FORTY-TWO
“Really?” I was fascinated. “So how does it work… with Victor.”
“He can erase any memory from your mind and can also create a false incident.”
“W-o-w,” I said staring wide eyed. “Can demons die at all?”
I could tell by the sudden stillness of his body that this was a question he was hoping I wouldn’t ask. I stilled too, reacting naturally. “There’s only one way to fully kill a demon.”
I waited, “Holy water?”
He laughed. “I get that a lot from the few humans who know what I am.”
“So?”
“Myth,”
“Purified blood?”
It had the desired effect. He laughed. “What does that even mean?” he kissed the top of my head and said. “Myth.”
He sighed and continued. “Demons can easily kill each other by extracting another’s life essence. Although demons cannot be harmed by conventional means, but ripping out the heart and burning it in iron is the only way.”
“As if I could fight you off.”
He smiled.
“Is it only your family?”
“No.” he mumbled. “There are quite a few others. We demons don’t like having kids and if we do have them we usually have one child.”
“Why is that?”
“Seriously?” he was smiling one of his blinding smiles again. “We are generally selfish creatures. If there were more of us we’d die of starvation.” He teased.
“You’re right.” I sighed. “I suppose with your indefinite long lifespan you’d have run out of food source by now.”
“Perhaps.”
“You never told me what Rebecca’s curse is.”
He hissed.
“Don’t you want to sleep?” he asked me instead. "You must be tired."
“No, I want to know what Rebecca can do.”
“Beth, please.
“I won’t tell.” I promised.
“That’s not what worries me.”
“What then?”
“I don’t want you to be scared when she is near.”
I smiled. “I doubt anything scares me.” I said. “Not even demons.”
“Don’t make me do this.”
“I promise I won’t be frightened.”
He scowled at me.
I sighed.
“Electromagnetic intervention…” a sly glance up at me. “She often – although she doesn’t mean to – disrupts nearby electronics with her mere presence.”
“Those thunderstorms aren’t all natural are they?” My watery eyes enlarged and I breathed in and out but air wouldn't enter my lungs. My limps trembled and an invisible kettle seemed to let steam into my palms. I tried to reduce the speeds of my heartbeat but failed. A icy shiver rocked my spine and the fear trapped me still. How could I be in the same room as Rebecca after this? She was the very thing I feared, the only thing I feared. Now I understood why he hadn’t wanted to tell me.
"I'm sorry, for scaring you."
"I'm fine, really." I shivered.
"Enough serious talk for today." He teased. “You’d invited me over for breakfast, remember?”
"Give me a minute to calm my heart." It was easier to be honest with him, knowing that my heart betrayed me, the frantic beating.
"Don’t be afraid." he said pulling me further against his chest and kissing my now dry hair.
I couldn’t find my voice.
Before I could comprehend what had happened, I was facing him, still straddling him. He leaned towards me, his cool breath fanning my hot cheeks, his scent intoxicating me. I wanted to lean back but his arms held me captive. I couldn’t move an inch. His noise touched my jaw line and he caressed my face, he placed his hand on the hollow of my neck. My blood boiled. My pulse racing in my veins.
When his nose touched my lips, I trembled – I realised my heart was still beating rapidly but it wasn’t from fear anymore.
“Can you hold still for a second?”
“As if that’s possible with you so close,” I mumbled out of breath.
“I won’t kiss you.” He promised his voice amused.
“I liked you more when you couldn’t stand touching me.”
“You’re so impossibly irresistible.”
“It’s an off day when I don’t hear that.” I scoffed.
“I’m getting better at it.”
“It’s easier for you now.”
“Is that what you think?” He reached with his other hand to hold the back of my neck, an involuntary shiver travelled up and down my spine. “Never forget that it’s more than your touch I crave. I could so easily feed meaning to kiss you. It’s hard for me too – although for other reasons.” He sounded amused.
“It’s not my fault that you drive me crazy.”
He was unrepentant. “Some of us are born with it.”
I let it go for the moment and placed my hands on his chest. I thought I felt his heart miss a beat but I couldn’t be sure. I looked up at him with my eyebrows raised.
“…or maybe not.” He mumbled.
It was hard to believe I could have any effect on anybody let alone someone of Bradley's calibre. I was flattered.
“I need to use the bathroom.” I said casually.
He nodded.
My muscles were stiff as I walked; I just wanted to get away from his heart stopping presence. In the bathroom I took my comb out of my toiletry bag and walked slowly to the mirror. I wanted to slow my racing heart but I froze.
“How did you do it?” I asked the second I ran into the lounge.
“What?”
“My hair is perfectly straight as though I’d ironed it, and there aren’t any knots in it.”
He shrugged.
“Darn it.” He was perfect at everything. I was insanely jealous. “I can never get it to behave.”
Instantaneously, wordlessly, he was standing at my side – in a pace faster than my eyes could follow, taking my hands tenderly in his. “Don’t be sad.” He pleaded. He dropped his handsome, unearthly face to the level of my eyes, trapping my gaze. I was self-conscious. Unable to look away.
“It always looks good on you.” He promised.
I waited.
"I’ve never met anyone as beautiful as you.” He said. “With equally beautiful hair.”
"You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“Elizabeth, you have a very beautiful soul.” He mumbled. “I’ve been trying for so long to let you know how I feel. I’ve longed to hold you close in my arms.”
He pulled me against his chest, tenderly, naturally.
“I’m extremely jealous.” He grimaced. “It’s hard to believe, my heart had been frozen for so long. The only emotions I was accustomed to were hatred, loneliness, resentment, negativity. And love for my family. The only thing that kept me from killing myself – besides avoiding hurting my family – was the useless point of trying. I could fall of a cliff; I wouldn’t even break a bone.”
I scowled him, hating the talk of death. His death.
“It can get boring after hundred years repeating the same thing, high school –” he grimaced when he said the word. “Work, moving from state to state, I was just a headless chicken following my family. Nothing brightened up my day; I had nothing to look forward to.”
He threw back his head and laughed cynically, soft as a whisper. But then he smiled. “I was angry that first day, the very first time I saw you, I was angry that you’d smiled at Benjamin, angry that you touched him, it repulsed me, I felt bitter, irritated. I didn’t know what it was until my cousin made fun of me about it. She said I was jealous. I was even angrier that you spent your lunch break with Benjamin, I couldn’t stand the stinking smell of his soul, but I was angrier at myself for feeling…” he paused searching for the right word. “Different. Joy. I found I was eager to go to class, to see you again. Sorry about the coffee I spilled on you. And then when school ended, I’d wanted to talk with you, ask you why you were so sad; did you miss your dad? Did you have someone special back home? I was restless.”
“It was blood.” I scowled. “And thanks for ruining my favourite blouse.”
He grinned down at me. “Your reaction towards me was infuriating. You didn’t seem to notice me at all.” And then he chuckled. “I had to follow you. To listen to every conversation you had. I had to know how you felt about me, to know your reaction towards me. And then I got a glimpse of your soul, you wanted to leave. I broke my mother’s table – which I still have to replace – I wanted you to stay in Margate. I wanted you to stay with me, for me.”
“It hurt to know you were leaving because of me.” He whispered. “In my pitiful attempt to protect you I’d in fact driven you away” he shook his head angrily. “I knew then that I had to change, that I was done trying to stay away from you.”
“I’m glad.”
“You can’t possibly understand the power you have over me, the hold you have on me. How irresistible you are.”
“My essence –”
“no.” he hissed. “Your essence is irresistible but I’m a man, there are other desires.”
I tried to pull back, to look for treachery in his face but his grip on me was unbreakable.
“I’m a senior citizen. I’ve wondered this earth, seen a lot of women – witches, humans, demons – but none of them awoke the man in me, the monster in me. No one had moved my heart the way you do. No one can come close to mean what you do to me.” Then Bradley’s breath was fanning my ear.
My heart was crashing in my chest.
He hummed a song; it took me a minute to recognise it.