The Mephisto Covenant (20 page)

Inside the school, she immediately knew something was up. Everyone was still downstairs in the front foyer, instead of upstairs in the high school hall. When she opened the door, they all turned to look at her and stopped talking. That’s when she noticed there were papers all over the floor—hundreds, maybe thousands, of pages of copier paper. Bending, she picked one up and saw it was a handwritten note on St. Michael’s letterhead, sent by fax.

Dear Mr. (the name was blacked out),

Thank you for your note. I was terribly distressed to hear that Sasha Annenkova is having such a difficult time at her new school in Telluride. I can’t imagine what kind of mischief a student intended by spreading a blatant lie about Sasha. She was an exemplary student here at St. Michael’s, a leader, a young woman her fellow classmates admired and respected. She is sorely missed, and most certainly was not expelled. Her mother was called to Russia on important business, and Sasha went to live with family members in Telluride. This is the extent of the story, and I urge you to put matters to rights.

Warmest regards, Doreen McAllister, Headmistress

Looking up, she scanned the faces of the students and noticed they all looked apologetic—all except for Brett, East, Julianne, and Scott.

Brett stepped up on the stairs and turned to the group. He looked right at her, unsmiling. “Pretty cute, Sasha. What’d you do, white out a letter from your old school and write a fake note, then make a billion copies?”

“Shut up, Brett,” Erin said. “The fax is dated yesterday, and it’s from a San Francisco area code. Just admit you made it all up and apologize to Sasha.”

He tried again. “She had a friend do it.”

Someone else said, “She’s your cousin, asswipe! What kind of loser tells gross lies about his own family?”

“Shriver does,” another student yelled, and the floodgates opened, people yelling and shouting at Brett, suggesting he do all sorts of things to himself. In the space of one minute, Brett Shriver went from Mr. Popular to Scumbag.

Finally, Sasha found Jax’s face in the crowd. He stood at the back, taller than most, but far away, which is why she hadn’t seen him right off. She walked forward, and the other students parted to let her through. When she was just in front of him, she reached for his hand.

He turned toward the stairs and walked with her up to the high school hall. The others followed, and just as they reached the landing the bell rang, sending everyone scurrying for class.

When the hall was empty, she looked up into Jax’s wonderful face. She wanted to kiss him. “How’d you do it?”

“I had one of the Luminas hand deliver a note to her.” “From who?” He squeezed her hand. “James Hewitt, whose sons, Jack and

Brody, are friends of yours. Mr. Hewitt was worried his children might be running around with the wrong kind of people. He sent a note and a donation for the school to Mrs. McAllister, hoping she’d be so kind as to tell him if there was any truth to the story about his sons’ new friend.”

Sasha grinned. “And she answered right away.” “It was a very big donation.” “And you made a zillion copies.” “Actually, Brody did. Key’s Xerox machine freaks me out.

We came up at four this morning and scattered the papers all over.”

Sasha sobered, gazing up at him. “Thank you, Jax.”

He leaned down and whispered, “Whatd’ya say we ditch English and go out for pancakes?”

She nodded, and they turned and walked back down the stairs and right out the front door; no one made any move to stop them.

---

They came back for second period, and the rest of the morning, Jax enjoyed every moment of what was happening to Sasha. It was as if the lie had never existed—kids talking to her, hanging around her locker, accepting her. She never strayed far from him, though, and if she looked around and didn’t see him right away, he saw a look of panic in her blue eyes.

“She’s falling for you,” Brody said after lunch, on the way to biology.

“It’s the change in her. She’s feeling weird, and I’m stability.”

“What you did was genius. Much more effective than beating the crap out of Shriver. Whatever influence he had is history.”

“Yeah, I guess, but that’s not why I did it.” Brody gave him a cagey look. “Why did you do it?” Watching her walking ahead o
f them, surrounded by the girls
who’d befriended her the first day, before Brett’s bullshit lie, he said, “She was suffering.”

She glanced over her shoulder, checking to see if he was there before she continued on toward biology.

“What’s next?” Brody asked.

Jax smiled at his pretend twin. “I was thinking about a moonlight drive up the Mephisto Mountain.”

“That’d be nice. Or you could take her over to Jenny’s house to watch Star Wars outtakes.”

“And I suppose you’d be there, too?” “Naturally.” “You’re getting attached, man. Don’t do it to yourself, Brody.” “I’m okay.”

“If it’s the damned outtakes you’re after, I’ll buy them for you.”

Brody didn’t answer, which was Jax’s first clue that his little nerdy friend was way more into Jenny Brown than was advisable. Today, the biology teacher, Mr. Hoolihan, wasn’t at all friendly to her. Sasha was handed the day’s lab handout without even a hello.
He pointed toward the back
of the room and said curtly, “Sit down.”

She and Brody were assigned as lab partners, and Jax was with Thomas, who was without a lab partner since Reilly was gone. When Sasha slid onto the stool next to Brody, he leaned close and whispered, “How’re you feeling?”

“Okay, but kind of wobbly, or something.” She looked at him. “Was it weird to become immortal?”

“Very weird.” “How did you do it?” “Just like the Mephisto. I jumped, and when I woke up, I was
immortal. Some people they recruit lose faith on the way down, so when they wake up, they’re in their own bed, and they think they dreamed of falling.” Brody blinked at her from behind his dorky glasses. “Are you thinking about it, Sasha?”

She sat up straighter and shook her head. “I told Jax I don’t want to be Mephisto. I’m not even sure I want to stay Anabo.”

“I don’t understand. It’s a blessing, a gift—something so unique and rare, hardly anyone is ever born Anabo. Why would you want to give that up?” “I don’t want to spend the rest
of my life worrying about
being killed because of what I am.” Class began, and Mr. Hoolih
an passed out dead frogs. She’d
dissected a frog just last month at St. Michael’s, so she knew what to do. Brody was staring at his frog, not making a move to touch it. “What’s wrong?”

“I was just thinking about this frog. He was born to be a frog. If he’d had the opportunity to become, say, a turtle, or a fish, or a horse, do you think he’d have gone for it?”

“Lay off the analogy, will you? I’m not a frog, and I don’t want to be a horse. I’m a girl with a weird birthmark who’s thinking about getting rid of it.”

“Did Jax tell you how rare it is to be Anabo?” “He said there aren’t many.” “As far as we know, there are
none. Except you. In a thousand
years, the Mephisto have only ever found one other. Does that not make you think twice about giving it up?”

“I have thought about it, and it’s what I want. I’m not cut out to be Mephisto.”

“You don’t have to become Mephisto to make a difference, Sasha. Your whole life has made a difference to so many people, all because of what you are. You’re a light in the darkness, something to give people hope. Can you really give that up with a clear conscience?”

“Yes, I can, and laying a guilt trip on me isn’t going to change my mind.”

“I never pegged you for a coward, Sasha.”

Was she a coward? Did she owe something to the world because of the way she had been born? It didn’t seem fair. Why couldn’t she just be ordinary?

She dissected her frog, labeled all the organs on the frogdiagram worksheet, then sat back to wait for Mr. Hoolihan.

He gave her a C. As he moved toward Brody’s frog, she asked, “Why did you give me a C? What did I do wrong?”

The man never looked at her when he said, “I don’t like the way you pinned the specimen.”

His dismissive tone and attitude made her furious. “You don’t like it? What does that mean? Either I did it right or I didn’t.”

He turned to her, eyes narrowed, and said in a low, almost threatening voice, “You got a C. Keep this up and I’ll give you a D.”

She saw the shadow then, and understood why he was being such a jackass. He was a lost soul, and it seemed they couldn’t help it. Her anger boiled over. “I deserve an A.”

He scratched out the C and wrote a large D across her paper. “You’re not at some snooty prep school anymore, little girl.”

“I’m not a little girl. Explain to me why I deserve a D.”

He scratched the D out so hard, he tore the paper. Then he wrote an F that covered the whole sheet. “There’s your explanation.”

Sasha stared hard at him, and he glared back. He was practically foaming at the mouth because he was so angry and out of control. Every part of her—body and soul—wanted to lunge across the desk and put the guy in a choke hold. She shook with the energy it took to keep herself from doing it.

Finally, he turned away and barely glanced at Brody’s unfinished frog before scribbling a shaky A across his paper.

Jax was looking at her with an odd expression. He shot a glance at Hoolihan, then back at her, and mouthed the words, Be careful.

She nodded and focused on her paper, which she folded neatly and slipped beneath the slimy frog.

“Just curious,” Brody whispered, “but have you ever had a violent thought in your life?”

“Never.” “You wanted to go after him, didn’t you?” “It hurt not to.” “You can see what he is?” She nodded. “What I can’t
figure out is why he purposely
screwed me over.” “Brett was their best asset for re
cruiting, and now he’s lost his
shine. I think they blame you.” “He did it to himself.” “True, but they don’t see it that way. You’ve ruin
ed all their
plans to make a huge sweep at this school, and they hate you for it. You need to be very careful, Sasha.”

Watching while Mr. Hoolihan made a big fuss over Amanda’s frog, like she’d just invented the cure for cancer, Sasha saw it for what it was—base flattery meant to wow her, to make her like him, to make her more interested in joining the Ravens. Amanda fell for it, smiling happily, turning to shoot a superior look at Sasha before she looked toward Brett. He nodded his head at her, and she looked ready to pass out from sheer joy.

“He’s still something cool for some, it seems. People will do just about anything to win approval,” Brody whispered. “Even sell their soul.”

“I wish Jax would take Mr. Bruno now, right away, before more people join.”

“There’s going to be a Skia meeting soon, but we don’t know where, or when. Bruno is planning it, so we’re waiting until he does something that’ll let us know, like make reservations, or book a plane flight, or contact some of the Skia who’re invited. It’s a chance to take out a lot of them, all at once. Otherwise, planning for each one could take months, and as you can see, some of them work very fast.”

Watching Amanda, Sasha felt all the weight of the Ravens, of Bruno and Eryx and what they could mean to this girl who looked so sad, who ate lunch by herself, who thought Chris wasn’t bad to look at. She was in danger of losing her soul and becoming an empty shell, lost to Heaven or Hell. Just . . . gone. She wouldn’t think Chris wasn’t so bad to look at. She wouldn’t think about Chris at all. Her whole focus, her every moment, would be centered around finding new people to join the club, new members to give their souls to Eryx.

“Brody, I know you and Jax and the others can’t interfere with free will, or try to convince people not to join, but what about me? Can I?”

He looked at her and smiled. “You’re still human, Sasha. Unique and on the edge of becoming something different, but still human.” He glanced at Amanda. “But be very careful. So much of what you know, she wouldn’t believe, and if for some reason she did, she might share it with someone who could screw it all up for the Mephisto. Surprise is crucial, so we can’t let Bruno have any clue that we’re onto him. Even if you don’t tell her anything, if you start lecturing or preaching at her, she’ll run straight to them.”

“So what you’re saying is that it’s hopeless?”

“Not hopeless, just difficult. It would be worth a try, because every human who says no means one less for Eryx.”

She wanted Eryx to fail, but it wasn’t that so much as wanting to keep Amanda from becoming lost. There was something about losing her, in particular, that bothered Sasha. She was now glancing at Brett every so often, to see if he was looking her way. He wasn’t, and she eventually slumped back in her chair to stare at the lab table, her previous excitement fading.

Sasha spent the rest of class thinking of a way to approach Amanda.

She got the opportunity during the next period, a study hall for anyone not involved in various senior activities, like yearbook or prom committee. The first five minutes, Coach Hightower joked around with everyone and talked a lot about basketball, mostly to Jax. “We’ve only got two more games before the break, but we’ll have a full schedule in January.” He looked around the room. “You’ll all be at tonight’s game, right?”

Everyone nodded or said, “Yes,” and he looked satisfied.

Sasha sat on the far side of the room, next to Jax, glancing out the window every so often, looking for Boo. Brett and East sat at the back of the room, not talking, not joining in, not studying. They just sat and stared, mostly at her, which might have creeped her out yesterday. Today, she didn’t care.

Amanda sat on the opposite side of the room, along with a couple of other girls who were quiet and probably really smart. They were actually studying. Amanda was reading The Metamorphosis, but Sasha noticed she never turned a page.

Then Coach Hightower said, “What we need is some cookies. Who wants to go get some?”

Immediately, Amanda raised her hand. “I’ll go.”

“Okay, great,” Coach said, then glanced around the room until he saw Sasha. “You wanna go along and bring the cocoa?” She nodded, so glad he’d pic
ked her. This was her chance to
get to know Amanda. After he handed them twenty dollar
s, they left the room and
headed toward the front of the school. Sasha waited for Amanda to say something first, but after they’d walked outside and across half the school grounds, Boo tagging along behind, she realized Amanda wasn’t going to say a word.