by Lisa Swallow
Dahlia. Who the hell was she and how was she involved with a Nephilim?
These questions spun around her mind.
Ava flicked through the pages, recapping the information on the relationship between demons and Nephilim as she nursed her bruises.
Demon Lords persuaded the exiled Nephilim to unite their souls with demons, magnifying the powers the Nephilim held. This corrupted Nephilim race became a super-demon in human form, as strong as the Demon Lords themselves. The two races united against the Caelestia, who’d spurned the exiled angels and were at war with the Demon Lords. That was History 101 to Ava. The Demon Lords needed a bigger army, and began capturing human souls to create demonic foot soldiers for the war against the Caelestia. For this job, they chose their newest allies, the human looking Nephilim who could easily gain human trust. The Nephilim’s task became taking human souls. Souls they put into demons, allowing the Demon Lords to control them and send them to war.
Ava’s role as a soul-hunter was to find the demons and take back the stolen human souls, return them to the Caelestia, where lost souls belonged.
So Keir killing a demon contradicted everything Ava had ever read or heard.
And Keir’s decision not to kill her. There was no reason for him to spare the life of the half-angel whose purpose was to steal his soul. Their relationship: kill or be killed. So why wasn’t she dead?
Secrets weren’t held in the book. Secrets were hidden by those around her. And she was determined to find out what they were before she made any more moves.
*
The next day, Ava sat alone in the third class with no appearance by Dahlia or Keir. She’d stalked from lecture to seminar, engaging less than usual, and swearing at everyone who got in her way or even just looked at her. Ava’s head pounded with frustration. Dahlia never missed class.
Keir’s absence should be a relief. Unsure whether he’d change his mind about killing her, she feared he’d regrouped with Dahlia to put plans in place. But it wasn’t a relief, she wanted to see him. Ava’s body reignited whenever she thought about his heart beating against her chest, or the feeling of his warm breath on her cheek. She pictured the softened look in his glacial eyes, as he watched the pathetic tear spill down her face. Compassion and humanity from her sworn enemy.
And he said she was weak.
By the day’s end, another scenario entered Ava’s mind and a cold dread crept across her scalp. What if they’d moved on, her opportunity missed? If they didn’t kill her they might decide to leave and continue what they were doing, unhindered, elsewhere. Then how long did she have before Darius found out and she was dragged home and punished for her failure?
Ava trudged back to her room, trying to ignore the sick feeling, telling herself not to overreact. It had been less than twenty-four hours since she’d seen them.
She pushed open the door to the dorm building. Dahlia. Sitting cross-legged on the tiled floor outside Ava’s room, small backpack on her lap. When she saw Ava approaching, she jumped up, curling her fists into balls by her sides. Ava forced a nonchalant air into her movement.
“What the fuck did you do?” shouted Dahlia as she approached.
Ava’s eyebrows shot up - she’d never encountered Dahlia on her own before and never expected expletives from the quiet girl’s mouth.
“Hey, Dahlia, nice to see you too.”
“Keir. He’s gone.” Dahlia’s voice cracked, and she cleared her throat, curling her hands tightly around her bag.
“Oh well, I’m sure he’ll be back,” said Ava, dismissively.
“What did you do?” repeated Dahlia, through clenched teeth, “he didn’t come back.”
“He’s a big boy now, maybe he found something more interesting to do than hang around with you?”
Ava studied Dahlia’s pale face, eyes circled by dark shadows.
“Did you kill him?” said Dahlia loudly. A girl passing in the corridor glanced at them and edged to the opposite wall, looking at Ava.
“Do you want to come in here and talk about it?”
Ava eyed the other girl, who continued along the corridor. Dahlia didn’t respond.
Ava opened her door. “Dahlia?”
“What?”
“We have something to talk about?”
“Oh, we sure do.” The small girl pushed past her into the room.
Slinging her bag onto the bed, Dahlia walked to the wall opposite Ava. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
“When?”
“When you followed us last night - after I left and before Keir came back here and told me he had to leave.”
“I didn’t follow…”
“Save it!” snapped Dahlia, and Ava arched an eyebrow at Dahlia’s darkened expression. The mouse bites. “I know you fucking did, I thought we’d lost you but we didn’t. Obviously.”
Dahlia’s body was coiled, muscles stiffened, ready to attack. Surely she wouldn’t be so stupid, thought Ava. A human would lose against a soul-hunter.
“I saw him attacking someone, I thought it was a human so I intervened. I was wrong. It was a demon, the demon left, we had a fight and I came home. Simple.” Ava folded her arms.
Dahlia slammed her hand against the wall. “Don’t make it sound so mundane - why did you have to interfere?”
“Nephilim kill humans. Nephilim don’t kill demons. So I think it was a fairly fucking logical reaction.”
Dahlia peeled herself from the wall and approached Ava. “I don’t think you know the slightest thing about Nephilim.”
“And you do? Do you know what you’ve got yourself messed up in?” snapped Ava.
“You only know one version of who they are. History is only ever told from one point of view. Twisted to suit propaganda.”
“Oh really, and what do you think you know about them? You’re just a fucking human, you have no idea.” She jabbed her finger into Dahlia’s chest.
Dahlia stepped back and pointed at Ava’s book, resting on the desk. “Who gave you that? Was it Darius?”
At the sound of Darius’s name, Ava dropped her arm. “How do you know who Darius is?”
Dahlia smirked.
“Just who are you anyway?” demanded Ava.
“I’m helping Keir.” Dahlia looked back from the book to Ava.
“Helping Keir do what?”
“Make fucking cupcakes…” Her voice dripped angry sarcasm. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m helping him kill demons.”
“He’s a Nephilim and he’s killing demons. Why?” A thought struck Ava. “Is he taking their souls?”
Dahlia’s expression turned to pure disgust. “No, that’s what you do, readying their army.”
“Army? No, returning them to where they should be.”
“How do you know where they go when you take them back? Have you ever asked yourself?” spat Dahlia.
The two girls faced off in the small room, both stiffened, ready, in case the other attacked. Ava’s head thumped. Dahlia held more answers than she did. Had the upper hand. And Dahlia knew, her sardonic smile reflecting her enjoyment at the role reversal.
“Who are you?” demanded Ava, “Or what the fuck are you?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“Surprise me. Shut me up. Whatever.”
“Oh, I’d love to shut you up because as well as being a soul-hunter you’re a bitch. If it was up to me I’d have killed you the first time you went near him.”
Ava’s skin prickled, hands itching to smack Dahlia.
“Really? And what makes you so tough? Have you looked at yourself recently?” She flicked her fingers at Dahlia’s appearance. “Mousy girl following sexy Nephilim around, who is clearly fucking using you. Do you know what they do to humans? Really?”
Dahlia silently looked at Ava through narrowed brown eyes. Ava straightened - now who had the upper hand?
“You think you’re so much better than me, don’t you? Think you know everything when you don’t.” Dahlia turned her back to Ava
and yanked up the bottom of her black top.
Indelibly marked on the skin at the base of her spine was a number. Dahlia’s number. Uncomfortably familiar. Below rested a round scar, shirt button sized, faded to pink. An involuntary sound of surprise escaped Ava’s mouth. Dahlia’s tracker. Someone had cut it out.
The world shifted further off balance.
“You’re a soul-hunter?” asked Ava, chest tightening as the oxygen escaped her lungs. “How long have you been this close to him? Why haven’t you taken his soul yet?”
Dahlia smoothed her shirt back down. “I’m not a soul-hunter anymore.”
“How? That’s not possible - to stop unless you’re given your Will. Or … ”
“Apparently it is, I have.”
Ava squeezed her temples - no one left behind soul-hunter life - death was the only way out.
“Are you human now? Why would you do that?” Ava studied the petite girl.
“I’m not going to tell you anything else.”
Ava raked her fingers through her hair - what the fuck was going on? “Why are you helping him? He’s Nephilim…”
“I learnt enough about what’s happening around us to know who to help. And it isn’t you. Or them.”
Ava paced to the window, looking out at the campus, watching the wind blowing leaves from the trees. Seasons passing in a world Dahlia didn’t belong in.
“Keir…where’s he gone?” asked Ava
“I don’t know, I asked you, remember? If I did know I wouldn’t tell you, with you wanting to take his soul and everything…” Dahlia’s lips disappeared as she pulled her mouth tight. “But I can guess he’s looking for that demon you let get away. I bet he was really fucking angry about that…”
Ava involuntarily rubbed her bruised back, and Dahlia yelped a giggle. “Serves you right, you stupid bitch. And keep watching that back. I don’t need to tell you what happened to the others who came to take his soul.”
Ava turned back to her. “Like you?”
“I never came for Keir’s soul.”
Ava frowned. “Why not?”
Dahlia said nothing.
“Well, he could’ve killed me but he didn’t,” Ava retorted, regaining her composure.
Dahlia’s features changed to surprise, then back to anger as she moved closer to Ava. “I don’t know what power you used to stop him killing you but it won’t stop him. He knows what you are and you’ve already caused a fucking major problem for him. You’re as expendable as the other soul-hunters who came here and died.”
Ava gritted her teeth, fighting the urge to grab Dahlia by the neck and squeeze. The slight irritation Dahlia caused had grown to infuriation; she’d blind-sided Ava with revealing who she was and now taunted her.
“I didn’t use any power on him,” growled Ava, “it was his choice. He won’t kill me.”
“I wouldn’t count on that, I can’t see anything which makes you different to the others.” Dahlia leaned into her face. “Maybe he wants some amusement from you before he does anything. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Dahlia pushed past Ava and slammed the door behind her. She paused and grinned to herself. Ava’s confusion was priceless.
Ava threw herself backwards onto the bed, scrunching the sheets until her knuckles turned white. She fought down the urge to run after Dahlia and attack her. A soul-hunter now human? So wrong and so impossible.
When she squeezed her eyes shut, the fight with Keir spooled behind them. The adrenaline of her encounter with Dahlia brought back the exhilaration of fighting with him, and it buzzed through her. A memory of the strange emotion in his blue eyes sprang into her mind. Emotion she’d reflected back to him in her own.
Would he come back? And if he did would she be in danger?
He could have killed her. But he didn’t.
Chapter 7
Ava tied her newly dyed pink hair into a ponytail as she waited for the lecture to start. She glanced behind her; Dahlia leaned against the back wall, laptop poised but eyes closed. Apparently, Ava wasn’t the only one lost without Keir.
The days turned into weeks, leaves covered the floor with autumn, and Keir hadn’t returned. Each day she’d scan every part of the campus for him, but she only ever saw Dahlia.
Dahlia refused to come near or speak to Ava, eyes narrowing in warning if Ava tried to approach her. The one time she got close enough to speak to her, Ava barely got two words out before Dahlia turned on her heel and strode away. Ava’s curiosity about Dahlia’s status as an ex soul-hunter engulfed her.
Faced with a half-demon killing other demons, and a girl who’d left Ava’s world behind, Ava’s unease about her exact role in all this overwhelmed her. Ava’s simple kill or be killed world of hunting souls, going back to Darius, rinse and repeat, had ended. And at the core, she held one concern - when and if Keir returned, would he kill her?
No, Keir wouldn’t kill her. She couldn’t explain to herself why, but she knew. He wasn’t a demon and she’d underestimated her ability to kill something half-human. The moment she’d seen her own doubts reflected in his eyes, she had known.
Darius. Her other fear. She had failed, Keir was gone. How had Darius known when the past soul-hunters failed? When they died? Or when they took too long? She scrutinized any new face that arrived on campus, paranoid Darius might send someone to retrieve her.
A guy walked through the double-doors and crossed to the stairs. His eyes searched the rows of faces until they met hers; sapphire blue eyes flecked with violet. Keir. He looked different, hair shorter; curls no longer falling across his face. The sharper cut defined his jawline, accentuating his strong cheekbones and full mouth. He approached and paused long enough for Ava to think he would stop and talk to her, before he veered up toward Dahlia.
A surreptitious glance over her shoulder revealed Dahlia’s wide smile and open-mouthed surprise. A heat crossed Ava’s face as they embraced each other tightly.
*
Relief flooded through Ava when the lecture finished. She’d spent the hour shifting in her seat, looking over her shoulder at Dahlia and Keir whilst the blonde haired girl next to her huffed at Ava with irritation. Ava ignored her, too fixated on her anxiety to waste energy on challenging the girl. Ava’s focus was the couple behind, scribbling furious messages to each other.
She needed to get out first and decide what the fuck to do. Run? The look he’d given her hadn’t revealed anything of his intentions towards her. His new appearance had thrown her, heart speeding when he approached. Ava sat with her bag on her knee, tapping her foot and waiting for the two friends to pass. Keir strode ahead of Dahlia and Ava’s traitorous body pumped heat through her as she watched him pass. Why couldn’t she look at him without heat welling low in her stomach? Without remembering the intensity of that moment they were pressed together in the alleyway?
Students thronged the tiled corridors, rushing from class to class. Lockers slammed either side of Ava, groups hung round noticeboards and friends embraced. Ava clenched her jaw, shoving at them. Always in the fucking way. She slid between two groups of taller guys, bumped in the face by their backpacks. Keir’s height meant he couldn’t hide in the crowd but he marched along, and Ava had to weave in and out to keep him in sight. Dahlia glanced over her shoulder scanning faces but not spotting Ava. Ava ducked behind another group as Dahlia and Keir veered down a small flight of stone stairs toward the building’s exit. They stopped outside the double doorway. Ava halted.
Their low voices travelled from the other side, and Ava flattened herself against the wall, straining to hear.
“You told her?” she heard Keir say, surprised.
“Not everything,” replied Dahlia, dismissing his question, “why won’t you tell me where you went?”
“Because I can’t. They can’t know you’re helping me.”
The conversation paused for a few seconds, and Ava imagined Dahlia’s sour face. Now who wasn’t getting the answers she wanted, smirked Ava to herself.
<
br /> “So what do we do with the soul-hunter?” asked Dahlia.
“I don’t know. Whatever we do, they’ll just send another.”
“You could’ve got rid of her, like the others, I have no idea why you didn’t.” Dahlia’s frustration was evident in her tone. “That might still be the best option, Keir”
“Maybe we should tell her the truth, you told her half of it. She might back off then.”
Ava exhaled, he hadn’t come back to kill her. Yet.
“Why are you questioning this? She wants your soul!”
“She has doubts. I’ve seen it in her.”
“Don’t be so fucking stupid, Keir. She’s trying to seduce you. She’ll say whatever it takes to get you in a weak enough position.”
Ava’s eyes widened. He’d noticed her hesitance. Of course he had. She rubbed her eyes. He’d seen her weakness.
Dahlia laughed. “She won’t give up on this, because if she does she may as well be dead. They won’t have her back if she fails.”
“You didn’t go back,” said Keir quietly, “you’re alive.”
Ava straightened, hoping she was about to find out more of Dahlia’s secrets.
A couple pushed the door open and a tall boy with his arm slung possessively over a smaller girl’s shoulders wandered past Ava. She stared at their happiness. The adoration in the pretty girl’s eyes as she looked up at her boyfriend turned Ava’s stomach. The boy took off his long scarf and wrapped it round the girl’s neck, pulling her to him. The girl giggled and pushed her hands into his hair. They paused for a kiss. Ava turned way, pretending to look at the notices pinned to the wall, ignoring the conflicting feelings inside her.
Cool air blew Ava’s hair into her face as the door swung open. Her neck tingled. Someone stood behind her.
“Ava.”
Ava turned. Keir’s face was centimeters from hers. His eyes. Impossibly blue and sucking her in like whirlpools. She wouldn’t let him.
“You got a hair cut,” she said, flicking her fingers toward his head.
“And yours is a different color.”
Memories of the night in the alley flew unbidden into Ava’s mind. Their bodies didn’t touch but electricity flowed from him, reddening her cheeks. Positive she saw a desire flicker across his eyes, Ava closed hers. Make him move away. She breathed deeply, inadvertently inhaling his scent, sending more memories scattering across her mind and spreading the heat deep into her cheeks.
