“Tell him what he wants to know.”
Startled, I jumped back into a defensive crouch.
The handsome Lord Cleric I remembered from before peered at the wall with a hard expression. The other one had left and it was just him … how brave. He tugged his wide-brimmed hood off revealing dirty blonde-haired curls and a neatly trimmed beard. His eyes – plain brown and wholesome – darted to me then back to the wall. He cleared his throat, hands behind his back. “He won’t stop hurting you until he’s heard whatever answer he is looking for, so just tell him.”
I eyed him distrustfully then muttered, “What do you care?”
His face creased in pain, turned to me a fraction. “You think I like being ordered to torture young women. I don’t.”
I blinked. It had not occurred to me some of the Clerics might have taken against my treatment here. Still wary, I made no move to approach him but relaxed, seeing he was not going to strike me.
“Then why are you following him?”
“To survive,” he replied simply.
Glancing over his shoulder, he slipped a hand into his crimson blazer and pulled out a bread roll. He placed it on the floor and stepped back, pointed at it. Scooting forward I plucked it from by his feet then skipped back.
He gave me a small smile. “What’s your name?”
“Rae,” I croaked, choking up at his kindness.
He nodded. “My name is Samuel.” He sighed. “Look, I’m not much of a thinker, and there’s nothing special about me apart from the fact I fight well, but I like to think I am a good judge of character.” He paused. “I don’t think you’re evil, or out to get me. I just think….” He smiled. “Well, thinking is not my strength so I’m going to stop now, but you need to understand that you’re in a bad situation here, Rae. I know you used to be a Disciple, I remember seeing you, and honestly, I can’t tell if you were planted here to spy on us or not.” He shrugged. “But somehow I don’t think so. He glanced over his shoulder again. “I better go. Tu has called the Priests to Council, and I need to be there.”
My head snapped up. The Priests only assembled in Council in times of great danger. “Why?” I demanded.
He watched me carefully, shrugged, as if thinking what could it hurt to tell me. “To convince them to evacuate the Temple. He believes more of your kind are coming for you, that you’re special.”
Looking away, I rubbed my nose and tore into the bread roll. Here our conversation stalled, because I could no longer lie.
Samuel left without another word.
Exhaling, I moved into a corner and sat down. I was tired, irritable, and even worse I was dying to pee, so I crossed my legs and thought of all the horrible things I would do to Cleric Tu once I was free of this awful place.
Feeling the empty space around my neck, I stifled a sob. I had lost the amulets, the key to the grimoire. The one thing I was supposed to protect. Resting my head on my knees, I wallowed.
It had not been more than an hour before the heavy door moved.
For what seemed like the millionth time, I struggled with the chain at my throat. I was naked, filthy, and covered in bruises, but if I could get this damn thing off, I could try to get past them. Maybe Samuel had come back to talk. Perhaps, I could tell him everything and convince him to help me, to show me how to escape.
The door opened and a faint light spilled in, lighting a patch of the cold floor.
Helpless, I curled into the corner, and rested my forehead on my knees, refusing to look up. I would not give them the satisfaction of seeing me cry or wail. I felt the person step closer, but the pent up anger inside me threatened to lash out, so I shied away, hugging the wall. My chains clinked. I would show no emotion.
A blanket was draped over my shoulders. The manacle around my neck fell to the floor.
I started then curled myself tighter. It was a trick. They were trying to show me kindness to learn something. I would not be fooled. I was wrapped up tightly, scooped up, and carried away.
We moved from the room of nothing into the narrow passage that was lit with candlelight.
Gah, I bet I looked like hell.
I did not recognize the scent of the person carrying me, nor his bouncy gait.
My eyes were still closed and with a measure of terrible hope, I processed I was no longer bound with iron. My feet and hands were free and my senses were already stretching. Slowly, my body was repairing itself, though I knew it would be sometime before I was ready to exert any real strain.
My eyes flickered open and I gasped.
Ro only faltered one step when he saw I was awake and watching him. I had not spoken, or made any other noise, but possibly because I had stopped breathing and my face was turning blue might be the reason why he looked concerned.
Gently, he set me down on the floor and quickly turned to drag an unconscious Cleric by the dirty boot heels on his back into the dungeon. He shouldered the door closed, bolted it, and breathed out in a breathy rush with a hollow chuckle.
He picked me back up and continued on.
After a minute of heavy silence, he asked, “You right, Rae?” He did not look at me, just kept his eyes on the tunnel up ahead. Twice he looked over his shoulder into the shadowy passage behind.
I did not say a word. I wanted to, of course, but more than likely, my mouth would get me into trouble. It seemed – from his shifty eyes, uneasy disposition, and Cleric stashing escapade – Ro was in the middle of some kind of rescue attempt. But how would he know where I was being hidden? Why was he rescuing me in the first place? I was a demon, and to him that meant I was bad. The enemy. When I had tried to reach out to him before he’d called me a freak.
“I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help, read me?” He patted my back soothingly.
I tried hard to be sensible, but my mouth won. “Why are you doing this?” I asked in barely a whisper. My throat was raw and my mouth parched.
“Because it’s the right thing to do. And I always liked you, Rae. You freaky, and that’s nothing but truth, but Lex is right when she say you have a good heart.”
Gods be dammed. He had said her name, and my tears were instant.
“Don’t cry,” Ro said, panicked. “You be safe now. I hate when a female cries. Tears at my insides, eh.”
I sobbed in heaving gasps, and the gods knew I did not need to waste any more body fluids, but could not stop. Hearing the way he spoke had thoughts of Lex hammering at my heart. It was too much. I had not saved her, I had not avenged her, and now I was putting the boy she loved in danger. There could not be a worse friend than me.
Ro kicked the metal door ahead of us fully open. It was already bent back and swinging off its hinges, and we came out into the forest. Who had done that to the door? There was more than one exit to the passageway? It was sunset, yet the fading light was enough to have my nature wiggle in joy.
I breathed in deeply, enjoying the smell of earth and green things. Ro trotted forward and fell into a brisk jog.
I closed my eyes and looked for Breandan. He was still far away, closer than before, but still far. I could not understand it. Why had he not come for me?
There was no point trying to feel for my vampire-boy. The darkness and blood tie we shared seemed to work a lot differently to the bond I had going with Breandan. When we were close I could perceive him better, understand him. When I dreamed the darkness took me too him, allowed me to be with him even as I rested, but once he had died for the day the connection was almost totally silent. Dead, like he was, unless he sought me out. I had two demon-boys who claimed to want me, yet neither of them had come to save me.
The steady of my best friend who died by my foolish actions was the only one who had risked it all.
Clearly, the gods were laughing at me.
“Do you want me to take her?” asked a hushed voice at Ro’s side.
“I’m cool.”
“Say-so,” she whispered. A pause. “What happened to her skin, why is she covered in–”
Heartbeat kicking into overdrive, my eyes popped open and darted to where the recognizable voice spoke.
My heart stopped.
Shrieking in fear, I launched myself out of Ro’s arms and landed crouched in front of them, unable to process what I saw. Scuttling back I dropped my glamour, and my wings jackknifed out. I blinked rapidly and shook my head, my hands out in front of me to warn them back. The world had a slight purple hue, and some things were difficult for me to see but I knew my eyesight was not deceiving me.
I could smell Ro, a boyish mixture of sweat and cotton. The she-being watching me with a steady, unblinking gaze was scentless. Seeing a look he did not like on my face, Ro drifted in front of her protectively.
Rolling her eyes, she pushed him out the way, and he had to fight not to topple over from the force of it. “Hai, Rae,” she said so softly my ears twitched and strained to hear her. “You call and I come.”
Dominating her flawless oval face sad eyes over-scored by thin eyebrows locked on me. The colorless tumble of waves around her shoulders – the strands translucent – was wild and bristled. Her hair was the most animated thing about her, everything else was stone still, unmoving. Her body was bare apart from some clever concealment with large green leaves and lashings of green vine. Her toes and fingers were encrusted with crystal-clear ovals for nails. Her skin was immaculate, white like a stick of chalk and un-graced by a single imperfection, as if someone had bleached all colour from her skin. When I said nothing she stuck her sapphire tongue out and her lips pouted. Such lips. Plump and sharply dipping at the cupids bow, the cold blue was striking. On a human, it would be the blue of death. Water droplets glistened on her exposed skin and adorned her hair like diamonds, though I knew this simply meant her body emitted no warmth so water simply rested on her.
What freaked me is in fairy form I could sense another demons consciousness, rather their auras, especially this close.
I got nothing from the being in front of me, nothing, simply a blank space where my eyes told me something ought to be. My ears strained to hear her, a heartbeat, an intake of breath to speak, the sound of her limbs making a noise when they rubbed together in movement. There was nothing. She was empty space encased by lifeless flesh.
She stepped forward, glided as if on invisible wheels. I sucked in a series of gasps, but did not move, glued to the spot. She stopped and leaned over slowly, her eyes watching me carefully, and pressed her lips to my cheek. I touched the spot in shock. She was so cold, colder than a vampire, and that was saying something.
“You won’t say hai to me?” she whispered and her eyes welled with blood. The intense color was rich and vivid against the starkness of her colorless expression. Her face scrunched up oddly as she tried to stem the flow, but streaks of red ran down her apple cheeks, contrasting with the blue runes that prettily decorated her cheekbones. Those tattoos used to look sky blue, but against her washed-out skin they looked electric.
“Alex?” I asked quietly, not trusting my voice. “Lex is that you?”
“Whom else you make a zombie?” she replied quietly and laughed faintly, hiccupping half way through as she controlled herself.
I was horrified, yet already a bubble of happiness exploded in my chest, and had me choking back a sob of joy. “Oh my gods, it worked? I mean, it worked.”
Her lips twitched then pulled up into a smile. “I was surprised too. The last thing I remembered was demons chanting then a pain at my throat.” Her hand wandered to the area. A faded maroon colored scar marred her chalk-white skin. “Then it was dark and warm. Peaceful. But I … I jolted and fell for forever until I hit the floor.” She smacked her palms together and I flinched. “I opened my eyes and was me again,” she paused, looking lost, “but not me. I didn’t have a body to move anymore.” She shook and her face twisted with madness. “Then I swear, Rae, I have memories of things that I’ve seen and done. But, I couldn’t have because … I was dead, you feel me?” Her eyes glowed red, angry. “I don’t know what they are, but they aren’t mine, these memories.”
Ro placed a hand on her cheek, on her shoulder to draw her away from me. He hushed her and whispered calming things in her ear. She relaxed against him and stopped shaking.
“Lex I–”
“I woke up in a coffin of dirt and leaves,” she said over me. “Demons were close, but I was afraid. I did the only thing I could. I ran away and I … I answered the call.”
“What call?” I asked, confused.
She shrugged. “You called me. I woke up, this time in my body, and clear as a bell in my head I hear you asking me to save you. I wasn’t sure what I was doing at first.” She frowned deeply, her face darkening. “Everything was confused, and I was tired. I wandered, avoided living things but I could not understand why. Then I came to the Wall and had no way around. I climbed over it–”
I spluttered, “You– You climbed….”
“That’s when I knew I be dead, and that I was zombie. My mama told me the only thing that could touch the Wall and not be harmed was the Trapped.”
Head spinning I struggled to understand. “But when you didn’t wake up I thought I’d failed. I thought … Breandan thought he stopped me in time.”
In a fluid move that blurred she trawled her fingers through her hair in agitation, her movement abruptly jerky and restless. “These memories … they are not mine. They be yours. And it’s not just memories, but feelings. When you said Breandan’s name, my heart just–” Her gaze flicked to Ro who smiled broadly.
“This be the boy we saw outside Demon Theory, yeah? Nice.”
I scowled at him.
Lex rolled her eyes, but spoke to me. “I think you had my soul, Rae. You carried it with you. And when the Sect caught you and started to … experiment … you released me somehow.” She shrugged. “I woke up then followed your call. Maybe you called other people too.”
I looked at Ro. “How did you get involved?”
He bumped his two fists together repeatedly and frowned. “She was wandering around the Temple, looking for you. When I found her I didn’t know….” He shook his head and made a funny noise, clucking his tongue to the roof of his mouth. “So many lies. I’m not who you think I am.” He looked me in the eye and smiled half-heartedly. “I am Vodoun, and when I found her I knew what she was, what she had become. I didn’t know who’d done it to her … she wouldn’t talk to me at first. She just stared like she was trying to work out why she wasn’t putting the hurt on me. I hid her in Northhouse basement, and was planning to take her back to the slums when night fell. Then the Clerics dragged you out in front of the Disciples.” He smirked. “Didn’t need to think on it much after that to figure it out. I was terrified she would try to help you and get caught. So … I agreed to fight the shifter thinking I could knock her out and save her. Then I told Lex what happened and she spoke to me.” He looked at her. “When I told her you were at Temple, alive, the light flickered on behind her eyes and she whispered all quiet like, “Fairy.”.” He chuckled. “Then she started ordering me about, and I couldn’t get her to shut up, or be calm until I agreed to go get you.”
Rubbing my circlet then pushing the hair off my face I breathed out. “That is one messed up story, Ro. Do you realize what might have happened if Amelia managed to get your neck between her jaws, or if she’d swiped a claw too deep into your stomach? Do you not have the faintest clue of the risk you took coming to get me?”
He punched my shoulder. “I got your back.”
I yanked on a clump of my hair; convinced I was going to scream in the face of how nonchalant he was about risking his life.
“We must keep moving,” Lex said tonelessly and walked off in that strange fluid glide.
I hesitated, looking back over my shoulder. “I had friends back there. People I have to help.”
She drifted on. “They will be rescued by the fairies when they come looking for you.”
“Uh, but Breandan can feel where I am. If he senses I h
ave moved on, he won’t wait to check. We can’t abandon them.”
She stopped and spun to face me. I blinked because her features blurred together she moved so fast. “I don’t want to fight,” she replied stiffly. “I want to go far away from that place. It feels bad now. I want us to survive.”
“It’s just Temple.”
A flash of something close to rage flitted across her doll-like face. “It feels bad now, something evil is happening there, and I don’t want to go back.”
I hissed. “Well I am.”
Lex shrieked, the sound high, jarring, and deranged. I jumped, my mouth dropping wide even as her hands flew to her cheeks. Her face crumpled and her eyes welled with blood again. Gods, she was creepier than Tomas.
Ro approached her with care. “It’s all good,” he said soothingly.
“You’ll take care of me?” she whispered and walked into his arms. It was beautiful to see, her chalky skin against the milky brown of his.
He hugged her to him. “I promise.”
The sun winked out of sight and I jolted as Tomas awakened. He was close. Dreadfully close. I could almost imagine him crawling out of his resting place and coughing up dirt.
But one thing I didn’t have to imagine was a distinct feeling of him getting closer, the darkness swelled.
He was coming for me.
“Uh, guys,’ I said not sure how to put this delicately. “How do you feel about vampires?”
Ro made a noise of disgust and derision.
Lex straightened. “Tomas is coming?” she asked with a shadow of a naughty grin on her face.
It was so like how she used to be I smiled back as I asked, “How–”
“I told you, memories and feelings. This thing you have with him is dark and complicated,” she said solemnly. “And really weird, just saying. You should be careful the darkness doesn’t– ” Cutting off, both she and Ro took a step back, their gazes fixing over my shoulder.
Demon Day Page 17
