Finding Demons

Part 2.1

Allya screamed as the demon plunged it's stinger right into her chest. Behind her, the boy, Golding, screamed as well, as if he shared her pain.

The stinger broke off inside of her and Allya stumbled backwards, into the boys arms. Her head lolled to the side, and as it did, Allya noticed something strange. Blood, as dark as a rose, was quickly spreading across the boys chest like a flower in bloom. But how did that get there? He wasn't attacked.

"Allya, Ally, Ally, stay with me, open your eyes."

"I liked the name James," Allya mumbled. Her eyes fluttered shut. The boy quickly shook her. "No! Allya, open your eyse!"

But they refused to open. Allya flopped like a rag doll, only held up by James's arms. He gently set her down upon the ground and faced the demon that had been lying in wait ever since they got here.

He stared it down. The ugly thing that looked like a giant scorpian, just with two great pincers in it's slobbery mouth.

"You're going to regret that," James, the boy, said. "Nobody hurts her."

He started towards the thing, only to be stopped by a voice inside his head.

Except you?

James hesitated. "What?"

You say nobody hurts her, and yet you, unknowingly, hurt her everyday.

"You don't know what you're talking about," James growled, but he cast a look at Allya's limp body sprawled on the ground.

You brought her here, where she was hurt. You caused this.

"That was not my fault!" James yelled. "She was stubborn! She left the safe house!"

But that is not all.

James paused again, one foot dangling in mid-air from where he was going to take a running leap at the demon.

"Why should I listen to you at all? In fact, why am I listening to you?"

Because you are going to kill her. And I know how.

At the words, 'kill her,' James broke. With a scream, he launched himself at the demon and blindly attacked it, not stopping until the thing had been reduced to ashes.

James stood panting, staring momentarily at where the Scorpios had been. He always knew what his weakness was, but to let that demon get to him so much...

He shook his head. There was something more important right now.

Allya moaned as he picked her up and carried her, once again, into the protection of the Safe House. He laid her down on the soft pine needles and inspected the stab wound.

The stinger had broken off inside her. James lifted his hand and felt the wound on his own chest. It was deep too. Not good.

Allya's eyes fluttered open, and her lips parted slightly. "James?"

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it between both of his. "Right here, Ally. I'm right here."

Her eyes, which had been drifting across the ceiling, focused on him. "James?"

He nodded. "Yes, that's right, my name is James."

Her eyes slid off his face and onto the wound on his chest. "What happened to you James?"

He leaned down so his lips were just above her ear and whispered, "you happened to me, Allya."

She didn't seem to register the words. Her eyes had already fixed onto a new object: The wound on her own chest. "Am I going to die?"

The words sent a weird prickle through James. he recognised it as alarm. "No, you aren't going to die."

"I feel like I'm going to die," she whispered.

A new feeling sparked in James's chest: Panic. "No, no, you are not going to die. See? Watch."

He made sure Allya was watching him, then cast his hand over her chests. He tried to ignore the fact that to heal her, he would have to lay his hands on her breasts.

He took a deep breath and rested his palm on her wound. There was a golden light, and feeling, like plunging his hand into cold water, shot through his hand.

James smiled at Allya while he waited. A few seconds passed, and he reluctantly took his hand away.

He smiled at her again, reassuringly, but she was still staring at her chest.

"It didn't work."

The words confused James. Of course it worked, of course it-

It didn't work. He looked back at her chest, where fresh blood was coating her tshirt. In a panic, he ripped her shirt off and tried to stem the flow.

"You lied to me," Allya whispered.

James shook his head. "No, no, I'm going to heal you."

But he knew, for the first time in forever, that he couldn't.