Guardian of My Heart

Chapter 8: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Kalego's POV:

That brat is Opera's kid?!?! What kind of sick joke is this?!?! Never in a million years would I have expected to see something so impossible as what I witnessed tonight. Not only was there a human-demon hybrid sitting straight across from me at Henri's dining table, but he was the spitting image of my least favorite demon in the entire Netherworld! Shichiro and I had shared a glance immediately, and I knew he had made the same realization I had. There was no need to do any blood work tests. I knew it, Shichiro knew it, and from what Narnia told us he and Henri knew it! I struggled to keep my mouth shut the whole dinner, knowing I was on the verge of exploding then and there. Luckily Shichiro took the boy, Iruma, upstairs under the excuse of needing more blood. While that was probably true to an extent, I knew he mostly wanted to give me some space from the boy. I had taken that opportunity to talk to Narnia in private. As our conversation escalated, I felt my blood boil the more Opera invaded my psyche. Eventually I reached a point where reason was nearly gone from my mind, and on an impulse, I summoned Cerberion. The shattering of a glass brought me out of my murderous trance as I looked over toward the house, where I saw Iruma looking pale as a ghost. Before either Narnia or I could speak, the blue-haired boy bolted back inside.

Narnia and I shared a quick glance before the two of us rushed inside after Iruma, not knowing what he would do or where he would go. With any luck he would retreat to the room Henri had provided the boy. But I was afraid that he was leaving the house behind. For a moment I had seen a flash of something in his eyes, as his sclera turned from white to an inky black, leaving his blue irises floating in a pitch-black void. I wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but I knew enough about demons to know that he was most likely not using cognitive thought and was instead going off of pure survival instinct alone. As we opened the door to his room, we saw only Shichiro inside, packing up the medical equipment he had been using earlier. Not wanting to waste any time, I started down the stairs back to the front door, shouting to Narnia as I ran. "You get everyone else together and organize a search! I'm going to try and catch his scent!" Not waiting for a response from my brother, I sprinted outside and unfurled my wings, quickly taking flight and focusing my senses on locating Iruma's mana. It didn't take long to find, the erratic nature of untamed magic flowing rapidly through the forest gave him away. That, and I would recognize the scent of his mana anywhere, given who he was related to.

I pushed my wings to their limit, hoping that I could catch up to the boy before he got himself in any serious trouble. I refused to entertain such a notion, the only thing keeping me going being pure grit. In my mind I was cursing my own foolishness. Narnia was right, I need to separate my feelings for my senpai from this boy. Hang on kid, I'll make this right, I promise. After a few minutes I knew I was close. Iruma's mana was still erratic, but its energy felt far more potent than before. As I landed in a canyon near the entrance of a cave crevice of sorts, I realized that there was more than mana in the air. Blood. Human blood. The smell was intoxicating, and I could already start to feel my senses becoming overwhelmed. Focus, Kalego! This is bad. If you're smelling Iruma's blood that means he's injured. You have to help him. Whispering a short incantation, I conjured a glowing orb of purple light and sent it forth into the cave. Soon I caught a trail of blood, and a familiar looking shadow illuminated on the far-left wall behind a pair of stalagmites. As I approached, I could hear whimpering sobs coming from the boy. "Iruma." The boy gave no indication that he had heard me, so I slowly crept around to look at him.

Looking at the boy, I had to fight the urge to empty the contents of my stomach in front of him. Iruma's clothes were covered in dirt and blood, his shirt had been ripped to shreds when he had unfurled his own wings, which he had wrapped around himself in a hug. The damage to his wings was so severe, I knew they couldn't possibly have suffered such injury in the short amount of time I had been looking for him. Those were old wounds and scars, and quite frankly I was amazed that he had even been capable of flight at all. He was clutching his right side with his arms, and I could already see some bruises forming over his ribs. His left leg was bleeding from several scratches no doubt caused by a rough landing, and the boy was shaking uncontrollably. All in all, Iruma looked like a mess. I tried getting his attention once again. "Iruma, can you please look at me." The shaking didn't stop, if anything it got even worse, but the kid at least lifted his head a bit to meet my gaze. Part of me wished he hadn't, because as soon as he took notice of me, he started to press himself into the wall as far back as possible. His eyes were trained on me, flashing back and forth between normal and that eerie black.