White Washed

Chapter Thirteen | Bad Man

Where had I seen that guy before? I could easily picture him in my mind and that gave me the chills.

After minutes of silent panicking, Noah cleared his throat quietly. "Do you want to go?"

His eyes flickered to my half-empty plate. I looked down, too. The food had been really good but my apitite had evaporated. I felt bad. I knew Noah thought the date was going horribly and that was his fault, but I was really just too distracted.

"Why don't you go wait in the car while I pay the bill?" He asked.

I opened my mouth to argue with him about paying but shut it just as quickly. It was a lost battle and I really did want to get outside, away from the crowded restaurant.

I stood to leave and Noah stayed sitting, waiting for the waitress to come and give him the bill. His eyes flickered to me before he smiled. I smiled back as genuinely as I could, still feeling very guilty.

The air was colder outside than it had been when we got here. I formed a small bubble of air around me very inconspicuously. It did nicely to prevent the breeze from catching my hair and tossing it around my face like I hated.

The car wasn't parked very far away but he still beat me there. As soon as I neared it, I could see him leaning against the passenger side door.

His expression unnerved me. It was both smug and angry.

"Hello, Emily." He greeted, his tone almost cheerful.

"My name is Amelie." I corrected coldly. Maybe he had the wrong girl.

Please, please have the wrong girl.

He laughed but ignored my correction otherwise. "Emily, how long did you think it would be before I found you? You can change your hair color and move to a new state to go to college, but I know you very well. And I am a very good hunter. You should have never left Indiana."

I just stared at him. I could feel my palms heat, practically begging me to burn him to bits.

"I know you better than anyone. You could never pull off another hair color, darling. You look so much better blonde. You were my favorite, you know. I never forgot about you for a moment." He chuckled and the hair on my arms stood on end. "Even when I was with other girls after you, I remembered all the times we were together."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I stepped away from him and he followed the movement with his eyes.

"Have you forgotten me so quickly?" He smirked. "I thought you loved me."

I opened my mouth  but no sound came out. I had no idea what to say.

He was suddenly right in front of me. "I'm Malvir Rood, one of your many boyfriends. I should be hard to forget, though, since I'm the only demon boyfriend you ever had. Don't you remember? You used to think that was what made me so much better than all the other guys."

I shivered at his implied meaning. He opened his mouth to continue but instead suddenly disappeared into thin air.

I looked around and spotted Noah coming out of the restaurant. He walked quickly over to me and we both go into the car.

He waited until we were a ways away from the restaurant before he spoke. "Who was that guy staring at you in the restaurant?"

"I have no idea."

- - -

When we got back to campus, Noah walked me to the door of my room. He hesitated before pulling me into a hug. It was unexpected, since he'd been distant on the ride back, and I stiffened at first. After I got over the immediate shock, I returned it. We stayed like that for a second and it was a miracle that Katie didn't open the door and come out, since we were standing smack in the middle of the doorway.

When he pulled away, I could see that he was struggling not to parade me with questions.

Instead of voicing any of them, he simply said, "You can tell me if that date went horribly. I don't mind, I promise."

I laughed and shook my head. "It was wonderful, thank you so much."

He smiled and kissed my forehead before going back down the hallway. As soon as I was alone, I called Cass.

He answered on the third ring. "Hello, angel. What's up?"

"We've got a problem."

- - -

One of Cass' rooms that I had yet to see was the computer room. There were four computers, all lined up along the wall and a ton of techy things all hooked to the wall by wires. It gave a new meaning to the word nerdy.

I was pacing nervously across the room while Cass rotated between the computers in his office chair, typing furiously on each keyboard. The door opened, barely missing my leg as I paced. I didn't stop.

"What the hell happened?" Alix demanded, looking at Cass. Cass waved his hand, indicating for me to tell him.

"I was at dinner with Noah when this guy showed up and he was staring at me. It creeped me out so we left but while I was walking to the car and Noah was inside he talked to me." The words all came out rushed and I had to stop to breathe. "He kept talking like he knew me, like I'd run away from him and then he said his name was Malvir Rood and he was my demon boyfriend."

Alix's expression remained neutral. "Is that all?"

Cass spoke up. "She thinks she's seen him before."

Alix pursed his lips, clearly thinking hard. "Malvir. That's a unique name." His tone was suggestive.

Cass nodded. "There's records of a deleted Facebook so now I'm just trying to get it."

I did a double take to examine the computer screen more carefully. "If it's deleted, how do you still get them?"

"Everything on the internet is permanent. It leaves a digital footprint that's quite hard to cover." Alix answered.

"Aha." Cass snapped his fingers and twirled in his chair to face us.

One computer screen was pictures and another was a Facebook page. I looked at the Facebook page as Cass read off it.

"Malvir Rood, Indiana, twenty-three, engaged to Emily Moere."

I looked at the pictures and froze. Every one was of two people; Malvir and myself. Only it couldn't be me. We looked almost exactly alike, minus the hair and she looked a little older. She must have been around twenty.

"I thought you said you didn't know him?" Cass and Alix both looked to me.

I shook my head. "I don't. I've also never had blonde hair."

I looked back to the pictures, then to the Facebook page. Engaged to Emily Moere.

"He called me Emily." I remembered.

"What?" One of them said, I wasn't sure which one but it didn't matter.

"He called me Emily and when I correct him, he ignored me." I explained.

There was a ding and a new page popped up on the third computer screen. Cass explained it quickly. "I thought I'd heard the name Malvir before so I looked it up. It's Latin, meaning 'bad man'."