Hunger

by Eliza Nolan

  I can’t worry about that. I have to find my sister. I continue to circle around the bus to the front end, leaving them to their demon death match.

  “Grace!”

  I scan the fire-engulfed bus until I find her, emerging from the busted-out, front windshield, a limp body cradled in her arms. A child, maybe six years old. She races over to me and before I know it, she’s laid the small child in my arms and runs away.

  “Grace!” She doesn’t stop, marching back into the inferno.

  Heat singes my face; the air burns my lungs. I shield the kid with my body and race over to a group of kids sitting next to a middle-aged guy with a beer gut—he has to be the truck driver from the mangled semi. I lay the kid down next to him. The kid groans and pushes himself up to sitting, as if he’s waking up from a nap. I sigh, relieved that’s one less kid to worry about, and spin towards the bus to find Grace crouched over someone on the ground. She’s still dangerously close to the fire. She touches the girl’s face delicately with a hand, and then feels her neck for a pulse. She must find one because she quickly scoops up the child and rushes away from the burning bus towards me, then hands her off.

  She trots to the bus once more. But that’s the last of the kids, I’m pretty sure.

  I run with the last little girl and lay her gently next to the other children and the truck driver. Her eyes are closed, but she’s breathing.

  The driver grabs my arm as I move to return to the bus. I try to pull away, but he won’t let me go. My hearing is still patchy, but I hear him shout. “Stop!” He’s saying something about explosions and danger.

  “My sister,” is all I say, shaking my head. I don’t have time for this. I rip my arm free and race towards the fire.

  I find her kneeling next to another larger body. Of course—the bus driver. He’s conscious, but I recoil when I see the long metal bar protruding through his chest.

  I edge closer, but the wall of heat forces me back. I don’t know how Grace can stand it. Maybe all demons can endure intense heat.

  Another small explosion comes from somewhere within the bus, and I duck back. “Grace!” I shout. Because I don’t care if she’s a demon. I don’t want her to lose her head from flying debris. She’s my sister. I need her.

  “Grace!” My voice is hoarse now.

  She doesn’t look up. She stays crouched over the driver, holding one of his hands.

  My eyes water from the smoke.

  “Grace!” I say. “Get out of there!”

  “I can’t leave him here. He’ll burn up.” She leans close and says something to him. He nods, his face scrunched in pain. She gets up, hooks her arms underneath his armpits, and drags him.

  “Aaaaah!” he screams until she stops, letting him rest on the pavement once more.

  Grace sweeps her hair out of her face with one hand but freezes as her fingers find small white horns poking out of her gnarled hair. Panic floods through me. She cries out and recoils, her black, demon eyes lock onto mine full of fear. I swear those horns weren’t there a second ago. Oh God. Ashton said this could happen during times of intense stress. There are too many people here. What happens if they see her? We need to go.

  I try to get closer, but she’s still in the hot zone.

  Grace’s dark eyes widen at something behind me. “Eva! Look out!”

  I turn, and barely dodge out of the way as the fire demon throws a punch, but this time my training doesn’t fail me. I counter with a kick to her side which she blocks, leaving her other side open for a punch to the throat. My knuckles hit hard.

  She coughs, grabbing her neck, and scurries back. Her fiery eyes seem to water, and her head falls forward, long spiral pigtails bouncing as she hacks and gags. I watch, blinking for a second too long. She whips her head back, a maniacal smile across her face, showing pointed teeth. She dives at me, her hands connecting with my shoulders, and she shoves me back so hard that pain shoots through my collar and back.

  I curl as we fall backwards and roll, hoping she’ll roll with me, but she kicks her feet out to stop her momentum, and swipes an arm out at my face.

  I reach an arm up and block, then cry out. Long, sharp, nails dig into my forearm. She grabs my head, but I reach up, my thumbs pressing against her eyes.

  She yanks my head up from the pavement—I know what’s next.

  She’s too strong; she’ll crack my skull open. I twist my neck, point my chin towards my chest, and brace for the blow.

  14

  Grace

  I wipe at my tears and look down at the driver’s lifeless body. I couldn’t save him. The metal bar through his chest means he probably didn’t have a chance. Still, I feel guilty. Maybe I could have been more careful as I moved him.

  Around me is chaos. Flames erupt from the nearly burned-out bus, and a handful of adults work at moving the children out of harm’s way.

  Sirens blare in the distance.

  I sweep my hair out of my face and my fingers brush against something hard and polished just above my hairline. No. No. Nonono. I scream in horror and recoil against the demon part of me. Not this. My stomach roils and I gag. I have to hide, I have to figure out how to make the horns go away. I don’t want this. I’m not this…thing.

  I search for Eva, only to find her staring right at me, eyes filled with fear. My heart aches. I was supposed to protect her, not pull her into a demon fight from hell. I’ve failed my little sister.

  She edges closer, holding her arms up to shield herself against the heat.

  The fire demon jogs up behind her.

  “Eva! Look out!” I cry.

  My sister spins just in time and gets a hit in, but the fire demon rebounds quickly and pins Eva to the ground.

  My baby sister.

  I don’t know how to fight. I don’t know what I’m doing, but maybe I don’t need to. Maybe…if I’m this monster, I can save Eva from the other monsters of the world.

  “Noooo!” I shriek and lunge at the demon, pushing her off my sister. I latch onto her arms; somehow my fingers are like claws that hook into her flesh. I pin her, but she rips herself free, leaving my hands covered in bits of her skin and blood.

  “There you are,” she says when she’s back a safe distance. “It’s quite an honor to be the first one to fight the new demon in the human realm. You can call me Candy. I’ll be sending your demon ass to the next world.”

  My hands shake as I hold them out in front of me, but I can’t tell if it’s from strength or fear. They’ve changed—my nails are thick, long, and sharp. She’s got claws like me, but her eyes are orange—like the fires she’s been setting all across the country as she searched for us.

  For me.

  I had it wrong. Ashton isn’t the serial arsonist: Candy is. She’s been burning down buildings. Some with people inside. Innocent people.

  I can’t let this stand. I may not know how to fight, but I feel strong, and I have freaking claws!

  I step forward. “You may be the first demon I fight in this world, but you will not be the last. And as for your overconfidence…” I hold up my blood-covered claws. “I’m the one wearing your blood on my hands.”

  “You caught me off guard. It won’t happen again.” She springs at me, and I race forward to meet her. We crash into each other, arms locking. I dig in my claws once more, but she’s strong. Her hands wrap around my throat and she crushes my esophagus. I gasp for air and swipe at her face, blindly shredding anything I come into contact with.

  “Get her away from you,” a guy yells. I can’t see who said it, but thanks, Mr. Obvious. Of course, I want to get her the heck away from me. I just have to figure out how.

  She slams me to the ground, my head cracking against the asphalt of the highway.

  I struggle for breath, wedging a hand between my neck and her hands.

  With my other hand I jab a claw at her eye. She shrieks and jerks back. Eva swings her boot out and kicks the fire demon in the gut, sending her flying back. Ashton dashes forward and dumps
a huge jug of white grit at the fire demon.

  I recognize the jug from our car. It’s our road salt.

  The fire demon is covered in it and immediately starts to steam, her skin boiling up underneath the rock salt. She screeches, a howl like a banshee, but she can’t get the salt off and it’s eating away at her.

  “Grace,” Eva whimpers. I stagger over and slip an arm around her. “Grace, are you okay?” she asks while cradling her own gored up arm.

  “I’ll be okay,” I say, though I’m not sure yet.

  She glances across the road to a small crowd of onlookers, then at the top of my head and whispers. “Horns.”

  I scrunch up my hair over my horns as best I can and hunch down. “We need to get out of here.”

  15

  Eva

  My whole body aches from being thrown around, and my arm burns from the huge scrapes left by the fire demon’s claws. I press a bloody tissue against my arm in an effort to stop the stream of blood. My shirt was black to start, but I can feel the blood seeping through the fabric to my skin. I hobble forward. We have to get out of here. I can hear the sirens, and the police have to be close if they aren’t already here. They might not be looking for the right car, but they’re still looking for us and our parents. Best to just go.

  Grace keeps her head down as we make our way across to the car.

  “I’ll drive,” Ashton says, holding out his hand. I hardly pause to think before digging out the keys. He helps me and Grace into the back seat of the SUV, then slides behind the wheel. The engine revs, and Ashton eases the SUV forward slowly on the side of the road.

  “Eva, are you okay?” Grace hovers over me, horns and all.

  I push her away, and scoot back in the seat. “I’ll survive.” I wince at the pain shooting up my arm. It hurts to move it.

  I stare pointedly at her horns. Her brow furrows for a moment before she dives over the seatback and adjusts the rearview mirror. She runs a hand through her hair, pouts, and then turns to the side as if she’s considering taking a selfie. Her horns are small, but give her a strong appearance, and her eyes are still black. She’s looking at herself from different angles.

  “Are you checking yourself out in the mirror?”

  “No,” she says, swiftly plopping back in her seat.

  Ashton steers the car and trailer off onto the gravel and to the edge of the drainage ditch. We roll past the end of the school bus, which is still smoking, then past the side of a car, the trailer nicking one of the tires. He pulls back onto the road behind the wreck—clear and open—and sets his foot on the gas.

  ∞∞∞

  Ashton squats in front of me where I sit in the doorway of the camper. We’re at a gas station about twenty minutes south of the crash, tucked between several semis in a back parking lot. Grace is in the camper’s bedroom changing into some un-singed clothing. The sun has finally broken through the clouds, and the air is almost warm, but I huddle in my parka shivering—probably shock.

  “Ouch!” I jerk my arm away. “That hurts.”

  Ashton pours more peroxide on the cotton round. “That means it’s working.” He lets out a sigh of exasperation, and then grasps my wrist and gently pulls my arm out towards him again. I force myself to not jerk away at the sharp sting.

  He flinches for me. His face is smeared with ash and dirt, but his cuts and scrapes have mostly healed. His “Worlds Okayest Mom” shirt is blackened and full of holes. He’s not wearing his glasses; I guess he must have lost another pair in this fight.

  “Do you even need glasses?” I ask as he dabs at my forearm.

  He smirks. “They’re part of my human persona.”

  “So, no then.”

  “No,” he agrees. “I’ve never met a demon who needed glasses. We’re a pretty healthy bunch.”

  So that’s at least one bonus for Grace. She’ll never need another eye exam.

  He scrunches his nose up and frowns. “Keep an eye on this.”

  “Why?” I ask. “Am I going to change? Is this like a werewolf scratch? Am I going to become a demon?” If I’d had demonic strength, I would have been able to hold the fire demon off, easy. Maybe it would make it easier for us to find our parents if Grace and I were both demons.

  And after that, we could fight evil.

  “Don’t worry,” he says. “You can’t become a demon that way.”

  I huff out a breath and my shoulders slump.

  “There’s nothing wrong with being human,” He ruffles my hair with one hand, and then caps the peroxide bottle.

  “Will Grace heal as fast as you do?”

  He nods. “Most likely. However, you won’t, which is why you need to keep an eye on that, in case it gets infected.”

  I glance back at the camper’s bedroom. “Now that people have seen her horns, and with the fight and all the fires, what will happen? I mean, we just outed the demon world in front of a crowd of people.”

  “That little fight out on the highway?” He huffs. “That was nothing. There’ve been larger demon fights in this realm.”

  “But you said most of the fighting happens in the demon world. How could humans not see what just happened? A whole group of them were there.” I want him to be right, but there were like a half-dozen adults there when we left. Most of them had to have seen something.

  “The few incidences that have happened in this world have been easily explained away by the weakness of the human psyche. Eyewitnesses are extremely unreliable, and humans don’t want to see demons in the first place because they think it means their minds are playing tricks on them—so they simply don’t. Memories change after the fact, and it becomes a fight between two people wearing funny costumes. A fire happened to start nearby…”

  “But I won’t forget it, will I?”

  “You’re different. You’ve conjured demons, you already know and understand what you saw, so you have no reason to protect yourself from the truth.”

  “Huh.” It kinda makes sense.

  He rises to his feet and shields his eyes from the sunshine and smiles. I realize he’s waiting for my next question.

  I dig the toe of my boot in the gravel. Where do I start? “Okay, so why is a fire demon called a fire demon. I mean, I expected her to shoot fire from her hands or something. Where did the fire come from?”

  “Fire demons are a mess when they’re in this world. They can apparate, or move from one location to another, but in order to do that, they have to burn energy. The fire is just a reaction to their energy meeting the atmosphere of this realm. Sometimes—if a fire demon is here long enough—they manage to control it, but usually it just shoots out wherever they are.”

  “Wow, that’s messy. And way less cool than I thought.”

  Ashton chuckles. “Some of the myths about demons are right on, but there’s a lot that humans get completely wrong.”

  Inside the camper the bedroom door clicks open and Grace shuffles down the aisle. Her hair is brushed out, her skin clean and clear, and she’s wearing her favorite jeans and a baggy, grey sweater. Horns gone, eyes human. She looks like nothing happened.

  “Why don’t you come in?” she says to Ashton.

  “Couldn’t if I wanted to,” he says and points at the doorway. There’s a band of metal, less than an inch thick that wraps all the way around the frame, and what appears to be a pattern scratched into it, but on closer inspection I see that the whole frame is engraved in tiny symbols.

  “Are those sigil?” I ask.

  “Indeedy,” he says. “They’re around all the windows as well. Whoever fixed up this trailer, did it with you in mind. No demons can get in there.”

  Grace leans against the kitchen counter. “Then how am I in here?”

  “You must have a talisman that lets you in.”

  Grace fishes the small brass necklace Mom gave her out from underneath her shirt.

  Ashton nods. “That could be it.”

  “Maybe we can get you one,” Grace says. “You can sleep in th
e car for now, but if you’re sticking around—”

  “I’m not.” He grimaces.

  “Wait, what?” I spring to my feet. “Are you serious? After all the crap about how we need you, and you are here to help us, blah de blah blah? Now you want out?” I’m arguing with a demon—one we’ve been trying to get rid of—so I stop talking.

  Grace hops out of the trailer, her lower lip pushed out in a pout. “Why now? Why are you leaving? I thought you said protecting us was the whole reason you were here.”

  “I have to go because I’m putting you in danger by being with you. The protection on you two is strong. It must be something special that your human mother concocted, because I’m not sure how else to explain it. It’s not just this trailer, there’s a protection on you both. But Inanna wasn’t able to protect me in the same way. That’s why I need to leave. You two are invisible to the demon world, but I’m not. I’m the reason the fire demon tracked you down. She wasn’t tracking you. She was tracking me in order to get to you.”

  “How do you know that?” Grace asks.

  “Because you don’t leave a trail. I can sense all other beings around me, when I close my eyes—other humans, other animals, and especially other demons. But the two of you are completely silent, as if you aren’t even there. If Inanna hadn’t told me where to find you, I wouldn’t have been able to find you either. But it’s not the same for me. So the best way for me to keep you safe right now is to stay away from you.”

  Grace frowns and crosses her arms. “But you can’t go! I still need my Demon 101: Introduction to Demoning. I need to know more.”