Demon Girl (28 page)

I stared at him and almost stuttered when I
said, “No.”

His hands clamped down on my shoulders and he
shook me roughly. “Don’t be foolish, you have a chance to save many
of our kind.” He quirked an eyebrow and was amused. “I’ll even let
you keep the amulet of power you stole from me. You didn’t think
your casting broke through my shield all by itself did you?”

My lips pressed into a thin line. “I admit I
should have known it was not my natural ability that kicked your
ass, but what do you mean you’ll let me keep it? I took and you
can’t give something that’s not yours anymore.” I looked at his
hand on my shoulder, fought the urge to set it on fire to get him
off me. “How did you get the amulet of power anyway? It makes sense
Conall and I are guardians, the last Priestess was our mother.”

“Sorcha, your mother gave it to me. Oh, don’t
look so shocked. Her husband was my uncle, and after his death I
was the next male in line to rule.”

I digested this, painfully slow. “My father
was royal?”

Devlin tipped his head back and laughed so
uproariously I began to feel hot.

“Your farther was High Lord until his wife
sheathed a dagger in his heart. After she broke it of course, lying
with a human.” He snorted. “I always liked Sorcha and she me, but
she was a foolish woman.”

“Was?” I whispered. No one had confirmed my
mother was dead, but then I knew in the core of me, she had not
survived the horror of her own making.

He stared at me, pitiful once more. “She
killed my uncle and the High Lord, Rae. You expected her to
live?”

It was cold. Noisy. Feeling returned in
increments. First I could wiggle my fingers, toes then my legs. I
moaned at the thumping at my temple and tried to bring my hands
down to my face. My eyes groggily slid half-open when I realized I
could not move them to obey. I looked down my body, now clad in a
flimsy black sheath, and saw my legs drawn apart and held down by
rough rope. I tried to remember, but the fog was still heavy over
me and it was dark. I could smell trees, dirt, and fresh air heavy
with smoke and something else, metallic and weird. I recognized
this smell was wrong, bad, and yet so familiar. I tried to pull my
legs, my arms, but I could do nothing but flail. Gasping, I drew
deep and gritted my teeth. I opened my eyes fully and took in my
surroundings.

All around me were leaves, thick purple
leaves with sharp silver thorns.

Slowly, my mind struggled to piece it
together. I shivered, and shook my head as it hit me in flashes.
Breandan had been dragged to the centre of the camp and cruelly
beaten. Lochlann had been held back, and Maeve had been thrust into
his arms, sobbing.

Tomas had been brought forward, snarling and
fighting as they bound him.

Wasp had enjoyed slapping the chains around
my neck a little too much. I’d been hoisted up to hang from a thick
tree bough, and was bound so tightly I’d lost feeling in my limbs.
The smell of iron made me retch and heave. Then the pretty fairy
had smiled wickedly before she punched me, and I’d lost
consciousness.

I was awake now, and wishing she’d hit me
harder.

Directly opposite me, my vampire-boy was
suffering. Bound with silver, skin red raw where it rubbed against
his wrists, he looked furious.

“Next time you listen to me,” he said.

I gave him a wobbly smile. “You think
there’ll be a next time?” A chain slid against my wrist and I
winced.

If such a thing was possible, his eyes
darkened as he looked over my shoulder. I craned my neck around to
see Breandan on his knees, bound in wreathes of iron chains. Maeve
had woken and was in front of him, trying to hug him and crying and
apologizing. Lochlann stood protectively near them, statue still
and head held high. I guessed he could do nothing since he had been
defeated. He had no choice but to let Devlin continue with this
madness, unless he was rescued.

I decided then that fairy rules were stupid
and melodramatic.

I whispered a wish that Conall would be
nearby, and that he would save us before anything bad happened.

Devlin shouted something, and his voice drew
my eyes to where he stood. Beautiful fairies were gathered around
me chanting. The orange glow of a roaring, smoky fire flickered
across exposed skins. Creatures with ears pointed and teeth fanged,
swayed to a throbbing pulse I could feel vibrating my skeleton.
They were like me, my kind. The side of my head throbbed, and I
clung to consciousness. Oh gods this was bad. Feet clawed and
scaled pounded the ground in a tribal rhythm. The beating of chest,
feathered and armored blended into a melodic clamor. Fingers sunk
into the earth to scoop bracken from the floor, and heave it into
the air with flourish, letting it sprinkle over them like polluted
rain. Clothes thin, transparent as the smoke that snaked around
them, billowed and streamed in the wind as they gyrated and preened
around my bound body. Every beady eye, fluttery lash and arced
eyebrow was directed at me, yet the mouths and bodies whined a tune
I was too dizzy to recognize. They shrieked and hissed. Leaping and
dancing they groped and kissed, smiled and bit. Blood was drawn
with screeches of rancor and their lusty whimpers whipped up a
hungered frenzy.

I blinked, and focused hard on the centre of
the commotion. They danced around something wide, flat and gray,
raised from the floor. An alter. The human lying on the stone slab
moaned and writhed.

“Alex,” I whispered.

She moaned again, and twitched. She was
coming too. I wished she would stay under so that she could be
spared the horror.

“I call you fairies here to partake in this
delight. The night is our master.” Devlin’s voice, raspy and thick
cried out. His words were carried away on the wind into the
darkness. He stood at the foot of the dais, handsome and magnetic.
His hair flowed like golden corn. Eyes wide and clear as the sky in
summer. Face luminous, pale and stunningly angelic. He held a
simple curved blade in hands, too perfect to be human. Beneath his
ebony robe he was naked, and the moonlight reflected off his
pearlescent skin. A terrifyingly evil aura pulsed from within
him.

“Our master,” murmured the beautiful
voices.

“She is pure. We offer her to the night with
glee in our hearts, and blood in our mouths.”

Devlin took a deep drink from a silver
chalice then spilled the rest of the contents over Alex’s body. The
metallic scent from before reached my nose. A few splashes dripped
into Alex’s mouth and terror gripped her so hard she screamed,
arcing her back. The skin under her bindings tore.

“We offer this human child. We give thanks to
the night that blesses us with sex, blood and death.”

“This is not happening,” I said loudly.

“Rae?” Alex choked and squinted, trying to
make me out in the low light. Her eyes went wide and she started to
thrash around. “Help me, oh gods, what’s happening?”

Devlin slapped her across the face. Alex kept
shouting for me and pulled harder on the rope that bound her. I had
nothing to help her. I didn’t even have any words to soothe her. I
tried to reach to the Source; I could feel it all around me,
calling to me. All I had to do was touch it. I panted, and grunted,
and tried to extend my influence past my own body, but the iron was
overwhelming.

A cloaked figure stood in the mêlée, utterly
silent and composed. A deep cowl was drawn over his head, and I
could see nothing but the gleam of calm and cold eyes peering at
me. I got the greatest sense of danger from him, so I looked away
and struggled harder. My wrists burned and chafed, but I kept
writhing.

“My brothers, sisters. The Tribe protects you
and pleases you with fresh meat.” Panting, I continued to struggle.
I just needed one arm free, just one leg. “A body to drink revel
and break.” Devlin’s voice clotted with lust.

A new fear shot through me hot and hard.

He wouldn’t
dare.

His mouth trawled over Alex, and she
convulsed in disgust as his clawed fingers dragged leisurely across
her skin. Wasp was beside him and laughed throatily. My eyes stung,
and the salt in my tears tasted bitter as it slipped into my
mouth.

“The night is our master, our lover our
warrior. The night is our master.” Over and over and over they
chanted, rising and falling in tempo.

Hair red as blood, a female threw back her
head and shrieked at the moon. A bare-chested male with yellow
jewels for eyes rocked on his heels and bared his teeth. Snarly
razors filled my vision. He was smiling at me, and those eyes,
those glowing eyes snuck into my mind and stoked the fires of my
hysteria. I stared back in mute horror as he jumped onto the altar
by Alex’s head, and let out an undulating cry.

I looked up into the sky, through the dark
shadow of trees and succumbed to fear. I stopped struggling.

“She can’t die like this.”

Wasp’s hand slid down Alex’s chest and cupped
her breast, squeezed.

“Please,” I begged, clamping my eyes shut as
Alex’s screams increased as her dress was pushed up her torso, and
the wailing from the fairies got louder.

“Look at me Rae.” Tomas’ voice was urgent. I
tore my eyes away from Alex to him. “Don’t watch,” he
whispered.

“Do something,” I sobbed.

He looked stricken and tried to free himself.
Like me was held by chains that drained his strength and mental
abilities, and there was nothing he could do. The clear dark that
followed him around was a frazzled gray.

“Rae,” Alex said quietly, so calm and
collected it reached me through the chaos.

“Don’t look away, I want to see your
face.”

My tears streamed as I turned to her. “You’re
going to die.”

“I love you.” She smiled and the blue runes
on her check crinkled. “You my best friend. I don’t know what you
are or who you are, but that don’t change the way I feel,
y’know?”

I nodded frantically and braced myself. “I
love you too.” It was the first time and last I would ever say
those words. They were hers and hers alone.

Another hand, smaller with razors for nails
trailed down her stomach, across her hip. Alex cried out in pain as
the cries of anticipation shattered the night. The noise and clamor
reached peak as Wasp fisted her hand in Alex’s hair, drawing her
head back, almost in tenderness. Devlin lifted the blade high above
his head, and the wicked sharp edge flickered with light. Then
he…

Another scream erupted from me so loud a
blood vessel burst in my eye. My scream cut off, no more air in my
lungs to carry the sound.

The figure cloaked in black threw back his
hood.

Conall.

My heart crashed in my chest as screams,
sounds of death and violence surround me. I was too terrified to
open my eyes. All I could see was Devlin’s dagger sinking into
Alex’s throat and the gush of blood. The bonds at my hands went
slack. My feet were free and I kicked for all I was worth.
Screaming. Too far gone to fight properly, I lashed out like a wild
animal. Firm, but gentle hands lifted me up and held me close. I
kept my eyes pressed shut in defense against whatever torture I was
to be subjected to.

“Be still Rae, I will not harm you,” a calm
voice commanded.

The voice was singsong, not raspy and
seductive. It hinted of magic and light. Still, I pushed, and
shoved, and bit with my teeth. I yelled and screamed.

“She can take no more, Lochlann,” Maeve’s
high chine sounded sad. “Leave her.”

“No,” I said hoarsely. “I won’t be fooled.
You’re all evil. Demon monsters!” I thrashed about, hoping to drag
an eye out and to my grave with me.

“Watch. Your brother avenges your friend as
you bawl like a baby.”

My yelling stopped and my eyes popped
open.

Conall had become a phantom figure,
massacring the bewildered fairies prancing in the inner circle. A
blur, he ripped and tore the beasts to pieces like crepe paper.
There was nothing but a whisper of sound as death claimed those
who’d held us captive. He disposed of any lingering survivors with
a snap of the spine, or blade through flesh. Headless bodies
tottered and fell as hot guts spilled onto the cold ground. Then it
was done and he was still.

Clad in snugly fitted pants, and soft boots
he was tall and sinewy. His dark hair was ponytailed, resting
loosely across board shoulders. His skin glowed like a beacon and
his ears had the distinctive point of fairy. With competent ease,
he wielded his sword in one hand, and saluted to Lochlann with the
other. Leather hilted the shiny steel of his sword was drenched in
what looked like red paint. Chest splattered in blood and gore,
clutched in his other hand was the dismembered head of a fairy.
Savagely lifting it high, he laughed boomingly and blood dribbled
from the ragged hole where the neck used to join to the body. He
tossed it indifferently and it landed with a squelch to roll and
gather the pine leaves on the forest floor.

Orchard, the fairy wyld was littered with
mutilated fairy bodies and I felt nothing but bone deep
satisfaction.

I scrambled over to the dais, and sank to my
knees over Alex’s body. Her eyes were wide and staring, mouth
slightly parted. Rocking back and forth, I wound my fingers into my
hair and wailed. She was dead. Gone. I could never laugh or joke
with my friend again. She had lost her life for my mistakes, my
foolishness. I couldn’t
bear
it, and nor would I have
to.

I placed both my hands on her eyes and called
magic to me. It came reluctantly, already forming into something
dark and unnatural. As I stood in the way of natural order, my
nature rumbled with discontent. I was meant to bring balance, not
perversion. I didn’t care, so I ignored my instincts.