“Oh, that’s helpful,” I muttered.
“I don’t know why you’d leap to the assumption that I’m here to be helpful. You just said that you know I am not safe.”
I sighed, finding it impossible to be too freaked out by the monster outside my window when the Nether was so irritating. “I did, didn’t I? What are you doing here, O Creature of the Night? Don’t you have some children to frighten somewhere else?”
“Oh, I think you’re fright is as interesting as any other innocent child’s would be. Speaking of innocence, your soul looks healthy. Good.”
“Why good? What are you doing here? Checking out my soul?” I wasn’t sure if I should be creeped out by that or what.
“Your fright feeds it,” he said, waving a dark hand towards the window where I knew the fangs hung. “If you can calm down, you won’t attract so many interesting creatures. Of course, what would be the fun of that?”
“Isn’t it fun though,” I said through clenched teeth. “Wouldn’t a monster like that be worried that you’d attack it, or is it more powerful than you?”
He was quiet for some time, seeming to study me. I shifted nervously as I tried not to look over my shoulder at the monster. “It considers you to be my prey, and it feeds on your fear if it cannot get your flesh. No doubt it would be glad to have whatever bits of you were left over after I was finished.”
I cringed and closed my eyes, clenching my fists as I tried to ignore the smell of him and the smell that was slowly seeping through the window on the other side of me, the smell of rotting meat and sulfur mixing with the smell of leather and cigars. A thump came from the roof again, but this time I didn’t open my eyes to see if it was a pinecone or something else. I tried to visualize something, a field with a happy pony chasing butterflies, but as it was prancing a monster lunged out of the tall grass and… I opened my eyes and turned to the darkness cloaked creature.
“How can I stop being afraid? Do you have any ideas?”
“I could do something to distract you, but I doubt you’d like it.” His voice was amused, dark. I felt tired suddenly and ridiculously close to tears.
I swallowed hard, trying to keep a grip on my emotions. I was tough, strong, powerful, at least alternative reality me was. I should be using this opportunity to find out something, to dig up clues in my quest to find out why Devlin took my soul.
“Did you know my brother?” It was a good enough place to start, and thinking about my brother should make me angry.
“Your brother, the famous foreteller and compeller who stole innocent girl’s souls? I can’t say I had the pleasure. A pity really considering how much we have in common.” His voice dripped sarcasm as thick as the slime on the jaws of the creature by my window. “Did you meet my friend, Pisces, the silver demon hunter? You should sometime. He’s very friendly, besides the death lust and the annoying habit he has of randomly sharpening his teeth on people. Perhaps that’s how he expresses his friendliness.”
I stared at the shadows that wrapped him, unable to see features, the mouth that was probably curved in a derisive sneer and remembered the scent, how it felt to be swallowed in the Nether mists. If I had to bear the scent of the monster out of my window much longer I thought I would throw up, or cry, or both.
I reached a hand towards the shadows, tentatively pushing through the warm dampness that swallowed my hand in shadows. I felt nothing as I moved my hand down, although there should have been a car seat somewhere halfway up my wrist. It was as though shadows and other stuff didn’t really take up the same space, somehow they switched places. I scooted closer towards him, until with a start he wrapped his hand around my wrist and gave me a sharp tug.
“What are you doing?” he asked in a voice that sounded almost amused, still firmly holding my wrist. He wasn’t made out of mists anyway.
“I thought if I had more mists, closer, then I wouldn’t be able to smell the monster and throw up. Your mists are really potent. I don’t see how you can smell or sense anything else with so much wrapped around you.”
“You get used to it,” he said shortly, then after a moment’s pause. “You actually want to get closer to me? I don’t recommend it, but it wouldn’t bother me.”
I found myself pulled into the darkness, falling forward as gravity ceased having any kind of meaning, swallowed up in the warm, damp world until I found myself touching a shoulder with the hand that wasn’t still held by his. The smell of the mists was so encompassing, so rich, dark, and sweet, that I forgot about the other scent, the other world that had so recently occupied so much of my mind. I felt my heart slow as I relaxed, lost for a long moment in a relief so heavy I felt buoyed by it.
There was nothing to see, so I let my eyes close, not trying to see or make sense of a world inside of my world where there was the Nether, dark and dangerous inside the steaming mist that soothed every ache I had. There was a distinct lack of pain before something shifted inside of my mind or intention, and I realized then that the skin under my hand was bare, wet and slick. My hand slid over the shoulder, down a chest, a stomach with rippling muscles until his other hand came firmly over mine, stopping my progression any lower.
I opened my eyes, startled, but there was nothing to see, although the darkness seemed to caress my eyes, soothing the strain I’d had trying to see in the dim light. I pulled back, suddenly.
He didn’t resist, letting me slip out of his grasp like a fish in a stream until with a choked cry and a disoriented lurch, where I ended half off the seat, I was back in Satan’s car, staring horrified at the shadow across from me while a monster breathed through the glass behind my head with an awful smell that was almost comforting.
“Are you naked?” I shrieked. I’d never asked a boy that before, and the Nether might be a monster, but he was still a boy monster.
He laughed, and that sound flooded my head, sending all my rational thoughts skittering away like leaves in the wind. He shouldn’t have a voice that could do that, not when he was naked under all those mists, not when he smelled like that and could appear like magic in Satan’s car. I glared at the shadows, desperately trying to think of something that would shut him up, the laugh that mocked my innocence, that mocked my helplessness, that mocked my fear.
The sound of metal against metal, so close to my head just made me mad instead of scared. I whipped my head around and glared at the stupid monster, somehow pushing it away from me, shoving it with all of my energy. It jerked before slowly dropping to the ground then backed away, shaking its distended maw as it went, one slow reluctant step at a time until it disappeared into the underbrush. As I stared at the creature, willing it to leave, the laughter stopped. When I turned around to throw the Nether out of the car I found myself alone, looking at Satan’s shadowy backseat.
I felt a wave of humiliation, that he would find me so afraid then leave, like he’d seen as much stupid as he could handle in one night and was off to find something more interesting to do. I sniffed, but even when I put my nose down on the leather, all I smelled was oil and leather with a touch of gunpowder and cigars—no Nether.
It was soon after that, I heard Satan’s rough mumble and Snowy’s irritated response as they came back to the car, Osmond holding a flare above his head that gave Snowy a greenish glow that managed to make her look otherworldly instead of sick. She looked at me and nodded while I waved, not quite ready to open the door and face her penetrating glance. She said something to Osmond where he stood holding the flare before she stomped over to her SUV, like her feet were very cold, got in, and proceeded to drive away. Osmond took a little longer, helping Satan in the trunk where I couldn’t see them and could only hear the sound of thumps and low voices before Osmond got in his truck then with headlights bouncing, left me in the dark with Satan.
Satan was soon in the driver’s seat, the sound of his door as it opened then shut loud in the mostly quiet woods.
“I expected to see more of a crowd when we got back,” he said companionably
then he sniffed like he could smell something.
“A crowd? Of what?” I asked, thinking that I probably knew.
“Fear attracts darkness, so I thought you might be useful at gathering some things that are otherwise difficult to track down. Doesn’t matter though—good really that you aren’t afraid enough to be good bait.” He nodded his head; I could see it silhouetted by the headlights on the road.
“You used me as bait? What if a monster lured me out and ate me?”
He snorted as he looked over his shoulder at me. “You’re not stupid enough to get out and pet one of them, are you? Do you smell that?”
I scowled at him, unwilling to admit that, yeah, I was that stupid, but at the same time wanting to enlighten so that he wouldn’t put me into such dangerous circumstances again. “Cigars, or do you mean dried sweat and eu de Satan that you should market.”
“Nether,” he said, apparently ignoring my jibe. “Smells like Nether. Would that have anything to do with why you’re not scared?”
I glared at the back of his head, wishing I had something to hit him with. “Who in their right mind wouldn’t be scared of a Nether?”
“You, apparently.”
I exhaled as I tried to think of some way to not talk about the Nether. It was ridiculous that he wanted to talk about something that unpleasant for me when not him or either one of my parents would explain anything to me. There was no way I was going to explain how I’d accidently touched the immortal’s very naked chest when Satan didn’t tell me anything that I really should know.
“What do you know about Devlin and the stones and my trainer and why Devlin took my soul, and how long have you been going out into the scary woods with Snowy and Osmond? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? It would take some serious effort to kill you, but one teeny, tiny bullet hole and Osmond would die—permanently. Why don’t you want me to be trained, or is it just that you don’t like not knowing what Slide is doing? What is Slide doing?”
When I took a breath he cut in. “I don’t know anything about stones, or why Devlin took your soul, or what Slide is doing. I don’t want you to be trained because those two kids are more tough and lethal than you’ll probably ever be, when it should be the other way around. Training isn’t going to be easy for someone like you, someone who’s so naïve that she’d trust a monster.”
“How did you know…” I began, but he cut me off with his growl.
“You’re going to get training that if you do survive, you’ll no longer be the little darlin’ we’ve all grown so fond of. Everything will change.”
He stopped talking and the silence he left behind didn’t ask to be answered. Even if he’d answered me honestly, it seemed the question about the Nether no longer needed answering. I thought he knew anyway since whatever I felt you could read on my face even when I did block the emotions, the leaning. He was right; I was innocent and stupid, likely to run into something without thinking because of my lack of experience, but what could I do about that besides have experiences? On the other hand, I thought as I gripped the hem of my shirt, feeling the soft fabric between my fingers, I didn’t want to give up my innocence and become that girl, the one who wanted to kill Lewis instead of get his phone number.
Chapter 5
I wore my hair in braids the next day, but looped up so they were a little more than milk maid braids, or toddler braids, as Snowy called them when she saw me.
“So,” I began as she stood at her locker, ignoring me as she took out her books. “Do you do that a lot? I mean, go on dangerous missions with Osmond and Satan?”
She shot me a look, a, ‘you’re not seriously asking me this’, look before she said, “What else is there to do around here?”
I hated that she was mad at me, but I wasn’t willing to pretend I was someone else to make her happy. “Let’s go shopping,” I said, wishing I could have asked her when she was in a better mood. It wasn’t like me to want to go shopping, but I wanted to get some more cute shirts in my size, maybe some skirts, shoes, a coat that wasn’t the ugly yet warm marshmallow people coat. “After school,” I said when she raised an eyebrow like I’d said something she’d never heard before.
“Today?” was all she said though.
I nodded. “Yeah, it will be fun. The city’s safe, I asked my mother this morning. She and Satan seem to think that you won’t let me get into very much trouble. Little do they know,” I said with a grin.
Snowy didn’t smile though, instead she looked thoughtful, then looking past me, I felt the hairs on my neck stand up as I realized someone was behind me, quite close, and big, and without a doubt…
“Osmond, do you think it would be a good idea for me to go to the city shopping with Dari today?”
I stopped breathing as the memory, the kissing and the bare chestness, filled my mind, combining weirdly with the experience with the Nether. I knew I was blushing, could feel the embarrassment even as I made sure that my internal barriers were high, so that the entire school wouldn’t feel how I felt. If that happened, I would never ever be able to walk these halls again.
“Why not?” he asked before he put a hand on my shoulder. I felt frozen in place as he leaned forward and whispered, “You did great last night.”
When he was far enough away from me that I could breathe, I realized that Snowy was staring at me, had been staring at me for who knew how long.
“What?” I asked, walking briskly to my next class, like nothing had happened. Nothing had happened. Osmond had put his hand on my shoulder a dozen times before, and I’d never really noticed it. Nothing had changed, except that now I definitely noticed.
“Do you like him?” she asked, following me when she should have been walking in the other direction. I glanced up at the stained glass arched above me, the balcony on the second floor where the artistic types hung out, and hoped she would go away.
“You do,” she said, grabbing my arm with a squeal.
“Shhhhh,” I hissed, looking around to see if anyone heard. Everyone noticed Snowy, of course they did, but not more than usual. I sighed in relief even as she tried to drag me to a restroom, no doubt so that I could be humiliated further.
“We’ll talk on the way to the city, okay?” I said, hoping for a respite.
She looked slightly suspicious, but finally nodded and bounced away, apparently so deliriously happy that I liked Osmond that she could forgive me for my braids and purple butterfly t-shirt. I shook my head as I walked towards the marble stairs that twisted upwards, where most of my classes were held. She hadn’t been nearly so happy when she thought I liked Smoke. I didn’t want to explain to Snowy how I felt when I didn’t understand myself, particularly when the idea of talking about Osmond, of saying that name out loud filled me with a shuddering embarrassment that made less sense to me than how the Nether had gotten into Satan’s car the night before. I knew however, that the chances of my not talking about it were pretty much nil.
After school, I’d barely buckled my seatbelt before Snowy started.
“If I’d known you actually liked him, I wouldn’t have suggested that you go on a date with him, not when you’re completely unbalanced.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, but she didn’t seem to hear.
“No wonder you melted the movie theater. So you think he’s completely hot? He is, of course, and nice, and smart, and his truck is not bad. When did this start? I could have sworn that before it was only you obsessing about that creepy old Axel guy.”
I forced myself not to defend the creepy old Axel guy, or Lewis as I thought of him in my head, or tried not to think of him actually. I had an idea that this might be a natural intro to my, ‘what do you know about Devlin’ talk.
“I actually had a vision, or I saw Devlin’s vision, I guess.” I looked at her and saw her perfect mouth slightly thinned as she stared out the windshield, her hands tightening on the steering wheel. “It was an alternate reality, where I was all tough and strong, and Osmond was…”
“I see,” she said curtly, apparently no longer interested in details.
“What do you know about why Devlin took my soul? Did he tell you anything about the future that I should know? Anything about…”
“Look Dari,” she said in a cold voice that I’d rarely heard her use. “He didn’t talk about you, not to me, not to anyone, except maybe Osmond. The topic of you was as off limits as your personal space. No one went there—not even me.” There was something hard in her voice that I suspected covered up vulnerability.
“Sure, no problem,” I said quickly, looking out the window at the dreary landscape of a late January afternoon.
“You could always ask Osmond,” she said, a slightly teasing back in her voice.
I didn’t have to think about it to shake my head, knowing that would be a terrible idea. “Right, as soon as you ask Smoke to the Valentine’s dance,” I said hoping that would shut her up.
She sighed. “You can’t ask a boy to something romantic, it would be like sending yourself a love letter. What would be the point? Besides, I’m not ready to get serious with anyone, not like Smoke could ever be serious about anything,” she added with a slight grin.
“He’s a seriously great dancer, and he’s fantastic with his sword.”
She giggled slightly, shaking her head like I’d said something funny. “Maybe I’m intimidated by his sword prowess.” This time she laughed out loud, shooting me a look like I was supposed to be laughing too.
“Um, yeah?”
She kept laughing, looking at me every few seconds which made her laugh even harder.
“Maybe Osmond’s swordsmanship isn’t bad either,” she said when she managed to stop laughing for a few seconds. I stared at her for a long time before she finally shook her head. “You are so precious. It’s impossible to believe that anyone can be as truly oblivious as you are, but there you are.”
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