“But that doesn’t change a thing. They’re still here
Juliana turned, preparing to head up the stairs and see if she could catch up to Eva.
A hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“Juliana Laura Rivas. I won’t stop you. But you come back.”
“Of course I will.”
“Good. I love you.”
Juliana turned back around, staring at her mother. There were no glistening tears in her eyes. Not even a hint of moisture. Her mother was much too hard of a woman for that. There was a certain tightness to her jaw.
“I love you too, mom.”
Genoa gave a curt nod before releasing Juliana’s shoulder. “If your father asks, you hit me over the head and escaped my grasp. In my weakened state, I could do nothing to stop you.”
Juliana rolled her eyes and turned back around. Halfway up the flight of stairs, she heard her mother again.
“And if you
Already halfway up the stairs, Juliana didn’t bother addressing her mother’s empty threats.
Probably empty threats.
There was a chance that she would follow through.
In fact, the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that her mother was being serious.
She would have to be extra careful to not die.
Eva had to be heading up to the roof. If she wasn’t, Juliana expected to run into her coming back down the stairs. Her conversation with her mother had taken a bit of time. Eva was probably already gone.
Juliana slowed down around the third floor corridor. Even though Eva was probably gone, she still was going to check the roof. However, a pair of familiar voices caught her ear.
“So scary. I thought I was going to die when she looked at me.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“I don’t know what happens to you humans when you die, but a demon’s death is no fun at all.”
A short distance down the hall, just in front of Juliana’s open dorm room, Saija was…
Crying into Irene’s shoulder?
“Worse,” Saija said, wringing her hands with the sleeve of Irene’s shirt, “I wouldn’t be able to experience all this anymore. What if I never got summoned again?”
Irene, standing perfectly straight with her arms at her sides, grimaced as Saija wrapped her arms around her. She tilted her head away to avoid one of the succubus’ horns. As soon as she tilted her head, she caught sight of Juliana.
‘Help me,’ she mouthed.
Seeing her dorm room open gave Juliana hope that Eva hadn’t left yet. She must be collecting weapons inside. So, against Juliana’s better judgment, she walked down the hall.
Irene’s face lit up, but fell to despair as Juliana edged around the two to get to her room.
The lights were on, but nobody was in. A few of Eva’s clothes had been thrown about the room. The desk drawers that Eva kept her spare vials of blood in were open and missing their usual contents. With the bathroom door open and the light off, Juliana had lost hope that Eva was still around.
Turning back to the two girls, Juliana gave Irene a shrug. She doubted that Saija had even noticed her presence; her head was still buried in the other girl’s shoulder.
“Eva already left?”
Saija jumped, snaking around Irene to hide behind her. Her apparent fear lasted only a few moments as her wide red eyes narrowed.
“Oh, it’s just you,” she said, moving out from behind Irene. “I thought Eva came back.”
“So she is gone.”
“She just left a moment or two before you arrived,” Irene said.
“And good riddance. She tried to kill me, you know?”
Juliana glanced over at Irene, who gave a brief shake of her head, before she said, “I didn’t know that. You probably did something to deserve it.”
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Juliana ignored the succubus’ outburst of protests.
She hadn’t seen Eva on the stairs. She might have teleported. Juliana couldn’t teleport or even blink.
Her first thought was to summon a demon. It was a terrible thought. Something she realized a mere instant after thinking it. No demon she had ever summoned had proven useful with the exception of Zagan. Almost all had tried to kill her. The ones that hadn’t tried to kill her had still not been very friendly.
While Zagan had proven useful, even unusually helpful, it hadn’t come without a cost. And, at the moment, Juliana was far from desperate enough to try summoning him.
