Book Cover created in acrylic by the extremely talented @therealpaul
If you have not read the first book of the series, "Reborn", it is advisable you do so before reading "Renewal" or you will be lost. This link will provide you with a series summary as well as all sixty-eight chapters of Reborn
Chapter Eight
They walked through the door and Austin swept his gaze across the dimly lit room and froze. “Oh shit,” he breathed. His world tilted on its axis as he stared at a distorted inky shape hovering behind a well-dressed man in his early forties.
The girls followed his stare and Anna’s heart leapt.
“You see it!” Jenna exclaimed, feeling the same lift.
Austin heaved in a breath and slid a hand under his shirt, closing it around the medallion. The metal was warm and seemed to buzz with static. When he released it his fingers prickled with pins and needles. Anna put a hand on his arm and he looked down at her with a shell shocked expression.
He broke free of his immobility and stumbled over to the bar, gripping the edge of the counter. It hadn’t been real until now, he realized. Even with what Anna was, the idea of a supernatural world existing in the same one as his had been just a cartoony image in his mind. There was nothing cartoony about the demon dwelling near the back of the bar, he could feel its wrongness and his world seemed to have darkened like the sun slipping behind the clouds on a bright summer day.
He glanced at Jenna and Anna who stood beside him with twin looks of concern then looked back down at the counter.
“Austin?” Anna prompted gently. “Are you okay?”
He turned his head in her direction, slowly focusing on her face. The corner of his lip lifted slightly as it all sunk in. It had worked. Holy shit, it had worked, he could see them! He turned his head towards the demon and stared at it. He could feel its nightmarish presence, but suddenly he wasn’t afraid. He was ecstatic. His smile grew until he was beaming and he bent down and picked Anna up, dancing her in a circle.
She laughed breathlessly and he set her down then leaned on the bar. “Three shots of your best scotch, straight up,” he told the lanky college-aged kid standing behind the counter.
“I need to see some I.D.”
Shit, Anna thought, but Austin pulled out his wallet and threw his license down.
“For them too,” the kid stated.
“The shots are for me,” Austin told him.
“Uh huh. I can give you one at a time.”
“How about you just put them all in one glass then?” Austin slid money towards him and raised an eyebrow.
“Right, no problem.” The kid took the money and poured the scotch into a beer glass. When he turned to the cash register Austin snagged a couple of plastic cups and directed the girls to the opposite side of the club.
They found a table and he discreetly divided the alcohol underneath it and slid the cups over to them with a wink.
“Since when are you twenty-one?” Anna grinned.
“Since I met a guy who makes damn good fakes.”
“Nice,” Jenna laughed, “I’d like to meet that guy.
“So what are we toasting?” Anna picked up her cup.
“A brand new future,” Austin looked at his drink with reverence then put it in the air.
They left the bar shortly after, deciding to hit a diner and get some grub. There was a place around the corner done in the fifties style and it was packed with drunken college kids. There were also several demons in attendance and Austin had a difficult time tearing his eyes from them.
“I can’t believe it worked,” he said for the fifth time in twenty minutes. “It’s fucking nuts.”
The girls smiled at one another, admittedly they felt the same way. During the drive to Rochester Anna had had some serious doubts, thinking the odds were against it, life didn’t usually work out the way you wanted. Then again if Austin was fated for something to do with demon battles then it would make sense for them to have met in the first place.
They ordered a big basket of fries and chicken tenders and the three of them ate in relative silence. Austin kept looking over at the shadow men and shaking his head.
“So,” Jenna said breaking the silence, “What are you going to do with your newfound sight?”
Austin chewed his chicken with a thoughtful look on his face. He wiped his hands on a napkin and ran them through his dark blonde hair then rested his hands behind his head. His long sleeved cotton shirt stretched across his upper arms and Anna couldn’t help but notice his biceps had grown even more since she’d last seen him. He caught her staring and a cocky smile stretched across his handsome face.
“I’m still working out,” he told her and her face heated making him smile wider. “Still quick to blush, huh?”
She shook her head adamantly. “Usually I’m not, ever since the daily locker room talk I was exposed to with the McClaron brothers.”
“Really? So your face didn’t just turn the color of a strawberry?”
She frowned at him, “You caught me off guard.”
He nodded his eyes twinkling. Anna glanced at Jenna who was looking at her oddly. Damn, she thought, this was not the road she wanted to take with Austin. She needed them to stay on Friendship Lane. Jared flashed across her mind making her feel guilty. She didn’t know why since she didn’t even know him and at this point he was more a figment of her imagination than anything else. But it didn’t matter, he still managed to flush away all semblance of interest in anyone else just by existing, which in a way was a relief but also pissed her off. She hoped where ever he was he was being doubly tormented by images of her.
“What’s with the scowl?” Austin broke through her thoughts.
“Nothing. Sorry, I was just thinking about…never mind.” Of course Jenna was looking all knowingly at her. Anna glared in her direction and she had the nerve to giggle.
“All right, out with it, what’s the deal?” Austin persisted.
“Are we finished eating?”
He shrugged pushing his plate away and signaled for the waitress. She gave him the check and he threw money on the table. “Let’s go.”
He was looking at her intently and she knew he would push the issue in the car. She thought about it as they walked outside and decided she should tell him. It wouldn’t be fair to let him think he still had a chance with her, especially now that he…damn, she thought. He probably did think being able to see demons and living a longer life changed things. She definitely had to tell him, as vulnerable as she was feeling at the moment it wasn’t hard to imagine allowing something to happen between them that shouldn’t.
When they were back on the interstate he glanced at her. “Okay, I gave you time to mull over whatever it is you’re brooding about, now how about you clue me in.”
“You have to tell him about Jared, Anna,” Jenna stated loudly.
She turned to her friend in surprise. It wasn’t like her to put people on the spot, especially about personal things.
“I’m sorry, you know I wouldn’t throw that out there if it wasn’t necessary.” She had a strange look on her face and Anna wondered if she’d “seen” something.
She waited for Austin to ask, but he was staring straight ahead, his expression tight. She watched his knuckles whiten from the grip he suddenly had on the steering wheel. He was far from stupid, without anything more being said he obviously got the gist, but the gist wasn’t enough.
“I skipped a rather important part of the story earlier,” Anna said quietly.
He said nothing to that, just kept looking straight ahead.
“Austin please don’t do this, don’t get angry. I thought you came to the house because you’d decided you wanted me in your life as a friend.”
He exhaled, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I did,” he said still looking at the road. “I do.”
“But you still want more.”
He made a disgusted sound and slammed the steering wheel with his palm. “I’m sorry. I can’t fucking help it. I wish I could just turn it off and look at you the way I look at Jenna.” He glanced in the rearview, “No offense, you’re beautiful, you know what I mean.”
Jenna nodded.
“So where does that leave us?”
“I…shit, I don’t know.” He took a deep breath and blew it out.
He didn’t say anymore so Anna turned the radio on and after a few minutes he turned it up.
When they pulled in the driveway Anna was afraid he would take off as soon as they were out of the car. She did not want things to end this way with him. She felt tears welling up, as usual, and forced them away. When he turned off the engine she almost sagged in relief.
He bent his head down, his hands still on the steering wheel and Anna decided to stay put. Jenna took the hint and told them she was hitting the sack.
He looked at her finally and sighed. “Tell me about Jared.”
Generously created for me by @son-of-satire