My Personal Trainer is a Demon (Demons for Hire)

Chapter Seven

Lily

The frantic pounding on my front door startled me awake. I bolted upright, heart racing, my bedside clock glaring 11:47 PM in angry red digits. Who could possibly be at my door at this hour?

I stumbled out of bed, still groggy from dreams filled with Damian—his touch, his lips, the way he'd held me after we'd made love at the gym. The memory sent a flush of warmth through me despite my irritation at being woken.

The pounding continued. "Lily! Open up!" Maya's voice, high and panicked, filtered through the door.

I rushed to unlock it, worry replacing my annoyance. Maya nearly fell into my apartment, her face pale, eyes wide with something that looked disturbingly like fear.

"Maya? What's wrong?" I guided her to my couch. She was trembling, her normally perfect makeup smudged beneath her eyes.

"It's Damian," she gasped, still trying to catch her breath. "There's something... not right about him."

My stomach clenched. I'd had my suspicions for weeks—little things that didn't quite add up, moments when something ancient and unfamiliar flickered in his eyes, instances when the air around him seemed charged with an energy I couldn't explain.

"What happened?" I kept my voice steady, though my pulse had accelerated.

"I forgot my phone at the gym," Maya said, her voice steadying slightly as she recounted her story. "When I went back to get it, I saw him in the locker room. He was just... standing there, and his eyes—" She shuddered. "They were glowing, Lily. Actually glowing. And then the lights started flickering, and this mirror cracked. It just split right down the middle, and he never even touched it."

I sat back, processing her words while trying to maintain a calm exterior. "Maya, it was late, you were probably tired after your session with Tasha. Those workouts can be brutal. Maybe you were dehydrated or—"

"Don't." She cut me off with uncharacteristic sharpness. "Don't try to explain this away. I know what I saw. There's something weird going on with him."

I sighed, running a hand through my sleep-tousled hair. "Okay. Let's say something strange happened. Why come to me at midnight instead of calling?"

"Because you've gotten so close to him!" The words burst out of her. "You're at that gym all the time, he's your trainer, and you talk about him constantly. And whatever he is, you need to be careful."

The concern in her voice was genuine. I hadn't told Maya about the shift in my relationship with Damian—about our moment of passion at the gym just hours ago. It was too new, too intense, too confusing even to myself. But her worry for me was touching, even if she didn't know the full extent of my connection to him.

"I'm not in danger, Maya." The words felt hollow even as I spoke them.

She gripped my hands, her eyes searching mine. "How can you be sure? The way that mirror cracked... it wasn't natural, Lily. And the look on his face when he saw me—like he'd been caught doing something forbidden."

My stomach dropped. I knew it. My hunches had been right—there was something strange about Damian, something that went beyond his mysterious past and the way he seemed to understand my deepest insecurities before I voiced them. And I was going to find out exactly what it was.

"I'll talk to him," I promised, squeezing her hands reassuringly. "First thing tomorrow."

Maya looked unconvinced but nodded. "Just... be careful, okay? There's something not human about the way he looked tonight."

Not human . The phrase echoed in my mind long after I'd calmed Maya down, wished her goodnight, and returned to my restless bed. It shouldn't have made sense, yet somehow it did—a missing puzzle piece that explained all the little inconsistencies I'd noticed about Damian from the beginning.

Sleep eluded me for the rest of the night. By morning, determination had replaced confusion. I needed answers, and I needed them now.

VitalityFit was quiet when I pushed through the doors at 5 AM, still an hour before the first private training clients would arrive. I knew Damian would be here—he always came early to prepare for the day, to enjoy the solitude before the gym filled with people seeking transformation.

I found him in his office, bent over his laptop. He looked up when I entered, surprise and something like relief washing over his features.

"Lily." My name on his lips still sent a shiver through me, even now. "I wasn't expecting you this early."

"We need to talk." My voice was steadier than I felt. "Not here. Somewhere private."

Concern darkened his eyes. "Did Maya speak with you?"

The confirmation that he knew why I was here only strengthened my resolve. "Yes. And you're going to explain to me what she saw."

He held my gaze for a long moment before nodding. "Not here," he agreed, rising from his desk. "Follow me."

I trailed him through the gym, past the weights where we'd first met, past the aerobics room where he'd guided me through my first brutal HIIT session, past the private training area and massage room where, just days ago, we'd crossed the line from trainer and client to something far more intimate. Instead of stopping at any of these familiar places, he led me out the back door into the alley behind the building.

The morning air was crisp, the alley quiet except for distant traffic. Damian paced a few steps away, then turned to face me. In the unforgiving morning light, he looked both devastatingly handsome and utterly foreign—like someone I knew intimately and not at all.

"Maya saw something last night," I began, needing to break the tense silence. "Something about you that frightened her. She said your eyes were glowing, that you broke a mirror without touching it."

Damian didn't deny it. He simply watched me, his expression guarded but resigned, as if he'd known this moment would come.

"What are you?" I asked finally, the question that had been building in me for weeks.

He exhaled slowly.

"I'm a demon." He spoke the words matter-of-factly, as if stating his occupation or hometown. "I was sent here to harvest human emotions, particularly negative ones. Fear, insecurity, jealousy, ambition gone sour—they're all energy to my kind, sustenance that keeps us strong."

"A demon." I repeated the word, testing it for believability. It should have sounded ridiculous—the stuff of horror movies and Halloween costumes. Yet somehow, it fit. "You came here to... feed on people's emotions?"

"Yes. I've been doing it for centuries." He took a step closer, his movements careful, as if afraid I might bolt. "But something changed when I met you."

"Me?" My voice cracked slightly. "What does this have to do with me?"

"You were supposed to be my next... target." The admission clearly pained him. "Your initial fear about your job, your ambition to change yourself—they were perfect for me to manipulate, to enhance until they became a feast." His eyes held mine, intense and apologetic. "But instead, I started caring about you. Wanting to help you. And last night, when we..."

"Slept together," I finished for him, the memory vivid despite this surreal conversation.

He nodded. "It changed something in me. Fundamentally. My powers have been unstable ever since I met you, but what happened between us last night broke something open in me. I think it may have been my heart."

I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to process everything. A demon. I'd fallen for a demon who had initially targeted me as a source of emotional food. It was absurd, horrifying, and yet—I couldn't deny the connection between us, the way my body still responded to his nearness despite everything he'd just revealed.

"Why tell me now?" I asked.

"Because I can't lie to you anymore. Not after what we've shared." He ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in the gesture. "And because Maya saw something she shouldn't have. I knew she'd tell you, and I wanted you to hear the truth from me."

"The truth." I laughed, the sound hollow. "That you're a literal demon who came here to feed on my insecurities, but oops, you developed feelings instead? How am I supposed to believe that?"

In response, Damian closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, they glowed with an unearthly light—not the warm brown I'd come to know, but a luminous amber that seemed to burn from within. The air around us charged with electricity, making the hairs on my arms stand up. A nearby dumpster lid slammed shut though there was no wind.

I gasped, taking an involuntary step back.

The glow faded, his eyes returning to normal. "I've never revealed myself to a human before," he said quietly. "Not in six centuries of existence."

Disbelief, betrayal, and an undeniable pull warred inside me. Despite everything—the lies, the manipulation, the revelation that he wasn't human—I still wanted him. Needed him. In ways I couldn't ignore or explain.

"What happens now?" I asked, voice barely above a whisper.

Before he could answer, a familiar voice called from the end of the alley. "Lily? Is everything alright?"

Harrison Slagle stood at the entrance to the alley, concern etched on his face. What was he doing here?

"Harrison?" I called back, confusion momentarily replacing my shock at Damian's revelation.

Harrison approached, his eyes flicking between me and Damian with unusual intensity. He'd been hanging around VitalityFit for weeks, always watching, always asking questions that seemed oddly specific. Now, the calculating look in his eyes suggested something entirely different.

"I thought I might find you two here," he said, his voice unnervingly calm. "I've been waiting for this confrontation." His gaze hardened as it settled on Damian. "I've been meaning to have a chat with Mr. Strong here for quite some time."

Damian's posture stiffened beside me. "You know," he said. It wasn't a question.

Harrison nodded, a satisfied smile spreading across his face. "I've suspected what you are since the first day I walked into your gym. The energy signature was unmistakable." He glanced at me. “I've been tracking unusual activity in Sweetberry Hollow for months."

"Unusual activity?" I echoed, feeling like the ground beneath my feet had turned to quicksand. "You mean Damian?"

"Among other things." Harrison's attention returned to Damian. "Demons don't typically settle in small towns and open fitness centers unless they're harvesting something. I've been watching you, trying to figure out your angle."

I looked between them, struggling to process this new development. Had I been living in an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" without realizing it?

"He was feeding on emotions," I said, finding my voice. "He just told me. That's why he came to Sweetberry Hollow."

Harrison nodded, unsurprised. "Emotional energy is potent fuel for his kind. But something changed, didn't it, Strong? Your aura has been shifting. I've been watching it happen on the sensors I hid in the gym when I dropped in."

Damian tensed beside me. "I stopped targeting Lily. I couldn't... I didn't want to hurt her anymore."

"Harrison," I interrupted, stepping forward. "What exactly are you planning to do? Because Damian just told me everything, and I—" I hesitated, the truth of what I was about to say hitting me with unexpected clarity. "To be perfectly honest, I'm falling in love with him."

Damian's head whipped toward me, shock written across his features. "You are?" His voice was barely audible. "Do you really mean that?"

Despite everything, I found that I did. The realization should have terrified me, but instead, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

"Yes," I said, meeting his eyes. "I do."

His eyes grew watery, and he nodded, wrapping his arms around me with a gentleness that belied his supernatural strength. "I'm pretty sure I'm falling in love with you too," he whispered against my hair. "I've never felt anything like this in six hundred years."

Harrison watched this exchange with keen interest, his expression shifting from wariness to something like scientific fascination. "If you're falling in love, Damian, you may not be entirely demonic anymore."

Damian pulled back slightly, looking surprised. "What do you mean?"

"True demons are incapable of genuine love," Harrison explained, pulling a small notebook from his jacket pocket, and jotting something down. "It's one of the fundamental laws of supernatural entities. If you're experiencing real love—not just possessiveness or obsession, but actual selfless love—then something in your essence is changing."

Damian considered this, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. "I never considered that possibility, but... it would explain a lot. I don't have the appetite anymore to manipulate humans or feed off their suffering. Instead, I want to help support them to become their best selves, whatever that means." His brow furrowed. "I'm not sure how to handle Marcellus though, my boss who reports to the demonic realm. If he discovers I've gone rogue..."

Harrison's face broke into an unexpected grin. "I can help with that. In my line of work, you make useful connections. I know a qualified witch with excellent credentials who can send Marcellus back to the place he came from with a good crystal or two." He tucked his notebook away. "The real question is, are you prepared to step in as the new legitimate owner of VitalityFit? No more demonic business model?"

Damian laughed, the sound relaxed and genuine in a way I'd never heard before. "Only if Lily approves."

They both turned to me, and I felt a smile spread across my face despite the absurdity of the situation. "I do approve. Very much."

Damian's relief was palpable. "Thank you, Harrison. How can I repay you for your help?"

Harrison laughed and shrugged. "By offering me a free gym membership. It's really time I do something about these noodle arms."

We all laughed, the tension of the morning dissolving into something lighter, filled with possibility. After Harrison left, promising to return later to discuss "protective countermeasures,” Damian turned to me, his expression serious once more.

"Are you really okay with all of this? With what I am? Or what I used to be?"

I took a moment to truly consider his question. The man before me had entered my life with the intention of manipulating my insecurities for his own gain. And yet, he'd stopped. He'd chosen connection over consumption, vulnerability over power. Whatever he'd been when he arrived in Sweetberry Hollow, he was something different now—something evolving, becoming more than the sum of his demonic nature.

"I'm not saying it's going to be easy," I admitted, taking his hands in mine. "Finding out your boyfriend is literally from hell is a lot to process. But I've spent my whole life playing it safe, doing what was expected, never taking risks." I smiled up at him. "Maybe it's time I embrace a little supernatural adventure. I think we all have a little demon in us, after all."

Relief and joy washed over his features. He pulled me close, his lips finding mine in a kiss that felt like a promise. When we finally broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine.

"We just have to choose to use our powers for good. And have a little faith,” he murmured.

"To new beginnings," I whispered, feeling strangely at peace despite the extraordinary revelations of the morning.

Whatever came next—vengeful demon bosses, spiritual transformations, or just the ordinary challenges of a relationship—we would face it together. Me, a girl determined to find her way, and him, a centuries-old demon, doing the same thing.

It wasn't the future I'd imagined when I first walked into VitalityFit seeking physical transformation. It was infinitely stranger, wilder, and more wonderful. And I wouldn't change it for anything.