Demon Day

by Penelope Fletcher

  As if the sky above was mine to command the clouds parted and a ray of light streamed down to softly caress my face and warm me. I gasped and let my eyes flutter closed, basking in the heat and purity of it. It was dusk, the sun slowly setting, and yet it had never shone brighter.

  So lost in this comforting moment was I, I did not feel the clump to the back of my head until the dull throb registered.

  The light cut off and it was for a moment utterly dark. But that was because my eyes were pressed closed, my body hunched, waiting for the next blow to land. I was not hit again, but pushed forward to catch up with the other two.

  Sputtering fire drums were set alongside were pathway that snaked round Temple. Each one flickered, coming to life as the sun puttered out for the day. Electricity was hard to generate, and the Sect only used it when every other option was exhausted. Most light came from burning wood in the fire drums and candles. The electricity generated from the wind turbines spotted across human land went into keeping the Wall charged. As the Clerics lead us through the main gate my eyes darted over the Temple grounds and I felt a pang of longing for the life I had been forced to leave behind. The Wall was visible in the distance, peeking out from the forest that called to me. Outside – demon territory – was once a place that held nothing but terror for one such as me but was now, and forever my home.

  The Clerics stopped and took black hoods out from their pockets. Nimah and Amelia glanced at each other, their hands fisted … ready to go down fighting. I remembered that Maeve had been hooded when Devlin and I freed her when she had been taken by the Clerics. Perhaps they were going to take us through the forest like they had her? My heart tripped. It would be the perfect place and time to escape.

  “It’s okay,” I said to the shifter twins, and ducked my own head in submission.

  The handsome Cleric looked surprised, but placed the hood gently over my head. I couldn’t see anything through the thick material. After a slight pause my chain was tugged gently and I moved forward carefully, planting my feet so as not to fall and choke myself. We walked up stairs, over what felt like marble floor and then down steps, across patchy grass.

  I frowned, becoming somewhat alarmed.

  Okay … we were at Temple. Not outside it, or next to it, or beneath it … but standing in the main courtyard in the centre of the main building. I had grown in this place and I knew its layout like the back of my hand. Oh! We climbed wooden steps. This was new … the courtyard I remembered had a path through it that split into an oval to allow for five huge boulders in the centre, before the path came together again to lead to the other side. From the dull thuds my feet made on the ground I assumed we stood on a wooden platform.

  The hood was pulled off my head and I blinked, scowled. Being the shortest person in the group I couldn’t see over the Clerics broad backs. I stood on my tiptoes to see over their shoulders. I blinked again, repeatedly, stunned.

  Several hundred pairs of young human eyes stared at me, and I stared back.

  The Sect Disciples looked terrified, confused. They stood in formation, a sea of green blazers and heaving chests. Some of the girls choked back sobs, their fear getting the better of them. Boy Disciples tended to leave their chests bare under the green blazers, but most wore jumpers now the days were getting colder. The girls were wrapped up too, but still rocked their blazers shorn at the elbow or tied around the waist to show off their lower stomach and back tattoos; protective marks stolen from defeated witches.

  “Rae?” Ro’s voice was a razor across my eardrums. I heard no hate in his voice, only pain and loss.

  Skin milky-brown, his ebony hair was plaited back in thick cornrows. His black-rimmed eyes always looked overly large in his lean face, and his blazer hung open to show his naked chest, belly piercing, and slum-tribe marks. His jeans were worn and slashed at the knee, boots scuffed and unlaced.

  He looked confused.

  Cleric Tu paced in front of the Disciples. “The best lessons are those learnt in action. There is only so much the Sect can teach from behind a desk.” He pointed to a clear box behind him. “This is the cage.”

  It stood twenty feet tall, and thirty wide on the wooden platform we stood on. There was a small panel with buttons fixed to one side, wires trailing down into the floor. I squinted; I could see a faint outline of a door. A door powered by electricity, why? And well, that was it. It was just a box of glass. Okay….

  “Here you will learn what you must face Outside. Once a month on Demon Day you will face our greatest enemy. You will learn exactly how terrifying it can be to fight these creatures.” He spun and jerked his chin toward the shifter twins. “We’ll use one of them first.”

  The crooked nosed Cleric dragged Amelia by her chain. He punched a code into the keypad and the glass door slide smoothly slid up. I knew in the past humans had made wondrous mechanical things, and I had to admit, I was grudgingly fascinated. The Cleric pushed a hesitant Amelia into the glass box, and made quick work of shackling her in the centre. She shot worried looks around her, not quite sure what was going on. The Cleric left the box but the door remained open.

  “Change demon,” Cleric Tu barked.

  Amelia bared her teeth, launched herself at him only to come to the end of her chain and bounce back. She strained forward, and I could see the frisson of fear and panic in her actions. Sighing, the crooked nosed Cleric unhooked his baton from his belt, and her knees knocked together.

  Cleric Tu motioned to her his hand. “Change,” he repeated.

  I wanted to yell at her to do what they said, but I saw the resolution in her eyes, watched as her jaw set in determination. She stepped back and crossed her arms, daring him to make her.

  Nimah was going ballistic beside me, but the silver stopped her from getting far or doing more than growling and cussing. The Cleric jabbed Amelia in the back and she jolted. The second blow stunned the back of her legs and she stumbled, but held her ground. The Cleric glanced back at Tu who nodded his head solemnly. The Cleric set to work, jabbing her in the back, thighs, and arms. Amelia tried to out maneuver him. She pummeled her fists on the wall, shrieking. She raced around the box, looking for an out as he chased after her.

  Gasps of horror drifted over the sound of Amelia’s pain from the watching crowd, and a few Disciples openly sobbed.

  Ro’s eyes were locked on me, considering, vacant. In discreet bouts, his eyes roamed the space around me, but when he did not find who he was looking for they came back to me. I knew who he looked for and it killed me that he would never see her again.

  A shrill cry snapped my attention back to Amelia. She hunched over, limbs, and muscles quivering. The Cleric backed away, his job done.

  “No!” Nimah cried.

  Amelia screamed, not mentally prepared for her shift and her scream turned into the piercing yowl of a cat as her mouth lengthened into a maw and her arms and legs shortened, spine popped and rippled. Her clothes tore to ribbons as her body grew in mass and density. There was a petrified screech from the crowd as Amelia grew a tail and sprouted ocher fur. Fully shifted into her cougar form she snarled.

  Though she was larger than some of the shifters I had seen on the Pride, her face most resembled the smaller felines humans kept as pets. Scratching at the glass, her patchy white underbelly pressed into the cage as she drew herself up on her back legs, large rear paws prancing to keep her balanced. Repeatedly she pounded the glass with her heavy fore paws from a higher level. She was enraged, half mad as she paced the box, threw herself bodily into the walls. Each time she tried to leap out the open door her chain stopped her. Her tail, short fur dark as if dipped in ink, thrashed back and forth.

  I could feel how pissed she was.

  Cleric Tu turned round to face the shaken Disciples. “See. Do you see the monsters they are?”

  “Stop it,” I said. “You’re scaring them.”

  Despite the softness of the plea the whole courtyard fell silent. Cleric Tu’s shoulders hunched but he quickly s
traightened and barreled into the silence. “I have spoken to the Priests,” he said in a jarringly calm voice. “They have agreed these sessions will benefit you in the weeks to come.”

  “You can’t do this,” I choked, horrified.

  “I need a volunteer,” he said. “I need one of you to come up here and show this abomination,” his finger jerked to the cage, “exactly who the superior species is.” There was silence, no movement. “I know you’re frightened, and I know it seems barbaric–”

  “That’s because it is,” I said through my teeth.

  He ignored me. “This needs to be done. You have been protected at the cost of lives.” His voice broke and I knew he thought of the Lady Cleric who Tomas drained because he was hungry after waiting for me in Bayou dorms. Maybe I would have felt bad about that if she hadn’t been on a mission to kill me for just existing. “You have forgotten that every day we have to fight to stay alive. That we are trapped behind a fence that no longer keeps the danger away. These monsters have even mange to infiltrate the Temple.” His finger swung to point at me accusingly. “This demon hid in plain sight for years. Had the gall to leech of our resources as she plotted to kill us off one by one.”

  I made a noise that crossed a snarl with a groan. It was an odd sound I was mildly embarrassed to have made. “That’s a lie.” My hands fisted in anger. “If I had wanted to kill you you’d be dead. I’m looking forward to rectifying that mistake.”

  My words were nothing but the truth. I had never meant to hurt anybody. I wanted to protect them.

  His hands beat on his chest. “Even now she stands there and threatens me.”

  “Because you’re a fool. You’re trying to brainwash them into thinking they have no choice but to be murders.”

  “Who are you going to believe? The lies of a demon, one of them? Or me, your teacher, your protector.”

  “More like you’re a rambling, mad man,” I snapped trying to get my point across. “Gods, can’t you see you don’t have to listen to him.”

  The Disciples barring Ro swelled back.

  I realized then what they saw. Wild hair, talons for fingers, the wings of a dragonfly fluttering at my back as my tail thrashed from side to side in agitation. They were not seeing me, Rae. They saw a demon, something to fear and mistrust. I pulled on my glamour, making myself look human, but it was a foolish thing to do. They had already seen the true me.

  “See!” Cleric Tu screeched and pointed at me. “See how they deceive us.”

  Uneasy murmurs rippled through the crowd.

  A Disciple I recognized, Jono, stepped forward aggressively pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, but Ro’s beefy arm shot out to halt him.

  His expression was cold, hard. “I’ll do it,” he said quietly.

  With slow deliberate steps, he walked up to Cleric Tu. His tee shirt was hitched up over one shoulder, exposing his chest marks. His low slung jeans showed a strip of boxer. Ro always had been ripped, big, but the idea of him going against a were-cougar was ridiculous. He passed by me, and I clasped his upper arm. I felt a prick of disgust; after all he was a human and I had no connection to him other than I knew my best friend had once loved him. And there was something else, something darker lurking beneath the surface.

  “You’re making a mistake.” I looked him in the eye, pleading with him to see reason. “This won’t end well.”

  Ro tugged his hand from my grasp and got up in my face. “You need to keep your hands off me, freak.”

  Shocked, I stepped back, truly taken aback by the hate in his gaze.

  Turning his head he spat in disgust then turned away to look at Cleric Tu, who offered him a baton and a gun. “The demon is chained with silver. End this threat.”

  I blanched.

  Ro pushed the weapons aside. “Don’t need them to put the hurt on her.”

  He flexed, rolling his head round. He walked round the glass box, checking Amelia out. Still chained by the neck she did nothing but sit silent and still, her eyes filled with crisp intelligence, watching him as he watched her.

  Was there a way I could stop this? I was outnumbered and to be honest, I was afraid. The crowd looked at me with open fear and distrust. I had never been popular, had always been the oddball but never had such loathing been directed my way. My being was sensitive to the hostile vibe pulsing from the crowd. The smell of fear was pungent, upsetting. My nature cried out, nudged me to make it right even as my mind sought out Breandan again, seeking the comfort of him. He was still far away, still closed from me though I knew he was unharmed, wherever he was. I pulled myself back to the now.

  I had to do something, not just for Amelia but for Ro too. He may not want my help but he was going to get it. I owed Lex that much at least. I may die a prisoner, unable to avenge her life, but I could at least ensure someone she cared about was kept safe.

  Ro was led into the box. Amelia did not move though I saw a tightening of her muscles. Ro bent his knees, slid around, keeping himself on the balls of his feet, gaze locked on the demon before him. Ro was not a small boy. Easily topping six foot, he was built and probably weighed four of me. He knew how to handle himself. Not only did the Disciples naturally have stronger, faster, and more resilient bodies and minds, training at the Temple was designed to hone these skills. To turn them into Hunters, and stalkers that could go toe to toe with demons in a fair fight.

  But the simple fact of the matter was the Sect had not seen the true might of the demons they so feared.

  In reality, I knew if I were in a fight with Ro, I would eviscerate him by hand, or simply end him with magic, should I be so inclined. I snorted. If I could touch the Source of focus for long enough that is. In my iron poisoned state it would be a fair fight, just like now with Amelia being drained with silver her reactions would be sluggish, slower than normal.

  Shifters possessed the same strength and mental capabilities as a human, and they had the same power in their changed form as that animal. I had no doubt that Amelia or Nimah could meet other cougars in the wild and beat them, but it would be a case of higher intelligence than strength. If they ever came head to head with a bear, say, they may have a hard time of it.

  What I was looking at was a young girl who had been beaten, humiliated, publicly flogged, poisoned, and now was being forced to fight a boy who was blinded by hate.

  “Stop this.” It was a command. I was done being nice. “Now.”

  Cleric Tu smirked. “And what are you going to do?”

  “You have no idea what I am capable of.”

  “We captured you easy enough.” His eyes flicked over my circlet thoughtfully. “You’re important to them, aren’t you? They’ll come for you.”

  Knowing he was after information, I gritted my teeth and said nothing.

  He sneered, crossed his hands over his chest. “I’ll take your silence as a yes, shall I? Good. I want them to come. It is long past time we rid ourselves of your kind.”

  “It’s people like you that make it difficult to defend the human race,” I spat. “You’re pathetic. Let them out of that cage, now.”

  Tu paced forward and pressed his nose to mine. “Or what?” His eyes were wild, glazed. His hand snaked out grab my throat and tug me closer. My entire body shuddered in disgust and I jerked my head away. He tipped his head to whisper in my ear. “You should me more concerned of what will happen to you once you’re thrown back in your hole. I wonder how long it would take before I got you to show me your wings again.”

  Icy cold fear clutched my heart before it was replaced by a burst of rage, hot, blinding rage that whiplashed across my frayed emotions.

  “What’s this?” There was a heavy pressure at the back of my neck then a snap. Cleric Tu held the key to the grimoire, my amulets in his fist, frowning at it.

  I reacted before any thoughts of caution had been formed.

  A trickle of my magic, gathered from being outside in the sun, released in a punch of light and heat. The chains unraveled from m
y hands, my neck, and coiled on the floor. My glamour dropped as I lunged forward, and a powerful beat of my wings added crushing force to the impact of me pushing Cleric Tu off the platform, and putting him flat on his back. Someone screamed. Straddling him high on the chest, my hands found his neck a moment later and I squeezed.

  “My binds, Rae,’ Nimah ordered. “Quick, before they....”

  I refused to hear her. I had no other thought than to rip this man’s head from his shoulders.

  I lifted his head a fraction from the floor and bashed it down.

  His hands scrabbled at mine as his lips turned blue. I sank my fingers in; satisfied when my talons pierced his skin, and warm blood trickled over my fingers. I found it more difficult to keep him down since I was still weak from the iron, but my rage and the reviving flare of magic was enough so that we were evenly matched.

  The blow to my head knocked me sideways and sent me sprawling. Recovering, I rolled up onto all fours and shook my head, hissing when a boot slammed into my side. Another landed on the middle of my back forcing me down to the ground, and pushing my face into the cold concrete.

  “That’s enough for today,” Cleric Tu said and jumped up, a hand on the back of his head, face red. “Separate her from the others, and call the Priests. We have work to do.”

  Chapter Five

  Chained, I was dragged kicking and screaming back down into the tunnel, feeling my strength leeched away by the hostile environment.

  The humiliation didn’t stop there, they took my clothes. Embarrassed, I pulled my glamour on and felt less exposed.

  I still had some magic left and I focused on affecting anything but myself. It seemed I could heal and use my glamour, but I could not make it work on anything else tainted by iron. I tried to get my manacle to fall from my neck again but nothing happened, my magic dissipated the moment it touched the iron. My stomach sank. I had wasted my one shot on Cleric Tu.

  Thrown into an even smaller hovel than before, my chains were clipped onto iron rings on the floor. As the Two Clerics set to guard me worked, I saw Amelia – still in cat form – being forced down the passageway too, the Clerics jabbing at her with batons. Nimah was behind her cussing and swearing at them, dragging her twin back by the scruff of the neck so she wouldn’t be hurt.