Misty

While Nixon and the others devised a plan to lure Eden's scummy ex, Nash, Aiden, and Nash kept a close eye on Eden and me. Emilio and Diego worked on enhancing the Demon Extractor 1000 to get it ready. The girls kept the cousins and Emilio from botching the plan.

I didn't care what they did. I didn't want to become demon food. I've grown accustomed to this new life.

This brings us to our current situation when we spotted Allie strolling around the campus without a care in the world. What the actual fuck?

"Correct me wrong. But isn't that the chick who showed up at our front door practically naked, claiming Chet attacked her?" Nathan asked.

"Yep," Nixon said, irritated at the current sight.

"So if Allie is fine, did she accuse an innocent person of a crime?" Noah asked.

"That would be my guess," Nolan said.

"Oh, hell, no," I said, marching toward Allie.

Nash tried to stop me. I smacked his hands away. I refused to have him stop me from confronting victim Allie. Nash didn't like me smacking his hands away and hoisted me from the floor.

My feet swung in the air as I tried to wiggle out of his hold. "Do you mind?"

"Nope." Nash turned around and walked away while carrying me like a sack of potatoes.

"Put me down, you behemoth!"

Nash carried me into an empty classroom and put me down after the cousins closed and locked the door. I spun and slugged Nash. He caught my hand. I tried with the other one. He caught that one, too.

"Will you release me?"

Nash leaned into me. "You're hot when you're pissed."

"I can show you boiling if you don't let me go." I glared at Nash.

"Not a chance. Don't make me zap your ass."

"You're an ass."

"Only because you're not listening."

"Fine."

"If you run, I will zap you."

"You would use your electrical energy to give me curly hair?"

"In a heartbeat."

I rolled my eyes in annoyance. "Fine."

Nash released me once I didn't bolt for the door. It's not like I can go anywhere with four guys blocking my exit strategy.

"We need to find out why Allie is acting like nothing happened to her," Nash told the others.

"We'll put the girls on it. If Allie spots us, she will run," Nixon reasoned.

Nash nodded in agreement. Nixon dug his cell phone from his jeans and texted Kat.

Emilio and Diego were locked in an empty classroom, testing Emilio's invention.

********
Emilio

After I finished turning the demon extractor 1000, Diego helped me test it. I wore a backpack with a battery pack, held a handle that shot power waves, and wore infrared goggles that detected demons. We had to sneak around so we didn't draw attention to ourselves.

When we encountered someone, we ducked out of sight. We waited until the halls emptied before I lowered my goggles and scanned the area.

"Anything?" Diego asked me.

I looked at Diego with the goggles covering my eyes. "You can detect a demon if there's no one around."

"Then how do we test out your contraption?"

"We search until we find activity."

"Let's find some activity to test out your equipment."

I nodded in agreement.

We jogged down the hallway, searching for activity, until my EMF meter went wild at a closed door. We stopped and saw shadows moving behind the frosted glass.

I looked at Diego. "Stand back. I'm not sure what kick this has."

Diego nodded and moved from me to give me space. I flicked the power switch, braced myself, and pressed the trigger. I flew backward when the energy wave shot out from the gun and landed on the floor. The door blew apart as people yelled.

"What the fuck?" A voice shouted.

A bolt of energy shot from the gun, hitting and destroying different objects.

"Emilio! Turn that damn thing off!" Nixon yelled.

"I'm trying!" I tried to turn off the gun to find the trigger jammed.

The others scrambled so they didn't get blasted with energy bolts.

******
Valentino

While Nix informed Mags and me of the plan, the classroom door exploded, causing us to scramble. Energy bolts shot through the air, destroying objects. Nix and Emilio yelled at each other. Diego dodged the energy bolts, trying to help Emilio.

I ducked to avoid getting hit until I reached Emilio and Diego. I grabbed his backpack and released a surge of energy. The energy short-circuited whatever was in the backpack and shot through Emilio. He flopped around the floor and shook from the jolt.

My cousins and Mags left the classroom to find Emilio shaking on the floor. Diego touched Emilio, jerked his hand away, and shook it.

I shook my head, grabbed Emilio's backpack, and dragged his ass across the floor into the empty classroom. We didn't need to draw attention to ourselves.

"What the hell happened?" Nix asked Diego.

"Emilio wanted to test out his invention," Diego said.

"Did they include trying to zap our asses? If that were the case, we have Nash for that."

Diego rolled his eyes. "No. We were trying to find a demon. Your energies must have set off Emilio's emf detector."

"You think?" Nix cocked his head to the side with his hands on his waist.

Emilio needs to fix his shit so he doesn't zap our asses because his equipment can't detect demons properly.

"Someone drag Emilio back to the house before he gets us in trouble," I ordered.

"On it," Nathan said.

Nathan and Noah grabbed Emilio by the underarms and dragged him from the empty classroom with the heels of Emilio's sneakers sliding across the tiled floor. I shook my head because Emilio's little excursion sidetracked us.

Nix's phone rang, and he answered it. "Hey, Kitty Kat. Uh, huh. Yep, I'll tell them." He ended the call. "Kat and the girls found Allie and have tied and bound to a chair at our house."

I narrowed my eyes. "What?"

Nix nodded.

"Why our house?"

"Home advantage."

I rolled my eyes before grabbing Mags' hand and leading her from the empty classroom. We didn't need Allie at our house since the police think we're up to no good.

*******
Misty

We hurried to the house since it was too cold to take a leisurely stroll. We arrived at the boys' home, removed our coats and hats, and saw Allie bound and gagged to a kitchen chair. Nixon has been giving Kat pointers on how to bind and gag people.

Nathan and Noah came downstairs after dumping Emilio in his room to recover from Nash's electrical shock. The girls gave us space while we surrounded Allie. My eyes scanned her body. For someone who got attacked, she seems to be doing well.

I approached Allie and yanked down her gag so we could talk. It's hard to converse when the other person's voice is muffled.

"If you don't let me go, I'll scream," Allie hissed.

"Unfortunately, you're the girl who cried wolf. No one will believe you since you lied." I shrugged.

"Want to bet?" She smirked.

"I'm all for betting when it's a sure thing. You're not it."

Allie's smirk turned into a scowl.

I paced back and forth while tapping my lips with my finger. "I had to wonder why you picked this house out of every house on campus. You could have picked any house, but you chose this one." I stopped, cocked my head to the side, and scrunched my face. "The only reason you chose this house is to gain access to it unless I'm off the mark, which I'm not."

Allie's lips twitched before she broke free and pinned me to the wall with her hand. She leaned into my ear. "Call off your guard dogs before I snap your neck."

I looked at Allie and smirked. "I don't need guard dogs." I broke free from her hold, curled my hand into a fist, and slammed it into her face. I heard a sickening crack from her nose. Oops, I broke her nose. My bad.

Allie got to her feet with blood covering her face and charged at me. I spun and dodged her before sticking out my foot. She tripped and fell to the floor with a thud. I had to hand it to her. She wasn't going down without a fight.

She got to her feet with her feet apart, and her hands balled to her sides. My locket started glowing brightly as she opened her mouth and released an earth-shattering scream. The guys and girls braced themselves from the force except me. The scream she emitted bounced from me to her, making her fly against the wall with a forceful impact. She dented the wall from the impact and fell to the floor.

Nash stormed toward her and shoved his hand into her chest. Her eyes turned pitch black as her mouth opened. He released an obscene amount of energy as she exploded.

I walked over to Nash as he stood up and turned to me. "I doubt we're fighting only one demon."

Nash nodded in agreement before cupping my face and kissing my lips tenderly. My locket glowed, wrapping light around us as our hearts beat in sync.

Now that we have the inkling that more than one demon is hunting us, we need to up our game. It's hell-bent on destroying us at all costs. I didn't get this far to forfeit my reward.

Whatever happens now, I had to remember we had a reward waiting for us. Something tells me this thing would toy with us until it struck at the worst possible time. It would prove why Nash and I were soulmates.