Halfling (Black Petals Book 1) (15 page)

Aiden returns to the living room around supper time and brings me a plate of food, which I scarf down in an animalistic way. I’m starving having missed lunch, although the servants offered to bring me food multiple times. I just wasn’t up for eating.

“Hermus said you’ve been reading this book all day. When I said you should read it quickly and thoroughly, I didn’t mean you had to read it all in two days. You have a couple months to get through it at least.”

“Why two months?” Is this all the time I get to make my choice between giving up my soul and my life?

“That’s when my next visitor is set to arrive. I’d like you to know as much about us by then as possible.”

“So I don’t embarrass you?” I ask him confused.

“No, so you don’t get yourself into trouble. You’ll understand once you get to the part about tradition and things,” he tells me and takes my empty plate from me. “Anyway, I was hoping you would have a drink and talk with me this evening.”

He hands me another beer and begins asking me a million questions like he actually cares about me. We talk about everything from my mother to my first kiss. At first I’m a little weary, but somehow I find myself becoming comfortable with Aiden’s questions. I even ask him some of my own. Not only do I have questions about him, but questions about some of my reading today. I get my answers, and he gets his. By the end of the night, I find myself able to make comfortable eye contact with him, which is rare for me. I hate eye contact. Although he has the eerie, black eyes of a demon, I find myself relaxing the more we speak. I start to get used to those eyes.

Aiden is not an evil, soulless creature like Crispen told me all demons are. I know this for a fact. I find warmth in his eyes, comfort even, although I barely know the guy, I feel like I’ve known him for years. I tell myself that I’ve lost it. I can’t befriend a demon that’s insanity, and yet here I am getting along with one, even agreeing with one on many subjects. I have to remind myself that I
am
half demon, and I’m probably more like Aiden than I am like Crispen just by nature, which is weird to think about, but it’s true, it’s fact.

The next day, Aiden has some work errands to run in the afternoon. I decide to take a break from my reading and play cards with one of the guards. Terry is a friendly man, a man who is amazing at cards. He kicks my ass more times than I can count. I make note to convince him that he’ll have to teach me some of his tricks one day. He seems to be the friendliest and most comfortable around me. The others seem nervous or something, like I’m going to attack them or yell at them. I find this strange.

Aiden stays true to his word. In the mornings, I go for runs with Jane his dog, and spar with Aiden afterwards. In the afternoons, I read some of his many books and make myself a notebook full of important information that I can’t let myself forget. Crispen doesn’t come, and days pass, weeks, and then impossibly even months pass too.

I grow closer to Aiden every day, though he’s only around in the mornings for training and breakfast. He works in the afternoons, and I’m not sure what it is that he does exactly.

Crispen and his family become more like a dream that I once had and not reality. In fact, I can hardly remember what Crispen looks like after a while. I don’t have a picture of him and my memory is terrible. I mean, I have pictures of him, but they’re on my cell phone, which was left at Crispen’s place or maybe even my place. I don’t remember the last time that I used it. Anyways, I would get a new one, but there is no cell service out here, and Aiden claims that he can hear the signal of cell phones, and it’s unbelievably irritating. Seeing as there are thirty five demons around here, I’ve decided not to drive them all up the wall with a cell phone. Who would I use it to speak with anyway? It’s not like I have Crispen’s number memorized.

Anyway, after the first couple of weeks with Aiden, I unbelievably find myself not even wanting Crispen to find me.

It takes me a long time to come to terms with my surroundings. I struggle between sides for a while, but soon I come to the conclusion that I might just be on the demon’s side. Why? Because they’re not all terrible creatures. Aiden, for example, is just as good of a person as myself. Yet, the hunters kill the demons mercilessly, without giving any of them a chance. Crispen
kills
people like Aiden without a second thought. Yes, my first demon run in gave me a bad first impression, but now, here I am, living the life really. I mean besides the fact that eventually I know I’ll have to choose between becoming a demon and committing suicide. I try not to think about that fact, because it’s depressing and downright terrifying.

Eventually, Aiden convinces me somehow to sell my house, and fully take on my new life. I move in with him permanently after much thought. Crispen is obviously not coming for me, I can’t escape and I’m not even sure if I would if I could, and I actually really like Aiden and the company that the household brings. I’ve never been surrounded by so many people that care about me before, and they do genuinely care about me. Trust me, I know what it’s like to have someone around you who doesn’t care about you and is yet forced to be around you. My mother.

When the time for Aiden’s guest to arrive comes, I prepare myself to meet her by brushing up on some things in the book he gave me. The things I need to follow are simple really. Call her Ms. Chandler, dress appropriately, don’t use slang, curtsy when I greet her, etc. I put my hair up into a bun and put on a black summer dress that Aiden bought me a few weeks ago for this specific occasion. When the doorbell rings and one of the servants answers the door, I leave my room to greet the guest. It’s a woman with long blonde hair, a thin form, and of course black irises that blend into her pupils.

“You must be Megan, the girl Mr. Castile is mentoring, I’m Sandra Chandler. Is he around?” the woman says in a business-like tone. She does not smile, but grimaces.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Chandler,” I greet her, curtsying and smiling welcomingly. “He should be here any moment.”

“Ah, Sandra, lovely to see you. I hope your flight was okay,” Aiden says from behind me. The fact that he doesn’t have to follow the same formalities as I do, means that he is a more important person than she is.

She smiles. “It was, sir, here are the papers you requested be delivered.” She hands him some papers, says goodbye, and leaves.

I was expecting her to stay longer.

“She caught a flight to hand you papers?” I ask him confused, after she leaves.

“Yes, important papers.”

“You ever hear of a fax machine?” I ask him jokingly. “Or email?”

“Yes, but I figured I may as well have these hand delivered. I wanted to see if you actually read those books I give you on etiquette,” he says with a smirk. Oh, so this was some sort of test. He called someone all the way here for a five second test. “Plus, I don’t use internet or a phone. It’s too loud and annoying. I can barely stand the sound of the electricity buzzing, the fridge humming, and the furnace kicking in. I don’t need to add to the mix, trust me.”

I scowl at him. “Did I pass your test?”

He nods. “You passed.” He looks down at the papers and scans through them, carefully reading each one.

“You still haven’t told me what exactly it is you do for a living,” I remind him. He keeps telling me that he’ll show me soon, but he has yet to.

He approaches me, hands me a paper, and tells me to read it.

I look it over carefully. It looks like a profile of someone. A police profile.

“I’m a bounty hunter. I track down demonic criminals. Those who disobey the law. The demons that the head office wants to imprison in hell and keep from humans. I bring the criminals to them so they can take care of them.”

Well, that doesn’t sound like a fun job. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

He shrugs. “Yeah I guess, but it’s my job. It was that or take a spot on the council which isn’t exciting enough for me. I like action.” I know he likes action, I can tell by the way he smiles while kicking my ass in sparring practice every morning.

“You’re leaving something out,” I observe. I’ve come to read his facial expressions well.

“In addition to tracking down demons breaking the law, I also track down and turn hunters into changelings when the head office sends me their profiles,” he confesses slowly. He looks up from his papers to see my expression. It’s blank. “Does that make you upset?” he asks. We haven’t talked much about my time with the hunters or my relationship with them.

To my surprise, this information doesn’t make me upset. The hunters kill any and all demons. The demons only turn the hunters who try to kill them or do kill them. Then again, it doesn’t seem like the demons know how to kill the hunters.

“No, it doesn’t,” I squeak, almost surprised by my answer. A couple months ago, all I wanted was to get out of here, now I’m siding with those who I thought were my enemies? How weird.

“Good. I’m hungry. I’m going to run downstairs and grab a bite to eat,” he informs me, snatching the paper from me and heading for the stairs.

I decide to take a walk outside. Aiden never allows me downstairs to watch him eat. A demon eating involves sucking out the soul of a human. Of course, Aiden chooses only criminals to eat from. He dines on people like pedophiles and serial killers which is one hundred percent fine by me, because I think they deserve it. When he’s done with them, they die, their souls gone forever. Of course he could turn them into demons afterwards, but who wants demonic serial killers and pedophiles running around? Not him and not me either.

I’ve learnt that losing your soul doesn’t exactly make you evil. Losing your soul is like losing your immortal essence. You will not be reincarnated or taken to the afterlife. You’ll just be gone when you die. Gone forever. It’s your ticket to carrying on after death.

You can love without a soul and feel any emotion someone with a soul can feel, but when you die, you’re done. It isn’t losing their souls that makes demons evil and crazy. Changelings can feel every emotion that a human can, pure bloods cannot. In the books I’ve read, it is often relayed that pure bloods cannot feel guilt or grief amongst other important emotions. Spending more time in hell makes demons less stable. It corrupts them, even the changelings, and makes them into the monsters we know demons to be from religion and pop culture. Those who spend more time in hell, become more sadistic, crazy, and dark.

It is mandatory for demons to visit hell every so often, but there are ways around this. Aiden, for example, is over three centuries old, and he’s only been there twenty-some times in his entire life.

I wonder if the hunters are misinformed or if they even care about the truth about demons. Sure, some of them are pretty nasty, either because they spend so much time in hell, or they’re just bad apples, mostly pure bloods. Humans can be evil but most are not, just like demons.

“Megan, do you need someone to accompany you to the city?” One of Aiden’s guards asks, as I leave the house. I’ve finally gotten them to stop calling me Ms. Caplan and use my first name.

I shake my head. “I’m just out for a walk,” I reassure him. I stop and turn to him. “Daniel, were you a human or hunter before you were turned into a demon?”

“I was a hunter,” he says blankly.

“As a demon, do you agree with the hunters’ cause?” I ask curiously, tying up my runners.

He debates this silently before answering. “No, they act without thinking. As a hunter, I was run by my intense instinct to kill. I didn’t give any of the demons I killed the chance to prove their innocence. All I wanted was to kill them, and all I felt was the need to kill them. That being said, there are many demons that deserve death, but we must remember that demons exist for a reason and knocking them out completely would be devastating for humanity.”

Just as I thought. I nod to him in thanks and begin walking towards the garden at the back of the huge house. I walk through the many flowers and the trees, then I take a seat under a maple tree near the border of the property which is marked by a very tall chain link fence.

I lie down onto my back and stare up at the tree’s canopy, taking in the fresh air. It’s a beautiful day, and this is my favorite spot to read and relax.

I think about the last few months and how crazy they’ve been. I think about how my life has changed so dramatically. I wonder what Crispen is up to. Has he been worried about me? Is he still looking for me, or has he given up by now? I hope he’s moved on with his life, and yet I still wonder if he thinks about me. So much has changed, yet so much is the same. I wonder if I should send him a letter. I could drive by his house and get his address, it wouldn’t be hard. Something occurs to me then.

I’m free to do as I please, what’s stopping me from going to visit him and explaining everything? I could ask Aiden if I could borrow a few extra guards. It would be safe, right? I worry about the safety of the guards though. Would Crispen and his siblings attack them? No, they’d give me the chance to explain.

My idea sends me back into the house, where I nearly run smack into Aiden. “Aiden, I have an idea. I want to go see Crispen, and explain everything. I can take a few extra guards, I know where he lives,” I exclaim.

Aiden’s expression drops a moment, but then he smiles softly. “I kind of already expected you to have brought this up, but you’ve been so busy in all of my books. Did you really just think of this? I won’t stop you from doing this, but I will give you my advice…I don’t think you should go. They will try to keep you there. They will try to convince you that I’ve brainwashed you.”

“I am capable of making my own decisions and using my own discretion. I won’t listen to him. Simple as that. He won’t make me stay if I don’t want to. He cares too much about me to force me to do anything I don’t want to. I will be fine. I just feel wrong that he doesn’t even know that I’m still alive. I want to reassure him that I’m happy.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say. Alright, but you know that you cannot be
friends
with him, right? You cannot see him again afterwards. You are part of the demon world now, he has just as much reason to kill you as he does to kill me. It’ll be dangerous. They’re unpredictable, he might attack you,” Aiden warns, obviously hoping I’ll change my mind but also knowing that I won’t.

“I understand, and I am still going to go,” I decide quickly. I motion for Vandike and Hermus my guards to go get the vehicle. Crispen wouldn’t ever attack me, of course not. Aiden is being over dramatic.

“Yeah, I thought you’d say that too. Daniel, Markus, and Denaya, will go as well,” he says loud enough that they should be able to hear. Sure enough, they come running around the corner. “You have nowhere near enough training to take down any hunter, let alone one of the original hunters, but you
will
take this just in case.” He hands me a small knife inside a holster. I fasten it around me, knowing that it is made of ruby, a hunter’s weakness. I cover the weapon up with my long shirt just as the car pulls up to the front of the house.

“Thanks, Aiden,” I mumble, hugging him while making sure that the blade doesn’t show. When I turn to leave, he grabs my shoulder. “I’m coming with you. I don’t trust those hunters one bit.”

“You don’t have to,” I assure him, although I appreciate his motive.

“Yes, I do. I’m your mentor, and you’re my friend. I’m coming,” he says sternly, grabbing some weapons from the porch closet and shoving them into his many pockets, which I didn’t even realize he had hidden all over his clothing.

“You’re not going to do something dumb like attack them, are you? You’re just coming with me in case, right?” I ask, after seeing all of his weapons.

“Yes, I promise. I won’t attack anyone unless they attack first. I just don’t trust them.
At all
.”