Burn (Drift Book 3) Read online

  “You better shut up. This is all your fault, demon boy. How did you get out of that room they had you restrained in?”

  “Scruffy.”

  “What? How is that possible?”

  “Yeah, with a little help he found me. Your little black book played a role in that, too. Which reminds me, I’m going to destroy it. I’m sorry. I have no choice. It’s too dangerous to have out there, babe.”

  I expected a little resistance from her about that, but she easily agreed it was the right thing to do.

  “So… Mark knows… about you… us… everything?”

  “Pretty much. He saved my life.”

  “Wow…I didn’t know he had it in him.” She chuckled a little.

  “Me neither.” I laughed back.

  “So how did he save you? What happened?”

  I started to tell her what occurred and then thought it best to wait. I knew Scruffy would revel in telling her all about it. I’d save the glory for him.

  “I think I’ll let Scruffy handle that one, hun.” I grinned.

  “So…you two are cool now then?”

  “Yup. We quashed it. We’re boys again.”

  “Finally. What about Sandra? Does she…?”

  “Yes, she knows about me…us. Again, no thanks to your little black book and Scruffy’s mouth.” I shook my head.

  “Okay, okay, I get it. Just destroy the dang thing and be done with it.”

  I smiled and pulled her back into my arms and we kissed. The sun was setting and I wanted to make sure it was completely dark before I took her home. I bought some more time by getting her up to date on what happened while she was kidnapped. I told her about my interactions with her parents and how worried they were about her. I also told her about all the encounters I had with the vampires along the way.

  “So many people know about you…us now. Scruffy, Sandra…more than you intended, Leo. I’m afraid I’m going to have to tell my parents about you, too. I can’t lie to them any longer. I realize that puts them in harm’s way, but I don’t think I have a choice anymore.”

  “It does, but do you honestly think they’ll believe you?”

  “Yes.” She pointed to my back, telling me that I would have to prove it to them myself by showing them my wings.

  “You want me to personally let your parents in on this madness, too?”

  “What choice do we have, Leo? My parents, mainly my father, thinks you’re the kidnapper or have something to do with my disappearance. I mean, indirectly, they’re right. They may never let us be together unless we prove to them we’re telling the truth…both of us. They’ll think I’m covering for you if I don’t tell them what in the world is going on.”

  “You think they’ll allow us to be together after you tell them your boyfriend is a demon…after they accuse you of being a liar?” I said sarcastically.

  “That’s what I need you for, but probably not. At least it gives us a better chance to be with one another, though. I’d rather have them know what you are rather than have them think you’re something you are not.”

  “I see your point, but this is making an already volatile situation even worse.”

  Again, Shade’s sell job was working on me. I have to admit though; this was probably the right thing to do. The dwindling council members were making them less of a threat to the humans that know about me. Granted, Christian was a bigger problem than Agrelia and Shimmer combined, but having more humans knowing about me seemed more appealing than worrisome anymore. Plus, if it meant being able to maintain my relationship with Shade, then it was worth it. The worst that could happen was they’d think it was completely ludicrous or they’d be scared to death and wouldn’t let her near me. That would suck, but there was always the chance they’d embrace me given that they already seemed to like me before Shade was kidnapped. There was no way to know but to try. As of now, they weren’t going to let me near her, so this is something that I need to give some thought too, never forgetting though, knowledge about my predicament is always a threat to any human that knows as long as Christian is on the loose.

  “I know, but it may have to be done so we can be together. All I’m asking is you consider it, hun. That’s it. The secret doesn’t have to be spilled today, I can stall. Just let me know…okay?” She pulled my forehead to hers and rubbed the back of my neck.

  “I will. C’mon, Anne and Richard have waited long enough to be reunited with their daughter. Let’s get you back home.” With a quick peck and a nod from her, I wrapped my arms around her waist and we soared into the sky to her house.

  In minutes we were there and I dropped her off in a safe location near her home.

  “Wait for me to come to you. I’m going to try to come see you tomorrow. Thank you, baby, I’m so glad I have you.” She kissed me and started to jog to her house.

  “Take a shower,” I called to her. This stopped her briefly and she shook her finger at me in warning.

  I laughed and leaped up into some trees just after she passed out of my sight. I was curious to see what happened when her parents saw her for the first time. I found a perfect spot to watch from. I arrived and propped myself at the top of a tree just in time to see her hop over the little white gate in front of her walkway and go running up it to the front door. She slammed into the door because she tried to open it and rush in, but it was locked. I could hear her shouting to her parents to open the door. It didn’t take but a few seconds for the door to swing open in excitement.

  The first one to the door was her father. He shouted her name and grabbed her right where she stood, hugging her and then kissing her cheeks. She couldn’t even step one foot into the house before Anne joined in and sandwiched Shade between them. I could hear them crying and talking to her in elation. It made me smile. Her parents then ushered her inside the home and closed the door behind them.

  I continued to hang around for a few extra minutes. I just sat there, grinning. It did me good to see that. Being around humans as often and as long as I’ve been lately seemed to be rubbing off on me. Although the demon in me couldn’t possibly feel the pure joy the three of them were experiencing at this moment, it still made me smile watching them. It was as close as I could ever come to feeling human happiness.

  Before I flew away, for the first time since Shade had been gone, the porch lights turned off. When I returned home, I landed on my branch and stared into town. I pulled out the Demon Dagger which was now in my possession and looked it over. It was amazing to think that something so simple could be so dangerous to someone like me. I knew it would only be a matter of time before Christian would come to get it from me and I guess that would be when our fight would begin.

  Looking over my new item reminded me of another thing in my possession; Shade’s diary. I needed to destroy it…tonight.

  Without hesitation, I snagged the diary. I made a little fire and shredded the book into pieces before tossing the pages into the fire. While watching it burn, something else occurred to me, how the heck was I going to tell Shade about Shadow?

  “She’s going to kill me. She loved that cat. Thanks, Argento,” I mumbled to myself.

  I knelt by the fire the rest of the night and never went back to my tree. Morning had arrived and when I heard the sound of a car coming up my driveway, it made me a little edgier than usual because it was a little early for visitors. I hid in the nearby trees.

  When I saw that it was Sandra’s convertible with Scruffy and Shade in tow, I was relieved and walked out of the woods.

  “Wow, it’s not even ten in the morning yet. Scruffy, shouldn’t you be at home hugging your pillow right about now?” I teased as he hopped out of the car and shook my hand.

  “Better than where you sleep every night. This place is a hellhole,” he teased back.

  “Ahhhh, and in your words lands the conundrum…I don’t sleep. So, suck it.” I patted him.

  “Hey, Leo! I’m so happy to see you.” Sandra’s arms opened wide to embrace me.

&nb
sp; “You too, my friend.”

  “I’m not,” Shade kidded and kissed me on my cheek after Sandra and I broke our hug.

  “Hey…you showered,” I teased my girlfriend and everyone laughed.

  “You better stop, butthead.” She then forcefully grabbed me by my face and kissed me on the lips hard.

  “Yeah, you’re still a little ripe this morning,” Scruffy piled on to my joke.

  “Hey, watch your mouth, boy, before I sic Sandra on you,” Shade scolded him playfully as Sandra kicked him in the shin.

  “So what brings you all to my palace this lovely morning?” I placed my arm around Shade’s waist.

  I watched them all look at one another sheepishly. It made me suspicious.

  “What are you all smiling about?” I scanned them as they continued on grinning.

  “When I got home last night, I decided to tell my parents about you, Leo…”

  “Oh Shade, really?” I interrupted. I was a little frustrated that she couldn’t at least give me time to think things through.

  “I’m sorry, I felt like it was the right thing to do.”

  I walked away from them in frustration, but before I could reply, Shade continued.

  “But…they already knew.”

  I turned around in a flash and glared at their smiling faces, “What?”

  “They already knew, Leo.” Shade repeated.

  “What are you talking about?” I approached them again.

  “Lots of people know, Leo, maybe not everything you think they may know…but a lot,” Sandra added.

  I didn’t speak; I just looked at them in confusion.

  “Remember Meredith?” Scruffy chimed in.

  I thought back to the first person that Scruff and I released while still in the Caverns of the Forgotten, the girl from Mountainside that he recognized. Then it hit me, not surprisingly, the captives talked. I should’ve known.

  “Don’t worry, bro. It’s not as bad as you think.”

  “This is getting completely out of hand, you guys. Don’t you realize, the more people that know about this, the harder it is for me to complete what I must do. People will alienate me more than they already have. Not only that, now her life might be grave danger…anyone that knows about me, the real me, is at risk. Just like you guys.”

  “That may be the case, Leo, but people don’t care. They don’t realize you’re a demon…I don’t think. Besides, her life, and the others, were already in danger until you freed them,” Shade continued.

  “People?”

  “Wasn’t just Meredith from our little town in that pack we rescued, man,” Scruffy added.

  “Oh, this is bad.” I sunk my head.

  Scruffy walked up and placed his hand on my shoulder to comfort me. “Like Shade said, they don’t care, they’re grateful.”

  “For what?” I questioned.

  “For you, hun,” Shade answered.

  I was confused. “Do you think there’s even the slightest chance that they may know about me…what I am?”

  “Again, I don’t think they know, but our parents do…thanks to us. Others simply think you’re a hero.” Scruffy reached over and shushed Sandra from speaking further.

  “We’re sorry, babe. We had to fill our parents in, they were already aware of what took place in Romania. Not with Shimmer, of course, but you freeing the children of this town. People recognized you and Scruffy. There was no way to hide that from everyone.”

  “So, Meredith, and whoever else, must have spoke of who exactly, or what really held them and what happened that night at the party?”

  “I don’t think they’re exactly clear about who, or what, held them prisoner, but they have some ideas because of the scene at the party. You had to have known when those that we freed went home, they’d talk about what happened to them,” Scruffy pointed out.

  As obvious as it was now, it never crossed my mind that, duh, Meredith and whoever would talk about what happened. I guess I was so submerged in trying to protect Shade and kill Shimmer that I never knew some of my little secrets could blow wide open. I just never gave it much thought.

  “No one else knows where I live, do they?”

  “No, just us three…and that secret is safe with us.” Sandra smiled.

  I was comforted. “Thanks for that. So, now what do I do when I go into town?”

  “Well, the first thing you need to do is absorb all this in. We’re going to leave for a little bit and then come back and get you. We all need to hang out tonight. Unwind a little after this chaos we’ve all went through.” Shade rubbed my back.

  “That’s right. Hang out here for a bit, we’ll be back for you later,” Scruffy added.

  “See you shortly, Leo.” Sandra waved to me.

  I bid them farewell and watched as they continued to grin uncontrollably. Something more was going on that they weren’t telling me about. I could feel it.

  “Hey, make sure my Shadow cat is here when I come back…I’ve missed him.”

  “Ahhhhh, okay.” I half-cocked a smile and waved as they pulled down the hill.

  Great, with all this new information that I have to process, now I have to worry about Shade serving my butt to me on a platter when she finds out about Shadow.

  Goodie, goodie.

  Chapter 11

  GRATITUDE

  I wrestled my thoughts the rest of the day while waiting for them to show back up, still not fully grasping what my friends had told me, but fully aware my little secret was no longer a secret. I wasn’t sure what exactly was known about me in Mountainside, I just knew I could no longer move about town in relative secrecy anymore. The humans really knew me now; for the most part. I was no longer just this guy dating Shade, or the dude that stood behind Scruffy all the time. I was something more to them now, but I still had no clue how much more. I could no longer fight to remain a loner for the sake of a town, now I had to embrace them and accept whatever knowledge they had about me.

  It was late afternoon when my friends returned. I was happy to get out and chill with them for awhile. I was still very confused about our earlier conversation and even more perplexed why they were so relaxed about it.

  “Let’s go, Leo!” Scruffy called out from the driver’s seat of Sandra’s car. Sandra got out and joined Shade in the backseat.

  I smiled and got in.

  “Where are we going tonight?” I questioned as we drove down my driveway.

  Again, they all looked at each other with this calm, but very sheepish display of grins and didn’t answer me.

  “You’ll see,” Shade answered.

  “Everyone’s parents are cool with you guys hanging out with me…hanging out, period?”

  “Yeah, they’re cool, bro.” They chuckled together as Shade reached around from behind me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

  It was very clear they were aware of something I was not. I did my best to hold my tongue and just go with the flow, letting them have their way for now.

  We small talked about the events we’d been through to kill time. It wasn’t a very long drive until we reached this small, log community center on the edge of town.

  A handful of cars, including a police car, were in the parking lot. Scruffy pulled right up in front of the main entrance.

  “What is this place? What’s going on, guys?” I began to get a little impatient with their secrecy.

  “You’ll see,” Scruffy said as he got out of the car.

  “Yeah, just shut up and get out,” Shade ordered me.

  I hesitated briefly, but got out. The girls walked behind me as Scruff hustled up to the doors and opened them for us. I walked in to what looked like a lobby and saw a pair of doors wide open straight in front of me. I could hear people chatting. Scruffy pushed me, urging me forward.

  “It’s okay, babe,” Shade encouraged.

  I reluctantly walked past the doors and could see about twenty to twenty-five people sitting in metal fold out chairs. It looked like a town hall meeting
or something. State and national flags sat at the end of the room behind a microphoned podium. A Mountainside police officer was standing just to the side of it. I looked back at my friends for reassurance and they gave it to me. They flashed more smiles and nodded for me to keep going.

  When we were fully inside, the talking hushed. We walked a few steps down a center aisle and stopped. Everyone turned to stare at us. I felt very uncomfortable. I looked in the first few rows and saw Shade, Sandra, and Scruffy’s parents. They were smiling at us. I also saw about six of the kids Scruffy and I freed from the caverns as well.

  “Come up to the front, kids,” the police officer stated.

  Pausing for a second, we did as he asked.

  “Leo,” the police officer turned to address me. “My name is Sheriff Sam Taylor. You’re probably wondering why your friends have brought you here today.”

  I just listened and didn’t speak.

  “As I’m sure you know, some time ago, a tragedy struck this town. Many of the children in Mountainside disappeared. Details aren’t clear and are still under investigation so I can’t elaborate, but we know some things for sure. There are still children missing and unaccounted for in this town and many moms and dads are suffering from broken hearts and sleepless nights.”

  He glared at me, which made me very nervous. I began to wonder what in the hell my friends had dragged me into.

  “But beyond the tragedy came some good news…when these six kids came back home.” The Sheriff pointed to the group.

  “We may not know how, or why, they were taken to Romania. We just know that these children are back…because of you and your friend here.” He smiled at me and nodded at Scruffy, who puffed out his chest. I couldn’t help but giggle a little inside at my friend.

  “Tall tales seem to surround this unfortunate set of events, something that you and I will have to talk further about, son, but right now these parents are here today to thank you, Leo, for bringing their children back home to them.” Sheriff Taylor started clapping and the townspeople followed suit.

  I looked around at the clapping people, utterly humbled before lowering my eyes to the floor. I could see my three closest friends out of the corner of my eye looking at me with big smiles as the clapping stopped. Now I knew why they were grinning from ear to ear all day.