Blood Relatives

45. One Final Kiss

"Did you forget that exorcisms are for demons?" he asked. "And you most definitely qualify."

"I'm not a demon." Carmine told him quietly. But she remembered how the holy water had burned her.

"Of course you are." Adam told her. "I'm just sorry that this is how you finally realized it."

He turned back to where Anna, Luke, and Conner stood – safely out of the circle. "If you want to kill me, fine. But you'll have to get her too."

"Carmine, it's ok." Anna told her. "You know we won't do that."

"I know." Carmine said. But in her heart she wasn't quite sure. This was the closest they'd ever come to getting rid of him, and who knew if they'd ever get another chance. But what could they do? It wasn't like they could ask Adam to please wait while they made a new circle without her in it.

Carmine thought about telling her friends to just change the circle – make a line between her and Adam and let her out. But there was no point; the circle was too small. And there was no way they'd be able to get Adam to stay peacefully on his side. Carmine realized she was going to have to choose between letting Adam go and probably dying along with him.

"So what are you going to do now?" Adam asked her, as if he realized exactly what was going through Carmine's mind.

She turned slowly to face him. He was still standing on the far side of the circle, but he was starting to come over. And the one thing Carmine knew was that she couldn't let him. Somehow, being closer to him made her start to forget all the things he'd done to her.

"Stay there." she told him.

"Or what?" he asked. "There's not really much you can do. It's up to your friends at this point."

He took another deliberate step towards her. Carmine stepped back and hit the barrier again. She really hadn't realized just how many disadvantages she'd have once her friends turned her. She fingered the strap on her purse nervously. That's when she remembered – the water bottle. She might not have to die after all.

Adam ran towards her. He was fast, but not nearly as fast as Carmine. At least she knew now why he'd made her and Conner come to him. She dodged under his arm at the last minute, letting him slam up against the barrier. She turned to face him and began frantically trying to unzip her bag.

Adam came after her again, and Carmine started backing up, trying to give herself more time. Why couldn't she get that stupid zipper undone? At first Carmine thought it was just because her hands were shaking too badly to work it. But finally she looked down, taking her eyes off Adam for just a second. She didn't want to, but she couldn't sit there fumbling around forever. Sooner or later, he would get her – she had to be fast.

She looked down at the zipper tab. She saw that piece of ribbon on the end that she'd always thought was stupid. And now she had another reason to hate that awful thing; it was stuck in the zipper. How had she not noticed that back in the parking lot – back when she actually had time to mess with it?

Carmine looked up just in time to see Adam only a foot or so away. She moved to the side, letting him pass her again. Then she turned back to the zipper. She grabbed the tab and pulled as hard as she could. Finally, the zipper came undone. Carmine let out a sigh of relief; the hard part was done. Now all she had to do was grab the bottle and aim it at Adam.

The next thing Carmine knew, something hit her full-force in the side. She hadn't even realized Adam was that close – she must not have moved as far as she thought last time. They slammed up into the barrier and Carmine was momentarily stunned. When she opened her eyes, Adam was only inches from her. He held her tight, leaning in and kissing her.

Carmine tried to get away, but his grip was too strong. And as they stood there, Carmine realized just how tired she was. She was tired of all the lies she'd been telling since this started. She was tired of trying to stop Adam from hurting people when it never seemed to work. And now, she was tired of even trying to resist him. She probably wasn't going to make it out of this anyway; all she wanted to do was rest. She closed her eyes, thinking about how nice it would be to finally go to sleep. She didn't remember ever being this tired before.

The longer she stayed there kissing Adam, the more tired Carmine became. But he was always there, holding her. He seemed to be getting stronger somehow. But maybe that was just because Carmine was starting to feel weaker. She closed her eyes, ready to sleep. She was sure she was almost there, when Adam suddenly jerked away.

Carmine opened her eyes with a start, gasping for air. She felt like she'd been holding her breath for a long time. What happened?

The last thing she remembered, she'd been trying to get that water bottle out of her bag, and Adam had been chasing her around the small circle.

Where was Adam? Carmine looked around, confused for a second. But it didn't take long to figure out what had happened.

Adam was laying in the middle of the circle, a wolf standing on top of him. Grey, with a white undercoat. Carmine ran through her list of who that could be. Luke, she realized finally. And it wasn't just the bloodstains she thought she saw under the fur that helped her reach that conclusion. He must have jumped through the circle and knocked Adam away from her.

Carmine didn't waste any more time. She grabbed her water bottle and pulled up the cap as fast as she could. She then emptied the entire bottle into the middle of the circle. She tried to only hit Adam, but Luke was kind of in the way. Good thing the stuff wouldn't actually hurt him.

Adam let out a terrible scream, sending shivers up Carmine's spine. He lay there on the ground, writhing in pain, his hands over his face. Carmine looked away. She wouldn't have thought it was possible after everything he'd done, but she actually felt sorry for him.

Seeing that Adam wasn't going anywhere, Luke backed off of him. Then, he turned and looked at Carmine.

"Thanks." she told him. If he hadn't jumped in like that, Carmine probably wouldn't have made it. Luke gave a short nod. He hopped lightly out of the circle, but didn't change back. Instead, he crouched down, waiting for Adam to get up again.

"Carmine!" Conner shouted. She turned. He and Anna were standing at the other end of the circle, frantically waving her over.

Carmine hurried around the circle, making sure to stay as far away from Adam as possible. He was still screaming.

As soon as Carmine was at the barrier, Conner started frantically wiping away the salt. When the space was finally big enough, Carmine hurried through. Anna started pouring more salt, sealing up the hole the instant Carmine was on the other side.

Carmine had never been so grateful in her life. Finally being free, realizing that she wasn't going to die there with Adam was such a relief, she almost cried. Conner wrapped her up in a hug, similar to the way he did when she'd burned herself with the holy water. Somewhere over her shoulder, she heard Zev snicker.

"I'm really glad you're ok." he told her.

"Thanks."

"Me too." Anna said, coming up beside them. Carmine turned and hugged her.

"Hey, Conner! Get over here!" Luke called. He was standing at the edge of the circle, fully human.

Conner went to Luke. He took a piece of paper out of his back pocket, and they began reading something from it.

"Come here." Anna said, leading Carmine to the table closest to the courtyard entrance. Anna gave Carmine a bunch of tiny little green branches that had been tied together. She instantly recognized them as sage sticks.

Carmine and Anna lit the sage sticks at the circle while the boys finished off their incantation. And when they were finally done, there was nothing left of Adam – not a single sign that he'd ever been in the courtyard with them at all.