I was dead on my feet. Sleep hadn’t come easy and I had a splitting headache. But I needed to get out of the house so I had insisted on going back to school.

Damien was still acting strangely and far too quiet for my liking. There was something going on with him but I still hadn’t figured out what.

He still wouldn’t breathe a word about what happened the night of the accident and I had stopped asking, finally accepting I wasn’t going to get answers from him.

I felt self conscious of the bandage on my forehead from the accident but I was determined to get back to some sort of normality. Besides staying at home wasn’t an option. All I had been able to think about was the accident and how I felt which hadn’t been easy to deal with. I had decided the best thing would be to keep myself busy.

Besides my noisy annoying demon had gone quiet and it was driving me nuts. Who would have believed I would have finally got the silence I had craved for years would cause me so much angst.

Perhaps it was the fact that I had gotten so used to it, and now unbelievably I felt a little lost without it.

If anyone had ever told me this would happen I would have scoffed in disbelief. But here I was sneaking side glances at Damien who was seated beside me on the bus, staring straight ahead at nothing in particular.

I didn’t know how to get him back to the annoying asshole I needed to be able to cope with what happened.

He followed me diligently around school and I found myself looking for him more than I ever had before.

At lunchtime I was sitting under a tree eating my lunch when Parker appeared.

“Hey,” he said, slightly out of breath.

I put my hand to block out the glare of the sun as I looked up to him. “Hi.”

“I heard you had an accident.”

I nodded and pointed to the bandage. “Yeah.”

“You okay?” His words were soft spoken and like many others who had looked in my direction today he had sympathy in his eyes.

Clearly, my accident had run through the rumor mill quickly.

I shrugged. I didn’t want to go into the details, it was too difficult to relive what happened. And it brought back memories of the accident that had taken the lives of my family.

The common thing in both accidents was somehow I had survived both without any recollection of how.

“Other than the bump on my head and a few bruises, I’m good.”

I couldn’t complain. I was alive.

He studied me.

“You stalking her?” Damien said, his eyes starting to glow.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Parker murmured. “I kind of felt a little responsible.”

Parker didn’t even acknowledge what Damien said.

“Why on earth would you feel responsible?” I asked.

“My party was the reason you were out in the dark in the early morning hours.”

I shook my head. “No. I was at the wheel of the car, I’m the only one responsible for what happened.”

Even if, for the life of me, I couldn’t remember how it happened.

There was silence again. I was very aware I was getting a bold glare from Damien. Maybe Parker could jolt him back into his usual annoying self. I was hopeful.

“How did it happen? Were you drunk?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t drink much.”

He frowned. “What happened?”

I sighed. “I don’t really remember all of it. I can only remember bits and pieces but not enough to figure out exactly how it happened.”

“You’re lucky you came out of that pretty unscathed,” Parker murmured.

I nodded. “I am.” My hand subconsciously touched my forehead.

This was the second car accident I had survived. Maybe I was lucky. I glanced at Damien. He was glaring at Parker like he wanted to physically hurt him. I had never seen him react to anyone that way before.

Seeing where my attention was Parker looked to Damien.

“Maybe not so lucky,” he murmured and that made me smile.

Having the dark cloud of Damien follow me around for the last seven years probably couldn’t be considered good luck.

“I got to go. I’ll see you around Tessa,” Parker said, with a slight inclination of his head in my direction.

I nodded. “See you.”

As he hurried to enter the cafeteria I studied him, taking note his aura was grayer than it had been when I had first seen it. It made me remember back to what I had figured out the day before about his unusual aura.

It was Damien who had led me to a hunch that I had no way of knowing if it was right or not. But at least it was something. If it were up to Damien I would have nothing.

“You have to stay away from him Tessa,” Damien warned. He was right beside me and took me by surprise.

“Geez,” I breathed, holding my hand to my rapidly beating heart.

I scanned the area to make sure no one had seen but thankfully the few students around hadn’t been looking in my direction.

There was no way I was going to respond to him. I couldn’t take the chance someone would see.

“There are things you don’t know.” He whispered in my ear. “Dangerous things.”

I want to ask him to explain but I bit my lip.

“You think I’m bad, there are far worse things out there than me Tessa.”

This time his warning made me shiver.

“You should be very scared and you should heed my warning. Stay away from him.”

Parker was a nice guy. I didn’t understand why Damien kept warning me off him. I never once felt uncomfortable or even threatened in his company. None of what Damien was saying made any sense. How could I believe what he was warning me against when he refused to explain?

“Why?” I whispered under my breath. I needed him to explain and I was taking a chance talking to him when we weren’t in the safety of my room where I was confident no one could see or hear us.

“The less you know the better. Trust me Tessa.”

I wanted to scoff at him but I had to rein in the emotion. He wouldn’t tell me anything and he expected me to trust him. The demon who had been haunting me for the last seven years, reveling in my pain. Was he crazy?

I refused to even look in his direction for the rest of the day. Instead of giving me answers, all I got from him was warnings. Didn’t he understand I would be more inclined to take heed of his warnings if he would explain? Simply telling me to trust him wasn’t enough.

I didn’t trust him, how could I? And how could he expect me to?

When I got home I was emotionally worked up and tired. I dropped my bag as soon as I got into my bedroom. My grandmother knocked before coming in to check on me.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, tucking a hair behind my ear.

I sighed. “Tired.”

“Sleep. I’ll wake you a little later for dinner.”

She left and my attention drifted to Damien.

He was looking out of the window. It was almost like he was watching out for something but what?

“Who should I be scared of Damien?” I sat up.

He didn’t respond but there was a visible line of tension in his shoulders.

Apprehension turned to angst. It was difficult to fear what I didn’t know but his strange behavior was really starting to freak me out.

In that moment I just wanted my annoying demon back.

“Damien.”

His eyes locked with mine as he looked back over his shoulder.

“Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”

“I can’t.”

I studied him. I wondered if this whole thing was somehow a ploy to get me back to hell but I couldn’t work out why.

Nothing lately was making any sense. I missed the normality of know exactly where I stood with him.

And besides. He was my enemy so why was he warning me.

Surely if there was something dangerous out there they would be on the same side as Damien, the one against me.

And what could be more dangerous than a demon.

Damien swung his attention back to the window and I lay back on my bed watching him, feeling more confused and fearful.