house, and jumped out of my skin when dogs barked from behind fences.
It was a quaint and quiet town.
And that worried me.
The demons had sensed me two towns over. Wouldn’t they find me here? Wouldn’t they come for me and hurt everyone here? Shouldn’t Lia and I leave before that could happen?
I hadn’t told Lia about the attack the other night. She would freak out on me and forbid me from leaving the house, but I doubted she would want to leave town.
“We’ve been at this for six weeks now,” I said to her while we had lunch together. It had been noon when I started back home. Not eager to be alone in that house, I made my way to the library and invited Lia to lunch. “You know it won’t last forever.” Although, I wished it would.
“You have to think positive,” she said between bites of her salad. I had brought her to a diner on the corner of the main square to eat burgers, not salad, and yet, she wouldn’t quit her diet, the same one she had been on the past two years—and hadn’t lost one pound yet. “Everything is going so well. I have a job, and you have friends. You’ll pass your GED and apply to college.”
I frowned. College. There were no good four-year colleges in the area, just a bunch of community colleges. “I don’t even know why I’m studying for the GED. It’s not like I’m going to go to college.” If I wanted to go to a better, bigger university, I would have to move away, and stay in a particular area for at least four years.
If staying here for six weeks made me nervous, imagine four years.
It wasn’t practical, not with our lives.
Sooner or later, we would have to move, and I was hoping we did it sooner, before anyone in this town got hurt.
Lia kept talking about college and what majors would be best, as if I hadn’t said anything. I let her ramble. She was too enamored by our lives to remember we had a bad guy and his demons looking for us.
They wouldn’t rest until they found us.
Until they found me.
After lunch, I made my way home. The sky had darkened considerably since I had gone into the diner with Lia, and the thick clouds seemed like they would burst open at any moment. I rushed my steps, but the tension in my body only increased.
To distract my mind and nerves, I tried thinking of good things. Like how Sabrina mentioned her school fundraiser and how she would have to work a couple of hours a week at the pet rescue center in town. Play with cuddly dogs for free? I would love to help with that. Once she got to my house after school this afternoon, I would ask her when she would like to go. I bet even Carol would want to join us.
Then, I thought that I should stop by the bakery and buy some cupcakes to give to Sabrina and Kevin. They were always complaining that they had found Lia and me, but the other foster kids at their house had no one. Though I couldn’t take care of all of them, I could send them cupcakes. Unfortunately, I was terrible in the kitchen, so I would have to buy them.
I turned the corner, heading for the bakery, when the rain started.
“Shit,” I mumbled, racing toward the nearest awning. I hid under the red fabric in front of a self-service laundry place, and looked out as the rain fell in fat, heavy drops.
I stuck my hand out from under the awning. Besides being strong, the rain was too damn cold.
I let out a sigh. I could run home, get soaked, then take a hot shower and put on clean, dry clothes.
But did I want to?
I looked at the dark sky. Who knew when this damn rain would stop? If I stayed here, I could wait until tomorrow.
Damn it.
All right, I was going.
I took a step forward and paused as a sleek black car stopped at the curb.
A fraction of the passenger window came down.
Devon’s eyes met mine. “Get in.”
Devon
After my meeting with Ryder, I went driving for a couple of hours. Nothing like speeding down backroads and hearing the engine roaring to alleviate the tension in my muscles.
During my weekly report, I told Ryder a lot about my investigation—the visions I had when touching Kenna, the demons that had disappeared in Willow Grove,