by Cassandra
“Yeah, but what now?” Patricia asked. “I mean, what will it do? It’s not like we gave it specific instructions or anything.”
The thought had crossed Debbie’s mind, but she didn’t want to admit that she was a little concerned. She merely shrugged her shoulders. “It’ll have a little fun with her, that’s all. That way, she’ll be so rattled the next time she sees Chad, he’ll regret being seen with her.”
The other girls giggled nervously.
“Anyway, help me clean this place up before my grandmother gets home.” Debbie found the light switch, flicked it on, and frowned when she saw the mess the melting candles made.
“Look through that book again. There has to be a cleaning spell,” Marie moaned.
Chapter Ten
The challenge to help Chad navigate his way through ‘mundane’ high school had begun as a pain in the butt, but the day had ended on a high note. Jessica was certain that she would relish the sight of Debbie McCrow making a complete fool of herself in the school’s parking lot forever. The fact that she was jealous over Chad was merely icing on the cake.
Of course, the good times couldn’t last. When she had gotten into the car with Chad and Roger at the end of the school day, she was suddenly forced to acknowledge the problem that lay ahead.
“So…should we take you home, then?” Chad had asked from behind the driver’s wheel. “Or do you want to go back to your grandma’s?”
As tempted as she had been to go back to Grandma Ethel’s, she knew she couldn’t avoid her parents forever. The longer she waited, the worse things were bound to be for her when they finally did reunite. It was bad enough that she hadn’t answered their calls and texts.
“Take me home,” she had instructed and her stomach immediately twisted in nervous knots.
Now that they had pulled up in front of her home, she would give anything to be back with her grandmother. She had to bite her tongue to keep herself from yelling at Chad to turn the car around.
Roger twisted in the passenger’s seat and stared at her. “Are you having second thoughts?”
Chad looked at her through the rearview mirror. “I’m sure they’re not as mad as you think. Your grandma has probably talked to them by now.”
“That doesn’t mean they won’t try to ground me for life,” Jessica lamented.
Roger turned to his friend. “Should we be chivalrous and walk her in? Maybe they won’t kill her right away if there are witnesses.”
“Good idea,” Jessica agreed and grabbed her backpack. “And then if I don’t survive their tirade, you guys can report what happened to my grandma.”
“Deal,” Roger affirmed and laughed although she found it far from a laughing matter.
Together, they climbed the porch as she dug out her house keys. After a deep breath, she opened the door and peeked carefully inside. She took a cautious step forward. As she paused in the doorway for a moment, she wondered if she should announce her presence or merely make a mad dash for her bedroom and hope her parents wouldn’t discover her for another few days. Maybe by then, she would actually have the nerve to face them.
As luck would have it, her father rounded the corner with a rolled-up newspaper in his hand. Jessica almost retreated on the spot and halfway suspected he wanted to slap her face hard.
For several long seconds, the two of them merely stared at each other. Neither of them moved, spoke, or so much as blinked an eye.
After what felt like an eternity, Mark cleared his throat and tucked the newspaper under his arms. “Honey, she’s home,” he called.
Uncertain of what was about to happen next, Jessica glanced behind her. Chad and Roger fidgeting nervously at her heels.
Seconds later, Theresa rounded the corner. When her eyes landed on Jessica, the combined relief and frustration on her face was evident.
The emotions coalesced into exasperation.
She crossed her arms. “Well?”
“Um…” Jessica scratched her ear. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. Long time, no see.” She took a few more cautious steps forward and wondered how it was possible for only twenty-four hours to have passed since she’d last seen them. It already felt like a lifetime ago since she’d ignored their protests and climbed into a car with two strangers.
Chad stepped across the threshold and moved to stand by Jessica’s side. “We’ve brought her home from school, safe and sound!” He offered her parents a bright smile, but Mark and Theresa only glared at him.
Roger coughed awkwardly in the background.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Theresa asked, her gaze fixed on her daughter.
Jessica’s gaze lowered to the floor. “That I’m sorry? Because I am—sort of. But I…I had to figure out what was going on and you guys wouldn’t tell me so I didn’t have much of a choice.”
When neither of her parents responded for an uncomfortably long time, she glanced upward. To her surprise, their expressions had softened.
“We talked to your grandmother,” Theresa said at last.
“We didn’t ask for the full details,” Mark added, “but we knew you were safe. And…and we apologize for keeping so many secrets from you. We understand that you’re growing up and you deserve to know the truth about your family.”
The words seemed to pain him, but Jessica could tell that he meant them, nonetheless.
Theresa had grown suspiciously quiet. Her husband nudged her. She glanced briefly at him, sighed, and nodded. “Yes. Your father is right. We’re sorry. I’m sorry, since it was mostly my decision to keep so much from you. I thought it was for your own good. I didn’t want my complicated family lineage to be a burden to you.”
Jessica blinked, stunned. Her eyebrows shot up so high that they were almost lost in her hairline. “So, does this mean you’re okay with me helping Seventh—”
Her father raised a hand to silence her. “Like I said, we don’t care for the full details. We know that as long as your grandmother is involved and taking care of you, you’ll be safe with…with whatever it is she has you helping her with.”
Theresa looked at Chad and Roger. “And if my mother trusts the two of you, then I suppose we do too.”
“Thank you,” Chad responded and gave her a slight bow.
“That doesn’t give you an excuse to stick around,” Mark advised. “Thank you for bringing our daughter home. You can leave now.”
“R-right,” He stammered. “Um… Well, bye. See you, Jess.” He turned to leave. Roger gave her a quick wave before he followed his friend and closed the door behind him.
As the fact that she was now alone with her parents sank in, Jessica swallowed and scratched her ear again. “Well, now that’s all settled…I’ll, uh…go to my room now.”
She tiptoed around them like they were wild animals, convinced her luck was about to run out any second now. Things had gone entirely too smoothly.
It has to be a trap, she thought. She walked slowly to the stairs and did her best to play it cool.
Theresa cleared her throat.
Jessica jumped. Here it comes…
“Your father and I are going out to a movie,” her mother blurted. “Would you like to come with us?”
She halted abruptly and her mind worked frantically to figure out what her mother was really offering. Her gut feeling suggested a tirade saved for the drive to the theater. Her parents might have felt guilty keeping secrets from her, but there was no way they could be cool with her outright disobedience, surely. Was there?
The offer was tempting. Was it fair to spend a couple hours allowing a mindless movie and munching popcorn to help her to briefly forget that there were demons in the world who needed to be hunted?
Then again, she was terribly behind in her homework.
Jessica sighed. “I think I’ll pass on that if it’s okay. I have way too much homework.”
She waited with bated breath and expected her parents to insist she accompany them anyway. Instead, they both simply nodded and let he
r be.
When Jessica sat at her desk in her room, knee-deep in homework, she regretted not going to the movies with her parents after all.
She sighed and decided it was time for her to take a much-needed break.
With a grumble of all-round irritation, she stretched her arms and legs as she stood before she headed for the bathroom. Halfway down the hall, she came to a dead stop.
What’s that sound?
Jessica tilted her head, confused and listened intently. She realized that it sounded like running water.
Coming from the bathroom.
The problem, however, was that she was home alone and definitely hadn’t left any water running.
She stared down the hall and saw that the bathroom door was closed. A beam of light glowed through the crack at the bottom of the door.
Rooted to the spot, she considered whether her parents—or even Chad and Roger, ridiculous as the thought was—had somehow returned without her knowing. No, that was impossible. She would have heard the front door open at least, and definitely have heard someone come up the stairs. To reach the bathroom, they would have had to walk past her bedroom door.
Her heart leaped into her throat when a high-pitched laugh issued from behind the closed door.
She swayed, now almost lightheaded with fear.
It hadn’t been long since Chad had described the demons he’d recently encountered to her. In that moment, she now remembered him saying something about how the demons had initially sounded human.
Hadn’t he also said that the monsters had laughed?
Oh, my God. There’s a demon in my bathroom.
Jessica’s mind raced, but she had no idea what to do.
Before she could figure anything out, she watched, horrified, as the bathroom doorknob slowly began to turn.
She stared at the space between the bottom of the door and the floor. The lights inside flickered and water seeped out onto the hallway carpet.
The bathroom was flooded.
High-pitched laughter drifted into the hallway. Jessica opened her mouth to speak or scream, but no sound emerged. The door suddenly flung itself open, and a wave of water gushed onto the carpet.
Jessica had barely enough time to see water spill over from the sink and the bathtub when a creature flew directly at her and tangled itself in her hair. For a moment, she thought she had been attacked by an overgrown moth. One that laughed, no less. Her vocal chords finally worked and she screamed at the top of her lungs.
Wings fluttered around her ears as her hair was yanked and whipped across her face and into her eyes. Sharp nails scratched her scalp, and her frenzied mind decided it wasn’t an overgrown moth but a strange and vicious bat.
How the hell did a bat get in here? she wondered and began, absurdly, to think it had come up through the drains, clogged the bathroom pipes, and caused a flood along the way.
She swung her arms furiously and tried to fight the creature as it continued to laugh hysterically at her distress.
After one particularly strong swipe, her fist collided with her attacker. A tiny, “Oof,” sounded and the laughter ceased. Winded, it collided with the opposite wall and fell to the carpet.
What in the entire hell? Jessica blinked, her eyes unable to process what she saw.
It was no moth and definitely wasn’t a bat. The ugly little creature had a somewhat human-like body—save for the fact that it had wings, claws, and horns on its head. Its face vaguely resembled the little troll dolls she had played with as a child, but was infinitely uglier. Perhaps more like a goblin than a troll, she decided stupidly.
Is that what demons look like? No, she was sure that couldn’t be the case. Chad had described the demons as huge and smelly. This thing was tiny, didn’t have much of a smell, and its appearance was more funny-looking than frightening.
It sat up and shook its head as if to dislodge the dizziness. When it noticed her fixed stare, the creature snarled to reveal rows of sharp teeth that looked like they wanted nothing more than to bite her.
It wasn’t quite so funny-looking anymore.
Her panic returned and she bolted for her room. The wings flapped behind her, and she knew the little monster followed her. It resumed its malicious laughter, and all she could think about was being slowly mauled to death by its needle-like teeth.
Her stomach churned with nausea when she imagined that it would feel like a million little bee stings.
She tried to slam her bedroom door, but the creature swooped through too quickly for her to stop it.
Jessica screamed and snatched up her history book to swing it furiously as the creature swooped toward her.
It smashed into the book with a loud smack and fell once again. This time, a trickle of blood streamed from the side of its face.
“What the hell are you?” she cried.
“I am an imp sent here to trouble you. I serve my masters Debbie McCrow, Marie Sanchez, and Patricia Tony.”
“You’re a what?”
“An imp!” the creature declared proudly. “Proving my worth to the lord.”
“The lord? You don’t look like an angel!”
“Lord Lucifer!”
Jessica gasped. “Are you kidding me? You serve Debbie, Patricia, Marie, and the freakin’ devil?”
Revolted, she raised her history book again, ready to smash the thing to smithereens. There was no way she would entertain demons—or their weird little cousins—in her house.
The doorbell rang and Jessica rushed to answer it. She was relieved to find Chad and Roger on her doorstep. They had certainly made good time in response to her frantic phone call.
“We only left you a few hours ago, but you look like you’ve hiked through the desert for five weeks,” Roger marveled and scrutinized her with real curiosity.
She glared at him. “Excuse me for not looking like I just won a beauty pageant after fighting a freaking imp,” she yelled and slammed the door once they had entered. “Now, do either of you want to tell me how the hell an imp just flooded my bathroom and attacked me?!”
“Are you sure it was an imp?” Chad asked.
“Go upstairs to my room and see for yourself.”
“You trapped him in your room?” Roger asked and glanced over his shoulder at her as he and Chad headed for the stairs.
“I killed the ugly little creep.”
They both came to a halt. “Hold on a second. You killed it?” Chad asked, his eyes wide.
“Yes.”
He and Roger exchanged glances.
Jessica’s temper flared. “Don’t look like that. What the hell was I supposed to do? That damn little thing was kicking my ass.”
Chad shook his head. “It’s only… That’s really impressive. I didn’t think you would be able to kill one. You know, considering you have no magical training.”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I really don’t care. I merely want the goddamned thing out of my room. What part of ‘an imp just tried to kick my ass and now it’s lying dead on my floor’ don’t you understand?”
“Geez, Jess. Language. That’s no way for a young woman to speak,” he muttered. He continued up the stairs with Roger on his heels.
Jessica spewed a few more unladylike words at him as she followed them up the stairs. “And as a woman, I can speak however I damn well please, thank you very much,” she concluded.
Roger laughed, but Chad had no longer paid attention after he reached the second-floor landing. He stared at the carpet, now soaked from the water that had spilled out the bathroom.
“Yep, this looks like the work of an imp, all right. They aren’t quite as scary as they look.”
She huffed. “Oh yeah? Well, that’s easy for you to say. You didn’t have one try to make a nest in your hair or claw your eyes out!”
“No, I didn’t. But it’s still true,” he explained. “They aren’t even real demons, although they wish they were. Magical folks don’t take them quite as seriously as imps would like.
It’s because they’re mainly mischievous little jerks and do things like this.” He gestured to the carpet. “Cause floods. Break lights. Steal. Petty stuff in comparison to what actual demons do. They’re annoying, but they’re usually no match for anyone with actual magical training.”
“Are you mocking me?” Jessica demanded.
“Not at all. I’m amazed you were able to handle it.”
“So, where is the unfortunate thing?” Roger asked.
“I told you. It’s on my bedroom floor.”
“Okay. And where are your parents? The last thing we need is for them to come home at the wrong time and get the wrong idea.”
Jessica checked the time. “It’ll be a while before they get back. They usually get dinner after a movie.”
“Yep, that’s an imp all right,” Chad confirmed once they were in her room. He drew a cloth from his jacket pocket and picked up the body. “Nasty little things, aren’t they?”
Roger shook his head. “You must have really ticked off your little girl bully squad at school.”
She thought back to how jealous they had been over Chad and how embarrassed Debbie had been over her parking lot mishap. “Yeah, I guess you can say that.”
Chad frowned. “That still doesn’t explain how an imp was able to come in here in the first place. Those girls didn’t quite strike me as having the skills to conjure anything like this and actually direct it to its target. Unless…”
“Unless what?” his companions asked at the same time.
“Your parents tried to live as mundanes,” Chad mused, “so I bet they never had any protective charms put on the house.”
Roger nodded. “That makes sense. They probably figured that if they didn’t bother with the magical world, there would be no reason for the magical world to bother with them.”
“Right,” Chad agreed.
“Well?” Jessica asked.
Both Chad and Roger turned their gazes to her. “Well, what?”
“Well, clearly this house needs a protective charm on it. So do it. What are you guys waiting for?”
“Protective charms aren’t that simple. They are usually a particular strength of one or two of the covens,” Chad informed her.