Sid moved his shoulders back and forth, plowing his elbows into the white sand, and muscles rippled along the inside of his shoulder blades. For someone who looked so thin in his clothes, Sid was hiding some serious muscle tone. Rachel coughed. Of course he was muscular. He was a demon hunter, it kind of came with the territory. Rachel had just never actually pictured that muscle tone before. She coughed again.
Kendra reached over and clapped Rachel’s shoulders, peering over her sunglasses with a look that made Rachel squirm. Kendra one-hundred-percent could tell what was going through Rachel’s mind at that second. And if she knew so easily, that meant Sid …
Rachel flopped face-first onto the beach towel with a groan. Maybe her brilliant beach day idea was not so smart after all.
Out at sea, there was a growl of agreement. Rachel flipped onto her side and peered across the beach. All around her, people did the same.
The wind tugged at Rachel’s hair, harder now. The ocean had flattened to a steel gray, and it darkened against the horizon. Above, a tower of angry clouds churned and built, piling high and eerie green into the sky. Rachel frowned and pushed herself up to her elbows. The sky was still clear and blue just over their heads, but the storm out to sea was building and growing. And moving fast.
Nearby, a young mom wrestled with a giant red beach umbrella that was trying to fly away on the wind. Sid jumped to his feet and chased down the runaway umbrella. Other beachgoers were jumping up too, packing away towels and gathering kids. A shrill whistle wavered over the wind, calling any stragglers from the ocean.
Sid returned to their spot. Though the storm out to sea was becoming a behemoth, the sun was still out and shined around his body, throwing his face into shadow. “Is this normal?” He said, gesturing at the storm.
Kendra sat up and crossed her legs. “Not abnormal,” she said with a shrug. “Storms can blow up quick on the water.”
Rachel shaded her eyes and squinted again out to the horizon. The wind whipping across the beach raised goosebumps all along her arms and legs. “That’s not normal.” She pointed at the storm, eyes growing wide.
Twin water spouts broke from the storm and raced across the ocean surface, twining around each other in some terrible, ethereal dance. The storm growled again, and lighting blazed from within the clouds, making the storm flare blue for a moment. People were running now, coolers and beach towels hugged in arms.
“Yeah,” Sid said. He dropped to his knees and yanked a shirt over his head. “I agree with Rachel here. The only thing we’re missing is a plague of locusts.”
Rachel followed suit, slipping her head through a soft shirtdress and shaking out her towel. The wind changed direction, and Rachel got a face full of sand for her effort. She shook out her hair and shoved the towel in her bag.
“You guys,” Kendra said. “I kind of think you’re freaking out over nothing.” Still, she pushed to her feet and pulled a skirt over her bikini bottoms.
In answer, a crack of lightning split the sky. Rachel wrenched her head out toward sea. A third water spout spun away from the storm and shimmied across the water.
“Freaking out,” Sid said.
Rachel didn’t want to admit it, but she kind of was too. They’d walked, which meant there was only one way home, and that carried them along the beach and over the grass-covered dunes. It wasn’t exactly shelter. But maybe that wasn’t the only option.
“Town’s close,” she said, hitching a thumb in the opposite direction. They’d still have to hurry over the dunes and then cut across the boardwalks over the vast marshlands, but it was better than hiking nearly a mile along the coast.
“Ooh! And we can get lunch!” Kendra grinned. “Great idea, Rach.”
Food was absolutely the last thing from Rachel’s mind at the moment. “Yeah, sure,” she said absently.
The beach was nearly empty by the time they trooped through the deep sand toward the dunes. White caps raced over the steel water, and the sky had closed in on them, low and gray. A couple lifeguards were shoving red flags into the sand, and another was closing shutters over the guard station perched on stilts. Rachel scraped her hair into a bun, but the wind tugged strands away in an instant and whipped them across her face. Her hair was heavy and sticky with salt, and it stung her eyes.
Beyond the dunes, the air went still. It was heavy with the promise of rain and smelled of salt marsh and rot. None of them had bothered with shoes, but the boardwalk had been worn smooth by feet and sand over the years. It echoed under their footsteps, but it was a dull, flat sound, muffled by the channels of dark water tunneling between the tall green reeds. The marsh spread out on all sides, protected by dunes behind them and a thick line of gnarled oaks in front of them hiding the edges of town. They were in the middle of the marsh when Rachel felt the first bite. She hissed and twisted for her ankle, scratching at the tender spot. It flared red, a little white bump in the center from the bite.
Rachel frowned. She’d put bug spray on this morning. No one left home without it in the summers.
But there wasn’t bug spray for this. A winged creature buzzed out of the reeds and flew into her face. It was the size of a large moth, with brown wings and a pale body suspended between them. Except where a moth had a furry bug body, this had delicate arms and legs, a short torso, and a pointed face half-filled with black, almond-shaped eyes. The tiny beast dipped close again, but jerked away with a hiss when it got too close to Rachel’s protective locket. It snapped a row of sharpened teeth at Rachel, but it was the creature’s backside that really worried her. Their backs ended in a bulbous stinger, like a wasp, that glowed yellow in the night. Now, they pulsed pale and creamy in the stale gray light.
“Marsh lights,” Kendra breathed. Her mouth had dropped open, but she snapped it shut when another of the winged creatures tried to dive-bomb her teeth.
Rachel swatted at another creature. The reeds buzzed with them, nearly vibrating with hundreds of the tiny beasts swooping and diving above the marsh. “You can see them?” Even though Kendra was a half-mer, she had never been able to see other demons before unless they showed themselves. Marsh lights were a local legend, but Rachel had always thought they were just oversized lightning bugs.
Kendra met Rachel’s questioning eyes and nodded. “They must be in a frenzy because of the storm.” She held a finger out like she wanted to touch one, but the creatures darted out of reach. “They’re awesome.”
One of the awesome creatures plunged a stinger into the tender skin between Rachel’s toes. She yelped and jumped, but the creature was already flying away on a furious flap of moth wings and an angry buzz.
“How do we get rid of them?” Sid flapped his hands in front of his face and twisted one leg around the other, rubbing his foot over his calf. A bright red welt bulged on the side of his leg.
Rachel danced back and forth, trying not to give the creatures anywhere still on her body to land and sting. She knew she’d read about the marsh lights—also called swamp pixies—in the Corpus, but her mind remained stubbornly blank. She could picture their particular page in the demon lexicon, but the words surfaced in her mind all in squiggles and symbols, not discernible words. Probably because she was facing a swarm of them buzzing in her face and three water spouts baring down on her back. So no pressure of anything.
“Pest!” She shouted it. “So try not to kill any of them.”
“And?” Sid growled and hopped around her, batting at the winged monsters.
“You’re a Descendant too, you know,” Rachel snapped back. The creatures were buzzing so loud she had to nearly shout to be heard. They were a brown cloud swarming around them. Death by a thousand stings. That’d be a lovely way to go. “Kendra?” Her friend, Rachel was grumpy to realize, still looked sting-free. Brat.
Kendra screwed up her face, thinking. “They like to chase, so we probably shouldn’t run.”
“Wonderful,” Sid said. He slapped his face, but missed the marsh light that had just stung him.
Sid dropped his backpack and grabbed two short knives from a side pocket. He swung his arms out, slicing the knives through the air.
“What the hell is that going to do?” Rachel shouted.
Sid shrugged and kept swinging. “Other ideas?”
Rachel yelped as another marsh light planted a stinging kiss right near her butt. She plunged one hand into her bag and whipped out her dagger. On a whim, she also grabbed the ever-present collection of herbs and powders packed into the old wooden box stamped with her family’s crest.
“Kendra, catch!” Rachel tossed the dagger toward her friend. Sid was right, what else did they have? Unless her box of goodies somehow contained a magical bug spray. Beast-Be-Gone or something.
Kendra caught the dagger in one hand and flipped it around so she grasped it palm down. She sunk her knees low into a fighter stance and narrowed her eyes. Then she whipped her arm through the air and sliced one of the marsh lights right in half. It squeaked once and exploded against the boardwalk in a tiny tidal wave of black ichor.
Rachel’s mouth dropped open. And next to her, Sid went still. But only for a second. Then he roared with another sting and started flailing again.
“What was that?” Rachel yelled.
Kendra shrugged, her eyes still on the swarm of marsh lights swooping and diving on them. “Lucky, I guess.” But then she arced out again with the dagger and sliced apart three more.
Rachel tore her eyes from her friend and opened the box. She hopped back and forth on her feet and rifled through the box: powdered wormwood, minced mandrake. There was a leather satchel full of dried carnation and anise seed. But nothing that’d send a swarm on its merry, sting-y way.
Then her fingers curved around a cream silk pouch tied with a green ribbon and labeled agrimony. Perfect. It she couldn’t repel the pests, she could put them to sleep. She remembered learning from her mom that agrimony was a powerful sleeping draught for most demons.
Rachel slammed the box shut and dropped it back into her bag, then she dumped the contents of the silk pouch into her palm. A marsh light stung the back of her arm, but she tightened her hand to keep from clutching at the newest sting and concentrated. The powder was pale yellow, almost like sulfur she remembered working with in high school chemistry.
Holding her cupped palm close to her mouth, Rachel pulled in a big breath and blew. The powder scattered on the wind, and a hundred marsh lights dropped. They hit the boardwalk with a tiny groan and a thud, their little bodies twitching with sleep. A few of them even started snoring. Rachel cocked her head and stifled a laugh. The little bastards looked kind of cute when they weren’t buzzing trying to sting her to death.
A couple steps away, Kendra still crouched with the dagger held out in front of her as she faced the now-silent reeds. Poor girl was probably traumatized. She’d never quite warmed to the actual fighting part of demon hunting.
Rachel tip-toed through the sleeping marsh lights and placed a light hand on Kendra’s arm. The girl whirled, a few marsh lights crunching under her feet, and her hand jerked forward. Like she wanted to cut Rachel. But then she dropped the dagger with a big gasp.
“Oh, crap,” she squeaked. Kendra laughed nervously. “Sorry, Rach. I’ve, uh, never done that before.” Another nervous laugh wriggled out of her mouth. “I think maybe I should stick with researching.”
Rachel frowned and dropped her hand from Kendra’s arm. She’d actually been afraid of the girl for a split second. Rachel didn’t like the feeling. “Yeah,” she said, forcing bravado into her voice. “I think you might be right.”
Kendra grinned brightly. “Lunch? I’m starving.”
Rachel pressed her lips together and glanced behind. The storm at their back had quieted, dissipating to a broody summer storm. Above, streaks of sunshine winnowed through the low clouds. Weird. Rachel hitched her bag higher over her shoulder and nodded to Kendra. “Sure. That sounds good.” But she realized as the three of them picked their way through the marsh lights and marched down the rest of the zig-zagging boardwalk that it didn’t sound good. At all.
CHAPTER 9
The storm that had threatened yesterday made good on its promise. Wind buffeted the windows of Rachel’s house and trapped them indoors all day. Rachel pulled her knees to her chest and peered out her bedroom window. She couldn’t even see the giant oak tree in the backyard past the lashing rain. She shivered and hugged her arms around her legs. On her window sill, the protective plants her mom had given her shivered too. It seemed everything was reacting to the storm.
The lamp on the bedside table flickered. Rachel leaned across her bed and wiggled the cord. The lightbulb flared bright in response.
It’d been another long day of research, with Daphne and Bruno taking up space in the greenhouse and Rachel and Sid spread out on the dining room table. Her life had dissolved into research mode and training, made boring and dragging by the absence of Kendra. Rachel had talked to her mom about getting Bruno to apologize, but so far nothing had come of it.
Rachel stretched her shoulders with a groan and twisted to either side until her back popped in a thousand places. Research and training. Training and research. Her head was swimming and her muscles protested every movement. Bruno was an exacting teacher, keeping her at archery or hand-to-hand combat for hours at a time in a tiny space cleared in the greenhouse. Rachel wondered if that was what it was like for all the Descendants still living in France.
Lightning illuminated the world outside Rachel’s bedroom window and was answered by a crash of thunder. The lights flickered again, threatening to finally give in to the power of the storm.
“Rachel?”
Rachel tilted her head rested on her knees and squinted at Sid in her doorway. He and Bruno had been camping in the den since coming to Shipley. It was still odd to have to wait in line for a bathroom. And odder still to see shaving cream and guy deodorant on the bathroom counter. She’d never lived with men before, didn’t even have a memory of a dad. It was … peculiar. But not entirely bad.
Sid took Rachel’s silence as invitation and joined her on the bed. He perched at the very edge, far away from where Rachel curled at her headboard near the window. Sid looked around her room, something like a smile on his face.
“I figured all American girls had, I don’t know, posters of pop stars on their walls.” Sid shook his head and laughed. “Of course, you’re not exactly the norm, are you?”
Heat bristled through Rachel. That’s right. Sid wanted an American girl, or his idea of an American girl, all blond hair and pink lips and bubbly personality. Rachel grimaced against her knees. Sid wanted a girl with posters on her walls, not shelves stacked with books and a cork board heavy with first-place ribbons—debate team, mock United Nations, Spanish club reading award. Rachel felt retroactively embarrassed. Then annoyed at her embarrassment. She was proud of her achievements, even if they may not ever amount to anything. She’d yet to run across a demon that cared about her National Merit Award.
Sid scooted closer on the bed and reached out a hand to poke at Rachel’s arm. “I’m just teasing you, Rach.”
Rachel wriggled away and grit her teeth. “My arm is still on fire from Bruno’s stupid exercises this morning.” She’d been made to hold her arms straight out while holding two daggers for ten minutes. Her shoulders ached at the memory of it. But at least the memory of physical pain was better than thinking of Sid being with Beth Ann, his perfect American girl.
Sid rolled his own shoulders and pulled his legs onto the twin bed so he could lean his back against the poster-free wall. Instead, it was swirling with a mural she and Kendra had painted between sophomore and junior year, a riot of blues and greens above and reds peeking up from her quilt. It was an ocean scene, with the sea above and a coral reef below.
“Yeah,” Sid muttered, “welcome to my childhood.”
For a moment, Rachel didn’t know what he was talking about. She’d been lost in her own thoughts, but she relaxed her arms wher
e they clutched together around her legs and peered at Sid. A crack of thunder broke the sky apart and made Rachel jump, and the lights flickered again.
“Did you really train like that all the time?” Her voice was small, a voice asking for secrets.
Sid picked at a loose thread on Rachel’s quilt and nodded, his eyes on his hands. “Since the age of five. Bruno’s tough, but he’s got nothing on Nicholas Martin, my wonderful father.”
“It seems like Bruno doesn’t really like him.”
Sid laughed, a harsh thing that scratched past his teeth. “Yeah, not many do. Dad is the head of the Descendants Council and can be … very strict.”
They both went silent for a moment, just the sound of the wind and rain and thunder keeping them company. Then Sid rolled his head against the mural to look at Rachel. Lightning lit his face in sharp relief, throwing shadows under his cheekbones and chin and making his gray eyes glow.
And then the lights went out.
Rachel scrambled off the bed in the dark, her hands crawling over familiar furniture and her feet automatically carrying her around the nightstand. There was a crash and a hiss, then Sid swore loudly. Apparently his feet didn’t know the way around the nightstand like hers did. One of his arms slapped her hip as he fell and raked down her leg. Rachel tried to jump out of the way and jammed an elbow against her dresser, sending the attached mirror creaking back and forth.
“Sid?”
He answered her from the floor.
“Just stay there, okay? I’m going to light a candle.”
She stepped gingerly, inching forward. There were candles on her shelf against the opposite wall and a packet of matches in the nightstand drawer. Her fingers roved over the shelves until they hit cool wax, and she pulled three candles into her arms. Her vision was adjusting, turning the room into a wash of grays and blacks.
But not adjusting enough. Rachel’s foot hit Sid still sprawled on the floor, and she dropped one of the candles hugged in her arms. Sid yelped, and she didn’t miss the way one of his hands grabbed at his crotch in the dark.
Eat Your Heart Out (Descendants) Page 6