Burn (Drift Book 3) (18 page)

With smiles they turned to walk out of the room.

“Argento, when will I know for sure that War has arrived on earth?” I called.

The duo turned around and Argento addressed me, “Don’t
worry, Leo, when he sets his foot upon the earth’s soil…you’ll know.” He nodded.

I returned a nod
and we all bid them farewell. The duo walked out of the room and Scruffy, like a mischievous child, jumped up from his seat and followed them. In the couple of seconds it took him to get into the next room, they had already disappeared.

“They’re gone…already.”

“I’m not sure what part of ‘they’re angels’ you didn’t understand, Scruff,” Sandra teased.

“That’s the guy, er, ah, angel, that flew you to Romania after Leo?” Scruffy’s father asked.

‘That’s right…and it was totally awesome.” Scruffy gleamed with confidence.

“Even through all the screaming
,” I added.

The room lit up with laughter and it seemed to ease the tension that had built up. For the remainder of the night we discussed
our dilemma as well how to go about proceeding with my adoption.

Chapter 17

BYPASSING

When everyone cleared out for the night I felt like I needed some time to myself and left for my spot.

For the first time in this strange
non
-life of mine, I felt included. The fact that in mere days, thanks to my demonic intervention and some help from the heavens, I would be the official son, in the human world, of Benjamin and Amanda Spears was astonishing. Even more insane was that I was going to be Scruffy’s official brother, too. Eeeek.

I couldn’t believe that they cared for something like me, the most hated
supernatural being in human history. What a trip this journey has been. I went from being an alienated outcast to a beloved and trusted friend. All those times when I sat in my tree and wondered what it would be like to be human and have a family was now coming to fruition, well at least the family part. This was more than I could have ever dreamed. However long this “family life” would last though, was anybody’s guess.

It was more important than ever now that I protected my friends and soon to be family. Shade wasn’t the only one I was beginning to love. Even though a demon isn’t supposed to be feeling…feelings, especially the emotion of love, I was. There was no denying that.

Processing everything from getting a job with the Sheriff, the adoption, the pending arrival of War, and the fact that I couldn’t kill Christian with the Demon Dagger was overwhelming.

I was completely lost about
how to defeat Christian now. My chances were remote to begin with, but now beating him just didn’t seem plausible. I had no idea what Argento and Elysia meant by killing Christian with love.

T
he night passed in a blur as my head spun in thought. It seemed like the week flew by even faster. Next thing I knew the night of the Senior Prom arrived. I drove Shade crazy making sure she still wanted to bypass the prom and make it a night just about us, she held true to wanting to ditch it and just hang with me.

I flew over to her house and
then we took off in her car to have dinner at Veitoni’s. We almost had the entire place to ourselves; I guess due to the prom, it was a little slow. Mr. Veitoni kept us company throughout most of our meal. It was on the house in celebration of our graduation and my adoption.

We held hands over the table
, and for the first time in what felt like months we simply talked about one another. We didn’t bring up Heaven or Hell, future or past, or the problems that awaited us because of those things, none of that. We focused on being together and enjoying one another’s company. I think this was one of the first times where we
both
forgot about the turbulence that surrounded us.

After we ate, when we figured everyone else would be about to leave the prom for the after party, we went to
the place we had our first date, Golf N’ Carts. We played the arcades and she kicked my butt on some go carts. Shade made sure that we ordered another chocolate avalanche desert, which of course I had to watch her squirm in ecstasy with every bite…again. The whole night was a blast. It was all about cementing the bond between each other. I was so madly in love with her it literally and figuratively hurt.

At the end
of our evening we went back to her house and sat on the porch and talked, along with a little making out. Her parents never came out to bother us, even when the late night hours began to stretch into the morning. We stayed up so late I didn’t even have the chance to snuggle her in bed for the night.

It was time for me to go and we kissed before
I watched her go inside. I remained on her porch in the dark for a few extra minutes, not wanting the night to end, but eventually I took flight and headed back to Scruffy’s house…my home.

A few days
later it was time for the last day of school and graduation. I watched as, one by one, every senior crossed the stage. I laughed my butt off when it was Scruffy’s turn to snag his diploma. He was wearing a huge afro wig, which caused people to burst out in laughter as he walked across the stage. He flashed a peace sign to everyone as he did so and the laughing continued.

Shade looked graceful and beautiful as ever in her cap and gown. When it was her turn to get her diploma, you could hear Anne cheering over the top of
the crowd. Shade looked in the stands with embarrassment as her mother stood and screamed.

Once everyone
received their diplomas, the entire class gathered in the center of the football field where the ceremony was held and tossed up their caps. It was funny because after the caps hit the ground, everyone scattered to find their own cap again.

All the friends and families
gathered in the field with their graduates and took pictures. Benjamin and Amanda took pictures with Scruffy and I together as well as by ourselves. It took an act of congress to get Scruffy to pull off that damn afro for the pictures, but he eventually did it to satisfy his nagging parents.

I loved every moment of the family picture time. There wasn’t the
always lingering feeling like I didn’t belong, it was quite the contrary. It was as if they couldn’t take the pictures and enjoy the ceremonies without me being a part of it.

Unlike the prom, the graduation party
was something that Shade absolutely wasn’t going to miss. Before we took off, Scruffy, me, Shade, and Sandra all stood with our families and had a fellow classmate snap a picture of us all together. I’ve never felt closer to being human than that moment.

The party was going to be at the house of a classmate of ours. Before we
left, I was pulled aside by all of our parents, including Sheriff Taylor, who was in attendance as well, and asked to keep watch over the kids. Given what happened last time there was a big get together like this, I couldn’t blame them for taking extra precautions this time. They couldn’t have asked for a better guardian, because unlike previous occasions, I would be on high alert and more prepared for anything out of the ordinary. Not to mention I couldn’t get drunk if I tried. Another side affect, good or bad, take your pick, of being a demon. I promised them I would do my best to keep everyone in line.

“I
f I get called out to the Gresham house,” he already knew where the graduation party was going to be which was a little scary, “about even the slightest noise complaint—I don’t care if it’s a dog barking loud, I’m going to bust everyone. Not only that, me and my deputy will be sitting at the end of the road near that house and if even one of you try to leave under the influence, I will have no mercy on any of you. Designate a driver…got it? Pass it around and get the word out that we
will
be watching. This is the one night where we’ll overlook some things for the sake of celebration. Do. Not. Abuse. My. Leniency,” Sheriff Taylor warned.

“No drinking
, you clowns,” Shade’s father chimed in.

Although the trio said they wouldn’t be drinking, we all knew that wasn’t going to be the case
, as I’m positive the parents knew those statements were bullcrap, too. We parted ways and took off for the party. Tonight would be the last event of our high school lives. It was crazy to think that neither I, nor Shade, was supposed to even be here to experience it.

Every teena
ger in town seemed to be at the party. It was huge. I watched over everything that went on with a vigilant eye. I never left the sides of my three friends. To be honest, I think they were a little leery to leave me too because it seemed as if they made every attempt to stay as close to me as possible. Naturally Shade and I were inseparable the entire time, but the overly social Scruffy always seemed to be looking back to find me whenever he got pulled away by other friends.

Something I noticed about this gathering was that the people there
went out of their way to talk to me. I was still very uncomfortable about socializing too much with humans, especially since most of them were still giving me gratitude about saving some of the kids from town. Even some that I saved came up to hug me and thank me. If only they knew I was also the one responsible for those horrible events—they probably wouldn’t have a single thing to do with me. Shade, Scruffy, and Sandra seemed to detect that I was uncomfortable and interjected themselves into those conversations when they happened, for which I was grateful.

For the most part, we remained together
seated side by side on this small wall that outlined the edge of the backyard. We were simply four friends sharing a bond that not even
one
other human on earth in our age range could relate to. It was as if the party and the people at it didn’t matter, only the four of us being together did. I think knowing that our lives,
all
of our lives, were on the line made us cherish special nights like this all the more. That’s pretty much all we talked about anyway, making sure that we were all together in the future after I defeated Christian. Of course we were being optimistic, but it was nice that we continued to talk about uplifting stuff instead of the doom and gloom.

“You know
, bro, sometime next week we’re finalizing your adoption. You didn’t waste time pulling your undercover demon act to get the job done.” Scruffy reached across Sandra and backhanded me gently in the chest.

“What can I say…I’m a demon, that’s what I do. I flew to where I needed to go, turned into smoke, slithered into the high security databases and hacked away. Next thing you know…bang…history of Leo Cutler has been established. Guess I’ve been here all along.
Not to mention I had a little help from some friends.” I winked at him and pointed up which caused everyone to giggle.

“Knowing you, I’m surprised you didn’t set yourself up with all kinds of acc
olades.” Shade nudged me.

“Well, if you consider a fully paid scholarship to Harvard all set up and good to go,
not
being an accolade, then yeah. Of course I would play the game fair.” I winked at them all again.

“Please tell me you didn’t do that.” Shade glared at me to make sure I was kidding.

“But if you did…can you go back and do that for the rest of us?” Scruffy chimed in.

For a brief second there was
silence as it appeared they were processing a very good upside to having a friend like me.

“Of course I didn’t do that,” I finally broke the brief silence, “
…maybe.”

They chuckled again before Scruffy made one more point
. “If you ever do something like that though, you know…” he held his hands up and made quotations with them “…break the rules…you have to include us in it, too.”

Sandra elbowed him in the ribs.

“What? If he’s gonna set himself up, we might as well get in on it, too. Besides, if you do that and don’t hook us up, I’m so gonna rat you out.” He laughed.

“I’m sure you would
, ya frickin’ lush.” I chuckled hard.

While we continued to kid around with one another, Scruffy’s cell phone went off and he stood u
p, placing a finger in the ear that didn’t have the phone to it and strolled a couple steps away from us to talk. I watched him as he chatted to whoever and he looked as if he was hearing something odd. Not only that, it appeared that it might involve me because he kept glancing at me as he talked.

When he hung up, he came back over to us and confirmed my suspicions.

“Hey, bro…that was Sheriff Taylor. Mom and Dad gave him my number.”

“Is everything okay?” Sandra asked.

“Yeah, but apparently he wants you to leave the party and walk down the road to meet up with him real quick.” Scruff pointed at me.

“Just me?”

“Yup…just you.”

“Wow. I guess he wasn’t kidding when he said he’d be down the road watching
us,” Shade added.

“Al
l right, let me go see what’s up.” I stood up from the wall and leaned over to give Shade a kiss. “I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

They said goodbye to me for the time being and I walked down the road. When I thought it was safe to do so
, I used a bit of my demon speed to hurry up the process. I wanted to get back to the party and my friends.

I found the Sheriff, without his deputy, sitting in a secluded and
well-hidden spot just off the side of the road among some trees in his SUV. When I approached, he shined his spotlight on me to get a better look.

“Is that you, Leo?”

“Yes, sir.” I put my hand in front of my face to block the light.

“Sorry about that.” He turned it off and got out of the vehicle.

“What can I do for ya tonight, Sheriff?”

“I apologize for
taking you away from the Gresham get together, but I have a matter that just came to my attention that I felt I needed to discuss with you.” He approached me.

“What’s going on?”

“I received a call from a high ranking official in our state government. Seems we have a situation happening in a town called Middleton. It’s about two hours from here.”