A Demon Made Me Do It (22 page)

Kieron bites his lip and taps his
fingers absently on a rock.

“
So today…you had no idea
what was happening…
at
all
?” His voice is quiet.

I let out a long sigh and
drop my arms to my sides. “No.”
Is he
really this dense?

“
You didn’t…I don’t
know…
feel
anything?”

“
I just said no,” I
snap.

He drops his head even lower. “Oh. I…
I think I might have screwed up.”

My eyes narrow. “Why, what did you
do?”

He stands up and begins pacing in a
circle. I move over to take his seat on the grass. “This is new for
me,” he finally says.

“
What is?”

“
This…you…
her…
me….us.” He shakes his head in disbelief.

“
You like her?” I whisper.
I don’t even have to ask; I already know his answer.

He stares down at me with such
intensity I momentarily forget to breathe; his dark blue eyes glow
under the bright lights of Illyria’s full moons.

“
Yes.” He comes to sit
beside me. Any pleasure I feel by him sitting so close is
extinguished by his response.
Of
course
he likes her. All demons are
ruthless unfeeling bastards who care only about
themselves…

“
But,” he continues, “I
like
you,
too
.
To me,
you and she are the same. I see you as one… I didn’t count on you
being so completely
separate
from one another.”

“
You really think Liora and
I are the
same
?”
My voice spits out the last word, my anger mounting. He may think
he’s being nice, but to me, it’s the greatest of
insults.

“
No, most definitely not. I
see now how you’re completely different. It’s just, well, a lot of
demions—especially where I come from—they assume a normal Sapie
guise in the daytime, leaving their demon activities for after
sundown. I’ve even known several who use two different names…one
for day, as a ‘human’, one for night as a demon. In essence,
they
are
two
separate beings from day to night. But you and Liora…this is on a
whole other level.”

He shakes his head again. “I mean, I
still can’t quite believe that the girl I’m talking to now isn’t
the same one I was with all day today. It’s wild. I…I admit I don’t
quite know what to do or say…”

“
Sorry to make
things
so complicated
for
you
,” I
mutter. Why is he even still here? It’s clear which one of us he
wants, and it’s not me.

Kieron places his hand on my knee. It
feels good, but I brush it away. He sighs.

“
Lucky, I had no idea that
you weren’t…
with us
…today. That it was either one or the other—you or her. I kept
waiting for her to say something—
anything
—that gave any indication she
knew who I was. But she never did. Honestly, some of the things she
said confused the hell out of me.” He pauses, appraising me. I look
away, but can still feel his intense gaze.

“
At first I couldn’t figure
out why you…
she
was acting the way she was,” he continues, “but then I finally
decided that maybe it was just your way; how you cope with what you
are…you play a different role during the day than you do at night.
I admit I thought it was sort of extreme, but I figured you had
your reasons, and if you weren’t going to say anything than neither
was I.”

“
I’m not playing. This is
not a game for me.” Why is he still talking?

“
I know that now. I mean…I
knew
something
was
up when she became
so
worried about the dark. I didn’t realize that’s when you’d
‘trade places’— that part was quite unexpected. But when I saw her
run, well, no demon would run that slow. And earlier she slipped
and fell. No demion would ever do that.”

“
So you solved the great
puzzle. Congratulations.” I stare up at the twinkling stars and
make a wish for one to fall on my head and put me out of my
misery.

“
Lucky,” he says my name so
tenderly it wakes up the butterflies in my stomach again, “I meant
what I said earlier. Although you may think of yourselves as
different identities, I only see you as one. I cannot distinguish
the difference.”

“
Then you’re beyond
blind.”
And stupid.

“
No, just the opposite. I
see you better than you see yourself. And I like what I see.
A lot.
I…really like
you.
All
of
you.”

I roll my eyes. Typical guy. Why
settle for one girl when you can have two? “So you want to be with
us both, is that what you’re trying to say? You think you can have
two girls for the price of one?”

He lets out a low chuckle.
“I’m thinking it may be more along the lines of ‘one girl for the
price of two’…but…I...I want us to be friends. I want to be able to
get to know you better…all of you…
both
of you. I may not do everything
right, but I’d like to try. Are you willing to at least give us a
shot and see where it takes us?” He gently returns his hand to my
knee. This time I don’t push it away.

“
You want to be
friends
?” I ask
quietly.

He grins and lightly squeezes my leg,
sending shivers up my spine. “For now…yes. I think it’s a good
place to start. Until we know each other better…until I’m able to
better understand how separate you two are.”

“
We’re not
totally
separate, you
know…I can feel a lot of her emotions and sometimes I can make her
do things.”

“
But she doesn’t have your
powers…or your memories?”

“
No, not
usually.”

“
And you don’t have any
of
her
memories?”

I make a face. “Not if I can help
it.”

He laughs. “I take it you don’t really
like her very much?”

I look back at the sky. I
am so
not interested
in opening up that suitcase of emotional baggage. “Well,
I
do
admit I’m a
little jealous of her right now. She got to talk with you all day,
but I don’t know anything about you.”

“
What do you want to
know?”

Where do you come from?
Why are you here? Why couldn’t you tell Liora wasn’t me? Do you
like her better? Why did you say you like me? Did you mean
it?

“
What’s your Brand?” I
finally ask. Best to start with the basics.

“
Latros.”

“
No way.
Really
?
That’s…
whoa
. I’ve
never met one of your kind before.”

He shrugs modestly. “It’s no biggie.
What are you?”

“
Aequitas.”

His eyebrows shoot up. “A Justice
demon? Wow, remind me never to piss you off,” he says, laughing.
“No, seriously, that’s impressive, though.”

“
Not
that
impressive. My sire mated with a
peace-loving hippie or something ‘cause… well, you’ve met Liora—all
soft and sweet and emotional.” I stick out my tongue in
disgust.

“
Yes, she is,” he
whispers.

I groan and roll my eyes.
“Well you’d
think
they’d at least
try
to be
somewhat
compatible when they reproduce. Having two
complete opposites for parents doesn’t exactly make for the most
well-adjusted demion offspring.”

He laughs again and lightly grazes my
arm with his fingertips sending shivers up and down my spine. “I
think you’re just fine.”

“
Thanks for the
endorsement. But what about you…Who do you work for?”

“
I’m sort of a free-agent
these days.” He subtly avoids my gaze, but there is a guarded
change in his tone.

“
How? I thought all
tracker-demons belonged to someone. You’re like…the best of the
best…”

“
It’s complicated. I’ll
explain it later.”

I narrow my eyes, trying to
read his expression. True, there is much about the demon world I
don’t know. Hiding beneath the veils of secrecy, illusion,
deception and lies is our way of life. But I’ve always believed
that Latros demons— highly skilled, extraordinarily gifted,
and
extremely
lethal bounty hunters—
always
have a master they’re bound to; they have no say
in it. But maybe I’m wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time.

I can tell that he’s uncomfortable, so
I change the subject. “How are you gonna break the news to Liora
about who you really are?” I ask, absently picking at blades of
grass beside me.

He furrows his brow and
gazes out to the valley. “I hadn’t quite thought it through…It
wasn’t like I was
trying
to keep it a secret or anything, I was just trying
to figure out what was going on with you...I mean, her.” Then he
frowns, clearly troubled. “Do you think it’ll be a
problem?”

I laugh, taking pleasure at his
naiveté. “Well, I have some bad news for you, Loverboy. She hates
all things demon, and that includes half-breeds like
you.”

“
You mentioned that, but I
just assumed you meant our lifestyle. How can she hate demons when
she
is
one?”

“
Because Liora is
not
a demon. She’s
one-hundred-percent pure
human
. The only demon she has in her
is when I break through. And even that’s hard to do unless she
wants me to do it, which isn’t very often.”

“
So, you’re telling me she
dislikes all demons and demions even though she shares her life and
body with one?”

I let out a loud sigh and
shake my head. How can someone who is so cute and supposedly so
brilliant and talented be so
dense
? But I’m secretly pleased at
his predicament. I already have to share my life with Liora. I
don’t want to share Kieron with her, also.

“
No, I’m not telling you
she
dislikes
them,
I’m telling you she
hates
them. She blames us for something awful that
happened a while ago. Of course, it’s silly to hate an entire
species for the actions of a few derelicts, but what can I tell
you…she’s basically a big, fat, demon bigot.
You’re deluding yourself if you think she won’t despise you if
she finds out what you really are.” I know I sound smug, but I
don’t care. It’s true.

Kieron is clearly unnerved by this. He
stands up and walks over to the grass. Running his long fingers
through his hair, he stares out to the valley.

As much as it bothers him
to hear it, he
needs
to know the truth. It’s far better he find out from me than
some other way—like if Liora’s into him and he just comes right out
and tells her he’s a demion….

I roll my eyes, picturing
how well
that
little bombshell would go over. And I’ve already had about all
of her nonsense I can take.

“
So there’s no chance of
you putting in a good word for me?”

Unfortunately, he’s not looking at me
and can’t see my annoyed expression. “Sorry, no Cyrano de Bergerac
here. You’re on your own, Romeo.”

“
Sorry I asked that,” he
says a moment later as he sits beside me again. “This must be…very
hard for you. In your mind, it’s as if I was concerned for another
girl entirely. As if my feelings are directed at someone other than
you…”

I shrug. “Yeah…”

“
Well, they’re not.
Never
forget that,” he
whispers in my ear. Then he quickly, lightly, kisses my neck,
sending shivers of fire and ice racing through my blood.

“
I’ll try. No promises,
though.” I try to make my voice stern, but I can’t help
smiling.
Just friends, huh?
True, it was just a quick, soft peck below my
earlobe. But I’ve wondered what it would be like to kiss him ever
since I woke up in his arms in Baymore Park. Maybe we can be
‘kissing friends’…

But just thinking of Baymore Park
strikes a chord in my memory. I turn my face to his, mere inches
away.

“
I have a question for
you…” I start, trying not to let myself get distracted by the fact
that I have an insatiable urge to run my fingers through his thick,
lush locks and pull his mouth to mine.
Focus, Lucky!
“Last night, at Baymore
Park, with the Altrumina…how did you happen to be
there?”

He presses his eyebrows together again
and sighs. Then he looks away, but not before I see a dark flash in
his eyes.