Demonosity (15 page)
Authors: Amanda Ashby
“There’s nothing to forgive. I just decided to put on another one, but not because my dad is sick again. He’s fine,” she assured him, since she couldn’t very well tell him that the tattoo had magically reappeared after she had bonded with a mystical book. But it still didn’t explain his reaction. “Why did it freak you out so much?”
He studied his hands silently for a moment before he finally looked up. “I lost my father. It happened a while ago, but it’s still pretty raw. I guess when I saw the tattoo and what you had told me about getting it, I put two and two together and came up with idiot.”
Cassidy gasped as her eyes widened in horror. “I-I didn’t know. I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, no, don’t be sorry. I didn’t mean even to say anything. It’s not something I normally talk about,” he admitted, a confused expression still on his face. “And please don’t feel sad. I’m just glad your dad’s okay.”
“What happened?” Cassidy asked him in a small voice.
“It was an accident,” he said, his eyes suddenly looking up to the sky, lost in another world. “A terrible accident that could’ve been avoided. I relive it every day and wish that it had been different. I keep asking myself if there was something else I could’ve done to change it.”
“You can’t blame yourself,” Cassidy cried, before shyly threading her fingers through his. She then watched in delight as his face transformed from one of haunted pain to one of happiness.
“Thank you.” He tightened his grip and looked at her hand as if it was the most precious thing he’d ever seen. “It’s been a long time since anyone cared about how I feel. It means a lot.”
Then, before Cassidy quite knew what was happening, his mouth was on hers. Kissing her with an infinite gentleness that sent wisps of happiness racing through her entire body. It wasn’t a long kiss or a deep one, but it was more than physical, and she melted into his chest as he kissed her again. Then, too soon it was over, and there was once again space between them, though his fingers were still woven into hers. He gave her a sheepish grin.
“Well, that was unexpected. But I believe I promised you some lunch. What would you like? I have brie from France, olives from Italy. And for the purists among us, there are Pringles. Of course, if you can’t choose, you could just have a bit of everything. After all, there’s no rule to say that we can’t have it all.”
Cassidy, who could hardly decide what to eat at the best of times, let alone after such a mind-blowing kiss, gave him a grateful smile as she took the plate he had prepared for her. She could definitely get used to this.
“O
kay, you can stop smiling now,” Nash complained as he merged into the afternoon traffic and followed Celeste’s bright pink SUV, which unfortunately seemed to be heading in the direction of the mall.
“Sorry.” Cassidy put her hands over her mouth to try to hide her grin, but it was impossible not to be happy. Nash had managed to slip the amulet onto Celeste’s wrist at lunchtime, and while to Cassidy she still glowed like an electric substation, there was a more subtle shimmer around her as well, which hopefully meant that the demons could no longer see her at all. Also, now that Cassidy was in the school play, it would make following her a lot easier.
And then there was Travis.
Despite the fact that her fingers were pressed against her mouth, she could feel the smile pushing its way back onto her lips. Lunch had been a blur of delicious food and sunshine, and Cassidy was pretty sure that she had floated back down the stairs when the fifth-period bell had rung, conscious only of the feel of Travis’s fingers on her hand as he’d held it.
“No, you’re not sorry,” Nash retorted. “Since not only did you force me to spend far too much time with Celeste Gilbert—who, for the record, doesn’t seem to understand what the term
asexual
actually means—but then you shimmied off and had an enjoyable lunch with someone who doesn’t make you want to gouge your eyeballs out. And you kissed him.”
Yes, she had! Cassidy gave up trying not to smile. “I’m really sorry that you had to spend so much time with Celeste. But at least you got the amulet on her wrist and it was obviously successful, since otherwise she would have just taken it off. Hopefully from now on I’ll be able to follow her, so your work here is done.”
“Stop trying to appease me, I’m far too clever for that,” Nash lectured before relenting. “But I guess you’re right. And you’re also right about Celeste heading to the mall.”
“Hopefully, this is her last shopping trip before rehearsals start,” Cassidy said as Nash turned his car into the giant parking lot and they both shuddered. If they had to go shopping, it would be nice if it could at least be down in the village, where Cassidy’s favorite vintage shops were, rather than in the mall with its miles of overly bright stores full of identical outfits.
“Are you going to be okay without me?” Nash asked as they watched Celeste make three attempts at parking her oversize vehicle. Cassidy nodded her head, since she knew how much Nash loved the art history class he was taking at the local college. He was also taking some advanced physics classes, but apparently they were purely for academic reasons. The art history was to feed his soul. There was no way that Cassidy wanted him to miss class just for her.
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him as Celeste finally managed to get parked. “If she leaves the mall before you’re back I’ll just catch the bus home.”
Cassidy patiently listened while Nash gave her some last-minute instructions about not doing anything dangerous and that if she was in doubt, she should text him immediately. Finally he was done and she hurried into the mall. Even with the glow, there was no sign of Celeste, so Cassidy quickly pulled out her cell phone and went onto Twitter.
According to Nash, social networking was now leading to a new age in narcissism, during which people thought that their every move was worthy of being documented. Which was probably true, but all Cassidy knew was that it was a lot easier to find someone when they said:
going 2 spanglenails 2 get mani&pedi with @mriley @happykitty #bliss.
Cassidy made her way over to the large floor plan that was on the wall and searched for Spangle Nails. It was on the third floor, and by the time she reached it, she could clearly see Celeste and two other seniors sitting in the bright nail salon, their hands all sticking out like they were about to meet the queen. She glanced at her watch and then looked around for somewhere to get comfortable, since she had no idea how long a “mani&pedi” took. She finally found a spot just behind a pillar, giving her clear sight of the salon without making it obvious she was there.
Ten minutes later Cassidy decided that this following thing wasn’t for her. For a start, she was dying for a drink. Would she be a bad guardian if she slipped away to the food court so that she could grab a Diet Coke? Or a slushy? Or a—
“Hey, Cass, fancy seeing you here.” Reuben dropped into the seat next to her, oblivious to her look of distaste. At least his aftershave no longer had any effect on her, apart from making her want to gag.
“What are you doing here?” Cassidy glared at him, while careful to make sure that Celeste was still in the nail salon.
“I thought I would make it easy for you to find me, since you’re obviously trying to keep track of me.” He grinned as he nodded to her cell phone, and Cassidy saw that underneath Celeste’s tweet was one from Reuben saying that he was hanging out on the third floor of the mall.
She made a mental note to
un
follow him as she shoved her cell phone into her pocket, but Reuben didn’t seem to notice as he leaned forward and did that thing with his mouth that Cassidy used to love but that now just made her wonder when was the last time he had cleaned his teeth. “Besides, if you’re nice to me, I’ll tell you a secret about the play.”
“If it’s about my getting the part as Juliet’s understudy, I already know,” she retorted, pleased to see the smug look on his pasty face falter for a moment.
“What? How do you know?” He pouted as he began to twist one of his thick spikes of hair.
“I have my sources. Now if that’s everything, you can go.”
“Look, Cass, you can deny it all you want, but there’s no way you don’t feel it, too. We’re meant to get back together. You said you hated acting, and suddenly you’re in the play? And now you just happen to be here at the mall? It’s a sign.”
“Um, no it’s not, and I don’t know how many different ways I have to tell you that I’m not interested.”
“Like Romeo says, ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks,’” Reuben retorted with a smug grin, even though Cassidy was fairly certain that he’d got his plays muddled. But before she could reply, Reuben wrinkled his nose as he stared past her shoulder. “Hey, there’s that freak again. I keep seeing him everywhere lately. First at Cade Taylor’s party, then hanging out by the old warehouse down on Exeter Street, and now here. Someone needs to tell him to get out of the costume already. Dude, the party’s over.”
“Wh-what?” Cassidy followed his gaze, her fingers tightening on her purse handles as she caught sight of a demon marching through the mall. Its sword clattered noisily at its side, while its blazing amber eyes swirled in annoyance, as if it was looking for something it couldn’t find. It paused for a moment, oblivious to the attention it was receiving from passersby. Cassidy caught her breath as the creature reached the nail salon where Celeste was still sitting. But instead of stopping (and ripping her to shreds), the demon kept going, pausing only to knock someone out of its way as it continued its search.
The good news was that Nash’s amulet had definitely worked, but the bad news was that there was a demon at the mall. Adrenaline pounded through her as she reached for the sports bag that she’d tucked under the chair.
“Hey, where are you going?” Reuben scrambled to his feet, his chain belts rattling as he raced after her. “What about us?”
“Reuben, there is no us,” she spluttered, not slowing down as she darted between the shoppers, making sure that the demon never left her sight. “But if you want to help me out, you can text Nash and tell him he needs to get over here.”
“If I text him, will you go on a date with me?” he persisted in a whiny voice, which made Cassidy want to throttle him. Instead, she slowed her pace for just a moment.
“No date,” she snapped, and he held his hands up as if to say he was helpless to do what she wanted. Cassidy clenched her teeth before nodding. “Fine, but it won’t be a date. It will be a five-minute discussion. Now can you text him for me?”
“I knew you’d come around.” He grinned, but Cassidy hardly noticed as she followed the demon to the mall exit. She picked up her pace and managed to slip through the neighboring door so that by the time the creature had stepped out into the dull afternoon, she was already waiting for it. Then she pulled the glowing grimoire out of her purse and held it up in front of her, hoping that Thomas was right when he said that they were drawn to the grimoire.
“Hey, ugly.” She waved the book in the air. The creature came to a halt, its swirling eyes narrowing in on the book. Then it let out a howl and charged directly for her. Cassidy turned on her heels and raced across to the bus stop and around the side of the mall to where all the delivery trucks went.
She willed her feet to accelerate as she slipped in and out between Dumpsters and delivery vans until she finally came to a deserted loading bay. She could hear the demon catching up to her, so she dropped onto her knees and rolled under a nearby truck, giving herself a chance to get out her sword, shield, and knife. Sweat was already pouring into her eyes as the demon’s legs came to a halt at the truck and it tried to lower its large body to reach her. For a moment she considered trying to get her mail on, but before she could decide, the demon’s hideous foot slipped farther under the truck.
Cassidy leaned over and used both hands to thrust her knife deep into the grotesquely misshapen foot. The demon cried out in fury, and while she knew the injury wasn’t fatal, it at least gave her enough time to wriggle out the other side of the truck and tuck the knife into her belt. But no sooner had she done so, the demon limped its way around toward her, its dark face pulsing with rage. Cassidy almost gagged from the stench and from the way the flesh had torn away from its cheekbones, making it look like one of the monsters from the horror movies Reuben used to make her watch.
She held her sword the way Thomas had taught her. And speaking of Thomas, now would be a really great time for him to fly in, but just as during her training session earlier, there was no sign of either owl or man. The demon charged, and Cassidy only just managed to dance out of the way, narrowly avoiding the deadly sharp blade. But she didn’t see the packing pallet behind her, and she went crashing backward onto the hard concrete.
The breath was pushed from her chest, and she groaned in pain as the demon pivoted around, its amber eyes gleaming with malice, its sword once again out in front. She scrambled back onto her feet, but the creature had her at a disadvantage; panic slammed into her chest as the stench of the demon reached her. Bitter blood mixed with something else so vile that Cassidy didn’t have a name for it. Hope leached out of her body. But just as the creature reached her, Cassidy looked at her own sword. It was humming with energy as the powerful runes blazed along the blade like fire.
Suddenly, Thomas’s words came racing back to her.
Trust the sword.
The moment she thought it, a blast of energy tore through her body. She lashed forward and watched in detached fascination as the sword sliced directly through the demon’s chest. The creature was so startled that as it fell, its expression was almost comical. But Cassidy didn’t waste any time trying to examine it. Instead, she groped around in her pocket for the spare Zippo Nash had given her and set the creature on fire. She waited until she was sure that the flames had consumed the beast before she turned her attention to her sword and knife and cleansed them just as Nash came hurtling toward her, his face drained of color.