Daimon, DANIELLE BOLGER [read my book .txt] 📗

sure the daimon would swallow Jane whole. Then there really would be no more heart.

Again my words were full of emptiness. “They killed him because of me.”

Silence.

“He died for her sins,” I muttered mechanically. “That's what the wall said. It was...what his blood said.”

I heard his teeth grind. “You've been writing a story on the Foxes, haven't you? You've been working with Zach, and now you're not safe.”

“I should not have involved him, but I just didn't want to be alone anymore.”

Ryan grasped my cheek and fiercely turned my head forward. I could not evade those penetrating eyes any longer.

“How many times do I have to tell you?” He was struggling with his words. “You're not alone, Jane. I may not be your brother, but I will protect you as if you were my kin.”

He sighed. “You're in danger now. If they killed the photographer you were working with, you can bet you'll be in their crosshairs. I want you to stay here for the time being and I'll...work out some relocation program for you.” He released me and rose to his feet.

“Where are you going?”

“I need to head back to the station. There's a lot I still need to sort out with Valentine, and now there's you as well.”

“So, you are leaving me?”

I was shocked by the tortuous look he gave me; a disgusting amalgamation of despair and guilt, duty and desire; but I was unsure where either originated. Even more surprising was my effect on him; I could see how his worry made him gaunt and frail, despite his toned physique. I wondered why he cared, after not sharing a word with me for years.

His eyes sparkled, in a beautifully sad way. “I need to get back, things are developing too much to allow me to stay away long. I'm sorry, Jane. I will be back. Just stay here.”

After a moment's hesitation, he left the room. I heard him gather his things, and in a matter of minutes exit through the apartment front door. All the while, he left me to my darkness.

I slinked from his bed and found my handbag by the side table. A minute later I was closing the front door behind me also.

“I'm sorry, Ryan, but I can't stay. If I hang around you will be next, and I cannot allow that. Not you, too. This is my burden and I will carry it alone. I will fight it alone, and I will finish it alone. The Foxes will feel my wrath.”

Chapter Nineteen

Because I left my car back at Zach's apartment, I was forced to make my way by foot. This was more efficient, as my feet traveled through the air so swiftly they barely landed on the ground, though was far less discrete. However, the possibility of detection was of little concern to me then as I harbored only one desire, one all-consuming goal: I would have my revenge.

As I ran, I felt the air push menacingly against me, as if nature herself knew of my intentions and was fighting to restrain me. She sent out a strong gusty breeze followed by tiny flecks of rain. She veiled the skies to shroud the night in complete darkness. She made the trees bend against me, arms outstretched, fingering their leaves forward. She sent all her creatures away, as if to reinforce the fact that I was eternally alone, but her efforts would not be enough to restrain me; not a daimon. I ran fluidly through the darkness with vision adeptly modified to discern my surroundings. As to my isolation, I may have felt alone, but I was not the only daimon gliding through the city. I sensed another trailing me, approximately fifty meters behind.

So, they knew how I would react. That meant that this one had come to kill me. Convenient, really, for I was sure there was only one following me. I would simply kill this one and then return to the task at hand, with one corpse already ticked off my list.

Reaching a football oval that was satisfactorily insulated by trees, I stopped, taking my place right in the center.

“I was wondering where you were taking us,” a voice snarled happily behind me.

I turned and observed him from the corner of my vision. Yes, exactly who I wanted it to be. “I thought I would find a place that would give us the space to be ourselves. You seem like someone who does not want to be subdued. Isn’t that right, Freddie?”

His mouth stretched, corners nearly connecting to the ears in his way. “You know me so well.” He bobbed his head to the side as he crouched, hands planted on the ground. “We're similar, you know. Our spirits haven't been broken yet. We still lust over the chance to feed.”

I glared. “You're an abomination.”

“So are you, sister. C'mon, quit pretending you don't like the taste of that flesh on your tongue.” He licked his lips indulgently.

“Maybe I do, but it won't be as gratifying as ripping your heart from your chest.”

Freddie laughed, quietly at first, and then it morphed manically. “Perfect! Well then, sweet-pea, shall we dance?”

Instantly, he transferred himself from crouch to air, and appeared a mere millimeter from me. I fell away from him, just in time to avoid his impact, but not quick enough to escape the slap of air that carried with him. It knocked me down to the grass. I just felt the tips of these blades lick my back, but just before I connected to the dirt, I stretched my arms over my head and down. My hands landed on the ground, fingers flicked away and I rolled through the air. When I landed, it was on my feet; one knee bent, the other straight and at an angle to the ground. I raised my head and saw him coming for me again.

Another strike. This time I saw the claws, but I saw them too late.

I dodged back, flying across the ground, believing that again I avoided his blows. Suddenly, he was inches from me. He plunged an arm from behind and swept it across. I managed to miss his hand as it extended out, and I breathed in a relieved pant, but that gangly limb kept unfurling, reaching and stretching until long thick gray nails sliced through the gap and into the skin on my face.

I yelped at the searing mark they left as I dashed back away, and stole a moment to collect the blood on my fingers.

He was laughing. Of course the psycho is laughing.

“Too slow, kitty.” I knew what the laugh resembled now—it was a hyena's. “Come on,” he taunted. “Can't you do anything but purr?”

He launched again, this time pulling both arms back, ready to snap like a monkey with cymbals. Instead of dodging, I ducked into a crab-like position. I was crouched so close to the ground I was almost flat, as he floated over the top of me; his hands slapped against one another.

Pushing off the ground with all fours, I redirected my momentum upward and head-butted him in the sternum. This lifted him into the air until he effortlessly somersaulted and landed on his feet. I was starting to see that he had a strange affinity with cats.

Seizing his lost moment in recovery, I flew forward screaming, “You'll die for what you did!”

He sidestepped me easily, evading by a full meter. “Please, I gave you a gift.”

I dashed forward again, looking to embrace him with an uppercut, but he escaped it with ease.

“You murdered him,” I growled, as I tried again. This time, I led with an airborne sidekick and again he disappeared at the point of intended connection.

“Murdered? That's such a strong word. That would suggest I killed some superior being. No, I simply culled cattle.” He erupted with glee.

“You monster!” I roared, moving to his location in a flash, but in less than that he was already gone.

“You're calling me a monster?” I heard Freddie's amused voice to my left. “I didn't eat my friend's heart.”

“How dare you?” My body trembled. “You're disgusting!” I threw out a kick to the area where his voice originated, but he was not there. Suddenly he was behind me, and knocking me down with a sharp elbow. I landed face down with a severe thud in the dirt, dust erupting like ash from a volcano's mouth. This dissipated quickly; most of it swept away by the hurried breeze, the rest was slammed back down to the well-trodden earth by thickening raindrops. The storm was starting.

I felt him plunge a heel into my exposed back. “Now I am disgusting?” He giggled as he ground his heel into me. “You say that so soon after your friend’s blood was smeared all over your mouth.” He landed a sharp kick to the back of my head.

“I will be tasting your blood next.” I rolled aside from his next attack, flipped over to my back and was about to leap away, until his hand came at my neck and I found myself ineffectively pawing at his arms. Damn his gangly limbs!

“Aw,” he cooed. “Poor kitty can't reach.”

I grabbed one of his arms and bent it sharply backward. The sound of the snap was accompanied by a roar of thunder. Rain pelted down on the two of us.

He released me instantly. “Ah! My arm! You little bitch!” he screamed, water dripping down his face to form the tears he was too inhumane to produce.

I wished I could have taken that moment to launch an attack on him, but even with his release, I was still struggling for air. I staggered backward, drawing a thin cord of oxygen through my collapsed throat. I barely managed to remain on my feet. With his good arm, Freddie took hold of the other and snapped it into position with a screech. After some heavy breaths, he growled, “No more games. I'll put you down like the unwanted stray you are.” He rotated his shoulder shooting me a strange, knowing look. “I'll bury you right next to Mommy and Daddy.”

He flashed before me in a moment. I blocked the fist aimed at my face and countered using my right leg to sweep back behind his. He jumped and spun around in the air, coming full circle with a leg of his own. I ducked but then raised too soon as another leg followed around. He must have flipped mid-air. I pushed out both forearms and blocked him, but exposed my midsection from the left side. His leg dropped to the ground fluidly, swinging in the opposite direction; this time coming across with a hook. I tried to throw an arm back behind me but was not fast enough. The blow landed against my left ribs, crushing them like gravel in a cement mixer.

I screamed and was blinded by a combination of red-hot fury and the agony of my insides tearing apart. I brought my right hand towards my torso to cradle my injury, but before reaching it, I directed it to an uppercut to his jaw. There was shock on his face a moment before the connection. His expression transformed into one of torture, as his jaw snapped in two places and was almost dislodged from the rest of his skull.

“You don't get to talk about my parents,” I snarled. I lashed out a hook on the other side, leading to a ripping pain in my torso as it connected with his cheekbone. I went for a straight jab at his nose with my right hand, but he caught my fist in one hand. He smiled, jaw hanging limply, as black oil oozed from his eyes.

My moment of surprise was a moment too long as he ripped my hand back, severing it from my arm at the wrist. I stepped back and yelped in horror as I gazed upon my right hand, in Freddie's possession. I lifted my arm and whimpered at the stump left at my wrist and the two bones that stuck out like pikes.

“Touchy subject is it?” His question was muffled, as his jaw flapped with the strength of the barest of tendons.

I refused to allow a moment lost in distress, so I took a step forward. I threw my left fist at him with another hook. As I did this, my left ribs screamed at me and I felt the skin over them split and open.

Anticipating my counter, he grabbed this fist with