Demon Snare (These Immortal Vows Book 1)

by Kestra Pingree

  Just when I’m starting to think I’ll need to go home to recharge before the party even begins, the gates open. The fog seeps out into the waiting crowd, and then everyone is welcomed in by a… costumed werewolf butler.

  Didi drags Connor and me along until we join the crowd in the perfectly trimmed, and too green for the season, front lawn of the Conway Mansion. The speaker system keeps shooting out random howls and screeches. I’m just starting to get used to everything when a deep and foreboding drum sounds from the speakers and the lights flicker out. There’s a collective gasp from the audience, and then the lights turn back on. All of the lights are now trained on Mayor Conway himself. He looks strange in his fancy suit and cape. His white hair is slicked back, and there’s a trickle of fake blood running down his chin. The image makes me think about what Connor suggested he and Didi dress me up like earlier. The mayor must be dressed as a vampire tonight. The Conways really have gone all out for this party.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Mayor Conway begins, “I thank you all for coming this fine, if not a bit chilly, evening. Our beautiful town, Reverie, has changed a lot over the years. We hold old traditions close, but we’ve been changing with the times. I want everyone to enjoy this evening, but I also want to make an announcement. The Guardian Angel is undergoing repairs. What was done to him is inexcusable. I ask that if any of you know anything about that incident, to speak up. Such an act is not condoned by anyone of us here. Let’s keep our community strong. We’re better together. Thank you for your time, and please enjoy your stay.”

  I’ve never seen the mayor act like this. He tried to hide it, but I saw him fidgeting with his collar. If there’s one thing I know, it’s what a nervous tic looks like.

  In another flash of smoke, Mayor Conway disappears, and then the speaker system starts blaring out some music with a constant beat. Didi and Connor start dancing right away. With all their energy, it’s not surprising they look like they were born to dance. Next to them, I’m like a baby giraffe trying to take my first steps. That’s why I save myself the embarrassment and refuse to dance at all—even though Didi tries hard to get me to dance with her. I humor her by bouncing around for a few minutes.

  “I’m going to the refreshments,” I shout over the sound of the music.

  I already feel a headache coming on and we’ve only been here for about 20 minutes. I want to go home. The party isn’t anything dangerous. I don’t feel any negativity. I just feel out of place as an introvert surrounded by overstimulating extroverts.

  The refreshment tables are filled with Halloween-themed foods—none of which look appetizing. There are gummy eyeballs… intestines… I think I’m going to be sick. This celebration definitely won’t invite evil. All it might do is offend it.

  “Tasia? Is that you?”

  My heart stops. Is that Rynne? I’m disappointed when I turn around to see Wyatt.

  What’s wrong with you, brain? Wyatt’s voice sounds nothing like Rynne’s. It must be all this booming music. I don’t know what’s what anymore. I just keep hoping Rynne will pop up and that him kissing that girl will turn out to be nothing but my overactive imagination. I still have feelings for him even though I shouldn’t. I still keep hoping he’ll return my feelings even though I know he won’t.

  “Hi,” I reply to Wyatt. My brain can’t come up with anything better to say. If I did say something more, Wyatt would probably hear my disappointment anyway, and I don’t want that.

  He takes a moment to look me over, and I do the same to him. He’s dressed a lot like how his father is—except for his pompadour. He looks dark, but not because of his costume. There’s something in his eyes.

  “You’re a vampire?” I ask, even though I think it’s fairly obvious.

  “Yeah. What are you?” He furrowed his eyebrows.

  “A kitsune… It’s a Japanese fox demon.”

  “You look stunning.” His voice goes so low I second-guess myself on if those are even the words he said.

  “And you look nice, too,” I say, returning the compliment like you’re supposed to.

  As if on cue, the next song that plays slows down the pace. Wyatt’s eyes dart all around me. He’s having a hard time looking me in the eye, but he does manage to ask, “Can I have this dance?”

  Can I say no? Sure, you could, Tasia, but then you’ll just hurt the guy’s feelings for no reason. Don’t be a jerk.

  “Yes, you can,” I say, immediately feeling the words sour on my tongue.

  Wyatt’s expression doesn’t change as he takes my hand. But he still won’t meet my eyes. I follow him out onto the lawn until he stops in an open space where we’ll have some room to move without running into other people.

  I tell him, “I’m a really bad dancer, though.”

  “Don’t worry about that. I’ll lead.”

  Of course Wyatt knows how to dance. He isn’t the prince of the town for nothing.

  I feel nervous as he places my right hand on his shoulder and my left on his right arm. Then he puts a hand on my waist and starts teaching me how to waltz. He’s slow at first, giving me instructions as he leads. Before I know it, I’m waltzing without tripping over myself or stepping on his toes. That feels like an accomplishment for me—especially in this flowing kimono.

  “You’re a natural at this,” he tells me, but he isn’t smiling.

  I say, “It’s probably just because you’re a good teacher.”

  When the dance ends, an even slower song plays and all the couples come close together, basically hugging and swaying. I’m not comfortable with that. I’m about to pull away when Wyatt surprises me by closing the distance between us, matching the other couples.

  “You shouldn’t have come tonight,” he tells me.

  “What?” My voice comes out as a squeak.

  “You should have stayed home. This isn’t how I wanted it, but he told me I have to. He told me to make you leave.”

  I don’t have time to process what he’s saying before he brings his face down to mine and smashes his lips against mine.

  That’s when my body starts listening to my brain again. The warning signals my brain’s been trying to send out are finally received. I press my hands against Wyatt’s chest and break away from him. I do it with more force and desperation than I intend and end up colliding with one of the other guests.

  Wyatt looks hurt, but also like this is how he expected me to react.

  I bolt. I push my way through the crowd, desperate to get out of this sea of bodies and back to open air where I’ll be able to breathe again, where things might make sense again.

  That look on Wyatt’s face and the words he was saying… None of it sounded like him. Who was he talking about? Who wants me to leave?

  I shake my head and run until I reach my car. Tears are blurring my vision. I’m so frustrated, and I don’t know how to hold the tears in anymore. I’m going to be in so much trouble when I get home, and the worst part is it looks like my parents were right. About something. I don’t know what’s going on, but something is wrong. Terribly wrong.

  This week has officially become the worst week of my life.

  CHAPTER 8

  Arsen

  I DON’T KNOW WHY it took this long for me to catch a whiff of bloodlust. Yuki and I have been searching for signs of who covered up my murder since last night, and it’s only now, a day later, that it seems we’ve found them. The town is muddy tonight, but this kind of darkness must belong to one of my own kind. How have they stayed hidden from me for as long as they have? Even in the skin of their logician, their darkness is a huge blot on an otherwise clean town. It’s like they came and went, in and out, careful to hide themselves from outside of my range until it suited them to draw me in. This is some sort of trap.

  As I stand on the roof of one of Reverie’s houses, I look at the barren road. Two figures are looming down there, obscured in darkness. To anyone else watching, they’d be undetectable, but I can see them perfectly. Unfortunately, their
backs are to me since they are walking in the direction opposite of me. I know one is male and that the other is female, but I don’t bother confirming anything else about their identities aside from the fact that they are natural demons like myself.

  Almost all of the houses around here are empty. Everyone is probably at that Halloween party I keep hearing whispers about. That means my attack will go unnoticed. This couldn’t be any simpler.

  I glance at Yuki as she zips up her jacket a little higher in reaction to the cold breeze that drifts by us.

  “Take the one on the right and I’ll take the one on the left,” I tell her.

  “As you wish.”

  I leap out onto the empty road and tackle my target to the hard asphalt without missing a beat. I hear Yuki land beside me, but her target manages to dodge. Yuki follows the female demon down the road in hot pursuit as the male demon underneath me bursts into a hysterical fit of laughter. That voice. It’s too high-pitched to be what most would consider masculine, but I recognize it. He… feels familiar. I roll him over so I can see his face. His lanky form, stringy brown hair, and almost dimmed-to-gray blood-red eyes haven’t changed a bit. His skin looks paler than what I remember, but it’s definitely him.

  “Drake,” I say. “Imagine running into you here.”

  When his laughing subsides enough for him to speak, he replies, “Arsen. Being awfully forward, don’t you think? We haven’t seen each other in what… eighty years?”

  I sneer. “Eighty-one. But who’s counting? You didn’t call.”

  “Trust me, you wouldn’t have answered.”

  I bring my face close to his, taunting, teasing. “I’m answering now, aren’t I?”

  I let my lips brush across his thin ones, pursed tight. He’s shaking with pent-up energy. He’s trying to resist me, though his beast feels differently.

  “You’re breaking my heart,” I tell him. “Surely you’ve forgiven me by now.”

  “God, how much life essence do you have?” Drake gasps as he stares into my eyes, mesmerized and lusting after more than one thing he wants from me.

  “Much more than you’ve ever seen, I’d wager. You could have had this, too.” I let my lips brush his left ear and whisper, “Why didn’t you escape when I gave you the chance?”

  Drake laughs again, but he’s quivering underneath my weight. His beast is begging for one thing, but his logician is pleading for another.

  “You’re still the angels’ toy,” I growl. “Life out here isn’t as bad as you think. Natural demons aren’t as prominent as you might think either. It’s the made demons that crawl on Terra’s surface like maggots eating the planet’s rotting flesh. It’s easy to rule, it’s easy to go unnoticed, and it’s easy to be unattached. The angels just have too much to take care of in Ilenima to really bother with us here. It’s fucking paradise.”

  I bury my fingers into Drake’s shoulders and allow my beast to manifest partway. Sharp obsidian claws pierce through his hooded jacket and into his flesh. He tries not to whimper or writhe underneath me, but he can’t completely control his reaction. It hurts too much.

  I peel away from him, but I keep my weight on top of him, keeping him pinned to the middle of the empty road. I shouldn’t have to inflict any more pain on him. He knows I’m not messing around. I hope it will be enough to get him talking because I don’t want to expend the effort to do whatever it takes to make him submit to me, and then rip the answers out of his soul.

  “You think I’d believe your lies? Unlike some demons, I want to keep living,” he says with a grin.

  I reply, “If you answer my questions, then maybe I’ll grant you that.”

  “I’m here because the Oracle, Cassius, personally asked me to come.”

  “Is that right? And I thought the Servant Program was ruined.”

  “Oh, it is. It doesn’t exist anymore. Ilenima now is nothing like you’d remember. I think they’re getting ready to exterminate us. At the very least, they want to exterminate all of you living in Terra.”

  “Then what the hell, Drake? Why did Cassius send you here? Are you and your little accomplice who ran off with Yuki the ones who covered up my murder? Why would you do something like that?”

  “It’s over, Arsen. The angels have what they’ve been waiting for: the key to destroying us, the key to destroying you. If I live through this assignment, I’ll be spared whatever fate is in store for the rest of you. Angels never lie.”

  “Yes, they do. I can’t believe what an idiot you are.”

  “No, you’re the idiot.”

  I feel a sharp pain in my stomach as Drake’s beast takes over his arms, shooting vine-like ropes of flesh into my own flesh, ripping open my skin and tearing through organs. Damn it.

  I keep my voice perfectly level when I say, “Bad move.”

  My beast rips through, taking control of my actions and hands as I slash at Drake’s piercing vines with my sharp claws. Drake screams as the severed bits of his flesh fall out of my stomach and land in a gory mess right on top of him. My wound heals almost instantly, and then I dig my claws into his chest. I can tear through and steal his heart at any moment.

  “I wasn’t going to kill you, Drake. But I can’t let a demon full of angel shit continue living. You don’t even have enough life essence to recover from what I just did to you. Yet, here you are, still serving the angels, the ones responsible for doing this to you in the first place. Where is your pride? Where is your anger?”

  He chokes. “Fine. Kill me if you want to, but don’t you want to see her?”

  I plunge my claws into his chest, and he gasps. I nearly have my hand wrapped around his beating heart when he screams, “Don’t you want to see the angels’ weapon?!”

  “What do you take me for, exactly?” I give his pumping heart a little squeeze. I relish the feeling of warm blood coating my hand.

  “A-Arsen,” he gasps, “I’m not playing. The angels really do have something, someone. She’s going to ruin you. That has to be her now! Just down that road!” He points frantically, hand shaking, at a white car that gets lost not too far in the distance.

  He’s only trying to save his skin. He’s still trying to carry out some mission Cassius put him on.

  “We’re done talking,” I say. Then I tear out his pumping heart and consume it as he watches.

  His already dull eyes lose all color and luster as he dies. I pound my chest as I force myself to swallow the last chunk of his heart. Hearts are much easier to swallow when my beast is in full control of my appearance. It can swallow a heart in one gulp. It’s not so easy for my logician. The last chunk of his heart burns my throat as it slides down into my stomach. It’s a wicked sensation. A wickedly delicious sensation.

  I didn’t have to do that.

  It’s not like he had even a week’s worth of life essence to give me, but it’s become a habit. I’ve devoured more hearts than I care to count.

  I hold Drake’s limp body up by the collar of his jacket. His body is starting to fade as it gives off a weak glow. Soon he will be nothing more than a distant memory.

  As glittering particles take pieces of his body and drift into the air, I drop him unceremoniously back onto the asphalt. I don’t care to see him off.

  “Just down the road!” His voice echoes in my ears.

  My eyes flicker to where Drake pointed. He was probably lying. He would have said anything if it meant saving his skin. Then again, if he was lying, taking a look can’t hurt.

  CHAPTER 9

  Tasia

  I DO MY BEST to focus on driving, but tears keep blurring my eyes, making it hard to see in the already dark night. My mind is racing, and I think I’m hyperventilating. I don’t care if I’m going to get in trouble when my parents see me. Right now, I want nothing more than to see them and to tell them everything that’s been going on. They’ll help me fix it. They always have.

  You’re such a child, Tasia.

  I bite my lip and cry harder. The makeup Didi worked so h
ard on is probably dripping down my face, making me look more like a monster than ever; the fake eyelashes have already fallen off because of all my crying. The beautiful kitsune I’m supposed to be dressed up as is long gone. Now I’m sure I look how I feel: a mess.

  My breaths start to go back to normal when I turn onto the road that will take me straight to my house. I expect my house to be the only one with the lights on since everyone in town seems to be at that party, but I’m wrong. My house looks just as dark and empty as the ones next to it. Did my parents go out somewhere?

  As I pull into the gravel driveway, I check my phone again to make sure I don’t have any new messages. None.

  This doesn’t feel right. Nothing has been feeling right.

  I get out of my car and lock the door behind me. I can’t see very well in the dark, but since I know this trail like the back of my hand, I manage not to stumble as I walk up to the porch. When the porch light finally decides to turn on, I see that the front door is already open.

  I gasp.

  Not just open, it’s busted. The door is barely hanging on to its hinges. It’s leaning toward the floor, creaking slightly in the chilly breeze. It looks like someone or something ran into it. Splintered pieces of wood dust the entrance, and some of the pieces are clinging to the carpet as they sit upright, waiting for someone to step on them like a bed of nails.

  “Mom… Dad…,” I say carefully.

  I can feel my heart racing and my hands trembling as I grip my phone. I turn on my phone’s flashlight, and shine the light in front of me, nervous about taking a step inside. I have shoes on, but if this is what the entrance looks like, I don’t want to know what the rest of the house looks like.

  Then I see red. There’s red painted on the floor, running past the living room.