Daemons of London Boxset (Books 1-3) The Bleeders, The Human Herders, The Purebloods

by Michaela Haze

  “Get the fuck away from me!” I barked.

  “I’m not here to hurt you,” he said, trying to calm me down.

  It didn’t work. My heart pounded in my ears. “Bullshit!” I shouted back. “Shut up! Vampire!”

  “Listen, I’m not—,” Henry started to say. “Please, I’m not a vampire!”

  I screamed and the glass bottle dropped to my feet with a clunk. My hand shook. His eyes were like ice, glassy, they had changed from the darker colour they were before.

  “Why are you here…?” I breathed shakily. “You’re here to kill me?”

  “No. Not at all Miss Taylor.”

  “Shut up!” I cried. “Shut up with all your fucking lies.”

  Henry took a step back. He was furious. “You don’t understand, just listen, I—,”

  “No!” I shouted as I scrunched my eyes shut as I tried to block him out.

  “I saw you.” My breathing was ragged. It took me a second to notice that Henry’s was too. “I saw you kill that woman. I saw how you killed that woman!”

  His teeth clenched together with an audible snap. I dared myself to look at him.

  “You followed me?”

  I nodded slowly. He turned to me and his eyes caught me like a deer in headlights. I flinched.

  “Look, I know what you saw but this isn’t some stupid fairy tale Ms Taylor. I’m an incubus, a daemon, however, I'm afraid you've drawn an erroneous conclusion from one—”

  I grabbed the bottle and threw it at his head.

  “Incident,” he finished. Henry dodged neatly, his mahogany hair flopped over his eyes as he turned to look at the bottle that hit the wall and smashed. I gritted my teeth and started to panic. He had good reflexes.

  “I have something else to say,” he informed me.

  “Just letting you know Ms Taylor, that I have recorded our interactions together, I will go to the police if you do not keep up your end of the silence,”

  “Are you threatening me?” I hissed incredulously.

  “In the eyes of the law, you hired a man to kill for you. Consider that if you feel like opening your mouth about my nature.”

  I did not say anything.

  “Oh.” He smirked. “Now that you know my secret…”

  Daemon, not human, INCUBUS!

  I pushed myself off the bed and flew past him, I wanted to be as far away from the monster as possible. I didn’t want to die.

  “Wait, Sophia?! Hold on!” He panicked. I didn’t understand what was happening, the room swirled around me as I tried to run past him.

  I ran as fast as I could. My bathroom was the only room with the lock, maybe he’d break it down but if I could make it there before him then I had a few more seconds alive.

  His movement was indiscernible. It was as if I had blinked and suddenly he had moved, Henry stood in front of me. His ghostly pale hand thrust forward and gripped my arm, tight enough to give me a bruise. I felt a spark and a sudden head rush, my knees went weak. I could see stars in front of my eyes, whirling confetti. My chin bobbed on my chest, I was so tired. I couldn’t open my eyes all the way. I was halfway up the stairs by now, but I halted unable to continue as I clung to the bannister for dear life with my free hand. With one final push, I leapt forward and tried to break free of Henry’s grip.

  Henry let go immediately as I twisted to get away from his ice-cold touch. My vision was swimming and the colours blurred, I felt a sharp pain in my ankle as my foot slipped from the step. My eyes widened and I felt the air rush past me. Henry lunged for me but I fell through his fingers.

  I heard a sickening crack and pain split through my skull.

  Darkness was swift and all-encompassing.

  5.

  My eyes blinked open. I felt water roll down my cheek. My body was frozen, nausea held me down and I could hear my breath rush through my teeth. It burned and I could smell cigarette smoke. My head felt like it was going to explode.

  The water was from my closed eyes, tears and blood. It was slick and warm and all over me apparently. A drying sticky mess on my neck and face. I daren’t move when I remembered what had happened. Death wasn’t as painful as this was, surely?

  “You hit your head. Don’t move,” Henry’s voice was so light but layered with concern. My eyes fluttered to his, but his face was a mask. He had a book open on his lap and a cigarette in his mouth. When he inhaled, he didn’t remove the white stick, he just kept it hanging limp from his lips, taking a drag every time he needed a breath. Did he even need to breathe?

  “What’s on my head?” I asked, my voice rasped.

  “My jumper, to stop the bleeding. You can keep it,”

  I put both of my hands down on my sofa and tried to get up but my chest and head felt so heavy that my arms gave out before they had even begun. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t get away from him. He was going to kill me.

  I pushed my palms into my eye sockets and groaned.

  “Why are you smoking?” I asked. Pissed off.

  “The smell of your blood.” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Oh.”

  “I wanted to kill you,” Henry’s voice was even, “but when you fell, I decided I was somewhat to blame.”

  “Somewhat to blame?!” I hissed back. “You came into my house in the dead of night and scared the shit out of me. You nearly killed me!”

  “But I didn’t,” he bit back harshly.

  “No fun if I’m unconscious? Is it?” I snarled, “wanted to wait till I was awake and hunt me like a fox?”

  “My touch steals energy.” The way his voice twisted around the words made come out as a threat.

  My adrenaline pumped, my chest ached. I tried frantically to get up again, my heart beat sped up and I just wanted to run away.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said. “I have been here for three hours making sure you don’t bleed on the furniture. I’ve even smoked your cheap cigarettes so I don’t have to inhale the scent of your blood. You really think I’m going to kill you now?”

  “How bad is it?” I whispered.

  “Two inches long cut on the back of your head…possibly concussion.”

  Henry lit another cigarette and crossed his leg over his knee. He leant back as if he had all the time in the world. The book on his lap was forgotten and he pulled the limp cigarette up and took a long drag. I would have thought he looked completely at ease but his hands were clasped so tightly that he had dug entirely through the leather lining of the armchair.

  “Why are you here?” I resisted the urge to move, I knew it would hurt more.

  “I came with some information,” he offered. “Parr is out of the country for the time being and I don’t know if he will be back during the time frame.”

  “You’re still doing the job?” I breathed incredulously. “I thought that you’d just kill me now and forget it. I know your secret. Surely that means I have to die Mr Blaire.”

  “Yes. It means you have to die,” he admitted grimly. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

  “But I’m not going to do it,” Henry stated calmly. His eyes burned fervently into mine. I could feel the electricity, that untold connection.

  “You’re a murderer,” I stated, his pale blue eyes made it difficult to breathe.

  “Yes,” Henry said.

  “Why do you kill people Henry?”

  “I have to eat,” he said limply as if his argument held no merit.

  “You have to eat?” I repeated back to him.

  “Yes.”

  “People, energy,” I whispered. There was a slight pause.

  His response was a barely audible, “yes.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I could smell my blood. I could hear my heart in my ears but I couldn’t hear Henry breathing. He didn’t move at all. He was a statue, waiting for a prompt to continue.

  “I don’t kill innocent people. Life-force comes in many forms, blood, bone marrow. I only kill the scum. The rapists… The murderers… The monsters,” He
nry said in a strained voice, anger bubbled beneath the surface.

  “You’re a murderer,” I growled.

  He let out a bitter laugh, “says the woman who hired me to kill two people.”

  I gritted my teeth and winced. “You think it’s wrong to want them dead?” I asked. Tears burned behind my eyes and all I could see was Mel’s face.

  “No,” Henry whispered gently. “I have never seen something so black and white.”

  “Why did you kill that woman then? She wanted someone dead as well…”

  Henry sighed deeply. “She tried to hire me to kill her husband for money,” he informed me with clenched fists. “She then attempted to blackmail me.”

  “Is that a reason to kill someone?” I swallowed bile.

  “I don’t normally associate with my clients more than necessary,” the daemon changed the subject abruptly. “But you—you keep wriggling into my life.”

  I coughed.

  “Do you want some water?” he asked.

  “No,” I said automatically then changed my mind. “Yes.”

  Henry got up and walked at a slow human pace to the kitchen. His movements were graceful and when he turned his back to me I could see the svelte definition in his defined back muscles. I feared him. Even if he was moving slowly, it was all a show, I’d seen how fast that monster could move, how fast he could snap my neck if he willed it.

  The kitchen door swung shut and he appeared a second later holding a glass of water. He handed it to me. I tried to sit up and he put his cold arm under me to ease me up gently. A shiver ran down my spine and my head spun. Just a brush of skin contact and suddenly I felt weak and my limbs felt as if they were made of dead wood.

  “I shouldn’t have touched you,” His mouth twitched into a sad expression.

  When I finished the water, he took the glass. “That’s the first time you’ve ever touched me,” I said uncomfortably.

  “I touched you on the stairs. I apologise and regret that.”

  I took a deep breath and my throat felt better. “I thought incubi were sex demons?” I asked. Henry smiled wryly. “I’m celibate.”

  “So a daemon,” I admitted sheepishly. “Pentagrams, black magic and Satan?”

  “I also drink blood on occasion.” He said.

  “But you can go without it?” I croaked.

  “Yes. But my kind must feed. If I got too hungry I’d lose control of the monster inside me and have to attack someone innocent.”

  “Have to?” I squeaked.

  “First, you get weaker, and then everything you touch sets you alight. You have to feed, and then your mind starts playing tricks—after a year of not eating you lock down in your own body. You live forever but you can’t move. You’re trapped, that is if you let yourself get that far, it’s almost impossible, the monster that we are infected with takes over our minds, makes us think with our teeth.”

  “There are always two people inside my body. The human I was, but he disappears in the way of the monster. I am not of this world. I need to feed from the world to be part of it. It allows me peace, allows me to think without the jaws behind my face,” Henry clenched his teeth together and watched me, waiting for my reaction.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” I said before retching. “You’re a daemon!”

  “I’m not human,” Henry shrugged casually.

  “Look,” I groaned, “if it is so difficult to resist why the hell are you still here? Why don’t you just kill me and go.”

  “I don’t want to,” Henry said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t kill innocent people,” he said fervently.

  “Right, like it matters.” I closed my eyes and felt the pulsating wound on my head. I narrowed my eyes at him. Daemon, incubus, life sucker, leech, killer…the same, him and Parr were the same.

  “You’re tired,” Henry said grimly. “I should go.”

  “Okay,” I agreed immediately, my eyes drifted to the door. “Sorry I can’t get up to show you out, some stupid daemon thought that it would be okay to try and jump me in the middle of the night. How did you even come in if you weren’t invited?”

  “That’s a vampire myth.”

  As Henry turned to leave, he ran his long fingers through his mahogany hair. His eyes were back to a deeper aquamarine as he watched me warily.

  “I am afraid that now you know my secret, your life will be forfeit,” Henry said carefully, gauging my reaction.

  I did not disappoint. I slammed my fist down on the edge of the sofa in anger.

  “You mean that now I know what you are if you’re not going to kill me then someone else is?” I let out a guttural scream from my throat.

  Henry flinched.

  “Get out of my house!” I shouted.

  “Sophia…I’m not threatening you, I just—,”

  “Get out! Get out! Get out!” I shrieked and thrust my hands over my ears, “You’re a monster, and now you’re threatening me?! GET OUT!”

  His movement was so fast that all I saw was a blur, he was by my front door in less than a second. His back was turned to me.

  Fine,” It was a tone that could cut glass.

  The door slammed shut as he swept from the room and then I was alone.

  It wasn’t until I was left alone did I realise that Henry had told me that Robert Parr was out of the country and he wouldn’t know when he would be back.

  I felt sick as the full gravity of what I was paying Henry Blaire to do hit me.

  Did I want this? I wasn’t sure anymore.

  Henry was a daemon—Henry ate people, their essence, criminals, rapists, and other scum. Did that mean that he had killed innocent people? Criminals were still people—blackened past or not.

  But I knew all too well how much human monsters hurt people around them. I didn’t know how Henry Blaire could stand to consume horrid people like that. Surely the soul of a rapist or a murderer wouldn’t be something you would want tainting your body.

  I wasn’t going to ask questions. I just wanted him to kill Parr and Maylett. That was what I was paying him for. I told myself I could leave before I got in too deep in this madness.

  Life used to be simple, black and white, good and evil. Suddenly it seemed like everything was pooling into that hazardous grey area and nothing made sense anymore. I was awake all night with a dull ache that had nothing to do with the cut on the back of my head.

  Would I close my eyes and never wake up again?

  I phoned Gina when the time was suitable and told her I wouldn’t be at work that day. I didn’t care anymore. All I wanted to do was lie in bed and be comatose for the rest of my life.

  I hadn’t showered and I could smell a ripe tang that told me I probably should. There were tiny spots of blood on my pillow and Henry’s designer white jumper was ruined. I got up, pushed my covers off the bed and I walked to the shower. I put my hand under and realised it was scolding. I stepped in and let the water turn my skin pink.

  I slid down the tiles and started to sob.

  As I pushed my naked body out of the shower and felt like I was dragging a dead weight. My chest heaved and I couldn’t breathe. I tried to pull air into my lungs but it made no difference, it didn’t feel tangible, it was if the air didn’t exist. I closed my eyes as I lay naked on the bathroom floor.

  “Help me,” I pleaded to the ceiling but the light was so harsh I had to squint.

  No one would help me. Everyone that I cared about was dead. Melanie, my dad, even Henry in some form. Everyone was dead.

  I asked myself, could I find the courage to join them?

  Or could I find the strength to keep living?

  My brain filled with images of my sister, dead, prone with blackened veins stark against her skin.

  I was already dead; I certainly wasn’t living.

  I pulled open the bathroom cabinet, my razor blades were the small compact plastic case. Inside was a scrunched-up piece of cloth that used to resemble a silk handkerchief
, now it was covered in patches of crusted blood.

  I lifted the razor to my arm. I needed to feel the pain. I’m alive I’ll prove it. It got a millimetre from my skin when my hand froze and I couldn’t do it. Still holding the blade, I moved my other arm out and tried to force my other hand down but it wouldn’t go.

  I stood naked in the bathroom holding a razor blade to old wounds, the only sound I could hear was the shower still running. The mirror was fogged.

  I dropped the razor to the floor and wiped the mirror with one motion. My dead violet eyes stared back at me, disappointed. I looked sick as if everything had been taken from me. I could never go back to who I used to be and it hurt.

  Was it worth it? Was living even worth the effort anymore? Surely cutting my wrists and allowing myself to bleed out onto the white bathroom floor would be a fitting end for someone as horrid and disgusting as me.

  Absently pulling a robe from the back of the bathroom door around my shoulders I reached for my phone that lay on my bed. I hadn’t drawn the curtains and I could see that it was pitch black outside.

  I was alone, so alone.

  I had no people who understood, no one who would make me feel better rather than worse for being a shell of a human. I flipped my phone open and stared at it for a second before dialling a number.

  He answered on the first ring.

  “I’m sorry,” I sobbed, “I’m sorry…”

  “Hello?” Henry Blaire’s voice rang out.

  “Help me,” I whispered.

  “Sophia?”

  “Help me,” I repeated, firmer this time. There was silence for a few seconds and I could hear a forced breath through his nose.

  “Can I come and see you?” he asked gently.

  I didn’t know if I had an answer for that but my lips moved on their own accord.

  “Come back,” I breathed. “Please.”

  6.

  I sat on the edge of the futon and clasped my robe to my chest. I took a deep breath to steady myself and waited in the darkness for the monster.

  Henry did not disappoint, barely half an hour had passed before I heard a tentative knock on my front door. I stood up and willed my legs forward, one step in front of the other. I reached a hand to the brass handle and clasped it for a second. I had thought about locking the door and turning around, instead, I smirked to myself and opened it. The incubus stood on my concrete doorstep, flecks of water in his dark hair. I leant forward and noted the weather, I hadn’t even noticed that it had started to rain. I could smell it on his skin, his scent was sandalwood and something I couldn’t place. Henry took a cautious step into my home, directly into my living room. I saw the concern on his face. I was barely holding myself together.