Exorcize This, Julie Steimle [best books to read in life txt] 📗

which was insulting.

Jane shot her a sharp look.

Sarah cast her an exasperated glance also. That was kind of gratifying. I could tell Sarah at least believed I could have friends, that I wasn’t a total freak.

“Howard Richard Deacon the Third,” I said with a trace of bite.

They stared more, though Sarah did not seem so surprised. I wasn’t sure why.

“No way,” Tiffany breathed out.

“We met on a camping trip,” I said, deciding not to mention that he was also a werewolf.

“Wow.” Brigitte blinked her thick eyelashes then stared into space. The only reason anyone knew who Rick was, was that recently his father had publicly announced that Rick was officially the inheritor of his entire financial estate, including all his stocks and assets, if he were to die. I didn’t know why that needed to be announced. Everyone just assumed that was the case. Besides, Rick was already making major decisions for the company. In fact, it was a big deal when Rick severed ties with a major Paris based corporation called the LGS. I didn’t know what the acronym stood for or what kind of business it was, but his father had been a contributor to it since he was nineteen years old, just after he took over the company when his father was murdered—or slain since the man was also a werewolf.

Jane secretly smiled at me, then said, “When are you going to introduce us?”

I rolled my eyes at her, my smile returning. She had seen him at the kidnapping trial but had not spoken to him. “I don’t know. His father travels a lot, and he lives in Massachusetts. But Rick did invite me and my family for a possible ski trip this Christmas, so….”

“I don’t believe it,” Tiffany said.

Rolling my eyes, I dug into my pocket and drew out my wallet. In it I kept the photo we had taken together at the canyon the summer I met him. I handed it over for her to look. Taking it like she was afraid to touch me, Tiffany peered at it. Brigitte and Sarah peered over her shoulder. Jane peeked to, though she had seen that photograph before already. I also took out the photo of me with the Seven at his house, the other picture of my friends outside Cliffcoast. I passed that one over.

“This is at his house.”

Brigitte took that one, peering at it. She then lifted her eyes to me. “Why are you bandaged?”

Sneaking a look at me, Jane whispered, “That was just after, what was it Eve? After they rescued you from those… uh…”

“Witches,” I said, nodding.

Sarah shuddered. Brigitte’s eyes widened. But Tiffany looked horrified. “You were kidnapped by witches?”

“That’s what happened then?” Sarah gasped.

I nodded to her. She remembered, and now I realized why she was not so shocked about me knowing Rick. She had not been part of the Homecoming committee, but she had volunteered to help with making the decorations so she was there when Jane, Gwenneth Wrede, and I got konked out because our drinks had been spiked. She had seen Danna Groves and ‘Aunt’ Margarete carry me out from the gym while the others had swarmed over Jane and Gwenneth, and she had testified as a witness in the trial against them and Coven Inc. Rick had been there. He and his father helped arrange for the lawsuit against Coven Inc. Unfortunately, though ‘Aunt’ Margarete and Ms. Whittaker were convicted of the crime, Danna was a minor at the time and therefore it was ruled that she be put under probation after a short stint in Juvenile Hall—hardly even a year there. She was probably out now.

“What’s this?” Brigitte asked Sarah.

“I’ll tell you later,” Sarah said, nodding also to me. I was kind of glad. She chose discretion over satisfying curiosity in the moment. She then said to me, “So rumor is you are going to go into the mountains tonight and fight the vampires.”

“No.” I moaned, hanging my shoulders. I really hated our school rumor mill. “I intend to find the bones of the people they have killed before the sun sets tonight.”

“And do what with them?” Tiffany asked.

Giving her a dirty look, I said, “I don’t know. I hadn’t gotten that far. Leave them in the graveyard?”

“They should get a proper burial,” Deidre said.

Everyone at our table jumped, including me. I had not heard her walk up.

She sighed. “Leave the bones in the park. I can help sort them out so they can be properly be buried.”

Sarah smiled at Deidre. “Good idea. Maybe we can help.”

I stared at her. Honestly, I began to realize I never really knew Sarah McDonald. I had judged her like everyone else had. She was genuinely nice. No wonder Jane liked her.

“How?” Deidre cast her a judgmental look. I heard her imps call Sarah names—including cultist. I frowned at them.

Shrugging, Sarah looked to Jane, then her other friends. “I dunno. We can get cardboard boxes—”

“Cardboard?” Deidre huffed. “Isn’t that disrespectful for the brutally murdered?”

Sarah paled.

But I said, “You can’t expect a golden casket for an un-named hiker. A cardboard box will do for now. But who will sort them out. We need a forensic expert.”

Deidre rolled her eyes. “I can write their names on the boxes. They’ll tell me who they are and their next of kin.”

We all exchanged looks.

“Ooookay.” Jane then rose from the table. “Then if we really are doing this, maybe we really should spread the word that everybody ought to eat garlicky food tonight.”

I closed my eyes, cringing. The town was going to stink. And I was going to sneeze all night.

“Why?” Deidre stared at her, asking.

Jane sighed with a groan. “Because the mountain vampires are going to get angry when they find out that Eve’s been in their territory. And honestly, I don’t want to see another vampire in our town.”

All of her friends glanced to me, though Deidre said, “You’ve seen the vampires?”

Nodding with wide eyes on her, Jane replied, “Oh Yes. On Halloween two years ago.”

Deidre rolled her eyes. “So how do you know that they were real?”

Deadpan, Jane replied, “Because they could fly.”

Deidre’s eyes widened on her.

“We should tell Mr. McDillan,” Tiffany hissed to Sarah.

Sarah cringed, nodding.

“I’ll tell him,” I said.

Everyone but Deidre and Jane looked to me with surprise. Apparently they had heard that Mr. McDillan was a retired vampire hunter who had been hired by the town to watch me, but only Jane knew that he and I had an understanding. Deidre hardly even knew who he was, which was proven when she suspiciously asked, “Who is Mr. McDillan?”

“A retired vampire hunter,” Sarah said, shrugging.

Deidre stared at her, then me. I nodded back.

“I thought he was just a kook until our freshman year,” Sarah said, avoiding looking at me—as everyone believed him after Easter last year.

Tiffany lifted her eyebrows as if to say, “Was a kook? How about is?”

Brigitte nodded. “He is pretty weird. He likes to teach the gory parts of history.”

Deidre blinked. “Him? That teacher with the beard who just gave that quiz on Montezuma and Cortez?”

We all nodded.

Rolling her eyes, Deidre tugged on my arm and tried to pull me aside. I let her only because I figured she had something private to say.

“Look, I don’t want to get those girls involved in this,” Deidre said.

I glanced back with a shrug. “I don’t think they’ll get hurt gathering cardboard boxes or anything. There’s a whole bunch in the dumpsters behind the shopping center—”

“No. Not what I meant,” Deidre said. Her voice hissed even lower, “They are part of a weird cult—”

I moaned loudly. “They are not in a cult.”

Everyone heard me.

Jane smirked.

But Sarah, Tiffany, and Brigitte blinked at me then exchanged glances. Their cheeks colored, though I was not sure if it was from insult or being pleased that someone had defended them—even if it was me.

Deidre pulled me further aside. “You don’t know that! They’re Mormons!”

I laughed now, shaking my head and pulling away from her. “Don’t tell me what I don’t know. You don’t know what I’ve seen in my life.”

I watched Deidre peek at Sarah and the rest with a frown. Her eyes said that she was afraid they had already ‘gotten to me’. For some reason, she seemed to forget I was a demon. Most folk would think I had gotten to them.

So I added, “Some of the nicest people I know are so-called ‘Mormons’. And I know this for certain, because I can see the little devils that tempt people to do things—and yours haven’t been very nice towards them.”

Deidre jerked back from me. She knew I was telling the truth.

Dawn walked up to me then, slinging her arm around my shoulder and dragging me away from Deidre. “You are saying that too loud. Are you trying to embarrass me?”

Moaning, I pushed her arm off. “No. I was just—”

“Telling the truth,” Jane chimed in, stepping to my side.

Dawn and Deidre both rolled their eyes, almost simultaneously.

“Look!” I said to them all, “I’m not going to do this on my own. If they can gather boxes, let them gather boxes. This prejudice against one religion is ridiculous, especially since your knowledge is only based off of rumor. Now I don’t care what they believe. I know they are not intending to hurt anybody, and to be quite frank, they are like any other professed Christian that I know. Some of them are stupid and some of them are nice. Get over it!”

The sound in the room had gone quiet. I didn’t shout much, but when I did, people listened. Then again, I realized that possibly my imp heritage made it so my voice struck in the spiritual ear and it was not an issue of sound; it was an issue that they could not avoid hearing it.

I waved at the watchers.

Everyone averted their eyes and went back to what they were doing, just to avoid looking at me.

Deidre shook her head and walked away.

But Dawn remained, staring. It was like I had said something she had never heard before. She stood there, peeking at Sarah and her friends again. Then she too walked off to go back to her group.

Jane patted me on the shoulder. “Thanks.”

I looked back to the table. Even Tiffany was looking at me in appreciation. Apparently no one had ever defended them like that before.

For the rest of the day word spread that everyone should eat something with garlic in it for dinner that night. Teachers heard it and spread word also. When I talked with Mr. McDillan after our lesson on the establishment of the colonies in North America (with a lot of emphasis on the diseases the Europeans unwittingly brought to the natives which kill most of them off), he agreed to prowl the streets in case any vampires came coming in revenge.

“This is a dangerous thing you have agreed to,” he said, “But I fully approve. Those people need to be put to rest.”

I nodded, heaving a sigh. To be honest, it scared me. I didn’t want to go into vampire territory at all. But I guess it was inevitable. It had to be done.

Friend's House

Deidre, despite being mad at me for chewing her out for being prejudiced against the ‘Mormons’, waited