Betrayal (10 page)

Luke wasn’t crazy about the word ‘asset.’ It made Eve sound like a
thing
rather than a girl. Like something less than human. But he was glad Alanna realized the Order hadn’t done the right thing.

Sinbad: Why did he want to keep it secret?

AlannaG: Who knows? The Order has politics just like everyplace.

Sinbad: What do you think about the dead animals we’ve found around the border of town? Throats slit. Did a demon kill them?

AlannaG: Possible. Definitely some dark power ritual. Dangerous.

Sinbad: Advice??

AlannaG: I’m coming to check it out. Be there tomorrow. Don’t worry. We’ll figure it out – you, me, Eve, Jess.

Eve wouldn’t like that. She wouldn’t like anyone from the Order showing up right now, but she especially wouldn’t want Alanna anywhere near her. At least this time Alanna was acting like she and Eve were on the same side. And she’d actually mentioned Jess. Usually Alanna behaved as if Jess didn’t even exist because she wasn’t useful to the Order. Luke had the sword, obviously, which is what put him in the ‘useful’ category.

But even if Eve didn’t like it, Luke felt better just knowing that more help was on the way.

Sinbad: Thanks. We might need the assist. See you then.

Luke knew he’d done the right thing, even if he had gone behind Eve’s back. He just hoped he could convince Eve of that.

‘Feeling better?’ Jess asked.

Eve nodded, lingering in the open front door of Jess’s house before she headed home. ‘You?’

Jess nodded. ‘So are you going to take pity on the boy and answer one of his calls or texts?’

‘I suppose.’ Eve sighed. ‘No, I definitely will. Eventually. I’m still a little angry around the edges, so I might wait at little longer. I don’t want to call back just so we can get in another fight.’

‘Just remember, when you make up you can have all that make-up making out,’ Jess teased.

Which would be nice. Very nice. Extremely nice. If only Luke hadn’t acted like such a jerk.

Slurquish
.

‘Did you hear that?’ Eve asked, spinning round so she was facing the street.

‘What?’ Jess cried. ‘Is Simon back?’ She crowded up beside Eve, trying to get a better view.

‘No, it didn’t sound like a person. I don’t know what it sounded like. But something not right. Something—’

Slurquish. Slurquish
.

‘There it is again!’ Eve exclaimed. The sky had almost darkened and it was difficult to see, but Eve thought something was moving in the shadows across the street. ‘I’m going to check it out,’ she told Jess.

‘Not by yourself. I’m coming too,’ Jess answered. She sounded a little anxious and a lot determined.

They hurried across the lawn, and just as they reached the sidewalk, the streetlamps turned on with a soft click. And Eve saw it clearly. A demon. A big one. Jess let out a gasp.

The thing was massive, but huge as it was, it looked as if it had been slapped together without much care. Its torso was an ill-defined lump. Its arms and legs were thick, with no knees or elbows; its hands and feet were slabs with only a few fingers and toes.

Its head appeared half finished too. The demon had a mouth, a huge gaping hole that filled more than half its face. Its nose was only two ragged holes. If it had eyes, Eve couldn’t see them.

‘Wow,’ Eve said. ‘I have seen some ugly demons, but this one wins Best in Show.’

It turned at the sound of her voice, so maybe there were ears on that misshapen head too.

‘Are
you
the big bad demon the Order was afraid of?’ she asked the thing.

Jess let out a soft whistle. ‘Now I’m mad at them too. They should have warned us about the smell.’ She waved her hand back and forth in front of her nose. ‘I bet I could kill you with a super-size can of deodorant,’ she called to the demon. She didn’t sound nervous any more. She must have switched into kickass mode.

‘Let’s show the Order that we don’t need their help,’ Eve said grimly. ‘Warning or no warning, I can take this bad boy.’

Eve focused on her power, glad that her anger had already started building back up. She wouldn’t want to face this thing with an empty tank. The energy coiled into a tight ball just below her sternum. Just as she was about to throw out her hands and slam her lightning into the demon, it charged towards her, its feet making that disgusting squishing sound.

It swung out one arm, and it stretched impossibly far. Eve didn’t have time to fire. She began to back up, but it was too late.

‘Hands off her!’ Jess shouted. She gave a roundhouse kick that connected with a wet thunk. The demon’s hand and half of its arm fell to the ground, spasming. ‘That’s right!’ Jess cried in triumph. ‘I said hands off!’

The demon let out a gurgling growl. Its already huge mouth stretched open even further, revealing double rows of teeth. ‘Keep your mouth shut too!’ Eve yelled. She sent lightning bolts straight into the thing’s maw, and steam poured out – steam that reeked of rotten fish and was flecked with blood.

Before Eve could strike again, the demon grabbed her around the waist with its remaining hand. It pulled her against it, and she felt its squishy body ooze over her skin, sucking her inside like some kind of mud pit. Her hands were trapped in the thick slime of its torso and the stench of the demon overwhelmed her.

Eve held her breath and forced herself to think. Her hands were inside the thing’s body. Could she shoot her lightning bolts that way? She didn’t know. But she had to try.

Her hands tingled and her arms shook as she tried to let the power burst out of her fingertips. Was it having any effect on the creature?

Jess didn’t wait to find out. She aimed a fierce side kick at the spot where the demon’s knee would be – if it had a knee. The thing uttered a high wail and the bottom half of its leg fell to the ground.

It hopped sideways, frantically trying to regain its balance, and Eve was able to yank one hand free. She zapped the demon, its flesh steaming wherever her lightning bolts hit.

‘Let me do that again. It won’t have a leg to stand on!’ Jess cried, grinning with the excitement of the fight. She whipped round and kicked backwards at the demon’s remaining leg, taking it off almost at the torso. Eve let loose another bolt of power, aimed right at the thing’s head.

The demon collapsed to the ground, disintegrating until it was a puddle of goo. ‘Ding, dong!’ Eve said, as the foul-smelling puddle slid towards the storm drain.

‘The witch is dead,’ Jess finished for her. ‘Except this time the witch won.’

‘With the help of the soon-to-be blue belt,’ Eve said. As she and Jess slapped a high-five, Eve heard footsteps. Maybe the demon hadn’t been alone! She whipped towards the sound, hands already out in front of her.

‘Whoa!’ Luke cried. ‘Just … whoa.’

Eve immediately let her hands fall to her sides. ‘Sorry, I thought you might be something evil. We only finished killing a demon about two seconds ago.’

‘That’s it going down the drain,’ Jess offered, nodding towards the greasy goop.

‘A demon? That?’ Luke raised his eyebrows, covering his nose.

‘It used to be bigger. And, you know, solid,’ Eve told him.

‘Are you both OK?’ he exclaimed. ‘Sorry I didn’t get here in time to help.’

‘Why are you here now?’ Eve asked, then realized she sounded witchy – in a bad way. ‘I mean, well, you know what I mean.’

‘I needed to talk to you and you wouldn’t answer the phone,’ Luke said simply.

‘Maybe I should—’ Jess took a step back towards the house, probably thinking the make-up make-out session might be starting soon.

‘No, you need to hear this too, Jess,’ Luke replied. He took a deep breath, as if he needed strength for whatever he was going to say. ‘Eve, you’re not going to like this, but I let the Order know that the force field is down. I just … It’s not that I don’t trust you to protect Deepdene, but I think we need to use all the help available. At least as long as the Order doesn’t keep any more secrets from us.’

Eve wiped her gooey hands on her only slightly less gooey jeans. Luke’s statement had taken a little of the happy out of her demon-killing buzz. ‘Luke, there was no reason for you to do that. I told you, we don’t need them. This just proves it.’ She gestured to the drain and the remains of the demon. ‘They were right about a demon attack coming,’ she continued. ‘But they were wrong about me not being able to handle it without them throwing up that barrier. I didn’t need any help to get rid of Goopy.’

Jess cleared her throat loudly, while staring at Eve.

‘That’s wrong actually. I definitely needed Jess’s help,’ Eve amended quickly. ‘But I always have her help against demons. And usually yours.’ Yeah, she was still a little angry around the edges.

‘I was trying to help when I called the Order,’ Luke said defensively. ‘I talked to Alanna and she agreed that they shouldn’t have put up the barrier.’

‘Alanna actually took Eve’s side?’ Jess raised an eyebrow.

‘Yup. She’s going to come to town tomorrow to help us figure out what’s going on,’ Luke said.

‘Why?’ Eve burst out. ‘We already know what’s going on.’ The last person she felt like seeing right now was Alanna.

‘I need to backtrack.’ Luke shoved his hair away from his forehead. ‘After you guys left, I realized that those dead animals we’ve been finding aren’t random. What I mean is, they’re placed all around the Deepdene town border, and there’s a line of blood connecting them. That’s also why I got in touch with the Order. I thought it must have been done by a demon, but I didn’t know why. I figured they might have an answer.’

‘I guess Goopy could have killed those poor animals,’ Eve said. ‘Although its hands were so squishy. It’s hard to imagine it holding a knife.’

‘We killed a demon!’ Jess exclaimed suddenly.

‘Yeah, we did.’ Eve smiled at her.

‘No, what I meant was, we killed a demon right in front of my house!’ Jess cried. ‘I was so caught up in the moment, I didn’t even realize. What if Peter saw us? He’s just getting back to normal.’

‘Ooh,’ Eve said. She hadn’t thought about that either.

‘I hope he didn’t notice it. He was so freaked out by E— By everything,’ Jess said.

By me
, Eve thought sadly.
He was freaked out by me and my witch powers
.

‘It’s too bad the demon ended up right in front of your house, of all places,’ Luke said. Then he frowned. ‘Seems kind of strange, doesn’t it?’

‘It was in the shadows across the street when we saw it,’ Jess told him. ‘Do you think it was watching my house? Or maybe it was attracted by Eve. Peter thinks she’s a demon magnet.’ Jess winced and glanced at Eve. ‘And it does seem like demons end up coming after her.’

‘It didn’t seem to notice me until I said something,’ Eve put in. ‘I’m not sure it was expecting to find me at all.’

‘Maybe,’ Luke said. ‘After all, Deepdene’s a small town. It could just be a coincidence that the demon ended up here.’

That didn’t feel right to Eve, though. Deepdene was small, yes. But there were a lot of streets. If it was a coincidence that the demon ended up on the same street as her, at the same time as her, then it was a pretty big one.

‘So,’ Luke said.

That was it? So?

‘So,’ Eve repeated. Luke was walking her home after the demon battle. She’d showered off the remains of Goopy at Jess’s house and borrowed some clean clothes. She was still feeling the triumph of killing the demon. What she
wasn’t
feeling was the happiness of having her boyfriend give her the apology he owed her.

‘So,’ he began again. ‘That fight … I just want you to know that I do trust you. How could I not trust you? I’ve seen you battling demons, and you’re awesome. You don’t back down, no matter what.’

‘Then why did you think the Order was right?’ Eve asked.

‘I didn’t. I thought going behind your back and putting up the barrier was absolutely wrong. A hundred per cent wrong,’ Luke answered. ‘All I meant to say was that there was a possibility the Order had decent intel about a demon attack.’

‘But, Luke, you thought I should leave the barrier. The Order made me a prisoner, and even though you say you thought it was wrong, you expected me to stay locked up!’ Eve exclaimed. She had to make him understand what it had felt like to realize she’d been caged.

‘I wasn’t thinking of it like that. I was thinking that we needed to wait a little and get more information on what kind of attack we might be facing before you took down the force field,’ Luke told her. ‘But I was wrong. The Order had no right to lock you in town, not even for a few days. Not even for a few hours. You should have blasted it away, just like you did.’

He stopped and turned to face her, putting his hands on her shoulders. ‘I’m so sorry, Eve. I believe in you, and I should have been right there with you, throwing rocks at the demon barrier, doing whatever I could to back you up.’