The Red Hunter

C h a p t e r 2 8

The woman in front of me was no woman at all. And she wasn't the owner of the face she was wearing either.

It was Circe, and it had taken the body of Edvige's missing granddaughter.

And Edvige's granddaughter had probably been the most beautiful woman in the world when she was still alive.

Her dark skin had warm undertones that reminded me of sunlight shining through thick amber stones. The tall figure she was gifted with had giving curves that gave her femininity some fierceness that almost seemed empowering. The length of her natural curls brushed just above her collarbone and her hair seemed so wild and free I envied how unchained she seemed.

But those high cheekbones and pouty lips were no longer hers. Neither were her strong fingers, her proud nose, or her uptilted eyes encased in naturally sooty lashes, simular to the features of a feline.

No, it was what was in her eyes that yielded all control. The blackness within that belonged to the monstrous creature peeking through. Edvige's granddaughter was gone, and in her place an imposter using her skin. It was disgusting, and it was the ways of survival.

Circe floated over to where I was standing at the edge of the roof -- to where Jack's silver bow lay a few feet away from me. She picked up the weapon with a smooth motion and with one hand, ran it down the bow's metal spine.

"What are you going to do with his bow?" I asked her as she slung it across her back. I didn't want to give away how uneasy she was making me. How angry and agitated I still was to see someone hold another's sacred weapon.

"I'll make a trade with him later most likely," Circe replied with a devious grin. I prayed he would somehow get it back without making a deal, although it was unlikely.

I watched her carefully as she tilted her head towards the sleeping city below, like a dark shadow looming over a sleeping child. Knowing that she was a demon shouldn't have changed anything because there was nothing I could change, and yet at the same time the label was everything.

I didn't know nearly enough about them as I should've, but I wasn't sure if I even wanted to. It didn't help that Circe was apparently on a different level than the others of her kind.

She felt my stare and her dark gaze moved to lock with mine. We stared at each other, neither of us giving away any emotion.

Finally, she spoke. "So you really do know." There was nothing questioning about her tone.

"Did you think it was all a bluff?"

"Yes," she answered plainly as she assessed me.

I didn't know whether or not to be offended by how easily she disregarded my word, but chose to think nothing of it and moved on to what was more important in the moment.

"What you are, the deal, why you change into forms that aren't your own -- I know."

She gave me a radiant smile before stroking a finger across her blood-splatter flesh. "And what are you going to do about it? Not run in fear I hope, because after a while it's not much fun. Your mother would know all about that."

I tried to ignore the comment. "You're in luck then, because I'm not much of a runner." Circe's smile grew wider as I spoke. "But for so much talk, you seemed to be the one running from those three hunters earlier." I now bore a small, immoral smile of my own. I might not have been the demon she was, but I was still devious in every way.

I caught the flash of annoyance my words caused in her eyes, but she schooled her emotions as quickly as they came and tried to play nice to my amusement.