The Demon's Apprentice (9 page)

I scowled. Why I gave a crap about a stuck-up cheerleader was beyond me, but I could see she wasn't happy. Even from across the parking lot, I could see that. Brad had her in his arms, and he was Mister Oblivious. Some of the spells I'd done for people started to make a lot more sense to me now, and I wondered idly if Brad had used any charms on his girlfriend.

“…and then he says 'Cut him loose, asshole, or you're an Internet sensation,' and Brad's all like ‘Awright, me let go now. You erase video.’”

My own words caught my attention, mostly because the person repeating them had mimicked my voice almost perfectly. He'd also made Brad sound like a brain-damaged ape, and there was only one other person who had been there for that part of my day.

“He did not!” Wanda's voice came to my ears before I could turn to find Lucas.

“Well, not exactly, but it's my story, I get to make Brad sound like a moron if I want to. So, this guy Chance is like, 'I figure this is good till I graduate. Call it…negative reinforcement.' And then, he slips the phone into his pocket and turns his back on them.” They passed by without seeing me, so I sidestepped behind them and followed them down the steps.

“On the whole varsity squad?” Wanda asked.

“Eight of them, at least,” I said over her shoulder.

They both jumped and swiveled their heads toward me.

“Dude, you’re worse than Mr. Chomsky!” Lucas said with a grin. “You gonna come hang with us tonight at Dante's?”

“I'll have to check with my mom real quick, but I think she'll be cool with it. I'd need a ride, too.”

“I have that covered. Where do you live?”

The question was simple enough, but I still had to think about it for a second before I could give him my address.

“Great. Why don't we come pick you up around seven?”

“Sure. There's my mom,” I said as I saw her van turn into the lot. My feet barely touched the ground between the steps and the curb.

Dee looked at me from the passenger seat as I leaned into the window. “I already called shotgun!” she said quickly.

“Yeah, fine, whatever. Mom, a couple of kids invited me to hang out with them tonight at Dante's. Can I go?” The words couldn't seem to come out of my mouth fast enough.

“Which kids?” Mom asked as her eyes narrowed. I pointed to Lucas and Wanda, and her face relaxed into a smile.

“Oh, sure, honey! That's Missy Romanoff's daughter. I don't think she'll be a bad influence on you.” She waved at Wanda, and I gave them a thumbs-up before I opened the sliding door and hopped into the rear seat in the van. Mom didn't even have to ask how my first day went. My mouth went into overdrive all by itself on the trip home.

“Mr. Chomsky said he didn't think my true aptitude showed up on a test. He wants to see about getting me into the advanced placement classes for science,” I said as we pulled into the driveway.

“Honey, that's wonderful!” Mom said as she got out of the van. I slid out the side door and got caught up in a hug.

“I knew you'd do well, son. I'm so proud of you.” The world was pretty damn close to perfect, just then.

“Brown-noser,” Dee said
sotto voice
as she walked past me.

“Slacker,” I tossed back at her.

“All right, you two, homework first, and Chance, I want your chores done before you go out with your friends,” Mom said as she unlocked the door.

Dee and I moaned our disappointment, but mine was mostly imitating Dee's. After cleaning up animal sacrifices, or, for that matter, making them, taking out the trash was easy. But, try telling that to your Mom. I was done by six thirty, and out on the front steps at ten till with
The Scarlet Letter
to keep me company. I had until ten o'clock to be out with my new friends.

A couple of minutes after seven, a pale green Honda Accord pulled up to the curb, and I saw Wanda's bright red hair in the passenger window. The car looked ancient, with dents and red patches over rough areas, like primer over rust. All I could hear as I crossed the yard toward it was a faint hum of its engine. I'd half expected to hear it sputter and cough or backfire every now and then. Wanda opened her door and got out to let me in the cramped back seat.

“Welcome aboard the
Falcon
. No smart-ass comments, or you're gonna find yourself floating home,” Lucas recited. Wanda rolled her eyes as she got back in, like it was a joke she'd heard before. We were moving before her seatbelt clicked, and the
Falcon
proved it could get up and go, though it wasn't going to break any speed records.

“Seriously, though,” Wanda said, like she was picking up a conversation, “do you think he might consider doing special orders? Just at first, to try it out?” She turned in her seat and laid her cheek against the headrest.

“He might. I think he's worried about getting a lot of customers like Julian and his crowd, coming in and asking after the
Dark Evil Grimoire of Sho-Hogloth
or something stupid like that.” Lucas looked back at me in the rearview mirror as I gave out a snort.

“Sorry,” I said. “It sounds like this guy's read too much Lovecraft. So, what are you guys talking about?”

“Lucas works in the coolest bookstore in town, and he's trying to get his grandfather to start ordering some books on Wicca for me.”

“The religion, right?”

“Yeah!” Wanda's face lit up. “My mom's Wiccan, and when I turn sixteen, I'm going to do my year and a day with one of her coven sisters. She won't let me do it until I've checked out all of the other paths, though. But I've always just felt like that was who I was, you know?” Like all true believers I'd ever run into, Wanda seemed to like having an understanding audience.

“Yeah, every Wiccan I've talked to, well, the ones who weren't in it just for the magic, said it felt like they'd come home when they learned about Wicca,” I told her.

“So, what about you, dude?” Lucas asked. “What's your path?”

“Undecided,” I said after a few seconds. Religion hadn't really been on my mind for a while. What most people took on faith, I
knew
was real. At least on the dark side of things, but I'd always figured that if demons were real, then their counterparts were, too. Either way, I figured there was no way I was going to see anything in my afterlife
but
demons, with my soul as screwed up as it was.

“I'm thinking about majoring in undecided when I go to college,” Lucas said. I gave him a courtesy smile and tried to get my mind off the hereafter. It was depressing enough without dwelling on it.

“You said you were majoring in women's studies,” Wanda said with a knowing smile.

“That's part of the course curriculum for a major in undecided. Studying women, biology, anatomy in particular, and chemistry, especially fermentation and distillation of spirits.”

“You wouldn't touch alcohol if I paid you,” she said back.

“Hey, I'm an AP geek during the day. Let me at least
pretend
to be cool after school,” Lucas shot back.

“He wants to write,” Wanda told me confidentially. “What about you?”

“I don't know. I haven't really thought about anything past graduating. I'm not sure if I'm going to college.” Was an apprenticeship to a mage like trade school, I wondered?

Lucas pulled into the parking lot of Dante's a few seconds later. I unfolded myself from the back seat and looked around before I followed Wanda and him in. There was a strip mall across the street, and I spotted a nail salon, two insurance agencies, and an ice cream parlor with just a quick glance. Dante's was housed in a two-story metal building, and if the empty neon sign's shape was any clue, it had been a skating rink in another life. A newer sign proclaimed Wednesdays were Karaoke Night, and that Suicidal Jester was playing on Halloween. Two metal buildings flanked it, and an even taller one loomed up behind it. Alleyways yawned on either side of it, and if gambling was one of my weaknesses, I would have bet that Dante's had a dark chasm between it and the rear building too.

“
Ego sum inter illustrator
,” I whispered as I followed my friends toward the door.
I am among the enlightened.

Three warding sigils flared to life above the door in response, only visible to those who could see beyond the Veil. One was a vampiric glyph that warned this was another's territory. The second was an Infernal symbol that meant “stay away,” and the third was a sign in the ominous flowing script of the
Unseleighe
Courts, marking the place as dangerous. Three warnings from people who didn't necessarily get along, all of them pretty much saying, “don't hunt here.” That screamed Conclave to me. Subtle, quick to anger, and always ready to lay down a little extra crispy justice, hold the mercy.

There were a few little knots of people in the lot. A group of skaters were doing flips and grinds at the edge of the lot, near an iron handrail, while a trio of goths was huddled around someone's phone. Off to the right, Brad and his cronies hung out by his red monster of a truck laughing about something, and I spotted Alexis walking away from them with her cell phone to her ear. She had her head down, and her barely visible eyebrows were furrowed as she stalked away from them.

“No,” she said into the phone as she got closer. “We're already at Dante's…Are you stoned, Mitchell? Alone? With you? Yes, Brad
does
have to know. Well, fine, if you have the balls to show up,
you
tell him that to his face…Yeah, I thought so.” She closed the phone up and looked at it for a moment, then muttered, “Asshole,” at it before she slipped it into her pocket. She stepped out from behind a car, and pulled up before she ran into me. Blue jeans and a red tank top never looked so good. Her eyes went from me to Lucas's car behind me, and I could hear her sniff.

“You came in
that
?” she said with a chilly smile. Behind her, Lucas turned and stopped.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“You're braver than I thought,” she said. I expected Lucas to protest, but both he and Wanda broke into broad grins instead.

I shrugged, so it wasn't so obvious that I didn't get the joke. “I'm full of surprises.”

“That's not all you're full of,” she shot back. She took a quick look over her shoulder before she leaned close to me. “I meant what I said this afternoon. Stay away from Brad, and stay away from me, if you know what's good for you,” she said softly. If she was going to say more, it was lost when Brad called her name from across the parking lot. Her shoulders slumped and she started in his direction.

“Way to go, Romeo,” Wanda said as she took me by the arm.

While she was dragging me to the entrance, I craned my neck to sneak a look over my shoulder, just in time to see Alexis slide into Brad's arms. Her hand went to his chest and she looked up at him. He was busy talking to one of the other jocks, so he didn't see the resigned look on her face as she closed her eyes and laid her head against his chest.

Brad didn't deserve her. The thought was like a
spike through my c
hest. He didn't deserve her loyalty, and what was worse, he didn't even seem to know he had it. I shook myself free of the funk my thoughts were stuck in. Alexis was a cheerleader, dating the varsity quarterback. They deserved each other. By the time I reached the door, I almost believed it.

Once we were inside, I was lost in a flood of sound and energy. Dozens of people in the same place, dancing, talking, making out, all generated a low-level power buzz that left my skin tingling as it washed over me. Compared to what I'd felt at lunch, this was a lot softer, less focused. The atmosphere in here was a lot more relaxed, and the energy felt less intense.

Inside, Dante’s wasn’t much different from outside. The sheet metal siding was exposed in some places, and the floor was hard concrete. It had two levels, with a big cut-out over the dance floor so you could look down on it from upstairs. The main counter and juice bar were next to the dance floor, and there were tables and some alcoves off to the right as you came in, past the six pool tables in the center of the floor. There were a few tables around the dance floor, and a stage on the left end of the building from the main door. A DJ was running a techno-heavy mix from the booth on the left side of the stage, and there were a few couples out on the floor.

Brad and his crew of jocks muscled their way in behind us in a herd of purple and gold, and shoved a couple of guys off one of the pool tables. Lucas and Wanda led me to a trio of couches set in a u-shape around a low, black cube table that was littered with drinks and empty plastic baskets overflowing with food-stained wax paper. Pales faces turned to us as we approached, and there was a ripple of movement as Lucas and Wanda were greeted with somber nods and lifted hands.

I was admitted to the circle of goths with a round of raised eyebrows and dark-eyed stares. Lucas and Wanda said I was cool, so butts slid, and a spot opened up at the end of the left side of the U. I sat and listened to them talk about music and gossip, and before long, everyone was pitching in on an order of cheesy fries. I was clueless for most of the conversation. That was cool, though. It wasn't about magick, and the worst it got was petty jealousies. There was plenty of laughter and smiles, in spite of the somber rep goths tended to have. Even if I wasn't a part of it, I was happy to be on the edge of it. I relaxed and let myself enjoy the energy in the place, especially right around me, feeling it with my mystic senses. A pleasant tingle crawled up my arms and across my chest as I slipped into a semi-trance, and let the energy of the room wash over me.