Lead Demon

Take Me

Minutes dragged to hours and the cold went from cool to piercing. There were a thousand questions Tenn wanted to ask—who were the Witches, how did the twins know about them and where the hell were they going?—but he kept quiet. The questions he truly wanted answers for were the ones he couldn’t voice, the ones he was terrified to know. Tomás and Matthias were out there, still hunting him. And he still had no idea why.

Seven and Christal paused by the side of an old SUV. It didn’t stand out from any of the other vehicles they’d passed, save for the fact that all its windows were intact.

The twins exchanged another look. Seven shrugged.

“Seven thinks... He thinks he can drive this,” Christal said.

Fire and Water flickered in Seven’s body as he peered intently through the windows, his hands tracing the glass like a kid ogling a candy-store window.

“Drive it?” Stephanie said. “Good luck getting it to start.”

Tenn remembered the cold mornings of his childhood and his mother’s frantic attempts to get the car running so she could get him to school on time. Memory made his heart clench, but he stayed focused on the present. The last time this SUV had been used was probably three years ago. Minimum.

“The tank is full,” Christal said. “The battery is dead, but Seven can change that. He is good with cars. They were his fascination as a child.”

Stephanie raised an eyebrow. If Seven was paying them any attention, he didn’t show it.

“Tenn?” Christal said. “The doors, if you please.”

“Um, okay.” He opened to Earth and pushed his senses through the various mechanisms, finally finding the locks on each of the doors. He twisted the metal and rendered the locks obsolete. Crude, but it got the job done.

“Everyone in,” Christal said. She walked around to the passenger’s side and got in without waiting for an answer.

“Beats walking,” Stephanie said with a shrug. He opened the door for Tenn and then slid in, throwing their gear in the trunk.

“Have you done this before?” Stephanie asked when they were inside.

Seven nodded. “Once,” came his muffled reply.

Tenn didn’t want to know what Seven was doing. Fire and Water and Air were glowing in his body, and that was enough to give Tenn a hint. Strange noises came from the engine. The truck shuddered.

“The oil is bad,” Christal said. “He is purifying it. And charging the battery.”

“I didn’t realize you could do that,” Stephanie said.

“At its base, Fire is energy.”

“So why don’t you have electricity in Outer Chicago?” Tenn asked.

“Ask Cassandra,” Christal said. Tenn couldn’t see her face, but he could tell from her voice that there was a smirk on her lips. “Other guilds have electricity. So far, hers is the only one we have visited without it. I think she prefers the appeal of living in the Dark Ages.”

“Not surprising,” Stephanie muttered.

Tenn sank back in the seat, and Stephanie put his arm across Tenn’s shoulders.

He tensed for a moment. Even though they’d spent a few hours earlier curled against each other, this felt foreign. This felt too normal. Too good. He waited for Stephanie to shift, to retract his arm. He didn’t. So Tenn decided to go with it. Tenn snuggled in close, absorbing Stephanie’s warmth. If he closed his eyes, he could pretend they were just in the back of a car on a cool winter’s night, about to drive with friends to the movies or out to eat. He could pretend there were no monsters and no magic—just an empty road and warmth on the horizon. If he ignored the pops and hisses coming from the engine, that is. He didn’t ask if Seven really knew what he was doing. He didn’t want to know.

Finally, with the crunch of gears and a rumble, the SUV shuddered to life. Seven looked back at the two of them. Although his mouth was covered by his scarf, his eyes grinned with a distinct told-you-so look.

“Damn, boy,” Stephanie said. “If only we’d known about your skills sooner. You could have been the official bus driver.”

Seven chuckled and turned back to the front. With a shift of gears, they were off.

To say it was strange was an understatement. Tenn hadn’t been in a car since...well, since he’d fled from the Academy. He’d never expected to have the experience again. He stayed nestled against Stephanie and watched the world streak by outside the window. Seven turned the heat up.

“What are you thinking?” Stephanie asked. He ran his fingers through Tenn’s hair.

Tenn shook his head. It was way too easy to get used to this closeness. Way too dangerous to think this was possible.

If he let himself think either of those things, he’d just want it more.

“Nothing. It’s just...this is weird. I mean, it’s just so...normal.”

He didn’t just mean the car ride. He meant Stephanie, the way that being around each other felt natural, every movement and touch one of memory and not new territory.

Stephanie felt like home. All of this did.

“I know,” was all Stephanie said. Then they both went back to staring out the windows, lost in their own thoughts.

A few miles in, Seven turned on the radio. No stations played, of course—just static. It’s not like they were expecting some magical mystery signal from a Howl-free country or something. That s**t only happened in bad zombie flicks. There was a CD in the player, and Seven switched over to it. Tenn jumped as heavy metal blared through the speakers. Seven turned it down.

The world had changed entirely. Tenn knew that. But here, in the car, snuggled against Stephanie, he could almost let himself believe otherwise. He could almost forget about the Howls and the necromancers and the monsters that seemed to stalk his bedside. He could almost forget the blood staining his hands and heart. If he tried, he could almost let himself believe that this was a life they could have again—driving around with friends, listening to music, going somewhere for enjoyment rather than necessity. He could almost believe there’d be a house at the end and a family to invite over for dinner.

He could almost believe that everything would be okay.

He could pretend.

That lie... That lie was the only thing that made life worth fighting for.

He closed his eyes, and sleep found him immediately.