The Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher (each kindness read aloud TXT) 📕

hyped on hate, and unaware her own death was less than a moment away. He grabbed her head, and clamped a hand over her mouth to smoother her scream. Yanking her shoulder down, he curled his fingers around her cloak to rip it away and expose her flesh. His head hung suspended against the smooth ivory of her neck, and I watched her eyes widen in horror. Instant tears make them glisten as Tomas twitched then bit down. A spray of blood splashed against the wall and my face. I was unable to look away. It was loud, grizzly and violent. The heels of the Lady Cleric’s boots thumped on the hardwood floor, and the salty smell of her blood filled the air. Her dying wail was heard only by me as a senseless keen, a single sustained note. It lasted a few seconds. It lasted an age. Then, when he was done, Tomas let her lifeless body fall to the floor with a hollow thud.

It took me less than a moment to see the immense danger of my situation. I started to creep along the wall, keeping myself as small as possible. Tomas stood in the middle of the room, savoring his kill. Good for him, bad for me. I made it all the way to the door then the darkness swarmed around me.

Before I could squeal, Tomas had hold of my wrist and yanked me forward. I pulled against him, again pressing myself into the door. I held still as his tongue swept over my skin, smoother than a normal tongue. He lapped up the blood I’d wiped from my nose and groaned. He loomed over me, brown eyes liquefying.

“You smell like sunlight,” he said darkly.

His fingers brushed over my pulse point then his eyes flashed black. He bent my wrist back and I cried out in pain.

“You have to let me go,” I said and kept a tight rein on the urges of my nature.

Fear pressed on my mind made it hard to think. Made it hard to remember he was here to talk not hurt me. This demon, this vampire who right now thirsted for my blood wanted to talk, and I’d left him here for half the night, hungry. He’d just sucked the life out of a Cleric, but it didn’t seem to have been enough. She had been a small thing. If I attacked it would be fatal, for he would succumb to his baser instinct.

Fangs still dripping with blood, my blood; his chest started to rise and fall rapidly.

“Are you going to bite me, Tomas?” I did not snatch my hand away; it would excite rather than subdue him. “You promised no biting and I trusted you. I trust you.”

“I am what I am,” he said, slowly.

Bringing my wrist back to his mouth, his fangs grazed over a vein and the lush tearing of my skin punctured the edgy silence. He made a noise half way between a growl and a pained keen.

“Don’t do this.” I tugged my hand, unable to help myself. His eyes heated. “If you don’t let go-”

“What will you do?” His voice was dark, filled with anticipation. He pushed my sleeve further up my arm to expose more of my skin. “I want to taste you. I have since the first moment I breathed your scent.”

With a sigh of triumph, he opened his jaw wide, and bit down.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I felt my skin divide as his fangs sank into me. Gods, it hurt, it hurt. His cold lips brushed my skin and it burned as he sucked. Then it changed. Subtly, the burning started to sweep over me in tingly pulses of pleasure. My eyes flickered open and I moaned. A tide of lust flowed through me and invaded secret places they had no business being. Thick blood gushed down my hand and overflowed from his mouth, only for him to lap it up. A wave of fatigue had my knees buckling.

“Tomas,” I shouted and reached out to the well of energy now mine to control, all I had left to defend myself with. I pushed power into my voice as I called his name and it boomed. It was loud, and echoed through me, made the walls quake.

Head flying back, dark hair streaming across his face, he gasped and clutched a hand to his head. He spun, dragging me with him like a rag doll and threw me across the room. Before my body hit the floor, for a split second it was like I could fly. Had I been a clever girl, I would have dropped my glamour and used my wings to land softly on the floor. I was too messed up to do anything but cry. When I landed, I rolled and rolled before crashing into the base of the wall. Thank the gods my room was small. Tomas staggered back and hit the wall on the opposite side. He bent over, trembling and mumbling incoherently to himself.

“Tomas,” I repeated, quieter this time.

I needed to know he was okay. If not I would need to run. I didn’t want to fight him, so I would run. He was by the door, but I had magic now and I knew how to use it. Not very well, I was likely to create a fireball big enough to obliterate us both, but it would be better than being sucked dry.

“Wait,” he said hoarsely. His eyes cleared up and he fell to his knees. His hand reached out to me; palm up and it shook. “I’m in control now. Wait.”

I nodded and pressed myself into the wall. Tomas’s vampire smell and the salty tang of my blood filled my nostrils. Sweat trickled down my brow, and I focused on controlling my breathing as my body repaired itself. Oh gods, thank you. My nose felt better already, as did the rest of my body. When Tomas had tossed me my shoulder and left side had taken the brunt of the impact when I’d hit the ground. I’d felt a rib or two crack. I was upset but strangely calm at the same time. Ana had said a vampire would bite me and she had been right, of course she’d been right. Tomas was a vampire, but I had held my own and taken care of myself. Yes, I had been thrown across a room and used as a tasty post dinner beverage, but still.

After a few beats he stood and crossed the space. He stopped a few paces shy of me.

“I was hungry. You were supposed to be here at sunset. I could not leave without talking to you.”

“I didn’t have a choice.” I glared up at him, my fear becoming anger. “The fairies came back for me during the day, what was I supposed to do? I tried.”

“We had an agreement. You broke it.”

“If I came back here before they had shown me what they needed to they would have found and killed you,” I said harshly. “I wouldn’t have been able to stop them.”

“Stop them?” There was a trace of surprise in his tone. His dark eyes narrowed.

I met him stare for stare. “Like you said, we had an agreement. I promised to hear you out and a safe dark place.”

“I saved your life and you repay me with disrespect.”

“I’ve kept my end of the deal. I’m here aren’t I? I’m sorry I am late, but it was unavoidable and y’know what, ditto. I saved your life too, you ungrateful ass. How long would you survive in the sunlight against a fairy or two?”

He was disquieted. I could tell this from the way his face and body became motionless. The pulsing dark that surrounded him thickened, and it was like I could almost hear it humming. It extended in curling wreathes and drifted forward to settle over me. It was not a restraining blanket of fear this time, but gentle welcoming. We were silent for a long while, taking comfort in each other’s presence. It was strange. Now the dark had embraced me it was like I could perceive Tomas. He was no longer a scary vampire-boy, but a boy who just happened to be more than human. The balance had shifted between us, stepped into something unknown. Curling my wounded arm into my side, already flaring up and healing, I pulled my sleeve down to cover my wrist. Tomas helped me stand and straightened my clothes. I wiped at the blood smeared across his mouth, looking at it made me queasy and if I saw him lick it up I may be forced to try running away again. His skin was icy and slick.

“Breandan can never know,” I said and stepped away.

“This Breandan is who?” he asked curiously then stiffened. His voice was dark and angry, yet still, it stroked me from the inside out. He stepped closer and sniffed at my hair. Then he dipped his head and slid his mouth along the side of my neck, lips cold and smooth. “He is the fairy I smell on you.”

“He’ll kill you.”

I checked my forearm. It had healed and I fingered the two crescents now permanently scarring my skin. Good thing I wore my hooded jumper with its sloppy sleeves like a second skin.

“I have no plans to talk to this fairy. He will never know, not that it would be the first thing I would say should we meet.”

“What would be the first thing?”

“Nothing. We would fight and one of us would die, of course.” He sounded as if it were a simple, common thing. “And now we talk, the night calls to me.” I waited silently, like a good girl, but he paused. Rather, he hesitated. “Rae-”

We locked eyes and the blackness enveloped me. There was no more space between us, nothing to stop us coming together. He reached out, clasped my hip and pulled me into him. As my body molded to his, his lips nudged my head back and he tangled his other hand in my hair. The scent of him was inexplicably appealing. He still smelt like a vampire, but it was no longer repellent. He smelt like Tomas, a blend of minerals and wet grass. His face was no longer shadowed and ugly but mysterious and full of character. His skin was icy to touch. He teased my lips open with his, as my teeth nipped his bottom lip. He growled, and I responded with ferocity to equal his. I stood on my tip-toes to reach his mouth, press myself against him. Sliding his hands beneath my thighs he hoisted me up and pushed me against the wall. It was then my glamour dropped and my wings spread and curled down as I sought his mouth again. His cold tongue slipped between my lips and stroked mine. Then his fangs ran out and sliced by bottom lip open. He jerked back, but it healed almost instantly.

I ran my tongue over my lips and smirked. “I’m not as breakable as I look.” I said.

He chuckled darkly. I found myself not afraid, but intrigued and I licked the sharp tips of his fangs. He groaned. Was it me? The feral and demanding girl with her legs locked round a vampire-boy’s waist, digging my hands into his shoulders, dragging him closer.

The kiss deepened and I clung onto him, one hand fisted in his hair and the other roving across the nape of his neck. Tomas pushed forward, securing me into his solid frame, and ran his hands down my sides. My skin was on fire, my blood boiling. He broke away to trail kisses down my neck then was still, holding me. Both our chests heaved. I realized he was