Demon Girl (3 page)

I shifted. My top rode up some and his
fingers touched my back. Something hot and powerful invaded me. It
charged through my body until every muscle was tense and straining,
not pleasant after the baptism of ice and fire I’d been an intimate
and unwilling subject of before. And then it was gone, dissipating
into nothing. I relaxed so completely it felt like my bones had
unhinged, and my muscles liquefied.

The boy’s face was blank with shock. Had he
felt the painful heat too? I hoped so, because I was sure it was
his fault.

There was a fracas nearby, getting closer and
louder. My heart did a good job of clambering into my throat and
blocking my airway. The party hunting me crashed past and kept on
going. The boy, who had crouched down with me on his knee whilst I
had worked on breathing right, ducked his head down and tensed. I
felt better because he too was barely breathing. My heart thundered
and my thoughts raced. The bloodhounds were trained to follow the
weakest of trails. Why didn’t they smell me when my scent would
have led them right to us? This brought me round to the daunting
thought of how I got so far ahead, was able to roll around on the
floor, and encounter a strange boy before they had caught up.
Again, who was this boy, over whose arm and knee, I was draped? Not
that it was uncomfortable, but he’d put his hands on me so easily,
and held me close and it felt…good. The shock had me relaxing and
looking down at his hands. They were big, hard and somehow elegant
as they curled around me.

The hunting party passed out of sight and
hearing range. My stomach unclenched, and my heart slid back down
to rest uneasily in my chest. The boy remained as he was and peered
into my face. My heart raced at how tall and how strong he was.
Hair cut close to his head the general impression was hardness. A
heavy top brow, and sharp cheekbones rested high on a sculpted
face. His nose was the opposite of the distinctive aquiline bridge
most boy Disciples had, and I liked it. His bold eyebrows and
masculine lips added depth to a face that needed no flattering. The
scent of soil and sunlight reached me as I watched his silver eyes
flick from my face, to the leather cord at my neck.

“We’ve been looking for you,” he said.

The first words I’d spoken all day were,
“Nobody looks for me, and how do you know my name?” Taken aback by
the feeble quality of my own voice, I lifted my chin and added some
gusto. “I mean, put me down. Now.”

He did no such thing and he did not answer my
question. But he did smile again, and what a spectacular show it
was. His body was heavy and hot. Through the fabric of my clothes I
felt the hard lines of him, and the slow thump of his heart over
mine. Without thinking, I reached to touch his jaw and it felt like
strength. My fingertips glided over a raised slash of skin, and a
quick tug tilted his head so I could see more of his profile. I
traced a scar following the line of his jaw, curving up to his
cheekbone. The skin was puckered, rough. His eyes met mine and I
shrugged, the scar made him real to me. I snaked my hands up his
bare, solid shoulders and jumped off him so I stood on my own two
feet.

I knew without a shadow of doubt this boy
would rather die than hurt me.

“Rae,” he said softly. I shivered from silky
soft calling of my name, but then he finished with, “My name is
Breandan, and you are mine.”

My whole body jolted. Then my startled laugh
broke the short silence. Needing space to think and breathe, I
pushed away from him.

“In your
dreams
,” I said and spun
around.

I tried to pin down a direction to run
toward. I realized at that moment my solution was downright silly
and ineffective. See bad, scary or confusing thing, turn and run
from bad, scary or confusing thing until you bump into
another
bad, scary or confusing thing. I was getting nowhere
fast.

“You wouldn’t say such a thing if you knew
the truth. And since I saw you first you have to be mine. The white
witch was right, and now I’ll never hear the end of it. I didn’t
think you would come out here so soon and so freely. I tried to
ignore you, even when you got lost, but when I heard you running
away from them I had to help. They would have caught you.”

I’d stopped moving in the middle of this
rationalization. His voice was awfully attractive. I could never
describe how it sounded because it would only ever sound perfect to
me, and no one else. Once I’d gotten past
hearing
the words
I thought over the
meaning.
In delayed reaction my chest
puffed out and I bristled.

“The hell I do. People don’t belong to one
another, and I certainly do not belong to you, even if you did see
me first…whatever
that
means. What stupid–”

He moved closer then I could see nothing but
his eyes again. Mouth suddenly dry, I was unable to finish my
scathing rebuttal, and it took a moment to un-stick my tongue from
the roof of my mouth. A warm rolling sensation formed in the pit of
my stomach and lodged there. It was an odd sensation, it even hurt
a little, but it was a nice pain. I breathed in deeply through my
nose and expelled the breath through my mouth. The whole deep
breathing thing was helping.

“Okay then, Breandan,” I said serenely but my
heart thumped too hard and he coked his head as if he could hear
it. I went on nonetheless, “What do you want? Why are you in the
forest, alone?” The best defense is a good offence, and I could
give as good as I got. “This is demon territory y’know. I can admit
I was freaked and a bit off course.” He snorted a laugh and my
temper bloated into righteous indignation. “It’s dark out here. I
was running away from the Clerics because… they had dogs.” My eyes
darted to and from his now, uncomfortable with the lie. “And
I…don’t like dogs. They bark. Loudly. And how do you know my
name?”

There was a beat of silence as his eyes held
mine. “You will have to get out of the habit of lying. You won’t be
able to do that for much longer. And anyway, you don’t have to
explain anything to me. I understand. I know you, and that is why
we have come for you.”

“Are you from the slums?”

For a bad moment there I had assumed he was
from the Sect. I would be in a world trouble if anyone saw me out
here. I was beyond the Wall, which was forbidden, and I had seen… I
didn’t want to think about the horror I’d seen, and how I’d been
foolish enough to get caught seeing the thing I saw. I had
disobeyed a direct order from a Cleric, something I, a Disciple
training to be a Cleric, should never do. No, I was not so sure
anymore. If Breandan was from the Sect he’d have called to the
Clerics, not hidden me from them. If he was a civilian, I didn’t
see how he could come to be lost Outside. After all, you would have
to get past the Wall to make it out here. There was not a human
alive that didn’t understand the dangers of going over the Wall and
into demon territory.

I felt stupid then. If there was not a human
alive who didn’t know how dangerous it was Outside, what the hell
was
I
doing Outside? I was going to have very serious words
with myself.

“Coming for you is not something I chose, and
believe me, if I could change it I would.” He paused and shook his
head. “We are stuck. You belong to me,” he repeated. “And I to you.
Now we have touched it is sealed. Alright?”

Sealed my ass. I decided then and there, I
did not like this boy.

“You cannot appear next to me in the middle
of demon territory and say such silly things,” I said, strained.
“You’re beginning to scare me.”

That was another lie. I was beyond sacred
now. My body couldn’t keep up a constant pitch of terror, so it had
simply gone beyond terror and pressed a big reset button. I was too
afraid outside to be anything but calm inside. Voice unattractively
shrill, I lowered my clenched fist and took a deep breath. I
moderated my voice.

“Let’s start with where you’re from?”

He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his head.
“A place not too far from here. You are very lost.”

I shifted on the spot. “Are you transferring
to this region to be a Disciple?” It happened. Rarely, for it was
too hazardous to travel large distances through demon territory,
and it was only attempted once a settlement had reached a
population density that put all the humans there in danger. But it
did happen. He shook his head. “Are you visiting Cleric at the
Temple?”

I was reaching, but that could explain how he
could be so comfortable in the forest. Clerics were not like
regular people and often came from hardy families. The Clerics were
the fastest, strongest most intelligent and intuitive of humankind.
That is why they managed to keep us so safe.

His face darkened. “No.” The word was fired
at me like a bullet.

Without preparing myself for the answer I
asked with catty aplomb, “Are you a demon then?”

“Oh yes,” he said softly.

I waited for the fear and for the panic. I
waited for the scream of terror to rip from my throat, but it never
came. I waited for him to grab me, and murder me, and cut me into
pieces and hide me under the small patch of wild flowers over
there. But he said and did nothing. The clever thing would have
been to get the hell out of there and start running again. But I
didn’t want to, and I was curious as to who and what he was. I
wanted to know why he was stood in front of me, and what he was
after.

His gaze raked over me again and again,
looking for something.

“If you didn’t think you were safe you would
ask me to leave,” he said. “And, if you wanted me to leave, I would
have done so already.”

I hated that his words made sense to me.
“Stop trying to be clever, demon-boy.”

“I’m trying to help you, demon-girl.”

His words had the same impact as a blow to
the head. I twitched liked he’d pinched me all over and staggered
back.

I knew then something menacing was coming
around the corner. I had to accept what he had told me next, right?
Not to acknowledge the undeniable truth would be foolish. A tear
slid down my face and landed with a soft plunk on my front. I had
always been different, strange, but within the realms of human
strange. Undoubtedly, I knew I’d gone beyond the boundaries.

He stepped closer, closer still, and our
clothes rustled as they touched. Lowering his forehead to touch
mine, warm fingers found my hands and coaxed them to entwine with
his. I did not like the way my body was reacting to him. It
overruled logic and it was beginning to upset me. Something was
happening to me and I didn’t understand what. Worse, I couldn’t
explain to myself why I was still there talking to him.

His finger tapped my chin up. “I’m sorry. I
shouldn’t have said it like that, but I was never good with words.”
His voice was serious and complicated. His hand clasping my chin
released the knot that had formed in my stomach, and with a sob, I
dragged in a breath to control my tears. “Don’t do it,” he warned
and used his hold on my chin to tug my face closer. “To cry over
learning the truth is useless. It should empower you.” He stroked
my cheek, wiping the tear there. “You’re sad,” he said brusquely
and watched me fight to control myself, “That tells me I have not
done this right. Maybe now is not the time to have this talk. I
have responsibilities I cannot ignore simply because it will hurt
not to be around you. I’ll explain better when I return.”

With no other option I nodded slowly. And
then I knocked his hands off me. Whatever was so important he
needed to leave me well, that was fine. “You don’t have to justify
anything to me,” I said. “I don’t know you and I don’t expect to
ever see you again.” He didn’t owe me a thing and I was happy he
was leaving.

I could get back to being lost, and worried
about being lost.

“So stubborn. I can admit not to see you will
be hard. Can you not look outside yourself for a moment to do the
same?”

The intention was to tear into him about his
stupid, confusing statements that made
no
sense, but as my
head turned his lips brushed along my chin. Gravity shifted and
flowed into his eyes to ground me. The world darkened to nothing as
they drew me deeper into their shaded depths. My lips parted in a
sigh, and my hands swept around his waist as he pulled me closer.
His hand tangled into my hair as my own moved over his lower back.
I breathed in the heady smell of sunlight from his chest, and the
scent became a taste on my tongue. Exploring the dip in his spine,
I glided the pads of my fingers into the shallow grove flowing
uninterrupted to his shoulder blades. My hands left his back then I
hesitated in my exploration. The sensation that slicked over my
palms was, odd. Hovering a few inches away from his skin the air
felt warmer, thicker.

He jerked back and spun away to look into the
forest. He peered around us, and the waves of hostility pulsing
from his body cranked the tension in the air up. He stood, all
wound up and tense, so I got all wound up and tense, and we fed of
each other until I was panting. It was uncomfortably wearing for
someone like me who was already beyond terrified.

Breandan said, “Rae, go back to the Temple
now. That direction.” He pointed into the trees. When I didn’t move
he twisted me around by the shoulder, and pushed me in the
direction he’d pointed.

I kind of stumbled a few steps forward before
I stopped, and realized I didn’t
have
to do what he said.
“But, you can’t tell me I’m a demon then stop explaining.”

I wanted to stay, badly, but sense was
telling me I had to leave like he said.

“You don’t have to argue with every word I
say. We’ll come for you later. Go now.”

Returning his steady gaze with one of my own,
I picked up on something I’d been unconsciously registering. There
was a barrier between Breandan and I. Pulling my brows together, I
tilted my head to watch him, watch me. Not a physical or tangible
barrier; invisible. He shimmered and rippled into something
different. A soft nimbus coated his entire being. Pearlescent it
repelled my gaze.