The flies.
The strange aura.
The darkness that lurked just beneath the exterior.
All these were signs that something was manipulating Colin. And trying to get to me.
But what convinced me the most was the fact that one minute, it seemed like Colin was a completely different person. One minute, he was a stranger, but the next, he was the same nice security guard that I always saw.
It was just like Logan.
I needed to get away, to think of a way I could save Colin. He didn’t deserve what was happening to him. I pulled the handle, pushed open the door and reached down between my feet for my bag.
Colin launched himself across the seat and grabbed my shoulder. With a startled yell, I whipped my bag up and slammed him in the face. He gave a roar and released me. I scrambled out of the car, but he caught hold of my shirt and pulled. I ended up falling, half in the car, half out. The contents of my backpack spilled out onto the hot pavement. The sun glinted off the dagger.
I used my foot and kicked Colin in the face. He howled again while I climbed the rest of the way out of the car. Somehow, he managed to throw himself after me, his body rippling and contorting in unnatural ways. I shrieked and rolled, landing on my back to stare up at the cloudless blue sky.
It was too beautiful of a day to die.
Colin lunged, landing on top of me, and immediately I reacted. The minute he pressed his full weight onto me, I’d be as good as dead. My only chance of fighting someone who outweighed me by a good ninety pounds was to never let his advantage become my disadvantage. Before he even settled his weight to pin me, I brought up both my knees and kicked out, slamming him in the ribs and momentarily knocking the wind out of him. Using his shoulders as an anchor, I pushed myself upward, sliding out from under him and jumping to my feet. He reached for the dagger, but I was faster and palmed it first. I watched him warily as he got to his feet.
All traces of the demon fell away and I was left looking at a confused Colin. “Kid?”
“I’m gonna walk from here. Thanks for the ride.”
He stared at the dagger I held in warning and he shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
He feigned turning back to the car, but his left foot didn’t turn with his right. I practically watched the demon taking back over. His left foot stayed planted on the ground as his body pivoted around. There was a loud popping sound in his hip as he spun, but he didn’t even wince. Then he was leaping at me, his eyes wild.
I stepped backward and onto my steel water bottle that had rolled from my bag. I fell back with a snarling Colin close behind. He landed on top of me.
Except I didn’t take the impact of his fall.
My dagger did.
He made this weird gurgling sound and dark red blood ran out from between his lips.
I tried to push him off me, but I couldn’t. He was too heavy. I was pinned. His blood ran down his chin and dripped on my face.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
Colin looked down at me, surprise making his eyes wide. “Why?” he asked before coughing. Blood splattered my cheeks. It made me sick but I couldn’t look away.
I pushed at his shoulders until I managed to roll him off me. He stared up at the sky without blinking and I wondered if he thought it was too beautiful of a day to die too. I leaned over him. “Colin? Listen to me. I know you don’t understand, but you had a demon living in you. He was controlling you. You tried to kill me. I was only trying to get away. I didn’t want this.”
I shut my eyes momentarily and whispered, “I didn’t want this,” again.
I wondered if it was me or Colin I was trying to convince.
He made a slight sound and I focused back on him. “I’m going to pull out the dagger and the demon will leave your body. You’ll be okay then.” At least that’s what happened with Logan.
I gripped the dagger and pulled it out swiftly. Blood gushed out of the open wound, saturating his white shirt. I waited for the demon to rise out of him.
It never happened.
Then Colin’s eyes rolled back in his head and he died.
I fell beside him on my knees. “No!” I put my fingers to his throat, feeling for a pulse. I couldn’t find it, so I lay my head against his chest to listen. There was nothing to hear. Colin was dead.
I killed him.
Dark, evil laughter echoed through my head.
I looked up, thinking I would finally see the demon. No one was there. I pushed down the sob that threatened to escape and stood. The laughter was getting louder and there was a squeezing pain in the back of my skull.
“Well, this is a mess,” came a voice from behind.
I twirled, raising the bloodied dagger and glimpsed Gran’s car in the grass a short distance away. “Riley?”
“I leave you alone for an hour and this is what you do?”
I began to laugh hysterically, deep laughs that hurt my stomach. Riley just stood there staring at me, his face blank. But my laughs turned to sobs and Riley stepped forward. I threw up a hand to hold him off and it was completely red. Red with Colin’s blood.
“I killed him.”
“Yeah.”
I looked up, waiting to see the disgust and horror on Riley’s face. Except he wasn’t disgusted. Sharp pain tore through the back of my skull and I cried out, dropping the dagger and gripping my head. Riley rushed forward, his arms shooting out to steady me. More laughter filled my head and the pain subsided. I wasn’t sure which was worse: the laughing or the pain.
I looked up at Riley once more. “I killed him. I’m a killer.”
“Welcome to the club,” Riley answered.
Then I passed out.
Chapter Eight
Sam
“Do you remember that time we went and saw that really bad horror movie?” A voice spoke to me from across the dungeon.
I got up from where I was sitting and went to the door of my cell. “Kimber?”
“Why is it that all the girls with big boobs run up the stairs instead of out the door?”
I couldn’t see her. She was in the shadows of her cell, but I knew it was her. It was the first thing she’d said since Heven appeared down here. I had begun to think she was dead. It was good to know she wasn’t.
“Everyone knows the minute you run up the stairs, you’re as good as dead,” I said, going along with the question. Maybe it would relieve the anxiety I was feeling. Being caged was hell on a guy’s emotions.
“I lied. I knew she liked you.” Her voice was raspy and low, but I still heard her words and I knew exactly what she was talking about. “She pretended not to notice you but she did. When you were around, you were all she saw. I would’ve had to be blind not to see it.”
“Then why did you go out with me?” I asked. I always knew when Kimber and I “dated” she was only doing it to hurt Cole. I’d considered that a bonus because I couldn’t stand him and the way he made Heven smile. I wanted to be the one to make her smile. But she was too shy and insecure to let me close, so I had to be creative, and what better way to get closer to her than through her best friend? I never let on that I knew about Kimber’s game, but I hadn’t known that our “dating” had hurt Heven. I wouldn’t have done it if I had. But clearly, Kimber knew and Heven’s feelings hadn’t mattered to her.
She made a sound, kind of like a laugh, then said, “I liked having something she wanted for a change. I always had the better clothes, the car, the boyfriend, but she never cared. Nothing I had ever seemed to measure up to her. Then, finally, there was something she wanted that I had. It was the perfect punishment for years of forcing me into her shadow.”
I digested that for a moment, sickened by the role I played in her scheme.
“This must be my punishment for that,” Kimber said quietly.
The regret in her voice was something I recognized. “We all do things we regret, Kimber.”
“I never said I regretted it.”
“If you didn’t, you w
ouldn’t assume you needed punished.”
“Maybe.”
I saw a movement in the shadow of her cell as she moved closer.
“Or maybe I’m just saying that to get you to take me with you when you get out.”
“You know I won’t leave you here.” Hadn’t I proved that when I turned back to try and free her? If I had run, I might have gotten away before Beelzebub could throw me back in here. “What happened to you? How did you get here?”
“It doesn’t really matter how I got here because here I am.”
“What did Hecate promise you to betray us?”
She made a sound. “Power, control, the ability to be noticed.”
“You’ve never been unnoticed.”
“You don’t know what my life is like.”
“Maybe not. But I know what it’s like to be ignored by your parents. To be tossed out. To not feel like what you are is good enough. To think that no one would love you for who you are.”
“We are nothing alike.” Her voice had gone hoarse.
“Well, I really don’t care about my hair and shoes, so you might be right,” I joked.
She snorted and I smiled. “So how much magic do you have? How powerful are you?” I figured I would take advantage of the fact she was actually talking to me.
She gave a laugh. “Look at me. Do I look very strong to you?”
“I think if anyone else was in that cell, they’d be dead. So you look better than most.”
She cackled. “Grunge is in this season. A trend I never understood.”
Ahh, so Kimber was in there somewhere. “Can you break down this force field?”
“No.”
“Will you try?”
“No.”
“Kimber.” My words were cut off by a mind-numbing break. It was kind of like something inside me was turned off… Heven. I leapt back from the doorway of the cell and dropped to my knees.
Something was wrong. Something terrible.
Heven!
No answer.
Heven!
Silence.
Heven, please answer me. Tell me what’s happening
“Sam? What’s wrong?” Kimber asked. Her voice seemed so far away.
“Heven,” I said, my voice sounding hoarse. Heven…
Why wasn’t she answering? I had never felt this before… I searched my mind, closing my eyes and trying to link myself as close as I could to her.
It was hard. Harder than ever before. But the link, it was still there. I told myself that was a good thing, but the fact that I couldn’t quite grasp it worried me. Maybe she was asleep? But even in sleep, she would hear me call and answer me.
I called to her again and again, to no avail.
I was trapped here, powerless to know what was happening and tortured with the unknown.
“Sam,” Kimber called, and I looked up. “I’ll try. I’ll try to break it down.”
I watched as she lifted her hands to unleash her power.
Heven
When I opened my eyes, my vision was blurred and the room was dim. There was a dark figure next to me, but I knew I was safe. I could feel the heat radiating from him and I knew it meant only one thing.
“Sam,” I murmured, reaching for him, curling into his chest and burying my face in his neck. My tears felt cold compared the heat of his skin and I pressed even closer. Only his arms didn’t come around me. There was no faint peppermint scent.
This wasn’t Sam.
I yanked back and rubbed at my swollen eyes. His eyes looked pained and for once, slightly vulnerable. “Riley?”
“Sorry I wasn’t who you were expecting.”
I fell back onto the bed, realizing I was in Sam’s tiny rental. I smelled the metallic, bitter scent of blood and memories came flooding back. I shot up, yelling, “Colin!”
“He’s dead,” Riley said flatly.
“How did I get here? I just left him there!”
“I took care of it,” he said quietly. It’s a wonder I heard him speak at all through my panicking, but I did and I stilled.
“You took care of it?”
He sighed. “Yeah.”
“What do you mean?”
“I couldn’t very well let a dead hospital security guard lay on the side of the road with a dagger wound in his chest and his car abandoned. A car with your fingerprints all over it, just sitting out in the open.”
“What did you do?” I asked, afraid.
“Don’t worry. No one will trace it back to you.” He went to the kitchen and pulled out some bottled water and brought me one. “Drink this.”
I downed half the bottle greedily. Then I burped. Riley lifted a brow and sipped at his water politely. I think he did it on purpose to make me feel like a savage.
Like I didn’t feel like one already.
“What did you do?”
“What did you do?” Riley countered.
“You saw.” I lowered my gaze and my stomach rolled. I regretted drinking that water.
“Yeah, I did. You didn’t have a choice.”
I looked up at him. “Yeah, I did.” I shook my head. “Wait. You saw me being attacked and you didn’t help me?”
“I’m not a knight in shining armor like Sam. I wanted to see how you would do in the fight.” He said it like he was bored.
“Are you kidding me? Someone died so you could watch the show?”
“Relax. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you.”
He said it like that made everything okay. I took an unsteady breath, still in shock over what just happened. Riley took advantage of my silence to keep talking. “The guy attacked you, and from the way he was moving, I would say he wasn’t human.”
“He was,” I said and looked down. My clothes were saturated in dried blood. I catapulted off the bed and ran into the bathroom and threw up in the toilet. I sat there and heaved endlessly until I heard Riley come into the bathroom behind me. I forced myself to get up so he wouldn’t try to help me and I rinsed out my mouth at the sink.
“I need a shower.” I pushed past him to rummage through Sam’s dresser. The bottom drawer was filled with my stuff. Shorts, jeans, T-shirts and clean panties filled the drawer, along with a few toiletries. I grabbed what I wanted, then reached into one of Sam’s drawers and pulled out his favorite T-shirt. I stalked into the bathroom, shut the door without a word to Riley and turned on the shower.
I scrubbed myself until my skin felt raw. I wanted every inch of what happened off me. It was a shame that I couldn’t scrub my mind. Unfortunately, I had a photographic memory and the events of earlier today would haunt me forever.
Maybe my mother was right.
Maybe there was something horribly wrong with me. Maybe I attracted evil. Maybe there was something inside me that evil identified with. I shook my head and stuck it underneath the water that had long ago turned cold. I hadn’t wanted to kill Colin. I tried to get away from him when I sensed something might be wrong. But he kept attacking me.
There had been a demon inside him.
At least I thought there was.
But I’d been wrong. I’d been tricked.
I thought I was doing him a favor by getting the demon out. But there wasn’t a demon and Colin was dead. And he wasn’t coming back. I killed an innocent man.
Beelzebub was back, and this was only the beginning of his tirade.
I should have realized he was messing with me, pushing me, trying to scare me. Colin hadn’t been taken over by a demon. Beelzebub just made it look that way. He made me a killer.
He hadn’t even been back for twenty-four hours and already he was tormenting me. First the dream and now this. Wasn’t what he did to my mother enough? I guess not.
I shut off the water and stepped out, drying myself and pulling on my clothes. When I reached for Sam’s shirt, I brought it to my nose. It still smelled like him. I buried my face in the soft cotton and groaned.
Heven, please, baby… answer me.
Sam?
Relief and fear slammed into me so hard that I nearly fell. I stepped back and sank down onto the toilet. Sam? What’s the matter?
What’s going on? What happened? Are you hurt? Are you okay?
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