The Devil's Prey (The Demon Within) (14 page)

One Sunday morning
, when I had just said bye to Michel, I came to get ready for training. I saw Ethan waiting by himself. He wasn’t doing much, just standing there, playing with his illusions.

‘H
i,’ I said, trying to catch my breath. He didn’t say anything, so I walked straight past him, towards the house. Suddenly he had his hand around my wrist.

‘G
et your hands off me! You have no right,’ I said reflexively, shaking him off me. I knew Michel was watching from a tree, like always, because he loved watching me get frustrated at my constant failed attempts to control my powers. I knew that if Ethan laid a single unwanted finger on me, Michel would be down, kicking his butt.

‘Y
ou’re right, I am sorry.’ He turned his attention away from me.

‘O
k, what do you want? Because you wouldn’t be standing here at this time of the morning just to admire the sunrise.’ I placed my hands on my hips.

‘W
hat happened to us?’ was all that came off his lips. I stood still, because I knew he was in the wrong and I think he did too.

‘W
e used to be so perfect together, now look. What happened?’ he asked again, so I answered him.

‘W
ell, what happened was you ignored me for a month because I wouldn’t apologize to Lauren- and maybe because I stole your car and it ended up at the police station.’ I could hear Michel laugh from there, because every time I mentioned I wound up at a police station, it sent him into hysterics. Ethan just stood there, because he knew I was right. I had tried to fix us, but by that point it felt like our relationship had gone beyond repair. He took a step closer. I could tell he wanted to say something, but words never escaped his mouth.

‘Y
ou know what, Ethan? I give up. If you can’t grow some balls to talk to me, I give up trying, so just leave me be, ok?’ I threw my hands up into the air, but Ethan grabbed them and pulled me into a kiss. I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me, so I kicked him in the knee, and he broke away.

‘Y
ou think you can fix this by kissing me? Well, if you think that…well, buddy you need to do some more research, because I am not even going to bother if you can’t make the effort, when I have.’  He was on the ground, holding his knee where I had kicked him.

‘H
urry up, Summer. I am waiting for you,’
Amanda said in my mind. I walked away, leaving Ethan on the ground and Michel laughing in the trees.

About an hour later
, I had gotten absolutely nowhere with my powers. ‘I give up completely!’ I threw my hands into the air. My hair had fallen out of the ponytail it was in when I left the house that morning.

‘Come on
, Summer, you almost had it.’ Amanda had been giving encouraging gestures all morning, just like she did every morning.

‘N
o, I did not. Your definition of “almost had it” is nothing,’ I said wryly. We had been trying for months, and yet nothing had worked. I had tried being happy, being sad- Amanda had even thrown insults at me once, which was pretty risky, but still, nothing worked.

‘J
ust one more try, please?’ She was begging me to try at least one more time.

‘
Alright, but after this, I give up.’ I closed my eyes and reached deep down to tap into my power. I tried to think about moving the bottle. I was nearly there when I felt my power snap back at me like a rubber band.

‘T
hat’s it!’ I walked off into the house. People in the house had learnt by then that you never got in my way after training, because I was always in a pissy mood. I could see people watch me as I stormed into Lauren’s office. ‘You know what, Lauren? I quit! I quit being a fairy! I quit, ok? So I am going to pack up my bags and head back home, because I cannot even move a bottle or make a simple leaf blow with a slight wind, so I quit!’ Once I finished talking, I realized that Lauren was in a meeting with fairy officials, and I had just barged in, ranting about quitting.

‘O
h, great. What are they doing here? Because I am sure I haven’t done anything wrong this time, so I am just going to pack my bags and leave,’ I said, but as I was leaving, one of the officials told me to stay.

‘
It is ok, Summer. We were just talking about you, and from what we have just seen, I think it is fair to send her away,’ the young lady said. My heart plummeted. When she said “send her away,” did she mean for good? I would welcome the chance to go back to my life before any of this, but I wouldn’t want to go if I couldn’t take Michel with me. That kid could make me laugh any day.

‘S
ummer, it is ok- not forever, just during the holidays,’ another official said, but I still stared at them blankly.

T
he head official stepped forward. ‘Summer, we have come to the conclusion that you are not learning anything about your powers. It is not that everyone here isn’t doing a good enough job, but we think it would be best to send you to Liam, who helps fairies discover their power. In the past, he has also helped pure fairies get in touch with their powers.’  

I cross
ed my arms at what he had said.

‘S
o, Summer, during the course of the two-week holiday, we are sending you to Italy to train you on your powers.’ He looked pleased by my reaction.

‘W
ait, let me get this straight. You are sending me to Italy to train on my powers with this guy named Liam?’ My mouth was hanging open, and I was so sure that I had heard wrong.

‘Y
es, that is correct, but we can’t send anyone with you,’ he said.

‘I don’t give a damn if no can come with me
! To hell with them! I am going to Italy for two weeks!’ I threw my hands up in the air and started to laugh.

‘O
k, Summer, you need to go and pack, because you’re leaving on Friday.’ Before he could say another word, I was out of that room, jumping all the way back to my bedroom.

‘I am going to Italy!’

The week flew by so fast that
before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. I said goodbye to Michel on Friday morning, and was soon saying my goodbyes to Ethan and Amanda. ‘I will miss you,’ I said, giving Amanda a hug. I didn’t bother giving Ethan a hug, because after our confrontation that ended with me kicking him in the knee, he promptly went back to ignoring me again. At that point I didn’t really mind, because really, how many times can someone break your heart and shatter it into a billion pieces before you’re done with them?

‘Come on
, Summer, we are running late,’ Lauren said from the car, snapping me out of my reverie.

‘Ok just coming’ to tell Lauren ‘I will be back soon don’t have too much fun’ and like that I am off to Italy.

One thing that sucked about overseas was that the plane trip was long and boring. Every time I tried to go to sleep, I was woken by either my excitement or the old man next to me, who was snoring the whole way.

‘Amanda
, can you hear me?’
I asked. I was not sure it would work at such a huge distance. I never got a reply from Amanda, so I sat there, looking out the window into nothing. When the plane landed, I was jumping out of my seat. I was excited to see Italy, and maybe for once get somewhere with my powers. I was almost the last person off the plane, because the old man next to me was in a deep sleep, and nobody was able to wake him up.

‘I am sorry
, young lady,’ he said with an Italian accent once he was finally awake.

‘T
hat is ok,’ I said, trying to be polite. The moment I stepped off the plane, I could tell I was no longer at home. The air was warm, unlike back home, where we were coming into autumn. Here they were coming into spring.

I
nside the terminal, the place was overcrowded with people. ‘Great,’ I muttered to myself. I knew I had to find Liam, but I didn’t even know what he looked like. People kept apologizing for bumping into me, and I got yelled at to keep moving, but I was in a new place and had no idea where I was going.  Someone brushed against me, and I immediately noticed that their body temperature was way too warm for a normal person, but when I turned to look, they were already gone into the crowd. I looked around, hoping to find the person, but all I could see were lots of people in a hurry to catch their flights.

‘Excuse me
,’ a man said from behind me. I turned around to see a man in his late twenties. He had blond hair and green eyes. ‘I think you dropped something.’ He picked up my passport. How had I managed to drop that?

‘Oh
, thank you.’ When I reached for his hand to collect my passport, it was like I was being pulled out of my own body. I could see through his eyes, and feel what he was feeling. He was thinking about what a pleasure it would be to teach me- and how beautiful I was. When I snapped back, he was still gripping my hand. His hand was warm and had a tingle to it. I looked up at him with surprise.

‘You must be Liam
,’ I said. I hoped I was right, because if not I was going to be so embarrassed.

‘Yes
, I am, and you must be Summer. Welcome to Italy.’ He opened his arms. He led the way out of the airport and to his car, waiting in the car lot.

‘So
, Summer, what did you see?’ he asked when we were in the car.

‘Excuse me
, what do you mean?’ I had no idea what he was talking about.

‘Well
, each fairy has a trait. When you come into contact with them for the first time, they have a special way to present themselves.’ His accent was a lot to take in, because some of his words were hard to make out.

‘Umm…
I saw things the way you see them,’ I said.

‘Well
, that is good.’ We drove in silence until we got to a huge house that looked more like a palace.

‘Oh my god
, do you live here?’ I asked, gazing at the beautiful house.

‘Yes
, I do. I’ve owned it for a long time.’

I had imagined him as a crotchety old
man, because he supposedly had helped train the last pure fairy, which had been years and years ago. ‘May I ask- I thought you would be…well, how do I put this nicely? A bit…older?’

I saw his reaction
to my poor choice of words, but then he laughed as he understood what I was trying to say. ‘My power is the ability to stay young. I have been looking this same age for about twenty-odd decades,’ he says easily. My jaw dropped, but he went on like nothing unusual was happening. ‘You must be tired. I will show you to your room, then we can begin once you wake.’ He led me to a beautiful room, which was huge. The bed was big enough for four people.

‘Thank you
. It is lovely,’ I said as he left. I stood there for a bit, dumbfounded, before I decided to take a shower. I jumped into shorts and a singlet. I was not tired, but the moment I hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

When I woke up, I was confused at where I was. I was in a strange bed, in
a strange room. It took me a moment to realize that this is not a dream. I was really in Italy. On my bed, there was a note under some clothes.

‘
When you wake, please put these on. Then we can begin.’
This man sure knew how to get down to business.  I slipped on the clothes- cargo pants and a black shirt with a purple strip running down the left side and around the collar. I also put on the combat boots at the end of my bed. I pulled my hair into a long plait. This was going to be a long day, I thought as I headed out of my bedroom.

‘Look  at how stunning you are
! The best I have seen in many years,’ he said as he looked me up and down, like I was a specimen in a science lab or something.

‘You do know you have a lot of work to do
, and I get frustrated easily- and I don’t work well with insults,’ I told him flatly, hoping he knew what he was getting himself into.

‘Don’t worry
, I know. I have been informed of what you are capable of. Might I say- very interesting, both telepathy and telekinesis. That is a rare gift, and so is controlling the weather. Not many fairies can do that.’

I sa
t down and started eating the sandwich that he had laid out for me, but he motioned for me to stand. ‘We might even find something else. Come, you can eat and walk.’ He led me down a series of steps until we reached a door.

‘Welcome to training
.’ He pushed the door open, and there was a huge room with lots of things I hadn’t expected. There were trees, a river, a fountain, and there were targets everywhere. When he closed the door, the huge space suddenly felt like it had shrunk.

‘Won’t people notice if I tamper with the weather
?’ I asked, looking around and wondering how it all fit.

‘That is what this
room is for. Special built, so it only happens in here. Let’s begin.’ He clapped his hands together. ‘Now I heard you went into fury the other day. Let’s start with that.’

S
ure, let’s start with the hardest, I thought to myself.

‘Close your eyes
. You need to be relaxed. Block everything out, so you can only hear the sound of humming. That is the sound of your power source.’ He left me for a minute to listen, but I heard nothing.