Defying Instinct (Demon Instinct Series) (3 page)

Dmitri
continued.  “In the early seventeen hundreds, the
Human-Demon Treaty
was
created, binding both sides to a set of laws that have endured ever since.”

My
ears perked up at the mention of the Treaty, but Dmitri didn’t go into detail,
didn’t mention the part that related to me.  It stated that a half-caste had to
be raised in the human world until their sixteenth birthday.  The humans who
wrote their names on the bottom of that Treaty thought it was only fair to give
a half-caste the chance to be a good person.  A good
human
.  They
believed that could never happen if they were raised among demons.

The
Human-Demon
Treaty
was why I’d never met my demon mother.  And could be why I lived
every day wearing an involuntary mask of mismatched features—so a complete
stranger could get her way someday. 

I
could only speculate about why my mother had a Sorcerer disguise my real
appearance when I was born.  I’d decided it was to get me to move to the
Underrealm when I came of age.  After all, what better way to make your
half-caste kid choose the ‘realm than by making life Up Above as crappy as
possible?

She
miscalculated though.  Glancing at Benn, who beamed as he soaked in every word
Dmitri spoke, I knew I’d never leave my life.  On my birthday four years ago, I
stayed.

Half
of the class went by without my knowledge as I reminisced.  Dmitri wasn’t
exactly saying anything I didn’t know, and I was anxious to get to the active
part of the night. 

Benn
loved this class because he was so interested in demons.  But I kept coming
because I needed the contact.  I never sparred with anyone but Dmitri, never
laid a finger on a human.  Dmitri more often than not took me to the mat at
some point during the evening class.  I needed that. 

Maybe
that was why I liked him.

“All
right, all right.  That’s enough history for today.  Get changed.  We have
sixty minutes left.  Let’s spar before we run out of time,” Dmitri said, and
the class cheered as people shot up from their seats and charged the doorway.

I
changed in a bathroom stall, tight quarters but I didn’t care.  Many of the
girls undressed openly in front of their friends, in front of the mirrors.  No
need to subject anyone to seeing me unclothed.

“Do
you see how he dotes on her?” I recognized Camille’s voice as a group entered
the bathroom, no doubt to check their hair before sparring. 

“She’s
the only one he lets call him Benn.  Have you noticed?” Another girl asked.

“No
one else calls her Savvy either, I bet,” said a third.

“Who
else?  Isn’t Bennett her only friend?  She hardly speaks to anyone else.”

“Can
you blame her?  If I had that face…”

As
Camille laughed and made fun of me with her friends, I knew I was supposed to
feel angry or embarrassed.  But my demon instinct was tucked away in the back
of my thoughts, whispering ways to disfigure them but nothing I couldn’t
ignore.  All that was left was impatience for having to wait.

I
exited the bathroom stall when I was sure everyone else had gone and joined the
class already in progress.  We didn’t have enough time to do anything but go
through the standard punches and kicks, blocks and dodges that we’d been
taught.  When I looked at Dmitri, regretful that there would be no
demonstrations today, I saw his eyes on me.

The
full-caste never looked at me.  Not directly.  Not even when he was pummeling
my face into the floor with the ease of a creature twice my height and three
times my weight.

So
when he spoke to me after class, I nearly swallowed my tongue.

“Savannah
Cole,” Dmitri called as I was about to make a break for the door.  “May I speak
with you for a moment?”

So
polite.  The demon wasn’t polite.  Not with me.

“Yes,
Dmitri?”

His
eyes bored into mine, the widow’s peak of his black hair pointing down to the
ridge between his eyes that he didn’t, or possibly couldn’t hide behind
glamour.  Up this close, his cobalt blue eyes were striking.

In
private?
  He asked, and it took a
heartbeat to understand the words were inside my head.

Twice
in one day.  Something bizarre was going on.

And
now I knew Dmitri knew all along what I was, even though I looked nothing like a
half-caste Razer.  I wondered how long he’d known. 

Opening
the mental door as I had earlier with the Tempter, I replied,
All right.

I
wanted to formally apologize for my display of misconduct last week.  It never
should have happened.

Didn’t
he think every other week when he did the same domineering things to me in
front of the class warranted an apology?  Though, I didn’t need one.  I liked
his harsh treatment, if only because he didn’t discriminate against an ugly
half-caste.

You
didn’t hurt me.

I
could have.

You
could hurt any one of us.

But
I do single you out, and I shouldn’t.

I
thought for a moment, and didn’t feel singled out.  He often demonstrated on
me, but he didn’t make a spectacle of it.  And it wasn’t like I was expected to
withstand the power of his mind or muscles. 

Plus,
I didn’t feel humiliation or wrestle with pride.

You
know what I am.  You thought I could handle it.

Nevertheless
, he looked over my head and a strange
expression—anxiety maybe—flashed across his face before the somber, classic
Dmitri stoicism returned. 
Please accept my apology and know nothing was
meant by my lack of decorum. 

Lifting
his hands and putting the tips of his fingers to his forehead, shielding his
cobalt eyes, Dmitri dipped his head so I knew he could no longer see me.  It
was the appeal for mercy shown to Royalty.  He taught us about it an hour ago.

When
he lifted those striking, cobalt eyes, there was expectance in them.  I didn’t
know what to say, so I turned and left him without another word.  He didn’t say
anything more either.

“What’d
you do to poor Dmitri?” Benn asked when I crossed the length of the gym to
where he’d been waiting for me. 

I
knew he was kidding.  It was silly to think that I, an invariable nothing could
do anything to the formidability that was the Razer Dmitri.

I
wanted to look back at the demon, but resisted.  Instead, I shrugged at Benn
because he was surrounded by some of our classmates and didn’t want to say
anything in front of an audience.

Benn
shook his head, and I knew we’d be talking about it in depth later.

“Do
you want to come out with us tonight, Savannah?” Camille asked me, the fear
that I might say yes gleaming from her human eyes.

Benn
knew what Camille thought of me, how she talked about me to her friends.  That
was why he had no interest in her.  She was never going to get it.

“I
have things to do,” flashing my customer service smile.  “But, thanks.”

Yeah,
big things.  Huge plans.  Counting the cash register, taking a shower, dusting. 
Get to bed early. 

“You’re
sure?” Camille asked, sounding transparently relieved.

Forcing
another fake smile, I nodded and started for the door. 

“I’ll
meet you guys there in…like…thirty,” Benn called over his shoulder, following
me instantly.  “I’m walkin’ Savvy home.” 

I
might have told him he didn’t have to, but it was futile to argue.  Benn never
pushed me to go out with them, never tried to make me be someone I wasn’t. 

And
I never walked home alone.

“Weird
class today,” Benn said, bouncing on the balls of his feet to keep warm.  It
was especially bone-chilling tonight, the air so frigid it made my eyes water.

“Weird? 
Understatement,” I frowned, thinking about Dmitri’s behavior after class.  He was
only seeing if I’d been paying attention during his lecture with his appeal for
mercy.  That had to be the reason.  The demon was worried I would turn him in. 

Didn’t
explain the three demons in my bookstore earlier, but the two occurrences
probably weren’t related anyway.  Why would they be?

“Dmitri
seemed…off today.”

Benn
laughed.  “How could you tell?  He’s not the most expressive demon I’ve seen. 
Oh, that reminds me,” he jerked his elbow toward my arm, but didn’t come close
to making contact since he knew I didn’t like to be touched.  “I heard the
Royal’s Tempter and his flunkies have been spotted in your neighborhood.  How
cool would it be to run into them one day?”

Wiping
my cold nose with the back of my glove, I stayed quiet.

“I
know what Grayson looks like.  He’s always in Gateway.”  Benn referenced the gossip
magazine that sprung up last year when demons set up shop downtown.  Well known
photographers and journalists came from national publications around the
country to report on the demon’s mundane, day to day lives around St. Louis. 
Benn had every issue. 

I
made the decision in an instant.  Now that I wasn’t suffering the aftereffects
of the smoke-and-fire, I didn’t see a reason to keep the secret.  A small thing
I didn’t have to lie about.

“Does
he have black hair and grey eyes?”

“Uh
huh,” Benn mumbled.  The
duh
he didn’t actually say out loud was clear
in his tone. 

“I
think, maybe it was him and two Hammers in the shop earlier.”

He
stopped, moved as if he was going to grab my arm, but changed his mind at the
last second.  He put his hands on his hips instead, tapping his fingers.

“You
said they were all Hammers.”

“How
was I supposed to know?” I asked, not wanting Benn angry with me.  “Hammers are
all-American-boy handsome.  So is Grayson.  It’s an easy mistake.”

“Ha,”
Benn let his hands fall from his hips and smiled.  “I’m camping out in your
shop for the next week.  All day, every day.  Get used to this face, kid.”

Shaking
my head, I said, “Someday you’ll explain why they fascinate you so much.”

We
strolled the remaining block in silence.  I saw the unfamiliar car parked in
front of The Bookstore with the hood propped up when we turned the corner
around my building.  Benn looked like he was devising his plans to “run into”
the Tempter advisor and didn’t notice the car until we got much closer, and the
woman’s face became visible.

The
beautiful blonde smiled as she saw us approaching.  There was something
predatory about it, but I couldn’t figure out why I felt that way.  She
appeared to be nothing but a rosy skinned human with bright hazel eyes and soft
blonde hair.  Her red trench coat clung to curves that proved her face wasn’t
the only perfectly built part of her.

“Excuse
me,” the blonde said, her voice saccharine and infectious.  No doubt perfected
during her privileged life, that voice paired with her looks probably got her anything
she desired.  “Do one of you have a cell phone I could borrow?  Mine went
dead.”

Benn
wasn’t the type of guy to be rendered speechless by a pretty woman.  But when I
looked over at him, his mouth was hanging open.

“That
look’s not going to impress her,” I whispered, and Benn shut his mouth, never
taking his eyes off the blonde.

Pulling
his phone from his back pocket, Benn managed to find his voice.  “Sure.  No
problem.”

She
placed her hand on his forearm as he leaned closer to offer his cell phone. 
“Thanks, cutie.”

What
happened next happened so quickly, and so unexpectedly, it wasn’t until Benn
was face down on the sidewalk that I realized what the blonde had done.  The
billy club clutched in her right hand glinted off a streetlight on its downward
swing. 

She
gave me that predatory smile again as I began to understand what happened.  I
wondered if I should flee, but kneeled to check on Benn instead.

As a
dark van came barreling around the corner the next second, and the woman
slammed the hood of the car she’d lured us in with, I considered my options. 
There weren’t many.  Leaving him wasn’t going to happen, so I chose to play
this out.  Whatever
this
was. 

“Get
the guy,” the blonde barked to a man as he exited from the driver’s side and
unlatched the rear door.  She turned to me, “In.”

Her
face was twisted with disdain making smoke-and-fire flicker in my mind.  Images
of kicking her in the mouth, messing up that pretty, perfect, predatory smile
she had struck me.  This time, my demon instinct had the right idea.  But as
the man tossed Benn into the back of the van, I knew my urge to fight was
pointless.  I wasn’t going to put him in even more danger so I climbed in
behind them.

Seconds
after the door closed, the driver sped off with a squeal of the tires and a
violent jerk, sending me face first into the cold, metal van floor.

Whoever
drove had no concern for me and Benn not being strapped in.  Maybe that was the
reason for the insane driving.  We rolled around, banged into the walls, and
the driver didn’t ease up no matter what. 

I
was worried about Benn.  His fragile human skull wasn’t made to take the
beating it was taking, and the erratic movement of the van definitely wasn’t
improving the situation.

Mustering
all the strength my body could manage, I stripped off my gloves, fought against
the jerking of the moving vehicle and crawled over to Benn, digging my
fingernails into the metal floor.  Benn’s safety was my only concern.

When
I reached him, I wrapped my arms around his neck, careful not to block his
airway and braced us using my legs against the side of the van.  It was
awkward—both the position I was lying in and the extended physical contact—but
at least his head wasn’t smashing into the metal walls anymore.

“You’re
really pretty under all that ugly, aren’t you, half-caste.”

I
didn’t look up.  I wouldn’t give the horrible blonde woman who hit Benn the
satisfaction of my attention.  I had to squash down the white hot desire to
mutilate her that smelled of smoke-and-fire in my mind.  Now might actually be
a good time to lose control, but I had to fend it off.  I didn’t know what
would happen if I lost it, and I wouldn’t put Benn at risk.

“Don’t
engage, Holly.  You’ll only rile it up.”

The
male’s voice was accented in a slow drawl twang of the South.  And he called me
an it.  Like I was a thing.  The people who thought demons were abominations
weren’t exactly secretive about their feelings.  But I’d never felt the
prejudice firsthand before.  Not for being a half-caste anyway.  No one ever
knew to harass me about it.

Which
made me wonder, how did these humans know what I was?  How had Dmitri and the
three demons earlier, for that matter?

Playing
dumb made sense.  The decision to test what they knew was made only a second
before the words left my mouth.

“You
must think I’m someone else.  I’m not a demon,” I said, my words smooth and
unconcerned.  A human would be frightened, would be squeaky, sweaty, shaky.  I
realized my mistake too late.

The
humans laughed and I tightened my hold on Benn as we went around another curve,
tossing the meager contents of the floor of the van against the left wall.

“Your
name is Savannah Cole,” the woman said, making me look up at her.  Hazel eyes
reflected down at me through the rearview mirror, and I held her gaze.  The
male sat in the passenger’s seat.

Not
breaking eye contact with me, Holly said, “you’re a half-caste Destroyer whose
been raised in St. Louis by your human father, Victor.  And you’re going to take
us to your mother.” 

I
should be worried.  I wasn’t going to be able to take them to my mother. 
Apparently that was the one thing they didn’t know.

“All
right, you have the right person.  But I don’t know…”

I
stopped myself, realizing admitting I couldn’t do what they wanted wasn’t the
best tactic.  My life at The Bookstore didn’t exactly prepare me for hostile
negotiations. 

“What
do you want with my mother?”

The
male turned around in his seat, staring down at me.  He was attractive in a
rough, human way, with dirty blonde hair in a buzz cut.  He carried himself
like a police officer.  Arrogant, in charge, and menacing.  

“Your
mother has taken over the Underrealm from the Devil Nikolai,” he said in that
slow, Southern twang.  “Iliana is now Royal.  That, half-caste, makes you
Scion, in case you don’t know how it works down there.”

I
knew how it worked.  Leadership was shared across familial generations.  The
Royal and Scion traditionally ruled the Underrealm together.  If the human
equivalent of the demon Royal was a king or queen, then Scion meant prince or
princess.  And he was saying I was the only offspring of the Royal.

But
I wasn’t concerned.  I was sure it was a lie. 

Even
though it made the demons’ actions today make a little more sense.

The
Royal Nikolai and his Scion son, Noah were Sorcerer demons.  Some humans still
called them Devils, just as they sometimes still called my caste Destroyers. 
Sorcerers ruled the Underrealm for centuries.  No one was strong enough to
overthrow them.  And these humans wanted me to believe my mother had?

“Let
my friend go, and I’ll…try to help.”

Holly
laughed again.  “If we let him go, we’ll have no leverage to make you do what
we want.  Consider him—”

“Motivation,”
the male whose name I had yet to learn finished her sentence.  “So you behave.”

“He
isn’t part of this.  He doesn’t even know what I am.  Let him go, or I’ll
refuse to help.”

“We
never make deals with demons,
half-caste
,” the male replied, making what
I was sound like a true slur. 

Flames
exploded in my mind and I could almost smell the sulfur.  The acrid, metallic
taste of rage coated my tongue and as seconds passed, as the two humans laughed
with each other, and at me, I almost lost it.  I almost released my caged
control, and let my Razer half do as she wished.

If I
could just get Benn to a safe spot…

Tires
squealed. 

Then,
like it was plucked from the air, the van just stopped moving.

For
a heartbeat, everything was still.  Long enough for me to lift my head in an
attempt to see what was going on. 

That
was when the impact hit.

As
Benn and I smashed into the back of the human’s seats, all the air was brutally
knocked from my lungs. 

Metal
scraped against metal.  Growls and snarls filled the air. 

It
felt like the van was being shaken from side to side.  My left hip and shoulder
smashed against metal, then my right, and I did everything I could to keep hold
of Benn, to not choke him while still protecting his fragile head.

“Humans
should be forced to wear helmets at all times,” I said to his unconscious face.

When
the van began to move again, Benn and I were rolling.  Wall, ceiling, wall,
floor, wall, ceiling.

Floor
. 

We
crumbled in a heap, limbs twisted and tangled together after the freefall.

Sharp
explosions sounded.  Probably a gun.  Holly screamed for her Southern
companion.  Jake was his name, but there were no male voices yelling.   

Abruptly,
the screams of the woman, the crunching of metal on cement, the sounds of
clipped gunshots all stopped.

I
checked my best friend’s pulse, then his head for injuries.  There was a lump
but no blood, and his pulse was strong and steady.  He was still out cold
though.

Silent
seconds ticked by.  The moment I started looking for a door, the battered wall
opposite where Benn and I were sprawled was ripped clean off like a tin can
lid.

“Knock,
knock,” the demon said, this time aloud, with a sly twist of his lips that
bugged me for reasons I couldn’t explain. 

“Grayson,”
I said evenly, but steeled my grip on Benn’s body.  I didn’t trust the
Tempter.  There was nothing I could do to stop him from doing whatever it was
he wanted. 

“Savannah,”
my name was sweet nectar from his lips.  “Have you been injured?”

Looking
down at myself, I couldn’t tell.  Pain never processed through my brain like it
should.  No sensations did.  Once, a tornado ripped through town and a tree
fell, breaking a window of the grade school classroom I’d been in.  A shard of
glass stuck into my left shoulder, but I hadn’t known until someone freaked out
about it.