Betrayal (9 page)

‘Stop,’ Jess ordered, stepping in front of her. ‘Just stop and talk to me, OK?’

Eve did stop. But she planted her hands on her hips and gave Jess a hard stare. ‘Why? I already know what you think. You and Luke. You think I need to be contained because I’m a – a what I am,’ she finished, as if suddenly aware of the people strolling up and down the sidewalk.

‘Neither of us said that,’ Jess protested. ‘Neither of us said anything like that. Be fair.’

Eve snorted. ‘Fair? Was that barrier fair? It almost killed me!’

‘And that’s horrible. So horrible, we need to come up with a new word for something that is even more than horrible,’ Jess answered. ‘But
I
didn’t put up the barrier, Evie.’

The use of her friend’s nickname seemed to calm her down a little. ‘I know you didn’t. But you act like it’s not evil. And it is. What the Order did to me was evil.’

This wasn’t the time to make the argument that the Order might have been trying to protect the town, trying to stop something evil from coming in.

‘Look, we can’t have an actual conversation about this standing on the street. You know you’re going to forgive me, because you know that I’d never take sides against you, even if it felt like I did,’ Jess rushed on. She didn’t want Eve to start arguing. ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to my house, where I’m going to make you some hot chocolate. We’re both going to calm down a little. Then we’ll figure out what we should be doing. Because there might be a demon ready to attack. And there’s the barrier that can kill you. We have a lot more important things to be doing than fighting with each other,’ Jess told Eve.

Which is why Jess wasn’t going to bring up the way Eve had basically accused her of not being Eve’s friend. It hurt, and it was completely unfair – Jess had proved again and again that she was always going to be there for Eve – but she was going to let it go. It wasn’t the time to fight. That hadn’t just been something she’d said to calm Eve down.

Eve sighed. Then she nodded.

Jess looped her arm through Eve’s, and they began walking towards Jess’s house.

Jess realized that tiny tremors were rippling through her. Seeing Eve’s powers get out of control had shocked her to the core. Eve had lost her grip on them before, especially when they first started appearing. But shorting out the TV or melting a lipstick were in a whole different category to setting trees on fire. If the leaves and branches hadn’t turned to ash almost immediately, Eve could have accidentally burned down the whole town.

‘I’m not sure hot chocolate is going to do it,’ Eve replied. ‘I’m still just so anti-calm.’ She began flexing her fingers, and Jess did a check for sparks, trying to keep Eve from noticing that she was looking.

‘Did I mention chocolate whipped cream? Did I mention that the chocolate whipped cream would be a double serving? Did I further mention there would be Mint Milanos?’ Jess asked. She knew no amount of chocolate would be able to soothe Eve, but pretending it might made Jess feel better. Who knew? Maybe pretending would make Eve feel better too.

Eve did try to force a smile, but Jess could see tears shimmering in her deep blue eyes. She wasn’t sure if they were angry tears or sad tears or both. ‘Luke and I practically just got together, and now I feel like we’re going to have to break up.’

‘Eve, no! You had a fight. One fight,’ Jess protested.

‘One fight about him not trusting me,’ Eve said. ‘That equals – what do you think – about ten regular fights?’

‘No way. Maybe three,’ Jess answered, torn between her loyalty to Eve and her deep feeling that Luke had been, well, kind of right. ‘But, Evie, he didn’t really say he doesn’t trust you. He – and I – we just thought there was a possibility the Order could be right about a potential demon attack on Deepdene. That’s all. We didn’t think they were right not to tell you what was going on. Especially not after you’ve taken down every demon that came here.’

‘
Aaarrrgh!
’ Eve let out a growl. ‘Let’s not talk about it any more. It makes me crazy.’

‘OK, topic change. Let’s see …’ Jess tried to think of something fun and light to take Eve’s mind off things. The prom, maybe? But Jess couldn’t shake the feeling that Eve might still be upset about the Dolce & Gabbana dress, even though Jess had a place to wear it and Eve didn’t, not really. Eve had said the dress looked awesome on Jess and acted happy, but they’d been friends for a long time, and Jess could tell when Eve was faking it. And she had been, at least a little.

‘Maybe we should have a Christmas in May movie festival,’ Jess suggested as they turned onto her street. ‘We could watch
Elf
. You have to at least giggle at
Elf
.’

‘Sorry, Jess,’ Eve said. ‘I’m still too angry to laugh. I’m so mad at Luke! Even though, like you said, the Order could be right about an attack. They know a lot about demons, even if they are a bunch of arrogant pigs who want to trap me in Deepdene for ever.’

Jess didn’t mind that Eve had said she didn’t want to talk about it any more, then almost immediately started talking about it again. Sometimes a girl just needed to vent, even if she was sick of venting.

‘They were probably only thinking about keeping demons out. Callum even said they weren’t sure how the barrier would affect you, since you just have some demon blood,’ Jess answered. There were away from Main Street now, away from the crowd, so it was safe to use the ‘D’ word.

‘I have to try and let it go,’ Eve continued. ‘I shot out all my power at the barrier around town, and I can already feel the power building up again. Sometimes it’s as if the Deepdene Witch energy feeds on my emotions.’

‘Let’s see how you feel after my hot-chocolate-chocolate-whipped-cream-Mint-Milano-
Elf
plan,’ Jess said. She hoped it worked. She didn’t like the idea of Eve’s power getting so hot again so soon. ‘If that doesn’t do it, we’ll—’

Jess broke off, staring at her house. She could hardly believe her eyes.

‘We’ll what?’ Eve asked.

Jess grabbed her best friend’s arm. ‘Up there, by the bushes. Is that Simon?’ That’s the last thing she needed. She’d just gotten started on the Eve-calming.

Eve narrowed her eyes and studied Jess’s house as they approached. ‘It’s him all right. Sitting there reading a book on your lawn. I can’t believe it. I heard you on the phone. You made it completely clear you had no interest in him.’

‘And then he wrote me that letter,’ Jess said. She kept her eyes on Simon. He sprang up as soon as she and Eve turned onto the walkway to her house, dropping the huge leather-bound book he’d been reading.

‘I was w-waiting for you,’ he stammered.

‘This is
so
not a good time,’ Jess told him. She stopped, Eve beside her. ‘If fact, it’s never going to be a good time, Simon, OK? Please leave me alone!’ She sounded a little harsher than she meant to, but it had been a helluva long day, and that letter he’d written – it was creepy.

Simon blinked a couple of times, then rushed past them, stumbling in his hurry to leave.

‘Your book!’ Eve called. She picked it up for him and held it out. Simon turned back and snatched it away, two bright red patches appearing high on his paper-white cheekbones. Then he bolted.

‘OK, I admit it, I’m officially in a state of extreme worry,’ Jess said, her eyes finding a drop of dried blood on a flagstone that her dad had missed when he hosed off the grass and walkway. ‘He was sitting almost exactly where we found Pumpkin.’

‘I was about to say I can’t imagine Simon doing anything like that,’ Eve said slowly. ‘But then I realized I don’t really know him. It doesn’t seem like anyone at school does. He’s always alone.’

‘What was that book he had? Did you see?’ Jess asked.

‘It just had a bunch of weird markings on the front,’ Eve told her.

‘I keep thinking about those strange words – if they even were words – he said to me on the phone,’ Jess said. Her eyes kept darting back to the drop of dried blood. ‘Do you think it could have been some kind of curse? I mean an actual curse, not a “darn it” kind of curse. Maybe that book … maybe it’s like a spell book.’

‘All I saw was the cover.’ Eve frowned. ‘We’ll just have to keep a close eye on him.’ She looped one arm around Jess’s shoulders. ‘Don’t worry. Your best friend is the Deepdene Witch and you are nearly a superhero with your mad kung-fu skills. If we can handle Malphus and the wargs and Amunnic, we can definitely handle Simon.’

Jess nodded. It had been scary seeing Eve with her power so out of control back in the woods, but now Jess was grateful that Eve had her special abilities – abilities she’d always used to fight evil. ‘Let’s go in and chocolatize ourselves.’

‘Sounds good,’ Eve replied. She seemed better. Maybe it was good – in a weird way – that Simon had showed up. He was quite the distraction. It seemed like maybe Eve’s attention had just gotten sucked away from Luke and the Order and over to Jess’s crazy stalker.

Jess opened the door. As they headed towards the kitchen through the living room, they almost walked right past Peter without noticing him. He was slumped down in one of the armchairs, staring at the TV – even though it wasn’t on. Weird.

‘You OK, Peter?’ Jess asked her little brother.

‘Peter?’ Eve repeated.

Peter jumped, as if he had been dozing, then he turned towards them and smiled. ‘Just having a little brain vacation. In my head, I was in Hawaii. How great was that trip last summer?’

Jess’s family had gone to the islands for vacation, and, of course, she’d convinced her parents that Eve had to come with them. It wasn’t hard. They loved Eve.

‘So, what’s the plan? If it involves food, I’m in.’

Jess smiled. It was good to have her brother back to his usual self, annoying as that usual self could often be.

YOU OK? CALL ME
.

Luke sent the text to Eve, but he doubted it would get a response. He’d already left two voicemails and heard nothing. He flopped back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Man, she’d been pissed off at him. He’d never seen her even close to that angry before. The way her power had exploded out of her hands …

Her power was stronger than he’d ever imagined. He had been scared that she might hurt herself today. Or take out the entire Deepdene Woods. She’d managed to blast through a supposedly demon-proof barrier. If the Order was right about an attack, a demon could already have arrived in town through the hole she’d made.

So the question was: should he alert the Order that their protective barrier was now down? If he did, Eve would see it as another betrayal. She’d see it as him siding against her. Which he wasn’t.

He’d seen Eve go head-to-head with demons. She was the opposite of dangerous to the town. She’d saved it again and again. Her power was a force for good, at least as long as she could control it.

But that wasn’t the question. The question was whether or not he should tell the Order that the demon block was no longer in place. After all, their job was to fight demons too. They should know if one of their demon-fighting weapons had been compromised. But what would their attitude to Eve be once they heard she had destroyed it?

Luke checked his phone, even though he knew he wasn’t going to get a message back from Eve. And, sure enough, he hadn’t gotten a message back from her. He went over to his desk so he could check his email. Nothing from Eve. Because that’s how furious she was at him.

He used his feet to swivel his desk chair back and forth. Tell the Order? Don’t tell the Order? Possibly put Deepdene in danger? Definitely make Eve even madder at him?

If a demon did come to town, Eve could handle it without the Order. She’d done it before. Still …

She’d done it before, she could probably do it again, but he couldn’t risk it. What if she didn’t get to the demon in time? What if their first clue about where the demon was turned out to be a dead person? He couldn’t deal with it if someone got hurt – or killed – because he’d sat on his butt, too afraid that his girlfriend would be angry at him.

With a sigh, Luke opened a new email window and began to write. He hit send before he had a chance to change his mind. The Order had the info now. It had been the right thing to do, even though, when he thought about Eve, it felt so wrong.

Luke decided to spend some time studying for finals. It was better than sending Eve even more texts and leaving her even more voicemails. That was just pathetic, but before he could reach for his biology book, an IM popped up on the computer. It was from Alanna.

AlannaG: So Eve took down the barrier. I don’t blame her. Callum shouldn’t have had it erected without knowing how it would affect her.

Huh. Luke hadn’t been expecting that. Alanna didn’t usually take Eve’s side. He typed a response back.

Sinbad: Why didn’t the Order tell us what was going on?

He used the screen name Sinbad because he was a preacher’s son and knew sin was bad. Also, Sinbad, the legendary sailor, was apparently a real badass.

AlannaG: Told Callum it was a bad idea. Eve is powerful. She should be used as an asset. That means telling her if there’s a problem. Not going behind her back to protect the town. She’s more protection than anything we can do.