by Amy Meredith
Mal smiled and shook his head. ‘Let’s take a look at that ankle.’ He knelt next to the sofa and gently removed Eve’s shoe, giving her a complete Cinderella moment. The prince had actually put the shoe on, but it was close enough. She gave thanks that it wasn’t the foot with the Band-Aid on – now that would really spoil her image …
‘Twisted,’ Mal decided, running his fingers lightly across her ankle. Her now slightly swelling ankle. For the first time since she’d started to fall, Eve noticed the pain.
‘I’ll be right back. Don’t move,’ Mal ordered, then left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Eve wondered if Luke would have even leaned down and offered her a hand out of the pool if she’d fallen in. She could picture him laughing too hard to do anything useful. He and Mal were so different. Luke was usually mocking her. And Mal was always right there when she needed him, taking the glass splinter out of her finger, getting rid of the guys who were hassling her, carrying her up the stairs when she’d hurt her ankle. Eve had thought getting carried up a flight of stairs was an only-in-the-movies thing. Maybe it was. Mal was kind of an only-in-the-movies guy. He was so handsome he made her a little dizzy.
Eve closed her eyes and smiled to herself, running the Eve-and-Mal movie through her mind. Piecing all their encounters together was like one of the montages in a Rom-Com. Eve loved those montages – those and the makeover ones where the girl tried on about fifteen outfits in half a minute.
‘How does that feel?’
Eve hadn’t heard Mal come back into the room. Her eyes flew open as he tied a scarf filled with ice around her injured ankle.
‘Good,’ she answered, giving her toes an experimental wiggle. ‘So good.’ She started to sit up, but Mal put his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place.
‘Not yet.’ He took two of the sofa’s throw pillows in one hand and lifted her ankle with the other. He carefully slid the pillows under her foot. ‘Leave it propped up for a while.’ He sat on the edge of the sofa, looking down at her. Just looking.
‘You know, sometimes I wish you didn’t talk so much,’ Eve teased him.
He just smiled, as usual, his gorgeous half-smile. Eve’s breath caught in her throat. And Mal leaned down, close, close, close. He tilted his head. In one second his lips would be on hers. Eve’s heart began to flutter …
The door banged open. ‘Eve, I’ve been looking for you everywhere!’ Luke said, walking right in. ‘I called a cab. I’m sure you don’t want to walk home on that foot.’
Mal stood up, a flash of annoyance flickering over his face. He turned his back on Luke and looked Eve right in the eye. ‘If you want to stay, I’ll make sure you get home safely.’
‘That would be—’ Eve began.
‘Jess is upset,’ Luke cut her off. ‘She saw Seth kissing some girl from Sagaponack.’
Eve felt a wave of anger towards him for interrupting – again. But she shoved it down. If Jess was having a crisis, that was all that mattered. She slowly climbed to her feet. She and Jess had always put friends before boys.
‘Sorry. I need to go,’ she told Mal.
He nodded. The way he was looking at her made her feel like he was slowly running one finger down her cheek. We’re going to have that kiss, Eve silently promised him. And soon.
Chapter Seventeen
Do I ask, or don’t I? Eve wondered, shooting a sidelong glance at Jess on Monday morning before school. I have to, she decided.
Either Jess had been a lot more upset than she’d thought about Seth kissing someone else at the party – upset enough to still be crying Sunday night – or she’d had nightmares again. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her face was so pale that her blush looked like it was the wrong shade, way too bright.
Eve had stayed with her the night of the party and Saturday night, but not last night. Jess had sworn that she’d be OK, that she’d been sleeping fine. And Eve’s parents had been extremely insistent on an aunt-visiting mission to Connecticut. They’d left on Sunday morning and gotten home late Sunday night.
‘Jess, is everything … OK?’ Eve asked. ‘Admit it, you missed me last night.’
Jess gave her a wan smile. ‘It’s true. I was getting used to having a roomie.’
‘I know, but my mom started worrying that I’d left home for good,’ Eve said. ‘So are you OK?’
‘I had another nightmare,’ Jess admitted. ‘It was so bad, Eve. The shadows were sliding down my throat, into my ears, my nose. It felt like I was suffocating. And then they got inside me, pulling at my soul. I don’t even know how I knew that, but I did. Then the demon was on top of me. It had its mouth on mine, and it was sucking the soul out of my body. I was dead. I’m sure I was dead. My body was just a husk. My … me was gone.’
‘Let’s sit for a minute. We have time.’ Eve guided Jess to a seat on one of the stone benches along the walkway leading to the school’s side entrance. She wished she’d thought to sit on her binder. The stone was so cold, and she felt a chill creeping into her body. ‘OK, I’m moving back into your room. Or you’re staying at my house. You’re not getting rid of me until this is over.’
‘Thanks,’ Jess said.
‘I don’t need thanks. I need to figure out how to stop this.’ Eve spotted Luke cutting across the grass. ‘Luke!’ she called. He veered over to them.
‘What’s up?’ he asked.
‘Did you have a chance to do any more reading on Sunday?’ Eve said. He’d sent her an email on Saturday saying he was still working on the translation, but hadn’t come up with anything usable yet.
‘I finished that Gandhi book I told you about. But I forgot to bring it in. Do you think you could stop by later? I know you need it,’ Luke replied.
‘Yeah, I need it, and yeah, I’ll stop by. But that’s not what I was talking about. I meant have you been able to translate any more of the stuff from the church?’
‘A little.’ Luke jammed his hands into his pockets. ‘A lot of it says the same thing. It’s taking me a lot of hours to push through the Latin.’ He turned to Jess. ‘Hey, are you feeling all right?’
‘More nightmares,’ Eve answered for her friend. A shiver went through Jess, and Eve didn’t think it was from the cold bench they were sitting on.
‘How long before they make me crazy, do you think?’ Jess asked, her voice flat and expressionless. ‘I know I’m getting weaker. How long before I’m roomies with Rose and Megan and Shanna’s mother instead of you? Oh, and Belinda too! I didn’t even tell you yet. I heard last night she’s in Ridgewood. That’s why she wasn’t at the party.’
Eve winced, an image of Belinda staring blankly at the frozen yogurt machine flashing through her mind. ‘Not going to happen,’ she promised Jess. ‘I’m going to be with you every night. I’ll wake you up if you start to have another nightmare.’
Jess nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.
‘Come with Eve to get the book,’ Luke said. ‘We’ll have a strategy session.’
‘I definitely don’t want to be by myself.’ Jess twisted her hands together in her lap.
‘You won’t be.’ Eve shot Luke a worried look.
‘One of us will always be with you,’ Luke agreed.
The first bell rang. Eve and Jess stood and headed into the school with Luke.
‘Hey, man, nice work!’ Kyle called from behind them.
‘Huh?’ Luke said.
‘With Bet. You didn’t hear?’ Kyle swung into step beside them.
‘Hear what?’ Luke asked. Eve felt her throat tighten. It was suddenly harder to breathe.
‘She was checked into Ridgewood yesterday.’ Kyle slapped Luke on the shoulder. ‘I want to know what techniques you used in the pool house. I’ve never made a girl lose her mind.’
‘You’re joking about this?’ Eve cried. ‘You think it’s funny that a girl is in the hospital? You’re the one who should be in Ridgewood, Kyle, not Bet!’
Kyle held up both hands. ‘Sorry.’ At least he
looked ashamed of himself. ‘My sense of humour is somewhat dark.’
‘Do you know what happened?’ Jess asked softly. Eve bit her lip, watching her best friend’s frightened face. Jess wasn’t only asking about Bet. She wanted to know what was going to happen to her.
‘Not any more than I told you,’ Kyle said, still looking embarrassed. He broke away from the group, picking up his pace.
‘I said she was insane on Friday night, when we were walking to the party.’ Eve felt a spurt of guilt herself. With everything that was happening in Deepdene, ‘insane’ wasn’t a word she should be tossing around.
‘You were only kidding,’ Jess said comfortingly.
‘Oh, man,’ Luke said. ‘She called me Saturday morning and wanted to meet up for a movie. I told her I couldn’t. And I made it really clear we weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend.’
‘I can see how she’d be confused about that after the pool house.’ Eve regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth.
Luke looked indignant and was about to speak, but Eve interrupted before he could.
‘No – you don’t have to say anything,’ she said quickly. ‘We don’t need to know the details. I’m sure what’s happened to Bet doesn’t have anything to do with you. You’re cute and all, but losing you wouldn’t send a girl to a mental hospital. It’s the demons.’
‘I was still a jerk,’ Luke said. ‘I should have made things clearer when we went to the movies that night.’
‘Agreed.’ Eve didn’t see any point in lying. ‘But jerk and demon are two very different categories of bad.’
‘Besides, you’re more like naughty,’ Jess added. ‘That’s several steps above pure evil.’
‘Thanks. I guess.’ Luke managed a smile.
‘The second bell’s going to ring any second,’ Eve said. ‘Jess and I’ll stop by after dinner for the Gandhi book and to talk.’
‘Sorry, girls. Luke’s not here,’ Reverend Thompson told Jess and Eve when they arrived at the rectory that night.
Eve frowned. ‘Do you know when he’ll be back? He has a book I need for a history project we’re doing together.’
‘His curfew is ten,’ Reverend Thompson said. ‘He’ll be back before then, but I’m not sure exactly when.’
Guess the player’s out playing, Eve thought, disgusted.
She must have made a face, because Luke’s father raised his eyebrows. ‘I guess it’s important,’ he said. ‘Listen, I’m just heading out, but why don’t you go on up to Luke’s room – top of the stairs on the left. That’s where the book should be.’
‘Oh. Great,’ Eve stammered, a little embarrassed.
Reverend Thompson took his jacket off the coat tree in the hall. ‘Shut the door when you leave. It will lock by itself.’
‘Thanks,’ Eve and Jess said together. As soon as he was gone, they hurried up the stairs and into Luke’s room. It was marginally neater than Eve had imagined it would be – not that she spent a lot of time imagining Luke’s room – which meant it was pretty messy. Bed unmade. Clothes on the floor.
Eve began making stacks out of the jumble of papers on the desk. Jess checked out Luke’s CD collection. ‘CDs don’t count as snooping, right?’ she asked.
Eve didn’t bother to answer. ‘I found some of the papers from the church. Luke’s been pencilling in the translations. He made a note that this stuff is about our demon.’ Eve shook her head. ‘I can’t believe I just said “our demon”. It says the master demon uses Deepdene as his feeding ground. He and his minions are able to assume human form.’ She started a stack of demon-related stuff, but couldn’t resist reading a little bit more right then. ‘It says that demons feed on negative human emotions, like anger and fear and hate,’ she told Jess.
‘Then they should be fat as pigs just from me,’ Jess answered. ‘I’m scared all the time.’
‘We’re kicking them to the kerb. Soon,’ Eve promised. ‘It also says—’ She stopped and read the sentence again. Gooseflesh broke out all over her body.
‘It also says what?’ Jess asked, looking up from the CDs.
‘It says that the master demon sucks out human souls,’ Eve said slowly.
‘We knew that.’ Jess put down the CD she’d been holding. ‘What else, Eve?’
‘It says the demon uses one mouth linked to the other to take souls.’ Eve felt as if the floor had begun to tilt under her feet.
‘I’m not sure what—’ Jess began.
‘What does that sound like to you? Two mouths linked together?’ Eve asked.
‘Like kissing, I guess,’ Jess said. Her hand flew to her mouth. ‘The demon steals souls by kissing!’
‘This is huge! Why didn’t Luke tell us?’ Eve exclaimed.
Jess shrugged. ‘Maybe he translated it just a little while ago.’
‘Probably,’ Eve answered. She quickly scanned the rest of the translated pages on the desk. There was nothing else Luke hadn’t mentioned. She returned to her search for the Gandhi book. But something was wiggling around in the back of her brain, and she felt as if she was forgetting something. Something important.
She put the latest copy of Rolling Stone in the miscellaneous pile. There was a bunch of small stuff underneath – an eraser, a couple of movie stubs, half a candy bar. All miscellaneous, she decided.
When she scooped up the movie tickets, that worm in her brain started wiggling harder, and Eve found herself stumbling towards a realization she really, really didn’t want to have. ‘No …’ she whispered. Luke was annoying sometimes. He liked to tease her. He was a player, and anyone with a heart should be careful around him. But – ‘Not Luke.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Jess asked.
‘Luke and Bet went to the movies together …’ She held out the tickets in her trembling fingers.
‘And?’ Jess had half her attention on the CD in her hand.
‘They were making out at the party …’ Eve continued.
‘In the pool house. I know. And I thought Luke was supposed to be telling her he wasn’t her boyfriend! He really is a naughty boy. I’m glad we’re only friends,’ Jess answered.
‘No. You’re not getting it. Bet and Luke, they were kissing.’ Eve sank down onto Luke’s bed, the blood draining from her cheeks.
‘And she checked into Ridgewood the next day,’ Jess finished for Eve. She had clearly realized what Eve was thinking. ‘Oh my God, Eve. Is Luke—? Luke can’t be—’
‘She went insane because her soul had been sucked out. That’s how it works. Your soul gets sucked, you go insane,’ Eve said. ‘And the demon can look human. It could be anyone. Anyone. Why not Luke?’ Her voice sounded as if she were somehow hearing it from very far away. She met Jess’s gaze. ‘Luke kissed Megan too.’
‘That means … That means …’ Jess swallowed. ‘I guess it makes sense. Luke’s extremely cute and he can be really charming. That’s what makes him so successful as a player, and the demon would sort of have to be a skilled player to get women kissing him.’
Eve forced herself to say her terrifying thought aloud. ‘That means Luke is the demon.’ The words hurt coming out of her mouth, as if she were vomiting rocks.
‘He’s the demon,’ Jess breathed. ‘And we’re alone in his house!’
Chapter Eighteen
‘We have to get out of here!’ Jess cried. She scrambled off the bed, sending CDs skittering onto the floor.
Eve snatched up as much of the material on demons as she could see. She spotted the Gandhi book and shoved it into her tote too. Then she and Jess ran out of Luke’s room and down the hall. As they raced down the stairs, Jess let out a scream loud enough to cause an earbleed.
Luke – the demon – was climbing the stairs towards them!
‘I didn’t mean to scare you. Sorry I got home late,’ Luke said. Even through her panic, Eve noticed that Luke – the demon, she corrected herself – looked tired. What evil thing had he been doing? ‘There’s something I need to tell you. Let’s go back upstairs.
’
Calm down, Eve thought. Don’t let him know you know. ‘Can’t right now. I promised my mother we’d come straight home and help her bake cupcakes for a … a party at work. Baby party. I mean shower,’ she said.
Unfortunately, Jess was talking at the same time. ‘We have to get to the library before it closes. I need to get some … books … on … carrot farming.’
They’d both been babbling, their words tripping over each other. Luke looked confused. Frowning, he started up the stairs again, staring at them, his green eyes intense enough to burn. He’s on to us, Eve thought. He knows we’ve figured out he’s the demon. He’s going to suck out our souls right now!
‘We really have to go!’ Eve burst out. She charged down the stairs, Jess on her heels. She didn’t care if she had to knock Luke down to get past him. But he moved out of the way, pressing his back against the banister.
Eve and Jess didn’t stop running until they were a block and a half away from Luke’s house. The demon’s house. Then Eve paused and risked a look behind them. The street was empty. ‘He’s not following us,’ she gasped. Her injured ankle had started to throb. It didn’t appreciate the running.
‘I was sure he wouldn’t let us leave.’ Jess tried to catch her breath.
‘I know.’ Eve jumped as she felt something move on her thigh. Her iPhone. She’d set it on vibrate. She took it out of her tote. ‘A text from Luke,’ she told Jess. ‘He wants to know why we took the papers.’
Jess grimaced. ‘He must know we suspect him.’
‘I can’t believe we let him take all those papers from the church. We could have found another way to translate everything,’ Eve said. It was all starting to make sense to her now. ‘No wonder he wanted to keep them. He wanted to make sure we didn’t find out how to destroy him.’
‘He probably only helped us find them in the first place so he could keep them out of the hands of all the future Deepdeners,’ Jess said. ‘I can’t believe we fell for it!’
‘I’d better answer him,’ Eve said. She typed out a one-word answer: RESEARCH.
