The Demon Inside (Hell's Creatures Book 1)

by Katerina Degratte

  For once, I try to summon my devil again, to break these chains. Yet, once again, I’m getting nothing but radio silence. Of course, the one time I call to him he goes fucking awol.

  Asshole.

  “Somebody’s impatient.” A smile plays upon her pretty toxic lips. “Such a shame.” She runs a taloned finger across my chest, causing a trail of blood to run. “Your body looks like it would have been fun to play with.”

  “I bet you would have given into her.” Another mood swing. She only wanted me because I rejected her. Which could have been a hate fuck had she not, ya know, kidnapped me. She gets right up in my face. “I had to kidnap you. To prove that I can do something better than her, that she’s not at all amazing.” Issues.

  “Jealous bitch,” I grunt at her, watching in amusement as the flames spark in her eyes. Such a comment gets a hard blow to the face.

  “I think you’ve talked enough for now,” She tsks, snapping her fingers. Just like that my lips are intertwined, as a ribbon laced them together. Fucking ouch. “Too bad this wasn’t in different circumstances; you look like you would be fun in the sack.” A wicked smile plays her lips. She’s crazier than my stalker Cheryl.

  I stare at the night sky, full moon at its peak. My weakest night.

  “I think now would be as good as time as any, the full moon should shine any moment now.” She notes, pursing her full lips. “Just about time to start the ritual.” What ritual? I let out muffled yells as she cut into my chest.

  She pauses for a moment before taking what I assume was a picture and sending it. What, was she going to advertise her stabbing me in the middle of the woods on social media? Like some serial murder wannabe? “I’ll give Aura something to envy.”

  She then lays her taloned hand on my chest, chanting in Latin. “Exorcizamus minus immune spiritus” Others come from the forest shadows to join her, as they continue their chanting.

  They chant the same words over and over until I’m screaming and writhing in pain. The ribbon shredded to pieces, unable to contain the strain of my screams. Demon boy awakens, and it’s like I can hear him screaming in pain as well. I feel my mind start to go hazy before everything goes black.

  xxXxx

  Aura

  Things were going great, and there was finally hope in this shitty situation. I got the mixture to quiet Gabriel’s demon. The ingredients included angel tears and demon blood to name a few.

  I healed to my full extent and was feeling stronger than ever. It was like my body was reborn after being sent to that hellish place that Maori dragged me from. I would be better prepared, now that I knew what strength source to expect from demon boy. It may have also helped that I got to finally tell Minx to fuck off. She ran off after those extracurricular activities that made themselves known.

  Riley and I go shopping so I could finally stop wearing that she-devil’s clothing and burn it. With Luke’s permission.

  His days had been a little more stressful with fixing up the damage caused. He tried to say the cat tore into the door. He must think I’m gullible or something because that sounds like a line of bull. I even have the chance to binge-watch a show on Netflix about the devil. The actor playing him is so yummy looking. The only thing missing from this equation was Gabriel. Guess who went awol once again...

  “Aura? We have a situation.” Luke rounds around the corner, his excellent mood dissipating at his worried eyes. “Gabriel’s in trouble.” He pushed a phone screen in my face, causing my suspicion to rise. That bitch.

  I seethe at the picture of Gabriel all chained up. “What happened? Who did this?” I ask. I prove my suspicions right as I see Minx’s name in the name box.

  “Minx.” I am hit with a mix of emotions. She killed my sister, my life; why would it matter if she died? No, I can’t think like that, what type of angel would that make me? I can’t leave Gabriel in harm’s way.

  “Let’s go,” I mutter, hoping in vain that Luke knows something of that area.

  “I think I know where they are.” Prayers answered.

  xxXxx

  Demon Boy

  A growl erupts from my chest, an animal grunting sound. How can Gabriel be so careless and stupid to get us into this type of situation? Arrogant. Careless. Idiotic. I hated being the mouse in this game. If I were in charge, this wouldn’t have been anywhere near the agenda. Clearly, I was the brains, and the looks of this human meat suit.

  The group continues on with their chanting, eyes closed, thinking it’ll make a damn difference. It only woke me up from my slumber. Stupid, stupid, stupid girls. At least there were those perks. The ‘good’ one is in nap mode, if you can even call him that.

  I tear the chains from behind my back, glancing to see if my captors noticed, but they’re too busy. The tape tears off, allowing my wings spread, causing the air to shift around us. One person stupidly opens their eyes then yells towards the bitch that started this. “Minx he escaped the restraints!” She shouldn’t have broken the circle.

  “That’s impossible!” Minx is brought out of it, eyes opening to stare at the face of charming old me. My, I’m hot tonight, as five sets of eyes are on me. Panic flares up on their youthful faces. I almost felt bad, as Minx probably conned them, yet actions always have consequences. “Start again with the chanting guys, faster!”

  “Little Minx that won’t help anything. You should have known better than to mess with a big bad demon type like myself,” I purr, a hint of a smile playing on my lips at her scared features. I take a step towards her then change my mind at the last minute. This was her fault; I would let her see everyone else killed off first. So she could feel the guilt of seeing them all die because she was overconfident. Don’t go to a gunfight with a knife.

  One swipe of my hand leaves the other four women for dead. Minx cries, seeing she’s the only one left. Who knew she was capable of such an emotion? One that wasn’t rage or jealousy?

  “Who put you up to this?” I grab a hold of her jaw, keeping her frozen in place. Paralyzing people is just a fun little perk. It would be so easy to snap her just like that. The time passed, I became stronger...

  “Please don’t kill me,” she begs. “I just wanted to prove I was stronger than that little bitchy blonde.” The words come out in a blob, in her frozen stature.

  “News flash honey, you’re not.” I drag my nail across her face, a thin line of purple blood showing. She wasn’t human by any means. “You’re just stupid and heartless.” I throw her body up in the air, causing it to float. Fun toy. An invisible noose appears around her neck. It would kill her once I directed it to, but I wasn’t done playing yet. “You’re selfish. You’re the type of girl that can’t stand to see anyone else happy.” I dig through her mind. “You’ve destroyed lives. Relationships. Families. How did you never expect it to catch up with you?” Stupid, stupid girl.

  “Please don’t kill me,” she whispers. “I’ll do anything. I have so many connections that you could use.”

  No use. I already had connections for days.

  “Conserve your energy darling.” My ears perk up, hearing footsteps coming around the corner. Luke and Aura, so predictable. I think I would use her as a puppet some more. “Go after Aura or die trying. That’s the key to saving yourself.” I get rid of the noose.

  “Easy enough.” She nods, running after her. It was clearly something both women wanted, as they despised one another. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a good cat fight.

  “We’re almost here,” I hear Luke whisper to her from a scant distance. “Are you sure you have the right spot?” Silly, confused Aura...

  “Maybe the demon took over.” Of course, I did. She trips over a dead body, confirming her suspicions.

  “Aura long time no see.” I give her a twisted grin. “Watch out.” I didn’t want my fight ending so soon. She catches the leg before it can knock into her, twisting the body around. Cat-like reflexes. Hm, maybe I should keep Aura around longer, she’s a fun play toy. She might be useful in f
uture endeavors.

  “Minx we need not do this,” Aura tries to reason, acting like the good little angel she so wants to be. Her words have no effect though, as Minx comes running up on her with a dagger.

  Ready to aim and...

  Aura makes it burst into dust before it can reach her. Parlor tricks.

  “Bitch, that was my favorite knife!” Minx’s voice rings out, in its bitchy tone. Always so bitchy. She attempts to throw a spell at her, but Aura narrowly gets past it, shoving it back in Minx’s face. It causes her to fall back, frozen in place. Paralyzation, a dirty trick. A fallen soldier isn’t much fun, so I reanimate her. Like my personal puppet to direct, serves her right.

  “Do you really want to be doing this Gabriel?” Luke comes up from behind me, as I avoid his attack. The wanna be good vampire. So much wasted potential.

  “I’m not him, Luke.” The tree branches trap his arms. One taking a step further, a stake just inches away from his chest. It was a bluff, I wouldn’t kill him, but he needn’t know that. He was too valuable for setting up the fresh world to do that. Families should stick together. There are some lines that even I won’t cross.

  “Besides, don’t end the fun of the show early.” I maneuver the tree branches so he can see into the clearing where Aura and Minx are fighting it out. A long-foreseen scenario.

  “Making them fight to the death?” He calls me out on it as Aura and Minx continue to spar. Nearly evenly matched, but not quite. What Minx lacked in strength compared to Aura, she had in experience. Aura had quite the endurance though, and could likely outfight her, if I let the show end. His face portrays his stereotypical stance, Luke outraged.

  “Don’t worry, I don’t doubt Minx will win. Besides, I’m not done with angel girl.” Aura aims a strike of lightning at Minx, causing her hair to frizz up to resemble a poodle. I can’t help but laugh. It looked ridiculous, and Minx was tastily furious.

  “You bitch!” She throws a blinding spell at Aura, for it to just backfire as it’s deflected. Things aren’t going well for little Minx. “You always think you’re better than me at everything!” she yells out, walking in the wrong direction as her own careless hand momentarily blinds her.

  “You always stole away everything that made me happy!” Aura yells back, emotion thick in her voice. “This is for her!” She throws fire at Minx, the flames dance around her, her body which shifts to one of a little girls. A final tease. Long blonde hair, doll-like face, tiny body. Couldn’t be over five.

  “No!” Aura goes to stop the flames, the image being too much. Dead dear Anna; damn Minx was cruel. If she didn’t try to kill me, recruiting her would have been a nice option with her excelling in cruelty. Too bad that bridge is burned.

  “Aura it’s just an illusion!” Luke tries to yell out to her, but the words are unheard to her as she’s lost in a trance, eager to reach out to the form resembling the dead little girl.

  The little girl has tears in her eyes, coughing up a storm from all the smoke. “What’s happening? I don’t understand.” She sounds scared, as she reaches towards Aura. Sibling love.

  The fire ceases. “It’ll be okay, Anna.” Aura runs towards her, brushing a finger across Anna’s cheek, taking moments to enjoy the made-up fantasy.

  “It’s so good to be together again.” Anna smiles, about to pull her into a hug. So sickeningly sweet.

  “Too bad this isn’t real; you’ve been dead for years,” Aura explains, with tears streaming from her eyes. “Anna, I love you,” she whispers before she blasts off the child’s head. Impressive. Fiercer than I would have guessed. A certain sort of heartlessness that was admirable. Useful. Though now she’s in a bellow full of tears. This defeat wouldn’t be as fun as it could have been.

  “Gabriel, I know you’re out there!” she screams, a sobbing mess, beckoning me to come out of the shadows.

  Not being able to help myself I walk out, grin stretched as far as it’ll go. “Kudos on the kill. I was going to gut her until I heard you and Luke coming around.” I motion around the clearing.

  “You didn’t kill him, did you?” She looks at me outraged, concerned for his safety. It’s not like she could help if he were in danger, anyway.

  “Nope. I don’t kill my family.” A grim line. Accusations. “Why don’t you come closer, little fawn?” I lure her until we’re face to face. Such a breathtaking beautiful face it is.

  “Then what did you do to him?” I run a hand over her sweet smooth skin, brushing away tears from those bloodshot eyes. No cat around to protect her. Just her, and I.

  “Gabriel is right about one thing. You are beautiful.” She takes me by surprise by leaning into my touch. Why wasn’t she paralyzed?

  She grabs my face, pulling my lips towards her, into an engulfing saltwater tasting kiss. Maybe I prefer it this way. The angel has spunk. The kiss deepened; I wrapped another arm around her waist, feeling the natural curve of her body. Enjoying it. Running my hands over it, getting to admire how small her waist is. How smooth her skin feels. I realized a bit too late she has poison layering her lips. “You got me this time, angel,” I whisper to her before everything fades away.

  Chapter 21

  Aura

  I fall to my knees, emotionally and physically overexerted from everything. Gabriel’s passed out after our little venomous kiss, and Minx’s true form lay in a heap on the ground. Her green scaly skin is covered with the violet oozing blood of her kind. “I’m sorry, Luke.” I don’t break eye contact with the green corpse. No matter how hard I try, I can’t conjure up any sympathy or regret for what happened. For what I did.

  I only regretted it was Anna’s face, instead of Minx’s form I sent towards death’s doors. Did that make me a monster?

  I feel sturdy arms, tentatively wrap around me. I invite them in, so I can experience some form of comfort. “It’s not your fault,” he whispers in my ear, but I ignore the words. I could have found another way. A way that didn’t allow me to kill someone. I was no better than him. “I can take care of—well, you know.” His chin rests on top of my head, hands stroking my hair.

  “Luke, I don’t think I’m the right one for this.” My voice breaks, the uncontrollable sobbing making its return. If I couldn’t handle something like this, how was I supposed to make enough of a difference?

  He rubs my shoulders, and offers encouragement. “Aura you can do this.”

  I shake my head, mouthing, “o.”

  “I’m not going to force you to stay, but you’re in no condition to go anywhere tonight. Why don’t you let me take you back to the diner, you can get some food, rest, and heal up? Then you can decide from there.” His voice was soothing, and the arrangement seems logical.

  “Did you know Minx was that thing?” I ask, my mind replaying the process of her disguise shifting.

  I only get radio silence in return. “I’ll be back in a few. If you have any issues, yell.” He leaves me alone with my thoughts. Such a lonely prospect.

  xxXxx

  “Come on sweetie, wouldn’t you rather go home with me?” Some sleazy man puts his arm around me. I shove it off, needing to get the fuck away from him. Better places to be, better people to see.

  “I need to get going.” I had to check on Anna, make sure she was all right. It was probably nothing, but this nagging feeling that something was wrong kept pricking at the edges of my mind. Along with Maki not answering her phone, but it was 4am, so maybe I shouldn’t read into that. Yet she’s typically a night owl.

  “Damn it, pick up,” I mutter, getting the same replay of her voicemail again. The terrorizing feeling of nothing adding up probes at my mind.

  You’ve reached the voicemail of Maki; leave a message and I’ll call you back later if I feel like it. Loser.

  A normally amusing message just continues to cram more anxiety in my brain.

  They’re just asleep, I can’t overthink it. I try to ease my racing, anxious heart as I get in the car to go home, to no avail. Instead, it’s ready to pop out of
my chest as I see the ambulances outside my building. Please don’t be my unit.

  I wake up with a start, sweat is beaded all over my body. My throat is dry and sore, probably from the inevitable screaming. Fuck. That memory hasn’t starred in my dreams for a good chunk of time.

  1:02am, the alarm tells me with its angry, red letters. Fuck. There’s no way in hell I’m falling asleep after that. I try to shake it off, opting to get some water from the kitchen, or possibly something stronger. A vampire has to have some type of liquor around to curb the cravings. Right?

  “Over here.” Luke waves from the couch, sensing my presence. Some show plays in the background; two guys fighting some supernatural thing. Luke proves my point as he turns up the bottle in his hand. He lost Minx today, despite all the horror she caused.

  “Mind if I join you?” I ask, my mind reeling from the events of the night. Anna’s dying face is still imprinted on my brain, though I knew it wasn’t her. “Can I have some?” I nudge a thumb towards the bottle’s amber contents. I was sure it would be nasty, but I needed my absolution.

  “Are you sure you can handle this?” he teases, his level voice showing he’s already had more than a few drinks.

  I nod. “The stronger the better.”

  “Just my type of girl.” He sends me a teasing, suggestive look. He’s obviously been at it for a little while now, his hand shaky as he pours me a glass. I haven’t had a sip in years.

  When he hands it to me, I just stare at it. The amber liquid swirls in the glass. So, unlike what I would normally do, but may as well try it, get some proper sleep after tonight’s events. I wince, face screwing up as the liquid burns my throat. Yuck. My first drink in over a decade, and it’s the potent shit. Fuck yeah!

  We sit in our own respective silence.

  A few drinks, and several fighting scenes later, I can’t handle the silence any longer, so I suggest a brilliant plan. “Want to play a game?” My eyes are alive with excitement, the alcohol running its course through my system.