Shadows (21 page)

He wheeled towards the door when he heard it swing open. Jess stepped out, holding her cell to her ear. That had to be good. She wouldn’t be out here with him if she still thought he was the demon.

‘So Megan had a thing for Mal,’ Jess said into the
phone. She listened for a moment, her eyes on Luke. ‘Thanks. I know it was a weird question. I’ll be by to visit Megan soon.’

Luke promised himself he’d visit her too. And Bet. And Rose, even though he’d never kissed her. He’d bring them flowers. He’d even bring Shanna’s mom flowers.

Jess lowered the phone. She swallowed hard. ‘A nurse told me Megan wasn’t well enough to talk, so I called Megan’s house. Her sister answered. She said Megan and Mal hung around some in the summer. Megan was crazy about him. Not
crazy
crazy,’ she quickly corrected herself.

‘I know what you mean,’ Luke told her gently.

‘She said they were together the night before school started, which is the night before she had to be taken to Ridgewood. She walked in on him and Megan. They were making out,’ Jess said. She took a step closer to Luke. ‘I asked her about you too. She said that Megan showed you around town and that maybe you two went out a few times. But that was before the Mal infatuation.’

‘As soon as the demon kisses someone, the soul is sucked out. I did kiss Megan a couple of times. But Mal kissed her after that. He’s the demon,’ Luke said.

Jess nodded again. Then a look of panic crossed her face. ‘Oh my God! Evie!’ she gasped.

‘Call her. Please. She won’t take my calls.’ Luke wiped away the beads of sweat that had popped up on his forehead. Maybe there was still a chance. Maybe now they could save Eve.

‘My parents don’t go out of town very often. But it’s not like they’re home a lot. Mom – workaholic. Dad – workaholic,’ Eve explained. ‘If you asked me the last time all three of us were in a room together, I’m not sure I could tell you. I might have to go back to one of our birthdays, or a major holiday. Actually, Dad and I ended up going out for Mom’s birthday without her this year. She had an emergency surgery.’

‘So you’re alone most of the time,’ Mal said.

‘Kind of. But Jess is pretty much always willing to come over or I go over there. She’s my “sisfri” – that’s what we call a friend who is basically a sister,’ Eve said.

‘I wish I had a Jess. We move around too much for me to make that kind of friend.’ Mal shook his head like he was trying to get bad memories out of his mind. ‘I had some cool babysitters when I was younger. This one girl – she was about fifteen, I think – let me stay up
as late as I wanted, then she let me skip school if I was tired. She also let me eat grape popsicles for breakfast. She had a theory that they were basically the same as grape juice.’ He smiled. ‘She didn’t last very long.’

‘Wonder why,’ Eve joked. ‘This cool babysitter, did she have the privilege of knowing your full name?’

Mal shook his head. ‘So what’s the guess of the day?’

Eve had looked at a few more baby-name websites for ideas. ‘Malachi. It means Angel.’
And it’s so perfect for you
, she thought.

‘I’m no angel.’ He grinned, and she could feel herself flushing. ‘And that is not my name.’

Her cell rang, and she groaned. She should have turned it off after Luke called. She and Mal were having an amazing convo. He’d just used the most-ever words in a row since she’d known him.

‘Sorry, again.’ Eve took her iPhone out of her purse. ‘It’s Jess,’ she told Mal. ‘Let me talk to her for a sec. She’s having, um, guy problems.’ She clicked
ANSWER
and lifted the phone to her ear. ‘Jess, what’s up?’ The phone crackled, then went silent.

Eve frowned as she studied it. Out of juice. Weird. She was sure she’d charged it before she came. She shook it a few times. Didn’t help. She hoped her powers hadn’t just fried her iPhone – that really would
suck. Then again, maybe fate was telling her she should be concentrating on Mal and only Mal right now. That was a good thought – although a little part of her whispered that Jess would never call during Eve’s big date unless it was important.

Mal got up and moved over to sit next to her on the chaise longue. He playfully plucked the phone from her fingers and put it in his pocket. ‘I’d rather talk about
my
girl problems,’ he said.

‘You have girlfriends? I mean girl problems?’ Eve asked, all thoughts of Jess sliding away.
Am I over here as a gal pal?
she wondered.
Someone Mal can talk to about the girl he’s really crushing on?
But that couldn’t be right. Who set a romantic table for two with candles and everything for a pal?

‘Yeah, I want some time alone with a girl so I can get to know her, and her phone keeps ringing,’ Mal answered.

Me
, Eve thought.
He was talking about me. Duh.
‘That’s a horrible problem. Fortunately, the girl’s phone is now dead,’ she told him. Mal was sitting so close. Were they finally going to have that first kiss? She angled her body towards his.

‘Good. Because I want to know everything about the girl. Even her opinion of brooches pinned on boots.’

Did he hear me and Jess talking in the hall this morning?
Eve wondered, trying to remember what else they’d said. ‘How she tastes,’ Mal continued, grabbing Eve’s complete attention. ‘Everything.’ He leaned forward, just a little. It was going to happen. It was happening!

A faint pinging sound started up deep in the house. Eve pulled back. ‘I guess that means you’re needed in the kitchen.’

Mal let out a frustrated sigh. ‘I have to check the soufflé again. It should be ready to come out.’

‘Great,’ she said. She watched Mal until he was out of sight, then turned her attention to the garden. It was dusk now, which made the fairy lights look brighter. A big black bird flapped off its perch on the top of one of the open French doors. Eve hadn’t even noticed it there against the darkening sky. Then again, she probably wouldn’t have noticed if the house had caught fire with Mal sitting so close.

The bird flew over to a building that looked like a big stone beehive, easily big enough to walk inside. It disappeared into one of the holes in the building. Eve had a vague memory of her uncle from Louisiana having a building like that in his back yard. He called it a pigeonaire, but her mother had said most people called
it a dovecote. The buildings were roosting places for doves or pigeons. Her uncle had kept homing pigeons as a hobby. He’d let Eve, at maybe age six, write a couple of notes to attach to the birds’ legs. She’d written notes to other birds, not really getting the point.

Curious, she headed out into the lovely garden to take a closer look. The dovecote was so cute. She could hear rustling and the sound of dozens of chattering birds. They’d clearly come home to roost for the evening.

Eve opened the door and stepped inside. Her nose instantly filled with the warm powdery scent of dozens of birds in a contained space. She realized that every niche in the dovecote held a bird. But something was wrong. The sounds. The birds should be softly cooing, but the sounds they were making were harsher than that. The birds were cawing.

She peered into a niche. Crows! They were huge black crows.

A memory snapped into place – Luke telling her and Jess that crows were attracted to the master demon. Eve let out an involuntary cry of alarm, spooking the birds. They instantly took flight, swirling around her in a black cloud, cawing, flapping, their sharp little claws almost close enough to cut into her flesh.

Eve threw her arms over her head and backed towards the door. Suddenly she knew why Luke and Jess had both tried to call her. They’d wanted to warn her. Warn her about Mal.

She felt the wall behind her and the doorknob digging into her back. She whipped round, threw open the door, plunged back out into the garden – and ran smack into Mal.

Mal.

The demon.

Mal took Eve by the elbows to steady her. She just stared at him, trying to get her balance. What was he going to do to her?

‘The soufflé is ready,’ Mal said.

Eve blinked in surprise. He was a demon, and he was talking about a soufflé?

He doesn’t realize that I know what he is
, Eve thought.
The way for me to get out of here safely – and with my soul – is to finish the date like everything’s wonderful. With no goodnight kiss for Mal. No kiss of any type.

‘I wanted a closer look at the dovecote,’ she explained. ‘It’s so picturesque. It really adds to the landscaping. It makes me think of something that would be outside a medieval castle.’

‘Are you all right?’ Mal asked. ‘You look a little shaken.’

‘The birds were shaken,’ Eve answered. ‘I startled
them when I walked in, and then I freaked out a little when they were flying around me cawing and flapping.’ She flapped her hands in front of her face.

‘Sounds like they were overcome by your beauty,’ Mal teased, giving his half-smile. If he’d said those words to her ten minutes ago, Eve’s stomach would have fluttered with lovely anticipation. Now it roiled. Mal was a demon, and he was flirting with her. It was disgusting.

Act like everything’s wonderful
, Eve thought.
Act like you were acting when the two of you were sitting on the chaise longue together.
‘And what about you?’ she asked Mal. ‘Are you overcome?’ She tried to keep her tone light and flirty, but her voice came out a little trembly. Maybe he hadn’t noticed.

Mal looped his arm around her shoulders. Eve could hardly believe she was able to tolerate his touch without flinching. ‘Are you looking for a compliment?’ he asked, guiding her back towards the house. ‘That’s my bad,’ he said before she could answer. ‘You shouldn’t have to hint. I should have told you how beautiful you looked the second you arrived.’

‘You definitely should have told me that right away,’ Eve joked, struggling to keep up the kind of banter she and Mal usually tossed around.

Mal laughed his low, husky laugh. It didn’t sound sexy to Eve any more. Neither did his low, husky voice. The laugh and the voice sounded like they should belong to a demon. So did that wood-smoke scent of his.

Except … that smell was nice. It had always been one of her favourite things about Mal, that delicious scent. And the fact that he was constantly rescuing her from bad things …

‘I guess, um, I should have complimented you too. You look great tonight,’ she said. The words felt way too natural, like she really believed Mal was handsome.

She cast a sidelong glance at him. Well, he was still handsome. Ridiculously handsome. Inhumanly handsome. But she shouldn’t find him handsome any more. She knew what was underneath that beautiful exterior. The heart of a soul-eating demon.

When they stepped through the open French doors and back into the house, Mal paused and turned to face her. Looking up into his eyes, she found it hard to believe he didn’t care about her. There was something in him that called to Eve, even now. She swayed towards him, overcome by attraction. She had to be wrong about Mal. She couldn’t feel this way about a demon. Could she?

Mal lowered his head. He hesitated with his lips a breath away from hers.
I should probably be running
, Eve thought.
I should probably be shooting him full of lightning bolts.

But she found it hard to care about the ‘shoulds’. All that mattered was what she wanted, and the only thing in the world she wanted at that moment was to finally kiss Mal and keep on kissing him. For ever and ever and ever.

For ever and ever and ever – in hell!
a little part of her brain screamed. Eve’s body gave an involuntary jerk. She stumbled away from Mal, free of his dark and sexy spell.

I have to stay free
, she thought frantically.
I have to stay away from him.

‘Eve,’ he said, reaching for her again.

Without thinking, Eve turned and ran. She had to get to the front door. She had to get out of this house. Eve ran as hard as she could. She didn’t hear Mal in pursuit.

She was going to make it. She
had
to make it. The door was only a few feet away. She locked her gaze on it – and suddenly realized that Mal was leaning against it, casually blocking the exit. How did he—? Was he even there a second before?

It didn’t matter. Eve had to find a way out of the house. She skidded to a stop, then backed up. Mal sauntered towards her. His dark eyes seemed to glow with fire. And he was grinning, a wider grin than she’d ever seen on his face. He was enjoying her fear and panic. More than that, he was savouring it, continuing to move towards her slowly and without urgency.

Zap him
, Eve ordered herself.
Zap that hideous monster!
She thrust out her hands, but they only emitted a few sparks that quickly died. Mal laughed at the sight of them, his mouth opening wider and wider as he bellowed with mirth. Just when Eve thought it was impossible for his mouth to stretch any further, a poisonous cloud of writhing black shadows erupted from his throat.

Eve gasped in horror as the shadows quickly encircled her. She could feel them twining around her legs, brushing against her face, tangling in her hair. She whirled round and scrambled up the staircase leading to the first floor, fighting against the sticky, heavy shadows trying to restrain her.

She’d worry about getting out of the house later. First she had to get away from Mal. The shadows stayed with her, enveloping her, as if they were her shroud, turning everything in her line of vision grey.
You’ll
never escape
, the shadows whispered as she took the stairs two and three at a time.
He’s too powerful. Give up, Eve. Give in to him.

From what she remembered, there was a balcony in one of the rooms at the end of the hall. A small stairway led down from the balcony to the patio that ran around the pool. If she could reach those stairs, she could find a way down to the beach and use that as her escape route.

Eve reached the first door at the end of the hall. She threw it open … and found herself staring at a brick wall. The shadows laughed as she shoved at the rough bricks.
Never get out. Time to give up
, they hissed.