When Darkness Falls(72)

Devon cried out.

He was still inside her but Haley could hardly feel him anymore. The rest of his body tensed, all his muscles rigid. His heart, against hers as he lay on top of her, pounded hard enough for her to feel. Her own heart raced in time with it, as if they shared the same rhythm.

She put her hands on his chest and shoved. He clutched her, and she didn’t know if it was in fear or if he was trying to harm her.

“Devon, let go. Let go.” She wriggled and twisted and finally he loosened his grip and she rolled away.

He pushed himself to his hands and knees. His eyes met hers, and they were his eyes again, the pupils shrunk into tiny dots against the sun, the irises green. He drew in one ragged breath after another. Sweat had broken out all over his body. His forehead and cheeks glistened. “I did those things.” His hands closed to fists and his head hit the carpet.

Haley scrambled to her feet and ran to the front window to open those blinds as well. She couldn’t take a chance that Devon would recover and come after her again.

“I want you to know—” Devon broke off and wrapped his arms around his stomach. “I want you to know. I did those things, but it’s not who I am. I didn’t ask Lydia to do this to me. I won’t live like she does.”

“You won’t have to.” Haley found her phone and punched in the emergency number. If he was having a heart attack, paramedics could help. If he was superhuman, as Lydia had said, they’d be too late. But she needed to try. “We’ll get you help.”

“There isn’t any help.” He rolled onto his side and curled into a fetal position. “I love you.”

Haley hit the last button on her phone and was about to answer that she loved him, too, when a wave of heat knocked her off her feet and seared her skin. Devon screamed. The air rippled. Haley’s vision blurred. Her eyes felt so hot she squeezed them shut and covered them. She heard rather than saw a whoosh of fire. A crackling sound filled the room. She smelled burning carpet.

She opened her eyes to see a row of flames where Devon had been. Her mouth opened, but no sound emerged. The flames leapt higher, their tips dark green. As Haley watched, frozen, the green spread and deepened, and for a second, became translucent, like glass.

The fire and the glass disappeared. Devon lay on the burnt carpet, his naked body unmarked, ashes that had once been their clothes all around him. He rolled onto his back. “Haley?”





Chapter Thirty-Six


“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called.” Haley sat on the floor near the fireplace, back against the wall. She was too shaky to keep standing. She didn’t understand how Devon had survived the flames. “The fire’s out.”

Devon had crawled to the couch and pulled an apricot-colored throw over himself. He looked pale and thin, but he sat in the sun.

“You’re certain?” The emergency operator sounded skeptical. “I heard a scream.”

Haley’s mind raced.

“Miss? Are you there?”

“Cooking fire,” Haley said. “It startled us, but my husband put it out.”

After Haley hung up, Devon said, “I don’t think ‘I’m sorry’ can cover it. But I am. I almost killed you.”

“I need to get some clothes,” Haley said. Finding something to wear seemed like the problem most easily solved. She went through the bedroom closet and found sweatpants and T-shirts for both of them. She cinched the drawstring on Diana’s sweatpants tight, as the pants were a bit big for her. In the bathroom, she cleaned the wounds on her neck and shoulder with alcohol and covered them with gauze and self-sticking bandages.

Devon had poured them both glasses of water and set them on the coffee table. As he got dressed, Haley ran her fingers over the burnt carpet.

“How can this be?” she said.

“I don’t know,” Devon said. “But I feel different. Inside. Not panicked. Not starving. In control.”

Haley joined him on the couch. After they drank the water, they sat with their arms around each other, foreheads pressed together.

“I can’t believe we’re both still here,” Haley said. “Still alive. Safe.”

Before, she’d kept fear away by refusing to think about the things Devon had done. Now, she let all the thoughts and memories in and felt relief.

“You know,” Devon said, “I actually am hungry. For real food, which feels fantastic.”

“Me too.”

Together, they went through the kitchen. Haley made a tossed salad of field greens, tomato, and goat cheese while Devon cooked pasta and marinara sauce with black olives. For dessert, they ate chocolate mint cookies.

“There’s a lot to take care of,” Devon said.

“I know.” Haley knew he meant more than cleaning the kitchen and paying back Joe and Diana. Having had the strength to pull the cord when it might mean the end gave her the confidence that she could handle whatever came next. Her lips brushed Devon’s in a soft, quick kiss. “We’ll deal with it when we get home.”

? ? ?

“Weren’t you going to say good-bye?”

At the sound of Lydia’s voice, Haley dropped the paperback book she’d been reading.

“I—I’m sorry,” Haley said. The words came out automatically, social niceties that presented themselves when everything else failed.