“That’s a creepy smile.”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “I’m going home.”
“Whatever you say, princess.” He yawned, waving his hand off toward the door dismissively.
Even though it made me feel a little stupid, I kept smiling at him. I couldn’t have handpicked a more inappropriate person in the entire world to become friends with, but for the first time since my dad passed away, I didn’t feel alone anymore.
As I stepped out his front door, I glanced back to where Zeph was stretched out on the sofa with his feet propped up on the edge of the coffee table. He was gruff, a little rude, and rough-looking with the long hair and all those tattoos on his arms.
But it was too late.
I already liked him.
The workers left an invoice and receipt taped to the door with an envelope that had a new key inside it when they were finished. They had fixed everything and had even given me a new knob and deadbolt for my front door. I wondered how long this one would last.
Inside, everything was clean and smelled like fresh paint and bleach. All my decorations had been placed carefully around the rooms. Not all of them were in places I liked, but it was nice to come into a neat, orderly apartment. Even my cell phone was left sitting on the kitchen counter, waiting for me.
I took a shower and fixed my hair, taming my wild red curls with a few swipes of a straightening iron before changing into casual clothes. I sent Ben a text message to tell him that the workers had done a great job. After thanking him profusely, I promised it wouldn’t happen again. Lies, lies, lies.
I was layering up my socks so I could brave the cold and buy fresh groceries when my phone began beeping and vibrating, announcing I had a new text message.
BEN: Glad everything is all right now. More than anything, I’m thankful you’re all right. I know you don’t want to tell me what happened, otherwise you would have in your email, but I am here for you regardless. Please remember that. Don’t be afraid to ask me for help when you need it.
Guilt immediately made my stomach bind up in knots. I stared at the screen, reading his message over and over. I felt bad for not telling him the truth, and yet at the same time, messages like this always sort of pissed me off. He was responsible for my well-being and survival, but we might as well have been total strangers. He kept himself anonymous and carefully set apart from my life, except to reach in like the proverbial hand of fate to move things in my favor now and again.
I had no right to be angry with him. I couldn’t point fingers at the person giving me a roof over my head just because he didn’t want to share it with me. It was his choice to keep his distance. My dad had asked him to be there for me in these few, specific ways, and Ben had been faithful to that agreement. I should have been content with the way things were.
After all, someone wanting privacy wasn’t a new concept for me. My dad had been extremely private about his work. I knew absolutely nothing about what he did except that it involved a lot of bizarre research. He spent a lot of time buried in old books, most of which were written in foreign languages. A few of them had even survived the fire, and despite my best efforts to read them, I couldn’t make heads or tails of the strange pictures, diagrams, and spidery handwriting etched in them. So I had packed up all of those books and stuffed them away in the guest room. They’d been so important to him, getting rid of them felt wrong.
I’d always suspected that Ben was somehow involved with my dad’s work. It was the only reason that made any sense as to why Ben didn’t want me to know anything more about him. Maybe they were in a secret line of work, like the CIA or FBI, and Ben couldn’t get any closer to me than this because it would put my life in danger. That was part of the reason why I’d never just come out and asked to meet him, although I had hinted heavily at it plenty of times. That and … I knew what the answer would be.
I quickly typed back a message, assuring him that I was fine and everything was going swimmingly in my perfect teenage life. Sooner or later, I knew he was going to find out that wasn’t true. Then I would have to confess to him about what was happening at school. If things with Ms. Grear kept going downhill this quickly, I wasn’t going to come close to making it till graduation.
I couldn’t tell him yet. I was too embarrassed by it all. Not to mention I was absolutely terrified he might agree with Ms. Grear and ship me off to some school for the mentally disturbed.
His reply came back so quickly, it made me nervous even before I read it.
BEN: What happened last night? Is there something you aren’t telling me?
My throat went dry. He’d never asked me anything like this before. He never pried.
My fingers hovered over the buttons while I desperately tried to come up with a convincing story. Maybe I could tell him I threw a wild party? Didn’t other high school kids do that kind of thing sometimes?
I couldn’t do it; I couldn’t lie to him again. That wasn’t the kind of person I wanted to be. Cramming my phone into my pocket without answering, I finished getting dressed. My thoughts were scrambled, torn over the difference between lying to him outright and covering everything up like always. Either way, it was deception, and either way, he was probably going to be seriously angry when he found out what was really going on.
I went back into the kitchen to grab a quick bite of breakfast and make a grocery list before I left. I was hoping that at least some of my food had been spared from last night’s chaos.
Zeph was sitting at my kitchen table.
I screamed and fell back against the wall.
I wasn’t expecting to see anyone sitting there. I didn’t get many guests, especially not of the friendly, visible variety. When I recognized him, I tried to catch my breath.
Zeph crossed his arms over his chest like he’d caught me doing something terrible. He waved the Davner’s pamphlet in front of my nose like a battle flag declaring war. “What’s this?”
I was mortified.
Immediately, I dove to snatch the pamphlet back from him. “Don’t go through my stuff! What are you even doing here? How did you get in?”
Faster than I could react, Zeph yanked the pamphlet out of reach. His violet eyes smoldered dangerously. “I came to leave you a check for the busted door. It’s not my fault you left it unlocked. No wonder you had a break in.”
“That does not mean you can come prancing in here anytime you like!” I fumed. “Give that back!”
“Not until you answer my question,” he growled as he quickly stuck it under his rear end and sat on it. “What the hell is it?”
I wasn’t about to go digging around under his butt for the pamphlet. “It’s a special school. My counselor wants me to transfer there since I’ve been causing so much trouble.” My eyes began to well up. “It’s supposed to be for people … like me.”
Zeph pulled the pamphlet out from under him and immediately tore it into a hundred little pieces. He crumpled them all together in his palm, molding the shredded bits of paper into a marble-sized ball that he then dropped into my hand.
“You don’t need to go to any special school.”
I stared down in quiet mortification at what was left of the pamphlet. The tears that rolled down my face felt cool against my flushed cheeks. I clenched my teeth and stifled a sniffle. “Y-you’re wrong. You don’t know anything about me! I see things all the time that don’t exist. I see monsters in the halls at school and shadows that move on the walls here at home. I hear things moving and growling in the dark. There is something wrong with me. I am crazy!”
Zeph stared at me with an eerily neutral expression. It was like the calm before the storm, and I wasn’t sure what he might do.
I swallowed hard.
Suddenly, Zeph stood up and walked right past me. He left without saying a single word and slammed the door behind him hard enough to make the windows rattle.
Trembling and still holding the little wad of paper in my hand; I couldn�
�t tear my eyes away from the door. Five minutes must have passed, and he still hadn’t come back to finish our argument. I had made him angry—really, really angry. He might not ever come back, and that absolutely terrified me.
I was determined not to cry anymore. I wasn’t going to do it. Somehow, it seemed like crying would be the same as letting him win. So, I threw what was left of the pamphlet away and snatched my coat off the rack by the door.
There were only a few things that brought me any comfort when I was this upset. Usually cleaning was enough to soothe me after a particularly rough day, but the workers had left everything in perfect order. So that left only one other option.
I cooked everything I could possibly think of that a nosy, vegetarian bachelor might want to eat. The smell of a few loaves of bread, vegetable stew, and more cookies than any sane person would need at one time filled my apartment. I wrapped everything up neatly in a brown paper bag, then scribbled a note on the side that said, “Sorry I made you angry. Here’s your first payment. I promise there are no laxatives in this.”
I left the bag on Zeph’s doorstep and rang the bell before running to the stairwell. Peeking around the corner, I waited for him to come out. I wanted to see how he would react to my peace offering.
He never came.
I left our apartment building disappointed, and sat down on the front steps to watch the evening traffic roll by. People walked home from work or rode by on their bicycles. A few happy couples wandered by, laughing and holding hands. I wondered what that must be like. I’d never had a boyfriend before. I’d barely even had a real friend until …
I flushed and fidgeted with my hair. Thinking about Zeph left me baffled. Why had he gotten so angry about me changing schools, anyway? Why did he care about that? It wasn’t any of his business.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, sending a fresh pang of dread through my body. I’d forgotten all about Ben’s text message from earlier. Seeing his name pop up on the screen with another message made my stomach twist.
BEN: I’m sorry if my previous message seemed intrusive. I didn’t mean to upset you. My primary concern is your safety. I want to respect your privacy while also providing you the security I promised your father I would. It’s a difficult balance for me to strike sometimes. I trust you will tell me if there is something serious happening that I can help with.
How could I be so stupid? I should have answered him sooner. Now he was worried about me. I’d been so quick to tell him everything was fine that it must have sounded like I was overcompensating.
I quickly typed a message to thank him for his concern and support. I told him how much I appreciated everything he’d done for me, and promised to be more responsible with telling him when I needed help in the future.
Alone on the steps, I watched the sun set over our quaint neighborhood, as the streetlamps hummed to life. The air got colder and the wind blew through my hair. I’d watched the end of the day like this so many times, and it always made me think about my dad. I knew he wouldn’t have enjoyed living somewhere like this. He didn’t like cities. Dad had preferred the rolling countryside, like where our old house had been before it burned. I hadn’t been back there in years. I missed it. The smell of the woods, clean air, and the sound of the wind in the trees were still etched in my memory, fragments of a childhood that had gone up in smoke.
Finally, I stood up and went back inside.
On my way back to my apartment, I walked past Zeph’s door. The bag of food was gone. I smiled with relief. He didn’t hate me, at least. If he’d hated me, then surely he wouldn’t have taken the food, right?
I nibbled on my bottom lip, wishing I had been there to watch him discover it. Had he smiled? It was hard to imagine him smiling without also picturing devil horns on his head, though. Maybe some fangs, bat wings, and a pitchfork, too.
Everything in my apartment was still clean and orderly when I went inside. I ate a late-night snack, changed into my pajamas, and made my bed on the couch in silence. I should have been happy. My house was clean. I’d taken a day off from school. Instead, all I could think about was how unbearably quiet it was.
My gaze kept wandering back to the chair at the kitchen table where I’d discovered Zeph that morning. Why did my apartment feel so empty without him in it? Why was I hoping he’d come storming back through my front door to finish our argument?
Staring down at the screen of my phone, I scrolled through all of Ben’s old emails and messages to reread each one. I still had them all saved, including the very first one he’d ever sent after my dad passed away. Sometimes, reading them helped ease my loneliness and anxiety about what was to come. After all, nothing had changed. I still wasn’t safe here, even with Zeph across the hall.
I fluffed my pillow and tucked my blanket around me. Today was the first normal-ish day I’d had in a long time. I hoped that would extend through the night, too. Maybe it was over now. Maybe I could finally get a good night’s sleep. After all, my apartment seemed quiet and calm.
I should have known it was too good to be true.
Something was breathing on me—a hot, moist breath, puffed right in my face, tickling my cheeks. I squinted and twitched my nose. Only it smelled awful—almost like … dog breath.
When I opened my eyes, there was nothing there.
A cold shiver ran through my body.
I sat up straight, snatching the blanket against my chest as I looked around. The room was completely dark again. The lamps had been extinguished. I couldn’t even see the furniture.
Then I saw a glowing pair of silver eyes hovering in the corner of the room.
I froze. My breath caught in my throat. A sound like a dog snarling cut through the darkness. I gripped the blanket so hard my fingers went numb.
The monster in my apartment had never revealed itself before. Something was different—and very wrong.
As fast as I could blink, the creature moved closer. The eyes were a few yards away, then a few feet, and then suddenly, jagged teeth came into view.
It wasn’t a dog. It was a wolf—a huge wolf with fur of pitch black that seemed to melt right into the rest of the shadows in the room. The edges of its body licked like dark flames, wavering and shifting as it prowled toward me.
I had to move. I had to get away. Now!
I crawled over the back of the couch as the creature pounced, bellowing in fury.
I screamed, kicking away from the animal as I scrambled to the other side of the room. The wolf stalked after me, its bottomless silver eyes glowing like two moons with an eerie, ethereal light. They shone so brightly I could see the saliva dripping off its fangs.
The beast backed me up against the living room wall, prowling closer and closer. There was nowhere to run, and nothing I could use as a weapon. I trembled, trying to find my voice so I could scream for help.
Suddenly, my front door burst open with a loud crack. Shards of wood went flying. The black wolf whipped its huge head around, and we both stared at the figure standing in the doorway.
The light flooding in from the hallway was too bright to make out anything more than a tall man’s silhouette.
I knew it was Zeph. I could feel it.
I was afraid he wouldn’t see the creature. No one else ever saw the things I did. Why would he be any different? But when Zeph raised his gaze to meet mine, his strange eyes glowed like fiery amethysts. In an instant, his attention flicked from me to the wolf. His mouth twitched and curled into a vicious snarl that displayed prominent, pointed incisors.
Panic squeezed the breath from my lungs. It wasn’t possible—it couldn’t be real. Was he some kind of demon? I opened my mouth to scream, but a strangled panicked squeak was all that would come out.
“You.” Zeph pointed at me. “Don’t freak out. Deep breaths. Got it?”
I squeaked again.
“And you,” he snarled, his focus back on the wolf. There was power in his voice that made me tremble.
“Eldrick, you worthless scumbag, I should have known it was you starting shit over here. You’ve got a lot of nerve.”
As he came into the room, his shadowed form warped with every step. His head rolled to the side slightly as two tapered, spike-shaped horns emerged above long, pointed ears. His powerful shoulders flexed, hunching forward as two huge feathered wings seemed to unfold from somewhere within him. They glowed with a faint lavender light and shimmered as though each feather were made from beveled glass.
He walked right toward me. As he got closer, I could see strange markings on his powerful arms and chest coming to life like they were glowing under a black light. It was some sort of writing, but not in any language I recognized. It reminded me a little of the writing from my dad’s books, though. It was intricate and elegant, like spirals and swirls that flowed beautifully over his darkly tanned skin.
I was paralyzed with awe—torn somewhere between terror and mystification. He couldn’t be a demon. No, he was something else—something I didn’t have a name for.
The wolf growled and then recoiled. It flicked a glance back at me, as if it was trying to decide whether to attack.
“Do it,” Zeph sneered. “Give me an excuse to kill you.”
The wolf bristled and licked its teeth tauntingly, then answered Zeph in a breathy masculine voice, “As if you could.”
“Oh? Feeling cocky, are we?” Zeph laughed as he flexed again, making his broad wings stretch out farther and filling the room with that eerie purple light. He had a menacing smirk on his lips. It made a shiver run down my spine. “What’s your problem, anyway? You’ve always been a dick, but at least before you had some kinda reason. This girl’s not a threat to you.”
“What would you know about it?” The wolf’s body trembled with rage. “You think I am here by choice?”
Realization dawned on his face, making those violet eyes go round for a second. “Ah, I get it. How ironic. So you’re stuck in a—”
Mad Magic Page 4