Shadows (17 page)

Eve kept an eye out for Mal, but so far she hadn’t seen him even once. Not that it was easy to find
anyone. The entire high school was here, along with some of the kids who went to school in the city and only came back to the Hamptons for the weekends. Plus their friends. Eve had never seen so many people at an off-season party before.
Everyone is as interested in the rock god’s mansion as I was
, she thought. She just hoped they weren’t all as interested in Mal! Not that she was afraid of a little competition. She had Jess as her personal stylist, and she looked awesome!

‘So, Seth …’ Jess stretched out her legs and crossed her ankles.

‘Get in here, Eve!’ Matt, Bet’s most recent ex, yelled from the pool.

‘Maybe later,’ Eve called back. She crossed her ankles too, mostly so she could admire her shoes. ‘I’ve seen Luke hanging out with Seth and Andy Fowler in the cafeteria at school,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘So I figure we can use Luke to get you to Seth. If Seth sees Luke acting like you’re a viable girl, I’m betting Seth will realize you’re not anywhere close to ten any more.’

Eve and Jess bumped fists. ‘You think Luke will do it?’ Jess asked.

‘He’ll be so happy to be rescued from Bet that he’ll do anything we want,’ Eve promised.

But first they had to find him. Luke wasn’t at the
billiards table Mal had had installed since Eve’s visit. He wasn’t playing Twister. James brought Twister to every party, and at some point started trying to talk people into turning it into the strip version. It never worked, but regular Twister was usually a big hit.

Luke wasn’t playing Texas Hold ’Em in the kitchen. He wasn’t dancing. He wasn’t on one of the first-floor landings or in line for one of the bathrooms.

‘Hey, Kyle,’ Eve called, spotting her lab partner. ‘Have you seen Luke around?’

Kyle grinned. ‘Haven’t seen Luke. Haven’t seen Bet.’ He pressed one finger to his lips. ‘I wonder what they could possibly be doing?’

Eve rolled her eyes. ‘An hour ago he was hoping she wouldn’t be here tonight.’

Jess laughed. ‘Luke’s a bad, bad boy.’

‘Seriously,’ Eve agreed. ‘He could give the demons some competition.’

‘Forget this. I’m going to make my signature daiquiris,’ Jess said after five more minutes of Luke-hunting. ‘Want one? I bet Shanna’s found something I can use to give them a little kick.’

‘Of course I want,’ Eve said. Jess’s mint daiquiris were to die for.

As her friend headed over to the bar that had been set up near the billiards table, Eve wandered back outside. She wanted to find Mal at least for a minute and tell him how great the party was. Make that she wanted to find Mal – period. And she wanted to find that bad, bad boy Luke. Eve knew that Jess still wanted him to assist with showing Seth how all-grown-up she was, although Eve was confident her friend could handle that on her own.

She stopped to talk to Jane Santini, Graham Miller and Rowan Hadel. They were deconstructing last
week’s episode of
Fringe
. Eve wasn’t that into the show. Although she thought maybe she should start watching it more. Her life had gotten as bizarre as anything on
Fringe
. Maybe it could give her a few pointers for dealing.

A deep growl ripped her attention away from the conversation. She whipped her head towards the sound, willing her power to flip on in case she had to do some demon-zapping – and saw Kyle joke-growling at Graham’s sister, Madison. False alarm! At least on the demon front. Kyle charged, sending them both flying into the pool. He came up laughing; Madison came up looking angry enough to growl herself.

‘He is about to die,’ Graham commented.

‘I’m going to get something to drink,’ Eve told the group. She felt like they should be able to hear her heart pounding, but none of them seemed to notice that anything was wrong. As Eve headed for another bar set up to the left of the diving board, she caught sight of Bet slipping out of the pool house. She paused for a moment, taking out a comb and getting every strand of her asymmetrical bob in place, then continued into the house.

Huh. Eve took a Fresca from the bartender, but
kept glancing at the pool house. If she was right—

Yep. Here came Luke out of the pool house, looking like he could use a comb – and an iron – himself. Hadn’t he been listening to what she and Jess had told him about Bet? She attached herself to pretty much any guy she was around for more than a minute. Eve had tried to convince her that she didn’t need a boyfriend to be happy, but Bet never seemed to believe it. Eve sighed. She’d thought that Luke was going to put a stop to Bet’s delusion that he was her boyfriend. Instead, he had gone and done Eve-didn’t-want-to-know-what with her in the pool house.

Which was cruel. It was. He shouldn’t be messing around with Bet when he had no interest – no real interest – in her. And Eve planned to tell him so. She set her drink down on one of the little mosaic-topped patio tables and strode towards Luke. Who was looking way too pleased with himself.

‘Excuse me,’ she said, skirting around a couple who had decided to make out by the poolside – probably because the pool house had been occupied. She kept her eyes locked on Luke. He wasn’t going to get away from her.

But she should’ve been watching her step instead. One of Eve’s high heels got caught between two of the
patio paving stones. She tried to take a step, her foot stayed where it was … and
ouch!

Eve gasped as a sharp pain shot through her ankle. Her foot was stuck in place, and she was falling sideways. Towards the pool.

Eve shut her eyes, preparing to hit the water – or the hard patio. But instead of falling down, she felt herself suddenly swept up into the air. Surprised, she opened her eyes and saw Mal’s face mere inches from hers. It took her a second to realize that Mal had caught her and stopped her fall.

He didn’t put her down. Instead he carried her towards the house. Eve decided to just enjoy, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She smiled at Luke as Mal walked past him. Luke gave a pointed look at Eve’s shoes. She knew he was thinking they were ridiculous. But she didn’t care what he thought about anything. At least not right now. She was busy thinking about how much fun it was to have her own knight in shining armour. Actually, Mal was wearing a very nice button-down shirt, which was even better, because if he’d been wearing armour it wouldn’t have been nearly as comfortable to be cradled against his chest. His warm, broad chest.

Mal gracefully manoeuvred her inside and through
the crowded rooms, ignoring the grins and catcalls they were getting, then carried her up the stairs and into a small study. His parents had added some furniture there too, including an antique French sofa. Gently he lowered Eve down onto it.

Eve felt self-conscious now that she was all alone with him. ‘Thanks, um …’ She scoured her brain trying to remember another ‘Mal’ name from the list she’d looked at online. ‘
Malik
.’

Mal smiled and shook his head. ‘Let’s take a look at that ankle.’ He knelt next to the sofa and gently removed Eve’s shoe, giving her a complete Cinderella moment. The prince had actually put the shoe
on
, but it was close enough. She gave thanks that it wasn’t the foot with the Band-Aid on – now that would really spoil her image …

‘Twisted,’ Mal decided, running his fingers lightly across her ankle. Her now slightly swelling ankle. For the first time since she’d started to fall, Eve noticed the pain.

‘I’ll be right back. Don’t move,’ Mal ordered, then left the room, quietly shutting the door behind him.

Eve wondered if Luke would have even leaned down and offered her a hand out of the pool if she’d fallen in. She could picture him laughing too hard to do
anything useful. He and Mal were so different. Luke was usually mocking her. And Mal was always right there when she needed him, taking the glass splinter out of her finger, getting rid of the guys who were hassling her, carrying her up the stairs when she’d hurt her ankle. Eve had thought getting carried up a flight of stairs was an only-in-the-movies thing. Maybe it was. Mal was kind of an only-in-the-movies guy. He was so handsome he made her a little dizzy.

Eve closed her eyes and smiled to herself, running the Eve-and-Mal movie through her mind. Piecing all their encounters together was like one of the montages in a Rom-Com. Eve loved those montages – those and the makeover ones where the girl tried on about fifteen outfits in half a minute.

‘How does that feel?’

Eve hadn’t heard Mal come back into the room. Her eyes flew open as he tied a scarf filled with ice around her injured ankle.

‘Good,’ she answered, giving her toes an experimental wiggle. ‘So good.’ She started to sit up, but Mal put his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place.

‘Not yet.’ He took two of the sofa’s throw pillows in one hand and lifted her ankle with the other. He carefully slid the pillows under her foot. ‘Leave it propped
up for a while.’ He sat on the edge of the sofa, looking down at her. Just looking.

‘You know, sometimes I wish you didn’t talk so much,’ Eve teased him.

He just smiled, as usual, his gorgeous half-smile. Eve’s breath caught in her throat. And Mal leaned down, close, close, close. He tilted his head. In one second his lips would be on hers. Eve’s heart began to flutter …

The door banged open. ‘Eve, I’ve been looking for you everywhere!’ Luke said, walking right in. ‘I called a cab. I’m sure you don’t want to walk home on that foot.’

Mal stood up, a flash of annoyance flickering over his face. He turned his back on Luke and looked Eve right in the eye. ‘If you want to stay, I’ll make sure you get home safely.’

‘That would be—’ Eve began.

‘Jess is upset,’ Luke cut her off. ‘She saw Seth kissing some girl from Sagaponack.’

Eve felt a wave of anger towards him for interrupting – again. But she shoved it down. If Jess was having a crisis, that was all that mattered. She slowly climbed to her feet. She and Jess had always put friends before boys.

‘Sorry. I need to go,’ she told Mal.

He nodded. The way he was looking at her made her feel like he was slowly running one finger down her cheek.
We’re going to have that kiss
, Eve silently promised him.
And soon.

Do I ask, or don’t I?
Eve wondered, shooting a sidelong glance at Jess on Monday morning before school.
I have to
, she decided.

Either Jess had been a lot more upset than she’d thought about Seth kissing someone else at the party – upset enough to still be crying Sunday night – or she’d had nightmares again. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her face was so pale that her blush looked like it was the wrong shade, way too bright.

Eve had stayed with her the night of the party and Saturday night, but not last night. Jess had sworn that she’d be OK, that she’d been sleeping fine. And Eve’s parents had been extremely insistent on an aunt-visiting mission to Connecticut. They’d left on Sunday morning and gotten home late Sunday night.

‘Jess, is everything … OK?’ Eve asked. ‘Admit it, you missed me last night.’

Jess gave her a wan smile. ‘It’s true. I was getting used to having a roomie.’

‘I know, but my mom started worrying that I’d left home for good,’ Eve said. ‘So are you OK?’

‘I had another nightmare,’ Jess admitted. ‘It was so bad, Eve. The shadows were sliding down my throat, into my ears, my nose. It felt like I was suffocating. And then they got inside me, pulling at my soul. I don’t even know how I knew that, but I did. Then the demon was on top of me. It had its mouth on mine, and it was sucking the soul out of my body. I was dead. I’m sure I was dead. My body was just a husk. My …
me
was gone.’

‘Let’s sit for a minute. We have time.’ Eve guided Jess to a seat on one of the stone benches along the walkway leading to the school’s side entrance. She wished she’d thought to sit on her binder. The stone was so cold, and she felt a chill creeping into her body. ‘OK, I’m moving back into your room. Or you’re staying at my house. You’re not getting rid of me until this is over.’

‘Thanks,’ Jess said.

‘I don’t need thanks. I need to figure out how to stop this.’ Eve spotted Luke cutting across the grass. ‘Luke!’ she called. He veered over to them.

‘What’s up?’ he asked.

‘Did you have a chance to do any more reading on Sunday?’ Eve said. He’d sent her an email on Saturday saying he was still working on the translation, but hadn’t come up with anything usable yet.

‘I finished that Gandhi book I told you about. But I forgot to bring it in. Do you think you could stop by later? I know you need it,’ Luke replied.

‘Yeah, I need it, and yeah, I’ll stop by. But that’s not what I was talking about. I meant have you been able to translate any more of the stuff from the church?’

‘A little.’ Luke jammed his hands into his pockets. ‘A lot of it says the same thing. It’s taking me a lot of hours to push through the Latin.’ He turned to Jess. ‘Hey, are you feeling all right?’

‘More nightmares,’ Eve answered for her friend. A shiver went through Jess, and Eve didn’t think it was from the cold bench they were sitting on.

‘How long before they make me crazy, do you think?’ Jess asked, her voice flat and expressionless. ‘I know I’m getting weaker. How long before I’m roomies with Rose and Megan and Shanna’s mother instead of you? Oh, and Belinda too! I didn’t even tell you yet. I heard last night she’s in Ridgewood. That’s why she wasn’t at the party.’

Eve winced, an image of Belinda staring blankly at the frozen yogurt machine flashing through her mind. ‘Not going to happen,’ she promised Jess. ‘I’m going to be with you every night. I’ll wake you up if you start to have another nightmare.’

Jess nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.

‘Come with Eve to get the book,’ Luke said. ‘We’ll have a strategy session.’

‘I definitely don’t want to be by myself.’ Jess twisted her hands together in her lap.

‘You won’t be.’ Eve shot Luke a worried look.

‘One of us will always be with you,’ Luke agreed.

The first bell rang. Eve and Jess stood and headed into the school with Luke.