Demon Girl Read Online Free

flattering. The
scent of soil and sunlight reached me as I watched his silver eyes
flick from my face, to the leather cord at my neck.
    “We’ve been looking for you,” he said.
    The first words I’d spoken all day were,
“Nobody looks for me, and how do you know my name?” Taken aback by
the feeble quality of my own voice, I lifted my chin and added some
gusto. “I mean, put me down. Now.”
    He did no such thing and he did not answer my
question. But he did smile again, and what a spectacular show it
was. His body was heavy and hot. Through the fabric of my clothes I
felt the hard lines of him, and the slow thump of his heart over
mine. Without thinking, I reached to touch his jaw and it felt like
strength. My fingertips glided over a raised slash of skin, and a
quick tug tilted his head so I could see more of his profile. I
traced a scar following the line of his jaw, curving up to his
cheekbone. The skin was puckered, rough. His eyes met mine and I
shrugged, the scar made him real to me. I snaked my hands up his
bare, solid shoulders and jumped off him so I stood on my own two
feet.
    I knew without a shadow of doubt this boy
would rather die than hurt me.
    “Rae,” he said softly. I shivered from silky
soft calling of my name, but then he finished with, “My name is
Breandan, and you are mine.”
    My whole body jolted. Then my startled laugh
broke the short silence. Needing space to think and breathe, I
pushed away from him.
    “In your dreams ,” I said and spun
around.
    I tried to pin down a direction to run
toward. I realized at that moment my solution was downright silly
and ineffective. See bad, scary or confusing thing, turn and run
from bad, scary or confusing thing until you bump into another bad, scary or confusing thing. I was getting nowhere
fast.
    “You wouldn’t say such a thing if you knew
the truth. And since I saw you first you have to be mine. The white
witch was right, and now I’ll never hear the end of it. I didn’t
think you would come out here so soon and so freely. I tried to
ignore you, even when you got lost, but when I heard you running
away from them I had to help. They would have caught you.”
    I’d stopped moving in the middle of this
rationalization. His voice was awfully attractive. I could never
describe how it sounded because it would only ever sound perfect to
me, and no one else. Once I’d gotten past hearing the words
I thought over the meaning. In delayed reaction my chest
puffed out and I bristled.
    “The hell I do. People don’t belong to one
another, and I certainly do not belong to you, even if you did see
me first…whatever that means. What stupid–”
    He moved closer then I could see nothing but
his eyes again. Mouth suddenly dry, I was unable to finish my
scathing rebuttal, and it took a moment to un-stick my tongue from
the roof of my mouth. A warm rolling sensation formed in the pit of
my stomach and lodged there. It was an odd sensation, it even hurt
a little, but it was a nice pain. I breathed in deeply through my
nose and expelled the breath through my mouth. The whole deep
breathing thing was helping.
    “Okay then, Breandan,” I said serenely but my
heart thumped too hard and he coked his head as if he could hear
it. I went on nonetheless, “What do you want? Why are you in the
forest, alone?” The best defense is a good offence, and I could
give as good as I got. “This is demon territory y’know. I can admit
I was freaked and a bit off course.” He snorted a laugh and my
temper bloated into righteous indignation. “It’s dark out here. I
was running away from the Clerics because… they had dogs.” My eyes
darted to and from his now, uncomfortable with the lie. “And
I…don’t like dogs. They bark. Loudly. And how do you know my
name?”
    There was a beat of silence as his eyes held
mine. “You will have to get out of the habit of lying. You won’t be
able to do that for much longer. And anyway, you don’t have to
explain anything to