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

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.

I shifted. My top rode up some and his fingers touched my back. Something hot and powerful invaded me. It charged through my body until every muscle was tense and straining, not pleasant after the baptism of ice and fire I’d been an intimate and unwilling subject of before. And then it was gone, dissipating into nothing. I relaxed so completely it felt like my bones had unhinged, and my muscles liquefied.

The boy’s face was blank with shock. Had he felt the painful heat too? I hoped so, because I was sure it was his fault.

There was a fracas nearby, getting closer and louder. My heart did a good job of clambering into my throat and blocking my airway. The party hunting me crashed past and kept on going. The boy, who had crouched down with me on his knee whilst I had worked on breathing right, ducked his head down and tensed. I felt better because he too was barely breathing. My heart thundered and my thoughts raced. The bloodhounds were trained to follow the weakest of trails. Why didn’t they smell me when my scent would have led them right to us? This brought me round to the daunting thought of how I got so far ahead, was able to roll around on the floor, and encounter a strange boy before they had caught up. Again, who was this boy, over whose arm and knee, I was draped? Not that it was uncomfortable, but he’d put his hands on me so easily, and held me close and it feltgood. The shock had me relaxing and looking down at his hands. They were big, hard and somehow elegant as they curled around me.

The hunting party passed out of sight and hearing range. My stomach unclenched, and my heart slid back down to rest uneasily in my chest. The boy remained as he was and peered into my face. My heart raced at how tall and how strong he was. Hair cut close to his head the general impression was hardness. A heavy top brow, and sharp cheekbones rested high on a sculpted face. His nose was the opposite of the distinctive aquiline bridge most boy Disciples had, and I liked it. His bold eyebrows and masculine lips added depth to a face that needed no flattering. The scent of soil and sunlight reached me as I watched his silver eyes flick from my face, to the leather cord at my neck.

“We’ve been looking for you,” he said.

The first words I’d spoken all day were, “Nobody looks for me, and how do you know my name?” Taken aback by the feeble quality of my own voice, I lifted my chin and added some gusto. “I mean, put me down. Now.”

He did no such thing and he did not answer my question. But he did smile again, and what a spectacular show it was. His body was heavy and hot. Through the fabric of my clothes I felt the hard lines of him, and the slow thump of his heart over mine. Without thinking, I reached to touch his jaw and it felt like strength. My fingertips glided over a raised slash of skin, and a quick tug tilted his head so I could see more of his profile. I traced a scar following the line of his jaw, curving up to his cheekbone. The skin was puckered, rough. His eyes met mine and I shrugged, the scar made him real to me. I snaked my hands up his bare, solid shoulders and jumped off him so I stood on my own two feet.

I knew without a shadow of doubt this boy would rather die than hurt me.

“Rae,” he said softly. I shivered from silky soft calling of my name, but then he finished with, “My name is Breandan, and you are mine.”

My whole body jolted. Then my startled laugh broke the short silence. Needing space to think and breathe, I pushed away from him.

“In your dreams,” I said and spun around.

I tried to pin down a direction to run toward. I realized at that moment my solution was downright silly and ineffective. See bad, scary or confusing thing, turn and run from bad, scary or confusing thing until you bump into another bad, scary or confusing thing. I was getting nowhere fast.

“You wouldn’t say such a thing if you knew the truth. And since I saw you first you have to be mine. The white witch was right, and now I’ll never hear the end of it. I didn’t think you would come out here so soon and so freely. I tried to ignore you, even when you got lost, but when I heard you running away from them I had to help. They would have caught you.”

I’d stopped moving in the middle of this rationalization. His voice was awfully attractive. I could never describe how it sounded because it would only ever sound perfect to me, and no one else. Once I’d gotten past hearing the words I thought over the meaning. In delayed reaction my chest puffed out and I bristled.

“The hell I do. People don’t belong to one another, and I certainly do not belong to you, even if you did see me firstwhatever that means. What stupid-”

He moved closer then I could see nothing but his eyes again. Mouth suddenly dry, I was unable to finish my scathing rebuttal, and it took a moment to un-stick my tongue from the roof of my mouth. A warm rolling sensation formed in the pit of my