Down below

Chapter 25. xxx

  >>>>explicit content 18+ <<<<

 Warm breeze and rays of light caressed her face. She could smell the forest around her before opening her eyes, the unmistakable smell of reviving nature, fresh and crisp notes of spring with its slender flowers.

'Get up, girl! No rest for the wicked.'

   Wait. She knew that voice. This had happened before. She felt a small kick at her shin.

'Come on!'

   Her eyelids flew open. Orion was staring down at her, his arms crossed at his chest. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

'We're almost at the top. Let's go. If you reach the top before I do, you can drive the car back.'

'Is that supposed to motivate me?' she heard herself talk as she got up, her muscles aching, her top sticking to her sweaty body.

'Maybe you can also have the next week off since your 16th birthday's coming up.' he winked as he jogged off.

   It was really him. Shit, she forgot to take her sleeping pill! She hoped this was just a memory and not a twisted nightmare as she started to run after him. She knew that this was the very first time she managed to beat him by an inch, literally. The scenery changed and they were sitting on their back porch. Elianah was drinking the first G&T Orion ever made him −not the first ever as she had her first last year at one of her classmate's party−, he was sipping scotch. He didn't care what she was up to in her free time as long as she hit her targets and completed her missions. The perks of living with a demon as a teenager. She heard a click of a lighter and smelled the sweet fragrance of weed.

'Can I have some?' she asked him.

'No. You're underage.' he grinned and took a big draw.

She stared at him with a scoff. He looked utterly cool with his dark 2mm fade haircut, one stud helix piercing in his right ear, wearing all black. She never really noticed how handsome he was, but now she understood why the girls from her class called him "cute". He was lounging in the chair, his long legs resting on the table. He enjoyed another deep inhale, his eyes narrowing at her.

'So I'm old enough to drink and to hunt, but I can't have that? I'm not a child anymore.'

'Huh.' was all he reacted, smiling wider.

'Whatever.' she said.

   She drank from her g&t, staring at the garden, trying to figure out why she was dreaming about this particular memory. Orion was a strict, but fair mentor. He taught her to fight, trained her to wield weapons, track demons and helped her to control her abilities. When Hades killed him, she was shocked. She didn't really have time to process it, but she knew, she can not show emotions, that would just piss Hades off even more. When she was on the run, she paid him respect in her own way: she utilised everything Orion taught him to stay hidden. The demon was the closest thing to family she had ever had and Hades obliterated him without mercy. She flinched in her chair.

'I missed you, you know.' she told him, playing with her straw. This was her dream. She might as well try to control it.

'What do you mean?' he asked, putting out the spliff, looking confused.

'When He killed you. I wish I could have saved you.'

   His eyes bore into hers. They were the colour of liquid metal.

'What's done is done. You need to let go of the past in order to design your future. Learn from it to understand your path.'

'I don't know what path that is.'