Dancing With Demons

by Trudi Jaye

  “Not in so many words. You said you couldn’t kiss me because of the job. You said the SIG never interferes with human laws.” The words are bursting out of me.

  “That’s ridiculous. Me not kissing you is nothing to do with keeping you safe. You should have told me.”

  He turns a corner much faster than necessary, and I have to grab the handle above the door to avoid crashing into him. He’s glancing in the rearview mirror, and I turn to look back. There are three police cars chasing us.

  “Where are we going? How do we escape them?” I ask. The thought of going back to the cold prison cell makes me turn back around and focus on where we’re going.

  “What the hell happened when your parents died?”

  “The police believed I did it and sent for a psychiatrist. She confirmed that I was clearly violent and unstable because I said a glowing blue monster did it, and they locked me up in an insane asylum. What else is there to know?”

  “Were they right?” His voice is calm and makes me want to throw something at him.

  “I didn’t kill my parents!”

  “Even accidentally?”

  “I watched the demon rip them apart. I screamed, and that chased the demon away. I didn’t know it at the time, but my scream was all that saved me from the demon.”

  “But no one believed you?”

  I shake my head, the memories vivid even after all these years. The night sky, the blue glow, the dead eyes of the demon. My father’s screams. My mother’s sobs.

  Everything. I remember it all.

  “Shit.”

  Buildings and houses are blurring past us, and I risk another glance behind me. There are still police chasing us. I can’t imagine how Blade is planning to get us out of this.

  “Did it go to court?”

  “I was sent straight to Ravenwood. I was considered mentally incapable of standing trial.”

  Blade lets out a harsh breath. “You escaped from Ravenwood?”

  “Yes,” I say softly. The word doesn’t say enough, doesn’t tell the full story of my escape, and what it meant. “When I look back now, I think maybe I started coming into my powers just after my parents’ death. I think I used them somehow, when I escaped.” I take a breath, trying to organize my thoughts, even as we tear through the streets with the sirens blaring behind us.

  “You must have used them somehow. Instinct perhaps. That’s what happens with most shifters. Even if a child isn’t with their pack when the change happens, they can still get through by instinct.”

  I try to sift through my memories and see what occurred through a new lens. “I was being transferred back to Ravenwood after a short stay at a hospital,” I say slowly. I don’t tell him why I was at the hospital. He doesn’t need to know Dr. Green almost killed me. “We were in a Ravenwood ambulance. He hadn’t cuffed me—the orderly doing the transfer felt sorry for me, I think.” I make a face. “I was so young, just eighteen. We were driving through the countryside, and there was a dark copse of trees. I remember looking out the window, wishing desperately that I could be out there, in the world, instead of inside the police cruiser.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “The car crashed. I climbed out. The orderly was unconscious, but he seemed stable.” I shrugged. “I ran.”

  “That’s it? That’s all that happened?” Blade doesn’t seem convinced.

  The demon inside me wriggles around, and I try to think back. “There was a weird light. It might have been a blue glow, I guess. Could I have called a demon? Or absorbed some of their power somehow?” I turn to Blade, my eyes wide. “Did I cause the crash?”

  Blade swears, and the van swerves around a corner. The sirens are still behind us, but they’re further back. I hold tightly to the handle, my mind whirling with the thought that my escape might not have been as much a lucky accident as I’d always thought.

  “We’re going to stop and switch cars. As soon as I stop this truck, you get out, and run toward the building. You hear me?” Blade’s voice is urgent.

  “Yes,” I say. I swallow hard and try to keep focused on what we’re doing now.

  Blade turns another corner, and then another. The police cruisers are out of sight. He turns into a concrete driveway and speeds to the end, turning in behind another building. “Out! Out!” he says urgently.

  I clamber out of the van and sprint toward the only building I can see. It’s an old garage, battered and worn. Definitely seen better days.

  I pull open the door and run inside, turning to see Blade covering his van with an old canvas cloth. I stand at the door, trying to keep out of sight, but not willing to let Blade’s strong, comforting figure out of my sight.

  The sirens are coming closer, and there’s the sound of a helicopter in the distance.

  “Hurry up, Blade,” I say, gesturing madly with my arm.

  The van covered, he runs toward me, his face intent. The door of the garage slams shut just as the police cruisers speed past the end of the driveway. Inside, it’s darkness, light filtering into the space in weird shapes and patterns. For a moment I don’t know what to do. And then I feel the heat of Blade’s body close to mine. I slam my arms around his waist and take comfort from his heat.

  He just saved me from certain doom, and I can’t even begin to tell him how much that means to me.

  “Thank you,” I whisper, my whole body trembling.

  34

  “We wait here for two minutes, and then we drive in the opposite direction in my truck.” The words rumble in Blade’s chest, and it’s like a song against my cheek. His arms are around my back. My eyes are still shut. I don’t want this moment to end.

  But as always, it does. Blade clears his throat and pulls away. I reluctantly let him go.

  “Come on, we have to go.” He turns on a tiny flashlight on his keychain, and I see his familiar blue pickup truck parked in the garage.

  “You planned all this?” I ask, impressed.

  “If you’d told me about being wanted by the police, I wouldn’t have let you get yourself into that position in the first place,” he says.

  Okay, so we’re not over that yet.

  We get into the truck, Blade hands me a blue cap, and some big sunglasses, then presses a button on a remote and the garage door creakily moves up. I wince, expecting the police to turn into the driveway at any moment. But no one even notices us. I pull the cap down on my head to hide my face, and take off my own glasses, before putting the sunglasses on.

  “There’s a plaid shirt in the glove compartment. Put that on, and try to look like a guy,” says Blade. He’s carefully watching the road, his expression alert.

  “Do you know the owners?” I ask, peering around at the house and garden next to shed.

  “I’m the owner,” says Blade.

  “This is where you live?” I ask, surprised. It’s cute and quaint, and nothing like I would have expected.

  “No, I rent it out on the understanding that I might use the garage occasionally.”

  I struggle to understand him for a moment. “You expected something like this to happen?”

  “Not exactly this. But I like to be prepared. To have options.”

  When he gets to the end of the driveway, Blade turns back the way we came, toward the police station.

  “What are you doing?” I squeak the words out. “Don’t go back toward them.”

  “They’re looking for people speeding away. They won’t be looking for people driving toward them. Just sit tight, and try to look like a guy.”

  The road is clear, and Blade drives easily along the streets, and even dares to drive past the police station again, heading in the opposite direction this time.

  “You’re going to get us caught,” I say. My heart is thundering in my chest, and I’m trying to keep my thoughts calm. I don’t know how he can be so relaxed.

  “This is a solid plan. Just sit tight.”

  “You’re an adrenaline junkie. I can’t believe you’re doing this
.”

  “The SIG would never let us stay in jail, Hazel. They won’t get involved, but they wouldn’t let one of their agents be arrested.”

  “Isn’t that the definition of being involved?”

  “It’s a fine line,” Blade admits. He turns onto the freeway, and suddenly opens up the speed. I let out a long breath, allowing myself to breathe properly for the first time since I was arrested.

  “Where are we going?”

  “We have to get out of here. But I need to go back to your apartment for a few things.”

  “That’s the worst idea you’ve ever had. My apartment is the first place they’re going to look,” I say, thinking wistfully of all my stuff.

  “I talked to your buddy, Mr. Fookes. He said he’d help us. You just need to give him a call and arrange it.”

  I wince. “Was he upset?”

  “He said he wanted you to come back when we get everything sorted.”

  The chances of it all being sorted seem so dim at this point, I try to resign myself to never coming back here. “Sure,” I mutter, for lack of anything else to say.

  “Call Fookes.”

  I press the button on my phone without thinking. Mr. Fookes answers on the second ring.

  “Hi, Mr. Fookes, it’s Hazel from the fourth floor.”

  “Hey, Hazel. So you flew the coop, then, eh?”

  I grin. “I guess I did. Blade says that you can get some of our stuff from the apartment?”

  “Sure, no worries. I got the key. What do you want?”

  Blade clears his throat. “Tell him to be fast, they’ll shut it down soon.”

  I nod and rattle off everything I want. Some stuff from the lab, clothes, Blade’s bag. Anything I can think of to help us on the run. I need my new ID, but that’s in a security box out of town.

  “That’s all fine. I’ll meet you where I told Blade,” Mr. Fookes says mysteriously.

  “Uh, that’s good. We’ll see you soon.”

  I’m about to hang up when he speaks again. “One more thing. Your neighbor, Rosie from 4D just came down. She can’t find that son of hers and wanted to know if you knew where he was. She was pretty convinced you’d know about it.”

  “Nelson? She’s trying to find Nelson?” A creeping feeling starts at the bottom of my stomach.

  “Yeah, that’s his name. Good kid, no trouble at all. Not like some of them.”

  “Can you let her into my apartment, see if he’s in there?”

  “You think he might be there?”

  “He uses my PlayStation when I’m not at home. Can you check if he’s there and call me back?” I glance at Blade and his expression doesn’t give me hope. He’s thinking the same thing I am. Connor showed an interest in Nelson both times he came over. It can’t be a coincidence.

  “I’ll just tell her to go knock on the door,” he says.

  “Mr. Fookes, I need to know for sure whether Nelson is in my apartment. He might have the headset on and not hear her. Please, just go and open the door for Rosie and make sure Nelson is in the room.”

  “I’ll call you back.”

  He hangs up, and I let out a ragged breath. This is all my fault.

  “What’s happened to Nelson?”

  “He’s missing. His mother is looking for him.” Connor tried to have me arrested, and that didn’t work. Now he’s trying to hurt me in another way. I remember the calculating way Connor looked at Nelson the last time he was there.

  “Does he do that often? Go missing?”

  I shake my head. “She’s never come looking for him like this before.”

  I hold the phone tightly in my hands for the next five minutes as I wait for Mr. Fookes to call back. When it does eventually ring, it makes me jump out of my seat.

  “Hello?” I whisper.

  “Hello, Hazel. Your apartment was empty. Nelson wasn’t there.”

  I manage a strangled thank you to Mr. Fookes before hanging up.

  “He’s probably just down at the corner playing football with some friends,” says Blade. “That’s what kids that age do.”

  I shake my head. “He doesn’t do that kind of thing. That’s why he’s in my apartment every day after school.”

  “Kids do stuff like this all the time. He’ll turn up,” says Blade.

  I nod, but I don’t believe it. Nelson isn’t like other kids. He has a routine. And if his mother can’t find him, and he’s not at my place, then he’s in trouble. Where would Connor take him?

  “Maybe we should go to Connor’s offices? Just in case?”

  “Even if Connor has kidnapped Nelson, he wouldn’t take him to his offices,” says Blade. “He’d have found somewhere a bit more out of the way.”

  “Where else, then?”

  “Look, Hazel. We’ve got the police hunting us down. We don’t have time to go chasing after Nelson. He’ll just have to look after himself.”

  “You promised me. You said you’d help me take care of him.” I whisper the words, my throat suddenly raw with emotion.

  “That was before you got yourself arrested,” snaps Blade.

  “We have to—”

  My phone starts ringing, interrupting me. I look down at it unseeingly for a moment. The number is blocked. But then my brain clicks back on. It could be someone ringing about Nelson. I answer quickly.

  “Hazel? This is the Director speaking.”

  My disappointment is bitter in my throat. “Hello, Director.”

  “I hear you’ve had a spot of trouble?”

  Is he talking about being captured by the police and almost sent back to a mental institution? I glance at Blade, but he doesn’t give me any clues. “What do you mean?”

  “The murder charges, Hazel. The fact you were deemed too crazy to even stand trial.”

  I squeeze my eyes shut. “So you heard about that, then?”

  “I did. And I might be able to help you out. The SIG has some friends in the human system. I could make those charges go away for you.”

  I hear the ‘but’ in his tone, well before he mentions anything. He wants something from me. “That would be great, Director.”

  “All I’d require would be a little help from you. We’ve received data on another demon infestation. I need you and Blade to go there now. I need you to absorb the demons.”

  And there it is. “You’d be willing to get me off murder charges and out of going back to Ravenwood in return for absorbing a couple of demons?”

  “I think you’ll find there are more than just a couple of demons. This will be a difficult task, Hazel.”

  “But what about the police? They’re searching for us.” Not to mention the tiny fact that I never want to absorb a demon ever again. And that I have to go search for Nelson.

  “I can call them off temporarily. If everything goes according to plan, I should be able to get rid of your charges permanently.”

  Despite the tempting lure he’s holding out for me, my instinct is to say no. I don’t need the Director to save or help me. I’ve protected myself for the last few years, and I can keep doing it. Except if I say yes, he’ll call off the police temporarily, allowing us to search for Nelson. We can find him before the police start looking for me again.

  I glance over at Blade. He’s watching the road, studiously not looking in my direction.

  Maybe we could even find Nelson, and then go find the demons. Surely Blade could just absorb them into his knife?

  Then I could stay in Stanford.

  What would it be like to not have to run? What would it be like to make real friends and make a real home for myself? The thought is dazzling.

  “Okay, I’ll do it. Give me the address.”

  He rattles off the address in a smug tone that makes me want to change my mind. Clearly I still have issues with authority figures. I hang up the call.

  “The Director wants us to go to this location and absorb some demons. He’s going to call off the police. Which means we can go look for Nelson.”

  I�
��ve barely finished my sentence when my phone buzzes again, making me jump. This time it’s a text.

  From Connor.

  I have the boy. Meet me at the university lab. Come alone.

  An empty pit opens up where my stomach should be. It’s one thing to guess that it was Connor; it’s another to be right.

  One more text arrives.

  Don’t tell the SIG agent or I will kill the boy.

  35

  “Was that the Director again?”

  I nod numbly. “I need to go to the university,” I whisper.

  “We don’t have time. We need to meet up with Fookes, get our stuff.”

  The urge to tell Blade is strong, but I can’t risk it. “There’s a device that will help us if we have to fight demons later. It’s important.”

  Blade looks over at me. “Are you sure?” His expression is dark. Not quite trusting.

  I have to resist the urge to wince. I want to tell him, I really do, but Connor will kill Nelson.

  “If we hurry, we can still be there on time for Mr. Fookes. He’s got to get all our stuff and then get to the meeting point.” Tears form in my eyes. “I’m going to have to leave everything behind. I just want to grab some of my gear.”

  Without a word, Blade puts his foot down on the accelerator and turns at the next corner. We’re going to the university.

  I manage to push down the terrible thoughts that are churning inside me, filling me with terror. Connor was really angry last night. He could be taking it out on an eleven-year-old boy. Except I won’t let him. I’m not going to let Connor do anything to Nelson. I’m going to save him, no matter what.

  The half hour that it takes to go along the freeway and back to Stanford feels like forever. My body is trembling by the time I climb out of the pickup.

  “Just wait here for me. I won’t be long.”

  Blade is about to argue the point when his mobile phone rings. He looks down at the number. “It’s the Director.”

  “Take it. Find out what information you can about the demon infestation. I won’t be long.” I say the words as if it doesn’t matter to me whether he takes the call or not. Except my demon is bouncing around inside me like it’s part of the ping pong Olympics.