The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) (20 page)

I finished cleaning all of the dirt off me, turned off the water, then wrapped my fluffy purple towel around me to step out of the shower. I approached my mirror and cleared a circle in the condensation. I expected to look pale and fragile, like I had many mornings recently. Though I did have some serious circles under my eyes, I didn’t look fragile. I looked, and felt, strong. We had won.

As I finished my reverie in the mirror, I turned to survey the bathroom, realizing that I had forgotten to grab a change of clothes. I re-wrapped my towel tightly around me and opened the door to my bedroom. Jason very carefully avoided looking at me while I shuffled through my closet looking for something to wear. I didn’t really care if he saw me in a towel, but I appreciated the sentiment nonetheless. I grabbed the deep red, long-sleeved shirt that Allison had picked out for me and one of the few pairs of non-holey jeans from my closet, went to my dresser to get underwear, then went back into my bathroom to change.

I had some difficulty pulling my casted arm through my shirtsleeve, but finally managed. I left the sleeve scrunched up to my elbow above the cast, then went back into my room. Jason was standing by the window, looking outside.

“I better go talk to my mom,” I said.

“Do you want me to leave?” he asked, without taking his gaze from the window.

“No, I’ll be back up in a sec.” I left my room and gently shut the door, then trudged downstairs to face the music.

I expected my mom to be mad at having to cut her trip short to bail me out of the hospital, but she was all sympathy. She had actually baked blueberry muffins while waiting for me to wake up. She ran up and hugged me as soon as I came down the stairs, then hustled me to the table. There was already a coffee mug waiting for me as she went into the kitchen to grab the muffins and the coffee pot. She set the pot beside my cup and set a blue ceramic plate with three gargantuan muffins on it in front of me.

“Umm, am I expected to eat all of those?” I asked sarcastically while filling up my mug with coffee with my good hand.

Ignoring my question, my mom sat down across from me. “So, I’ve been thinking, maybe I shouldn’t go out of town so often anymore?”

“Why?” I asked, mouth full of muffin.

“You broke your arm and I wasn’t here!” she shouted, then covered her mouth in surprise at her reaction.

“Wooaah,” I said, waving my good arm in a calming gesture. “It’s not that big a deal.” I held up my casted arm. “It’ll be good as new in no time.”

“And how did it happen that Jason was around at two in the morning to take you and Allison to the hospital?”

“Um, we called him? Duh.”

“Yeah, likely story,” my mom said, smiling. “If boys are going to be hanging around, we need to lay down some rules.”

I groaned at the mention of rules.

“First,” she began, “I will be informed whenever you will be spending time outside of school with a boy. Second, when said boy is involved there will be a 9:00 curfew.”

This elicited another groan from me.

“And finally,” she went on, “know that you can always talk to me about anything pertaining to boys or otherwise. Now eat your muffins.”

Unable to help my smile, I obliged and took another enormous bite. Mmm, muffins. Nice, normal, non-portentous muffins.

After breakfast, I went back up to my room to talk to Jason. As I walked into my room I saw that he had returned to sitting in my desk chair. He looked up from my copy of
On the Road
, by Jack Kerouac. I walked over to my bed and plunked down. Jason looked at me expectantly.

“Sooo,” I began, “we haven’t heard anything from Lucy or Al since last night?”

“I haven't,” he answered. “Perhaps you should try calling them?”

“No. I don't know, I guess I’m afraid they won’t answer.”

Jason’s face scrunched up in confusion.

I elaborated, “Allison wouldn’t meet my eyes the whole time we were at the hospital, and Lucy never even spoke to me after what happened with Dan. It felt like . . . like they were afraid of me.” I could feel cursed tears welling up yet again. I kept my eyes very wide, trying to prevent them from falling. I didn’t want to cry anymore. You would think I would have run out of tears by now.

Jason rose to sit on the bed and wrap his arms around me. My last thread of restraint dissolved and tears fell in hot streams down my face. Jason held me while I spilled what were hopefully the last of my tears for the situation. We ended up lying on my bed, dirty sheets and all, facing each other. Jason’s greater height put his head a little above mine. My tears had finally run dry. He gently stroked my still-damp hair while I regained my composure. He smelled clean. He had showered at some point, but I wasn’t sure when. I thought about all that Jason had done for my friends and me. He had risked his life for us. Somewhere along the road I had gotten over the fact that he was a vampire and had killed people in the past. After all, I was a killer now too.

So I decided vampire-schmampire. I looked into his dark blue eyes, leaned in, and kissed him for all I was worth. The kiss started out soft, he hesitated slightly. I wrapped the fingers of my good hand in his hair and pulled him closer, making him give in to the moment. He put his arms around my waist and pulled me against him and kissed me like he meant it. When he gently pulled away I was left flustered and without breath. He smiled a small smile and stroked the side of my face.

“You have visitors,” he said. He gently kissed my forehead, and then, just like that, he was up and out the window. A heartbeat later there was a knock at my bedroom door.

“Come in,” I called.

The door swung open and there stood Lucy and Allison.

Allison came hobbling into my room and gently climbed onto my bed beside me, obviously still in pain from last night. “Good morning sunshine,” she said to me smiling. “Glad to see
you’re
looking better. Non-human healing is
so
unfair.”

Lucy walked over to my bed with lowered eyes, and sat down beside me. When she finally met my gaze, there were tears in her almond eyes. I waited for her judgment, waited to be called a murderer, a monster.

“Thank you,” She said.

I looked a question at her.

“You saved me Xoe, you all saved me, but you most of all. None of us would be here if it weren’t for you.”

I closed my gaping jaw and grabbed Lucy in a hug. I let her go reluctantly. Allison scooted closer to the wall and I scooted to the middle of the bed, giving Lucy room to lie on my other side. We all lay there looking at the ceiling.

“So,” Allison began, “now that you’re a full-fledged half-demon and all, are you finally going to get over your hang-up about Jason’s past?”

I turned my nose up. “I don’t know
what
you’re talking about,” I said with a haughty air. I knew I’d eventually have to tell them about Jason and me, but for now, I could do without them making girly noises and kissy-faces at the mention of his name.

“Oh come on Xoe, he is
so
in love with you.”

“You know what Al?” I replied, ignoring her statement. “I think maybe
you’re
the demon.”

With that we all burst into laughter, and for just a moment were able to forget that our lives as we knew them had been turned completely upside-down.

J
ason had to leave town for a few days to report back to Dan’s pack and get whatever they were supposed to pay him, and to fill out some forms of all things. I didn’t ask how much he was getting. However much they gave him, it wasn’t enough. He has since returned to Shelby and he’s staying, at least for now. He got himself a nifty apartment and everything. I’m pretty ecstatic about it, though I’ll never admit it out loud. The whole dating thing is kind of new territory to me, but I seem to be doing okay. I finally had to tell Lucy and Allison. They would have found out eventually. The teasing has been ceaseless.

Brian’s still not talking to me. I’m afraid that he never will. I can’t really blame him for not wanting to get involved. I’m sad about Brian, but at least I still have Lucy and Al . . . and Jason. Max still hangs around. He follows Al around like a lost little puppy, no pun intended. She pretends not to notice.

I’m still learning to control my powers. I’ve accidentally lit a few things on fire, but luckily nothing living. Hopefully my luck continues, not just with my powers, but with everything else. Fingers crossed.

Book Two

I
was sitting comfortably on the green loveseat in my living room. Jason was beside me with his arm around my shoulders. I curled my legs up against his lap, content, then glanced over at the larger blue couch where Lucy, Allison, and Max sat.

In the few months since we’d met him, Max had managed to get us all addicted to watching soccer, which we were all doing now.

Suddenly, Max leapt out of his seat, spilling popcorn on the carpet. “Go! Go!” he shouted.

It was World Cup time, and the game was USA against Mexico. One of the USA players had the ball and was running ahead of all of the opposing team toward their goal. Now, I hadn’t quite gotten a grasp on the rules yet, but I could tell this was a good thing. The rest of us jumped out of our seats and joined Max in cheering the player on. One of the Mexico Players was gaining on him.

“Ruuuun!” Max shouted while clamping his fingers onto his shaggy, sandy colored hair as if in pain. To say that Max was enthusiastic about soccer was an understatement. When you’re around someone that devout, you can’t help but get caught up in the excitement.

I watched the TV screen, unblinking as the Mexico player surpassed the USA player. Suddenly they collided and both went down. One of the refs came running up to the fallen players, blowing his whistle and yelling something at the USA player. The USA player got to his feet and started yelling back. Uh-oh. The ref whipped out a red card and threw the USA player off the field.

“What!” Max shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “That ref is delusional . . .” Max began a tirade, his pale green eyes squinted in anger.

I got caught up in the moment and started yelling at the TV along with Max, feeling a sudden surge of anger at what Max deemed an unfair call.

Then the TV exploded. Crap. Did I mention that I’m a half-demon?

The past few months had been eventful, to say the least. A stranger named Dan had come to town. He happened to be a werewolf. Because of him, my best friend Lucy is a werewolf now too. With the help of Max (also a werewolf), and Jason (vampire), we had managed to rid ourselves of Dan. I won’t go into the grisly details on
how
we rid ourselves of him. Let’s just say that the event made me question my moral fiber more than a little.

Amid all of this chaos, I found out that my dad, whom I’ve never met, is a demon, making me a half-demon. Demons aren’t bad or anything. Well, not
all
demons are bad. At least, that’s what Jason tells me. I have an inkling suspicion that he only says that to make me feel better. Yet, seeing as I’m the only demon I know, I’ll just have to take his word for it.

At the explosion my friends all went completely silent, then turned in slow-motion to regard me as one. I looked back to the TV. The screen had completely shattered, and the frame was a charred mess. Heaps of black smoke poured out of its smoldering innards to fill my living room with an acrid stench.

I stood under the pressure of their gazes only long enough to turn on my heel and run across my living room. I went right out my front door, slamming it behind me. I heard the door open and shut again as I ran toward the tall pine trees that border my house. The scent of pine and crisp air hit me, instantly clearing my senses. I wasn’t sure I wanted them cleared at the moment.

This had been happening to me a lot lately, the blowing up of random appliances thing. When my powers as a half-demon first manifested, I had burned my friend Brian just by touching him. Since then, I’d graduated to blowing things up or just lighting them on fire. My powers were related to my temper, and that temper was mighty hard to control these days. Even the most insignificant things could make me mad enough to do some real damage. I couldn’t control it, and the threat of what could happen weighed on me constantly.

I stood trembling in the dark, silent trees, my arms wrapped tightly around me. I would not cry. I would not cry about the stupid TV. The moisture that I felt slipping down my face was simply a raindrop. Yeah, a raindrop, that’s it. I heard footsteps behind me, then felt arms gently wrap around me from behind.

I leaned back against Jason’s chest and tried to take comfort in his presence. I unclenched my arms and rubbed my hands across the blue flannel shirt that encased his arms. I felt a slight bit of tension leave my body, but not nearly enough.

“You don’t need to be so upset about it,” he murmured. “We all understand.” Jason talks kind of funny, probably due to the fact that he was born in 1883. He had picked up on many of the nuances of modern speech, given the fact that he’d been around to see it evolve, but he’d spent most of his life as a vampire alone, so some words didn’t sound quite right.

“I know you’re all used to it by now,” I said between sniffles. “I just hate not being able to control it. What if it’s one of you next time?”

Jason squeezed me a little tighter, keeping me warm despite the fact that I was only wearing a gray cotton t-shirt and jeans in Oregon, in December. He brushed his lips against my cheek. “We must simply be sure that we don’t make you mad,” he said, trying to lighten the mood, “though it is a somewhat difficult task these days.”

I struggled out of his arms and turned to point a finger in his smiling face. “This is no time to crack jokes.”

He put his arms up in mock surrender. “Oh no! Don’t burn me!”

I pouted as I returned my hand to my side. “I could, you know. I could hurt you, or Lucy, or Al, or Max.”

Jason lowered his hands and took on a more serious tone. “You will not harm us. You have more control than you think. Otherwise, you would have blown me up a thousand times over.”