B00AO57VOY EBOK (30 page)

“Why didn’t you
call
me?” I demanded, giving him a scathing look. 

“I did,” he said, shooting
Nathan a confused look.  “I talked to Nate about midnight.  He said you were
already asleep.”

“I was going to tell you,”
Nathan said quickly when I turned to yell at him for withholding information—
again
. 

“Then why
didn’t
you?”
I snapped.

“Because you slept all the
way here.  Remember?” 

I glared at him, but I couldn’t
argue with that.  I hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep lately, and I
had
fallen
asleep in the car on the way to school.  Still, it’s not like he couldn’t have
told me before that, or when we pulled into the parking lot, or…

“Would knowing have really
made seeing him standing there any easier, baby?” Nathan asked, cupping my face
in his hands.  “He’s here.  Let’s just deal with it, okay?”

As if he had heard us, Bastian
turned in our direction.  My muscles tensed in anticipation of an attack when
his scabbed lips turned up in a macabre kind of smile.  I have to be honest, if
I looked like that I would
definitely
be looking for a little payback. 
I didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of waiting for him to make a move.  The
way I saw it, it was better to get it over with than wait and have to spend the
rest of the week looking over my shoulder. 

I took a step forward,
almost daring him to take a shot with most of the student body to witness it,
but Kim and Nathan each grabbed a handful of my fringed jacket and yanked me
back and behind them.  Though I knew they were only trying to protect me, it
irritated me to no end.

“Am I supposed to walk
around for the rest of the week like a damned celebrity with a couple of
bodyguards?” I demanded, pushing my way between them and giving them a dark
look. 

“Ember,” Nathan growled.

“Nathan,” I growled right
back, sick to death of the whole damsel in distress role.  “I told you I wasn’t
hiding.  That includes hiding behind the two of you.  Now, can we please go to
class?  That
is
what we come to school for, after all.”

Without waiting for a reply,
I turned on my heel and stomped to my locker.  Blake fell into step beside me
and I resigned myself to being shadowed for the rest of the day.  I didn’t even
have it left in me to laugh at how ridiculous he looked.  He had on a
psychedelic-patterned polyester pantsuit, and his dark hair was covered with a
ridiculous afro wig.  He’d even gone all out and added fake sideburns and a
stupid looking mustache.  Finishing off his hilarious ensemble was a pair of
dark, Elvis-style shades. 

The costume practically
screamed Kim’s name.

“You know, Em, you should
really let Kim dress you more often,” he said cheerfully, chuckling when I
glared at him until he moved out of my way.  “You look very groovy today. 
You’ve got this real psycho flower child thing going.  Dark innocence.  Very
sexy.”

“Ha ha,” I muttered,
throwing open my locker and feeling a smug sense of satisfaction when it hit
him in the chest because he hadn’t moved fast enough.  I started snatching my
books out without bothering to glare at him when he started to laugh.  “Isn’t
your locker at the other end of the hall with your girlfriend’s?” 

“Got everything I need right
here,” he said, patting his backpack as he leaned against the locker next to
mine and started twirling the ends of his fake mustache.  Matt Evans was
probably going to be thrilled to get rid of me when I graduated—or died on
Friday.  With me gone, he might actually be able to get to his locker sometime
before he graduated himself.   

I breathed a sigh of relief
when Kim and Nathan joined us.  Nathan slipped an arm around me and, irritated
or not, I couldn’t resist the urge to melt against him.  I had really hoped
being around him would kind of take the edge off the effect he had on me, but
it seemed to be getting stronger instead of weaker.

We were almost to class when
Bastian suddenly appeared directly in front of us, blocking our way down the
hall.  There was something kind of creepy about the way he was looking us all
over.  It was like watching someone at an ice cream shop trying to decide which
flavor they liked best. 

When his eyes fell on Kim,
it looked like he had discovered a new tasty treat.  His eyes raked down her
form from the top of her flat-ironed straight hair, down over the psychedelic
mini dress she had found at a thrift shop downtown and all the way down to the
tips of the white go-go boots she wore.  He smiled evilly and actually licked
his lips as he began to retrace his path back up.

I really couldn’t
wait
to get rid of him.

“We have unfinished
business, parasite,” he hissed, turning to Nathan. 

“Our business is going to
come to an end very
soon,” Nathan growled, shifting so that he was
standing in front of me again

“How long have you been trying
to get rid of me now, Nathan?” Bastian asked, his grin way too confident.  “Three
centuries?  Four?  And yet, here I still am, one step away from taking her away
from you again.  Sucks to be you, huh?”

“Oh, but we’ve found a way,”
Nathan said, his tone just as smug as Bastian’s smile had been.

“And how, pray tell, would
you have done that?” Bastian asked, the expression on his face pretty much
saying he didn’t believe a word Nathan was saying.

A piercing whistle split the
air around us and I looked up to see Tyler leaning against the banister on the
second floor landing.  There was a chilling smile on his lips as he waved to Bastian. 
Bastian growled low, a flash of red glowing in his eyes.

“We have friends in high
places,” Nathan said with a smile, not even looking up at Tyler. 

“No matter how many you
gather to protect her, the outcome will be the same,” he snarled, his words for
Nathan but his eyes on me.  “You’re going to spend the rest of your miserable
life wanting something you will never get to have.  I thought I had already
proven that, but I guess you need another lesson.”

I repressed a shiver of fear
and held my head high.  I wasn’t about to take his shit anymore.

“Bastian, go fu—” Before I
could tell him
exactly
what he could do, Ms. Cantrell’s voice cut across
our group, sharp and dripping with irritation.

“The tardy bell rang two
minutes ago,” she bellowed, elbowing her way to the front of our group and
giving Jack a look that would have had me cowering in fear in less than a
second.  I looked around and, sure enough, our group was the only one left in
the hall.  “Did you hear me, Mr. O’Connell?  I don’t care if you just returned
from the dead or not!  Get to class!  The rest of you, too.  Go!”

Grabbing Nathan’s elbow, I
hauled him around and headed for class.  I was glad to see that Blake was
hovering over Kim protectively.  I wasn’t sure why Bastian had been looking at
her like she was a three course meal, but I was pretty sure it didn’t mean
anything good.  I hoped Blake would stick to her like glue for the rest of the
day.  Kim had a couple of classes with Jack alone.  The idea of them being
alone with no one to help her if Bastian decided to go all lust demon on her
was enough to almost stop my heart.

Tyler joined us as we passed
the staircase and I arched a suspicious eyebrow when Nathan fell back to talk
to him.  I mean, we aren’t exactly talking about bosom buddies here.  They
tolerated each other, but that was about as good as it was ever likely to get.

“Were you able to get the
schedule I gave you?” Nathan asked softly, winking at me when he saw that I was
practically giving myself whiplash to watch them.

“Yep.”  Tyler grinned and
waved a sheet of paper just under my nose as I turned around completely and
started walking backward.  “It was as easy as you said it would be, too.”

“What are you two talking
about?” I demanded, stopping in mid-motion and nearly toppling over before Kim
grabbed my arm to keep me on my feet.  Those moccasins were
really
slippery.

“I’m a high school student!”
Tyler proclaimed, holding his arms out and smiling like he was announcing he’d
just won the lottery.

“
Why
?” I asked
through clenched teeth.

“Bloody hell, Em,” Tyler
muttered, rolling his eyes at my angry expression.  “That should be kind of
obvious, beautiful.  In case you forgot, and I can’t really believe you have
since you were just face to face with the ugly bastard, there is a
demon
running
around who wants to kill you.  Nathan can’t watch out for everyone by himself
so Kim gets me…unless you want to trade.”

He ignored the warning look
on Nathan’s face and grinned at me again as I shook my head and smiled.  Kim,
on the other hand, looked majorly insulted.

“I don’t
need
a
babysitter, thanks,” she snapped, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at
all three of the guys since Blake was smiling at Tyler like he had just done
him a personal favor.  “In case you boys forgot, I took out Oakhurst Academy’s
best wide receiver’s arm all by my helpless little self.  If he wants to go
another round, let him bring it.  I’m pretty sure I can take out another
appendage this time.  One I think he’ll miss a lot more than his arm since he’s
a demon of
lust
.”

All three of the guys winced
as if she had just personally threatened their own manhood rather than Jack’s. 

As much as I wanted to back
her up, I couldn’t.  The way Bastian had been looking at her was too much for
me to ignore.  She might be pissed about it, but I was actually kind of
grateful that Tyler would be there to watch her back. 

No matter how much she argued—and
I could hear her ranting and raving all the way up the staircase to her first
class—Tyler refused to give in.  I watched them until they were out of sight
and then turned back to Nathan with kind of a smug smile.  It was nice not to
be the only one on lockdown for a change.  All I could think as Nathan escorted
me to class was,
Welcome to my world, Kim.

∞§∞§∞§∞

The rest of the week went by
without any serious casualties—if you don’t count my sanity.  Every time I
looked up, Bastian was there.  And he had found a new way to torment me. 

My first experience with his
newfound torture technique happened in the girl’s bathroom.  I tried to wait
until Kim was with me, but there are some things Mother Nature just doesn’t let
you put off.  I barely had my pants unbuttoned, though, when I got the
strangest feeling.  It was like someone was running the cold finger of death up
my spine or something.  Shivering, I turned around and threw the door of the
stall open.

And that’s when I saw the
blood.

It was flowing out from
under the door of the last stall and as I walked toward it I could hear a
thick, steady, dripping sound that made me feel more than a little sick.  I had
to force my trembling hand to reach for the door.  Slowly, I pushed it open and
then stumbled back, trying to force air into my lungs.  But there was no air. 
It was like every bit of oxygen had been sucked out of the world.

Kim was sitting on the
toilet, her clothes soaked in blood.  And her head wasn’t on her shoulders. 

It was on her lap.

“No!” I gasped, taking a
step toward the headless corpse of my best friend. Then, with tears pouring
down my cheeks, I started screaming.  Ignoring the blood pooling around me, I
sank to my knees and screamed and screamed.

“Em!  Em, stop it!”  Kim’s
voice was suddenly shouting, trying to be heard over me.  “Damn it, Em!  Stop!”

The second she touched me,
the bloody vision disappeared and I saw the real Kim kneeling before me.  Her
hands were wrapped around my upper arms and she was shaking me like a rag doll,
her expression terrified and her hands shaking as bad as mine.

I immediately clapped a hand
over my mouth and whirled around, still on my knees, and vomited into the
sink.  Her hands still shaking like a leaf, Kim held my hair back and tried to
calm me down as I sobbed and retched.  No matter how calm and collected she
was, though, she couldn’t erase the image of her decapitated body from my
mind.  Bleach couldn’t have done that.  Hell, they could have given me a
lobotomy and I still would have seen it.

 That wasn’t my last vision,
either.  The next day, I was walking across the cafeteria toward our table and
saw Blake already sitting there, slouched in his chair like always.

Only his heart was on the
table in front of him.

You guessed it.  No lunch
for me.

The day after that, I nearly
fell backwards down the stairs on my way to class when I ran into Tyler’s body
dangling from the ceiling. 

And the day after that, I
got to watch Nathan die a fiery death in the center of the gym floor—complete
with sensory effects like the nauseating aroma of frying skin and burning
hair. 

Yeah, Senior Goof Week was a
total riot for me.

And when school was over and
the rest of my classmates—minus Kim and Blake—were off enjoying their senior
year, I went home to get my ass handed to me by a senior citizen.

My gentle little grandmother
had turned into a frigging tyrant.  She drilled us for hours every night until
we could have done the Ritual of Ashes in our sleep.  Thanks to Grams, I
finally got the whole teleporting thing down to a science.  She even taught me
how to borrow energy from another person if things went south and I weakened.

“Grams, that sounds kind
of…shady,” I told her uneasily when she explained the principles of how the
whole energy loan thing worked.  “I mean, isn’t that what demons do?  Don’t
they feed on other people’s energy?”

“No, sweetheart, demons feed
on other people’s
essence
, their spirit,” she said, meeting my eyes
squarely.  “But, this is nothing to play with, Ember.  I had to get permission
from the Council to teach you this particular skill.  It’s dangerous.  It is to
be used as a last resort only.”