Halfling (Black Petals Book 1)

by Tarisa Marie

  “Nice to meet you, Mr. Castile,” I greet him, not sure if I should offer him my hand to shake.

  “I’ll get these, Hermus, thanks though,” Aiden says eagerly to the man grabbing for two duffle bags in the back of the vehicle, my duffle bags. A part of me is relieved that I at least have some of my things here. Darius must’ve taken them at the same time he took me. “Please, Megan, call me Aiden.”

  “Aiden,” I say through a forced smile. Aiden is by far the cutest demon I’ve met, not that this is something I should be worrying about right now. I search myself for a blip of emotion. Is it bad that I want to feel immense fright, but I can’t? What is wrong with me lately? Is it possible that I’m still in shock? Well, yeah, Megan, you were just abducted by demons again. You just met your father. You just found out about demons a couple days ago! Of course you’re in shock.

  “Hermus, can you look around the property for Jane? I can’t seem to find her,” Aiden mutters sadly and slings one of my bags over his shoulder.

  “Yes, sir,” Hermus smiles, closes the vehicle doors, then disappears.

  “What a stupid dog, she’s always getting herself into trouble,” Aiden mutters. He motions to house, and I follow him to the front door robotically.

  “Jane is your dog?” I ask him surprised, not that I should be surprised that he has a dog, there’s not really any reason demons wouldn’t have dogs.

  “Yeah, she’s just a puppy, and she seems to want to explore often. She gets lost sometimes,” he explains while opening the door.

  I close it behind us.

  “Let me get that for you,” a man in the foyer says and approaches Aiden to help with what he’s carrying.

  “No, no, I can get it, thanks,” Aiden insists.

  The man, who I assume is a servant backs off, looking confused.

  Aiden leads me to bedroom down the hall. “Sorry, I’ve just received new servants, and they’re always wanting to help, even when help isn’t needed. I know I can’t blame them for doing their jobs, but it gets rather annoying. This will be your room, you should get cleaned up and relax. I’ll be at the end of the hall when you’re ready.”

  I gawk at my surroundings. The inside of the house is just as extravagant as the outside.

  I’m thankful for the privacy and the chance to shower and change out of my pajamas. I rush into the bathroom and turn on the hot water. At least it could be worse. Most people who get kidnapped get beaten or raped. Here I am in the fanciest shower I’ve ever stepped foot in, and I have my own huge room even bigger and fancier than the one Crispen gave me at his place. God, I have so many questions. If demons are so evil, then why am I in this beautiful rain shower right now?

  When I’m done cleaning up and taking a look at my sore forehead, I head down the hall, desperate for answers.

  “Ma’am, would you like me to get you anything?” a red-headed man in the hall asks.

  “No thank you, sir,” I answer him flippantly, my eye on the room at the end of the hall. I gaze through the glass door of the room to see Aiden beating on a punching bag violently. I was right in assuming that demons are incredibly fast like the hunters. He moves so quickly that I barely see him. I swallow hard. I watch for a moment longer, before he realizes that I’m standing here staring at him wide-eyed. The corners of his lips shoot up, and he leaves the room.

  “Hey, is everything to your liking?” he asks me not huffing and puffing like I thought he’d be.

  I nod. “Your home is beautiful.”

  “Yeah, a little too big for just me, but I have to keep appearances up,” he agrees.

  I look at him questioningly.

  “You were raised human, right? Do you think all of this is necessary?” he asks me, motioning to our surroundings.

  I obviously shake my head.

  “I was born here amongst the humans too, not as a halfling but as a pure blood. I wasn’t raised in hell like many pure bloods are, in fact, I’ve only been there a few times, though I don’t tell people that. Again, I have to keep appearances up. You could say that I’m not your average demon, Megan. I’m probably about as human as a demon gets, but I put on a pretty damn good show,” he explains, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. “I would guess that Blayne didn’t tell you much, and you probably have a million questions, so let’s go sit down for a moment,” he suggests.

  We make our way into an elegant living room, and he hands me a beer from a mini fridge. I don’t refuse it. I take three quick gulps. I know alcohol doesn’t at all help with dehydration, but it’ll have to do for now.

  “You live alone?” I ask after a moment of silence.

  He smiles. “Technically I live with you now. I also have ten servants and twenty-four guards.”

  My jaw drops. “Why?”

  “I’m kind of an important person. The higher our ranking, the more servants and guards are assigned to us by the head office. Even if you don’t want them, you get them.” He says the last part as if he tried to get rid of them or something.

  “Head office?”

  “Hell. They make all the decisions there. I call it the head office. Calling it hell is too weird.”

  I fake a smile. I can’t argue with that.

  “Yeah, I know this is probably super weird for you, and I don’t want to make this really terrible for you, okay? There are a few things I am required to teach you and a few rules you have to follow, other than that, you can do whatever. You can leave here whenever you want as long as you take guards with you. I’m not going to control you. You’re an adult,” Aiden promises seriously. “I put together a book of fun demon facts and pointers for you,” he says with fake enthusiasm and hands me a huge, leather bound book. “Please read it as fast and thoroughly as possible. It’s important.”

  I want to groan, but truthfully it might be nice to read up on demons. Learning all that I can is probably my best bet at getting out of here.

  “I’ll give you a quick rundown. You have two guards. Hermus and Vandike. I’ve sent them outside to give us some privacy. You have to have these guards, but no one will know the difference if they’re not on you at all times while you’re on the property. If you want them out of your face, tell them to go find something to do, they have to listen to you. As far as that goes, they legally belong to you as wrong as that is. Now that you know about this world, you are basically registered into the census of demons, and you now must adhere by demon rules not human rules. It’s not common for halflings to be born, but it does happen, and they must be raised in the human world until the age of eighteen. At that time, the demon parent chooses whether or not to bring them into this world. If they choose to bring them into this world, then they are to mentor their child unless they cannot. Your father, because of his work, cannot do this. So, you were assigned to me by the head office. Your father recommended me to them, and I accepted the offer to mentor you, mainly because I’m bored and need something to keep me busy. I could use the company honestly. I’ve been bored as a rock since my daughter died and have been dedicating my life to working and training the odd guard and halfling.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” I say automatically. “What happened to her?”

  “Hunters killed her a decade or so ago in the city at the town fair,” he tells me sadly, nibbling his bottom lip a little. “Anyways, that’s life I guess. When you live as long as I have and am what I am, you see death very often.” He’s quiet for a moment, and I know he’s thinking about his daughter. His eyes are deep in thought.

  I don’t say anything, because I don’t know what to say. From what I can tell the past few hours being around demons, they’re not quite the heartless assholes that Crispen, Mason, and Aria made them out to be. Could they have been wrong about demons? I’m completely at a loss for how to feel about them. Sure my dad wasn’t what I’d call a cup of joy, but Aiden doesn’t seem so bad, and if I’m being honest, Darius wasn’t so bad either, and Darius’s daughter…I really can’t such a sweet, young girl bein
g evil.

  “Anyways, feel free to take a look around the house and read that book. Every morning you’ll go for a run on the treadmill or out in the yard, afterwards, you’ll do strength training in the training room. Then I’ll be teaching you some sparring after that. The rest of the day you’ll have to yourself. We start tomorrow.”

  I don’t say anything as he leaves me alone in the room with the giant book. I was hoping to get back into shape, but this doesn’t exactly sound like the most fun way to do it. I dread tomorrow morning. I know it’s going to hurt.

  I flip open the giant book in my lap and begin to read. If this guy has twenty-four guards, it could be a while before Crispen comes for me, if he comes for me at all, so I decide that reading this book is probably a good idea. It’s probably in my best interest. At first, I just skim through the many pages of the book, then I turn to page one.

  The first ten pages delve into demon hierarchy and order, the next few pages focus on governmental systems, and then the twenty pages following this take a look at history. I can tell that Aiden wrote this out all in his own handwriting and took a lot of time making this. I wonder why he spent so much time on this for me, when he could have just handed me a bunch of books or relayed the information to me personally. By the end of the day, I’ve read just over half of the book and decide to put it down. My knowledge of everything demon has expanded so much in the last twelve hours that my head feels like it might explode. The hardest thing to get through my head though is still the fact that demons exist, and I am half demon.

  Aiden returns to the living room around supper time and brings me a plate of food, which I scarf down in an animalistic way. I’m starving having missed lunch, although the servants offered to bring me food multiple times. I just wasn’t up for eating.

  “Hermus said you’ve been reading this book all day. When I said you should read it quickly and thoroughly, I didn’t mean you had to read it all in two days. You have a couple months to get through it at least.”

  “Why two months?” Is this all the time I get to make my choice between giving up my soul and my life?

  “That’s when my next visitor is set to arrive. I’d like you to know as much about us by then as possible.”

  “So I don’t embarrass you?” I ask him confused.

  “No, so you don’t get yourself into trouble. You’ll understand once you get to the part about tradition and things,” he tells me and takes my empty plate from me. “Anyway, I was hoping you would have a drink and talk with me this evening.”

  He hands me another beer and begins asking me a million questions like he actually cares about me. We talk about everything from my mother to my first kiss. At first I’m a little weary, but somehow I find myself becoming comfortable with Aiden’s questions. I even ask him some of my own. Not only do I have questions about him, but questions about some of my reading today. I get my answers, and he gets his. By the end of the night, I find myself able to make comfortable eye contact with him, which is rare for me. I hate eye contact. Although he has the eerie, black eyes of a demon, I find myself relaxing the more we speak. I start to get used to those eyes.

  Aiden is not an evil, soulless creature like Crispen told me all demons are. I know this for a fact. I find warmth in his eyes, comfort even, although I barely know the guy, I feel like I’ve known him for years. I tell myself that I’ve lost it. I can’t befriend a demon that’s insanity, and yet here I am getting along with one, even agreeing with one on many subjects. I have to remind myself that I am half demon, and I’m probably more like Aiden than I am like Crispen just by nature, which is weird to think about, but it’s true, it’s fact.

  The next day, Aiden has some work errands to run in the afternoon. I decide to take a break from my reading and play cards with one of the guards. Terry is a friendly man, a man who is amazing at cards. He kicks my ass more times than I can count. I make note to convince him that he’ll have to teach me some of his tricks one day. He seems to be the friendliest and most comfortable around me. The others seem nervous or something, like I’m going to attack them or yell at them. I find this strange.

  Chapter 11

  Aiden stays true to his word. In the mornings, I go for runs with Jane his dog, and spar with Aiden afterwards. In the afternoons, I read some of his many books and make myself a notebook full of important information that I can’t let myself forget. Crispen doesn’t come, and days pass, weeks, and then impossibly even months pass too.

  I grow closer to Aiden every day, though he’s only around in the mornings for training and breakfast. He works in the afternoons, and I’m not sure what it is that he does exactly.

  Crispen and his family become more like a dream that I once had and not reality. In fact, I can hardly remember what Crispen looks like after a while. I don’t have a picture of him and my memory is terrible. I mean, I have pictures of him, but they’re on my cell phone, which was left at Crispen’s place or maybe even my place. I don’t remember the last time that I used it. Anyways, I would get a new one, but there is no cell service out here, and Aiden claims that he can hear the signal of cell phones, and it’s unbelievably irritating. Seeing as there are thirty five demons around here, I’ve decided not to drive them all up the wall with a cell phone. Who would I use it to speak with anyway? It’s not like I have Crispen’s number memorized.

  Anyway, after the first couple of weeks with Aiden, I unbelievably find myself not even wanting Crispen to find me.

  It takes me a long time to come to terms with my surroundings. I struggle between sides for a while, but soon I come to the conclusion that I might just be on the demon’s side. Why? Because they’re not all terrible creatures. Aiden, for example, is just as good of a person as myself. Yet, the hunters kill the demons mercilessly, without giving any of them a chance. Crispen kills people like Aiden without a second thought. Yes, my first demon run in gave me a bad first impression, but now, here I am, living the life really. I mean besides the fact that eventually I know I’ll have to choose between becoming a demon and committing suicide. I try not to think about that fact, because it’s depressing and downright terrifying.

  Eventually, Aiden convinces me somehow to sell my house, and fully take on my new life. I move in with him permanently after much thought. Crispen is obviously not coming for me, I can’t escape and I’m not even sure if I would if I could, and I actually really like Aiden and the company that the household brings. I’ve never been surrounded by so many people that care about me before, and they do genuinely care about me. Trust me, I know what it’s like to have someone around you who doesn’t care about you and is yet forced to be around you. My mother.

  When the time for Aiden’s guest to arrive comes, I prepare myself to meet her by brushing up on some things in the book he gave me. The things I need to follow are simple really. Call her Ms. Chandler, dress appropriately, don’t use slang, curtsy when I greet her, etc. I put my hair up into a bun and put on a black summer dress that Aiden bought me a few weeks ago for this specific occasion. When the doorbell rings and one of the servants answers the door, I leave my room to greet the guest. It’s a woman with long blonde hair, a thin form, and of course black irises that blend into her pupils.

  “You must be Megan, the girl Mr. Castile is mentoring, I’m Sandra Chandler. Is he around?” the woman says in a business-like tone. She does not smile, but grimaces.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Chandler,” I greet her, curtsying and smiling welcomingly. “He should be here any moment.”

  “Ah, Sandra, lovely to see you. I hope your flight was okay,” Aiden says from behind me. The fact that he doesn’t have to follow the same formalities as I do, means that he is a more important person than she is.

  She smiles. “It was, sir, here are the papers you requested be delivered.” She hands him some papers, says goodbye, and leaves.

  I was expecting her to stay longer.

  “She caught a flight to hand you papers?” I ask him confused, after
she leaves.

  “Yes, important papers.”

  “You ever hear of a fax machine?” I ask him jokingly. “Or email?”

  “Yes, but I figured I may as well have these hand delivered. I wanted to see if you actually read those books I give you on etiquette,” he says with a smirk. Oh, so this was some sort of test. He called someone all the way here for a five second test. “Plus, I don’t use internet or a phone. It’s too loud and annoying. I can barely stand the sound of the electricity buzzing, the fridge humming, and the furnace kicking in. I don’t need to add to the mix, trust me.”

  I scowl at him. “Did I pass your test?”

  He nods. “You passed.” He looks down at the papers and scans through them, carefully reading each one.

  “You still haven’t told me what exactly it is you do for a living,” I remind him. He keeps telling me that he’ll show me soon, but he has yet to.

  He approaches me, hands me a paper, and tells me to read it.

  I look it over carefully. It looks like a profile of someone. A police profile.

  “I’m a bounty hunter. I track down demonic criminals. Those who disobey the law. The demons that the head office wants to imprison in hell and keep from humans. I bring the criminals to them so they can take care of them.”

  Well, that doesn’t sound like a fun job. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

  He shrugs. “Yeah I guess, but it’s my job. It was that or take a spot on the council which isn’t exciting enough for me. I like action.” I know he likes action, I can tell by the way he smiles while kicking my ass in sparring practice every morning.

  “You’re leaving something out,” I observe. I’ve come to read his facial expressions well.

  “In addition to tracking down demons breaking the law, I also track down and turn hunters into changelings when the head office sends me their profiles,” he confesses slowly. He looks up from his papers to see my expression. It’s blank. “Does that make you upset?” he asks. We haven’t talked much about my time with the hunters or my relationship with them.