Daimon by DANIELLE BOLGER (e reader .txt) 📖

other side, my heart would have been cut in two.

I placed a hand to the gaping wound, and hopped backward, clutching at a moment's reprieve, but Rose just kept slashing that silver forward.

The thrust towards my throat, I missed by a whisker. He whipped around to my left, coming with a swipe. I leaned back and pulled my breath in just at the right moment to view the metal cut through my tight shirt only. The leg came around to my right, which I blocked with my forearm, then that blade came back at the left and it seemed I was sandwiched. I leaned back so low that it would have looked as if I was lying comfortably on the water's surface. The strike waved overhead and I came back up with an uppercut to his jaw; a pleasing, bone-crushing collision resulted.

I moved inside with an uppercut to his solar plexus, an elbow to his temple, and then a backhand to his once perfect nose. The cartilage broke as he gaped, fish-like, in his surprise.

I did not quell my assault. Relentlessly I went for fist upon fist, then elbow, knee, and a final back-kick. Rose, my nemesis, soared into the air and collapsed limply beneath the shallow water.

He just lifted himself from the surface of the rippling waves as I grasped his shirt collar and landed a palm-hand into that broken nose. It snapped even more, and with its retruded appearance, I thought that perhaps the bone had struck back into his brain. By the venom in his face, it seemed such a blow did not matter much to a daimon; those pretty, poisonous eyes loomed menacingly into my own.

I drove him under the water, pinning him just as he had me, and struck my own crude hand into his torso. I felt the thump-thump of the devil’s heart until I was catapulted away; sent so far that my back collided with earth quaking violence against the waterfall's cliff. Through the cascading water in front of me was a faint outline of a person with savage red hair.

It was Ruby, lurking in the shadows, waiting for the moment to spring to her master's aid. So much for no interruptions.

The hazy outline grew larger until Rose's voice halted her. He said something in a foreign tongue that made her relinquish her short assault, approach the blurry figure of her master, and kneel.

Climbing to my feet, I pushed through the waterfall and watched as Rose tore inside his comrade's chest and retrieved a pulsating red organ.

I ran as quickly as I could, to prevent the event, but it was no use; it had already happened. Rose took the heart into his mouth and swallowed as if it was no more than a meager human heart. He shut his eyes.

Suddenly, I saw his body flicker in that golden twinkling. His eyes reopened and blazed violently purple, with more luster than ever.

He ordered her to give herself to him so that he would become more powerful, my snakelike voice analyzed. You were barely on par with him before, but now that he's consumed a daimon's power so effortlessly, you haven't the slimmest hope of success.

As he turned to look on me he smiled oh-so-gently, and yet the water rippled from him like he was a powerful center of antigravity. He grinned like we knew a common secret.

And I did know, it was: You're dead now.

Chapter Thirty-One

One glance at him and I saw the golden glow ripple as if it were the extension of his heartbeat.

Holy crap! I thought. He was scary powerful before, but now, from the heaviness in the air alone, I could sense that he transcended into something even more horrifically omnipotent.

Dazzling purple eyes gleamed at me as Ruby's corpse fell into the water, and floated away languidly. Her skin grayed, as dust began to dissipate into the air above. Her majestic hair dulled, fading to taupe, before turning to ash.

“You killed her, just to gain her power?” I cried incredulously. “I thought this was all a game to you. Challenging me was just a bit of fun, but you killed her! She...she told me that she loved you. How could you do that? How could you kill someone who loved you so much?”

Rose smiled. “How could you?”

I gulped. “I...took his life, but I didn’t forget the value of it!”

“Maybe, but what about the other lives you've taken as a daimon: the man in the woods, the retired assassin, Mack, the casino patron, Freddie, Sage, Smoke, the Fox gang members Sage had attack you. All of them had value to their lives; they all had ambitions, they all felt pain, but you murdered every single one of them. I wonder, did it make a difference to you whether they were human or daimon? What is motivating you, Jane? For one who killed her father, you are most interesting.”

Somehow he had a knack of saying things that made me avert my gaze. I was a monster, but there were certain sentimentalities that hurt me still. He knew that too, that was why he was uttering such spiteful comments. The bastard was trying to lull me into emotional weakness, but that was not who I was. I was too strong, my mind too impenetrable. He would not break me.

“What is motivating you?” I quipped back. “You murdered someone who was so committed to you. She loved you greater than any kind of family love, but you destroyed that when you ripped her heart away. Are you really that detached that you don't even feel for your own kind?”

Something shifted through his eyes. “You're evolving very fast. You are truly a prodigy.”

“I'm going to kill you,” I husked.

“I'm counting on that intent.”

I turned my gaze hard on him. “Why do you do this? Why do you have your followers throw themselves at your defense, but really set them up to fail? Why do you want this fight? Why do you toy with me? Why did you torture me? You said how, but you never said why. You have brother against sister; shouldn't we be family? You could have easily nurtured me from the start—taught me what it was to be a daimon. You didn’t; you left me to fend for myself for days before I even learned that others existed. Then when I found you, all I faced was hostility and hatred. All I ever wanted was a family. If you had only accepted me, then I would have accepted you, but you didn't. Instead, you toyed and murdered someone very dear to me. I have to hate you now—I have to! Why couldn't you just accept me when I needed you? Why?” I screamed, uttering words before I even realized the truth of them. They were all true; they were all what I really felt, and they held so much substance that I even cried. Using the back of my hand, I rubbed the oil from my face.

“I dismissed you,” Rose uttered apathetically. “Because I did not want another child. I wanted someone to fight; it has been far too long for me.” He smirked and pulled the edges of his mouth wider. Now, the teenyboppers would have stopped fawning and run away, for he suddenly appeared more like the monster he was. His skin was stretched beyond normal limits, as his mouth became a long line ear to ear. His teeth gleamed, and a child-like voice inside me queried: Grandma, why are your teeth so large?

“Fine, that makes you what I've been looking for all along also,” I stated resolutely. “I have a certain purpose of my own, a destiny given to me by my father. Living in a city soiled with crime and filth, he put it to his children to draw strength in response to the Blue Coast's suffering. He did not cover our eyes to the reports on the television, nor did he tell us sweet white lies about why there were always so many funerals to attend. He made us watch the horrors in front of our very eyes, hear the people of the city as they screamed and smell their flesh cook as they were trapped in burning hells. Evil had invaded our homes, and its potency was growing in diabolical proportions. His generation did not know how to handle such threats. They never learned how to overcome their fears, and it paralyzed them. That was why we had to be different. He trained us to be tough, strong. My father trained me to deal with vileness like you. I had hoped to use a pen instead of a sword.” I tensed my hands in a planar position. “But I will not complain about the weapons I have been given.”

“So that's it. By fighting me, you think you can redeem yourself for murdering your father. You know...” Rose ventured, “I now wish I’d eaten your psychologist. You are so much deeper than I ever imagined.”

“In whatever crazy world this is, you are my father, but that will not stop me from killing you.”

“Of course,” he responded mildly. His head was down-turned, but his purple eyes, locked into mine, were shinier than ever. “I've been anticipating a time like this for so long, I hope you will not disappoint me.”

“You will not be disappointed,” I agreed. “You’ll be dead.” I flew towards him, all a blur, as I struck towards his chest, but he was more powerful than ever and saw my movement before I even contemplated it. He used an arm to sweep it aside, and then thrust another hand into my belly.

I roared as he violated my flesh. I leapt back to gain a moment, but he interrupted that with an unanticipated hook kick to my left shoulder, then a knee up to my chest, followed by a head-butt to my forehead. Then a sidelong kick sent me flying far across the lagoon's surface.

I finally skidded to a halt just as I saw his evil sweet smile, followed by a winding blow to my belly. He snatched my head with effortless ease and smashed it with a bony knee. He paused for the briefest of moments before striking me with a back kick, sending me flying, yet again, over the great pool's surface.

I landed with a heavy splash, and a breathless wheeze, wondering how on earth I could attain the upper hand against a man who commanded so much more power than I could have ever dreamed of.

He came in again: jab-jab-jab-uppercut-hook combo; so fast that I failed to dodge a single one. He did a spin kick, twisted behind and connected me with his heel once more and sent me flying so far I hit the lagoon's low rock wall barrier.

Rose appeared so happy in this distance. He wanted this; he wanted all of this. The death of his followers only added to the glee. It was all for the ultimate battle—for the ultimate game.

I lifted off the wall a mere centimeter before he was upon me again, and again, and again. There were so many punches, so many knees and elbows and feet. At any moment, he could have gone for the killing strike. I was incapable of defense at that stage.

I was no match for this strength display. Despite all I attained from Smoke's huge gravity of power, it was nothing compared to the father himself. Rose already won this battle, he claimed victory from the moment he devoured Ruby's life force.

No, he was always going to win; ever since he had me tied down in that forest. This was all calibrated, hundreds of years of experience culminated for this one battle. He sacrificed a lot in this game: losing a bishop, a knight, a rook, and a queen though none of those fazed him. He was set only on winning the battle. A king was all that was needed, and that was far more powerful than any board could depict. Once that exhilarating battle was won, he could easily replenish his troops, and I wondered how many times he had done that before.

Everything was blurry, the earth was wavering, but I fought on. I struck with a couple of punches, and a knee out to where his ribs were. It was like he was moving faster than light. I never saw him evade those attacks, just like I never saw the counters. He curled behind with