Little Demons (Demon Road fic)

5

They waited in the motel for the growl of Diego's bike as he arrived. It came two minutes later and then he was stomping into the room. Marion watched him as he sprawled into a chair. He didn't like Char, despised her even, that much was evident from his face. He didn't seem to much like Marion either. She didn't know why, but she could feel his stony glare on her, boring holes into her head as she looked at Axl. His usual smirk was playing on his lips as he settled on the bed next to her. Char stood, barefoot for once, in the centre of the room, her hands clasped in front of her. She looked harmless, weak even, the epitome of innocent, Marion knew this was far from the reality. She had beaten one of Astorath's back-from-the-dead serial killers without batting an eyelid and had then set the entire gas station on fire. Marion knew she should be wary of Char, perhaps even scared, but she didn't think she would ever hurt her. Char had one goal: save Milo. Marion knew, as if it were written across Char's forehead in large black letters, that as long as she didn't get in her way she wouldn't become a pile of charred flesh. Marion watched Axl out of the corner of her eye. He was an odd one. He was flirty and friendly, obnoxious and over comfortable, yet what did Marion really know about him? He drove a Land Rover and probably lived in it too, judging by the amount of clothes he kept in there. He travelled the Demon Road in his car and-? Marion didn't even know his job, if he had one. He couldn't be more than 25 and possessed a whole range of tricksy little talents. He had some fighting background and could smoothly lie his way into any event, as he'd proven with the club. He oozed charm and could probably talk the pants off a nun. She speculated about if he had a family. Were his parents alive, or dead, like hers? Did he have siblings? Thinking about families made Marion's mind wander to her sister. She hadn't seen her for about three years. Not since it happened. She wondered if Linda was still travelling with her rag-tag group of monster fighting buddies in their mystery machine. She hoped so. A voice roused her from her musings.

"-she isn't what you think she is!" Diego hissed. Marion felt a hand on her knee, Axl.

"What do you mean?" he asked the Spaniard. Diego bared his teeth in a throaty laugh.

"What do you mean?" he mocked. "As if you don't know?" he glared at Char, hatred burning deep in his eyes. "She's not even a real demon!" Axl's brow raised in surprise and Marion blinked in confusion, she seemed to have missed a whole conversation. Char glared back at Diego with slitted eyes.

"But we saw her shift, she looked pretty demon-like to me," Axl stated, leaning forward. His hand left her knee and she was strangely disappointed. Diego sat up straight, his eyes meeting Axl's, but his shoulders were hunched over.

"She's not even a real human," he spat. Axl looked curiously at Char, as did Marion. What did the that mean? Was she straight form hell? Char saw their looks and shrugged, obviously she wasn't going to tell them anything. When she spoke, her voice was tense and hard, a steely cover to whatever was in her head.

"Diego, can you get me the powder?" Despite the tension and hatred that crackled between her and Diego electrifying the rest of the room, he nodded.

"Give me five days," he said gruffly. Char nodded tersely. As Diego stood, so did Axl. He looked down at Diego and raised his eyebrows.

"I thought you were taller," he said. Marion hid her smirk as she followed them out the room. She didn't want to be left alone with a fuming Char. Axl let himself back into his room and Marion fell into step with Diego, walking him to his motorbike. They stopped and Diego picked up his helmet.

"Why do you hate me?" Marion asked him. He looked up, amusement in his golden eyes.

"I don't hate you, I'm just wary of Astorath's kin, little demon," he said. Marion took a step back in surprise, streaks of ice cold fear flashed through her chest, her hands going for her gun. How did he know? Diego laughed at her reaction.