Demon Day (26 page)

Patting his chest, I kissed him on the
cheek. “We will talk,” I said and kissed him again before stepping
back. “We’ll learn everything there is to know about each other. I
will help you, Tomas. I swore I would.”

He did not move, blink, or speak. He
became still, and I felt him withdraw from me entirely.

“
Tomas?”

With a gasp, he stumbled back. His
fangs were still down and his chest heaved. Disturbing since Tomas
didn’t actually breathe. He placed a hand over where his heart
might beat and shook violently.

“
Tomas!” I was concerned
now.

Not that it should have been possible,
but his skin looked paler and a stain of darkness spilled from his
pupils to blot the whites of his eyes black.

I hesitated, unsure as to why he was
reacting so strangely. The darkness was no longer there in the
corner of my mind for me to tug on to glean a better understanding.
It was still inside me, I could feel the blood tie, but it was
hidden from me. Should it be able to do that – hideaway in my own
consciousness?

I might have focused on how wrong that
was had Tomas not cried out and fallen to his knees.

In two steps, I was right there with
him, ignoring the damp and dirt. His hands wrapped around my wrists
and I did not know if he was going to crush me to him or throw me
away. As it was he simply held me then collapsed forward, his dark
head resting on my lap as his entire body shuddered under the
strain of his emotion.

“
You choose him,” he
groaned and rocked back, seemingly unable to stay still.

He let his head fall back, the pale
column of his throat taut with tension, moonlight streaming across
his tormented expression.

His hands slipped away from me and
slammed into the earth. Roaring his aggression, he beat at the
ground causing the earth to shift and split open, creating shallow
curvatures where he pounded. My cool and rational vampire went mad
with jealousy, and his resentment and hurt were palpable. When
delivering blows to the ground did not ease his pain he turned his
fingers into rakes and scraped finger wide gouges into the earth. I
trembled as he raged around me, gutturally screaming in what must
have been dead languages. I prayed to the gods I would never hear
such words uttered again, so evil and malignant they sounded as
they rasped across my ears, and tore into my soul.

In the midst of his frenzy, I placed
my palms on his cheeks, and slowly moved my head from side to
side.

“
I need you to understand.”
I let my hand move over his head, ran my fingers through his soft
hair then gripped two fistfuls tightly. “Please.”

“
Why?”

I let my head drop, unable to meet his
gaze as I mumbled, “It was one kiss, Tomas. It shouldn’t have
happened, and I’ll never be sorry it did as it probably saved your
life.” I looked him in the eye. “If you hadn’t taken my blood I
probably would have let Lochlann kill you. So no, I’ll never regret
it, but I’m rational enough to see that whatever this is between
us,” I motioned to him than me, “would never work. Not when
I–”

“
A bond with magic is not
love,” he bit out harshly.

“
And a bond made enraptured
by bloodlust is better?” I pressed my fingers to his jaw, not
trusting myself to touch him any other way. “The first moment I saw
Breandan he ensnared me. I was lost before he touched me and the
bond was made. Do you remember the first time we met? How terrified
I was? The first time I met you I felt nothing but fear. Can’t you
see? Our blood tie was made from succumbing to desire not love.” He
tried to pull away from me, but I grabbed his hair and tugged his
head back. “I am your friend, and I trust you. So don’t ruin what
we have by forcing me to explore a side to our relationship
destined to fail.”

Regaining some calm, he watched me
silently. His fangs slid up and his eyes cleared. “Then what do you
ask of me, friend?”

I winced at the coldness of his words.
“I could use your help. I made a pact with an Alpha to save his
daughters. They’re still beneath Temple.”

He blinked at me, and I could never
say what passed through his mind. Taking a series of short breaths,
he grunted and rose from his knees. He offered his hand.

“
Come then.” I curled my
fingers around his and stood. I flushed when he paused and did not
let go. “May I hold your hand as we catch your allies up?” he asked
so politely I found myself nodding.

I was faster than him but reined my
speed in so we could run side by side. It seemed my vampire could
move faster than me, but only for short periods of time. I wondered
why that was. Was it to do with how their bodies moved and how much
blood was left in their systems? Did a lack of blood tire him like
a lack of sleep and food would tire me?

“
Have you eaten,” I
blurted.

Tomas slanted me a look out of the
corner of his eye. A felled log was in our path and instead of
zipping round it like I had planned he yanked on my hand, swept me
up into his arms, and jumped over it. My heart thumped as I
remembered the similar jolting sensations from when he had first
carried me. He did not let me go when we touched down on the other
side. He did pull me closer and look down on me with the saddest
expression on his face. I used both my hands to smooth away the
lines the troubled look caused, letting my fingers linger on his
bold and objectionable features. How had I ever thought him ugly?
He had character, and an aura of charming imperfection only those
tied to the dark could acquire.

He made a rumbling noise low in his
throat and leaned down to slide his nose along my neck, inhaling
deeply. I bit my lip and my eyelids fluttered.

“
Rae?” Lex’s voice was soft
and apologetic.

Tomas set me down on my own two feet.
He moved away to stand before the Wall and waited, staring at the
wires with rapt attention, making me think he was not actually
seeing the Wall.

My palms dampened with sweat even as
my mouth went dry. I had done this before, so I could do it again.
The klaxon had only gone off last time because my power had
whiplashed out unexpectedly, a side effect of my exhaustion and
emotional turmoil.

Lex rolled her eyes and walked over to
the wires red hot with electric current. Like a spider scuttling up
a web she scaled the Wall as if it wasn’t sending high-voltage
bolts of electricity into her body. She vaulted over and climbed
down, her arms and legs moving in a liquid crawl. Her colorless
hair fell forward and obscured her face. When Lex reached the
bottom of the steel web she walked forward on her hands, legs stiff
in the air and toes pointed. With an odd jerk her back bent and she
lowered her feet to the floor. Bowed in a rigid arch on all fours,
stomach facing the sky, her torso rolled her upright. She turned on
her heel and waited for us, hair still covering her face like a
veil until she flicked her head back.

Ro shrugged. “Whatever.” He jerked his
head to the wires to remind me that I was supposed to be creating
us an opening.

“
Can’t we go through a gate
again?” I asked.

Ro shook his head. “They might know we
used it. They’ll patrol the entry points in case we try to use one
again.”

It made sense. The Clerics would not
risk us getting back so easily. Since our exit hadn’t been
scheduled no doubt they would have posted guards anyway, but with
my disappearance they would know I had inside help, and would leave
nothing to chance.

Without thinking about it too much, I
focused my energies, and sent my magic to the wires. They unraveled
and pinged apart leaving a small tear big enough for us to crawl
through. The edges cooled but the color slowly faded back to deep
red confirming the current still flowed. Had I ripped the entire
fence in half no doubt the klaxon would go off – I would have
broken the circuit completely – but this way the electricity still
had a path to flow through, and the surrounding area remained
blessedly silent. Ro went first, then Tomas, and I shimmied under
last. I closed the tear with an easy thought tossed over my
shoulder.

Between Ro and Lex’s knowledge of the
slums, and mine of the upper dwellings, we managed to plot an
obscure path back through the human city that steered clear of the
Sect Temple. We raced through the upper dwells, holding our breath,
and praying we would not be seen. The maintained homes abruptly
became dilapidated huts as we crossed over into the
slums.

Ro visibly relaxed the deeper into his
childhood home we travelled.

The shack structures were
predominantly built from wonky wooden frames filled by
breezeblocks, and covered in plastic. Piles of rubbish were clumped
together under huge overflowing dumpsters every twenty paces or so,
and the rats that squeaked and scuttled across the floor made me
grimace. Bats darted overhead and I shivered, they were worse than
ravens. I was not sure when bats were introduced to this region,
but I knew they were not native. They had adapted to the climate
and were bloody huge, bigger than crows and incredibly intelligent
winged creatures.

A young girl rummaging around in a
pile of junk, paused, peered at us then grabbed a three legged
chair and trotted off, clutching it to her like a lifeline.
Scavenging was the slum lifestyle, and if you were not good at it
you wouldn’t survive. No doubt the young girl had plans to trade
the smooth wood and seat fabric for food. She had looked painfully
thin and I hoped she was able to barter for enough to keep her
going for a few weeks.

The slum dwellings held a mish mash of
old and new human cultures and several colorful walls of art caught
my eye as we briskly walked down the main street. It was busier
than the upper dwells, and running would draw too much attention.
Most people who saw us had their own troubles, and turned their
back when their eyes landed on Ro. His broad shoulders and
confident gait were intimidating, but the hard expression on his
young face – evaluating every dark shadow for danger – was warning
enough that he was not be to messed with.

Tomas kept his head down. Alex was
wedged between Ro and me, arms wrapped around her middle and back
hunched. With my glamour on I looked human, horrifically scarred,
but human nonetheless, and my lack of dress was nothing out of the
ordinary here.

It was quiet. The darkness shielded
us, and we kept close to the walls, avoided passing too close to
the fire drums that spat ash and small specks of burnt
wood.

An old man dressed in rags and
crouched on the pavement, boney hands shoveling noodles into his
mouth, happened to glance up. His wooden bowl clattered to the
ground. His eyes went wide as he took in Lex’s inhuman appearance,
and his toothless mouth gaped.

Humans born here were a creamy tan in
skin colour, and generally had hazel eyes and dark hair, like Ro. A
tall, chalk-white girl with translucent hair and electric blue face
marks was something outlandish to behold indeed.

The old man heckled at us, and a quick
look over my shoulder showed him hobbling after us, craning his
neck trying to get a better look.

Tomas cursed and stopped. He spun on
his heel and sped faster than the human eye could see back to the
old man. He clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him into the
shadow of a building. It was quiet again. Tomas ran back to us and
motioned us on. I considered asking him if the old man lived, but
truly, I did not think I could stomach the truth.

Ro stopped at a self-contained hut
with large white handprints across the fencing cutting it off from
the street. Ravens circled overhead and I frowned. It was late for
them to be out flying, and why over this shack?

A malnourished goat was tied to a
wooden post, and a steel wire cage was stuffed with clucking hens.
The place felt wrong, and I noticed mice scurrying as far away as
possible to avoid passing too close. A wildcat, fur glossy and
black, meowed at us from on top of the fence, and leaped over our
heads to land silently on the ground, disappearing into an alleyway
opposite.

I was wholly disturbed. “Where the
hell are we?” I demanded.

Magic slid over my skin in an odd way.
Usually I reached to magic and called it to me, but here magics
literally hung in the air, waiting to be absorbed. I took another
step toward the shack and tendrils power slipped through my body,
cold fingers pushing through me, peering at who, and what I was.
The invasion was nasty and I hissed.

Tomas muttered under his breath, took
a step back.

Ro slid a humored look at the vampire,
fighting a smile. “Papa Obe is tied to the Loa. He can help
us.”

I had heard the name before, but like
so many had brushed it off. The Sect was supposed to have
eradicated the Vodoun years before.

“
He’s a Bokor,” I said,
swallowing hard.

Ro chuckled darkly. “No. He’s more
than that.”

“
He calls on the spirits of
the dead. I didn’t understand how that could be possible before I
knew about the Source, but I’ve heard Voodoo is different to normal
magics.” I felt panicky. My nature did not like this at all. The
space around me felt wrong, unnatural. I turned to Ro accusingly.
“Why did you bring us here? This isn’t how it’s meant to
be.”