by Jasmine Walt
“Yeah. He said his dad dug up a ton of demon books, and we get to go through them. Ethan said he thinks it could take all night.”
“Sounds fun,” Laney said, but with only a bit of sarcasm. “Need any help?”
“Yeah, actually. We could use an extra set of eyes. You don’t have to, though. It’s not as fun as it sounds.”
“I’ve got nothing else to do. Josh picked up an extra shift, so I’m not hanging out wit him. I have no homework, and I don’t have to watch my sister.”
“If you really want to. I mean, I don’t want you feeling like you’re getting dragged into this craziness.”
“Annie,” Laney opened her car door, “come on, you’re my best friend. What wouldn’t I do for you?”
I got that sappy look in my eyes. “I love you, Laney.”
“I know!” She smiled. “Come on, let’s go!”
“Follow me, he doesn’t live far.”
I was still smiling and feeling the warmth in my heart from my amazing best friend when I called Ethan to let him know Laney was coming to help. We talked the whole ten-minute drive to his house. I hung up when I was parked in the driveway.
“Oh, this is one of those cool, old houses!” Laney said as we walked up the stone steps to the front door. “It’s not haunted, is it?”
“Not at all,” I assured her.
“Good, because I wasn’t sure, since Ethan’s life is about hunting that sort of thing.”
I knocked on the door. “Actually, this is probably the safest place I can think of. Ethan told me a lot of protective wards were put around the house.”
“Really?” I nodded as Ethan answered.
“You know you don’t have to knock. You can come in,” he told me.
I shrugged. I felt like I was close enough to Ethan to just come in, but not his family. Apart from Ethan and Julia, I didn’t always feel the welcome vibe from everyone.
“Hey, Ethan,” Laney said with a small wave.
“Hey. You ready for a night of demon-filled fun?” he joked.
“As long as the demons stay in the books, I’m fine,” Laney said with a serious smile. “They will stay in the books, right?”
“Probably,” Ethan said with a half smile.
Laney laughed nervously, hoping Ethan was joking. She gasped suddenly as Ethan turned.
“How? Yesterday-that-w-what?” Laney stammered.
Ethan looked down at his left arm and smiled. “I can thank Annie for that.”
I hadn’t seen the gash on his arm since yesterday. I pushed his sleeve up to his shoulder and gently ran a finger over it. The wound wasn’t completely healed, but instead of the ugly, puffy, infected gash that tore through his skin, there was a very old-looking scab. The bruises were gone, and there were no signs of it being stitched up. It looked like the injury happened weeks ago.
“It worked!” I whispered in disbelief.
Ethan put his arms around my waist and pulled me in. “I’ll have to thank you later,” he said and gave me a peck on the lips.
“How did you do it?” Laney asked, still bewildered.
“Quartz crystals,” I informed her. “They have healing properties, so I thought if I put some over the cut for the night, it would help it heal. But I had no idea that they would work this well.”
“Can they heal anything?” She cocked her head a bit.
“Uh,” I looked at Ethan. “I’m not sure.”
Ethan took his hands off my middle and said, “No. They can help generate the energy that promotes healing for anything, but anything bigger than this cut would be too much. Or you’d need a ton of crystals. And you’d have to know how to properly charge them.”
“Oh, okay.” Laney nodded, her eyes still wide in amazement.
Ethan sighed. “The books are in the kitchen. Let’s get down to business.”
“‘To defeat the Huns’?” I asked with a smile.
Ethan raised an eyebrow. “What?”
I shook my head. “I guess you’ve never seen that movie.” I waved my hand in the air. “Never mind.”
The three of us went into the kitchen, where I introduced Laney to Julia. We sat around the table and started flipping through books, skimming the pages in hopes of finding a picture or a passage about the bird-demons.
But when the clock struck eight and we still hadn’t found anything useful, we decided to call it a night. I walked Laney to her car and hurried back inside. I had an hour and a half until I had to be home, though Mom and Dad weren’t as strict with my curfew as they were with Harrison’s. I was sure it was because I rarely got into trouble. And Harry was a magnet for that sort of thing.
Ethan and I sat in the living room, cuddled up on the couch in front of a crackling fire. I rested my head on his shoulder, my mind swimming with images of demons I had seen in the books. Ethan brushed my hair back and leaned in to kiss me. His lips softly pressed against mine. I closed my eyes and surrendered to him.
Ethan leaned back, taking me with him. “Want to go upstairs?”
I nodded, though I didn’t want to get up. I wanted to stay right there, making out with Ethan by the firelight. But his family was home. I could hear Sam playing around with a police scanner in the kitchen. I didn’t want anyone to walk in and see us.
Ethan took my hand and led me to his bedroom. We quickly picked up right where we left off. Ethan’s touch was so warm and wonderful, but I couldn’t help the stray thought that entered my head. The kin of the Coven…something had been bothering me about that in a subconscious way for quite a while. A light bulb went on over my head suddenly.
“Harry!” I said, pushing abruptly away from Ethan.
“Uh, no. I’m Ethan.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’m into role-playing, but not like that.”
“Shut up. I had a thought.” I repositioned myself off of Ethan. “I am ‘kin of the Coven,’ right?”
“Yeah,” Ethan said, sounding a bit annoyed that I broke off the action.
“Well, Harry’s my kin, so doesn’t that make him kin of the Coven?”
Ethan looked perplexed. “It would seem so, but I don’t think it works like that. Your mom’s related to the Coven too, but in magical terms, I don’t think ‘kin’ means what it does in normal terms.”
“Oh. It doesn’t make sense.” I let out breath.
“No, it doesn’t,” Ethan agreed and reached for me. He ran his fingers through my hair, knowing that I absolutely loved it. I closed my eyes but tried to focus on my question.
“Why then? Why me and not them?”
“I don’t know,” Ethan said, gently pushing me down. He ran his fingers through my hair again and kissed my neck, another sensation that I loved. My questions could wait. I turned my attention back to Ethan, urging him onto me. For the next hour, I didn’t think about kin of the Coven.
I put my bra back on and looked around for my pants. I spotted them as my phone rang. I was worried it was my parents, telling me to come home, even though I still had a little over twenty minutes before curfew. I was relieved and surprised to see it was Harrison instead. He never called me.
“Hello?” I said, hoping everything okay. He didn’t answer right away. I could hear music and laughter in the background.
“Anora!” Harrison yelled cheerfully, in a horrible Italian accent.
Seriously? He was drunk on a school night? I rolled my eyes and inhaled slowly to keep my temper.
“Yeah?” I sat on the edge of the bed and put on my jeans one-handed.
“Can you bring me—” He cut off abruptly and said something to someone in the background. “Hello?” he asked, not knowing who he was talking to.
“Harry, what do you want?”
“Annie, it’s you.”
“Of course it is. You called me. What do you want?”
“Right. Keys.”
“Keys for what?” There was another pause. Then Harrison howled with laughter. “Harry!” I yelled into the phone. Ethan raised an eyebrow. I shook my head, tell
ing him it was no big deal.
“My car.”
“Why on earth do you need keys? What happened to yours?” I asked before realizing that I didn’t want him driving anywhere.
“They’re in a tree.”
“Do I even want to know why?” I sighed.
“I was Thomas Edison.”
“Whatever, where are you?”
He gave me an address, and I told him I’d bring him the keys. Really, I was going to take him home.
With a sigh, I got dressed and perched on the bed next to Ethan. I wasn’t sure if he was really listening when I filled him in on what was going on. I was about to get up and leave when he snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me back down onto him.
“I’ll take you,” he offered.
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to,” he said.
“No, you don’t. You worry too much.”
“Only because I love you,” he said, his eyes still closed. I got up and picked up his clothes. A flash of lightning lit up the room, and rain steadily pattered against the window. I tossed his clothes at him and turned on the light.
Ten minutes later and we were out the door, heading to the address Harrison had given me, which turned out to be close to the downtown area. We parked in the street. Ethan took my hand and led me around the back of the house, following the sounds of music and laughter. A large group of people was huddled under a make-shift canopy that consisted of several plastic tarps, umbrellas, and pieces of cardboard. The air smelled of alcohol and smoke, and the energy was chaotic.
With a bit of difficulty, we found my belligerent brother. Even in the dim light, I could tell his eyes were extremely bloodshot. He was sitting inside a shabby living room, on a couch that you couldn’t pay me to sit on. His head was bobbing up and down slowly, like he was resisting sleep.
“Great,” I said under my breath. Harrison’s eyes widened in excitement when he saw me, but only for a split second, and then his head went down again.
“I think he’s gonna need some help,” Ethan told me. I couldn’t agree more. Ethan helped him up and took one side. I went to Harrison’s other side and put his arm over my shoulders. His shirt was soaking wet. Please be from rain water. We slowly made our way back outside. Maybe it was the movement of walking or maybe it was the cold rain on his face, but Harrison perked up. I took this opportunity to ask again about the keys.
Harrison looked up into a tree and said, “They’re there.” I followed his gaze and saw a plastic kite tangled on bare branches.
“Why are they there?” Ethan asked.
“I was being Thomas Edison,” Harrison said again, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
I ducked out from Harrison’s hold on me a little too fast, and he stumbled forward. Luckily, Ethan was strong and had quick reflexes.
“First of all, it was Ben Franklin who did the whole keys on a kite thing, and second, you’re an idiot,” I scolded.
I extended my hand towards the kite and telekinetically pulled it down. The keys were tied tightly to it, and I needed Ethan’s pocket-knife to cut them off. I had to suppress the urge to slap Harry upside the head; he’d probably fall right over if I did.
“Ethan, you can go home. I’m driving Harry in his car because I think he’s gonna puke at any second now.”
“I feel fine!” Harrison laughed.
“You sure?” Ethan asked me, not sounding too sure himself.
“Yes,” I promised.
I pressed the automatic start for the BMW. Thank God it had heated seats. The rain soaked through my clothes and the wind had picked up.
“You’ve done so much for me the last few days, and you deserve to sleep tonight. I don’t think Harry will be going to school tomorrow, so I can come right over afterwards, if you want me to.”
A rabbit shot out from under a nearby bush. Upon seeing it, Harrison lunged forward, saying he was going to catch it.
“Oh my God,” I said slowly to myself.
I struggled to hold onto Harrison’s arm. Ethan stepped in and helped me get him into the car. I buckled him in, closed the passenger door, and turned to Ethan. “I think I’m gonna have to do a spell to cover for Harry. Maybe the Agreeance Spell to let him stay home tomorrow.”
“Or you could say he got food poisoning,” Ethan suggested.
“Oh, I guess so.” That was simple and easy, and it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Maybe I was looking for reasons to do spells.
Distant lightning flashed across the dark horizon. I wrapped my arms around Ethan and sighed. He kissed the top of my head. “I love you,” I told him.
“And I love you, Anora,” he said sweetly, making me feel warm inside. He placed his hands on my hips and kissed me that wonderful, passionate kiss, making me want him all over again. “Call me when you get home, so I know you’re okay. I’ll drop your car off later so your parents don’t ask about it.”
“I’ll call, and you don’t have to drop it off if you won’t want to. Thanks for helping me with Drunkey, too.”
“I think you needed it.” Ethan shot a half worried glance at my inebriated twin. He moved his cold hands to under my shirt. “I’ll miss you tonight,” he said, looking over me to survey our surroundings.
“I’ll miss you too. I feel safe when I’m with you,” I confessed.
We kissed again before I got into the BMW and headed towards home. Harrison was rambling about sports…football maybe? I wasn’t really paying attention, and he was talking so fast that I couldn’t keep up.
“What did you take?” I asked him.
When he didn’t answer, I looked over and saw that his eyes were closing again. Suddenly, he gasped.
“I want Doritos!” he exclaimed.
“Okay, I’m sure we have some at the house.”
“No.”
“I think we do.”
“We don’t. I know we don’t.”
“Well, eat something else. I know we have some other kinds of chips.”
“I don’t want chips.” His voice was getting louder. “I want Doritos!”
“You’re acting like a freaking kid right now, Harry.”
“Doritos!” he yelled and reached for the steering wheel. I slapped his hands away.
“If I get your freaking Doritos, will you shut the hell up?” I asked, eyeing the low fuel light. I was going to have to stop for gas before we got home anyway.
“Yes,” he said, laughing.
“Fine.” The rain had subsided a bit. The warm leather seat made me relaxed, and I realized how tired I was. So much had happened in the last few days. It was overwhelming and exhausting…and it was gonna be another long night.
Red and blue flashing lights told me that the turn onto McCool Street was blocked off.
“Shit, the cops!” Harrison said and ducked down. I rolled my eyes and went around the block. I parked, filled up the tank, and opened Harry’s door.
“Stay,” I said firmly, looking right into Harrison’s bloodshot eyes. I didn’t even make it into the gas station before I heard scuffling on the pavement behind me. I stopped and turned around, waiting for Harrison to stumble his way towards me. He stood a foot in front of me and swayed. Sirens echoed a few streets away. I put my arm around Harrison and steered him towards the car.
“I told you to stay in the car!” I yelled in a hushed voice. Two other cars were parked by the pumps. The sirens grew louder, and a police car sped past us. I opened the door and pushed him inside. The last thing I needed were the cops seeing Harrison’s erratic behavior. There was no way he could hide his surfeit of partying.
Harrison flopped down on the seat and bounced right back up. “You’re a good sister, you know?”
“Trust me, I’m the best,” I said, trying to push him down again. Harrison was taller and stronger than me, and he wasn’t budging.
“You are,” he agreed, though I thought he would agree with anything right now…except sitting in the damn car! He patted my shoulde
r.
“Harry, please sit and I’ll get your Doritos.”
“I need to come with.”
“Why?”
“To make sure you get the right kind.”
“Ugh, whatever, I just want to go home.” I grabbed Harrison’s hand and led him into the mini-mart. I felt like a mother with an oversized toddler going through his terrible twos.
“Rough night?” the cashier asked when he saw our soaking clothes.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I said as I paid for Harrison’s freaking chips. I took Harrison’s hand and led him back to the car, wanting this night to end already.
I ended up staying awake to take care of Harrison most of the night. Needless to say, I was a zombie the next day at school, too tired to care that my hair was in a messy bun and I had mismatching socks on. The first half of the day dragged on forever. I was grateful when I slumped down at the lunch table, hoping food would refuel me.
I was halfway through my lunch when I saw him. He was sitting across from me like it was a completely normal thing for a ghost to do. He looked better today, no messy hair and no blood. But there was terror in his eyes, and he desperately tried to shout out a warning. I of course wasn’t expecting to see the ghost of Ryan.
When I looked up from my salad, I gasped and dropped my fork. Lettuce covered in ranch dressing splattered all over my lap. Everyone at the table stared at me. I didn’t take my eyes off of Ryan. I could feel his panic and see his mouth move, but I didn’t have any idea what he was trying to say. Then he became completely still and vanished.
Slowly, I turned to face Laney. “Was it?” she asked, not needing to finish the question. I nodded.
“Uh, everything okay?” Marie asked. I kept looking at Laney, not wanting to turn and see the judgment in Marie’s eyes.
“Yeah.” I forced my head in her direction. She, Natalie, Jill, and two other cheerleaders looked warily at me. “Excuse me.” I pushed my chair back forcefully. “Get my stuff?” I asked Laney as I dashed out of the lunchroom.
I ran into the bathroom and put both hands on a sink. Leaning forward to the mirror, I looked into my green eyes.
“What is wrong with me?” I asked my reflection. But the only answer I got back was my own worried expression. A toilet flushed, and a freshman girl came out of a stall, looking at me weird for talking to myself. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. There were footsteps coming from the hall that gradually got louder. The energy felt familiar. I opened my eyes to find Laney two feet away from me.
