Angelic

Alec ~ 10

Once I saw the demon, I knew leaving my bow at home was a bad idea. I had nothing to defend myself, but if I brought it out on the streets, it would start eating mundanes. I had been trying to arrack it while avoiding being eaten for about five minutes before suddenly it burst, slime exploding everywhere. I turned, keeping the slime from getting on my face. The moment I turned back around, the demon was gone, and in its place stood Ev, a silver whip practically identical to Izzy's in her hand. She was covered in as much slime as I assumed I was.

She didn't say anything for a long time. All she did was recoil her whip, and one second it was a dangerous, shining weapon in her hand, and the next, it was a bracelet on her wrist.

"Why did you do that?" I finally asked, still trying to calm my breathing.

"Because you're a Shadowhunter." She explained as if it were a simple concept. I noted that she wasn't even gasping for air. "I couldn't let it kill you. We protect mundanes, but we also protect each other."

"I... I didn't..." I couldn't seem to fit the words into a sentence that sounded right. But she had to know what I was trying to say: why would she save my life, when not even twelve hours ago I was threatening hers?

She smiled at me, but it didn't reach her eyes. "You don't have to say anything. The demon's dead. That's that. We should get back to the institute before anymore come. Hunger is a Greater Demon. Someone must have called him here. Whoever did it is probably going to summon more, too."

I nodded, following behind her as we walked back to institute in silence.

...

The next afternoon, I found Ev in the training room, wearing workout leggings and a black sports bra to match. She was hanging onto a metal railing about twenty feet in the air as she did pull-ups.

"Should I even ask how you got up there?" I questioned, looking up at her.

She glanced down at me, her face red and sweaty, and a moment later let go of the railing, landing gracefully in front of me.

"Come to kill me with your seraph blade again?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow. I wondered how she was covered in sweat, red in the face, but she wasn't struggling for breath.

"No." I admitted. Sucking in a breath, I told her, "I came to thank you, actually. For last night."

For a moment, surprise flashed across her eyes, but it was gone just as quickly as it had come. She walked past me, picking up a towel and her water bottle on the floor. She patted her face and neck dry and then took three big chugs of water. Finally, she looked back at me.

"You shouldn't be thanking me." She said.

I opened my mouth to question her, but she didn't let me get a word out.

"I already told you. The demon's dead, we don't need to discuss it further." She insisted.

She turned to walk towards the door, but I stopped her.

"Why don't you want to talk about?" I questioned.

She spun back around, wondering, "Why do you?"

"Because, and I kind of hate to admit this, but the way you killed that thing... it was kind of amazing. And you said it--it was a Greater Demon. Those are hard to kill."

She stared at me blankly. "I'm an Elite. We learned to kill those things at age ten."

"Why can't you take a compliment?" I questioned.

She sighed. "Thank you, Alec. Does that make you feel better?" She waited for me to respond, but I didn't say anything. "Now will you drop it?"

"You know, you make it really hard to be nice to you." I told her thorough clenched teeth. I resisted the urge to look for my seraph blade, but I knew that if she could take down a Greater Demon in one blow, then I really shouldn't be stupid enough to spar with her.