Darkest Day (12 page)

The crowd around us ooh’d.

“Are you in middle school? Because the last time I had anyone talk to me the way you do was when I was in sixth grade. This is ridiculous.”

“I said … make—” Ridge’s entire body rose from the floor, and, like a vacuum sucking from outside, he shot backward, right through the door. All by himself.

As Ridge’s butt made contact with the sidewalk, everyone behind me scrambled to the windows. I knew what they didn’t: I had a demon on my side, and as Suze whistled, walking through the open door to his Hummer, I knew he’d had something to do with the scene. We’d keep that secret between the two of us.

I marched my way to Ridge, where he sat rubbing his head, and knelt down. “Sorry. Had to do it.”

“Wha—” He tilted up to me. “What happened?” Confusion took over his features as those in the store giggled and guffawed.

“You said ‘make me’, and I complied. Is that so hard to understand?”

Glazed eyes stared back at me with more than just uncertainty.
Are you on drugs, Ridge? Is that what all this is about?
I studied him as he sat there, his brows moving in and out, up and down, as if he didn’t understand why I hovered over him.

At the snap of my fingers in front of his face, he shook his head. “Dude, what are you doing?” He pushed up from the ground, jumping to a stand like a boxer.

“Ridge?” I asked.

The sheen over his eyes cleared. “What do you want, Winford?”

“Nothing.” I stalked away and hopped in Suze’s Hummer. “Something’s off, Suze,” I said as I pulled the door closed.

“Whatcha mean, Winford?” Suze snickered behind a hand.

“Oh, cut it out. You know that’s my name. It’s been my name since I was born …
Suze
or should I say—”

His hands waved a frantic ‘no’ through the air.

I chuckled as I tapped on the window, my thoughts everywhere. Ridge had been a pain in my butt since the moment Mac and I started talking to each other—since we’d been assigned as project partners.

The moment of.

Never before.

The moment of.

The moment of.

The moment of.

“What are you thinking over there?”

Turning to Suze, I said, “I have a suspicion.”

He rubbed his hands together. “Do tell.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t until I talk with Mac.” I turned my watch toward me. “Which I need to be doing in less than thirty minutes.”

His big bottom lip puffed out for a second before he sucked it in with a giant smacking sound and held up one finger. “I have the perfect solution.”

“What’s that?”

“You come with me to drop off these goodies, and we’ll talk to Mac together.”

“Where are you taking these things?”

“To Mac.”

I wanted to roll my eyes but held back. “So … you’re taking pizza and—”

“Chocolate doughnuts. You know I don’t eat that stuff.”

He’d answered the very next question or assumption I’d made, thinking the food had been for him. Except that he did ‘eat that stuff’. All the time. “When did she ask you to bring them?”

“A few days ago. She’s got this whole thing planned. She’s gonna win you back and—” Mouth open, he stopped talking.

My lips curved. Mac had a plan, and it involved me.
Yes!
“I won’t tell her you gave part of the secret away if you let me take the pizza and doughnuts to her.”

Suze blew out a huge minty-fresh breath. “Mac’s not mad at you; she’s just pretending to be human.”

“She is human, Suze.” Unless something changed and no one told me.

“I mean, she’s trying to get in your shoes. No … that’s not it.”

“You mean she’s trying to see life through my eyes?”

Suze’s big multi-colored eyes opened wide. “Bingo!”

“So … why didn’t she just tell me?”

“Don’t you humans do what you think you should do and not tell others and then it all blows up in your face and then you get married to the wrong person and then they die and then they come back to life in some miraculous way that no one can understand like with a brain transplant?”

The ‘huh?’ formed on the tip of my tongue when it dawned on me. “That’s a soap opera, Suze. No way is that real life.”

“It’s not?”

I shook my head. “No. Somehow, those almost always have a happy ending. In real human life, we don’t.”

Mac

“Ooh, it’s good. Refreshing. Want some?” Caroline held out a cup to me, picking up the third, the non-smoking one, and stretching it toward Maddie.

Shit. No.

Maddie took the cup Caroline offered. “To friendship and not being petty.”

I held the mug in my hand, the swirling smoke at the top staying hidden within the confines of the top. With a nod, I put the ceramic to my lips, waiting and watching for Maddie to do the same.

As she tipped the cup up, I did.

When she swallowed, I faked it.

No way would I drink something from someone who’d proved to be a liar—especially not something that smoked. The only drinks I knew of that did that came from Alina, and they usually included some concoction of herbs and spices that would gag even the KFC’s Colonel.

“Ahh,” Maddie said as she put her empty glass on the counter.

I held tight to mine, preparing for the moment that something would happen.

“Good stuff,” Caroline said. “I remember drinking Kool-Aid as a kid. It was … awesome.” A wistfulness took over her tone. “Especially on a hot summer afternoon with the sun up. We’d make a lemonade stand and go out and sell it for a dollar. It was my favorite.”

“Aren’t you supposed to sell lemonade?” I asked.

“Yeah, but Kool-Aid is so much better.” A slight purple mustache graced the two sides of Caroline’s mouth. “So, anyone want to talk about geo-thermal lift?” Caroline giggled, a sound that rarely came from her. A chuckle. A laugh, a guffaw—anything but a giggle. She hiccupped.

Oh, here we go.

Her hand lifted to her lips, and she waved it in front of her face.

Knew it.

One eye closed. “Whoa.” She braced herself against the counter. “I’m not feeling so good.”

Oh, Maddie. Look what you’ve done to your friend.

We eyed each other, concern in Maddie’s eyes, probably suspicion in mine—at least I aimed that expression at her.

“I think I’m going to fai—” Caroline collapsed against me. Thankfully, her chest continued to rise and fall, and I lowered my friend to the floor and propped her against the cabinet doors.

Maddie tilted her head. She jutted a hip out. She just stood there doing absolutely nothing, her eyes angled down toward Caroline, though as I stood again, they tracked back up to me.

Neither of us moved.

Maddie’s brows drew together.

Mine stayed apart.

Her gaze tipped to her empty cup.

Mine lowered to my full one.

Her nostrils flared. “Dammit! Why aren’t you on the floor with her!?” She pointed to the unconscious Caroline.

On an inhale and exhale I shifted to the one form I knew would scare the pee out of a goblin and would probably make Maddie faint anyway like Caroline—drink or not.

My body grew at least two, maybe three, feet until I stared down at Maddie’s quivering form. Arms lengthened, legs thickened, face contorted and teeth dropped into giant mashers. The stench could not be matched, and would permeate the clothes I’d ripped into shreds where we stood.

Maddie’s rigid-straight body slumped to the floor.

“Not a fan of ogres? Awe. That’s such a shame.”

I jumped at the ding of the doorbell. With a near-toss, I replaced the glass I’d held in my nubby fingers and went to the door. “Suze, you won’t believe—”

Door open, Winn stood outside, hands in his pockets, hair disheveled as if he’d been caught in a strong gust of wind. The itch to go to him and hug him and kiss him and do all sorts of other stuff I shouldn’t have been thinking about took over, even in ogre form.

His gaze tracked me up and down. One finger joined in the activity. “Mac?”

This is not how we were supposed to reconnect.
“Um … well … you see …” I grabbed the box of doughnuts right out of his hand and whisked them and myself into the kitchen to think. Since Caroline’s parents were on their date-night, and Caroline’s only sibling had moved out ages ago, we had the place to ourselves.

Winn followed, his feet shuffling behind me. “Oh my—Mac, what did you do?” He leaned down to Caroline and touched his index and middle fingers to her throat. He repeated the action on Maddie’s. “Why are Caroline and Maddie unconscious?”

Dammit, dammit, dammit.
I bit into my second fudge doughnut as my body reformed from ogre to human, the rags I’d created, in shifting to ogre, falling off and leaving me buck naked.

He pointed a finger up at me. “I knew it was you.”

I whirled and ran toward Caroline’s bedroom, yelling, “Mayday, Suze!”

A boom sounded on the first floor—where I’d called out his name. Inside Caroline’s room, I stalked to her closet, ridding myself of the rest of the material on the way. Luckily, we were close enough in size that I could fit into her clothes, and I borrowed jeans and a T-shirt before racing back downstairs.

Suze turned his head from Winn to me. “You weren’t wearing that when I left.”

“We have a slight problem,” I said.

12

Mac

Winn stared, eyes wide. “What did you do?” He hadn’t risen, but kept checking their pulses, one after the other.

“Are they dead?” Suze asked.

Maddie groaned and rolled over. Winn knelt by her and ran a hand down her cheek. “Maddie?”

Her eyes blinked open. She pushed up from the ground; her gaze flitted from Winn to me and landed around Suze. “Oh!” Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed again.

“Holy cow, Mac. Seriously. What did you do?” Winn asked.

“Why do you think
I
did something?” Hurt mixed with anger at the accusation.

Winn ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have. But you were … you—”

“I was an ogre. It’s the one thing that eats goblins, which is what I think Maddie is.” Or mostly.

He shook his head. “I think she’s half-human.”

“Whatever. Close enough.”
How does he already know that?

“It was all in the email.” He motioned at me like I should have known—which I should have. “So, what did happen? You’re the only one awake, so I can only presume—no, never mind. No presumptions. Just tell me.”

“She drugged Caroline with an Alina-like concoction that I didn’t drink.” I pointed to the cup I’d left on the counter. “But I think all it did was make her go to sleep. She’s still breathing just fine.”

Suze leaned toward it, his nose overtop the rim. He swiped at his face as if he’d gotten a bug stuck up his nose. “That is terrible!”

“Do you know what it is?” I asked. Winn moved closer as if to inspect, but I pushed him away. “Don’t even smell it. I don’t know what she put in it.”

“Something with Kool-Aid. Grape flavor,” Suze said.

“I meant outside of the kid’s drink, Suze. It was smoking for a while. And cold. Well, two of ‘em were. Maddie’s was not.”

She groaned on the floor again. Suze leaned over the counter and smiled wide. Her body went lax again.

“Dude, Suze. You make such a great first impression in horned demon form,” I said.

He tilted toward me, that same grin still in place as he shook his head. “She’s going to forever ruin my favorite drink. Grape Kool-Aid is not meant to be messed with! It’s the sanctity of childhood to have pure, grape—”

“What are we going to do?” Rather than let Suze focus on the wrong topic, I pointed back to my two sleeping friends.

Suze’s head tilted like a confused cocker spaniel puppy without the flopping ears. “I dunno. You’re the boss.”

“Argh.” I paced my way into the foyer and back. “Okay. Winn and I will take Caroline to my house and find out what this drink is.”

“Mac—”

I stopped Winn with a hand in the air. “You help me with Caroline. Since her parents aren’t home, we’ll take her to my house, and Alina can figure out what this was, give her an antidote, and when she wakes, I’ll come up with some grand excuse about why we’re there instead. The one thing I’m sure about—whatever Maddie brewed—and yes, Maddie brewed it—is going to make her forget. I’m a hundred percent sure of that since Maddie stayed totally silent about anything supernatural in Caroline’s presence. I think she thought I’d take the bait and fall asleep, too.”

“Little does she know who you are.” Suze gave me a punch to the shoulder.

“Yeah. Little does she know … what I’ll do to her when she wakes up. I’m ninety-nine percent sure she does know who I am.”

“And Maddie? What do I do with her?” Suze asked.

I stared at Suze head-on. “Take her home and let her Mom know
exactly
what you saw tonight.”

Suze picked Maddie up, her arms dangling, head flopping. With a nod, he zapped himself and her out of the room.

Winn turned to me. “Help me get Caroline up.”

We both leaned down. Winn lifted her by the arms; I pulled up her legs. Our odd positioning left me wondering how we’d get her out to the car. I didn’t want to shift forms again to carry her, so we hobbled out the front door, closed it and walked to Winn’s car. Stuffing her in the passenger seat, I secured her and went around to his side.

“I’ll meet you at my house, okay?” I asked.

Keys jiggled in his palm. “Yeah. Sure.”

Winn

Alina, dressed in a cream colored robe and bare feet, greeted us at the door despite the late hour. Her slight head inclination and smile did what it always did: made me want to grin back like some adoring fan. She’d had that effect—that pull—on me since the first time I met her. With a forced focus, I pushed the feelings off and helped Mac carry Caroline into the living room.

“What happened?” Alina asked as we laid Caroline’s still-unmoving form on the couch.

Mac recited the events of her evening as I listened, inciting in me a certainty that Maddie knew more than she said and had acted for some legitimate reason.