Page 86 of Demon's Desire

A cold chill froze the blood in my veins when he said that. “You… You lied?”

“You believed me?” He smirked and glanced at me. “You’re too precious. I can see why Soul kept you around for so long.”

“You fucking bastard!” I shouted. Logically, the smart thing to do was to stay as still as possible so the flying demon couldn’t drop me, but I wasn’t thinking logically. I was seeing red. I’d be happy to die if it meant protecting everyone I loved, but I refused to die in vain. I reached up and grabbed onto one of his horns with one hand. With the other, I pulled back my fist before slamming it into his face as hard as I could.

He yelled when I did, and he did the most natural thing someone would do in his situation. He dropped me. I started to fall, but I kept a tight grip on the horn in my hand. I still fell, but I took the horn with me, snapping it off of his head.

Tiernan screamed. I held the horn as I fell. For a second, I thought that was it. I’d fall to my death. We were too far off the ground for me to survive. I closed my eyes and started to breathe, ready to accept what was going to happen. Then, before I could, my ass hit something solid and immediately started to sting. The ache spread up my tailbone and onto my back, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Not by a long shot.

“What?” I sat up and looked at the ground. No, it wasn’t the ground. It was a rooftop! I landed on a rooftop and lived. Hell yes! My ass hurt and so did the back of my head and just about everything else, but I was alive!

I started to stand up when Tiernan suddenly landed in front of me. There was blood coming from his nose and dripping from the small stub that remained of the horn I tore off. Wait, no. It wasn’t blood. Suldeargan said they had something resembling blood, but it wasn’t quite the same thing. That explained why the fluid dripping from Tiernan’s nose and horn was almost the same pale blue color as his skin.

His fists were clenched, and he looked pissed. I didn’t totally blame him. I’d probably be pissed if I were him. Then again, this was all his fault, so I didn’t feel any sympathy for what I’d done. And I certainly didn’t feel any sympathy for raising the horn in my hand and using it to smack him across the face as hard as I could.

He stumbled back a couple of steps before looking back at me. There was a cut on his cheek where the horn had connected with his skin. His yellow eyes were glowing with rage. Somewhere deep in my heart, I was afraid. I wanted to run. But I didn’t. I’d never outrun him. I couldn’t get away. The best thing I could do would be to stay here and make sure that my death hurt like hell for him.

As he approached, I started to swing the horn again, but he caught it and ripped it out of my hand. As soon as he did, he pulled his arm back, then hit me across the face with the severed horn. I felt it cut my cheek open, and I fell to the ground, but I kept my wits about me. As soon as he took a step in my direction, I kicked at his ankles as hard as I could. I managed to push one of his legs out from under him. He caught his balance and didn’t fall, but it clearly rattled him.

He glared at me and grabbed my hair, tugging up sharply. I cried out and stood up as quickly as I could, but he kept pulling. I grabbed at his hands and clawed at them to get him to release me, but it didn’t work. He guided me over to the edge of the building. I thought he was going to throw me off, but then I saw the fire escape.

Suddenly he stopped and pulled my hair up so I had to stand straight. “Get down the fucking stairs. You try anything and I push you off. Got it?”

I winced until he finally let go of my hair. As soon as he did, he pushed me onto the metal landing. I fell into the rail and had to grab it to balance myself. I felt the entire fire escape start to shake. The structure was clearly weak. My heart started racing as I looked around. He was standing in front of me on the roof. There was nowhere to go but down.

At least if we moved downstairs, he couldn’t threaten to throw me off a roof. That would be a shitty way to die. With that in mind, I complied and started walking down the stairs. I moved slowly, holding tight to the rails. I could see how rusted the structure was, and I didn’t want to jostle it too much.

Tiernan, of course, had a different idea. He practically jumped onto the fire escape, making it shake again. I gasped and gripped the railing tighter. Every step he took behind me was rough and made the stairs move. I honestly wasn’t sure whether he was trying to make the structure fall and kill me or if he was just trying to scare me. Still, I went slowly and held on, and luckily, nothing happened.

When there were about four steps left before the ground, I felt Tiernan’s foot on my back. He pushed hard, knocking me down the stairs. I landed on one hand, one elbow, and one knee. They all hurt. Still, I started to pull myself back up to stand.

He got down to the ground beside me and pushed open a door. When he did, dust filled the air. “Get inside. Now.”

I hesitated, looking around the room first. I wanted to see what I could use as a weapon. Luckily, the large open room was full of old crap. Surely something would be useful.

I took too long, so Tiernan shoved me into the room. I caught myself this time, managing not to fall. My wrist, elbow, and knee still throbbed from the previous spill, not to mention there was still a sharp pain in my chest due to the separation from Soul. I knew he felt it too. Still, at the very least, I knew that I would die soon and his pain would go away.

As soon as I caught my balance in the room, I knew I didn’t have long. I grabbed the closest thing to me, an old, burnt out fluorescent tube bulb. I spun around and raised my hand to hit Tiernan with it, but before I could, he grabbed the arm holding the bulb and quickly twisted it behind my back, making me drop it. It shattered on the ground. Suddenly, I noticed an intense burning sensation on my arm where he had a hold of me. I cried out as it grew worse and tried to struggle out of his grasp. He only laughed.

“Suldeargan should have taught you the first rule about demons. You can’t kill them.”

He grabbed my other arm and forced it behind my back, then started pushing me forward. There was a large column in the center of the room he guided me toward. When we got there, he grabbed a pair of handcuffs and put them on my wrists behind my back. He let go of me and I immediately started to step in the direction of the front door, but before I even made it a foot, he grabbed the cuffs and pulled me back against the column. I felt more metal hit my hands and glared at him as he did something behind my back. Still, at the very least, the burning sensation had ceased. I could tell there was going to be a raw mark left in its place though.

Finally, he stepped away, smirking at me. I tried to move, but I couldn’t seem to go anywhere. I looked back at the column and realized that he had hooked the handcuffs to a chain wrapped around the structure.

“Pervert,” I glared, tugging at the chain.

He laughed, raising one of his hands with his palm facing upward. A flame jumped from his hand, dancing in the air above his skin. “What? Suldeargan doesn’t tie you up like this? That’s a shame. Pretty girls look better on display. And you’re fairly pretty for a human.”

“And you’re fairly hideous by any standards,” I spat. “And now you only have one horn.”

His face fell into a glare and he suddenly slapped me across the face. I could feel the heat from the fire, but at least it didn’t last long this time. “The second Suldeargan gets here, he’s going to watch me kill you. He won’t be able to do anything to stop it.”

“Suldeargan isn’t coming,” I hissed. “He’s going to run. You’ll never find him.”

Tiernan rolled his eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something small. It took me a second before I realized it was a pager. He clicked through a few buttons, though I could tell that he struggled with the razor sharp tips of his claws, then looked up at me, his expression blank. “I suppose we’ll see about that.”

He walked around to the other side of the column. I was sure he was still in the room, but he was walking out of my line of sight just to irritate me. I wouldn’t let it work. I slowly managed to sit down. It was a struggle with my hands behind my back, and it wasn’t comfortable by far, but I wouldn’t let Tiernan see that he’d gotten to me.