Demon Day (16 page)

After a minute or so of barely
breathing I relaxed, one muscle at a time.

“
Better,” he concluded and
his thumbs stroked circles into my skin.

My eyes drifted closed. “So you get
antsy when I get frisky on the grass, yet naked frolicking in lakes
is allowed?” I asked breathless and fidgety.

“
Oh yes. We are not doing
anything that would compromise your virtue. So calm down.” When my
face got pouty, he spoke again and I heard a smile in his voice,
but I was too mortified to open my eyes and see it. “I guess you’re
wondering why I brought you here.” I nodded empathically because I
was majorly confused. “You need to get used to being around me.
This way there are fewer barriers between us.”

I couldn’t stand it … not seeing his
expression as he spoke. My eyes opened long enough to send him a
dry, accessing look. “At what point did clothes become
insurmountable barriers?”

“
When you feel ashamed or
scared you twist your hands into your pockets to stop yourself
touching me.” He frowned. “Always you should be touching me. It
feels good and it makes us stronger.”

Gods above strike me down the boy had
me worked out. “But … you avoid me. Sometimes.”

He stared at me. “I am an
outcast. I have no Tribe, and you are a highborn fairy. It would be
a dishonor to treat you so in public when we are not mated.
You
can always
touch
me
.”

I was not sure I got it entirely. How
could love be a dishonor? Why could I touch him and he not touch
me? It hadn’t been an issue before. I knew Lochlann wanted us to be
discreet, but Conall knew how we felt about each other. He may be a
bit over-protective, but surely after a while he would just get
over it.

Breandan moved off the topic. “We
should stay here for a few days. Rest and be together.”

His hands were so warm, so hard, and
gentle. They distracted me from trying to figure out why he was so
careful all of a sudden. “Hmm, say-say?” I mumbled. It was more a
moan than anything resembling agreement.

“
I told you when Lochlann
returned I would spend more time just being with you.”

He was determined to keep on talking
so I peeked an eye open. “You want us to stay on the
Pride?”

“
Byron, Conall and I shall
plan the rescue, and you can learn more about our ways. Who and
what you are. No hovel is big enough for Devlin to hide in that we
cannot find him. We have time.”

I blinked at the suggestion of the
arrogant fairy High Lord staying anywhere that was remotely ‘hovel’
like. Devlin was an extrovert character, someone who played games
and played them well. He had infiltrated the human Temple, posing
as a Sect Disciple for an entire month to gain my trust before
trying to trick me into joining him. He was beautiful and handsome,
of course; most fairies were in their own way. Devlin had hair so
blonde it was white, and mesmerizing green eyes that sparkled even
in the absence of light. His features were sharp, pristine, and his
gait assured, confident. But he was also cruel and hard of heart
towards all apart from his life-mate, Wasp. His flair for
manipulation was bone deep, engrained, and I knew he would not give
up the High Lordship to Lochlann easily.

We had a hard road ahead of us and so
what Breandan was suggesting was beyond tempting. He was saying I
needed time to accept and adjust, to think about what I wanted to
do next, and allow myself to shape the future rather than be swept
into it by what was happening right then. Possibly I could plan a
little rather than just reacting to each explosion that seemed to
happen after every decision I made. To spend a few days tucked in
Breandan’s arms seemed too good to be true. But then again
sometimes good, normal things did happen to people. I could just
have fun. Learn about the shifters, and get to know Alec more. He
was so kind and he felt like a friend, something I had few
of.

My heart squeezed painfully. No, I had
no friends. My only friend was dead.

I looked down into the water’s surface
and saw us. Our skin glowed. My ear tips were elongated to slender
points and peeked through a tangle of hair that cascaded down my
bare back, and Breandan’s fair arm that clutched me tightly. My
tail weaved through the air over my shoulder, and my golden wings
rustled. Pinions the width of my wrist supported the gauzy,
multifaceted membrane that made up the main body of my wings, four
ovals - the upper two broader - of shimmering segments that
twinkled in the gloaming. I opened my mouth and saw the brilliance
of my teeth, fang-like. My eyes sparkled like wells of light, even
more so as tears pooled above my bottom lashes.

How strange and odd I looked to my own
eyes.

Breandan, a silver sheen beside me,
cupped my cheek, bringing my eyes to lock with his. There was
sympathy and compassion there. Could he see my pain? His other
moved to rest over my chest, fingers shifting gently as he closed
his eyes, feeling my heartbeat pound against his palm. Could he
feel my pain?

He leaned his head against mine then
tilted his chin to kiss me. I sighed and brushed my lips against
his, breathing in the scent of sunlight and rain. The water sloshed
as I snuggled closer, into the warmth and comfort. My leg muscles
tightened as my arms snaked around his neck to bring him
closer.

He watched me out the corner of his
eye as I rubbed my cheek against his, like he was afraid I was not
real or something. His hands moved up, under my wing pinions until
he smoothed over where they joined to my back. His hands swept over
my lower wings and I made a strangled noise. They tingled at his
touch. Stiffening, he stopped, and brought his hands to rest low on
my hips instead, long, powerful fingers played across my skin
applying pressure.

“
So we stay?” he
asked.

He was trying hard to respect me. His
protection extended beyond the physical, he wanted me to heal
emotionally before the cracks I knew were already there broke open
and obliterated me from the inside out.

I cupped his face in both my hands and
looked deep into his eyes. He was my home, my light in the dark.
Already I felt my heart healing. I paused then placed a kiss to his
clenched jaw.

“
We stay,” I agreed softly
and smiled.

*

My dreams were filled with dark and
wicked things but always did the silver light that surrounded me
keep me safe. The darkness could not have me and it was easy for my
mind to become quiet and sink into a deep blissful
sleep.

I woke before the dawn, overly warm,
and tucked safely in Breandan’s arms, my head pillowed on his
chest. We had curled up together on the bank of the river and
talked long into the night. Dew was heavy in the air and the
horizon was awash with dense pastel colors, announcing the suns
imminent arrival.

A soft whistle over by the ferns
revealed Alec standing in the gloom, jerking his head at me,
beckoning. I cocked my head in question and he smiled cheekily
before tugging on his pants. I leaned up onto my forearms then
became painfully aware of the fact I had no clothes on. It wasn’t
like before, when it was just Breandan and I. After a while, I had
become relatively confident in my own skin as we talked. Now I just
felt exposed. Dropping back down I wiggled further into Breandan’s
side and crossed my arms over my chest. Managing to merge a blush
with a scowl, I looked up to see Alec clamping a hand over his
mouth hide his laughter. He held up his palms when I hissed quietly
then turned on his heel, tapping his foot impatiently.

Jumping into a crouch, I breathed in
the crisp morning and let the cool air refresh my damp body. I
scanned the lake bank and found my dress in a crumpled pile a few
paces away. Picking it up a few spiders and ants fell onto my leg
and I slapped at them, cringing, and batted at the dress with my
hands to make sure there were no more crawlies. Slipping it over my
head, I itched at my neck and trawled my fingers through my hair,
which cascaded down my shoulders in dark waves. Since I had
embraced my fairy nature it was growing ridiculously fast, and I
wondered when it would stop.

Hearing a lusty sigh, I turned to find
Breandan awake, sitting up with his forearms resting on his knees,
watching me battle with the tangle on my head. My fingers stilled.
There was something … different. His permanently clouded expression
and guarded eyes shone with warmth and happiness. He looked
peaceful rather than serious and plagued. He closed his eyes and
breathed in deeply before standing to find his trousers. “I will
come with you,” he said.

I looked away as he pulled his pants
on and heard the leather strings rub against each other as he
knotted the tie, I walked over to him and pushed him down. “No.
Stay here and rest.” I kissed him briefly on the lips and then
again because the first was so sweet and it made me tremble. We
both sighed. “You need to rest and Alec is protection enough.
Besides we’re on Pride territory, no wandering demon will come
here.” He did not look convinced. I laced my hands behind the nape
of his neck. “I’ll be fine.”

“
Come on, Rae! Gods, what
are you doing?” Alec stomped over to us and tugged on the end of my
hair. I slapped his hand away when he tried again.

“
Bring the fairy with you
if you must. We’re going back to the Pride Heart
anyway.”

“
Why?” I asked untangling
myself from Breandan, who stood gracefully and took my
hand.

The three of us wandered back to the
centre of Pride land and I enjoyed the peace of such a moment. Alec
had a habit of talking until he ran out of breath. He’d heave in a
gulp of air then start again, chattering on about how they ran the
borders of the Pride at sunrise and sunset, and how the Alpha’s
daughters were taken.

“
So you were with them?” I
interrupted when his face turned a ruddy pink from talking so much.
“You saw who took them?”

“
No. The twins were running
together in the morning, but when they did not return by nightfall
Byron knew something was wrong. He sent me to find them. I caught
their scent quickly and with it human and silver. I found a pool of
blood too. Not enough to suggest the wound it came from was fatal,
but enough for concern.” He looked toward the east, in the
direction of Temple. “There may be two of them, but to get both
under your thumb all you have to do is threaten the other. Even if
one of them was able to get away, she would not. They would never
leave each other, even if it meant dying.”

“
How long ago were they
taken?” Breandan asked.

“
Four days,” Alec whispered
and hung his head.

“
And you haven’t tried to
break them out before now?” I questioned incredulously.

When Maeve had been taken by the
Clerics she had been gone less than a day. She had suffered at
their hands, and I dreaded to think what the shifters Alec referred
to were being put through. I did not like thinking the Sect capable
of such horrors, but my eyes had been opened to the real world
around me. I had to accept certain things, no matter how much I
disliked them.

Both Alec and Breandan raised an
eyebrow at me. “We tried to breach the Wall but didn’t come close.
Humans have guns and silver bullets to the chest kill. We lost two
males trying to dig our way under.”

With a flash, I remembered the screams
of were-cats the morning before I had run in the forest and met
Breandan. How odd something I had brushed off as demons battling
over territory was something much simpler and purer. I felt
ashamed. So much of what I had been taught by the Sect was
wrong.

The Sect was the single greatest
authority the survivors of humankind looked to for guidance and
protection. During the Rupture so many were slaughtered and only
those who were strong were able to defend themselves. Many fled the
inner cities, knowing it was only a matter of time before a shifter
sniffed you out or a vampire caught the smell of your female’s
menstrual cycle. Nowhere with a dense population was safe until the
three men and five women, Priests who had founded the Sect, erected
the Wall and set the strongest survivors they could find as
guardians. They had become determined to fight off any threat to
their continued survival. Many sought sanctuary with these brave
few who seemed to be able to hold their own and after a while that
was simply the way it was. The Priests told us what to do and we
did it. They told us what to think, what to eat, what to say, and
in return they kept us safe from the demons beyond the
wall.

That had all changed for me, my eyes
had been opened and nothing was ever as black and white as it
seemed.

“
I heard you,” I confessed
“I would wake up and hear you calling to them.”

Alec gave me a half-hearted smile.
“Wherever they are they’re underground and more than likely in
human form. They would have returned the call if they had heard us
and could respond.” He sounded desolate so I touched his arm
briefly.

“
Is that why you were in
the forest when I first met you? So close to the Wall?”

He nodded. “We’ve been trying to find
a weakness in their defenses for days. When I saw you two I was
curious, but couldn’t hang around to talk since I was supposed to
be monitoring Cleric activity.” He grinned. “Had I known who you
were I would have tailed you until I was sure you’d help us.” He
clicked his fingers. “Oh, and I almost forgot. A vampire has been
scented several times. Do you know anything about that? Byron was
worried about us running the territory alone if we had a
bloodsucker to worry about.”