Bitter Demons (9 page)

My heart thumped hard, and I opened my mouth
to get a deeper breath. I lifted my hands up and shrugged. He
raised one eyebrow and shook his head again. He said something to
the fake Harper, then slowly crossed the room to me.

"Caroline, is it?" he said, bowing
slightly.

I held my hand out to him. "Nice to meet
you," I said.

He put his hand high up on the door frame and
leaned in so close to me, I could feel his breath in my hair.

"I like your other look better."

I spent exactly one minute talking to Jackson
at the party before I felt razor-sharp nails dig into my arm.

Meredith yanked me away so hard I nearly
spilled my drink all over the nice white carpet.

"What are you doing talking to Wrath?" she
hissed.

I looked at her like she'd lost her mind.
"That's Jackson Hunt. Who's Wrath?"

She shot a harsh look over toward Jackson.
"That guy, Jackson,
is
Wrath. You know that," she said.
"He's a demon, Caroline. I don't want him anywhere near you. I
can't believe they'd even let him in this party in the first place.
He should have been killed for what he did."

Anger rose up inside of me like hot lava,
threatening to burst forth. I bit my tongue. I had to remember that
to her, I was Caroline, not me. Then, her words hit me full force.
Killed for what he did
. My breath came fast.

"What did he do?" I braced myself for her to
tell me about the night he came through the demon gate.

Meredith sighed. "Like you really have to ask
me that," she said. "I want you to stay away from him, you hear
me?"

I nodded and pulled my arm away. I rubbed the
spot where her nails had dug in. Across the room, the real Caroline
caught my eye and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry."

Drake appeared then and it was my turn to
tell her I was sorry. I waited for her to follow my instructions to
stay away from the jerk, but instead, she smiled up at him in a way
that made me want to gag. Maybe this switcheroo wasn't such a great
idea after all. The fun had been sucked out of it, and I was ready
to change back.

I made my way through the crowd toward her
and made it just in time from the looks of it. Drake had his arm
draped around her shoulders - my shoulders - looking way to
comfy.

"Hey Harper," I said, my voice much higher
pitched than I intended.

"Oh, hi," she said. She sounded giggly and
flirty. She leaned in slightly to Drake's embrace.

I quickly grabbed her hand. "Would you mind
if I steal Harper for just a minute?" I said, pulling her away from
his claws. "I have someone she really needs to meet."

"Bring her back to me," he said. "We've got
some time to make up for."

I wanted to stick my finger down my throat.
Gross! After the way I'd treated him lately, did he really think I
would fall back into his arms so easily? He was completely
delusional. I pulled Caroline away, but she looked back at Drake
with a dreamy wave.

"He's gorgeous," she said. "You didn't tell
me there were so many cute boys at your school."

"Remember how I told you stay away from Drake
Ashworth?"

"Yeah."

"That was Drake Ashworth."

She opened her mouth in shock. "Why on earth
would you want to stay away from him? He's so cute."

"He's also abusive and selfish and
egotistical," I said. "Please tell me you didn't agree to go out
with him or anything."

"I didn't," she said. "We were just making
small talk, you know about the game and stuff, and he put his arm
around me. I kind of liked it."

"Trust me, he's not as nice as he seems."

"Yeah, I guess it doesn't matter," she said.
"He thought I was you anyway."

"And by the way, your sister is a real
you-know-what," I said. "She's not very nice to you, is she?"

Caroline shrugged. "She's okay, I guess. I
mean, she's bossy and she likes to treat me like I'm her servant
sometimes, but for the most part, she's a good person. I think
she'll make a good Prima someday. Me, I never wanted this life, to
be honest with you." She got a faraway look in her eye, like she
was dreaming of another life. "Sometimes I wish I could just get
away from it all, you know?"

"Yes, I do," I said. "I know exactly what you
mean."

Caroline came out of her daydream and smiled
sheepishly. "Meredith's alright. She's just got her own ideas about
how things need to be, and there's no use arguing with her about
it. Why, did you do something to piss her off?"

"I was talking to Jackson Hunt," I said. I
watched her face as I said the name, but she didn't seem to
recognize it. I pointed to him. "That guy over there."

She gasped and pulled away. "You know he's a
demon right?" she asked. "The Order named him Wrath for what he did
all those years ago."

"So your sister told me," I said. "But no one
calls him that here. What did he do that was so bad?"

"You seriously don't know?" she asked. "I
can't believe you go to school with him and you don't know."

Tell me already
, I wanted to scream,
but I kept my cool. Just as she opened her mouth to answer my
question, Meredith appeared again, a sour look etched onto her
face.

"Caroline, may I speak with you for a moment,
please?" Meredith had one hand on her hip, her lips pursed tight in
disapproval. What had I done this time?

"Sure, one sec," I said. I leaned over to the
real Caroline's ear and whispered, "Go upstairs to the bedroom and
wait for me. I'll be up there in a minute and we can switch back to
normal."

She nodded and turned away, leaving me with
Meredith.

"What's up?"

"You tell me," she said. "You've been acting
strange all night. First, you interrupt me when I'm busy talking to
people, then I catch you talking to that demon. You're not being
yourself, and I want to know what's wrong with you."

"Nothing's wrong," I said. "I'm fine."

She rolled her eyes. "You're impossible
tonight. I hope you get this little attitude out of your system,
because I'm not going to put up with it for much longer."

I needed to get away from this chick. I'd had
enough. As much as I felt sorry for Caroline for having to put up
with a sister like this, I was ready to hand this life back over to
her and get my own back.

"I really have to go to the bathroom," I
said. "Are we done here?"

Meredith crossed her arms and pursed her
lips. "Yes, but I want you to come find me when you're done. I'm
not going to let you out of my sight for the rest of this party.
There's no telling what craziness you're going to get yourself
into."

I turned on my heel and bolted up the stairs
to the second floor. The music was pumping down in the living room,
and I had the most terrible feeling of deja vu. This house was
different from Foster's lake house, but the layout was eerily
similar.

Agnes is dead,
I told myself.
She
can't hurt anyone anymore.

But there was something else that was
bothering me. A chill in the air that caused goosebumps to break
out all over my arms. Icy fear crawled through my veins. That's
when I heard her scream.

I stood there frozen in place, unable to
force my body to catch up with my brain. A strange shrieking sound,
something not quite human, followed Caroline's scream and the sound
jolted me. I moved with lightning speed, throwing open the bedroom
door only to find the room pitch black in darkness. My hand fumbled
for the light switch.

The room lit up in bright white, and I
searched for Caroline. She wasn't anywhere in the room, but the
balcony door stood wide open. A cold breeze blew across my skin.
Sitting on the edge of the balcony was a small black crow, its
bright blue eyes staring intently at me.

My heart stopped beating and time seemed to
stand still. Then, the crow flew off into the night. I crossed the
room in three long strides, reaching the balcony just in time to
see the bird disappear into the woods.

My shoe slipped in something slick, and I
looked down. Bright red blood pooled on the wooden planks below my
feet. Stuck in the gory mess was a single black feather. I leaned
down and took the feather in my hand.

Caroline was gone.

I stood motionless, staring up at the bright
midnight sky. Downstairs, I could hear the party-goers laughing and
talking, the bass thumping. Another party gone wrong in this town
from hell. I wanted to scream and pull out my hair.

How could this have happened? What happened
to Caroline? I couldn't be completely sure it was her blood beneath
my feet, could I? Maybe she was still downstairs talking to Drake
or something. Maybe this blood was from some kind of animal. The
crow, maybe?

Crows can't scream.

The terror-filled scream I heard in the
hallway still rang in my memory. The blood was Caroline's, I was
sure of it. But where did she go? I stepped to the very edge of the
balcony and said a little prayer that I wouldn't find her body
crushed below. With dread in my heart, I leaned over the railing
and peered down at the ground.

No sign of Caroline.

I let out a rickety breath of relief. At
least she hadn't jumped or been pushed. I slipped out of my bloody
shoes so I wouldn't track it all over the carpet. In the bedroom, I
searched for any sign of a struggle. In my panic, I even checked
under the bed. I knew I wouldn't find her there, but she couldn't
have just disappeared into thin air.

While I lay there on the floor, unsure what
to do, I heard the door to the bedroom sail open and hit the wall.
I closed my eyes and let the glamour fall away. It felt good to be
in my own body again. I sat up and looked toward the door.

Meredith stood in the doorway, a vulnerable
and scared look in her eyes. “Where's Caroline?” she asked.

How did she know something was wrong? Was the
scream so loud that everyone downstairs heard it too?

“I don't know.” I stood, then had to sit back
down on the bed. My legs couldn't be trusted to hold me.

“Something's happened,” Meredith said. “I can
feel it. She's so scared, it's making my heart beat faster.”

I looked at her in surprise. “You can feel
what she's feeling?”

“I can feel what everyone in the Prima line
is feeling to some extent,” she said. “God, don't you know anything
about your own heritage? When a future is in danger, everyone in
her family feels it, almost like it were happening to us too.”

Meredith's eyes scanned the room. I wanted to
stand up and close the door to the balcony. I didn't want her to
see the blood. But it was too late. Her eyes widened and she ran to
the balcony. “Oh god, what happened?”

Like me, she looked over the edge of the
balcony, then held her hand to her heart. She turned to me, her
eyes filled with giant glassy tears.

“What did you do to her?”

“I didn't do anything,” I said, standing. “I
came up here to find her, but halfway down the hallway, I heard a
scream and a struggle. I ran to see what was going on, but there
was no one in here. The balcony door was open. I walked out to see
if I could see her. That's when I found the blood.”

Meredith's eyes went to my abandoned shoes.
“Where could she have gone, though?”

“I have no idea.” I held my arms close to my
body and paced the floor. “I was looking for her under the bed,
everywhere. I know that's crazy, but this town is making me lose my
mind.”

Meredith flipped out her cell phone and
dialed a number. “Mom? I felt it too. And there's blood here at the
lake house. I don't know what happened.”

I listened as Meredith explained everything
I'd said about what happened. I don't know why I didn't tell her
that Caroline and I had switched places with a glamour. Had
Caroline changed back into herself while she was up in the room
alone? Or did she still look like me?

The thought hit me like a truck. If she
looked like me, did that mean whoever hurt her really meant to hurt
me? I stuffed the black feather in my pocket. If I told anyone
about the glamour, the Order would put me in chains up on the third
floor. I felt sure of it. Mrs. Ashworth's threat was clear in my
memory. If the Order believed I was acting in a way that put myself
or them in danger, they would take the necessary steps to make sure
I remained safe.

I couldn't afford to let that happen.

But I couldn't just sit back and let Caroline
be killed. Or was she dead already?

Meredith hung up the phone and turned to me.
“Mom is on her way,” she said. “We need to make sure no one else
gets up here. They're going to want to cast a memory spell on this
room, so please stay here if you can.”

“Why do they need me for that?” I asked. My
insides felt jumbled up and jittery. Would their memory spell show
the truth about our switch? I wanted to confess the truth, but the
words wouldn't come out. I held it in like a dirty secret.

“You've disturbed the energy already,” she
said. “We both have. If we leave, it will just disturb the scene
even more.”

“Can you tell if she's okay?” I asked. I
didn't want to come right out and ask if her sister was dead or
not. I kept my eyes away from the blood stain on the balcony.

“She's alive if that's what you mean,”
Meredith snapped.

I breathed a sigh of relief. If she was
alive, I still had time to fix this. Maybe once whoever took her
realized they had the wrong person, they would just let her go. Or
be willing to make a trade. If it was me they wanted, they might
let her go if I agreed to give myself up to them.

Of course, the Order would never agree to
such a thing. A second like Caroline was nowhere near as valuable
to them as the sole remaining blood-line of an entire demon gate. I
wasn't going to put this in their hands.