Mooncalf

A/N: Hi. Sorry, sorry. I know. I am very bad. Very bad. Unfortunately, I've been a bit sick again, and that means I can barely remember where I live, much less what the heck is going on in our little demoness's crazy life. Or crazy demoness's life? Well, whatever. Enjoy!

(And please review? Pretty please?)

Oooooh, yeah. I almost forgot. I've edited some early chapters. (Can't believe I almost forgot this. It's important. See what I mean?) Anyway, if you're too lazy to go back and reread, the gist of the change is this: remember how Cam's seventeenth birthday is coming up? Well, on her birthday, she will have to pass a Trial, as she does every year, to prove she's not a menace to humanity or whatever. And it's only six days away! Okay. On to the chapter!!

d




Chapter Eight


“Oh!” she cried, holding her own cheek. She cried. Not the thing inside her. I was so startled by the whole experience that I allowed Cureton to glance up at us.

“Girls, restrain yourselves,” he admonished.

“Curet—Principal Cureton. Since I’m the one who was most harmed here,” I said, “I would like to decide Jane’s punishment.”

“Within reason,” Cureton allowed after only a little nudge in the right direction.

“Of course,” I agreed. “I think a week’s detention and a promise not to do it again would be sufficient.”

“Very well,” the principal said lightly. To Jane, he intone, “Young lady, I hope you realize how lucky you are to have such a good friend, as I easily could have had you expelled for this.” Jane nodded tearfully.

“I’m so sorry, Cam. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what made me do it,” she babbled when Cureton dismissed us.

“I do,” I growled.

“What happened in there? I heard shouting,” Jack said anxiously. Sharon’s nosy eyes gleamed in anticipation. What kind of lame excuse for an adult gets off on high school gossip? I tell you. The maturity of some people.

“There was a bit of an altercation. I’ll explain it in a minute . . . somewhere else. You too, Jane,” I added when she turned toward the dorm once we were outside Forfax Hall.

“You aren’t mad at me?” she squeaked.

I rolled my eyes.

“Get a grip, Jane. No, I’m not mad at you.”

“But you slapped me!” she argued.

“You slapped her?” Jack asked, surprised.

“Yeah, but it was an accident. I meant to hit the demon that’s possessed you.”

Jane stopped dead, looked at me. “What?!” she shrieked.

“Well, this is certainly an interesting development,” Jack muttered.

I let them stew on that as I lead them to our spot. When we had settled ourselves—Jane trying to keep it together by means of a cigarette and Jack and me sharing seating space on the throw he kept in his backpack—I filled them in on what had happened in the principal’s office.

“So I’m sharing body space with a demon,” Jane summed up.

“We’ll have to perform an exorcism,” Jack said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, I think we will. I suppose I’ll have to call in Cardinal Federico to do it.” Crap. I really didn’t want him anywhere near this whole mess. He’d just look at me sternly and tell me what a horrible person I am.

“I can do it.” My eyes flew to Jack’s.

“What?”

“I’m qualified to do the exorcism,” he repeated.

“You’re a priest? Weird. Well, that’s good, right? Let’s get to it, then,” Jane piped up.

Good. Right. I was lusting after an ordained man. I was so definitely going to hell.

“I’m not a priest. I’m a minister. I was ordained online.”

“The Guardians must love that,” I snorted. They hated the Internet. It wasn’t dignified and musty enough for their tastes.

“I think they’ve agreed to disapprove in silence, since I’m otherwise so qualified.” He smirked, and it made me sort of glad that he wasn’t the Guardians yes man after all.

“So, if you’re so qualified, let’s get to it. I want this thing out of me,” Jane reiterated. “Will you need stuff? Like, a crucifix and holy water, or whatever?”

“Or whatever,” Jack murmured. “I have most of the things in my dorm room, and I can get the information on the ritual online . . . I could probably be ready to do it by the time Cam gets out of field hockey.”

“Well, we’ll meet back here then,” Jane decided.

“We could meet, but that doesn’t guarantee that the demon would join us,” Jack said. “And if we perform an exorcism when the demon is in the Hell dimension instead of inside you—well, let’s just say you wouldn’t like the results.”

Jane blanched. “But what if it makes me do something bad again?” she asked in a small voice.

I sighed. Why is it that humans always have to be such scaredy-cats? Buck up, for Pete’s sake.

“I think it probably won’t come back for a while. It’s told me it’s here, and I think it’ll lay low until my guard is down.” She didn’t look relieved to hear that, so I added, “I’ll sleep in your room and make sure you don’t do anything you’d regret, just to be sure.” Crap. I liked having a single room. I liked my privacy. I liked being away from everybody for a while, so I didn’t have to pretend. And I had just promised to give that up for no good reason. Human stupidity was clearly contagious.

Jane smiled, her lower lip wobbling slightly. I groaned.

“Oh, stop looking at me like I just saved your stinking puppy from a semi. Go away already, would you?”

She just smiled and murmured, “Thanks,” before taking a last drag on her cigarette and disappearing around the shrubs. “You guys have fun with your hot monkey make-out!” she shouted back with laughter in her voice—from a safe distance, of course.

“That was a nice thing you did there,” Jack said approvingly, though I could almost hear the blood pounding in his ears.

“Shut up.”

He touched my cheek, and when his eyes caught mine, I wondered if maybe, a hot monkey make-out session was actually in the works. Something had certainly heated up. I almost even forgot the frigid November air. I sucked more of that air in, wondering if my brain could boil. His fingers were downright hot. He pulled his hand back, his fingertips coming away red. “We should really get you to the nurse for that.”

I sneered. “What is she going to do? Give me some Neosporin and a Band-Aid?”

“Well, yeah. At least it won’t scar, then.”

I looked at him. This was my amazing demonologist?

“Hey, moron, guess what? When a demon hurts you, it always scars. Otherwise, how would the other demons know who won the battle?” So much for being a beautiful demon capable of tempting anything on two legs.

His eyes glinted, and Jack said a very bad word that I’ve had to edit out. Wow. I didn’t even know those words were part of his vocabulary. He stood up suddenly, and tugged the blanket beneath me until I stood, too. He shoved it in his backpack and stalked toward the girls dorm.

“Jack? What are you doing? You can’t go in there!” I protested as he passed through the lounge and past the Line No Man Can Cross, and down the hall to my room, where he whirled on me.

“Open it!” he barked. My hands shook a little, because I was concentrating hard on keeping the various girls in the hallway from noticing that Jack’s presence. Impatient, he grabbed the keys from my hands and unlocked the door himself, shoving me in before following himself. He yanked the closet door open and roared for my father, while I rushed to close the hall door before my wavering focus collapsed entirely and people started to notice what was going on.

I grabbed Jack’s shoulder, trying ineffectually to gain his attention.

“Jack. Jack! You can’t tell him! Do you hear me, Jack Founder? You cannot tell my father.”

He ignored me. I tried again.

“He will rip Jane apart looking for that demon. Please, Jack.”

He looked at me, shock and fury and something I didn’t recognize warring in his eyes. But he started to close the closet door.

Too late. I heard the familiar whoosh indicating someone was passing into this dimension. There was no time to run. I yanked my hair from its ponytail and hoped it would hide the scratches on my face.

Suddenly, my father was there, looking particularly scary, even to me.

“Cambion? Little girl? Founder, if you let my daughter get hurt, I will tear every limb from your body and make you watch as I feed them to the Hounds.” He swept me into his arms and fell abruptly still.

“I smell blood.” He looked sharply at Jack, and I could feel Pops quivering in barely suppressed rage.

“It’s not mine, Pops. I had a bit of an altercation with another demon, but it isn’t mine.”

Jack cleared his throat. “Erm, that’s all we wanted to tell you. That we don’t know which demon exactly is behind the satanic rituals on campus, but that your daughter has been cleared on that front by school administration.”

Pops pulled back from me and dragged a hand over his face. “Good. I’ll tell Mara, see what he can find out for me. Keep me up to date. And keep her out of trouble. And Cam? If you could help him by staying out of trouble, that would be nice. Okay? And don’t let him in your bedroom again.” He pulled me forward to press a kiss to my forehead and was gone.

I sat heavily on my bed and watched Jack close the closet door.

“That was close,” he said.

“You have no idea.” Pops wouldn’t have stopped at dismemberment if he knew I’d gotten hurt while Jack was supposed to be guarding me. I’d have Jack splatters all over my room. There probably wouldn’t even have been enough of him left to leave chunks.

“Are you completely stupid?!” I shouted. “What were you thinking? My father could kill you in a heartbeat, just for being in my bedroom. If he knew about my face, he’d rip yours off. Did that even enter your thick skull? You must have a death wish or something, because I’ve never witnessed such suicidal behavior in my life. That kind of behavior will get you killed, Jack! Smeared all over my freaking dorm room! And then where would I be? Stuck by myself with a demon stalker with a woman co-conspirator and my Trial in six days! You’re supposed to be the smart one, Jack, so tell me: why where was your head?”

He did nothing but look at me for a long time. I thought he was just going to ignore me. Then he finally said, “You are absolutely right.” And left.