by Amy Meredith
‘It couldn’t hurt to check with them, though,’ Jess said. ‘We can do our own research while they search through their archives.’ She and Luke both looked at Eve, waiting for her response.
‘Sure, let’s call them,’ she finally said. ‘You talk, Luke, OK?’
‘Yeah.’ He grabbed the phone. ‘I’ll put it on speaker.’ Luke pulled a business card out of his wallet, the card that Callum had given him. Eve hoped that Callum was available. She didn’t want to have to deal with Alanna, the only other Order member they’d met since Payne.
Alanna hadn’t liked Eve even before she found out that Eve was part demon. She’d seemed jealous that Eve had inherited demon-killing power, while Alanna could only fight demons with one of the Order’s magical swords. Also, Alanna always flirted with Luke. Always. She obviously wasn’t serious about it because she was way too old for him, in her early twenties. She just did it to annoy Eve, which it did. Probably at least partly because she was ridiculously beautiful!
It was Callum who answered, so that was something. ‘Luke, how are you? How are things in Deepdene?’ he asked.
Hearing his voice, Eve pictured the lines carved in his face and his kind grey eyes. Then she remembered that the last time she’d seen him, those eyes had been filled with revulsion and pity.
‘Hey, Callum,’ Luke replied. ‘Things are weird in Deepdene, which I guess means things are pretty normal. Eve and Jess are here with me, and we wanted to see if you knew of anything that could make Eve feel cold, so freezing she can hardly breathe. It’s happened to her a few times out in the woods, always right at the border between our town and East Hampton.’
‘Actually, I do,’ Callum responded. ‘At least I believe I do.’
‘What is it?’ Eve sounded more impatient than she’d meant to.
‘Approximately a week ago, the Order spotted some indicators that Deepdene might be the target of another demon attack,’ Callum said.
‘Wait. A week ago? Why didn’t you tell us?’ Luke demanded. ‘What kind of demon attack are we talking about?’
‘We came up with our own way to keep you three and the town safe,’ Callum said, not responding to Luke’s request for information on the possible attack. ‘We were able to put a … let’s call it a protective field around Deepdene that no demon can cross. We didn’t know that it would affect Eve. Honestly, a human who has some demon blood isn’t something we’ve had much experience with.’
‘So it’s not letting me cross, since I’m part demon.’ Eve felt her face go hot with anger. ‘Your protective field trapped me here.’ Her voice rose with each word. ‘And you didn’t even bother to say anything about any of it! It’s my duty to protect everyone in this town, and you didn’t think I needed to know we might be attacked?’
Jess put her hand on Eve’s arm. Eve knew her friend was trying to calm her down. But what the Order had done was horrific. They’d put everyone Eve loved, everyone in her whole town, in peril, just because they’d decided they could do a better job protecting Deepdene than she could. ‘How could you possibly think you had any right to do this?’ she rushed on.
‘As I said, we were very concerned about the possibility of a demon attack,’ Callum said.
Hearing him say the word ‘demon’, and imagining that revulsion in his eyes, a new idea slammed into Eve. She grabbed the phone. She knew Callum could hear her since she was on speaker, but actually holding the phone made her feel like she was getting right in his face, and that’s what she wanted.
‘I don’t believe there were any indicators,’ Eve cried. The heat in her face had spread to her whole body. She was surprised her skin wasn’t lobster red. ‘I don’t believe anyone at the Order thought there was going to be a demon attack. And I don’t believe you didn’t know the barrier would affect me. You put that field up for me. Like a prison! Because I’m a demon, right? Who knows what I’m going to do some day? I might snap and go on a cross-country killing spree.’
‘Evie, nobody thinks that,’ Jess gasped.
‘The Order knows that you’ve taken on every demon that’s come here – and won,’ Luke said at almost the same time, so his words overlapped with Jess’s. ‘You and the Order are on the same side.’
‘You think that. But Callum doesn’t. The Order made a cage for me!’ Eve’s hair began to whip around her face as if a wind had started up inside the house. It crackled with electricity.
‘You’re getting too upset, Eve. Relax, OK?’ Luke said.
‘I have every confidence—’ Callum began.
Eve refused to listen to him. ‘Now that you know I’m part demon, you think I can’t be trusted!’
But there was no answer. Because the phone had melted in Eve’s hand.
Eve ran blindly down the street. All she wanted was to get away – away from everyone. Callum was treating her like she was evil, Luke was all just ‘Relax’ and Jess was acting like Callum hadn’t said what he’d actually said. Neither of them had her back. Her feet threw up sparks when they hit the sidewalk, and she could feel her fingers prickling. They had to be sparking too.
Get out of sight, she ordered herself. She was heading towards the most populated part of Main Street, the blocks where all the boutiques and restaurants were. Someone would see her there. Lots of someones. Then she’d get locked away. Everyone would be terrified of her. Her family, her friends, everyone. Even Luke and Jess would be freaked if they could see her so out of control. Wait. They had. They’d seen her kill the phone.
God, they were probably making arrangements with Callum right now to round her up and stop her from destroying Deepdene.
Through her panic, Eve registered the treetops of the woods. That’s where she had to go. She’d stay away from the border. And if there was a demon lurking there – well, good. She had juice to spare.
She cut across the lawn of the closest house, tore through the side gate, ran across the backyard, then scrambled over the fence, splinters driving into her palm. She heard a ripping sound. At least she was wearing her distressed jeans. Hopefully they’d just be a little more fashionably torn.
And she was out of sight, in the woods, still running. The grass withered under her feet. The leaves on one of the maples flared with blue fire, then turned black and crumbled to ash. Eve struggled to pull the power back into her body, but she’d lost control of it. Maybe Callum and the Order were right. Maybe the world did need to be protected from her. ‘Back,’ she ordered her power. ‘Get back.’
But just the thought of the Order and their Eve-proof force field made the heat within her surge even higher. It was going to consume the woods like a wildfire. It was going to consume her.
Suddenly Eve knew exactly what to do with her out-of-control power. It wanted out? Fine. She knew exactly where to send it. She slowed down to a trot. This time she needed to stop the moment she first felt cold. There was no one to pull her back. If she wasn’t careful she could end up suffocating.
The grass continued to die as she jogged deeper into the woods, and the smell of burning leaves and branches filled her nose. At least the flames flared and died. She wasn’t really starting a forest fire. No worries there, Smokey Bear.
Eve thought it was getting the tiniest bit harder to move forward. She brought her pace down to a walk, and held her arms out in front of her, ignoring the sparks zinging from her fingers. The moment she saw goose bumps, she stopped.
Usually, she’d concentrate on her power until she felt it gather into a hot ball in her chest. But it didn’t need to gather now. It was already flowing. She just needed to aim it. Eve thrust out her hands with a cry that felt like it came up all the way from her stomach. Lightning bolts, silver with molten red tips, sizzled as they shot from her fingers.
Eve kept up the attack on the spot where she knew the force field was present. Her rage seemed to give her power an extra boost. She sent it all, everything that was in her, until only a tiny spark remained. Then she cautiously moved forward, slowly, slowly. The air moved
easily in and out of her lungs. Her skin remained warm.
I did it! she thought after she’d taken a few more steps. The barrier is down. No more cage for Eve. They never should have thought they could keep me contained. They have no idea how powerful I am. She threw her arms up in triumph.
‘Eve!’
‘Eve!’
Startled, Eve dropped her arms and spun round.
Luke and Jess had followed her. Eve gestured around her. ‘That protective field no demon can cross? I just blasted it away.’ She grinned. She felt awesome! More powerful than she ever had. She’d found a way to use her roiling power without hurting anyone – and, bonus, she’d smashed the barrier!
Her friends stared at her, wide-eyed.
Luke shoved his blond hair off his forehead. ‘Are you sure that was a good idea?’
‘Yes,’ Eve said.
Luke frowned. ‘I’m not convinced that you’re right about the Order, Eve. There’s a good possibility that they put up the field to protect us. We have no reason to think Callum was lying about a demon coming to town. Maybe you should have waited—’
‘So I should just be happy to never leave Deepdene again in my whole life?’ Eve demanded, interrupting him. ‘Because I happen to have inherited something the Order doesn’t approve of? Are you even thinking about what that means? People would find out about me. What am I supposed to tell my parents when they want us to take a family vacation, or go into the city to see a play? What about school trips to the museums or to Washington, DC? If I can’t leave without dying, don’t you think that will make people a little suspicious?’
‘But running through town with fire shooting from your fingers won’t?’ Luke burst out, voice filled with frustration.
Eve felt as though he’d slapped her. How could Luke think even for a second that this protective field was right? He couldn’t if he really cared about her. ‘The Order was formed to fight demons,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘That’s all they see when they see me – a demon. That’s why they did this.’
‘Maybe,’ Luke said.
‘I can’t believe you don’t trust me.’ She felt completely betrayed.
‘Eve, that’s not what I said. I don’t know what the truth is. All I’m saying is, I don’t think you do, either. We need more information.’
She turned to Jess. ‘You believe me, don’t you?’ Jess hesitated. Eve shook her head. ‘Thanks. You’re supposed to be my best friend, so just … thanks a lot.’ That barrier had almost killed her. Luke and Jess had both witnessed that. And they still weren’t sure what the Order did was wrong.
‘You didn’t let me answer,’ Jess protested. ‘What I was going to say was, we need to focus on what’s important. If there is going to be a demon attack on Deepdene – and I agree that there’s a possibility the Order was lying about that – but if there is even a chance there’s going to be attack, then the three of us need to be preparing. Doing our research. Doing what we do. We shouldn’t be fighting with each other.’
But if they weren’t against the barrier, they were against her. Didn’t they understand that? They had to choose sides, and they were choosing to side against her.
‘I can protect the town from anything that happens, especially now that I can absorb outside energy. I’ll go to the power plant, juice up, and that’s all the preparation necessary,’ Eve said hotly. ‘I don’t need your help. I don’t want any help from people who don’t believe in me.’
She strode past them, back towards town. ‘Eve, wait!’ Jess cried. Eve didn’t slow down, but she heard Jess running after her.
Luke didn’t call her back. He didn’t follow her.
And that was fine by Eve.
What was that? Luke stared after Eve, trying to figure out how things had gone nuclear so fast. All he’d been trying to say was that there was a possibility the Order was right about the potential demon attack and that they should’ve left the protective barrier up, just until they knew for sure. He wasn’t trying to defend their decision not to tell Eve – or any of them – what they’d done. Luke didn’t think there was any good defence for that. If they’d had any inkling that their force field might affect her, they should have told her about it. They could have gotten her killed!
He turned and stared back down the black path Eve had created with her powers. He’d never seen them so wild before. On either side of the scorched grass, trees had big leafless patches and singed branches and trunks. It gave him the creeps.
Eve had let herself lose control. At least she’d gotten herself away from people before she blew. If she hadn’t … His stomach seized up. This couldn’t happen again, no matter how angry she got. She had to understand that.
Impulsively, he turned away from the path and began to walk aimlessly through the woods. It wouldn’t do any good to catch up to Eve until he had a strategy of some kind. Plus, Jess was with her. Maybe Eve would listen to Jess.
Crap. Was that another dead animal? He veered towards the dark lump he’d spotted. Yeah, it was a raccoon. Throat slit, just like the rest. He scanned the area, looking for more. He didn’t see any, but he realized that he was pretty much in line with the spot where Eve had smashed through the Order’s invisible barrier.
There had been a dead squirrel near where she’d hit the force field the day before. Something started itching in his brain, something he felt like he should remember. It took him a minute, then it came to him. Jess’s dad had said that a friend of his saw a dog lying on the road outside of town, a dog that had been killed.
He wondered exactly how far outside town the dog had been. Could it have been on the border between Deepdene and East Hampton? That would make four murdered animals along the line of the force field. And there were supposed to be some other animals that had gone missing in Deepdene. Where were they? Luke walked up to the raccoon, then turned and walked in a straight line towards the place where Eve had stood, on the alert for more of the tortured animals. He noticed that there was a thin dark line on the ground, running right by where he was searching. He knelt down and ran his finger along a short section of it. When he looked at his finger, it was stained a dark rust colour. Stained with blood, he thought.
He straightened up and kept walking, following the line of dried blood. He passed the spot where Eve had stood, and about four metres after that, he found a blue jay. Dead. Its neck slit, sliced clean through.
Luke’s heart began to thud almost painfully as he continued forward, following the unbroken line of blood, his eyes locked on the ground. Something white snagged his gaze and when he hurried up to it, he found a cat. Throat cut. It was like some strange, unholy ritual had been performed along the border of Deepdene, ringing the town with blood and death.
OK, so the force field wasn’t the work of a demon. The Order had been behind that, and it apparently worked against demons. But these animals had been placed exactly where the force field had been, which seemed too much of a coincidence. Who – or what – had done this horrible ritual? And what was it for?
Chapter Six
Jess chased down Main Street after Eve. She’d catch her, no problem. Jess was way faster than Eve, powers or no powers.
What’s the plan when you do catch her? a little voice in the back of Jess’s head asked. Jess slowed down the tiniest bit in response. What was she going to do? Yeah, she was faster, yeah, she was a kung-fu prodigy, but Eve could turn her into ash, just the way she had the grass and trees back in the woods.
Can, but won’t. It’s Eve. It’s Eve, Jess told herself. She shoved aside her fears and began to full-out sprint. She reached Eve’s side about fifteen seconds later.
‘Stop,’ Jess ordered, stepping in front of her. ‘Just stop and talk to me, OK?’
Eve did stop. But she planted her hands on her hips and gave Jess a hard stare. ‘Why? I already know what you think. You and Luke. You think I need to be contained because I’m a – a what I am,’ she finished, as if suddenly aware of the people strolling up and down the sid
ewalk.
‘Neither of us said that,’ Jess protested. ‘Neither of us said anything like that. Be fair.’
Eve snorted. ‘Fair? Was that barrier fair? It almost killed me!’
‘And that’s horrible. So horrible, we need to come up with a new word for something that is even more than horrible,’ Jess answered. ‘But I didn’t put up the barrier, Evie.’
The use of her friend’s nickname seemed to calm her down a little. ‘I know you didn’t. But you act like it’s not evil. And it is. What the Order did to me was evil.’
This wasn’t the time to make the argument that the Order might have been trying to protect the town, trying to stop something evil from coming in.
‘Look, we can’t have an actual conversation about this standing on the street. You know you’re going to forgive me, because you know that I’d never take sides against you, even if it felt like I did,’ Jess rushed on. She didn’t want Eve to start arguing. ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to my house, where I’m going to make you some hot chocolate. We’re both going to calm down a little. Then we’ll figure out what we should be doing. Because there might be a demon ready to attack. And there’s the barrier that can kill you. We have a lot more important things to be doing than fighting with each other,’ Jess told Eve.
Which is why Jess wasn’t going to bring up the way Eve had basically accused her of not being Eve’s friend. It hurt, and it was completely unfair – Jess had proved again and again that she was always going to be there for Eve – but she was going to let it go. It wasn’t the time to fight. That hadn’t just been something she’d said to calm Eve down.
