Demonosity (14 page)

T
he following day Cassidy was having second thoughts about her glass-half-full theory. Especially since her day wasn’t going as planned. She had woken up at five o’clock and jogged through the frosty predawn to meet Thomas in the woods for a training session, only to discover he wasn’t there. Her mood had improved slightly as she pictured him while she practiced her knife-throwing skills, and then she’d jogged home and showered before meeting Nash so that they could keep an eye on Celeste.

The good news was that they’d managed to hide an amulet in a rosebush at the front of Celeste’s house, and the moment they’d done so, the whole place took on a shimmering glow that Cassidy figured made it a demon-no-go zone. The bad news was that trying to slip the other amulet onto Celeste’s wrist was proving much more complicated, and despite following her to school, it was impossible to get within touching distance of her—let alone amulet-tying distance.

It had been the same all morning, which was why she was now standing outside the girls’ locker room clutching the lunch box Nash had put the amulet in. She turned to him.

“Do you really think it will work?”

“Of course it will.” Nash leaned against the wall and gave Cass an encouraging nod. “It’s a locker room, so there’s lots going on. I’m sure you can get the bracelet on without too much trouble. And according to everything that I’ve read in the grimoire, once it’s on, she won’t even be able to tell it’s there. Now, off you go.”

“Fine,” Cassidy muttered, though she was fairly sure that Nash was overestimating how easy it would be. And he had better be right about it being invisible once it was on, or they would all be in trouble. She grasped the lunch box that the amulet was in and walked inside, and was instantly greeted by the smell of hairspray and perfume. Cassidy resisted the urge to gag as she searched for Celeste. It didn’t take long since, thanks to the Black Rose, she was still glowing with a bright but terrible light.

If Thomas were here, he would probably stalk over in his brutal fashion and slap the amulet around Celeste’s wrist without saying a word before marching off. However, Thomas didn’t have to go to high school every day and Cassidy did, so she was going to need a bit more finesse.

Thankfully, Celeste’s sports locker was at the end of the row, and she was facing inward, having an animated conversation about some kind of hair-related crisis, which gave Cassidy the chance to slip behind her. She pressed her back into the side of the locker and hoped that her years of being invisible at high school would finally pay off.

She took the small pouch out of the lunch box and waited, her stomach churning with nerves. Celeste was still talking, and while she was waving one hand in the air, the other was resting down at her side.

This was her chance. She loosened the thin ties of the pouch and lowered herself down so that she was now at wrist level. Celeste still hadn’t noticed her, so Cassidy angled her hands as she tried to get the amulet around Celeste’s wrist without her knowing. As she worked, her finger brushed Celeste’s skin, and Cassidy immediately whipped her hand back as a wave of pain slammed into her chest and the smell of burning flesh filled her nostrils. Her throat tightened as an unwanted vision flashed through her mind.

Celeste lying limply in the dirt, her normal perma-tanned face leached of color. A large sword protruding from her chest was keeping her pinned down like a specimen in the biology lab, and blood was seeping down her chest and pooling on the dirt around her. Hovering over her was a demon, oblivious to everything but the curling plume of smoke that was rising up from Celeste’s crushed body in the shape of a rose—

“Seriously, you’ve got to be kidding me.” A voice dragged Cassidy out of the tangled scene in her mind, and she looked up to see Celeste’s disdainful glare. It was amplified by the white tendrils of the Black Rose, which were flickering around her head like Medusa. So much for being invisible.

“Um, hi.” Cassidy gulped as her fingers closed around the amulet, and she quickly stuffed it into the pocket of her jeans, praying that Celeste hadn’t noticed anything.

“Oh, no. Don’t you dare try to ‘hi’ me,” Celeste retorted. “Instead, you can answer me a question. Why is it that every time I turn around, there you are?”

“Because you’re lucky?” Cassidy tried to shake the last of the vision from her mind as she slowly got to her feet and smoothed down her jeans, as if it was totally normal for her to be there.

“Lucky to see you and your weird clothes every day?” Celeste gave an unladylike snort. “I don’t think so. In fact, if you ask me, I’d say that you were stalking me.”

“S-stalking you? That’s crazy. Why would I do that?” Cassidy stammered, while letting out an inward groan, since pissing Celeste off wasn’t part of the plan. Why did this have to be so hard?

“Please, I can read girls like you in my sleep. It’s because you’re secretly in love with Nash, and you’re jealous at the obvious animal magnetism that we share. So now you’re doing everything to keep us apart. Like at lunch yesterday, when he was desperate to sit with me and you kept dragging him away. And as for all of that rambling about a snake at Cade’s party, that was just embarrassing. Why can’t you just accept that Nash has feelings for me?”

Because it’s not true,
Cassidy longed to scream at her, but she stopped when the image of Celeste lying on the ground, a sword piercing her chest, flashed into her mind. Regardless of how much she detested Celeste, there was no way she wanted to see her dead. Which meant that she had to figure out a way to get the amulet onto her.

“Look, Celeste, I’m sorry if you think that I don’t like you, because I do,” Cassidy tried again, but it was no good, and instead of warming up, Celeste just narrowed her eyes.

“Of course you do, because I’m awesome. However, that doesn’t mean that
I
like
you
, so if you know what’s good for you, you will keep your distance,” Celeste informed her before she marched away, her friends all falling in line behind her.

Cassidy groaned as she watched them leave before she slowly made her way out to where Nash was waiting for her.

“So?” Nash pounced on her. “How did it go? Did you manage it?”

“Not exactly,” Cassidy confessed as she transferred the amulet back into the lunch box, burying it deep into the dirt. “I almost had it, but the moment I touched her wrist I had a vision.”

Nash’s face went pale. “What was it about?”

“It basically involved Celeste and a lot of blood. It was pretty horrible.” She shook her head as the smell of burned skin and blood flared in her nose, causing the panic once again to rise in her chest. “What are we going to do? How are we going to protect her? I mean, I don’t like her. At all. But it was bad enough seeing her die in my mind. I don’t want to see it happen for real.”

“Cass, it’s going to be okay,” Nash said, but she just shook her head.

“You’re only saying that because you want it to be true. It doesn’t mean that it
will
be true. And after what happened in the locker room, I doubt I’ll be able to get within ten feet of her. Oh, and by the way, the reason she dislikes me so much is because she thinks that I’m jealous of the obvious animal magnetism that you both share.”

“What?” Nash looked at her in horror. “Please tell me that she didn’t say those exact words.”

“Verbatim,” Cassidy assured him before sighing. “I hate to say it, but I think you’re going to have to do it.”

“What? No, no, no. That’s a bad idea. A very bad idea.”

“I know it’s not ideal,” she said as she pressed the lunch box into his hands. “But you know it makes sense. Plus, I heard her say she’s going to be in the library all lunchtime, which is loads better than having to go into the cafeteria.”

“Can you at least come with me?” He reluctantly took the lunch box.

“I would,” Cassidy assured him, “but she’ll be in a lot better mood if she doesn’t see me again today. I think she’s about a second away from taking out a restraining order against me. I’ll just go and get my lunch and then wait nearby with the grimoire to make sure that there are no demons around.”

“Fine.” He let out a pained sigh as he slumped his shoulders and turned in the direction of the library. “But you owe me for this. Big-time.”

“Just get the amulet on her,” Cassidy said as he disappeared around the corner. She headed for her locker to grab her brown-bagged lunch, but decided to leave the sword in the locker, because even looking at it made her shudder and the blisters on her palms prickle.
Besides, hopefully Nash would get the amulet on and she wouldn’t have to fight any more demons and—

“Hey,” a soft voice suddenly said in her ear, and she turned around to see Travis leaning against the locker next to hers. Today his dark hair was falling into his eyes, and Cassidy longed to reach up and push it to one side.

“Travis.” Cassidy suddenly forgot about her aching muscles and the problems associated with trying to slip the amulet onto Celeste’s skinny wrist as she basked in his gorgeousness.

“I was hoping that I’d find you here. Have you eaten lunch yet?”

“Not yet,” she said as she waved her brown paper bag in the air. “But this feast awaits me.”

“Hmm, let’s see,” Travis said as he plucked the bag out of her hand and peered into it. “A squashed piece of bread and some brown things?”

“Not brown things, raisins.” Cassidy laughed while holding her hands up in protest. “And I know it looks odd, but I was in a hurry this morning.
Hey, what are you doing?
” she yelped as he balled the bag up and gracefully lobbed it into a nearby trash can. “You can’t just throw away my lunch.”

“It’s not lunch,” he corrected in a stern voice. “It’s rabbit food. And not very nice rabbit food, either. I’ve got a much better idea. Lunch. With me. To celebrate.”

“Celebrate what?” Cassidy knitted her brow in confusion, but instead of answering Travis grabbed her hand and began to tug her arm gently in the direction of the stairs. Part of her thought of Nash and Celeste at the library and how she was meant to be watching the grimoire to make sure that no demon knights turned up, but the other half of her was too intrigued. “Where are we going?”

“Has anyone ever told you that you ask a lot of questions, Cassidy Carter-Lewis?” he asked, giving her another one of his disarming smiles as they climbed the stairs. When they reached the top floor, he let go of her hand and fumbled around in the pocket of his Levi’s for a key. Before she could even protest that students weren’t allowed up on the roof, he’d pushed the door open to where a red picnic blanket was spread out and a large wicker basket was sitting in the middle of it. He led her toward it. “So? Is that a yes for lunch?”

“Um, do I have a choice?” she said as he flipped open the basket and began to lift out container after container of food.

“You
always
have a choice,” he said in a serious voice before he suddenly grinned. “Which is lucky, since I had no idea what you would like, so I got a bit of everything.”

“I’ll say you did,” Cassidy agreed as he pulled out a jar of pickles followed by pastrami, pâté, some runny cheese, crackers, and about a zillion other things, most of which she didn’t even recognize. She wrinkled her nose. “And you still haven’t told me what this is about.”

“Does it have to be about anything?” He opened up a bag of tiny red apples and offered her one. She shook her head.

“I guess not, but Travis, in case you hadn’t noticed, this isn’t exactly normal behavior at our high school,” she said, her heart pounding in excitement.

“Well, it’s not my fault there are a lot of unsophisticated heathens about the place.” He slowly bit into an apple, and Cassidy found herself hypnotized by the way his teeth cut through the bright red skin into the pale white flesh underneath. Then, as if realizing that he was being studied, he quickly tossed the apple core across the roof. “But there is actually a reason that I brought you up here. It’s so we can celebrate that we’re both in the school play.” His warm eyes met hers.

“What?” Cassidy’s jaw dropped in confusion. “But Mrs. Davis isn’t announcing anything until tomorrow.”

“Let’s just say that a little bird told me.” He toyed with the corner of the hamper for a moment. “I’m going to be Romeo, and you’re to be Juliet’s understudy.”

“That’s impossible.” Cassidy shook her head in disbelief. “I’m the understudy? Are you sure?”

“I know. I was disappointed, too. Personally, I found Celeste’s performance a bit over the top for my liking. I think you would’ve brought a lot more true emotion to the role.”

“No. That’s not what I meant.” Cassidy quickly shook her head. “I meant that I was terrible. How could I possibly be . . .
It was you, wasn’t it?
Did you say something to Mrs. Davis?”

“Of course not,” Travis said a little bit too quickly, his eyes not quite meeting hers. Then he grinned. “Perhaps the crystal worked? I see you’re still wearing it.”

“Of course. I love it.”

“Good. Anyway, I predict that I will need a lot of help learning my lines for this play, and since I’m sure Celeste will be far too busy, perhaps her understudy will take pity on me?”

“I guess I could. For the sake of the play,” she said.

“For the sake of the play,” he agreed, before he suddenly reached for her arm and carefully rolled back the sleeve of her denim jacket to reveal her tattoo. His face was pale and his voice hoarse. “You got another one? Don’t tell me something else has happened to your father?”

“What?” Cassidy asked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head as he carefully traced the tip of his finger around the roses and up to where the two vines twined, causing a herd of elephants to stampede in her stomach. Then, as if noticing her confusion, he gently put her arm back in her lap and coughed.

“Travis.” Cassidy was alarmed at how his sunny mood had faded away. “What’s going on?”

“Sorry. It’s just, you told me at Cade’s party that you had the tattoo because your dad was sick and that when he got better you got rid of it. I was just being stupid. Forgive me.”