Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher Read Free Book Online Page A

my judgment were now gaping canyons,
and there were all kinds of crazy ideas flying around. “You’re
friendly, right? If I help you, you aren’t going to turn on me. Or
turn me.”
    “As you rightly pointed out, the sun is
rising and I weaken by the moment. I need to talk to you. Hear what
I have to say then I’ll go.”
    “Okay,” I said slowly. There did not seem to
be too big a downside to this arrangement. “I can do that, hear you
out. But tell me, the fairy-boy I met is hunting you.” I watched
his face carefully. “Why? Did you do something bad to him or his
kind?”
    He looked me over so intently I squirmed in
my skin. He made a quick movement with his hand that said ‘so
what’.
    “If they find my resting place they will kill
me, and they won’t listen to what I have to say, which is why you
must.”
    I mouthed my next words silently before I
spoke them aloud. “I’m a fairy too.” It was easy to say and I
smiled. “It’s important I know if talking to you will get me in
trouble.” I paused then grunted. “In more trouble than I already
am, I mean.”
    His eyebrows rose and he focused on me more
intently. I backed up a pace and couldn’t help cupping my neck with
my hand. He tilted his head and narrowed those bottomless eyes of
his.
    “I smell magic, but you seem human to me in
every way.”
    “You seem to know a lot about me and what
I’ve been doing. But then if you knew a lot about me you would know
I have only just found out I’m a fairy.” That sentence was
convoluted, and I had confused myself. It made some kind of crazy
sense, so I stood my ground and waited for his answer.
    The vampire did not seem confused. “I can
explain. But at night.” His eyes darted to the east and his mouth
pulled down.
    The sky was much lighter now, but the clouds
gave extra cover. Time was running out, I was beyond terrified, the
curls of fear in my stomach were tornadoes, and I felt a
responsibility to protect this vampire from bursting into a
firework display.
    “My cupboard it is.” He placed a hand on my
lower back and I jerked away. “Watch the hands,” I said and eyed
him.
    “I’m going to carry you,” he explained. “It
will be faster and we will not be seen.”
    He was not much taller than me or bigger in
size. No doubt he could carry me, but still, the thought of being
so close to death itself was worrisome. His presence still rubbed
me up the wrong way. I was strong willed, not infallible, and me
losing control would be fatal.
    “No funny business. I’ll scream and dead or
not, it will hurt your ears.”
    He shook his head, face serious. “No funny
business,” he promised.
    “Could you put the fangs away?”
    “I like the way you smell.”
    “That is creepy,” I said and plucked at my
bottom lip. “You’re creepy.”
    His body kind of vibrated, and a strange
grizzly sound came out of his mouth. I guess since vampires didn’t
use air to talk or breathe they sounded, moved and even laughed
differently to normal beings. I jumped, but thankfully he was too
preoccupied with laughing to notice, or to comment on noticing.
    “No biting. I swear.”
    I was having a hard time. Vampires were more
often than not attractive in a scary, dead, don’t look them
straight in the eye, ripping throats out and wallowing in ‘top
yourself’ amounts of despair, way. This vampire-boy was positively
spritely. It was such a stark contrast to my preconceptions
cultivated by years of Sect reports, I kept having mini flashes of
the different ways he would grab me, and sink his fangs into my
flesh.
    “Can’t get much crazier than I already am,” I
said finally, and shuddered. Another flash of watching him drink me
to death had me wishing I’d stayed my ass in bed.
    The vampire picked me up and broke out into a
ground-eating run. I noticed then that he was not breathing and
wondered if that was by choice? It was strange to be so close to
another person and not sense the normal rise and fall of the