A Demon's Kiss (Young Adult Romance) (17 page)

CHAPTER 26

I didn’t wake up this morning until Summer dragged me out of bed. More than being tired, I just didn’t want to get up. Logan and the Caldronon were out in the world doing terrifying things. I just wanted to hide under my covers, never come out.

Once I was finally up, I just hung out in my room listening to music, Summer my only contact to the outside world. She would come in every once in a while and start pacing around, touching my things. She was agitated because Logan hadn’t called. She was driving me nuts.

“How can you just sit there like that?” she asked when it started to get dark, finally noticing I hadn’t moved the entire day. “You’re like, catatonic.”

I didn’t bother to answer. She was pretty wrapped up in herself at the moment. It wouldn’t take much to get her mind off me. “He hasn’t called yet, huh?”

“No!” She moaned, flopping down on my bed. “I guess he won’t. What’s the matter with me? Why don’t guys like me anymore?”

Ugh! “Summer, it’s not you. You just choose losers.”

It was true. The last two guys she’d gone with had been major mistakes. First, there was Justin, the two-timing sleaze ball; now Logan, the weirded-out warlock. She just needed someone normal, but Summer didn’t really go for normal. She had to have boyfriends that were ultra cool—or at least appeared that way. Like, Justin. He was super rich. It didn’t matter to her that he treated her like crap, as long as he bought her expensive presents and took her to fancy restaurants. It was really sad she cared so much about appearances. Underneath all her superficial-ness Summer was alright, pretty much. It was just she wasn’t comfortable without a guy to complete her wardrobe.

“Logan’s not a loser.” She sighed. “He’s really sweet. I know I’ve only known him a couple of days, but I really like him.”

I chipped the polish off my toenails, feeling kind of guilty. It was probably my fault Logan hadn’t called. I did tell him to stay away from her, and I still wanted him to, of course, but I didn’t want her to feel like less of a person because of it. To tell the truth though, I didn’t really think he was avoiding her because I asked him to. I mean, he laughed at me when I made the request. What worried me was maybe he wasn’t paying attention to her because he was planning something awful to make me go with him back to the Caldronon.

“There’s a party at Stocker Little’s tonight,” I said, thinking maybe a party would get her out of my room and off my back—maybe even cheer her up.

“Yeah, I know.” She sighed. “Gage’s been calling you all afternoon—he wants to make sure you’re going.”

I chipped some more polish off my toenails. I hadn’t talked to Gage since last night. Every time he called I had Summer tell him I wasn’t feeling well. The thing was, I kept thinking about what Logan said—about Gage burning in flames. The thought made me sick. It made me want to throw up. If Logan hadn’t been around to put out the fire…well I didn’t want to think about it. But it was hard to concentrate on anything else. The Caldronon set the boy I loved in flames. They were vicious, evil. And they were coming to get me—maybe not physically, but obviously their presence wasn’t required. They were able to send calling cards.

The whole thing made me not want to be around Gage. I didn’t want to put him in any more jeopardy. Logan said he wouldn’t help me next time. Actually, he said he’d kill Gage himself. When he first said that the threat kind of slid by me. I mean it registered, but didn’t really sink in. But now I’d had a whole night and day to dwell on it, worry about it. Logan was kind of twisted. The way his eyes glistened last night when he said he could hurt me more—it frightened me. It made me realize he was capable of committing murder to get what he wanted.

“So you’re going, right?”

I wasn’t mentally in the room. I had no idea what she was talking about. “Where?”

“To Stocker’s party,” Summer said impatiently. “Gage says his band is playing. He really wants you to come.”

“Oh. No, I’m not going.”

“You’re not?” She looked distressed. “Come on, please. I don’t want to go by myself. Besides, you should get out of the house—I’m worried about you.”

In the end, after being begged and pleaded to death, I found myself at Stocker’s party following Summer as she made her rounds. She always did that, shocked me by noticing I was alive, dragged me to places I didn’t want to go, then ditched me to hang out with her friends. I hated Summer’s friends, big time. But I had to admit, she had a lot of them. I didn’t. And it was times like this, at Stockton’s party, that I realized it the most. I mean, except for Izzie, the rest of my friends were guys and I wasn’t complaining, they were good friends, the best, but it was different having guy friends, ‘cause lately they were all getting paired off, and although they still liked to hang with me, I felt sort of uncomfortable around them. I mean, it used to just be Gage—he always had girlfriends—but now even Conner was into a “relationship.” I felt like this big, rusty third wheel rolling around, crashing into everything. That’s why I didn’t go over to the band, hang out with them like I normally would. ‘Cause I knew their girlfriends would glare at me, or tell me to give the guys “space.”

I was heading for the door, ready to leave, ‘cause really, I was so not in the mood for socializing, even if anyone wanted to socialize with me, which apparently, they didn’t. But as I tried to get past a group doing the Mexo-wave, Gage came pushing through the crowd to get to me.

“You showed—cool,” he said, his eyes alight to see me. “I thought maybe you weren’t going to make it. Summer said you were sick again.”

Seeing him, my heartbeat quickened, remembering last night, our almost-kiss. Sadly, he probably didn’t remember, though—shouldn’t anyway—since Logan put that memory block on him. Sigh.

“Yeah, I was sick,” I murmured, feeling like a creep. But it wasn’t exactly a lie. I was feeling sick. I kept thinking about that fire last night. About what would have happened if Logan hadn’t put it out. Gage wouldn’t be here right now—he’d be in the morgue—or at the very least in a hospital totally disfigured. In either case it would have been my fault—that was something I couldn’t deal with.

“Well I’m glad you’re better,” he said, moving in close to me, since it was hard to hear through blaring music. “I wanted to talk to you about last night …”

“Uh, last night?”

I could feel the blood draining out of my face. I thought he wasn’t supposed to remember last night, the fire and everything.

“Yeah, me and Addison—we broke up,” he said, sounding as though he thought he was telling me this for the first time.

He looked around, then spoke kind of confidential-like. “ Addison’s been calling me though—she wants us to get back together, but...I don’t know. I kind of wanted to talk about it with you.”

He always does that. Whenever he has a problem with his girlfriends he comes to me, like I’m this vast vessel of knowledge, full of wisdom. Why he holds my opinion in such high regard I have no idea. He’s had a lot of experience with romance and relationships. I pretty much had nothing.

Still, it didn’t look as though he was going to get a chance to talk it over with me tonight. The other band just finished, and his was up next. I was just going hang around long enough to hear a couple of Gage’s songs, then leave.

“We’re up,” Gage said. “But will you stick around and talk to me? The stuff I have to say—it’s kind of important...to me anyway.”

I bit my lip, then nodded. I felt bad lying, but his band was waiting for him, and if I told him I was leaving he was going to try talking me out of it. It would have turned into a major discussion and he didn’t have time for it—neither did I. I wanted to leave, kind of bad. Besides, I didn’t want to put Gage into any more jeopardy. He seemed really fragile to me now—he’d died twice already.

“Okay,” he said. “So I’ll talk to you after the set.”

He started to walk away, but then didn’t. Instead, he turned back towards me. “The first song we’re doing is called, ‘Maybe.’ It’s that song I started at your house the other night...I wrote it for you.”

My heart gave a gigantic thump.

Gage turned, making his way up to the wooden platform to gather with his band, and I was left with my heart soaring, watching him go. He wrote me a song! I tried as hard as I could not to romanticize it, but it was hard. To me it was an incredibly romantic thing to do.

“This first song is called ‘Maybe,’” Gage announced into the microphone. Everyone quieted, eager to hear. He scanned the crowd a moment until his eyes rested on me, then he raised his eyebrows and grinned, melting my heart.

Gage started to play and it was the same pretty music he played up in my room the other night, but I didn’t even get to hear him sing before the word “Michaela” was murmured in my ear. Surprised, I turned towards the sound, but no one was there.

Gripped with dread, I glanced around the crowded room. Finally, I spotted Logan watching me from the doorway. For a moment he simply stared, then nodded his head, gesturing like he wanted me to follow him. I didn’t want to go, not at all. I wanted to stay and hear Gage’s song. But I didn’t feel I had a choice. I didn’t want a weird scene happening and Logan could do anything. When he did that whispering thing, I swear, it was like he was right beside me. I could feel his breath on my neck.

Logan led me up the stairs. Then, without a word, he took my hand and guided me, pushing his way through the crowded mob to an empty room. His hand was soft and warm, his gentleness surprised me, but all I could think about was Gage. How I was missing his song. I didn’t even care if Logan planned to kill me—sacrifice me to his demon god—I just wished I could have heard the song first.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Logan said through clenched teeth. “Why do you think things like that?”

“I don’t know—maybe because you keep making threats like that.”

He grabbed my wrists, “I never threatened to kill you.”

He backed me against the wall, his dramatic green eyes glistening with anger, making my heart race with fear. “But you want to hear your boyfriend’s song that badly? It’s that important to you? I could take your life and all you’d care about is hearing his song?”

“No—I—” His sudden anger baffled me. It came from nowhere. One minute he was taking my hand, gently guiding me through the party, next he had me backed against a wall.

“Let go of me,” I balked, trying to push him away. He was frightening me. I’d never seen him so angry. “You’re hurting me.”

“I’m hurting you?” he said through gritted teeth. “You’re killing me.”

For a moment his grip tightened, and I thought he was going to rip my arms out of their sockets, but then he let me go, backing away. “Michaela, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Too late,” I said under my breath, rubbing my wounded wrists.

“Yeah. Sorry.” He took another step away. “I keep hurting you. I don’t even know why.”

Because you’re psychotic, I wanted to tell him, but just rubbed my throbbing wrist instead. I didn’t want to start another fight. Besides, it didn’t seem like I needed to tell him anything—the guy could read my mind. Or at least he could some of the time. After all, that’s what set him off, right? I wanted to hear Gage’s song. I didn’t tell him that. He just somehow knew.

I looked up to find him staring. For a moment, I melted. Ugh! He was sexy hot.

He could have any girl he wanted. It was strange he was so obsessed with me. I wasn’t gorgeous, not by a long shot. If I were a guy I wouldn’t even look at me twice—not when there were girls like Addison and Summer running around—all perfumy and pretty with big boobs. The only thing I even liked about my appearance was my hair—it was long and usually did what I wanted. Still, the way Logan looked at me, it was like I’m a Goddess or something. It made me realize how powerful that ceremony thingy was for him.

“Uh, okay,” I said, feeling awkward. “So you didn’t come to hurt me. What did you come for?”