The Demons New Princess, page 15
Fuck, fuck, fuck; this is how I’m going to die? Attacked by something I just help save, really universe? That’s so stupid.
Wait, what the…?
Is… is he licking my face?
Yep, that’s definitely a tongue sliding across my face.
“Stop, boy, stop,” I laugh way too loudly, hoping nothing but the pup is around, as I finally push him off me, contorting myself to a seated position. “You’re welcome.” I say, assuming the kisses are a thank you.
Forcing myself to stand. I grab all my stuff before looking at him. His eyes are wide as he stares, his head tilted with one ear up straight. He’s so cute, but I can’t take him with me, can I? I take a hesitant step towards him. He’s got a family he needs to get back to. I approach him and pet the top of his head, careful not to hit his horns, which look insanely sharp.
“I’ve got to get going, boy. You should get back to your family,” I say, stepping away from him, walking backwards a few paces before turning around and taking off in a slow jog. After a couple moments, I hear something behind me, and I look over my shoulder, already knowing what I’m going to find. I see the pup slipping behind a tree a few paces behind me, as if trying to hide. Smiling, I creep back to where I saw him hide before peeking around the trunk.
“Boo!”
He lets out a small, surprised sound as he jumps back from behind the tree.
“What are you doing?” I ask, squatting down to look into his eyes. “You should go back to your home and your family. I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
“Doubtful,” a small voice suddenly says in my head.
“What the fuck?” I whisper. Looking around, I try to figure out where the voice came from.
“Wait! Did you just hear me?” the voice asks, sounding excited.
“Who’s there?” I call into the surrounding woods. What the hell is going on? Did I swallow so much river water I’m going insane? I may have my issues, but hearing voices has never been one of them. Running my hand along my face, I try shaking out the voices.
“Me. Who else?” the voice says, as if that would explain everything, while the puppy noses my palm, trying to get my attention.
“Hold on, boy,” I say, petting under his chin. “Who is ‘me’?” I fidget on my feet, moving in circles, trying to find the sources of the voice. Please, Goddess, don’t let me be going crazy.
“Me. Fury. Boy. Boo. Whatever you want to call me,” the voice chirps as the puppy nudges my hand again, drawing my attention. Looking down at him, my eyes bulge out of my head.
“Are you… are you talking to me?” I guess my luck from the Goddess has run out. I’ve lost it.
“Yup! I’m Fury. You saved me even though you could have left me, especially knowing what I am and what my kind has done for years. But you didn’t. I like you. I owe you my life.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” I say, stepping away from him. “How… how are you talking to me?” I scoff, sucking my teeth as I look away from the talking demonic hellhound. “This is impossible. Dogs can’t talk. I must have swallowed too much water. Yeah. That’s it. This is some after death hallucination. Yep; that’s what this is,” I mumble to myself, running my hand through my hair as I pace.
“Normal dogs can’t talk silly, but I can,” the puppy, Fury, says, bouncing in front of me, causing me to stop pacing. “I’m a hellhound, in case you forgot. We gain this ability once we claim our demons. Well, in this case, human.”
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait… what do you mean ‘claim’?” I ask, but I put my hands out, not letting him answer/ “I don’t have time for this. I have to catch back up with my group before I run out of supplies, or Mr. SJ convinces everyone to go to the so-called haven.” I crouch down, tilting my head at Fury. “You should go back to your family, though I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
“No, they aren’t. They’re the ones who attacked me,” the young voice huffs. “We can talk later? Let’s run. I enjoy running. I haven’t run in a long time. Can we run, pleeeeeease?” he begs in a quick breath, reminding me of a young kid on a sugar rush. He’s jumping up and down now his back paw isn’t hurting.
“Fine. Fine! You can follow me for now, but we are going to talk about this whole talking in my head thing,” I finally agree, knowing the longer I wait here, the further away they get and the greater chance they take off up the mountain.
“Yeah, my family doesn’t like me,” Fury explains as we dash through the underbrush and back to the road.
I realize it’s going to be faster this way since I marked the path to the house on this side, and I don’t want to waste extra time hunting for it.
“They say I’m a freak. Hellhounds aren’t supposed to be white; you see. They called me an abomination, so they attacked me and left me for dead. But poo on them because I’m a fighter, and I’m still here. I’m sad though.” His voice breaking in my head. “I don’t know why they didn’t want me. I did everything they ever wanted me to, even when I didn’t want to.”
“I’m sorry, Fury. That’s not fair to you,” I say, but before I can continue, he talks again.
“Us hellhounds are loyal. I know; surprising, right? Us being hell hounds and all, but, anyway, we are loyal, and we typically bond to a single demon based on things like they save our life, or we have a connection to them or if they force us into their legion. That’s why I choose you! You saved my life and didn’t treat me like a freak. So, I bound myself to you.” I stop as we make it to the mark I’d left. Pulling off my pack, I grab some water. “That’s why you can hear the hellhounds bound to you. Which, according to Mr. Grumpy, my teacher, is very useful in battle. That’s what we are made for: battle and to die for our masters.”
“Wait. Your master will send you to die for them?” My voice rises an octave as my face reddens.
“Well, yeah,” he says before lapping up the water I placed for him in the cap.
“And you’re okay with that? That’s fucked up,” I grumble, readying myself before we trek through the woods to the house.
“’Better us than them’, Mr. Grumpy always said,” Fury says in a matter-of-fact tone.
“Well, I will never send you to die for me. Your life is just as important as mine.” I tell him, causing him to tilt his head and look at me like I’m insane.
I understand the logic, I guess, but it’s still fucked up. Having a companion like that, only to sacrifice it to save your own ass. Even demons have to create a bond with the animal, don’t they? Being willing to let something you grow with lay its life on the line, or even demanding it to, is fucked.
The poor hell hounds probably think of it the same way suicide bombers do, though. Promised some amazing afterlife for giving up their own. It’s so sad. I may have never believed much about there being an afterlife, but I highly doubt any higher power would be thrilled with someone just giving up the life that they worked so hard to create. I know if I was a Goddess, I wouldn’t be very excited about my creations just saying, ‘fuck everything’ and destroying others or themselves that way.
We take off at a brisk walk through the trees; I try to focus on maintaining my speed so I can get there before it gets too dark, but also not wanting to overly push myself. My body wanting to shut down after all the activity I’ve put it through today. Walking through the underbrush seems easier compared to when we walked it for the first time. I feel a strange pull to the trees I carved my protection sigil on. It’s strange; I’ve never had this much pull connection with the Goddess. It’s usually just knowledge that to go there. I wonder what’s different this time?
“There’s powerful magic here,” Fury says, looking around.
“You can feel my protection spell? Or do you feel something else?” I ask as we make it to another tree I marked.
“I’m not sure. It’s just really strong,” he says, brushing up against my leg.
I lean against the tree I carved, catching my breath and getting my bearings, and a small electric zap snaps down my spine.
What the hell?
Flipping around, I inspect the tree and notice a little symbol carved beneath mine. I haven’t seen this before. Reaching out, I brush my fingers over the symbol and feel a forceful presence that makes my stomach churn. Whatever put it there did not have good intention. I’ll have to see if I can make a run to my house or the local witch bookstore.
“Is this the first spot you felt the stronger magic?” I ask, looking down at Fury, who is sniffing the bottom of the tree.
“Yeah, I felt nothing until we got a few feet from this tree,” he says through a sneeze.
“Fuck. Okay, I’m going to have to do some research on that symbol since I’ve never seen it before. Unless… you have?” I didn’t think to ask Fury, but he is a mythical creature. Maybe he knows something about symbols.
“Lift me up. I’ll look at it,” he says, standing on his back paws so I can lift him easier. After heaving his surprisingly heavy body up, I hold him against my chest to ease some of the weight as he examines the symbol. “It’s a symbol the demons used to mess with each other. It’s supposed to send bad luck to the person, or people, it’s targeted towards.”
“Exactly what we don’t need. Someone had to have put that here since I placed mine. Either someone found mine randomly or someone from the group did this. Neither option is very appealing,” I grumble to myself as I place him down. “Okay, I’ll add a return to sender, in case it’s like a curse that way. Hopefully won’t cause the group any issues.”
Fury watches as I quickly carve the sigil into the tree, placing my intentions into the bark itself.
“Let’s go. I don’t want to be out here in the dark,” I say, looking off to the west where the sun is starting to set. I keep my pace as fast as I can manage without tripping, wanting nothing more than to just sit down and not having to worry about anything for a couple of hours.
Wishful thinking since I’m supposed to be the leader of this group, but whatever, that’s what I want, and there’s no harm in wishing.
We stop one more time to carve the return to sender symbol into another tree, but from what I can tell, there were only two trees that been marked. After finally finding the tree that I marked first. I start up the embankment, leading me to the house, but I stop when I hear a loud noise coming from above me.
In an instant, I’m notching an arrow and moving my body lower to the ground. Fury moves into a crouch next to me as we slowly move towards the top of the embankment. As we get closer, I recognize the sound of the others’ voices as they argue louder than normal. Allowing my bow to go slack, I stand up straight, blowing out a large breath already tired with their antics and I haven’t even made it completely up there.
“What’s the point of staying here? MJ is gone, and she was the only reason we were staying in town instead of heading to the place offering safety! Let’s just go,” Mr. SJ growls.
“I’m not leaving without MJ!” Imani and Joey shout together.
“And I’m not taking advice from little kids,” Mr. SJ says back, and I want to step in, but as I go to stand up, more talking starts.
“You’re not in charge either way, and I don’t think anyone really asked your opinion,” Kimmy interjects, and I smile at the determination in her voice. I make my way over to a tree that’s just on the edge of the area to see them outside the house.
The twins are huddled together on the steps, and I can tell Olivia is still struggling. I understand that it’s hard to lose some, but man now is not the damn time to deal with it. Out in the middle of a clearing. Joey, Imani, Kimmy, and Kyler are all facing the St. Johns as they argue. Jason is standing between them, facing the direction I am standing, like a man-made wall keeping the peace as best he can. I don’t see Artie though, and I get a bit worried he might have been injured, but as I go to take another step forward, Jason meets my eye and shakes his head slightly as if telling me to wait.
“Who made you the boss?” Mrs. SJ asks timidly.
“No one, but it hasn’t even been a day, and you already want to abandon her. She’s out there by herself because she saved our fucking asses, and you don’t even give a shit about anything but what you fucking want,” Kimmy argues. “No one is fucking making you stay here. If you want to leave so damn bad, just leave.”
At that, Kimmy points towards me and the riverbed, bringing everyone’s attention to where I am standing. They all are frozen in different states of shock as I stand there, probably looking like a monster from the black lagoon after out running a dragon sweating my ass off, hiding in a river, saving a hellhound, and climbing through the underbrush.
Oliver is the first to break out of his surprise, nudging Olivia before jumping up and running over me. His body collides with mine like a freight train, and if it wasn’t for my firm stance, we both probably would have fallen.
He’s wrapped himself around me like a spider monkey, holding on with all his might as he cries, thanking me for saving his sister. Within a moment, I’m hit by multiple more bodies, and I lose my balance and we all go crashing into a dog pile. There are sobs and so many voices saying everything from, ‘I’m glad you’re alive’ to ‘thank you’ that I can’t help but laugh. After a few moments, though, I get overwhelmed as everyone continues to gush over me, which is nice and all, but I’m not used to so many people being in my personal space.
“Okay, okay, guys, y’all are squishing me, plus I’m sore as hell,” I croak out with a laugh as slowly everyone pulls themselves off me. As Oliver pulls himself away, Jason reaches a hand down to me, helping me back up before patting me on the shoulder with a grunt of approval.
“Welcome back, little one.” He squeezes my shoulder as we walk towards the house.
The SJs stand off to the side awkwardly, which isn’t surprising since I’m sure they weren’t expecting me to come back at all. Which is just fucked up, but I’m not going to think about that right now. It’s way too much effort after everything that has already happened today. My limbs are heavy as I follow everyone into the living room, which luckily isn’t part of the house that was destroyed by the rockslide. Other than a small section of the roof in the back corner.
The furniture is a little weathered, but we all at least have a place to sit. Rolling my neck trying to get the muscles moving as I take a spot on an incredibly comfy chair… or maybe it’s only this comfy because I’m tired… I notice Artie is here as if appearing out of nowhere. Someone took the black paint we found and covered the windows with it, offering us the freedom to move freely within the house, and a few candles are lit throughout the room giving the air we are going to be doing a seance. As I look around the room, relaxing for the first time all day, Fury comes bounding in like his tail is on fire, jumping into my lap with a yelp.
“Calm down, Fury, it’s okay,” I coo at him, brush his fur back with my hand.
“There’s someone from the underworld here!” Fury shouts into my head, and I wince.
Looking around the room, everyone stares at me like I’ve grown another head for petting Fury. Who knows, maybe I have. My stomach drops. Who is from the underworld? Fuck!
“What is that?” Imani asks, scooting away from me as she stares at the creature in my lap, unsure.
“This is Fury. He’s a hellhound pup that was abandoned. I saved him, and he bonded to me.” I explain.
“Why is it here? Have you not been paying attention to what those things can do? What they have been doing?” Artie asks, his tone concerned.
“I have,” I say as I hear Kimmy whisper to herself. He’s so cute. “However, Fury is different.”
“How can you know that?” Mr. SJ asks accusingly.
“Yeah, MJ; not to side with him…” Kyler says in disgust, his lip curling as he stares at the pup. “How can we be sure that he’s not going to attack us?”
“I hear you, Kyler; you guys have every right to be worried. However, I fully believe he won’t hurt us. One, because he is a puppy and I believe in nurture over nature. Two, he can speak to me telepathically ever since I saved his life.” I smile as I look around the group, who are all in a state of shock as they take in the news.
“Yep! Just like this. I don’t like the round guy he’s mean.” Fury says with a humph. I choke out a laugh, causing confused looks.
“What’s so funny?” Mrs. SJ asks.
“Oh, Fury just called Mr. SJ mean. I can’t say I blame him, either.” I laugh out.
“You want us to believe that thing can talk to you through your mind,” Mrs. SJ scoffs, ignoring my comment.
“Yes.” I don’t offer anymore. I know the truth and whether they believe it isn’t my concern, but it would make everything a lot easier if they did. “Can we continue this,” I say, pointing down to Fury while scratching behind his ears, “conversation in a minute and go back to what I walked in on? What was all that yelling out in the open? Even though we’re out here, you guys know better than that.”
“They wanted to leave you!” Joey says, pointing an accusatory finger at the SJs. I notice both Olivia and Artie squirm as well while Imani scoots closer to me. Fury tilts his head and sticks his little nose over the edge of the chair, waiting for her to pet him. A smile tugs at the side of my lips, my heart warming that Imani is warming to Fury.
“We didn’t want to leave you,” Mr. SJ says, “However, I thought we should continue on since you were the reason we are staying.”
“Is this true? Does everyone want to go up the mountain to the possibly not there pick up spot?” I ask, trying to keep my muscles relaxed, though the thought honestly makes me upset.
If they all wanted to head up the damn mountain, why didn’t they just say that? We could have just voted on it, but they lied about it instead. What was the point of that? It’s not like I’m going to abandon them to do it themselves. I would go up the mountain with them, then I would get the fuck out because fuck going back into my mother’s embrace.
“If this is true, tell me and we can go. I’ll walk you up the mountain to the spot, but I personally don’t see it being the best option right now,” I add, fighting for my voice to stay calm.
