Cursed [Book 1] ✔

Chapter 21: F@$#!

Letting Tristan accompany me on a hunt was partly a test. If he really was a reformed Djinn, I wanted to see if he could stomach seeing me kill a member of his brethren. The other part of me wanting him to come along was because I enjoyed his company. I couldn't quite figure him out, and that excited me. A facet of his mysterious nature stemmed from the fact that I couldn't read his mind. All the mind of Djinn and Lillin were inaccessible to me.

Outside of his apartment building I stopped walking. I took a moment to close my eyes, breathe in deeply, and catch the thread of a demon nearby. There were dozens to choose from. I fixated upon the most pungent, besides Tristan's own scent, that is. Gradually, I caught a thread and held on. I was ready to track my prey.

"Come on," I said.

Without looking behind me to see if he followed, I broke into a sprint. Far from the regular human variety, my sprint was fast and required little oxygen. To others, I would be a wistful blur of color come and gone. Tristan's funk was pungent was ever, so I knew he was matching my speed.

It was comforting to have someone with me, someone who was also supernatural. I glanced next to me and couldn't help but smile at my new companion. Tristan met my gaze. We were running together side by side, alone in a flume created by wind, speed, and our own energy, and it felt so...intimate.

There was no other word for it.

In no time at all, we had reached the end of the thread. What waited for us was a park, empty but for the trees that stood silent over the manicured bushes and lawns. An occasional flower bed could be seen, but everything in sight was lacquered over in silver moonlight. A man and woman were seated together on a bench, a few hundred feet to the left of us.

Cozy as you please, the both of them. However, this was not my first rodeo. The embrace they were locked in wasn't consensual, and neither was the nuzzling. The silver-haired man had his hands wrapped around the silver-haired woman's body. On the hand facing outward, there was a tattoo that looked like a cookie, or flower. From the inconstant light, I couldn't tell. Since I could hear her thoughts like a siren sounding off

(GOD HELP ME!)

it was clear she needed help. As fast as we had arrived at the park, Tristan and I ran to the bench. It wasn't really like running due to the speed, it was more like teleporting. One second we were across the lawn from the bench, and in three blinks of an eye we were next to it. Tristan was holding back, because I had seen Djinn move much faster than that. He was trying to be polite by not showing off.

I liked that.

It was hard to concentrate with Tristan so near to me. Hell, I was on a hunt that involved the life of an innocent and I couldn't stop thinking about my new favorite monster.

Stop it, I told myself. Only a few seconds had lapsed while my thoughts had taken a detour and come back. Seconds were equal to that of a lifetime for a demon. I had given the Lillin ample time to escape. All that was left on the bench was the woman, eyes wide and wondering. She was in shock. Blood was slowly seeping from a gash at her neck.

"What were you doing?" Tristan asked me. "You let it get away."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," I grumbled. "His scent is still near. I'll have no problem tracking—"

I felt a tug at my side. To my utmost surprise, Tristan had taken the sword from my scabbard. He held it like a pro and used it to gesture at the young woman whose eyes were rolling to the back of her head.

"Take care of her. I'll get the demon." He didn't give me a chance to protest.

This time he did show the full scope of his speed in his pursuit of the Lillin. When he left, the air around him displaced, causing a gust of wind to flutter my shirt and hair. Next to me, the woman moaned weakly. I got on my knees in order to be level with her.

Closer, I could see that her hair was not silver, but pale blond. It hung down in waves, the perfection of it broken by the drops of blood that stained it.

Her eyes were dark blue. She was a beautiful woman; it was easy to see why the Lillin had been eager to target her.

To slow the blood flow from the wound on her neck, I took off my jacket and pressed tightly on her neck.

Everything's cold. Am I dying?

I answered her fading consciousness: "You might if I don't get you to the hospital soon."

The comment woke her up a bit. She realized that another person was there with her, a person that might help keep her alive.

Who are you?

"I'm a friend."

I took her hand in mine, giving her cold fingers a reassuring squeeze. She didn't turn her head toward me because of the pain she was in, but she did blink a tear down in reaction to my kindness.

Off in the distance, I heard a brief struggle that ended with a high-pitched wail that sometimes came from Lillin when they were mortally wounded. I took that to mean Tristan had done my job for me.

"Huh. He killed it."

The woman didn't respond, though I had more been talking to myself than to her. She was slipping deeper and deeper into a realm I couldn't venture into. There wasn't time left for me to wait around for Tristan to triumphantly return. I shouldn't have waited for him in the first place.

Disgusted with myself, I got up and took the woman into my arms, cradling her easily with my supernatural strength. Taking her to the hospital on foot would be far faster than calling and waiting on an ambulance. Plus, there was my whole lack of a cellular device situation. A cell phone was an unnecessary item when I had no one to call and, likewise, no one calling me. A phone call would be inefficient in contrast with my speed, anyway.

Ever the desperate moron, I gave one last glance behind me, hoping to catch sight of my obsession. There was nothing but empty silver paths surrounded by silver trees.

Just as well, I thought.

Where are we going?

"Where we should have gone five minutes ago," I replied.

I said not another word until we arrived at the ER. When the woman couldn't be resuscitated by the team of doctors and nurses, I had only one thing left to say.

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