Betrayal (3 page)

‘Nope, we can just go to the movies and drink vats of soda like normal teenage people,’ Eve answered. She took his hand and swung it back and forth as they walked.

‘And maybe after that we can do some of the other things normal teenage people do,’ Luke suggested.
Like kissing
, he thought. He loved kissing Eve.

‘Possibly. You’re thinking homework, right?’ Eve teased, her dark blue eyes sparkling.

‘Exactly. I was thinking some algebra. Maybe a little social studies,’ he shot back, giving her hand a squeeze.

‘Look out. Wasp!’ Eve exclaimed. He heard a buzzing whine, and a second later saw a huge wasp dive-bombing him. He used his free hand to bat it away, but it came right back.

A flash of light – a
pfffft
sound – and the wasp dissolved into ash, the flecks floating away on the slight breeze. ‘Taken care of,’ Eve said, her voice full of satisfaction.

It had happened so fast that Luke hadn’t even realized that the flash was Eve using her powers. In fact, he could still hardly believe it. She’d zapped that thing with her power right on Main Street, which, as usual on a Friday night, was full of people. He glanced around. No one was staring or anything, thank God.

‘Nice shot,’ Luke said. ‘Was that, uh, intentional?’ Eve sometimes had trouble controlling her power, especially when she was mad or upset. He’d just brought up the possibility of a new demon in town – and she’d said she’d been thinking about that too. Had that put her on edge?

‘You think such precision was an accident?’ She smiled up at him.

‘I seem to remember a certain innocent jacket that got zapped once,’ Luke answered.

‘I seem to remember that you got a much more fashionable jacket as a replacement,’ Eve replied. ‘I’ve been thinking of giving a few other pieces of your wardrobe a little …’ She wiggled her fingers.

‘As long as I’m not in them, I’ll happily take off anything you want me to,’ Luke joked. ‘But setting my jacket on fire was an accident. At least I thought it was.’ He gave her a mock scowl.

‘It was, it was. I promise. But I wanted that wasp dead. I hate those little stingy things,’ Eve said.

He was a little surprised she’d intentionally used her power against something that was a minor annoyance. But no one wanted to get stung.

‘And remember the lasagne I heated up?’ she continued. ‘That took absolute precision.’

‘Why did you have to do that again?’ Luke teased. ‘Oh right, the power was out. But there wasn’t a storm or anything … Strange.’

‘OK, that was my bad. Although it’s good to know I can grab some extra juice if I need to.’ They’d been at the power plant that night, and Eve had accidentally taken in so much of the energy surging through the place that she’d blacked out the entire town.

‘Absolutely,’ Luke agreed. He sat down on the bench in front of the hardware store, pulling her down next to him. They had some time before the movie started. ‘So you’re not upset about anything?’ He had a new thought about what might be bothering her. He hesitated, then lowered his voice and continued. ‘You’re not still freaked about finding out you’re part demon, are you?’

‘No,’ Eve said quickly. ‘I mean, I was. It was hard to get my head around the idea that I have demon blood. I just thought … well, I was afraid that having demon blood meant I was evil.’

‘You aren’t anything close to evil,’ Luke assured her. ‘A little shallow maybe, a little obsessed with shopping,’ he joked, reminding them both of his initial impression of her all those months ago when they first met. ‘But you – you’re a force for good.’

‘It helped so much that you and Jess never doubted me, or acted like I was suddenly something different,’ Eve told him. ‘But honestly I think what finally made me stop worrying about it was when I found out my great-great-great-grandmother had demon blood too.’

‘The old Deepdene Witch,’ Luke said. Eve had inherited her powers from her ancestor.

‘Yeah. The demon blood is where her power came from – hers and mine. It made me realize that without demon blood, I wouldn’t have the strength to fight demons. And who would keep Deepdene safe then?’

She definitely didn’t sound upset. Her voice was bright and happy. Luke didn’t want to do anything to kill her good mood, but he felt like he had to ask, ‘Aren’t you afraid that someone might have seen you zap that wasp and wonder about it?’

‘It was just a tiny zap. I’m not worried about it,’ Eve replied. ‘Lately, I’m just loving using my powers. It used to feel like something I had to do because no one else could. Now, it feels like this cool special thing that I’m so lucky I inherited.’

Eve rushed on, her words coming out fast in her enthusiasm. ‘Remember that book I found that gave more info on her? It had some amazing stories. Once, she blasted a lake completely dry to kill some kind of aquatic demon that could create tsunamis and hurricanes. And another time she took possession of a demon body and made it eat sugar, because sugar was poisonous to it. She got back out of the body before it died.’

Luke smiled. ‘She was like a historical Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’

‘Yup. I’m expecting to be starring in my own TV show any day! But I won’t forget the little people who knew me way back when.’ She knocked his shoulder with hers. ‘There could be some great eps based on stuff that my great-great-great did. One time she blasted a demon so hard, she turned it into a human girl. She made it completely harmless. I guess it still had some powers after that, but Granny knocked them so deep they couldn’t be reached. The demon could never use them again.’

‘I’d watch that,’ Luke said. ‘Especially if you wore leather pants the way Buffy did.’

‘I’ve noticed something about you,’ she answered playfully. ‘You never notice fashion unless it involves tight clothes.’

‘Or short ones,’ Luke added.

Eve shook her head, trying not to smile. ‘Anyway, reading about the old Deepdene Witch made me feel even better about being her descendant, demon blood and all. Who knows what
I’ll
end up doing? I just feel like I’m ready for anything. Whatever badness comes next – if anything even does – I’m so ready.’ Sparks began to crackle from her fingertips. ‘Oops!’ Eve folded her hands together and the sparks went out.

She was practically giddy with excitement just talking about it. Luke was glad she’d gotten over the revulsion she’d felt when she’d discovered she was part demon. That had been hard to see.

But was she flipping too much the other way? Was she getting so excited about her powers that she wasn’t going to be careful enough with them? She was part demon …

That didn’t matter. Eve had had the blood the whole time he’d known her. That meant she was the same girl he met back in September. The same completely awesome girl.

The next morning, Eve found herself sitting on the same bench in town where she’d sat with Luke the night before. This time she was waiting for Jess to finish up with her kung fu class. Eve leaned back and tapped on the big window at the front of the hardware store behind the bench. ‘Hey, Spiffy,’ she called, and the cat inside patted the glass with the pink pads of one paw.

Eve said hi to the kitty pretty much every time she was downtown, and she had since she was a little girl. She was glad to see that Spiffy wasn’t one of the currently missing pets.

‘Hi-yah!’ Jess burst out of the door next to the hardware store, and grinned at Eve. ‘Thanks for meeting me. You should have come up and watched for a minute. I am getting to be ridiculously kickass.’

‘You always have been,’ Eve told her. Jess had been a cheerleader since the beginning of middle school, and she could jump, flip, kick, cartwheel, all that. But after they found out about Deepdene’s demonic history – and Eve’s powers – Jess had decided she wanted to learn martial arts. Luke had the demon-killing sword that was given to him by Willem Payne, a high-ranking member of the Order who had died fighting the wargs alongside Eve, Luke and Jess, and Jess wanted to make sure she had something to bring to demon fights too. That’s just how Jess was as a friend. If you needed her, she was all in.

‘Master Jonah says I’m a natural. He thinks I’ll be ready to go for my blue belt by the end of the summer,’ Jess said as they started walking towards her house. Luke and Seth were supposed to pick them up there for their mega shopping trip into New York City.

‘I tore out a bunch of magazine pictures to give us ideas for your perfect prom dress,’ Eve said. ‘Not that we don’t already have a million ideas ourselves. There’s one with these cool off-the-shoulder mesh straps. It has a square neckline, which would really show off that pendant you bought. It might not be The Dress, but the neck and straps are pretty close to perfection.’

‘Oooh. Thanks, Evie!’ Jess exclaimed. ‘Good eye! You’re right. The pendant would look great with something like that.’

‘Did you have the tux conversation with Seth yet?’ Eve asked.

‘Uh-huh. I just came out and told him that he had to let me be in charge of what he was wearing. He didn’t care,’ Jess said.

‘He’s a guy,’ Eve replied with a good-natured shake of her head. ‘He’s probably relieved that he doesn’t have to figure it out himself. Are you going to tell him what kind of corsage to get you?’

‘No, that doesn’t seem romantic enough,’ Jess said.

‘Well, no …’ Eve let her words trail off.

‘So I think I’ll go with hinting, really obvious hinting,’ Jess went on. ‘Seth’s the best, but he doesn’t always pick up on things all that fast.’

‘Especially when it’s about flowers and not about throwing a ball of some sort.’ Seth was on the football and basketball teams at school.

‘True that,’ Jess agreed.

‘On the other hand, he looks very cute when he’s throwing a ball of some sort, so who cares if you have to toss him a little suggestion once in a while,’ Eve added.

‘Very true that!’ Jess said. She grabbed Eve’s arm. ‘Look up there!’

Eve gasped. There was a box on Jess’s porch, a blue box with a brown bow.

‘MarieBelle,’ they exclaimed together. They both j’adored the excessively yummy chocolates, not least because they were so beautiful, with little scenes hand-painted on every one.

‘I take it all back, Seth surprises me,’ Eve admitted. ‘Who knew he – or really any boy – was aware that MarieBelle chocolate is the best ever? Or did you give him one of your
hints
?’

‘I didn’t. Not even a teeny one,’ Jess answered, picking up the box and hugging it to her chest. ‘This is so sweet of him.’ She giggled. ‘Sweet.’

‘Absolutely sweet,’ Eve agreed, wondering if Luke would ever do something ultra-romantic, like surprise her with a special gift.

‘I already know which one you want.’ Jess untied the ribbon, and a card in a heavy cream envelope fell free. She opened it carefully, and managed not to make even a tiny tear. Eve knew the card would go into what Jess called her treasure box, a hatbox where she kept mementoes of her favourite moments.

‘Are you going to tell me what it says, or are you going to start keeping secrets from your bestie?’ Eve asked. Jess didn’t answer. ‘What’s wrong? You’re all pale.’

‘It’s not from Seth,’ Jess told her.

‘Someone’s trying to steal you away?’ Eve exclaimed. ‘Who?’

Jess stared at the card a moment longer, then raised her eyes to Eve. ‘They’re from Simon. Don’t you think that’s kind of, I don’t know …’ She shrugged.

Eve frowned. ‘I actually thought it was brave of him to ask you to the prom yesterday. You know how he’s been crushing on you for
ever
. It might have been the first time he’s ever asked a girl out. At least we’ve never seen him out with anyone. Asking you, awesome you, to the biggest event of the year, that took real courage,’ she said. ‘But you said no. And Seth made it really clear you’re with him. I don’t get why Simon would do this.’

‘Maybe he ordered the chocolates before he asked me,’ Jess suggested, wrapping the brown ribbon around her wrist over and over.

‘But they were hand-delivered. MarieBelle doesn’t have a delivery service,’ Eve pointed out. ‘Simon must have brought them over himself, which means he still brought them even though you’d turned him down.’

She flashed back on Simon’s expression as he looked at Seth and his friends yesterday afternoon. He’d looked humiliated and furious at the same time. Had he been so angry that he was going to keep coming after Jess to prove some kind of point? She decided not to mention that theory to Jess. She wanted her friend to be able to hang onto her prom high.

‘Maybe you’re right, though,’ Eve said. ‘Maybe he’d already gotten the chocolates and decided just to give them to you since he had them. What did he say in the card anyway?’

Jess wrinkled her nose. ‘“Yours always.” That’s just wrong and weird.’

‘Well, Simon isn’t exactly known for having good social skills. He probably read some blog that gave him the idea,’ Eve commented. ‘Now, come on. You know I’m waiting for my white kona coffee bean one.’

‘You think it’s OK to eat them? It feels kind of bad when we’ve just been saying how clueless and weird he is,’ Jess said.

‘I said he was brave, so I definitely get one,’ Eve said. ‘And you were nice to him yesterday. Not everyone would have been. I think it’s just good karma coming around. And don’t you just love when good karma comes in the form of chocolate?’