The Demon Girl

by Penelope Fletcher

  I was frozen, horrified. I’d seen demons bagged and tagged before when they had dared to breach the Wall and threaten human society, but we were Outside. This was their territory. What could she, a fairy-girl child, have possibly done to deserve torture and execution?

  “Show yourself,” commanded the Lady Cleric. She stepped forward this time and her eyes roamed the space. She clutched the gun more securely between her hands. “Show yourself, I say. Come out so we can look at you.”

  When a Cleric asked you a question you answered, and if they bade you to do something, you did it. They upheld Sect Doctrine. The Sect was the single most powerful organization humankind invested their faith and security in. If a Cleric told you to do something, the Sect was telling you to do something. And you did it without question, without thinking. They commanded and you obeyed.

  I knew if I did as she asked, I was as dead as the fairy-girl on the floor not ten feet from me. Her word echoed in my ear. Run. It was the only plan I had. I stood from my hiding place, wheeled on the spot, and bolted into the darkness.

  The sound of another bullet split the air. Something whipped past my arm and left a hot sting. Feet stumbling, the tears streamed down my face. Thorny branches tore at my clothes and hair. I crashed through the undergrowth, not caring how loud I was or that they would be able to track me I needed to get away. Run, run and hide. I had witnessed something hidden, and knew if they caught me, they would kill me.

  A dark shape jumped into my path and brought the butt of a gun hurtling toward my face. One forearm came up to protect my head and jerked violently. Then I cranked back my fist and snapped it forward. The answering grunt told me it was the Lady Cleric. As she staggered the gun swung again, barrel first and forced me to drop and roll. Using the force of my body popping up, I spun, cocked my leg and kicked like mule. My heel connected with her upper back and sent her off-kilter-stance to hell. She flew toward a tree, spindly arms and legs flailing to hit an oak trunk hard. She collapsed to the floor in a messed up heap.

  I’d struck a Cleric. Something crazy people with death wishes did. It was dark and I fretted she saw my face and would recognize me in a crowd. People had always said my hazel eyes were an outlandish shade hard to disregard and off-putting.

  Loud footfalls pounded behind me, getting closer. I ran again.

  Short violent barks turned my blood to ice. Hounds, they had bloodhounds. I forced strength into moving my feet one in front of the other. Hands fisted, my arms alternated pumping back and forth. The air was solid resistance I needed to punch out of the way as much as the tree branches riddling my path. But I was tired. For the first time I felt my abnormal strength and stamina waning. There was a growl behind me, too close, and a snap of jaws at my heel.

  My mind emptied and my heart skipped a thump as unexpected energy trilled through my body like an electric shock. The dark deepened into new dimensions. Shades of electric blue and purple tinted my vision, and I could see everything. Power exploded from my centre, filling my body to the brim. A sound like guck choked out of my throat in ecstasy, I felt so animated. I shot forward like a comet and the forest blurred into flowing lines I distinguished as if standing still. Air glided out my way as I hurtled forward, and my feet glanced effortlessly off the floor, not leaving the slightest imprint in the earth beneath me.

  Taken by shock, I planted my feet and slammed to still.

  The landscape shifted dramatically, and my sense of direction was completely disoriented. I trembled at the thrumming of air crashing into the collapsing void I’d created behind. Then my eyes started to hurt, opened too wide. The lash of pain on my arm flared painfully then dulled into nothing. I wiped at it. Again and again, crying out and scrubbing at my arm in panic looking for the graze. There was nothing but clammy skin and a dried smear of blood where a cut should be.

  It was then the fear took hold of me and I lost control. My chest heaved and I choked a sob. The crazy sound smashing my ears had me seeing double, and my own breath razed across my eardrums. Racked with shivers, I curled into a ball at the base of a tree. My body spasmed once then the convulsions were frequent and uncontrollable. I kept my teeth clenched to avoid biting my tongue and tucked my arms into my sides. The position, though safe was not comforting. I buried my face in the leaves and scrunched my legs into my chest. I cried out at each lash of pain. My muscles kept up this hedonistic clench and release until they cramped into bunches. Waves of heat shot down my spine, and splinters of ice burrowed into the space between my pores. Each assault was more painful than the last. I shivered as the wind fluttered my sweat soaked my clothes. What hurt most was my head, the pumping of blood in my ears, ringing between my eyes, and the overwhelming scent of my own fear clogging my nose.

  Gradually the pain subsided and breathing became easier. My heart took it down a notch and I was grateful, for I was not sure it could take much more. Quivering, my muscles relaxed and stayed relaxed. With a great measure of wonder, I realized there was no longer pain, but an overwhelming sense of all things. Despite my emotional exhaustion my body felt better, and I felt different. Strong.

  “Have you calmed down now?” asked an amused voice above me. “I have been told an awakening is easier if you are calm.”

  I sprung up to defend myself. My hands were fisted and my face fierce.

  At first sight all I made out was a male shape, an impression of someone tall and built. In the lightening dark all I could see were his eyes, wide and cold eyes touched with mad, framed by a tangle of thick lashes. His grey irises were so light they could be silver. They burned, scorched me as his gaze flicked over my face and body. He wore dark, faded jeans and that was that. Feet and chest bare, he was the least civilized boy I’d seen. His skin, pale and covered with intricate tattoos, scintillated even in the absence of light. During my steady appraisal my hands had dropped and relaxed, but they clenched again. Boys slid their eyes up and down you before whistling to catch your attention. They did not stare at you until your insides felt like outsides. The directness of his gaze had me mystified, and I was already under the influence of so many emotions the only way I could react to something I could not understand, was with violence.

  However, he remained close and did not look alarmed at my aggressive posture. Belittling the tense atmosphere, his face lit up with a smile.

  “Rae,” he murmured and stepped closer.

  He lifted his arms as if to embrace me. One more step would close the distance between us completely.

  I was scared, so scared. I couldn’t speak. There were no words or coherent thoughts in my head. It was a jumble of panic and cautious interest. Who was he? Was he another Cleric? Would he kill me now? Oh gods. I would become one of the faceless and nameless that went missing every year. To be forgotten as my body rotted or was left to become a demon dinner. I couldn’t handle it, nor could my body functions manage the full-scale meltdown. My legs buckled and the world went a funny gray colour. I fainted, but told myself I didn’t have time to faint, and came to in the next second. Not that my actions meant anything, or my revival is what stopped my ass hitting the ground. The boy darted forward so fast his body blurred, and something hard and invisible shunted into me. So hard it knocked the breath from my lungs. Pushed off centre, my legs flew up and the sky swung into view.

  He’d caught me.

  “Stop talking,” he said. Then smiled.

  I stared up at him dumbly. Was he making a joke? I hadn’t said a word. In fact I think I’d forgotten to breathe since I saw him, and that’s what caused my half fainting spell.

  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.

  Chapter Two

  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.”