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Krystal’s mouth tilted in a smile. “You think so?”
    â€œI know so, chica, ” Sasha said with a grin.
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    If I were a living being I might have fallen out of that tree and busted my ass. Instead I slipped down slowly from the branch, feeling like the entire sky had caved in on my head.
    Krystal wanted Jake.
    She’d wanted Jake the entire time she was with me.
    Fury probably should have been my first reaction, but I’m having a good time wallowing in self-pity as I sit on the curb outside her house.
    After a while, that self pity turns to something else. It churns inside me like bile and I gag at first. Then I take a few steadying breaths.
    The girl I thought was mine really wasn’t.
    She’d lied to me.
    Just like my dad.
    They’d both deceived me. I sat on the curb, watching cars go by and knowing that Krystal and Sasha were in her bedroom still talking about Jake. I realized that none of them gave a damn about me.
    I’d never been very popular in school. Sure I had a few friends, usually the geeky types, not the beautiful and popular ones. I didn’t know how much I’d longed for that acceptance until now, the very moment when I realized what an outsider I really was.
    Dad’s life was always his career and the research he did while locked behind closed doors. Me, I sort of existed on my own in our household, not really angry about the way things were, but not totally happy about it, either. I always thought I was stronger, that I was too smart to fall into the trap of the clichéd teenager from a broken home. If I kept up the facade well enough, the nagging doubts on the inside wouldn’t matter. And I pretty much had that act down pat. Being such a good actor, makes me think I may have missed my calling.
    But even thinking about my dad’s betrayal didn’t hurt as much as Krystal’s. I thought we’d connected. I thought her feelings for me were the same as mine were for her. At the time, it didn’t seem as if she felt otherwise.
    My fists are tightly clenched by my sides as anger wells up inside me. She could have just said she wanted Jake. Could have told me I was acting like an idiot falling all over her all the time. Her friends probably laughed when I wasn’t around. Jake always glared at me like he was ready to fight me at any moment. Maybe he was, maybe I was the one poaching on his territory. But neither one of them said anything. Both of them lied. All of them lied to my face and laughed behind my back.
    I hate them all!

Chapter Four
    Revenge can be a great motivator. An hour ago the hand life had dealt me sucked. Now, I can see the possibilities.
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    My dad is most likely gone. He’d been researching my girlfriend like she was some sort of lab rat without even telling me. My girlfriend lied to me. A guy I didn’t really know but might have even liked, stabbed me in the back. Compared to the reaper and the demons and their sorcery, I think I prefer the latter. At least they’re honest.
    They wanted something from me, so they made me a proposition, told me the pros and cons—well, maybe just the cons—and are waiting to see what my choice will be. Do the choices suck? Well, I guess that depends on how you look at it.
    Right now, if I were still a walking, talking, breathing teenager, my life would be crap.
    But as a whatever I am right now, it’s not so bad.
    What I need is opportunity and, as I’m walking down the street two days later watching the Settlemen’s students as school finally lets out for the summer, I see that opportunity very clearly.
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    Everything looks different in the dark of night. I don’t know what made me go home after standing in front of the school, but I did. I lay on the couch and I slept.
    I didn’t dream.
    But I slept and when I wake, I feel rejuvenated. I instantly go to the door, inhale the night air and step outside. This time walking doesn’t bother