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Terry, technically being owned by Aiden, is not able to refuse Aiden’s demands. He looks to Aiden with a look of confusion and worry and then comes forward to usher me into the house. He seems to notice then that I’m crying and offers me a black handkerchief. I take it thankfully and wipe my face as we run into the house. I like Terry. He’s been good company. The three of us, Aiden, he, and I play a game of cards almost every night. He’s very professional though, he won’t talk much about his personal life, unless I push which I don’t like doing.
“I won’t be long,” Aiden promises, shooting me a half smile and sprinting in the opposite direction. By sprinting, I mean running at a human’s sprinting pace, not a demon’s.
“Come, lady Caplan,” Terry instructs and holds the door open for me. Once inside, I gaze out of the window searching for signs of the hunters. Part of me wonders if the hunters arriving are Crispen and his family. He did say in his letter that he’d give me until tonight, but why would he attack a place guarded so heavily just to kill me? It doesn’t make sense.
“I would suggest you stay away from the windows, ma’am. It isn’t safe.”
I don’t listen to Terry. I can’t even see anything. After a moment, I watch Aiden appear at the front of the house with the other guards. In a matter of seconds, Aiden is thirty or forty feet ahead of the guards, his arms appearing to be crossed. I look ahead of him and four figures dressed in pure black stand before him. I see the glint of knives in their hands and suck in a breath. Terry comes to the window after hearing my reaction and clears his throat.
“Four hunters are many. They are trained in ways that we are not, given instincts that we’re not, but we have many guards, and Aiden is a very well trained fighter. Twenty-four against four is the same as six against one. They do not stand a chance,” Terry reassures me, but he looks uneasy, and I wonder if it’s because Aiden has decided to take his place outside. I wonder why Aiden’s done this. It doesn’t take me long to come up with an answer. Aiden said before that he wished not to have all of these guards. He probably feels badly that they are all risking their lives for his safety. I know I would feel that way. My two guards Hermus and Vandike are out there right now. If I die, I feel like their blood will be on my hands. Panic starts to wash over me.
“What is he doing?” I ask. Terry knows that I’m referring to Aiden.
He shrugs.
I shake my head at Aiden’s actions. I don’t blame him for doing what he’s doing, but I’m still worried about his safety. “Many of Aiden’s guards have fallen at the hands of hunters, but Aiden’s always survived. Do not worry for his safety, Megan, but I hope for everyone else’s sakes that these hunters are not the same ones who attacked last time or any of the times before. I have just recently been assigned to Aiden in the last few months. He goes through guards like...like crazy. Many changelings give up their lives protecting him.”
I gulp. That doesn’t sound good. From what I’ve learnt, it’s apparent that when someone is made into a changeling, they feel a sense of loyalty to pure bloods in general, but especially to their maker or sire. They guard or serve their sire until death. If their sire dies before they do, then they are thrown into a pile and distributed to a new ‘master’, or they pick a new one by choosing the first pure blood they lay eyes on. A changeling must listen to their master no matter what. It’s ingrained in them like a compulsion to obey whoever they are assigned to. The only person who can overrule a master’s word to their changeling is the demon of purest blood. The strongest demon alive at this time is some guy named Lucian, who kind of seems like an ass from what I’ve read.
“How many guards were there last time Aiden was attacked?” I ask wearily.
“Eighteen. There were eighteen guards.”
“So there are six more now?” I ask for reassurance.
Terry’s face drops a little. “Well, this is true, but there was also one less hunter. I see that there are four outside as we speak.”
“I thought you said that they didn’t stand a chance,” I state confused. My tears have stopped falling now, because I’m distracted by the scene in front of me.
“I did, yes. Those hunters don’t stand a chance, not unless they are the hunters who have been after Mr. Castile nearly all his life. There are only three of those hunters.”
“What makes those hunters so special, more lethal?” I ask, still not understanding what he’s saying.
“The hunters that attacked last time and many of the times before, they were the original hunters. The first to be made. You would be correct in assuming that they are lethal, ma’am. They’re nearly unstoppable,” Terry says grimly, a dramatic tone in his voice. He’s talking about Crispen’s family. They’ve been after Aiden his entire life? Why? I mean obviously because he’s a demon, but why after years of obviously failing, are they still after him? Why haven’t they given up if they haven’t killed him yet?
“Why have they been after Aiden all this time?”
“He’s their step brother. Well, sort of.”
No, that can’t be right. There wasn’t another sibling. I go back to the stories that Crispen’s family told me months ago. Not once was a step brother ever mentioned or a ‘sort of’ step brother whatever that means.
“Are you sure?” I ask incredulously. “How is he a demon and they hunters then?”
“The Ranchiller’s father Thomas Desmond was married once, before he married their mother Anna. The woman he was married to prior to his remarriage, had an eight-year-old son who was not biologically his. The boy Aiden had no known relatives to care for him after his mother’s murder, so Thomas raised him for his deceased wife. Thomas married Anna, then Crispen, Mason, and Aria were born. Aiden was raised alongside the Ranchiller children as their older brother. Of course, the three hunters were human at the time and Aiden’s true heritage was unknown by everyone except for himself. Aiden’s mother told him what he was when he was young, she had to of course as human children and pure demon children are far from alike. He played the part of human until his distant demon relatives found him and took him away from his human family, killing both Thomas and Anna in the process. Aiden was 26. Little did Aiden know his entire life, that he was part of a royal demon family, his mother escaped with him after giving birth to him, because she wanted him to have a better life out of the demon world. I suppose that the original hunters blame him for their parents’ death.”
I glance to Terry who looks deep in thought, then I look back outside. Like Aiden trained me to do, I watch closely, ready to follow any move that’s made. Focus is the key to tracking the hunter and demon’s quick movements. If you don’t pay close attention, it looks like they’re disappearing and reappearing magically that’s how fast they move. I notice that Aiden doesn’t seem to have a weapon and this bothers me. How is he going to fight? What is he doing?
If Aiden was once like a brother to Aria, Mason, and Crispen and Crispen killed Aiden’s daughter, then that’s almost like Crispen killing his own niece. I remember the tortured pain in Aiden’s eyes when Crispen told me he’d killed Aiden’s daughter. He looked like someone had just stabbed him in the chest. Now I realize that it wasn’t just the pain of Crispen killing his daughter, it was the pain of his own brother killing his daughter. Uneasiness rolls in my chest, as I become sickened by the mere thought of Crispen. If I ever had feelings for him, they’re completely and irrevocably gone in this instant. I cannot care for someone so heartless. How did I not see the real him in all of the time I spent with him? Demon or not, I could never kill my own niece.
“How can a child hide being a demon for so long?” I ask Terry. “What about his eyes?”
Terry chuckles. “When pure humans see a demon’s eyes, they look like regular human eyes, Megan. As for behavior, demons mature faster than human children. At age eight, Aiden was more mature than many human adults are. Plus, many things like a demon’s special talents don’t appear until they consume their first soul. The need to consume a soul comes after they make their first kill.”
Outside, Aiden looks to be conversing with the hunters, and I have no doubt that Crispen is one of the four. The thought of him being so close to me makes me want to run outside and kick his ass, though I know I wouldn’t even stand a chance.
As my attention wanes, I realize that I’ve missed movement out front. Aiden is no longer facing the four in black. He seems to be missing completely. The front door opens, and he struts into the room tossing a long knife around like it’s not sharp. I know for a fact that it is very, very sharp.
“Megan, get away from the window, please,” he instructs, minor panic on his face when he sees where I’m positioned. It’s more alarm than panic.
“I suggested that she move. She didn’t listen,” Terry informs him quickly. I step back from the window.
“I was right. Crispen is here, and he seems to be here for you and not me this time, though I’m sure he’d like to have us both,” Aiden says and then sighs with frustration. “You’ll be fine as long as you stay inside. I won’t let them past me and into the house. I can promise you that.”
“Master, would you like me to go outside now and fight with my brothers?” Terry asks hopefully, as if he doesn’t like being cooped up in here while they fight for their lives.
Aiden debates this, glancing from me to the door, as if he’s torn between fighting and staying with me. “Yes, please, Terry,” he decides.
How can Aiden stand all of these people fighting for him, risking their lives for him? It pains me to know that the guards are risking their lives for me. I’m not in any way special. My life isn’t worth any more than their own, not by my standards anyway.
“Megan, you need to go into the spare bedroom at the end of the left wing. In the closet is a cellar door. Stay down there, until I come get you when it’s safe. I’m going to make sure that no one gets through the door,” Aiden says in a rush and points in the direction he wants me to go.
“I’m not going anywhere, Aiden. I’m not going to let twenty-five people risk their lives for me. That’s just nuts. I’ll go out there and give myself up,” I say before even thinking about it. It’s the truth. I can’t let these people die for me. Especially not twenty-five of them that’s not even including the servants around here, and surely their lives are also in danger.
Aiden seems almost surprised by my rebuttal, like he didn’t expect me to argue. Of course he didn’t. I never argue with him. I’m pretty sure that I was compelled not to.
“These guards live for this, Megan. This is their life, their duty. They were all assigned to me by head office. If they weren’t assigned to me, then they’d be assigned to someone far more terrible. They train years for this. It’s their life. They choose protecting people like us over being servants. You saw Terry, they all want to do this, they need to do this,” Aiden tries to convince me. I know he’s right. It’s the main purpose for their existence. It is what they live for. It’s why changelings are a thing, why they exist. I’ve read enough about them to know this.
Aiden senses my confusion. “Haven’t you read enough books to know this?” he asks, a small smile peeking through. He’s always making fun of me for reading so much. It’s not my fault that there’s so much to learn. “They will instinctively die for a pure blood without even thinking twice about it. They’re honored to fight and give their lives for us.”
I’m not technically a pure blood, not yet at least, but since I was born with demon blood in my veins, I have the potential to become a pure blood simply by letting go of my soul. Changelings have no demon blood, they just lack a soul, this is what makes them lower than pure bloods and myself.
I have the pure demon gene, but it will remain dormant until I lose my soul. No ritual needs to be done for me. If Aiden ever slipped up and accidentally pulled out my soul, that’d be it for me, I’d be a demon.
Aiden was born without a soul. How unlucky. He never had the choice that I have. I never really thought about this before. I’ve never thought myself lucky for getting a choice.
As I’m wasting time debating all of this stupidly, things outside must get intense because someone dressed in black comes flying right through the front door, just missing Aiden and ramming into a wall, knocking picture frames onto the floor and smashing them. I gasp, and Aiden turns to greet our guest. Holy mother of Jesus.
Mason stands, wiping himself off and pulling a blade from his thigh like it’s nothing. “Christ, what are you feeding them guards, hormones?” Mason spews, spitting out what I presume is dirt, though it could very well be wood from the splintered door, onto the ground.
“Get out of my house, Mason, you’ve only been in here a mere moment, and you’ve managed to destroy the place,” Aiden mutters, sounding bored and annoyed.
“Whaaat? You didn’t miss me?” Mason pokes. “That’s alright, I haven’t missed you much either.” Mason moves impossibly fast, positioning his dagger above Aiden’s head. He’s about to bring it down when Aiden easily kicks his legs out from under him, knocking him to the floor with a bang.
“You know you’re no match for me, Mason,” Aiden groans. Instead of attacking Mason further, he watches him get up.
Mason comes at him again. “That’s the thing though. I can kill you. You can’t kill me. One of these times, you’ll mess up, and it’ll end with your death. It’s just a matter of time.”
“And how do you know that I can’t kill you?” Aiden antagonizes, a slight smirk playing at the corner of his mouth.
“If you could, wouldn’t you have done it by now? You’ve had many chances.” Mason shrugs and comes at Aiden a third time. Aiden steps out of the way quickly.
“Have you ever thought that maybe I don’t want to kill you?” Aiden asks Mason who wears a blank expression. They stare at each other for a second, Mason must be thinking about what Aiden’s said.
“No, because you have no reason to not want to kill me, demon. I’m your enemy.” Mason says this through clenched teeth.
“Why? Because you’re a hunter, and I’m a demon? Remember that time when you fell into the icy pond when you were little and almost drowned? Do you remember who pulled your ass out and saved your life? What about that time you got lost out in the snow, nearly froze to death trying to go visit your girlfriend, who snuck out of the house to find you? I did, Mason, I did. Why would I want to kill you? I have no reason to kill you. Why don’t you understand that?” Aiden begs, sounding tired like he’s had this argument with Mason a million times over. If I had any doubt that they were brothers, it’s now demolished. It makes sense. I can see the love in Aiden’s eyes for Mason. In Mason’s eyes, I see hesitation. It doesn’t last long though, because he lunges at Aiden.
Aiden, if it isn’t obvious, is far faster than Mason and jumps out of the way as if he anticipates his move. If Mason, Crispen, and Aria took down eighteen of Aiden’s guards on their own, yet Mason can’t even lay a hand on Aiden, what does that say about Aiden? He must be one hell of a fighter. Terry was right. I wonder if it runs in the family, knowing that Crispen too is apparently an excellent fighter. Then again, I guess the two of them aren’t really related.
As if on cue, Crispen comes barreling through the door, weapon in hand. I suck in a sharp breath as his blue eyes land on mine. He hesitates a moment before moving his gaze from me. His face morphs into disgust, and he leaps at Aiden at the same time Mason does. I can’t imagine this ending well.
I force myself not to blink, so I don’t miss anything. I look for a weapon, not that I can be much of any help, but I must do something other than stand and watch Aiden get murdered by his crazy brothers.
Faster than I’ve ever seen anyone move, Aiden zips around Mason and pushes him into the wall, causing more pictures to come crashing to the ground. Then, Aiden grabs Crispen by the hair and throws him on top of Mason. Mason groans loudly, and a snarl escapes from Crispen. Aiden’s expression remains blank as if this is just routine.
“Get out of my house, you imbeciles.” Aiden points to where the door used to be.
Crispen jumps up and throws a small silver object at Aiden. Just when I think it’s about to hit him, it stops in midair, and I realize that he’s caught it. Aiden just caught a knife as if it was merely a baseball being tossed to him.
Mason and Crispen share a short look before Mason jumps at Aiden, and Crispen runs towards me. I gasp and stupidly cover my head with my arms. I don’t know what else to do. I don’t have the speed or strength to do anything else. At the moment I expect some sort of impact and nothing comes, I open my eyes to see Crispen on the ground ten feet from me and Aiden on top of him.
“Try to hurt me all you want, Crispen, but you’re not laying a hand on Megan. I won’t allow that,” Aiden fumes. His elbow then collides with Crispen’s forehead, and all I can see is blood. Blood everywhere. Crispen lies still on the ground, completely unmoving. For a second, I wonder if he’s dead, but there’s no way, he must be knocked out.
“He’s just knocked out,” Aiden says, confirming my assumption. He then looks across the room. I follow his gaze to Mason, the same injury on his forehead. “So is he.”
Terry comes into the house covered in blood from head to toe. He looks like some kind of zombie or something. I try not to gag or pass out. “Oh, goodness, master, I wondered where those two went. Good work.” Terry doesn’t look surprised that Aiden took out both Mason and Crispen on his own.
Aiden grabs a paper towel from a table and wipes off his elbow like the blood on it is nothing. “What’s going on out there, do you need a hand?”
“One hunter is down. The male. The female is feisty, and she is knocking our rankings down quickly, sir.”
“Okay, Megan, stay right where you are, don’t move. I’ll be five minutes,” Aiden swears and then runs out the door, passing Terry who takes in the scene inside of the house one more time, looks to me quickly, and then follows Aiden. It took Terry long enough to come check on us. If Aiden wasn’t some sort of ninja, then we’d have been dead by now. I wonder just how full the guard’s hands are outside. How many of them have fallen?
I walk over to where Crispen lies and look at the damage to his head. I dry heave when I see the hole in his skull and can’t imagine him still being able to heal and wake up. I begin to feel dizzy, so I force myself to look away and think about something else.
Aiden stays true to his word. Within five minutes he’s in the house again, Aria slung unconsciously over his shoulder. Terry carries in the fourth attacker, a man who looks to be about thirty with brown hair and a mustache matching in colour.
“Are you okay, Megan?” Aiden asks me gently, like he expects me to snap. Inside I am freaking the hell out.
I nod after a moment of hesitation.
“Terry, can you take them downstairs and lock them up. Make sure you remove all of their weapons first.”
“Yes, sir,” Terry agrees and takes Aria’s limp body from Aiden roughly.
Aiden approaches me slowly. “I am so sorry that you had to see me do that,” he breathes. He keeps his distance from me, and part of me wonders if he thinks I’m afraid of him. Am I? No. He probably just saved my life and his own, Terry’s too and whatever other guards are left standing, if any.
“How many guards didn’t make it?” I wonder out loud, wrapping my arms around myself for comfort.
“Miraculously only five. I don’t know how these two got in here so fast. I think they had a plan in place before attacking, and I don’t think the fourth hunter is very...trained. Not compared to the other three any ways.” I wonder if the fourth man is the family friend Crispen talked about. What was his name? Jayden?
“I’m having Terry lock them up downstairs, until I can decide what to do. I can’t have them attacking us again. It would only take one of them and a second to snap your neck. You’re very delicate as a halfling, Megan. I can’t risk you getting hurt.”
I nod. At least he didn’t kill them. Not that he knows how. It sure doesn’t seem like any of these demons know how to kill a hunter. It seems like they just turn them into demons as an alternative. I’m not too sure about having the three of them ‘locked up’ below my feet, but if he thinks it’s best, then I believe him.
“I can’t believe Crispen is your brother,” I breathe, one hand moving to cover my mouth. “Terry told me.”
“I know, I heard him tell you.” Aiden nods and licks his lips.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well...” he begins. “Like how I didn’t tell you that Crispen killed my daughter, I wasn’t sure how to drop the bomb. My guards and servants are the only ones who know, they’re not really supposed to tell anyone about it either.” I hope I haven’t gotten Terry in trouble. “I move around a lot, but my siblings always seem to find me in time.”
“They actively search you out?”
“Yes, they really want me dead. After they found me last time, and Karly...passed away, I didn’t move again, because she is buried here. I vowed to find a way to cure my siblings of the disease inside of them. By wanting so badly to kill the creatures they hated, they’ve become just like them.” He straightens his hair and removes his bloody shirt. Underneath he wears a black muscle shirt that explains to me why they call muscle shirts what they’re called. He looks like an absolute god. I shudder. It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve come to this conclusion. Every day when we train I have to force myself not to gawk, hell, every time I see him I have to force myself not to stare.
“How do you plan on curing your siblings?” As I ask this, Terry comes bustling into the room to grab Mason and Crispen off the floor. He scoops them up easily and then leaves the room as quick as he entered it.
“Well, the last ten years or so I’ve been looking for an alchemist. They did this to them, surely they can fix it.” Aiden doesn’t look as convinced as he sounds.
“I thought that the alchemists were all killed by demons.”
“They were. Well, let’s be real, there were enough alchemists back in the day that there must be a descendant of one alive today.” Okay, he has a point. “Even if I can find one, it’s unlikely that they’ll know what they are, that they’ll help me, or that they’ll have any idea how to do what they’re meant to do. It’s a long shot, but it’s all that I have.”
“So you’re just going to keep them cooped up in the basement until...” I trail not sure of the answer.
“They seem pretty hell bent on killing you for some reason. I mean, besides the fact that you’re half demon, and you chose living with me over them. I’m keeping them down there until I figure something out. Maybe we’ll have to move and get away from them. It’ll buy us some time,” he offers. I hate to be the reason that he leaves Toronto and his daughter. He tosses his bloody shirt into a garbage can. Apparently he doesn’t think the blood is coming out. Seeing that the shirt is white, he’s probably right.
I look down at my own clothing. Thankfully I am free of blood. “So why haven’t you...turned them into demons or killed them yet?” This is what I don’t understand.
“I’m not about to take away their souls, nor am I about to kill my own siblings. I can’t kill them, because I care too deeply for them, even if they’ve hated me for three hundred years. I helped raise them. I love them, Megan. It might be hard to believe, but demons are capable of love. I am capable of love.” I don’t find this hard to believe at all. I see no reason why a demon can’t love, why Aiden can’t love.
“Okay, what can I do to help?”
