Luminosity (Escaping Demons Saga Book 1)

by Stacy McWilliams

  I strengthened my resolve as I finally reached the coffee shop and although my phone buzzed, I knew it was him again so I ignored the messages. No matter what he said he wasn’t changing my mind. He had no right to do that to me.

  As I made my way into the coffee shop I noticed Lucille and Jemma were there as well as Katie and Danni, Katie looked pleased with these girls sitting with them, but Danni looked up when the bell chimed and relief flooded her face when she saw me standing there. The other girls, with the exception of Katie looked furious. I went up to the counter and couldn’t help overhearing,

  “Who invited her?” asked one of the bimbos.

  “I did,” Danni answered and she walked up to the counter to meet me. I ordered a frappuccino and a cookie and met Danni at the end of the queue.

  “I really hate them,” she whispered to me as we walked over to the table.

  “We can leave if you like,” I answered her conspiratorially.

  “No, Katie would never forgive me if we did that. We’ll just need to wait it out. I’m sure they have plans anyway, something about Nathan and Lisa.”

  I felt my stomach sink at hearing their names and checked my phone to see how long I had before I was due to meet James. It was four thirty, so I had an hour and twenty minutes to kill, and he had been with her for an hour so plenty of time to get some before they headed back into town.

  I could feel my phone buzzing against my leg but I worked at ignoring it because I didn’t want to read the messages from him. Katie turned as I sat down,

  “Jas are you busy tomorrow? Fancy dinner with the girls?”

  Lucille and Jemma smiled at me sinisterly, but I ignored them and nodded,”sure honey that sounds lovely. Thanks.” I had to reduce the amount of time I was spending in their home.

  A few seconds later the bell chimed and something in me just knew that they had arrived. The girls all sat a little straighter as Nathan, Lisa, Joe, Lucca and Juliette walked in. They all walked towards our table and pulled a few more chairs over. I didn’t look at any of them. I kept my eyes on my phone as I checked the time.

  Nathan sat down furthest away from me with Lisa and Joe beside him. The other Lisa arrived and sat down on my other side between myself and Lucca who had Juliette on his other side. I smiled at Lisa. She was lovely and asked me how I was settling into my new school and home.

  I smiled as I answered and we talked about everything for ten minutes. I didn’t even look in Nathan’s direction, but as soon as I excused myself to go to the bathroom at the back of the coffee shop, the tingles on my back told me his eyes had flittered over to me.

  I stormed through the doors and took a deep breath as I walked into the bathroom. I looked into the mirror as I splashed my face with cold water. ‘It’s fine, Jas,’ I sternly told myself, ‘Man up.’

  I took another deep breath and dried of my face. I was thinking about how to avoid Nathan since he was furious, but I had nothing. I stepped out of the bathroom and walked right into him. He glared at me and dragged me down the corridor. He grabbed my arm so hard that it hurt.

  “I want a word,” he hissed under his breath. He continued yanking me down the corridor. We went down a flight of stairs and into a dirty, smelly room full of bins. He stopped behind a massive set of bins and leaned in to me aggressively.

  “I thought I told you not to go tonight?”

  I laughed at him, “Seriously? Leave me alone Nathan.”

  “I fucking can’t. If I could I fucking would.”

  “Piss off Nathan, you’re not the boss of me. This, whatever this is, is done, over. I don’t want this.” I threw at him.

  He looked angrier than I’d ever seen him as he leaned in to whisper in my face,

  “Fine! It’s over. I’m so done trying to protect you. You mean nothing to me anymore.”

  My whole body shook at the venom in his statement and I stared at him with tears in my eyes. I said one last thing before I left,

  “I don’t think I ever meant anything to you. If you cared about me at all you would never have slept with her today and you wouldn’t be with her in the first place.”

  I strode furiously away, towards the door leading outside and tried my hardest not to look back, but I looked back once and saw the torn expression on his face. I wanted to go back to him, but I stopped myself just in time and walked out the door towards James.

  I realised it was only five twenty, so I walked around feeling tearful and hurt. Part of me wanted to go back and speak to him. My phone buzzed again. It was Nathan so I read back through the messages,

  Hey where are you?

  Did you go to meet him?

  Answer me please?

  Jas, you can’t meet him, he’s dangerous . . .

  I’m coming to get you!

  And the last one, which almost broke me but I pulled out my stubbornness. I was determined that it was over.

  I’m so sorry, please come back and we can talk. I can’t stand the idea of you being in danger, please come back to me xxx

  I stared hard at the message and after a moment of indecision, texted back.

  Fine you have two minutes! I’m on my way.

  I began walking back to the coffee shop. My mind was racing as I made my way back to him. I hadn’t walked far when my name being called made me pause. I spun around, but couldn’t see anyone. I continued to the back exit of the coffee shop. I was almost there, but was hidden behind a van when I heard raised voices.

  “Nathan, what are you doing? You can’t be with her. She’ll hate you for what you are. How are you going to explain your father’s edict that no-one touches her, and how are you going to explain what we are and what we can do?” came a male voice that sounded like Joe.

  “I don’t want to be with her, I’m just using her to make Lisa jealous! And anyway, I’m trying to stop her going on the date with James.”

  “She’s going out with James, fuck Nate, no wonder you’re worried mate.”

  “You know how I feel about that prick. She cannot go out with him. He will hurt her to get to me and then we’re all fucked. If he touches her then he can cause all sorts of shit for me. I have to stop it.” Nathan sounded agitated as he paced up and down.

  I stood in the shadows behind the truck at the door listening to them. I put my phone on silent, and what I heard next almost made me sick.

  “You think he wants to sample her?” Joe asked him.

  “Yeah I do.” His body shook as he faced his friend, rage racing through his features, “I don’t want him sampling her, and I want to be the first to try her as is my right. I mean my dad is the chief after all, and what’s the point of your dad being chief demon if you don’t get the perks.”

  Chief demon? My head started spinning. An edict, what the fuck was an edict and how did it involve me? What was going on? Just as I was about to go in and ask I heard them move away and my phone vibrated in my pocket, but my head was buzzing, James was going to try and sample me, sample what exactly?

  I began walking away back towards the clock tower in a bit of a daze when my phone buzzed again.

  Jas, where are you? I’ll see you at home. Meet me in the woods by the house in half an hour please.

  Jas, are you heading home?

  I looked at the messages and was about to respond when a person cleared their throat in front of me, making me jump a mile in the air.

  “Hi Jasmine, how are you?” came James’s soft silky voice.

  “Fine, thank you, how are you?” I answered trying to smile while bile rose in my throat. I quickly typed out a text to Nathan saying,

  No, I’ve just met James.

  My phone started going crazy, buzzing every two seconds. I decided to ignore it, but was thinking about how to escape as I stared at him.

  “Shall we,” James asked, smiling sweetly at me, but I could see something behind his eyes, a kind of hunger that scared me.

  “Sure, let’s go. Where are we going?” I asked feeling more nervous by the second as h
e led me out of town towards the woods.

  “It’s a surprise. I can’t wait to show you.”

  I sent Nathan a sly message, while we walked towards the woods because he was walking ahead, trying to find something.

  He’s taking me to the woods.

  Nathan replied almost instantly.

  Stall him!!!!!

  I thought about ways to try and stall him and hit upon a genius idea.

  “James,” I whispered in my sweetest voice, “do you want to go into the park and have a shot on the swings.”

  “No, Jasmine come on. I’m not two years old.”

  Damn it, I had really thought that it would work. I paused looking up at the moon, it was full and the heavens were a velvety blue, black colour. It was very pretty, but I couldn’t take it in properly because the boy beside me scared me.

  “Come on Jasmine, let’s get going,” came his impatient voice beside me, and when I looked at him my fear kicked up a notch because he looked excited. He placed his hand on my arm and pulled me on to the trees. He didn’t stop for ages, and when I tried to pull my arm away from his he held on tighter. His hand squeezed my arm and I began to feel a numbness flowing down my arm as we walked. We finally made it into a small clearing which was directly below the moon. It was circled by candles and I knew we had arrived at his destination. It would have looked romantic if it wasn’t for the expression on his face.

  He let my arm go and stalked away from me,

  “This is my favourite place to come you know.”

  My arm was stinging from his grip and I was so focused on moving my fingers trying to get the feeling back that I didn’t see the hit coming. He punched me right in the stomach and I fell to the ground, winded and gasping for breath.

  “When I speak to you, mortal, you will answer me.”

  He towered over me, spit flying on my face as he grabbed my hair and pulled me over to a large tree. I noticed ropes at the bottom. My heart rate spiked and I struggled till he slapped me so hard my cheek flamed up. He dragged me over to the tree and tied me to the trunk. I couldn’t move since I was bound right up to my neck and I was shaking so hard my teeth were chattering.

  I looked at him through my tears and he began changing before my eyes. His face became brown, rough, with little patches of green. A sharp nose and lips that were jagged with blackened teeth showing just inside his mouth. I noticed all of this in the first few seconds. He raised his hands up and two thick clawed fingers came running down my face, feeling like the rough bark I was tied against. The hands travelled down in almost straight lines cutting the skin slightly.

  He looked at me then, smiling and said

  “Ah, I get first taste. Shame Nathan’s not here to rescue you this time!”

  “I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” Nathan’s voice rung out sounding so powerful the ground trembled. His face was a picture of fury as he took in the clearing. His eyes flitted towards me and I saw his nostrils widen.

  Within seconds James flew across the clearing even though I didn’t see anyone touch him. Suddenly Nathan stood in front of me and he looked livid.

  “How dare you touch her?” he threw James as he tried to rush around him. “Her Luminosity is mine. Who do you think you are?”

  He came back again and Nathan pushed him into a tree again as if he weighed no more than a paper bag.

  “You know the law. You know the edict and you also know that showing yourself to a mortal is against our decree of privilege. You know she is MINE!” Nathan’s voice bellowed so loudly that my ears run on the word ‘MINE’ and my body shook with the power of it.

  James rushed at Nathan again and this time Nathan hit him so hard I was sure I heard something crack. James looked at Nathan and then at me. There was such longing in his eyes, but he must have realised he was fighting a losing battle because at that moment he turned and ran full pelt into the woods.

  Nathan turned towards me slowly. He swore under his breath as he looked at me. I tried to shrink back as he moved closer to me. He looked at me slowly, assessing me and when he reached out to touch me, I recoiled. He untied me and I fell to the ground retching. This was all too much. Nathan just stood there staring down at me and not saying a word.

  “Come on Jasmine, let’s go home.”

  He reached down and softly touched my head, but I recoiled again and he snapped,

  “Why are you flinching when I touch you? I just saved your skin again. I have never met anyone who has came as close as you to death, but you keep putting yourself in these stupid situations.”

  I flinched again at his voice and shuddered at the darkness in his expression. I opened my mouth to speak, swallowed once and then tried again.

  “Perhaps it’s your family that’s putting me in these situations seeing as your dad is the ‘Chief Demon,’” I tried to sound cutting, but I was betrayed by voice crackling.

  “How do you know that?” he asked sounding terrified, “Jasmine you can’t talk about that to anyone, ever! Do you hear me?”

  I looked at him and resolved to say something spiteful but he abruptly cut me off, grabbing my arms and pulling me up.

  “Come on.” My heart leapt at the contact but whether it was through fear or longing I didn’t know. I didn’t know anything anymore.

  He half led, half pulled me through the trees. His eyes darted around constantly as if he was terrified of being caught. We marched towards some stones on the path ahead. There were some large ones and some smaller ones. He pushed me into the circle, standing just outside it.

  “This is a protected circle and you can’t be hurt in there. Look at the stones.”

  I just looked at him stunned by his request,

  “Please Jasmine. Try and trust me.”

  I looked at him incredulously and he half smiled.

  “Ok, I know that it’s a big ask at the moment but please . . . just please if can’t trust me listen to me. Hear me out.”

  I nodded since he had just saved me from James. I walked over to the stones and picked one up to look at it. As soon as I picked it up the air shimmered like the street does on a really hot day and Nathan walked over to me.

  “Ok, now put it back down.”

  The air shimmered again and he smiled.

  “Ok, now I owe you some answers.”

  He smiled sweetly at me, patting a space on the boulder he was sitting on. I looked blankly at him and he laughed. It was the most natural sound I had ever heard from him. I stood and watched he feeling bemused and he ended up getting up to lead me over to sit beside him.

  “This is earlier than I planned having this conversation. Ok, so you know my dad is the Chief Demon, but what you don’t know is that you are protected for the time being.”

  I just looked at him, unable to speak. My cheeks stung with the cuts and tears. I hadn’t realised I was crying. He pulled me into his arms, saying over and over again that it was ok, I was safe with him. After a few minutes my crying stopped. I was embarrassed since I rarely cried, but he seemed to bring it out in me. I winced as I tried to wipe my eyes and he noticed.

  “Hold still. I’m going to fix your cheeks.”

  My cheek was hurting like hell so I kept still as he softly ran his hand up one cheek and down the other. They felt hot one second and cold the next. He then leaned in and kissed each cheek gently before softly kissing my lips. I flinched at the contact and he growled.

  “What now? Why do you keep flinching when I touch you?”

  I examined him, contemplating my answer then spoke slowly but deliberately,

  “What are you? Are you a demon too? Doesn’t that make you some sort of monster?”

  It was his turn to flinch on the word monster.

  “Yes I’m a demon too,” he sighed, “and I was a monster, but I’m not anymore. I’ve found something I value more than my heritage and my blood.”

  “What have you found?” I asked goading him, both wanting to hear and not wanting to hear his answer.

&nbs
p; “You!” he answered simply with a smile, “You mean more to me than anything or anyone has ever before and I will protect you with everything I am.”

  “What about Lisa?”

  “We’re not allowed to be together. If my family ever found out they would kill one or both of us. I’m using Lisa to cover up my feelings for you.”

  “So we can’t ever be together? What’s the point in this then?”

  “Jasmine, I want you more than I have ever wanted anything in my entire life. I would give it all up in an instant to have you.” He reached over a grabbed my hand. I flinched at the contact, but he held fast. He pulled it up and placed my hand over his heart. “Feel that. My heart is pounding for you. You have broken me, but you’re the only thing that makes me feel whole.” He stopped staring out into the trees in the darkness. He scowled and I asked him a question to distract him.

  “How did you know where I was tonight?” I asked, wondering how he had found me so quickly.

  “Yes tonight.” His face darkened as I took in his eyes which tightened at the corners. “This could all have been avoided if you had just listened to me and not gone on this stupid date. Why did you go anyway? I thought you weren’t going when we spoke at lunch?”

  “I heard Lisa say something about protection . . .”

  “Yeah she did that, knowing you would hear. We haven’t . . . I mean I won’t . . . not with her,” he spluttered, sounding nervous and embarrassed.

  He leaned over and kissed me again, and this time I barely flinched. It was weird knowing that he was a demon and all but at least some things were beginning to make sense.

  “I heard you and Joe,” I broke off feeling guilty as I looked at his face. He nodded at me to continue, “You were talking about lum . . . something or other.”

  His eyes widened and I watched as his eyes steeled over. “Yeah, I think you can find out about that later. I don’t want to overwhelm you.” He leaned over and kissed me. Sighing as his lips touched my own. “Jasmine, what you do to me. I haven’t ever felt anything like this before.”

  I giggled and he kissed me again. “Nathan, you consume me. Every thought I have is about you. It makes it very hard to concentrate.” I leaned on his chest and closed my eyes. “I love this. Having you hold me like this is heaven.”