Runes of Truth (A Demon's Fall #1)(2)
“If only things could be different,” I say, disappointed in another one of my kind. I pull out my pen, from my pocket, and my little notebook I carry everywhere now, ripping out a page. I quickly write the same thing I do every time I have to kill one of them that come after me. I write my rune name, the very thing that they hunt me because of. The very thing that many people now fear, and yet I have no idea what it says. I leave the note on his stomach and pick my phone up before walking out of the alleyway, and down the empty street.
“Crappy Chinese, here I come,” I mutter, wishing Hali didn’t love that place. They don’t do the bacon fried rice that I love, or anything with bacon in it. The place sucks. I keep my eyes down as I walk down the empty streets of the small Scottish town I live in. The people here don’t come out after dark, too scared of the possible demons around. Little do they know that demons wouldn’t be interested in a small town like this, it’s why I chose to live here. The flashing lights of the Chinese come into view, and I walk across the road, pulling the door open and hearing the ringing of the little bell. The middle-aged Chinese woman looks up, rolls her eyes at me, and looks back down.
“Hello to you, too,” I mutter, but the woman doesn’t reply to me. I grab a Chinese menu off the side, looking through it before looking back at the woman.
“I’m ready to order,” I say, getting her attention.
“Your child called and placed your order already, Miss Evie.”
“She isn’t my child, more like a pain in my ass. I’ll just wait then,” I grumble, putting the menu back in its place.
“A young girl like you shouldn’t be out on the streets at night,” the woman says, stopping me from walking away.
“Thank you for your concern, but I’m not afraid of demons.”
“No, your kind is never afraid of what they hunt,” she chuckles, as the bell rings behind her, and she walks over to get my bag of food before I can reply to her. Not many beings can sense what I am, and I’m quite surprised a human has. She hands the bag over the counter to me.
“How did you know?” I ask.
“My family have always been able to sense things. You should be careful at night, Miss Evie. Demons are not what you should fear,” and with those cryptic words she walks away, leaving me standing in the shop alone, wondering if she is mad, or possibly telling me the truth.
Evie
“Awesome, you’re finally back,” Hali says, coming out of the kitchen, and running over to me. She doesn’t look at me with any kind of care, nope her eyes are just on the Chinese. A girl after my own heart, right there.
“I have to feed the teenager I look after, don’t I?” I say, and she smiles, taking the bag off me. I glance over at Hali, wondering when she started to look so much older than she ever has. She doesn’t look like a child anymore, which to be honest with myself, freaks me out a little. She turned fifteen yesterday, but I still think of her as the eight-year-old she was when she started living with me after her mother died. Hali is beautiful, with black, long African hair which she braids, and it matches her deep-brown skin. She has stunning pale-grey eyes, which all witches have, and they reflect off nearly all lights. I turn around, pulling my coat off, and hanging it on the hook by the front door I put my sword underneath it, using my coat to hide the blood on it from Hali. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror behind the door, almost cringing at how much of a mess I look. My dark-blue, waist length hair is messy today, and my blue eyes look tired. I don’t like my twenty-five-year-old age, no, I look about fifty from all the stress. I swear if I find a grey hair, I’m going to lose it.
“Did you finally kill the Protector following you?” Hali asks shocking me as she sits on the sofa, and pulls Chinese boxes out of the bag like she didn’t just ask something important.
“How did you know we even had one following?” I ask, curious. She never has noticed before, and she is basically a human until she turns eighteen, so it couldn’t be magic she used to find out.
“You look tired, exhausted, because you don’t sleep when one follows us. Plus, you have blood on your boots,” she says, and I look down, seeing that she is right. Damn, hope that comes off, these are new boots. I reach over, picking up a box and grabbing a plastic fork out of the bag.
“Good work, detective,” I say, making her laugh, but it dies off quickly as her pale, serious eyes meet mine.
“Do you think they will ever stop coming after you? What did you do anyway?” she asks, and I go to change the subject because I think she is too young to deal with the truth when she interrupts me.
“Don’t lie to me. I’m not a kid anymore, and don’t you think I have a right to know?” she asks, locking her eyes with mine, so I can’t really look away. I know she isn’t a child, sort of, but I still want to protect her. She is like a sister to me, the only person in the world I’m close to, and I don’t want her to understand the evil in this world until she really has to. This world is full of demons, protectors, witches, angels, and even the occasional reaper. It was, apparently, better a hundred years ago when all supes used to hide from humans. Now everyone knows about supes, and supes rule the very world humans pretend they still have control over.
“They don’t come for you, so no, not really,” I say, shoving food into my mouth, hoping she will just drop this. I almost gag on the taste of the sweet and sour chicken, it’s crap. I miss bacon already.