The Sight Seer (3 page)

Chapter Five

“So, what do you want to know?”
Rafe drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, squinting through the sheets of rain splashing against the windshield. I shivered, putting my fingertips against the heater vents in a vain attempt to warm up. Rafe had wanted to pull the car around to the front of the coffee shop, but I had insisted on going with him and now I was soaked to the bone. I probably looked like a wet rat. At least he was as wet as I was. That was a small consolation prize.

His car was about ten years old, but he kept it absolutely spotless.
Anytime I bummed a ride from someone at school, I had to climb over piles of empty burger wrappers and soda cans, but you could eat off the floor of Rafe’s car—that’s how clean it was. It even smelled nice, and I didn’t see one of those pine tree air fresheners anywhere.

“Hmm.”
I went over the list of questions I had mentally prepared and decided to ask the big one. “What does my possessing the Sight have to do with you?”

“Isn’t that obvious?” he asked as he turned down a street.
“I don’t have the Sight, but you do. I’m like a newborn kitten, blind and completely oblivious to demons. Hell, I could walk down the street and pass one and I would have no idea!”

“You don’t have a sixth sense?” I asked, surprised.
“Like a tingling sensation?”

“No, sorry, I’m not Spider-Man,” Rafe snorted.
“Nothing like that, but I have learned to be extra observant of people. Most of the time, like last night, I’m right, but there are other times when the person I’m following is just a really angry jerk. And completely human.”

“So, what does this have to do with me?”

He gave me an excited smile. “Don’t you see? We would save so much valuable time if we worked together! You would find the demon while they still had their glamour up, point them out to me, and bam!” I jumped when he slapped his hand against the steering wheel. “Dead demon.”

“And lots of ick everywhere.”

“Yeah, they are a bit messy when they die,” Rafe agreed. “I really am sorry about last night, you know.”

I chewed my lip and stared out the window, saying nothing.

“What’s wrong?”

“Rafe, I don’t know
…” I spread my hands out in front of me. “I understand that you’re doing good, and that’s really awesome, but…me? Facing one of those things was enough to land me in therapy for the rest of my life. And you want me to make a career out of it?”

“Last night was a fluke.
I never expected you to appear like you did. When we work together—” he saw the look I was giving him and quickly corrected himself. “
If
we worked together, you wouldn’t be in harm’s way. You’d point the demon out and then sit in the car.”

“Sit in the car and wait like a helpless female, you mean.”

“I didn’t say that!”

“But you meant it!”

“No I didn’t! There are plenty of female demon hunters. And wait, what? Now you want to fight them?” Rafe shook his head. “I’m so confused.”

“You’re not the only one.”

“Look,” he said after a full minute of silence. “Like you said, this is a lot to take in. Why don’t you think about it and then, I don’t know, go on a scouting mission with me? We’ll go to a popular place, like the mall, and see if you can See anything.”

“Demons shop at the mall?”
Well, that was a new one.

“Yes, but they’re shopping for humans, not clothes.”

And on that final horrifying mental image, we pulled up in front of the library. I turned to Rafe, knowing full well I couldn’t just dart out of the car with a simple “Thank you for the ride!” Massaging my temples, I said, “The mall, huh?”

“I’ll even buy you one of those soft pretzels,” he said softly.
I groaned inwardly. How did he know I
loved
those? “We’ll spend a few hours there, and if we don’t see anything, fine. I won’t bug you anymore.” I felt a twinge of disappointment at that, for some bizarre reason. “But if we do see something?” My disappointment was replaced by a small flicker of hope. “Well, I hope it’ll convince you to help me.” He unbuckled his seatbelt and reached into the backseat for an umbrella. Turning to face me, I could see how much he hoped I would say yes. “I’m sorry, Gabiella, I’m being incredibly selfish, I know. But you really would help me out.”

“Gabi,” I said quietly, staring at the raindrops running down the windows like miniature rivers.

“What’s that?”

I turned to him and
smiled warmly. “My friends call me Gabi.” His cheeks went a little red at that, but I tactfully pretended not to notice. “Is next weekend okay for our mall trip? Sunday? I have work Saturday, kill me now, but I’ll be free all day Sunday.”

“It’s fine,” he
answered in a strange voice.

“And you’re buying me a pretzel.”

“Yep.”

“And maybe a new shirt.”

Rafe shot me a stern look. “Hey, don’t push your luck.”

Laughing, I opened my door, surprised to see him doing the same.
He darted around to my side of the car, opening the umbrella over my head.

“You really don’t have to do that, you know.
I’m already drenched through and through.”

“What kind of guy would I be if I made you walk in the rain twice?”

“It’s not even raining that hard…” I trailed off, realizing I
wanted
him to walk me up the stone steps to the lobby. Smiling again, I wondered what the heck was going on with me.

Chapter Six

When I opened the door to the library and stepped into the foyer, I was immediately assaulted by Penny.
“There you are!” she said, rushing towards me. “Gabi, honestly, I don’t mind doing all the work, but you should at least be here to buy me snacks and keep me entertained!” Her eyes widened. “Hello,
who’s
this?” Penny stopped to comb a hand through her curly red locks, despite the fact that her boyfriend, Harrison Cole, was standing right next to her. But Harrison, always awesome and understanding, merely rolled his eyes when he caught my gaze. I shrugged my shoulders as if to say, “What can you do?”

Penny Lane (yes, that really is her name.
Her dad is a huge Beatles fan, and could not wait to have a daughter so he could name her after his favorite song) had been my best friend since the first day of kindergarten when I shared my juice box with her after nasty Celine Fox stole Penny’s. She was smart, funny, and
got
me, even when I didn’t get me. Harrison had always been our friend, but it wasn’t until the eighth grade that she noticed him. Like,
noticed
, noticed him. They were opposites in so many ways—she with her crazy red hair, skin as a pale as a ghost and tendency to be hyper
all
the time, and he with dark, soulful eyes, caramel-colored skin, and a slow, easygoing manner—and yet completely perfect for one another. They were absolutely going to get married and have a boat load of kids (Penny already said I would be their aunt, blood ties be dammed!), and I couldn’t be happier for them. You’d think it would be awkward, or that I would have lost my best friend to this great guy, but it wasn’t. They always included me—we did double dates, movie nights, shopping trips. Of course I let Penny and Harrison have their alone time, just like Harrison let me and Penny have our girl time. In a way it was like we shared Penny, and it worked. It really did.

Rafe looked a little taken aback, so it was
up to me to make introductions then. But what was I supposed to say? We just met at the bus stop and I’m already accepting rides from him? I first saw him last night chopping a demon’s head off in my backyard?

Um, yeah, probably not.

“Penny, Harrison, this is Rafe,” I said, desperately trying to come up with something believable to say. Harrison and Rafe, meanwhile, did that guy thing where they sized one another up before nodding their approval. I breathed a sigh of relief. If Harrison accepted Rafe, then Penny would, too.

I turned to her and no, she was staring at me with a strange look in her e
yes. “And how did you two…meet?”

“Well, you see, that is—”
Desperate, I looked at Rafe. A little help here, demon hunter!

He relaxed his posture, tapping the tip of his umbrella against the marble floor.
“It’s a funny story, really—”

“Some creep was stalking me and Rafe stopped him,” I blurted out.
Rafe’s eyes went a little wide at that. Crap, that wasn’t what he was going to say? I guess we should have discussed cover stories in the car instead of making dates for next week.

Not a date.
So
not
a date.

“Someone was stalking you?” Penny asked, her voice rising in both volume and pitch.
It echoed around the empty foyer and we all winced.

“Gabi, are you okay?” Harrison asked, concern in his eyes.

I held up my hands. “Guys, I’m fine. It was just some loser at the Corral. Rafe saw I was having a hard time and stepped in.” I glanced at Rafe, who nodded ever so slightly. “And I promise you that’s the last I’ll ever see of him.” Because he was currently headless and hopefully lying six feet under the ground. Unless Rafe set him on fire. How did one properly dispose of a demon, anyway? Mental note to ask Rafe that next time. Hopefully it wasn’t something disgusting that would give me nightmares for the next year.

“Does Bernard know about this?” Penny demanded.
“I don’t know why he makes you work Friday nights; it’s not safe.”

“Penny, it’s perfectly safe.”
The only thing I was in danger of was dying of boredom.

“Did you call the police, at least?
Does your dad know?”

“Penny, please!”
I clamped my hands down on her shoulders; she was practically jumping in place like a rabbit on a sugar high. “It didn’t escalate into an incident. Rafe saw I was uncomfortable, talked to the guy, and that was the end of it.”

Rafe quickly spoke up when he realized it was his turn to lie—err, tell the next part of the story.
“Yeah, he realized he was being a jerk and left. Like Gabi said, no harm done.”

“Like Gabi said,” Penny repeated, fixing me with a look that said I had plenty more explaining to do.

“Don’t we have a project to tackle?” I asked weakly, desperate to get out of this sticky situation. I hated lying to Penny, but what could I say? Oh, by the way, demons are real and Rafe goes around killing them? I wasn’t even sure
I
believed it, and I had witnessed it last night!

She crossed her arms over her chest.
“We’re almost done, but you can write the conclusion.”

“Absolutely.
Anything you want, I’ll do it.”

“Hmm.”
She fixed her gaze on Rafe, like he was some sort of science experiment that needed dissecting.

Clearing his throat loudly
, he took a step back. “I, uhh…I should get going. I have some things to do and…”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” I quickly said.
“Oh, wait.” I held up my phone. “We never exchanged numbers.”

I could feel Penny’s eyes burning holes in the back of my head.

As soon as we took care of the phone number stuff, Rafe dashed out of the library without bothering to open his umbrella. I winced in sympathy. I still felt like that, and I had known Penny forever.

“
What
was that?”

I turned around, startled to see her positively beaming at me.
“Uh, Pen?”

“You picked up a super-hot guy
and
got a number out of him just like that?”

“
Not
like that. And he’s not super-hot!”

“Gabi,” Harrison said.
“I am one hundred percent straight and even I have to admit that he was good-looking.”

“I
know
,” I groaned, feeling my face heat up. “But it’s not like that, I swear! He’s cool and all, but just as a friend!”

“Oh, Gabi.”
Penny grabbed my arm and squeezed tightly. “Why are they always just friends?”

I bit my lip and looked away.
“Because, Pen. You don’t understand, because you’ve always had Harrison.”

He raised his brows.
“And I am pretty hard to top.”

Penny swatted him with her free hand.
“Why don’t you try to be a little more open-minded this time, Gabs? He was definitely sneaking looks at you when you weren’t looking.”

He was probably staring at my eyes, wondering why they had the Sight when his didn’t.

Out loud, I said, “He was probably staring at the rat nest on top of my head.”

“Yes,
why
are you so soaked, anyway?” She shook my arm. “And, more importantly, when are you seeing him again?”

I groaned again.
“Please can we just do this project and forget all about Rafe?”

“Honey, it’s going to take a lot to forget those green eyes!”

“You do know Harrison is standing right next to you,” I said.

She grinned.
“Ah, he can take it.” Harrison started pouting, which caused the two of us to crack up. That earned us a few dirty looks from the librarians and patrons, and we fought to control ourselves before entering the library.

Sitting at the table
sandwiched between Harrison and Penny and staring at dusty old books about the Civil War, all I could think about was Rafe and our demon hunting date (date?! This definitely was
not
a date!) next Sunday.