Shadows

by Amy Meredith

  ‘I was hoping you’d have one of those signs on your door,’ Eve teased. ‘One that said: No trespassing. Mal—’ She thought for a second. ‘No trespassing. Mallory’s room.’

  ‘I am not a Mallory,’ he replied as they walked back downstairs.

  ‘Jamal?’ she asked. ‘Ja-mal?’

  ‘Nope.’

  ‘Mal-icious?’ she joked.

  He didn’t answer. Of course.

  ‘No, you could never be malicious,’ Eve said. ‘You’re my total hero. Thanks again for the rescue. And the smoothie. And the tour. I should head home.’

  ‘I’ll walk you.’ Mal opened the front door and stepped back to let her go first.

  ‘You don’t have to,’ Eve protested.

  ‘I don’t want you out there alone,’ Mal told her.

  For a second Eve relived her encounter. She could almost feel the freckled guy’s arm around her neck. ‘I’m sure those boys are gone. I can take care of myself,’ she insisted, fighting to control the shivers racing through her.

  ‘Let’s not find out.’ Mal shut the door behind them and started down the front steps.

  Thankyouthankyouthankyou, Eve thought. She wanted Mal to think she was competent and confident and brave and all that. But she really didn’t want to walk home alone. And even as she was protesting, she’d known Mal wouldn’t allow it. He was too gallant.

  Mal turned the correct way when they reached the end of his driveway. ‘Do you know where I live?’ Eve asked.

  ‘I’ve figured a few things out since I moved here,’ Mal replied with a smile, not quite answering the question.

  Hmmm, Eve thought as he led them onto the little horse path that cut between Medway Lane and Sycamore Street. You really weren’t supposed to walk there – it was for riders only – but everybody on Eve’s street used it as a short cut from the village houses to the beach. What else has he figured out about me? Was it possible he was as interested in the secret life of Eve as she was in the secret life of Mal? If that’s what was going on, Mal was definitely ahead. Eve hadn’t even gotten his entire first name out of him!

  Neither of them was going to find out more on their walk. Mal was back to his usual quiet self. And for once, Eve didn’t feel like she had to talk to fill the silence. It felt right just walking alongside him, so close their arms occasionally brushed, so close she could smell that wood-smoke smell of him.

  Mal turned off the horse path right where Sycamore Street intersected it. Nobody in Eve’s neighbourhood kept horses on their property, so the path was sectioned off by a low barricade to keep cars – and pedestrians – out. Mal jumped it, and then held out his hand for Eve’s.

  ‘I’ve been climbing over this thing since I was five,’ she said. But she still took his hand and let him help her over. The touch of his skin made her knees feel wobbly, so maybe it was a good thing he was being so polite, after all.

  ‘I’m only two houses from here. I think I’ll be safe,’ Eve said.

  ‘I want to be sure.’ Mal headed off down the street as if he knew exactly where she lived. Eve followed him right up to the driveway of her house, and then he stopped short.

  ‘Do you want to come in?’ she asked.

  ‘Looks like you have company,’ Mal said. Eve glanced over and saw Jess and Luke waiting for her on the porch.

  ‘That’s OK. You don’t have to leave.’

  ‘I’ll lose all my mysteriousness if I stay,’ Mal teased. He reached out, gave her hand a fast squeeze, waved to Jess and Luke, then walked away.

  ‘Um, bye!’ Eve called after him. Why was he going so fast? ‘And thanks!’ she yelled. She took a deep breath. She could still catch the hint of wood-smoke on the air.

  Smiling to herself, she turned towards her house – and saw Luke barrelling down the walkway towards her.

  ‘You’d better have a good explanation for yourself!’ he yelled.

  Chapter Nine

  Eve blinked, surprised. ‘Um … hi,’ she said to Luke. ‘What are you doing here?’

  Jess rushed up and threw her arms around Eve. ‘I was so worried!’ she exclaimed. ‘You said you’d meet me at my place, and you didn’t show up. So I thought I got it wrong and I came here, but then you weren’t here either! I thought maybe—’

  ‘With everything that’s been going on with you, you can’t just disappear like that,’ Luke interrupted. ‘It’s—’

  Eve held up both hands in surrender. ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa! I’ve had an extremely bad day,’ she said. ‘Have mercy!’ Between the run-in with the gang of guys, her new lightning-bolt power, and Mal, she’d completely forgotten that she was supposed to meet Jess after cheerleading practice.

  ‘Yeah, being on a hot date. It must have been horrible for you,’ Luke muttered.

  It wasn’t a date. But Eve had to admit that the Mal part of her afternoon had been pretty nice. The last hour had been a rollercoaster of awesome and horrible.

  ‘It wasn’t a date,’ Eve told Luke. ‘And what are you doing here anyway?’ She shot Jess a questioning look.

  ‘I didn’t bring him,’ Jess said, shrugging. ‘He was just here.’

  ‘I thought you wanted my help. Guess I was wrong.’ Luke turned and headed towards the street.

  OK, I was just such a witch to him, Eve thought. And he was so great yesterday.

  ‘Wait.’ She caught Luke by the elbow. ‘Stay.’ He didn’t pull his arm away, but he still looked ready to leave. ‘Please,’ she added. ‘I know it doesn’t look like it, but I really did have a horrible thing happen. That’s why I was all snappy with you.’

  Luke frowned, and Jess’s eyes filled with worry. ‘I knew it!’ she cried. ‘I could just feel that something was wrong. So … did the bad thing involve your hair?’

  Eve knew she was teasing, trying to lighten the mood. ‘Sort of,’ she said, smiling.

  ‘Let’s go sit,’ Luke put in, apparently deciding to stay. ‘Tell us what happened.’

  Jess took her arm, led the way up onto the porch, and settled Eve in the nearest chair. But she couldn’t sit still, not when she was thinking about those boys. She jumped right back up and began to pace.

  ‘I was walking along Medway, over by the beach, and these four guys came after me.’ She swallowed hard. Her throat had gone dry just talking about it.

  ‘What guys?’ Luke cried.

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen them before,’ Eve said.

  ‘Well, what did they look like? Describe them.’ Luke was pacing now too. Somehow that made Eve feel calmer. She eased down onto the porch swing next to Jess.

  ‘What happened?’ Jess asked gently.

  Eve looked at her best friend, and suddenly her eyes filled with tears. She felt wrung out and shaky, and she knew if she tried to talk, she’d cry.

  ‘It’s all hitting you, isn’t it, Evie?’ Jess said.

  Eve nodded.

  ‘OK. Sit tight. I’m playing hostess.’ Jess got up and disappeared into the house.

  Eve wanted to just close her eyes and chill, or sleep, or meditate – anything that would take her mind off what had happened to her, and what she had done to that guy …

  ‘Tell me everything,’ Luke demanded.

  So much for chilling. Eve sighed. ‘Can we wait for Jess? She’ll want to hear everything too.’ She really didn’t want to have to go through all the details twice. Luke nodded, and kept on pacing. ‘Can you sit, please?’ she asked.

  Luke paused in front of her. ‘Just tell me they didn’t hurt you.’

  ‘They didn’t hurt me. They scared me. But they didn’t hurt me.’ Eve thought about the boy turning to dust. Had she killed him? Had she really killed someone? ‘Can you please sit? You’re hovering. In a nice way,’ she added quickly. She wanted Luke to know she appreciated him being so worried about her, even if he was kind of stressing her out.

  Luke dropped down on the swing next to her. A few moments later, Jess appeared from inside. ‘Berry-cherry smoothies for everyone.’ She put three glasses
on the low wicker table in front of Eve and Luke, then took a seat on one of the chairs.

  ‘Wow. I must look like I need energy or something. Mal made me a smoothie too,’ Eve said.

  ‘Mal cooked for you?’ Jess asked, wide-eyed.

  Eve smiled. She couldn’t help it, even after everything that had happened. ‘Well, he blended.’ That went in the awesome part of the rollercoaster category.

  ‘Was Mal there when those guys came after you?’ Luke asked.

  ‘No. I was near his house, though.’

  ‘What were you doing over there, anyway?’ Jess interrupted. ‘You were supposed to be coming to my house.’

  ‘I had time to kill, so I took the long way,’ Eve said, hoping she wasn’t blushing. It wouldn’t matter, though. Jess always knew what she was really thinking.

  ‘So you were walking to Jess’s, and …’ Luke prompted.

  ‘These four guys started, you know, calling out to me. Which was no big deal. It happens,’ Eve said. ‘I ignored them. But they came after me. And … and one of them grabbed me. He was practically choking me.’

  Luke cursed in a low voice. Jess gasped. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘I don’t know exactly what I did,’ Eve admitted. ‘But I did something. I felt my body go all hot and tingly, and then I just … sort of … shocked him, I guess. I mean, all of a sudden he was lying on the ground and yelling that I’d shocked him. So …’

  ‘Good for you. Did they stop then?’ Luke’s hands curled into fists.

  ‘No. They got mad. One of the other guys came right at me. I put my hands out like this—’ Eve held her arms straight out in front of her to demonstrate. ‘And lightning came out of my hands. Not sparks like you saw. Lightning. It hit the guy right in the chest and …’ Her words trailed off. What had really happened? Could she actually tell them this part? She hadn’t told Mal.

  ‘And what?’ Luke asked.

  Jess seemed to get that it was something really bad, because she squeezed Eve’s hand. ‘It’s OK. Just say it.’

  ‘The lightning hit him, and he turned into smoke,’ Eve said in a rush. ‘I don’t know if I killed him or what. I was just watching him, and he was there and then he was gone. And there was this smoke, and the smoke kind of twisted away. I think … Oh my God, I think I incinerated him.’

  Jess and Luke were both frowning. ‘What about Mal?’ Luke asked.

  ‘Um, he showed up right after that,’ Eve said. ‘He scared the guys off. He rescued me.’

  ‘Sounds like you weren’t doing too badly rescuing yourself,’ Luke said thoughtfully. ‘So the guy turned into smoke?’

  ‘I don’t know if it actually was smoke, but it looked like smoke. Dark grey smoke. It didn’t blow apart. It stayed together. Like I said, it kind of twisted away, like a smoke snake slithering through the air,’ Eve told him, confused. She’d been expecting a bigger reaction to the whole I killed a guy confession.

  ‘Oh my God! That reminds me. I can’t believe I didn’t tell you – but what with the smoke snake and Mal and everything there was a lot going on,’ Jess said. ‘Anyway, I saw Belinda when I went to my locker after practice. She was talking about demons, just like the ones Megan was saying she dreamed about. And Rose too. Belinda was really upset.’ Jess turned to Luke. ‘You know Belinda, right? Oh, wait, of course you do. She’s one of your groupies.’

  ‘I don’t have groupies,’ Luke said, shooting a glance at Eve. ‘But, yeah, I know Belinda. We’ve hung out a few times.’

  Jess smirked at him. ‘You did a little hanging out with Megan too, didn’t you?’

  Luke opened his mouth to answer, but Eve couldn’t take it any more.

  ‘What are you two talking about?’ she burst out. ‘I just told you I dissolved somebody by shooting lightning out of my fingers! Who cares about Luke’s busy love life?’

  They both looked at her in surprise. And then Jess patted her hand like she was a toddler having a tantrum or something.

  ‘Calm down, Eve. Just listen.’ She glanced up at Luke. ‘This is what I wanted to tell you – Belinda also talked about smoke. Demons turning into smoke!’

  Eve felt panic rising in her gut. ‘So what? You think I’m a demon that turns people into smoke?’

  ‘No, Belinda said the demons turn into smoke,’ Jess said.

  ‘That’s bizarre,’ Luke put in. ‘Because a couple of days ago, this woman came by the rectory looking for my dad. She was practically hysterical. And she was talking about a demon trying to take her soul. I’m pretty sure she said something about smoke too.’

  ‘Am I a demon?’ Eve cried. ‘You guys are freaking me out!’

  ‘No one is saying you’re a demon,’ Luke told her. ‘But listen: I was doing some research online, and I found out that Deepdene used to be called Demondene. The name changed about a hundred years ago.’

  ‘Our town was named after demons?’ Jess exclaimed.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Luke answered. ‘I just think it’s interesting that in a place that used to be called Demondene, people are freaking out about demons.’

  ‘Why were you researching the history of Deepdene?’ Eve asked.

  ‘I wasn’t, exactly,’ Luke said. ‘I was trying to find out more about your powers. I said I was going to help, remember?’

  ‘I certainly don’t remember that,’ Jess cut in. ‘Did I miss something?’

  ‘Yeah, I never got to tell you,’ Eve said. ‘Luke kinda saw me—’

  ‘She shot sparks at me because I got her mad,’ Luke interrupted with a grin. ‘And then she set a piece of paper on fire. Plus, she was drinking water in the school library.’

  Eve rolled her eyes.

  ‘You made her mad?’ Jess sounded outraged. ‘What did you do?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Luke said. ‘I teased her about how she always needs to look perfect.’

  He thinks I’m pretty, Eve suddenly remembered. That day in the library he’d said something about her being able to do more than look pretty.

  ‘Girls don’t like to be teased,’ Jess scolded. ‘How can you be such a player and not know a basic thing like that?’

  ‘I do now,’ Luke said.

  ‘Yeah, only because I sparked you,’ Eve grumbled. ‘Can we get back to the part where I’m a killer? Because you guys don’t seem too upset about it.’

  ‘That’s what I’m trying to tell you,’ Luke said. ‘I said I’d help you figure out your powers, so I looked online for anything about sparks coming from someone’s fingers or people being able to start fires. I got a ton of hits. One of them was about Deepdene. Demondene, actually. There are legends about a witch, the Demondene Witch, who could produce fire from her fingertips.’

  ‘I’m a witch now?’ Eve exclaimed.

  ‘They would have called anybody with supernatural powers a witch back then,’ Luke reassured her.

  ‘You’re definitely not a witch,’ Jess said firmly. ‘Although your hair is looking a little Halloweeny.’ She gently loosened Eve’s hair from the impromptu bun, and smoothed it out with her fingers. She pulled a little bottle of leave-in conditioner out of her bag and began working a few drops of it into Eve’s still-somewhat-frizzy curls.

  ‘What else did it say about this so-called witch?’ Eve asked.

  ‘Not much more than that,’ Luke told her. ‘It was just a little bit of an article about local legends. But I found out there’s a whole book on the Demondene W—uh, non-witch woman with powers.’

  ‘We need that book,’ Eve said.

  Luke gave her his I’m smarter than you Luke-smirk. ‘Already ordered it from Amazon.’

  Eve leaned her head back into Jess’s hands as her friend worked on her hair. It felt good having Jess and Luke here, sitting right next to her, trying to help her figure out her powers – and her hair issues. Luke was still a pain in the butt, but weirdly he had started to seem like a friend. Someone she could trust. Amazing. Almost as amazing as her shooting lightning out of her fingers and turning a guy into smoke.
r />   ‘What if he wasn’t a guy?’ Eve burst out. ‘What if he was a demon?’

  Jess’s hands froze. But Luke just nodded, as if he’d been expecting her to say that all along.

  ‘It makes sense, right?’ Eve went on. ‘Belinda and that woman at the church were talking about demons turning to smoke. The guy I zapped turned to smoke. Doesn’t that mean he’s a demon? Or am I wrong?’

  ‘I don’t think you’re wrong,’ Luke said grimly.

  Eve sank back against the cushions, her thoughts whirling. On the one hand, she was hugely relieved. She hadn’t killed a person. She’d killed a demon! But on the other hand, that meant demons were real. They existed, and they had attacked her.

  And that was terrifying.

  ‘I can’t deal. This is too much,’ she told her friends.

  ‘You can. You can deal with anything now that your hair looks fabulous again.’ Jess patted Eve’s head and tried to smile.

  ‘Don’t worry, we’ve got your back,’ Luke said. ‘We’ll make a plan. We need to do more research. About demons and the witch.’

  ‘The witch,’ Eve repeated.

  ‘Not that you’re a witch,’ Luke said quickly. ‘I just mean that it’s a good idea to research the witch—’

  ‘OK, but no more demons or witches tonight,’ Jess cut in. ‘Eve needs a good night’s sleep. Which means, Luke, you’re going home. And I’m calling Katy, Jenna and Shanna to tell them Eve and I won’t be meeting up with them for our usual Friday-night prowl. Then, tomorrow, Eve is having a de-stressing session.’

  ‘Shopping,’ Eve translated for Luke. It sounded wonderful. Shopping with Jess. Being normal. At least acting normal. Eve guessed she’d never really be normal again. If you could zap a demon into a smoke snake, normal wasn’t really something you could be any more.

  Luke stood up. ‘I’ll do some more research while you two are managing your stress,’ he said. He climbed down the porch steps.

  ‘We’ll meet you after that,’ Eve said. ‘You can give us an oral report.’

  He stopped, turned, and looked her straight in the eye. ‘We’re really going to figure all this out,’ he promised.

  ‘But until then, be careful,’ Jess told Eve. ‘You said there were four guys – and you only dusted one of them. If they were all demons, then three of them are still out there!’