Daimon by DANIELLE BOLGER (e reader .txt) 📖

his other hand and his broken smile extended further still, getting closer to those unnerving black eyes. “You're a lot like your mother, kitten; pathetically weak.” With this, he snapped my left hand, as he had my right, and then kicked me in the sternum. I was sent flying, ten meters away.

I could not scream, for my mouth was full of something else; I coughed and discovered my own blood splashing into the pool of mud I had landed in. I put my hands to the ground, but since they were gone, my arm bones punctured the oval pool like spikes on football boots.

I could not resist the revulsion growing inside me, and I stared helplessly at the tools I was left with. As I feared, Freddie left no moment to mourn my loss as he sent another kick into me, despicably aiming for my protruding ribs. He angled his kick down, so that I was not sent flying again, but deeper into the earth.

“Mew for me, kitty.” He let out a shrill mew as he repeatedly kicked me with all of his power.

“My mother was not weak!” I spluttered, as I reached out with spiked wrists and thrust them into his leg.

“Argh!” he cried with fresh oil dripping from his orbs. “Let go, you little bitch!” He jumped and kicked me with his other leg, and dislodged my hold.

“Fucking slut.” He slurred as he bent down to examine the holes in his leg. As he howled with laughter once more, the sky joined in. Lightning flashed brightly behind him and thunder chorused seconds later.

You know…”He struggled to speak, impeded more by his uncontrollable giddiness than his severely broken jaw. I just couldn’t work out what it was about you that I couldn't stomach, ever since the first time I saw you on that surveillance tape from the Minx. I knew there was something off—a girl with your eyes, yes; I knew there was something about them. Familiar and yet so different.” He had to pause as he released his glee up to the sky, opening his mouth wide and limp to catch the falling raindrops. He shut his mismatched jaws, licked the water around it savagely, and finally turned back to me. “Even at the hospital, I could not put my...” he touched a lanky finger to a space under his face where his chin was meant to be and chuckled, “finger on it. But later, when I sat outside your home and watched you talk to that bloke, I remembered.” He moved his finger to where his chin was actually positioned. “That the time I caught you in the Minx was not our first encounter. Our first was at a restaurant about ten...no, nine years earlier. At first you weren't looking at me, no, you were too distracted. A scared little shit weeping pathetically over her mother's corpse.”

I lifted my head up; rage emanating from my body with such ferocity that rain evaporated before it ever landed on me. I waited.

Freddie continued to rub his leg tenderly. “So much blood, so much destruction—It was such a beautiful sight. The noises were even more tantalizing: gunfire ripping through walls, glass shattering, tables splintering. The people, and their screams! So many dead, but not the target. It did not matter, though, because the end effect on the target was better than could have been dreamed. Then there was you, kitten.” He laughed. “I remember you. I saw you through that broken glass from the safety of my car. While people were running around mad, you gained control of yourself, no more than a teenager. You looked back through that open window and stared right at me with so much malice. That look you gave me was the same one you're giving me now. Truly –beautiful.”

I rose to my feet steadily, despite the ground shaking beneath me.

“I was human, too, then,” he explained. “Just doing my job with a bunch of other mates, following orders to destroy some shitface. It was a good job.”

I walked towards Freddie, where he did no more than crouch over his leg, slumping deeper still.

“I always wondered…when I killed your mother, what did I create that day?”

In an instant, I was in front of the heinous abomination. I stabbed him with a severed wrist and dangled him in front of me high enough so that his feet were off the ground.

His laughing dissipated as the darkness in his eyes shifted to a light gray. “You...really aren't like the rest of us.” He spluttered blood from his lopsided mouth; all the while, never dropping the smile. “I was right. You needed to be killed. So long as you live, Rose will not be safe.”

I lifted my other bony arm, and pierced through his eye, releasing black liquid. His jaw finally became slack and lay open twice as wide as any mortal's could. I retracted my right wrist from his eye socket and stabbed it into his chest. As I pulled away, his heart emerged with my injured limb. I wasted no time in swallowing it whole.

I breathed in deeply, readying myself for the gratification that would follow; eagerly awaiting the healing of my body, but that never came. Something else did, though—pain.

Suddenly, I was pierced with a blade that shone silver in my mind's eye. It penetrated to the very core of me; not through flesh, but into the depths of my being. My soul, if I had one. It plunged deep, tip burning with ethereal fire. I grew hot and dizzy. The very air I breathed was suddenly scorching my insides. I felt that cold silver blade burrow and sear until it reached a dense knot. Here, it twisted and worked maliciously to unravel it. A desperate truth rung out at me then, communicating that if the knot came undone, so would my life.

I screamed louder than I had ever before and violently drove my severed wrists into the sodden earth. I wailed but did not cry. I could not be certain whether this was because of stubbornness, or if the pain was too great for even that. I was in pain then.

I hadn’t noticed it during the fight but now it attacked me just as ferociously as my aggressor. Cool rain plummeted my body, drenching me, seeping deep into my skin. You’d think that with such a heavy downfall it would quench the fires at my wrists. It couldn’t. They were not large flames sprouting from my carpals, but were both a strong red. My wrists throbbed, my lost hands ached more, and every muscle I still retained lost its strength just as quickly as my blood escaped me.

What's going on? I don't understand.

“Stupid, stupid, girl.” A woman sighed. “Does save me the bother I suppose— killing two birds with one stone.” Dimly, I became aware of a familiar British accent—Ruby.

I squinted at the hazy figure walking before me. Her shoes stopped at my head. She grasped my chin and drew my gaze upward so that I had no choice but to look at her. I could just barely make out her milk-white skin and black eyes.

Ruby's red lips formed words in front of my eyes. “What a fool you are: you manage to kill your enemy only to kill yourself in the process. Now you can see, can't you, your great mistake?”

I tried to answer, but all that escaped was a weak moan.

She chortled. “It is sad that you did not realize the true power that hearts contain. A heart is where a human feels. It is their compassion, their love, and their strength. It is the thing that gives both the power and the will to live. Every pitiful little beat is the lingering force of a soul. Take that, and you can tap into a chamber of enormous power.”

I felt her finger slide along my cheek forcing me to pry open my eyes I had not realized I'd shut.

“A daimon's heart is different.” She placed a gentle hand onto my chest. “Ours do not harbor a soul, only darkness; powerful darkness. Our hearts are difficult enough to maintain, requiring endless replenishment from the livestock of humans. When our reservoir of human hearts depletes in our systems, then we start to...dissociate on a molecular level. Should a second daimon heart be introduced, the vessel cannot support the strain. It is overloaded and set to expire.”

She touched my forehead. “Do you feel it now, the fever? That is how it starts. Then your temperature will cascade towards boiling point, until you stop feeling. All molecules have a certain point where temperature affects them. Some are higher than others, but in the end, they all unbind. When this starts to happen, you'll hallucinate, and fall into a dream of delusions. As your brain turns to mush, you’ll have the joy of experiencing complete insanity. Finally, your body will turn to ash and simply float away, dissipating throughout the earth's vast atmosphere. It is here that it is thought that you die, but because we are daimons, I am not even sure if that is the case. It is possible that you split into millions of fragments, distorted and broken, but still manage to linger on in some presence.” She dropped her hand as she trailed her words, as if she herself was taken to some other place through her musings.

Chillingly, I registered her predictions were coming true. My body temperature was increasing steadily. It became so hot that I could feel my brain boil like an egg in a pot. I wondered how long it would be until the egg popped and the white started to ooze out of it.

Fighting, with just a whisper of strength remaining, I lifted my head back up to notice that Ruby was out of view, and in front of me was the silver corpse of Freddie. I believed I could just make out an open-mouthed smile before tiny flecks of him leaked into the air.

“It is tidy, at least, that you two should die this way,” she continued calmly. “It was only Freddie that was meant to die here. It was expected that you would kill him and that we would allow it as punishment for the disobedience he displayed. He was simply meant to procure you a gift; it was his folly to attack one you cared for. His sly disregard for the family led to the unanimous decision that we would allow you to kill him. After, you would again be invited back into the family, but it does not look like that will be occurring now. I hardly think it a shame, but Rose will likely pout for a few days. He had such hopes for his latest toy. Oh well, nothing can be done now. In a matter of minutes, you too will turn to silver and start to dissolve into dust, just like Freddie.”

She sighed. “Goodbye, Jane Kirra. I hope the next one will prove better than you.”

Chapter Twenty

I strained to hold onto my consciousness. I was all alone now; beaten and broken; burning as drops of acid tore into my raw body; my wrists rendered to a dull and empty ache. I looked up at Freddie, who was disappearing faster and faster. All that remained of him were tiny shreds of tissue clinging to stubborn bone, all of which were silver in color. I knew that he would soon disperse completely, leaving no trace of his existence.

I began to sob, but my body lacked the strength to even produce the oil my tears had become. I turned to view my hands, which lay many meters away. They were no more than a couple of gray lumps atop the flat grass, giving off a mist.

I really was going to die. I lay my head down as my eyes fell shut. It was my time. All strength finally abandoned me as the heat let go and I entered a blissful serenity of nothingness. In my mind's eyes, I saw the silver mist, calm and gentle, cool and empty. I could feel it now, the knot unraveling, and the widening disconnection of my cells. In a moment, I would be broken into the barest of constituents. This was an inescapable truth.

Images popped into my mind, quick and lacking in detail: my mother's kind smile, my brother's hand locked in mine, my father's resolved expression,