Demon Girl (2 page)

Oh yes, I’d become good at controlling
myself.

Back down below the forest canopy it was
dark. The sunrays had not broken through the leaves, and the
understory had a monochromatic look. Silver bark, grey leaves and
black spaces between. I pushed some hair out of my eyes that had
gotten loose from my makeshift bun, and breathed in. Smells of the
forest, nutty sycamore maples and sweet night flowers releasing the
last of their fragrance, were strangely comforting. I was deep into
wild and civilization was far behind, but I knew panicking would
only make things worse.

A faint rustle ahead made me pause and
swiftly reconsider panicking. Another, louder rustle made me tense.
A tingle of fear ran down the back of my legs. The forest was full
of animals of course, deer, badgers and more birds than I could
name, though the most popular was the raven.

The thought I’d been consciously avoiding
until now, making me want to lie where I was then die quietly
and
run shrieking in the opposite direction, was that I was
in demon territory.

A flicker of light illuminated the leaf edges
in the darkness. I heard a low murmur of sound, hushed and urgent.
Instinctively crouching down, I crawled forward and was scared.
Voices. Demons spoke, of course. They were bloodthirsty and evil,
but intelligent too. Like a rational individual, I could have gone
the other way, but then I would not know what kind of demon was
close by. If they were shifters with tracking skills, I was no
better than a dead body anyway. Soon, I saw the pale glare of
artificial light and inched closer, keeping myself low to the
floor. My knees scrapped sharp twigs, hard stones. The prickly
leaves of low grown shrubs stroked my cheeks, and forehead, as I
pushed forward. My breathing sounded too loud in my ears, and I
tried to breathe shallow. I kept my moves small and stealthy, like
I was taught in Subterfuge when learning how to track demons for
the element of surprise.

Ahead of me, there was a small clearing and
three bodies in it.

Two were human, Clerics, identified by the
peculiar hooded crimson blazers they wore with black tails that
flowed to their knees. The wide, pointed hood could cover your face
to the nose, and the well-known white-eye sigil stitched on their
breast pockets, commanded fear from demons and submission from
Disciples. The one facing me was female with her hood down. She was
skeletal with mud colored hair and pinched lips, but would be
attractive if you like women with up-tilted eyes and a mean-looking
disposition. The other had his back to me and was a well-built
male. Small but compact with big arms and calves.

To my horror the feeling that surged through
me was not relief. These Clerics would take me back to the
compound, and I would get into heaps of trouble having to somehow
explain the hole in the Wall. But that versus being caught by a
demon and killed was preferable, right? No. I sat in my hiding
place and quaked in my boots. My stomach twisted into a double knot
and my teeth chattered, because something bad was happening.

The third body in the clearing was a demon. A
kind I had never seen before in my life, meaning she could only be
one thing. Green skin damp and scarlet hair wild, the fairy was
sprawled across the forest floor in a tangle of her own gawky
limbs. It was clear to me she was terrified. Her vibrant skin
looked sallow and her eyes blood shot. A tazer probe buzzed in her
shoulder blade, another on her upper thigh. She was crying, a
pitiful high keen that was so frail I could barely hear it.

The Lady Cleric twisted the probe deeper into
the fairy’s leg. “Why do you spy on the Academy?” she asked with
chilling calm.

The fairy-girl cringed back. “I mean you no
harm.”

“And here I thought a fairy could tell no
lie.”

“I can’t.” The high chime of her voice shook
on each word. “I speak the truth. Let me go, you don’t understand
what will happen. My brothers–”

The Lord Cleric punched her. Her head flew
back and a spray of blood wet the dry mud and spattered over the
leaves concealing me. Face wet with tears and whimpering, she tried
to crawl toward the trees and dragged up clumps of earth with her
fingernails.

“You must let me go.” The words sounded
muffled, like she had a mouthful of something foul.

The Lord Cleric executed a neat half turn and
stamped on her thigh. There was a sharp snap, like I’d picked up a
twig and yanked on the ends until the fibers split apart and
cracked open. The fairy’s leg buckled into an unnatural shape and
she screamed. The sound was guttural, a direct translation of pain
to sound. I slapped a hand over my mouth to smother my own shriek.
Not because of the broken bone, I’d seen and heard tons of those,
but because I’d caught the Lord Clerics profile and recognized the
handsome face. The Lord Cleric dragged the fairy back into the
centre of the clearing and brought a knife to her face. Clamping a
gloved hand over her mouth, he slashed the blade across her cheek.
Blood seeped from the wound and strangely, the smell of sizzling
flesh seeped into the air. I gagged.

It was then my body reacted. It was something
natural hidden deep within, you see. I know it now, but didn’t know
it then, so my actions made no sense to me.

Lurching forward, I snapped twigs beneath me
and reached out to her. The Lady Cleric spun and a big, blocky
thing appeared in her hands. A gun. I crouched and froze. She
peered into the trees for the source of the noise, and I stepped
back, snapping another twig underfoot.

The fairy’s red irises twitched to me. We
locked gazes and recognition made her eyes blaze, her face crease
with panic.

She whispered, “Run.”

The Lady Cleric’s gun swung, jerked, and a
gunshot cracked the air. The fairy-girl convulsed then was still,
so still.

I was frozen, horrified. I’d seen demons
bagged and tagged before when they had dared to breach the Wall and
threaten human society, but we were Outside. This was
their
territory. What could she, a fairy-girl child, have possibly done
to deserve torture and execution?

“Show yourself,” commanded the Lady Cleric.
She stepped forward this time and her eyes roamed the space. She
clutched the gun more securely between her hands. “Show yourself, I
say. Come out so we can look at you.”

When a Cleric asked you a question you
answered, and if they bade you to do something, you did it. They
upheld Sect Doctrine. The Sect was the single most powerful
organization humankind invested their faith and security in. If a
Cleric told you to do something, the Sect was telling you to do
something. And you did it without question, without thinking. They
commanded and you obeyed.

I knew if I did as she asked, I was as dead
as the fairy-girl on the floor not ten feet from me. Her word
echoed in my ear.
Run
. It was the only plan I had. I stood
from my hiding place, wheeled on the spot, and bolted into the
darkness.

The sound of another bullet split the air.
Something whipped past my arm and left a hot sting. Feet stumbling,
the tears streamed down my face. Thorny branches tore at my clothes
and hair. I crashed through the undergrowth, not caring how loud I
was or that they would be able to track me I needed to get away.
Run, run and hide. I had witnessed something hidden, and knew if
they caught me, they would kill me.

A dark shape jumped into my path and brought
the butt of a gun hurtling toward my face. One forearm came up to
protect my head and jerked violently. Then I cranked back my fist
and snapped it forward. The answering grunt told me it was the Lady
Cleric. As she staggered the gun swung again, barrel first and
forced me to drop and roll. Using the force of my body popping up,
I spun, cocked my leg and kicked like mule. My heel connected with
her upper back and sent her off-kilter-stance to hell. She flew
toward a tree, spindly arms and legs flailing to hit an oak trunk
hard. She collapsed to the floor in a messed up heap.

I’d struck a Cleric. Something crazy people
with death wishes did. It was dark and I fretted she saw my face
and would recognize me in a crowd. People had always said my hazel
eyes were an outlandish shade hard to disregard and
off-putting.

Loud footfalls pounded behind me, getting
closer. I ran again.

Short violent barks turned my blood to ice.
Hounds, they had bloodhounds. I forced strength into moving my feet
one in front of the other. Hands fisted, my arms alternated pumping
back and forth. The air was solid resistance I needed to punch out
of the way as much as the tree branches riddling my path. But I was
tired. For the first time I felt my abnormal strength and stamina
waning. There was a growl behind me, too close, and a snap of jaws
at my heel.

My mind emptied and my heart skipped a thump
as unexpected energy trilled through my body like an electric
shock. The dark deepened into new dimensions. Shades of electric
blue and purple tinted my vision, and I could see everything. Power
exploded from my centre, filling my body to the brim. A sound like
guck choked out of my throat in ecstasy, I felt so animated. I shot
forward like a comet and the forest blurred into flowing lines I
distinguished as if standing still. Air glided out my way as I
hurtled forward, and my feet glanced effortlessly off the floor,
not leaving the slightest imprint in the earth beneath me.

Taken by shock, I planted my feet and slammed
to still.

The landscape shifted dramatically, and my
sense of direction was completely disoriented. I trembled at the
thrumming of air crashing into the collapsing void I’d created
behind. Then my eyes started to hurt, opened too wide. The lash of
pain on my arm flared painfully then dulled into nothing. I wiped
at it. Again and again, crying out and scrubbing at my arm in panic
looking for the graze. There was nothing but clammy skin and a
dried smear of blood where a cut
should
be.

It was then the fear took hold of me and I
lost control. My chest heaved and I choked a sob. The crazy sound
smashing my ears had me seeing double, and my own breath razed
across my eardrums. Racked with shivers, I curled into a ball at
the base of a tree. My body spasmed once then the convulsions were
frequent and uncontrollable. I kept my teeth clenched to avoid
biting my tongue and tucked my arms into my sides. The position,
though safe was not comforting. I buried my face in the leaves and
scrunched my legs into my chest. I cried out at each lash of pain.
My muscles kept up this hedonistic clench and release until they
cramped into bunches. Waves of heat shot down my spine, and
splinters of ice burrowed into the space between my pores. Each
assault was more painful than the last. I shivered as the wind
fluttered my sweat soaked my clothes. What hurt most was my head,
the pumping of blood in my ears, ringing between my eyes, and the
overwhelming scent of my own fear clogging my nose.

Gradually the pain subsided and breathing
became easier. My heart took it down a notch and I was grateful,
for I was not sure it could take much more. Quivering, my muscles
relaxed and stayed relaxed. With a great measure of wonder, I
realized there was no longer pain, but an overwhelming sense of all
things. Despite my emotional exhaustion my body felt better, and I
felt different. Strong.

“Have you calmed down now?” asked an amused
voice above me. “I have been told an awakening is easier if you are
calm.”

I sprung up to defend myself. My hands were
fisted and my face fierce.

At first sight all I made out was a male
shape, an impression of someone tall and built. In the lightening
dark all I could see were his eyes, wide and cold eyes touched with
mad, framed by a tangle of thick lashes. His grey irises were so
light they could be silver. They burned, scorched me as his gaze
flicked over my face and body. He wore dark, faded jeans and that
was that. Feet and chest bare, he was the least civilized boy I’d
seen. His skin, pale and covered with intricate tattoos,
scintillated even in the absence of light. During my steady
appraisal my hands had dropped and relaxed, but they clenched
again. Boys slid their eyes up and down you before whistling to
catch your attention. They did
not
stare at you until your
insides felt like outsides. The directness of his gaze had me
mystified, and I was already under the influence of so many
emotions the only way I could react to something I could not
understand, was with violence.

However, he remained close and did not look
alarmed at my aggressive posture. Belittling the tense atmosphere,
his face lit up with a smile.

“Rae,” he murmured and stepped closer.

He lifted his arms as if to embrace me. One
more step would close the distance between us completely.

I was scared, so scared. I couldn’t speak.
There were no words or coherent thoughts in my head. It was a
jumble of panic and cautious interest. Who was he? Was he another
Cleric? Would he kill me now? Oh gods. I would become one of the
faceless and nameless that went missing every year. To be forgotten
as my body rotted or was left to become a demon dinner. I couldn’t
handle it, nor could my body functions manage the full-scale
meltdown. My legs buckled and the world went a funny gray colour. I
fainted, but told myself I didn’t have time to faint, and came to
in the next second. Not that my actions meant anything, or my
revival is what stopped my ass hitting the ground. The boy darted
forward so fast his body blurred, and something hard and invisible
shunted into me. So hard it knocked the breath from my lungs.
Pushed off centre, my legs flew up and the sky swung into view.

He’d caught me.

“Stop talking,” he said. Then smiled.

I stared up at him dumbly. Was he making a
joke? I hadn’t said a word. In fact I think I’d forgotten to
breathe
since I saw him, and that’s what caused my half
fainting spell.