Inside the office, behind the glass walls, Satan growled and glanced around, wondering where I’d gone. When he turned and spotted me, I gave him a double middle finger.
Panicked people still ran out of the office through the door on my left. The fire alarm blared to life. I tried to reach for Animus, wondering if she could hear me and come from that far away. We were connected, so it was possible. I briefly considered asking Mew-Mew to bring her for me, but I didn’t want him anywhere near Satan.
My father glared and ran straight through the glass wall. I ducked and covered my face as glass flew everywhere. A few small pieces of glass hit me and then my father slammed into me, knocking me against the wall. I lashed out, fire bursting from me. The flare was bright enough to hurt my eyes and I heard a crash. I blinked spots from my vision and saw Satan lying in broken glass. I’d thrown him into a section of the wall.
Kids started to fill the hallway, probably wondering if the alarm was a drill or for real. I glanced down the hall and met several shocked glances. “Not this way!” I threw up a wall of ice, blocking them from where we were fighting. They’d have to go the other way to get out.
I pulled a table through the broken hole in the glass wall and slammed it onto my father. “You fucking ruined everything! Why can’t you fucking leave me alone!”
The table shattered, sending bits everywhere. I shielded my face and brought up a wall of fire in case he tried to rush me again. The sprinklers started up, weakening my fire but not putting it out. My father glared at me over it.
“This isn’t where you belong. This is just a game, and I’ve let you play it long enough.” He reached through the fire and pulled back with a curse. “You’ve gotten much stronger.”
“I’ve been practicing.” Ice came up from the floor, covering half his body. I lunged, passing through my fire unharmed, and slashed him across the face. My claws left bright red furrows along his face and I grinned. I was hurting him. Everything I did hurt him, even if it was only a little.
His hands were still free and he backhanded me hard enough to send me sprawling. Ice cracked as I stumbled to my feet. He was breaking loose, and the wounds on his face were closing as I watched. I tried to summon Animus again, but the twinge I felt was so faint it might have been my imagination.
At the other end of the hall, the way not blocked by ice, a few kids gathered, staring in shock while others pushed their way past, screaming. I pulled water from the air and formed them into wicked shards of ice. I threw a dozen at Satan, who was still freeing his feet.
Part of me assumed he’d get out of the way in time, so I was shocked when the ice sank into him. He yelled, full of pain and rage as half the shards buried themselves in his flesh. Fire engulfed him for a second and when it passed all the ice had melted, but the wounds still showed.
I tensed as he glanced around the chaos we’d created, but he only said, “I think my work here is done for now. I’ll give you some time to think about where you belong.” With another flare of fire, he was gone.
Half the office was burning, and the wall behind me too. Panting, my heart racing, I waited a few seconds to see if he was coming back. I couldn’t trust that this wasn’t some kind of trick. When nothing else happened I made myself calm down a little.
I couldn’t let the fire keep spreading, so I reached out and took a moment to get in tune with it. Then I closed my fist and the fire went out. Nothing but smoke remained.
The noise and screaming from farther down the hall now included shocked murmurs, kids asking each other if they’d just seen that. I stared at the burnt remains of the office and tried not to think about what it meant.
I turned and melted the wall of ice, which was already thinning under the sprinklers. There were only a handful of kids down that way, most of them staring at where the wall used to be. Then their focus shifted to me. I looked from them to the larger group at the other end. I saw some kids from my classes and my math teacher.
The water was soaking me and the fire was gone, so now it was just annoying. I reached up and closed my eyes, trying to feel for the sprinkler system. Much less complicated than ATMs. I found the mechanism to shut it off and the water stopped. I turned the alarm off, too. The silence was very loud.
“I wanted to make sure nobody got hurt,” I told the crowd. “The fire is gone. You’re safe now.” And the life I’d worked so hard for was gone. No way could I pretend this never happened. Too many people had seen what I’d done. I swallowed to keep tears back. I didn’t want to walk through those kids to get outside. Then I remembered I didn’t have to. The secret was already out, so why not teleport?
In the next moment I was standing in my apartment, dripping on the carpet. I looked over at Animus on the wall. If only I’d had her, I could’ve done some real damage to my father. “You fucking bastard. You ruined everything.”
Then I did cry.
Chapter 19
I went to visit Stefan, meeting him in a cemetery like we always used to. He listened patiently as I vented to him about what Satan had done and how everything was ruined now.
Stefan said, “I’m kind of surprised he didn’t do it sooner.”
“Me, too, actually. He said after I killed Mom and Ken and all those Satanists, he thought I’d see things his way. He still thinks I’m going to wake up one day and decide to be evil.” I wonder how much he’d like it if I suggested one day he’d wake up and beg Jehovah for forgiveness.
“So what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know. I guess school is over.” I paced between headstones, wanting to break something.
“Could you try starting over somewhere else?”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to.” It wouldn’t be the same without Hayley and Casey and everyone else. Oh, God, Hayley. I’d probably lost her too. “And besides, he’d probably do it again.”
“You’re usually not so defeatist.”
“I know, but that’s when I know there’s something I can fight. I can’t fight people to make them forget what they saw.” And my little mind trick wasn’t strong enough to erase even one person’s memory, let alone hundreds of students and dozens of staff.
“You can fight your father.”
I snorted. “If I’m lucky enough that he doesn’t kill me or drag me to Hell, then what? I fight him to a draw like the last two times and he keeps coming back.” But I thought of Animus. What would’ve happened if I’d had my sword? Could I have done some serious damage? I hardly dared to think it but… was there a way for me to kill my father?
Stefan leaned against a large marble cross. “Not that I want you to put yourself in danger, but… this doesn’t sound like you. You don’t give up. You stopped Ragnarok twice and then fought your dad on the damn moon.”
“I had you guys to help me.”
“But it was your idea. And we can help you fight your dad.”
I shook my head violently. “Fuck no. I don’t want you or anyone else putting yourselves at risk.”
“We fought him before.”
“Yeah, and Elliot almost died. No way.”
After a moment he said, “You’re still scared of him.”
“Fucking right, I am. He’s the devil, a god. I’m half mortal. Maybe I can squeak by in a fight with him, but only if he decides he’s had enough. If he really wants to kill me, nothing’s going to stop him.”
“He tried to kill you on the moon, and instead you sent him running.”
“I got lucky.” I scuffed my toe in a patch of dirt.
“Maybe, but that was before all the training you’ve had. You’re much stronger than you were last summer.”
I’d been able to cut off his arm with Animus, and if he hadn’t run away I might’ve done more damage. What if I’d stabbed him in the heart? Cut off his head? And Stefan was right, that was before I’d had training. I hadn’t even known what I was doing with my sword. “You’re putting crazy ideas in my head.”
“Just repaying the favor.” He s
mirked.
I laughed. “Fair enough. I think I need more time, though. More training. If I’m really going to take on my father, I need to be as strong as possible.”
“You, being patient?”
“More like cautious.” Or cowardly.
***
Later I called Joshua to ask him why the exorcism hadn’t worked.
“I didn’t even think about someone using my blessing that way until you told me about it.” Joshua was quiet for a moment. “It worked in your apartment, but not at school…” A slight rustling as he shifted on his bed. “Oh, maybe it’s because school is a public place?”
“Maybe. But does that mean I’m not protected at all when I’m there?”
“I think the blessing did still work. You said you weren’t hurt too badly. I think it helped to keep you safe.”
Considering how every other fight with Satan had gone, he was probably right. “So your blessing protected me, but I can’t exorcise him from public places?”
“I could ask my father to make sure.”
“Yeah, please.” I wasn’t so sure he’d give me an answer, but it was worth a try.
Joshua called back half an hour later. “We were right. Demons can’t be exorcised from public places, not without a lot of holy power. He said the blessing wasn’t strong enough for that.”
“Thanks for checking.” Great. Something else to worry about.
***
I skipped school and didn’t leave my apartment. The truth was, I was afraid my dad would come for me again, and I didn’t want to leave the protection of the spell scrolls. I’d thought all the training I’d had would make me more confident, but knowing that exorcising didn’t work anymore made me regress into the same coward I’d always been when it came to my dad.
Hayley kept calling and texting. Casey and my other friends, too. I texted them back to tell them I was okay, nothing more. Mew-Mew did what he could to comfort me, but I was miserable. The life I’d built as a human, the one I’d worked so hard to protect all these months, gone in a few minutes because my fucking father wanted to fuck it up.
I did my best to zone out in front of the TV. Even slaughtering people in first-person shooters couldn’t cheer me up.
You can’t just stay here. You have to do something, Mew-Mew said.
“I don’t know what to do.” I wished I wasn’t such a fucking coward. I wished I was brave enough to go out and challenge my father to a fight, this time with Animus. In the heat of the moment I could stand up to him because it was either that or curl up and take a beating. But going out and getting into a fight when I didn’t have to was different.
Instead of doing anything useful, I moped. That lasted until the second day. In the afternoon, Hayley came to my door and started pounding, demanding I open up and talk to her.
I looked over at Mew-Mew. Let her in, he said, his head tilted.
If I didn’t, the neighbors were gonna get pissed at the noise. I suppose I had to talk to her sometime, so I might as well get it over with. Would she still want me after what I’d done? Damn it, we’d just patched things up, I didn’t want to lose her. Could we do a long-distance relationship? It wouldn’t be that hard since I could teleport.
“Fine, I’m coming,” I called so she’d stop knocking. I opened the door and froze when I saw Casey with her.
“I’m sorry,” Hayley said. “I know I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone, but after what happened… well, it’s not like it’s a secret anymore, so I told him.”
Casey was looking at me weird, and I couldn’t tell if it was admiration or fear. Maybe both. I wanted to be mad at her, but the urge was gone in a second.
“Yeah, I guess my cover’s blown.”
“What the hell was that?” she asked.
“That was my father. He came to school to get me.”
Both of them stared. Casey said, “The devil came to our school?”
I nodded. “And he ruined everything. That’s what he really wanted, to fuck up my life. Again.”
“But you fought him off. Alice said you chased him off,” Casey said.
“Exactly. Alice saw me, and lots of other kids saw it too. I attacked him in the fucking principal’s office. I can’t go back.”
Hayley blinked several times. “So you’re leaving?”
“What else can I do?” At her hurt expression, I added, “But I can come visit you guys. I can teleport, so it’s not like I’ll be gone gone.”
“I guess,” Casey said. He looked almost as hurt as his sister.
“Where will you go?”
I shrugged. Talking about it with them hurt even more than thinking about it. “I’ll find another city, I guess.” Anger boiled up. “I fucking hate running away.”
“Then don’t.” Hayley reached over the threshold and took my hand.
“I can’t go back to school.” That didn’t necessarily mean I had to leave the city, but couldn’t I stay in this apartment, hiding behind the spell scrolls, too afraid to walk around town. My father knew exactly where I was. Then a horrible idea occurred to me. “Oh, fuck. What if he comes back?”
“Who? The devil?” Casey asked, flicking his hair out of his eyes.
I nodded. “He knows where I live, he knows where the school is… Even if I left, he might come back and hurt people to get my attention.”
Casey turned even paler than his usual pasty self. “Oh, shit.”
“Does he know about us?” Hayley asked.
“I don’t think so. I didn’t tell him, but he might have spies around,” I said. She looked like she might be sick, or faint. I grabbed her shoulders. “Hey, I won’t let anything happen to you.” I felt a rush as fear gave way to anger. I glanced over at Casey. “I won’t let anything happen to anybody. I’m gonna be your guardian fucking angel, you and the whole fucking school.”
No, Satan wasn’t taking this away from me.
“I’m going to school tomorrow.”
Chapter 20
I didn’t take the bus to school, I teleported in front of the main doors. The first students were trickling in. Conversations stopped and everyone turned to stare at me. The administrators looked like they wanted to stop me, but they were just as frozen as the students. Only one actually had the guts to try to stop me. A big guy with a school safety badge marched up to me with a scowl. Fights at school were rare, but in the few I’d seen, this guy was always there, big enough to restrain even the largest jocks.
“Hey, you can’t come in here with that.”
I glanced down at Animus strapped to my waist. He hadn’t seen me fight with Satan, but he had to have heard about it. Or were the adults not talking to each other?
“I’m not going to use it on anyone.” Not anyone human, at least.
“You can’t bring weapons to school. I’ll have to confiscate it, or we can call the police and have them handle it.”
I held back a laugh. “I’m gonna go talk to the principal about making a special exception.” I wasn’t going to be caught without Animus again.
The big guy held out his hand. “This isn’t a joke. You can’t bring a sword to school.”
“Yes, I can.” I pushed him, gently but steadily, to the side of the hall. His eyes went wide and he glanced down at himself, then back at me. I hadn’t touched him, and I knew he was wondering how that was possible.
The kids in the hall scattered or huddled against the walls. Once I got things settled with the principal, I’d have to work on convincing everyone I wasn’t going to hurt them.
The office was a mess. The broken glass was gone, but there was yellow tape all over. The burned front desk was still there, but they weren’t using it. The carpet was soaked. A little shiver went through me, remembering the fight. If he’d really wanted to drag me to Hell, he could have. I held on to that idea as I walked through the doorless frame into the office.
The secretary was using what looked like a teacher’s desk, squeezed awkwardly into the less damaged area of the office. Sh
e pulled a little silver cross out of her shirt and held it up like a shield. So, some people had made a guess. Well, she knew I was “unnatural,” at least.
I ignored her and went into the principal’s office. His door had been repaired and I closed it behind me. When he saw me, he almost fell out of his chair. “Relax, I just want to talk.” I pulled out a chair and sat down. “Have a seat.”
“I… I’ll call the police.” Just like the big guy in the hall. The principal reached for the phone.
With a thought, I knocked it onto the floor. “We don’t need to involve them. This is between us.”
“What are you?” He huddled against the wall, shaking a little.
“I’ll tell you if you sit down. And don’t freak out.”
The principal stayed where he was.
“Sit down,” I repeated.
Swallowing, he slowly lowered himself into his chair.
“The man who came in here the other day was the devil, and I’m his son.”
“You…” His expression wavered between disbelief and horror.
“Just listen. I just want to go to school, and he wanted to fuck that up. You saw what he did.” Really, what we did, but he started it by coming here. “That’s only a hint of what he’s capable of. What I’m worried about is him coming back here and hurting someone to get my attention. Maybe one of the kids, maybe a teacher… maybe you. He might attack whether I’m here or not, so it’s better if I’m here to fight him off.”
He blinked and I could practically see the gears turning in his head. “What are you talking about?”
“Protecting you. Protecting the school. That’s why I have this.” I patted Animus. “I didn’t have her with me last time and that made me vulnerable.”
“You can’t bring a samurai sword to school.”
“Animus is a katana.” I touched the end of her hilt, the warm pulse of her energy soothing. “I won’t use it on any students or staff, but she’s coming with me everywhere. I need to be ready if my father shows up again.”
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