Demon Mine

by Marina Simcoe

  I also didn’t want to think yet about the time when we would have to say our goodbyes to each other. True, I’d only known him for a few weeks. During these weeks, however, he literally had become my everything: my hope, my support, my only companion and ultimately my rescuer.

  He didn’t just leave the cell door unlocked for me or looked the other way to help me escape, he literally carried me out of that hell and had been driving me farther and farther away from there ever since. It would not be easy for me to part with him, even though he now remained the biggest reminder of my life in captivity and the only connection to it.

  Since we left Ivarr’s farmhouse, I had dozed off a couple of times then had breakfast in the car. We stopped at a gas station around noon again. Sytrius was going to re-fuel the car and get me lunch while I went to brush my hair and my teeth in the restroom.

  I still felt almost painfully self-conscious about the way I looked and – more importantly – about the way I felt facing people again.

  I felt like everyone at the gas station was looking at me when I exited the restroom and walked back to the counter to return the key to the restroom. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head as if to separate me from them.

  I realized it wouldn’t be easy for me to come back to my old life. It would be impossible to explain truthfully to anyone what had happened to me. My experiences in confinement did more than just damage me emotionally; they separated me from the rest of the human society. I would never be able to tell anyone. No one would ever believe me, no one would understand. Yet, at the same time, many would judge. Sytrius was now the only one who knew the truth about what happened to me. He was the only one with whom I could talk about it if I needed to talk.

  During the drive from the farmhouse, I caught myself watching him in the car when he wasn’t looking, taking in everything about him that was new to me: his hair, his face, his gestures.

  The way he would run his fingers through his hair every now and then, lost in thought, or the way he lifted the bottle of water to his lips to drink. His body didn’t need the water to survive. He explained to me that he just liked the cool refreshing sensation from the chilled water inside of him. I watched how his eyes closed in pleasure briefly every time he took a drink of water.

  I noticed the light of the rising sun getting caught in his dark blond, messy hair, colouring it with golden highlights. I noticed that the short stubble covering his cheeks and jaw was a couple of shades darker than the colour of his hair. And I hoped that the more I stared at him, the more new things I noticed about him, the more familiar he would become to me again.

  I hoped that I would be able to get used to him again and be more comfortable with him around, even if we were to part our ways soon.

  I left the key on the counter without talking to anyone and turned around to go back to the car when the familiar tall figure in line at the coffee shop counter inside the gas station caught my eye.

  He was next in line now, and I watched as he approached the counter. My attention then was diverted to the girl behind the counter. She looked tired and bored putting the money of the previous customer into the cash register, but her face lit up like a Christmas tree immediately when she looked up at Sytrius!

  Standing by the exit door on the other end of the gas station store, I couldn’t hear what she said to him, but I couldn’t miss her ear-to-ear smile, and I saw her eyes sparkle with mirth as she took his order.

  Well, I understood way too well just how she felt. I should have known I couldn’t be the only woman affected by his looks.

  And then I saw Sytrius smile for the first time ever! Watching that smile taking over all of his features was spectacular, not unlike watching a rising sun! He smiled with his whole face. It was not just attractive, it was enchanting! A pair of dimples was dancing on his cheekbones. Dimples! As if he needed to look any more charming. As if it was even possible!

  And this smile was not meant for me… I couldn’t stop the sharp stab of loss and disappointment in my chest at this realization.

  The poor girl behind the counter blushed violently and missed the same button on the register several times. Sytrius patiently held the 20-dollar bill up in front of her for a minute before she managed to get her bearings, took the money and counted his change.

  Another girl brought out his order and also stood at the counter, openly staring at him. I watched his hand put the change into the back pocket of his pants, and let my eyes linger on the hard muscles of his rounded backside. Then I saw as the eyes of the two girls moved there as well as soon as he turned around to walk away from the counter…

  Okay, it was just getting more and more ridiculous! If I thought being one on one with Sytrius was challenging, nothing prepared me to seeing him in public! I turned on my heels and ran out of the store towards the car.

  “Your lunch,” Sytrius said when he got back to the car and put the bag of food in my lap and the cup of coffee into the cup holder.

  Coffee! I grabbed it immediately and took a sip, not caring if I’d burn myself, chasing the images of the girls ogling his ass out of my mind.

  “Mmmm,” I moaned: it was my first cup of coffee in ages after all. “How did you know how I like to drink my coffee?”

  The usual intensity in his look at me was actually unsettling to me right now.

  “Well, the regular coffee comes with cream and sugar. That’s what they said at the coffee shop. Both cream and sugar are detrimental to human cardiovascular health, so I just asked them to add some milk for a milder taste I thought you’d prefer,” he explained.

  I didn’t expect the amount of thinking he put into ordering my coffee.

  “Or you could have just asked,” I mumbled, refusing to meet his eyes.

  “I didn’t know there were that many choices…” He cut himself short. “What is wrong, Alyssa? It couldn’t be the coffee - you seem to like it… There is this unusual shade of green inside of you. I have never seen it before. I thought I knew all of your emotions by now, but I can’t name this one. It’s not pleasant, though, not at all… are you alright?

  Damn him and his x-ray vision! I couldn’t get anything past him.

  “I’m fine, Sytrius. Let’s just go.” How was I supposed to explain this jealousy to him? The jealousy I had no right to feel. I pulled out a whole-wheat chicken wrap out of the bag instead and took a huge bite, hoping desperately that the pleasure of the food inside me would distract him enough to drop this conversation.

  He didn’t look entirely convinced as he turned on the engine, but at least he didn’t ask any more questions and we were back on the highway.

  That happened a couple of hours ago, before we reached Edmonton. My unreasonable jealousy had a chance to dissolve by now, and my practical nature returned my thoughts to the current situation.

  We were driving away from Edmonton getting closer to Calgary.

  “I can use a payphone at the rest stop to call my cousin, to let her know that I might be coming,” I explained.

  “You can use my cell phone,” he said and lifted his hips off the seat to pull a smart phone from the back pocket of his cargo pants then handed it to me.

  “You have a cell phone? Really?”

  “Yes, why are you surprised?” He glanced my way quickly before returning his eyes back to the road.

  “Yeah. Well, I didn’t necessarily expect you to have a cell phone. What would you even use it for? To call your buddies about getting together for a ‘demons’ night out’? Or to catch up with the big guy in hell?”

  It was childish. I regretted what I said as soon as I said it. I shouldn’t be mocking him, especially since I still knew very little about him and nothing about his origins. I made assumptions here that could have offended him if they were true as much as if they were not. Normally, I was much more sensitive to other people’s feelings, but I must have still been bitter about the marvelous smile of his given to a random coffee shop girl when I myself never got one.


  Luckily, he proved to be not so easily offended; though, he didn’t laugh either. He just looked at me again and explained, “I got this one yesterday morning when I went shopping for clothes and groceries before we left. You were asleep, recovering at my place. But I had another one before this one too. The Council started giving them to us years ago. It makes it easier to summon us when we’re needed.”

  I nodded and took the phone from his gloved hand. I should stop being surprised, seeing him being more adapted to the human world than I expected. Didn’t he say he was a quick learner of human technology? He might have literally lived in a cave, but it didn’t mean that he had been living under a rock as far as modern life was concerned.

  My cousin’s husband picked up on the first ring.

  “Hello!”

  “Hi Jim. It’s Alyssa,” I started and continued since he didn’t reply right away. “Sorry, I hadn’t been in touch for a while… I’m on my way to Calgary now, and I was wondering if I could stop by…”

  “Are you kidding me?” His voice thundered into my ear, startling me for a moment. “You people have no shame!”

  “What? Jim…” I started again, confused and a little hurt by his yelling.

  “Alyssa is dead! Can’t you let the poor girl rest in peace?”

  “But I’m not dead! I’m here… Jim, can I talk to Sarah, please?”

  This was insane!

  “No way in hell! I’m not putting Sarah through this again! She got over the death of her cousin and moved on with her life. Leave her alone and don’t ever call here again! Yeah, and tell that creepy boyfriend of yours to never call here either or I’ll call the police next time!” The line went dead as he hung up on me.

  I kept holding the phone to my ear, my mouth open in protest… I did not expect this - he gave me no chance to explain anything!

  “Alyssa?” Sytrius called softly to me. He sounded worried, and I began to feel embarrassed and even angry. Of all the ways I would have expected my only family to react to my return, this was not it!

  “He said that I was dead…” I whispered in disbelief. “He wouldn’t even listen to me…” Tears flooded my eyes against my will.

  Sytrius nodded, not at all surprised. “You have been dead to the human world for a year and three months. Your phone call must have caught him off guard.”

  “What do you mean? Did you know?” My anger found a new target now. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t know for sure. Women are given to the Council as part of the treaty between humans and incubi. None of the women I buried were missed in the human world. Nobody was looking for them, as if they were already dead long before they actually died. But I didn’t know for sure that this was how it was done.”

  “Women are given? What do you mean? How? By whom?”

  “By humans. These are the terms of the peace treaty. Incubi get a few women each year, and for that we stay away from the rest of the human population,” he explained calmly. How could he say things like that in this calm, even voice?

  “You’re lying! I was kidnapped by the likes of you! Are you saying that my friends would ignore my disappearance? That the police would fake my death to cover it up? That my own people would sell me into that sex slavery or whatever it was that you did to me?” I was screaming now, clutching his phone in my hands with so much force that my knuckles turned white.

  He turned the steering wheel sharply and pulled the car over to the side of the highway.

  “Alyssa…” He leaned towards me trying to take my hands between his, but I jerked away from him misunderstanding his intentions.

  “Don’t you touch me now! Stop manipulating my emotions for me! I don’t want you to suck my feelings out of me as soon as they become too inconvenient for you to deal with!”

  “That’s not what I’m doing, Alyssa.” He pushed his seat back and clicked my seat belt off. “I won’t take anything from you, I promise. I just can’t stand seeing you upset. I know just too well how deep and dark your emotions can turn if you let them.”

  He reached for me again and pulled me out of my seat and into his lap.

  “I don’t want the darkness of anger and sadness to take over you. Don’t let them,” he murmured into my hair as both of his arms circled around me, gently subduing my flaying arms. “I know there is a powerful light deep inside of you. I want you to hold on to it. I’ve seen it. It’s beautiful and strong, stronger than anything. It has survived so much.” His hand slid up my back to the nape of my neck, and he gently massaged it with his palm and fingers in smooth soothing motion. “Hold on to the light, Alyssa…”

  My head leaned on his shoulder, and I let the tears run freely now, soaking his hoodie. “I’m not strong, Sytrius,” I sobbed. “I’m weak. I’m useless. Nobody in the world wants me… Not even my own people, not even my own family…” I meant every word I said, feeling small and pitiful and as alone as ever. Yet with every tear running down my cheeks, the pain and anger were draining out of me drop by drop.

  I freed my arms and wrapped them around his neck, breathing in the familiar warm scent of him as I pressed my nose to that spot where his neck met his shoulder. My tears stopped eventually, and my shuddering breathing evened out as the crying fit subdued.

  His hand continued to massage my nape, and I became extremely aware of the softness of his leather glove on my skin. He had promised not to touch me in any sexual way unless I asked him, and I couldn’t exactly accuse him of breaking his promise now. His touches were meant to calm, not to excite me; however, I found them if not sexual, then still extraordinarily sensual.

  The palm of my own hand moved along the back of his neck in response, and I buried my fingers in the hair on the back of his head. His hair felt soft, thick, and silky all at once. It felt more wonderful sliding between my fingers than I could have ever imagined. Rapidly losing all ability to think, I grabbed a handful of it and moaned, pressing my face closer into his neck.

  I didn’t know when exactly, but he had become my addiction. He made me forget everything better than any drugs or alcohol ever could. His touch always made everything better. I could never resist him, even when he was hidden behind the mask. It would have been so easy to lose myself in him again now!

  If only I didn’t have to worry about having to sober up.

  But I would have to wake up eventually, and the reality would still be what it was. He would still be the demon from the nightmare of a life I had for a year and a quarter, and I would still be just a food source to him…

  His hand trembled at my neck, as did his voice, when he spoke. “Alyssa… I can’t… When you’re this close…” He sucked in a shaky breath and moved his hands away from me, spreading his arms wide to the sides, releasing me. “Please… or I’ll lose control,” he pleaded and warned grimly, “…I’ll break my promise, Alyssa. And I won’t stop...”

  I leaned back, my hands still behind his head, and looked into the dilated pupils of his eyes, heavy with lust. There was no longer just the hunger for my energy in them – now he would take everything if I let him.

  Only then where would I be? Left behind, cold and lonely? Feeling more used than ever, or even worse – drained and dead on the ground?

  I removed my hands from his neck and pulled myself back into the passenger’s seat.

  “Sorry,” I apologized sincerely, looking straight through the windshield in front of me. “I got carried away. It won’t happen again.”

  He was right: it wasn’t fair. I made him promise to me that there would be nothing sexual between us. If I wanted him to keep his promise, I shouldn’t make it difficult for him to do so.

  If only being in his arms didn’t feel like the only place I wanted to be! How could it be possible? How could I be attracted that much to him when he wasn’t even my species? In fact, he had no species. He was not a living creature, he was a demon – somebody who walked through walls like they didn’t exist and could kill with just a touch of his hand. It would be w
ise to remind myself about that every time I got weak in my knees around him.

  I heard him exhale heavily, and finally felt calm enough myself to look at him again. Both of his hands were gripping the wheel, his head dropped low with several strands of his hair hanging in front of his eyes.

  “No. I’m sorry, Alyssa,” he said with his eyes closed. “I wanted to comfort you, not excite you…” He opened his eyes finally and met mine, “… or myself.”

  He looked devastated. I forgot all about my own embarrassment and fought a strong urge to comfort him. I knew exactly where that would lead, though… So instead, I just briefly patted his gloved hand on the wheel.

  “Apology accepted. Let’s pretend it never happened.” I inhaled and changed the subject, eager to get rid of the awkward tension. “Can we stop at a library when we get to Calgary? Or do you have a data plan on your phone too? I’ll need access to the Internet if you don’t mind me using it.” I picked up the phone from the floor where it had fallen during my crying session and looked at him expectantly.

  He just nodded, turned the engine back on, and pulled onto the highway again.

  Chapter Nineteen. Sharing.

  During the remaining drive to Calgary I Googled my own name on Sytrius’s cell phone and pulled up several news articles about the “fatal” fire in my condo building. The Toronto Sun even included witnesses’ accounts and a picture of me in my graduation gown.

  According to the articles, the fire happened the night after I was taken. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages were reported with some injuries but only one death – mine.

  The cause of fire was determined to be the scented candle that I allegedly left unattended when I fell asleep in my bed. The curtains on my bedroom window caught on fire from the candle, and the faulty fire alarm didn’t go off. The bedroom was quickly engulfed in flames and, “The life of a young and vibrant woman was lost,” the author of one of the articles lamented.