Dark Calling (36 page)

Feeling Lila’s eyes on
her, Keely
turns to her.  “What?”

Lila shrugs her tiny shoulders.  “Nothing.”

“Then why do you keep staring at me?”

Lila pouts out her lips.
  She looks ahead at Asmoday.  He switches the large flash light he carries from one hand to the other.  As he slides his now empty hand down his jeans, Keely brushes her palm across her shirt.  Lila flips her gaze back to Keely
just in time to verify her movement.

“You’re doi
ng it again.  Quit watching me,” Keely hisses.

“Up here,” someone calls and Lila’s heart nearly stops.

Bryon’s the first one
to the door.  He comes to an abrupt halt
placing his hand over his mouth.

“Is it him?” Lila
yells.  She’s clear in the back
so she breaks into a run.  Bryon puts his hands out as she makes it to the door.

“
No, Lila,
”
he cries as she tries to push past him. 
Bryon locks his arms around her. 

Lila bucks like a wild horse.  “Let go of me,” she screams.  She kicks off the wall causing them both to fall back.  Bryon hits first
,
landing hard on his back.  Lila jabs an elbow into his ribs and he loses his hold on her.  She jumps up and pushes her way through the doorway as Keely and Nick catch up.

Nick passes through the door and
Asmoday steps in front of Keely
.
  He stretches his arm across her path, resting his hand on the doorframe.
 
“
It looks like he got what he deserved,” he says quietly enough for only Keely to hear.
 

Twenty-Two
:

Keely stares at the closed door trying to summon the courage to open it.  She knows she should go in there and get this over with, fast
,
like a band-aid.  Knowing and doing are two totally different things.  So she just stands there.

Nick reaches around her and opens the door.  She shoots him an irritated look.  She isn’t ready yet.  “If you need me, I’ll be in the waiting room with Lila.”  He kisses her forehead and gives her a nudge into the hospital room.  Kimberly looks up, relieved.

“How is he?”
  Keely
asks quietly.  Her dad’
s eyes open and he gives her
a tired smile.

“Better now.”  He opens his arms and Keely moves into them.  It’s been a very long time since she’s hugged her dad.

“Daddy,” she feels a wave of nausea swim through her stomach as the word leaves her mouth.  She sits beside him on the bed and looks at the IV in his hand.  “Please tell me that you are just you.  Just a normal, fully human dad.  That you’re
my
dad.” 

Placing his hand on hers, Kevin says, “I have always been your dad.  And I always will be.”  He glances at his wife, notes the pain in her eyes.

Keely nods her head as she fights the tears stinging her eyes. 
“What did the doctor say?”

Kevin smiles at her subject change.  “I have a concussion.  Scan came back clean.  No internal bleeding.”

“He can come home tomorrow,” Kimberly adds in a forced chipper voice.

“Did they find the boy they were looking for?”  Kevin asks just remembering.

Keely pushes her hair back and nods.  “He’s downstairs in the emergency room.  He’s in pretty bad shape.  What they did to him…  It was awful.”  She sniffles and wipes at her eyes.
  She doesn’t care what Asmoday thinks, Dustin didn’t deserve that.  Nobody does.

“Keels,” her dad starts.  He shakes his head, not knowing how to make it all better for her.  Wasn’t this his job?  To m
ake his baby girl feel better?  To solve all her problems?
  That’s w
hat fathers do.  “I’m so sorry, H
oney.  You’ve been through a lot.  I wish I could have been there for you.”

“
It wasn’t your fault.  None of that matters now anyway.  You’re here now.  You’re going to be all right.  Everything’
s fine.
”
  Second lie today.  She is on a roll.
  Down a rocky mountain.

“Which one do you like?”

Confused, Keely stares at her dad.  A smile parts his dry and chapped lips.  “Which what?”
she asks.

He laughs.  It turns into a cough.  Sucking air through his teeth, he puts his palm to his forehead.  Kevin shoos Kimberly as she reac
hes for the call button
to
the nurse.  “It’s fine.  Just hurts when I cough.”  He sips some water and finds his composure.  “Which boy do y
ou like?  Your mom said there’
s a boy.”  He smiles again
, a teasing glint in his eye.

Unable to contain it, she returns the smile.  “His name is Nick.  He’s the one that helped you.  Do you remember?”

Kevin looks regretful.  “It’s all a little fuzzy.”

“He’s my Guardian,” she explains, assuming that will clear up his confusion.

“Your what?”  Her dad looks from Keely to her mom.

“I haven’t explained everything yet,” Kimberly says abashed.

Keely’s face turns red and hot with anger.  He didn’t know.  Her mother kept it from her dad too.  How could she do this
?  What type of person does that
?  “You never told him?”  She shoots off the bed and paces the room.  “I guess I shouldn’t be so s
urprised.  You never told me
either.  Does he k
now who you-
”
Keely stops herself from going any farther.  He’s been thr
ough enough already.  This can
wait.  She walks back to her dad and leans down to kiss his cheek.  “I’m going to go.  I’m a mess.  Don’t worry about me.  I’ll be safe with Nick.  He’s my body guard.  Get some rest.”  She turns on her heel to leave.

“Keels?”  She pauses and glances back at her dad.  He looks so sad.  “I love you.”

“I love you too, Daddy.  See you tomorrow.”

Keely doesn’t go to the emergency department’s waiting room.  Instead she goes outside for some fresh air to clear her head.
  It doesn’t help.  The air is hot and thick with humidity.  All it seems to do is weigh her down.  She sits on the curb and stares up at the first hint of sun rising.  She’s never seen a sun rise.  It’s a shame she can’t enjoy it.

Though she tries to sort through her many problems and think of way
s
to fix them, her thoughts keep flipping back to Asmoday.  The way he looked when he brought them back.  He seemed drained and worried.  Every time
she’s seen him
, he always looked pristine.  Never anything but confident and healthy.  She wonders if transporting everyone back and forth took some kind of toll on him. 
She also wonders
if he was worried about snapping their cord again.  She was.
Still is.
But nothing has happened since he walked away after leaving them behind the hospital. 
The cord is tight again, but it’s still there.  Part of her wishes it weren’t, but another part never again wants to feel the way she did earlier
.  She isn’t a stupid person;
she knows she needs to tell Nick so he can he
lp her.  But she can’t do it yet
.  Dustin isn’t in the clear yet.  Nick needs to be there for Lila right now.

“Whatchya doin out here, Kiem?”

Keely looks up at Bryon and squints.  “You look like you were in a fight with a bunch of Demons.”

Bryon sits down next to her and bumps his arm into her shoulder.  “I
was
in a fight with a bunch of Demons.”

“What was the final score?”

He smiles. 
“
Six—t
wo.  I won.  Your mom got one too.  That was pretty sweet.”

“I don’t feel like talking about my mom right now.”

“O.k.
”  After a long pause, he says, “
They said Dustin’s going to pull through.  They had to take his left eye.  He may have some damage to the other, but they don’t know yet.”

Keely puts her hand over her mouth.  “That’s so sad.”

Bryon nods.  “He’s alive though.  That’s what really matters.”

“How’s Lila?”

“You know, we could go in there and you could see for yourself.”

Keely shifts uncomfortably.  “I feel too trapped in there.”

Bryon nods again.  This is what Keely has always loved about him.  He doesn’t push her.  Ironically, the opposite is what she loves about Nick.  But sometimes you need to just not make sense and know someone is all right with it.

“Lila’s a trooper.  She’s on cloud nine now that she knows he’s going to be o.k.  She was talking about making him an eye patch, but I don’t think he has the face for it.”  He bumps her shoulder again and she pushes him back and laughs.

“That’s o.k.  I’m sure you’ve already started planning you
r
one eye jokes.”

He grins at her.  “I have this
one,
it involves O
ne Eyed Willy from The Goonies.  Classic.  But I think I need to wait a while before I can bust that one out.  Tact and all.”

“You’ve always been very diplomatic.”

“I think so too.  Would you believe there are people out there that would actually disagree?”

Keely shakes her head in mock horror.  “I couldn’t imagine.”

“True story.”

They sit in silence as sun light fills the sky.  Keely realizes Bryon saved her first sun rise.  “
All right.  I think
I’m ready to go back in now.”

He stands up and offers her his hand. 

**
*

Nick and Keely
take turns showering before they dress each other’s wounds.
Nick’s aren’t that bad, but they are all on his face which mak
e
s
Keely’s
heart hurt every time she looks
at him.
  When they’
r
e done with the minor first-aid
and a dose of Ibuprofen,
Nick pulls the book out that Asmoday gave him.  Apparently he found it in the same area they found Dustin.  Keely hadn’t stayed long.  Her stomach couldn’t take it.

“That’s the same book from History,” Keely exclaims. 

“The Demon Grimoire.  There should be a lot of useful information in here.”

“I thought it was a book of spells?”

“It is
, but there are also prophecies
and legends.  Sometimes there are even accounts of how incantations were used in the past and who used them.”

“Well, open it.”

Nick rubs his eyes
like he does when he’s irritated about something. 
“The thing is
,
I can’t. 
It’s a Demon Grimoire.  A Demon has to open it.”

“What would happen if you did open it?  Would you turn into a Demon or something?”

“No.  It would probably just kill me.”

Trying really hard to not let her mouth pop open, Keely snatches the book out of Nick’s hand.  Demons are absolutely, by far, the most evil, conniving, appalling creatures ever.  Who has secrets that important to take someone’s life to protect them?  Oh, yeah.  Demons.  “I can’t believe Asmoday ga
ve us a book we can’t even open.
”

Nick grunts.  “He probably hoped I would be dumb enough to try.”

Keely puts her hands out, palms up.  “So what’s the point?”

Nick rubs his eyes with his first finger and thumb.  “As the Demon Princess, you should be able to open it.  Asmoday says you can at least.  He then offered to come over and open it for us if we didn’t want to take the chance.  I don’t know if I should trust him.”

“Asmoday doesn’t want to kill me.  Apophis does.
  It makes sense that I can open it.  Besides, do you really want to call Asmoday up and invite him into your home every time you want to read it?”

“
No.  But w
e still may
need his help with translating
though.”

Keely stares at the book.  She runs her finger tips over the gray cover.  It doesn’t freak her out like it did before.  “I’m opening it,” she says as she flips the cover.  Nick tries to protest, but it’s done
before
a single syllable leaves his lips.
  And she is alive.  Asmoday was telling the truth, just as Keely suspected.

“It’s blank,” Nick grumbles as Keely turns page after page.

She laughs.  “It’s not blank.  What are you talking about?”  She looks from the book to Nick.  She looks back down to make sure she wasn’t imagining anything.  Nope.  Still there.  “You can’t see this?”  She holds the book open in front of him.  There is clearly writing on the page, drawings too.  In fact, it’s inked in
what looks suspiciously like
blood.