The Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher (each kindness read aloud TXT) 📕
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 th
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“We don’t need to go anywhere in particular. Into the forest will do. You fairies are most powerful there.”
He added nothing else to this impromptu plan prompting me to say, “Then what?”
“Hope you can learn to call to your kind, or hope they find us before he dies.” He picked Breandan up and threw him over his shoulder. “Follow me, and don’t fall behind.”
He ran and I followed behind, trying to keep pace. I was tired, and after less than a few minutes started to slow. Tomas pressed a trying pace through the night. Even when I did fall too far behind, he was easy to find. The metal pole pointed up and out like a mast from Breandan’s limp body. The hood of my now holey sweatshirt was up to shield against the cold, but it flew off my head as Tomas jumped over the Temple wall and I followed. I didn’t think how impossible it was, I just did it, pushed off and soared over. Landing was loud affair with much grunting and gasping. We reached the edge of the region and he stopped just before the buzzing red wires of the Wall.
“We need an exit,” he said and looked at me.
I gasped for breath. I bent over to rest my hands on my knees. “I can’t,” I sobbed. “I’m too tired.”
He grabbed my arm and dragged me forward. Now he was mad. “This was your choice, I’m hungry, and I carry this fairy for you.”
He shook me roughly then let me go.
I gritted my teeth and focused. My mouth was dry from nerves as I reached out and drew on the Source. It flooded me, but I was not strong enough to control the energy eager to be free. I felt something within me give, a thread snapping. I lost my concentration. The fence pinged and unraveled, but the power whiplashed out to slice through a tree a few feet to my side. There was a loud snap and groan. It toppled forward, and I was too shocked to do anything but stare at it.
Tomas grabbed my arm again and dragged me through the hole in the Wall as the tree smashed to the ground. The boughs sizzled and sparked as they came into contact with the electrically charged wires. The klaxon started to blare in the distance. Tomas kept his grip on my arm and dragged me behind him, supporting all my weight when my feet failed me. When I was well enough to continue on my own, I wriggled out of his grasp and he started to run again.
Soon, we ghosted through a deserted city. Every street corner had me on edge, wary of every shadow and noise. I had not walked a town beyond the Wall in my life, and I gazed at the derelict buildings, disbelieving that humans once lived in such grand structures. One I will forever remember was so magnificent; I strained my neck to see behind me as we passed. It was a gargantuan clock tower, connected to a lengthy building. The glass windows had long been shattered to nothing, but I imagined them whole, glinting in the sunlight. I had heard the stories of it, the place near the river, where the rulers of this region used to meet. A great bell would chime every hour to remind people of the time. After a while, it faded into the background and I turned my attention back to my immediate surroundings. The streets looked like something from a nightmare. Blood stains; black from age, was smeared on the pavements and pooled where bodies used to lie. Doors hung from hinges, windows were smashed and jagged pieces of glass littered the road. Swarms of bloated rats scurried away as we passed, their black beady eyes reflecting the weak moonlight. Burnt out cars were rusted and overturned, or abandoned on the roadside, doors still open. Trees sprouted from the buildings and knee high blade grass cut into our shins. Piles of rubble and destruction blocking the way were easily jumped and climbed over. There were no bodies, just crumbling brick and pitted stone and twisted metal.
Was this it? Was this the hell-hole in which we died? I remembered Ana’s prediction then tossed my head irritably. No, this wasn’t it. Orchard was a fairy wyld not a deserted human city.
The situation was beyond crazy and all I could think was what next? If only I had gotten back sooner. Tomas wouldn’t have been so hungry and maybe Breandan would have paused before trying to stake him. Pushing the hair out of my eyes, I sneezed at the dust floating down my fingers dislodged. I had underestimated the Clerics and it was a mistake I would never make again.
We passed the city and Tomas stopped. I thanked the gods, for my legs were shaking with exhaustion.
“Rae,” Tomas said. “You will hear me now.”
I stared at him. “Do I really need to tell you know is not the time?”
Tomas lay Breandan down, rather gently all things considered. “Once you have called to the fairies it might be too late.”
I was exasperated. “Why?”
“They may kill me before you can stop them. I must try to make you agree.”
I smacked myself upside the head. This was not going to be good. “You never said I would have to agree to anything.”
“It is a choice you have to make.”
Time was of the essence here, but he was right. I had promised to hear him out, and calling trigger-happy fairies in beforehand would not be so clever. I breathed out through my nose and looked him in the eye.
“What the hell do you want from me?”
“I’m dying,” he said.
It was a statement of a lifetime, and my mouth fell open.
“But, you’re immortal,” I said, as if that would explain everything.
“We’re dying, all vampires and we have been for a while. There are few of us left.” Sadness briefly flitted across his face. “We’re starving,” he told me. “The nest I belong to is small, but one struggling to hold onto some form of dignity. Many of my kind have been reduced to senseless cannibals who would just as likely drain another vampire as a human. They have fallen to the madness of the dark.”
This was big. Huge. I didn’t know how to begin to respond. I decided to be polite but frank.
“Tomas, I’m sad for you, but I don’t see how this could have lead to you to me.”
“You know vampires used to be human.”
“No, you used to be pussycats.” I made a noise of frustration. “We don’t have time for this.”
He held a pale palm up. “You listen, or I won’t help you.”
Tomas had saved my life from the Lady Cleric. He had helped Breandan and me escape from the Temple at a risk to himself. Surely I could hear him out like I promised. I mashed my fisted hands into my side.
“Go on,” I huffed, bad naturedly.
“We used to be human, but changed and became vampire. We are not infectious. I cannot turn you; I am what I am because of genetics. Just like shifters are born human then discover the ability to change form, we too are born human and change at some significant point in our lives.”
“You mean, you’re not dead?”
He did one of those fast and annoyed movements with his hand. “Yes. My human body died.”
That explained a lot. “Oh, well, um sorry about that.” It was an awkward moment for me, though Tomas seemed at ease. I talked over it, “But that does not explain why you’re dying.”
“What do we eat?”
“Blood.”
“Yes. Where do we get blood?”
I tapped my foot and rolled my eyes. He was leading me somewhere and was opting for the prolonged and dramatic route instead of spitting it out. “You drink from humans.”
“Where do the survivors of the humankind live?”
I stared at him like he was dumb. “Uh, behind the Wall-”
It hit me between the eyes like a flying brick. Vampirekind had lost their food source. During the Rupture the demons, vampires in particular, had all but made humans extinct. Now they were paying the price for the humans had locked themselves away from the rest of the world.
“You see,” he said. “We are starving. Some humans are gifted in magics and become witches. There were some vampires who could touch the Source before they turned, and we have such a one in the nest I was born into, gifted with the Sight. She saw you in my future, though she never said anything about the blood we have shared. You are the key to my survival.” He touched a cold hand to my lips. “Rae, you will save me.”
Oh gods. I opened my mouth then closed it again. I forgot what he was and prodded him in the chest. “You didn’t think to tell me this earlier?”
“I told you it was important.”
“No,” I hissed.
“You said yourself. I took a great risk diving through the Wall so I could meet you. I’d been trying for a month. I have fairies hunting me. I slept in a wardrobe. Of course what I have to tell you is important.”
“Well yeah, but I figured you were going to spew some vampire crap about some bad vampire hurting lots of good vampires, and that maybe you wanted me to get the fairies to help. I didn’t realize it would be something as huge as saving your life. The gods damn it, Tomas.”
“What will you do now?”
“Figure out how to call a fairy to come fix Breandan.”
“Good idea. He does not have much time left.” He sounded positively happy at the idea. I glowered at him at he smiled. It was not a beautiful smile, but one of charm and my lip twitched. “Will you call to someone in particular?”
I thought about it. “I’ve only met one other fairy and he knew loads. Breandan trusts him. He’ll have to do.”
I closed my eyes. Time passed and nothing happened. I rubbed my temples and resisted the urge to hum.
Tomas sniffed the air. “No magic?”
I shifted on the spot then sat down. Folding my legs beneath me I closed my eyes again. “I haven’t touched the Source yet. I wascentering myself.”
Lie, lie, lie. I was trying to figure out what the hell to do next, because I had no clue what I was doing. After a few minutes I still had done nothing. I didn’t want to call on the Source because I didn’t know what to do with it, and I didn’t want to make anything bad happen. There was no conscious fairy nearby to fix my mistakes. Urgh.
Tomas sat behind me and pulled me onto his lap. I stiffened and my eyes opened. He reclined against a tree, pulling me with him.
“You need to calm down,” he said. I looked over at Breandan, who rested so still a few paces away. I could barely hear him breathe, and I was expected to be calm? Tomas placed both hands either side of my face. They were cold, and felt wonderful against my warm cheeks. He sighed. “Relax, and do what you need to do.”
With no more time to lose, I closed my eyes and gasped as pure, blistering energy filled me the instant I reached to the Source. I was learning intense anger or fear helped to focus my mind. I drifted from my body, and sought out the memory I instinctively knew would help me
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