When she read it, she mouthed the words What happened? at me. I shrugged, not wanting to get into it in class.
After class, Heather caught up with me and walked with me to my locker. “So, I thought you and Damiel had a date?”
I tensed at the mention of his name. “We did.” I was afraid to let on too much. Damiel might not have any records because he didn’t technically exist, but he was still real to everyone here. If people knew he came over, they might get suspicious. Not sure who could be listening, I kept my voice low. “But Michael came by first, and we hung out instead.”
“You blew him off? For Michael?” When I nodded, she continued, “How did Damiel take it?”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. She wouldn’t come up with the truth on her own. After all, it’s not every day that you narrowly escape dating a demon. “Okay, I guess,” I replied, bluffing. “It wasn’t serious or anything.”
“You got any idea where he is today? He hasn’t been around.”
Hell? I thought as I shook my head.
“I guess you wouldn’t. I’ve already heard a few girls whispering about him.”
I resisted the temptation to tell her my thoughts. She wouldn’t believe me if I told her the truth about him. The word demon was hardly in Heather’s vocabulary, but I did wish I could talk to someone about what was happening to me. Someone other than Michael.
“So, Michael, huh? I’m glad. He’s way more your type than Damiel. The bad-boy thing is really only good for exploring the Jungian shadow side of your unconscious.”
I didn’t have a clue what she was talking about. “Jungian what?”
“Carl Jung believed that everyone has a shadow, or dark side to their personality.”
“Oh.” I didn’t think Carl Jung, whoever he was, could explain Damiel’s dark side.
She waved her hand dismissively. “Anyway, I knew you really liked Michael ever since that day we went on the hike.”
I remembered that day, how his carrying me seemed so close, so intimate that it scared me. Now, I couldn’t get close enough.
“Has he kissed you yet?”
I didn't want to answer her question, but my face gave it all away.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She grinned.
“No,” I said, blushing. “It’s not what you think.” How could I explain how complicated things were? That he and I had been in love before, and I was so in love with him now that it hurt to think about it? If Heather thought there was a chance between us, she’d only look for ways to set us up, and that would only drive him further away.
***
When I didn’t see Michael all morning, I began to worry. If he was still battling hellhounds, there had to be a lot of them. Were other people getting hurt? Was Michael? What if they got to my mom? I thought of her lying on the ground outside our house, unconscious, while those creatures feasted on her flesh. The image haunted me so strongly that when I finally saw Michael in the hallway before last class I rushed up beside him.
“Is everything okay?” I asked.
“It’s fine.” He leaned toward me and our sides touched. It was electric, and he backed away slightly, as though he felt it too. “We got all the hellhounds, if that’s what you mean.”
I let out the last of my breath, and the knot that had formed in my stomach relaxed.
“Hey,” he said, leaning in again. “Are you okay?”
“I was worried about my mom. You know, in case…”
“She’s fine,” he reassured me. “Arielle and I double-checked your place.”
“Thanks.” Hearing Arielle’s name reminded me of what I wanted to ask him. “Arielle told me what happened to Fiona.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
We reached the door of my Latin class. I lowered my voice, looking around to make sure no one could hear us. “She showed me those minions—parasites, whatever—that get on people, the ones Damiel sent.”
“She showed you that?” he asked.
“Yeah, and I thought maybe we could tell Fiona…”
One of my classmates, a tall, freckled blond guy whose name escaped me, wanted to get in the room. Michael backed me out of the doorway into the hall. “Tell her what, exactly?”
“That it’s not her fault. That she was attacked by something terrible,” I said. “That she didn’t do it to herself.”
“No, Mia. You can’t tell her that. Nobody can know what you know.”
“Why not? I know these things.”
He took a moment to consider his answer. Out of the corner of my eye, his halo flashed like paparazzi cameras on Oscar night. “Telling you was a tough decision to make. I did it because you’re different. You already see these things, and if you’d listened to me about Damiel in the first place…”
I stiffened. “That’s the only reason you told me? Because you had to? The cat was already out of the bag?”
“It was a sign that I could tell you. You were in danger.”
“My friends are in danger, too! I can’t not let them know what’s coming at them. How can they fight it?”
A few more students made their way into the room. Class was about to start. I had to get inside. Michael held my arm, quiet and serious. “Believe me. Knowing about these things only makes it worse. I told you—”
“She’s my friend.”
“What do you think would happen if you told her? After everything she’s been through? With all those doctors questioning her?”
Ms. Nelson, my Latin teacher, approached. “Class is starting.” She turned to Michael. “Are you joining us today?”
“Nos iustus postulo paululum,” Michael said. We just need a moment. His accent was perfect, his voice a chord.
Nodding, Ms. Nelson backed off and shuffled into class.
“Did you—?”
“I bought us a few minutes,” he said quickly. “What if Fiona says something?”
“She won’t.” I remembered how Elaine found out about Michael rescuing me in the woods. Fiona wasn’t the best at keeping secrets. “They’d think she’s crazy.”
“Yeah, and that’s the last thing she needs right now.”
He was right. There was nothing I could say to Fiona to make it all better. The only thing I could do was be her friend, even if that meant hiding something from her. At least it was for her own good.
My cell phone rang, making me jump. I’d thought I’d turned it off. The number was blocked on my call display, but I answered it anyway. From the other end came an inhuman screeching that sent tendrils of ice down my spine. Around my neck, the warding necklace from Fatima twitched.
I was about to hang up when I heard a voice. Tinny and metallic, it sounded dreadfully familiar. “I like it when you wear your hair down. It’s so sexy.”
My breath froze in my chest. “Who is this?”
Beside me, Michael tensed. My phone was loud enough that he could hear everything.
“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already,” Damiel’s voice purred on the other end of the phone. “I haven’t forgotten you.” I pictured his eyes the last time I’d seen him, the way they shone that terrible red. But then he was in a body—Giulio’s body.
Could he see me? Right now? “I thought you were gone.”
“Oh, you mean what Michael did?” He laughed—a cold, evil sound. Behind his voice, I could still hear the screeching. “It takes more than that to get rid of me.”
Michael clasped his hands behind his head and turned away. “Just hang up,” he said.
“Tell Michael to remember who he’s dealing with.”
“Leave us alone!” I said and hung up.
Michael muttered something under his breath. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was cursing.
My hands shook, so I clasped them together. “Is he back?”
“If he was back, he wouldn’t bother to call,” Michael said. “He’d just show up.”