Read Witch & Wizard 04 - The Kiss for Free Online Page B

player named for evil incarnate is allowed to do absolutely anything —break your neck, tear off your arm, bite a chunk out of your face—as long as he can catch you?
    Not everyone can be caught, though. No Demon has ever brought my brother down.
    When the teams take the field again, Whit sidles up to his place at the center. The whistle shrieks and Whit takes off without snapping the ball. The crowd whips into a frenzy. “ Use the Demon! ” chant the blue team’s fans as Whit streaks by, zigzagging around the blue bodies and dodging the Demon’s grasp. Whit even shifts the ball like a carrot in front of the Demon’s nose, and the crowd eats it up.
    Whit pretends to falter, letting the blue Demon in for the kill move at the very last second, and then the snap is so quick that the guy has a useless mouthful of my brother’s ear before he realizes Whit lobbed the ball down to the end zone seconds ago.
    That’s another signature move. Whit has never scored a single point. He told me once that it’s not a big deal to him to get that kind of glory, but it seems like a big deal to everyone else, so why not give the other guys the ball? Pretty cool of him. But that’s pure Whit for you.
    “What your brother’s best at is slipping through people’s fingers…. Just ask all the heartbroken girls on the sideline!” Dad quips after the play—the same joke he tells every game. Mom shakes her head at his dorkiness, like always.
    It’s good to have something familiar among all the chaos and bad news. Whit’s been pretty shaken up about the kidnappings—we all have—and he almost didn’t come tonight. It took Janine to convince him that Sasha had the Over Watch under control, and that it was just as important to lift community spirits and morale by giving them a good show.
    So far, it’s been a success, with half the City in the stands cheering. Whit’s playing maybe one of his best games yet, despite the usual blood and tufts of hair littering the field. Some people say Whit has a bit of the supernatural in him when he plays, and I can see it coming out tonight. He’s slick, he’s graceful, and he’s fierce.
    I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised, then, that in the last quarter, the blue team decides to switch in their second-string Demon.
    “Whit, watch behind !” I yell, jumping to my feet, but it’s too late. The Demon is already diving, wrapping my brother in a viselike leg grip and pulling him down. Whit’s first fall is hard, and I wince as his helmet strikes with a dull thud . The shocked crowd gasps, and then boos the Demon in defense of their idol until Whit finally struggles back up.
    This has never happened before.
    “He’s just got a lot on his mind,” I say to reassure my parents as much as myself. “Governing is hard, and then with his weird headaches the other night…”
    But when the blue Demon takes Whit down in the next play, and then down a third time, the people start to take notice. It looks like this guy’s determined to take my brother out of commission, and he’s certainly capable.
    He’s liquid smooth in his maneuvers, slipping through openings right as they close. He anticipates Whit’s exact timing as if he’d choreographed it himself.
    But mostly? He’s fast . Faster than Whit. Again and again, the Demon delivers moves that are quick and clean to take Whit down without injury.
    Who is this guy?
    At this point, it’s like Whit doesn’t remember how to play. It’s a train wreck, set up for maximum smash effect, and not one of us can turn away as the last few minutes on the clock wind down, the blue team driving the numbers up on the scoreboard.
    Afterward, everyone is waiting to see the new second-string-completely-unheard-of blue Demon who took down the legendary Whit Allgood. Waiting and watching as he high-fives his team and does handstands. When he finally removes his helmet, the plastic reflects the light onto his face and a little shiver runs through me.
    Heath