A Demon's Kiss (Young Adult Romance) (4 page)

“What the—?!”

I looked up to discover the maniac was Logan.
He
pushed the button. Now he was standing over me. “You get really absorbed in your work,” he murmured, his face so close to mine it seemed as though we were going to kiss.

My heart was suddenly pounding. It was embarrassing. I was certain he could hear it—probably the whole library could.

I tried to come up with a clever answer, something sharp and brittle. But nothing came to mind. I might have said a clever, “Uh...” But I’m not sure.

All I could concentrate on was his lips. They looked so soft and pink. I wondered what they would feel like against mine. Like Gage’s?

“It’s an English assignment,” I murmured.

 
Logan wet his lips, making them even more appealing.

His face was even closer now. His lips were practically touching mine. “Do you know what you do to me?”

The question was basically a kiss, his lips lightly touching mine, sending tingles through my body. What
I
do to
him
?

Logan drew his face even closer, wrapping his arms around me. My knees went weak and my mind went blank. I was putty...for a second.

He slowly pressed me against the wall of the elevator, his eyes full of hunger. His chest rose and fell and then his mouth was on mine. But even as we kissed, filling me with enough passion to ignite the elevator, I couldn’t help remembering this week. All this week. Our conversation at Posh was the only one we ever had, ever. We never talked this whole week, at all. I would see him at school. He would stare. That was about it. Everything had gone back to normal...until tonight.

But suddenly, I was doused with reality. It smacked me in the face, yelled, “Come
on
, Michaela! Get a grip!”

I jumped away from him as though he was on fire. What was I doing?! What was
he
doing? Only moments earlier he had been sitting with Chloe, toying with her, the same way Seth had toyed with me. Well...okay, maybe it wasn’t the same. What Seth had done was malicious and mean. Purposely hurtful. But still, Logan was being wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Logan eyed the distance I’d put between us. He tilted his head, seeming frustrated that I managed to break his spell, that we weren’t still kissing.

He cleared his throat, straightening his shirt. “Do you want to go get something to eat?”

I backed away from him even further. “What about Chloe?” I said. “She coming?”

He cocked his head. “Chloe? No. We didn’t come together.”

“Well, you looked pretty together.”

 
“I was just helping her with a paper—she asked for my help.” He wet his lips again. “Listen, I really want to talk with you—get to know you. Won’t you at least give me a chance, get to know me before you write me off?”

I shook my head, pushing buttons to get the elevator moving. “I feel like I already know you.”

“But you’re wrong,” he said in frustration. “Whatever you’re thinking—it’s wrong. I’m a good guy. Seriously. Ask...my mom.”

I sputtered a laugh.

Just then the elevator opened and I quickly hopped off. “I think a better person to ask would be Chloe.”

CHAPTER 4

Tonight, even Addison was in my dreams. “Save him,” she begged.

And I did. I had to. I saved Gage.

But …

There are consequences for magic
. That’s what my father always told me. “Don’t use it Michaela,” he warned. “It will destroy your life.”

I believed Daddy, sincerely believed him. The paybacks for using my magic were terrorizing—like once my guitar started playing by itself, and another time I heard horrific screams all night—I knew my magic was somehow linked to the demons, called them, somehow made them stir. So, I hardly ever used my powers, ever. But I had to for Gage.
Had
to. I had to use every ounce I had—more than I had. And now...

I have nightmares.

But I’m not sorry—not about any of it. Gage was dead. He would have gone away forever. I couldn’t let that happen.

So, okay, now bad stuff was ensuing. I could feel it.

And yeah, now I had nightmares, way worse than ever before.

They wouldn’t be so bad, only...I knew what they were about. The Hooded Cloak People. (That’s what I call them. I’ve called them that since I was a little kid. Back when Daddy was still alive. Whenever I use my magic, I dream of them.) But it’s weird, I never remember the dreams, never. Only flashes. Blood. And demons. And terror.

Still, I know. The Hooded Cloak People. They’re coming to get me.

***

I can’t honestly say that Logan’s kiss had the same impact on me as Gage’s. It didn’t. But it was right up there on my list of life’s most interesting moments. (Not that the list was very long. Unless you counted scary stuff.)

Logan was yummy adorable. I could hardly believe his tantalizing lips had actually pressed against mine. So if I hadn’t just been kissed by Gage—my soul mate—Logan’s kiss would have been uppermost in my mind.

However, as it was, thoughts of Logan were shoved down to the bottom of my brain—which wasn’t a bad thing, considering Chloe. As far as I was concerned she was his girlfriend, whether he called her that or not.

But all I could focus on—even now, still—was Gage’s kiss. When it first happened, I had simply been elated. Elated by his kiss—elated that he’d kissed me not once, but twice. But now time had passed. Now his kiss made me wonder what was going on with him.

And, unfortunately, it made me think of Addison a little differently, too. I mean, I had always thought she was a lunatic for being jealous of my relationship with Gage. She would actually give me dirty looks whenever Gage and I started goofing around. I thought she was a freak. After all, Gage and I were friends. We’d been buds since the second grade. But that was all we were—friends. Close friends, yeah. But she was his
girlfriend
. To me, she was psychotic for even giving me a second thought.

But then Gage kissed me….

Now everything changed. I mean, before his kiss, I avoided Gage because he was always with Addison. And Addison was queen of being a witch to me—when Gage wasn’t looking. And also there was the fact she told me to back off. I mean, well, what’re ‘ya gonna do? She was his girlfriend. So, I kind of started bailing on a lot of Gage’s invites to tag along.

But
after
his kiss—well, then I had different reasons for avoiding him. Like awkwardness. All of a sudden, Gage and I didn’t know what to say to each other.

“Hey, I cheated on my girlfriend with you!” wasn’t exactly a conversation Gage was likely to bring up. And, “I can’t stop thinking about your kiss,” wasn’t one I was going to.

So, we just kind of didn’t talk anymore. I mean, we lived right down the street from each other, and had classes together, so we’d stumble upon one another now and then. But we’d just kind of give each other the breezing-by conversation of “How’s it going?” and pray not to get a real answer—which neither of us gave.

The situation sucked. I wanted things to go back to the way they were. But it didn’t seem possible. The kiss was hanging over us. It messed everything up.

So I started to worry that Gage and I would never be able to go back to the old times—just being normal around each other. But then I missed first period because my car broke down, and I needed to borrow Gage’s notes to study for tomorrow’s test.

I caught him after third as he was fighting with his locker. It was the first normal conversation we’d had since “the kiss” and I thought it went pretty well, considering.

“Yeah, sure. You can borrow them,” Gage said. “But they’re a mess. I’ll read them to you, okay?”

“Sure.” I was relieved he said that ’cause Gage’s notes are indecipherable. He writes in code or something.

“Meet me at Pikes after school,” he said, heading for his next class.

So, it was settled. We’d meet at Pikes. The thought filled me with comfort. Maybe things will be okay after all, I told myself.

Fifth period didn’t go so well. Kind of bad. We had a quiz on the film we watched yesterday in class. But the thing is, I’d slept through the film—the whole thing. See, at school I don’t usually have “the dream.” So lately, I get my best sleep during classes. It gets me through life, but my grades suddenly suck.

After school, when I got to Pikes, Gage wasn’t there yet. I was kind of pissed because I only had an hour. I had to be to Posh by five.

Izzie came up to me all smiling and happy, her usual Izzie self. “Hey, you look hot.”

“Yeah?” I wasn’t wearing a tight little dress today. But since I was going to work, I actually curled my hair and whooshed on some make-up. I guess that kind of stuff makes a big difference—at least on me. “Have you seen Gage? We’re supposed to study.”

“Haven’t seen him.” She smiled impishly, gesturing at the cue in her hand. “Play you a game.”

I gave one more look around Pikes. No Gage. I sighed. “Okay.”

I happen to be good at pool. It’s one of my very few talents. But, hey, it’s a talent, right? So I take a little pride in it. I never, ever cheat, never use magic. Even though something like a little push of the ball would be trivial. Minimal payback afterwards. Still, I don’t do it. Ever.

Izzie racked the balls and we goofed off, having fun, but then I noticed Gage. He was watching us from across the room. It was weird. How long had he been standing there like that? Why hadn’t he come over? I was in a hurry though, so I didn’t give it that much thought—what I did think though was, Whoa, he’s glowing!

I blinked, figuring it was a trick of the lights. But no, it didn’t
seem
to be. “There’s Gage,” I told Izzie. “… Is he glowing?”

She laughed, looking over at him. “Only for you, babe,” she said.

I stared back over at him, narrowing my eyes. There was still—maybe?—a gleam to him. Maybe. But not like I thought I’d seen a second ago. I shook my head, trying to clear it. Since I saved Gage, I’d started imagining things about him. Unlike my nightmares, where he was all scary and, you know, dead, in real life, he was suddenly bigger than life—all shiny and glowy and yummy hot. Not that he hadn’t been before he died. But now I imagined things. Like his eyes lighting up whenever he saw me—things like that. But his
skin
lighting up? Ugh! I needed a doctor.

“You’ve got it bad,” Izzie teased.

She had no idea.

I handed my cue to Porter, this guy that always wants to play me. But Izzie thinks he’s cute, so I usually act like I don’t notice him when he tries to get my attention, ‘cause it’s a friend thing.

I went over to Gage and tried acting like things were normal between us and it wasn’t extremely weird that he had been standing across the room watching Izzie and me instead of coming over. (Or that I saw him glowing.) We got a booth.

“Want a pizza?” he asked. “I’m starving.”

“Um, sure.” I doubted I’d have time to eat it. Still, I figured I could munch on a slice on my way to work—if I was able to start my car again.

Starting my beater car—now that took magic. Only, the payback was too brutal. Not worth it these days. Nothing was worth it these days. The Cloaked People were waiting right around the corner. I could feel it. They were breathing down my neck, sending me dead black roses. Maybe.

The waitress came over. She was from our school. Her name was Kara or Kerry or something like that. She brought us two cokes.

“We haven’t ordered yet,” Gage said, thinking she had made a mistake.

She placed the cokes in front of us. “No. I know. These are from Logan.”

I about choked.

Kara/Kerry smiled at me, like
isn’t this fun?
“This is from him too.” She handed me a wrapped box.

I blinked. Then sat, staring at it on the table. So did Gage.

“Are you going to open it?” he asked.

I didn’t want to. Not in front of him. I bit my lip, trying to act normal ‘cause Gage was watching me so closely, like studying my reaction. But it was hard to act normal because I didn’t feel normal. I felt confused and bewildered and excited. My face was practically on fire and my heart was a hammering machine gun. Why would Logan buy me a gift?

It was crazy.

Only okay, I have to admit, I
had
notice Logan watching me at school a lot lately. I never admitted it to Izzie, though, because...well, I’m not sure why. I just didn’t. I guess it was because I’m not that kind of girl. The kind hot guys notice. The kind they’re actually interested in. I’m just not. So it was weird. The whole Logan thing—WEIRD!

“Do you want a pizza?” Kara/Kerry asked.

Gage flicked me a look, but could tell I wasn’t going to answer; I just stared at the box with sweaty palms. “Uh...sure,” he said.

He ordered, watching me closely as I read Logan’s card. It said, “To Michaela—I hope we can get to know each other better. Love Logan.”

Love
Logan? Whoa. I stared at the words with a twisty feeling in my stomach. They were bizarre, kooky. We were in high school. We didn’t use words like love. Well, I didn’t. Seeing it written, to me, made my stomach knot and my forehead sweat, and my knees buckle.
Love
Logan? What was that about?

Maybe half a nanosecond went by before I ripped open the box, maybe. Then I sat in stunned silence with my jaw dropped and my heart pounding like a jackhammer. Confused, giddy, dizzy—all that stuff—I stared at the gift Logan had given me. I felt as though my heart was going to explode.

“What is it?” Gage leaned over the table, reaching for the box. He gave me a questioning look, then cautiously took the dainty red dress out of its carton, holding it up to see. It was the dress Logan had bought at Posh that night.

Tingles ran through my body, wave after wave. What was Logan
doing
? What kind of game was he playing? Was he actually
wooing
me?

A slip of paper had come out with the dress. It floated down to the table. Gage picked it up and read it. Silently. Rubbing his stubbled chin with his brow furrowed.

I watched him with a thumping heart, feeling slightly excited and slightly violated. It was
my
note. My private note.

I lifted an eyebrow. “What does it say?”

Gage flicked a look up at me. “Sorry,” he mumbled, his eyes lingering on me. “It’s not any of my business, I guess. Only, watch out, okay Michaela?” He made me look into his warm brown eyes. “Go easy.”