A Night of Flame and Blood

by Elisabeth Huerta

  I picked up my backpack and slung it on, giving them a hurried goodbye before walking out. I did not know what I felt, confused, maybe surprised. It was definitely unexpected. Maybe I should have told Robert and Jackie, but I needed to see this for myself first.

  When I got home the house was quiet. The living room smelled like pine sole which meant my mother had recently mopped. The pillows on the couch looked fluffed. It seemed a little late for her to have just finished cleaning, but I was not going to judge. I walked quickly upstairs taking two steps at a time. I took a quick glance towards Rebecca’s room and saw the door cracked slightly open. Music was blazing from her room, and I could see her sprawled on the bed with a magazine under her nose.

  I hadn’t talked to her much these past couple of weeks. She seemed to go back to her old ways of avoiding me as much as possible. I guess Derik wasn’t lying; she was under his mind control. It pained me to think that I missed the fake Rebecca Derik created. He got me good. Who knew I really did have a weak spot for my sister? I craved her attention, her love, and he used that against me.

  I took one more wistful glance towards her before going into my room. I locked the door behind me and dumped the contents of my bag on my bed. Grabbing my folder, I took out the homework assignment my math teacher gave the class and sat cross legged on my bed. The sun was going to set in about an hour. I just had to be patient and wait.

  The room had grown dark; the setting sun made my walls glow an eerie red before finally setting. I turned the lamp next to my bed on, casting shadows in my room. My back hurt from being hunched over my homework. I slowly leaned back stretching my muscles. I closed my eyes and stretched further back reveling in the sensation. My back was arched, my stomach was pointing towards the ceiling. I had to get more into yoga; the feeling of stretching really did calm a person down.

  When I opened my eyes again, I saw a pair of eyes looking at me from the shadows of my room. And I did the thing a normal sane person should not do. I smiled at it. And the pair of eyes—green eyes to be exact—seemed to be smiling back.

  “So what Kama Sutra position is this?” The velvety voice came from the shadows. I laughed; a deep full laugh which made me fall out of my stretched position.

  “You should know. Haven’t you tried all the positions there at least once?”

  He snorted sounding offended. “Once, really? I thought you had more class than that. We all know that I’ve tried all those positions more than once. I could show you the correct way to position yourself if you want.” He winked. “Maybe even give you a full body lesson.”

  “I feel flattered darling.” I said with a mock British accent. “When shall we start and where? The bed is a bit too boring and old fashioned, isn’t it?”

  He stepped out of the shadows letting my lamp light hit him. He was covering his smile, but the rest of his body was shaking with the trapped laughter. I took a deep breath it had been a while since I had seen him. His hair looked like he had raked his fingers too many times over it making it stand in all directions. He was dressed in his usual jeans and black t-shirt. But there was something about his face. It was more relaxed, more peaceful. He looked happy, I realized. Before there was always a touch of sadness to him even when he was laughing. Now he looked free. Painfully I had to admit he looked glorious. I was kicking myself for changing into my pajamas at the last minute. I touched my hair self-consciously knowing that was a mess too.

  “You look beautiful.” He said with so much warmth I was caught off guard.

  “And you look like you just rolled out of someone’s bed.” I said truthfully. I did not need to add that he looked gorgeous none the less.

  “Oh yeah you know, threesomes can get quite hectic sometimes.”

  “You don’t say.” My lips pursed hoping he was joking.

  He walked closer towards me. I felt the bed sink when he sat down next to me. “You weren’t surprised when you saw me. You knew I was coming.” He whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “I see your powers been growing. Jackie’s been helping you?”

  “Yes, she has. She’s pretty good.”

  “She should be, considering who her mother was.”

  He saw the confused look on my face, he backtracked. “I mean her mother was one of the greats. I met her once. She knew I did not choose this life and she helped me. She taught me how to resist the call of my demon. And sometimes I could. But when the call was too strong—like you saw at the cemetery—it became too hard to resist. I owe her a lot. Before her I would be forced to obey every single one of that demons requests. I helped her send him to Hell the night she died. He sent me to kill her and I resisted long enough for her to do it. What I didn’t expect was her death.” His head bowed forward, his face hidden from me. “I watched while they both burst into flames. I did not know that she had already chosen a seer.” He lifted his head up and looked at me grimly. “If I knew she had left a seer behind I would have found you and helped you. I owed Josephine my life, it’s the least I could have done.”

  “So, you helped me as a debt to Josephine?” I asked. A feeling of chagrin emanated deep in my stomach. So is that what all this was? He felt like he had a duty to protect me to make it up to Josephine. I wanted to laugh at myself, of course that is all it was. Why else would he concern himself with me? I was nothing but a pain to him.

  “If I knew you existed before, I would have. Unfortunately, when I enrolled to school it was not to help you. I was under orders from Raziel to find out if you were the seer. So, my intentions were not very noble. I was plotting to kill you.”

  “Well, that’s a comforting thought. Wait Raziel?” Who the hell is Raziel?

  “That’s the name of my demon. The one who was inside Derik.”

  “And you couldn’t have mentioned his name before.” I whined. It would have been so much easier to trap him if I knew his name.”

  “Sorry.” His head slumped down looking shameful. “I wasn’t able to.”

  “It’s ok. So, you were trying to kill me?” I said getting back into the topic.

  He shrugged. “Well, that’s the truth. Nothing I can do to change it. I didn’t want to kill you, but it was hard to ignore his command, though at some points I was able to fight it.”

  “In the diner.” I realized.

  “Yes, I was able to fight it then. But still I needed you to be quiet and natural. Greater demons like Raziel are able to manipulate the lesser demons to spy for them. There were some in the diner trailing you, so I needed them to think that I was following Raziel’s plan on getting you to trust me. That’s why the next time I took you away from everyone, into the forest, so that Raziel’s demons wouldn’t hear us.”

  “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

  “Because I already had to tell you that a demon was coming after you. I thought that telling you he had a lot of minor demons trailing you would be too much to handle. You would be jumpy all the time, not knowing who’s human and who is demon. That would have definitely tipped off Raziel that I was helping you. Besides you don’t have to worry about lesser demons, they don’t cause any damage. They just stick their nose in other people’s business.”

  “But they still posses people?”

  “Yes, that’s the unfortunate thing about them.”

  My room was a silhouette of black. I looked at him closely, his green eyes looked darker, there was a certain hunger coming off of him.

  “Why are you back, Daston? I thought you had left for good.”

  “Wouldn’t do that quite yet darling. You’d miss me too much.”

  “Then where did you go?”

  “I had some unfinished business.”

  “Why are you here?” I asked again. His eyes searched mine before looking down at my lips. My heart sped up knowing what he was thinking. He wanted to kiss me. The look of hunger became more pronounced on his face and I felt butterflies knowing that I was the reason why.

  He leaned forward painfully slow, a
nd when his lips were so close to mine, they were practically brushing he said, “I figured I would keep helping you. Join your group of three and make it four.” His soft breath hit my lips before he crashed his lips on mine. The kiss was angry and passionate, every emotion he was feeling was pushed into that kiss. Slowly the kiss became more tender, slowing down before he gave me two last sweet pecks.

  “For the record I don’t appreciate that Raziel kissed you before I did.” He whispered against my lips. “But since it’s you I’m willing to overlook that fact.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes. “Were you jealous?” I asked jokingly.

  “Jealous? Me? Extremely.”

  “Well maybe you’re not use to jealousy since everyone throws themselves at you.”

  “That’s not my fault darling. I can’t help it if my genes made me this good looking.”

  “Ah yes. Everyone seems to want a strapping seventeen year old lad to churn their butter.” I felt him still suddenly. I opened my eyes and noticed his guarded expression.

  “What’s wrong?” I said slowly. I kept my arms around him to encourage him to talk.

  “It’s nothing.” He said awkwardly. “It’s just, well, I’m a bit older than you think.”

  I exhaled relieved. “I know that. You were changed into a shadow and now you stay the same age you were when they turned you.” I had researched shadows this past week, intrigued to find out more about Daston. I was not sure when Daston was turned, but I knew it had been several years ago.

  “That’s not what I meant. I was turned a long time ago that’s true.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Well let’s just say that I met George Washington before he became our first president.”

  I gripped his back tightly, pressing my nails deep into his t-shirt. Other than that, I made no reaction that I was surprised.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll tell you all about what I’ve seen another time.”

  I nodded eagerly picturing the dirt he could tell me about our founding fathers.

  “But what I meant was that when I was turned, I wasn’t seventeen. I was twenty one.”

  I froze. He shook me a couple times with no response. He grabbed my face and moved it from side to side.

  “If you don’t respond, now, I’m bringing the glass of water and I’ll show no mercy. I’ll throw it all over your pretty face you hear.”

  “Twenty one.” I finally managed to spit out. I did not expect that, but I should have, why would a seventeen year old trade his soul.

  “Does that bother you?”

  I thought about it. Does it? I didn’t get why I was overreacting. Sure, he was older than me, but he was not going to get older. Hell, in a couple of years I was going to look older than him. The thought hit me with a pang. My throat felt hallow and when I looked back at him, I realized something.

  “No, that doesn’t bother me.” I whispered. And this time I leaned forward and kissed him, washing away the sadness with his lips.

  ∆∆∆

  The adventure continues in: A Night to Die/ Book 2

  Coming July 30, 2021

  Pre-order now on Amazon:

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  About the Author

  Elisabeth Huerta lives in Long Beach, California with her husband, her dog, and two cats. Her love is for fantasy and romance. She loves to write about women who enjoy several dirty jokes. When not writing she is reading, preferably at ungodly hours when she should be sleeping.

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  Books By This Author

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