A Demon Made Me Do It (23 page)

“
Kieron?”

“
I had no idea this would
happen when I came here. This wasn’t
supposed
to happen,” he says, almost
as if he’s speaking to himself.

“
What wasn’t…and why won’t
you answer my question? What were you doing in Baymore
Park?”

He finally turns to face me, and I’m
stunned to see how hard his face is. His jaw is rigid, his lips
pressed tight. But it’s his eyes that surprise me the most. They’ve
suddenly gone from clear and open to dark and
foreboding.

He sighs again and locks his gaze on
mine. “Actually…I was following you.”

His answer confuses me, and my body
stiffens; I don’t know if I should be flattered or creeped
out.

“
I don’t get it…why were
you following me?” My eyes feel as wide as one of Illyria’s
moons.

He takes a deep breath again. I notice
he’s removed his hand from my knee and is tightly clenching the
grass behind him. “Because it’s my job.”

“
What?
” My heart starts to race. If he’s saying what I think he’s
saying…

“
I came here for you,” he
says, quietly.

“
Why?” My question is
barely a whisper.

“
I came
here…
to kill you
.”

******

Every cell in my body instinctively
shifts into high alert, but I don’t flinch a muscle. If Kieron
plans to take me out, he’s in for one hell of a fight.

“
I’d love to see you try.”
My mouth is shaped in the sweetest smile I can muster, but my eyes
are bright with pure demonic fury.

“
Well
obviously
I’m not going to. I
would’ve done so already.”

“
You would have
tried
,” I counter. “Nice
ego just assuming you’d win.”

Latros demons are tough, but I have my
own talents. Each with our own strengths and weaknesses, we’d be
pretty evenly matched unless…

I let out a horrified gasp
and jump to my feet. “Is that what you’re doing with her…us?
Looking for
weaknesses?
”

How could I be so
stupid
? How could I think
for
one
second
that this demion was any
different than the rest? Friend, my ass!

“
No,” he says quietly. “I
only knew there was another demon—
you
—interfering with my bounty. I
came here to eliminate that interference, as I normally
would.”

“
So what’s stopping you?”
Every fiber of my being is ready for a fight; my fingers twitch
anxiously, ready in a split second to grab my dagger from my boot.
But Kieron remains passively on the ground.

“
I have no desire to kill
you…or her. Especially not her.”

“
Especially
?” I sneer. “Gee,
thanks.”

“
Only because I’d never
kill a human. And that’s what she is. At least you have the Powers
to defend yourself.”

“
That’s right – and don’t
forget it.” Even my hair feels like it’s on fire as I focus on
controlling my rage. My heels dig into the soft ground. This whole
thing with Kieron was a set-up, a trick…

“
Lucky, please relax. I
don’t want to fight you, I don’t want to hurt you, and I
certainly
don’t want to
kill you. I only told you the truth because we have a situation we
need to sort out-”

“
The only thing that
needs
to happen is
you
need
to stay
the hell away from me. And Liora.” My eyes are angry slits and my
voice shakes with rage. Silently, I will Kieron to stand up and
attack me. I want to fight. I want to smash his lying face
in.

But when he rises to his
feet, it’s not with the aggressive posturing I hoped for, but with
regretful trepidation. I’m unmoved by the hurt in his eyes. He’s
nothing but a dirty demion here on a mission to kill me, who
just
happened
to
get sidetracked by the circus-freak sideshow that is my life. I’ve
had other demons come after me before, but they’ve
never
gone through Liora
to get to me. This is a whole new level of low.

“
Lucky, please listen to
me, I understand why you’re upset, but you have it all
wrong.”

“
Guess I’ve been wrong
about a lot of things lately,” I say, storming away. I need to get
out of here and away from him
now
.

“
I knew from the first
night I came to Demon Bar,” he calls out. “The first time you
entered the room…I knew you were special…I could feel it in my
soul. The Deveni’s told me you were the one I was seeking, and they
were right. But before I’d even spoken to you, I knew my mission
was off…that I had to find another way. That I needed to know
you—”

I stop walking and spin
back around.
Firs
t, he uses me and lies to me, now he’s talking to me like I’m
some idiot schoolgirl. Does he
want
to die tonight?

“
You’re
lying
. I
remember
the first night you were in
Demon Bar.
I saw you
. You sat in the corner and didn’t turn around once. There’s
no way you saw me. Nice try.”

Kieron takes a tentative step toward
me. “I’m part Latros demon, remember?” His small smile causes my
insides to smolder. Now I don’t know who I’m madder at: him for
being a lying snake bastard; or me for still being affected by his
sexy grin.

“
Yeah, so? What does that
have to do with…?”

I suddenly remember something Ivy
mentioned to me long ago, when she was explaining to me how her
eyes are able to see through solid steel...

“
Wait…Do you
really
have the
three-sixty vision? You can actually see out of your whole head?” I
ask, my curiosity briefly outweighing my animosity.

He nods, taking another small step. “I
was watching you the whole time. After you left, I couldn’t stop
thinking about you. I knew I needed to get to know you. But I
wasn’t sure how. I tracked you to Liora’s school a few days later,
and that night I waited for you to return to Demon Bar. And then…”
His voice trails off.

“
And then…what?” My voice
is lower, less angry. More apprehensive.

“
I followed you,” he
confesses. “You ran off with your friend, the hellhound. I heard
you cry. I saw your pain as you mourned for your
friends…your
human
friends. I…I’ve never seen that from another demion
before…”

“
Yeah , well, that’s
her
fault,” I mutter.
“Told you she gets all emotional.” My humiliation at having him
witness such a private moment is only slightly tempered by the
compassion in his eyes.

“
I understand what drives
you to do what you do. Why you hunt other demons.”

“
Somehow I doubt
that.”

“
Trust me.” His face
unexpectedly fills with pain. “My mother, my
human
mother, was murdered while I
was forced to watch. The demons who did it took their sweet time,
and I was powerless to stop them. I was six years old, but it may
as well have happened yesterday.”

As I hear these words, my anger slowly
subsides. He’s not seeking pity. He’s not making excuses. He’s only
offering his understanding.

He drops his head and returns to his
seat on the cliff. I stare at the back of his head for a long
moment, wondering if he’s watching me. But I no longer want to
leave. I don’t even hate him anymore. He’s seen the same horrors I
have. He’s experienced the same unspeakable suffering. He’s felt
the same horrible feeling of powerlessness so alien to most of our
species.

He’s lost someone he loved. Just like
me. A kindred spirit. Tatiana told me about them one time when I
was little.

Slowly, I wander back to where he
sits, and kneel beside him. Close—but not touching.

The three moons of Illyria float side
by side, soon to be one. The Sirens are silent. So are
we.

“
I’m sorry,” I finally
whisper.

“
Me too.”

Still staring out over the valley, he
moves his hand just slightly so that it rests on mine.

Chapter 13.
Liora

It takes a few seconds for my last
memories to surface, but once they do, I wish to God they
hadn’t.

“
Oh,
no
. No, no, no!” I groan, flinging
the blanket over my head.
Kieron.
Oh, God, oh no…

Moaning, I bury my face in
my pillow, wishing it could block out the world. What happened
after I left? What did Lucky
do
? Does Kieron hate me? Is he
okay
?
Is he even
still
alive?

I replay those final seconds over and
over in my mind, each new memory puncturing a fresh hole in my
heart: My failed escape; the man with the gun; falling asleep in
Kieron’s arms as he looked at me with such sweet
concern…

It’s over. It is so
all over
for me. There
is
no way
anything
good happened after I left. There is no best case scenario, only
differing degrees of horrible.

The only question is, how bad is it? I
can’t bear to consider the answer.

I scream into my pillow,
the down filling muffling my cries. I hate this
so much
. Every single second of it.
Life is
not
supposed to be like this, even for a demion.
Especially
for a demion.
I’m supposed to have the world at my feet, not half-exist as a
pathetic, sniveling nobody held hostage by the night and
perpetually tormented by an unseen enemy.

Tatiana lightly taps on the bedroom
door and lets herself in.

“
Good morning, Liora, dear.
Are you going to join the world today?”

“
No,” I respond into my
pillow.

“
What is the matter?” She
sits at the end of the bed and places her hand on my
calf.

“
I’m sick. I’m not going to
school. I’m going to sleep all day.”

She clucks disapprovingly and smooths
her long, grey hair behind her ear. “You are not sick, my dear.
Something is bothering you. Either tell me what it is or please get
ready for school.”

I bolt up and throw off the
blankets, my fiery eyes fixing on her opaque ones. “What does it
even matter what I do? Don’t you see? It doesn’t
matter
if I’m late or not
there at all! None of this matters! I am a fraud…a fake. I don’t
even exist. Not really. This life…this life…it sucks Tattie, it
really does. I hate it! I hate everything about everything!” Angry
tears spill down my cheeks.

She leans forward, wrapping her frail
arms around me as sobs wrack through my body, her unconditional
love making me feel doubly horrible. I hadn’t meant to take my
anger out on her. She’s always been the one person I can count on;
the one person who’s always been there for me. But right now she’s
the only target I have for my frustration.

“
There, there… don’t be so
sad, my sweet Liora. Things aren’t always as bleak as they appear
to be,” she coos, patting my back.

I pull away from her embrace and flop
back on the bed. I’ve only been awake a few minutes but already my
body is totally exhausted and my mind drained. I curl up in the
covers again.

“
Please just let me sleep,”
I beg her, sniffling loudly under the blankets.

She stands up. “Do you plan to hide in
here for the rest of your life?”

“
Yes.” I nestle myself in
further.

“
And you think that will
make you feel better?”

“
Yes.”

She sighs. “So be it. But it saddens
me to think that I raised a young woman who would quit so easily.
You are the strongest person I know, and giving up without a fight
is not like you.”

I turn over and remove the cover from
my face to see her gazing down on me with concern. “I don’t even
know who I am anymore,” I say, my voice softer.

“
Yes, you do. And instead
of focusing on all the things that are going wrong for you, why
don’t you try opening your eyes to all that is good?” She has a
hint of a smile on her face.

I sit up, propping myself
against some pillows. “Like what? Name
one
thing that’s good. I hate school,
I barely have any friends, I don’t even have...” I picture Kieron’s
face and have to fight back a fresh wave of tears.
“
She’s
ruined
everything…
”

“
I have an idea,” she says,
reaching down to stroke my hair. “Why don’t you go out and find
just one good thing you like about your life. It is there, waiting
to be discovered. But you cannot find the goodness if you hide from
the light. You must seek it, even when the darkness surrounds
you.”