A Demon Made Me Do It (24 page)

“
I can’t—”

“
Yes, you can. Please…just
this once. For me…”

Exhaling loudly, I give her a scowl.
Tatiana rarely plays the guilt card, but when she does, it always
works. I groan again and dangle my legs over the side of the bed to
get out. But then I pause, remembering.

“
Why do you even want me to
go there? I’m sure you heard what happened yesterday. School’s
probably cancelled, anyway.”

She closes her eyes and lowers her
head. “Yes,” she whispers, “I am aware of the tragedy. Your school
may or may not be open, but I want you to go anyway—”

I reach for the robe beside my bed and
slip into it. “But why? It’s not even safe! Three students got
whacked, and one’s missing her head! Why would you send me back
there?—”

“
I do not have all the
details, as it’s still blurry. I have spoken with the others at
Coven yester-eve and we do not feel the deaths occurred at the
school. Rather, the bodies were placed there intentionally.” Like
her, Tatiana’s group of sister-witches are pure humans, but they
all have special insight as to the locations, movements, and
energies of demons and demonic activity.

“
But why? Who would do such
a thing?”

“
We believe perhaps someone
is trying to send a message. Who the messenger is, however, remains
to be seen, as their energies were cloaked in a manner none of us
with the Vision can penetrate. Yet.”

I sigh. “But you still haven’t told me
why you want me to go there. Obviously it’s no longer safe. Won’t I
be in danger?”

She shakes her head. “I am confident
you are not in any danger, just as I am confident that if something
should arise, Lucky would take over. But I will never allow a child
of mine to cower in the darkness because of fear. It is only when
we face our fears head on that we become stronger…”

I slowly make my way to the bathroom.
I know when I’ve been beaten. There’s no out-arguing Tatiana.
Ever.

“
Fine, I’ll go. But I’m
telling you now, when I come back and tell you there is not one
good thing in my life, that today sucks just as bad as every other
day, and that pretending to be a normal human is a big fat friggen
waste of time, I’m done with it. No more school; I don’t care what
you say.”

“
Deal.”

I stop walking and spin around,
scanning her face for signs she’s just messing with me. Her
expression is stoic as she leans against the violet wall of my
bedroom.

“
Wha-
really
? You’d let me drop
out?”

“
If that is what you decide
to do. But only on one condition. You must promise me this: You
will shake off whatever is upsetting you. You will open your eyes
and heart to the possibility of life and love. You will embrace
opportunity and let down the walls of the fortress you have built
around your spirit. You will see others as they are meant to be
seen, and in turn, allow them to see
you
for who you really are. And you
will not be so afraid to fail that you don’t even try.”

“
Fine,
whatever.”

“
Liora…”

“
I promise,
Tat.”

An impossible
pledge.

Stepping outside, I welcome the
stinging chill on my face. It takes my mind off Kieron, if only for
a moment. I set my backpack down and fumble for my mittens; it’s
much colder than I anticipated. Maybe I should just drive
today.

But I know if I do, it’ll just make
the long hours cooped up in the classroom pass that much slower.
For some reason walking to school is the only way I can tolerate
being there. Plus, I need the time to think. Figure out what I’m
going to do, what I’m going to say when I see Kieron. He’ll want an
explanation for yesterday, no doubt. Maybe I should just say that I
had a bad reaction to some prescription drugs. Or maybe
non-prescription drugs. That might be more believable.

Yeah...
Side-effects may include headaches, drowsiness, and demon
possession…

Just as I’m about to turn
from the path into the woods, I see him. The wind slaps my face as
I stand there, not moving.
What is he
doing here? I’m not prepared!

Kieron leans against the side of his
truck, looking like a male model posing for an outdoorsy catalogue.
When he sees me, his face lights up and he jogs to where I’m
standing.

My first instinct is to run away. But
considering what a complete epic failure that was last time, I grit
my teeth and stand my ground. Might as well get this over
with.

Half of me admires the graceful way he
moves toward me; the other half fiercely braces for the
inevitable.

“
Hey, Liora. How you doin’
today?”

No. No way. Uh-uh. Is
he
really
trying
to act like everything’s totally hunky-dory? I don’t think
so!

I try to read his expression, but the
only thing I see is the easy openness of yesterday. No anger. No
resentment. No suspicion.

Very
suspicious.

“
F-fine…I
guess.”

“
I brought your things from
yesterday…your clothes and book bag. You forgot to take them with
you last night. I figured I should give ‘em back to you here, not
at school.” His eyes gleam mischievously. “We wouldn’t want people
to start talking…”

“
Heaven forbid,” I say,
flatly.

He gives me a half smile. “Well,
they’re in my truck. Would you like a ride to school? It’s kinda
chilly out to be walking.”

What is going on
here?
“I don’t want to drive…I want to
walk.”

“
Okay, we’ll walk together.
Just let me grab my stuff.”

As he trots back to his
truck, my mind is spinning. Why is he acting so normal? Like
everything is
fine?
Like the insanity of yesterday didn’t happen, and Lucky didn’t
show up and ruin everything.
This is NOT
possible.

No. Something’s definitely
up.

He returns with his backpack slung
casually over his shoulder and hands me my bag. Then he nods toward
the forest.

“
Shall we?”

******

Birds chirping and the
crunching of leaves and twigs are the only sounds as Kieron and I
hike through the woods. I’m waiting for him to say
something…
anything
. But he remains silent, and so do I. He seems perfectly
relaxed and at ease, but with every passing second I feel my mind
closer and closer to exploding.

Finally, I can’t take it anymore.
We’ve reached the forest’s walls; soon we’ll hit the main road. I
stop abruptly, set my backpack on the ground, and take a seat on a
fallen log.

He turns to me with a quizzical
glance. “What’s wrong?”

“
I think you and I need to
talk.”

“
Sure. What’s up?” He drops
his bag and sits beside me.

“
I need to ask you
something and it might seem strange.” I stare straight ahead,
unable to meet his penetrating gaze.

“
You can ask me anything,
Liora. I promise I won’t think it strange.”

Yeah. I highly
doubt
that.

I take a deep breath and
dive in. “What happened with the farmer with the gun last night?
I…I must have blocked it out or something because I don’t remember
anything after he said he was going to call the police. Did…did
anything
unusual
happen? Did I do or say anything…
strange
?”

Kieron runs his hands through his dark
hair. It’s so cold that his breath makes little puffs in the
air.

“
Well, after you
fainted…”

“
Fainted
?”

“
Must’ve been from all that
running and the fright of being held at gunpoint. Anyways, you
fainted for a moment. When you came to, you were very nice with the
farmer and he let us go.”

“
And then what?” I suck in
my breath and hold it.

He shrugs. “And then nothing. You
wanted to go home, so I took you home. No big deal.”

My eyes narrow. Is he
telling me the truth? Lucky despises automobiles, and I’m having a
hard time believing she’d agree to go with him
.
Unless
…No
. Even if she thought Kieron was
gorgeous, she hates human boys. Well, not
hates,
but she thinks they’re weak
and pathetic and totally beneath her. She’d never be interested in
one, no matter how handsome he is…

I’m only slightly mollified by his
response. Perhaps she decided to play it cool to keep from being
found out. But it still doesn’t explain why he’s not at all
confused by my erratic behavior…

“
Did I…say anything weird
after I came to? Anything unusual?”

“
Like what?”

“
I dunno…just anything
silly. I’m taking some prescription medications for insomnia and
sometimes I get a little loopy and say things I don’t
mean—”

“
No, nothing weird. You
were just…sorta quiet.”

I put my head down. “Oh,
okay.”

How badly I want to believe him, but
it seems too good to be true. But maybe, after all the crap I’ve
been through lately, the universe decided to do me this small
favor. Maybe Lucky really did behave, and maybe Kieron really
doesn’t care that I ran away.

Yeah, and maybe pigs can
fly and speak Chinese.

I decide not to push it. If Kieron
wants to pretend everything’s fine, so will I. Having him want to
be my friend is the closest thing to a miracle I’ve had; I don’t
want to blow it now.

“
Guess we better get going;
don’t wanna be late,” I mumble, picking up my bag and slinging it
over my shoulder.

“
Wonder what school’s gonna
be like today,” he muses, falling into step beside me. “I’m sure
people are really freaked out.”

“
Maybe it won’t even be
open. You heard anything new?”

He shakes his head.

We reach the parking lot, and although
it’s not as chaotic as yesterday, several students, parents, and
teachers are gathered in small groups, talking. I see another news
van set up, where a pretty reporter is speaking into a
camera.

Kieron stands beside me as we survey
the scene. I look for Corinne, but don’t see her anywhere. A girl
named Marcy wanders by looking dazed, and Kieron reaches out and
grabs her arm.

“
Do you know what’s going
on?” he asks.

She pauses and shrugs. “They cancelled
classes until Wednesday of next week, but they’ve set up a bunch of
rooms for students to talk to grief counselors if they want to.”
She looks at Kieron when answering, ignoring me completely. “I
guess the police will be questioning students at some point, but
the parents have to be there, too, so they’re getting it all
organized.”

“
Thanks.” He drops her arm
and she walks away. He turns to me. “Do you want to talk to a grief
counselor?”

I shake my head. “I just wanna get out
of here.”

“
Yeah, me too…guess we’re
hoofing it again?”

“
Sorry I made you walk all
this way just to turn around and go back…”

He smiles. “Don’t apologize. I can’t
think of a nicer way to spend the day than walking through the
woods with you. If you want to go back and pick up my truck we can
go somewhere and just chill…I brought something for you…something I
hope you like…”

My face brightens. “You did? Something
for me?”

He nods. “Just a little something…I
was looking at it and thought of you. But let’s get going before we
get lassoed into some group therapy session,” he says as we both
spot a teacher heading in our direction.

We aim back toward the
woods.

******

I lean up against a headstone and take
the small leather book from his hand. “This is for me?” After
Kieron and I had made our way back to my cabin, we hopped in his
truck and drove out to the cemetery. For some reason, both of us
felt it was the right place to be today.

He does that cute thing with his mouth
where he smiles out of one side. “Yeah, well, it’s for you to
borrow…if you want…for as long as you like. I just thought you
might enjoy it. You mentioned you liked poetry. I made this
collection earlier this year. It has all my favorites in one
place.”

I gently open the brown cover, turning
to the first page. A table of contents lists several of my favorite
poets: Robert Browning, William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
Emily Dickinson…

“
There’s a few in there
that make me think of you…” he says, quietly.

My heart starts the
thudding thing it does when he looks at me with his sweet eyes. I
love this feeling…the one where we are the only ones alive on
Earth, where no one else exists, and no one else matters. It’s just
the two of us, talking, laughing,
being
.