Brianna
For just a moment I was frozen by the scene unfolding before me. I knew the look in the two boys’ eyes. I had worn the same look two years ago.
The flashbacks to unwanted bliss and a confusing inebriating loss of control kept me still, shattering my resolve.
I had been wrong about Kiran. They were taking every bit of agency the two boys had, and relished doing so. Kiran had clearly given in, and it was only a happenstance of timing that I appeared before they stole the boys’ souls completely.
Shock turned to anger.
After all that I sacrificed for them, Kiran spat in my face becoming the very thing I sought to destroy... the very thing I tried to save her from.
In a blink I grabbed them by the neck and pinned them, cracking the tile wall. The mortals were flung aside.
Kiran blinked, processing the sudden loss of whatever it was they had been experiencing.
“You…”
Their doe-eyed confusion became cat-eyed anger. Good. Now we were both angry.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I tightened my grip on their neck.
Kiran shouted in response. They gripped my outstretched arm with one clawed hand and squeezed. They matched my strength pound for pound. I would have been impressed if I wasn’t so heartbroken.
Eventually, our contest of strength came down to simple physics. I had to do more to keep them aloft than they did to get me to stop.
I cursed, letting them go, but they didn’t relent.
“I’m sick and tired of being told what to do!” they screamed.
Kiran, with a firm grip on my hand, threw me off balance and then punched me in the ribs fully unleashing their demonic strength.
They knocked the breath out of me. I tumbled to the floor, beginning to panic as I tried to suck in air. My ribs burned with every expansion of my lungs, but within a few breaths, I healed.
There was too much mortal blood flowing through me. Only that other asshole’s knife could injure me for more than a second, but that didn’t mean blows were painless.
“Fucking bitch,” I got out as my lungs finally filled to capacity.
Then I lept and landed a knee squarely in Kiran’s chest. It was their turn to struggle for breath. I wrapped the rest of my body around them and supplexed them into the grimy floor.
“You’re– Just– Like– Him–” I pummeled them, frenzied now that I finally had an outlet for everything that I’d bottled up. I didn’t even know which “him” I was referring to. Images of my grandfather and the other demon both flashed between strikes.
Kiran looked at me, their irises had become snake-like slits. They tried to put their arms up in some semblance of defense.
I grabbed them by the wrists and pinned them, cracking the concrete beneath us. Then I leaned into their face and let out a guttural roaring hiss.
Finally, fear crossed their face. Instantly, the doe-eyed look returned.
It pulled out another visceral instinct from me. In a moment of doubt, I loosened my grip. In my moment of weakness, hands grabbed and pulled at me.
I lashed out at the newcomers, and instantly regretted doing so.
The two men tore like a hot knife through butter. Disgustingly, the pain didn’t phase them. They again grabbed onto me, unsuccessfully attempting to pull me off of Kiran. Only the damage I’d done and the continuing loss of blood diluted their blank-faced resolve.
“Release them!” I shouted down at Kiran.
Again, I saw Kiran’s irises become slits. Whether intentional or not, they were changing their form to suit their needs.
“No,” they responded.
I saw Kiran’s gambit. They thought that I would be constrained, out of fear of further injuring the two bystanders.
What Kiran hadn’t taken into account, was that our fight had sent me into a hunting frenzy.
One of the boy’s hands was deliciously close to my mouth. I needed the strength pounding in his veins. He would be better off under my control than Kiran’s. I could heal him. I needed him.
My fangs were already extended when I bit into the arm.
He tasted like liquid fresh-baked bread. The alcohol in his system fuzzed my senses and I lost myself to drinking in pleasure.
There was a barrier, however. I could feel the meals’ incredibly satisfying potential but was unable to grasp its full-bodied power. So I pulled more, which only made me softer and more desperate.
Kiran took advantage of my distractedness. They yanked their arms from my grip, and with our legs already entwined from my previous maneuver, spun their hips to flip me onto my back.
The motion disconnected me from my meal and the smash of my head on the concrete brought clarity.
“No more orders,” Kiran said, looking down at me. “You’re just like me, so stop pretending to be better.”
I blinked, arising from the last tendrils of bliss my meal had given me.
They were right.
I was exactly like them.
“You’re beneath me,” they said, the comedy of their pun escaping both of us. “Submit.”
A strange feeling washed over me. I’d felt it before, during my encounter with the demon-man. Kiran’s will crashed up against mine. I could feel their intention and the power their command was meant to have on me. All of their supernatural ability broke like a wave on a thick glass wall. I could see the storm on the other side, but it wasn’t able to touch me.
“Lose yourself to me,” Kiran commanded, but their voice broke just a bit.
Their will pressed up against mine but was thwarted without even my intention. In fact, the thought of letting their will take over mine hadn’t been altogether unwelcome. I wondered if it would cleanse me of the guilt I felt. Even with my welcoming it, Kiran’s power had no hold on me.
The two of us stayed entwined in battle, bewildered at the lack of effect Kiran’s magic had.
“Fine, I will take what’s mine.”
They wrenched my head back, exposing my neck. Kiran pulled my arm taught to keep me from moving. Both of the enthralled men pinned down my other shoulder, their blood seeping into my jacket. I was too dazed from the after-effects of the drunken blood to resist. The tunnel vision of my frenzy was giving way to a sepia-colored buzz. That, coupled with the guilt welling up inside of me froze me in place.
Kiran lowered themself down to me. The pinpricks of their breath lit my skin up like it had been touched by fire, which sent me into squirms of fear.
No. Please, not that.
I suddenly felt distanced from my body. It wasn’t supernatural in nature, merely a coping mechanism. My own voice hit my ears.
Panic. Panic. Horrible panic. It was happening again. It was happening again and I couldn’t move myself to stop it. I responded to Kiran’s movements with a faint whimper. I dreaded hearing myself like that. I felt empty, knowing I was being dominated.
I felt tears roll off my face and into my hair. I hadn’t realized I was crying.
It really was like that night two years, back to haunt me. I hadn’t changed. I was the same. Above me was a force that I was too weak to hold at bay and too foolish to have avoided.
I hated Kiran. I hated Kara. I hated the demon-man. I hated my grandfather. I hated myself. Oh, how I hated myself.
The demon above me paused.
I shook with revived trauma but did little else. I knew what happened next. The pain in my throat was clear as day as I braced myself for the wrenching of my throat from my neck.
I wanted to stop them. I wanted to stop all of them.
Then a weight lifted off of me.
I didn’t open my eyes. There was a catch, there always was.
But Kiran stayed off of me. I trembled nonetheless.
“You’re exactly like me.” Their voice was barely louder than a whisper. I wasn’t sure if they’d spoken to themself or to me. “I– I’m so sorry.”
I heard loose tiles scatter as the door opened and closed. There were two thumps to my side as presumably, the two men’s bodies hit the floor, no longer puppeted by lustful magic. I couldn’t open my eyes to verify.
I was still in the grips of fear. I couldn’t vomit anymore, that reflex had been taken away with my mortality, but I wanted to. I wished I could lose myself at the bottom of the warm pool back at the enclave.
I had made so many mistakes. Maybe this was my penance? It certainly felt like this was what I deserved.
Shivers and shakes worked their way through me. I wasn’t going to be doing anything else. Fear gave way to sadness, blossoming into grief and guilt.
Was it possible I had reached a new low?
Seizing sobs wracked my body as I gave into the torrent of emotion.
I know it may have been tough to write but like…it does a really good job at portraying their base impulses and how they’re only enemies because of circumstance
I'm ready, hit me with as much darkness as you can course I got a torch, hehe... Thank you for the chapter ✨✨✨