Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 8

“The lovesick, the betrayed, and the jealous all smell alike.”-Gabrielle Colette.

Chapter 8

-Karen-

“What did he want?” Jon asked me, staring at me intently. “Was his brother with him?”

“Yeah, Victor was there and they want me to go back to their dimension,” I said yawning. I couldn’t sleep last night. Some hideous looking werewolves invaded my sweet dream. Although, I had never seen a real werewolf the movies and TV shows did the deed for me to form my own kind.

“What the f**k!” He growled. His hands rolled into a tight fist. “I should have killed him right there.”

“Unless you’re a supernatural or a hunter you can’t kill a fully charged vampire,” I said. “They are powerful creatures, Jon.”

“Why do they want you back in that hell?” He exhaled.

See, he was so concerned for me. How could I not think it was the brotherly love?

“The werewolves have teamed up with hunters to hunt down all the vampires. I need to help them…or wait they want to help me, to keep me safe.” I rolled my eyes. I, myself was confused. It was hard to explain everything to him.

“Why are they trying to protect you so much?” Jon asked. When I didn’t answer him, he narrowed his eyes at me. “Are you hiding something from me, Karen?”

I looked at him and tried avoiding his piercing gaze. I knew I couldn’t keep the secret from him for so long. I’d have to tell him someday.

This was the day I guess.

“I’m a witch, Jon,” I uttered.

He looked down at me with a serious expression on his face that made me believe that he had taken this in a good and calm way.

Then he coughed a laugh.

“Maybe I look like a moron but let me tell you, that is a delusion. You are trying to get your revenge for making a fool of you some weeks ago, right?” He laughed. “I’m totally not falling for this.”

We walked through the gates of the school. We had the first class together but that didn’t mean we were going to talk about this whole day.

“I swear that I’m not kidding.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I’m a very powerful witch, Jon”

“Really?” He stopped walking and leaned on a wall. “Then show me a sample.”

“What sample?” I raised my eyebrows.

“Make the chem teacher a frog.” He smirked. “I hate that guy.”

 I groaned and ran a hand through my neatly combed hair.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah,” I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer him.

“Are you really not lying to me?” Jon asked.

I shook my head and let out a sigh. He didn’t believe me. He was never going to believe me.

“I’ll show an example,” I said shrugging. “I’ll make the frog out of your enemy.”

“If you’re serious then,” He rubbed his chin. “I want you to keep rubbing the whiteboard after whatever the chem teacher writes. Done?”

If that was all he wanted me to do to prove that I was a witch.

“Okay, I’ll do it.” I breathed.

We took our seats in the chem class and started waiting for the teacher to enter the class. Jon had taken the usual seat which was next to mine. He flashed me a quick smile and took out his notebook. Damn! This was scary. I was really going to show off my supernatural powers.

“How are you?” Xavier asked in his deep voice.

Xavier was wearing a blue button-down shirt. Well, he could pull off any look but he looked handsome. I suddenly saw what my friend Beth saw in this guy. His brown eyes lit up as he smiled and God forgive me for checking out his dimples.

I could check out guys. I wasn’t committed to anyone. And I wasn’t dead.

“I’m fine. What about you?” I asked. “And how was your family visit?”

He looked at me confused for a second. “Oh, that. It was nice. I got to know some more people in my mom’s relation. I didn’t even know they existed until I met them.”

“Cool,” I muttered. “You’re in my chem class too?”

“Of course I am.” He answered as if it was obvious. “I’m a trained stalker.”

We laughed out loud. I stopped when Jon nudged me with his elbow. Our chemistry teacher had entered the classroom.

We waited for him to start writing on the whiteboard. When he started writing, Jon pointed with his eyes to start the procedure with my powers. I knew he was trying to make fun of me because he still didn’t believe me.

I held my breath and concentrated.

H2SO4 you’re history now.

I saw nothing but the chemical formula that had to be balanced on the board. We all knew he was going to call up any student and ask them to balance the chemical formula. I couldn’t care less. I only had to rub it off the board.

“C’mon, disappear now,” I whispered.

I concentrated, even more, biting my bottom lip hard.

Suddenly, I felt a tingle on the back of my neck. My breath felt quite heavy in my lungs. Now that was a new feeling. Everything around me became blurry.

“Jonathan Carlton, don’t you dare to skip the question again.” The teacher yelled so loudly that came back to the real world. “Come here and solve it.”

“Sir, I can’t do this.” Jon made an innocent face. “I think I have ADHD.”

“Then I will be curing you today.” The teacher scoffed. “Get to the board and balance the equation immediately.”

Jon pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath.

“Can I do this?” Xavier asked.

I looked at him and passed the sweetest smile I could. He was saving Jon. I could have helped him if the teacher had not told me to shut up many times when I had shouted the answer to Jon. Basically, all the teachers in the school had warned me not to answer instead of Jon.

Love could make you stupid. Really.

The chemistry teacher turned to look at him and his angry expressions eased. He seemed to decide if he should consider calling Xavier to balance the freaking equation.

“Okay,” He murmured.

Xavier smiled at me and got up from his seat.

“Thank God.” I heard Jon say.

He spiked his hair up with his fingers and rubbed his face several times. When he saw me staring at him he narrowed his eyes at me and made a face.

“You sure have a lot of powers, Karen.”

“I was trying when he shouted your name, okay.” I felt sleepy. “It takes a lot of concentration and energy to bring out the—”

“I can’t believe you are a witch. You could have saved me from that equation.” He gritted his teeth.

“Jon, since when do I need to show something to make you believe me?” I raised my eyebrows, questioning him. “I thought you knew me better than everybody else.”

“Yeah, I do.” He muttered and then slumped on his table.

The period passed with me balancing equations faster than the teacher could. I scribbled on my notebook like a real nerd, never taking my eyes off it. I even started doing the questions from the next chapter.

If being a witch gave me extra intelligence, I felt wrong while using it when I was among the normal humans. Why did ‘normal humans’ sound so strange to me? Maybe because I was not one of them anymore. The life I knew was left far behind. There was no way to return to the past unless I used a time portal, but as Lady Escoffier said my life was never ever going to be the same again.

“Can I drop you home?” Xavier walked beside me as I started going home after the long day at school. Jon was in the school for after-school basketball practices.

“You can,” I said. “But I can take a bus.”

“Why would you take a bus when I’m here at your service?” He asked. The adorable dimples appeared.

Oh my God! Was he flirting with me? Beth would kill me. It wasn’t like I was stealing her guy or anything, right?

“Really, it’s not that far.” I shrugged awkwardly. “I can even walk but as Jon isn’t with me, I’ll go by bus.”

“I have a comfortable car parked in the parking lot that is waiting for two tired people.” He looked into my eyes. “I’ll go by bus too if you ain’t coming with me. The car won’t forgive the two of us.”

“Seriously?” I sighed.

We walked to his car and I wasn’t a bit surprised when I saw a shiny grey car. It was nice with capital N. He opened the door of the car for me like a gentleman and gestured me to get it. He ran to the driver’s seat and it didn’t take any other second for the engine to roar to life.

“Nice piece,” I said.

“Thanks,” He said as he pulled out of the parking lot. “My mother gifted it to me on my seventeenth birthday.”

He was loaded for sure.

“So how many people are in your family?” I asked.

“Uh—just my mother and me,” He focused on the road ahead. “My father died a long ago.”

“I’m sorry.” I looked at him.

His jaw was clenched. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. Anger clearly sparked in his eyes. I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I didn’t know what to say to console him but I had to give it a try.

“I’m really sorry, Xavier,” I said.

“No, you’re not the one to be sorry.” He took a deep breath and huffed. “I mean, people die every day. It’s not a big deal. I just happened to be a little close to him.”

I wanted to ask him the reason for his father’s death. I didn’t dare to ask any further questions related to the subject. I had a fear that his hands would pull the steering wheel off. I cleared my throat in the silence that had enveloped us, not sure if I should speak.

“You know, Karen you can talk.” He said as if he had read my head. “We can’t mourn for someone’s death for the rest of our lives.”

“But he was your father,” I whispered.

“I know you’re thinking that why I am so angry over his death.” He turned the car to the left. I had already told him where my house was. “The circumstances in which he died weren’t…nice. Mom was broken and I was the only one to take care of her. It has been hard for us.”

I touched his shoulder. He kept his eyes on the road. It seemed like he was breaking down but still trying to hold on because he wasn’t alone. Boys seldom cried in front of anyone. For instance, Jon never cried when he was with anyone except me.

“So, should I turn right or left?” He asked smiling.

“Right. My home is right there.” I pointed with my finger. “You wanna come in?”

“Nope, I have to go now.” He replied. “But I promise I’ll visit you someday.”

“Thanks for the ride, Xavier.”

“It’s a pleasure.”

I got out of the car and watched him drive away. He was such a nice guy.

“It’s dangerous to travel with strangers.”  A voice said and I rolled my eyes. Only I knew how much I despised this guy.

“Can’t you shut your mouth ever, Victor?” I turned around. “You irritated me to a level no one can ever reach.”

“That’s why I am special.” He smirked.

He stood towering over me. I had never given a thought to how taller he was than me until now. His lean body leaned over me. He was wearing a very nice leather jacket over dark blue ripped jeans. His grey eyes stared straight into mine. I noticed a slight change in his hairstyle.

“What’s with the greaser look?” I asked.

“Uh—you don’t like it?”

I shook my head.

“You hurt my feelings, Karen.” He said. Then his fingers worked quickly on his hair. After he was done, his hair was back to normal hair. It looked good on him, with dark hair falling on his pale forehead. “I like the way you check me out but a picture lasts longer.”

“I hate you.” I pushed him and he groaned in pain. Such an actor.

“Your Nate injured me with a wooden stake last night.” He said.

Nate staked him. That was impossible. I knew sometimes Nate lost control of his anger but he wouldn’t ever stake his own brother.

“Even if he had staked you, you heal fast,” I said. “You shouldn’t be crying over it.”

“I like the way you put logic into things.” He smirked.

“Okay, so why did he do that?” I asked. “I know there has to be something you have done to anger him that made him take such a step.”

“Yeah, and that’s how all the blame falls upon me.” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“What did you do?”

“Better ask him.”

“Why are you here then?” I asked. Was he here to take me?

“I have been keeping an eye on you, sweetheart.” He licked his lips. No, I wasn’t thinking about our kiss. No, no way. “I don’t like that guy you came here with.”

“What’s the problem with him now?” I sighed.

“I don’t know,” He said. “I just get an ill feeling when he is around you.”

“Is that jealousy?” I grinned.

“Why would I be jealous?” He turned away. “I have to go. A vampire meeting is waiting for me.”

“Okay,” I said. I had to enter my home too.

“Stay alive,” He said before walking away.