Demon Derby (23 page)

“I’m supposed to take Casey home with me,” Michael said apologetically as we walked back to the dorm after runny omelets and black coffee at the cafeteria. Rachel and Sadie looked shocked, and his ears turned red. “I mean, back to her house,” he clarified. “That’s why your parents lent me the car.”

“What?” Rachel asked.

“Um … the blue car? Your mom let me borrow it.”

“Mrs. Kent loaned you her car? Dude, you are a god!” Sadie exclaimed, skipping down the sidewalk in front of us. “Next, you should ask if you two can have a sleepover.”

“Sadie!” yelled Rachel, sticking her fingers into her ears. “You’re talking about my little sister. I don’t need to hear that. LA, LA, LA, LA!”

I tried not to laugh, but it came out as a snort instead. Nice.

It took a while to say our goodbyes because Rachel decided she had to wrap and rewrap the bandages on my arm three times, but I didn’t mind. It was just nice to be back on speaking terms with her. About a half hour later, Michael and I finally managed to get into the car.

“Okay. So what next?” I said as we pulled away from the curb.

Michael glanced at me. “I was thinking about that sleepover.” I punched him in the shoulder. “Ow. Or maybe we should just get you home and start your training. Unless you want to wait until you heal up?”

I shook my head. “If I wait, I’m only going to get hurt worse. I need to practice making Relics so I don’t get demon dogged again.”

“Agreed.”

Back at my house, my mom fussed over my injury, making disapproving comments about people who don’t clean up after themselves. She made me promise to keep the wound clean and bandaged, and then she excused herself to go grade papers.

“Are all mothers like that?” Michael asked, sitting on the couch and pulling me down next to him.

“What do you mean?”

“In the movies, they’re always very emotional. But she seemed to take that well.” I tilted my head to look at him. “Hey, you can learn a lot about people from movies,” he added defensively.

“I guess. But I used to climb buildings for fun. Between that and the leukemia, she’s learned to take things in stride.”
I leaned over to look at him more closely. “You really have no clue what it’s like, do you? Being human, I mean.”

“No. But it’s nothing you need to pity me for.” But then his expression wavered. Sadness didn’t sit right on his marble features. It looked off somehow, like his mouth wasn’t supposed to bend that way.

“Michael, what happened with 693?”

“My thoughts are that obvious, huh?”

“Let’s just say you shouldn’t take up poker.”

He shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. He came into being just after me, and we did everything together. We trained in combat and learned the ways of demons and how to weave the power of the Between. Lots of aggressive testosterone stuff you probably wouldn’t be interested in.”

“Duh. Of course I would.”

He chuckled weakly. “I was just a little older, a little faster, a little stronger. He grew to hate me for it. He pushed hard to be sent to earth before me, and even though I knew he had something to prove, I stepped aside so he’d be chosen. I thought it might make him feel better to finally be the first, but I think the jealousy only made him more susceptible to temptation. Ironic, right? I tried to help him. I didn’t mean to send him to his doom.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, leaning my head on his shoulder.

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s not yours either.” I rested my hands on my thighs. “So where should we go to practice?” I asked brightly. “I’m ready when you are.”

He looked around at the overstuffed, brightly patterned furniture and the slightly scorched painting on the wall. My parents still hadn’t noticed the new burned bits, or at least they hadn’t said anything to me. Our living room wasn’t particularly fancy, but it was comfortable. I was so glad my mother wasn’t one of those people who bought furniture and then never let anyone use it.

“This looks good enough to me,” he said.

“We’re going to make Relics in my living room?”

“Where else would we make them?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe I’m making this more complicated than it needs to be. But I know I’m missing something. I tried making one when that dog thing attacked me, and it totally failed. Do Relics all have to be metal? I wondered if maybe that was the problem.”

“Relics can be anything. At some point, you won’t even need an object to make one.”

“Wow. I have no idea what you’re saying.” I glowered at him, only half serious, and he shrugged helplessly. “And thanks for the warning about the dogs, by the way. I didn’t know they could be demons.”

“Any living creature can be a demon. Sentinels don’t always take human form.”

“Yeah, I got that. So what did I do wrong?”

“It’s all in the mind-set. Remember, all the power comes from balance between body and spirit. Feelings that pull you off-kilter like anger or fear will interfere with your ability to make Relics.”

“There’s no way I could look one of those dogs in the face and not be scared. I’m mortal, Michael. And I know it firsthand.”

“Well, duh.” I scowled at him, and he winked like he’d said something funny. “There’s a difference between being scared and giving the fear power over you. Once you let your fear control you, it’s impossible to be balanced, which makes it impossible to access the Between. Get it?”

“Uh … kind of. How do I know the difference?”

He shifted awkwardly, looking suddenly unsure. “Practice.”

“Why am I worried that you have no idea what you’re talking about?”

“Partly because I don’t. I’m a creature of balance, so I haven’t really experienced this firsthand. My job will be to put you into a bunch of different circumstances so you can figure out how to stay centered regardless of what the demons throw at you. You’ll still be afraid, but you can use that fear as a tool instead of letting it force you into poor decisions.”

I picked up one of the throw pillows and fiddled with it for a second while I thought about this. “So you’re going to try to piss me off and make me scared.”

“And then have you attempt to create Relics.”

“That’ll be great for our relationship,” I said dryly, and then I felt like a bit of an idiot, because we were still in relationship limbo. Not quite together, but not quite apart either. “That was a joke.”

“Was it?” he asked. The look he gave me made it so tempting to throw logic out the window.

“Yeah,” I said, standing up before I did something stupid. “Should we get started?”

There was a long pause. I was all too conscious of his presence at my back. When he moved closer, I felt it without even looking. I wanted to turn around and kiss him. Part of the reason I wanted it so bad was because I knew I couldn’t, but the knowledge didn’t make it any easier to resist the impulse.

“That would probably be wise,” he said.

“All right.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “Let me meditate for a minute before we start. Because I’m not exactly centered right now.”

“That’s fair.”

I sat on the floor, a meditation pillow propping me up so my legs didn’t go instantly numb. Meditation was a big part of practice at the dojo, so I knew what to do even if it had never been one of my favorite things. I fell into a slow circle of breathing, in through the nose and out through the mouth. My eyes slowly closed. But still, it took a long time before my mind quieted.

“There’s a chance they might try to get to you through your family,” he said.

My eyes flew open. “What?”

“I told you I was going to jerk your chain. Now make a Relic.”

“You expect me to create a Relic after that?”

He stood there silently, waiting. Part of me wanted to rant that this wasn’t fair. He should have given me something easier to start with. But I’d seen how 693 had operated, and
he’d been even younger than Michael. I didn’t want to think about how much harder it would be to face an older, more experienced demon.

So I took a deep breath and pushed away the urge to smack him. How had it felt to make those first few Relics—the necklace and the key chain? If Michael was telling the truth, I’d made them into weapons; I’d channeled the Between into them without even knowing it. If I was going to do it again, I’d have to recapture how it felt. I remembered feeling desperate and afraid and confused, but then there was the part of me that had seen a challenge to be overcome. The part that wasn’t afraid of death. It wouldn’t go down without a fight. That part of me had taken my determination and honed it into a weapon. That was what I needed to access.

So I threw every ounce of my will into the throw pillow on the floor a few feet away. And for a second, I saw it flare with bluish, ghostly flames. A feeling of triumph rose in my throat; I let out a squeal of excitement. The flames went out, but I didn’t care. I’d done it, and I could do it again.

“Good,” Michael said, his voice stern and undeniably sexy. “Again.”

I’d never been into shopping, but when Darcy invited me to the mall about a week later, I had to say yes. First of all, I still hadn’t hung out with her except for at practice, and I felt like I should at least make an effort. And second, I would have
agreed to stick bamboo sticks under my fingernails if it would have saved me from another afternoon spent trying to make Relics while Michael came up with new and interesting ways to screw with my head.

So she picked me up, and to the mall we went.

“Are you looking for something specific?” I asked as we walked toward the gleaming doors of the Wildwood Shopping Center.

“Actually,” she said, “I just wanted to spend time with you. It seems like you’re always with Michael these days. It’s like I never get to see just you.”

“I’m sorry.” I nudged her with my elbow, trying for playfulness. “It’s not because I don’t want to see you. I’m just … you know. Thanksgiving family crap and homework and a new relationship and all that.”

“Well, if you ask me, it’s not such a good one if he’s taking you away from all your friends.”

“But he’s not …” I trailed off. The reality was that I’d been doing my homeschool work every morning and Relic training every afternoon, followed more often than not by derby practice and more time with Michael. The only day I hadn’t seen him was Thanksgiving, because I had to go to my grandma’s and listen to her tell my parents for the umpteenth time that she wanted them to get real jobs. I’d talked to Kyle on the phone a few times and had gotten together with the crew once to play video games. After a few frosty moments, we’d shot at each other with virtual machine guns. That had
seemed to help, although they still hadn’t invited me freerunning again. I wouldn’t have had the time anyway.

I hadn’t meant to blow them off, but I was doing just that. The saddest thing is that Michael and I weren’t even really dating. Although, that saying about how you could cut the tension with a knife? I was starting to really understand what it meant. It was just a matter of time before something broke.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t want to be one of
those
girls. We’ll hang out more; I promise.”

“So you’ve got time?” She perked up immediately. “I mean, I’ve got to get a new charger for my cell, but can we stay for a while after that?”

“I’m not much of a shopper, but sure. Where do you want to go?”

“You’ll see.”

It took only a few minutes to buy a charger, and then she took off so quickly that I practically had to run to keep up. She had much longer legs than me. I was faster on skates now, but not so much on foot.

Finally I caught up to her in the middle of the Sears concourse. The area was pretty empty at the moment. In a month or so, the mall employees would decorate this space to look like Santa’s workshop. But for now, it was just a big open space with lots of raised areas and random walls. It looked like a giant had dropped a big load of blocks on the floor, and instead of moving them, someone had decided to cover them with carpeting.

“Dude, what are we doing?” I asked, stopping at her side and panting a little.

Instead of answering, she flashed me an excited grin and sprinted at one of the mid-sized walls. It was maybe five feet tall. She ran straight up it, grabbed the top, and vaulted herself over.