Daniel Taylor Between Two Worlds (4 page)

Daniel took a deep breath. “I’ll be eighteen soon, and I’ve never slept with a girl.” Why didn’t she feel the same way he did?

Vanessa sat up in bed, clutching the blanket to her chest, and took his hand in hers. “It’s not about how
old
you are, but when you feel
ready
. And I’m just not there yet, Danny.”

Daniel scooted closer to her and gave her his best puppy-dog eyes. “I want so much more.”

“Look, we’ve been together for less than a month — we have all the time in the world. Anyways, we’ve done quite a lot already.” She added quietly, “With Mike, it took three weeks before I even kissed him.”

“What?!” Daniel froze. Just hearing Blondie’s name was enough to turn his stomach, but this confirmation of his suspicions felt like Nessa had just ripped out his guts. “You went out with Mike? You never told me that!”

“You never asked.” Vanessa crossed her arms. “Anyways, it’s not worth talking about, since all we did was kiss.”

“I don’t want you to ever see him again!” Daniel leapt up. There was a drumbeat pounding in his skull, and his fingertips were prickling dangerously. If he didn’t get control of himself fast, there was the danger that something unpredictable might happen — like the earthquake in his history class. The very thought of it made him even more angry. Daniel hated the fact that he hadn’t properly mastered his abilities.

Vanessa moved up to the edge of the bed. “But we’re dancing partners, what should I do? There’s really no reason for you to be jealous. We’re just friends.”

“Yeah, right!” Deeply hurt, Daniel pulled up his jeans. His heart was beating so loudly that his eardrums were vibrating.

“Mike and I aren’t suited for each other at all. We found that out very quickly, and that was the end of it!” Vanessa had also jumped off the bed to get dressed. “What I felt for him wasn’t anything like the way I feel about you. I was with him mostly out of curiosity — I just wanted to know what it was like to have a boyfriend.”

“You’re not going to meet up with him tonight!” Daniel knew that they had a dance class that evening.

Vanessa’s eyes flashed. “You can’t forbid me to go, Daniel!”

“Oh, just do what you want, then!” His rage was so great that Danny felt he might burst. He shifted his gaze to the vase on Vanessa’s windowsill. With a deafening bang, it shattered into a thousand pieces.

They were both frozen in place.

“Why did you do that?” whispered Nessa. Tears were slowly filling her eyes.

Daniel’s heart contracted. He wanted to tell her that he hadn’t done it on purpose, but instead he felt like he had to just get out of there.
Damn it all, I could have hurt Nessa!
Suddenly, he felt like the biggest loser in the world. He just couldn’t do anything right. Without saying a word, he turned his back on her and stormed out of the house.

Marla understood nothing about securities and the stock market — for her, just listening to Mike’s pleasant voice was enough. She sat on the edge of Mike’s desk and watched with fascination as he held a meeting with an older man. She visited him at the bank almost every day — invisible, naturally — because she just couldn’t get him out of her head. She had been on the verge of making herself visible to him so many times. Would she still be able to resist him?

Marla knew that such a move would just make everything more complicated. She had fervently hoped that her crush would fade away by itself, but … damn it, she was already in love with him.

In that suit, he looks good enough to eat!
She dreamily thought back to how he had come out of the shower half-naked, the water still dripping from his blond hair. Since that day, Marla had avoided visiting him at his apartment. The risk of becoming hopelessly dependent on him was just too great.
Does he even remember me?
she asked herself often.
Maybe he has a girlfriend.
She never saw him with any girl other than Vanessa at their dance class, which assuaged Marla’s fears. Marla had even gotten to like Vanessa a little, despite the fact that she was so boring and normal. Even the nerd’s clothing was too goody-goody. Marla had no idea what her brother saw in Nessa.

But Vanessa hadn’t ever tried to hurt her, and she didn’t spout idiotic clichés, so Marla had almost become fond of her.

Her latest mission was to get to Silvan through his girlfriend. A member of the High Council — no less than her father Obron himself — had entrusted her with this duty, and he wouldn’t stand for any failure on her part. Otherwise, Metistakles would have a free hand to punish her, and Marla knew what that meant. She shuddered.

Even if Silvan didn’t want to accept his claim to the throne, he could be very useful to the demons. Through him, they could finally get at James Carpenter. Obron in particular badly wanted to get his hands on the man. Marla didn’t know exactly why. She just wanted to avoid angering her father.

Probably Obron wanted to take revenge on Carpenter for stealing his wife. Marla found that to be acceptable. Carpenter should suffer, just as she had!

As Mike ran a hand through his hair, her thoughts turned back to him. The client had left, and Marla should have been on her way as well, but something about the way Mike was acting made her stay. He threw a fleeting glance over his shoulder and then began typing something into a search engine on his computer. “Marla Little Peak California.” Her pulse quickened. He hadn’t forgotten her! He was actually looking for her.
Man, don’t make this hard on me!
She looked on, mesmerized, as he tried other word combinations in an attempt to find her on various social networks. Of course, he was unsuccessful; demons can’t be found on the Internet. Sighing, he typed something new into the search field, erasing it immediately afterwards: “Marla, I miss you!!!”

Her heart almost stopped.
Damn it, he’s so cute, and he wants me!
No, she wasn’t allowed to even think about it — he was a human! She had sworn an oath to hate all humans with all her heart! But perhaps she could just chat with him once more, like they had at the party.
That would be okay, right?
She’d have to look more human. Her outfit might scare him off — as always, she was wearing her heavy leather boots, the torn fishnet stockings, and a black leather jacket.
Maybe she could persuade Vanessa to go shopping with her; if her father found out, she could make it seem like this was part of her new mission.

A smile spread across Marla’s face. What a great idea! She slid off the desk and went over to the wall behind Mike. Using her hand, she drew a circle. A portal rimmed in shimmering blue fire opened immediately, and had Mike turned around, he would have seen Vanessa’s room through the opening. But he was so lost in his computer that he didn’t notice a thing.

One last time, Marla took in his wide shoulders and his blond hair, then stifled a sigh as she stepped through the portal.

“Well, I’ve got to get going,” Vanessa said, checking her wristwatch. She had just spent an astonishingly pleasant afternoon with Marla, taking advantage of the excursion to distract herself from her worries.

Daniel’s reaction was still eating away at her painfully, and so the demon’s request to go shopping with her had actually been welcome. Although Vanessa found talking to Marla to be a little awkward, and she was still afraid of her, she went along out of sheer frustration and to get to know her “enemy” a little better. It was also a unique opportunity to pump her for information about Daniel — whether he was really turning into a full demon, and whether he wanted to become Overlord. Unfortunately, Vanessa hadn’t learned anything from Marla. However, she had quickly discovered that Marla really wasn’t all that bad. Beneath her cool façade, there was a curious young woman who was surprisingly nice for a demon.

Marla was wearing tight jeans and a dark sweater with a wide turtleneck, both of which suited her enormously. She had also been to the hair salon to tame her wild black hair. Now it fell straight down to her shoulders, and Marla looked like a completely normal young woman. Vanessa’s pocket money had all been spent, but Marla had promised to pay her back. Vanessa didn’t want to think about how the demon might obtain the money.

“Could I come with you to your dance class?” she asked.

The fact that Marla was suddenly taking such an interest in human things surprised Vanessa, but she had nothing against the idea. She liked this friendly demon better than the despicable woman who kept trying to drive a wedge between her and Daniel.

“Are you going to remain visible for everyone?” Vanessa grinned. “Otherwise, people will think I’ve got a screw loose when I talk with you.”

Marla laughed. “No, I’ll make myself invisible; you’ll be the only one who’ll be able to see me.”

“Okay, good to know, because Mike’s standing out front. I would have tried to introduce you.” Vanessa waved to the young man who was waiting for her outside of the building. Marla’s reaction when she saw Mike didn’t escape Nessa’s notice: She stared at him fixedly, biting her fingernails. What did that mean?

Mike waved back, and when Nessa walked up to him, he gave her a kiss on the cheek. “You’re late; I was starting to get worried.”

“I was out shopping,” Vanessa said in her defense, holding up the bags full of Marla’s old clothing. Vanessa was usually punctual to a fault, but today hadn’t been a typical day at all. Her timing was all out of whack.

“Ever since you started going out with Taylor, I scarcely recognize you.” Mike smirked mischievously.

Vanessa froze.
Can he tell that my life has been taken over by obsessive thoughts about Daniel?
She felt like she had some sort of disease, because she thought about him all day long: his dark-green eyes; his coal-black hair that slid so silkily through her fingers; his tall, athletic figure; his inscrutable smile; and his kisses that made her all but swoon. For her, that was enough, but for Danny, it seemed like everything revolved around sex.
That can’t be the only thing in a relationship, can it?
she asked herself, even though she had to admit that she enjoyed messing around with Daniel and wanted to spend every second of every day with him. Right now, she was missing him dreadfully. She fingered the silver ring that he had given her the previous week.
Hopefully he’ll be back to himself soon; I hate it when we fight.
It was nice to be with him, but because they were always holed up in their treehouse, she hadn’t seen her other friends for ages. This made her enjoy the dance class even more. And Danny wanted to take that away from her. There was nothing going on between her and Mike, why couldn’t he understand that?
And why had he freaked out in my room?
She had actually been a little bit afraid of him. After all, when his demonic side came out, who knew how he might change?
No, he’d never hurt me
, she thought, hoping that she wasn’t wrong in thinking that.

As always, Mike led her masterfully across the dance floor — but Vanessa wasn’t at her best today. This was mostly Marla’s fault, who had evidently forgotten that Vanessa could see her. The demon ran after them, trying to follow the complicated steps, but even her clumsiness couldn’t cheer Vanessa up. For one thing, she kept seeing Daniel’s enraged face in her mind’s eye.