Dark Calling (38 page)

“And like how I met Nick,” Keely helps.

Kimberly shuts her eyes, her face tight.  When she opens them again, her lips are a thin line.  “Keely, my biggest mistake of all was not stickin
g to a super
natural free life.  I think, well, I just think that you should maybe date human guys.”

Human guys, hmm
.  Well, so much for quietly listening.  Keely squirms un
der her anger.  “I like
Nick.”
 
And Bryon
.

“I understand you like him, H
oney.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t.  You can be friends until this is all resolved of course.  But, Keely, you have to understand, when this is finished, he will be reassigned.  And you’re so young.  You haven’t had many boy
friends
so you don’t understand.  The attention he’s paying you, it’s because he is trying to keep you safe.
”

Keely stumbles over her words, trying to form a sentence that makes sense.  The magical sentence that will make her mom take back what she’s said and give Keely her blessing.  “That’s just…no,” is all that comes out.

“There will be other boys.  Better, normal boys.  Safe boys.”

Better?  Safer?
 
Shaking her head, as her face grows warmer and warmer with each passing second, Keely sucks in a breath.  “Does it matter to you that I care about him?  That he cares about me?”

Kimberly’s eyebrows crinkle in a sympathetic way.  “Oh, Keely.”

“No.  Don’t ‘Oh, Keely’ me.  I’m not some love sick schoolgirl crushing on the quarterback.  He has saved my life
so many times, M
om.”

“That’s his job,” Kimberly says softly.  It’s not sympathy, it’s pity.  Her mom thinks she is stupid.  That Nick couldn’t possibly return her feeling
s
.  That she has completely misread his feeling
s
for her.

“I
think I
love him,” Keely whispers.

“It’s not even
been a week.  You can’t love someone that quickly, Keely.  You don’t even know him.”

“I fell in love with you the very first night we met,”
Kevin says from the doorway.
He puts
his
hands in his pockets.
  “We spent the last twe
nty years as husband and wife
and I
still don’t know you.”
  He enters the room.  Heads
straight to Keely.  He places his hands on each side of her face and kisses her forehead.  “You
’re eighteen.  You
can date whomever you choose kiddo.”

“No, she can’t,” Kimberly says sternly.  “You don’t understand how thes
e things work, Kevin-
”

“No, you’re right.  I don’t.  Nobody ever explained these things
to me
!
  I couldn’t possibly understand.
  I’m only human.
”

Keely has never seen her mom and dad fight before.  Little arguments over who used the last ice cube and didn’t refill the tray. 
Whose
turn it is to load the dishwasher.  Which movie to watch.  That’s it.  Their perfect marriage wasn’t really perfect.  It was a lie.  Her dad didn’t even know who he married.

“I’m trying to now.”  Kimberly stares at Keely.  “Nic
k has taken an O
ath.  You
are his responsibility.  Dating your charge
is seriously frowned upon.  That’s not to mention that he has kept a very imp
ortant secret from t
he Hierarchy
.  Beside the one that he’s making out with you
,
I mean
.”

“We don’t make out.  We kiss. 
And he didn’t tell t
he Hierarchy
about t
he Demon King wanting me alive because
he was protecting me,” she says, careful not to refer to him as her father in front of her dad.
 
“
How can you throw that up in my face?”

“I’m not throwing it up in your face, Keely. 
Your secret is out.  Half of those peo
ple saw him kiss you last night
and all of them know he agreed to work with Asmoday who was
following orders directly from t
he Demon King.  Do you know how
this will look to t
he Hierarchy
?  Nick is going to face some kind of penalty.  The last thing he needs right now is…”  Kimberly shakes her head.  Tries to find the right word.  But it’s too late.

“Me.”

“That’s not what I said.  I just don’t th
ink a relationship with his charge
is a good idea when he is already in trouble.  And I’m not going to lie to you.  I would
be happier if you dated a human
and tried to obtain a normal life.”

“As long as you’re happy.  I mean, living a normal life worked out so well for you.”

“I made mistakes, but you can learn from them.  You’ll know to be honest about who you are.”

“I don’t even know who I am!”  Keely tugs her hair.  She didn’t think her world could crumble anymore.  Weren’t the pieces that were her life already
small and
scattered enough?  How could her mom
take Nick from her?  And worse than that, how could it make sense?  How co
uld Keely
know her mom wa
s right? 

“You are you, Keels.  You’re the same girl you’ve always been,” Kevin insists.

“But I’m not.  I’m different, Daddy.  Everything’s changed.”

Kevin nods.  He understands.  Things will never go back to how they once were.  He doesn’t
want them to.  That was a sham
of a life before.  Just a fantasy his wife had created.

“Keely, things have changed, yes.  But you will always be you.”

“And who is that,” Keely challenges.

“My beautiful, innocent, smart, sweet daughter.”  Her mom reaches for her.  Keely moves out of her reach
before traitor fingers can touch her
.

“Yours and everybody else’s.” 

“Stop that.  You are not his,” Kimberly snaps.
  “You are nothing like him.
  You have his
blood, but
you also have mine
.  And you were raised hu
man.  You are better than all of us
.”

“What does that make me?”

“It makes you Keely.  It gives you a choice.
  The Demon King, he was a Watcher.  I am a Guardian.  You could choose to honor either of the blood lines.  You are also a Princess, and there is that choice, but that would mean turning your back on everything and everyone you love.  You wo
uld be an enemy of t
he Hierarchy
, of Nick.  Or you could choose your human roots.  I am still
partially human.  I
passed that on to you.  You have many more choices than most.”

“But I don’t.  You want me to live as if I were human and nothing else.  What if I can’t do that?”

Kimberly gazes at Keely.  Almost looks through her.  “I will love you no matter what choice you make.”

“No matter which one?  Nick said that I was special because a child born to an Angel has ne
ver been a girl.  That
a girl has
never
join
ed
the line until at least the ne
xt generation.  He said I’m needed for something.  What if I do it?  Would you still love me then?”

After a tremendously long pause, Kimberly meets her daughter’s eyes.  “Yes, I would.”

“If you could accept that, than you can accept me honoring my Angel bloodline.  I want to go
to school where the others go
.  I want to train to be a Guardian.”

“There’
s a school?” Kevin asks surprised.

Kimberly ignores him for the moment.  “I don’t know if that would work.  I don’t know if you would be welcomed, Keely.  You are a Demon Princess, whether you embrace it or not.  Whether I know you’re a go
od person or not.  The Hierarchy
may not allow it.”

“Then I’ll find out.  I want this.  I don’t want to be
normal. 
I don’t want to deny who I am.  That’s you.  It’s not me.  That life got me nowhere.  It nearly got me killed.”

“No, I nearly got you killed.  You’re prepared now.”  She puts her hand up.  “We can talk about this more when you’ve had time to think.  And I do want you to think about it.  Everything.”

Keely nods tightly.  “It’s not going to change.”

“And about Nick.  I think you need to end it.  If not for your sake, then at least for his.”

“Keely, I don’t know about this st
uff,” her dad says.
 
“I wish I did, but I don’t.
  Talk to Nick
a
nd make this d
ecision together
.
”

Kimberly gapes at Kevin.  She opens her mouth to say something, but realizes that’s exactly what she should ha
ve done years ago.  Instead, she did
what she’s doing now.  Making all the decisions for everybody else all on her own.  She pushes her hair off her face and leaves Keely’s room a little shaken.

**
*

Keely isn’t sure exactly when she became such a cry baby. 
Hot tears stream silently down her cheeks.  She sniffs.  Wipes the sign of weakness from her face.  The Demon Grimoire stares at her from the nightstand.  Taunts her.  Calls to her.

The phone rings endlessly.  She ignores it.  Instead, answers the call of the Grimoire.  It dries the tears immediately.  Soothes her like
a baby with a blanket.  Distracts her from all that’s wrong in her life.

Keely opens the book and runs her fingers over the bumpy pages.  Loves the feel of the old paper.  She leans in to inhale the scent.  Stops short as she remembers what the cover is made from.  What the ink truly is.  She heard once that half of a person’s
recollection
is based on smell.  This isn’t a smell she wants stored in her
memory
.

Keely decides to start at the beginning.  Read it in order, although she doesn’t thi
nk the book has an order.  It’
ll make it easier to keep track of what she has and hasn’t read.  The image of
dark chestnut
hair floats behind her vision.  Just a bubble of a thought before it pops.  Another image, thi
s one of long silver
scisso
rs clipping a chunk of the dark
hair.  The words
blur in front
of her
.  A flash of a deep iron pot
.  The word caldron comes to mind.   The last image she envisions is the hair shrinking and sizzling in a bright white flame of fire.  She can smell the singed hair.  Goose bumps raise across her arms and she shivers. 
It’s a love spell.  To make someone
fall in love with the caster. 
Ugh.
  She hates Demons.
  All they want is control.

She glances over the many names.  Understands the names to be those of past users.  There are eighteen.  Eighteen Demons have used this spell to force someone into f
alse feelings of love for them.  Her f
inger skims the names, grateful she doesn’t recognize any of them.
She moves on to the next.  It isn’t a spell, but a prophecy.  She hears thunder, but the sky is sunny outside.  Knows only she can hear it.  Wind blows warm, wet air across her face.  Picks up her hair.  Keely’s mouth goes very dry, but she keeps reading.  Papers lift with the wind and circle her room.
 

In her mind’s eye, she
envisions a girl with long
,
pale blonde
hair.  She walks slowly up a set of steps, careful not t
o look back.  And Keely knows
the girl is not allowed to look back.  Knows that if she does, something very bad will happen.

With a gasp, Keely holds tight to the book.  Rain drops splat heavily onto the page.  The words smear red.  She continues to read, faster now.  The girl keeps climbing.  She trips.  Her long white gown catches on the jagged corner of the stone step.  The staircase appears endless, winding around itself over and over.  Forever going higher and higher.  Still the girl ascends.  The hot gusts of air push on her, try to stop her.  Try to shove her back.  The rain pelts her skin.  The stairs begin to crumble.  All elements work against her, but still she continues upward.

Keely wipes at her face.  Knocks a rain drop from her nose. 
She feels as if she’
s on those steps with this girl.  Feels her struggle.  Feels her anguish.  Knows she cannot look back to see how far she’s come.  She must only look forward at the endless myriad of stairs.  The girl falls again.  Keely cries out as the
girl slides down several steps
and scrapes her legs.  Keely’s legs burn.  The girl turns her head as if she is looking at Keely.  As the stairs disintegrate into pebble
s
, the girl falling with them, Keely gets a startling look at her face.