Puff's Diner was bustling with activity when Paige arrived. Young mothers with strollers and what looked like a soccer team on the way to their match. She couldn't see Kendall yet so Paige waited in the long line and ordered a coffee and half a dozen donuts. There was a booth free in the corner which Paige abruptly took possession of while she waited for Kendall to arrive.

Paige's coffee arrived just as Kendall did, who only ordered a strawberry smoothie. Taking a sip, Paige quickly pushed the steaming mug away and tore into a donut as the coffee cooled down.

"How are you feeling?" Paige asked with urgent intensity, leaning across the booth as Kendall took one of the glazed donuts on the plate.

Kendall didn't meet Paige's eyes, her attention focused solely on the donut in her hands. She turned the sugary treat in her hands a few times before she spoke. "Fine. I guess, considering everything that happened." Her eyes raised and met Paige. "Did the detectives speak to you?"

Paige sagged into the booth with a nod. "They're persistent bastards." They were becoming a serious complication.

"It's kinda their job." Kendall's fingers got to work tearing the donut into pieces before placing one on her tongue. Her tone was almost as weary as the expression that masked her face. Dark circles, almost like bruises, danced beneath her eyes.

"You look tired."

Kendall gave up with the donut and let the pieces fall back onto the plate. She wasn't that hungry anyway. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"That makes two of us."

Kendall seemed relieved to know she wasn't the only one suffering from a case of insomnia. She couldn't seem to get her mind to shut down last night for more than a few minutes. Her small smile thinned with Paige's next words.

"What did you tell the detectives?"

Kendall's eyes narrowed on her. They were almost like angry voids of melted chocolate. "Not much," she admitted in a tight voice. "I didn't really know what to tell them." She glanced around worriedly, as if she was afraid the detectives were nearby and would catch her in a lie. Paige never had a problem lying to those in authority, in fact it gave her a warm tingling sensation, but Kendall wasn't like Paige. She had morals. Respect for those in positions of authority. Then her angry eyes were back on Paige. "What should I have told them?"

Paige tried not to get irritated with her show of anger. She deserved it, after all. Kendall's car was wrecked, she spent days in the hospital and now detectives were knocking on her door. If the roles were reversed, Paige would be pissed too. Kendall is actually showing marvellous restraint, but she didn't have the same behavioural issues Paige was plagued with.

"I didn't tell them much either," Paige said, choosing not to directly answer Kendall's question. "They're suspicious. They know we're hiding something."

Kendall almost shot across the booth. "We are!" she hissed. "I saw . . . I saw . . ." A distant look engulfed her eyes as memories floated to the surface. "I saw someone . . . something stop my car. I hit someone."

Paige searched her face. There was definitely grief there, and something else. Maybe pain. She wasn't certain. "No," Paige lightly said, as Kendall's face contorted with emotions. "Someone hit us, Kendall."

The pain flashed to awareness. "Aaron?" She tried to decipher the wave of emotions that flashed through her body, but there was just too many to truly keep track with. She leaned heavily against the table, her hands on either side of her face. "Why?"

"I'm not sure," Paige muttered. "I don't know what he wants."

Kendall's eyes met Paige, but her face remained trapped beneath her fingers. She didn't have much strength to keep herself upright. "He wants you," she whispered.

A lump formed in her throat. Paige couldn't speak around it, so she only nodded. Just then, a waitress arrived with Kendall's smoothie. She seemed friendly enough, but she was quick to drop the glass off and disappear to another booth without another word. She must have gotten quite an impression from the two young girls; one was filled with defeat while the other had an expression that could almost kill someone.

"Why?" Kendall stressed again once the waitress was out of sight.

"I don't know."

Kendall straightened, her arms falling to her side. "I don't believe you." The aghast was gone from her expression, the anxious remained, but now there was spite and resentment mixed in. "If Aaron is a . . . you know what, then why would he toy with you? Why not kill you straight away?" She had grown accustomed to Paige's accusations, maybe they weren't as farfetched as she once thought, but she still couldn't say the word 'demon'. Not yet anyway.

Paige forced herself to meet Kendall's darkened gaze. Tell her. She should tell her. She told Kendall so much already, probably more than she should have. Aaron clearly wasn't against targeting Kendall. But then again, if Kendall remained oblivious, then she wouldn't have been the victim of a hit-and-run.

"The accident was my fault," she said. "It happened because of me. I don't think he'd stop with a simple car accident, Kendall. It'd get far worse than this. He never noticed you until we became friends. If it wasn't for me, you'd still be in the dark. You'd be safe." Paige took a steady breath. "We shouldn't do this. You shouldn't do this." Paige's message was direct. Kendall couldn't be entangled with this anymore.

"No," Kendall almost hissed. "Aaron's a demon, Paige. A real life, frigging demon. Here in our town. And you were the only one who knew. Who wasn't fooled."

Paige took a sip of her coffee, just to waste a few moments to gather her thoughts. It had gone from hot to lukewarm, but she didn't want the waitress to return just yet. "I think that's why."

She spoke so softly that Kendall had trouble hearing her. "Hmm?"

Paige pushed the coffee away and looked up. "He's infatuated with me because I noticed him. I saw him for what he truly was, despite the mask he puts on for the rest of the town. Even before I knew what he was, I could sense his magic. It was . . . dark . . . and just wrong."

Kendall took a few slurps of her smoothie, her face thoughtful. She swallowed but the strawberry tasted bitter. "It's been theorised that every supernatural species has their own distinctive magic, a different feel, a different essence."

"Theorised?" Paige questioned. Supernaturals have been part of the world for thousands of years. It seemed that something this basic should be well-known and definitive by now.

Kendall shrugged, turning her attention back to the donuts. "It's hard to know for certain. What you can do Paige, the whole sensing magic thing, it's not that common. But everything you're saying confirms this theory. Even a demon has distinctive magic that can't be concealed or altered. Aaron literally cannot hide his demon-self from you." She rounded on Paige. "I think that's why your magic's been unstable lately."

"What do you mean?"

Kendall leaned across the booth, her eyes wide and alert despite her sleep deprivation. "Think about it, Paige. When you met Aaron, you literally blew up a classroom. And your magic's been spiralling ever since. Ever wondered why?"

She hadn't, really. Paige was just so use to unpredictable magic that she never really gave it a second thought. It wouldn't be the first time she caused destruction to school property, and it probably wouldn't be the last time.

"Flight or fight," Kendall answered without waiting for a response. Her tone was assertive, like her answer explained everything. It only made Paige more confused. Kendall rolled her eyes and leaned back against the booth. "Your magic responded to his, Paige. Even if you didn't know what you were sensing at the time, your magic, I don't know, knew you were in danger."

Paige felt a flash of anger as she grew to understand Kendall's words. "Aaron's the reason my magic's been off lately."

Kendall nodded. "Probably."

Paige didn't really feel like being out for much longer. She no longer felt safe, for several reasons. Aaron has already proven that he would, and have, shown up at any moment. He could be leering around any corner. And then there was her whole unpredictable magic thing. Anything could set her off.

Without a vehicle, Paige offered Kendall a ride home. The ride was silent as Paige followed Kendall's meekly offered directions home. Both girls trapped in their own thoughts. As Paige pulled to a stop in front of a small English cottage, Paige turned the ignition off, the roar of the car instantly dying.

Kendall remained seated, her hand on the doorhandle. She seemed to be waging a mental battle. At long last, she turned to Paige, her face haggard. "I need to show you something."

The inside of Kendall's house was decorated in the same neutral colour scheme as the outside. There wasn't much of a kitchen, the furniture old and second-hand. Kendall steered Paige through the lounge to a room at the rear of the house. Opposite the door was a small laundry, the spin cycle of the washing machine bothersome in the silence of the house.

Kendall's bedroom was small, barely enough room for a bed and a desk. Built in bookshelves lined the pale pink walls, stuffed with paperbacks that flowed onto the floor. From what she could see, the bed was well-made, but it was hard to see the yellow and pink quilt beneath a mountain of books that coated the bed like another thick blanket.

Kendall made a disgruntled face at the pile of books as she started stacking them into a neat pile, not bothering to glance at the covers as she moved hurriedly. She seemed almost embarrassed to have someone witness this jumble of disorder. She was always so well-organised.

Kendall peeked at Paige from under a curtain of brown hair. "I've been doing research."

"I can see that." Paige claimed the chair at the desk, swinging it around and straddling it. Her research usually consisted of Wikipedia entries, it appeared Kendall did research the old-fashioned way. A book's title flashed beneath her eyes. Paige leaned away from the chair and picked up a nearby book.

"Demonology?" Her eyes raised and rested on Kendall. "You're researching demons?"

Kendall's movements slowed as she rested on the edge of the bed. "Yeah," she said with a nod. "Ever since I left the hospital. I've been up all night." Kendall's lack of sleep was the result of research, unlike Paige who tossed and turned, plagued with thoughts and nightmares.

"I don't think that's safe, Kendall." Kendall was being proactive, but Paige couldn't ignore the massive danger she was putting herself in.

"What else am I meant to do, Paige?" Kendall's eyes hardened with anger and frustration. "One of our classmates is a goddamn demon. We need to tell the detectives. Inform the Supernatural Council. They'll take care of Aaron."

Paige straightened up in the chair, her fingers almost clawing at the cover of the demon . "No," she said firmly. "Aaron's too dangerous."

"Exactly!" Kendall threw up her arms in frustration. "Let the professionals handle it."

"We have no proof." This time Paige did come out of the chair as she continued to keep a death stare with Kendall. Kendall didn't back down although it looked like she wanted to. "They'll never believe my word over Aaron's."

"We have to try."

"He'll kill my dad," Paige said softly, holding back a burning sensation in her chest. She blinked away tears, refusing to break down and cry again. That, more than anything, got through to Kendall. The pain in her voice, the raw emotions behind her words. Paige wasn't emotional. It was so uncharacteristic that Kendall didn't know how to respond. "He already threatened him, Kendall."

Kendall stared off into space as Paige's words circulated in the tension filled air between them. "What do you want to do?"

Paige shrugged. Never before in her life has she ever felt so vulnerable. Not when her parents adopted her when she was six, not when her magic manifested a few years later. Not even when she ended up at Solace Academy. "Call a priest to expel the demon?"

Kendall's lips twisted into a smile. "I don't think that's how it works, Paige. Demons are not possessions."

"Every show and movie would disagree with you on that one."

Kendall's smile faded into a frown. She picked up a thick, black-covered book on top of her mountain of research. "This is real life, not fiction. Demons play by different rules."

"How so?"

"From what I can gather, Mr. Beddoes was right. Demons are not born, they're created."

Paige sat back down. "From possession?"

"No!" Kendall said in exasperation, rubbing her tender temple, moving so she sat opposite Paige. "Demons emerge from people who possess certain characteristics."

"What do you mean?"

"Like serious psychopaths." Kendall struggled to find the right description. "People born with no remorse or emotions. People born evil."

Paige raised an eyebrow. "There are plenty of psychos in the world, but there aren't many demons." She couldn't really see a correlation, but Kendall was quick to elaborate.

"Not all psychos would become a demon," she said, flipping through the book to a marked section. "Just specific people. Truly deranged people. Only a small number of these people would actually make the jump to become a demon. Because of their dark nature, it's hard for them to go undiscovered for long."

"Bodies drop wherever they go." It was a statement, one Paige didn't need confirmed.

"Yeah." Kendall looked back down at the book in her hands, her eyes darting wildly to the side as her mind consumed whatever information was on the page beneath her. "And their face, too, I guess. Their face changes." Sounds a lot like what Paige has seen from Aaron. "They're cold to the touch. Almost like ice. Pale skin, black eyes."

Paige has been up close and personal with Aaron. His magic was cold and lifeless, but she wouldn't describe his skin as being like ice, and he was even more bronzed than she was. "Wait . . . black eyes?"

Kendall nodded. "No pupils. No iris. Just darkness. Pure black." She repressed a shudder as she pondered the possibility of Aaron's face matching the same ones from the book she currently held. It seemed impossible that someone that looked like Aaron could turn into something, well, so monstrous. And the restraint he held over the years . . .

Demons thrived with chaos and death. It seemed almost inconceivable that a demon hid in plain sight for so many years.

"Black eyes?" Paige mused, drawing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on her kneecaps. No, that didn't seem right. Every time she closed her eyes, every horrendous nightmare that plagued her each night, every thought and memory of the car accident – black eyes didn't fit in with the visions she had.

"No," Paige moaned, her head rocking side to side. Her eyes remained downcast as more images from that night flashed before her eyes. "He didn't have black eyes."

Kendall looked up from the book, her concerned eyes watching Paige carefully. "Demons have black eyes," she said slowly. "That's been proven." She hesitated before she spoke again. "Paige, what exactly did you see that night?"

Paige lifted her head, her eyes moving away from Kendall's rigid posture to a nearby window that overlooked a small, well-kept yard. "Aaron's eyes, they were like, I dunno, white, I guess. But not true white. There were hints of colours, just faded."

"Demons have black eyes," Kendall repeated, this time with a hint of fear tracing her words. Aaron had to be a demon. It was the only explanation.

Paige straightened her back, her legs falling off the edge of the chair as she leaned forward. "There was something else, too." Thinking back to the night, the night Aaron crashed metal with his bare hands, always caused the ache in her chest to tighten. This time she pushed past it. She had noticed something else, right before Aaron took off.

"Behind him," she muttered, struggling to keep her thoughts straight. "There was something behind him. It looked like . . . I don't know. A person, I guess." She looked up at Kendall then, whose face mirrored her own as she listened intensely. "A person . . . made from shadows. Gosh, that doesn't make any sense, does it?"

Kendall's eyes turned thoughtful as she gnawed on her bottom lip. She seemed to snap out of her thoughts pretty fast. Dropping the demon encyclopaedia as if it caught fire, she flew across the room to a smallish pile of books pushed into the far corner. Ripping through the books so fast, some literally tossed aside, she finally held up a thin hard-cover book above her head in triumphant.

She walked back to Paige slowly, her fingers flying through the pages of the book. "Most of my books are on demons. That's what we thought Aaron was, but I did manage to find a few books on some of the other creatures Mr. Beddoes mentioned."

"And?"

Finally finding what she was after, Kendall flipped the book around to show Paige an image of a painting. The painting itself looked rather old, but the book itself looked to be fairly new. The painting showed a pale man with long blonde dreadlocks decorated with ribbons and colourful beads. His slender form was surrounded with waves of blackness, something Paige was beginning to think was actually an aura or something. The man's eyes were white. Past him, past the dark aura, was a humanoid shape without any features, just coated in a thick layer of shadows.

Shit.

Paige left the chair and lifted a hand, her fingers barely scraping across the page before she dropped her hand and stepped away. Her face must have conveyed a clear message.

"This is what you saw?"

Paige couldn't answer Kendall. Staring at the page until her eyes burned, she could only nod. Her chest felt like it was about to cave inwards. She waited for Kendall to speak, to say more. Nothing mattered but this precise moment.

Kendall felt very small as she looked back down at the image of the man again. "Draugr. Aaron's a draugr."

***Hey guys, hope you liked this new chapter. How's this for a plot twist? No demon. But a draugr . . . Ever heard of such a thing? What do you guys think it is? Leave a comment with your ideas. I guess you'd have to wait until the next time I post to find out what the heck a draugr is ;) ***