by Dale, Lindy
Lacey shook her head. This was getting ridiculous. Cam dangerous? Surely not. He was so sweet, so gentle. Yet, he had practically stalked her in the beginning. And he did have a few aggressive protection issues. He was also very anti-Zac for no good reason. Lacey thought for a moment more. The sigil on her chest winked in the sunlight. Just what did she know about the pendant he’d given her? She’d taken him at his word but it could as easily be evil as good. She’d have no idea. Could it be possible that Cam was the evil one, that this was all a trick to get her in? He’d said that the demons could try to trick her to win her over. Who was she meant to believe?
*****
The decision to go to the maze wasn’t that hard in hindsight. Lacey had always been one for seeing the good in people. Why should Cam be any different? Sure, the things Zac had told Abbie were true, as were the things Lacey knew about Cam. But despite what everyone seemed to think, he wasn’t weird or dangerous. They didn’t understand him because they weren’t working with a full set of facts. If they’d known Cam was an angel, they would have seen him in a totally different light. Wouldn’t they?
Arriving at the maze, Lacey called out to Cam but received no reply. She knew he’d be in the centre, putting the final touches to his renovation of Saint Michael and probably hadn’t heard her, but it had been worth a shot. They’d spoken in recent days, pondering what excuse he could give for staying on in the town when his work was done. He had to be there to protect her, but without some form of cover, people would begin to talk.
“Cam!” She ran through the maze at speed, its twists and turns no longer an issue. “Cam!”
A voice came from the around the corner. “Lacey.”
She dived into his arms, heaving breath. “I’ve been running, all the way from school. I had to see you.”
Cam pulled her closer. His body was a fortress against her troubles. “Shh. Breathe.”
Lacey felt herself calming as she looked up into his eyes. She took in the scent of him, heavy and sweet like sandalwood incense and a slow breath of release escaped her lips. Sanctuary. A tear rolled down her cheek, marking a silvery trail to her chin. She wiped it away. He couldn’t be the bad guy. Her natural instincts would have warned her against him. If he were evil, she’d have known.
Cam searched her face for clues. “What happened? Has someone tried to hurt you?”
Lacey stilled. “Oh God. No, no. I had this huge fight with Abbie at lunch. She told Ty that I’ve been hanging with you and they tried to do some crazy intervention on me or something.”
“They were that worried?”
“Zac says you’re evil and at one point I was so confused with their reasoning, they almost had me believing it.” Pushing another tear off her cheek, Lacey looked deep into Cam’s eyes. “Its not true, is it? You’re not the evil force here? Zac’s just acting jealous, right?”
Cam moved away. Wordlessly, he began to pace the perimetre of the walled garden, his face a picture of concern.
“Cam?”
Worried, Lacey took to following. His steps were quick, frenzied and she had to scramble to keep up. “Cam? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Shh. I’m thinking. I need time to process. I need quiet.”
What the hell was he talking about? Now, Lacey was worried too. She’d only meant to come here to confirm her thoughts in her head, to prove to herself that she was right, that Cam was the good guy. All through the afternoon she’d been unable to concentrate on class. Her brain had been so back and forth, Abbie could have told her she’d married Justin Beiber in the lunch break and she would have believed it. It had been all she could do to stay at school for the remainder of the day. Now, Cam had thoughts and he wasn’t going to share. God damn him. This wasn’t fair.
Cam had climbed to the top of the statue. He was sitting on Saint Michael’s shoulder, his woodland green eyes trained somewhere in the distance. His head was cocked, almost as if listening.
“Cam?” Lacey’s whisper travelled up the statue and into his consciousness.
He smiled down. An ethereal smile of love. Then, he reached towards her, hand outstretched. “Come up.”
Lacey took it and began to climb.
“What’re we doing?” she asked, perching herself next to him.
“Shh. Listening.”
“What are we listening for?”
“We won’t be listening for anything if you don’t shush.”
“But I thought you could only hear my thoughts? What’s the point of listening?”
“Sometimes, I can pick up strains of others, especially if they concern you.”
“But…”
Cam put two fingers to her lips. “Hush.”
Against his fingers, Lacey’s mouth silenced. She should never have let Abbie get inside her head. There was no way Cam was the bad guy. You only had to look at him to see that.
“Cam?” she said, after a bit.
“Yes?”
“Did you hear anything?”
“I know who’s after you. His thoughts are everywhere. I don’t know how I could have missed them.”
“Maybe you were distracted.”
Cam’s arm wound around Lacey’s shoulder. “Maybe I was.”
Chapter Nineteen
At the house, Aunt Beth had made biscuits for afternoon tea before going back to the shop to close up for the day. Their warm chocolate smell greeted Lacey as she and Cam walked through the door. Throwing her school bag down beside her bed and changing into jeans and a thick woollen jumper, she retied her hair and made her way back to the kitchen where Cam was at the table, eyeing off the tray that cooled on the windowsill.
Busying herself at the sink making hot chocolate and piling as many cookies as she could onto a plate, Lacey quizzed Cam about his thoughts.
“So what or who are we dealing with?” She didn’t want to sound excited about this. A demon chasing after your soul wasn’t a fun thing. But she couldn’t help it. She felt like Buffy or something. She and Cam were going to slay some demons.
“It’s Zac.”
The plate of biscuits meant for the table, dropped from Lacey’s hand. Shards of china shattered across the slate floor. The biscuits turned to crumbs. Lacey stood still on the other side of the table, oblivious to the droplets of blood that had appeared on her palm. In the grate, the fire suddenly crackled and spat where it had been quiet only seconds before.
“It can’t be.”
“I know - it’s too obvious to be him, right? And on so many levels, we should discount him. But I think that’s his strategy - to be out there clearly trying to seduce you - like any teenage boy would. It’s very clever.”
“Uh, I hate to disappoint you on that front, but he’s not the first boy to try it on. If that’s your reasoning, why haven’t they all been demons? What about William?”
Cam shook his head. “William is no threat. He’s just a lowlife.”
“I saw the red in his eyes. And he has these fangs, Cam. I swear I saw them.” She bared her own teeth, pointing to where she’d seen the offending teeth on William.
“He’s probably a lower order demon, out to cause a bit of trouble. But I don’t think he’s aligned himself with Lucifer. Trust me, Lace. Zac is our man. He wants you to trust him, to feel secure enough that you’ll do what he wants. His seduction is the first step.”
Lacey sank into the chair. Cam was right, of course. It wasn’t jealousy Zac was showing, he wanted Cam to stay away so he could get close enough for Lacey to become entranced. He’d told her the very first time he met her that they’d all been waiting for her, now she knew what he meant. He must be so pissed off that she wasn’t complying.
Bending down, Lacey began to pick up the broken biscuits and china from the floor. “Zac’s not even talking to me at the moment. He was so angry when he found out I was friends with you, he totally blew me off. I don’t see how he can make this ‘plan’ work if he’s not speaking to me.”
Cam crouched down beside her. In his hand, he held th
e dustpan and broom from the cupboard. When had he left her side to get them?
“He’ll be back, and next time, he’ll be stronger, harder to resist. Just keep the sigil on. It’ll protect you.”
Lacey stood up and took the mess to the bin. She flipped the lid and dumped it, turning back to Cam. “This is real, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Oh God, Cam, it’s two weeks till my birthday. What are we going to do? There must be some way out of this mess.” She gazed at her fingers. Blood had started to run down between the lines of her palm, smearing crimson over her skin. She must have cut herself on one of the sharp plate edges. Picking a tea towel up from the counter and scrunching it, she squeezed her hand around the wadded ball for a moment.
Cam sat the dustpan on the bench and walked to her. He lifted her wounded hand and removed the tea towel, replacing it with a feather light kiss. The skin tingled and tightened, healing instantly.
Lacey’s lip wobbled. “Can you really make it all go away?”
Cam held out his arms. “If it’s the last thing I ever do.”
They sat at the table until the darkness crept across the sky but neither of them had a solution. Aunt Beth returned from her day at the shop and, after changing her clothes and feeding Jezebel, she sat down with them to enjoy a meal of chunky vegetable soup and chicken toastie leftovers. But Lacey and Cam were silent, their usual chatter dulled by the need to find a way to make Lacey safe. Finally, after packing away the last of the dishes from the washing up, Aunt Beth could take no more.
She turned from the clean sink to face them. “I don’t know what’s up with you two tonight, but your faces are longer than a wet week. Anything I can do?”
Lacey sighed. “Not unless you know how to stop Lucifer barbecuing me.” It was a flippant remark but the truth, all the same.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Lacey’s in a spot of trouble…”
The words flowed relentlessly from Cam’s mouth, the entire story being laid bare - Lucifer’s Mark and its consequences, Zac and his gang, the fact that Cam was there to do a bit more than help Lacey get over her mother’s death.
Aunt Beth listened quietly. Her face was sombre. A small crinkle of concentration formed between her brows.
“I do wish you hadn’t dropped all the biscuits, Lace,” she said, at last. “I could really do with a stiff drink and some chocolate right about now.” Moving from her spot at the sink, she walked across the kitchen and flicked the switch on the kettle.
“Now, how about a nice cup of tea. You two go in and sit by the fire and I’ll bring it in. Then we’ll get out the cards. If there’s a solution to this mess, the cards will tell us.”
Lacey rose and led Cam into the lounge, sitting with him on the rug in front of the fire. She had no idea what good a tarot reading was going to do but it was better than nothing.
*****
The cards were spread in the arrangement Aunt Beth thought most appropriate and lay face down on the coffee table between them. Aunt Beth mulled over them for quite some time before she spoke. She appeared to be getting something from the cards. When she spoke, her voice was clear, decisive and almost unrecognisable.
“Our utmost priority is Lacey. Under no circumstances must her life be compromised or taken. But how to do it, how to do it.” She peered at the cards, trying to draw answers from their wisdom. Nervous tension filled the room with a fog of uncertainty. Lacey pressed her lips together. Instinctively, her hand searched for Cam’s. What was Aunt Beth going to advise?
Aunt Beth turned the first card. Her thumb and fingers drummed softly against her cheeks. Her mouth twisted in concentration. “The evil must be exposed for it to be destroyed.”
“What?”
For the first time, Lacey saw terror in Cam’s eyes. “That sounds incredibly dangerous.”
“What is?” Lacey asked again.
“Beth is referring to the fact that I can’t kill Zac unless he shows himself to be a demon. If he tries to hurt or kill you, I can rescue you by slaying him. Without his exposure, I’m basically powerless. If I kill him without proof, I’m no better than a murderer myself. I would be forever banished from Heaven.”
“But we know it’s him!”
“We think it’s him.” Cam was still for a moment. He looked to Aunt Beth. “So what exactly do we do?”
Aunt Beth turned the second and third cards. Her head tipped in thought. “Firstly, you’ll have to pretend you and Lacey are no longer friends. No trips to the park or up to Angel’s Peak.”
How the hell had Aunt Beth known about that? Lacey had believed their nightly flights around the town to be a secret. The woman was worse than a psychic detective sometimes.
Cam nodded in understanding. “And Lacey will have to convince Zac that she’s changed her mind, too - go to Abbie’s initiation ceremony and find a way to be alone with him. Preferably out in the open so I have a clear shot, so to speak.” He squeezed Lacey’s hand. “I know it sounds like we’re going to feed you to the wolves but it’s the only way.”
“And after that? Isn’t Lucifer going to be a bit pissed off if we kill his favourite son? Killing Zac doesn’t get rid of the mark. Lucifer will still take me anyway.”
“Ultimately, I’ll need to find another way to get Lucifer off your back.”
Angry tears stung Lacey’s eyes. “So why haven’t you been doing that all along? It seems to me that we’ve been sitting around waiting for him and nobody’s actually doing a thing to prevent it!” she screamed.
Cam rubbed his fingers over her knuckles. She took a deep breath and felt calmed. “Can’t we just kill Lucifer or something?”
Two heads turned in her direction.
“You can’t ‘just kill’ Lucifer, Lacey.”
The three looked at the next two cards, one being the High Priestess. Again. “Surely there can’t be any more secrets? I remember what you told me last time, but surely there can’t be anything else.”
Aunt Beth stared at the card too. “The secret isn’t yours, but it is pivotal to your survival. The only way you will be saved is for the secret to be revealed in its fullness. Then you will have to make a choice, one that may lead to a death.”
Cam shook his head. “I don’t like it. If Lacey gets hurt…”
“She won’t because you’ll be there in the background to protect her and she’ll be wearing your sigil. I’ll make her a little something to bind her to you, also. It will keep her strong.”
Lacey’s eyes bulged.
“You didn’t think all those books on Wicca were for the customers did you? I’ve been practicing for years, now. The Ellerwoman and I have much in common.”
Oh hell. Lacey was seriously beginning to think that there was nobody in Angel’s Bend who was just a plain, normal person. Angel, demons, faeries, witches. All it needed was a few shape shifting animals and the circus would be complete.
Chapter Twenty
Lacey stood at Abbie’s front door, mouth agape. She couldn’t believe Abbie’s trademark locks were gone, replaced by shimmering blue-black waves that cascaded down her back and around her face. It was one of a long string of changes that had been occurring over the past few weeks, so she shouldn’t have been surprised but it was still a shock. The sweet innocent Abbie had been usurped by another more brazen model.
“You like it?” Abbie giggled as she swung the screen door open and ushered Lacey in. It had been a couple of days since they’d caught up and Lacey wanted her help with an English essay. When Abbie focused on something other than the gang, she was a wealth of information on the novels of the Bronte Sisters, especially Wuthering Heights. She kept the type of details in her brain that examiners would eat up when the exams rolled around and Lacey was keen to soak up some of her knowledge. And who knew, maybe Abbie would let something else slip. She wasn’t exactly backwards at coming forwards and with only days to go till Lacey’s birthday, Cam seemed no closer to finding a way to save her. Any tidbit co
uld help.
Lacey stopped and studied her friend. Underneath the black get up, Lacey knew that girl still lingered.
“It’s so different to the red. But, yeah, I guess I like it.”
“It’s only one of those six wash things. Mum was shitting me something chronic about staying out late with Ty. I just wanted to annoy her a bit. It’ll wash out.”
Lacey narrowed her eyes. This new development was worrying, even to her, the ex-queen of staying out late. “So it’s not a Ty thing?”
“God, no. It was my idea. Remember? We talked about it at the library? I was doing errands for Mum the other day and I saw the dye and I just thought, what the heck.” She ran her fingers through the raven tresses and shook them back. Even the ponytail was gone. “Ty totally loves it. He thinks it’s sexy. He said it makes me look more mature.”
She did look kind of sexy, Lacey supposed. Her pale skin was a complete contrast to the black of her hair and the colour made her eyes seem brighter, more mischievous, even with the dark circles. She certainly looked and behaved a hell of a lot different to the way she used to when they’d met at the start of the year, and most of that was due to her relationship with Ty. Some of the changes were positive, like the independence from her mother but about other things Lacey wasn’t too sure. She still believed Ty and Zac had too much influence over Abbie. She was like an adoring puppy when Zac was around, not that he cared that much. At least Ty kept an eye out for her. He was very protective when he wasn’t wasted.
They wandered through into the kitchen and Abbie took a tray of chips from the oven for the girls to share. She tipped them into a bowl and fished around in the pantry for chicken salt and vinegar, splashing them liberally over the snack. Then she slid them across the surface of the timber table to where Lacey had set herself up at the far end.
“So you’re coming to the initiation? It’s gonna be so cool. I can’t wait for you to get to know Kat and Lola. They’re not as scary as they look. That black eyeliner is all for show.”
As Abbie blithered on, in her usual too-much-information style, Lacey began to open her books. Everyone knew of her ‘fight’ with Cam over the weekend and the subsequent break up. Suddenly, the thaw of the previous days had dissipated and she was once again welcome to have lunch in the circle. Ty was back to his old stupid self and Zac was seeking her out, his smile warm and inviting. She wasn’t too sure about a friendship with Kat and Lola, though. She liked her back as it was. Dagger free.