Demon Day by Penelope Fletcher (best novels in english .TXT) 📕

around the waist toshow off their lower stomach and back tattoos; protective marksstolen from defeated witches.

“Rae?” Ro’s voice was arazor across my eardrums. I heard no hate in his voice, only painand loss.

Skin milky-brown, his ebony hair wasplaited back in thick cornrows. His black-rimmed eyes always lookedoverly large in his lean face, and his blazer hung open to show hisnaked chest, belly piercing, and slum-tribe marks. His jeans wereworn and slashed at the knee, boots scuffed and unlaced.

He looked confused.

Cleric Tu paced in front of theDisciples. “The best lessons are those learnt in action. There isonly so much the Sect can teach from behind a desk.” He pointed toa clear box behind him. “This is the cage.”

It stood twenty feet tall, and thirtywide on the wooden platform we stood on. There was a small panelwith buttons fixed to one side, wires trailing down into the floor.I squinted; I could see a faint outline of a door. A door poweredby electricity, why? And well, that was it. It was just a box ofglass. Okay….

“Here you will learn whatyou must face Outside. Once a month on Demon Day you will face ourgreatest enemy. You will learn exactly how terrifying it can be tofight these creatures.” He spun and jerked his chin toward theshifter twins. “We’ll use one of them first.”

The crooked nosed Cleric draggedAmelia by her chain. He punched a code into the keypad and theglass door slide smoothly slid up. I knew in the past humans hadmade wondrous mechanical things, and I had to admit, I wasgrudgingly fascinated. The Cleric pushed a hesitant Amelia into theglass box, and made quick work of shackling her in the centre. Sheshot worried looks around her, not quite sure what was going on.The Cleric left the box but the door remained open.

“Change demon,” Cleric Tubarked.

Amelia bared her teeth, launchedherself at him only to come to the end of her chain and bounceback. She strained forward, and I could see the frisson of fear andpanic in her actions. Sighing, the crooked nosed Cleric unhookedhis baton from his belt, and her knees knocked together.

Cleric Tu motioned to her his hand.“Change,” he repeated.

I wanted to yell at her to do whatthey said, but I saw the resolution in her eyes, watched as her jawset in determination. She stepped back and crossed her arms, daringhim to make her.

Nimah was going ballistic beside me,but the silver stopped her from getting far or doing more thangrowling and cussing. The Cleric jabbed Amelia in the back and shejolted. The second blow stunned the back of her legs and shestumbled, but held her ground. The Cleric glanced back at Tu whonodded his head solemnly. The Cleric set to work, jabbing her inthe back, thighs, and arms. Amelia tried to out maneuver him. Shepummeled her fists on the wall, shrieking. She raced around thebox, looking for an out as he chased after her.

Gasps of horror drifted over the soundof Amelia’s pain from the watching crowd, and a few Disciplesopenly sobbed.

Ro’s eyes were locked on me,considering, vacant. In discreet bouts, his eyes roamed the spacearound me, but when he did not find who he was looking for theycame back to me. I knew who he looked for and it killed me that hewould never see her again.

A shrill cry snapped my attention backto Amelia. She hunched over, limbs, and muscles quivering. TheCleric backed away, his job done.

“No!” Nimahcried.

Amelia screamed, not mentally preparedfor her shift and her scream turned into the piercing yowl of a catas her mouth lengthened into a maw and her arms and legs shortened,spine popped and rippled. Her clothes tore to ribbons as her bodygrew in mass and density. There was a petrified screech from thecrowd as Amelia grew a tail and sprouted ocher fur. Fully shiftedinto her cougar form she snarled.

Though she was larger than some of theshifters I had seen on the Pride, her face most resembled thesmaller felines humans kept as pets. Scratching at the glass, herpatchy white underbelly pressed into the cage as she drew herselfup on her back legs, large rear paws prancing to keep her balanced.Repeatedly she pounded the glass with her heavy fore paws from ahigher level. She was enraged, half mad as she paced the box, threwherself bodily into the walls. Each time she tried to leap out theopen door her chain stopped her. Her tail, short fur dark as ifdipped in ink, thrashed back and forth.

I could feel how pissed shewas.

Cleric Tu turned round to face theshaken Disciples. “See. Do you see the monsters theyare?”

“Stop it,” I said. “You’rescaring them.”

Despite the softness of the plea thewhole courtyard fell silent. Cleric Tu’s shoulders hunched but hequickly straightened and barreled into the silence. “I have spokento the Priests,” he said in a jarringly calm voice. “They haveagreed these sessions will benefit you in the weeks tocome.”

“You can’t do this,” Ichoked, horrified.

“I need a volunteer,” hesaid. “I need one of you to come up here and show thisabomination,” his finger jerked to the cage, “exactly who thesuperior species is.” There was silence, no movement. “I knowyou’re frightened, and I know it seems barbaric–”

“That’s because it is,” Isaid through my teeth.

He ignored me. “This needs to be done.You have been protected at the cost of lives.” His voice broke andI knew he thought of the Lady Cleric who Tomas drained because hewas hungry after waiting for me in Bayou dorms. Maybe I would havefelt bad about that if she hadn’t been on a mission to kill me forjust existing. “You have forgotten that every day we have to fightto stay alive. That we are trapped behind a fence that no longerkeeps the danger away. These monsters have even mange to infiltratethe Temple.” His finger swung to point at me accusingly. “Thisdemon hid in plain sight for years. Had the gall to leech of ourresources as she plotted to kill us off one by one.”

I made a noise that crossed a snarlwith a groan. It was an odd sound I was mildly embarrassed to havemade. “That’s a lie.”