Demons Only Covet

I've Seen Worse

Screeches filled the air. At times it was so loud Adalina had to cover her ears. Other times it was hard to tell if the screams were from monsters of from steel on scales and bone.

Cautiously she peered through the curtains on the door. Soldiers and horses flashed by the carriage, defending it and her. Kane, or the demon possessing him, weren't in sight.

Then no one was. She could see blood and broken branches painting the landscape, but no people. No monsters.

They left her there? Analina wrinkled her nose and gathered her dress in fists. Assholes.

Either that or they were all dead.

Her anger won out. They'd better be all dead.

She opened the door and stepped out, expecting to see a massacre or make one. She stomped to the front of the carriage, listening for any sign of battle. The coachman's seat was empty, streaked with blood and deep gouges. The horse was dead, half-gone. The front half, poor thing.

From within the bushes, a groan.

Analina gathered her skirts and found a soldier, also half-gone, but this time it was the back half. He was moving and groaning, but wasn't long for this world without any legs. She grew cold all over.

Before she could decide to do anything, he stopped moving. She picked up his sword from a few feet away and walked up the road until she couldn't see his corpse anymore. She felt bad for wishing they were dead, even in snarky anger.

Analina kept walking until the trees thinned. She hoped it was a village, but the parting forest on her right only showed a steep slide down to a ravine thick with plant life. The rest of the forest held a cliff together on their side of the slide. From somewhere in the distance, a monster's roar called.

She needed to keep moving and find a town. Shelter. Demons were mostly about trickery, but monsters were all about teeth and feasting on flesh. She knew where her strengths lay.

She turned away from the ravine and back to the road. When it rained, this part of the road likely washed out, she thought. Her eyes travelled up the other side the road to a rough foothill.

And at the top, a leathery monster crouched.

Analina took a slow breath and adjusted her grip on the sword. She had no finesse, but she could swing one. She stuck her chin in the air and centered her weight as the creature stepped forward. Its nails dug into the earth and it prowled like a cat toward its prey.

In the distance, she heard someone calling, "My Lady!" But the voice was small and too far away. They'd be lucky if they found the metal but she wove into the end of her braid. It would likely get stuck between the monster's teeth as it broke her bones for the marrow.

It was moving slowly, carefully. Then it wasn't.

The beast took off from its crouch and lay itself across the land with four long strides. It was suddenly upon her. She lifted the sword and stepped aside with a hair's width between her and the stinking heat of its scaled skin.

The sword skittered across its natural armor and made her hands buzz from the contact.

This was a terrible idea. She was going to die.

The creature whirled, its talons scraping an arc of dust in the air. Once all its sharp bits were pointed back in her direction, its muscles coiled to spring forward again. She wouldn't be fast or lucky enough to move in time.

Then the monster exploded.

Blood splattered on her dress, her face, and across her eyes. She reached up numbly to wipe it off her face, and when she opened her eyes, Kane-not-Kane was in front of her.

His eyes were a deep blood red. His teeth looked sharper, his muscles taut and straining against the dress shirt he wore, the suit jacket long gone. After the monster, he was somewhat less frightening than before. Analina stood dumbstruck. He reached for her and she froze without thinking.

He felt her arms, quickly patting and squeezing them, then he took her face in his hands and turned her head gently to each side.

"You're not hurt?"

Adalina came to and brushed his hands away; he complied. "I will be if you keep trying to break my neck."

His brows knotted and he crossed his arms, but he kept his hands to himself. The concerned creases didn't leave his face. Analina felt something kind unfurl within her and she softened. Just a little.

"I'm fine. My hands hurt from the sword's contact but that's it. I got lucky."

She took a moment to notice the sword, which had fallen to the ground at her feet. One side of the sword had visibly lost its edge. She should be dead.

"How did you...?" she asked, looking over his shoulder at the beast bleeding onto the ground. It was becoming clearer what had stopped the monster. It was Kane.

It was the demon living inside Kane.

She could see the downshift from hyper focused and overly concerned to haughty and cocksure. He straightened and went to pick up the large broadsword from in the demon's hide. He flicked the blood from it with one hand, as if a child were flinging water from a spoon. It was almost comical, watching him swing a sword nearly as long as he was tall as a human might treat a butter knife.

He adjusted his grip and offered her an arm as if they were going for an afternoon stroll. She settled her fingers in his elbow.

"You faced down the monster, with no discernible sword skills," he observed.

"It was foolish."

"There aren't many other options in a situation like that." He turned to look at her, approval in his eyes. "If you are going to die, die fighting."

She scoffed. "Brave words from one who can't die."

"This body can. I can be sent back to the Mountain." He looked briefly in a sort of northerly direction. "That is a small death I can have."

"So you can come back?"

"With another Pact, yes. I've been with this family for six generations, and I don't see that going anywhere." They finished their short wak and arrived back at the broken carriage. The soldiers were clearing the road. Among them, Callum was the one giving directions and sorting items. Several bodies lay nearby in a neat row, their faces covered. "But you can't come back; there are no small deaths for humans."

Analina grew quiet, looking at the blood splattered across the grass.

"You're taking lessons with Callum."

"I'm sorry, what? Lessons?"

"Yes, sword technique. Defense."

She looked at the soldiers, finding Callum in their lot. His face was stern and serious. They had just lost some of their own and the day wasn't nearly over. Callum caught her staring and his expression shifted. Analina couldn't read it. Anger? Grief? His mouth was set in a single line and he hardly blinked.

"I don't think he would be interested."

Demon-driven Kane snarled. "He'll do it."

He adjusted his arm until her hand was held in his. "Come. There's many miles to walk before the next town."

He barked orders at the soldiers, then turned back up the road, hauling Analina behind him.