The Sight Seer (7 page)

Chapter Fourteen

“Your dad wasn’t angry, was he?” Rafe asked thirty minutes later as we sat in his car, following Evan through the
dark streets to the restaurant. The temperature had dropped as the sun set, and Rafe had put the heat on for me the moment we had returned to his car.

“No, he was surprisingly cool about it,” I replied, thinking back to the conversation.
Dad had picked up after three rings, and I quickly explained that I was going out to catch dinner with Rafe.

“Is that okay?” I had asked when he hadn’t replied.
The silence had made me nervous, and I wondered if he somehow knew I wasn’t being entirely truthful with him.

“You had a nice time with him, then?” Dad had finally said.
“I mean, you’re obviously reluctant to leave him…”

“Dad, if you want me to come home, just say it and I’ll have him drop me off.
It’s no big deal. Did you have something planned for dinner?”

“Nope, just leftovers.”
Dad had paused again. I had waited, listening to his steady breathing. “No Gabs, don’t come home. Go out and have a nice meal with your young man, but remember that tomorrow is a school day.”

“I won’t be out late.
Promise.” I had turned around and given Rafe a thumbs up sign. He had let go of the demon body, causing Evan to almost drop it, to give me a thumbs up in return. And a smile that made my heart skip a beat, but that wasn’t important.

“Gabi?”

“Yeah, Dad?”

“I
…I’m happy you found a nice guy.”

“Oh, Dad, it’s not like that.”
No Dad, we were actually combining our talents to kill demons. As if I could say that!

“Oh.
” The conversation had awkwardly died after that, and after another promise to be home before ten, we hung up.

“My dad isn’t bad,” I said, back in the present.
“I mean, I was so mad at him when he made me get a job the day after I turned sixteen, but I see now why he did that. The spending money is great, and it looks good on a college transcript.”

Rafe nodded in agreement.
“Your dad is a smart man.” He shot me a bemused look. “But if you have spending money, then how come I’m always treating you?”

“Because you’re always ruining my clothes!”
I lifted up my shoes as an example. Evan had given me some hand wipes after stashing the demon body in his trunk. I shuddered, imagining him driving around with that thing in his car, but apparently this was normal procedure for demon hunters. They killed, bagged, and then disposed of the bodies at an undisclosed location. I had asked if any normal humans had ever seen them dragging a body away from the scene, but they said something about putting a veil in place that blocked anyone without the Sight from seeing things. Rafe tried to give me a technical explanation, but basically, it was magic. And magic was pretty damn cool, from what little I had seen of it.

Anyway, we had used the wipes to scrape the dark green goo off my shoes, but it had already hardened up pretty badly, leaving behind noticeable stains.
These were going in the trash the moment I got home. Sigh.

“I’m going to wrap you up in a spacesuit the next time we go out,” Rafe muttered to himself as he flicked on the turn signal.

“Yes, when is the next time?”

“I don’t know.
We’ll see.”

That was odd.
For someone so eager to use me when we first met, his lackluster response was surprising. Was it something I had said? As we lapsed into silence, I desperately fished around for something to say, finally coming up with, “So, Evan, huh. Strange guy.”

Rafe laughed at that, and I relaxed.
Maybe it wasn’t something I had said. “He’s a handful and an idiot, but he’s the closest thing I have to a brother. I couldn’t do any of this without him. And I wouldn’t want to, anyway.” Rafe shot me a quick glance before turning his attention back to the road. “You can’t take anything Evan says seriously, Gabi. Believe me, you’ll only end up with a massive headache. He’s complicated.”

“Who isn’t?”
I laughed, but Rafe didn’t join in.

“Evan pretends a lot.
Pretends that things are different than they actually are.” He made a frustrated noise, rubbing his chin with a quick swipe. “Now you probably think I’m crazy, because nothing I’m saying is making any sense.”

“I think I get it,” I said softly.
That sounded familiar. Too familiar, in fact. “Evan has certain things going on in his life, but obviously you can’t tell me because it’s not your place to tell me.” I leaned back in my seat, gently hitting my head against the headrest. “I get it, Rafe. Probably more than you think.” I prayed that he wouldn’t ask me to elaborate and thankfully, he didn’t. We drove the rest of the way in silence, caught up in our respective thoughts.

* * *

Rafe pulled into the lot, parking his car next to Evan’s. The blonde was already out of his car, stretching his hands over his head as he waited for us. We got out and joined him, Rafe stopping to pluck the unlit cigarette from behind Evan’s ear and tossing it into the car’s open windows. “You know you can’t bring that in there.”

“But it’s not lit, so who cares?”

Rafe shoved him towards the restaurant. “But they don’t know you’re not going to smoke it, and you’ll end up getting us thrown out like at the last place. And I like this place and would be very angry if you got me banned from it.”

“That last place sucked,” Evan said.
“You should be thanking me, Rafe.”

“Yeah, right, whatever.”
He opened the door and gestured for me to go first, but Evan cut in front with a wink in my direction. I rolled my eyes at Rafe, who gave me a sympathetic look.

Evan was already flirting shamelessly with the hostess, who giggled and showed us to what she claimed was the best table in the room.
It was a large booth, actually, set in the back of the restaurant and away from the other tables. Only about half of the tables were occupied; we would be able to discuss demons without anyone overhearing us.

Somehow I ended up wedged between the two boys.
Evan obviously didn’t know what the words “personal space” meant. He was practically sitting in my lap, his thigh pressed against mine and his arm hitting my shoulder as he opened his laminated menu. I scooted over, thinking maybe he was too close to the edge and needed some space, but this only caused me to bump into Rafe.
              “Sorry,” we both muttered, Rafe moving over. I tried not to feel too disappointed about that. Evan took one look at us and started laughing.

Hiding my burning face
behind my hair, I stared down at the menu. “So, what’s good?” I was proud to say my voice didn’t shake. Rafe, meanwhile, had to clear his throat a few times before he gave me his recommendations. We both ordered pasta dishes while Evan ordered an entire pie. For himself.

“And I’m not sharing, either.”

“Pig,” I muttered under my breath, and Rafe choked on his soda. By the time I finished pounding him on his back, the entire restaurant was staring at us. I belatedly wished I had kept my menu so I could hide behind it.

“Don’t worry Gabi, they’re staring at me,” Evan said as he swirled his straw around and around his drink, the ice cubes creating a delicate twinkling sort of melody as they banged together.
“I get this all the time, it’s no big deal.”

“Can we please talk about demons?” I asked Rafe, determined to spend the rest of the evening ignoring everything Evan said.

“Sure. What do you want to know?”

What
did
I want to know? Well, there was one burning question that had been bothering me from the beginning, but I had a feeling that if I asked Rafe the real reason why he didn’t possess the Sight, the evening would be over before it had even had a chance to really start. So instead I asked, “How did you two meet?”

“I thought we were talking about demons,” Evan complained, now chewing on his straw.
“Unless you’re referring to Rafe as the demon, because I know you definitely don’t mean me.”

“No, I meant…
Rafe mentioned an organization—are you both members? Is that how you know one another? You’re comrades in arms or something like that?”

Rafe leaned back.
“Something like that.” He picked up his napkin and started shredding it into little pieces; I wondered if it was a nervous habit. How bad was it that he was telling me these things? Would he get in trouble with his bosses? Did he have bosses? I tried to picture someone like Bernard slaying demons and nearly erupted into a fit of nervous giggles. Rafe brushed aside the pieces of napkin and said, “We’re from a group called Silver Moon.”

“Oh boy, now you’ve done it,” Evan replied, his straw bobbing up and down with every word he spoke.
“Now we’ll have to kill her if she goes and blabs.”

Rafe winced.
“Evan, please.” To me he said, “Don’t believe him.”

“Rafe, honestly, I’m not even hearing the words he’s saying.”
I waved a hand in Evan’s direction. “It’s all white noise.”

“Excuse me!”

We ignored him.

“So, Silver Moon?” I prompted.
“Does that have anything to do with that moon you drew in the air to make your sword appear?”

He nodded, looking a little pleased, like he was happy that I had been paying attention.
“It’s all connected. The spirits are weak against silver, so we use weapons that have been made from silver. In alchemy, silver is represented by a crescent moon, thus the symbol you saw me draw.”

“Did you just say ‘thus’?” Evan asked.
We continued to ignore him.

“And that’s how you got your name?
How long has Silver Moon been around, anyway?”

“Since the first appearance of vengeful demons.”
Rafe shrugged. “Thousands of years, at least.”

“At least,” I echoed.
These boys were part of a group of fighters who had been around for practically forever, and yet they were completely casual about it. Alright, I could be that way too. “And how do you get picked to be part of this top secret club?”

Rafe fell silent, and it was Evan who answered.
“It’s hereditary.”

I blinked.
“So like, father to son?” Damn, I had forgotten my resolve to ignore him.

Evan was pleased to see that I was acknowledging he existed again.
“Parents to children. Females fight, too.”

“I know, Rafe told me that.”
I turned back to Rafe. “So your parents—”

“Ah, here’s our food!” Evan said, slapping his hands together and rubbing them vigorously.
I guess that was his way of telling me to shut up before the waitress overheard anything. She placed our steaming hot plates of food in front of us and we dug in quickly. I hadn’t even realized how hungry I was until now.

“Demon hunting sure helps you work up an appetite!” I said.

“I’m pretty sure you’re always hungry,” Rafe responded.

I smacked him on the arm and he laughed, green eyes sparkling with mischief.
I smiled, feeling relieved as I went back to devouring my spaghetti. There had been a painful flash of something, maybe sadness, in Rafe’s eyes when I mentioned his parents, but now, watching him steal a slice of cheesy pizza from Evan’s pie, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had imagined it.

Chapter Fifteen

Twenty minutes later, I was full and happy, the shoe-ruining incident almost completely forgotten.
(
Almost
, I said. I’m sure when I got home and threw out the pair of lovely things I would be cursing Rafe’s name to the heavens.) After the waitress took our empty plates back to the kitchen and we were musing over the dessert menu, I asked, “So how did the sword appear like that today?”

“Magic,” Evan said.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Rafe added, scowling at his friend. “It’s not, you know, abracadabra and bam, the sword appears. You have to make a contract, invoke the proper energies. It takes years of training.”

“So what do you do before you master that?” I asked.
“Walk around with the sword strapped to your back?”

Rafe rolled his eyes.
“No, Gabi, I already told you I can’t do that in modern times!” His tone and words were scolding, but he grinned to show me he wasn’t angry. “In the beginning, sure, when everyone carried around swords it was fine, but as times changed, Silver Moon has had to adapt.”

“And not everyone wields a big clumsy sword around,” Evan added.
He was slumped across the table, his head resting on his crossed arms. A strand of blonde hair fell into his eyes as he yawned. “I prefer daggers!”

“No one asked you,” Rafe muttered.
“And yes, I use daggers as well, but the sword is the best weapon to behead them with!”

I shuddered.
“Do you always have to behead them?”

“If you want them dead, then yeah, that’s the way to do it,” Evan said.
“If you don’t chop their heads off, they’ll just get back up and attack you. The old guys realized that the hard way.”

“The old guys?”

“The founding members of the organization. The elders,” Rafe explained with a scowl in Evan’s direction. “He’s just being disrespectful.”

Evan stuck his tongue out
. “Why should I show those idiots an ounce of respect after what they did?”

“It wasn’t all of them.”

“It was enough. If they hadn’t thought to—”

Rafe cleared his throat loudly, eyes glittering dangerously as he gave Evan a look.
It was obvious that they had had this discussion before. Evan sighed and went back to the menu, muttering about chocolate cake under his breath.

I sat there, confused and ignored.
And more than a little hurt.

“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
When Rafe didn’t answer, I crossed my arms over my chest and gave him my best glare. “
Rafe
.”

“Look, Gabi.”
He stopped, sighed, and ran a tired hand over his face. “I know I have no right to ask anything else of you, when you’re already doing so much for me, but there are certain things I can’t tell you.”

“Or we really will have to kill you,” Evan said.
This time, Rafe didn’t snap at him, and I wondered if he was for real.

Oh crap, what did I get myself into?

“Okay, fine.” I let the hurt I was feeling seep into my words. “Whatever, I don’t care. I’m not a hunter, so I don’t have to know this stuff. But if I get killed because you’re keeping me in the dark, I will come back to haunt you, Rafe Fitzgerald!” I pointed a finger in his face for extra measure.

His expression softened.
Reaching up, he took hold of my wrist and gently pushed it down so it was resting on the table. His hand remained on mine longer than necessary, and I felt a blush heat up my cheeks.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything you need to know to stay alive, Gabi.
I’ll keep you safe, I swear.”

I pulled my hand away so I could cross my arms again.
How had the conversation shifted to me being worried about getting hurt? Because honestly, that was the last thing I was concerned with!

I hated secrets, hated being left out.
If I was in, all in, then I felt I deserved to know everything. But, maybe Rafe really
couldn’t
tell me. So I shouldn’t blame him, should I?

Taking my phone out to check the time, I sighed.
“I gotta go, boys.” This sucked; I had barely learned anything new tonight! “Can I get that dessert to go? I’ll eat it in the car.”

Rafe raised his eyebrows.
“You seriously have room for
more
food?”

“Rafe,” I said, deadly serious, “there’s always room for dessert.”

* * *

“Still with me,” Rafe asked as he drove me home, “or have I lost you to a food coma?”

I licked the last bit of gooey chocolate icing off my fork and groaned. “This is seriously the best piece of chocolate cake I have ever eaten. In my life.
Ever
.”

“Alright, I get it,” Rafe
laughed. “I told you that place was good.”

“Next time we go, we’re just getting dessert.”
I clamped my mouth shut when I realized what I had just said. Next time. As if we were dating. Which we obviously weren’t. Good job, Gabi.

“We’ll see,” Rafe said mildly as my face burned.
I wished I could open the door and fling myself out onto the pavement. “There’s a Thai place down the block from my school that’s pretty amazing.”

“Oh.”
Maybe we
were
dating.

“Evan knows one of the waitresses and gets us a good discount whenever we go.”

Maybe we weren’t. I resisted the urge to start bashing my head against the window. I think that would have freaked him out. Which was what I was currently doing.

“Sorry,” he said.

I paused in mid-freak out to ask, “About what?”

“You didn’t get to ask a lot of questions tonight.
I meant what I said earlier; I want to properly explain this to you. And I think I screwed up tonight, telling you things that weren’t that important.”

Like what, that the elders had messed up big time somehow?
Yeah, I was pretty sure that was important.

Out loud I said, “Well, maybe next time you can just talk and I’ll be nice and quiet and not interrupt you.”

He smiled. “Gabi, I don’t mind you asking questions. It’s cool that you’re so interested.”

“How could I not be?
I was thrown head first into this world; I should at least know something about it!”

The light from a passing streetlight lit up the interior
of the car and I saw Rafe nod. “You’re right. There’s no way I could have asked for your help without expecting you to know what you’re up against. And I think it’s awesome that you haven’t, you know—”

“Run away screaming at the top of my lungs?”

“Exactly.”

“Can I ask you one thing, Rafe?”
My voice had dropped to a whisper, my heart pounding as I weighed this serious question in my head. Did I want to go there?

I mean, I did, but he most likely didn’t.

When he indicated I could continue, I quietly asked, “How come you don’t have the Sight?”

Rafe winced and I instantly knew I had made a mistake.
I would have been better off asking him if he wanted to be my boyfriend. Which I didn’t want.

I mean, I didn’t think I did.

“I’m sorry. Forget it,” I said, holding up my hands, wishing we were in front of my house so I could dash out and go smash my head against my bedroom wall for the next thirty minutes.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask.”
His voice was low, barely a whisper.

“It’s obviously a sensitive subject and I shouldn’t have, so I’m sorry,” I repeated.
“It doesn’t matter. You’ve got me now, and together we’ll be unstoppable, right?” I turned to look at him and nearly gasped aloud when I saw the pained look on his face. Oh crap, what the hell was wrong with me?

Rafe was silent until he pulled in front of my house.
Turning off the engine, he faced me. “There’s nothing to say, Gabi, because I don’t know. I was a demon hunter born without the Sight. A misfit. A mistake.”

“Rafe!”
The sharp tone of my voice startled us both. “You are most definitely
not
a mistake! And I saw you take out
two
demons, so I know what I’m talking about, alright?” I held up a fist. “Who called you a mistake? Was it Evan? I’ll punch him so hard he won’t know his own name!” Let’s not mention the fact that I’d never punched someone before.

Rafe chuckled as he gently pushed my hand d
own, just like before. And just like in the restaurant, he kept his hand over mine longer than necessary. Although this time our hands rested on my thigh. I swallowed hard at the close contact, my heart suddenly racing.

“No, it wasn’t Evan,” he said.
I tried to clear my head so I could focus on his words. “Others have said things, yes, but the worst comes from me.”

“You’re an idiot then,” I said.
“There’s nothing wrong with you, Rafe, so stop thinking like that!”

Rafe removed his hand from
my thigh (boo!) so he could take off his hat and run a hand through his hair. Leaning back into his seat, he smiled. “I guess I have no choice, or else you’re going to hit me. And those skinny arms of yours look like they could do some real damage!”

With a
cry of outrage, I pounced, but instead of hitting him I swiped the hat out of his fingers and placed it on top of my head. Grabbing my bag, I quickly opened the door and got out. Rafe rolled down the window with a howl of, “No fair!”

I stuck my tongue out at him as I leaned against the door.
“It’s your own fault.”

“Fine, keep it,” he said, starting the car again.
“It looks better on you, anyway.”

I backed away, really hoping he couldn’t see my blush in the dark.

“See you later, Gabi,” he called with a laugh, clearly indicating that he had seen the red that stained my cheeks. Dammit, I needed to work on controlling that! “I’ll text you, alright?”

I nodded, afraid if I opened my big mouth I’d say yet another thing I’d probably regret for the rest of my life.
I gave him a little wave and went up the walkway, letting myself in and shutting the door quietly behind me.

My phone gave a small chirp and I pulled it out to read
a text. My eyebrows flew up in surprise; it was from Rafe. Already.

And it read,
Thank you
.

Parting the curtain from the front window, I saw him still sitting there, watching the house.
I gave him another wave and he returned it before pulling away. Dropping the curtain back in place, I waited for my racing heart to slow down to a normal tempo.