Alex yanked out her seat, dumped her bag and slid into a chair beside me as the bell chimed.
Pulling myself together, I knew I needed to show good manners, and looked over my shoulder with an apology for the person I had knocked. I stiffened then looked forward, but the damage was already done. Not feeling up for a confrontation, I tried to make myself as small as possible in my seat. You know how people say if you stand up to bullies they’ll back down, leave you alone, and show respect? It’s a load of bull in my experience. I stood up to Zoe on my first day; I wasn’t a pushover after all. She’d never laid a finger on me again, but swapped physical beatings for mental torture. Zoe was a large, sharp, pain in my ass. I wanted to be left alone to do my own thing, but she couldn’t help but make me feel more like a misfit. I peeked to see if she was going to start something.
She glared at me, her heavily freckled face twisted. “Reject,” she spat dragging a brush through masses of over dyed purple hair. Her sleeve fell down with the stroke and I saw she’d been marked now, a snake eating its own tail wrapped around her wrist.
Alex heard her, and whilst I sunk further down in my seat, she twisted round to flip the finger so forcefully the table rocked. She added a mouthed ‘screw you’ for good measure.
“You see her mark?” Alex said in a low aside to me. “Takes more than the power of the Ouroboros to purify a she-devil.”
This exchange hadn’t gone unnoticed, and the other Disciples turned to look at me. My morning was slowly tumbling into hell, and my best friend was not helping. Alex was older than me in age not maturity. She’d turned twenty a few months before and was a few weeks behind me in classes. I had hoped she would take the final exam the same time as me so we could go over to the Temple together. It wouldn’t happen if she failed her physical. She’d have to retake the whole of grade six, and I didn’t want to have to fail another exam to keep pace with her.
A milky brown skinned boy with thick cornrows threw a wad of paper at the back of Zoe’s head. “Not cool, Zo. Leave her be.” His black-rimmed eyes looked overly large in his thin face, and his blazer hung open to show his naked chest, belly piercing and marks. Jeans worn and slashed at the knee, his boots were scuffed and unlaced.
I smiled warmly. “Hai, Ro. Where have you been?”
“Slums, on assignment,” he replied. His eyes were on Alex who now stared at the table.
I twisted round further in my seat and bit my lip. I had loads of questions I wanted to ask. The slums were melting pots of every religion, race and minority you could think of. So intermixed there was little distinction between skin colors. Occasionally you got the odd throw backs, like Alex, who were dark and some, were pale or oriental in appearance and feature, but most were a creamy tan.
Slum shacks were shabby structures tacked onto old buildings. Made from wood, plastics, metal basically any material you could get your hands on. Nothing was wasted but then nothing was fixed either. The result was a mish-mash of junk and bric-a-brac homes, riddled with drug dens and whorehouses. The occasional Sect church stood out like a bleeding human in a hungry vampire nest. The Sect took over the churches and gutted the insides to fill them with literature preaching the Doctrine that kept us safe. The luxuries held in Sect churches, like books, candles and fabric were never stolen. Not unless you wanted to be stung up naked outside the Wall for a hungry demon to come teach you a fatal lesson.
As bad as the slums were, it was the place where the most talented and down to earth people lived. For every drug dealer selling slammers, the most popular narcotic of choice since the Rupture since it suppressed the appetite, there was a talented musician strumming a tune and singing a song. For every streetwalker there was a crew of dancers doing their thing. Artists drew on the floors and sides of buildings with chunks of rough chalk, knowing that rains that came every day would wash it away, but still happy to sketch all day long. Yeah, there was good in the slums. As Disciples we had no spare time, and only got to leave the Temple grounds to either train or complete an assignment. I’d only ever had one that had taken me into the heart of the slums. I’d been dying to go back ever since.
Ro saw all the questions on my face and winked at me. “We talk all about it later and I say hai proper,” he said.
It didn’t take long for my mind to wander. The fairy-boy from that morning was running around the Temple looking for me, waiting for me. I hoped no one else saw him. No human could appear and disappear without a trace so quickly, and it would be clear he was 'other'. That he was a demon that had managed to get around the Wall without tripping the klaxon; after all I’d done it too. The thought of him being discovered was making me feel slightly sick. I even threw up in my mouth a little.
I heard, rather than saw Cleric Tu step into the room. I knew what he’d look like from memory. His hair was a messy confusion of dark curls, and his shoulders were broad. He was young, cheerful and nice to look at. He was also a murderer. Few would call him that since most humans would see the death of a demon as belated justice, even the death of a demon-child.
I took a deep breath and looked up. It wasn’t so bad. I didn’t recoil or blanch at the sight of him. My stomach turned over but no one could see that.
Perched on the edge of his desk, he took a crunching bite of apple. My mouth watered. An apple? Fruit. Where the hell had he gotten that? He definitely had friends in high places, because there weren’t many fruit bearing trees inside the Wall, and getting any fresh produce was rare. Our dietary staples were caffeine, sugar and bread. There were few people wandering around who were not emaciated looking, and it was usually a sure sign the person was a Priest or related to one. Only they could afford to eat enough to be anything other than thin. Maybe it was like a bonus scheme. Kill a demon-child and get an apple. Chucking his crimson blazer and satchel behind him, he smiled, stretched, and a few girls and guys sighed as the muscles on his torso rippled under his thin tunic.
“Who can tell me the standard attributes of identifying a demon?” he asked. Dead silence was broken by a giggle, and the squeak of a shifting chair. His eyebrows rose high at the lack of enthusiasm, mouth pulling down. “Don’t make me pick you one by one.”
A few hands climbed lazily.
I was too busy doodling a picture of silver eyes on my notepad to lift mine. Hs eyes had calmed me down that morning when I was half out of my mind. Maybe on paper they could help too.
“Yes, Jono,” Tu said.
“Vampires,” Jono, a decent looking boy from the upper dwells began, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his crooked nose, “have a body temperature below fifteen, descendible canine teeth, fixed cellular activity, and the appetite for plasma most easily found in–”
“Aint it cruel to call them demons?” Alex cut in thoughtfully. “It be like the vampires calling us bloodsacks.”
Jono sent a scathing look her way, continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “Shifters can change to a single other form, and this metamorphosis tends to present itself during–”
“Why we humans always gotta be placing names on things,” she added after a few beats.
“Then there are witches,” said Jono through his teeth, face twisted sourly, “Who can be male or female, and manipulate matter with the power of–”
“They evil and that’s that,” Ro told Alex, sending her a slow smile. “What else we call them?”
“I’m speaking,” Jono spat, his glare switching between the both of them.
Alex dragged her eyes from Ro’s chest and glared at Jono. “Dwells,” she muttered. “Think reading and writing good makes you better than us.” Tipping her chin up, her voice rose. “I got as much right to talk as you do.”
He sneered at her. “Life sucking mambo.”
She lurched up, knocking her seat over. Then waved him forward. “You talk much. Let us see how you do with no teeth.”
Mambos were the name of voodoo Sorcerers eradicated by the Sect nearly a decade before. It was well known that Alex’s mother had dabb
led in black magic, and was whispered that not only had she dabbled, but was a proficient Sorceress of the craft. Her dark past was not something the upper dwells let Alex forget, and though she did not embrace her origins, she didn’t deny them either.
The sound of Tu slamming his fist on a desk cut above the shouts of encouragement from the other Disciples. “Show disrespect to the slum dwells and you disrespect me,” he said and made eye contact with everyone. “Anybody does it again and we’ll have a problem. Alex, cool it.”
Setting her chair right, Alex sat back down and shot daggers at everybody, mumbling obscenities under her breath. I caught her eye and saw the tears there. I wasn't the only one. Jono flushed, the colour spreading out from his cheeks to kiss his hairline and darken his neck.
Satisfied the peace had been restored, Tu’s handsome face returned to its normal cheerful mien. “Carry on,” he said.
“Of course, Lord Cleric,” Jono replied somberly.
Ro, not one to forgive and forget, mimed a neck slicing action at him. He would have to watch his step in the days to come. Ro had come from the slums too, born into one of the gang families who were rumored to have a Bokor in their ranks; a man with white hair who called malevolent corpses back from the grave. I myself thought it was simply the skewed reputation of an old man who was good with herbs and medicine, as did the Temple Priests. The slums had been searched for practitioners of witchcraft and black magic, but none had been found.
“The last is goblin,” Jono continued in a somewhat humbler voice than before. “The gene presents itself from conception and is visible from birth. Disfigurement of the humanoid form can vary from slight to severe. Goblins show increased strength and animal like senses, but have notably low levels of intelligence.”
I rolled my eyes. Demon species classification was easy; a panhandler could have told Tu that information. After all, you should know the full extent of how screwed you were if a demon managed to breach the Wall and cross your path, apart from me, of course. I took a long moment to feel special then scolded myself, because my situation was dangerous and creepy, not special.
“Impressive,” Tu said dryly. “But I think you’ll find you forgot one.”
Jono looked confused. “I named all demons known to man.” He flicked a page of his textbook. His eyes widened and he pushed the book away. “I named all real demons; I didn’t think we needed to reference extinct species. Should I have mentioned the silver backed ape as well?”
A smattering of Disciples laughed, but I found nothing funny about it. So many animals had been lost during the Rupture. During the fighting it seemed everyone forgot that there were other creatures than the ones that could talk, and be heard by fighting back. Nevertheless, intrigued like others around me, I flicked to the relevant chapter in my book. I paused, scanned the summary of demons, and my eyes snagged on the name.
Tu said, “Fairy. There have been eighty-seven recorded sightings of creatures with humanoid appearance in the last year.”
I stifled a little bubble of hysteria. A grin stretched my face until I thought my lips would split down the middle. Alex sent me an odd look, and quirked her eyebrow as if to ask ‘what’s so funny?’ I pulled my face together and waved her away.
“Lord Cleric, you’re asking us to consider fairies flying around the region sprinkling dust and spouting riddles?” Jono’s was incredulous. “They’re practically extinct.”
Ro snorted a laugh, and it smothered out the wild giggle I couldn’t seem to contain.
“I think on it, and can’t believe it,” he said. “No Cleric has confirmed sighting of a fairy.” Flicking the side of his nose a few times with his thumb, he snorted again.
He caught Alex watching him from the corner of her eye and winked. She fought a smile. Looked like they were going to make up and play nice again. Ro was a complicated endeavor that Alex could not seem to get a handle on. They were always breaking up, seeing other people then coming back together again. Ro liked Alex, a lot, but he liked guys too, and it seemed to be something she couldn’t get her head around.
The class kept up this train of topic for a while, so I tuned out, lazily scratching pictures into the table surface with my pen cap.
“That’s an interesting necklace you have on,” said a hushed voice.
My hand slid to cover the leather tie and the circular golden pendant that hung from it. Devlin leaned out of his chair, closer to me.
“Ta,” I said and turned back around. He moved closer. I shifted away and tried to focus on what Ro was saying, but he wasn’t finished.
“Can I see it?”
“No,” I answered frankly without looking at him.
“It’s important to you.”
“Yes.”
“May I ask why?”
He was not getting that arms crossed, face turned away signaled I did not want to talk. Scowling, I faced him. “It’s all I have from my past.”
He gave me an apologetic look. “It reminds you of your family.”
I smiled tightly. “It reminds me every day that people can throw you away like trash, and to trust no one but yourself.”
“You sound bitter,” he said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, well.” I was done with the conversation. I turned away again, slid deeper into my chair but found my hand rising. Tu signaled to me with a nod. “Sorry if this is random, I haven’t been following the conversation.” I shot a pointed look at Devlin. “Why all of a sudden are we focusing on fairies? I’ve noticed my classes in the last month keep picking it up as the main study topic.”
“We have orders to increase your training on lesser known beings, in particular fairies. There has been increased activity and sightings near the Wall.”
My heart tripped a little in my chest. “Increased?”
“Forty in the last month.”
“Where?”
Tu’s gaze bored into mine. “Here, around the Temple.”
I swallowed and scrunched my hands into fists on my knees. The silence thickened, and several sharp intakes of breath sounded throughout the room.
“Do we know why?” asked Devlin.
“No,” Tu replied. “But we can make an educated guess. This is where the greatest protectors of our race are trained. A demon gaining access to this Temple would be disastrous. They know this, and since we first came here we’ve suffered the odd attack.” He pushed his hands out in an open and calming gesture. “And that is why you should not worry. Every attack made by a demon on this Temple has failed. The Wall keeps us safe, and when it is breached we erase the danger.”
He paused, and paced back and forth across the classroom floor. Hands behind his back his eyes were on the floor. His face had become drawn, dark. Is that what he thought he’d done earlier, erased a danger? My stomach lurched as my eyes wandered over his crimson blazer. It was hard to look at him straight. I wanted to stand and shout and point and tell everyone how sick and twisted he was.
“Tell me, how you would identify a fairy?” he asked as if plucking the question from the air.
“Textbooks say fairies are the most diverse of all demon kind,” Jono started. “Some have bright colored hair and funny colored eyes, but all are noted to have an in-depth connection with nature, and possess inhuman strength, speed, and regenerative ability.” Jono’s mouth opened, breathing in deeply, no doubt about to spew more statistical nonsense.
My hand shot up.
Dark eyebrows climbing at the forceful thrust of my hand, Tu jerked his chin at me. “Rae, you have something else to add?” There was faint surprise in his tone.
I could admit I was a more sit in silence then ace all my exams type, but just looking at him had all sorts of questions swirling around my mind.
“Lord Cleric,” I said thickly then had to grunt a few times to clear my windpipe. Bile had risen at having to address this man with the honorific. “I know despite the reports of sightings that fairies are rare, but have… Have you ever seen one? Up close, I mean? ”
<
br /> He stopped pacing, and his mouth opened then closed. He stared at me hard before rubbing a large hand over his face. “No. I have never seen a fairy. They are incredibly rare demons.”
I cocked my head and my mouth won out over logic. “Have the Clerics ever caught a fairy? They hunt vampires and shifters all the time, but I’ve never heard of them actually catching that particular type of demon.”
From the corner of my eye I saw Devlin shift in his chair. I was not surprised. People didn’t question Clerics like this. The only reason I was managing it is because I’d seen Tu in his most base form. He had lost all my respect so it was nothing to talk to him as an equal.
His eyes went wild, glassy with repressed panic. Could no one else see it? “Like I said they are so rare–”
The direction of my thought changed abruptly, “If they haven’t,” I interrupted and tapped Alex’s textbook with a finger, “how does the Sect know to put such detail in our books?”
Now I’d looked, they’d even described different variations of fairy coloring. Once you’d seen it, it was so striking it was not something you could ever forget. How could the Sect know that, and why had I not noticed before?
His eyes darted to and from mine. He placed his palms up, pushed them out. “Such beings are commonly–”
My mind flashed to the fairy in the clearing, all that blood and sizzling skin. The ruthless way he had behaved made my gut churn and my expression darken. “The Sect is lying.” Someone to my left made a choking sound of disbelief. “They must have studied these demons, and for some reason you don’t want us to–”
The Demon Girl Page 6