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She kept vacuuming. I pressed my face to the glass. Where was Hondo? Wasn’t he supposed to be here? He’d probably gotten sidetracked by some girl, or maybe he’d signed up for a wrestling match down at Chachi’s bar. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d bailed on Mom for a “better deal” only to end up with a black eye.
I looked over my shoulder at Mr. Ortiz. He smiled and waved. The bank was tucked away from the road beneath a canopy of huge oaks. If it weren’t for the neon sign, it would be easy to miss the place. When I turned back, Mom was opening the door and tugging her earbuds loose. “Zane? Is everything okay?”
Okay? No, everything was not okay. Rosie was gone. I’d killed a demon runner and spit up a million lies all over my magical neighbor’s floor. Definitely not okay! But all I said was, “We need to talk.”
Mom waved at Mr. Ortiz, then looked back at me. “Is there an emergency?”
“You could say that. Where’s Hondo?”
“We needed some bleach wipes. What’s wrong?”
I stepped inside. “Why didn’t you tell me I was only part human?”
Mom’s face fell. But to her credit, she didn’t walk away or try to lie. “How did you—?”
“Find out?” I finished her sentence, feeling a little bolder.
“Ms. Cab…” she said softly. “I was supposed to be the one… She promised me.”
“When, Mom? When were you going to tell me?” I gripped my cane and took a deep breath. “Please tell me I’m not part demon.”
A hideous cry sounded outside. Mom and I looked out the window, and on top of Mr. O’s car stood a strange figure. It was two feet tall and looked like some kind of goblin with patches of dark hair poking out of its abnormally large head. It peered at me with yellowish eyes and a sinister smile, and between its pointy teeth it clutched a dagger.
Mom grabbed hold of me, pushing me behind her as she locked the front door.
“Mom! We can’t leave Mr. Ortiz out there!”
“Something tells me it’s not here for him.”
I looked back and the thing was gone. Mr. O was nodding off, oblivious. Mom grabbed me by the shoulders. “Zane, do you trust me?” That was not the right question. But I guess even after everything she was still my mom, so yeah, I trusted her.
“We need to get to the car and get out of here,” she said. “So I need you to be faster than you’ve ever been.”
My mom was freaking me out. I’d never seen her like this—so stern, so commanding, so afraid. As she reached for the front door, the lights went out in the bank and we stood in total darkness.
Mom jumped.
I looked around. Past the lobby there was nothing but desks, chairs, teller windows, and eerie shadows cast from the moonlight on the trees outside.
“What is that thing?” I whispered.
“An alux,” she whispered. She pronounced it ah-loosh. “And it’s very dangerous.”
Yeah, I got that just by seeing its nasty face and sharp teeth. Mom’s breathing filled the darkness. Then came the sound of small but heavy footsteps approaching, and I suddenly felt like I was in a horror movie, about to get chopped into bits.
“It’s inside,” Mom whispered.
I tried to open the front door, but for some reason it wouldn’t budge. “What do we do?”
“Run!” And with that Mom was dragging me through the main part of the bank. “Get to the cage!” she cried. We raced toward the back wall. I knew what she was thinking. If we could lock ourselves inside the safety-deposit-box cage, then maybe we stood a chance against the little monster.
In the same instant, I heard Hondo’s voice behind us. He had just come in from the parking lot. “What’s going on in here?”
“Hondo!” Mom cried. “Get out!”
A terrible wind whipped up outside, hard and fast, and a tree branch crashed into a window, breaking the glass. Lamps flew off desks. Paintings fell from the walls. I grabbed the edge of a table for balance.
The creature stepped into our path right before we reached the cage door. “You cannot run,” it said in a high, screechy voice.
