There was a certain presence to my father, a weight, a physical feeling to being around him that always made me uncomfortable, especially when the door first opened. I hated to admit it, but I think it made me feel that way because I was afraid it could be me someday traveling between worlds.Haralthazar took the time to look over us. His chiseled face creased in a soft smile, gentle even, welcoming. Hard to believe, but true. My dad was a nice demon. Forget the whole pit of burning despair thing. Demons simply come from another plane, a different realm of existence. There are good guys and bad guys like here on Earth. Lucky for us, when my Mom decided to go unconventional after the attack leaving her own mother crippled, she fell in love with Dad.He raised one arm over Mom. She stiffened as the energy rippled out of her in visible strings of light, flowing over the pentagram and back into each of us. I flinched as the thread hit me, out of breath and more than a little dizzy. Dad a

I spent the whole of the rest of my evening fuming and avoiding my mother, in that order. I think she must have been feeling the same way because we only bumped into each other once in the kitchen. I did ten minutes of my covenly duty at the party before heading for my room. I tried not to feel sorry for myself when I felt the rush of departing magic when Dad went home to Demonicon. It totally sucked. We didn't get a whole lot of time with him anyway. It took so much energy to bring him across that his visits were short and usually scheduled. And I'd missed most of it.Mom came up from the basement while I headed for the stairs. Neither of us said a word. I have no idea if she tried to make eye contact because I absolutely refused to give her the satisfaction of knowing I cared if she looked or not. Yes, I know, childish. If that was what it took.I didn't even have the distraction of soccer. My team wasn't playing which meant I was stuck for an excuse to get out of the house.There

I guess I must have made it obvious I wasn't in the mood for bullying. Despite Alison's parting remark, a typical fair warning of nastiness to come, I made it through the day in peace and quiet. In fact, unlike most days when I normally had to force my way through the crowd in the cafeteria to get a milk or the push of kids to reach my locker, the way seemed to part before me in a rippling wave of retreating humanity. I'm not sure if they didn't want to have any contact with me in case I turned contagious and would bring Alison's wrath down on them too, or if I radiated 'don't mess with me.'Probably a little bit of both.I finally toned back my new badass aura when two freshmen ran away from me with tears in their eyes. Talk about going from one extreme to another. I had to be oozing magic to raise a response like that. Time to pull the reins back and get myself under control. But if the past couple of days taught me anything, I knew I wasn't getting anywhere doing the same thing ov

I waited until everyone left to retreat back to my room. It was almost dark by then. I undressed, digging out my favorite grubby pajamas, dropping my clothes on the floor out of the habit of pissing off my mom. I knew she would glance in on me. I heard the long sigh of suffering she would heave at the unruly pile of clothes. I flipped open a textbook, trying to study and sighed myself. Damn, she was good. Even in my imagination, she could make me restless with guilt. I threw aside the book and glared at the pink chandelier. I slouched out of bed, put the clothes away, and went back to studying, feeling decidedly huffy.It didn't take me long to concede defeat. I sucked at chemistry. I was about to toss the book across the room when I felt a surge of power so strong it shook the house to the foundation.I leapt to my feet, out my door before I knew I moved. I took the stairs three at a time, practically flying. I made it to the basement doorway ahead of the typically timely Sassafras.

Despite the endless promises I made, the next day while prepping for school I found myself yet again a slave to trend setting and lip-gloss. So much for the new and improved Syd who didn't take crap from anyone. In fact, by the time I hit the front steps, I was a nervous wreck. How much damage had I done? If they thought I was a freak before, what was I classified as a target now?Unfortunately, yes. Might as well have had a bull's-eye painted on my chest. From the moment I set foot in the front lobby of Wilding Springs High, I opened myself to the bombardment of Alison's revenge. Not just Alison, either, from the looks I took from the general population. I was in it deep and even those who might have felt some sympathy gave me a wide berth. They knew a sinking ship when they saw one. Nobody wanted to get sucked in when the vortex of Alison decided my doom was at hand.Still, they started small, bless them, softened me up a bit, eased me into it. Nothing overt, at least not at first.