Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher Read Free Book Online

bite
and tear. A manic giggle bubbled in my chest. The thought of
launching yourself at a vampire was ridiculous and suicidal, but my
body was seriously contemplating it. He brushed the hair out of my
eyes and I recoiled. He hadn’t made a move for a vein yet, but he
was a blood drinker, and I was full of blood. He flashed me a
smile, and his chalky lips framed pearly fangs flanked by two
smaller canines. They had run right out as he’d touched me. For a
moment I was overcome. I stared at them, the spiky tips resting on
his lower lip, a startling shade of ruby red. Everyone knew vampire
fangs ran out when they were mad or bloodlusty. Which was he?
Probably the latter, if he was mad my limbs would be scattered
across the forest floor by now.
    “You’re going to kill me now,” I said
steadily.
    I’d been through too much to deny that I was
living on borrowed time. To be honest I was waiting for the hammer
to fall. I would die there, food for the vampire-boy the fairy-boy
was hunting. Breandan would return eventually, like he promised and
find my rotted corpse. Would he be sad? Would he and the ‘we’ he’d
referred to, lament over my body. Would they give me a proper
burial? After all he had said I was like him, fairykind too. In my
last moments of life pondering on how I felt about being named a
demon, I did not feel disgust or fear, but sort of a resigned
relief. I was no longer a freaky human girl, but a demon. My
strangeness made perfect sense now.
    “I am not going to kill you.”
    The vampire had spoken. It took me a while to
realize he had, because my last words had been a statement not a
question. And even if he’d interpreted it as a question, it was
clearly rhetorical. I was living my last moments and the flashbacks
of my life were about to commence, so the interruption was not
appreciated. But since he’d spoken again I felt obliged to say
something back, and I was getting used to conversations with
strangers.
    “Why?” I asked genuinely puzzled. “You didn’t
dive through that hole for fun. If the wires had caught you, you’d
have set off the klaxon and had Clerics with stakes and silver on
your ass until you were ash. Vampires don’t seem the
self-sacrificing kind to me. Plus, the sun is rising.” I pointed
east. “You don’t have much time, and to be out this early, or late,
you must be super hungry to risk the true death. Or suicidal. Which
brings me back to the fact you guys are big on the self
preservation.”
    He made a low rumbling noise and his
shoulders shook. It was laughter, and it was gruesome and wretched.
“I have been looking for you.”
    I thought about this. For a vampire to be
looking for you and not hunting you, was unheard of. It was
intriguing and I knew then curiosity was about to get me into more
trouble.
    “You’re not the first to try that line today.
You demons know how to flatter a girl.”
    He growled a little. “Fairies.” He said the
word like a curse.
    I sighed again, exaggerating the rise and
fall of my shoulders. Fine, my tribulations for the morning were
not over. I could deal with that, but I needed the safety of Temple
walls. The forest was no longer comforting, but alien and
hostile.
    “If you’re not going to eat me would you mind
if we walked and talked? I’m tired but have to keep going, or I’ll
be late for class.”
    He remained still and peered past me into the
trees. I found it hard to read his face. His expression was not
worried, but I thought it brooding, or rather, preoccupied with
being anxious about something.
    “I need to find a dark place. A safe
place.”
    The dead and the sunlight didn’t mix well.
They burned, badly, and burst into extravagant blue and red flames.
Then their blackened corpses flaked into ash. I could see why he
might be anxious to find a ‘dark place’ as he put it.
    “My wardrobe is dark.” The words popped out
of my mouth before they registered. “Wait,” I said, and held up my
palm. The standard cracks in