The Devil Inside (Wolf Guard Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

remain forever young. What a
torturous gift.
    I have run that thought through my mind
over and over again.
    What is he?
    He had seemed so human, was exactly that in
so many ways, but there is something else to him, I have no doubt now.
    We had returned to a routine well known
within two weeks of that hellish morning. His hands running over the marks he'd
left on my back and hips with a sick sort of achievement. Clara's body was gone
the following morning and I could not even fathom what he had done with her.
Her clothes were still here though, hung from a nail in my prison. A statue of
warning, a shrine to the fallen, a tormenting presence of remembrance.
    Her absence was felt keenly.
     In the darkest hour of the night, when the
shadows consumed the light, my eyes fixated on the obscured clothing and her
whispered words filled my empty soul, repeated soundlessly from my lips.
    It was one morning, three weeks 'after
Clara', that I caught a flash of light from her hanging clothes. My cell was
mostly a muddy grey, like the sky before rainfall, apart from early morning
when the sun hit the tiny window high in the outside wall.
    I had learnt well from that day. My eyes
betrayed nothing and my stance remained the same. I could wait. I had nothing
but time.
    It was maybe a week later when I had been
let out for the day and he was returning me to my room for the evening. He
would be leaving for a few hours, a community meeting, a joke by his
invitation. I was colder than normal, the weather turning from mild end Summer
to Autumns chilly start. I was slightly anxious to be alone and maybe this was
shown too evidently. He peered at me curiously as he dropped me to the floor.
    "You have something on your mind,
pet?"
    I crinkled my brow, I didn't have to fake
the confusion, I was still desperate to figure out the puzzle that he was.
    "No, Sir."
    He raised an eyebrow and hummed in
response. His eyes flicked to the clothes hanging on the wall and he smiled at
me.
    "Just you remember that then, there's
to be nothing on your mind except me, right baby?"
    His warning was clear and my frustration
grew, how does he do it?
    "Of course, Sir."
    He bent and stroked a rough hand over my
thigh whispering, "good little pet," before locking me in for the
night.
    I froze in position for an hour, his
echoing taps long since gone, until my curiosity overwhelmed my fear. I half
slid, half crawled to the wall where her clothes hung, peering at the spot the
light had revealed. I pushed myself up with a grunt, waiting for the pins and
needles to subside seemed a drawn out agony. Cold fingers felt around the legs
of the jeans she had worn, one side seeming heavier than the other.
    My breath caught as I ran my finger over a
raised hardness in the hem. A split in the stitching allowed my finger to poke
inside. It was some sort of metal, steel maybe, solid and cold to the touch. I
ran my finger along the bottom edge and hissed in glee when I felt the tell
tale sharp pain.
    Oh Clara, it seems I keep owing you.
    I pulled at the stitching some more, it
gave way with a few tugs and the knife dropped to the cement floor with a
heavenly sound. I arranged the jeans back to a similar position, hiding the now
ruined hem. I only needed it to pass muster for a moment, a passing glance
would reveal nothing.
    I picked up the knife and stroked the blade
lovingly. The pattern on the steel made my smile turn evil in its nature. I
know this steel, this saviour in weapon form. My fathers passion, a blade so
fine it was art in motion. His knives long since removed from the house had a
story to every single one. A collection of history, the envy of warriors
worldwide.
    This one was small. A few inches long, not
much wider than my finger, but those markings were a watery song written in
lines.
    Damascus steel. My father had been a fan, a
collector.
    It was like one big circle of fate.
    I held the blade close to my chest, my eyes
closed, that smile never leaving my lips. Remembering