Evil (23 page)

Kellan was right. Nothing was the same. The waterfall was gone, but as I got out of the car, I could hear it. I knew it was there, but I could only see forest around me. Guessing where the house would be, I moved forward, looking for the front steps. A wind rushed forward, picking up some leaves and I was shown the path that led to the house. It went down instead of up, and I found the front door and went inside, I saw that it was an entirely new house. It had been built upward before. This new one was built in a circle, around the waterfall inside now. The kitchen and dining room opened to the pool of water, as did the living room to their right.

The roof didn’t look like a roof. It didn’t seem like there was even a closing, but I knew there was. There had to have been, and just then a bird tried to dip down, inside of the house. A thick glass barrier kept it out, zapping it away.

Everywhere I looked, the walls were thicker, sturdier. The windows moved for me, where I looked, they appeared. I finally chose a room on the first floor, underneath where the waterfall fell into the pool. It splashed up, but a glass wall formed over our hallway and connected to the door. The water slid down it, trickling back into the body of water. I sat there and watched it. It felt like I stayed there for another few hours before I jerked in place. I’d fallen asleep without realizing it. With a yawn coming over me, I looked up and saw the sky was dark through the glass roof. A few stars could be seen, but not many. It felt like a darker night than normal, and I figured there was no full moon, but that didn’t matter. What did matter was where Kellan and Aumae were, and when they were coming back.

After showering, then lying in bed for a while, I got back up. I couldn’t sleep, not until I knew where they were. Padding barefoot from the kitchen to the living room, I curled onto a couch and then reached for the remote control. I’d never been one for television, no one in my family had been. Humans were…entertaining enough to me, but before I turned on the machine I was distracted by a buzzing sound. I searched through some bags and then through a few kitchen cupboards until I found a cellphone vibrating in a small drawer. Kellan’s name was scrawled over the screen, and I answered it, “Hello?” That was when I realized I had no idea where mine had gone. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even used it.

“We’re coming back, and we have another guest.”

“How’s Aumae?” I didn’t even care about the other guest. Kellan wouldn’t bring anyone he didn’t trust. “When will you be here?”

“We’re turning in right now. How’s the new layout look?”

I heard laughter in his voice, and everything relaxed in me. It was then that I realized how much I depended on Kellan. Not too long ago, I hadn’t trusted him with what I painted and now I was fearful to step foot out of a house without him. Before I started pondering whether that was a good thing or not, I hurried to the door and flung it open when I saw a pair of headlights approaching underneath the trees. One lifted up its roots, and Kellan drove through, underneath to park beside our other car.

As he got out first, I came down and asked, “Where’d you get the new car? And why are you even driving?”

He flashed a grin and then opened his back door, bending inside. As he came back out, Aumae was in his arms. “I couldn’t transport as we normally would. She’s too weak, but she’s better. She needs to rest for a few days.”

Relief washed over me.

Kellan turned and nodded toward the passenger door. “And the car’s his. He decided to join us.”

Damien got out of the car and smiled at me. He stayed there and asked, cautious, “Is this okay? I don’t want to overstep my boundaries.”

“It’s okay with me as long as Kellan’s okay with it.” I looked over with a question in my eyes, but Kellan nodded before he held Aumae tighter against him and started toward the house.

Damien held back and walked around to the other side of the car. He slid his hands into his front pockets and leaned back, giving him the same aloof quality he had the last time I’d seen him outside of the school. “You’re sure it’s okay?”

His eyes had such uncertainty that I reached over and squeezed his hand. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

He shrugged. “Things have changed between you two. I can feel it. It’s much stronger and I’m…not a part of that. I wasn’t sure if you’d want me here or not.”

“Kellan trusts you, otherwise he wouldn’t have let you step foot in the car.”

“It’s my car.”

“He doesn’t care.” We turned for the house, walking side by side. “Do you have news from home?”

He sucked in his breath and stopped before he reached the door. His eyes grew somber, everything in him stiffened. “That’s why I came with Kellan. You need to hear some things.”

A knot formed in my gut, once again, but I knew we couldn’t hide forever. “Does Kellan know?”

“He probably guessed, but he wanted both of you to hear at the same time.”

“Okay. Let’s get this over with.” And I showed him inside.

Aumae insisted she would be a part of the conversation. We congregated in a room on the basement level. One wall was made of glass with the water on the other side. The bottom of the pond was real, but the house had built around it so we were able to see the rocks, fish, and even the seaweed beside us.

“It’s beautiful.” Aumae rested a hand on the glass as she had been positioned in the corner of a couch by Kellan. She wanted to sit up, and no one argued, even though we all felt she should’ve been resting.

“Yes, it is.” I squeezed her other hand as I sat on her other side.

Kellan stood in a corner. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone, nor did he speak. He merely stood there, turned halfway to the corner so we couldn’t judge his face, and waited until Damien stood in the center of the room.

“Your father’s in town.”

It took a split second before I realized that Damien had spoken, and he’d spoken to me. With a quick jerk, I pulled my gaze from Kellan to the other messenger and watched how his eyes looked clouded over. They weren’t as bright as normal and his voice was sad, resigned, but there was another touch of something else in his voice. I narrowed my eyes, concentrating, when I realized what it was.

Guilt.

“What have you done?” I asked.

Damien reared back a step, surprised, but then another look of resignation flared over his features. “I feel that I should’ve done something to keep your father from arriving. I could’ve sent him somewhere else.”

Kellan turned and faced the group. “That would’ve been useless. Her father went there with the excuse of looking for Vespar and Gus. He stays with the real reason of searching for his daughter. She’s been kept from him since she was given life in her mother’s womb. He wants Shay, and he won’t leave without her.”

Aumae sat up slowly, still weak. “Then he has a different sort of fight on his hands, doesn’t he?”

Damien looked between the two and cleared his throat, stuffing his hands into his sweater’s front pocket. “It doesn’t matter. He’s in town, and he’s watching your half-siblings.”

“It’s a trap.” When everyone looked at me, I nodded. “It’s a trap. He thinks we’ll swoop in to get Vespar and Gus out of there, but we won’t. We’ll leave them. I mean, Vespar was going to kill me. I don’t want to go anywhere near him after that. My dad will never know. He’ll watch them, and we can get away.”

“Uh…” Damien sent me an apologetic smile. “That would be all good and everything, but you don’t know where your half sibs are… They’re being held captive by two humans you went to school with.”

“Two humans?”

Kellan groaned. “Dylan.”

“Exactly.” Damien snapped his fingers at him.

“What?”

“Gus said he was into dark magic. He could’ve used something to keep me from wiping his memory and then decided to go after Vespar and Gus when we were gone.” Kellan shrugged. “It’s what I’d do if I were him and I knew dark magic.”

“What?” I snapped, throwing my arms in the air. They were both acting too casual about this. “Dylan and someone else captured Vespar and Gus? What are they doing—torturing them?”

Aumae shuddered behind me.

“Probably,” Damien answered with a blank face.

“Are you okay with that? They might be getting tortured, and you act like you don’t care?”

“Why do you?” he shot back at me.

“Because torture is torture. It’s wrong. It doesn’t matter what the person or thing did—it’s always wrong. I shouldn’t have to tell you that.” My eyes were cold. He was a messenger, at least half of one. Didn’t we stand for the good?

Flinching, I turned away, but I was aware of Kellan’s sudden intense gaze on me. He was studying me, watching for some reaction, but it didn’t matter. Torture was wrong. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that. As my eyes shifted over Aumae, I shivered at the memory of seeing her tied down by a violated virgin’s blood. Her skin had crawled over her, boiling from the inside up. Vespar wanted to kill me, but I still couldn’t handle thinking of him going through that same torture.

I lifted my chin and squared my shoulders, turning toward Damien and Kellan.

“We’re going back. We have to.” My eyes went to Kellan. “What do you think?”

“We could use their help against your father.”

“Then it’s decided. We go back.”

“But—what?” Damien shook his head. “I can’t believe this. You’re going back to save two demons? Two demons that were planning to kill you?”

“What do you mean ‘you’re?’ You’re not coming?”

He snorted in disbelief. “Messengers don’t save demons. And I think you’re crazy for even thinking about it.”

“Well, then I’m not the typical messenger, am I?” I was a little hurt by his decision, but it didn’t matter. Kellan and I would handle it. We’d be fine. Then a different thought came to me. “Why did you even come here? You told us about Gus and Vespar. Did you think we wouldn’t go to save them?”

Damien shuffled his feet, from side to side before he responded, “I wanted to warn you about your dad. I never thought you’d go back. You should be going the other way—not headed into the lion’s den.”

“She’s made up her mind. We’re going,” Kellan spoke up and left the room. As he walked past, I met Damien’s eyes and saw concern for a moment. It shocked me, but then a blank mask fell back in place. It didn’t surprise me. I always knew the other messenger was guarded, controlled, but the concern did cause me to pause a moment. What would he be concerned about—about me? About Kellan? Did he think the humans were going to actually beat us?

Damien left right behind Kellan, and Aumae sat up beside me to rest a hand on my arm. She murmured, “He’s not used to being worried about anybody.”

When she got up and followed behind the other two, I sat back in more dismay.

What did that mean? Damien didn’t have anybody close?

“Shay!” Kellan yelled out. “Come on!”

“Coming!” I jumped up and hurried out to the car. We’d just got back from one mission and now we were leaving for another. I had a feeling that downtime would be sparse from here on out.

On the way back, we were in the back while Damien drove his own car. Aumae was next to him in the front passenger seat.

She let a window down and then rested her head against the corner of her seat and closed her eyes, fast asleep. A soft hum vibrated from inside of her, and her skin started to glisten and then roll over her, around her. When I jerked upright, alarmed, Kellan pulled me back and murmured, “She’s healing herself. You should rest, too.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to need all your strength.” He squeezed my hand and slipped his fingers through mine.

“Why don’t we whisk ourselves there? They’re human. They won’t know we’re coming.”

Damien glanced at me through the rearview mirror. “Because your father will know.”

“Oh.” Point taken. And from then on, I kept my mouth shut. Sometime not long after, I felt myself falling into Kellan’s side, and he moved to put his arm around me. After that, it was lights out as soon as I snuggled into him. When I woke later, we’d arrived, and I was surprised to see it had taken three hours.

I’d been asleep for three hours in the car, and after a peek, I saw the alertness in both Kellan and Damien. Aumae was still humming, but Damien touched her leg gently and it went away. The glistening, crawling skin stopped, and the soft white color that had surrounded her was gone, too. When she sat up, she looked back and gave me a clear smile.