Fever

by Amy Meredith

  ‘For ever for somebody who isn’t the Deepdene Witch.’ Eve aimed her fingers at the lasagne and let her power fly. The cheese on top instantly melted and a whoosh of steam erupted from the pasta. ‘Bing!’ she cried, triumphant. What a cool way to be able to use her zappy fingers.

  Luke blinked. ‘You rock so hard,’ he said.

  Eve’s smile widened into a grin. ‘It’s good to have a friend with superpowers, isn’t it?’ She had superpowers! She’d never thought about it exactly that way before. She took a couple of plates from the cabinet, then served up the lasagne. It didn’t hit her until they both sat down at the table how totally romantic the meal would be. Just the two of them. In the candlelight.

  Totally distracting.

  But for now, she didn’t care. Tonight, she was just going to enjoy it.

  Man, Luke thought. I just keep getting thrown into these über-romantic situations with Eve. First not-quite-double-dating with Jess and Seth, and now eating dinner alone together in the candlelight. Not that he was complaining. It did make things confusing, though. They were always ending up in boyfriend–girlfriend type situations, but they were just friends. He was up for more. But was she?

  Now was not the time to try to find out. Not until the town was safe – his dad, Seth, Leo, Briony, Rose, and everybody. He took a bite of lasagne, then realized that Eve was staring at him.

  ‘Do I have sauce on my face?’ he asked.

  Eve shook her head.

  ‘Are you still worried about me being Amunnic?’ Luke asked. ‘Amunnic drinks blood. He doesn’t eat lasagne. Hence, I am not he.’

  Eve laughed. ‘I wasn’t worried. I was just thinking it’s cool that I know the inner you so well.’

  ‘I think it’s cool too. Not that you know me that well,’ he added quickly. ‘Although I guess that actually is cool. But that I’ve gotten to know you too.’

  ‘And find out that I occasionally think about something other than bags and shoes?’ Eve said.

  ‘A lot more than occasionally.’ The more he got to know the inner Eve, the more bowled over he was by her. And he’d been bowled over by the outer Eve since day one. Tonight she looked more beautiful than ever, with the candlelight bathing her face in a golden glow, and glinting off her shiny dark curls.

  He had to kiss her. Had to. Right now. It would be physically impossible to resist. He reached out to move the candles out of the way … and the phone rang. Eve started, knocking her glass of iced tea to the floor. She winced as the glass shattered, then gestured for him to get the phone while she knelt down to pick up the pieces.

  Luke grabbed the phone off the wall cradle. ‘Hello? Evergold residence.’ He had grown up answering the phone in a sort of formal way, since you never knew who might be calling the rectory.

  ‘Hey, it’s me. At the Meredith residence,’ Jess said. ‘I just wanted to figure out when we should meet up tomorrow.’

  ‘Early,’ Luke said. ‘We have to figure out more places to search for Amunnic.’

  ‘So right after breakfast?’ Jess asked.

  ‘Sounds good,’ Luke replied. He turned to Eve. ‘Setting up when to meet Jess in the a.m.’ Eve nodded as she brushed slivers of glass into a dustpan.

  ‘So what are you two up to?’ Jess asked.

  ‘Just eating dinner. Eve figured out this amazing new thing she can do with her zap. She used it to basically nuke a frozen lasagne,’ Luke told her.

  ‘Hmmm. Just the two of you. Eating dinner. And I’m guessing by candlelight,’ Jess said.

  ‘It’s harder to find your mouth with the fork in the dark,’ Luke joked.

  ‘Sounds very romantic.’ Jess sighed. ‘And I’m left out of the fun. Not that it would continue to be romantic if I were there.’

  Luke glanced over at Eve. He’d been thinking how romantic the situation had been. Jess obviously thought it was too. But had Eve felt the big R?

  ‘Peter is trying to see how much ice cream he can fit in his head before it melts. The ice cream, not the head,’ Jess continued. ‘I’m hoping the piglet gets the massive case of brain freeze he deserves.’

  In the background Luke heard a muffled ‘Hey!’

  ‘If I want any dessert, I have to go fight for it,’ Jess said. ‘Ooh, the lights just came back on! Did they over there?’

  ‘Yep. Right this second,’ Luke said.

  ‘Well, turn them off again so you can still use the candles,’ Jess suggested. ‘Come by my house in the morning, OK? Being out alone, even in the daytime, it’s … you know.’

  ‘We’ll pick you up, no problem,’ Luke told her. ‘See you soon. Bye.’

  Luke hung up the phone. ‘Jess said Peter’s eating all the ice cream,’ he said. Lame. But somehow, with the lights back on, he felt awkward and wasn’t sure what to say. The lame words had just come out on their own.

  ‘Sounds like him,’ Eve said. She sat back down at the table and blew out the candles. So she wasn’t interested in trying to get the romantic mood back.

  ‘I think I’m gonna take this up to my room.’ Luke picked up his plate of lasagne. ‘I want to check my email and I’ll maybe try and tackle those books I brought from the church.’

  ‘OK. I’ll just … watch TV, I guess.’ Eve picked up the remote.

  Luke hesitated for a second, then left the kitchen and went to his room. I can’t believe I’m all worried about Eve and romance and whether or not she wants me to kiss her, he thought. We didn’t find Amunnic tonight. That means my dad is still being eaten up by the plague, along with so many others.

  The harsh thoughts pounded at him. And maybe tonight the demon would snatch another victim. An image of the whole town, dead, filled his mind. Some taken by the plague, some drained of blood.

  ‘Nothing you can do about it right now,’ he muttered aloud. Tomorrow, he promised himself. Tomorrow we’ll track down Amunnic and kill him.

  But could three teenagers really save the town? Even if one of them was the Deepdene Witch?

  Chapter Six

  Eve took a last look in the bathroom mirror. She’d pulled her long, dark hair into a loose knot on top of her head, with a few tendrils falling down to frame her face, and she’d gone light with her make-up, just some pale lip gloss, mascara, and a little powder to keep her face from getting too shiny in the hot sun.

  There was no reason not to look as pretty as possible when going after a demon. Especially when Luke is part of the demon-fighting team, a little voice inside her head whispered.

  ‘Not the time to get distracted by boys,’ she told her reflection, looking herself sternly in the eye. Huh. Her eyes looked bluer than usual today. Sparklier. She felt sparkly too. Like all that energy she’d sucked up at the power plant was still coursing through her.

  She looked at the row of round light bulbs along the top of the mirror, imaging the current feeding them. Could she absorb it too? Her fingers started to tingle, and she itched to experiment, but it would have to wait. She was about to be late for breakfast.

  She turned and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Her parents were already at the kitchen table, watching the news on TV and eating breakfast. Eve decided to pass on the bagels, yogurt and fruit. She prepared herself for a lecture as she took the box of Count Chocula from the cereal shelf of the cupboard. Her mother just didn’t comprehend how sometimes a girl needed something chocolate for breakfast. One of those times was when demon encounter was likely to occur soon.

  ‘Eve, that’s barely acceptable as a snack. It’s certainly not—’ her mother began.

  Eve flipped over the box, and began the argument she always used. ‘It has thirty per cent of the daily requirement of riboflavin, iron and—’

  Luke came through the side door, letting it slam shut behind him. He was so completely yummy, especially right now in his jogging shorts and sleeveless T, a sheen of sweat glossing his arms and shoulders, and his hair all tousled.

  Eve used the interruption to fill her bowl and sit down at the table. Her mother shook her h
ead at her. ‘Luke, breakfast with the Count?’ Eve asked.

  ‘I think I’ll stick with a bagel.’ He sat down and took one from the plate. ‘Good morning, all,’ he added to her parents. They both really liked him. He seemed to like them too. Eve found it both great and a little bit annoying that he’d become so comfortable in her home so fast.

  ‘What’s it like out there?’ Eve’s father asked Luke.

  ‘I ran past the church. It has a huge tent over it and guards posted out front. I asked what was going on, and they said the CDC was starting to fumigate the buildings where large numbers of people gathered. They’ll be working their way through the town,’ he answered.

  ‘That’s a start,’ Eve’s mother said.

  ‘They also told me my dad had been moved over to the courthouse. They want all the plague victims there. It’s too hard for the aid workers to go from house to house now that there are so many people sick.’

  ‘We’ve started sending people directly from the clinic to the courthouse,’ Eve’s mom told him. ‘There are a lot of great medical workers taking care of them, Luke. Your dad might have a private room in a hospital if things were different, but I promise you he wouldn’t get more knowledgeable doctors or better treatment.’

  ‘I still can’t believe how fast they got the town closed off,’ Luke commented. He clearly wasn’t up to having a conversation about his father.

  ‘It needed to happen,’ Eve’s dad said. ‘They have to keep Flu X contained.’ He grimaced. ‘But when I see those spirals of barbed wire on top of the fence, I feel like we’ve all been sentenced to prison.’

  ‘They’re talking about Deepdene.’ Eve’s mother upped the volume on the news.

  ‘A new story from Deepdene, New York, this morning,’ the newscaster announced. ‘Another citizen from the town is reportedly missing – nineteen-year-old Cathy Jenkins.’

  ‘Cathy. That’s Leo Mackenzie’s girlfriend!’ Eve exclaimed, just as the words ‘High School Sweethearts in Escape Pact?’ appeared on the screen above Cathy and Leo’s senior prom picture.

  ‘I don’t like the sound of this,’ Eve’s dad said, twisting round in his chair to get a better view of the TV. They all listened in silence as the newscaster explained that Cathy’s parents had reported her missing when she hadn’t returned home by curfew the night before. They were afraid she’d gotten ill and fainted and needed help, but a search of the town hadn’t come up with any trace of her. The police were speculating that Cathy had sneaked out of town, possibly on one of the trucks that had been allowed in and out of Deepdene bringing supplies, to meet up with Leo.

  ‘The contagion spreads so fast.’ Eve’s mom shook her head. ‘I hate to even think about Leo and Cathy on the outside. They could be passing the virus on even if they haven’t contracted the flu. It’s not just them, either. A number of people who had been exposed left town before the lockdown.’

  And some people that everyone assumes got out probably didn’t, Eve thought. She guessed it was possible that Rose and Briony had run away from town without saying anything to their parents or friends. She really, really hoped that was what happened. But she couldn’t make herself believe it was.

  ‘Let’s hope they didn’t get far if they are out there,’ Eve’s dad added. ‘The last thing we need is for this disease to spread to another town. Or, God forbid, into the city.’

  Luke and Eve exchanged a glance. Eve knew he was thinking the same thing she was: the demon had captured Cathy too.

  ‘Do you think it’s possible, you know, that Cathy got out on a truck?’ Eve asked. ‘Would they even let a truck past the guard house?’

  ‘Medical supplies are still being brought in,’ her mom answered. ‘And there are plans in the works to bring in food. So just a few authorized trucks will be going in and out.’

  ‘I’m sure they’ll be searched,’ her dad added. ‘But I suppose it’s possible Cathy could have hidden herself well enough to get through.’

  Possible, but not likely, Eve thought. The likely scenario was that Amunnic was feeding on the blood of Cathy and the other quote-unquote missing people right that second.

  ‘I’m still not sure we should be doing research right now,’ Jess said as she, Eve and Luke walked towards the library a little more than an hour later. Every house that had had a plague victim was cordoned off with yellow police tape. Since no one knew how the plague spread, those houses weren’t considered safe for healthy people.

  ‘Like we were saying yesterday, Deepdene isn’t that big. Shouldn’t we just keep searching for Amunnic’s hiding place?’ Jess asked.

  ‘I just started thinking this might be faster,’ Luke answered. ‘I started picturing the empty summer places – any of them could be where the demon has Briony and the others. Some research might help us figure out the best places to look.’

  ‘The Deepdene library has a big occult section – I guess having a portal to hell will do that to a town,’ Eve added. ‘A lot of the books are really old. We might get lucky and find something that wasn’t online. Something that can narrow down the search and help us find Amunnic faster. Like that he prefers a view of the sunrise from his bedroom window,’ she joked weakly.

  Jess shot her a sharp look. ‘Not funny,’ she said.

  ‘Sorry,’ Eve said. ‘Stress-induced bad joke.’ But she didn’t feel stressed. Her body felt light, as if gravity wasn’t having its usual pull. Walking seemed to take almost no effort at all. Must be all that voltage I absorbed, she decided.

  Eve caught sight of Megan coming round the corner. Megan’s Dalmatian, Freckles, spotted them a second later, and started barking wildly and rearing up on his back legs like he thought he was a horse.

  ‘We see you. We’re coming to say hi,’ Jess called to the excited dog.

  ‘I hope you’re coming to say hi to me too,’ Megan joked when they reached her.

  ‘Well, Freckles first, or he might explode,’ Eve said. She and Jess both knelt down and patted the dog until he became as close to calm as he was able to get. Luke contributed by scratching him behind both ears.

  ‘Hi, Megan,’ Jess said as she straightened up.

  ‘Hi, Megan,’ Eve and Luke echoed.

  Megan laughed, but only for a second. Then her expression became serious. ‘I had to get out of the house,’ she said. ‘My mom keeps staring at me, looking for any signs that I’ve got it. Which I understand, but it’s driving me insane. Joss Elroy has it now. And Mr Neemy. Mollie too. It was so weird to be on Main yesterday and not smell cookies baking.’

  Eve shook her head sadly. It was just wrong to think of a Thursday without Mollie’s Market filling the street with the smell of chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter and general yumminess. Pieces of Deepdene were being stripped away every day the plague continued.

  ‘Have you seen the craziness on Facebook?’ Megan asked.

  ‘No. What’s up?’ With everything that had been going on, Eve hadn’t checked any of her usual sites for a couple of days.

  ‘There are all these theories flying around about what’s happening in Deepdene,’ Megan said.

  ‘What kind of theories?’ Luke asked, and Eve knew he was thinking about the demon.

  ‘A bunch of people are blaming aliens, if you can believe that,’ Megan explained. ‘They’re saying the aliens designed the plague to wipe out humans so Earth can be colonized. Then there are people who think the government is testing some kind of chemical weapon on the town. A few people are saying Flu X virus is actually intelligent. That it has consciousness and is doing this to us on purpose.’

  ‘I guess you heard the news about Cathy Jenkins,’ Jess said.

  ‘Yeah. I’ve been trying to call her. Same deal as Leo. I keep getting sent straight to voicemail,’ Megan said. ‘I’m sure they’re together. Cathy wouldn’t have been able to deal with Leo on one side of the fence and her on the other. They’ve been going out since seventh grade,’ she added to Luke.

  ‘We should probably get going,’ Eve said,
her mind suddenly filled with the image of Leo and Cathy drained of blood.

  ‘Going where?’ Megan asked. ‘I want to come.’

  ‘The library,’ Jess told her.

  Megan scrunched up her nose. ‘Really? Like for homework? We don’t even know when school’s going to open again.’

  ‘It’s just something to do,’ Luke said. He gave Freckles another double ear scratch. ‘Sorry, bud. No dogs allowed.’

  ‘My mom will probably panic if I don’t come home soon anyway,’ Megan said. ‘I’ll see you guys.’

  Eve picked up her pace. She was praying that Luke was right and that one of the books in the library would give them something they could use to track the demon.

  ‘It’s open! I wasn’t sure it would be,’ Jess exclaimed when they reached the library’s wide front steps.

  They didn’t need to use one of the library computers to find shelf numbers. They already knew where the books on demons were kept. Eve, Jess and Luke each grabbed an armful and sat down at the nearest table.

  Eve found Amunnic in the index of the third book she opened. There was just a short entry. ‘It says here that a merchant ship ran aground in Ephesus with all the crew drained of blood. They burned the ship and prayed for deliverance from the demon Amunnic.’ She put the book aside. ‘Ephesus is in Turkey, I think. That must have been before the demon got to Egypt.’

  ‘Not helpful.’ Jess looked pale, her eyes rimmed with red. She’d probably gotten hardly any sleep the past couple of nights. Eve was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to sleep if Luke was lying in one of those beds in the courthouse with his skin rotting away. Not that Luke was her boyfriend the way Seth was Jess’s.

  Eve chose another book and checked the index. There was no Amunnic listed. Nothing under ‘Many Faces’ either. She started to put the book in the ‘done’ pile, then realized she ought to search by traits too. There were a bunch of pages listed for ‘blood drinkers’. Most were about vampires, although one page had a brief mention of hellhounds feeding on blood, and there were a couple of pages about the chupacabra, a creature with spines all down its back that supposedly fed mainly on goat blood.