A Demon Made Me Do It (40 page)

Tatiana doesn’t respond,
and I let out a deep breath.
Good
. Maybe she won’t be angry with
me. Perching myself on the edge of Liora’s four-poster bed, I
carefully remove my steel-tipped boots, then stand to peel off my
tan leather pants, noticing some ash marks left by one of the
Lazerine demons.

I sigh and brush them away, annoyed
with myself. This is what happens when I get distracted—I get
sloppy. Their attack had caught me off guard. Fortunately, I was
able to rip out their power sources and reduce them all to dust,
but not before freaking out a whole throng of witnesses. Not
exactly how I planned my night to go. But it’s hard to stay focused
when I’m worried.

Where is Kieron? Why
hasn’t he returned by now?

As the familiar blackness creeps in
around me, my last conscious thought is that I’ll never see him
again. And I gave up my only opportunity to fix my broken soul for
nothing.

Chapter 2. Liora

Aww, man, she did it
again.

My head spins as I struggle to sit up,
and I wrap the blanket around my shivering, aching body.
“Tattie?”

The moment the weak cry
leaves my mouth I notice the pink-tinged water concoction beside my
bed.
Thank you, Tat,
I silently praise my guardian. I reach over and eagerly gulp
it down, grateful not to have to suffer the consequences of another
one of Lucky’s late-night drinking binges.

As I empty the glass, my
body eases back to normal and my mind clears. Instantly, my
thoughts return to
him
.

Kieron.

My heart brightens, but my
mouth falls into a frown. Will today be the day he comes back? As
much as I desperately hope so, a bigger part of me feels I’m
setting myself up for more disappointment. If Kieron doesn’t come
back to me today, then this will be day sixty-three of his absence.
Sixty-three long, painfully lonely, confusing, and heart-wrenching
days. It feels like sixty-three
years
.

“
Good morning, Liora dear.
How did you sleep?” Tatiana greets me as I amble out for breakfast.
I ignore the plate of blueberry pancakes she’s set out and head
straight for the pot of freshly-brewed coffee. Although her remedy
worked wonders, as usual, my stomach is still uncomfortably
clenched at the knowledge that Kieron is not outside my front door
waiting for me.

“
Fine,” I mumble and sip
the piping hot beverage. There’s been an uneasy truce between me
and my demon half lately, and I know Tatiana is grateful for this.
I’d hate to burden her with any more of my problems.

I force myself to go through the
morning routine one step at a time, like everything else these
days. The thought of facing a whole day without seeing Kieron is
downright unbearable, so I just concentrate on one minute at a
time. After a quick shower and a lazy brush through my long hair, I
give Tatiana a kiss goodbye and head out. I hate that I can’t stop
from automatically glancing around to see if by any miracle, Kieron
and his shiny black truck is out front waiting for me.

Nothing.

Of course not.
Why should today be any different than yesterday?
Or the day before? Or the day before that?

By now I should know better than to
expect miracles, but I can’t stop the rush of disappointment that
floods my heart.

Where is he?

I stroll through the woods,
wondering, as I do every day, just
what
is taking him so long to return.
The last time I saw him, I told him I loved him. The last thing he
whispered in my ear as he leaned in to give me my final kiss was
that he loved me, too.

So where is he?

The bitter morning air slaps across my
face, and I shove my frozen hands into my jacket pocket. I wish it
would get colder…so cold it would numb my entire body, and I
wouldn’t have to feel this aching abandonment any
longer.

And that is the truth I
have to face, no matter how painful. Kieron has abandoned me. He’s
abandoned
us
.
Can’t say I really blame him, though. One doesn’t have to be Dr.
Phil to see why Kieron would get the hell out of Dodge and as far
away from me as possible. Who in their right mind would want to be
with me, anyway? A broken Dark-angel with a fractured soul. I
don’t
get
to love.
Why can’t I get this through my thick skull?

Maybe it’s because of Lucky. Maybe
she’s still hanging on to the delusion that he’s coming back for
us. She’ll just have to find someone else, and hopefully soon.
Maybe there’s another demion out there that will turn her
on.

Not for me, though.
I’m
done
. Of
course, I’ve met other demions since becoming human, and I hated
every single one of them. They’re nothing but evil pretenders
hiding beneath their human façades like lying little
cowards.

But Kieron…he wasn’t like
them. He seemed so real…so pure…so
loving.
I shake my head.
Just another evil pretender.

I have to find something…anything…to
fill this aching void left in my soul. But what? I only have one
sort-of friend, Corrine. No one else likes me, or even really talks
to me if they don’t have to. I’ve turned down social invitations
for so long they never come my way anymore.

When I had Kieron— even just knowing
he was nearby—everything seemed better somehow. With him, my life
had become not just tolerable, but actually pleasurable. More
pleasurable than I’d ever dreamed possible.

But now it feels
worse…so
much
worse. The poet Tennyson famously wrote, “It's better to have
loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.” But he was so
totally full of crap. It’s way better when you don’t know what
you’re missing, or constantly tortured with the memory of how good
it once was.

I sigh and kick some rocks out of my
path as I trudge forward and resign myself to the fact that I’ll
never be able to enjoy that part of my life ever again.

I force myself not to look around the
parking lot as I arrive at Dove Creek High School. Thankfully, I
spot Corrine by the entrance and run to greet her, grateful for the
distraction.

“
Hey, Liora. So Kieron’s
still not back yet, huh?” she asks.

I shrug and put my head down. Corrine
doesn’t know the truth about him, that he’s half-demon just like I
am. Of course, she doesn’t know the truth about me, either. If she
did, there’d go my one and only friend.

“
Nah, I guess he’s still
away visiting his relatives.”

We head down the hall toward our
lockers. Corrine chats in my ear, but I don’t hear what she’s
saying. I just concentrate on putting one foot in front of the
other, and try to remember my locker combination.

My eyes are focusing on the little
dial when a sudden chill runs up my spine, and my heart takes an
uneven jump. Woozy, I suck in my breath and lean against the
locker.

“
What’s wrong?” Corrine
asks, concerned.

I shut my eyes and shake my lowered
head. “Nothing,” I mumble a few moments later. “Just got dizzy for
a second. I’m fine.”

“
You sure? You look kinda
pale—” She grabs my arm. “Wow, who are
they
?”

An eerie sense of unexplainable
foreboding has crept over me, and for a second I’m afraid to
move.

“
Liora, look,” Corinne
hisses, spinning my body around.

I open my eyes and am somewhat
surprised to see a boy and a girl…obviously brother and sister.
Both are tall and blonde, with tan complexions and light-blue
eyes.

I stare at them, wondering
why I feel an odd sense of déjà vu. Like maybe I know them from
somewhere, or
should
know them.

But they’re obviously new here. And
that in itself is attention-worthy. It’s rare that new people
actually move to this part of Virginia, a small backwoods mining
community just east of the Appalachians. Most people here are
lifers. The only new person to arrive in all the time I’ve been
going to school here was Kieron, and even his arrival wasn’t
exactly what one would call ‘natural’. In fact, he’d come here to
kill me. Just another reason why I should forget about him once and
for all.

“
Wow, who do you think they
are? I wonder what his deal is.” Corrine whispers, pulling me
closer. It’s only then I notice the thick, jagged scar curving from
the tall boy’s forehead, around his cheekbone, and down the right
side of his neck.

“
I don’t know,” I whisper
back, trying hard not to stare. On the one hand I desperately want
to feast my eyes upon these strange newcomers, but, at the same
time, I’m fearful they might look back and notice me.

“
And look at the girl…”
Corrine murmurs. Several other students are checking them out, too,
but these strangers aren’t causing
half
the stir Kieron had when he
first graced the halls with his presence. With him, everyone stared
and gaped in awe, like he was some sort of celebrity or something.
It was pathetic, really. But with these two, people glance over,
some smile inquisitively and then return to their normal
activities.

Despite the brisk weather, the girl is
wearing a light-yellow tank top as if it’s a warm spring day. But
that’s not what draws my attention; I can’t stop staring at her
arms, covered with wicked, shiny gashes. Between the vicious scars
covering her, and the ones on her brother’s face, they look like
they’d been through a meat grinder. I glance at Corrine who is just
as fixated as I am.

“
Stop staring, it’s rude.”
I turn back to my locker and grab my books.

“
Fine. We gotta go anyways.
We’re gonna be late.” Corrine slams her locker shut.

I give a quick look over my shoulder
at the mysterious boy and girl before heading down the hallway, and
try to ignore the icy chills still clenching my spine.

I’m reading Kieron’s poetry
book, tucked inside my Shakespeare reader, when the classroom door
opens. Another bout of shivers runs up my back, and I feel as if
someone has dumped a bucket of ice water on me.
Great.
On top of everything else now
I’m getting sick. Just what I need. I look up and see the blond boy
standing in the doorway, gazing around the room. I feel dizzy again
and lower my head.

The achy wooziness creeps through my
body and I nestle my face in my arms, taking several deep breaths.
Maybe Tatiana’s remedy is wearing off, or maybe Lucky ingested
something a little stronger than just “alcohol” last night. I
wouldn’t put it past her.

I concentrate on my
breathing and clearing my throbbing head, and totally ignore what
Mr. Sodenberg is saying. I’m sure he’s just giving the “let’s all
welcome the new student
rah-rah-rah
” speech.

Luckily, a few moments after the sick
feeling floods me, it passes. I slowly raise my head, but keep my
eyes closed as the chill has now moved to my face. I finally open
them and am met with a pair of cornflower blue eyes staring back at
me.

“
Hi, mind if I sit here?”
the scarred, blond boy asks pointing to the seat beside
me.

You have got to be kidding
me.

“
Someone already sits
there,” I say through clenched teeth and glance away.

“
I apologize for that, but
it’s the only spot open in the room. Perhaps it’d be okay just for
today until we can work something else out?” I’m staring straight
ahead, unable to look at him, but I plainly hear the smile in his
voice.

Since I don’t respond, he takes my
silence for permission and sits down. I glower inwardly. It’s not
like I can tell him not to sit there. It’s not as if I own the
classroom and I’m the boss of all the chairs. And it’s not like
Kieron is here to lay claim to his seat…and to his place beside
me.

But there’s no way I’m
enduring sitting here a whole hour feeling sick and with this rude,
inconsiderate jerk posed beside me. Just as I’m about to grab my
books and leave—damn the consequences—I start feeling comfortable
again. Relaxed.
Good
even. I let out a long sigh and return to my
poetry.

But I feel his eyes on me, like tiny
pins jabbing at my skin, pulling at my attention. I peek up and see
him staring at me with overt interest. I give him my best scowl and
return to my reading. “Stare much?” I mutter under my
breath.

“
Is it better that way?” he
whispers, leaning toward me.

“
Is
what
better
what
way?” I hiss back.

He angles his tall body in my
direction and stretches out his long legs. “The book. Is it more
interesting if you read it upside down?”

I roll my eyes and turn my Shakespeare
reader right-side-up. But this time I have to physically force
myself to look at the pages in front of me and not at the stranger
beside me. My head wants gawk at him.