by Cara Wylde
CHAPTER THREE
Another week passed until Kain and Alexi finally took Sophie to Oriens, this time to practice her new skills on a prisoner, on a real demon who would not go easy on her. It wasn’t that Kain or Alexi ever went easy on her, but she knew they would stop the moment there was the slightest chance of hurting her. It wouldn’t be the case with Leraje, the Marquis of Hell who used to have thirty legions under his command in the good ol’ days when he was roaming the Earth as he pleased. Sophie had asked what happened to his legions when the Marquis was caught, and Kain had told her that half of the demon soldiers escaped back to Hell.
“That’s the problem,” he had said. “We’re outnumbered. Demons are born every day, while cambions need time to discover their powers, then learn how to use them and train until they are good enough to take on the enemy. When we can, we hit the big ones, the rulers and commanders of Hell. The Kings, the Princes, Counts, Dukes, Earls… Humans can still fight the lesser demons with the little faith they have left, but they stand no chance against the greater demons. That’s where we come in.”
She did her homework on Leraje, of course. She read his file and the report the cambion who caught him and brought him to the Academy filled in. For the purpose of the session, her mentors had moved the Marquis to a special, much bigger cell, away from the Spprigans, so he could regain some of his powers. What Sophie feared most was the demon’s real appearance. In his human form, Leraje was a rather handsome man, tall and well-built, with long black hair and intense black eyes. In his demon form, however… Sophie was trying to forget the pictures she had come across while reading his file.
The corridors under Oriens were strangely quiet. Kain and Alexi were walking ahead of her, and she tried to keep her eyes on them while she made her way between the rows of cells. There were Spprigans everywhere. These small creatures that had the natural ability to absorb demon energy were incredibly distracting. Sophie had to force herself to look away from them, but they were so ugly, their little faces twisted in such weird ways, that she constantly felt the urge to look at them and try to understand why nature had been so unfair to them. They were kind, intelligent creatures. They didn’t deserve the awful features they had, nor did they deserve to be hunted down by all the demons of Hell and forced into hiding simply because they had a gift they couldn’t control.
Kain and Alexi took a right, and Sophie followed them down a dim corridor she had never seen before. She immediately noticed there were no Spprigans here.
“Are you ready?” asked Alexi.
She swallowed heavily and willed her vocal chords to act normally. “Yes.”
They stopped in front of a glass cell, and Sophie spotted the Marquis at the far back, lounging in a comfortable armchair. The demon raised his eyes and smiled at her. Cold sweat gathered in her palms, and she curled her fingers into fists.
“You’re going in alone,” said Kain. His golden hair glowed eerily under the artificial neon lights. “We’ll be here, watching, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
His reassurance didn’t make her feel any better. She had no intention of putting herself in a position in which she would need rescuing. She absolutely needed to nail this one. There was no other way. She remembered how embarrassed and ashamed she had felt after the first private session with her mentors. She wouldn’t go through that again.
“I’ll be fine,” she even managed a smile. Alexi smiled back and nodded in approval. Kain opened the door for her, and she stepped over the threshold not before taking a deep breath. The air was pretty clear and well ventilated on the corridor, but she knew the air in the cell would be heavy with the demon’s aura and she braced herself for it.
Kain closed the door behind her and goosebumps rose on her skin. She was wearing a black tank top, tight blue jeans, and her favorite long, high-heeled boots. The sigil on her stomach pulsed pleasantly, her inner demon giving her the comfort she needed. Back straight, head held high, she took a couple of steps towards the creature. She had no idea why she had expected his aura to be heavy and hot. With every second spent in the cell, the air grew colder and colder, making her muscles tense in a feeble attempt to preserve body heat. She tried to relax.
The demon studied her from head to toe. He was dressed in black, but Sophie couldn’t tell exactly what he was wearing. Was his entire appearance an illusion? Every time she tried to identify the pieces of clothing he was wearing, it was like her mind slipped on the name of the item. Shirt? Tunic? Jacket? No… were those buttons? Was it a zipper? No. Sophie closed her eyes for a second, then opened them again. Black. He was wearing black, and that was all that mattered. “Shit,” she thought, “I didn’t expect this. Confusion. Why didn’t I expect it? I’m so stupid.” She decided to fix her gaze on the demon’s face and stop obsessing over the details. That was exactly what he wanted.
The Marquis didn’t move. He didn’t even blink. He could feel the young cambion was enveloped in a protective aura, something fresh and flowery his own freezing aura could not penetrate, but he also noticed how weak her power was. How inexperienced. Was this her first training session? He was growing quite tired of being used as a guinea pig. He could have crushed her in seconds, but he didn’t want to. The only advantage these ridiculous training sessions had was that the Spprigans weren’t allowed near the glass cell, which meant he could breathe freely for half an hour. If he played his cards well, maybe he could stretch it to an hour. No, he had no hopes of regaining his whole strength. That would take around two hours away from those nasty little Spprigans, and he knew the two mentors outside would never allow that much time to pass. The girl cambion took another step towards him, then another, until she was standing right in front of him. He moved his eyes away from her round, pretty face and ignored her.
Sophie was confused. What was the demon doing? What was his plan? Did he have a plan? Maybe she shouldn’t have come this close to him. Was she falling into a trap? Now he wasn’t even looking at her anymore. She studied his handsome face, sharp jaw, long, thin nose, and unmoving eyes. That was when she noticed he wasn’t breathing. His chest didn’t rise and fall, and his breath wasn’t visible in the freezing air as hers was. Because it wasn’t there. A chill ran up her spine and she suppressed a shudder. “I’ve never been this cold in my life,” she thought. “Should I attack? Is this his plan? To fucking freeze me?” She felt the urge to turn around to make sure Kain and Alexi were still on the other side of the glass door, but she couldn’t afford to make such an amateurish mistake. No matter what, she had to keep her eyes trained on the prisoner.
Five minutes passed like this, and nothing happened. Sophie kept using her aura as a shield, but couldn’t decide to launch an attack. “He’s not doing anything.” Although, she could feel his powers growing stronger with each passing minute. It was only natural, given that there were no Spprigans around to keep the Marquis weak and dizzy. “I can’t attack someone who’s not even trying to threaten me, can I? It wouldn’t be fair.” The moment the thought took shape in her mind, she realized how stupid it was. This was a demon. This was a Marquis of Hell who had commanded thirty legions of lesser demons that had wreaked havoc in the world until Lure Academy caught him. She couldn’t feel… compassion.
Leraje kept ignoring her. He had no idea what was going through her head, and he couldn’t care less. He was enjoying the way his power coursed through his body and lowered the temperature in the room to a comfortable degree. The girl cambion was probably freezing, but he was finally starting to feel better. He almost startled when she did the most unexpected thing a cambion had ever done during such training sessions: she plopped down on the floor, right at his feet, her plump arms hugging her knees to her chest.
“This is odd, isn’t it?” she asked. Her voice was low and well-measured. Leraje didn’t move and didn’t look her way. She was silent for a long minute. Then… “I’m sorry.”
The Marquis turned his head towards her, his eyes deeper and blacker than Hell itsel
f. Sophie’s muscles tensed even more, and her heart started beating wildly in her chest.
“What did you say?” His voice was thick, but it lacked any sort of personality. It sounded hollow. The temperature in the cell dropped a couple more degrees.
Sophie gulped. “Shit. This is it,” she thought. “I said,” she said out loud, emphasizing each word, “I am sorry.”
The demon’s features changed slightly, the skin on his cheekbones retreating. Sophie could see the structure of his skull, which meant what she had been afraid of was starting to happen. The Marquis had regained enough of his power to turn into his real form. She focused on the sigil burning on her stomach and reinforced her shield, still reluctant about attacking the creature. Then, the change she had seen on his face was gone.
“You’re pathetic,” Leraje said. “You’re all pathetic. Locking up demons in your fancy Academy so you can use them as training material… It almost makes you just as bad as the greatest Kings of Hell.”
Sophie was taken aback. Not by his calm attitude and not by the way he had chosen to control his anger instead of unleashing it upon her. She was taken aback by the fact that she actually understood his point. No, it was more than that. She agreed with him.
“That’s why I said I am sorry.”
He smiled at her. It wasn’t a real smile, though. She could tell he was mocking her.
“What did you expect?” he asked. “Did you think the evil demon would attack you the moment you stepped over that threshold? For no reason whatsoever?”
“I think you have all the reasons in the world.”
“But I don’t.”
He smiled again. Was he playing with her? She was sure he was playing with her. She suddenly realized the position she was in was not to her advantage. Why had she sat on the floor, at his feet, anyway? She stood up and resisted the temptation to wrap her arms around herself. She couldn’t show the Marquis how cold she actually was. She started pacing the cell, making sure she could still see him from the corner of her eye.
“You don’t want to be here,” she said.
“Of course not.”
“That’s one reason.”
“Would attacking you give me a chance to escape?”
“No…”
“There you go.”
She didn’t say anything else for another long minute.
“I’m ruining your training session,” he added. “I’m sorry. You probably want to make a good impression on your mentors, and I’m making things difficult for you.”
Sophie stopped pacing and stared at him dumbfounded. What was he talking about? Of course she wanted to impress Kain and Alexi, but not like that. She would never attack someone who didn’t pose the slightest threat to her or anyone else. It was strange, but Leraje seemed so… harmless. When he talked, he sounded rather sad and resigned. And he was right: it was pathetic that the incubi and succubi were keeping him and all the other demons here just so their cambions could practice their newly acquired skills. It was more than pathetic, it was low. Very low.
Looking at him, at how he sat in his armchair, at the back of the cell, helpless and exposed, Sophie felt pity for him. Of course there was no point in attacking her. He knew he wouldn’t stand a chance, but not because she would fight back, but because Kain and Alexi were on the other side of the door, ready to come to her rescue if things went south. Yes, that was pathetic indeed. She closed the space between them again, but this time she leaned over him, her hands resting on the armrests. Their faces were so close that now she could see how unnatural his skin looked. And the air was freezing. She felt as if she had just shoved her head inside an iceberg.
“I can help you.”
“Can you?”
“Yes. I can get you out of here.”
The demon smiled.
Sophie had difficulties breathing. She was sure the air reached her lungs, but she couldn’t feel it going through her nostrils. Her nose felt like a useless block of ice on her face, and she realized how hard it had become to move her lips. She made an effort.
“I want to help you. I want to get you out. I can’t stand the thought that you’re living in a cell, suffering, and that those ugly Spprigans keep you weak and helpless. You’re a Marquis of Hell! You don’t deserve this fate!”
The demon’s smile grew larger. It was pleasant. It was beautiful. Yes, Sophie found his smile charming. She tried to smile back, but the corners of her mouth wouldn’t listen to her. They were frozen. She remembered the heat her sigil used to ooze, and that was when she noticed she couldn’t feel it anymore. Her inner demon. That special spot on her stomach. It wasn’t there. Apprehension stabbed at her chest… a feeling that not only the comforting burn of her demon sigil was missing, but something else as well. Something important. It had been there when she had entered the glass cell, but now she couldn’t find it anymore. She wasn’t even sure what it was.
“You can help me…” the demon whispered.
Sophie’s fingers dug into the armrests. She hated when she couldn’t remember things, so there was no way she would let this go. What was that thing which was missing? That thing which had been there when she had first entered the room?
“You will get me out of here…”
She wanted to scream “Yes, yes I will! But wait a second, I forgot something. It was probably stupid, but it bugs me. Give me a moment to remember, then we’ll make a plan.”, but she couldn’t move her tongue. What was it? She felt one of her nails break in the rough material of the armrest, and she squeezed her eyes shut at the unpleasant feeling.
“Sophie!”
“How do you know my name?” she wanted to ask, but she couldn’t. She felt his cold fingers curl around her arms and a strong urge to open her eyes and meet his black orbs again, but she resisted it. Her shield. Her fresh aura, warm as an early spring day. That was what was missing. And then she knew. The Marquis had played with her mind.
She gathered all her strength and focused it on the demon sigil she knew was on her stomach. It started burning again, weak at first, then the power grew and her aura grew with it. She let go of the armrests, took a step back and opened her eyes again, this time sheer determination and anger shining deep inside them.
“You tried to trick me!” she screamed. The demon opened his mouth to say something, but she didn’t give him the chance. She hit him hard, her warm aura absorbing the iciness in the room and turning the temperature up. The creature tried to stand and fight back, but she didn’t allow him. She kept her mind alert, her focus on her demon sigil, and worked on increasing the power of her aura as much as she could.
A headache exploded between her temples, and for a second she was sure she would throw up. She tried to push the sickness away, but then her knees turned to jelly and she was falling, and falling… the floor was so far… she kept falling and it felt like forever until her body finally hit it. The last thing she saw before losing conscience was Leraje’s drained body sprawled in the armchair.
♥
“You did very well.”
The voice came from afar. It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t connect it with a face. She was probably dreaming…
“You were amazing in there, Sophie. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
A different voice. She was sure she knew this one. She stirred in her sleep, trying to clear out the fog in her brain. If she was dreaming, then she wanted it to stop. She wanted to come back to reality. She couldn’t afford to sleep in such circumstances. She wasn’t safe. They weren’t safe. She moaned and pushed the covers off her chest, trying to pry her consciousness free. She need to wake up. She needed to wake up now.
“Hey, it’s okay… it’s okay… You must rest.”
“She’s burning up.”
Burning. Yes, her whole body was burning up, not only the demon sigil on her stomach. She writhed on the damp sheets and struggled again with the heavy fog between her temples.
“The Marquis…” she whispered.
> “Oh, you took care of him all right.”
A small laugh. She recognized that laugh. Icy blue eyes and golden hair. Kain.
“Sophie, try to relax. Everything is fine. You just unleashed more power than we ever thought you possessed, and your body is exhausted.”
Smooth voice with a slight East European accent. Alexi. She took his advice and willed her muscles to relax. Her breath became even, and her heartbeat went back to a normal pace. The clouds in her mind were beginning to dissipate, and soon she was coming out of her weird, heavy sleep.
“That’s it, sweetheart. You’re doing great.”
Alexi’s voice guided her to the surface. When she opened her eyes, she saw both her mentors leaning over her.
“Where am I?” Her voice was hoarse, and she realized how thirsty she was. Fortunately, her demon sigil was beginning to absorb the scorching heat that had taken over her body. She tried to stand up, and both Kain and Alexi hurried to support her.
“The infirmary,” Kain answered.
“I’m thirsty…”
Alexi reached for the glass of water on the bedside table, and Sophie took it from him with trembling hands. She gulped down the cold, delicious liquid and asked for more. After she drank the second glass, she finally started to feel better.
“Thanks.”
She leaned back on the big, soft pillow and studied her mentors. They both seemed incredibly happy for some reason she couldn’t comprehend.
“What happened? Leraje… that bastard… he almost got me.”
Kain’s eyebrows met the blond bangs that were covering his forehead. “Did he? You seemed to be quite in control.”
“You wanna know what happened?” said Alexi. “You kicked his sorry ass, that’s what happened.” He beamed at her, and for a moment Sophie was mesmerized by his beautiful smile. Alexi didn’t smile often, but when he did… a woman could lose her mind.
