The Sight Seer (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-nine

The moon was a thin crescent in the night sky, providing us with little light as we walked into the backyard. “Which one?” Rafe muttered to me and it took me a second to realize what he meant.

“The demon?”

He nodded.

I looked at him in surprise.
“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not to me,” Rafe said tightly and I instantly wished I could take back my tasteless words.
Way to rub in his hunting handicap,
I thought bitterly.

Rafe continued, “It could be that one.”
He nodded towards the one standing. “Or it could be the one on the ground, waiting to stab me when my back is turned.”

“It’s the one by the fence,” I confirmed.
“It may look like a girl, but when it stepped into the kitchen light I saw four eyes on its face. And I don’t mean that it’s wearing glasses, either.”

“Alright.
You stay here, see if you can wake the guy on the ground. I’ll take care of our friend there.” His lips curled into a smile as he approached the demon.

“Wait, Rafe, I don’t think—”

Rafe let out a bloodcurdling yell that made me jump about ten feet in the air before charging the demon. The demon darted to the side, but it was too slow. Rafe threw it into the fence, its body making a loud thump as it connected with the wood. Laughing, Rafe danced backwards on the balls of his feet, taunting the demon to follow him before taking off down the driveway. The demon snarled and followed at his heels.

“Dammit,” I swore as I crouched next to the guy on the floor.
It was Pierce; his face was covered in blood and he was unconscious, but I was relieved to see he was still breathing. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to move him or not, so I got up and went to the front yard to see if his football buddies were still around. Lucky for me, they were sitting on the front stoop drinking beer and talking loudly.

“Hey!” I said.

They looked up in surprise. “Gabi?” Mark, who was in my science class, asked. “I didn’t know you were here!”

“Forget about that,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand.
“I think Pierce fell and hit his head really hard. He’s in the backyard, by the kitchen door.”

“What?” they all exclaimed, jumping to their feet.
Without so much as a backwards glance at me, they ran to the back, where I could hear them shouting Pierce’s name.

“Alright,” I said, squaring my shoulders.
I got that taken care of, so now I could go find Rafe. Running as fast as my stupid heels allowed, I got to the end of the driveway and went right, praying that was the path Rafe had taken.

After a minute of blundering in the dark past rows of houses and seeing nothing, I was about to turn around and try the other direction when I heard noises coming from up ahead.
Unless there was a martial arts competition taking place in someone’s backyard, the sounds
had
to belong to Rafe and the demon. I picked up speed, but my heel caught on a crack in the sidewalk and I stumbled, my arms flailing like a windmill.

That stumble may have just saved me.

There was a deafening crash that echoed down the street as a body went hurtling through a wooden picket fence, landing in the middle of the street. The body groaned, and my heart lurched when I realized it was Rafe.

He got up before I could run to his side, brushing shards of wood and gravel from his arms and chest.
He didn’t have his sword, but a knife had landed next to him in the street. Picking that up, he spotted me for the first time.

“Gabi, stay back.”

Oh sure, because I was going to do something stupid and see if I could take the demon on all by myself. Crossing my arms over my chest I said, “It’s all yours, Rafe.”

Despite getting thrown through a fence and rolling around on the pavement, he still managed to
flash me a fierce grin. Then he was charging the demon again, who met him with a shrill cry that sent shivers up and down my spine.

A streetlamp provided better lighting here (although I was nervous that someone was going to look out their window and see us.
I mean, didn’t the people who owned the house hear Rafe going through their fence?!) and I was able to get a better look at the demon. Standing in the kitchen, all I had seen were the four sunflower-colored eyes on its face—two in the normal spot, and two more on its forehead. The pupils were black slits, giving it a cat-like appearance. The eyes were also much larger than a human’s, taking up almost the entire top half of the face.

Now I could see that it was also very tall, with a long neck that stretched about half a foot long.
Its arms reached down to its knees, and its waist was so small I could probably fit my entire hand around it. It was thin, and I don’t think it had any bones in its body, or very few if it did. When Rafe threw a punch at its face, the thing bent over backwards at the waist like a piece of wet spaghetti, bouncing up again unharmed while Rafe took a step back in confusion. I guess he didn’t battle very many boneless demons.

Sheesh, it was kind of annoying that each one was different.
How did you train and prepare yourself to fight something brand new every single time you went to battle?

Just then, a car appeared over the hill, illuminating the three of us in yellow light from the headlights.
I froze, holding my breath and wondering how the hell we were supposed to explain to the driver what was going on. Could we use the drug story again?

Rafe, meanwhile, moved fast, tucking the knife into his waistband and grabbing the demon by its boneless wrist.
Giving it a yank, he pulled it down the sidewalk, turning right at a dead end block. The demon tried to fight him (I imagined it had no problem being seen by the driver), but Rafe was stronger. Once the car passed us, Rafe hurled Boneless as hard as he could down the street, and then ran past it, hollering for it to follow him.

I followed at a brisk walk, and as soon as I turned the corner I discovered what Rafe intended to do.
Past the dead end was a wooded area that was generally deserted. I mean, you always had kids drinking and hanging out in there, but it was better to take our chances in there than stand on the street waiting to be spotted (or run over) by someone in a car.

Rafe easily
hopped over the metal guardrail—meant to deter people from hanging out in the woods but was obviously ignored by all— and Boneless followed suit. Clutching a rapidly forming stitch in my side, I huffed and puffed after them, wondering if I should join the track team or something on Monday so I could actually keep up with Rafe during these demon hunts.

I climbed over the guardrail (difficult in those cursed heels) and was met with an eerie silence.
I wanted to call out to Rafe, but that would be pretty dumb if he was trying to hide from Boneless. It would also alert the demon to my presence, and I definitely didn’t want that.

Taking a deep breath, I started down a dirt path that had been made from years of people just like me traveling this very same spot over and over again.
But at least they were heading out here to have a good time,
I thought grimly. What the hell was I doing? I was walking blindly forward in the dark dressed in my nice clothes, hoping I didn’t get myself killed before the night was through.

A twig snapped behind me and I froze.
Oh crap. In horror movies, the girl always turns around slowly and gets stabbed to death by the killer.
Maybe I should ignore it and keep walking.
But my back was tingling, like someone was staring at me, and I knew I had to turn around.

“Rafe?” I asked hopefully.

More like foolishly.

Before I could turn around, a hand covered my mouth, muffling the scream that ripped from my chest.

I was so dead.

Chapter Thirty

“Pretty girl tastes good?” a voice that sounded like the wind blowing through dead leaves still clinging to a tree in the middle of winter whispered in my ear.
I shuddered, then gagged when its foul breath washed over me. It smelled worse than the rotting corpse of a dead bird I had found in my garden last summer on the hottest day of the year. And believe me,
that
had smelled
bad
.

“Ugh,” I said, trying to wriggle out of its iron grip.
For something without bones, it was damn strong. It had moved its hand from my mouth to my neck, forcing my head up so it could run one lone talon back and forth over my skin. Its other hand was clenched around my waist, leaving me with very little wiggle room.

“Don’t you things ever hear of soap?” I asked.
“Or water? Maybe you wouldn’t be so angry if you were clean.”

“Quiet!” it hissed, tightening its grip around my waist.
I gasped, wondering if it was going to snap me in two like a tree branch.

It began dragging me forward and I fought it all the way.
I was
not
giving in without a fight. I would keep fighting until Rafe found us and then he’d cut Boneless’s ugly face right off, ending this.

But where was Rafe?
Shouldn’t he be here, fighting Boneless? Unless—

No.
Gabi, no. Don’t you dare think something like that. Rafe is strong. He would never be overtaken by this smelly half-wit.

To my right, something glittered in the meager light offered by the pale moon.
Pretending to trip, I fell to my knees, catching the demon by surprise. Before it could scoop me back up, I grabbed Rafe’s knife, pressing it against my leg with my arm to hide it from the demon. Rafe had given me a chance, and I needed to wait until the right moment to use it.

I just hoped the reason Rafe dropped the knife was because he had summoned his sword.
But
where
was he?

“Can’t wait to eat pretty girl,” Boneless was muttering to itself as it fought to
haul me over to a dark cluster of tall trees. It was pretty unnerving that these things talked, too. Not too intelligently, but still. I liked it better when Rafe chopped their heads off before they could say a word.

As I continued to struggle with Boneless, I grew worried
.
Rafe isn’t here,
I realized. Or, if he was, then he was lying unconscious somewhere and it was up to me to get out of this situation.

It was either do something or become demon food.
Now how could I
possibly
choose between the two?

Gathering my courage,
I stomped down hard on Boneless’s foot with my heel. It shrieked bloody murder and I knew, if I got out of this alive, I would have to kiss Penny for forcing me to wear these shoes.

Boneless let go of me completely to nurse its foot, and that’s when I turned and slashed the knife across its body.
The knife, soaked with blood that looked black in the dim light, slipped out of my grasp and fell to the ground. I took off running, determined to get the hell out of there before it recovered enough to recapture me.

I ran blindly, hoping I was heading towards the street.
I was scared I was taking myself farther into the growth, but there was nothing I could do. For now, getting away from Boneless was my best option. Once I had lost it, I would worry about getting back to civilization.

I also needed to find Rafe.
Wherever he was. A dark pit of fear had started forming in my stomach the moment the demon had grabbed me, and with each passing moment, it continued to grow. If something had happened to Rafe—

I had to press my hand against my lips to stifle a sob.
Stop that, Gabi,
I scolded myself. Rafe was fine! He had to be fine.

He had to be.

Suddenly, to my left, I heard what sounded like a scuffle. Well, either that or there was a bear loose out here. I quickly changed directions as my heart leapt with hope.

I
charged into a clearing to see Rafe fighting…Boneless?

“What the hell?” I asked stupidly.

Rafe spared me a glance before ducking to avoid a swinging left hook from Boneless. “Gabi? Get back!”

“I
was
back, and I got kidnapped anyway!”

“What?” he asked, dropping to the ground and rolling out of the way.
He jumped to his feet, his sword at the ready as he waited for Boneless’s next move.

“That’s what I want to know!” I shouted, watching the fight intently.
“Boneless grabbed me!”

“Who?”
He threw a punch that connected with Boneless’s shoulder. The demon staggered backwards while Rafe winced, shaking out his left hand.

“The thing you’re fighting!”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”

“Neither do I!”

A familiar laugh sounded behind me and my blood froze.
No.
It couldn’t be.

I turned around slowly.

Boneless gave me a wave.

I realized two things at the same time.

First, Boneless only had two eyes, not the four I had seen earlier in Pierce’s backyard.

And second, it was holding the knife I had dropped after slashing it.

“What. The. Hell,” I breathed, chancing a quick look over my shoulder to confirm how many eyes Rafe’s Boneless had.

Two.

The pieces clicked when, turning back around, I saw the knife start to disappear from my Boneless’s hand. Sucking in a shocked breath, I shouted, “Rafe, it has a kni—”

My Boneless grabbed me, covering its hand over my mouth again.
Rafe shouted my name, turning his back on his Boneless so he could come to my rescue.

Which is exactly what the demon pair wanted.

Of course. We had played straight into their game.

I watched in slow motion as Rafe’s Boneless smiled in triumphant, lifted the knife
my
Boneless had been holding seconds ago, and stabbed at Rafe’s retreating back. I screamed, my eyes wide with terror as I watched the knife slid into Rafe’s back, the point emerging through the other side. Rafe stumbled, the puzzlement on his face quickly transforming to pain. He gasped, a pathetic sound I never expected to hear from him, and collapsed to the ground, one hand pressed against his side to stem the bleeding. It did little good. The stain grew rapidly, darkening his blue shirt and splattering against the carpet of dead leaves on the ground like raindrops.

Rafe made another pathetic noise of pain and my heart stopped beating altogether.

“N-No!” I screamed, my words muffled against Boneless’s hand pressed against my mouth. “Rafe!”