Demon Puppet

Chapter 3

I bite my lip and look down. Hero has barely spoken for hours. I walk beside him awkwardly, kicking small rocks. He finally looks over at me, and I stop.

"Hero..." I say softly.

"What?" He answers curtly.

"Is there a reason for the silence?"

"Is there a reason to speak?"

I wince. "I suppose not..."

He glances up at me and reaches for my hand, giving it a light squeeze. "I'm sorry. It's been a while since I was around people. I don't really know how to behave."

I chuckle. "You were charming when you wanted to be. Now I think you're just giving me the silent treatment."

"Now, why would I do that to my mate?" Hero says, pulling me closer. "I love you."

My body warms instantly, and I blush. I still wasn't used to having a mate--especially one that had been imprisoned for nearly eternity. The same one was responsible for the deaths of the only family I had ever  known. I trusted Hero for reasons I don't think even he could explain. So he just used one word.

Mate.

My stomach growls, and I pause. Hero looks down at me with some amusement. "Hungry?"

I nod. "Yeah... It can wait, though. How far are we from home?"

"It should be a few more days before we get there," Hero says softly. "Are you that eager to see our families again?"

Our families. It was odd, hearing that. "I don't really know."

His red eyes soften, but I stare. Hero was so eerily beautiful; there were parts of him that scared me still even though he would never hurt me. The tattoos on his face and his brilliant red eyes made him look fierce, wild. Only I would ever know how soft and tame he could be. No... Hero was never tame. Even in the Vault, he had never been a prisoner. He had simply been dormant, waiting for me to respond to his calls.

"Well, since you're hungry, we had better stop," he says. "I can hear people walking on a road nearbye, so there must be a town close to this place."

My eyes widen. "You can hear that? I can only hear..."

"Tell me," he says softly. "What exactly do you hear right now?"

I close my eyes. The wind blew gently through the leaves, making a quiet rushing lullaby. I could hear ants crawling in a line to and from their hill, collecting and moving constantly. I heard birds flying back and forth and the singing of their feathers in the air. I heard a woodpecker drilling into the trunk of a faraway tree and the steady running of cool water over the ground.

But more than anything else, I could hear Hero. His controlled breath, his strong heartbeat. I could hear the wind blowing through his hair. In fact, he enveloped everything, as if my body only wanted to focus on him.

"You," I answer, opening my eyes.

His lip curves up at the corners in his trademark catlike smile. "Besides me, Noelle." He moves behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders. I shuffle a few steps as he turns me in a certain direction. "Now...close your eyes."

"Hero..."

"Close your eyes," he whispers in my ear, making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. "This is part of becoming an Immortal. We cannot be dependent on others; therefore we must use our senses to  survive. All of our senses." His hand gently reaches around and covers my eyes. "Now. Close your eyes."

I sigh and do as he says, closing my eyes. He takes his hand away but stays close to me. I take a deep breath and focus on everything I hear. Finally, in the distance, I hear something. I frown and turn my head slightly to get a clearer sound.