Finale (23 page)

“Food status?” Marcie asked me authoritatively.

“My mom’s handling it.”

“Music?”

“Derrick Coleman is DJ.”

“Are you working the crowd? Is everyone having fun?”

“I just finished a round.” More or less.

Marcie eyed me with criticism. “Where’s your date?”

“Does it matter?”

“I heard you’re dating some new guy. I heard he doesn’t go to school. Who is he?”

“Who’d you hear that from?” Guess word about Dante and me was getting around after all.

“Does it matter?” she echoed snidely. She scrunched her nose in distaste. “What are you dressed up as?”

“She’s a devil,” Robert said. “Pitchfork, horns, red vamp dress.”

“Don’t forget the black combat boots,” I said, showing them off. I had Vee to thank for them, as well as the red glitter laces.

“I can see that,” Marcie said. “But the party’s theme is famous couples. A devil doesn’t go with anything.”

Just then Patch ambled through the front door. I did a double take to make sure it was really him. I hadn’t expected him to come. We’d never resolved our fight, and I’d pridefully refused to take the first step, forcing myself to lock my cell phone in a drawer every time I was tempted to call him and apologize, despite my increasing distress that he might never call either. My pride immediately turned to relief at the sight of him. I hated fighting. I hated not having him close. If he was ready to mend this, so was I.

A smile flickered over my face at the sight of his costume: black jeans, black T-shirt, black face mask. The latter concealed all but his cool, assessing gaze.

“There’s my date,” I said. “Fashionably late.”

Marcie and Robert turned. Patch gave me a low wave and handed his leather jacket to some poor freshman Marcie had roped into coat duty. The price some girls would pay to attend an upperclassman party was almost shameful.

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“No fair,” Robert said, taking off his Batman mask. “The dude didn’t dress up.”

“Whatever you do, don’t call him dude,” I told Robert, smiling at Patch as he made his way over.

“Do I know him?” Marcie asked. “Who is he supposed to be?”

“He’s an angel,” I said. “A fallen angel.”

“That isn’t what a fallen angel looks like!” Marcie protested.

Shows how much you know,
I thought, just as Patch slung his arm around my neck and pulled me into a light kiss.

I’ve missed you,
he spoke to my thoughts.

Same here. Let’s not fight anymore. Can we put it behind us?

Consider it done. How’s the party going?
he asked.

I haven’t felt like jumping off the roof yet.

Glad to hear it.

“Hi there,” Marcie said to Patch, her tone more flirtatious than I would have thought with her date standing inches away.

“Hey,” Patch returned, extending acknowledgment with a brief nod.

“Do I know you?” she asked, tilting her head inquisitively to one side. “Do you go to CHS?”

“No,” he said without elaborating.

“Then how do you know Nora?”

“Who doesn’t know Nora?” he returned mildly.

“This is my date, Robert Boxler,” Marcie told him with an air of superiority. “He plays quarterback for the football team.”

“Impressive,” Patch answered, his tone just polite enough to scrape by as interested. “How’s the season shaping up, Robert?”

“We’ve had a few rough games, but it’s nothing we can’t bounce back from,” Marcie cut in, patting Robert’s chest consolingly.

“What gym do you use?” Robert asked Patch, eyeing his physique with open admiration. And envy.

“Haven’t had a lot of time lately for the gym.”

“Well, you look great, man. If you ever want to lift weights together, call me.”

“Good luck with the rest of the season,” Patch told Robert, giving him one of those tricky handshakes all guys seem to know instinctively.

Patch and I wandered deeper into the house, winding through hallways and rooms, trying to find a secluded corner. At last he pulled me inside the powder room, kicked the door shut, and locked it. He leaned me back against the wall and fingered one of my red devil ears, his eyes deep black with desire.

“Nice costume,” he said.

“Ditto. I can tell you put a lot of thought into yours.&t ioman">&ldrdquo

Amusement curled his mouth. “If you don’t like it, I can take it off.”

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. “That just might be the best proposal I’ve had all night.”

“My offers are always the best, Angel.”

“Before the party started, Marcie asked me to lace up the back of her Catwoman suit.” I raised and lowered my hands in a weighing gesture. “Between both offers, it’s a tough call.”

Patch removed his mask and laughed softly into my neck, brushing my hair back off my shoulders. He smelled incredible. He felt warm and solid and so very close. My heart beat faster, squeezing with guilt. I’d lied to Patch. I couldn’t forget. I shut my eyes, letting his mouth explore mine, trying to lose myself in the moment. All the while, the lies beat, beat, beat, in my head. I’d taken devilcraft, and I’d mind-tricked him. I was still taking devilcraft.

“Trouble with your costume is, it doesn’t hide your identity very well,” I said, pulling back. “And we’re not supposed to be seen together in public, remember?”

“Just stopping by for a minute. Couldn’t miss my girl’s party,” he murmured. He lowered his head to kiss me again.

“Vee’s still not here,” I said. “I tried her cell. And Scott’s. I got sent to voice mail both times. Should I worry?”

“Maybe they don’t want to be disturbed,” he spoke into my ear, his voice deep and gravelly. He pushed my dress higher up my leg, stroking his thumb over my bare thigh. The warmth of his caress overrode my bad conscience. Sensation shivered through me. I shut my eyes again, this time involuntarily. All the knots loosened. My breath came a little faster. He knew just how to touch me.

Patch lifted me onto the sink’s ledge, his hands splayed on my hips. I got warm and woozy inside, and when he put his mouth on mine, I could have sworn sparks went off. His touch seared me with passion. The fluttery, intoxicating liquid heat of being near him never grew old, no matter how many times we touched, flirted, kissed. If anything, that electric jolt intensified. I wanted Patch, and I didn’t trust myself when I did.

I don’t know how long the bathroom door stood open before I noticed. I jerked away from Patch, mouth gaping. My mom stood in the shadowy entrance, muttering about how the lock had never worked properly, and she’d been meaning to fix it for ages, when her eyes must have adjusted to the dimness, because she stopped mid-apology.

Her mouth snapped shut. Her face blanched . . . then flushed a deep, sizzling red. I’d never seen her look so enraged. “
Out!
” She flung her finger away. “Out of my house this instant, and don’t think of coming back, or touching my daughter again!” she hissed at Patch, livid.

I jumped off the sink. “Mom—”

She turned on me. “Not a word from you!” she sputtered. “You said you broke up with him. You said it—this thing—between you and him—
it
was over. You lied to me!”

“I can explain,” I started, but she’d swivelesquand him&md back to Patch.

“Is this what you do? Seduce young girls in their own homes, with their own mothers standing feet away? You should be ashamed of yourself!”

Patch laced his hand in mine, gripping it tightly. “Quite the opposite, Blythe. Your daughter means everything to me. Completely and wholly. I love her—it’s as simple as that.” He spoke with calm assurance, but his jaw was as rigid as if cut from stone.

“You destroyed her life! From the moment she met you, everything fell apart. You can deny it all you want, but I know you were involved in her kidnapping. Get out of my house,” she snarled.

I clung to Patch’s hand fiercely, murmuring,
I’m sorry, so sorry,
over and over in mind-speak. I’d spent the summer locked away against my will in a remote cabin. Hank Millar was the mastermind behind my imprisonment, but my mom didn’t know that. Her mind had erected a wall around his memory, trapping in everything good and casting out the rest. I blamed Hank, and I blamed devilcraft. She’d worked it out in her mind that Patch had been responsible for my kidnapping, and it was as much a truth to her as the sun rising each morning.

“I should get going,” Patch told me, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.
I’ll call you later,
he added privately to my thoughts.

“I should think so!” my mom snapped, her shoulders rising from the exertion of breathing heavily.

She stepped aside, allowing Patch to exit, but closed off the doorway before I could escape.

“You’re grounded,” she said in a voice like iron. “Enjoy the party while it lasts, because it’s going to be your last social event for a long, long time.”

“Are you even interested in hearing me out?” I shot back, enraged by the way she’d treated Patch.

“I need time to cool down. It’s in your best interest to give me some space. I might be in the mood to talk tomorrow, but that’s the last thing I’m interested in right now. You lied to me. You went behind my back. Worse, I had to find you stripping off your clothes with him in our bathroom. Our
bathroom!
He wants one thing from you, Nora, and he’ll take it wherever he can get it. There’s nothing special about losing your virginity over a toilet.”

“I wasn’t—we weren’t—my
virginity
?” I shook my head and made a disgusted gesture. “Forget it. You’re right—you don’t want to listen. You never have. Not when it comes to Patch.”

“Everything okay here?”

My mom and I turned to find Marcie standing just outside the door. She held an empty cauldron in her arms and hitched her shoulders apologetically. “Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve run out of monster eyeballs, aka peeled grapes.”

My mom shoved some hair off her face, trying to collect herself. “Nora and I were just finishing up. I can make a quick run to the store for grapes. Anything else we’re low on?”

“Nacho cheese dip,” Marcie said in this timid mouse voice, as if she hated imposing on my mom’s kindness. “But it’s ut youreally no big deal. I mean, it’s only nacho dip. There will be nothing to go with the chips, of course, and it
is
my favorite, but really and truly—no big deal.” The tiniest sigh escaped her.

“Fine. Grapes and nacho dip. Anything else?” my mom asked.

Marcie hugged the cauldron and beamed. “Nope. That’s it.”

My mom fished her keys out of her pocket and walked off, her every movement harsh and stiff. Marcie, however, stayed put.

“You could always mind-trick her, you know. Make her think Patch was never here.”

I turned cool eyes on Marcie. “How much did you hear?”

“Enough to know you’re in deep crapola.”

“I’m not going to mind-trick my own mom.”

“If you want, I could talk to her.”

I breathed a laugh. “You? My mom doesn’t care what you think, Marcie. She took you in under some misguided sense of hospitality. And probably to prove something to your mom. The only reason you’re living under this roof is so my mom can throw it in your mom’s face: She was the better lover, and now she’s the better mother.” It was a horrible thing to say. It had sounded better in my head, but Marcie didn’t give me time to amend my statement.

“You’re trying to make me feel bad, but it won’t work. You’re not going to ruin my party.” But I thought I saw her lip wobble. With an intake of air, she seemed to collect herself.

Suddenly, as if nothing had happened, she said in a bizarrely cheerful voice, “I think it’s time to play Bob-for-a-Date.”

“Bob-for-a-what?”

“It’s like bobbing for apples, except every apple has a name of someone from the party attached. Whoever you draw is your next blind date. We play it every year at my Halloween party.”

I frowned. We hadn’t gone over this game idea beforehand. “Sounds tacky.”

“It’s a blind date, Nora. And since you’re grounded for eternity, what have you got to lose?” She pushed me into the kitchen, toward the giant tub of water with red and green apples floating in it. “Hey, everyone, listen up!” Marcie called over the music. “Time to play Bob-for-a-Date. Nora Grey goes first.”

Applause broke out across the kitchen, along with catcalls and a few shouts and whistles of encouragement. I stood there, mouth moving but emitting no words, cursing Marcie fluently in my mind.

“I don’t think I’m the best person for this,” I yelled at her over the noise. “Can I pass?”

“Not a chance.” She gave me what looked like a playful shove, but it was forceful enough to send me stumbling to my knees in front of the tub of apples.

I shot her a look of pure indignation.
I’ll make you pay for this,
I told her.

“Pull your hair back. Nobody wants nasty stray hairs floating in the watingthis,

In agreement, the crowd roared a collective “
Booo
.”