Human (9 page)

"So why did you want to see me?" I asked, a little bit impatient. I didn't have time for this. The only thing I wanted was to go to my warm house and come up with a good plan to get rid of him.

"Are you in a hurry?" There was a hint of a smile on his lips.

"Homework won't write itself," I pointed out, then remembered he had that magic ability to create perfect compositions out of thin air. "Well, at least mine won't."

"Tell me about it." He sighed, staring down at his boots as he kicked an empty soda can that was lying discarded in the snow.

"Can't you use magic on your homework?"

"I wish." He snorted. "It's not that simple."

"Strange. I thought it was." I looked at him, and we stopped walking. Why was he even trying to lie to me when I knew better? He was just about to say something when his eyes went black, and he squeezed them shut, placing a hand on his temple like he was having a bad migraine.

"Are you ok?" I reached out for him, but at the last moment decided against it and let my hand hover in the air only inches away from his shoulder. His eyes were blue again when he finally looked back at me, but his nose was bleeding.

"I'm fine," he said, clearly surprised that I cared. Did I care? I had no idea, but it was hard to see him as a demon when he appeared so human.

"Umm, there's blood..." He'd wiped it off with the sleeve of his sweater before I could finish the sentence. Were demons supposed to have nose bleeds? Somehow I doubted it.

"I've learned a lot of things about this world, but it's so different than I expected." His sudden change of topic surprised me a bit. Was he going to pour out his heart to me? Not likely. He was probably trying to make me trust him or feel compassion for him.

"Different from Hell?" I felt a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. If Hell was anything like I thought it was, then it was completely different.

"Yeah," he said, blinking a few times. His eye color changed from blue to black and back again so fast that I could barely follow.

"Are you sure you're ok?" If he was faking it, then he was doing an awesome job of it, because I actually got worried.

"Yeah," he said, but blood was again trickling from his nose. I shook my head at him, my gloved hand on my hip, hoping he'd either stop acting or admit something was wrong.

"If that is ok, then I'm an alien," I said, and he stared at me like I had sprouted a third head. Oh well, maybe he'd never heard of aliens.

"It's nothing," he said reassuringly, wiping away the blood.

"Maybe I should go," I said softly. "You need to... take care of that, and I have things to do..."

"No!" He grabbed me by the arm before I could walk away. His fingers felt like ice even through all the layers of clothing I had on me. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he let his hand drop by his side.

"You're freezing," I said. "Why don't you..." Go home? Would that be Hell or some place here? I had only a moment to decide what to do next. The first option was to leave him here and go home. The other option was to take him home with me like some stray puppy for a while. There was a fair chance he was trying to make me do exactly the latter. Fine. I could do that. Since my sister wasn't at home, it was the perfect time to convince him there was nothing suspicious about my house and that he shouldn't observe it.

"You're coming with me," I said, taking him by the arm and leading him down the street. Unfortunately, that touch didn't give me a special insight into his head or anything like I had been secretly hoping. He seemed taken aback, but didn't protest. Yeah, I knew my idea would make him happy.

The look on my mom's face when I appeared with Devin at the door was priceless. I wished I'd had a camera because it would have been an awesome photograph. Her eyes widened and her mouth was slightly open, but she managed to cover up her shock pretty quickly and give us a broad smile.

"Ariel! I didn't know we were having guests," she said, coming towards us. If I'd known, I'd have totally told her. Devin stood shyly behind my back, and I figured it was that awkward moment when my mom assumed he was my boyfriend.

"Umm, Mom, this is Devin, my friend from school," I said, accenting the word friend, but there was a knowing glint in my mom's green eyes, so I might as well stop trying.

"Nice to meet you, Devin," my mom said, offering him a hand. It took him a moment to accept it, and when he did, it looked like he was thinking she'd bite his hand off. Demons were weird. My mom shivered slightly, undoubtedly from Devin's cold fingers.

"We're going to do some homework," I said, taking off my coat. Devin still stared around him like he was out of time and space. Well, he probably was, but I couldn't quite see how my house was different from anything he had seen already. Dread filled my chest when I realized he might have sensed my sister. Could he really feel some angelic energy around here? I prayed with everything I had that he couldn't.

"Sure," mom said, unconvinced. Yeah, her suspicion might have something to do with the fact that Devin didn't have any books with him.

"Just some paper we have to do. The teacher sent us an e-mail, so we're going to check it out." I smiled, pulling Devin with me towards the stairs. He was still looking at my mom like she was some monster out of space, but she didn't seem to notice. I breathed out in relief when we finally reached my room. This was way too awkward. I'd never brought a boy home before, and I could only imagine how all of this looked in my mom's mind. A demon boy, among other things. Not that she'd ever guess that fact.

"Your mom had magic placed on her," Devin said, breaking the silence. "Demon magic."

"What?" My eyebrows shot upward. "What are you talking about?"

"A demon used magic on your mom," he said as he gave himself a tour around my room, carefully inspecting every corner. "Can't you see it?"

"No," I said acidly. "That's my mom you're talking about! No demon messed with her."

"Are you serious?" He picked up a photograph from my desk, and I snatched it out of his hand before he could take a good look at my sister and me when we were little.

"I won't let you say things like that about my mom," I said through my teeth, wondering how he had managed to magically recover and be in a good mood so easily. There was definitely no eye color switching and certainly no nose bleeds. He'd been playing me all along. Bastard.

"Of course. You can't see it because whoever placed you here didn't want you to find out the truth." He ran his finger across my drawers, and I half-expected him to start opening them, but he didn't.

"I'm not a demon!" I would have yelled at him if my mom wasn't downstairs straining her ears to hear if anything weird was going on.

"Yes, you are!" He turned on me so fast that I backed away and bumped into my desk. My notebooks and pencils fell down to the floor, and I glared at Devin as hard as I could. He stepped away, but made no movement to help me put my things back in order. I crouched to collect my pencils while he went back to sniffing around my room.

"What's this?" Devin asked just as I was putting my notebooks back on the desk. I lifted my eyes to see what he was holding and nearly had a heart attack. My favorite white seal plushie was in his hands and not on my bed where it was supposed to be.

"A seal," I said, rushing towards him, ready to fight to get my plushie back. "Put it down!"

"I know the animal, but this is not alive. And it's smaller." He actually poked it to prove his theory. I tried to take it from him, but he lifted it up above his head. Maybe he wasn't really tall, but he was still taller than me, and I couldn't reach it.

"It's a toy!" I said, frustrated. "Just give it back to me. It's mine!"

"Oh." He handed me back my plushie, but he didn't seem too happy about it. "You can keep it?"

"Hey, just because most people think toys are for kids doesn't mean they're right!" For some reason I felt a strong need to defend myself. How odd. Why would I even care what some demon thought of me?

"Yeah, but you own it?" he said, unfazed.

"Of course I do." I didn't even know why I was answering his stupid questions when there were better things to discuss. I hugged my seal close to myself and glared at Devin.

"Is everything in here yours?" He waved his hands around.

"Yes! But that's not the point," I said, exasperated. "You have to realize that I'm not a demon, and I'm not going to believe a word you say about my mom."

"Why do you keep lying to yourself?"

"I am not lying to myself! You're the liar here!" I said angrily. God, it was crazy how he could make me feel so many things in such a short time span.

"Think about it. Demons can see through the demon magic, so you probably have magic placed on you to protect you from other demons' influence and seeing the truth about your mom," he said, coming closer to me until we were only inches apart. "What if I can prove it to you?"

"Prove how?" I met his cerulean eyes, hoping it didn't involve anyone going to Hell or being under a mind spell.

"I'll expose the spell so you will be able to see it too."

"And you can do that?" I said skeptically. "How do I know you're not trying to fool me? You could as well be placing your own magic on my mom."

"You don't believe me? Fine." He shrugged. "Live in denial."

He stepped away from me only a second before my mom opened the door of my room without knocking. What happened to trust? Had it gone through the window the moment I let Devin into the house?

"Sorry, didn't mean to bother you, but dinner is ready, and I would like both of you to come downstairs," my mom said, smiling at Devin. I focused on my mom's green eyes, trying hard to see any sign that what Devin had told me was true. Nothing happened.

"We'll be there in a minute," I said, and my mom closed the door. For a second, I considered asking Devin to put some fake memory in my mom's mind so she'd just forget about him being here at all. But I couldn't do that to my mom.

"You do eat human food, do you?" I looked at Devin.

"Human food, huh," he said, licking his lips. "Humans are not tasty at all." My frown must have deepened because he added, "What makes you think it's
human
food? Don't you think a demon might have been the one who taught humans how to prepare it?"

"Please don't tell me pizza was invented in Hell first," I said, shaking my head. He just kept grinning at me. I was glad that demons didn't think of us as a meal, but I just couldn't picture a demon in Hell cooking something normal. I went for the door, trying not to burst out laughing.

The look on my dad's face when he walked through the door and saw Devin was almost as ridiculous as my mom's had been. But instead of smiling, he actually frowned.

"Hey, Dad, this is Devin, my classmate," I said, hoping he'd catch onto the word classmate, which was so different from boyfriend. I knew they were ok with me having a boyfriend, but since I'd never brought one home, they probably assumed this was serious. Oh, God!

"Nice to meet you, Devin." My dad outstretched his hand, observing Devin carefully up and down. They shook hands, and Devin gave me a surprised look. I just hoped he hadn't sensed anything demonic about my dad too.

"Why are your parents looking at me like that?" Devin whispered into my ear, making me jump. I hadn't even noticed he was standing right behind my back.

I see a shadow standing over my
mom's sleeping form on the couch in our living room. But it's not really our living room; it's too dark and the TV is missing, along with our two black leather sofas. I try to take a step forward, but I can't move. The shadow starts turning around like it can feel my presence.

"Ariel! Ariel, wake up!" I heard Devin's panicked voice. He was trying to hold me in his arms so I wouldn't fall to the floor. I shakily stood on my own two feet, hoping the stupid vision wouldn't be back. Devin must have broken it when he had touched me. Luckily, my parents were still in the kitchen.

"Are you ok?" There was actually genuine concern in Devin's blue eyes. Didn't want to lose his little helper, did he?

"I'm perfectly fine," I said but didn't feel like it. Was what I had seen somehow connected to Devin's idea of my mom being under a demon's spell? Or was it just my imagination fueled by Devin's words? Could he have done something to trigger it to make me believe him?

My parents finally came through the kitchen door, carrying plates and bowls. I could get through this dinner, or at least I hoped I could.

I fell down on my bed, feeling completely exhausted. The dinner had gone better than I'd expected. I hadn't even managed to embarrass myself, and Devin hadn't turned into a dark creature of Hell and tried to eat my parents. It bothered me how human he could look and act. He'd almost made me doubt myself and my decision to kill him, but I knew I mustn't let looks fool me.

I was a bit disappointed when I checked my cell phone for any texts or missed calls. Italia was probably pissed off that I hadn't really talked to her about what was going on, but I still couldn't do anything about it. The only thing I could do was send her a text saying I was busy studying for the exams. She most likely wouldn't believe me, but I hoped I'd get a chance to explain it all to her one day. But first I had to get rid of the demon.

While I waited for my laptop to turn on, I rummaged through my drawer to find my old crucifix, which my grandma had given me for my birthday. The crucifix was medium in size and made out of real silver. I'd been outraged when I'd gotten it, but now it just might come in handy. Maybe my grandma knew something that I didn't.