“I’m sorry, Demi.” Of course, hearing me speak to her in a less than nice tone for the first time since I began babysitting her, Renee’s eyes wavered a bit as she stared up at me. “I just…”
“I know,” I replied, feeling like the worst person in the world. Just then, I sounded just like Mina did. “Let’s just—” my statement was cut short when the familiarity of invisible eyes on me hit me with the force of a punch to the gut.
What I saw in the glass above my head when I glanced up startled a gasp out of me. The tall, slightly robust figure was now standing directly behind me. It’s long and darker than night robe covered its entire body, leaving nothing uncovered. It looked pretty human except for the fact that it had no face. The only prominent feature I could see were the glowing red eyes, which stared back at me through the glass.
“What the—” I glanced back over my shoulder in spite of the apprehension slowly taking a hold of me and discovered that just like before, there was no one present. Of course, when I looked up at the mirror again the figure was gone. “Rhyzel, I’m going to kick your ass,” I muttered under my breath.
I was unsure who was playing games with me, but thought the glowing red eyes were a dead giveaway. After all, the only demon I’d ever seen with eyes that color was my unwelcomed neighbor and he’d shown a tendency to observe me under the cover of his dark magic.
“Let’s get out of here, Renee.” My ring had begun to cool off as I made my way toward the cash register, but I’d only begun to rile myself up about the whole situation. How dare the evil boy wonder follow us around? And for what purpose?
I snickered. As if a demon would need a reason to follow a witch around. Any opportunity to kill a potential threat was a good enough motive.
After paying for the few items we’d picked up at the store, I stormed out with Renee. I was determined to get her back home and try to figure out what demon could have hidden as well as the robed one had and what was behind this whole cat and mouse game. Its appearance had been brief, but enough to put me on edge.
Unless the demon in disguise was someone I already knew, then I didn’t have to figure out much. Well, the red eyes were kind of an indisputable proof, if nothing else. Maybe I really had stared the truth in the face.
“Are we going to eat now?” Renee asked as we made our way down the street.
I was so caught off guard by her question I stopped mid-step. “What?” I glanced down at her and noticed for the first time since the red-eyed demon made its appearance that the little girl’s face reflected her unhappiness.
“I’m hungry and you said that after we got my new pad we could eat.”
I had promised to take her for a bite to eat at her favorite restaurant. “I’m sorry, Renee.” I shook my head in frustration. “I forgot.”
“Can we go?”
I did owe her an apology and what better way to apologize than by treating her to a nice meal? “Sure.”
The happiness immediately returned to her face. “Really?”
“Our bellies could use some filling up, huh?”
She bobbed her head up and down enthusiastically before rubbing her belly with her one free hand. “Mine sure can.”
I laughed softly. “Okay, let’s go.”
Leading Renee toward the café we enjoyed brunching at every now and again, I quickly looked down at her and said, “Listen, Renee, I’m sorry if I yelled at you back there. I got a little worried when you walked off like that.”
She didn’t respond right away. Instead, she continued to stare forward as we walked.
“Can you forgive me?”
Renee finally looked up at me. “I broke the rules. I wasn’t supposed to walk off on my own. Evan says that’s a big no-no.”
“That’s right, but I just…well, I reacted badly. I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you, Demi.” She rewarded me with a huge smile, which I took as a sign of her sincerity.
“All right then.”
We hurried along the street, walking in silence as I led her away from the store to our new destination. Because of what had happened at our arts and craft place, I couldn’t help but stare into every glass window we passed by on our way to grab a bite to eat. All were empty of course, but I had the gut feeling we were being followed.
I couldn’t see anything or anyone, but I could sure feel someone behind me the whole time. I was so beyond pissed I wanted to blow up every single glass panel I came upon. If it hadn’t been for Renee I probably would have.
As angry as I was, I realized getting all worked up while in Renee’s company really wasn’t the wisest thing to do. The last thing I wanted was to lose my temper all over again. Renee had enough of that at home with Mina.
The walk, although short, did serve to cool me off somewhat. My temper had begun to improve by the time Linda’s Café and Grill came into view.
That nice feeling of being in control of my emotions went straight to hell the second I spotted a certain bronzed haired, green-eyed boy removing a bike helmet from his head and placing it on the seat of a 2013 Yamaha YZF R6 sports motorcycle. He so happened to be parked just feet away from the café’s double glass doors and it took all the will power I had left not to zap him straight to the underworld where he belonged.
As I crossed the street, I watched Rhyzel turn his back to me, take a cell phone out of his front pocket, and eye it for a moment before slipping it back in.
As he started toward the café’s entrance, I yelled, “You!” In spite of the noisy atmosphere that surrounded us he heard me and turned to face me. The moment he spotted me crossing the street he took a step back and folded his arms over his chest.
I must have broken some kind of record for fastest ever street crossing. I was so pissed my entire focus was on demon boy. I’d even forgotten I was towing a little girl behind me.
“Demi?” he looked me over for about a second before turning his attention to Renee.
His perusal of my tiny companion served to remind me I wasn’t alone.
“Expecting someone else?” I walked right up to him and, placing my hand on his forearm, gave him a light shove. “You have some guts showing yourself here.”
Being caught by surprise, his attention was immediately drawn back to me and away from Renee. Although he momentarily lost his balance, he was able to regain it quickly enough to save face from the crowd of onlookers inside the café, which observed us from within.
“What? Am I intruding on your territory or something?” He frowned as he stared at me. “Is there some unwritten rule I’ve broken by being here?”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ve broken more than your share of rules merely by being alive.”
“How is that my fault?”
“Who is this?” Renee’s sweet, innocent voice had the same effect on me as a bucket of cold water. I had forgotten myself and acted impulsively, forgetting in the process that the little girl could see and hear everything.
Momentarily embarrassed by my stupidity, I looked away from Rhyzel’s confused gaze and let out some air. Once I’d regained my composure somewhat, I said, “He’s a friend of mine who played a very nasty joke on me.”
Not knowing the stranger or the danger he represented, Renee merely smiled and added, “You must have been really mean to Demi. She never gets mad.”
“Apparently,” Rhyzel muttered. “I didn’t even know we were friends.”
I scoffed. “Frenemies is more like it.”
“That’s being generous,” he added. “Especially when taking into consideration how yesterday you threatened to—”
I stopped his remark with an angry scowl.
“Oh, look, there’s Mary.” Renee tugged on my arm to get my attention.
I glanced to my left and spotted Mary, a waitress and friend who worked at the café, standing in front of the huge glass panel that overlooked the sidewalk. Nine out of ten times I visited the café she was usually present, and because of how often we ran across each other we had become
good friends over the course of my summer vacation.
Having seen us standing outside, Mary had taken a moment to wave at us from within. We waved back.
“Renee,” I turned to face my little companion, “why don’t you go inside and ask Mary to sit you at a booth next to the window so I can see you? I’ll be right in. I have a bone to pick with this guy first.” I winked at her to reassure her of a nice and calm demeanor I was short of actually feeling.
Being the happy child she usually was, Renee took a moment to observe Rhyzel standing behind me, and then smiled. “Okay.”
I followed her to the entrance and watched as she ran inside and greeted Mary. After exchanging a few words, Mary walked her to a booth within easy eyesight and strutted away for a few seconds before reappearing with a small crayon box and a sheet of paper. She placed them on the table in front of Renee.
The tiny redhead immediately busied herself with the items at hand and Mary paused to wave at me one more time before marching toward another booth next to Renee’s.
Once my charge was taken care of, I turned my attention back to demon boy.
“Subtlety really isn’t your strong point, is it?” The mocking grin on Rhyzel’s face really made me want to deck him right then and there. Thankfully, I was able to hold on to what little patience I had left.
“When it comes to you I don’t have to be subtle.” I retorted.
“That may be but you were not alone and you set a poor example for your companion over there.” He pointed to Renee still sitting in the booth, coloring. “Now, can I know what this sudden hostility is all about?” He gestured up and down my body as if my anger was visible from anyplace but my face.
“As if you didn’t already know.”
Crossing his muscled arms, he leaned his back against the glass behind him. “Sorry, but I have no idea why you look like you want to blow me to pieces.”
“Look—” My tone went down an octave as I realized the people walking up and down the sidewalk were staring at us as if expecting us to get into a fist fight. “I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn’t give you the right to mess with me or to follow me around. Got that?” I hissed.
Rhyzel’s only reaction was a lift of his right brow. “Either you’re paranoid or just way over your head with all your witch crap.”
It would have been better for me to ignore his sarcastic remark because, deep down, I knew he said it to goad a reaction out of me but that arrogant look on his face did me in.
“You’re on the losing end of my bad temper, demon boy,” I spat as I watched him. “Don’t think for a second I won’t give you a one way ticket to hell if I have to. Let this be the first and last time you decide to use black magic to follow me around.”
He opened his mouth to say something but I lifted a hand to stop him. “You’re not even good at cloaking yourself since I had no problem seeing you.”
Looking even more confused, he pushed himself off the glass and stepped forward, stopping within three inches of my face. As if having his gorgeous profile uncomfortably close to me wasn’t enough, the aroma of his cologne played havoc on my sense of smell, causing that part of me which was still very feminine to think of nothing else but how good his lips felt against mine the night before.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
His frame was incredibly intimidating this up close. He was a good foot taller than me and wider in the shoulder area. He not only looked like the kind of guy a girl dreams of, but he made me feel like that, too.
“I was at work all morning. I just finished my shift and came here for a bite to eat.”
“You work on a Sunday?”
“I wouldn’t have had to if you hadn’t made me miss my double shift yesterday,” he replied with a scowl.
“Right.” I didn’t believe a word he said, obviously. Since when are demons honest? Did he think I was that stupid?
“Look, not once have I followed you around. Us bumping into each other here is a coincidence. Nothing else. Don’t make something into what it’s not.”
Pushing aside the unwanted images of our encounter the previous night, I took a step back and said, “Lie all you want. I have ways of finding out whether or not you’re telling the truth. Remember that.”
Having every intention of storming into the café without another word, I stepped aside and started for the restaurant’s entrance, but no sooner had I taken a few steps in that direction than Rhyzel grabbed my wrist and pulled me back to face him.
His touch however, didn’t have the physical effect on me I expected. Instead, I was instantly assaulted by sporadic images of pain, darkness, fear, and suffering in the form of the scene from the horrible attack that cost him the life of his mother. The vision was brief but powerful enough to cause my knees to buckle. The only thing that stopped me from collapsing on the hard sidewalk was Rhyzel’s strong grip.
Since I’d been forced to live without my ability for two years, now that I had it back, controlling it was extremely difficult. I would have to learn how to manage it all over again and that would take time.
In order to keep me in an upright position he wrapped one arm around my waist and pulled me closer to his hard body. My entire being felt the full effects of that physical contact, but my mind was distracted by what it had been forced to witness.
I’d seen enough to know Rhyzel had been left not only emotional scarred but physically as well. I didn’t have to lift his shirt up to know he had a long and narrow scar on his abdomen that went from his navel all the way up to his left pectoral muscle. At some point it had been deep and painful and had nearly ended his life.
Being part demon, he was able to heal his wounds completely, which very rarely left any scarring, but that was one scar he’d been unable to heal, and as a consequence he still carried the battle wound to remind him of what he’d lost that fateful night.
“What is it? What did you see?” his eyes searched mine, but I couldn’t look at him. Not without feeling any type of sympathy for what he’d gone through and I wasn’t prepared to connect emotionally with someone that could turn out to be my biggest enemy.
“Don’t touch me.” I pushed away from him and walked away, unable to stand being in his presence any longer. I marched into the café, leaving him behind. Or so I thought.
Chapter Eleven
Truth or Lies?
Keeping myself upright on my own was an effort after the vision I’d had, but somehow I managed to walk into the café and seek out the booth in which Renee sat, still creating a masterpiece with box of crayons and a blank piece of paper. Even more incredible was the fact that I’d managed to hold on to the bags I’d been carrying around all day with me in spite of all that had happened. I hurried to my charge and sat on the seat opposite hers.
Shoving the bags to my right, I made myself comfortable on the seat, trying to regain my bearings as the images of Rhyzel’s attack and the loss of his mother continued to replay in my head. I was quickly distracted though, when demon boy slipped in next to Renee.
“Get away from her.” The words were out before I could stop them and my outburst didn’t go unnoticed by the couple sitting in the booth behind ours. The woman turned to look at me and frowned as she spotted the look of surprise on Renee’s face.
“Yeah, go ahead, call attention to yourself.” Rhyzel raised both hands in a sign of defeat as he hurried to his feet. I didn’t want him near Renee and apparently he got the message. “Does this suit you better?” he asked in a mocking tone.
“Actually, I’d be much better off if you disappeared. I doubt that’s going to happen, or am I wrong?” I replied, using the same sardonic tone he used.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He actually had the nerve to wink at me. “You can blame either her time of the month for that nasty attitude, or the fact that she thinks too highly of herself,” he said to the woman, who in turn glowered and muttered something under her breath before going back to her
companion.
I would have been offended over his badly chosen words but in all honesty, the look on the woman’s face made me want to laugh.
“Time of the month? What’s that, Demi?” Renee asked. Of course I couldn’t count on anything going by unnoticed by her. She was a very observant little girl.
“It’s something this crazy person made up. Don’t pay attention to him.”
Instead of reacting to my comment, Rhyzel opted for sliding in next to me, trapping me between the wall and him. My body reacted almost immediately to his nearness. Unable to look away, I stared right at his green eyes, observing the specks of red in the irises as he in turn watched me.
The last thing I wanted was to be trapped in a confined place with him. I could barely think with him so close. He was my enemy. Someone or something I should hate. And in spite of the reality we lived in, something within my rebel heart couldn’t quite bring itself to accept that he was completely forbidden.
I had no idea if it was the teenage aspect of me that refused to accept things for what they were. I may be a witch, but deep down I wasn’t that different from other girls my age. When I came face to face with a good looking guy I could react by blushing, staring like a love-stricken puppy, or pretend I hadn’t noticed him at all and hope he’d noticed me.
With Rhyzel I could do none of those and yet, I had done all three. He was a gorgeous, dangerous looking male who could turn out to be my worst nightmare. I needed to keep that in mind more than anything else. He was my enemy. A half demon that showed up practically at my doorstep one day and seemed to have a boat load of secrets hidden under all that cool, collected demeanor he tried so hard to portray.
“I may be a lot of things, but crazy is not one of them.” He cocked an eyebrow.
“You’re funny.” Renee giggled.
Rhyzel rewarded Renee with a half-smile. “You think so?”
Keeper of the Innocents Page 13
