Betrayal Read Free Page B

that the wargs hadn’t gotten them.
     
    As Luke walked down Main Street with Eve, he couldn’t stop himself glancing over at the woods. The forest surrounded pretty much all of Deepdene, so the treetops were visible from anywhere in the whole town. ‘I know we whipped us some warg butt,’ he said, ‘but the thing your mom was saying about the animals is freaky. Do you think there could be a new demon in Deepdene?’
    ‘Telefriendic moment! I was just thinking the same thing,’ Eve exclaimed. ‘But I pumped everything I had into closing the portal. Everyone from the Order seemed to think it’s secure.’
    Luke was glad the Order had made itself available if they needed help with any Deepdene strangeness. He was also glad to have them as an information source. He was working on building a demon database. Living in Deepdene, known in its early days as Demondene, he figured it could be useful.
    ‘You’re right. They definitely said the portal was shut. Three missing pets doesn’t mean that we have to gear up to save the town – again,’ he agreed. Although it was normal for him to be a little paranoid. Since he and his dad had moved to Deepdene from Santa Cruz, California, at the beginning of the school year there had been three demon attacks on their new town, one of which had almost killed his father.
    ‘Nope, we can just go to the movies and drink vats of soda like normal teenage people,’ Eve answered. She took his hand and swung it back and forth as they walked.
    ‘And maybe after that we can do some of the other things normal teenage people do,’ Luke suggested. Like kissing , he thought. He loved kissing Eve.
    ‘Possibly. You’re thinking homework, right?’ Eve teased, her dark blue eyes sparkling.
    ‘Exactly. I was thinking some algebra. Maybe a little social studies,’ he shot back, giving her hand a squeeze.
    ‘Look out. Wasp!’ Eve exclaimed. He heard a buzzing whine, and a second later saw a huge wasp dive-bombing him. He used his free hand to bat it away, but it came right back.
    A flash of light – a pfffft sound – and the wasp dissolved into ash, the flecks floating away on the slight breeze. ‘Taken care of,’ Eve said, her voice full of satisfaction.
    It had happened so fast that Luke hadn’t even realized that the flash was Eve using her powers. In fact, he could still hardly believe it. She’d zapped that thing with her power right on Main Street, which, as usual on a Friday night, was full of people. He glanced around. No one was staring or anything, thank God.
    ‘Nice shot,’ Luke said. ‘Was that, uh, intentional?’ Eve sometimes had trouble controlling her power, especially when she was mad or upset. He’d just brought up the possibility of a new demon in town – and she’d said she’d been thinking about that too. Had that put her on edge?
    ‘You think such precision was an accident?’ She smiled up at him.
    ‘I seem to remember a certain innocent jacket that got zapped once,’ Luke answered.
    ‘I seem to remember that you got a much more fashionable jacket as a replacement,’ Eve replied. ‘I’ve been thinking of giving a few other pieces of your wardrobe a little …’ She wiggled her fingers.
    ‘As long as I’m not in them, I’ll happily take off anything you want me to,’ Luke joked. ‘But setting my jacket on fire was an accident. At least I thought it was.’ He gave her a mock scowl.
    ‘It was, it was. I promise. But I wanted that wasp dead. I hate those little stingy things,’ Eve said.
    He was a little surprised she’d intentionally used her power against something that was a minor annoyance. But no one wanted to get stung.
    ‘And remember the lasagne I heated up?’ she continued. ‘That took absolute precision.’
    ‘Why did you have to do that again?’ Luke teased. ‘Oh right, the power was out. But there wasn’t a storm or anything … Strange.’
    ‘OK, that was my bad. Although it’s good to know I can grab some extra juice if