The Appeal of Evil (The Road to Salvation) by Pembroke Sinclair

several steps in front of him and intended on leaving without saying much more. She stepped into the darkness and focused her gaze on her house.
    “See you tomorrow,” Randy called from the door.
    Katie turned and waved to acknowledge him, but never slowed her pace until her front door was closed behind her.
     
     

CHAPTER 8
    MOM GLANCED AT KATIE from the couch, craning her neck around.
    “You get everything taken care of for Wes’s return home?” Mom wondered.
    Katie nodded. “Yeah.”
    Mom turned back around. “Good.”
    Mom’s phone rang, and Katie assumed it was Randy calling to ask if Katie could get out of school tomorrow. Katie was confident Mom would say it was fine, especially if Randy was the one asking. She smiled slightly. At least there was one thing to look forward to in this whole mess.
    She headed up to her room. Exhaustion surged through her body; her arm still ached. She needed to take some ibuprofen and climb into bed. Even if she wasn’t going to school tomorrow, she wanted to get as much sleep as she could. The weekend was coming up, and even though she didn’t have any plans, she wanted to be ready for anything. Well, at one point, she’d had plans to go to a movie with Josh, but after the warehouse debacle, Katie was sure those plans were cancelled. Maybe she would call Deb and they could go somewhere. Shopping sounded like a good plan. Or maybe just a hike in the woods. Anything to get away from the craziness and people. Some alone time was really what she needed. But not too alone. If she was a target for demons, she didn’t want to make it easy for them to get her.
    After closing the door to her room, she pulled on her pajamas. Her phone buzzed on the desk. She stared at it. She had forgotten to take it with her. That wasn’t very smart. What if she had needed it to call for help? She shrugged. It didn’t matter. She hadn’t needed it. Scooping it up, she glanced at the display. Wes had called again. Twice. But he didn’t leave any messages. She rolled her eyes. That guy was persistent. He’d contacted her more in the last few days than he had the entire time she’d known him. She strained her mind to remember the last time he had called her. Had he ever? Maybe once or twice, but never that many times in a day. She flopped onto her bed. She’d see him tomorrow. No sense wasting time talking to him now.
    Katie opened her browser. She typed in “demons” and waited for the pages to appear. She frowned. More than she had expected, and more varied. She didn’t need to read the definition–she knew what a demon was–but there were multiple encyclopedias and disciplines that dealt with the evil creatures. Were they really that big of a blight on society? Where had she been that she hadn’t noticed the problem? She clicked on a link of demon names. Maybe that would give her some answers.
    She read the opening paragraph. It explained how different cultures from around the world had different demons that functioned in different ways. Some were tricksters, some were here to torment the living. There was list after list of names and descriptions of demons from around the world. Katie shook her head and closed the browser. That wasn’t helping. It was making things worse. She didn’t know what Josh was, so how was she going to find him in the list of names? If the list were shorter, that would be a different story. But it wasn’t, and she wasn’t any closer to understanding demons than she had been before being attacked by one. As much as she hated to admit it, she was going to have to learn about them from Wes and Randy.
    That thought made her shudder slightly. She knew she was being unfair to both of them. In their own twisted way, they were only trying to protect those around them. At least Randy was open to share the story of his accident with her. He didn’t have to, and he wasn’t nearly as scary as she’d imagined him to be. Maybe she needed to rethink her attitude toward