Devil's Soul

Chapter 48 (sleep with pepper spray under your pillow)

I knew right away when I woke up that something wasn't right. It was still dark, so I must have only slept a couple of hours. My palms felt clammy, and I had wrestled all the blankets away from me, even though the room was frigid. The cold room wasn't unusual, as we turned off the heater at night, but the cold somehow seemed like a warning in that moment.

"I had hoped you would be a deep sleeper so I could tie you up before you awoke, but the world seems to be full of disappointments," a sultry female voice spoke, sending me scrambling out of bed, eyes darting around the room.

She was lurking in a dark corner, out of reach of the moonlight from my window. I could just barely make out her silhouette. She stepped forward, and I recognized the demon from earlier. She had changed out of her bloodied and tattered clothes, but a dark patch was seeping through her current shirt. She seemed to notice it right when I did. "Shit, it bled through the bandages," she muttered.

While she was distracted, I made a beeline for the door, but she intercepted me easily.

"Who are you, and what do you want with me?" I asked, trying to sound firm and not scared out of my wits.

She smiled. "I'm so glad you asked, darling. I want you to stop getting in the way of my vengeance." She took a step toward me, and I took a step back. "I would ask nicely, but I'm sure you've been contracted into the job, so my only choice is to eliminate you." Another step forward for her and another one back for me. "Oh, and my name's Arabella, since you asked. No need to tell me yours. I've learned a lot about you while I've been watching you follow that stupid cult around."

I wished that I had kept my throwing stars on me, but they were sitting uselessly in my closet. I held still, afraid that any sudden movements would trigger a hunter's pounce.

Arabella cocked her head, a perplexed look crossing her face. "Shouldn't you be bleeding too?" she asked. Suddenly she was on me. She knocked me back onto my bed and pinned me down. I struggled beneath her, but she was stronger than me, and she had the advantage by being on top. Arabella sat on my legs and pinned my wrists with her hands. She leaned in and inspected the area of my neck she had bitten into earlier.

"It's been a long time since I've encountered anyone with that ability," Arabella murmured to herself.

While she was busy with that revelation, I realized what I had to do, and trust me when I say I was definitely not thrilled by the idea. I closed my eyes and brought my head up with as much force as I could muster. The smack of my head against hers was just as painful as I had anticipated.

"Fuck!" she gasped, releasing my wrists to clutch at her head. I bucked her off and ran for the door, actually making it this time. Unfortunately, the success didn't count for much. When I grabbed the door knob, she grabbed me by my hair and pulled me back. She used the grip she had on my hair to expose my neck.

Before she bit down, I focused on my healing power, intending to heal myself as soon as she broke skin. When she clamped down, I felt a strain on my power that was eased when I switched to demon vision. I was focusing so hard on keeping my skin intact that I didn't realize what was been happening until she pulled away to ask, "What the hell?!" and then attempted to gnaw on my neck again. I wasn't just healing my skin; I was keeping it from breaking in the first place. The skin was stretching pliantly beneath her teeth as she chewed.

Arabella finally threw me to the floor and shouted, "Freak!"

I looked up at her, startled. She had a diet of blood and could turn into a bat, and she was calling me the freak? While I gazed at her, I noticed that she had plenty of soul fragments pulsating around her. She even had a whole soul. She wasn't corrupted. At least not yet. I was a little disappointed. A lot disappointed, actually. I was going to have a lot of trouble justifying killing her now.