Demon Soul (1)

XXV

The voice at the edge of the lake took my attention away from the sky, and I turned to look at him. Ryker was standing there, his lips parted in awe as his wide eyes stared. I wondered if I was beautiful in them, distorted by the deep blue sea around his pupils. A small sigh escaped my lips and I shook my head, walking back towards the shore.

"Nyx Adelia Lumen." I told him, looking him right in the eyes. "Yes. I'm a monster, Ryker."

"I never said you were." He whispered hoarsely. I could smell the alcohol on his breath, but he seemed plenty coherent.

"You're a Hunter. All you know about demons is that they're human killing, flesh eating monsters that you're trained to kill." I turned away from him, taking a seat at the edge of the lake. He took one next to me. "Why didn't you just shoot me that morning. It would've been done and over with."

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" I snorted.

"Asteri." He whispered. "She gets...weird, when she's drunk."

"What the hell makes you think I care?"

That got to him. Ryker flinched, and I felt horrible. I just sighed and shook my head, burying my face in my hands.

"I'm sorry." I said, straightening up. "I...I felt like I'd been back stabbed, and...you're the first person I ever really cared about so much. Yeah, I liked Blake, but...not enough to want to sleep with him."

"Wait, you mean I was-?"

"Yes, Ryker." I sighed. "You were my first."

"My god...I-I'm so...oh god..." He was the one to hide his face this time, shaking his head slowly. "I didn't know."

"I know, don't beat yourself up over it." I smiled dryly. " I guess you couldn't brag to your buddies at the station about this one."

"I wouldn't have said anything even if you were human." He said.

"Technically I am." I shrugged. "I'm a half breed."

"No...that's not possible."

"Well, whoop-de-fucking-do, I guess I beat the odds!" I laughed humorlessly. "One in a billion chance, Ryker, and it just had to be me."

He stayed silent for a moment. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he pulled a flask out of his coat and took a drink, but before he could put it back I snatched it up and chugged the whole thing. The whiskey burned my throat going down, but it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"So, that thing in the woods we took in and proceeded to break out in the same day," Ryker started. "That was you, huh?"

"Yeah. Not one of my finest moments." I lifted my shirt up, revealing a scar on my left side. "I guess demons heal at ten times the speed of normal humans."

"You're a Yuki..." He sighed, leaning over and tracing his fingers across the wound before I tugged my shirt back down. "But that...that wasn't a Yuki."

"It was me. I'm a...I guess a Shadow Yuki." I snorted at my own mishmash of words. "Trust me, I'm different from my family too."

"Your family?"

"The people I'm living with are my real brother and father. Nox and Gabriel, they're the only people I have left." I shook my head, my frown filled with sadness. "I thought...I thought you, of all people, I'd be able to trust. I always get proven wrong though."

"You can trust me, Delia-"

"It's Nyx."

"Nyx, then." Ryker's fingers brushed my cheek. "I'm not turning you guys in. I'm not breaking the one person I have."