dose of venom. Not enough to turn me, not enough to kill me, but enough to bind me to her and make me her proselyte—blood slave.”
Figured. What did I even do about this? What if she came after him again?
“She… she used my blood to create that fucking doppelganger that abused you and treated you like shit. God, I’m sorry. She kept track of it, and would show me what it did and gloat about it, saying I’d be stuck with her for the rest of my natural life.”
“How did you escape?”
He sighed, chewing on his lip. “There was a girl… a dhampir. She hated Mistress—Calanthe, helped me get out, and we hitchhiked back to Rose Creek together. Once she told me about you getting Vincent Aldana to kill ‘me,’ I had to run for it. I had to save you.”
“I didn’t need saving.”
“Ana…” He flinched back, as if I’d slapped him. “I watched you from a distance… I tried to get close, but you were so broken, so browbeaten, I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t reveal myself. I was a coward and just terrorized you. And for that, I’m sorry. I truly am.” Tears dripped down from his undamaged eye.
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay. Ana. Please. Don’t pretend that everything’s all right.”
I stayed silent. Where did I even go from here? Where did I…
“But truthfully, I didn’t plan on ever revealing myself. You’d moved on. You thought I was nothing but a cheating, wife-beating piece of garbage. But a
fter you got arrested, I had to do something.” He took my hand in his.
“Tony…”
“If you want, I can leave forever. I can’t stay here long anyway. She’s still after me, and she wants nothing more than her blood bag back.”
“Vincent could—”
Fuck me. Why was I even thinking about him? We were over. Through.
“I’m not making a deal with a demon just to kill her. I plan on doing it on my own, thank you very much.” He smiled at me, and a small, shitty part of me wanted to fall into his arms, and pretend none of this ever happened. That it was still two years ago, and we were lovebirds running off to Vegas to make it official. “That’s about it.” He gave me a sheepish look.
“I’m going to help you, and I’m going to help Vincent.”
“How?”
“Did you know I’m a witch?”
His eyes widened, and he let out more musical laughter. God, I could hear his laugh over and over and over… “No. That explains a lot, though.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m going to kill her, and then I’ll be—we’ll be—free.”
“Right.”
“Anyway, I’m going to leave after the DNA test. I can’t stay in one place too long. But once I kill her, I’ll come back, and we’ll make it work somehow. I promise.”
God, how I wanted to believe that. How I wanted to believe everything would be okay.
A small, shitty part of me wanted all four of them. Vincent, Santi, Feli, and Anthony. But that could never happen.
“What about your eye?”
“I pissed her off when I was first kidnapped, and she blinded me for six weeks. Even after she reversed it, that eye was permanently changed.”
I gave him a quizzical look.
“I can’t see normally, but I can kinda see souls? Auras? Magic? Even she wasn’t sure what she did.” He shrugged.
I ran a fingertip down the scar. How dare she. How dare she mark him like that.
“I love you,” he said softly. “And that’s why I’m going to take her out, and everything will be okay.”
“Right.”
He leaned in for a kiss, and I turned my head slightly. I couldn’t kiss him normally right now. His lips gently touched my cheek, and I squirmed. He was just so different. Or maybe I’d forgotten about the real Anthony, and could only remember the doppelganger.
“I’m going to go. I don’t want her coming down on your head.” He pulled out the cloak from his bag, and slipped it on. “We’ll make this work, I promise.”
“Winston Promise?” I said weakly.
He grabbed my hand. “Winston Promise.”
And he walked out the door, but not before lingering and just staring at me.
The door slammed behind him, and I burst into tears. In one day, I’d lost two people who I loved—
Did I love any of them? Love was a strong word. Sometimes too strong. I’d fallen out of love with Tony’s doppelganger. I wouldn’t have made the contract if I didn’t.
On the other hand, Vincent… he’ fallen into my life and changed it forever. Changed me forever. Was it just me being grateful for Vincent saving my life, or did I actually love him?
Santi… he’d been there for me for the longest time, and now our relationship was evolving into something I didn’t even recognize anymore. But it was still wonderful.
Feli was mysterious and fluid, and something about them pulled me towards them, even though I didn’t know what it was.
But I now knew what I had to do. What I had to become to save them all.
I called Vincent.
He answered the phone, but didn’t say anything.
“Let’s make a deal, Mr. Aldana.”
Thank You for Reading!
If you’ve gotten this far, thank you so much for putting up with my scribbles! If you could leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon, that’d be amazing.
If you liked this book, check out the sequel An Esper Only Calls Your Name Once, out in July 2020, or The Second Life of Dominic Clayton, out in August 2020.
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About the Author
Born and raised in the Bay Area, A.M. Boone has been writing since they were three and forced their mother to type up their misadventures. They mainly write about badass and magical black women, men and enbies being awesome, saving the world (or possibly just their own skins) and falling in love in the process.
When they’re not writing, you can find them either playing video games, looking at memes, baking, or finding cats to pet.
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