I reached for a Coca-Cola.
“Want some?” I asked.
“I do not drink caffeine,” he said.
“Wow, you make me look like a bad girl; that’s hard to do.”
He cracked a big smile for the first time I’d seen, and a huge dimple appeared in his right cheek. A butterfly wing flapped in my stomach. I turned my attention back to the drinks, fumbling a little for a cup.
“Don’t let me pressure you,” I said. “I was only kidding. We don’t need you all hyped up on caffeine. How about ginger ale instead?”
“Is that drink not only for upset stomachs?”
“Nope. It’s pretty good.” I poured a tiny bit into a cup and held it out. “Here, take a sip.”
He took the cup and drank. “Reminds me of champagne,” he said.
“You’ve had champagne?”
“When I was younger, before I changed my life.”
I took the cup from him and filled it three-quarters full of ginger ale, then handed it back.
“What made you decide to change?”
He held his cup, speaking in serene remembrance. “When I was fifteen, I went with my two brothers to a revival camp in a nearby town set up by missionaries from Wales. Our intentions were to make trouble and rouse their anger. When we arrived they were praying. I’d never seen anyone in prayer, and I felt... strange. For the first time in my life I experienced hope. I returned home and told my father I would work no more. I thought at the very least he would disown me, but he reacted with silence. He pretended not to hear what I said. In all of the years since, he has spoken only a handful of sentences to me, but never tried to make me work. When I came of age, I applied to college and left home.”
My respect for him was huge. I wondered why he wasn’t the one to inherit the mysterious Sword of Righteousness. If he was scared of anything, he didn’t show it.
As the party grew, more people shifted into the kitchen, pushing us closer to each other. I saw Kaidan on the other side of the room, leaning against the counter while the girl next to him talked, swishing her white-platinum blond hair. My stomach tightened. I hadn’t seen him come in. The girl poured a shot of something golden and handed it to Kaidan. He tipped back the shot glass and glanced my way, unsmiling, as he set it down. I put my back to him and sipped my drink.
The crowd’s aura tonight was a mix of vivid, positive colors with a handful of fuzzy grays sprinkled throughout. As drinks were consumed with speed, colors began to fade and voices grew louder.
Marna and Jay squeezed through and stood with Kopano and me. Ginger and Blake were not far behind. Two minutes later Kaidan materialized through the crowd with the bottle of liquor, shot glasses, and slices of lime. He had somehow managed to rid himself of the girl.
“Tequila, anyone?” he asked our group, but his eyes were on me.
“Hell, yeah, K, break it out,” Blake said.
I tried to take a step back, but I couldn’t go far.
Kaidan poured the drinks, handing one to each twin and Blake.
“Jay?” he asked.
“Nah, dude. I gotta drive.”
“Kope? Anna?”
We both stared at him, not answering.
“Oh, that’s right, I nearly forgot,” Kaidan said with smooth indifference. “The prince and princess would never stoop so low. Well, bottoms up to us peasants.”
What was up with that? The group shared a round of uneasy glances. Jay’s mouth was set in firm disapproval as he stared at Kaidan, who wouldn’t meet Jay’s eye.
The four of them raised their glasses, taking the shots and chasing them with bites of lime.
I got a strong whiff of the pungent, salty tequila and gripped the counter with one hand.
“How’s your soda, princess?” Though Kaidan spoke with a calm air, there was underlying menace that pained me to hear.
“You don’t need to be hateful,” I whispered.
“If you ask me, I’d say the princess prefers a dark knight.” Ginger smirked and took a long drink of her beer.
“She only thinks she does,” Kaidan said to her.
I opened and closed my hands at my sides. After all we’d been through, how could he stand there and have the audacity to throw temptations in my face and insult me? I wanted to say something to shut him up, but the more flustered I got, the more tongue-tied I became.
“Anna?” Jay asked. “You ready to bounce?”
There was no way Jay was ready to leave.
“No! Don’t go yet,” Marna begged. She yanked the front of Kaidan’s shirt. “You’re scaring everyone off, Kai! If you can’t be nice, then don’t get so pissed.”
“She means drunk,” Blake said to me in a stage whisper; then he added, “Brits,” with a roll of his eyes.
Blake’s attempt at comic relief didn’t lighten the mood much.
“My apologies,” Kaidan said to Marna. He slid the bottle away with the back of his hand, and Marna patted down the bit of shirt she’d crumpled. I stared at Kaidan, but he wouldn’t meet my eye.
“Come on,” Jay said. “It’s too crowded in here. We can go out back.”
The seven of us slipped onto the porch and down the deck stairs, finding lawn chairs to sit in under a giant oak tree. Kaidan leaned back in his chair, balancing it on the back two legs.
“How about a game of Truth or Dare?” Marna offered.
I was immediately apprehensive. Just as I was about to suggest something else, Kaidan spoke and my heart faltered.
“I’ll go first,” he said. “I dare Kope to kiss Anna.”
Everything inside me flooded with fury and embarrassment. Kaidan leaned far back with his arms crossed, cocky. I stood up without thinking and hooked my foot under his chair, swiftly kicking upward and causing him to topple backward. He looked up at me from the ground with a stunned expression that morphed into a grin.
The twins and Blake were in hysterics. Blake laughed so hard he fell sideways out of his own chair, which made Jay join in the laughter. I couldn’t sit there with them anymore. This whole night was a disaster. I turned and walked through the yard, toward the side of the house. I heard Ginger talk between gasps of mirth.
“Maybe she’s not so bad after all!”
I didn’t know where I was going. I made my way between the two houses, toward the street, and I heard steps running through the grass behind me.
“Wait up!” It was Jay. “You okay?” I stopped and let him catch up.
“I knew I shouldn’t have come.”
“Yeah, you called it. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing. He saw you flirting with that other guy, and it’s got him thinking—”
“Shhh!” I said, my eyes rounding. I peered over his shoulder, but we couldn’t see the others.
“What?” he asked, confused. “They can’t hear us.”
“I wasn’t flirting!” I whisper-hissed.
“Well, you were standing real close and talking all serious—”
“Okay, okay! Maybe it looked bad, but we were just talking. It was crowded.”
“Hey.” Marna came around the corner toward us. “Don’t worry about Kai. He’s a nasty drunk. Come on back.”
“I don’t think I should,” I said. I wished I could just shake it off and be cool, but he’d hurt me.
“Do I need to send him over to apologize?” she asked.
“No!”
“Kaidan!” she hollered. “Get over here!”
My pulse quickened and I crossed my arms over my chest, staring down at my feet.
I heard him approach through the long blades of grass. Marna and Jay must have walked away, because when I looked up, it was only the two of us. He stared down and nudged an old tree stump with his foot.
“Sorry,” he said, concentrating on giving the stump another good thump.
Wow. An apology. I felt myself soften.
“I’m sorry, too, about the whole chair-flipping thing.”
“No, I deserved it.”
When we looked at each other, s
tanding all those painful feet away, my heart constricted and it was hard to take in air. He was already sobering, but I knew the taste of tequila would still be on his lips. I had to pull my eyes down again to breathe.
“Will you come back over if I promise not to say anything else?” he asked.
I nodded, and he took a flask from his pocket, taking a long swig before he pocketed it again. Why was he drinking so much?
I followed him back to the group, where we both sat down.
“Okay, I’ll go next,” Marna said, seeming determined to ignore the tension in the air and play that stupid game. I was so not in the mood to participate. “Ginger, truth or dare?”
“Dare.”
“Forgive me for taking the idea from Kai, but I dare you to snog Blake—” She modified the request at the insistent stare from her sister. “Oh, come on! Just the teensiest peck on the lips.”
I thought she would still refuse, but apparently she wasn’t one to outright turn down a dare. She turned to Blake and pointed a finger at him.
“Try to cop a feel and I’ll make Anna’s chair flip look angelic,” she warned.
He grinned and she leaned in, both closing their eyes as she pressed her lips against his for one, two, three seconds. It appeared innocent, but they were shy when they pulled away and sat back.
“Right,” Ginger said, clearing her throat. “My turn. Jay, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Do you fancy Marna?”
“I’m not sure what that means, but if you’re asking if I like her and think she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met and I wish she would move here, then yes.”
Marna and I giggled at his brazen, smitten openness.
Our attention was diverted when Kaidan threw a quick glance over his shoulder, and then stood up, moving to the hidden side of the giant oak tree and leaning against it. Right at that moment the back door creaked open and the blond girl stepped out, peering all around and staring at our group.
“Hey, is Kaidan Rowe down there?” she asked.
“Nope,” lied Blake.
The girl frowned and went back in the house. Kaidan sauntered out and took his seat again.
“Dude, how did you know she was coming?” Jay asked.
“Superhuman hearing,” Marna answered for him.
Jay laughed and adjusted his hat. “My turn, now?”
“No, I’m not quite finished with you,” Ginger said. “Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend?”
Jay squinted at her. “No. I wouldn’t.”
“You would,” she corrected him. “Everyone cheats.”
“That’s not true,” Kaidan said. Everyone gawked at him and he shrugged. “Well, it’s not.”
“What the hell do you know about it?” Ginger asked him.
“Nothing, I suppose. I know I need another drink.”
We all watched him get up and go back into the house.
“What’s his problem, then?” Marna asked her sister.
“What’s not his problem? Probably hasn’t been laid in a whole hour. Gettin’ snippy.”
Jay was pinching his chin hair in thought. All at once our group became quiet and I heard a door slam. Kaidan stood on the deck watching me. When I looked around the other Neph were staring at me, too, or above me, around me. And then I heard a whispered voice say, Do not be afraid.
Who said that? I somehow knew it was spoken in my mind, not something anyone had said out loud. What was going on?
“Jay,” Marna said carefully, “would you be a luv and get me another drink? A little mixed-up number?”
“Sure, be right back.”
Kaidan passed him, coming down. The others stood, so I did, too.
“Whose was it?” Ginger asked.
“I couldn’t tell for certain,” Kaidan said.
“He looked familiar. I would swear it was Azael. But what was he doing?” Marna asked.
“Azael?” Ginger spit. “What bloody purpose would he have with her?”
“Is Azael a demon?” I asked, getting a shiver and peeking around the darkened yard behind me. The name sounded familiar. “Don’t you guys see them all the time? Why are you so freaked out?”
“Not just any demon,” Blake whispered. “Satan’s messenger. And they don’t acknowledge Neph or pay any attention to us, but he was circling you.”
“Shiza!” Ginger hissed a foreign curse at me. “What are you not telling us?”
My stomach knotted. I locked eyes with Kaidan, who froze, listening to something. In a slow movement, he turned his head. We all followed his gaze to the darkened corner of the house, where a man stepped out. He wore jeans and steel-toed boots with a black leather jacket that sported a big amber badge dead center. His head was smooth, and the long beard was once again trimmed to a goatee. My body gave a hiccup of surprise, and joy surged up inside me, just as I was certain sheer terror surged up inside of my companions.
He ghosted his way past the deck toward us, and everyone but me took a step back.
“You’re a hard one to find,” he said to me in a deep, menacing grumble. “No cell phone?”
“No, sir.” I wasn’t at all scared; in fact, I was forcing back a smile. But sheesh, he was bad-a, all the way. He kept his eyes trained on me, not yet acknowledging the others.
“Who’s the human with you?”
I didn’t know how much of a charade he wanted me to put on in front of the others, so I played it safe.
“A guy from my school.”
He gave another grumble. And as if on cue, Jay walked out across the deck and came down the stairs to us, drink in hand. He stopped and a series of emotions played across his face and aura as he stared at my dad, finally settling on fear.
“Jay, this is my father.” Better to nip this in the bud fast. His fear fizzled enough to let in some surprise, and he managed a smile.
“Oh, wow, hi... sir.”
“Good to meet you, Jay,” my father said in a low voice. “You were just headed home. Have a good night.”
Jay’s eyes glazed over. My father was influencing him! I felt offended on Jay’s behalf, even though he wasn’t being forced to do anything harmful.
“Yeah, I mean, yes, sir. I was just leaving. Good to meet you, too. Here’s your drink, Marna.” He handed it to her and they gave each other bashful looks. “Well, night, everyone.” Jay gave a wave and he was out of there. All eyes went back to my father. I supposed I should do a round of introductions.
“Father, this is Marna and her sister, Ginger, daughters of Astaroth.” He nodded and the girls stared downward, not moving a muscle. “Kopano, son of... Alocer?” Kopano nodded that I was correct. “This is Blake, son of... I can’t remember his name. I’m sorry.”
“Son of Melchom, sir.” He gave a small bow of his upper body, never lifting his eyes.
“And this is Kaidan—”
“Son of Pharzuph,” my father cut in, his lip having gone up in a scowl as he stared at him. I had to give Kaidan a lot of credit for not peeing himself under the heat of my father’s accusatory stare. He gave a respectful nod and kept his eyes averted downward, just like the others.
I wanted to put a hand on my dad’s forearm to make him ease up, but I didn’t need to, because he turned his stink eye away from Kaidan to me.
“You’re leaving with me, girl. Time to start your training.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SEEING DEMONS
The ball was in my father’s court, so I waited with impatience for him to talk. Seeing my dad behind the wheel of the basic rental car was strange. Too normal or something. I was dying to tell him what Sister Ruth had left me. After ten minutes of silence, I began to worry. When my leg started bouncing, he reached over and laid his big hand on mine.
“Know that I love you, Anna.”
“I do.” But there was something ominous in his voice.
“Just don’t forget.”
He put both hands back on the wheel and fear crept over me.
He watched the road, wearing a grave expression. “I wanted to call you when I got out, but it’s not always safe. I’d rather scout out an area and talk in person. Tell me how it went with that nun at the convent.”
My stomach dropped at the thought of the information we’d never know.
“We didn’t make it in time. She died the night I met you. But she left me something... a sword hilt without a blade.”
The car swerved a little. I kept talking.
“Kaidan thinks it’s a Sword of Righteousness.”
My father jerked the wheel hard to the side of the road and slammed on the brakes. I grabbed the door handle and braced myself against whiplash. When we stopped I looked around, but there were no cars behind us. He turned in his seat with a wild look on his face.
“Describe it to me,” he demanded. I told him how it looked and what happened when both Kaidan and I touched it. He stared at me with those crazed eyes for a few long heartbeats before smacking his hands together in a loud clap and shouting, “Yeah!”
I jumped, startled. I must have missed something, because I didn’t feel like cheering when I thought of the hilt. But something about his sheer excitement made me want to jump on board.
“Something’s brewing. Something big. I don’t know what, but the angels are gonna use you. My little soldier girl.”
Soldier girl? It was hilarious in an impossible-scenario kind of way.
“What do you think I’m supposed to do?”
“Nothing yet, baby girl. There’s a lot you need to learn first. I want you to be able to protect yourself when I’m not around. There might come a time when you have to do things you don’t like, to stay safe. You may need to at least appear to be working.” He ran a critical eye over me. “For starters, you’ve got this all-natural sweet-and-innocent thing going on. Much as I hate to say it, you probably need to do something edgier with your look. And you’re gonna need to learn your drinking limits. I don’t want you to end up in a situation where you don’t know your boundaries.”
“How am I supposed to learn?”
“You drink. Under my supervision. We’ll figure out how much you can handle in a certain amount of time, and practice controlling it so you can stay coherent and not get drunk.”
My heart jackhammered against my ribs.
Sweet Evil Page 23
