Demon Girl (8 page)

A milky brown skinned boy with thick cornrows
threw a wad of paper at the back of Zoe’s head. “Not cool, Zo.
Leave her be.” His black-rimmed eyes looked overly large in his
thin face, and his blazer hung open to show his naked chest, belly
piercing and marks. Jeans worn and slashed at the knee, his boots
were scuffed and unlaced.

I smiled warmly. “Hai, Ro. Where have you
been?”

“Slums, on assignment,” he replied. His eyes
were on Alex who now stared at the table.

I twisted round further in my seat and bit my
lip. I had loads of questions I wanted to ask. The slums were
melting pots of every religion, race and minority you could think
of. So intermixed there was little distinction between skin colors.
Occasionally you got the odd throw backs, like Alex, who were dark
and some, were pale or oriental in appearance and feature, but most
were a creamy tan.

Slum shacks were shabby structures tacked
onto old buildings. Made from wood, plastics, metal basically any
material you could get your hands on. Nothing was wasted but then
nothing was fixed either. The result was a mish-mash of junk and
bric-a-brac homes, riddled with drug dens and whorehouses. The
occasional Sect church stood out like a bleeding human in a hungry
vampire nest. The Sect took over the churches and gutted the
insides to fill them with literature preaching the Doctrine that
kept us safe. The luxuries held in Sect churches, like books,
candles and fabric were never stolen. Not unless you wanted to be
stung up naked outside the Wall for a hungry demon to come teach
you a fatal lesson.

As bad as the slums were, it was the place
where the most talented and down to earth people lived. For every
drug dealer selling slammers, the most popular narcotic of choice
since the Rupture since it suppressed the appetite, there was a
talented musician strumming a tune and singing a song. For every
streetwalker there was a crew of dancers doing their thing. Artists
drew on the floors and sides of buildings with chunks of rough
chalk, knowing that rains that came every day would wash it away,
but still happy to sketch all day long. Yeah, there was good in the
slums. As Disciples we had no spare time, and only got to leave the
Temple grounds to either train or complete an assignment. I’d only
ever had one that had taken me into the heart of the slums. I’d
been dying to go back ever since.

Ro saw all the questions on my face and
winked at me. “We talk all about it later and I say hai proper,” he
said.

It didn’t take long for my mind to wander.
The fairy-boy from that morning was running around the Temple
looking for me, waiting for me. I hoped no one else saw him. No
human could appear and disappear without a trace so quickly, and it
would be clear he was ‘other’. That he was a demon that had managed
to get around the Wall without tripping the klaxon; after all I’d
done it too. The thought of him being discovered was making me feel
slightly sick. I even threw up in my mouth a little.

I heard, rather than saw Cleric Tu step into
the room. I knew what he’d look like from memory. His hair was a
messy confusion of dark curls, and his shoulders were broad. He was
young, cheerful and nice to look at. He was also a murderer. Few
would call him that since most humans would see the death of a
demon as belated justice, even the death of a demon-child.

I took a deep breath and looked up. It wasn’t
so bad. I didn’t recoil or blanch at the sight of him. My stomach
turned over but no one could see that.

Perched on the edge of his desk, he took a
crunching bite of apple. My mouth watered. An apple?
Fruit.
Where the hell had he gotten that? He definitely had friends in
high places, because there weren’t many fruit bearing trees inside
the Wall, and getting any fresh produce was rare. Our dietary
staples were caffeine, sugar and bread. There were few people
wandering around who were not emaciated looking, and it was usually
a sure sign the person was a Priest or related to one. Only they
could afford to eat enough to be anything other than thin. Maybe it
was like a bonus scheme. Kill a demon-child and get an apple.
Chucking his crimson blazer and satchel behind him, he smiled,
stretched, and a few girls and guys sighed as the muscles on his
torso rippled under his thin tunic.

“Who can tell me the standard attributes of
identifying a demon?” he asked. Dead silence was broken by a
giggle, and the squeak of a shifting chair. His eyebrows rose high
at the lack of enthusiasm, mouth pulling down. “Don’t make me pick
you one by one.”

A few hands climbed lazily.

I was too busy doodling a picture of silver
eyes on my notepad to lift mine. Hs eyes had calmed me down that
morning when I was half out of my mind. Maybe on paper they could
help too.

“Yes, Jono,” Tu said.

“Vampires,” Jono, a decent looking boy from
the upper dwells began, and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his
crooked nose, “have a body temperature below fifteen, descendible
canine teeth, fixed cellular activity, and the appetite for plasma
most easily found in–”

“Aint it cruel to call them demons?” Alex cut
in thoughtfully. “It be like the vampires calling us
bloodsacks.”

Jono sent a scathing look her way, continued
as if she hadn’t spoken, “Shifters can change to a single other
form, and this metamorphosis tends to present itself during–”

“Why we humans always gotta be placing names
on things,” she added after a few beats.

“Then there are witches,” said Jono through
his teeth, face twisted sourly, “Who can be male or female, and
manipulate matter with the power of–”

“They evil and that’s that,” Ro told Alex,
sending her a slow smile. “What else we call them?”

“I’m speaking,” Jono spat, his glare
switching between the both of them.

Alex dragged her eyes from Ro’s chest and
glared at Jono. “Dwells,” she muttered. “Think reading and writing
good makes you better than us.” Tipping her chin up, her voice
rose. “I got as much right to talk as you do.”

He sneered at her. “Life sucking mambo.”

She lurched up, knocking her seat over. Then
waved him forward. “You talk much. Let us see how you do with no
teeth.”

Mambos were the name of voodoo Sorcerers
eradicated by the Sect nearly a decade before. It was well known
that Alex’s mother had dabbled in black magic, and was whispered
that not only had she dabbled, but was a proficient Sorceress of
the craft. Her dark past was not something the upper dwells let
Alex forget, and though she did not embrace her origins, she didn’t
deny them either.

The sound of Tu slamming his fist on a desk
cut above the shouts of encouragement from the other Disciples.
“Show disrespect to the slum dwells and you disrespect me,” he said
and made eye contact with everyone. “Anybody does it again and
we’ll have a problem. Alex, cool it.”

Setting her chair right, Alex sat back down
and shot daggers at everybody, mumbling obscenities under her
breath. I caught her eye and saw the tears there. I wasn’t the only
one. Jono flushed, the colour spreading out from his cheeks to kiss
his hairline and darken his neck.

Satisfied the peace had been restored, Tu’s
handsome face returned to its normal cheerful mien. “Carry on,” he
said.

“Of course, Lord Cleric,” Jono replied
somberly.

Ro, not one to forgive and forget, mimed a
neck slicing action at him. He would have to watch his step in the
days to come. Ro had come from the slums too, born into one of the
gang families who were rumored to have a Bokor in their ranks; a
man with white hair who called malevolent corpses back from the
grave. I myself thought it was simply the skewed reputation of an
old man who was good with herbs and medicine, as did the Temple
Priests. The slums had been searched for practitioners of
witchcraft and black magic, but none had been found.

“The last is goblin,” Jono continued in a
somewhat humbler voice than before. “The gene presents itself from
conception and is visible from birth. Disfigurement of the humanoid
form can vary from slight to severe. Goblins show increased
strength and animal like senses, but have notably low levels of
intelligence.”

I rolled my eyes. Demon species
classification was easy; a panhandler could have told Tu that
information. After all, you should know the full extent of how
screwed you were if a demon managed to breach the Wall and cross
your path, apart from me, of course. I took a long moment to feel
special then scolded myself, because my situation was dangerous and
creepy, not special.

“Impressive,” Tu said dryly. “But I think
you’ll find you forgot one.”

Jono looked confused. “I named all demons
known to man.” He flicked a page of his textbook. His eyes widened
and he pushed the book away. “I named all real demons; I didn’t
think we needed to reference extinct species. Should I have
mentioned the silver backed ape as well?”

A smattering of Disciples laughed, but I
found nothing funny about it. So many animals had been lost during
the Rupture. During the fighting it seemed everyone forgot that
there were other creatures than the ones that could talk, and be
heard by fighting back. Nevertheless, intrigued like others around
me, I flicked to the relevant chapter in my book. I paused, scanned
the summary of demons, and my eyes snagged on the name.

Tu said, “Fairy. There have been eighty-seven
recorded sightings of creatures with humanoid appearance in the
last year.”

I stifled a little bubble of hysteria. A grin
stretched my face until I thought my lips would split down the
middle. Alex sent me an odd look, and quirked her eyebrow as if to
ask ‘what’s so funny?’ I pulled my face together and waved her
away.

“Lord Cleric, you’re asking us to consider
fairies
flying around the region sprinkling dust and
spouting riddles?” Jono’s was incredulous. “They’re practically
extinct.”

Ro snorted a laugh, and it smothered out the
wild giggle I couldn’t seem to contain.

“I think on it, and can’t believe it,” he
said. “No Cleric has confirmed sighting of a fairy.” Flicking the
side of his nose a few times with his thumb, he snorted again.

He caught Alex watching him from the corner
of her eye and winked. She fought a smile. Looked like they were
going to make up and play nice again. Ro was a complicated endeavor
that Alex could not seem to get a handle on. They were always
breaking up, seeing other people then coming back together again.
Ro liked Alex, a lot, but he liked guys too, and it seemed to be
something she couldn’t get her head around.

The class kept up this train of topic for a
while, so I tuned out, lazily scratching pictures into the table
surface with my pen cap.

“That’s an interesting necklace you have on,”
said a hushed voice.

My hand slid to cover the leather tie and the
circular golden pendant that hung from it. Devlin leaned out of his
chair, closer to me.

“Ta,” I said and turned back around. He moved
closer. I shifted away and tried to focus on what Ro was saying,
but he wasn’t finished.

“Can I see it?”

“No,” I answered frankly without looking at
him.

“It’s important to you.”

“Yes.”

“May I ask why?”

He was not getting that arms crossed, face
turned away signaled I did not want to talk. Scowling, I faced him.
“It’s all I have from my past.”

He gave me an apologetic look. “It reminds
you of your family.”

I smiled tightly. “It reminds me every day
that people can throw you away like trash, and to trust no one but
yourself.”

“You sound bitter,” he said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, well.” I was done with the
conversation. I turned away again, slid deeper into my chair but
found my hand rising. Tu signaled to me with a nod. “Sorry if this
is random, I haven’t been following the conversation.” I shot a
pointed look at Devlin. “Why all of a sudden are we focusing on
fairies? I’ve noticed my classes in the last month keep picking it
up as the main study topic.”

“We have orders to increase your training on
lesser known beings, in particular fairies. There has been
increased activity and sightings near the Wall.”

My heart tripped a little in my chest.
“Increased?”

“Forty in the last month.”

“Where?”

Tu’s gaze bored into mine. “Here, around the
Temple.”

I swallowed and scrunched my hands into fists
on my knees. The silence thickened, and several sharp intakes of
breath sounded throughout the room.

“Do we know why?” asked Devlin.

“No,” Tu replied. “But we can make an
educated guess. This is where the greatest protectors of our race
are trained. A demon gaining access to this Temple would be
disastrous. They know this, and since we first came here we’ve
suffered the odd attack.” He pushed his hands out in an open and
calming gesture. “And that is why you should not worry. Every
attack made by a demon on this Temple has failed. The Wall keeps us
safe, and when it is breached we erase the danger.”

He paused, and paced back and forth across
the classroom floor. Hands behind his back his eyes were on the
floor. His face had become drawn, dark. Is that what he thought
he’d done earlier, erased a danger? My stomach lurched as my eyes
wandered over his crimson blazer. It was hard to look at him
straight. I wanted to stand and shout and point and tell everyone
how sick and twisted he was.

“Tell me, how you would identify a fairy?” he
asked as if plucking the question from the air.

“Textbooks say fairies are the most diverse
of all demon kind,” Jono started. “Some have bright colored hair
and funny colored eyes, but all are noted to have an in-depth
connection with nature, and possess inhuman strength, speed, and
regenerative ability.” Jono’s mouth opened, breathing in deeply, no
doubt about to spew more statistical nonsense.