The Demon's Pa

The weirdest thing was that my first thought when the light went on, wasn’t worrying about how I was half naked with Alexander on top of me, but wondering since when the humans had had electricity again.

It was the strangest thing…

Did that mean that something had changed since I left here?

Did Viktor authorise this? Did he even know about this?

Alexander’s weight that had been pressing down on me vanished almost instantaneously the moment the light clicked on and I found myself alone on the couch with Paul looking at me questioningly with sleepy eyes. “What’s going on?” he asked slowly and he let out a yawn.

“Ehhh….” Was all I could manage in my moment of relief, he hadn’t seen Alexander. I looked around slowly, my keen eyes not missing a single detail of the room, Alexander was gone, missing and there wasn’t a trace left of him. I returned my gaze to Paul when I was satisfied that Alexander wasn’t in the room anymore, “Nothing is going on.”

He frowned, “Why are you naked?”

“Ehhh…”

Alexander had kissed me.

“Why is my shirt on the floor in shreds?!”

“Ehhh…”

Alexander had said that he wanted me.

“Why the hell is your neck bleeding?!?!”

I pursed my lips shut tightly, “I can explain.”

“How can you be so calm?!?!” Paul shouted at me, “A vampire just attacked you in our house!”

I took a moment for his assumption to make sense to me, but when it did I clapped my hands together once, “Oh yes, of course, that’s exactly what happened.” I smiled innocently and wiped the smile off my face when I remembered I was supposed to be terrified. “It was so scary.”

Paul rushed over to me and after giving my chest a brief look pressed his hand against my bloody neck, “Damnit, it’s really bad…” He turned away from me and started walking away, “I’m just going to get a band aid, don’t move too much and keep your hand on the wound. I don’t want you to bleed out.”

I slapped my hand over the hole in my neck, by the time he got back it would be completely gone if I didn’t stop my healing. Was it even possible for me to stop it?

I snapped out of my daze when something dropped on my lap and I eyed the blue material suspiciously. I looked around, but there was no one near. I picked it up, only then realising that it was a shirt and that it was not one of Paul’s shirts.

I looked around again. Alexander?

“It’s not that I care if he sees you like that.” Alexander suddenly said from the opposite couch with a bored voice. “I’m just worried that they’ll see how pale you are and that your cover will be blown.” He tilted his head to the side, “I did after all promise to keep your secret as long as you keep mine.”

I opened my mouth to answer but stopped when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs really fast.

“Ash!” It was Janessa’s voice that called out my name and I quickly pulled the rather large blue shirt over my head.

It smelled like Alexander.

I gave Janessa a lopsided grin when she neared me, “Hey.”

“Your neck!” She exclaimed, “Paul woke me to tell me what happened, are you alright?” She paused for a moment, but continued ranting before I could answer. “This is what happens when you trust vampires, they attack you in your own home! I can’t stand this!”

I let out and uncertain sound, “Janessa?” She turned to face me sharply, “I’m fine.”

Her eyes rested on me carefully for a moment longer before she looked around cautiously, “I wonder where it got in.”

I frowned. It? What, were we talking about he who shall not be named now? “Janessa-“

“There has to be a way to kill them, Ash.” My sister said determinedly, cutting me off, “I don’t think they’ll have us under their thumbs for much longer.” Her eyes flashed dangerously. “All the vampires are going to die.”

I froze. There was such certainty in her eyes I had to wonder what made her think that. Surely she didn’t have a vision, she wasn’t a Promise angel, but she was the sister of one. “Let’s hope not.” I finally said hesitantly as I gave her a measuring look. “But what makes you say that we- they are all going to die?”

She didn’t catch on to my obvious mistake, “I just know, I can feel it. Call it a gift, little sister.”

I forced out a laugh, “You make it sound like you can see the future.” I left my questioning statement hanging in the air, open for answers.

Janessa shrugged, “Sometimes it feels like I can.”

How fascinating, I was going to have to ask Cherise how my siblings could have been affected by my being the Promise angel of a demon.

A demon…

Alexander.

Where did he go? I couldn’t feel his presence anymore and he’d been so unbelievably close to me only moments before.

He’d kissed me, did that mean that maybe, just maybe, somewhere in that demonic body and evil mind he was still my magic healing spit vampire?

What did this change for me? Was he going to let my family go?

I swallowed slowly to wet my dry throat, did he still want to kill me?

I slowly turned my head to look at Paul when he appeared with a rather long bandage, “This is all I could find.” He apologised when he saw my doubtful look. He sat down on the couch and put some disinfectant on a cloth, “Here.” He said and I leaned closer so he could get a better look as he wiped the blood away.

Janessa stood impatiently tapping her foot as he worked and said nothing but mutter a few curse words every now and again. “Isn’t there someone we can go to with this? I’m sure there has to be some sort of a law against a vampire just barging into our homes to drink out blood. We have rights!”

I raised an eyebrow, did she even realise how silly she sounded?

After Paul had inspected my neck carefully he casually commented, “It’s not as bad as I’d thought it was.” Then he gave me a look, “It looks almost… healed.”

I laughed nervously, “Healed?”

“Yes, was this that vampire who bit you on your birthday? The alleged one who can heal?”

“Uh… I don’t …know?”

Paul looked at me suspiciously, “Why aren’t you freaking out?”

“I am… on the inside…” I lied, “But what good will freaking out do anyway?” At least I had confirmed that Alexander still wanted my blood.

He slowly wrapped the long bandage around my neck, almost like he was afraid of hurting me. When he was done he tucked the end behind the rest securely and frowned at me, his eyes looking as if he was trying to read my mind.

“Hmm. Very well then.” Paul stood up and turned back to look at me. Do you want to take my bed? It might be safer up there if you’re with me and Alex.”

Me, spending a night in the same room as Alexander the demon? I wasn’t even thinking about how I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but rather wondering if I would be able to stay away from him. “No thanks, I’m good down here, I don’t think it’ll come back.”

“Are you sure?” Janessa asked worriedly, “I was unable to protect you from the vampires again and I really don’t want it to happen for the third time.”

It made sense to me then, the reason why she was acting so strange, she was only worried about me. I gave her a reassuring smile, “Don’t worry about me Janessa, I can take care of myself better than you realise.”

She hugged me tightly and proceeded to tucking me in- even if I was still sitting up- like our mother used to do when we were younger. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, I mean, what can you do against a vampire?”

I shrugged, “Vampires are fine, it’s the demons we should be worried about.”

Neither of them commented on my statement, “Tomorrow I swear I’m going to march right up to one of the nobles and complain about this.” Janessa threatened.

I laughed, “That might not be the best course of action.”

“I can handle myself.” Janessa immediately said. I gave her a hesitant look and she grinned, “Exactly, if you don’t trust me to take care of myself around vampires, how can I trust you? We’re only human after all.”

My world came to a stop, “Yeah, human…”

Paul patted my back, “Goodnight Ash, and next time some bloodsucker attacks you, please scream bloody murder so I can come kill him.”

“Goodnight.” I whispered as they went upstairs again and the light clicked off.

For a few minutes I just sat there in the darkness, thinking.

I’d never asked about the electricity…

A cold shiver ran down the length of my spine and it didn’t take me long to realise it was because of his eyes on me.

“You kissed me.” I stated after a short silence in the dark. I could feel Alexander’s overbearing presence suddenly take a solid form not too far away from me.

He crossed his arms and smirked from where he was standing against the wall he had held me against only hours before, “Did I have your dead heart beating again, kitten?”

I barely just managed to stop myself from answering his question with a very clear ‘yes’. I swallowed and looked down, a bad feeling settling in the bottom of my stomach. He didn’t sound exactly all too happy about the kiss… If anything he sounded like he regretted it but was somehow smug about it. Had he only been toying with me again?

Alexander snorted, “How amusing that you truly think I could ever care about you.”

I flinched at his harsh tone. Hadn’t he felt anything?

“Your expression is priceless.” He said and my eyes snapped up to meet his, “You didn’t actually think I meant any of those thing I said, did you?”

My hopes crashed to the ground and went up in flames. He’d faked it all. I clasped my shaking hands together, my heart felt like it was shattering all over again, “No, of course I didn’t.” Who the hell was I kidding; answering with such a shaky voice was a dead giveaway. I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able to keep it together. I really thought he-

“Lying to me again are you?” He asked, his expression once again unreadable, “That’s the same expression you had when you told me that you weren’t Ash Carson.”

“Go to hell Alexander.” I pulled the blanket over me and after lying down turned around so my back was facing him.

“Already been there kitten and I’ll be honest, taunting your fragile little heart like this is a lot more fun than I’d first though it was going to be.” I could hear the smug sound of his voice and I tightly shut my eyes.

What a nightmare.

A moment of silence passed before he said something again, “I only came because you were dreaming about me.”

I turned around to face him again and gave him a questioning look, “No I wasn’t. And even if I was, you wouldn’t know, you can’t read minds.”

Alexander’s eyes shifted to yellow and his fangs lengthened dangerously. “You said my name in your sleep.”

I hesitated at the sight of his demon half, but lied anyway, “Maybe I was just afraid.”

He growled and before I knew what was happening he had me at my arm and had pulled me to my feet. “Come. We’re leaving.”

My eyes widened and I struggled to get out of his hold, “Leaving? What are you talking about?”

He pulled me forward and I nearly tripped over the blanket that had tangled around my feet. After being dragged half way to the front door I finally managed to get a grip on the floor and I sat down cross legged so he couldn’t pull me any further. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” I stated stubbornly as I ripped my arm loose from his grasp and crossed my arms defiantly.

He crouched down and brought his face inches from my own, “Listen here vampire girl, I am starving and seeing as I’m having way too much fun with you to drain you of the blood I’m craving, your sister’s blood is first on my list. Is that what you want? Do you want me to kill her? Because I’m sure her blood will taste similar to yours.”

I didn’t even have to think twice before answering, “No.”

He stood tall again, “Then come, there’s no way I’m leaving you here alone. You might try to run again.”

I reluctantly got to my feet again and glared at him foully.

He smirked, “Don’t give me such a sadistic look with that innocent little face of yours, I might get the wrong idea.”

I only glared more, but he didn’t say anything else on the subject. He slowly unlocked and opened the front door. I followed him outside slowly and watched as he softly closed the door behind us. He shoved the keys into his pants pocket and only then did I realised he was fully dressed to face the day. Did he sleep in his jeans or something?

I followed him down the stairs and came to a stop behind him as we reached the bottom of the stairs and he looked towards the horizon. And just as easily as his presence had taken shape it disappeared again, he was standing right in front of me and I could see him, but I wouldn’t have known if he was there if I couldn’t see him. How was he doing that? Was it a talent? If he could mask his presence that easily he would be able to go anywhere and no vampire would even know until it was too late.

His tense stance relaxed and the yellow of his eyes became darker. “We don’t have much time, the sun will rise soon.” He turned to look at me and smirked when he saw I was watching him with such interest, “Like what you see?”

My heart lurched in my chest. Those words… “Does it take a lot of energy for you to keep your eyes green?”

He clenched and unclenched his jaw, “Yes, more than I care to admit, especially around you.”

So he had trouble keeping the wild demon nature supressed, “Why?”

His head snapped towards a dark alley and without answering my question he said, “Prey.” With one last sidelong glance he took off at full speed, his last words echoing in my head, “Keep up kitten.”

I sighed heavily and followed him.

‘Keeping up’ would have been hard if he was still a vampire, but ‘keeping up’ was impossible since he was a freaking demon! I barely made it to where he was drinking some poor human girl’s blood before he was done and he tossed her unconscious body to the ground.

I dove in under her before she could hit her head on the hard pavement, “What the hell?!” I exclaimed, “If you’re going to make me watch you drink the blood of other females the least you can do is not treat them like this!”

Alexander whipped his mouth with the back of his hand, “Jealous much?”

“I’m not jealous you stupid-” he vanished into thin air before I could even finish my sentence and I pursed my lips. “What on earth were you doing out here in the middle of the night anyway?” I muttered to the unconscious girl as I struggled to prop her up against the wall, “It’s not safe.”

I took in a deep breath of air to try and find Alexander, but his scent didn’t exist. I narrowed my eyes, how absolutely odd. I took off in the direction the scent of blood was coming from and found him crouching over another unconscious female. He looked up when he became aware of me and I stopped dead in my tracks, “Really?” I asked in an irritated tone, “Another one?”

“I’m not that easily satisfied.” He said dangerously.

“How many do you need?” I asked.

“About a million other females,” he said darkly, “But only one you.”

I was stunned before I could answer, “What?”

He grinned, “I simply adore that expression on your face.”

“What did you mean-”

He was gone again.

I let out a frustrated half scream and stomped my foot on the ground, “Stop doing that damn it!”

I gave the human girl one glance and after seeing that she was alright I took off after him. I arrived too late, by the time I arrived at the scene Alexander was gone again and only the human remained. I avoided all the humans I saw and ran wide circles around all the vampires. The last thing I needed was one of them seeing me and getting Alexander pissed off enough to go on a rampage.

It took me a while to realise the reason behind there being so many humans awake that early in the morning, they were going to work on the farms. It was stupid of me not to have realised it sooner.

In a matter of mere minutes I had completely lost track of Alexander’s body trail and I was completely lost in a part of the city I’d never been to before.

I wandered around aimlessly with occasional bursts of speed when I thought I knew where I was but quickly realised that I had no idea. “Damn that demon.” I muttered to myself when I saw the sun starting to peek over the edge of the world.

I was so caught up staring at how beautiful the sunrise was that I nearly walked right into Alexander who had appeared right in front of me. I glared at him and came to a stop staring up at him challengingly.

He looked absolutely furious and he returned my glare in all his demon feral, “What part of ‘keep up’ do you not understand?” he snapped when I cast my eyes downwards, admitting defeat.

A new rage burned up inside of me, “What part of ‘weak little vampire who can’t keep up with the big cats’ do you not get?”

He took a threatening step towards me, but I stood my ground, “When I tell you to do something, vampire, I expect you to do it even if it kills you.”

I snorted loudly, “Oh scary.” I mocked, “And if I don’t listen? What will you do? Kill me?” I laughed, “It’s what I’ve been asking for since yesterday.”

The sudden silence that surrounded us was ear piercingly loud and I started fiddling with the seam of my shirt shortly after it started.

“Let’s go back,” he said in an emotionless voice, “Your family will start waking up any moment now.”

The rout back home was shorter than I thought it would be and I could see that he was running noticeably slower in order for me to keep up with him. We didn’t say anything the whole way back and only when I was standing in the living room again did he turn to look at me with his dark eyes making me want to kiss him again.

“Maybe it’s exactly because you’re so weak that I don’t want you to fall behind.” Alexander said suddenly and he placed a soft kiss against my forehead, causing me to stiffen, “I can’t protect you if you can’t keep up. So maybe, earlier when you asked why I kissed you, I lied.”

He turned and walked away.

Again.