Betrayal

by Amy Meredith

  ‘Especially not now that we found out the spell book is actually a Russian textbook,’ Eve commented. ‘Hey, remember that day on the phone when he said such weird-sounding words? He must have been speaking Russian!’

  ‘You’re right,’ Jess said. ‘Wow. It doesn’t seem so creepy when I think of it that way.’

  ‘No. Still strange, though,’ Eve said. ‘But more regular-strange. I mean, Simon-strange.’ She looked over at Jess. ‘Do you remember anything about how it sounded? Maybe we could look up the words somehow.’

  Jess frowned. ‘Not really. Maybe atayka? He talked so fast it was hard to make it out.’ She pressed her fingers to her temples. ‘Head beginning to implode.’

  ‘Right. We weren’t going to talk about Simon. Maybe we shouldn’t talk about anything head-imploding at least for tonight.’ Eve looked directly at Luke as she spoke. He got it. He knew she wanted him to drop the demon investigation.

  He understood Jess needed to de-stress. But keeping the town safe was more important. They should both know that. ‘There’s still someone – or something – bad on the loose. We need to be ready,’ he reminded them.

  ‘If there’s another demon, or if the first demon did pull its goopy self back together, we’ll kill it again as soon as we see it,’ Eve told him.

  ‘Yeah, it only took a couple of minutes.’ Jess frowned. ‘Although it did ruin my beautiful pink sandals, and they were the cutest little shoes in North America.’

  ‘No way,’ Eve said. ‘The cutest little shoes in North America are my black satin high tops with the blue laces. Your sandals might have been the prettiest little shoes on the east coast, though,’ she added.

  Luke shut his eyes for a long moment, trying to get a grip on his temper. They were being so silly, as silly as kindergarten kids who hadn’t had a nap. When he opened his eyes, he turned round and looked at Eve. ‘You’re the Deepdene Witch. You’re responsible for the safety of everyone in the town. How can you be treating this so casually?’

  Eve sat up, pushing her wildly curling hair away from her face. ‘I’m not! I can’t believe you even said that,’ she snapped. ‘It’s just … it’s been a nasty couple of days, with the Eve-killing barrier and the demon and Jess’s dress. I thought we could all use a little while to chill. But if something bad happens, I’ll be there. You know that.’

  It was true. Eve always stepped up when there was an attack on the town. But she’d never acted so laid-back about her duty as the Deepdene Witch before. She was behaving as if it wasn’t that big a deal that the lives of everyone who lived here depended on her.

  Is it because her human side is being taken over by the demon side? That was a thought Luke didn’t want to have, but he couldn’t push it away. Maybe Alanna had been right. Was Eve changing? Was she going to turn into a threat to Deepdene herself?

  ‘Why are you staring at me like that?’ Eve asked him.

  ‘I didn’t realize I was staring,’ he said, blood rushing to his face.

  ‘That’s probably because you’re always staring at Eve,’ Jess told him, with a wink.

  Luke felt the back of his neck get hot, then his face. Did he walk around school in some kind of Eve daze that everyone could see?

  ‘Look at him blush,’ Jess cried.

  Eve scooted to the end of the bed, then reached out and touched his face. ‘I think it’s sweet.’

  ‘Blushing is not sweet, not in a guy.’ Luke felt his face get hotter.

  ‘Yeah, it is,’ Eve told him. ‘And so is staring, at least when it’s you staring at me.’

  ‘It’s because you’re so beautiful,’ Luke said. It wasn’t really a lie. She really was beautiful, and most of the time that was why he was staring at her.

  She couldn’t look like that and have something evil inside her. It was exactly what she had said – it had been a difficult few days and she and Jess wanted to blow off some steam. That didn’t mean that she’d stopped caring about protecting people.

  He felt his irritation draining away as turned back to the computer. Let them goof around. He’d keep working. He decided to do a search for demons that turned to liquid when they were killed. Assuming that the demon actually had been killed, which it probably had.

  ‘Is this that book on the Deepdene Witch you were telling me about?’ Luke heard Jess ask.

  ‘Yeah, I found it on a secondhand-book website. A teeny, tiny publishing company did it way back in the eighteen-nineties,’ Eve answered. ‘You have to see my favourite illustration. It’s a picture of the Deepdene Witch blasting a demon so hard that it got trapped inside a human body.’

  Luke turned round. ‘Let me see it too.’

  ‘I thought you were working,’ Eve teased him. She flipped through the small book, then held up a page for him and Jess to see.

  Eve’s great-great-great-grandmother had had the same long, curly hair that Eve did, at least as she was shown in the pen-and-ink drawing. That hair was whipped up around her face as she threw out lightning bolts from her fingers. Her expression reminded him of Eve’s when she used her power – rapturous. Rapturous and fierce at the same time.

  He turned his attention to the other girl in the drawing, the girl the Deepdene Witch was shooting the lightning at. She was writhing in pain, her face buried in her hands. Luke had to remind himself that the girl had been a demon, that the Witch wasn’t torturing an innocent human.

  ‘You think you could do that, Evie?’ Jess asked. ‘Zap a demon into a human body?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Eve said, closing the book and putting it back on her nightstand. ‘Probably, since my great-great-great-grandmother could. But why would I want to? Wouldn’t it always be better to just kill the demon?’

  She said it in such a matter-of-fact way. Had killing really gotten so easy for Eve? Was it more than easy – was it exciting to her now? A thrill? Did part of her like it? The demon part?

  ‘You’re staring again,’ Eve snapped. ‘And don’t say it’s because I’m beautiful. Because the way you’re staring is not how you stare at something beautiful.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Luke shook his head. ‘I was just thinking about how much you’ve changed. When I first met you, you’d never have been able to talk about killing a demon that way, like it’s just routine.’

  ‘A lot has happened since we met,’ Eve pointed out.

  ‘I didn’t even believe demons existed last summer,’ Jess said.

  ‘Yeah, but it sounded … It kind of sounded like you were looking forward to it, the killing.’ Luke tried to keep his voice neutral. He didn’t want to accuse her of anything, but he was curious as to how she’d respond.

  Eve’s expression clouded over. ‘First it’s like I don’t care enough about doing my Deepdene Witch duties. Now it’s like I enjoy protecting the town too much. Make up your mind!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Come on, Luke,’ Jess said. ‘There is something exciting about killing a demon. You know, getting in there and fighting evil. You’ve felt it too.’

  Eve nodded. ‘When you’re using the sword in a demon battle, you’re a warrior. Maybe you don’t look forward to killing, but you want the demons dead. So do I.’

  ‘Sorry,’ Luke muttered. He didn’t want to have a fight with her, not so soon after the last one. But it was more than that. He didn’t want to fight with his girlfriend, sure, but more importantly, he didn’t want Eve to lose her temper. Lately whenever she got mad, she got sparky. He didn’t want to see what would happen this time.

  ‘I think I know what the problem is,’ Eve said. ‘You’re upset that Jess and I handled the demon without you. You don’t want to feel like you and your famous demon-killing sword are unnecessary.’

  ‘That’s what you think?’ Luke asked. Unbelievable.

  ‘Yes, that’s what I think,’ Eve shot back. ‘I think you’d rather have me be some damsel in distress that you could rescue.’

  ‘There’s a kung-fu class in about an hour I want to go to,’ Jess put in, her voice a little too cheerful. She
was probably embarrassed to be here when he and Eve were sort of arguing. ‘Luke, come with me. We both need to keep building up our skills if we want to be able to back up Eve in a fight.’

  ‘Oooh, I want to come too,’ Eve exclaimed. ‘I feel like kicking. Do you think I could split a board with my hand? Is that kung fu?’

  Again, with the violence, Luke thought. When he first met Eve, she wouldn’t have wanted to kick anything in case it messed up her toenail polish.

  ‘No thanks, I’m going to go for a run,’ Luke announced as he stood up. Running always helped him blast away his anger. ‘It’s obvious you two aren’t going to help me with the research.’

  ‘We are going to help,’ Eve protested. ‘We just wanted to relax for a while first.’

  ‘You can do that without me,’ Luke told her. ‘See? I’m happy for you to take care of yourself.’

  And I think we just had our second fight, he thought as he left the room. Maybe it was a good thing. Maybe he shouldn’t even have a girlfriend who was half demon.

  ‘Luke was in a mood this afternoon,’ Eve commented as she and Jess headed to the kung-fu class.

  Shanna and Rose waved at them from Shanna’s porch. ‘Jess, did you find a new dress yet?’ Rose called.

  Everyone knew that Jess’s dress had been slashed. The fight – well, almost fight – between Seth and Simon had been big gossip, and the fact that Seth accused Simon of destroying Jess’s gown was always part of the story.

  ‘I have a couple of possibilities,’ Jess answered as she and Eve walked partway across the lawn. ‘I can go with one of them, but I’m hoping I find one I love as much as the first one. Eve and I are going to get in a power shopping trip to Manhattan.’

  ‘And we will have success,’ Eve added.

  ‘Want to come hang? We made pomegranate lemonade,’ Shanna said.

  ‘Can’t. We’re going to hi-yah at kung-fu class,’ Jess called. She gave a roundhouse kick to illustrate.

  ‘Have fun!’ Rose told them. Eve was glad she and Jess had a reason not to stay and chat. Her head was too full of annoyance with Luke for her to be sociable.

  ‘I mean, I know that demon research is important. But all we wanted was a little break,’ she said as she and Jess continued walking.

  Jess nodded. ‘I’d say he qualified as a grumpy-pants.’

  ‘It’s like nothing I said was right. He kept picking at me.’ Eve sighed. ‘We almost had our second fight. Or did we have it? Did that qualify?’

  ‘Well, he left in a huff,’ Jess answered. ‘But I think he left before you actually got to fight status.’

  ‘That’s something, I guess,’ Eve said. ‘Who knew that having a boyfriend would be such hard work?’ Luke had been acting so weird, the way he had just been staring at her like she was a stranger or something.

  ‘Seth actually gave me candy today,’ Jess said. ‘I think he was feeling guilty that some other guy had given me some when he hadn’t. Even if the guy was a psycho stalker. Still, I thought it was cute of him.’

  Eve felt a twinge of annoyance. She really didn’t want to hear about a great boyfriend now, not when her own boyfriend had just left angry. Didn’t Jess get that? ‘That was nice of him,’ was all she said.

  ‘Speaking of nice – we haven’t talked about Alanna yet. Did she get a personality make-over or something? At Ola’s she actually acknowledged that I was at the table,’ Jess said.

  Eve was grateful for the subject change. ‘I know. Usually she just focuses on Luke and acts like I’m in the way.’

  ‘She still kinda focuses on Luke,’ Jess commented.

  Eve flashed on walking into Ola’s and seeing Alanna leaning close to Luke, her hand on top of his. He shouldn’t have let her do that, because, hello, he had a girlfriend. ‘You’re the one who’s always telling me Alanna is too much older than Luke to be interested in him.’

  Jess laughed. ‘Maybe I’ve gotten more accepting of couples with an age difference, now that I’m with Seth.’

  Eve couldn’t believe Jess had just said that. Did she mean she was ‘accepting’ of Alanna and Luke?

  Jess must have seen the outrage on Eve’s face, because she immediately threw up her hands. ‘I’m only kidding,’ she quickly added.

  ‘Seth actually is kind of old for you,’ Eve commented. ‘I mean, he’ll be going off to college in the fall. And it’s not like guys in college typically stay faithful to their high school girlfriends.’ She wasn’t entirely sure why she’d said that. She realized she was acting kind of bratty. But still, it was true. Everyone knew couples hardly ever stayed together when one person went off to college. ‘At least you’ll get the Senior Prom out of it.’

  ‘You are so jealous that I’m going to the prom,’ Jess burst out. ‘Just admit it!’

  ‘Why would I be jealous?’ Eve shot back. ‘I’m with Luke. I don’t care if he’s a freshman like me. He’s great.’

  ‘So great you’ve had two fights with him in about two minutes,’ Jess said.

  ‘You just said it wasn’t a fight!’ Eve cried. They were almost at Main Street. She told herself to keep her voice down. She didn’t want to make a scene and have everyone talking about it at school tomorrow.

  ‘I was being nice!’ Jess exclaimed. ‘You should try it sometime!’

  ‘What is that even supposed to mean?’ Eve was genuinely baffled. She was never not nice to Jess. Well, until right now.

  ‘Trying to call dibbies when we were shopping for my prom dress? That was so selfish, Eve! You really can’t stand that I’m going to the prom and you’re not.’ Jess’s face was flushed with anger.

  Eve stopped walking and turned to face her best friend. ‘You’re the jealous one! You can learn all the kung-fu you want, but you’ll never have powers like I do. Never!’

  ‘I’m going home,’ Jess announced. ‘I can’t stand to be near you for another second.’ She whirled round and rushed away.

  Eve stared after her. She wasn’t sure what had happened with Luke, but that had definitely been a fight. And it had been all Jess’s fault!

  Luke pulled off his T-shirt as soon as he walked into his room. It had been stuck to his body with sweat. He’d just run farther than he ever had before, until his legs ached and his lungs burned. It hadn’t helped. He was still frustrated that Eve and Jess had blown off the demon research.

  And he was still bothered by the changes he was seeing in Eve. She’d had demon blood when he first met her – obviously she was born with that. But her powers had only just started to manifest back then. Maybe Alanna was right: as the powers grew stronger, the demon side of her grew stronger too.

  Or maybe Luke was just overreacting to that nightmare he’d had last night. He was never going to be able to forget it.

  He needed to shower. Badly. But he wanted to rest for at least a couple of minutes first. He pulled up his blinds and opened his window. The breeze floating in off the ocean would feel good right now.

  Wait, he thought as he dropped down on the bed. That’s not right.

  He’d left the blinds up this morning, he was sure of it. Why had they been shut? His dad wouldn’t have done it. He mostly stayed out of Luke’s room. He always joked that Luke deserved a private man-cave. Not that he’d provided the very large flat screen TV that any man-cave should have.

  Someone had been in the room, though. Luke sat up and glanced around. Now that he was paying attention, he kept noticing other things that were off. A book that he was sure had been on the right side of his desk was now on the left. And a couple of pages of his history paper had ended up on the floor.

  A demon had gone right into Jess’s room. At least Luke was pretty sure it had been a demon, since the girls had decided that Simon was innocent. Had a demon been in his room too?

  The sword!

  Could a demon have come in and stolen it? Luke jumped up. He’d stashed the sword under his bed after he’d gotten it out to fight Amunnic. He pulled up the bedspread and peered into the dimness beneath
the bed.

  There was nothing there but a few fluffy clumps of dust. The sword was gone. It was ancient and rare and incredibly valuable. It was the only weapon that could kill a demon. That Payne had given it to Luke with his dying breath made it even more precious. And now it was gone.

  Luke let the bedspread drop. As he did, he noticed something sparkling in the sunlight. He bent over to check it out, and found that one of Eve’s earrings had gotten caught on the cloth of the bedspread. He pulled it off and studied it. Long and dangly. Eve wore earrings like that a lot.

  But so did a lot of girls. Lots and lots of girls. Lots and lots of girls hadn’t been in his room though.

  He fingered the delicate silver earring. It couldn’t have been caught on his bedspread for long. He would have noticed it.

  Which meant that Eve – or at least some girl – must have been in his room. Recently. While he wasn’t home. But who? And why?

  Chapter Ten

  Oooh, Eve thought as she stepped into the Deepdene High gym before school the next morning. A glittering silver Eiffel Tower about four metres tall stood in one corner. A three-metre-tall Arc de Triomphe, also silver, stood near the entrance. They looked like they’d been brushed with moonlight, which was perfect for the theme of the prom – An Evening in Paris.

  Students, mostly seniors, were clustered in groups working to continue the gym’s transformation. Carrie, Lindsey and a couple of others were painting a huge moon, Dave and some guys from the basketball team were weaving twinkle lights around the bases of the flower displays, Jess was in a group adding glitter to what looked like at least a hundred stars.

  Eve’s stomach started doing gymnastics when she spotted Jess at the star station. Should she go over and apologize? No. The fight was a lot more Jess’s fault than Eve’s, and Jess was the one who’d stomped off. If someone was going to apologize, it should be her.

  And anyway, Eve was kind of apologizing just by being here. She didn’t have to help decorate. That was a job for people who were going to the prom. Eve thought joining in would show Jess that she was absolutely wrong about Eve being jealous of her going to the dance. OK, maybe she’d been a little jealous, but she hadn’t acted jealous, so that didn’t count. Besides, she’d mostly been jealous of Jess going to the prom without her, not of her actually going.