"Does she act differently?" Ceri asked, glancing out the window to see the sun was already low in the sky.
"Not in the way you might think," Eloise said, shaking her head. "When she was a little girl, there was no change. But, as she got older, she started to understand it made her different. She hates it, so she gets all moody and irritable." Eloise paused then, hesitating.
"What is it?" Ceri prompted. They needed all the information they could get.
"She's been sick lately. Kadrithan knows why, but won't tell me, and neither will she. Every day it seems she gets weaker, and now sometimes, the–– she’ll pass out or throw up. I just want to help her, but she won't tell me what's wrong." Eloise wrung her hands together, clearly upset.
“We’ll keep an eye on her while y’all are staying here too, okay?” Amber said, trying to reassure the woman.
Ceri, however, had no interest in doing that. Eloise was acting like these were just normal teenage issues. The girl was a demon. Whatever was happening to her could have serious repercussions for her, and everyone around her.
“Can I see her?” Eloise asked.
“Yeah, she’s been wanting to see you to. I’ll go get her,” Amber said, glancing at Ceri to make sure that was okay.
Ceri nodded and rose to her feet. “Just a quick visit. I need to sedate you again, Eloise, to help you heal. Your body can recover faster when you aren’t moving or exerting yourself.”
Amber knelt by Eloise to offer her more reassurances, but Ceri was done for now. She needed a break. Derek was standing in the hall when she walked out. He looked as angry as she felt.
“You okay?” he asked as she approached.
“I’m fine, what do you need?”
He glanced at the closed door and shook his head as if he disapproved. “Is this demon girl going to be safe to have here?”
Ceri thought about his question before answering. She felt even more confused now than she had before they’d talked to Eloise. “Yes and no,” she said honestly. “She’s not going to hurt us, as far as I can tell, but whoever is after her might try to, if they find out she’s here.”
Derek took a deep breath and nodded. “I have to go to the mechanic shop. Call me if something happens.”
“I will,” she said with a tight smile. She probably wouldn’t until it was over, but if it made him feel better to hear it, she’d reassure him. Humans weren’t completely defenseless, but with a sorcerer threatening them, he’d be safer far, far away from the fighting.
He lifted his hand and squeezed her shoulder, but didn’t pull away. “Thanks for looking out for my sister. Lord knows she doesn’t think things through sometimes.” He dropped his hand and took a step back. “I’ll see y’all this evening for dinner. Try not to summon any more demons while I’m gone.”
She snorted. “We’ll do our best, but no promises.”
“Oh, and you might want to check on Tommy. Apparently, he got shot while he was out there, but didn’t tell anyone.”
Her heart plummeted. “Thanks for telling me. Dammit, I can’t believe he didn’t say anything.”
“He’s a teenage boy trying to look tough, what do you expect? I think he’s okay.” He flashed her a charming grin that, for a second, lifted her spirits. Then, he was walking away and she was left with nothing but anger for Amber and the situation she’d drug them into.
Chapter 24
TOMMY
Tommy was halfway through his third sandwich when Ceri stomped into the kitchen. She looked even angrier than she had when she’d found out about the demon mark. “What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t tell me you were shot,” Ceri said as she grabbed his arm and spun him around, looking for injuries.
“Because I’m fine. They healed,” he protested.
“Do you know for sure that every bullet was pushed out and not just healed over?”
“Well, I don’t know, but I feel fine,” he said, batting her hands away.
“Where were you shot? Show me,” she said, finally letting go and putting her hands on her hips. Her hair was even frizzier than normal and her fingers were white she was digging her fingers into her waist so hard. He didn’t want to get checked over right now, but decided she needed it.
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “Left leg and my side, right here.” He lifted his shirt and she began carefully palpating the area.
“Are you okay? I know it healed, but being shot had to hurt,” she asked quietly.
He hesitated before answering. “It doesn’t seem real. I don’t know, I’m not freaking out, but maybe I should be. I’m more worried about Amber. What she did was brutal, and she’s had this look on her face ever since.”
Ceri snorted. “Amber will be fine.”
He didn’t like the tone in her voice, but he wasn’t sure what to say. “Why are you so mad at her?”
She paused and looked up at him. “She put the whole pack in danger.”
“There wouldn’t be a pack if she hadn’t made that deal.”
Ceri straightened and crossed her arms, looking away. “We could have found a different sponsor. She shouldn’t have done that without telling us.”
Tommy shook his head. “It’s easy to say that looking back, but we barely knew each other when she did that. And I don’t think we could have found a different sponsor. Just, I don’t know, give her a break. Derek is all over her about leaving him out of the loop, and now you are too. She actually listens to you. She needs you.”
Ceri glanced toward Amber’s room where Evangeline was laying, still sedated. “Easier said than done.”
He shook his head, still confused. “What are you actually mad about?”
Her eyes snapped to his and she gnawed on the inside of her cheek. “I’m worried we’re going to fail.”
Tommy looked at his feet. He hadn’t let himself think about that yet. Failure just wasn’t an option. “We can’t, so we won’t.”
“Since when are you so optimistic?” Ceri asked with a short, humorless laugh.
“Since some wise old lady told me it was just a choice, or something silly like that,” he said with a grin. “She also told me to believe in myself, and my pack.”
Ceri pressed her lips together, failing to completely hide her smile. “You’re not supposed to use my advice against me.”
Genevieve strolled into the kitchen. “Did you eat all the bread again?”
Tommy grabbed the bag and tossed it at her. “Nope.”
“He’s right, by the way, you’re the only one Amber really listens to,” Genevieve said as she fished a piece of bread out.
“She listens to ––”
Genevieve cut her off with an unimpressed look. “And then does what she wants. You can change her mind when you need to. You are the alpha whisperer.”
Ceri laughed, finally relaxing a little. “What a grand title.”
The tension bled from the room and Tommy took a deep breath. Just being with pack like this had a way of calming him. It was a sense of safety he hadn’t felt since his mother died. He’d do anything to keep them safe, and to keep the pack together. Even help a demon.
He just had to find a way to get stronger. He’d frozen in the forest, and he couldn’t afford to do that again. Amber couldn’t fight every fight for them. She needed them just as much as they needed her.
Chapter 25
EVANGELINE
Evangeline grasped onto consciousness and forced her heavy eyes to open. She was inside. An old-fashioned light fixture cast yellow light on the white ceiling. She rolled her head to the side and saw the woman with red hair who had found her in the forest. The woman was sitting in a chair, watching her.
“Are you feeling okay?” the woman asked. Her eyes were freaky, like all alpha werewolves. They were tinted with red from the magic that flowed through her.
She forced herself to sit up, though the movement made her arm ache. “I’m thirsty.”
The woman leaned down and grabbed a bottle of water,
then carried it to her. Evangeline took it and drank from it, swallowing as quickly as she could. Her throat felt like sandpaper, but the water soothed it.
“My name is Amber, by the way,” the woman said. “And as Tommy told you, the demon I owe a favor to sent me to find you and protect you.”
She nodded and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “Yeah, I got all that.”
Amber crossed her arms. “Any clue who attacked your house? Did you see anyone?”
Evangeline fiddled with the bottle cap and shrugged. She didn’t want to rehash all of this with some stranger, especially one stupid enough to take a demon mark. Anyone working for her uncle didn’t have her best interests at heart. “Where’s my mother? I want to see her.”
Amber looked annoyed for a moment, then took a deep breath and headed toward the door. “Come on, she’s in the bedroom across the hall.”
She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the wooziness that hit her as soon as she stood, and followed Amber. As they passed through the hall, she caught a glimpse of three other people watching them expectantly. The witch, and the two other werewolves who'd been in the forest earlier.
Her mother was laying on a cot on the floor. Her eyes popped open as soon as they walked in. "Oh, Eva," she said, lifting her arms for a hug.
Evangeline ran toward her and buried her face in her mother's neck. Distantly, she heard Amber saying she'd give them a minute, then the door shut again and they were alone. She knew the werewolves would still be able to hear them, but at least they weren't staring at her.
"Are you okay?" she whispered.
Her mother smoothed her hand down her back. "I've felt better, but that witch is healing me. I'm going to be just fine."
She sat back and wiped a tear from her cheek angrily. She hated crying in front of people. "Are we going to have to stay here?"
"Yes," her uncle answered, startling her.
She turned and glared at him, not realizing he was in the room. "I wasn't asking you."
"You will stay here and stay hidden as well as you can, or you will be killed. As I keep reminding you, all I'm trying to do is keep you alive," he sneered.
"I believed that when I was five, but I know better now," Evangeline hissed, glancing toward the door suspiciously. She didn't really want anyone listening in on this conversation.
"Don't worry, they can't hear us," the demon said.
"If you wanted to keep me alive then you would have warned us those people were coming to kill us, but you weren't even there!" she said, all the pent-up anger from the last twelve hours spilling out.
He ground his teeth together and glared at her. "If I'd known they were coming, I would have gotten both of you out days before. Someone found out you exist, and when I find out how, I will punish whoever screwed up appropriately. However, until then, you have to stay here, and stay safe."
Evangeline wanted nothing more than to just run and disappear, but she could never escape her uncle. He'd dug his claws into her mother long ago with a demon mark she could never be rid of as long as she lived. He knew she loved her mother, and so she was trapped.
"How are you feeling today? You used magic to get the two of you to safety," he asked, floating over to the bed.
She felt sicker than ever and weak. Her bones ached and she knew it would only grow worse when the sun set. "I feel fine."
"You can keep lying to yourself, and to me, but eventually it will break you," he sneered.
“Kadrithan, leave her alone. She'll come to the decision in her own time. I told you I wouldn't tolerate you trying to scare her into it," Eloise objected.
"She should be scared. If she doesn't do what she needs to, she will die." He stepped over her mother and got in her face. "If you die, then Eloise has failed. I'll take her soul."
She jumped to her feet. "You can't do that!"
"I can and I will! Come to your senses and stop putting off the inevitable."
She curled her hand into a fist and yanked the bedroom door open. Amber, who had been waiting just down the hall jumped, clearly startled. "I'd like to go back to sleep."
"Okay, we have a room for you upstairs," Amber said, pointing toward the stairs.
Evangeline nodded, then turned back to her mother for a moment. "Love you, and see you in the morning."
Her mother smiled, but it didn't have the usual joy behind it. "Love you too, sweetie."
Chapter 26
AMBER
“How’s your arm? Ceri said you’d probably need to change the bandage when you woke up,” Amber asked as they walked upstairs.
The girl looked angry, and Amber had felt a slight tug on her demon mark while she was alone in that room with Eloise. She wondered what the demon had said to her, if anything. Or if he’d just been lurking and eavesdropping.
Evangeline pulled her sleeve up and shrugged. “It’s only bled through a little bit.”
“Here,” Amber said, making a quick detour to the upstairs bathroom. Ceri had left a first aid kit on the sink with a big band-aid set on top. She picked it up and showed Evangeline. “You don’t need the full bandage anymore.”
Evangeline didn’t respond, just pushed the sleeve of her hoodie up and started unwinding the bandage. She hissed in pain as she started to peel the gauze away from the wound. It had bled a little and then dried, which made it stick.
“I can keep that from sticking if you want,” Amber said, reaching for the bandage.
“Don’t touch me,” Evangeline snapped, flinching away from her outstretched hand. “I can do it myself.”
Amber lifted her hands in surrender. “Fine. You should change the band-aid every morning and evening.” She picked up a little tub of ointment Ceri had added to the kit. “And smear a small amount of this on it. Ceri said it should help it heal within a few days.”
It wasn’t hard to believe this girl was a demon. She was rude, ungrateful, and looked like she wanted to punch anyone that came near her. The angel part seemed to have only affected her appearance.
“Great,” Evangeline said, grabbing the tub opening it. She dabbed the ointment on while standing as far away from Amber as physically possible in the small bathroom.
The band-aid made it onto her arm but it was crooked and only partially covered the wound. Evangeline tossed the trash, most of it making it in the actual trashcan, the rest falling on the floor. Angered by its apparent uncooperativeness, she bent down and picked up the pieces, throwing them in one at a time.
Amber crossed her arms and waited. When Evangeline was finally done, she tried to leave the bathroom. She grabbed the girl’s uninjured arm. “We need to talk.”
“Why? You’re supposed to keep me alive, not get to know me,” Evangeline said, flipping her long hair over her shoulder.
Amber’s eye twitched. She wondered if shaving the girl’s head would count as ‘harming her’. “Did you see any of the people that attacked you?”
“Only the one my mom killed, but he was already dead,” she said, turning her head away. But she couldn’t hide the slight tremble of her lips.
“Have you seen any other half angels around recently? At school? Following you?” Amber asked.
Evangeline shook her head. “People like that don’t come to Timber. It’s in the middle of nowhere. They would have stuck out.”
“Has anything weird happened around you recently?”
“Yeah,” Evangeline said, shrugging her shoulders. “But everybody already knows about that.”
“Well I don’t. What was it?”
“A no-magic spot showed up right outside our school,” she said, crossing her arm and looking uncomfortable. “There was a rumor going around that it must be demon related.”
“Is it?” Amber asked bluntly. That earned her another glare, but at least Evangeline didn’t look like she was about to cry anymore.
“No. At least not anything I did. I don’t know what Kadrithan gets up to in his spare time.”
Amber’s phone buzzed with a messa
ge. She pulled it out and saw Shane’s message letting her know he’d be there in ten minutes. “Shit.”
She’d completely forgotten he was going to pick her up this evening to go visit Donovan’s old pack. The timing couldn’t be worse.
“What?” Evangeline asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
“I need you to stay in your room and stay quiet. There’s another werewolf from the council stopping by.” She shoved Evangeline out of the bathroom and pointed toward the spare bedroom she’d be staying in.
“That I can do,” Evangeline muttered. She hurried into the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Amber put her hands over her face and cursed Angel, demons, and teenagers. She was never, ever having kids.
She left the first aid kit where it was so Evangeline could find it later and hurried downstairs. The pack was in the kitchen and…they were laughing. She stopped in the living room and just watched for a moment, completely confused. Less than an hour ago they’d been at each other’s throats. Well, they’d been mad at her. Not each other.
“Hey, Shane is on his way here. I completely forgot he was coming by this evening to pick me up. We have to go to Lockhart’s old pack to check in on things and see if they have a new alpha yet,” she said, feeling strangely left out for the first time.
Genevieve immediately perked up. “I need to go with you.”
“Why?” Amber asked, frowning.
“I wanted to talk to you about it earlier today, but…” she waved her hand around to indicate the chaos that had taken over the afternoon. In some ways, it felt like it had been days since the demon had appeared in the living room and called in his debt. “Anyhow, I have a new client. He’s a bitten wolf, and about a week ago he was charged with loss of control. He was attacked in a bar, and when he defended himself, he hurt the other guy pretty badly. Without his alpha to vouch for him, they won’t even consider letting him out on bail.”
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