It had taken me over an hour to calm Mom down. She had gone on and on about how whenever I meet a nice boy, I always have to scare them away or something. Then this had really pissed me off, cause you know, it's not my fault that all of my boyfriends had had angry ghosts trying to kill them, or had been killers themselves. And it didn't help that Dopey was right behind Mom the whole speech, making faces at me.

I should stick Jesse on him, too.

Anyway, once that was over, Mom had gone to wallow in her despair over her malfunctioning daughter with Andy.

I pitied the guy. I really did.

But that's what you get when you get married. Which is why I don't want to marry Paul. Maybe Jesse, but definitely not Paul.

As soon as I got rid of Mom and gave Dopey a warning punch, I ran back to my room, phone in hand. I scanned the room: no Jesse. Good. I felt a little…uh…embarrassed about facing him again so soon. Especially after seeing him half naked like that. I mean, all it would have taken was a little tug on the string holding his pants up and…

Whoa, there nelly! Calm the estrogen levels, Suze!

Um - anyway - I shut the door (which, thanks to Paul, wasn't that easy), and flopped belly-down onto my bed. I dialed Father Dom's familiar number.

"Hello?" came the voice of an old lady that I didn't recognize.

"Um, hi," I said. "This is Susannah Simon, I'm a student at the school. Can I please talk to Father Dom?"

There was a pause. "Please state your business."

Huh?

"Uh…I'm on the student council and I need to discuss some plans for a…uh…school barbecue. Could I please speak to him?"

"Yes. And don't forget to pray to the Lord Almighty for good weather on your barbecue."

Riiight…

"Sure thing. Praise the Lord."

"Did I just hear you say 'Praise the Lord', Susannah?" came Father Dom's voice.

Oh. Now the nun decides to finally put him on the phone.

"Oh, uh…I thought it was still the nun on the line. She told me to pray to the Lord Almighty."

"And you listened," he said. I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Sure did."

"Well, Susannah," he said, serious again. "What did you find out about this Dark Throne?"

Okaaay… I was not expecting that.

"But I thought you said -"

"I know what I said, Susannah. And I also know that whatever I tell you to do, you do the opposite. So I decided to use a little reverse psychology on you. And it certainly seemed to work."

Uh, oh. Father D's getting smart. Not a good thing. Since he asked, though, I told him the whole story: all about the demons, Dark Throne, the dynasty, the prophecies, and the rebel Bianca. He didn't say a word the whole time I talked.

"Father D? Father D, you there? Hello? Come in, Father D? Father D, I am -"

"I heard you, Susannah."

"Well, what do you think? Should we kick Bianca's butt first or Paul's? Though I strongly recommend Paul, since he wants to make me his eternal bride, you know?"

"Susannah, we are not kicking anybody's butt. We…we need a plan."

I rolled my eyes, forgetting that he couldn't see me. "Oh, whenever did plans help anything? Barging in unexpectedly has never failed me before."

"It nearly failed you two weeks ago."

Good point. Father D. was getting way too smart.

"What's the plan, then?" I grumbled. I love Father Dom, but seriously, when's he gonna realize that sometimes the best thing is to kick a butt or three?

"Well…I don't have one yet. But, Susannah, please, don't go barging in on a situation you can't handle without me. Give me some time and I'll think of something." He was silent for a moment. Then he said, as if on sudden inspiration, "…an exorcism."

Oh, no. I'd had about enough of exorcisms over the summer, believe me.

"Jeez, Father Dom, just let me punch Bianca into oblivion!"

"No. You are not to try anything. Do you hear me Susannah Simon? Nothing. I need to think about how we are going to exorcise these…demons." He said the word as if it were a curse word. Well, he is a priest.

"Fine, Father D, we'll do it your way then."

"Good. Does Jesse know about this?"

"Um…well, he knows some of it…not the whole story, though…"

"Tell him. Tell him everything you just told me. And I'm warning you, if you try anything, Jesse will tell me."

Yeah. The little snitch.

"Don't worry, Father D, even if I wanted to try something, I wouldn't know where to start. I mean, I have no leads, you know."

"Very good. And Susannah?"

"Yeah?"

"The rip in the dimension is in the chapel. Where we exorcised you."

"Um…okay…"

"Just thought you should know…you know, just in case…"

And he hung up.

Was that supposed to be some kind of clue or something?

Whatever, even if he was doing reverse psychology on me again, I was suddenly too lazy to get up and do anything. So I decided to read over the papers Cee Cee gave me. And let me tell you, there was A LOT to read. I wanted to find out more about this "rebel", so I skipped over to that part. It talked about how she was going to open the gateway to Hell by destroying a pure soul, thus releasing its energy.

Uh, huh. Good luck finding a pure soul.

I read on. It talked also about how Bianca would command the armies, but she would have to change herself first, because a demon could not control other demons, and neither could a human. Only a mixture of the two could commandeer the hoards. That got me thinking.

If Bianca was releasing the demons with no way of controlling them…well, that could be big trouble. But what about Paul? Wasn't he half human, after all? He definitely wasn't a full demon, like Bianca. That must mean that…

Was Paul using Bianca in order to gain control of the demon armies himself?

Oh, boy, my head was starting to hurt.

"What are you reading, querida?"

I spun around to face Jesse. No longer shirtless. Dammit.

"Jeez, Jesse, what happened to those chains I told you to use?"

Jesse ignored me, his face stern, as he sat next to me, looking over my shoulder at the papers. "What's that about, Susannah? Demons…"

"Uh, yeah…I just talked to Father Dom, and he's coming up with a plan to…you know…stop the demons from taking over the world and stuff."

Jesse took the papers out of my hands. For ten minutes, he just sat there next to me, doing what must have been speed-reading, because he got through all fifty pages super quick. Whoa. It had taken me ten minutes just to read one of those pages. I mean, the font was really tiny, you know.

When he was done reading, he looked up at me, his face unreadable. "And Paul is the heir to the Dark Throne?"

I nodded.

His eyes narrowed in anger. "And he wants you to be his queen?"

"Yup."

"And…this rebel demon…"

"Was the demon we saw at lunch today. Her name is Bianca."

"I see…" He thought for a few minutes, then looked up at me like he had just thought of something. "I believe that - assuming that Bianca cannot control the demon armies herself - Paul is using her to gain control of the demons."

"Bingo," I said, grinning. I am so good.

Jesse looked back down at me. Boy, he had such intense, brown eyes. "Susannah, do you know when this is supposed to happen?"

I shrugged. "How should I know? I only just find out about this stuff this afternoon." I yawned and stretched. "You know, it never hurts to relax. I mean, it's not like Paul and Bianca are going to go and take over the world tonight."

Jesse chuckled. "No, I guess not." He looked at me, his eyes amused. "So what should we do tonight besides saving the world?"

I froze.

OMG!!! DID HE JUST SAY WHAT I THINK HE SAID?????

"Uh….. Sleep?" I suggested lamely.

Smooth, Suzie. Real smooth.

Jesse smirked at me, in, what I thought, was a suggestive way. Was he…leering at me again????

No it must have been my imagination.

But then again, I am the only girl he's even had the opportunity to…you know…uh…have physical contact with in more than a century.

"Querida…" he breathed in this really sexy, throaty voice.

I swallowed. My heart started pounding. Dammit, I hated when he made me go all weak like this.

Jesse was inching closer to me. I backed up until I was sitting against the headboard. Nowhere to run. He leaned over me so his face was inches from mine, and put his arms on either side of the headboard, trapping me.

What was he doing????? He never acted like this before!!!!!!!

"Querida…" he repeated, still smirking at me. "What you told Paul this afternoon…about me…was it true?"

I blinked at him. "Huh?"

"Don't try to be sneaky, querida. I want to hear the truth from you."

And then I remembered. The L word. Crap.

I shrunk down as low as I could, and glanced at the door, hoping that someone would walk through and stop Jesse. No such luck.

"Tell me, querida."

I looked into Jesse's face again. He was no longer smirking or seductive or anything. He looked serious. And if I wasn't mistaken…he looked sort of desperate.

"Uh…"

"Querida, tell me…"

"Um…"

"I'm waiting…."

"Er…"

This was going well. Jesse was practically drilling holes into my eyesballs with his intense gaze. Why did he want to hear me say it again so bad? Did he…love me back?

Keep dreaming, Suze.

"I - I said that to gat Paul's attention away from where you were hiding."

Jesse's smirk returned. God, he knows just how to play me. "Are you sure that's all, Susannah?"

"P - pretty s - sure…"

He leaned over more so we were nose to nose. Then he whispered, almost inaudibly, "Are you positive?"

And before I could stop myself, I said, "No…"

He whispered into my ear. "Querida, I want to hear you say the words again. Right now. Don't be afraid. I need to hear them again…"

I swallowed. My breathing was labored and ragged all of a sudden, like I'd just run a run a mile. How embarrassing.

I knew he wouldn't leave me alone until he got what he wanted, though, so I whispered, even more quiet then him, "I love you, Jesse." Out of nowhere, my eyes started filling with tears. "I love you."

Then Jesse lifted his head, and he had the sweetest smile on that I had ever seen. "I love you too, querida."

My heart literally stopped breathing as he said that. He looked at me for another second, then bent down and gave me another beautiful kiss.

Then he dematerialized, leaving me sitting on my bed alone and in total shock.


A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed! REVIEW!!!!!!!!!