Deemotay

Chapter 12

KETLIN

"You're saying that my granny is working with those... killers?" I didn't know how to call them.

"I'm afraid so," Adam said.

We were interrupted by my cellphone, which started ringing. I took it out from my pocket and had a glance at who's calling. It was my aunt Siiri.

"Yes?" I asked, answering the call.

"Oh, hey Ketlin. Is your mother at work?"

"Yes, she'll come late tonight."

"I know. But I wanted to meet her today. Are you at home? Maybe I can come there and wait for her?"

"I am at home," I answered, "but she'll be really late. Can you wait that long?"

"I have time."

"Well, okay then," I said.

"Fine. I'll be there soon." She hung up.

I raised my eyebrow, while putting my cellphone away. I wonder what she wanted from her so badly, that she agrees to wait for so many hours.

"I should probably go then," Adam said.

"Wait, but Lucy? What she'll do if she knew all that?"

"Of course it's much better if she wouldn't know it. At least not that it's all so related to your family."

"But if she starts to demand my answer like last time?" I was very scared of that. If Lucy wants to, she could get anything from me.

Then I heard a car stop in front of our house. Siiri is here already? When I looked at Adam, I saw he was deep in his thoughts.

"What?" I asked.

"Something seems to be wrong." He said it like he wasn't completely sure.

Already I heard the front door open. I went to greet my aunt, who I hadn't seen in a long time. But I stopped at the door, looking at her suspiciously. She was wearing dark clothes, which wasn't anything weird really, but there was something else. She was also wearing a belt, like police officer. I saw a small black gun-like thing there, and next to it... Was that sugarra? My aunt is one of them?

"Can you come here for a moment?" she asked with a smile, like nothing was wrong. But I turned around, running back to my room. I heard her follow me.

There I saw Adam standing still in my room. And he was looking behind my, his eyes serious.

"Adam, you must go," I almost yelled him.

"Ketlin?" I heard my aunt. I turned around and saw her approaching at my door. When seeing Adam, she was startled. The next moment she was pointing her gun at him. "Ketlin, step back," she demanded.

I stood right between them, not letting her shoot. "Adam, go," I told him again.

"They'd find me if they have you." Adam stayed there, not leaving.

"Ketlin? What are you doing?" Siiri was confused about me protecting him.

I tried to think fast. Even if I wasn't really sure, what Adam meant, I knew how we could escape. I tore my necklace off my neck and stepped towards Adam. He understood my plan, as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Ketlin, no!" I heard my aunt yell. Then I felt a strange and strong pulse going through me. The next moment we were, well, I'm not very sure, where.

"Are you okay?" I heard his voice. He was worried.

"Yes." I could barely say that. So it was a lie. I wasn't okay. My whole body felt weak and my feet couldn't carry me. My hands were shaking. My sight was all blurry, but I soon realized that we were somewhere in the woods. At least Adam helped me hold my balance. Without him I would just collapse.

When I felt something, I understood that Adam didn't believe my weak lie. Because he was carrying me now. I could tell he was running, faster than should be possible. And I'm not sure how long it lasted, but at one moment I saw a figure of a big house. I can't tell how it looked like, It was pretty dark already. But I think it had two floors.

Adam carried me inside and put me on a sofa. A few times I tried to get up, but I didn't have the strength.

"Woah, what happened here?" I recognized Lucy's voice.

"They found me. I had to take Ketlin with me," Adam told her. I didn't hear any displeasure in his voice, about Lucy being here.

I did another attempt to get up. My hands started shaking again, but this time my try worked. I looked around, trying to understand where I was. It was a living room, I could tell that. Pretty big living room, with old-time furniture. It was very beautiful place.

"Okay," Lucy said slowly. "Anyway, they are also using something else besides wollemia. It made tracking them a bit harder. But this situation isn't looking great. I could detect at least eleven humans, but there are probably more."

"Then I guess we'll have to leave," Adam said, not sounding very happy about it.

"But her?" Lucy pointed at me.

"I could come with," I said.

"You have to attend school. And I don't think your family would be happy about it."

"But you said that they'll find you if they had me," I protested. I didn't want him to go. I wanted to be with him.

"And one more thing," Lucy interrupted. "While detecting those killers, I discovered that some are closely related to the girl." She looked at me, her glance making me shiver.

I was scared now. "I.. um..."

"Ketlin didn't know about it until today," Adam answered before me.

"Didn't know?" she asked, still looking at me. I felt the urge to answer.

"I didn't."

"Okay, whatever. But your relatives are causing us much trouble."

My cellphone rang again. I saw the caller was granny.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Are you okay? Where are you?" She sounded like she was panicking.

"I'm fine. But I don't want you to come after me."

"Please, Ketlin. You don't know what you're doing."

"Is mum one of them?" I asked instead answering.

"No. She doesn't know anything."

"Okay," I felt a bit relieved. "Bye." Then I wanted to hung up.

"Please wait. They're dangerous..."

I put my mobile back to my pocket and let out a deep sigh. "Why can't they trust me?" I asked myself.

"They have good reasons to be scared for you," Lucy said.

"But I could explain how things are."

"It wouldn't help. If a human and deemotay spend too much time together, soon deemotay couldn't resist anymore. And human dies. Simple. It has happened many times before."

I stared at her, not knowing what to think of it.

Adam looked at her warningly. "It only happens if we're obsessed with human energy." He reassured me.

But Lucy ignored him. "And there's a very good example in this room." She pointed at Adam.

"What...?" I looked at him confused and questioningly.

He sighed. "Hundred and eighty two years ago I was in love with a human girl. I didn't believe I could hurt her." He stopped, studying my face carefully. "After that I moved to live in the mountains, away from people. There I learned to live on animal energy."

Lucy nudged him. "Oh, please. You left out the fun part."

"What part?" I demanded.

"I wanted to stop myself from hurting her. But it was hard and it influenced my mood, making me angry. Instead of taking her energy, I snapped her neck," he said carefully, some sadness hidden in his tone.

"But took energy from her friends, who happened to be close," Lucy added.