The Devil's Prey (The Demon Within) (12 page)

‘I can tell
. I am in the tree. Join me.’ I looked up to see him sitting on a branch.

‘N
o way am I going up there. You have to come down.’ My tone was not pretty. I wasn’t in the mood for games. He materialized before my eyes, right in front of me.

‘B
etter, my princess?’ He bowed low.

‘H
ahaha. Very funny.’

’H
ush, my princess! I am going to take you where no man has taken you before!’ He gave a cheeky smile.

‘Don’t you dare think about-’ B
ut before I could finish what I was saying, he had me by the waist and the next thing I knew, I was in a tree, looking over the training ground.

I
glanced down to see how high we were off the ground.  ‘Oh my god,’ I said, looking back up.

‘D
on’t worry, I would never let you fall. Even if you did, I would jump after you, materialize, then go straight to the ground.’ He was looking down into the training ground.

‘How do you
appear and disappear all the time?’ I asked. I had been meaning to ask him for ages, but other things always kept coming up.

‘A
gift I got from my father’s side. All demons can do it if they are powerful enough.’ The sun was shining through the forest, making it look magical.

‘S
o I guess you saw,’ I finally said.

Michel nodded
. ‘I must say, as much as I wanted to help, you sure know how to kick ass.’ I had to laugh, and Michel joined in.

I lost my balance
, but Michel caught me. ‘Thanks,’ I said.

‘T
old you I would catch you.’

‘O
k, you have had your fun. Now can you please place me on the ground?’ I am not a fan of heights, and I was not in a good mood, either. He grabbed me by the waist, and we were gone. When my feet touched something, though, I knew we weren’t on the ground. He had taken me up into a tree that was so high I could see the house.

‘Michel
!’ I yelled in his face. ‘This is no longer funny! Put me down on the ground or I will jump!’

‘B
ut my princess, I am taking you where no man can.’ He had a huge smirk on his face.

‘I said put me down
now, or heaven help me, I will strangle you with my bare hands!’ I spat.

‘Y
ou really aren’t in a very good mood this morning, princess.’ He was enjoying himself too much, with the pajamas and all.

‘MIIICCCHHHEEELLLL
!’ I screamed. The birds went silent at the noise I was making.

‘O
k, ok, taking you down now.’ But instead of just disappearing, he took me by the waist and jumped out of the tree. We were falling from the tree, but only got about halfway down before we suddenly re-materialized on the ground.

‘H
uh, it actually worked,’ he said, pleased with himself. But I was definitely not.

‘Y
ou have never done that before?’ I was in full rage- if I’d still had a demon inside me, it would have loved me right about then.

‘W
ell, not with another person.’ He still had that smirk across his face. I pointed my finger right at his face, and I saw him flinch.

‘Y
ou are so lucky I am feeling nice, otherwise I would have slit your throat and let you bleed out into the earth!’  I turned back towards the house and stormed off.

‘C
ome on, I was trying to cheer you up, my princess!’

I just
gave him the finger and stormed back to the house. I walked head-on into the battle going on inside.

I was in
such a ferocious mood that I nearly blew the door off its hinges with my mind. Every conversation stopped and every eye turned towards me as I walked straight into a fire that didn’t needed to be fueled any further. I walked straight past them all, stomping my way through the house and into my room, where I slammed the door shut with my mind. The first thing I did was remove my pajamas, and put on jeans and a shirt that said ‘
bite me.’
Once dressed, I stormed out of my room and to the front door. I could hear Lauren and the officials stop talking at the sound of my rampage through the house, but I just grabbed someone’s keys and took off in a car towards home.

That’s the thing
. My intentions were to go home, but instead I somehow ended up zooming around sharp corners at breakneck speed. Then I was caught on a speed camera, and that was how I wound up in jail at the police station. To make it even worse, I didn’t have my license on me.  So I sat in a dirty jail cell while my charges were being read to me.

‘O
ne- speeding,’ the policeman said, looking at me. ‘Driving without a license.’  He shook his head. ‘Driving a stolen vehicle.’

‘H
ey, that is not fair! It belongs to my boyfriend, and he said I could use it whenever,’ I said.

‘Y
es, he may have. But you didn’t even know who it belonged to until we got the owner of the car from our database.’ He flipped over the page.  ‘Running a red light. Disturbing the peace.’ He had to flip the page again. ‘Assaulting a police officer.’

‘Y
eah, um, don’t you think you could scrape that off, please?’ I asked, fluttering my eyelashes at him.

‘N
o way, sweetheart.’ He left me, and I grimaced, recalling how I’d hit the officer. He’d pulled me over after I ran at least ten red lights.

‘G
et your hands off me!’ I yelled in the officer’s face, but he pulled me out the car. I was yelling every possible foul name I could think of at him, but he had my face on the hood like I was some random thug off the street. The officer was about to cuff me when I turned around and hit him in the nose. I was already in an aggressive mood, and he was just adding fuel to my fire. I took off running, but I was knocked to the ground and cuffed by another officer, this one female.

‘Y
ou are in a lot of trouble,’ she said as she hauled me to my feet. I could see that I had broken the other officer’s nose. When he came close to me, I kicked him in the nuts. He hit the ground quicker then I could say, “scrambled eggs!”

‘
You bitch!’ he yelled out to me as I was hauled into the car, laughing.

I had to laugh at the way he went
down and screamed like a girl.

‘W
hat are you laughing at?’ I could see that the officer I had punched had a swollen nose.

‘J
ust laughing at you.’ This had lightened up my mood, but the longer I was left in the stinking cell, the more annoyed I became. After some calls were made, I was let out under a warning. I stormed my way out of the station and into the afternoon sun.

‘W
hy, look what we have here- a criminal.’ I heard Amber laugh with her group. What was she doing here? I walked away, intent on avoiding a confrontation- until she hit my buttons, just like Lauren had.

‘Y
ou know they should have committed you and your mother already. Everyone knows she killed your dad.’ It didn’t take long before I tackled her to the ground.

  ‘M
y dad was honest, unlike your father, who sleeps with every pretty woman he lays eyes on!’ I could hear officers running out of the station to assess the situation.

‘A
t least my father is still alive!’ That was it. I’d had enough of everybody’s insults. I felt something new bubbling inside me. I exploded into a bright light, and screamed so loud that windows started breaking. I was in full fury. I saw people in the police station back away. I felt like I could pinpoint the location of every fairy and demon in the world. I had read that full fury was like glowing, but only something pure fairies can do. It was stronger than the glow, but many pure fairies before our extinction struggled to even get a spark on their fingertips. Yet my whole body had lit up. When it stopped, I just walked away, leaving everyone gob smacked. Last year, I would have broken down in tears, feeling sorry for what I’d caused, but I was a new person now. I was strong. I no longer felt sorry for people, because no one was truly innocent. I continued to walk.

When I go
t back to the house, everyone was in a panic. I had calmed down a bit- at least to the point where I wasn’t going to go punching anyone that stepped in my way, but the moment I set foot in the house, every pair of eyes were locked on me. I had my hands tucked into my jean pockets casually. My legs were a bit sore- unsurprising, considering I had just walked from the police station in town. Ethan was back, and I needed to explain to him that his car was left at the police station, but I had a feeling he already knew. One thing I’d learned was that news traveled fast in the house.

I was not intimidated
by everyone looking at me. Last year, I would have been horrified by all the eyes, but I just glided past all the faces and made my way to the kitchen, where I poured myself a glass of water. Everyone was following me, but no one held eye contact for more than a few seconds

‘W
ell, if anyone wants me, I will be in my room…doing homework,’ I said, breaking the tension. I could see their jaws drop at how casual I was being.

The work my teachers
gave me was challenging, but I got it in the end. After I finished one whole sheet, someone came bursting into my room. ‘What the hell, Summer?’ Amanda stood next to me. I ignored her and went back to the work.

‘D
on’t ignore me.’

I look
ed up from my work to stare into her intimidating eyes. ‘What do you want to know?’

S
he threw her hands up into the air and started pacing. ‘Well, let’s begin with you attacking Lauren.’ She started tapping her foot, waiting for an answer.

‘W
hat does it matter to you?’ I turned my attention back to my work.

‘T
he whole house is going mad! You did something crazy in front of lots of people over-  what a snide comment from some human girl?’

I turned to face her
.  ‘First of all, that thing I did was called fury. It is stronger than the light you can produce, and second of all, it was not just Amber who brought it on, and third, why is the house going mad?’

A
manda just looked at me like I was stupid or something. ‘The house is going mad because the head of fairies is here about you and Lauren. Then you go off and get arrested, and go into the fury. Did you know pure fairies were highly respected, but now people are thinking that all pure fairies might be just like you!’ She was looking at me like I was supposed to care.

‘S
o what?’ I said. I didn’t care what people thought of me anymore. I was no longer the girl who sat in the corner and cried when things went wrong.

‘W
hat is wrong with you? The Summer I knew would care what everyone thought. Even Ethan says you are different ever since we got back from the hospital- ever since the devil stabbed you, it is like you are a different person.’ I could see her take a step back, afraid of what I might do.

‘W
ell, people change, Amanda, and I have changed. You better get used to it, or don’t hang out with me.’ I wasn’t yelling, and I wasn’t getting mad. Amanda didn’t affect me the same way Lauren and Amber did.

‘I give up with you
.’ She left the room, leaving me feeling like I had lost everything. I sat back down at my desk. I felt a pick on my shoulder. Great, another message, I thought, but when I looked, it only looked as though a pin had pricked me. I creased my face as I wondered where the message was. I looked down, and on the blank paper in front of me, it read:

I want your blood and I will get it any
way possibl
e

The sentence was written in blood my own blood
. I tried to rub it off, but it did not smudge. I tried to tear it up, but the paper was as hard as stone. The best I could do was to hide it in a drawer, and wait to show Amanda.

‘W
here is my car?’ Ethan came bursting into my room. And I knew all hell was about to break loose. ‘What did you do to it?’

I guess he assumed after I walked home that hi
s car was wrapped around a tree somewhere. ‘Your car is fine. It is at the police station,’ I said.

H
e looked furious. ‘At the police station? What the hell is it doing there?’

I hadn’t known
that he cared so much for his car. If only he had shown that much concern for me the day he left me alone in the woods.

‘I think you know what it is doing there
,’ I said.

‘I want to hear it from you
.’ He had his arms crossed. I think he was waiting for me to break down into tears, crying and saying how sorry I was.

‘I
t’s a long story.’ But I could tell he would wait all year until he heard me say it. ‘Ok, so I was training with Lauren, and she was getting on my nerves. I really mean on my nerves. Then I…well, how do I put it…’