My loony-grin didn’t last long. Emma had snuck behind me and slammed my gym locker shut in my face. “Don’t even think about using your demon mojo on me.”
God, she had read my mind. Freaky. Or I was just that transparent? “Are you scared? Of little me?” I taunted, which was never a good idea considering she hid weapons in her panties.
And so the beginning of the end of gym class began.
I almost broke her face with the volleyball.
She spiked the ball on my back.
If a volleyball could kill, I think we’d both be dead.
I retaliated with a body slam across the court—my signature move.
This was the most intense volleyball game of my life. A few of the other girls caught on and started to back away from us. Our cat spat was going to be headline news in the school paper. That was, if we had one.
For her final act, she tripped me as I walked toward the lockers, and I face planted the blue mats. They smelled like dirty socks and sweat. I gagged, should have seen that one coming—classic.
“Bitch,” I muttered under my breath.
“It’s not my fault you’re a klutz,” Emma spat, eyes like green liquid fire.
I shoved my hair out of my face and gave her the one-finger salute. She was into all that military crap. “It’s not my fault if my foot slips up your ass.”
“I forgot how funny you are,” she leered. Her lips weren’t exactly cracking a smile, not even the tiniest bit of one.
I sat on the mat, shooting missiles of loathing at Emma’s retreating back. “I’m so naturally funny because my life is a joke,” I muttered to no one in particular.
Sierra, my frenemy, came out of nowhere and offered me a hand. Where had she been a minute ago to save my face from being flattened? Reluctantly, I took her hand and she tugged me to my feet, practically pulling my arm out of the socket in the process.
“You make foes easier than you make friends,” Sierra said once I was on my feet. “Welcome to the club.”
That wasn’t the case before I’d moved here. There must be something in the water supply. “I don’t think I want to be a member anymore.”
She flipped her siren red hair into a ponytail and began to walk backward toward the locker room. “You’re the honorary president.” She shot me a grin.
What a day.
I felt like I had been wrung through the ringer, and this was just a preview of days to come. More than ever, I needed to talk to Chase. Make him understand that this plan I was formulating was the greatest idea of the century.
I was sure Emma had plenty of conspiracies up her sleeve, but I had a slew of half-demons with anger issues on my team.
I think I win.
Chapter 3
Walking in a Winter Wonderland…
That was pretty much what Spring Valley was like in December. A beautiful, powdery white dusting of snow covered the ground when I awoke this morning. It was spellbinding. This was my first real snowfall, and I was ready to make a snowman.
I pushed aside my curtains as I looked out my bedroom window, admiring the magical snowflakes as they fluttered from the sky. A chill coated the glass pane, but I couldn’t have cared less. This was a milestone in my life, something to cross off my bucket list. I lost track of myself as I gazed out the window, hugging my knees to my chest, until a glint of yellow caught my attention.
My heart started thumping as the golden glow brightened through the window next door. Smiling, I traced a heart in the shavings of ice that gathered on the glass.
Chase.
His name echoed in my head. I felt his desire to be with me among all other things. What I really needed was a user manual for being linked to a half-demon. I was still experimenting with the floodgate of feelings between us. Some days it was easier to decipher, others were an emotional overdrive. Occasionally, we could even lock them away, but mostly it was just the blind leading the blind.
We had no idea what we were doing.
It was kind of fun. And I could use some fun after the week I’d had.
It took only a fraction of a second for him to disappear from my sight.
Scrambling, I pulled a pair of black legwarmers over my leggings and raced down the stairs. He was already leaning on the porch railing with white flakes peppering his dark hair when I threw open the door.
“It’s snowing,” I stated with an enormous grin on my face.
His silver eyes twinkled. “Thanks for the update, Captain Obvious.”
I yanked him inside, the reversal of my usual door-in-the-face response. “We have so much to do.”
“We do?” His eyes ran over me, making my blood spike, and then stopped at my feet. The corner of his mouth curved. “Cute legwarmers.”
Putting my weight on one foot, I said, “I think you should be more worried about the fact that you know what they are.”
He snorted. “You forget I live with Lexi. Now what is it we have to do today?”