by K. A. Fox
He shook his head, a small grin appearing briefly. “So, the girls tell me,” he said dryly. Then he focused on me, his face worried and filled with some pain I didn’t understand. “Laney, I’ve got to treat your wound right away. The claws of a Proles are filthy. Poisonous. If we don’t do something now, it will fester, and you could die.” He paused, but then said grimly, “This is going to hurt.”
“Of course it is,” I whispered, my mouth dry. Pounding feet sounded as Torren came into the room, a small leather bag clutched tightly in his hand. He shoved it at Cal, who looked away from me only for a second to take hold of it. Then he locked his eyes with mine, warmth flowing from his hand into mine and a tingling began where his skin touched mine. It felt good, drowning out the pain for a brief second.
He broke our connection too soon and I closed my eyes, needing rest and strength. I heard him tell Torren, “You’ll have to hold her down.” Moose whined in the background, and I felt the air around me move as Torren slid down beside me, helping me to lay down and propping something soft under my head. Then his strong hands came down on my shoulders. He whispered something over and again, but I couldn’t make out the words. They reminded me of prayers I’d heard somewhere before and wanted to laugh. Praying over the body of the Devil’s daughter. Who’d have ever thought things would come to this?
I opened my eyes one last time. I saw Torren’s face, rigid with fear. His eyes were closed, and his lips moved in steady rhythm. Cal was on my left, dust falling from his hands onto the wrist where the claws had cut the deepest. The dust sparkled in the dim light, almost beautiful, a silvery arc suspended in the air as each mote fell toward me. One of them drifted down, landing on my skin and flared, brilliant. It was followed by its mates, thousands of blinding little pinpoints as they touched me and then disappeared, leaving a gentle numbness behind. I floated contentedly for a moment before the burning started, brutal and incessant, tearing through my skin and the muscles underneath, joining with my blood and traveling through my veins. It rode the wave within my body, pumped further and further with every beat of my heart. My legs kicked at the floor and I screamed, twisting against the weight holding me down. I couldn’t stop myself, even as the pressure on my shoulders increased and I felt the warmth of my Hound as he laid his heavy body across my legs, helping to keep me in place.
It continued on, more spikes of pain, more fire spreading through me. My screams grew hoarse and I tired of fighting against the weight of those hands and bodies. My cries turned to whimpers and this time, I welcomed the weightless feeling of unconsciousness when it came and gave in to it.
Chapter Twenty·Two
I awoke in my own bed. My left arm was wrapped in bandages and it ached when I tried to lift it. I struggled upright and saw Moose laying at my feet, blankets scratched up into a bed. Even back in his smaller form, his heat permeated the covers and I smiled at the simple comfort his presence gave me. He lifted his head at my movement and whined a little, then crawled on his belly until he was beside me and I was able to lay my undamaged hand on his head. We both slept that way for a little while longer, soothing each other as best we could.
When I woke a second time, Moose was gone and Cal had taken his place, sitting on the mattress next to me and checking my pulse. Seeing my open eyes, he offered me a drink of the cold water he’d brought in with him. I swallowed it down, recognizing the soreness in my throat as evidence of how long I’d screamed. I drank the whole glass and he set it back down before he said anything at all.
“You’re even more of a fighter than I thought. You gave all of us a tough time last night.”
I watched him, seeing the tension in his shoulders and the tightness of his jaw. His eyes were tired, and pieces of his hair stuck up at odd angles, making me think he’d run his fingers through it over and over. His hands were gentle as he checked my wound, unwinding the bandages until my skin was bare. He held my arm tenderly, carefully turning it from side to side. I could see the thick, twisting lines of scars that hadn’t been there before. Skin that should have been torn apart and gaping open had sealed, leaving only the ridged traces as evidence of what had happened.
“How did you do that?” I asked him, breathless at the thought of what he’d somehow forced my body to do in a matter of hours.
He shrugged, like it wasn’t all that extraordinary. “Battlefield healing. You needed it. Definitely wasn’t easy but we got the job done.”
“It hurt. A lot.”
“I know. I’m sorry for that but there was no way to make it easier. Anything else wouldn’t have acted fast enough. It was the only way.”
He winced as his fingers feathered over the scars. Watching him, I could see he hadn’t wanted to cause me pain. But knowing him as I did by now, I also knew he’d do it again without question if required. I was just as determined to never need that again in the future.
“You should teach me how do this.” I tried a grin. “I want to be able to repay this favor in the future, you know.”
He seemed to relax at the teasing note in my voice. “It was silver nitrate. Specially prepared, fast acting amplified with some magic. I pushed it even further with some of my energy, shoved that into you every chance I got.”
I caught my breath at that. The one thing I wanted no one to ever do, to be forced to share their energy with me, to peel off parts of their soul to sustain me. The thing I’d left the world behind to avoid. He’d done that to save me.
I looked away from him, out the window to the bright white clouds I could see. I kept my gaze there, even as I said, “I wish you hadn’t done that. I hate that you were forced to.”
His fingers were firm on my cheek, turning me to face him. His voice was serious. “Listen to me. I wasn’t forced to do anything, Laney. It was a choice I made when it was needed. Someday you’ll see these abilities you have as the gifts they can be. You’ll learn to accept them and find a way to make them work for good. I know you enough already to recognize that.” When I opened my mouth to argue, he stopped me with a shake of his head. “I was happy to share myself with you that way. Don’t treat it as a hateful thing—the fact that we are able to do that for each other can be something so wonderful.”
I protested. “I can’t do anything for you. All I can do is take. I don’t want to be someone who steals from people, who takes what they can’t afford to give.”
He wrapped his fingers through mine. “Who says you can’t do anything for me? You don’t know yet, because you haven’t tried. Like I told you, once you find a way to accept what you can do, I believe you’ll learn to control it. Maybe then, you’ll find you can share yourself in the same way. And you’ll really be able to return the favor.”
He smiled, and I felt myself warming up, unable to stop myself. We sat together for a moment, his fingers twined with mine, just smiling at each other until a knock at the open door fractured our quiet moment and we saw Torren standing there, watching us.
He stayed at the threshold, but looked to Cal. “Did you tell her yet?”
“He told me,” I answered back, determined to be included in this conversation.
Torren cocked a brow at me. “Everything?” he shot back.
I looked between them, sensing something I didn’t have enough information to understand. When the silence lengthened, harsh and tight, I broke it with a sigh. “Fine. What else do I need to know?”
Cal stayed where he was beside me, but Torren stepped into the room, closing the distance that separated us. “You were dying,” he said, spitting it out like the words tasted bad. Bitter.
I nodded. I’d already guessed this, based on how much blood I’d probably lost and the tense atmosphere when I’d finally come back to myself.
“You were dying and suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. It was like being sucked down a hole where there’s no air and no light and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Until he grabbed me and shocked the hell out of me.” He pointed at Cal, the accusati
on hanging unspoken. But I waited. If there was a question, he was going to have to ask it.
Finally, he broke. “Well, are either of you going to tell me what is happening?”
Cal stood up and started to leave the room, but I put a hand on his arm, silently asking him to stay. He nodded once but didn’t sit back down next to me. He leaned up against the wall instead, giving Torren and me space to discuss the situation. His hands looked relaxed, one resting on his thigh as his foot propped him up and the other in the front pocket of his jeans. But I could sense that was a facade. He was ready to launch forward if need be, to get between me and the possible danger when Torren realized what had happened between us.
I patted the now empty spot on the bed next to me, reaching out a hand to him. I could understand his reluctance to sit in the precise spot that Cal had vacated, but I also knew he needed to be close to me right now. I was going to do this right. Even if it broke his heart.
He paused, weighing my offer and then stepped across the empty space between us, sliding onto the softness of my bed and the warmth it promised, unconsciously leaning a little of his weight against me. He sat there, his eyes on me, waiting.
“The day you asked me to meet you because you needed to show me the pictures of those other girls.” I looked at his face, to confirm I had his attention, and then forged ahead. “You grabbed me, and you kissed me.” I said it quietly, no emotion, no anger. These were mere facts. “And something happened when you did that.”
I held my breath, wondering if I should continue. But he broke in, nodding his head. “I felt it. It was a shock, like you get when there’s static electricity and you touch something. That’s what you’re talking about?”
I nodded. “That was it. I was surprised by what you did. I wasn’t prepared. Normally, when I’m with people, I have my defenses up. I shield myself from others. But when you did that, well, I was wide open. And so were you. So, we kind of connected.” I felt like I was doing a bad job with this, wanting to find the right words to explain all this to someone who had no concept this could even happen. “I’m sorry. I’ve never had to actually explain this to anyone before. Do you understand what I’m talking about?”
“Chemistry?” he asked, quirking a corner of his mouth.
His attempt at humor worked. I laughed in spite of everything. “Something like that, I guess.” But the reality was sobering, and I needed to help him understand. “But it’s deeper, really. That moment, when you felt that charge between us...” Here it comes. “We became connected at a soul level. And now, without meaning for any of this, we’re tied together. Wrapped up. Stuck.” I spread my hands in what I knew was a useless gesture, and could feel his eyes boring into me, burning a hole into the top of my head because I couldn’t look at him while I said this. “I’m sorry this happened to you. So very, very sorry.”
He waited, still as a statue, so I shut my mouth, giving him a chance to process everything. We hung there, the three of us, in this odd triangle, all of us letting the silence stretch while something bigger than each one of us happened outside our control.
His voice, when it came, felt brittle to my ears. “You’re serious? Really? Because I’m starting to think you’re both playing some weird game.” He looked back and forth between Cal and me. There was nothing either one of us could say. Anything I could offer would sound like feeble protests. He had to come to this understanding on his own. And before that, he would be angry. Hurt. He moved suddenly away from me, jumping up and pacing the length of my room. Cal remained in his chosen position against the bedroom wall, but his eyes tracked Torren.
“So what, you’re a vampire or something? A demon soul sucker?”
There it was. The anger he needed to vent. I stayed quiet. Letting him work through each layer, prepared to bear the weight of it all as he worked his way through it.
“I’m like, food for you? What is this? You just lure guys in and trick them into falling for you, then force them to be your slave for the rest of their lives? How many other guys have you done this to? How many?”
He was yelling now, fists clenched, a vein standing out along the side of his neck, but there was an undercurrent of desperation I could hear beneath the venom he was spouting at me. He knew this was serious, that we weren’t playing any games, and he was scared. He had every right to be afraid. I’d been draining his life away on the floor of my living room and hadn’t even known it. Only Cal’s intervention had saved us both. Hells, even I was afraid right now.
And it was Cal who saved us again. His long body uncoiled from the wall slowly, so as not to startle either of us, and he stepped over to Torren, who had started to shake. Resting his hand on Torren’s shoulder, he said quietly, “This wasn’t anyone’s fault. You surprised her, and she wasn’t prepared. She’s been living out here by herself, trying to keep this very thing from happening. If you really look at her, you’ll see she’s just as frightened by all this as you are. She’s terrified you’ll be hurt. It’s okay to be angry and afraid but direct it where it needs to be.”
“And where is that?”
“At whoever sent that Proles Demon here for Laney. If she hadn’t been hurt, the connection between you wouldn’t have activated the way it did. We’d have had time to work this out more and find some answers. But somebody out there didn’t want us to have that kind of time.”
“You think I was set up?” I asked, breaking into the conversation between them.
Cal looked at me and nodded. “The Proles said you were promised to it by someone. There was no name, just a man, but it was clear that it was sent here to attack you.”
“And once a Proles has a target, they hunt it down. Never stopping. Until they get what they want.” I remembered my lessons with Newt about the types of demons, information he felt was essential I learn. Not my favorite subject, but at least I’d retained some of what he’d been trying to teach me.
“It said something else about you, Laney. About why it might want you dead.” Cal’s voice was serious, his words heavy with an emotion I couldn’t identify.
“What did it say?” I asked, afraid of what it might be.
Cal’s eyes were sad as they met mine. “She lives, we die. She lives, the world will cry.”
Torren scoffed. “I heard that too, but it’s just nonsense. It could mean anything.”
Cal shook his head. “No. I held that Proles under a command. It truly believed every word it was telling me. It was sent here for Laney, because someone believes that if she lives, the world will end . . . at least for demons.”
I forced myself out from under the blankets, standing up on unsteady feet, realizing suddenly that I had very little on and what I was wearing was not what I’d picked out earlier in the day. A problem I didn’t have time to deal with at the moment. “You think I’m going to be the end of demons?” I asked.
“I didn’t say I think that. I said that’s what the Proles believed. That’s what it was told by whoever sent it after you.” He started to say something else, but stopped himself, his lips pinched together.
“What? What did you just think of?” I demanded.
His answer came as a whisper. “There have always been rumors that some Proles can glimpse the future.”
Cold began to creep from my stomach up to my throat. I didn’t want this to be true. I’d always tried my best to stay hidden when I could, and now, attention was about to fall on me in the very worst way.
“Cal, if other demons hear this, they’ll come after me. After all of us.” I waved my hands frantically at the group of us, including Moose in the gesture. And I realized something else. “My Dad. We have to call my Dad. And Newt. They need to know what happened.”
This was all apparently too much for Torren. “Wait a minute, your dad? I thought your father died in some airplane crash. Now you’re saying we have to give him a call. What, is he a demon too?” He started to laugh at the idea, almost like he expected us to join in. When
neither Cal nor I said anything, he deflated, the look on his face incredulous. “He is? A demon?”
I started to explain but was cut off as the pressure heralding my father’s impending arrival began to build up, the heat filling the small room quickly and the scent of brimstone rising until there was an audible pop and a flare of light. When the brightness faded, Angus stood there, every inch the arrogant rock star and enraged father.
Chapter Twenty·Three
I stepped forward immediately, ready to bear the brunt of whatever he was planning to let loose on us. “Dad. I’m glad you’re here.” I was interrupted by Torren’s sharp voice saying exactly the wrong thing.
“Speak of the Devil.”
Angus turned his burning eyes on Torren, the flames chasing the dark centers evidence of how angry he really was. If you looked at them too long, they would pull you in and you’d forget everything. Those eyes could consume you and burn you alive.
“Careful what you call me, boy. You might not like what you get when I answer.” His fury was almost visible, his words knife sharp. “Right now, you will call me Mr. Murphy. Or Sir. Anything else and I make no promises about your safety.”
Then he pinned those eyes on me and I was rooted in place by his power. Oh yes, he was pissed. And I was going to hear all about it.
“Callum. Please escort Mr. Bishop to the living room and keep him there. The Hound as well.” His voice allowed no argument and Cal was wise enough to not even try. “My daughter and I have some things to discuss. Privately.”
Torren tried to protest but Cal took him firmly by the arm and led him out of my room. I didn’t know much about Cal’s history, but I could tell he’d been around Angus long enough to know when retreat was the smartest move you could make. Getting Torren away from my father was the safest thing for everyone right now. Moose followed them out with a sad glance back at me.
When they’d left, Angus closed the door then returned his attention to me. The flames in his eyes were brighter now, swirling with his agitation. He pointed a finger at me and started to open his mouth, but I didn’t let him say anything.
