by Amy Meredith
She applied the vanilla-scented gloss, returned it to her purse, then tilted her head back and closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the soft, warm breeze brushing over her face. Tonight she and Luke were going to the movies, and Eve tried to decide what she was in the mood for. She wouldn’t drag him to a chick flick. She’d wait and go to those with Jess or one of her other girlfriends. Maybe that new horror remake? It could be fun to grab onto Luke and hold on tight. But there’d been enough real-life horror in the past few months. Maybe—
The sound of boys laughing, a bunch of boys, pulled her out of her thoughts. She straightened up and opened her eyes. Jess was coming towards her, Seth at her side, with three of his buds trailing along behind.
Uh-oh. Jess looked mortified. Were they laughing at her? It didn’t seem likely. Seth wasn’t the kind of guy who’d let his friends give his girlfriend a hard time. Eve stood up. ‘What’s so funny?’ she asked.
Seth and Jess both opened their mouths to answer, but Dave Perry beat them to it. ‘Let me tell,’ he begged, laughter mixing with his words. ‘You’re not going to believe this, Eve. That freak just asked Jess if she would “accompany him to the prom”. Seriously, that’s exactly how he said it. “Accompany him”. ’
Eve raised her eyebrows, turning to Jess. ‘Simon asked you to prom?’
‘He didn’t know Seth and the guys were behind us,’ Jess explained. ‘I was just starting to tell him that I’d already been invited when they all went nuts. This one getting all chest-thumpy about me being his girlfriend.’ She nudged Seth with her elbow. ‘That one laughing until I was afraid he was going to wet himself.’ Jess jerked her thumb towards Dave. ‘And the other two very helpfully offering to beat Simon into a hamburger.’ She flipped her hand at Al Defrancisco and Connor Bray, who both happened to be on the wrestling team and ended up in scuffles on a regular basis.
Eve sighed and rolled her eyes, and Jess did the same.
‘What, you wanted him to ask you?’ Seth asked.
‘No,’ Jess said sharply. She sucked in a breath, and Eve could tell she was trying to get a grip on her temper. ‘No,’ she said more gently. ‘What I wanted was to politely turn him down. Po-lite-ly. You guys were kind of jerks, you know that? You scared him off before I could even say thank you.’
‘Oh, kind sir, thank you kindly, but I must refuse your kind offer to escort me to the prom,’ Dave said in a high voice and an attempt at what Eve thought was a Southern accent. Al and Connor cracked up. Eve scanned the courtyard for Simon and saw him on the sidewalk just outside the school. He was staring at them.
Eve heart tightened like a fist. The expression on Simon’s face was a mix of coldness and fury. His normally pale cheeks had vivid red splotches on them, his mouth was pressed into a hard line, and his eyes glittered as if he had a fever. To Eve it looked like he wanted to come back over and kill Seth and his friends.
Chapter Two
I feel like I’m standing in the power plant again, sucking in all that energy, Eve thought that evening. Back when she was trying to defeat Amunnic, she had discovered that she could do just that: take in electricity and use it to boost her own power, the power she’d inherited as the new Deepdene Witch. Pulling in the electricity had felt amazing, exhilarating, thrilling.
And that’s what knowing she had a date with Luke did to her: made her feel all tingly and alive from each strand of hair down to her pinky toes.
‘Look at our daughter,’ her dad said to her mom. Eve and her parents were just finishing up dinner. ‘Does she look odd to you?’
‘Odd? I’m not getting a pimple, am I?’ Eve exclaimed.
Mr Evergold laughed. ‘Nothing like that.’ He reached out and gave one of her long, dark ringlets a tweak. ‘I was just thinking that you looked almost glittery.’
‘As a heart doctor, I’d say the condition is caused by being in love,’ Mrs Evergold answered.
Her mother wasn’t usually so goofy. That was more a Dad kind of comment. ‘I am definitely extremely in like,’ Eve agreed. Although maybe it was more. Maybe. No guy had ever made her feel the way Luke did. And he was such a cutie with his longish blond hair and those green eyes of his.
‘Extremely in like,’ her father repeated. ‘Is that—?’
He was interrupted by the doorbell. ‘That’s gotta be Luke.’ Eve grinned.
‘I’ll get it. You finish your dinner,’ her mom said, rising from the table. A few moments later, she returned with Luke. Eve smiled at him, and decided that her dad had got it right. Glittery was exactly how she felt when she looked at her boyfriend.
‘Sit down for a minute,’ her father told Luke, and her mother offered him a soda.
‘No thanks. I like to get a vat of Sprite at the movies.’ He held his hands apart, indicating the world’s largest soda cup.
Eve took her last bite of chicken and stood up. ‘Just give me one second, and I’ll be ready to go,’ she told Luke. She needed to do some quick tooth brushing and lip gloss re-applying.
‘I want you two to be sure to stay away from the woods,’ her mother said before Eve reached the dining-room door. ‘I ran into Becky Poplin at the grocery store. She was putting a flyer up on the bulletin board because their dog – you remember, that little schnauzer? – is lost. There were two other missing pet posters up already, new ones.’ She frowned. ‘I don’t like it. That’s a lot of animals in a town this size. It got me wondering if there are still a few of those creatures that killed the Rakoffs’ son out in the woods.’
Eve and Luke exchanged a look. They both knew that the creatures – which were actually dog-like demons called wargs – were gone. Helena, the girl who had summoned them, had been a descendant of Lord Medway, the man who had built a portal between our world and hell. He had done it as part of a deal with a demon. The portal allowed the demons into Deepdene, and in exchange they gave him wealth and power.
When Helena learned the truth about her ancestor, she had decided to try to make a pact with a demon herself, but instead, the creatures she’d let through the portal killed her. Eve had used her power to close the portal, preventing the wargs and any other nasties from coming through again. But it wasn’t as if she could tell her mother any of that. Parents had a way of not believing in things like demons and hell portals.
‘We’ll be careful,’ Luke told them.
‘No going in the woods,’ Eve agreed. Still, she couldn’t help wondering what had happened to those missing pets since she was positive that the wargs hadn’t gotten them.
As Luke walked down Main Street with Eve, he couldn’t stop himself glancing over at the woods. The forest surrounded pretty much all of Deepdene, so the treetops were visible from anywhere in the whole town. ‘I know we whipped us some warg butt,’ he said, ‘but the thing your mom was saying about the animals is freaky. Do you think there could be a new demon in Deepdene?’
‘Telefriendic moment! I was just thinking the same thing,’ Eve exclaimed. ‘But I pumped everything I had into closing the portal. Everyone from the Order seemed to think it’s secure.’
Luke was glad the Order had made itself available if they needed help with any Deepdene strangeness. He was also glad to have them as an information source. He was working on building a demon database. Living in Deepdene, known in its early days as Demondene, he figured it could be useful.
‘You’re right. They definitely said the portal was shut. Three missing pets doesn’t mean that we have to gear up to save the town – again,’ he agreed. Although it was normal for him to be a little paranoid. Since he and his dad had moved to Deepdene from Santa Cruz, California, at the beginning of the school year there had been three demon attacks on their new town, one of which had almost killed his father.
‘Nope, we can just go to the movies and drink vats of soda like normal teenage people,’ Eve answered. She took his hand and swung it back and forth as they walked.
‘And maybe after that we can do some of the other things normal teenage people do,’ Luke suggested. Like kissing,
he thought. He loved kissing Eve.
‘Possibly. You’re thinking homework, right?’ Eve teased, her dark blue eyes sparkling.
‘Exactly. I was thinking some algebra. Maybe a little social studies,’ he shot back, giving her hand a squeeze.
‘Look out. Wasp!’ Eve exclaimed. He heard a buzzing whine, and a second later saw a huge wasp dive-bombing him. He used his free hand to bat it away, but it came right back.
A flash of light – a pfffft sound – and the wasp dissolved into ash, the flecks floating away on the slight breeze. ‘Taken care of,’ Eve said, her voice full of satisfaction.
It had happened so fast that Luke hadn’t even realized that the flash was Eve using her powers. In fact, he could still hardly believe it. She’d zapped that thing with her power right on Main Street, which, as usual on a Friday night, was full of people. He glanced around. No one was staring or anything, thank God.
‘Nice shot,’ Luke said. ‘Was that, uh, intentional?’ Eve sometimes had trouble controlling her power, especially when she was mad or upset. He’d just brought up the possibility of a new demon in town – and she’d said she’d been thinking about that too. Had that put her on edge?
‘You think such precision was an accident?’ She smiled up at him.
‘I seem to remember a certain innocent jacket that got zapped once,’ Luke answered.
‘I seem to remember that you got a much more fashionable jacket as a replacement,’ Eve replied. ‘I’ve been thinking of giving a few other pieces of your wardrobe a little …’ She wiggled her fingers.
‘As long as I’m not in them, I’ll happily take off anything you want me to,’ Luke joked. ‘But setting my jacket on fire was an accident. At least I thought it was.’ He gave her a mock scowl.
‘It was, it was. I promise. But I wanted that wasp dead. I hate those little stingy things,’ Eve said.
He was a little surprised she’d intentionally used her power against something that was a minor annoyance. But no one wanted to get stung.
‘And remember the lasagne I heated up?’ she continued. ‘That took absolute precision.’
‘Why did you have to do that again?’ Luke teased. ‘Oh right, the power was out. But there wasn’t a storm or anything … Strange.’
‘OK, that was my bad. Although it’s good to know I can grab some extra juice if I need to.’ They’d been at the power plant that night, and Eve had accidentally taken in so much of the energy surging through the place that she’d blacked out the entire town.
‘Absolutely,’ Luke agreed. He sat down on the bench in front of the hardware store, pulling her down next to him. They had some time before the movie started. ‘So you’re not upset about anything?’ He had a new thought about what might be bothering her. He hesitated, then lowered his voice and continued. ‘You’re not still freaked about finding out you’re part demon, are you?’
‘No,’ Eve said quickly. ‘I mean, I was. It was hard to get my head around the idea that I have demon blood. I just thought … well, I was afraid that having demon blood meant I was evil.’
‘You aren’t anything close to evil,’ Luke assured her. ‘A little shallow maybe, a little obsessed with shopping,’ he joked, reminding them both of his initial impression of her all those months ago when they first met. ‘But you – you’re a force for good.’
‘It helped so much that you and Jess never doubted me, or acted like I was suddenly something different,’ Eve told him. ‘But honestly I think what finally made me stop worrying about it was when I found out my great-great-great-grandmother had demon blood too.’
‘The old Deepdene Witch,’ Luke said. Eve had inherited her powers from her ancestor.
‘Yeah. The demon blood is where her power came from – hers and mine. It made me realize that without demon blood, I wouldn’t have the strength to fight demons. And who would keep Deepdene safe then?’
She definitely didn’t sound upset. Her voice was bright and happy. Luke didn’t want to do anything to kill her good mood, but he felt like he had to ask, ‘Aren’t you afraid that someone might have seen you zap that wasp and wonder about it?’
‘It was just a tiny zap. I’m not worried about it,’ Eve replied. ‘Lately, I’m just loving using my powers. It used to feel like something I had to do because no one else could. Now, it feels like this cool special thing that I’m so lucky I inherited.’
Eve rushed on, her words coming out fast in her enthusiasm. ‘Remember that book I found that gave more info on her? It had some amazing stories. Once, she blasted a lake completely dry to kill some kind of aquatic demon that could create tsunamis and hurricanes. And another time she took possession of a demon body and made it eat sugar, because sugar was poisonous to it. She got back out of the body before it died.’
Luke smiled. ‘She was like a historical Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’
‘Yup. I’m expecting to be starring in my own TV show any day! But I won’t forget the little people who knew me way back when.’ She knocked his shoulder with hers. ‘There could be some great eps based on stuff that my great-great-great did. One time she blasted a demon so hard, she turned it into a human girl. She made it completely harmless. I guess it still had some powers after that, but Granny knocked them so deep they couldn’t be reached. The demon could never use them again.’
‘I’d watch that,’ Luke said. ‘Especially if you wore leather pants the way Buffy did.’
‘I’ve noticed something about you,’ she answered playfully. ‘You never notice fashion unless it involves tight clothes.’
‘Or short ones,’ Luke added.
Eve shook her head, trying not to smile. ‘Anyway, reading about the old Deepdene Witch made me feel even better about being her descendant, demon blood and all. Who knows what I’ll end up doing? I just feel like I’m ready for anything. Whatever badness comes next – if anything even does – I’m so ready.’ Sparks began to crackle from her fingertips. ‘Oops!’ Eve folded her hands together and the sparks went out.
She was practically giddy with excitement just talking about it. Luke was glad she’d gotten over the revulsion she’d felt when she’d discovered she was part demon. That had been hard to see.
But was she flipping too much the other way? Was she getting so excited about her powers that she wasn’t going to be careful enough with them? She was part demon …
That didn’t matter. Eve had had the blood the whole time he’d known her. That meant she was the same girl he met back in September. The same completely awesome girl.
The next morning, Eve found herself sitting on the same bench in town where she’d sat with Luke the night before. This time she was waiting for Jess to finish up with her kung fu class. Eve leaned back and tapped on the big window at the front of the hardware store behind the bench. ‘Hey, Spiffy,’ she called, and the cat inside patted the glass with the pink pads of one paw.
Eve said hi to the kitty pretty much every time she was downtown, and she had since she was a little girl. She was glad to see that Spiffy wasn’t one of the currently missing pets.
‘Hi-yah!’ Jess burst out of the door next to the hardware store, and grinned at Eve. ‘Thanks for meeting me. You should have come up and watched for a minute. I am getting to be ridiculously kickass.’
‘You always have been,’ Eve told her. Jess had been a cheerleader since the beginning of middle school, and she could jump, flip, kick, cartwheel, all that. But after they found out about Deepdene’s demonic history – and Eve’s powers – Jess had decided she wanted to learn martial arts. Luke had the demon-killing sword that was given to him by Willem Payne, a high-ranking member of the Order who had died fighting the wargs alongside Eve, Luke and Jess, and Jess wanted to make sure she had something to bring to demon fights too. That’s just how Jess was as a friend. If you needed her, she was all in.
‘Master Jonah says I’m a natural. He thinks I’ll be ready to go for my blue belt by the end of the summer,’ Jess said as they started walking towards her hou
se. Luke and Seth were supposed to pick them up there for their mega shopping trip into New York City.
‘I tore out a bunch of magazine pictures to give us ideas for your perfect prom dress,’ Eve said. ‘Not that we don’t already have a million ideas ourselves. There’s one with these cool off-the-shoulder mesh straps. It has a square neckline, which would really show off that pendant you bought. It might not be The Dress, but the neck and straps are pretty close to perfection.’
‘Oooh. Thanks, Evie!’ Jess exclaimed. ‘Good eye! You’re right. The pendant would look great with something like that.’
‘Did you have the tux conversation with Seth yet?’ Eve asked.
‘Uh-huh. I just came out and told him that he had to let me be in charge of what he was wearing. He didn’t care,’ Jess said.
‘He’s a guy,’ Eve replied with a good-natured shake of her head. ‘He’s probably relieved that he doesn’t have to figure it out himself. Are you going to tell him what kind of corsage to get you?’
‘No, that doesn’t seem romantic enough,’ Jess said.
‘Well, no …’ Eve let her words trail off.
‘So I think I’ll go with hinting, really obvious hinting,’ Jess went on. ‘Seth’s the best, but he doesn’t always pick up on things all that fast.’
‘Especially when it’s about flowers and not about throwing a ball of some sort.’ Seth was on the football and basketball teams at school.
‘True that,’ Jess agreed.
‘On the other hand, he looks very cute when he’s throwing a ball of some sort, so who cares if you have to toss him a little suggestion once in a while,’ Eve added.
‘Very true that!’ Jess said. She grabbed Eve’s arm. ‘Look up there!’
Eve gasped. There was a box on Jess’s porch, a blue box with a brown bow.
‘MarieBelle,’ they exclaimed together. They both j’adored the excessively yummy chocolates, not least because they were so beautiful, with little scenes hand-painted on every one.
