Milayna (36 page)

“We’d never get one. I don’t know anyone, angel or demi-angel, who’s seen one.” My dad shook his head.

“What?” I asked, hope stirring for the first time. I leaned toward Chay’s dad. “Whatever it is, we need to try!” I said, talking so fast in my excitement that I wasn’t sure anyone could understand me.

“There’s a legend among angels that demons can be killed using a dagger,” my dad said quietly.

“Good! Let’s get one.” I started to stand. “Chay? You want to drive?”

“Wait.” My dad held up a hand. “There’s more to it than just going to the local Gander Mountain and buying a knife, Milayna. If it were that easy, we would have done it years ago.” My dad let out a breath of frustration and pushed off the counter. “No, these daggers are special. Legend says they are made from the very coals of Hell. One prick from its blade and a demon dies. We don’t know who makes them, how, what they look like, nothing. In fact, we don’t know if the legend is even true.”

“So how do we get one?” Drew asked.

Chay’s dad shrugged. “Don’t know. I’ve never seen one. The Demons are too afraid to use them. The Demons higher in the hierarchy use them to keep the lower, servant demons and hobgoblins in line. I guess they have an immunity to them that makes them unafraid to use them. It’s also said that demons give daggers to demi-demons. But as ferocious as they are, I’ve never seen a demi-demon use any kind of weapon to kill a demi-angel or a human.”

“We need one of those daggers.” Chay rolled his shoulders. “What about Azazel? Does he carry one?”

Chay’s dad shook his head. “I don’t know, son. I’ve never seen Azazel, only his demons.”

“Me either.” This from my dad.

“I have,” I whispered. The air in the room stilled, and everyone looked at me. “Not in the flesh, but in a dream. In a vision.”

“What’d you see?” My dad’s voice was hard.

“He looks like a man, but his skin is red, like he has a wicked bad sunburn. He has shoulder-length black hair slicked back on his head. It looks like he uses too much hair gel. In my vision, he wore a black robe. Tucked into the sash was a gold-jeweled handle. I didn’t think about what it was until now, but I’m sure it’s a knife of some sort.”

“The only way to get our hands on that dagger is to take it from Azazel… who none of us have seen in the flesh.” Chay flopped back in his chair, letting out a frustrated sigh.

“Or find someone he’s given it to.” I rolled my pop can between my hands.

“I don’t think that’ll get you the dagger. The legend says that a demi-demon who possesses it absorbs its strength, but also its evil. The person would be stronger than any of us and fueled by evil. Not someone you want to mess around with.” My dad pulled Mom closer to him.

Chay’s dad nodded, drumming his fingers against his thigh and tightening his other arm around Mrs. Roberts.

“And if a demi-angel gets the dagger? Does it still emanate evil?” I braced my forearms on the table and leaned forward.

Mr. Roberts made a sound in his throat and shook his head. He swallowed his mouthful of Coke and said, “The legend is that it gives evil to evil and enhanced power to destroy evil to anyone good who possesses it.”

“We need that dagger, even if we do have to fight a much stronger demi-demon to get it.” Chay threaded our fingers together. “We’ll just have to keep Evils out of the picture while we do it, so we can focus all our energy on the demi-demons.  So one prick and a Demon is toast. What happens if we get cut by the dagger?”

Mr. Roberts looked at Chay, and his face softened. The love and worry for his son was clear. “I don’t know, son.” He shook his head and looked at the floor. “We just don’t know enough about it.”

Evils. Hmm. Could they… what if? Jake.

“The Evils. Is there anything that says the dagger has to be used by a demi-demon? Could an Evil have it?” I looked between my dad and Mr. Roberts.

Mr. Roberts looked at my dad and lifted a shoulder. My dad looked at me and mimicked his shrug. “We don’t know enough about it to even guess. Why?”

“There’s one person I know who’s turned so evil that he’s not even himself any longer. He’s cruel, sadistic, and I can see him and Azazel laughing over cigars and coffee,” I said.

“Who?” everyone in the room asked, their words overlapping and echoing each other’s. All except Chay. He knew the answer. A frown pulled at his lips, and he nodded.

“Jake,” I whispered. “And I’ve seen a leather sheath on his belt. The kind that would hold a knife.”

***

I stood on the back deck with Chay after everyone had gone home. He cupped one side of my face in his palm, gently rubbing his thumb across my skin.

“You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.

“Yeah, right,” I said with a laugh. “I look like I lost a boxing match after ten rounds.”

Chay leaned down and kissed my jaw lightly, just a whisper of a caress over the skin that was already swelling and turning a dusky red.

“I could kill them for what they’ve done to you,” he ground out between clenched teeth.

“What they’ve done to everyone,” I said, wrapping my arms around his neck. “But you wouldn’t—couldn’t—kill anyone. You’re better than that. You have too much goodness in you. Right here.” I put my hand over his heart.

Sliding my hand around the back of his neck, I nudged him to me. His eyes darkened and the blue-green depths swirled. He skimmed his lips over mine before pulling back. His mouth hovered over mine, just a sigh separating us. I could feel his breaths mixing with mine, and I said his name on a sigh. He sucked my lower lip into his mouth. Letting my lip slip from his mouth, he kissed along my jaw to my ear.

“You were made to fit in my arms.” He kissed the hollow behind my ear, and my fingers fisted in his hair.

I pulled his mouth back to mine and his tongue delved between my lips, exploring every part of my mouth. Running along the length of my tongue, across my teeth, over the roof of my mouth—he touched everywhere. I leaned into him, wanting more. Always wanting more. His feel. His strength. His taste. Him.

The light clicked on, and Chay stepped back. I grinned. “I guess the fun’s over.”

“Yeah, but it was damn good while it lasted.”

I gave him a quick kiss. “‘Bye. Text me.”

“I will,” he promised. “I’ll talk with you tomorrow, Milayna. I have a feeling we’re gonna get a free pass from school.”

Judging by the bruises covering his face, and the way mine throbbed, I figured he was right.

***

The next morning, my face was a beautiful kaleidoscope of color. Makeup was once again a failure, so I got to stay home from school.

Unfortunately, Chay had to go to school, so there was no one to make fun of soap operas with. Uncle Rory was my babysitter for the day, and he didn’t see the appeal. So we watched the sports channel. It was torture. I’d rather have been at school.

Five days until my birthday.

Thursday, my mother booted me off to school even though I looked like I was on the wrong end of a catfight.

“I can’t go to school looking like this, Mom! Give me one more day.” Although another day with Uncle Rory and the sports channel and I was likely to pull my hair out strand by strand. Watching the sports channel all day was like Chinese water torture. It actually made me want to study chemistry.

“No, you can’t miss any more school. If anyone asks, tell them you fell down the stairs.”

I stomped up the stairs to my room, tripping on the top step, and landing on my hands and knees on the hallway floor.

“See, honey, falling down the stairs won’t be a big stretch for you. You can even fall up them.” She walked away, giggling.

“Ha freakin’ ha,” I muttered.

I called Chay for a ride, but his mother said he’d already left. He had a quiz to make up. I didn’t even want to think about the amount of work I had to make up. The thought made my head pound. I had demons to deal with. I couldn’t be worrying about chemistry labs and calculus. Who the hell cared what x equaled?

“So what’s the official story?” Muriel asked, interrupting my thoughts. She had given me a ride to school. We walked from the student parking lot to our lockers.

“Hmm?”

“Your face.” She tilted her head to the side. “People are bound to notice.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Um, I fell down the stairs.”

She walked with me to chemistry, said she’d see me the next hour in calculus, and walked away. I looked through the door into the classroom. Chay sat at our lab area, his arms folded on the table, his head lying on them. I walked quietly to the desk and hefted my book bag up. It landed with a loud thwack next to him. He jumped up straight in his chair.

“Now you know how it feels,” I said with a smile. “You look like hell, Chay.”

“That was going to be my line.” He stood, pulling out my chair for me, and I sat down. As he moved away, he let the tips of his fingers glide over the skin at the base of my neck. I shivered. “So, what’s the story? Stairs?”

“Yep. Just tumbled down the darn things,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear.

It wasn’t like someone wasn’t going to figure out our lie. Chay was bruised, I was bruised; Drew, Jeff, and Jen were all bruised. Not to mention the other side. I was sure they had their fair share of cuts and bruises, as well. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there’d been a fight. The only real issue was to make sure no one knew what the fight was about.

“I missed you yesterday.” He pushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear. His finger trailed down the side of my face.

“I missed you, too. Uncle Rory insisted on coming over. We ended up watching the sports channel all day. It was torture. I actually wanted to do homework.”

“Well, I’m glad I’m better company than Uncle Rory.”

“Slightly.”

He laughed. I loved that sound, a slow rumbling deep in his chest. He flashed me a wide smile that crinkled the skin around his eyes like only a real smile can. And for a moment, time stood still and we weren’t in chemistry class. We weren’t fighting demi-demons or demons. We were just two people together. Normal. In love.

The teacher started class. We had a lab to work on. Since I didn’t do the homework assignment because I was home—falling down stairs, apparently—I relied on Chay’s notes. He bent his head close to mine, showing me the lab in the textbook… I breathed him in. He pointed out something in his notes… I stole glances as his profile. He explained the assignment… I watched his lips move and remembered how they felt against mine. When class was over, I had no idea what we did or even if I helped.

School lasted forever. When the last bell rang, I just wanted to get into the car with Chay and go home. My head pounded and my face throbbed. I wanted to crawl into a nice, warm bath and soak my aches and pains away.

“See ya in the gym.” Muriel walked past me in the hallway with a wave.

Ugh, swim practice. I’d forgotten it was Thursday. I wanted to duck out, but I’d missed so many practices that I was going to get kicked off the team if I missed any more.

“I get to see you in that sexy swim hat.” Chay waggled his eyebrows.

I groaned. Not only did I have to go to swim practice, the horrendous swimming cap would pull all my hair from my face and every ugly mark and bruise would show. At least with my hair down, it hid some of it. And I had a pimple on the side of my nose. It was like the cherry on top of everything else.

Can this day get any worse? I probably shouldn’t ask that. The answer is most definitely ‘yes.’

I dragged myself into the locker room and changed into my swimsuit. Picking up my swim cap, I sighed and bounced it in my hand a few times. Scrunching my nose at the ugly thing, I jammed it under the edge of the leg opening of my suit so it hung down my thigh, and left the locker room.

On my way to the pool, my coach walked by me. “Where’s your cap, Jackson?” Her voice echoed off the sickly green, ceramic-tiled walls, making my head pound even more.

“It’s so tight. It hurts to wear it. I was hoping I’d get some brownie points for looking like Frankenstein’s kid, but no go, huh?”

“If you’re swimming, you’re wearing the cap.”

“Fine,” I muttered. I looked around. Chay sat on the bleachers overlooking the pool.

Maybe I won’t look so bad from way up there.

I bent over, my hair hanging over my head. I grabbed it, twisted it into a knot, and shoved it all in the white swim cap before diving into the pool.

The water was cool and felt good against my bruised face. It muffled the sounds of the voices echoing in the pool area, making my head feel just the teensiest bit better. I stayed under water as long as I could, letting the air bubbles swirl around me. It wasn’t until I felt a poke in the ribs and saw Muriel jerk her thumb upwards that I surfaced.

She sighed. “We’re doing laps.”

Hefting my body out of the water, I walked to my lane. I waited for the buzzer and dove into the water, pushing myself to swim as hard and fast as I could. The physical exertion felt good. By the time swim practice was over, the endorphins had kicked in and I was in a much better mood.

***

I was right behind Muriel. We were walking out of the girls’ locker room after we’d showered and changed, and she was gossiping about something someone said during practice. I wasn’t really listening. I stopped for just a second to adjust my things when he stepped out in front of me, separating me from Muriel, who walked into the hall, still talking.

I sucked in a breath. “Move, Edward,” I said as forcefully as I could, trying to keep my voice firm. He wasn’t a demi-angel who’d switched sides. No, he had an evil aura around him that only a demi-demon could. I really wanted to scream out to Muriel, but something held me back. I still wasn’t completely convinced I could trust her.

Didn’t she see him when she walked by? She would’ve had to… right?

“I know this isn’t how you want to live, Milayna. I know you don’t like your powers, that you don’t like being a demi-angel.” He stepped closer to me.

“You don’t know anything about me.” I moved to the side and tried to brush past him. He pushed me back.

“Oh, I think I do. Things can be different. You just have to renounce what you are. Go to Azazel and join his legion. Things would be so different for you. You wouldn’t be plagued by those awful visions anymore.” A smile spread across Edward’s face. “Azazel will treat you like a princess. Fame, wealth, jewels. You’ll have anything you want and more.”

“Thanks, but no.”

“You’re just making it harder on yourself and those you love.”

I stilled. Harder on those I love? Mom and Dad. Oh! Benjamin. He’s so young. It’s not fair for them to touch him. Not one damn hair on his head. Wait…

“Ah, I see you’re thinking of the benefits of a life with us,” he murmured.

I steeled myself. Things were already hard for those I loved. Azazel wouldn’t make it any easier once he controlled my powers.

“No, I’m just thinking how stupid you are for asking. What kind of crap are you spouting? Things are already hard on the people I love. But mark my words, if Azazel so much as touches a hair on the head of anyone I love, I’ll end him.”

He let out a banshee-like scream and ran for me. I sidestepped him, and he ran into the wall behind me before he could stop. The force knocked him backward, and he fell on his ass.

“See? Stupid.” I walked to the door. I wanted to run like hell, but I didn’t want to show any weakness in front of him, so I forced myself to walk calmly and slowly.

“Bitch, you have no idea the shit storm you’re bringing down on yourself. Personally, I can’t wait to see it,” he called, standing and brushing his khakis off.

“No doubt.”

Just as I walked out of the locker room, Chay rounded the corner at a full run. He took the corner too fast and slipped, catching himself with his hand on the floor before he fell. His sneakers squeaked loudly against the tiled floor.

He grabbed me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

He folded me in his arms, kissing the top of my head. “What happened?” He put his finger under my chin and tipped my head back, grazing his lips over mine in a whisper-soft kiss.

“Where’s Muriel?”

“I don’t know. When she came down the hall alone, I asked where you were and she said she didn’t know,” he said. “That’s when I knew something was wrong.”

“I was right behind her. She was talking to me. How could she not realize something was wrong?” I chewed the corner of my bottom lip. I didn’t understand why Muriel left without me, and I knew there was no way she didn’t see the demi-demon go into the locker room when she exited. My mind did the math and circled around the answer, but I didn’t like what I saw. I refused to even consider that she might be the traitor. No. She wouldn’t turn.

Chay put his hands on my shoulders. “What happened?”

“I was walking behind Muriel out of the locker room.” I waved at the door behind me. “Some of my things slipped, and I stopped for just a second to adjust them when Edward walked in front of me.”

“Edward,” Chay spat. “He’s a demi-”

“Demi-demon, yeah, I know. What I don’t know is how he slipped by Muriel without her seeing him. The entrance to the locker room is rounded. We walk in from the hallway and then follow the U-shaped curve around and into the locker room. There are no doorways or nooks where he could have been hiding. It’s all one smooth, tiled wall.”

“What did Edward do?” Chay threaded his fingers through mine.

“Just ran his mouth,” I said, still distracted by Muriel and how she missed seeing Edward. Even if he had walked into the hallway after she left, she would have seen him. And besides, he didn’t have time. He showed up too quickly after she walked by. He’d been in that hallway. I was sure of it.

“What’d he say?” Chay gave my hand a small squeeze when I didn’t elaborate.

“Oh, you know, the same old stuff. Switch sides, Azazel is great, he won’t kill you, your family will be safe, you’ll have wealth, popularity, standard stuff like that.”

Chay pushed me behind him. I looked up and saw Edward saunter past, a smile pulled across his crooked teeth.

“Chay,” he said.

Chay nodded his head once in acknowledgement.

“Think you can keep her safe forever? I just proved we can get to her whenever we want,” Edward taunted.

Chay didn’t answer. He watched Edward walk by before pulling me around to face him. He kissed me softly on the forehead. “C’mon. Let’s get outta here.”

***

Chay was quiet driving home. I tried to get him to talk several times, but he only grunted in response. Finally, I gave up.

He pulled into my driveway and got out of the car, walking around to open my door for me. I slid out of the car and grabbed my bag. Chay lifted my bag from my shoulder and shut the car door. We walked up the front steps and onto the front porch. It was a cheery porch. Flowering plants hung from the rafters, and two wicker rockers sat side-by-side. My parents sat there on summer evenings, holding hands and talking about their day. I had only good memories of the house I’d grown up in, and it made me angry that those memories were being overshadowed by demons, fighting, and the constant threat of Azazel.