My Demon Heart
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS UNEDITED AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE!
CHAPTER 1
For the first time in Kian’s life he had friends and he couldn’t even say goodbye to them. It wasn’t fair, but that had been the story of his life. He might as well come to grips that nothing was going to change for him. From this moment on, his life would be decided by a bunch of demons, who most likely hated him.
He might not be able to change her situation without risking his and Alec’s life, but this time he was going to fight back. No more meekly accepting his lot in life.
“Kian.” Alec’s voice brought him back to what he was doing - packing. It was getting late. If they didn’t leave soon they would never make it by midnight. “If there was any other way I would gladly do it.” The pain in Alec’s voice broke his heart.
He’d kept his distance from Kian since he’d agreed to move to Tuklati. Even though a part of Kian hated that Alec was blaming himself for everything he couldn’t deny a part of him wanted Alec to feel guilty. Kian may have been just as culpable in the actions that led them to this point, but Alec had known the consequences, Kian hadn’t.
He’d closed the suitcase Kavi had bought him in their freshman year since his growing wardrobe – thanks to Kavi – wouldn’t fit in the tiny suitcase Kian had. Alec instantly picked up without being asked. Kian looked into the emerald eyes that he loved so much and smiled. He might hate the circumstances that led them to this point, but Kian had to admit he’d have followed Alec anywhere.
“This isn’t your fault,” Kian told him as he cupped one of Alec’s cheeks. “We will find a way to make it work, he assured Alec. “But that doesn’t mean this isn’t difficult.”
It wasn’t exactly an explanation of why he hadn’t been able to talk to him the past couple of hours, but it was the best he could do. How did one accept living in a foreign place with a race he hadn’t even known existed until a few weeks ago? Kian was about to find out.
Alec gave him a nod but his expression said he didn’t believe Kian. “I’ll be in the car.”
Kian glanced around the room, making sure he hadn’t left anything behind. He’d left a note for his friends but it was fairly lame since he couldn’t exactly explain much. It wasn’t as if he could tell them he was going into the mountains to live with a bunch of demons so they wouldn’t kill him.
Alec drove the car as close to the entrance of Tuklati as possible. Tarak was there, waiting to take the car into a nearby town so no one noticed it in the middle of nowhere. They still had to hike for thirty minutes, which didn’t seem to faze Kian in the least. Then again, considering how angry he was, the exertion was hopefully going to calm him down before he entered Tuklati.
The last thing Alec needed was to have to Kian start challenging everyone he met. He would fight them all for Kian, but it wouldn’t be his first choice.
When he finally stopped in front of a rock face three-quarters up the mountain, Kian was breathing heavily. Better. Instead of looking ready to punch the first demon he encountered, fatigue had him leaning up against a nearby tree. Alec hoped that was a good sign that he’d be too tired to start any fights.
“We’re here,” he told Kian, a little excited to be able to show him his world.
Kian glanced around in confusion. “Where?”
With a wave of his hand, the rocks separated forming an archway. Alec held out his hand to him. Kian stared at the opening with his mouth open and eyes as wide as saucers. Without any hesitation he took his hand and followed him through the opening.
He felt Kian’s panic as the rocks closed behind them. Alec pulled him into his arms. “I’ve got you. I swear I’ll protect you,” he promised.
“I-I’m o-okay,” Kian stuttered before taking a deep breath. “It’s just, that was it. My last moment of freedom.”
Alec wanted to bellow out his rage at forcing Kian into this situation. He was mad at the world, the Council, his father, but most of all himself. He should have gone home the moment he met Kian. “You know it took less than a heartbeat to fall in love with you that first day.”
Alec hadn’t meant to say that, but he found it impossible to keep it inside any longer. “I knew, even then, that I wouldn’t be able to leave your side. I never should have stayed there. I’m so sorry, Kian.”
Lips touched his in a gentle kiss. He hadn’t expected it. He was sure Kian would never want to kiss him again after everything that had happened.
Inhaling deeply, Kian slowly exhaled before pasting a fake smile on his face. Alec appreciated the effort, but he could see through it all. Squaring his shoulders as if about to go into battle, Kian said, “Now it’s time to show me my new home.”
Damn, but Alec loved him. Kian had more strength than he gave himself credit for. If the Council knew what was good for them, they’d stay as far from Kian as possible. For he was certain none of their abilities would hold a candle to Kian’s sheer determination to make them pay for their decision to force them to live there.
Too many emotions swirled around in Kian, especially the moment the entrance closed behind him. There was a sense of finality to it that terrified him. He’d tried to explain it to Alec, but Kian didn’t think he truly understood. What was he saying? He was fairly sure he truly hadn’t realized just how deeply it affected him.
It had been like that with each foster home he’d entered. A sense of doom, or helplessness would overwhelm Kian, leaving him shaken to the core. It was like that but a million times worse, but he refused to allow it to consume him.
Yes, he had been forced to live there, but he’d be damned if the Council would take his spirit. Kian wasn’t going to change for these people. He was done trying to please others. If they had a problem with that, too bad. Now Kian needed to figure out who he was.
College was supposed to have been where he figured that out, but that hadn’t happened. He’d wasted her time there letting his friends dictating his life.
One more deep breath later and Kian followed Alec to his new home. The passageway was quite large, easily fitting six or seven people across. Reaching out he was stunned – the entire rock surface was perfectly smooth, like marble. Some sort of lights appeared to be buried into the rock face, lighting the way.
“You have lights?” Hearing Alec sigh, Kian realized how insulting that had sounded. He hadn’t meant to be so condescending but they were living inside a mountain. Electricity wasn’t exactly a given.
“Yes.” That one word said everything Alec was feeling about the question. “We have electricity, running water, we even brush our teeth,” he said sarcastically
Okay, so maybe Kian could have phrased her question better, but it wasn’t as if he’d asked if they bathed or knew how to use utensils. “Where do you get the electricity?” he asked instead of making the snarky comments he was thinking in his head.
“What?”
“The e-lec-tri-city?” he said slowly, as if Alec were too stupid to understand her. It wasn’t his fault he misconstrued what he’d meant and wasn’t able to follow along.
Kian waved a hand toward the lighting along the tunnel and insulted him further. “You know? The thing that makes the lights work.” Yeah, Kian knew it wasn’t exactly fair to treat him that way, but he was still upset having his hand forced to leave college just before he would have graduated.
Alec just stood there staring at him.
Kian sighed at the confused look. Apparently, he would need to spell it out. “Alec, how do you get electricity if the human world doesn’t even know this place exists?”
A blush fanned over his cheeks when he finally caught on to what Kian meant. “Actually we produce our own electricity.”
Dumbfounded at his answer, now he just stood there looking at him.
Alec lifted his hand and a blue streak of electricity arced between his fingers.
Kian was sure his eyes were ready to pop out her head. That was amazing, but it also caused the reality of his situation to hit home. He may still be on earth, but Kian was in a totally alien environment.
Then, just when he thought nothing else could surprise him, they reached the end of the tunnel. Stunned, he stood there not sure what to think.
The cavern was enormous. The entire city of Knoxville could easily fit inside it. Coming out of the tunnel, they found themselves on a walkway that went around the outer rim of the area, leaving the middle empty to look down upon. They were standing on the uppermost floor, although the top of the cavern had to go up another 200 feet.
Below them the floors came in slightly into the opening, creating a beehive effect as he looked down. Stairways arced between floors along the edges in several directions as the top floor had to have been at least several miles across, which would have made it a pain to walk all the way around. Alec led her closer to the railing and for a moment, Kian had to take a deep calming breath as he looked straight down into what almost seemed like a bottomless pit.
His stomach rolled and his vision blurred as he tried to acclimate to the sheer drop if he fell. Kian’s hands curled around the railing, praying it would hold him if he lost his footing and started to fall.
Thankfully, it only took a few moments to get his equilibrium back and be able to take in it all in. “This is Tuklati. It is our largest city in these mountains. This would be equivalent to your Washington D.C. The Demon Council meets here. The main office of the Sentinels is also here,” Alec told him.
Finally, able to really focus, Kian felt his jaw drop open. Then he blinked, sure he was seeing things. There was no way any of this could be real. Was this some sort of dream? Instantly he’d dismissed that idea as his imagination had never been that good to create any of it.
People were leaping from one floor to the next as naturally as if they were moving up a step. Some disappeared in haze of dust to reappear on another level. Others kind of floated up or down, as if they were on some sort of invisible elevator.
None of it made any sense to his already overwhelmed brain. If anything it was like being in one of those sci-fi movies, except it wasn’t. Was it?
There were a million questions racing through him but the anger at being forced to live there stopped him from asking – for now. “So, where is my prison?” Kian cringed at the words that left his mouth but he couldn’t seem to stop the words from leaving his mouth.
Alec’s face dropped. The pain of what he was forcing Kian to do, flashed in his eyes. Guilt ate away at his resolve to be angry, but without those responsible for forcing this upon him available, Alec was the only one he could take it out on.
Alec pointed down into the cavern. “Four levels down. It’s where many of the Sentinels are housed.”
In complete silence they descended the stairs. It was killing Kian to remain silent when he had so many questions. All of Tuklati seemed an impossibility. The buildings he saw as they reached each of the levels were perfectly carved out of stone. They even had doors and windows. Except, he was fairly certain from what he remembered Alec telling her about the history of this city, glass windows hadn’t existed when they’d built it.
If Kian hadn’t known all the people milling about were demons, he would have never known as they looked as human as he did. The only real difference was their ability to move from floor to floor without using the stairs. They’d been there at least ten minutes and Kian had only seen two people actually walk up the steps.
If they were all demons, shouldn’t they be, well, different? Alec appeared human but he hadn’t expected them to act like humans too. If Tuklati weren’t in a mountain, Kian would believe it was just another normal town.
By the time they’d reached the fifteenth level his eyes had nearly bugged out of his head. It was like the entire level was a shopping mall, complete with clothing stores and a… Kian’s mind reeled. “You have a Starbucks?” he asked, unable to remain silent a moment longer.
“Of course we have Starbucks,” a beautiful woman said with a laugh. “Just because we live in a cave doesn’t mean we act like it.”
Her smile as she approached Kian and Alec let Kian know no offense had been taken at the question. Her skin was flawless and reminded Kian of rich cocoa. Her dark eyes were accentuated by eyeliner, making them appear even darker.
Her long black hair softly billowed out around her as she floated up to them from one of the lower levels until she was standing in front of Kian. Any model would have been jealous of her perfect form, but her laidback smile had put Kian at ease immediately.
The stranger gave Alec an enthusiastic hug and to Kian’s surprise, he hugged her back just as happily. Hatred flared inside Kian as she watched him with the beautiful creature.
Laughing, Alec, finally pulled away turning to Kian. “Kian this is my half-sister, Aira.”
The tension he’d been feeling, left Kian with those words.
Aira held out her hand, a warm smile to greet Kian. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
A little awe-struck, Kian’s hand automatically went out. “Aira, that’s a pretty name.”
Teeth flashed pearly white as she smiled. “Thank you. It means water. I hope we will become good friends during your stay here.”
A twinge of irritation at the reminder of his imprisonment surfaced. “So where is my prison?”
“My house.” There was no argument in Alec’s voice. His body was rigid as if he were bracing himself for a fight.
Trying to lighten the mood a little, Aira linked her arm through Kian’s, leading him toward their living quarters. “Actually you’ll be staying with both of us.” Glancing over her shoulder she threw a challenging look back at Alec. “I’ll be your…” She hesitated a moment before finishing with a shrug. “Companion.”
“Let me get this right. The Council has forced me to come live here because I’m a threat but they felt the need to provide a with a friend?” The irony started him laughing. “That’s rich.”
Aira didn’t see the humor. Her voice was serious as she replied. “The Council wasn’t the one to insist on it.”
“Then who did?”
“I did.” Alec’s voice was grim as he said those two words.
Curious, Kian asked, “But why?”
Alec refused to answer but Aira had no such trouble. As she linked her arm with Kian’s like they were best friends, Aira whispered loudly enough for Alec to easily hear, “He’s a sentinel and can’t be home all the time. He’s afraid to leave you alone and vulnerable.”