Chapter 4
Considering I spent so much time berating others for stalking, I was actually doing a pretty good job of it myself the next morning. I’d spotted Davis the moment I pulled into the school parking lot. He hadn’t seen me though. Yet.
He was too busy talking to someone. A male someone.
They were standing close together, having a discussion that did not look friendly. Judging by the sneer on Davis’s lips and the set of his jaw, he wasn’t complimenting the guy.
I stood to the side, pretending to look through my homework but I watched them over the top. It wasn’t exactly the best cover, but it was all I had at short notice. Davis was the stalker, I had only been on the receiving end before.
“Hey, whatcha doing?” Mandy gave me a freakin’ heart attack. I almost dropped my homework. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I nodded toward Davis, recovering. “What do you think about that?”
Mandy’s mouth dropped open before she started shaking her head. “Uh-uh. This is not good.”
A shiver ran down my spine as my stomach clenched in dread. “What? Tell me what you know.”
“That’s a Crevorn demon.”
“Are you sure? How can you tell?” My voice was a few octaves higher than it should have been. Panic did that to a girl.
“You can see the top of his tattoo above his shirt,” she pointed out. I looked closer, and sure enough, there were the tips of a sun tattoo on his neck. If he took his shirt off, I knew we’d see the sun in full glory over his chest.
Crevorn demons weren’t as bad as Aethiens. They were more like puppets, prepared to do anything if someone paid them enough. Davis had plenty of cash, accumulated over centuries of living. If he was talking to a Crevorn demon, then he could be plotting anything.
And it probably involved me.
“I’ve seen enough, let’s get out of here,” I muttered. I didn’t want Davis to catch us and I certainly didn’t want to see the two demons any longer. With any luck, I could avoid them for the rest of the day.
Mandy went to her locker as I went to mine. I changed my books and headed out to Chem class. It was right across campus so I fastened my pace to make it in time.
As I left one building for the science wing, a hand clamped down on my arm and dragged me toward it. It was too strong to fight, but I did anyway.
Unfortunately, all it cost me was energy and a few bruises that were already starting to form. I looked up to see Davis staring back at me, his eyes all angry and crazy. I couldn’t even remember seeing love coming from them anymore. It was too difficult to believe it had actually happened once.
He slammed me against the wall, using his body to press against mine and hold me there. Escaping his grip would be impossible. So much for the witch’s charm hanging around my neck and hiding underneath my clothes.
“Good morning, darling,” he sneered with absolutely none of the affection in his voice he once would have. “I missed you this morning, you slipped in without saying hello. Is that any way to treat your boyfriend?”
Reminding him again of our breakup would probably not have been wise. “I need to get to class or I’m going to be late.”
“Class is the least of your concerns, baby girl.”
“So… what? You’re just going to kill me now?”
Amusement sparkled in his eyes. “Killing you is going to be long and drawn out. You’re too much fun just to slice and dice now.” He was suddenly distracted as he made a show of sniffing me.
The charm. Mint and sage. I could smell it myself like it was a horrible beacon of my betrayal.
He reached down my shirt, making me cringe for all different kinds of reasons. He fished around a little more than was necessary before his hands grasped the charmed pouch and pulled it out. “What’s this? A lucky charm?”
He yanked it off, my neck stinging with pain. I clamped my mouth shut, refusing to tell him anything. He might change his mind on the whole slicing and dicing issue.
Davis gave it another sniff. “Pretty. You thought this would protect you? How many times do I have to tell you that witches are nothing more than broomstick loving bitches?” He threw the pouch onto the ground. “How can you do this to me, Lace? I thought we had something special. Something real.”
Call it stupidity, but I really wanted to tell him the truth. “You changed, Davis. You changed the second Sampson was killed. I’m scared of you. I can’t be with someone I’m afraid of.”
For just a second, his face fell and I saw the Davis I used to know. The one who used to make my stomach flutter with cliché butterflies. The guy I’d lie with in the back of his truck, staring at the stars for hours on end with his arm around me.
In the next second, he was gone again. “Life changes, baby girl. I need to avenge my partner. And you’re going to have to help me. Whether you like it or not.”
His face was only an inch from mine. I wanted to recoil away from him but there was nowhere for me to go. The wall and his body prevented me from moving anything, not even a pinkie finger. I was trapped, utterly and completely.
And then it happened.
My worst nightmare, come true.
Davis was ripped away from me… by Caden. He stood there, glowering at Davis as he stumbled backwards. It was the surprise that had allowed Caden to get the upper hand, I knew Davis was immeasurably stronger than him.
“Caden, no. You have to leave,” I shrieked. I didn’t even recognize my own panic-stricken voice. I sounded like a banshee.
“You leave her alone,” Caden said, standing there like a superhero. He was so very, very stupid. He had no idea what kind of a demon he was dealing with.
Davis recovered quickly, keeping one hand on my shoulder to keep me in place while facing Caden. “She is my girlfriend. My girlfriend. Get out of here or I will kill you.”
“I’m not going anywhere without her.” Bless him, Caden actually thought he would win. It was so chivalrous, but so wrong. Davis really would kill him, I had no doubts about that.
But Davis would wait a while before he killed me. I wriggled out of his stronghold. “Caden, please go. I’m fine, we’re just talking. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
He tore his gaze away from Davis to risk a glance at me. His eyes instantly softened when they met mine. “We need to get to class. How about I walk you there?”
“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Davis seethed. “She belongs to me.”
Caden’s attention returned to him. “Belongs to you? Lacey isn’t anyone’s property. She doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.”
Davis clenched his jaw. He was having trouble keeping it all together. He was about to go demon grade postal on him. “I’m going to kill you if don’t leave right now.”
Which was my cue to interfere. I placed my hand on Davis’s arm, reminding him of some of the tenderness we used to share. “Davis, I’m going to class. I’ll talk to you afterwards, okay? I’ll see you later.”
He didn’t stop me. Which was a miracle in itself. I grabbed Caden’s arm and rushed him out of there. We headed toward Chem class as quickly as my feet could take me.
Davis didn’t follow us. Which was the second miracle of that morning.
We stopped at the classroom door, the hallway completely empty. Great, we were late for class too. “Caden, you have to forget about everything you saw back there. Davis is dangerous.”
“Is he really your boyfriend?”
I shook my head. “No. But it’s complicated. We dated for a while.” A long while. “And he’s having trouble getting over the breakup. Please don’t speak to him again. He’s… unstable.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the understatement of the century.
Caden let out the breath he was holding. “I don’t want him hurting you.”
“He won’t. I’ve got people helping me.”
He wasn’t convinced, it was written all over his face. He did, however, agree to let it go. We stepped into class and a
pologized for our tardiness like there was nothing wrong with the world.
I didn’t see Davis for the rest of the day and I purposefully avoided Caden. The final bell was a relief as I found Mandy and we drove to our coven meeting.
The night of the comet was only a few days away so we had final preparations to make for the big event. We were really only making sure we had enough food and drink for the festivities, but of course, the coven always turned it into a big deal.
“Have you got your robes ready?” Heidi asked. We all nodded. “Good. I’ve got a special spell for the night that will bring good fortune and good health for the next hundred years. It’s going to be so much fun!”
Fun and my life didn’t really go together at the moment. But, sure, whatever.
Heidi turned to me after everyone had gushed enough about the upcoming party. “Lacey, have you had any more encounters with Davis?”
“Yeah, I see him nearly every day,” I replied, glad I’d covered my recent bruises with long sleeves. I wasn’t going to mention the party, or the incident with Caden. I didn’t need twelve women panicking along with me. Mandy was bad enough to deal with.
“I’ve been researching Aethiens,” she replied, far less enthusiastically. “I’m working on protection but it’s slow going. Most of the texts are in Latin and it’s slow translating them.”
“I understand.”
We did a few general protection spells to end the meeting, everyone concentrating their energy to surround me with white protective light. It probably would have worked against everyone but an Aethien.
I dropped Mandy home but something was still bothering me. I kept thinking of what the vampire had said at Davis’s weird midnight party. He said the comet was powerful, so powerful it only came around once every hundred years.
Maybe there was something there that could help me? Maybe it could boost the power of the protective spell so it would work against the Aethien?
It was worth a shot.
I turned my car around and headed for downtown. Our county library held a secret that not many people knew about. Way in the back, under the fiction section was ancient books. Because they referred to vampires and demons, the librarian had classified them as mythology and fairy tales. All the witches in town knew better. They were more non-fiction than most of the biographies in the place.
Luckily, the building was open until late. I pulled out some of the oldest books on the shelves and carried them to a corner of the library. Turning on the desk lamp, I prepared myself for a long night of reading.
There had to be something about either the power of a comet or a how-to guide on dealing with Aethiens. Or perhaps I was just fooling myself and grasping at whatever straw I could.
Refusing to give up, I trawled through book after book. Considering the Aethien race was so old, I would have expected to find a lot more information than I did. It seemed they were an enigma to all researchers and writers.
There were a few references to comets, but not Merrick’s Comet itself. If I wanted to draw on its power specifically, I was going to have to improvise. And I wasn’t certain I was a good enough witch to improvise.
I closed the last book right on closing time and was the last of the public to leave the library. Walking to my car in the darkness made all my nerves stand at attention. I let my senses feel out the area but couldn’t feel the presence of Davis. Hopefully that meant he wasn’t around.
I tried really hard not to run to my car, but I couldn’t stop my feet. They said to get the hell out of there so the rest of me had no choice. I jumped into the car, checking the backseat to make sure no serial killers – Davis included – was lurking back there.
By the time I pulled into home, I was nothing but an unending bundle of nerves. I didn’t even pretend I wasn’t scared this time, I ran into the house and firmly closed the door behind me.
Home. Safe.
I breathed a sigh of relief, said a quick hello to my parents, and hurried upstairs. My hands were shaking and it was all because I was psyching myself out. I needed to calm down or I was going to have a heart attack and do Davis’s job for him.
Dropping my school bag on the desk, I started to change. And that’s when I heard the voice.
“Hello, lover.”
I spun around, ready to attack Davis. He was sitting on my bed, still flickering into physical form from his invisible state. I briefly wondered how often he spied on me in my room before pushing the thought away.
I didn’t want to know the answer.
“Davis, you gave me a heart attack,” I said, trying to hide all the fear his presence instantly provoked.
He stood, coming over to me slowly. When he reached me, the back of his hand trailed down my cheek. I used to like it when he did that, now it just made me cringe. “You’re home late.”
“I was doing some homework.”
“You made me wait. You know I don’t like waiting.”
He was either too lazy to track me to the library or he couldn’t find me there. I tucked away that information to process some other time. “I didn’t know you were looking for me. You could have called me, or texted, like a normal boyfriend.”
“I thought you might have been pouting from our little… encounter at school this morning.” He made it sound like we’d had nothing more than a petty argument.
“No, just homework,” I replied. “What are you doing here? Please tell me you don’t have another creatures-of-the-night party to go to.”
Davis laughed and just the sound sent a shiver down my spine. “Not tonight, baby. But I do want to spend Saturday night with you. We’re going for a drive.”
I inwardly groaned. Saturday was the night of the comet. I already had plans. “I can’t. The coven is having a ceremony for the comet. I’m not allowed to miss it.”
His face instantly twitched with distain. Davis and my coven didn’t mix well together. “No, you’re not. You’re coming with me. I’m not taking no for an answer. I’ll pick you up at nine.”
Before I could argue any more, he was gone. There was nothing left of him except the lingering trace of his cologne. It reminded me of the scent of my doom.
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