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Trustless Shadows
Chapter 1
I don’t slow down. I can’t. Someone’s life hangs in the balance.
The buildings are a blur, the pedestrians cursing as they barely move out of my way. I hear exclamations of wonder mixed in with the cursing; I’m faster than anyone they’ve ever seen, at least anyone human. Fortunately, what I’m after doesn’t seem interested in running all that fast, and I don’t hear any indication the others are coming, so I might have a chance.
The roar came a few minutes ago, echoing out from one of the city’s alleys. Gunshots came right after. If I still had my support system, from before I learned everything I believed was a lie, I’d have known about this before the police got involved. I’d have gotten an exact location and been sure I could minimize the casualties.
Now I come across them by accident, like this one. I do miss that from my old life.
The growl comes, and I glance in a side alley as I rush by it. Beyond the people on the sidewalk, beyond the dumpsters and vagrant searching in them for food, I see him—dark and lumbering after his quarry. The growls are to scare them, for them to run and give him a good hunt. If any of the shots hit him, they didn’t hurt him. Not that they would; only the military has irradiated weapons now.
It’s only a glimpse, as the alley vanishes behind me, but the good news is that I’ve finally caught up to him. The bad news is that I’m now close enough to hear the labored panting coming from his prey. Two of them, at the edge of exhaustion. They won’t last long. Not that it matters—I can see the end of the block in the distance. He won’t let them make it out, not among the traffic. The other people.
He isn’t afraid of them. Demons aren’t afraid of anything, but they learn that being seen means the military will come, so they stick to the dark alleys, away from the public’s eyes. I need to intercept them before the block ends. Unfortunately, there aren’t any more alleys cutting in before then.
I pour everything I have in running just as two men step onto the sidewalk, carrying something large between them. I don’t have the time to register more than its transparency as I jump high over them and it, my tattered trench-coat flapping behind me. As I land and run even faster, I hear the gasp behind me, and then something shatters to pieces back there.
For a moment there’s no one in front of me; it’s just me and the sidewalk. I know danger awaits me, but in this instant of peace and quiet, I wonder what they think of me. There was a time I didn’t know I was unique. I thought every city had someone like me, protecting the people from the demons. I thought I was just one in a large group. Learning that had been a lie had been among the more painful moments I’d endured.
Being alone hurts.
The demon’s roar echoes over and around the buildings, telling me nothing of where he is. Worse yet, I can’t see the people he’s chasing, and their panting is as impossible to pinpoint. Did I make it in front of them? Am I going to be in time?
I can’t slow down as I reach the corner. Any seconds I lose means someone might die. If one of them dies, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop what will come next. I round the corner as tightly as I can, losing my footing and kicking someone’s legs out from under them. I need new shoes. I’m back up, and the alley is in sight. Come on, Derick, run.
I make it to the alley and stop in the middle of it. The people running toward me wear the blue and yellow uniform of the police and are waving, yelling for me to get out of the way. I’m bouncing on my feet, eager for what’s coming. I’m ready for it. It’s been too long since I’ve fought one.
“Demon!” one of them yells, and I smile.
There was a time I’d go into this armed. I used to have access to an arsenal of irradiated weapons, all made for me and the others like me…or so I’d been told. That had been a lie. The weapons were made for the military. For them to hunt demons, the job I thought I’d been created for. That too had been a lie.
Now, I go into such fights unarmed. I tried getting weapons, but with the exception of knives, they wanted me to prove my identity before they’d let me have them. Not something I can do, since officially I don’t exist. Still, I’ve found that I don’t need weapons. I don’t want them, not for a one-on-one fight like this. Doing this with my bare hands is much more satisfying.
I run at them.
The eyes of the police officers go wide in shock, then worry. They motion for me to go back.
"Demon!" they yell again, as if I can't see him behind them. I don’t listen to them. I’ve stopped listening to most humans. They’ve betrayed me too often.
The shorter officer, the man, opens his mouth to yell, but the demon roars, drowning his words. That’s it. He’s done playing. As far as he’s concerned, it’s lunchtime.
I jump over them, and when I land, I don’t run anymore. I plant myself in his path. It’s mid-afternoon, so there are plenty of shadows for him to hide in, but he isn’t bothering with that. He’s too set on his prey.
He’s close to nine-feet tall, and like all demons, black with glowing red eyes that finally fall on me. He slows. The fact I’m not running away puzzles him—I can see that on his face. It isn’t the expression that tells me he’s older; it’s the fact that he isn’t mindless with hunger. He was smart enough to begin the hunt before he got hungry, not as a consequence of it. He can focus on me while the officers continue running, slowing down.
I’m not great at estimating demons’ ages, but I estimate this one at four, maybe five years old. I cap it there because I don’t see the cunning in those eyes the older ones have. But he’s smart enough to know a hunt goes better if he can keep his wits about him.
He comes to a stop a dozen feet away with a growl. It’s a warning, I can feel it in the way my body reacts to it. He doesn’t know why I don’t run off, why I’m not afraid, but I’m not his prey. He wants me to get out of his way. Maybe he’s older than I thought.
I can tell he’s calm and rested, by the way his skin is still tight against his body. It’s not fraying yet, like my coat is. There’s a chance I can reason with him, I think, as he opens a hand and his claws extend to a foot in length.
Maybe not. Still, I need to put the effort into it, don’t I? “I’m giving you one warning. Submit to me, or this is going to hurt.” Is he even old enough to understand human language?
He cants his head to the side, and for a moment I think we won’t be fighting. He roars again, and I feel the defiance in it. If he understood me, he has no intention of submitting.
I smile. “Good. We do this your way then.”
I run at him, my right fist hardening until I could break concrete with it. I jump. The surprise at having a human, a prey, run at him instead of away registers, and I punch him in the face. I land, roll, and turn as I get back to my feet.
He shakes his head. When he turns around, he still has that puzzled expression on his face. He touches where I struck him, almost gingerly. This is probably the first time someone who isn’t a demon caused him to feel the blow. Someone who, as far as he’s concerned, is human, shouldn’t be able to do that.
If he’s encountered the military before, he can tell I’m not one of them, so I shouldn’t have anything that can hurt him. After all, even the bullets the police officers shot at him didn’t hurt, so how could a punch?
His eyes narrow and he swings at me. It’s a slow motion, one I avoid without problem. He’s treating me as he would any other human—so this is still part of the game for him. Still part of his hunt. Demons do love their hunts.
I smile. It’s okay, I love them too.
I dart in, punch his knee, and dart out.
He roars as his leg buckles under him. He lashes out so fast I barely throw myself to the ground in time to avoid it. I roll to my back in time to see a fist come down at me, twice as large as before. I roll out of the way, and the pavement explodes.
I’m not the only one who can make his fists harder. We have that in common.
I stand, and notice that the bottom of my trench-coat is a lot shorter; I didn’t move quite fast enough to save all of it. Well, it’s old anyway.
He raises his fist and peers under it. It hasn’t sunk in that I’m this fast. He lets out a surprised whine when he doesn’t find my splattered form there, only bits of my coat, hanging from his fingers.
He looks around and growls when he sees me. There’s no meaning in the sound; he’s just angry. He launches himself at me and I get out of the way. He lands and swings wildly.
He doesn’t know how to fight. He’s never had to fight before. He isn’t the only demon in the city, but he must have managed to keep to himself. This is good. His only advantages now are incredible speed, incalculable strength, and a toughness that can shrug off firearm and basically anything which isn’t irradiated that’s thrown at him.
What do I have? An above-human-level agility, strength, and speed. Nothing on his level, but I can also toughen my fist, arm, and part of my chest if I really need to. The one thing I do have over him is fighting experience. Not only three years of experience fighting demons, but whatever this body knew before I was made. I can see his attacks coming.
He roars at having missed again. He stares at me—no, glares at me. His skin loosens and starts flapping about. I ready myself for his next attack, but instead he steps sideways into a large shadow, almost vanishing from sight.
Yes, definitely older.
There's too much light for him to disappear completely into the darkness, but with his skin moving, I can’t tell where he ends and the shadow begins.
Well, I was right: this is going to hurt.
Before I can react to it, a part of the shadow detaches itself from the wall and I fly backward. I land on my back and skid until I reach the opposing wall. That hurt. My chest feels like it might have caved in. I know it hasn’t, but as I take a few labored breaths, it’s what it feels like.
“Are you insane?” someone yells as I get to my feet. “Get out of there! The army is on its way.”
“Get back!” I glare at the woman. “You want him to kill you or something?”
“Me? You’re the one who’s going to die. How are you even standing?”
“Just keep your distance.”
I search for the demon. He didn’t chase me. He knows the darkness is his advantage, and while he doesn’t know about my thermal vision, it isn’t helping me. He’s been standing still long enough for his heat signature to match that of the wall.
She fires at the wall.
“Really?” I stare at her. “You’re wasting more bullets? Do you even know where he is? Because I don’t, and I know my eyes are better than yours.”
“Move back to safety,” she orders. “This isn’t something for civilians to get involved with.”
“First off, you were running away from him, so you know you’re not equipped to handle this. Second, I stood toe to toe, got it to scream in pain, so explain to me why I should be the one moving to safety?”
She looks at me, stunned. I swear, there are days I don’t know why I even bother dealing with them anymore. At least before, people knew to get out of my way when I fought a demon. It might all have been some elaborate lie, but at least it didn’t feel like humans had some sort of death wish.
I push her out of my thought. If she doesn’t move back her injuries are on her, not me. I scan the wall. I can’t see him, but I make the best guess to his position and run to it. My black skin forms an edge from hand to elbow. If I want to weaken him, I need to make him bleed.
Heat colors shift as a patch of the darkness moves. I dodge claws and slash at the arm. I feel the blade bite into the skin, and the demon screams.
Then the back of his hand slams me against the wall. It cracks, and brick-dust rains down around me.
I groan. Oh yeah, this hurts.
A foot comes down at me. I can’t get out of the way, so I raise my right arm to take the blow. Just before the impact I feel my skin harden all the way to my elbow. I bite back the scream as the force smashes me deeper into the wall.
At least I’m still in one piece.
For now.
He takes his foot away and looks at me. Surprise crosses his face when I look up at him and smile. He raises his foot again, but he waited too long. I throw myself out of the way, and all he does is make a large hole in the brick.
I test my arm and hands as I back away. My skin is flexible again. They throb, but I can move them.
He pulls his foot out and looks in the hole.
“Not where I am.”
He turns, growls his annoyance, and takes a step in my direction, then stumbles, pain clear on his face. I’m guessing that my arm still had the blades when it took the impact.
I can’t rejoice in this minor victory. The officer said the army was on its way. They’ll have irradiated weapons, and if not, they might have things that are powerful enough to kill a demon. I don’t know the extent of their arsenal, but they’ve been killing demons for a very long time, so they must have the right tools.
No more hit and run; this needs to get personal.
I run at him, weave around his swing, and jump at his chest. He catches me in a bear hug and presses me against him. Pain erupts against my back, and I feel part of it harden. More importantly, his face is right before me, long muzzle filled with really sharp teeth.
I headbutt him in the snout and his very sensitive nose. He staggers back.
He doesn’t drop me. In fact, he tightens his hold on me. I grit my teeth to avoid screaming. I’m much tougher than a human, but I can still break. I punch him again and again. Each time he takes a step back, and I keep hitting his nose. I can’t break before he does.
He’s backed against the wall, and I’m in so much pain I can’t see anything. I keep hitting him. I can feel my spine bend further than it’s intended to. I can hear my scream now, a mix of anger, fear, and pain.
Why isn’t he falling?
I might not be a hunter anymore, but I refuse to die at the hands of this demon, especially not when I’m trying to save him.
His grip loosens and I fall to the ground. I can’t move, as something heavy falls on me. I lie there listening to his breathing, to the sound of his blood pumping. Took you long enough, I think, once the pain receded.
I want to stay here, rest longer—forever would be nice—but the army is coming. I will not let them get him. I pull myself out from under him and stand. I stretch, feeling for the extent of my injuries. Nothing’s broken, that’s good. Everything hurts, but pain I can survive.
I look down at him. He shrunk when he lost consciousness. He’d made himself bigger for the hunt to scare them, to intimidate me. He’s closer to seven-feet now, and lean. All that bulk at been for show, not that he hadn’t been strong.
I hear whispers behind me, and I’m annoyed at them. They’re gawking like this was a show I put on for them.
I try to ignore them, but the woman officer says, “I can’t believe you stopped it. You saved us!”
I spin and face her. She’s only a few feet away, as if this was safe. As if there was no chance the demon would wake up and kill her with one swipe. Behind her I can see the crowd, at least twenty of them, with more trying to push their way through to see. They have phones in their hands, taking pictures.
“I didn’t do this for you,” I growl at her. She steps back at the anger in my voice. “You think I give a damn about this anymore? Look at you, you’re just begging for him to wake up and eat you. Look at them! Standing there like this was put on for their entertainment. Why don’t you tell me what you did to get him to chase you? He wasn’t hungry.”
“Hey now,” her partner says, approaching. “We’re grateful you stopped it, but that doesn’t give you the right to be so accusatory.”
“Yeah? I just saved your life from a demon that didn’t show any signs of being hungry. I thought he was just planning ahead, but now I’m thinking maybe you two pissed him off.”
They exchange a look.
“That’s what I thought, so if you aren’t happy with me saving your life, I’ll just leave, and leave him here for you to deal with. He should wake up shortly.”
The man looks ready to argue, but his partner pulls him away.
“Who are you?” she asks.
“No one important.” I turn and look down at him. His face is misshapen, but that means little to them. Once he’s awake, he’ll reform it however he wants.
“Not important?” There’s disbelief in her voice. “Are you joking? You took down a demon, with your bare hands. Do you work for the army?”
The snort comes unintentionally. Like I’d ever work for those people. I grab the demon’s arm and pull him over my shoulders. He’s heavy, a lot heavier than he looks. My back isn’t happy about it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the man asks.
“I’m leaving.” I shift his weight and wince, but after that his weight is more comfortable.
I take a step toward the crowd, and he steps in my way. “You’re not going anywhere, and not with that. When the army gets here, they’re going to want to talk to you.”
“I know, and that’s why I don’t intend to be here.”
He places a hand on the butt of his gun. “I can’t let you leave.”
I smile at him, showing teeth. Mine are normal, like that of a human, but he still takes a step back. “Do you really want to get into a fight with me? After you saw what I did to him?”
His partner places a hand on his shoulder and pulls him away.
“You need to listen to her more.”
“What should we tell the army?” she asks as I walk by them.
“Whatever you want.”
I reach the crowd and it parts, snapping pictures. It isn’t like I can hide any of this, and it isn’t the first time I’ve been photographed. I pick up my pace as soon as I clear them. As long as I’m in the city carrying him, the army will be able to find us, so I need to be out of it, fast.
The buildings are a blur, the pedestrians cursing as they barely move out of my way. I hear exclamations of wonder mixed in with the cursing; I’m faster than anyone they’ve ever seen, at least anyone human. Fortunately, what I’m after doesn’t seem interested in running all that fast, and I don’t hear any indication the others are coming, so I might have a chance.
The roar came a few minutes ago, echoing out from one of the city’s alleys. Gunshots came right after. If I still had my support system, from before I learned everything I believed was a lie, I’d have known about this before the police got involved. I’d have gotten an exact location and been sure I could minimize the casualties.
Now I come across them by accident, like this one. I do miss that from my old life.
The growl comes, and I glance in a side alley as I rush by it. Beyond the people on the sidewalk, beyond the dumpsters and vagrant searching in them for food, I see him—dark and lumbering after his quarry. The growls are to scare them, for them to run and give him a good hunt. If any of the shots hit him, they didn’t hurt him. Not that they would; only the military has irradiated weapons now.
It’s only a glimpse, as the alley vanishes behind me, but the good news is that I’ve finally caught up to him. The bad news is that I’m now close enough to hear the labored panting coming from his prey. Two of them, at the edge of exhaustion. They won’t last long. Not that it matters—I can see the end of the block in the distance. He won’t let them make it out, not among the traffic. The other people.
He isn’t afraid of them. Demons aren’t afraid of anything, but they learn that being seen means the military will come, so they stick to the dark alleys, away from the public’s eyes. I need to intercept them before the block ends. Unfortunately, there aren’t any more alleys cutting in before then.
I pour everything I have in running just as two men step onto the sidewalk, carrying something large between them. I don’t have the time to register more than its transparency as I jump high over them and it, my tattered trench-coat flapping behind me. As I land and run even faster, I hear the gasp behind me, and then something shatters to pieces back there.
For a moment there’s no one in front of me; it’s just me and the sidewalk. I know danger awaits me, but in this instant of peace and quiet, I wonder what they think of me. There was a time I didn’t know I was unique. I thought every city had someone like me, protecting the people from the demons. I thought I was just one in a large group. Learning that had been a lie had been among the more painful moments I’d endured.
Being alone hurts.
The demon’s roar echoes over and around the buildings, telling me nothing of where he is. Worse yet, I can’t see the people he’s chasing, and their panting is as impossible to pinpoint. Did I make it in front of them? Am I going to be in time?
I can’t slow down as I reach the corner. Any seconds I lose means someone might die. If one of them dies, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop what will come next. I round the corner as tightly as I can, losing my footing and kicking someone’s legs out from under them. I need new shoes. I’m back up, and the alley is in sight. Come on, Derick, run.
I make it to the alley and stop in the middle of it. The people running toward me wear the blue and yellow uniform of the police and are waving, yelling for me to get out of the way. I’m bouncing on my feet, eager for what’s coming. I’m ready for it. It’s been too long since I’ve fought one.
“Demon!” one of them yells, and I smile.
There was a time I’d go into this armed. I used to have access to an arsenal of irradiated weapons, all made for me and the others like me…or so I’d been told. That had been a lie. The weapons were made for the military. For them to hunt demons, the job I thought I’d been created for. That too had been a lie.
Now, I go into such fights unarmed. I tried getting weapons, but with the exception of knives, they wanted me to prove my identity before they’d let me have them. Not something I can do, since officially I don’t exist. Still, I’ve found that I don’t need weapons. I don’t want them, not for a one-on-one fight like this. Doing this with my bare hands is much more satisfying.
I run at them.
The eyes of the police officers go wide in shock, then worry. They motion for me to go back.
"Demon!" they yell again, as if I can't see him behind them. I don’t listen to them. I’ve stopped listening to most humans. They’ve betrayed me too often.
The shorter officer, the man, opens his mouth to yell, but the demon roars, drowning his words. That’s it. He’s done playing. As far as he’s concerned, it’s lunchtime.
I jump over them, and when I land, I don’t run anymore. I plant myself in his path. It’s mid-afternoon, so there are plenty of shadows for him to hide in, but he isn’t bothering with that. He’s too set on his prey.
He’s close to nine-feet tall, and like all demons, black with glowing red eyes that finally fall on me. He slows. The fact I’m not running away puzzles him—I can see that on his face. It isn’t the expression that tells me he’s older; it’s the fact that he isn’t mindless with hunger. He was smart enough to begin the hunt before he got hungry, not as a consequence of it. He can focus on me while the officers continue running, slowing down.
I’m not great at estimating demons’ ages, but I estimate this one at four, maybe five years old. I cap it there because I don’t see the cunning in those eyes the older ones have. But he’s smart enough to know a hunt goes better if he can keep his wits about him.
He comes to a stop a dozen feet away with a growl. It’s a warning, I can feel it in the way my body reacts to it. He doesn’t know why I don’t run off, why I’m not afraid, but I’m not his prey. He wants me to get out of his way. Maybe he’s older than I thought.
I can tell he’s calm and rested, by the way his skin is still tight against his body. It’s not fraying yet, like my coat is. There’s a chance I can reason with him, I think, as he opens a hand and his claws extend to a foot in length.
Maybe not. Still, I need to put the effort into it, don’t I? “I’m giving you one warning. Submit to me, or this is going to hurt.” Is he even old enough to understand human language?
He cants his head to the side, and for a moment I think we won’t be fighting. He roars again, and I feel the defiance in it. If he understood me, he has no intention of submitting.
I smile. “Good. We do this your way then.”
I run at him, my right fist hardening until I could break concrete with it. I jump. The surprise at having a human, a prey, run at him instead of away registers, and I punch him in the face. I land, roll, and turn as I get back to my feet.
He shakes his head. When he turns around, he still has that puzzled expression on his face. He touches where I struck him, almost gingerly. This is probably the first time someone who isn’t a demon caused him to feel the blow. Someone who, as far as he’s concerned, is human, shouldn’t be able to do that.
If he’s encountered the military before, he can tell I’m not one of them, so I shouldn’t have anything that can hurt him. After all, even the bullets the police officers shot at him didn’t hurt, so how could a punch?
His eyes narrow and he swings at me. It’s a slow motion, one I avoid without problem. He’s treating me as he would any other human—so this is still part of the game for him. Still part of his hunt. Demons do love their hunts.
I smile. It’s okay, I love them too.
I dart in, punch his knee, and dart out.
He roars as his leg buckles under him. He lashes out so fast I barely throw myself to the ground in time to avoid it. I roll to my back in time to see a fist come down at me, twice as large as before. I roll out of the way, and the pavement explodes.
I’m not the only one who can make his fists harder. We have that in common.
I stand, and notice that the bottom of my trench-coat is a lot shorter; I didn’t move quite fast enough to save all of it. Well, it’s old anyway.
He raises his fist and peers under it. It hasn’t sunk in that I’m this fast. He lets out a surprised whine when he doesn’t find my splattered form there, only bits of my coat, hanging from his fingers.
He looks around and growls when he sees me. There’s no meaning in the sound; he’s just angry. He launches himself at me and I get out of the way. He lands and swings wildly.
He doesn’t know how to fight. He’s never had to fight before. He isn’t the only demon in the city, but he must have managed to keep to himself. This is good. His only advantages now are incredible speed, incalculable strength, and a toughness that can shrug off firearm and basically anything which isn’t irradiated that’s thrown at him.
What do I have? An above-human-level agility, strength, and speed. Nothing on his level, but I can also toughen my fist, arm, and part of my chest if I really need to. The one thing I do have over him is fighting experience. Not only three years of experience fighting demons, but whatever this body knew before I was made. I can see his attacks coming.
He roars at having missed again. He stares at me—no, glares at me. His skin loosens and starts flapping about. I ready myself for his next attack, but instead he steps sideways into a large shadow, almost vanishing from sight.
Yes, definitely older.
There's too much light for him to disappear completely into the darkness, but with his skin moving, I can’t tell where he ends and the shadow begins.
Well, I was right: this is going to hurt.
Before I can react to it, a part of the shadow detaches itself from the wall and I fly backward. I land on my back and skid until I reach the opposing wall. That hurt. My chest feels like it might have caved in. I know it hasn’t, but as I take a few labored breaths, it’s what it feels like.
“Are you insane?” someone yells as I get to my feet. “Get out of there! The army is on its way.”
“Get back!” I glare at the woman. “You want him to kill you or something?”
“Me? You’re the one who’s going to die. How are you even standing?”
“Just keep your distance.”
I search for the demon. He didn’t chase me. He knows the darkness is his advantage, and while he doesn’t know about my thermal vision, it isn’t helping me. He’s been standing still long enough for his heat signature to match that of the wall.
She fires at the wall.
“Really?” I stare at her. “You’re wasting more bullets? Do you even know where he is? Because I don’t, and I know my eyes are better than yours.”
“Move back to safety,” she orders. “This isn’t something for civilians to get involved with.”
“First off, you were running away from him, so you know you’re not equipped to handle this. Second, I stood toe to toe, got it to scream in pain, so explain to me why I should be the one moving to safety?”
She looks at me, stunned. I swear, there are days I don’t know why I even bother dealing with them anymore. At least before, people knew to get out of my way when I fought a demon. It might all have been some elaborate lie, but at least it didn’t feel like humans had some sort of death wish.
I push her out of my thought. If she doesn’t move back her injuries are on her, not me. I scan the wall. I can’t see him, but I make the best guess to his position and run to it. My black skin forms an edge from hand to elbow. If I want to weaken him, I need to make him bleed.
Heat colors shift as a patch of the darkness moves. I dodge claws and slash at the arm. I feel the blade bite into the skin, and the demon screams.
Then the back of his hand slams me against the wall. It cracks, and brick-dust rains down around me.
I groan. Oh yeah, this hurts.
A foot comes down at me. I can’t get out of the way, so I raise my right arm to take the blow. Just before the impact I feel my skin harden all the way to my elbow. I bite back the scream as the force smashes me deeper into the wall.
At least I’m still in one piece.
For now.
He takes his foot away and looks at me. Surprise crosses his face when I look up at him and smile. He raises his foot again, but he waited too long. I throw myself out of the way, and all he does is make a large hole in the brick.
I test my arm and hands as I back away. My skin is flexible again. They throb, but I can move them.
He pulls his foot out and looks in the hole.
“Not where I am.”
He turns, growls his annoyance, and takes a step in my direction, then stumbles, pain clear on his face. I’m guessing that my arm still had the blades when it took the impact.
I can’t rejoice in this minor victory. The officer said the army was on its way. They’ll have irradiated weapons, and if not, they might have things that are powerful enough to kill a demon. I don’t know the extent of their arsenal, but they’ve been killing demons for a very long time, so they must have the right tools.
No more hit and run; this needs to get personal.
I run at him, weave around his swing, and jump at his chest. He catches me in a bear hug and presses me against him. Pain erupts against my back, and I feel part of it harden. More importantly, his face is right before me, long muzzle filled with really sharp teeth.
I headbutt him in the snout and his very sensitive nose. He staggers back.
He doesn’t drop me. In fact, he tightens his hold on me. I grit my teeth to avoid screaming. I’m much tougher than a human, but I can still break. I punch him again and again. Each time he takes a step back, and I keep hitting his nose. I can’t break before he does.
He’s backed against the wall, and I’m in so much pain I can’t see anything. I keep hitting him. I can feel my spine bend further than it’s intended to. I can hear my scream now, a mix of anger, fear, and pain.
Why isn’t he falling?
I might not be a hunter anymore, but I refuse to die at the hands of this demon, especially not when I’m trying to save him.
His grip loosens and I fall to the ground. I can’t move, as something heavy falls on me. I lie there listening to his breathing, to the sound of his blood pumping. Took you long enough, I think, once the pain receded.
I want to stay here, rest longer—forever would be nice—but the army is coming. I will not let them get him. I pull myself out from under him and stand. I stretch, feeling for the extent of my injuries. Nothing’s broken, that’s good. Everything hurts, but pain I can survive.
I look down at him. He shrunk when he lost consciousness. He’d made himself bigger for the hunt to scare them, to intimidate me. He’s closer to seven-feet now, and lean. All that bulk at been for show, not that he hadn’t been strong.
I hear whispers behind me, and I’m annoyed at them. They’re gawking like this was a show I put on for them.
I try to ignore them, but the woman officer says, “I can’t believe you stopped it. You saved us!”
I spin and face her. She’s only a few feet away, as if this was safe. As if there was no chance the demon would wake up and kill her with one swipe. Behind her I can see the crowd, at least twenty of them, with more trying to push their way through to see. They have phones in their hands, taking pictures.
“I didn’t do this for you,” I growl at her. She steps back at the anger in my voice. “You think I give a damn about this anymore? Look at you, you’re just begging for him to wake up and eat you. Look at them! Standing there like this was put on for their entertainment. Why don’t you tell me what you did to get him to chase you? He wasn’t hungry.”
“Hey now,” her partner says, approaching. “We’re grateful you stopped it, but that doesn’t give you the right to be so accusatory.”
“Yeah? I just saved your life from a demon that didn’t show any signs of being hungry. I thought he was just planning ahead, but now I’m thinking maybe you two pissed him off.”
They exchange a look.
“That’s what I thought, so if you aren’t happy with me saving your life, I’ll just leave, and leave him here for you to deal with. He should wake up shortly.”
The man looks ready to argue, but his partner pulls him away.
“Who are you?” she asks.
“No one important.” I turn and look down at him. His face is misshapen, but that means little to them. Once he’s awake, he’ll reform it however he wants.
“Not important?” There’s disbelief in her voice. “Are you joking? You took down a demon, with your bare hands. Do you work for the army?”
The snort comes unintentionally. Like I’d ever work for those people. I grab the demon’s arm and pull him over my shoulders. He’s heavy, a lot heavier than he looks. My back isn’t happy about it.
“What do you think you’re doing?” the man asks.
“I’m leaving.” I shift his weight and wince, but after that his weight is more comfortable.
I take a step toward the crowd, and he steps in my way. “You’re not going anywhere, and not with that. When the army gets here, they’re going to want to talk to you.”
“I know, and that’s why I don’t intend to be here.”
He places a hand on the butt of his gun. “I can’t let you leave.”
I smile at him, showing teeth. Mine are normal, like that of a human, but he still takes a step back. “Do you really want to get into a fight with me? After you saw what I did to him?”
His partner places a hand on his shoulder and pulls him away.
“You need to listen to her more.”
“What should we tell the army?” she asks as I walk by them.
“Whatever you want.”
I reach the crowd and it parts, snapping pictures. It isn’t like I can hide any of this, and it isn’t the first time I’ve been photographed. I pick up my pace as soon as I clear them. As long as I’m in the city carrying him, the army will be able to find us, so I need to be out of it, fast.
