Bitter Demons (10 page)

My heart raced in my chest. I hoped I was
making the right decision. I'd already put Caroline in danger. If
she died, I would never be able to forgive myself.

Within ten minutes, the house was crawling
with members of the Order of Shadows. Downstairs, the music was
quiet. Sheriff Hollingsworth barked out instructions for everyone
to sit down and wait to be questioned. I sat up in the cold
bedroom, the open balcony door mocking me.

Meredith sat in a corner on the other side of
the room. Her head dropped into her hands and she barely moved
while we waited for her mother to arrive. If she was crying, her
tears were silent.

When the door to the bedroom opened and her
mother walked in, Meredith ran to her. She threw her arms around
her mother's neck and held on tight like a child afraid of the
boogeyman. I stood and backed toward the wall, not wanting to
interrupt their family moment. I lowered my eyes to give them
whatever privacy I could.

I had expected her mother to have an
entourage, but no one else entered the room. I heard the door click
closed.

"Harper," the woman said. "My name is Eloise
Sullivan. I'm Meredith and Caroline's mom. Meredith tells me you
were the first one up here when Caroline was taken?"

Eloise was not a tall woman, but her presence
made her seem taller somehow. Her hair was the same caramel color
of her two daughters. She was dressed in immaculate matching
detail, like an older, more mature version of Meredith.

"I was in the hallway and heard her scream,"
I said. "I ran in to see what happened, but she was already
gone."

"And the balcony?"

"The door was open. I walked over to see if
she...that's when I found the blood," I said. I dropped my eyes
again, knowing how difficult this must be for a mother to hear.

"Why were you upstairs?" Eloise asked. Her
voice was all business.

"I..." I shook my head, trying to think of
how I was going to explain this without telling the whole truth. "I
had to go to the bathroom and the one downstairs was being
used."

I struggled with the lie. Did she pick up on
it? I couldn't tell. Her face didn't show it if she did.

"Caroline came up here to use the bathroom
too," Meredith said.

Her mother asked a few more questions about
how much time I spent with Caroline and whether she'd said anything
unusual to me that night. I told her about how we'd talked at the
beginning of the party, but had parted ways shortly after.

"I want both of you to sit down on the bed,"
she said. "Be very quiet and do not interrupt me."

Meredith and I sat on opposite sides of the
bed. I sat as quietly as I could, but my heart was beating so hard,
I was afraid they would hear it.

Eloise walked to the balcony door and stood
very still for a few seconds. Her eyes closed and she held both of
her arms out to her side, palms up. A strong wind blew in through
the open door. Her hair and skirt blew back, and I shivered. The
energy in the room grew dense, electric.

I imagined that if I lifted my fingertip and
reached out toward the Prima, the air would ignite in flame or hot
lightning.

After a time, there was a noticeable sense of
release, like breathing out. The wind stopped blowing and Eloise
turned to the two of us on the bed. Her eyes were angry and less
controlled than before.

"The memories here have been blocked," she
said. "Someone very powerful has been here."

"Can't you just unblock them?" Meredith
said.

"I did the best I could," her mother said.
"But all I can see is the silhouette of a girl walking onto the
balcony. I can feel Caroline's happiness. A sense of freedom or
something. But I can't quite tell what she's happy about. Then,
there's only fear. And darkness."

Happiness. Caroline felt free because she was
able to get away from herself for a little while. Away from the
condescending tone in her sister's voice and the pressure of being
Caroline. Of course, I didn't see how being me for a few hours
really could have been much better, but something had made her
happy tonight. I tried to take some comfort in that.

"Sheriff Hollingsworth is sending everyone
home after her men ask some very basic questions about Caroline,"
Eloise said. "Are you sure there's nothing else you can
remember?"

I swallowed. "There was a bird," I said. "On
the balcony."

Her mother drew her eyebrows together,
questioning. "What kind of bird?"

"A crow," I said. I didn't mention the blue
eyes. I already felt ridiculous even mentioning it, but if it would
help them find Caroline, I had to tell.

"What? You think a bird carried her away?"
Meredith said. "Don't be ridiculous. It probably just smelled the
blood like a vulture or something. Can't you remember anything that
will actually help us?"

"I suggest you head home, Harper. We have to
assume that Caroline was kidnapped. Until we know for sure whether
the person responsible is specifically targeting futures, I think
you should lay low and be extremely careful."

Lay low? What did that mean, exactly?

"You mean stay at Shadowford?" I asked.

"I mean stay in your room with a guard posted
at your door and a protection spell on your windows," she said.

"A guard?" I repeated, shaking my head.

"You should take this very seriously,
Harper," Eloise said. "Being Prima comes with extreme
responsibility. Your life is no longer your own. You should keep
that in mind."

Again with the responsibility. Expectations.
Pressure. I never asked for this life. It was thrust upon me after
years of unhappiness and never being able to trust anyone. I'd
never gotten seriously attached to anyone in my entire life, yet
now everyone expected me to be willing to sacrifice everything for
this town. How could I do that when they wouldn't even tell me the
truth about the final initiation ceremony? I couldn't trust the
Order. My life was still my own, whether the Order wanted it to be
that way or not.

"I'm sorry about Caroline," I said. "If
there's anything I can do to help you find her, please let me
know."

"We will," Eloise said. "For now, you are
dismissed."

I left the room with a heavy heart, but also
with a new purpose. I had to find out who had taken Caroline and
offer them a trade. And I had to do it without the Order knowing.
There was only one person in this whole town I trusted, and that
was Jackson Hunt. The only problem was that I couldn't let him know
I was planning to offer myself in trade. He would never agree to
that. Even if he didn't care about me the way I hoped, he wouldn't
let me put his brother's life in danger.

I would have to find a way to convince him
that we could rescue Caroline without putting my life in
danger.

Jackson's motorcycle sat out in the front
yard. I didn't want to go inside and risk getting caught there for
hours waiting to be questioned by the police. Instead, I leaned
against his motorcycle and waited.

Several police officers roamed the woods and
the outside of the house with bright flashlights. I doubted they
would find any significant evidence. Somehow, Caroline had gone up
to that room and simply disappeared. There wouldn't be any sign of
a struggle in the woods. The only real evidence was the feather I
held in my pocket, and Caroline's family didn't seem to think it
was significant.

What was that bird doing in the bedroom? I
couldn't be certain, but it had looked eerily similar to the crow
I'd seen hovering in the window of the girls' locker room earlier
in the week. Was I just imagining things?

When Jackson emerged from the lake house,
there was a worried look etched on his face. I opened my mouth to
explain what had happened, but he put a finger across my lips.

"Not here," he said. "Too many ears listening
to every word. Get on."

We rode together through the dark woods until
we came out to the highway. I held tight to his body, looking for
comfort in the solid feel of him. I laid my head against his back
and closed my eyes until I felt the bike slow and turn to the
left.

"Where are we going?" I shouted over the
sound of the motor.

Jackson only nodded forward into the darkness
ahead. The motorcycle's one headlight shone down a dirt road that
ran beside an open field on one side and a row of dense pine trees
on the other. When he got to the edge of the field, he turned left
down a small pathway through the trees.

He finally stopped once we had moved into the
trees a way and out of sight of the main road. He turned off the
bike and extinguished the light. The moon was bright enough that I
could make out the anger and worry on his face.

"Was she still you when she was taken?" he
asked, pushing out the kickstand with the toe of his boot and
removing his helmet.

I stepped off the bike and took off my
helmet, too. "I don't know. She was up in that room waiting for me
to come up there so we could switch in private without there being
two of us at once. When I got upstairs, I heard her scream, but it
was too late."

Jackson balled up his left fist. "I think you
might be in serious danger."

I nodded. "I know. But who would be after
me?"

"The Others?" he said. "After your
confirmation ritual, the fact that you're the upcoming Prima is a
bit more common knowledge. If they were prepared to kill you at the
hospital that night, it makes sense that any surviving local
members would want you dead."

"I don't think it's the Others," I said. I
pulled the black feather from my pocket and held it out to him. "I
found this on the balcony right after Caroline disappeared."

"A feather?" He shook his head. "Why is that
important? Couldn't this just be from any random bird?"

"No," I said. "I've seen this bird
before."

"Where?"

"In the gym earlier this week when I
overheard Brooke complaining to Allison about me being the future
Prima."

"You're sure it was the same bird?"

"Well, I didn't put a homing beacon on it or
anything," I said, then took a deep breath. It wasn't Jackson I was
upset with. "I can't be sure, but I think it was the same one. It
had these blue eyes that looked... strange. Too bright for a bird,
you know? I feel it in my bones that this bird is somehow connected
to Caroline's disappearance."

"Unless it was the world's biggest crow, I
don't see how it could have carried her off or anything."

"There has to be some kind of strange magic
involved," I said. "Do you think a witch's demon could take a solid
form like that?"

He ran a hand through his hair, thinking.
"I'm not sure," he said. "When..."

He started to say something, then let his
voice trail off.

"When, what?"

He sighed. "When your mother was alive, after
she was joined with Aerden, I sometimes saw him take the form of a
bobcat."

"Actual, physical form?" I asked, my heart
racing. I thought of how Brooke's shadow had taken the form of a
horse. "Or just a shadow?"

Jackson nodded. "Actually a bobcat," he said.
"I only saw it a couple of times, but I knew it was my brother. I
could just feel it."

I wanted to ask him more about my mother, but
I needed to keep my mind on Caroline. I owed her that much. "So the
crow could have been a demon, following the commands of a powerful
witch. Maybe the witch was already gone by the time I got
there."

"Maybe. But who would have a reason to hurt
you or Caroline?"

"That's the question we have to answer," I
said. "Jackson, you can't tell anyone about me and Caroline
switching places with that glamour."

"I know," he said.

I stopped pacing. I'd expected him to argue
with me. I thought he'd tell me I needed to go to the Order with
all the information and let them protect me. "You agree with
me?"

"If you tell them the truth, they'll put you
away," he said. "Or worse."

"Worse?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "We can't let
that happen."

I touched his shoulder and he softened. "What
could they do that would be worse than locking me away for two
years?"

Jackson looked up at me in the dim moonlight.
The fear in his eyes pierced through me like a dagger made of
ice.

"They could join you with Aerden early," he
said.

The force of his words hit me, and I nearly
collapsed onto the ground. Jackson reached out to catch me. He
pulled me into his arms.

"Could they really do that?" I asked.

"It's rare because of the dangers involved,
but it's been done before," he said. "It wouldn't kill you, but it
might make you insane."

"How could they risk it?" I shivered in his
embrace. "Don't they need me to produce an heir?"

He laughed at that and I felt his warm breath
on my neck. "They probably want you to produce several heirs," he
said. "The more the merrier."

"And how would they expect me to do that
while I'm crazy?"

The question hung between us, and I suddenly
didn't think I wanted an answer. I felt sick to my stomach. Perhaps
there was no end to the horrors the Order was capable of if they
were pushed to the limits.

"We can't tell them," I said. "We need to
figure this out on our own. Whoever took Caroline might have hurt
her, but they haven't killed her. We have to find her and bring her
home."

Jackson grabbed my shoulders and pushed some
distance between us so that he could see my face. "No," he said.
"All we need to do is make sure you're safe."

"We can't just let her die," I said.