DEMON SENSE (Completed)

Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

A soft rapping at my door woke me from my troubled sleep. Before I could open my mouth to invite the knocker in, the door glided open. Nathan was standing in the doorway, looking striking as ever in his usual black attire and accompanying trench coat. His golden brown hair fell casually around his face and his five o’clock shadow made him appear tired and disheveled. His curious blue eyes watched me as I sat up in bed.

“You have a visitor,” he informed me.

Just beyond him, I noticed the timid blonde standing just outside the doorframe. Her hazel eyes stared at me nervously, while she used both of her hands to play with the same frilly white spaghetti strap shirt from last night. Kelsey’s previously curly locks now hung limp, dull and lifeless. She looked about as ruffled as I felt.

I waved Kelsey over, “You can come in”.

Once inside, the girl tossed a look over her shoulder and indicated to Nathan with a single nod of her head that it was okay to leave us alone. After he’d been given the go-ahead, Nathan quietly pulled my door shut.

“Have a seat,” I told her.

Tentatively, she sat on the corner of my bed. She was understandably nervous, but when I didn’t do anything to scare her off, she mustered enough courage to climb up onto the foot of my bed, pulling her legs up and sitting Indian-style across form me.

The girl was tiny, probably not much taller than five-feet, and had little to no curves. Judging by the toned contours of her arms and legs, she was definitely active. Probably a cheerleader or gymnast, I thought. From the way she dressed and carried herself, she could be anywhere from sixteen to nineteen. However, if she washed off the smudged eyeliner, she might be able to pass for fifteen with how petite she was.

Just to make sure, I asked, “How old are you, Kelsey?”

“Seventeen,” she replied, picking at her cuticles.

My chest tightened. Kelsey was only seventeen, and she had somehow become mixed up with Atlas and his vamperic guards. How did something like that happen?

“Is there any one you’d like to call? Friends or family?” I offered.

She shook her head dully. “Nethaneel already asked me that—and no, I don’t have any.”

I raised an inquisitive eyebrow, “You don’t have any friends or you don’t have any family?” I asked for clarification.

“Both,” was Kelsey’s blunt reply.

“How can that be?” I asked more to myself than her. Everyone had a friend or family member they could turn to in a time of need. Even I had had someone to turn to—my aunt had immediately rushed to my aid after Kat’s death.

Kelsey averted her eyes when she spoke. “I ran away from home, okay? And I don’t ever want to go back.” She looked up at me through blonde fringe, and when her eyes caught mine, she added defiantly, “You can’t make me.”

I didn’t like that she was so young and probably living on the streets among God only knows what. Vampires, demons, and whatever else lurked in Austin’s dark boulevards, made easy prey of an innocent, unsuspecting seventeen-year-old girl. You might as well stamp “VICTIM” on her forehead.

“You’re wrong Kelsey. I can make you…but I won’t.” Although I thought she had been foolish to runaway, I could not bring myself to make the girl go back to some place she so adamantly wanted to avoid. What went on with her at home was none of my business.