25. Diablos
Chapter twenty-five
Diablos
The ground beneath my feet shook. I didn’t know what was happening, but as I was about to grab Dagon’s hand, I froze mid-step. What was happening in front of me couldn’t possibly be real. All rational thoughts left me, and my breath caught in my throat.
Dagon stood mere feet from me, but I knew it wasn’t Dagon, not the human I used to know. The ground kept shaking, and I grabbed the car’s hood for support. Dagon’s body was tense, his posture exuding immeasurable power and nothing else.
Dagon spread his feet and said something in a language I didn’t understand. A black mist started swirling around him. Slowly, the mist revealed horns on his head.
HORNS!
They were bigger than my hands, pointing up and slightly curved toward his back. Their color was black, with lines that glistened in dark purple. He said something else, and in the next moment, wings spread from his back, obsidian black wings with feathers that had purple streaks too.
Dagon’s voice carried over me like a warm embrace.
Even when I couldn’t understand what he was saying, his voice elicited goosebumps and brought forward a feeling of safety.
It was like a powerful, protective caress all around me.
It didn’t sound like his usual voice. It was deeper, more high-pitched, and colder.
I was too busy gawking at Dagon with my mind fried and my jaw hanging open, to see one of the demons coming my way.
Dagon let out a feral roar that made me flinch.
He crashed into the demon, sending him flying into the building next to us.
They were a blur of limbs, and before I knew it, the demon who tried to attack me burst into flames and disappeared before my eyes.
Dagon turned to me. In a flash, everything else ceased to exist. His horns, wings, and eyes, now dark purple, captivated me and rendered me immobile.
Something in my gut twisted, whether from fear or something else I couldn’t pinpoint.
But I knew, I fucking knew, it wasn’t fear of my Dagon.
And yes, this was my Dagon. The one I knew. Even if the form had changed.
Dagon’s torso was on display since his wings had torn through his shirt. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
He was a demon.
My Dagon was a demon.
He looked toward the other demons and then back to me.
He said something in that strange language, and out of nowhere, something appeared.
It looked like a little dragon. It was as big as one of the smallest dogs and had black-blue-purple coloring.
Only its feet and the tips of its wings were fully black.
The three colors blended together to create something unique.
This thing wrapped around Dagon's shoulders. I was pretty sure Dagon spoke to it.
I blinked, and the little creature was at my feet. I jumped and almost screamed, but there was no time for that. Dagon was heading toward the demons. They said something in that foreign language and hissed as he got closer. Only one of them had wings. The other ones had horns. And one had a tail.
In the name of all of my books, what the fuck was happening?
The demons stormed towards Dagon simultaneously, and all the air left my lungs. I was sure my heart was going to explode. Five against one? How would Dagon beat five demons?
One of the demons crashed into Dagon. They were all a blur of messy movement, bodies colliding, grunts, and growls. The only sound that was clear was the sound of the fight.
The clash was nothing like a fight from any movie I'd ever seen.
There was no choreography. No pauses for dramatic effect.
It was real – bodies moving faster than my eyes could track, the wet sound of impact, a snarl that rattled the windows of the closest building, a demon's wing folding wrong as Dagon's elbow connected with the joint.
The demon who'd been smirking earlier wasn't smirking anymore.
Then I saw it, the moment one of them got a good look at Dagon's face. The demon's expression shifted. Not from cocky but to scared. From cocky to recognition. Like he'd just opened a door he expected to be empty and found something looking back at him.
He shouted something to the others in that language I didn't understand. The pitch of it was sharp. Urgent. A warning.
Whatever he said, they fought differently after that. Frantic. Coordinated. Like they suddenly understood they were not fighting one of their own kind. They were fighting something above their own kind.
Too late. They had already attacked.
I tried to step toward the fight.
Did he have a chance against five demons? I couldn't just stand here and watching him risk his life.
But the little dragon blocked my path. I was glued to the ground, watching in horror as the scene unfolded before me.
The sky turned damnation-black. The air thickened with a vile smell. The hair on my neck stood up. Call it mortal-danger-intuition, but I was sure one of the demons was doing something. A guttural scream tore from one of the demons as he disintegrated to dust in a matter of seconds.
A spine-chilling sensation overtook my entire body when one of the demons plunged a knife into Dagon’s stomach.
“Dagon!” I screamed.
The horror of what was happening and the desperation of being unable to reach Dagon and help him was more painful than anything I’d ever known.
I screamed again, trying my hardest to free myself from that damn thing, kicking it even when I didn’t want to.
It didn’t budge. I thrashed around and tried again, but it wasn't working.
Dagon kept fighting, but I saw him get stabbed.
I saw blood flowing from his stomach. I was horrified, my heart pounding like crazy. If something happened to Dagon…
My vision blurred for a moment. When I regained focus, only two demons remained.
Dagon's fingers closed around something. The demon's scream cut off mid-pitch as Dagon ripped his hand back out… and a heart, still beating, still steaming in the cold air, came with it. The demon fell to the ground like a weightless leaf. The other one tried to run, but Dagon went after him.
I felt the presence of a demon next to me before I saw him. I turned just in time to see something sharp flying straight toward my heart. The little dragon knocked me down, and I fell to the ground. The sharp object still managed to cut my left arm, but it was only a scratch.
Everything that followed happened too fast.
The little thing, which now wasn’t little at all, let out a sound I imagined dinosaurs must have made.
From its mouth burst blue fire. The demon tried to attack me, but before he could, flames enveloped him.
The demon screamed in agony as he burned for several seconds before vanishing into thin air.
A guttural sound left the demon Dagon had been fighting, and I turned with dread running through my veins. But I realized Dagon was flying my way. It was a sound that he had made.
My head was spinning. My body was shaking. My eyes blurred with tears, and all I wanted was for Dagon to hold me in his arms.
I shouldn’t have agreed for him to come with me.
It was my fault he got hurt. I should've put my foot down and pushed him away. Had I done it, his life wouldn’t be in danger.
He would have been safe. I should have never agreed to come into this town.
What if there were more demons lurking in the shadows?
My chest was heaving with panic as Dagon landed a few steps away and looked me over from head to toe.
His gaze lingered on the small scratch on my arm.
His eyes flashed with darkness that wasn’t there a second ago.
His chest rose and fell rapidly. He took a step forward but stopped and looked me in the eyes.
There was blood on his face and his hands. His stomach was still bleeding, even though I couldn’t see the wound. Shock wouldn’t be a strong enough word to describe how I felt.
Dagon, my Dagon, was a demon. The thought kept repeating in my mind. What snapped me out of it was the fact that he was hurt.
Dagon was hurt.
My breath stalled. I looked up and realized why he was just standing there.
There was so much pain and vulnerability in his gaze.
Dagon was afraid of my reaction. He thought I would run away and leave him.
Not only that, but with the pain, there was danger mixed in. Shadows and violence surrounded him.
He was darkness itself.
Gone was the brother I first met, the cheerful guy who loved games and history. Gone was the human asshole who bickered with me and avoided me. Gone was the man who smiled at me in the morning after our heated night.
The man before me was danger personified. The clenched jaw, the balled fists, the coldness in his purple-black eyes, and his body posture showed me this was someone I didn’t know.
But was I afraid? I stared at him and realized the answer.
I wasn’t.
The darkness in him didn’t scare me.
The fight earlier flashed in my mind. How Dagon let go of my hand, how he fought these demons.
But what replayed, again and again, was the moment he was stabbed, the painful scream that tore from his lips, the moment when I felt my heart stop.
The magnitude of everything that happened should have made me run away.
It should've scared me. For fuck’s sake, minutes ago, I watched him tear someone’s heart out of their body.
But instead, all I could feel watching him like this, with blood marking his body, was bone-deep relief.
Breaking free from the shock I was locked into, I ran to him. Crashing my body into his, I grabbed him by the neck and kissed him. I could feel the taste of his blood from his split lip, but I didn’t care. Nothing else mattered except feeling him in my arms, knowing he was alive and here.
Dagon inhaled sharply, frozen for a moment before kissing me back.
Our tongues crashed together, and I wrapped my hands tightly around him, kissing him in a ravenous, starving way.
My heart was going wild, my body was screaming, my mind was an utter mess, but something stark came to the front.
It was an inner knowing I couldn’t name.
It felt like my soul was purring. Like two strings finally finding the same note. It was like I was finally home.
Dagon pulled away and looked at me with unfocused eyes.
I was transfixed by his purple eyes. Eyes that look different, should feel different, but they didn’t.
Even though the color had changed, his eyes still carried the core of who Dagon was.
He was looking at me in the same tender way as before.
I moved a few wet strands from his forehead and cupped his face.
“Don’t you ever get hurt again,” my voice was hoarse.
Whether it was because of all the screaming or the emotions still overwhelming me, I wasn’t sure.
“My heart almost stopped when I saw that demon stab you. We need to take you to a hospital.” I took him in.
“Wait, can you turn again so we can go to a hospital? How are you feeling? Does it hurt? Of course, it hurts. Dagon why…”
He interrupted my panicked talking by kissing me.
“I’m fine.” His voice sent goosebumps over my spine. It was so different from the one I was so used to. “It will heal in a matter of minutes in this form. Just give it a moment.”
I looked up at him and didn’t like what I saw. Dagon looked at me, but there was a flicker in his eyes. A flicker I had never seen before. For the first time, I saw the fear he had buried so deep inside him. My chest ached.
“What kind of a demon are you?”
I saw the flash of panic he tried to hide, and my heart shattered, not because of my question or his answer, but because he was afraid and tried to hide it. It took him several minutes to answer. Even then, it was only in a whisper.
“A Starborn.”
I exhaled deeply. Closing my eyes, I tried to regulate my breathing.
A Starborn, the most powerful clan. Instead of being afraid, an overwhelming feeling of relief overtook me.
Being a Starborn meant he was one of the strongest demons.
It meant he would be safe, or at least he had a greater chance against other demons.
I opened my eyes and looked at his stomach. I couldn’t see any wounds anymore, but I wanted to be sure.
“How is it?”
“It’s already healed.”
Knowing he was better, I hit him in the chest, which didn’t even make him flinch.
“You idiot! Do you seriously think I care that you’re a demon? What I care about is you not getting hurt like that, for fuck’s sake! I thought you wouldn't make it.”
I turned around and stormed to the car, resting my hands on it to keep me from falling. A sob tore from me. I heard Dagon’s voice behind me.
“It doesn’t matter to you that I’m a demon? A Starborn.”
“Of course I fucking care!” I screamed, turning to him. His face fell, and he took a step back.
“I won’t hurt you. I would never hurt you,” Dagon said.
“Let’s get this straight. I want to be with you.
You being a human or a demon or a unicorn doesn’t change anything for me.
You’re still Dagon. It’s not like you turned into someone else.
” Just something else, but I didn’t say it out loud.
I stepped closer to him, “You’re my Dagon.
I know you. I know your heart, even when you try to pull away. ”
“I-”
I didn’t give him a chance to speak. Everything was too much, and the words rushed out of me.
“For the record, I said it matters because it’s part of who you are, you idiot.
Second, the only thing that matters to me is you not getting hurt and me being able to do something, damn it.
This little thing of yours wouldn’t let me get close to you.
I just stood there and watched Dagon!” My voice cracked as tears welled in my eyes, and I let them fall.
“I just watched you fighting alone and getting hurt! Lastly, you said you’re a Starborn. Well, you will tell me more about Starborns, because I don’t know shit. And no, I don’t believe King. You being a heartless creature, cold-blooded, I don’t believe that even for a second.”
I rubbed my hands over my face and slumped against the car. All the strength left my body. Dagon closed the distance between us, cupping my face and bringing it up so I could look at him.
“I’m fine, Di. I’m fine. I’m not hurt. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
I pulled away from the car and hugged him. His wings enveloped us in a little bubble. I finally felt like I could breathe.
He is alright. He is alive. He is in my arms.
“Don’t you ever leave me,” I whispered in his ear. I shivered when I heard his answer.
“Till there are no stars in the sky, till Hell freezes, and even after that, I’ll never leave you, Di, and I’ll never let you go.”
He kissed me gently, and in that moment, everything felt right.