She stared at it for a minute before responding. “Okay.”
“There is a shower over there.” I turned and pointed to the shower at the edge of our camp. A simple hose hung over a wood wall that did little to shield the demon within from view. On the wall was a bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo, two things I actually preferred about this world to our own. As a whole, demons were exceptionally clean, but in Hell we used rocks to scrub our flesh clean in the warm, red waters; the soap and shampoo was a nice bonus.
“I’ll use the shower in the house. I prefer walls to open air and exposure,” she said.
“You humans and your modesty.” Then I realized I much preferred her to shower in private.Noone else would see what belonged to me.
“I guess we really can blame Eve for that,” she muttered.
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps? Isn’t that the story? Eve ate the apple, kicked from the garden, yada, yada.”
“There are many stories, some are true, others are questionable. If you think there were only ever two humans on this earth to begin with, you’d be wrong. There were others already here, but Adam and Eve were the favored ones, and the only ones granted entrance to Eden. Eve did pluck the apple, and she did get them booted from the garden, but your ancestors were already running around with loin clothes covering them when Adam and Eve emerged from paradise.”
“I guess nobody wanted bug bites on their privates.”
A short burst of laughter unexpectedly erupted from me; her eyes widened at the sound, and a smile curved her luscious mouth as her eyes twinkled in amusement. Sitting in the center of the clearing, Shax, Bale, Verin, and Morax stopped in the middle of their game of cards to look at us in surprise. It had been a long time since I’d laughed around them. Corson had been flirting with a pretty girl from town; he had her blonde hair twined around his finger when he looked at us. The girl pouted at him, but he didn’t pay her any attention.
Ignoring them all, I took hold of River’s elbow and led her back into the tent. “I suppose that would explain it,” I said to her as I closed the flap and slid the buttons back into place. “You’re probably hungry.”
“I am,” she admitted.
She followed me into the main tent where a meal already waited for her. Sitting in the seat across from her, I watched the candlelight playing over her features as she dove into her meal.
“Do you think you could pull me into one of your visions again, like you did today?” I inquired when she finished the last of her chicken.
She pushed her plate away and wiped delicately at her mouth. “I don’t know, but if I did it once, I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to do it again.”
I tapped my fingers on the table. “It will be interesting to find out.”
Her eyes went to the tent wall as laughter echoed outside. The scent of smoke and the crackling of a fire drifted to me. They must have already started the bonfire on the hill. A bonfire I would make sure River stayed far away from.
“It would be best if you stayed inside at night,” I told her. “Things can get a little wild out there. If you have to go somewhere, come and get me and I will take you.”
Her mouth pursed but she nodded her agreement.
CHAPTER 23
River
Over the next couple of weeks, I didn’t really know what was expected of me as I continued to train with Kobal and the others. The volunteers I’d come here with avoided me now. The demons all watched me like I was the mouse and they were the hawk circling above. I didn’t think they planned on picking my remains, but they were definitely intent upon my every action.
I’d also noticed a growing tension and withdrawal from Kobal as time slipped by. He still trained with me every day, but he seemed to be holding something of himself back. Yet sometimes I would catch him looking at me with such hunger in his gaze that it would cause my entire body to quicken with longing.
My dreams of him had ebbed since moving into his tent. I blamed that more on my exhaustion when I finally did fall asleep than a waning in my yearning for him. No, that grew every day his distance did.
Even Mac stayed away from me now, but his eyes were always on me whenever I was on the field. Unlike the others who watched me with rapt curiosity and animosity, the sadness in Mac’s eyes troubled me.
I didn’t understand any of it; the humans accepted the demons more readily then they accepted me. Kobal had been right, they had no idea what to make of me, and they were afraid. That fear had made them distant and wary. The demons didn’t know what to make of me, and I wondered if perhaps some of them disliked me for my supposed heritage or at least because of who had possibly created me.
I didn’t know what it was, and by now I was so exhausted from the nonstop training, stress, and uncertainty, that I was getting to the point I wanted to hit every single human and demon who gave me a sidelong glance. Or if I could figure out how to make that handy-dandy frying things ability work, maybe I’d burn all their pants off them and watch them run around with their asses on fire.
However, I hadn’t been able to set anything on fire since that day with the madagans. Kobal had to be wrong about who or what I was; I kept telling myself this, but the certainty he was right had taken hold of me. I hadn’t admitted it to him, but when he’d told me what he believed I was, a part of me had lit up in anahamoment, and it had all made sense. A part of me, deep inside, could not shrug away his words no matter how badly denial kept screaming through my head.
Perhaps they were all right to distance themselves from me. I was the only living ancestor of Lucifer himself, of evil incarnate. I tried not to think of things in terms of good and evil as Kobal had told me to, but I couldn’t shake the feeling there could be something inherently evil within me.
Then again, maybe there wasn’t, but could I be easily turned to evil? Lucifer had been an angel, the morning star, and now he was looking to destroy and enslave the human race. Was there something in me that could make me become like him too?
