by Terry Spear
“You’d better pray he doesn’t,” Hunter said. “We’ll give you this one last chance. If we learn that you are attempting to summon demons or take anyone else hostage, believing them to be demons, all of you will be sent to the demon world. Believe me, you wouldn’t last a second in their world.”
“No…no, okay. All right. Just…let me go. Please. Please. I won’t do any of this again. I promise.”
“Who was the boy that you were torturing in the basement?” Alana asked.
“A demon. And your friend Celeste let him go.”
“If he had been a demon, he would have destroyed you once he was beyond the circle of salt. He was no more a demon than you or me,” Alana lied. “Why did Mikey say he was a demon?”
“His eyes turned all black.”
“Well, they didn’t. How hard was it to kidnap him?”
“We…we didn’t have any trouble kidnapping him.”
“Do you think a real demon would have allowed it?” Alana asked.
Anna shook her head.
“Exactly. Mikey was lying. What was the boy’s name?” Alana loved when Hunter let her be in charge. She was angry enough that Mikey had tried to kill Celeste that she was really trying to tamp down the glowing red eyes bit.
“Wendell Compton. He’s…in the gifted classes. He’s supposed to be a sophomore, but he’s in the senior classes.”
“Did Mikey have a grudge against him?” Alana asked, figuring that had to be the reason.
“Uh, yeah. Wendell told him that he was a fake. That he was conning us all into believing he was a demon hunter.”
“And you believed Mikey before you believed a smart guy?” Alana said it in a way that told the girl that she thought she was an idiot. She moved closer to the girl, and Anna quickly stood. “You saw Mikey for what he really is. A monster. Hideous. A demon that you can recognize. Remember what I say. As to us, you saw nothing. When you see us in school, you don’t remember anything about our business here. Mikey disappeared through the lights of a portal before escaping back to the demon world. You never saw us here. You will leave now and when you reach home, you’ll text your friends and tell them that Mikey was a demon, that he opened a hole into his world and escaped back to it, that he nearly killed Celeste, except you saved her after she saved Wendell. That Wendell isn’t a demon, just a smart kid that Mikey had a grudge against. That you no longer can hunt demons or you’ll die. Go now.”
Anna scrambled out of the abandoned house, got in her car, and drove off.
“You let her off the hook on that one,” Hunter said, sounding as though he wasn’t certain that was a good idea.
“I didn’t want to have to deal with all the craziness at school whenever they look at us and think we are demon hunters. Real ones. Some might want to even make amends and join us in the fight against the Matusa. What a mess that would be. Hopefully, Mikey won’t return, and they will find something worthwhile to do with their lives. What do we do about Mikey’s truck?” Alana asked.
“Leave it. His parents or the police will find it eventually.” Hunter texted someone. “Okay, I let Jared know we’re done with this.” He got a text back and smiled.
“What?” Alana climbed into Hunter’s truck.
Hunter texted Jared back. “He asked if you were up to your witchy stuff again. He wants to know all the details. I told him we’d meet at your house and discuss what happened. We have three more days of school before we leave on spring break. Do you think we can manage that?”
“If no one opens any more portals while I’m in class, sure.”
“We’ll have to see if the ‘demon hunters’ at school are still making any plans.”
“And see what happens between Wendell and Celeste. Hopefully, nothing, but if we have too much trouble with him, Anna, and the rest of her cohorts, I’ll have to make them forget everything. That means we’ll have to learn who all was in their group. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Alana really hoped it wouldn’t because, if she had to change each of the faux demon hunters’ minds, that could be a real challenge without anyone else being aware of what she was doing. She didn’t have the ability to use her witch’s skills to compel a mass group of people to do something. Not yet.
That was one nice thing about going to a human school. No one knew she was a witch. Half witch.
8
Samson was given the task to follow Celeste all around at school the next morning, when she really wanted to skip classes. After what had happened with trying to save Wendell, and nearly dying of smoke inhalation, and the concern that Anna or her friends would still think she was a demon, just like they thought Wendell was, she really, really didn’t want to go to school.
Celeste still couldn’t wrap her mind around Alana’s ability that she could wipe people’s minds of what they’d seen or heard.
The first person she saw that morning was Anna. The girl looked stricken to see her and immediately, she and two of her buds headed in another direction. Then Celeste saw Wendell. He was watching her, looking like he wanted to approach her, but not.
“Coward,” Samson said under his breath.
“He probably doesn’t trust anyone at the school after what happened to him. Unless you mean me, and you’d better not.”
Samson cast Celeste a small smile, then narrowed his eyes as he observed the teen. “I thought you said he’d been tortured. He looks perfectly healthy to me.”
Celeste agreed. He’d had a gash across his forehead, burn marks on his neck, and the same on his hands. Even from this distance, he looked like he didn’t have any injuries. “Wait here for me.”
“Hunter told me to stick to you like chewing gum.”
“Do you always do what Hunter wants?” She knew Samson didn’t.
“When it suits me. I’m to protect you. It’s what Alana wants.”
“You want it. But I’m afraid you’ll scare him off. Stay here. I’ll speak with him. Alone.”
“All right, but if he’s a demon…”
“If he is, he couldn’t protect himself against Mikey.” Celeste stalked across the hall, ignoring anyone in her path. With annoyed looks and caustic comments, most of the students moved out of her way.
She bumped into a girl who was one of the “demon hunters,” and when the girl acted like she was going to shove her back for the insult, Celeste turned on her and said, “If you want to go to prison for torturing Wendell, and being part of a gang that tried to burn me up in that old abandoned house, go for it. I’ll testify against you and every one of your little band of terrorists. You belong in jail. For life.”
A group of kids heard Celeste telling the girl that, and her face turned red. She quickly departed the area. Celeste was afraid Wendell would have left the area, fearful of being seen with her, but he was just waiting in the same spot, not approaching her, just watching her.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Celeste said. “I’m—”
“A Camaran.” Wendell snorted. “My worst nightmare has been realized.”
She frowned at him. “I saved your life.”
“I hoped I could avoid being around any of you, and just live my life like any other normal kid.”
“You’re one of us? But I can’t see your”—Celeste glanced around—“type.” Then she saw he was a Camaran like her. She smiled, then frowned. “Why didn’t you come and talk to me, to any of us?”
“Are you kidding? A Matusa is in charge of you.”
She snorted. “He’s a friend. Hell, when I was dying in that abandoned house, Hunter was the one who saved me. Not you.”
“He’s still a Matusa.”
“Half. He’s half human. How did you get here? When did you get here?”
“Last year. I got pulled in through a portal. I don’t have any way back, and the summoner got so scared that the summoning really worked, she shut the portal before any more of us came through, dropped her book, and fled. I tried using the summoning book to open the portal, but I couldn’t get it to wor
k. Anna told me how sorry she was for what they’d done to me, and told me Mikey was a demon. He opened a door to the demon world and disappeared. I don’t know how he did it.”
“Alana sent him back. Mikey couldn’t have done it, nor would he want to.”
“The Kubiteron? She can open a portal?”
“Yes. Hunter can too. Both are half human.”
“So, Mikey was a demon?”
“He is and he was hiding his aura like you were doing. I dated the creep when I was thirteen. He appeared to be an Elantus like Jared. At least that’s what I thought. Some demons can camouflage their demon types with something else that makes they seem…less dangerous.”
Wendell’s blue eyes widened. “Not a Matusa.”
“Like a Matusa, yes. Who else would want to hide their demon type when they are around other demons?”
Wendell still looked a little shaken with the news. “How did you know where I would be? Did you follow Mikey?”
“No. I had a future vision and saw you in trouble. I had to learn where you were. I only see bits and pieces, or I would have shown up sooner. Mikey really didn’t like that I’d messed up his plans.”
“Future vision. Wow. I put him down in front of the others. I had no idea he was really a demon. A Matusa.”
“Maybe. He never acted like he was interested in Alana, did he? You know, all demon types are supposed to be drawn to her.”
“I don’t think he’d seen her at school. I’m sure he would have made a play for if he had, even though Hunter is a Matusa. Can they get me back to my world?” Wendell asked.
“We can ask. That’s what they do. They help lesser demons—not that I think any of us are—to return to the demon world and force the Matusa back there, if they manage to get here. Sometimes they have to end their miserable lives.”
“What about you?”
The bell rang, and Celeste ignored it. “I do anything I can to help them. I’ve only been with them a short time. They’ve made me feel welcome, but I’ve been on my own, in other words, not been with our kind in so long, that I still need to get off alone. Some of it is because of the visions I have too, though.”
“I want to meet Alana and see if she can send me back.”
“Alana? Figures.”
“Not because she’s a Kubiteron. But because she can send me home.”
“And you’re afraid of Hunter. He’s dangerous, but not to any of us who are here to help our kind and the humans.”
“Classes,” a teacher said to Celeste and Wendell.
“Yes, ma’am,” Wendell said, then he began to walk backward toward a class.
She went after him, and he frowned at her.
Samson headed for them.
She took Wendell’s hand. “I figure you’re too young for me, but what the heck.”
“How old do you think I am?” Wendell asked, frowning at her as she walked him to class.
“Sixteen?”
He snorted. “Twenty-one. I just look young. Drives me crazy. Everyone thinks I’m so young and without an ID to prove how old I am, they stuck me in school with sixteen-year-olds. I proved I knew too much, and they moved me to the senior class. How old are you?”
“Same age. I’ve moved around so much with foster families, that I’m behind.”
“And you skip classes all the time.”
“Future visions. They hit me at any time. It makes it difficult to concentrate on classes when I’m zoned out in another world.”
“Like Alana? I’ve heard they say she has seizures.”
“No. She’s a portal guardian.”
He whistled.
He was already impressed with Alana because she was a Kubiteron. Now even more so because she was a gate guardian? Ugh. It was hard not to like her though. She’d been a friend to Celeste from the beginning. Well, almost from the beginning. All demons were a little wary of all other demons.
Samson continued to walk behind them, and Wendell glanced back at him. “Don’t tell me. He’s the gate guardian’s protector.”
“Hell, yeah, except I’m here to protect Celeste for the moment,” Samson said.
“If you ever heard Samson and Hunter talking about who protects Alana, you’ll learn they’re in disagreement,” Celeste said.
Wendell smiled back at Samson.
He shrugged. “Hunter’s got it wrong.”
Wendell shook his head. “Okay, so I guess Hunter can’t be all that bad. Not if a Samuria can disagree with a Matusa and live.”
“Why are we headed this way?” Samson said. “Your classes are back that way.”
“We’re going to skip classes. Alana, or Hunter, is going to send Wendell home, no sense in him going to any more classes.”
Wendell raised his brows, looking surprised to hear it.
“And you?” Samson asked.
“I need to learn all that I can about the demon world from someone who has been living there recently, so I’m sticking with Wendell until Alana…or Hunter, sends him back.”
“I have been there recently,” Samson reminded her, sounding disgruntled, as if his experiences didn’t count for anything. “And you still need to earn your high school diploma.”
“You were living in the swamps, or at least a village near there.” Celeste frowned at Wendell. “Tell me you lived near a city, or know something about the hall of records.”
“Why would you want to know that?” Wendell asked, as the three of them left school.
“We’re going to find our families.”
“Families?”
“Yeah, sure, we’re all of demon heritage. We all have family there, though we don’t want to go there to live. Mostly because we’ve never lived there, or we’ve been here too long. With the exception of Samson. He feels it’s his duty to stick to Alana. I suspect he’s glad to get out of the swamps where he lived. I was just three when my summoner parents summoned me. But they made the mistake to think they could summon a baby boy to be my brother. Instead, they summoned a full adult Matusa. He killed them, but left me alone, since I was a demon child, and had nothing to do with summoning him,” Celeste said.
“So you don’t know where your parents are?”
“Back in Seplichus. But where? No. Or even who they were? I haven’t a clue.”
Samson was texting someone.
Celeste scowled at him. “You’re telling Hunter on me, aren’t you?”
“You’re skipping school with another demon. Sure, I’m telling Hunter what’s going on. If any of them are tracking us—”
“Tracking us?” Wendell asked.
“Yeah. Jared’s a whiz at making electronic gadgets. He created a small demon signature tracking device to keep an eye on where demons are appearing in our world,” Celeste said.
“Yeah, which means they’ll see we all left the building and might be worried you’re having one of your visions and are leaping into danger,” Samson said.
“I have family who live near the hall of records. We can stay with them once we reach there,” Wendell said.
“But we can’t open a portal here that will be close to there, can we?” Celeste asked.
“No, but I have an apartment in this vicinity. There’s a train that will take us to the hall of records.”
“How long is the train ride? I can imagine having trouble all the way to the city where the hall of records is located, just because of Alana.”
“Can we leave her behind?” Wendell asked, sounding serious.
“She wants to see her father. And Hunter won’t leave her behind anyway because he believes he has to protect her.”
“I have to protect her,” Samson said, “so where she goes, or stays, I go…or stay.”
“All right. So, where are we going now?” Wendell asked, as Celeste led him to her car.
“We need to pack a bag. If we can stay with your family, that would be great.”
Samson was texting away.
“I doubt my aunt and uncle would be happy to put the
Matusa up.”
“If it doesn’t work out, we can always return to Earth world,” Samson said. “We can go to Alana’s uncle’s house in Dallas. He lives near there. Then we can just drop into the area when we want. I haven’t been there with them, but maybe I can pinpoint where we need to open the portal so that we’ll be on the steps of the building, or maybe even inside. Jared said that when you get inside, no one can cause any trouble for any demon type.”
“All right. It’s settled then.” Celeste saw Alana, Hunter, and Jared exiting the building. “Either they’ve spotted another demon type, or they want to talk to you, Wendell.”
Wendell stiffened his back, his gaze shifting from Alana to Hunter.
When they reached him, Alana stuck out her hand to Wendell in greeting. He glanced again at Hunter, who gave him a dark smile. Celeste knew Hunter was glad the Camaran demon was afraid of stoking his ire. At least someone was.
“Spill,” Hunter said. “Tell us everything.”
9
It wasn’t in their nature to trust other demons, so immediately, upon learning that Wendell was a demon cloaking that he was, Hunter was suspicious. The only good thing about the guy was that he appeared to want to help them, and was afraid of Hunter. All of them should be, but one out of five was a start. They swung by Wendell’s foster parents’ home, the parents both at work at some ad agency, and he packed a bag while they waited.
Jared said to Hunter, “Our choices are to go to the train and head for the hall of records that way, and stay with Wendell’s aunt and uncle, or I can get us on a flight out of here, land in on Alana’s uncle in Dallas, and we’ll portal over to the hall of records that way.”
“Portal?” Alana asked.
“Yeah. I figure that’s works. Noun: portal. Verb: portal.”
She shook her head.
“Can you create a portal that is closer to the hall of records? Maybe inside the hall of records?” Samson asked Jared.
“Yeah. I’ve correlated where we’ve portaled before and this is the closest place we can get. Right next to the steps.” Jared pointed to a location on the map. “I’m not sure we can actually portal into the building.”
