Chapter 5 - Alex
All I could see was red.
Red, as a portal opened, and I didn’t get there fast enough.
Red, as a demon, stepped out and approached Harper.
Red, as the beast leaned in, its too-long limbs reaching for her.
I snarled and launched myself at the demon. It whirled around for me at the last moment, grinning those sharp smiles—a smile that promised to slice flesh and render it apart if I moved too slowly. I grunted as I dove into it, knocking us both past Harper and onto the ground.
The demon laughed, the sound dark and rattling in its throat. Its hair was a mop of tangled dark curls, its eyes pure black, too big, and that horrific smile that went ear-to-ear. It towered over me, and I fought for breath as I thought about shifting. I needed to move.
But a sound broke my attention. It was melodic, a luring tune, more like a siren call than anything. I looked up to where another portal opened, and two demons walked out, identical to the one who clambered off me to join them. The two advanced on Harper while the one focused on me and brandished a knife the length of my arm.
“No,” I snarled and got to my feet, launching at it.
I was back up in seconds but the two demons had ensnared Harper. The portal glowed a cobalt blue in the dark night, breaking up the shadows. My blood pounded with the need to go to Harper, to protect her—until I saw her face.
And then I wanted to rip the night apart if only the demon wasn’t waving the damn knife at me.
Her mouth was parted, slack, and her eyes had gone wide—too wide for comfort. The once-green irises were stained with blue. The lure of the demon kin. I knew of them from Commander Tylen, but I had never seen one in person; I had only ever seen them on a tablet or computer screen. Only ever on a profile sheet when we were sent to other supernatural jobs. But the magnitude of the demons up close was like nothing I’d ever experienced.
They sucked the oxygen from the air, as if they pulled everything around them into their orbit. As if they drew power from the very air itself.
“Harper!” I yelled, fighting my way around the demon. She didn’t even throw that anger my way—there was nothing in her face. Just that slack, vacant look that made me feel sick to look at. What was happening in her head? Come back to me, even if it’s to yell at me.
“Is she yours, wolf ?” the demon hissed, a long, black tongue flickering between its pointed teeth. “She tastes… Decadent. So much pain to feed on.”
“Leave her,” I snarled, ramming an arm into the demon’s neck hard enough to choke it and knock it back. I was back on my feet in a second, stomping down on the demon’s wrist so hard that it dropped the knife it held. I swiped it up and didn’t hesitate for a second, slicing it through the demon’s throat.
An acrid smell filled the air: demon blood. It flowed like black ink, pouring into the street. I didn’t stay long enough to watch the body disappear, but I felt the brush of air as it disintegrated. Whether it returned to Hell or simply faded out, I didn’t care. I brandished the knife, running to Harper.
Just as I brushed the corner of the cuffs of her dress, one demon grabbed her and spirited her away. I yelled, spinning around, finding them emerging from another portal several feet away.
“Come and get her, wolf,” the demon rasped. “We can smell the bond on you. Don’t you want your mate?”
With that, he shoved Harper forward, and I lunged for her, but the second demon formed another portal, and Harper fell into it, no more than a ragdoll, a plaything for them. But she wasn’t a plaything. She was my mate . Even if I had needed to walk away from her, she had always been my mate. I had endured the agony and heartbreak that came with my actions, while Harper would have felt it like a typical breakup, agony in its own mortal way.
But now my soul tore apart, watching her under the lure of these demons as they tossed her back and forth between portals.
“ Stop !” I roared, loud enough for the demons to pause. It wasn’t long, but it was enough time for me to swipe through one of them, black blood splattering on the ground. It coated the grass, and killed it immediately. Harper was dropped from its arms, but before I could scoop her up, the other demon grabbed her and dashed off into another portal of blazing cobalt.
The trickery never ended. When one portal closed, another opened further down the park. To chase it was futile, to wait was a risk. I never should have left my team behind. They’ve dispatched these three demons in seconds. Alone, I was strong, but together we were always stronger.
But soon, I realized the pattern that the demon kept following: a pentagram. It was forming portals in the shape of a pentagram. I didn’t know if that was just a natural taunt or if it was preparing something, but I quickly figured out what point came next, and in the meager seconds between the demon opening one portal and the next, I ran to that spot, and waited.
As soon as Harper was pushed out, I let her body fall into my arms, trying to ignore how limp she was.
The demon found the edge of my knife, waiting for it to emerge.
That razor grin split its face, its black tongue licking along the flat of the knife.
“My own kin’s blood on our own knife,” it said, laughing. “Interesting. I shall not forget the taste of your blood, shifter. Or hers.”
“What?” I asked, quiet, in shock, when I realized that Harper had a gash on her upper arm. A surface wound, but it was enough to bleed, and the demon swiped its tongue through the blood a second before I suffered the same fate. My blood welled, and all I could do was slice through the demon’s tongue before it vanished in a flash of blue.
The air fell from the grip the demons held on it. Only now, feeling the air return to normal, did I realize just how long the demons must have been watching.
I fell to my knees, braced over Harper, whose eyes glared back at me, back to their normal emerald green.
“ You ,” she snarled, shoving me back. She was fully snapped out of the spell. She yanked her shoes off angrily, stalking towards me, forcing me back, back, out of the park area we were in and onto the backroad that led towards the expanse of beach surrounding the island. “This is all your fault!”
“Hey—stop—Harper!”
Her shoes arched for me, the heels lethal and sharp, and I ducked before grasping her wrists. It was my turn to push her back. She met my pace, her face tight with rage. I pushed her back until her feet met sand, and she stumbled.
“You’re a prick!” She yelled. “A goddamn horrible, awful , prick! Get away from me!” She waved her arms, and I reared back. But her satisfaction at thinking she had won only irked me more. Sweat and blood coated my white shirt, and I smelt like burnt asphalt. That must have been the demon blood or their magic.
“In case you missed it, I just saved your life,” I hissed. “Maybe some gratitude would be nice.”
“Gratitude!” Harper cried. “ Gratitude ? Alex, are you out of your mind. You ruined my life four years ago. You don’t get any grace for saving it once. And honestly, Alex, demons haven’t been seen here in years. Of course, three attack me the night you show up!”
I stilled. “What? You know that demons roam here, and you didn’t say anything?”
“In the minutes we had together before they showed up? No, funnily, I did not.”
“Okay, let me rephrase that,” I snarled. “You know that demons roam here, and you don’t guard yourself?”
“Did you miss the part where I said they haven’t been active in years?” she spat.
“Harper— fuck —are you out of your mind? You need to be guarded against that sort of supernatural anomaly.”
Harper let out a bitter laugh. “Right, because they’re the anomaly. There he goes again, all official talk, all formal labels. Anomaly . What do they call you, then, Alex?”
Part of me wanted to grin, to be that guy that pulled her close and said handsome, that’s what they call me , and win her over, but I knew the damage I had caused. Pain was etched in every line of her face, in those beautiful eyes that I had dreamed of for so many nights these past years.
But mostly, I wanted her safe. I wanted her protected.
I cornered her against the fence that bordered the sand. My arms bracketed her in, brushing her waist. Just that bit of contact sent shivers down my spine.
“You need to protect yourself from these demons,” I told her, my voice dropping. “I understand you’re saying they’ve been dormant. Maybe those three were one-offs, but maybe they weren’t. Either way, I want you protected.”
Harper scoffed. “How? By you? How have you ever protected me in the past? You left me in complete and utter shit, Alex.”
I hadn’t… Had I?
No. Harper had been at the head of a complete, bright future ahead of her after the summer we had met. She had graduated with top honors, had already been offered a graduate job, worked at a local grocery store, and had her family. Even aside from me, I recalled that her family had set her up for a cushy marriage. I knew she would have been safe, happy, secure—even if it had killed me to walk away.
“You left , Alex,” she said, her voice breaking. Maybe it was the light, but her eyes shone, as if she held back tears.
Cry them , I wanted to say. Let me hold you. Let me wipe them all away, Harper. Let me make it better.
“I can protect you,” I insisted. “Don’t you think it's fate that I came to the island? That I’ve found you on it, even. As you said, of all the islands in the world, we’re both here. Harper, I know you believe in fate. So believe in this . In us . I was drawn to this place, and now I know why. To protect you.”
I didn’t see Harper’s hand until after the slap resounded in the night. A sting bloomed on my cheek, closely followed by heat. She gasped, clasping a hand over her mouth. The red faded away from my vision. The slap felt like a challenge to me.
Come and play , I thought.