by Amy Meredith
‘What are we going to do?’ Jess asked.
‘I should have zapped him,’ Eve answered. ‘Right there on the stairs. I wasn’t expecting to see him, and I panicked. All I could think about was getting out of there. Not very Deepdene Witchy of me.’
‘You’ll get him,’ Jess reassured her as they began walking again.
‘But now he’s suspicious. It will be a little harder,’ Eve said. Or impossible, she silently added. He was the master demon. He had to be more powerful than the minion of his she’d blasted before. He’d had no problem being in the church, surrounded by gargoyles. Would her power even work on Luke?
‘We need to do it near the church,’ Jess decided. ‘Then if anything goes wrong, we can run inside.’
‘But Luke can go into the church. That’s what scares me. Well, one of the things,’ Eve replied.
‘True. But the gargoyles definitely protected us from the shadows.’ Jess took a lip gloss from her bag and absentmindedly applied a fresh coat. She always said she thought better when she was looking her best. ‘Maybe Luke can go in the church since he’s the master demon, but I don’t think his powers will be as strong there. We need every advantage we can get.’
‘I can’t even believe you keep saying “we”,’ Eve told her. Not every friend – not even every BFF – would volunteer to face down a demon.
‘Well, you know what happens to your hair,’ Jess joked. ‘You’re going to need assistance.’
How much did Eve love Jess? Just so much. ‘So the plan is, I zap Luke as close to the church as possible.’
‘Easy-peasy,’ Jess agreed. She was trying a little too hard to sound confident, but Eve really appreciated the effort.
‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘Easy.’
‘I’m going to have to see Luke in less than an hour,’ Eve said as she and Jess walked into school the next day. ‘I have history with him right after homeroom. How am I supposed to sit in a room with a demon and answer questions about the Industrial Revolution?’
‘He won’t do anything to us at school. Right?’ Jess paused. ‘Look at those brooches Jenna has pinned on her boots. I like! Anyway, Luke – Luke the Demon – won’t do anything with everybody around, right?’
Mal strode past them, walking fast, without seeming to notice Eve. Or Jess. Eve felt a little stung. But it was easy to walk down the hall on autopilot. She was sure he hadn’t ignored her on purpose.
‘Right,’ Eve replied firmly. ‘Don’t go anywhere alone. Make sure you’re around people all the time. And make sure—’
‘Wait!’ Jess hissed. ‘Look who’s stopping at your locker.’
Eve froze, and glanced down the hall. It was Mal. Her whole body let out a ‘whew’. She’d been afraid it was Luke. She knew she’d have to see Luke soon. She’d have to kill him soon. But she was glad she didn’t have to deal with him right that second.
‘Mal’s doing the casual linger,’ Jess said. ‘He’s waiting for you. We’ll talk demons more later. Go to the cute boy!’ She gave Eve a gentle push.
Eve smiled. ‘I think I will.’ She walked down the hall to Mal. ‘Hi,’ she said.
‘How’s the ankle?’ Mal asked.
‘Good, thanks. You were my hero. Again.’ That wasn’t exactly what she meant to say. She’d been distracted by wondering how long it would take for her and Mal to finally have their first kiss. The kiss we would’ve had already, except for stupid Luke, she thought. Stupid demon Luke. She pushed that thought away. ‘So what’s up?’ she continued. ‘Did you want to tell me something? Or did you just happen to be hovering by my locker?’
‘I don’t “just happen” to do anything,’ Mal said in his husky-sexy voice. ‘I was going to leave this for you.’ He held out a thick cream-coloured envelope. Her name was written on the front in swooping black letters. Eve blinked in surprise. She hadn’t even noticed that he was holding anything.
‘It’s an invitation to dinner tonight.’ Mal took a step closer, so close she could feel the heat of his body radiating into hers. ‘I know it’s late notice, but when my parents got home last night I guess I talked about you so much they wanted to meet you right away.’
‘You? Talking a lot?’ Eve teased. She didn’t need Jess to translate that! It meant he liked her.
‘I talk – when I have an interesting topic,’ Mal replied. ‘So what shall I tell my parents?’
Eve was about to answer when she got the creepy feeling that someone was watching her. A quick glance over her shoulder showed her Luke, over by the water fountain at the end of the row of lockers. As soon as she saw him, he bent down to take a drink. But before that he’d been eavesdropping on her and Mal. Eve knew it.
A fight-or-flight reaction took over. She couldn’t fight, not in the school hallway. And she wasn’t going to flee and pass up a chance to go on a date – dinner with his parents counted as a date, she decided – with Mal.
‘Tell your parents yes!’ she exclaimed. Then she allowed herself to turn and start down the hall – away from the demon. But even through her fear, she still felt a little excited.
Tell them yes, yes, yes! she thought.
Chapter Nineteen
‘I’ve been thinking,’ Jess said. She and Eve had headed straight to Java Nation after school. They were settled at their favourite table, the one with the best view of Main Street.
‘Uh-oh,’ Eve teased. She took a sip of her hot chocolate, savouring the whipped cream on top. Hot chocolate with whipped cream was her number-one comfort food. And she was in need of comfort, despite the wow of the dinner invitation to Mal’s.
Jess leaned across the table towards Eve and lowered her voice. ‘Maybe Luke isn’t the big demon. Maybe he’s not a demon at all. He’s in my English class, and I couldn’t stop looking at him, and he just doesn’t look like one. I just don’t think demons have floppy blond hair.’
‘Jess, you know looks don’t tell the true story. Think Photoshop. Think air-brushing,’ Eve answered. Although she didn’t want to believe Luke was a demon, either. She wanted to believe he was simply a bad, bad boy who didn’t treat girls with as much consideration as he should, teased Eve a lot more than he should, but was also a good friend. Still … ‘He kissed Bet. He kissed Megan. I’m sure he kissed Belinda. And they’re all in the mental hospital. And we know that the demon makes people go insane by kissing them and stealing their souls,’ she said, laying out the facts as much for herself as for Jess.
‘We don’t have proof that he kissed all of them,’ Jess said. ‘And what about the other women in the hospital? Rose. And Shanna’s mom. Do we really think Luke kissed Shanna’s mom?’ Her nose wrinkled with distaste. ‘Oh, and I heard from Jenna that the Gucci girl is at Ridgewood too. Jenna’s dad works with the girl’s mom.’
‘Well, I practically saw him kiss Belinda – the way they were flirting in biology class I think we can safely say a kiss took place. And we know for sure that Bet and Luke were alone in the pool house for ever,’ Eve reminded Jess. ‘And I don’t think they were playing Scrabble. You know how Bet is when she has a new guy. She can hardly go three seconds without some kind of touching or kissing, and she was thinking of Luke as her new guy whether that’s what he wanted or not. And Megan – we both know she’s not shy about kissing.’ Eve took another sip of cocoa. ‘If Luke is the demon, pretty soon there won’t be any girls left with souls. You know how he is, a new girl every day.’
‘Do you think that’s why he’s such a player?’ Jess asked. ‘Because he wants to suck as many souls as he can?’
‘It makes sense,’ Eve replied. ‘Players should be avoided at all costs, just like I always thought.’
‘I’m not kissing anyone until we know Deepdene is demon-free.’ Jess took a nibble of one of her biscotti. ‘I’m not even kissing Ringo.’ Ringo was her poodle. Her dad had picked the name. He was a complete Beatles fanatic. ‘Still, I wish we could be sure he’s a demon. I don’t want you to zap him to smithereens if he’s just a boy with commitment issues.’
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‘I know.’ Eve chewed on her lower lip. She hadn’t even bothered putting lip gloss on today, that’s how stressed she was. She’d have eaten it all off within ten seconds. ‘But I’ve been thinking. If Luke’s not the demon, maybe my power won’t hurt him. I’m supposed to have the power to kill demons, not humans.’
‘Well, lightning shooting from your hands doesn’t exactly sound safe, even for humans,’ Jess pointed out.
‘But the power is more than just the lightning,’ Eve said. ‘I felt a power surge every time I touched you during one of your nightmares, but it was warm, not boiling, and it was somehow softer. Maybe the powers just know who’s a human and who’s a demon.’
‘OK, then maybe you can zap Luke just to be sure,’ Jess suggested. ‘If he’s human, it won’t hurt him.’
‘But what if I’m wrong? What if you weren’t hurt because you were asleep or something weird like that? That Deepdene Witch book didn’t tell me anything real about my powers. Why didn’t my great-great-great-grandma keep a diary?’ Eve pushed her cup away. The hot chocolate didn’t appeal to her any more. ‘What if I shot my lightning at Luke, and he died? No smoke. Just dead. Because he was an innocent human. Then I’d be a killer.’
Jess pushed her drink away too, but she didn’t say a word. What was there to say?
Eve buried her face in her hands. ‘Last night I was so sure. The way Luke looked at us on the stairs – I was positive he was about to go for our souls.’ She lifted her head. ‘But we were both already freaked out before we saw him. I guess we might have been wrong.’
‘It’s simple,’ Jess said. ‘We need to know if other demon victims have been kissed by Luke. We need proof.’
‘Proof of demonhood.’ Eve nodded. ‘And we need it fast. We don’t want to be the only people left in Deepdene with souls.’
‘Any plan that takes us to Gucci is a good plan to me,’ Jess said as she and Eve headed out of Java Nation fifteen minutes later with a proof-getting plan.
‘Worst case scenario, we get proof that Luke’s a demon – and some new shoes,’ Eve agreed as they walked down Main Street. ‘Best case scenario, we get proof Luke’s not a demon …’
‘And some new shoes,’ she and Jess finished together. She stopped in front of the glass door of the Gucci boutique. ‘You ready?’
‘You’re the one who has to do all the acting,’ Jess said. ‘But I’ve got your back.’
‘OK.’ Eve took a deep breath, yanked open the door and stepped inside. ‘Where is she?’ she yelled.
Everyone in the small store turned towards her, and they all looked horrified. A sales girl – very tall, very blonde – practically ran over to Eve and Jess. ‘Can I help you?’
‘I’m looking for the girl who stole my boyfriend!’ Eve had never been in Drama Club or anything, but she thought she was putting on a decent show. Maybe that was the club she should join to get her mom off her back! ‘I heard he was sneaking around with a girl who worked here. Short red hair.’
‘It’s totally true,’ Jess chimed in. ‘I saw them together!’
‘I’m sorry, but if you could keep your voices down—’ the sales girl started.
‘Where is she?’ Eve demanded, cutting her off. ‘Do you know her?’
The girl’s eyes widened. ‘That sounds like Sammi, but …’ She shook her head. ‘Sammi, um, had kind of a breakdown. She’s taking some time off.’
‘I don’t care about that,’ Eve said. Although, of course, she did. It meant the demon, whoever the demon was, had taken that poor girl’s soul. ‘I care about whether or not my boyfriend was cheating on me.’
‘Luke Thompson’s her boyfriend,’ Jess explained. ‘The new minister’s kid.’ The sales girl looked blank. ‘Blond, flirty, cute butt,’ Jess added.
‘Oh my God, you’re going out with Luke Thompson?’ another voice broke into their conversation. ‘That guy gets around.’
Eve turned to see Kiki Wagner over near the seriously cute handbags. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
Kiki was a senior at Deepdene High, and she’d babysat for Eve and Jess occasionally when she was their age and they were – well, too old to need baby-sitters. But their parents never seemed to agree with them about that. Kiki had always just called it ‘hanging out’, so Eve had always liked her.
‘I was watching my boyfriend play football, and I heard some of the guys talking about him. They were sounding all envious, complaining about how Luke has only been in school for a few weeks and has already gone out with half the girls,’ Kiki said. ‘Do you know Shanna Poplin? The girl whose mother ended up in the psych ward? It’s really sad.’
‘Yeah,’ Jess said. ‘Sad.’
Eve made a sad face to go along with Jess and Kiki’s, but she could tell Kiki was only doing it for show. The girl had good gossip, it was obvious. She was just trying to seem polite about Shanna.
‘Anyway, one of the guys said that Shanna is mad at Luke Thompson because he messed around with her mother! Can you believe that? Sure, she’s divorced and all, but she’s old enough to be his mother!’ Suddenly Kiki seemed to remember that Luke was Eve’s boyfriend, and the scandalized smile on her face vanished. ‘I mean … I’m sure it’s just a stupid rumour, Eve. Because why would a cute guy go after somebody’s mom? That’s gross.’
‘Wait – you heard that Luke was messing around with Shanna’s mom in the psych ward?’ Jess asked.
‘No. He fooled around with her over the summer,’ Kiki said. ‘That’s what I heard. But Shanna didn’t know about it until now.’
Eve felt like she needed to sit down. Fast. Luke had kissed Shanna’s mother. Shanna’s mother had gone insane. And that meant she’d lost her soul. And that meant … it meant Luke had to be the master demon.
‘Don’t look so upset,’ Kiki pleaded. ‘That boy is obviously not worthy.’
Eve was sure of it. She was also sure that Luke was the master demon. The sales girl had gone to help another customer, but Eve didn’t even need to ask her any more about Sammi. She had all the proof she needed.
‘I think Evie might need some air.’ Jess grabbed Eve’s arm and pulled her out of Gucci. ‘You’re not going to puke, are you?’
‘No,’ Eve said, her voice coming out soft and weak.
‘Good, because I might,’ Jess said. ‘Luke’s the demon. He really is.’
‘Luke’s the demon,’ Eve repeated. It still didn’t seem real. But it was. ‘He’s the demon, and I’m the witch.’
Jess was watching her carefully. ‘What are you going to do?’
Eve straightened her shoulders and tried to sound brave, even though she felt like hiding under the covers in her bed. ‘What I’m going to do – what I have to do – is smoke Luke. And I’m doing it now. I have to call Mal and cancel dinner, then call Luke and convince him to meet up at the church tonight. Maybe we can say we want to do another search for more demon info.’
‘Oh, no.’ Jess wagged her finger at Eve. ‘Even demons shouldn’t get in the way of your first date with Mal. Especially when he’s having you meet his parents. And anyway, we need a little time to come up with a real plan to deal with Luke. Getting him to the church isn’t the problem. It’s dealing with him once he’s there. You’re not even sure how to turn on the lightning hands. We need to think things through.’
‘I guess you’re right.’ Eve was very willing to be convinced. More time to plan meant less terror once she was actually standing face to face with Luke the demon. Or at least she hoped so. And dinner with Mal was a nice silver lining. ‘The meeting-parents thing is big, right?’
Jess snorted. ‘Of course.’
Eve’s stomach did a slow roll as anticipation whipped through her. She’d be seeing Mal soon, and he would probably kiss her tonight. Then she’d know for sure exactly how he felt about her – even though he didn’t do a lot of talking. ‘What should I wear?’
‘I don’t know. Oh my God. We haven’t planned an outfit for you!’ Jess’s face went pale. ‘How can we
just be talking about this now? You’re supposed to be there in two hours.’
‘We’ve had a few other things to talk about,’ Eve reminded her. ‘Saving the town; hunting our friend Luke.’
‘I’m taking you straight to your closet.’ Jess grabbed Eve’s hand and towed her quickly down Main Street. ‘You are clearly way too distracted to get ready on your own.’
Chapter Twenty
Come on. The speed limit is forty-five, Luke thought as he stared out of the bus window. The bus was creeping. Creep. Stop. Creep. Stop. He was going to lose it if he didn’t get to Ridgewood soon. He had to talk to Bet. He wished Eve and Jess were coming with him. But neither of them had even looked at him since Monday night when they’d been at his house. Forget about actually talking to him.
Luke was pretty sure he’d figured out why. Eve had given him a hard time when Bet was put in the psych hospital. She’d said it wasn’t his fault, but she clearly thought he was a jerk for making out with so many girls. She thought he’d treated Bet badly, and she was right. Between that and the time he’d gone off on a date with Bet when Jess wasn’t able to sleep, he hadn’t been the best friend to the girls. Clearly Eve and Jess had decided they were better off demon-fighting without him.
Still, he wasn’t sure they knew about the kissing. Had they read the translation of the church papers about the demons stealing souls through victims’ mouths? It meant that all the people who’d gone mad – who’d lost their souls – had been kissed by the demon. Megan Christie … and Bet Carrothers … both girls he’d kissed, and now their souls had been taken.
Eve might be right that I’m a player, he thought, but I’m not so bad that I don’t care if girls I’ve been with go crazy. He’d liked Megan and Bet – just not as long-term girlfriends. If a demon had hurt them, he wanted the demon to pay.
And the only way to do that was to find the demon. Bet had kissed someone recently, someone demonic, and Luke was determined to find out who it was … just as soon as the bus managed to drag itself the rest of the way to Ridgewood.
