B00AO57VOY EBOK (12 page)

Curling up so that I could
cover my bare feet with my robe, I positioned myself so my damaged back was
comfortable.  I let my head fall back against the cushion behind me and looked
up at the moon, thinking about the bizarre twists and turns my life had taken.

I was in love with a
vampire.  My ex was possessed by a demon.  My English Lit teacher was a witch. 
And, last, but certainly not least, I was losing my best friend. 

It wasn’t the supernatural
twists my life had taken that bothered me. 
Kim
was.  I wondered just
how mad she was.  I had stood her up, something I was sure she wasn’t going to
take without sending out the cavalry to look for me—considering I had never
stood her up in twelve years. 

I let myself imagine how
that scenario would play out and actually found myself laughing a little. 
“Yes, Sheriff Martin, I’m fine.  I’m being stalked by a demon who’s obsessed
with me, but it’s all good.  No, I don’t need your help.  My Grams is some kind
of superwitch and my boyfriend’s a vampire.  I think we’ve got it covered.”

Anyone know how long it
takes to get out of a straightjacket? 

Shaking my head, I got up
and drained the rest of my water before heading back into the house.  It was as
the last drop slipped down my throat that I felt a chill go down my spine. 

Lowering the bottle, I
glanced around while backing slowly toward the door.  I knew something was out
there in the dark watching me.  The back yard was full of shadows.  Anything
could be lurking out there, waiting to pounce the second I turned my back.

Then again, maybe it was my
back I should have been watching.

I never heard so much as the
sound of a footstep, but suddenly an arm slipped around me to hold me in place
just as a hand clamped over my mouth.  Warm breath caressed my cheek and neck
and I could feel the dull thud of a heartbeat where my body pressed to the one
behind me.  I knew there was something I should do, but I couldn’t find my way
through the terror consuming me to remember what it was. 

“Please, don’t scream,” a
familiar voice whispered in my ear sounding absolutely petrified.  “I’m not
going to hurt you, I swear.  Just take a deep breath and relax and I’ll let you
go.”

Why did everybody keep
telling me to take a deep breath?  I mean, it’s not like taking a deep breath
ever really helps.  Anyway, I couldn’t.  Even if my lungs were working
properly—which they weren’t—I couldn’t have sucked in a deep breath if I’d
wanted to.  His hand was pretty effectively cutting off my air supply. 

“You’re going to scream,
aren’t you?” Jack asked, sounding terrified. 

Oh, yeah.  He could bet his
sweet ass on
that
.

“I need your help.  I’ve
done…something… ”

He twisted around me until
he could look me in the eye.  And, in that moment, I knew I wasn’t looking at
the demon, but my friend.  There was no feeling that I was going to die of
smoke inhalation.  I didn’t feel like my skin was burning where he touched me. 
Before me was a kid who was just as afraid as I was.

He looked like he’d been
through a couple different versions of Hell.  His hair was sticking up in
spikes all over his head which, unfortunately, drew my attention to his missing
ear.  His face looked tired and haggard, and there were circles under his eyes
so dark that he looked like he’d joined a fight club—and lost.

“Please, Ember?” he
whispered again, something very sincere in his expression.  “I’m begging you.”

I swallowed hard and nodded
as much as his hand would allow.  His lips turned up in a sad smile, and he
slowly took his hand from my mouth.  I whirled around to face him and took a
step back to put some space between us.  I wasn’t sure if I could outrun him if
he made another lunge for me, but I wasn’t about to go down without a fight.  I
was going to need at least a little room to maneuver.  He seemed to realize
what I was doing, though, and took another step closer to me.  I didn’t bother
backing away again.  I could already see how that would play out.  I’d had
plenty of practice with Nathan.

“Jack?” I finally managed to
gasp out, examining every single inch of his face.  He was alive.  My Jack was
still alive!  “He said you were dead.”

“Maybe I am,” he said,
looking around the yard like he was confused.  “I don’t know where I am or how
I got here or…anything.  All I know is that I had to come here.  And then I saw
you sitting there and…  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

I peered at him through
narrowed eyes, not knowing whether to trust him or not.  I glanced toward the
house, chewing on my bottom lip nervously as I tried to figure out what to do. 
Did I scream for Nathan and Grams?  Did I help Jack?  What the hell was I
supposed to
do
? I mean, he obviously wasn’t the demon—trust me, one
glance into those big blue eyes and I would have known if he was just putting
on a show—but  he didn’t look all that stable, either. 

“What happened to you?” I
asked, keeping my voice low. 

“What happened?”  he
repeated, looking frustrated—and kind of crazy.  “Haven’t you been listening? 
I don’t
know
what happened.  The last thing I remember, I was at Steve
Knight’s party and you and Kim were offering me a ride home.  I don’t remember
anything else until a few minutes ago when I found myself hiding in the bushes
like some creeper watching you.”

My mouth fell open and I
couldn’t do anything but stare at him.  I knew the party he was talking about. 
He’d been wasted and Kim and I had practically had to carry him to Blake’s
truck.  The entire time we’d been dragging his big butt down the driveway he’d
kept telling me how much he’d always liked me and how pretty I was.

That had been Steve’s Fourth
of July party.  Four months before. 

“Why are you looking at me
like that?” he asked, running a trembling hand through his hair.  “You think
I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“Jack, I want you to listen
to me,” I told him, keeping my voice gentle and soothing.  “You’ve been sick,
but I think I know somebody who can help you.”

He pressed his hands to
either side of his head and clenched his fists in his hair, looking like he was
ready to start ripping it out at any second.  I took another step back even
though I had already decided doing so was useless, but Jack didn’t seem to
notice.  He just kept tearing at his hair and mumbling about voices and
shadows.  Just watching him was enough to both put my nerves on red alert and
break my heart.

“I won’t do it!” he suddenly
snarled, causing me to back up a few more steps.  “I won’t hurt her!  I won’t! 
I won’t!  I won’t!”

“Jack?” I whispered. 

He looked up at me, almost
as if he had forgotten I was there, and I saw a flash of real insanity in his
eyes before he blinked and they filled with tears.  He looked so lost, so
alone, that I wanted to cry for him.  Gone was my friend, the life of the
party, the guy who always wore a smile.  What was left was a pale imitation of
that guy. 

And I had never felt sorrier
for anyone in my life.

“It was always you, you
know?” he suddenly whispered, his eyes locked on mine.  “Do you remember the
day we met?”

“Yes, I remember.”  I
frowned at him, wondering what the trip down Memory Lane was all about.  “Jack,
let me…”

“You, Kim, and Blake rescued
me from Darby and his gang my first day at OA, remember?” he interrupted,
shaking his head and smiling sadly.  “I have to give it to old Darby, he could
throw a punch.  You helped me up and wiped the blood off my lip with the sleeve
of your sweater.  What were we?  Nine?  Who the hell falls in love at nine?”

I frowned up at him, totally
confused.  In love?  Since when?  Jack had never shown any real interest in
me.  Sure, we had hung out, but it hadn’t been anything even remotely
romantic.  We had gone to ball games together, ate lunch at the same table
every day, gone to movies and parties together.  In all that time, I had never
picked up the first signal that he wanted anything more from me than my
friendship.  Until he’d been taken over by a demon, that is.

“You don’t love me, Jack,” I
told him quietly, shaking my head.  “You don’t.  That’s the de—” I stopped
myself just in time.  Somehow, given how totally freaked he already was, I
didn’t think telling him he’d been possessed by a demon was a good idea. 
“Jack, please let me go get my Grams.  She can help you.”

But he just dropped his head
again, shaking it back and forth.  “You don’t believe me,” he whispered.

“No, it’s not that,” I told
him quickly, starting to reach out to him.   I dropped my hand before I made
contact, though, reminding myself that he wasn’t really all there.  “I just
want to help you.  That’s what you want, right?  For me to help you?”

But it was too late.

Jack lifted his head to look
at me and I saw something dark, like shadows, swirling in his baby blues.  The
second our eyes met I started smelling the pungent scent of smoke that had
become so familiar before I’d banished him to the lost plane.  I immediately
started backing away from him again—well, running backwards would have been
closer to the truth.  I might have even made it to the door, but my feet got
tangled in my robe.  I flailed for something to grab hold of, but there was
nothing there to catch me. 

I hit the bricks with enough
force to knock what little air there was in my lungs out with a loud whoosh.  Stars
shot across my field of vision, making me feel sick.  Before I could get enough
breath back into my poor, aching body to scream, Jack grabbed hold of my ankle
and started dragging me back toward him.  The smile on his face was the most
sinister thing I had ever seen.   

 Never one to go down
without a fight, I started grasping for anything to hold onto.  I gasped when I
broke several nails off all the way down to the quick, but that didn’t keep me
from trying to hold on to the bricks beneath me.  I felt something grainy
beneath my fingers just as he gave me one last yank and grabbed a handful of it
on instinct.  Without thinking, I flung it directly into Bastian’s leering
face.

He screamed like I had just
doused him in acid.  I scrambled away from him as fast as I could when he let
go of my ankle to clasp his hands to his face.  He stumbled toward me, and I
grabbed another handful of the grainy stuff I had used to save myself—which,
oddly enough, turned out to be
salt
—and got ready to give him another
dose.

Just as I was about to fling
it at him, though, a strong arm wrapped around my waist and I was lifted clean
off my feet.  Instinct took over and I slammed my elbow backwards, but all I
got for my hard work was a sore elbow and a hissed “Stop that” from the pissed
off vampire holding me against him.  Nathan’s eyes were glowing white and his
lips were pulled back from his teeth in a feral snarl that caused a little
chill of terror to go down my spine.

As scared as I might have
been of Nathan at that moment, it was nothing compared to the terror—and
disgust—I felt when I saw what that little bit of salt had done to Jack.

The second he dropped his
hands I felt my stomach lurch and had to suck in a deep breath so I wouldn’t
gag.  Acid couldn’t even have done the damage that hand full of salt had done. 
His skin looked like it was
melting
.  In less than three minutes, his
skin had started to welt up and a few of the blisters had already started to
burst, leaving trails of blood-laced pus running down his face. It was the
nastiest thing I had ever seen.  Like,
ever
.

But did it stop the demonic
prick?  Yeah, right.

“You really have picked up
some new tricks, haven’t you, Nathan?” he asked, his blistered lips turning up in
a macabre mockery of a smile.  “Sea salt, right?”

“Blessed salt from the Holy
Land, actually,” Nathan answered, his voice hard.  “And there’s a lot more
where that came from.  You wanted my attention, Bastian, well now you have it. 
Keep trying me and I’ll bury you in it just so I can stand back and listen to
you scream.”

“Don’t get your panties in a
bunch, bloodsucker,” Bastian said in response to Nathan’s coldly spoken
threat.  “I only came to give my lady a gift.”

“Keep it,” Nathan snarled,
his whole body vibrating with anger. 

“Oh, she’ll want this.” 

Digging in his pocket, Bastian
pulled out something small and round and flipped it to Nathan like a coin. 
Nathan caught it smoothly and curled his fingers around it before I could see
what it was.  Then, with a cocky salute and a spiteful smile, Bastian was
gone.  My eyes searched the shadows for him, but there wasn’t a trace of him to
be found. 

“Ember, baby, I am tempted
to tie you to the bed for real,” Nathan growled, slamming the door and cutting off
my view of the back yard.  “What the hell were you—?”

“It was Jack,” I told him,
shaking and crying. 

“No, it was Bastian!” he
snapped.

“No, Nathan, it was the
real
Jack,” I sobbed, throwing myself into his arms.  “He was begging me for help
and I…” 

Nathan held me while I
sobbed against his chest and mourned the loss of my friend.  Other than Kim and
Blake, Jack had been the only other person I had ever let get close to me.  And
what had I done?  I had let that disgusting little demon take him all over
again because I wasn’t strong enough to save him.  I had failed him.

He was gone and it was all
my fault.

“We’ll get your friend back,
love,” Nathan whispered against my hair when I started to calm down.  “We’ll
find a way, I promise.”

“What did he give you?” I
asked, looking up at him.  I saw his expression tighten and I suddenly wished I
hadn’t asked.

Slowly, like he was already
regretting it, he held his hand out and uncurled his fingers from around the
trinket my demon stalker had been so sure I would want.  I felt my heart
shudder to a complete stop as I stared down at the cameo in Nathan’s palm.  I
would have known that piece of jewelry anywhere.  I could have described it
with my eyes closed—right down to the missing pearls around the edge.