The Sight Seer (5 page)

Chapter Ten

The mall was already busy, crammed with kids our age and parents with screaming toddlers.
We fell silent, walking past stores with no destination in mind. It was too hard to talk about demon slaying stuff, anyway. I should have asked more questions on the car ride over, I realized belatedly. But did I really want to know more, thus allowing myself to become fully immersed in this world of monsters?

Dammit, Rafe, why couldn’t you just be a normal boy with a normal crush on me?
Why did you have to only be interested in my damn eyes?

Speaking of the Sight, at first I was whipping my head back and forth, trying to look closely at every person that passed us.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to be looking for—forked tongues, or maybe horns and a tail. Rafe caught me staring wildly at a girl that I could have sworn had yellow eyes (it was just a trick of the light) and said, “Gabi! Could you be any more obvious?”

I felt myself turning red and quickly looked away so he wouldn’t see.
“What? I thought you wanted me to find a demon to kill.”

“Not like that.
Come on, let’s get those pretzels.” He led the way to the pretzel stand and waited patiently for me to make up my mind. Once we received our buttery, salty goodness, we found an empty bench and sat down.

I took a big bite of my pretzel and groaned appreciatively.
“Now this is what I’m talking about.” I leaned back, relaxing for the first time all day. I hadn’t even realized, but I was nervous. Worried that I would say the wrong thing, or do the wrong thing…Ugh. That definitely sounded like first date nerves, and this definitely wasn’t a date, so then why was I feeling this way?

I shut my eyes and took a sip of my lemonade, the bitter sweetness a nice contrast to the salty pretzel.
I let the noisy sounds of the mall—girls giggling, parents scolding, clerks hawking their wares—wash over me for a full minute before reopening my eyes. When I did, I noticed Rafe staring at me, a question in his green eyes.

“I’m okay,” I told him, feeling a little dumb that he had caught me like that.
“And thanks for this,” I added, holding up the pretzel. “It almost makes up for a new outfit.”

He groaned, a spark of relief flashing in his eyes.
“I’m never going to hear the end of that, am I?”

“Nope.
Although, you are lucky you didn’t destroy the garden. Then it would have been
your
head that was rolling in my backyard.”

“You’re a gardener?”
He looked both surprised and pleased, as if he were excited to learn something new about me. Jumping on that, I filled him in on my planting activities, leaving the stuff about Mom out. That would definitely have put a damper on the conversation. And the day.

Rafe was genuinely interested, asking questions that I was more than happy to answer.
We continued talking even after we finished our snacks and got up to walk the mall again. Most of the stores were decorated for Halloween, and some even went as far as to put their Christmas decorations up next to the pumpkins and candy corn. I shook my head in amazement, grateful that Bernard only focused on one holiday at a time at the Corral.

We went from discussing my passion to Rafe’s.
Surprise, surprise, he didn’t spend his entire life obsessing over demons. “No, I love baseball,” he told me. “I play first base for my school’s team.”

“Really!”
I wasn’t much of a sports fan, but now I wished I had attended some of the games, as it turned out his school played mine all the time.

“Yep, I even play in the off season, when it’s freezing cold out.
I’d play all year round if I could!” Rafe stopped in front of a sport’s store, peering into the window like a little boy in a candy shop. “Do you mind if we go in?”

I fought back a grin.
“Not at all.”

I think he rushed through the store,
figuring I would be bored because I was a girl and all, but he really didn’t have to. I
liked
watching him browse through the merchandise, his lips pressed together as he handled gloves and bats and baseballs. Finally, he settled on a new, hunter green cap, which he plopped on his head as soon as he paid for it. “What do you think?” he asked with a silly pose, his eyes crossed and his tongue sticking out.

“Charming!” I laughed.
I really wanted to tell him it made his eyes look even greener, but that was probably a little too creepy.

“Sorry I dragged you in there,” he said as we left the shop.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, the brim of his hat low over his eyes so I couldn’t see his expression. “If you want to go to a girly shop now, we can.” He held up a hand. “But no lingerie store, please!”

I rolled my eyes.
“Oh please, aren’t lingerie stores every guy’s fantasy?”

“Mmm,” Rafe said, distracted.
I looked over, startled by the sudden change in his mood. He had his phone out and was staring at the screen. Was that it, then? Was he finally bored, ready to drive me home and forget we had ever met in the first place?

I knew it.
He just wanted me for my Sight. Typical, typical guy.

I picked up the pace without realizing it, practically power walking down the mall.
I should force him to go clothes shopping, making him wait as I tried on an obnoxious amount of clothes that I never planned on buying.

“Gabi?”
Rafe, matching my brisk pace, reached out to touch me on the arm. I pretended not to feel anything from his touch or closeness. “Are you okay?”

We stopped walking to stare at one another.
“Perfectly fine,” I snapped as I yanked my arm away from his. He lifted his cap and I could see the hurt in his eyes.

“I—
Did I do something wrong?”

“Did you really want to come here or not?”
The words were out before I could stop them. I sucked in my cheeks, hating the fact that I sounded so desperate, so needy. What was wrong with him? No, what was wrong with
me
? No wonder I never brought guys home to meet Dad. Who would want to be with someone as selfish as me?

Rafe blinked.
“Of course I did!”

“But for what reason?
To get to know me, or to use me for my Sight?”

“I wasn’t going to use you!” he exclaimed.
“Gabi, is that what you really think?”

I threw up my hands in disgust while a little voice in my head told me to cease and desist right now before I said something I’d really regret.
In addition to everything horrible I had already said, I mean. “Why don’t you tell me, Rafe? What, exactly, are we do—ahh!”

I admit, standing in the middle of the crowded mall to have a serious discussion was not a good idea, but that didn’t give some overzealous shopper the right to push past me, his heavy bags of merchandise slamming into my legs.
I was propelled forward and Rafe caught me, cradling me to his chest.

“Damn, are you alright?
What was wrong with that guy, hitting you like that?!”

Still wrapped in his arms (and enjoying it very much despite myself), I turned my head to the right to see who had hit me.
If Rafe ever let go of me (maybe he was enjoying the close contact as much as I was), I’d run after him and ask what his problem was.

I mean, I
was
going to do that until I took a closer look and saw a long, skinny brown colored tail hanging out of the guy’s pants.

What.
The. Hell.

“D-Demon,” I sputtered.

“Yeah, he was a jerk,” Rafe agreed. “Doesn’t anyone say ‘excuse me’ anymore?”

“No, Rafe!” I said, pounding my hand on his chest for extra measure.
He looked at me, startled. “That was a
demon
!”

Chapter Eleven

Rafe freed me from his embrace, only to put his hands on my shoulders and grip tightly.
“Are you sure, Gabi?”

“Am I sure?
Unless tails are a new trend that I haven’t heard about yet, then yeah, I’d say I’m sure that was a demon, Rafe!” I resisted the urge to hit him again. “And we’re wasting time standing around discussing this! It’s going to get away!”

A spark lit his eyes as he clenched his jaw in determination.
“
No,
it’s not.” Rafe dropped his hands from my shoulders and took off running.

Well, no, he couldn’t run
, not in this crowd, which I swore grew thicker by the second, but he did move pretty fast. It was all I could do to keep up with him.

I discovered that now that I knew the guy was a demon in disguise, I had no trouble picking it out from the crowd.
It was completely
different
from a human in all aspects. Now I understood what Rafe meant when he said he had feelings about demons. Still, it probably helped that in addition to the tail, I could now see horns peeking through its greasy black hair. Gee, stereotypical much?

Besides that, though, the demon carried itself differently.
It strolled through the crowd, head held high, forcing the humans to skirt out of its way. Some darted away with fear in their eyes while others unconsciously moved aside. They had no reaction as it passed; no one screamed or pointed out the horns or tails. I really did have the Sight, then. Why me? And how had I gone sixteen years without Seeing a demon? This was the second one in a little over a week!

So many questions to ask Rafe, but now was not the time.
His eyes were glued to the demon’s back, a scary-serious look on his face. Man, I did not envy the demon right now. His head was going to fly once Rafe caught up to him!

Wait.
Rafe couldn’t exactly battle the demon in the middle of this crowd. He couldn’t even follow him into a store and fight him there. Someone would see and then there would be a lot of explaining to do. And the cops—I groaned. Dad would
love
that.

Rafe heard me groan, letting his gaze flick towards me before refocusing on the demon.
“Gabi, you should stay back.”

“Hell no, Rafe!
I found you your demon, so don’t you dare send me away!”

He smiled.
“Why did I expect you to say that?”

“What’s the plan?” I asked as we broke through a group of giggling tweens, finally gaining on the demon.
“Keep following until it makes its move?”

“More or less.
Demons like to stalk their prey, and I’m sure this one is looking for the perfect victim.” He held out a hand to stop me from getting too close to the demon. We slowed down our pace, keeping it directly in front of us. “We’ll follow it until then.” Rafe’s hand, which was still on my arm, slid down my skin slowly, sending a thrill through my body. “Thank you, Gabi. I never would have Seen it if it wasn’t for you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” I muttered, trying not to let on just how much his touch affected me.
“Let’s get this jerk, first.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, smiling to reveal teeth, “we will.”

By silent agreement, we walked over to a storefront, pretending to look at the displays as we watched Hornboy out of the corner of our eyes. It had slowed down now, looking to the left and right as if it were hunting something. It
was
, I realized with a sick feeling. The demon’s lips had curled back in a cruel smile, revealing long, pointy yellow teeth as it zoomed in on a girl about my age with shiny, golden hair. She was alone, clutching a plastic bag filled with new clothes to her chest as she looked around with a lost look on her face. I slapped my hand to my forehead. Could she be any more obvious? She should just jump up and down and scream, “Yes, come and take me, evil demon!”

Okay,
maybe I was being unfair. I mean, you didn’t go to the mall expecting to attract the attention of a demon. But what about creepy guys? They ate girls like her for breakfast.

Well, not literally.
The demon probably did, though.

Gross, Gabi.

Shaking my head to clear it, I placed a hand on Rafe’s arm. He nodded. “I see her.”

“What do we do?”

“Follow them.” He looked grim, like he didn’t like that option, but really, what choice did we have?

We watched silently as the demon approached the girl and started speaking with her.
She smiled gratefully and answered him. We were too far away to hear what they were saying over the roar of the mall crowd, but she definitely wasn’t scared, that much was clear. I ground my teeth in frustration. Why couldn’t she see his horns or tail? Why didn’t she realize a creep approaching a pretty girl like that only spelled trouble?!

“Stupid idiot,” I muttered as the girl started following the demon, still smiling.
Hornboy put a hand on the small of the back, guiding her towards the exit.

“It’s not her fault,” Rafe said as we followed, still keeping our distance.
“Demons can be very charming when they want to. They can compel people into doing their dirty work, although I think this one just wants to play with her.”

“If you tell me he’s going to eat her, I swear I will lose it.”
Horrible images were already flashing through my brain.

“Fine, I won’t tell you.”

The images just got a million times worse. “Rafe!”

Our bantering stopped once the demon opened the door and walked the girl out.
No one else paid these two any attention as they slipped outside. As the door slowly swung closed behind them, we exchanged a look.

“Ready?” he asked, his eyes practically sparkling with excitement.

“Of course I am!”

Who was I kidding?
I was petrified.