The Xoe Meyers Trilogy (Xoe Meyers Young Adult Fantasy/Horror Series) (36 page)

He dug through it and came out with a set of keys. He tossed the purse into Jaime’s fire as he walked back to me. He shuffled through the key ring and separated the handcuff key from the rest.

He stuck the key into my cuffs and they blissfully fell from my hands, one wrist, then the other.

“What took you so long?” I asked. “I thought you could
sense
me.”

He furrowed his brow in annoyance. “I cannot
sense
you when you are underground or unconscious. Tonight was the first time you were awake long enough for me to get a mark on you.”

I glanced down at Jaime’s fire. “What happened to the other demon?”

My dad chuckled. “Turns out I know that particular demon. He is very skilled in illusions, and was making them believe that he gave them powers. It’s a game that he plays.”

“So what?” I asked. “He was having them kill people for no reason, so he could make Nick and the others think they were getting new powers?”

My dad nodded.

“But why?” I asked.

My dad shrugged. “Why not? He thinks it’s fun. Convince people to kill supernaturals. Once he’s had his fun he kills the people he originally made the deal with.”

My jaw dropped in stunned understanding. I had almost died because of a . . . joke? “You’re kidding. It’s all for nothing? That is just . . . sick.”

He grinned like the proverbial crocodile. “Not all demons are good, you know.”

I shrugged off the fact that he had echoed my earlier thoughts exactly. He grabbed my left arm and draped it across his shoulder, and I let him, because my knees were going to give out any minute.

“You know, I still hate you,” I said, needing to reassure myself of that fact.

“Yes Alexondra, I know,” he answered, only the slightest mocking to his tone.

I looked down at Nick’s corpse. “I told you so,” I mumbled to it.

“What?” my dad asked.

“Nothing,” I answered. “Will I be able to do that someday?” I asked, gesturing to the remains.

“Oh yes Alexondra. I have very high hopes for you,” he answered.

Now
that 
juicy little tidbit
,
was most definitely a bad thing. A very, very,
very
bad thing indeed.

I
found out that my dad could take me with him when he teleported, though he scoffed at the word teleportation. He called it simply
traveling
.

Whatever it was called, I was soon out of the forest. I assumed we would be going to my house, but in the blink of an eye, we were in the parking lot of Jason’s apartment instead. My dad basically carried me up the stairs, though I pretended to walk as much as possible. Jason flung open his door before we could even knock.

He lifted my arm from my dad’s shoulder and took me into a crushing hug. “I got here as soon as I could,” he breathed into my hair. “I’m so sorry. I should have never left.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” I mumbled. I ignored the painful protest of my bruised ribs and let Jason continue crushing me.

I felt wetness against my cheek and realized he was crying. He drew me further into his apartment, leaving the door open for my dad to come in. Jason sat me down on his generic apartment couch, then sat close beside me.

I looked questioningly at my dad as he hovered awkwardly above us. He nodded toward Jason. “He made me promise to bring you straight here.”

I rolled my head to the side to look at Jason. “He wouldn’t let me come,” he explained, sounding a bit petulant.

My dad sighed loudly. “I
also
told him that I can only carry one person when I travel, I needed to be able to carry Alexondra back.”

“And I told him . . . ” Jason began.

I cut him off with a hand in the air. I had a feeling that my dad was lying about only being able to carry one person, but I wasn’t going to point it out. I forgot whatever I was about to say as I got my first good look at my wrists. They had partially healed already, but were still a sickening greenish brown, with ugly scabs decorating where the cuffs had worn away my skin.

At that moment Chase, Lucy, Allison, Max, Lela, and even Brian came bursting into Jason’s apartment. At my startled expression, Jason explained, “I called them when your dad left to get you.”

Lucy and Allison were the first to crush me with their hugs. “You
stink
,” Allison remarked as she slowly pulled away.

Her remark made me giggle. Then that giggle turned into full out, gut-churning laughter. My friends stared at me as if I had just recited the
Bhagavad-Gita
, and I laughed all the more. I was probably delirious with shock and exhaustion, and I didn’t care in the least. We had once again come out of things alive.

My laughter ended just as abruptly as it started, as a truly horrifying thought dawned on me. “What did you guys tell my mom?”

No one answered me.

“Well?” I prompted.

“They
drugged
her,” Brian answered.

My jaw dropped as I met Brian’s serious brown eyes. I turned to Allison, seeing as she was the only other one who would meet my eyes. “You drugged my mom?” I asked skeptically.

Allison cringed. “Um, your dad did it.”

I turned my attention to the demon in question. “Care to explain?”

“I didn’t
drug
her,” he responded, his voice betraying not the slightest drop of guilt. “I gave her something to make her sleep, and to make her memory a little . . . foggy.”

“You drugged my mom!” I shouted.

My dad cocked his head and gave me a look that said I was being very silly. “What would you rather I had done?”

I was left once again with my mouth hanging open like an idiot. “I don’t know, but you shouldn’t have drugged her.”

My dad just shrugged and began to casually explore Jason’s apartment. I gave up on that particular argument and put my head in my hands. “What happened to the rest of our abductors?” I asked. I couldn’t help flashing back to Claude’s charred face. He’d seemed nice . . . for a kidnapper. The others could rot for all I cared.

“The red-haired woman will be dealt with,” my dad answered. “The others have disappeared.”

“Nick?” Lela asked sadly.

“Kindling,” I answered.

She nodded and slumped down onto the couch next to me.

“Now, when you say she’ll be
dealt with,
” I began, turning my attention back to my dad, “what exactly does that mean?”

“Do you really care?” Chase asked before my dad could answer.

I regarded him with a scowl. “Yes, I care.” Turning to my dad again I added, “Just don’t kill her okay?”

My dad nodded sharply. “Okay.”

Now that that was settled, on to the next emergency . . . I seriously stunk. “Can we go home now?” I whined. “I’m in dire need of a shower.”

Jason took my arm to help me stand. I was still feeling shaky, so I let him. After days of blocking out how much I missed him, it felt good just to be near him again.

We silently left Jason’s apartment, and I proceeded to wobble down the stairs to the parking lot. I managed to do it without much help from Jason, thanks to my death-grip on the railing. The only other vehicle I recognized in the lot was Chase’s, and I wondered how everyone had gotten to Jason’s together.

In answer to my question, Lela stepped up beside me. “Mind if I ride with you and Jason?” she asked. “The ride over in that excuse for a truck was none too comfortable.”

“Sure,” I mumbled as I shuffled over to the passenger’s side of Jason’s car. Jason unlocked the doors while the rest of my friends piled into Chase’s truck. My dad came to stand beside me, preventing me from escaping to the safety of the car.

“You need to let me teach you Alexondra,” he stated simply. Jason and Lela had already gotten inside the car, so I had no one to turn to for an interruption.

I glared up into my dad’s expressionless face. I realized his nose was slightly sharper than mine, not as similar as the rest of our faces, and I took a brief moment to revel in that fact.

“You could try actually asking me,” I said finally. “And it’s Xoe.”

I expected him to roll his eyes at me, but he met my gaze seriously. “Please let me teach you . . . Xoe.”

I closed my eyes and breathed in the crisp night air. This would be the final step to letting him into my life. “Fine,” I mumbled.

He smiled, and it was genuine. “I will see you soon then.”

I opened the car door, then turned to stop him before he disappeared. “Hey,” I began, “I have a question.”

He raised an eyebrow at me in response.

“When they kidnapped me, they gave me a bunch of tranquilizers,” I explained, “but I got over them really quickly, faster than Lela did.”

My dad chuckled to himself before answering. “You have enough oomph to create fire from nothing. A fast metabolism is part of the package.”

I couldn’t help my smile at the term
oomph
. I liked it a lot better than “demon power.” “Oomph huh?” I asked. “I guess I can deal with a little oomph,” I conceded.

I slipped into the car just as my dad disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He apparently didn’t care if anyone saw him. If only we all could be so secure.

W
hen we got back to my house, Chase’s truck was already parked out front. I wanted nothing more than to be alone with Jason, but my friends had been worried about me, and I could stand to spend a few minutes to reassure them that everything was really okay.

Jason, Lela, and I went into the house to find Max, Lucy, and Chase waiting in the living room. I went to stand near the couch with Jason following me like a shadow. No one said anything.

I stood awkwardly for a moment more. I was
way
too tired for this. “I’m, um, gonna go shower,” I announced, pointing one finger half-heartedly toward the stairs. I hustled out of the living room and up to my room, Jason never more than two steps behind me the entire way.

Once we were alone, I fell into Jason’s arms. I hadn’t even checked to see if my mom was awake. I still had no idea what I was going to say to her. Sorry, but dad had to drug you? I somehow didn’t think that would go over too well. Maybe I’d be able to convince her that she’d hit her head, and was now suffering from a minor case of harmless amnesia.

Jason sat down on the bed, and I curled awkwardly into his lap. My legs were a little too long for it, but at the moment I needed to be as close to him as I could. His dark brown sweater was slightly scratchy and I found myself briefly wondering why scratchy sweaters even existed. Who buys scratchy sweaters when there are soft ones out there? Jason apparently. Okay, I was obviously still a bit delirious. What had I come upstairs for again?

As if reading my mind, Jason asked softly, “Are you going to shower?” 

“Oh, um, yeah,” I mumbled in reply.

When I didn’t move, he lifted me easily so he could stand, then set me gently back on the bed. He leaned down by my head and kissed the side of my forehead. “I will get Lucy to help you,” he whispered.

“No,” I mumbled, “get Allison.” Lucy would fuss over me nervously. Allison would take things in stride, and wouldn’t make me feel pathetic about needing help to be bathed. I wanted to do it myself, but now that I was safe, my body simply wouldn’t move anymore.

Jason left while I was still sorting through my muddled thoughts, and before I knew it, Allison was doing her best to make me stand up so she could help me into the bathroom. I didn’t really help much. In fact, I think I might have blacked out a little, because the next thing I knew, I was slumping down into a nice, hot bath. Ah, heaven.

Allison sat on the closed toilet. I was glad to have her there. It would really suck to have survived all of the danger, only to pass out and drown in the tub.

Allison leaned her head in her hands tiredly. She was dressed in a pale pink cardigan and faded jeans that made her look delicate and out of place next to my dark purple décor. “I shouldn’t have left you Xoe,” she said, tears choking her voice. “I’m so sorry.”

I sunk a little deeper into the hot water. Allison had rolled up a towel for me to lean my head against and I got it wet with my movement. Not caring, I sunk down until the water was at my chin.

“I told you to leave, Al,” I mumbled.

“But it was so we could get help,” she argued. “By the time we got back to the crypt, you were gone. We left you all alone and it didn’t help at all.”

“You did the right thing,” I breathed tiredly. “Just let it go.”

Allison nodded to herself, then changed the subject. “Jason didn’t get back to Shelby until just after Lela, Brian, and I escaped. He went crazy when he found out you’d been taken. It took Max, Chase, and your dad to hold him down and keep him from running off on his own to look for you.”

When I didn’t answer, she continued to fill me in. “And that was after it apparently took Max, Lucy, and your dad to get Chase to go back to the truck after they lost you at the coffee shop.”

At that I raised a questioning eyebrow, but kept my eyes closed. “You know he’s not going anywhere, now that the danger’s over I mean?”

“Who?” I asked, not able to follow her train of thought.

“Chase,” she answered. “He views your dad as family. Now he’s got this weird protective thing with you.”

“Surely you jest,” I mumbled, and smiled to myself. Yeah, I was definitely delirious.

Allison took me seriously. “I just had to spend an entire 24 hours with him and your dad when we were looking for you. Trust me when I say that neither of them is going anywhere.”

I opened my eyes a crack to regard her. Come to think of it, she did look more than a little tired. “You guys haven’t slept?” I asked.

“Of course not!” she squealed, looking offended.

Okay, I hadn’t realized I was making everyone wait when they hadn’t slept at all the previous night. “Towel please,” I asked.

I was feeling a little better, and managed to stand on my own while Allison held a towel open for me. I swaddled myself in its wonderful fluffy softness and stepped onto my purple rug, not caring that I was still dripping water from my legs. Allison pushed the little switch to drain my bathtub, then followed me into my bedroom. I sat on my bed while she pawed through my drawers. She threw me my dark green sweats and a long-sleeved black
Bauhaus
tee.