Page 48 of Demon's Desire

“There was one called Teen Titans,” I explained. “It was about these teenaged superheroes who fought to save the world. It was really good.”

He watched me for a moment. At first, I was grateful that he was being silent so I could actually hear what was going on in the show. After a few seconds, though, I realized it was a bit weird for him to stay that quiet, so I looked over and saw him staring at me.

“What?” I frowned.

“Were you lonely?” he asked.

“What the hell?” I raised an eyebrow and looked away. “I was fine. Why would you ask a question like that?”

“I’ve been watching people for a while,” he said simply. “When I watch families, they take their kids out to a park, or they play with other kids. The children who watch television all day always look lonely to me.”

I felt my chest tighten when he said that. It had been so long that I hadn’t given much thought to something like that, but…

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I was kind of lonely. I was a weird kid, so I didn’t make a lot of friends. I wasn’t allowed to have Barbies or anything like that. There were a lot of shows other kids liked that I wasn’t allowed to watch. I played make believe and I read a lot of books, and the surrounding kids thought that was strange. If I did make a friend, they weren’t allowed to come over, and I wasn’t allowed to go to their house… Kelly and I didn’t really become friends until we were nine. She swears up and down that we’ve been friends since Kindergarten… But she was actually pretty mean to me back then. Sometimes people remember things differently.”

I honestly didn’t know why I was telling Suldeargan this… aside from him being the only person who had ever really asked.

“Are you lonely now?” He spoke softly.

I glanced at him for a second before looking away again. “Sometimes… I mean, when I got older, I stopped being weird, and I made friends. So it’s not like I’m a loner or anything. But… I don’t know. When we got to college, I was just… I was pretty aware that people wanted to be friends with Kelly first. She was casual and cool and hot. She was interesting. Even Torie and Mica, they were Kelly’s friends first. They’d invite her over, and she’d keep having to say ‘can my roommate come?’ And we’re friends now, we are. I love them. They love me. But… I don’t know.” I sighed and rubbed my face. “I don’t know why I’m bringing any of this up. I have friends. I shouldn’t be lonely.”

I felt Suldeargan pull his arm out from behind the couch. He gently put his hand on my knee. “I’ve been lonely too. Lonely like you have. It was different, but… I understand.”

When he said that, I felt sort of relieved. I had never really talked to anyone about this before, so I’d never actually heard someone say that they understood. I’d never even talked to Kelly about this because I didn’t want to remind her that she hadn’t liked me when we were little or make her feel bad about being popular.

“Will you elaborate?” I asked, looking at him.

He nodded slowly. “Most demons don’t live among humans. It gets risky. If there were a thousand of us in this city, someone would notice. Most demons have their own cities hidden in places that humans can’t find them. That’s where I’m from. A place in Ireland we called Covey. It was named after my family. The Kingdom is underneath a cove called the Giant’s Causeway. It belonged to another group of demons, but my great-grandfather conquered them. They named it Covey, for victory.”

“All right.” I furrowed my brows, but I didn’t ask too many questions. I could tell he was building up to something.

“Anyway… That’s where I’m from.” He shrugged and looked across the room. “Great-grandfather became King. When he passed, grandfather became King, and when he passed, my dad became King. That meant I was a Prince.”

My eyes widened. “You… You’re a Prince?”

“Not anymore.” He sighed. “But my point is… I get it. There’s a very unique kind of loneliness that comes with something like that. People don’t really care who you are. They don’t want to know. They just want to know what you can do for them.”

“Oh… Suldeargan, I’m really sorry,” I said softly. “I can’t even imagine what that was like.” He simply shrugged and pulled his hand back, draping it behind the couch once more. “Um… You said you’re not a Prince anymore. Is that because you left?”

“You could say that.” He shrugged. “At the beginning of last year, a group of demon hunters attacked Covey. There’s a clan of enemy demons, and people thought they led the hunters to us out of spite. More than half of my clan was killed. The ones that survived blamed my parents, so they were executed.”

“What?” I gasped. “Holy shit…”

Suldeargan nodded. “They offered me a choice. I could stay and join my parents in death, or be exiled. I chose exile. I wandered around for a few months, then I found Chicago. I liked the atmosphere. I liked the size. So I decided to stay put here. That hunter has been tracking me all summer, but the city’s so big that I can move around mostly undetected. Except now, I have to stay near you. That makes me a bit of a sitting duck.”

I couldn’t help but notice that he’d changed the topic pretty quickly after talking about his parents’ deaths. “Suldeargan… Can I ask…? Those scars on your chest? Are they–?”

“Yeah.” He nodded. “They’re from the attack. This tattoo is my family symbol. Most clans have one. So hunters made sure to fuck with it whenever they got close enough.”

I hesitated for a second before resting my hand against his shoulder. “I’m really sorry… That’s awful…”

He sighed and stayed quiet for a moment. “Thank you… for your condolences. There were a great number of people who should not have been killed. But I’ve done my grieving. Now I want to live my life without being killed. If I can achieve that, I’ll be happy.”

I nodded. I couldn’t help but notice that he seemed a bit detached about the whole thing. I wasn’t sure if that was a normal part of the grieving process or if demons were just generally cold creatures. “Hey, I’m kind of hungry. I think I’m gonna make some food. Do you want anything? I know you said you don’t need to eat, but you could still enjoy food, right?”

He looked at me for a second, then smiled. “Sure.”

I returned his smile and got up, heading for the kitchen. “So… How old are you? Are you, like, a thousand years old? Or–”