by LJ Swallow
I pause, and Daniel shoves me in the small of the back. I spin around. “Don’t push me!”
“I said you have to listen and do as you are told.”
Daniel’s eyes glint through the darkness, and his tone pisses me off.
“Tell me what’s happening then. Why am I on my own?”
“I need you to succeed on your first mission, which involves making sure you don’t do anything stupid.”
“Such as?”
“Wandering off, acting on instinct, rather than thinking things through. Killing yourself.”
I lick my dry lips, and Daniel chews the edge of his. Why does he need me to succeed?
“The girl they paired you with is weak. You need someone strong the first time, in case the demon gets the upper hand.” He crosses his arms. “I spent five years hunting demons. It’s why I’m now a trainer so you’re safe with me.”
“But your Will? If you collected all those souls why don’t you have it?”
In the dim of the alleyway, I can’t read him, but the pause is telling. “I chose to be a trainer. Now move the hell over there and wait.”
Daniel’s anger flashes in as quickly as ever, and the conversation shuts down. Did I hit a raw nerve? Biting back my desire to retort, I stomp towards the space he indicated, rest against the wall, and grip my dagger again.
For a few moments, Daniel remains in the centre of the alleyway. I want to ask what he’s doing, but Daniel’s true attitude towards me is hard to gauge, and I don’t want to be on the receiving end of his ire if I piss him off.
Suddenly, he strides to the entrance and disappears around the corner. I inhale. The constant fear since I arrived spins my head, and I concentrate on breathing through the rising panic. What the hell is he doing?
When he doesn’t return after a few minutes, I walk from the shadows into the alleyway, to the spot Daniel vacated. I stare up into the clouds obscuring the stars. My stars. The ground lurches as the reality of how far from home I am hits.
Someone slams hard into my side, and I fall, skid across the ground on my back, and bang my head as I drop. A male figure approaches and stares down at me. I sense he’s a demon. Shit. The demonic aura surrounds him, an invisible force sucking energy from the world around. Amber eyes shine through the darkness, confirming further. I size him up. Around six feet tall and slim built is all I can make out in the dim.
“More cannon fodder?” he sneers.
I push up and scramble backwards, head pounding. The demon watches with amusement as I back against the wall. “You need to watch your back down here.”
What now? Run at him? Attack him? Practicing how to locate the exact spot to pierce a heart on dummies is one thing, but this is reality. Leaving the dagger in my pocket, I run towards him. And to my surprise, I knock him to the floor as if he weighs less than I do. I hesitate in surprise, missing a chance for the upper hand. The demon grabs his opportunity, jumps back to his feet, and seizes me by the throat. I stagger into him and he traps my arms between our bodies.
“Get the fuck off me!” I try to yell, but the words are strangled.
An instinct I never knew I had takes over as I summon the strength to fight back against the powerful creature. I slam my head forwards, colliding with his face. With a howl of pain, he releases me and stumbles, holding a hand across his nose. I pull out the dagger as he wipes the blood from his face. Why am I on my own with this? Where’s the rest of my group? Daniel? I try to disguise my doubt, but the demon has the measure of me.
“Aww, sweetheart. Am I your first?” He rubs the blood from his hands onto his trousers.
I hesitate too long again. The demon charges back over and pins me against the wall. I gasp, chest burning as the breath is knocked away. This is nothing like the rehearsed fights with Rowan or those I trained with. This bloody hurts. Arm across my throat, the demon’s amber eyes confuse and captivate, his demon scent turning my stomach. Why do the Caelestia give soul hunters their angel strength but limit any powers that could help in combat with demons? Where’s the sense in that? He grabs my arm with his other hand and claws the dagger from my grip. The dagger clatters to the ground.
“First and last,” he jeers, kicking the weapon across the alley.
In a swift movement, the demon grips my throat again. His nails slash my skin as he does. The wound stings as if he’s poured acid into the flesh. In desperation, I struggle to pull his hands away, and in response, he pulls my head back and cracks it on the wall. The pain seers across my skull, and my eyes blacken towards unconsciousness.
Daniel was wrong about me. I won’t survive.
The demon’s grip loosens, and I slump to the floor as someone pulls him away. Through my dull vision, I focus on the demon’s assailant. Daniel kneels on the creature’s chest, dagger in hand. Before the demon or I have a chance to register what’s happening, he plunges the knife into the creature’s heart. Seconds later, a grey cloud spirals slowly from the demon’s mouth.
A soul.
The cloud shimmers in the darkness, hovering around the demon’s head. Daniel pulls a crystal from his pocket and holds the sphere in the palm of his hand. The soul shoots towards the crystal, and the cloud disappears into the object. I’m not sure what I expected a soul to look like, or why they are attracted to crystals, but when the soul was free for those fleeting moments, the alleyway hummed with a different energy as if someone else was with us. I blink. What exactly are souls?
Daniel climbs to his feet and drags the body into the corner where I was supposed to wait for him. Wiping his hands on his trousers, he storms over.
“I obviously made a huge fucking mistake with you!” he growls, pulling me to my feet.
I stare back in dazed confusion. “Okay, so I can’t do it. I can’t kill demons.”
“Not that! Because I told you where to wait for me, and you moved. He was looking for us!” Daniel’s fury matches that of the demon—and so does my fear of him.
“You left me.” My tiny voice annoys me.
“I was looking for him—finding him before he found you. If you’d just fucking waited where I said…”
“Let me go. I need to sit down.” I pull his hand from my jacket and slide down the wall to the ground.
My head pounds, and I hold my temples, pushing against the pain. Each heavy breath I take burns.
Daniel crouches next to me. “Let me see your head.”
I lean forward, wincing as his fingers probe beneath my hair. “No blood,” he says.
“A bloody big headache though,” I mutter.
“Oh, you certainly are.”
Our gazes lock. My vision is blurred, but the expression I see on his face looks more like disappointment than anger.
The sickening scent of the demon is on my skin and clothes. Everywhere. I rub my throat, and the skin is wet. Blood covers my fingers as I take my hand away.
“The bastard scratched me!”
“If I hadn’t arrived he’d have done more—he’d have slashed your throat!”
“I think you’ll find he’d chosen choking me to death as his method of killing,” I snap back.
An unfathomable look crosses Daniel’s face, and he rests his hands on his knees, inhaling sharply.
“What?” I ask.
“You.”
“Me what?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure about you anymore.”
“Don’t talk in riddles. If you mean you don’t want to single me out and help me, fine. I’ll die soon anyway if this is how good a soul hunter I am.”
Daniel rises and holds a hand out. I take it and pull myself up. Snatching my hand from his, I curse my wobbling legs and the cough erupting from my wounded chest. I sound so bloody weak. News flash: I am.
Daniel’s tone softens after the terse words. “Soul hunters don’t usually confront demons on their own the first time. You did well to stay alive as long as you did, but the word “hunter” should indicate how you’re supposed to find demons, Av
a.”
What a fuck-up. This isn’t what I expected. A fight with a demon—yes. Pain and almost losing—no. I stare at my boots, bravado gone. Tears threaten, but I keep them from spilling. Daniel can’t see my weakness. If there is any chance of surviving this, I need his help. Whatever that help is going to be. I’m damn sure he won’t bother assisting a pathetic soul hunter who almost dies on her first assignment.
8
“What happened to you?” asks Tom.
I spin around, pointing my dagger at him. Since the return from my disastrous trip to the human world, my level of alertness remains high.
Tom steps back and raises his hands. “Whoa!”
“What do you mean?” I demand.
Tom wears the soul hunter uniform, the same as I do, but his is clean; no demon appears to have ripped his apart. I came into the training room as soon as Daniel returned me to the institute. My clothes are dirty and torn, but I don’t give a crap. All I want is to practice, so next time they send me out there I’m not humiliated—or almost killed.
Tom looks from the training dummy to me, then focuses his eyes on my neck. “You weren’t with the group. There should’ve been four of us, and you never showed. I thought you’d chickened out.” He draws his eyebrows together. “Did you go alone?”
I self-consciously rub my injured neck. Daniel told me not to say anything about being with him. I already figured out whatever happened is unusual, and I know not to mention the incident. But Daniel didn’t explain, and my aching head can’t figure out why he put me in the situation he did.
“Yeah, I got lost. Zapped to the wrong place, I guess.” I gesture at my neck. “Met a not so friendly local.”
“Human?”
“Demon.”
Tom’s eyebrows shoot up. “On your own? How did you manage to escape?”
“Guess I’m a better soul hunter than I thought,” I lie.
“Ava took it upon herself to go off on her own, yes.” I startle at Daniel’s voice and look over. He stands in the doorway to the training room, arms crossed over his chest the way he did in the alley. “I should’ve expected this. Stupid girl.”
Daniel’s changed into new clothes; his soul hunter uniform replaced with simple jeans and black shirt. I know for a fact demon blood stained his hands and clothes after our encounter. Unlike me, standing covered in demon scent and blood, a mix of the demon’s and mine.
He crosses the room. “You need to watch that behaviour, Ava. Darius doesn’t appreciate soul hunters stepping outside of their duties. Fancied a trip around the human world did you?”
He lies to Tom about what happened and in a patronising way. In frustration and to avoid them seeing my reddening face, I spike my dagger into the training dummy behind me. An alarm sounds to indicate I’ve hit the heart.
“Nice shot, Ava,” remarks Daniel.
Withdrawing the knife from the soft chest of the demon effigy, I shove the weapon into my boot. “I came here for some peace.”
“And I came here because I want to talk to you about your conduct,” says Daniel sternly.
I narrow my eyes and run my tongue along my teeth. Not after how he spoke to me in the alley. “Later, I’m tired.”
Daniel looks to Tom. “Please leave us. I need to talk to Ava about her transgressions.”
Tom surveys me once more, then smirks. I resist the urge to smack his smug face. “Sure. See you later, Ava.”
Daniel closes the door after Tom. “Why haven’t you changed your clothes?”
“Why did you lie to Tom?”
He leans against the door, crossing his legs at the ankles. “You expect me to tell the truth about us?”
Us. I snort. “Truth. Tell me the truth.”
As Daniel approaches, I shrink back. I’ve crossed a line again. The guy who saved me in the alley is now my trainer again. Distant. Aloof. Hiding something.
“What do you want to hear, Ava?”
What can he tell me? Nothing. One moment he treats me like shit. The next he’s hauling my ass away from demons. Or looking into my eyes as if he wants me. I swear this guy is deliberately screwing with my head.
“Doesn’t matter,” I mutter.
Daniel folds his arm across his broad chest. “Prove to me you’re worth my help.”
What the hell? I skirt around him, attempting to leave the room. “I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, apart from myself.”
“Really?”
Daniel isn’t much taller than I am, but his presence is larger because of a confidence I can only attempt to match.
“Yeah, the only person I can trust is myself. I don’t understand why you’re fucking around with me, but I don’t trust you.”
“I saved your backside.”
“You put me in the situation!”
“And one day you’ll thank me.”
I laugh, a false bark of a sound. “Thank you. Now leave me alone. I can do this myself.”
When Daniel allows me to walk away, I’m surprised.
I wake and stare at the ceiling, trying to figure out how long I’ve slept. After returning to my cell of a room, I drifted to sleep. The adrenaline finally left my body, leaving exhaustion behind, and I gave in to the aching in my head. The events of the evening replayed as I sank into sleep, nightmares of demons and death accompanying.
What disturbs me the most is a dream about Daniel. We’re in the training room, the day he humiliated me by turning on his seduction. My teenage self isn’t used to the raw sexuality he blasted. I can’t escape from the surge of arousal he’s caused, and apparently neither can my subconscious, because in my dream his lips meet mine.
I jerk awake, blinking away the image. Why would I want to kiss him? His arrogance matches my attitude, and his need to humiliate me at every opportunity should dampen down my childish crush. I wrap my arms around myself. Lack of comfort, fear of what might happen next, and the fact I could die anytime soon, all of this is enough to make me desire something physical from a guy. From him.
My sterile room holds a bed and a wardrobe, no window to the paradise outside, but posters to remind the soul hunters what they are doing and why adorn the walls. Images of the vast viridian landscapes I glimpsed from Darius’s window look back at me: houses the size of three of the Fated dwellings, all with happy, smiling people relaxing inside, and a reality as removed from where I am now as from the Fated.
I flick on the light and climb out of bed. I’m still dressed in bloodied soul hunter clothes. I peel them off and change into pyjamas. No voices come from the hallway, which means I’ve slept through dinner.
What can I do? The only places soul hunters are allowed alone are the bathrooms, training rooms, and cafe. Every time I move, a new muscle aches, and my throat hurts where the demon tore at the skin. I settle on a trip to the bathrooms; hopefully a hot shower will ease the pain.
The welcoming shower relieves my sore muscles. As I step out of the jet of hot water I inspect my body for bruises and am semi-amused to see huge black marks on my backside. Not so amusing is the ring of blue bruises and scratches on my neck reflected in the mirror. Oh well, I’ll wear them with pride. The others don’t have to know how scared I was. Am.
I leave the bathroom and head down the hallway where two figures stand in the shadows, outside the grey door of the training room. One of the figures appears to be Daniel. Not in the mood for his type of treatment, I rest against the wall and pull my damp hair into a ponytail. I need to pass them to reach my room. Hopefully they’ll leave soon. They continue to talk for a few minutes and curiosity about their conversation overwhelms me. I shuffle along the wall, finding some shadow of my own.
The second guy moves, and his hair catches the nearby light. Blond, almost white. I reel. Caelestia? When I first arrived, I expected to see them in the training institute, but I discovered their quarters are elsewhere and that they don’t come here. I’d lay bets on this man being one—he’s taller than anyone I’ve ever seen. His head returns to the
darkness.
“The one in this batch, I’m unsure about.” Daniel’s voice.
“She was chosen because of the things that make you unsure,” replies the other man in soft tones. “She holds a spark we need.”
Daniel laughs. “There’s more than a spark, her inner fire means she’ll be uncontrollable.”
“Control her then. There’re few who survive now, so we have to take the risk.”
“I’m trying.” Daniel’s voice raises with his irritation.
The sensation of something crawling across my head accompanies the suspicion they’re speaking about me.
“She doesn’t need to know anything. Channel what she has. If she’s too difficult to control, leave her to her fate. More recruits arrive next month.”
My blood drains from my face to my boots at the matter of fact discussion about my life. If I don’t pull into line, for whatever reason I’m wanted, Daniel will stop helping me. One conclusion I’ve come to is that without his help I’ll die, another unknown soul hunter killed by a demon.
The conversation halts as Daniel closes this down with words I can’t hear. Moments later, footsteps pad along the hall, away from Daniel as the imposing man walks out of sight. I tap the wall behind with my fingers, waiting for Daniel to leave too.
“So you can skulk in dark corners when it suits you, Ava?” he says, not turning to face me.
I want to run, but my leg muscles stiffen. “I’m waiting for you to finish. I didn’t want to walk past you or interrupt.”
Daniel approaches. “Really? But stayed close enough to listen?”
I pull a disinterested face. “Wasn’t that interesting, the bit I heard.”
“Hmm. Come with me.” Daniel takes me by the elbow, opens the nearby door, and guides me inside. A single light over the desk at the other end of the room shines; the room no longer the brightly lit place I’ve spent time in. Oh, shit. My pulse rate hikes. I saw something I shouldn’t, and he’s going to act on the “difficult to control” part of their conversation.
“What did you hear? How long were you there?” he demands, the moment the door closes.
“Nothing much. Something about an uncontrollable person. That’s all. Honestly.”
