Hey guys, sorry for the long wait. School consumed me, but I'm back. I know I left it as a bit of a cliff hanger, but hopefully this makes up for it. You guys are great have a lovely day and tell me what you think with a review.
When the dagger came down instead of striking me it slipped out of Eddie's fingers and landed on the ground. Eddie clutched his face in pain, twitching and yelling out. I had dowsed his face with the holy water I had in my pocket. I wasn't sure it would work, but it was my last option. I knew there was a way to send Eddie to hell but I needed Dimitri and him incapacitated.
I looked over my shoulder and saw that Dimitri was also clutching his face in agony, having felt the same thing Eddie had.
I worked fast dousing the remaining amount of water all over Eddie. He tried to jerk out of the way causing half of the water to spill on the floor, but the amount that got on him did the damage. He fell on the floor, crumpled in a ball, and screamed in pain. Eddie's and Dimitri's scream fueled as one; they motivated me.
I quickly picked up the dagger Eddie had dropped and cut a line on my palm. Inky red blood oozed out.
Three drops on the demon, that's all it takes. I clenched my hand into a fist above him and pressed my fingertips tight on the cut to make more blood come out. One, two, three drops of blood fell on his face. And that's when he sprang up and attacked me.
Eddie had me by the neck; his body crushed mine under him, immobilizing me. He grabbed my head and pounded it against the cement floor, hard. I heard a crack. The world became dizzy. I could taste blood; the pressure of Eddies body was crushing me. He was screaming something at me, but it felt like time was going slower. His words sounded like mush coming out way to slow to comprehend.
He held me still, his eyes penetrating. He was so close to me; his face so close I could smell his hot breath wavering over me. All I needed to do was tip my head up and our lips would meet. It was such a simple act but my head felt like it weighed tons. I could feel blood seeping out of the wound on my head.
He reached for the dagger I had dropped when he attacked me and pointed it at my heart. "I'm sorry it has to end this way, sugar. Let it be known that I had nothing against you personally. I just had no better option."
I couldn't move but somehow I made my neck tilt up; my head lifted quickly, it was painful. And then we were kissing. My lips bumped against his hard, fusing our mouths together in a kiss. His eyes widened bright in fear before I saw the black in his eyes fade to their natural brown. Eddie collapsed against the floor. He had passed out, but by the last look I saw in his eyes I knew that it was the real Eddie I was seeing, and not the demon.
All the air rushed out of me because Eddie's body had collapsed on top of me. I was too weak to move it, and I felt like at any moment I was going to pass out from my head wound. My lungs were having a difficult time catching air. I felt relief a few moments later when Eddie's body was moved off of me. I was starting to lose consciousness when I felt two strong arms wrap around me and lift me off the ground. I felt the cool crisp night air which signaled that I was no longer in the room. He was running with me in his arms. Dimitri, the real Dimitri had me.
I closed my eyes, feeling myself fall asleep when I was shaken roughly. "Don't go to sleep on me, you hear that Rose." His voice sounded so worried. But I was so tired, my eyes kept betraying me. "What did I say Rose? You stay with me."
"I'm trying." I answered back annoyed. He chuckled which pissed me off more. "Stop laughing, this is serious."
My eyes had opened and I was able to see Dimitri's lips trying to smother in a laugh. How he could run with me in his arms yet keep his face neutral, as if he wasn't physically exhorting himself, is beyond me.
"Don't you think I know this is serious? I'm just relieved you're able to talk to me like yourself."
"So much for being a demon hunter." I wheezed out.
"I am. That part wasn't a lie. I just can't kill my demon."
We had entered the parking lot but he didn't take me to his car. Instead he took me to another car that was parked close to his. It was a Catalac, glossy blue and looked fresh out of the dealership. I recognized the car. Lisaa had only paraded it around school for months while I secretly itched to scratch it with my keys.
The pretty blond was inside but when she saw us approach she quickly got out. "What happened to her?"
There was actual concern in her voice. I couldn't believe this was the same Lissa who had tormented me these past few years.
"She's hurt. She needs to go to the hospital. Can you take her?"
"Yeah of course. Where's Christian?" She looked so small in that moment. Her eyes were wide pleading with Dimitri to give her good news. And the way she said Christian's name. It was as if there was no air left her lungs. With me she was concerned over my well being, but it didn't compare to how she looked when she was asking for Christian.
"He's fine." The deep worry lines smoothed out of Lissa's face with those two words. "I'm going back to get him and Mia, but Rose needs to go to the hospital now." His words were kind but there was a harsh edge to them. Lissa didn't argue, she let him put me in her backseat. "Don't let her go to sleep." I heard him say before the doors were shut and we were driving away.
The drive consisted of Lissa frequently smacking me in the face with her sweater whenever I would close my eyes. I replied back with a few choice words, even though I knew she was doing it for my own good—well mostly.
She half carried half dragged me out of the car when we got to the hospital. I imagined that nurses and doctors would be running towards us in a panic, helping me on a stretcher. The reality was nothing like that. I waited in the waiting room for about an hour before a doctor saw me. The bleeding on my head had mostly stopped. The seats we were sitting on weren't even cushiony, they were hard plastic. The room was full of people looking as uncomfortable as we felt. Lissa had resumed on smacking me whenever my eyes would start drooping.
I ended up getting five stitches on the head, and my cuts and bruises were treated. The doctor was noticeably in a rush because of the many other patients in need. Some were worse off than I so I shooed him away so he could attend them.
For several hours I was awake, until they deduced that it was ok for me to fall asleep. When I awoke again I was in a different room. I was lying on one of the hospital beds in the middle of two other beds. There was a person on each of the them, but both were asleep. One was heavily bandaged and the other appeared to have no problems except for lack of sleep.
The hospital was alive with noise. I could hear several footsteps passing by the closed door. Wheels were being rolled—probably by a wheelchair or a gurney. The pasty white walls were depressing me, and the smell of rubbing alcohol was strong. I wished there were curtains separating the beds. I didn't feel like staring at two sleeping strangers.
I propped up my head with a pillow and turned on the little television they had inside the room. I didn't know what time it was but I knew someone was going to come soon, so might as well entertain myself for a bit while I'm here.
My parents came in around 10 am. It was Saturday. Relief exploded inside me when I saw Mia with my mom and dad. My mom was the first one to get to me. She practically collapsed on me, her green eyes leaking tears. She gave me a watery smile and hugged me closely. My dad was more reserved but I could see the relief in his brown eyes.
"That's enough; you're going to choke the poor girl." My dad joked but his voice was thick full of emotion, he was more worried than he was letting on.
"Be quiet Ibraham, you know you were in as much a frenzy as I was last night. You even ran out of the house looking for Rose in your boxers."
"They were briefs, so if anything the neighbors got a good look at what I'm packing." He winked at my mom and I cringed.
That horrible image was going to stay with me for a while. I got the satisfaction of seeing Mia cringe too. I caught her eye, and we stared at each other for a good second. I could sense her confusion. From the look in her eye I could tell she was trying to remember something but couldn't. She shook her head to try to clear it and continued to look at me curiously. I gave her a wide smile, and her gaze automatically turned suspicious. She knew there was something she was missing, but I wasn't giving up anything. The less she knows the better. She'll be safer this way.
Once they saw I was fine my parents bombarded me with questions over how this had happened. I managed to dodge most of them, coming up with the excuse that I was mugged when I came out of the party. I got grounded for a month for sneaking away without their permission, and even Mia gave me the stink eye for not taking her.
"Karma!" My dad shouted then lowered his voice when he realized he had shouted in the hospital scaring the crap out of the heavily bandaged guy next to me. "Sorry. But like I was saying this is all karma. If you would have just stayed home like Mia here, none of this would have happened." He scratched his head pensively. "Honestly I'm more surprised that it was you who snuck out to the party."
"That's exactly what I was thinking." My mom said curiously. She was confused and I knew it. They would never have even believed it if there hadn't been witnesses that I was actually at the party. "And if Dimitri went with you, why wasn't he there when they mugged you outside?"
I had to tell them that I went with Dimitri because the people at the party described that I was with a tall attractive "dude". Luckily I had already thought of the perfect excuse. Something we teenagers were so prone to with our hormones.
"He was too busy flirting with a blond girl named Lissa to make me jealous because he got all mad that I was spending so much time with Christian. So I ditched that place."
This they did not expect. It was so normal; they all give me the same disbelieving look.
"What?" I shrugged. "Boys try to make me jealous sometimes, it's not completely impossible."
"No of course not." My dad shook his head slightly. "Well, wow, I don't even know if I should tell her to stay away from Dimitri." He said directing the question to my mom.
She gave him a stern look before turning to me. "We'll just talk about him later, when we have the boy talk."
Damn. I had always been able to avoid the boy talk, never having a special someone of my own. Now I was going to have to endure hours of safe sex conversations and abstinence.
"Oh little sister." Mia grinned at me. "We are going to have so much fun during these talks." I stuck my tongue out, making her grin wider.
"Can we not talk about my little girls having the boy talk?" My dad pleaded, visibly shaken by the turn the conversation had headed.
Two police men interrupted the family reunion, wanting to get my report. One looked about forty, he had graying hair and was tall, towering over the other much younger police man who was clearly a rookie.
My description over the supposed assailant was sketchy, and I could see the two men were not satisfied by the end of my report.
"Sorry, that's all I remember. It was a very traumatic experience you know?" I said overplaying the helpless victim a little.
The older one looked at me suspiciously, not quite buying my story but the rookie just nodded along understandingly.
"Of course. Sorry for the bother." The rookie smiled showing off the dimples in his cheeks and setting off a very handsome face. His black curly hair made a nice contrast to his creamy skin and he had brilliantly soft blue eyes. I felt a pang when I realized his eyes reminded me of Christian's.
"Do you happen to know if anyone else with a possible concussion was checked into the hospital?" I asked the rookie because the older one was still glowering at me.
He looked confused. "No, why? Is there someone else we should take into account?"
"No, thank you, I was just wondering." So Christian wasn't at the hospital. Maybe the damage wasn't as bad as I thought.
The older one looked suspiciously at me but thankfully didn't pursue my question .
"Well nice meeting you. My name is Jerrard by the way." The rookie said giving me another wide smile. The older one bumped him in the shoulder as a warning and I caught the slight shake in his head. Was the older cop warning Jerrard? But to what, to not flirt with me? Was that what that was, flirting. I think it was. I had seen countless times when the boys at school had flirted with girls but this was the first time it was directed at me. Weird.
They made me stay a full 24 hours in the hospital. I wasn't released till Sunday with a clean bill that I could be back in school by Monday. Lame I didn't even get a day of excused relaxation at home. And because my parents were still technically mad at me for sneaking out, no amount of begging got me to stay home.
I stayed in my room most of Sunday, just plopped on my bed. After all the weirdness it felt good to just relax and do something normal. My cell phone rang, interrupting the peace but when I saw Christian's name flashing on my silver phone I nearly dropped it in my anxiety to get it open.
"Christian! Are you ok?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" I could hear the smile in his voice but I was so relieved to be hearing him I decided to ignore it.
"I was so worried, when I saw you crash against the wall I—" My voice choked up remembering the image of Christian's limp form on the floor. It had always been Christian and I against the world. But that night I stood alone against Eddie. I didn't like it.
"Its fine, I just acted stupid and irrational, letting my emotions get in the way. I should have never charged towards Eddie like that. You know we should probably stop calling him Eddie, because the real Eddie is going to be coming back to school and that's just going to be confusing."
"You're telling me. I have a class with him. How am I supposed to see him as something other than the evil demon mastermind who tried to kill me?"
"Just remember that the real Eddie is a vegan who would never hurt a fly. While the demon wanted to bath in your blood?" The disgust oozed off of his voice. "Which reminds me, you kissed him didn't you?" If I could see Christian's face I'm pretty sure his eyebrows would be raising up and down all purvey. He always wondered which of us would get our first kiss. I assumed it would be him because he could actually be normal if he wanted to be. Guess I beat him to it.
"Don't even talk about that. That doesn't count as a real kiss." I shivered. I wonder what the look in the real Eddie's face would be if he knew I had kissed him. "Besides that secret is best kept between us, promise."
"Promise, my little demon kisser."
"Christian!"
I went to sleep early that night, in part to make my parents happy, but also because I wasn't able to get a good night sleep on the hard hospital mattresses. It had been so long since I'd had a normal dream; one where demons and death weren't constantly lurking. It felt good until I realized who was starring in it. Dimitri.
I hadn't heard from him but in my dream we were next to a river lying under the shade of a tree. The tree was filled with leaves, it was completely brimming over, and the ground to was littered with countless leaves. The sun wasn't out, but the moon was, it's light was strong and if you didn't see it, you would think it was day time. Dimitri's arms were wrapped around me as if trying to keep the night chill away, but I couldn't feel it, only his warmth. He whispered my name in my ear over and over and I kept calling his name back. His voice was getting farther away from me even though he was next to me. I didn't understand it, for some reason I started panicking. Suddenly he was gone and I screamed for him louder than ever until I awoke.
My room was dark and the clock on my mantel said it was 4:00 am. I wiped the hair and sweat off of my face, staring off into the ceiling. There had been no contact from Dimitri these past two days. And Christian had recalled to me during our little chat that he had awoken in his bedroom. There had been no sign that Dimitri had ever been in his room. He was even in his pajamas. An image of Dimitri dressing Christian flashed through my mind. It was hard to imagine, but Christian's voice convinced me. He sounded like he had been violated when he recounted it.
Dimitri had his freedom back that was all that mattered. If he chose to spend it away from this town then who could blame him. I shouldn't even be angry that he didn't say goodbye. I hardly knew the guy and besides he saved my life; that was payment enough. But irrationally I was upset. This boy had made such a big impact on my life in such short a time. It felt awful that the effect I made in his life wasn't even worth a goodbye.
I pushed back angry tears and went back to sleep. I didn't like to cry.
Alright guys, just to let you know this story is almost coming to an end. On another side note I kind of want to do a chapter about Dimitri's past, how he became a shadow and all that. What do you guys think? Will you guys like to see that?