Page 32

Story: Demons of Eden

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

T here’s a loud thump against the window, swiftly followed by another. Hoping it’s nothing, I keep my eyes shut, wanting to keep on napping for a while longer. Sadly for me, my heated body pillow, also known as Torrin, groans and shifts underneath me as a third irritatingly loud thump smacks into the glass.

“No, don’t move,” I whine as he starts to manoeuvre me off from him. It’s so hard to find a comfortable position to sleep in ever since my already sped-up pregnancy got accelerated, and I swear it only gets worse every day.

“Gotta go see…uuuh…stupid noise,” he grumbles around a yawn as he settles me back onto the mattress. “Sorry, baby.”

“Traitor,” I huff sleepily, burying my head into an actual pillow as I shift about trying to get comfortable on my side without him here. Mission impossible.

“Eden.”

Torrin’s concerned tone has me on edge immediately. With the fog of sleep abruptly torn away, I sit up, blinking a few times as I clear my eyes to look over at him. Torrin has pulled back the edge of the curtain, tapped away the sun blackout effect, and is now looking at the window with mild concern.

“What’s going on?” I demand.

“I’m…not quite sure, honestly,” he says, his voice a mixture of confusion and apprehension.

“What do you mean you’re not sure?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure there are a couple of sprites chucking stuff at your window.” Something else hits it then, and whatever it is shatters on impact. “Oh. Looks like they’ve moved on from tossing clumps of dirt to plant pots. It’s a good thing the window’s spelled or we’d have a lot of glass to clean up.”

“Fucking field sprites!” I curse, reaching out my hands and waving them at Torrin in an obvious request for help getting up quickly. “They’ve always hated me, but they stopped bugging me when I gave up going out into the fields to help plant stuff. I’ve learnt my lesson, I swear! Whatever it is, it wasn’t me!”

“I think they want our attention,” he replies while helping me stand.

“Well, they’ve definitely fucking got it.” I stomp over to the window, flicking off the locks and roughly pushing it open. “The hell do you bullies want?” I yell out, stumbling back into Torrin’s arms when one of them zooms straight in through the opening.

It circles the room in a flutter of green, making a piercing screech, leaving a scattering of tiny bits of dirt and leaves all over the floor and bed. I’m about to yell again when I realise the root-like strands that grow from its head are all stuck up, in an obvious sign of distress.

The door slams open, Ash, followed by Daion and then Rio, all rushing in and scanning for danger, pausing with the same confusion we’re feeling when they see the cause of the commotion.

“Is that?—”

“A screaming field sprite?” I finish for Rio, who seems to be the most disturbed by the scene they’ve walked into. “Yes, it is.”

“Why is it screaming?” Daion questions. “Aren’t they supposed to be calm creatures? Growing plants, eating bugs, maybe chasing some butterflies?”

“It hasn’t exactly stopped long enough for us to ask,” Torrin replies, and as if just to spite him, the sprite immediately falls silent.

It flutters over to land on my old desk and stares unnervingly at me; their too-big-for-its-face eyes are as buglike as I remember them being. Its long, thin ears are just as oversized for their roughly twelve-inch height and are twitching with blatant displeasure. Despite being almost entirely naked, barring the small blue cloth tied about their waist, it’s impossible to tell their gender thanks to all sprites looking fairly similar regardless of their sex.

“What’s the problem?” I demand, hoping that this one can speak English.

“Intruders!” It screeches in a high-pitched voice, confirming it can, all while pointing its sharp nails at me in a threatening-looking gesture.

“Look, I know you all hate me. The dirt thrown in my hair and digging up practically everything I ever planted made that pretty clear,” I reply with a roll of my eyes, way too grumpy for this shit. “But this is my family’s house. I am not an intruder.”

“Are you sure they’re talking about you?” Ash asks, taking me by surprise. “They’re normally very loyal to the families who share their lands with them. They also find our tongues quite challenging, so I doubt it would waste its effort speaking to an intruder rather than trying to scare them off directly.”

“It’s pointing right at me,” I reply with a shrug, wondering when a sex demon had become an expert on sprites, considering most are known to only share space with witches or with their distant fae cousins. “What else am I supposed to assume?”

The sprite hisses, baring its sharp little teeth, before throwing itself back into the air and right at my face. Thankfully, it stops before collision, although only inches away. I glance around, noticing all of the guys have moved closer, only stopping when the sprite did.

“Intruders!” they repeat insistently in the same high, screechy voice. “Intruders…in f-fields!”

“What about the outer barrier?” Torrin demands, stepping closer.

The sprite turns to hiss at him, like it’s trying to warn him off now too. Yet it quickly swivels back to me, grabbing a strand of my hair and tugging on it. “Intruders! Intruders!”

“Ow!” I object, trying to detangle myself from its grip on my hair. However, it’s very insistent, and my brother and parents would kill me if I swat at it and accidentally hurt them by mistake. “A little help here would be nice, oh fierce defenders?” I call in a sarcastic voice when none of the guys intervene.

“I think we might have bigger problems than the sprite trying to lead you to safety,” Ash says, his voice coming from over by the window now.

“It’s doing what?” Why the hell would a field sprite want to lead me to safety?

“You’re a part of the family it lives with. I’m guessing this clan of sprites has been here for a long time?”

“I think they’re the same ones that lived here with my grandparents before they passed the house onto my parents,” I answer with a shrug, not really seeing the relevance.

“Then they likely consider your family as an extended part of that clan. When under attack, their instinct is to lead all children and those who are pregnant to a safe burrow.”

“You know a lot about sprites,” Rio comments, voicing the same thought I’d had.

“Sprites don’t have the same distaste for demons that most witches do,” Ash replies dryly. “The more important issue is that the sprites consider the land under attack. We should check on the barrier immediately. I haven’t felt it fall, and it still seems as if it’s in place, but I’m certain they wouldn’t act this way for nothing.”

“Where’s my brother?” I question, slowly beginning to panic. The last I’d seen him was around lunch. “And Suvi and Kit, too?”

“He and Kit are out in one of the fields. Planting stuff, I think. Suvi was attempting to cleanse one of the guest rooms into an acceptable birthing space,” Daion answers.

“Go get her,” I tell him before focusing back on the sprite who has given up attempting to drag me by my hair and is now just fluttering in the air beside me looking pissed at my noncompliance. “Did you see them out there?” I demand.

“Intruders?” it says, more questioningly this time, head tilting.

“No. Have you seen Forrest and Kit? Are they in danger?”

It hisses again. Less aggressively than before, I think.

“I don’t know what that means.” I rub my forehead with my fingers, both stressed and frustrated.

“If I may,” Ash says gently, pulling me into his side as he places himself between me and the disgruntled sprite. “Sssshhhtsssskahh witch, kksss fox-man?”

“You speak fucking field sprite?” I stare at my demon in disbelief, wondering what insane dimension I've slipped into this time.

“It’s actually the language of southern hemisphere water sprites, but I’m hoping?—”

“Ssssshtissssk!” the sprite exclaims, interrupting him. Ash holds out his hand, and it lands delicately on his palm, its green skin seeming to brighten considerably as it continues to ramble on unintelligibly at him in a mixture of hisses and clicks. It’s all incomprehensible to my ears, anyway.

“She says your brother and his husband are by the barrier, and that they’re arguing with a large group of invaders. Apparently the invaders also trampled on some of her favourite plants in the fields that lie outside of the barrier,” Ash helpfully translates once the sprite has finished speaking.

“You’re talking about plants when there’s, what I presume is, a very angry mob of witches that are here to kill me?” I slip out from his one-armed embrace to look up at him incredulously.

“She was very insistent that I pass on that part too.” Ash shrugs, giving me a charming smile despite the obvious tension in his body. It’s mirrored by everyone else in the room, their concern for the situation obvious despite their attempts to appear calm.

“I’m sure she was. Well, tell her that I don’t need to go ‘hide in the burrow’ because I’m going out there to make sure my brother is okay.”

“We can do that,” Rio objects, gesturing to himself and Torrin. “You should stay here with Ash and the sprite.”

“Not a fucking chance. It’s my fault they’re here, and you’re high if you think I’d leave Forrest to take care of it alone.”

“He’ll be fine behind the barrier,” Torrin argues, trying to sway me into staying put.

“Well, if it’s so safe behind the barrier, there’s no reason I can’t go out there with you all, is there?” I argue right back, then I start moving out of the room before any of them can think of a better justification to use in order to keep me here.

I understand their need to protect me, but that means they should understand my need to protect them, too. What if I do nothing, and my brother is hurt, or worse? Or if I let Rio and Torrin go out there without me, and one of them is harmed instead? No fucking way.

We protect each other.

I’ll have to bring this up once this is dealt with. New rule: we all protect each other, and no one gets left behind, or else.