Chapter 25

Lilitha looked at Damon, her heart pounding.

“Don’t be scared,” Damon said.

“My father?”

Silus nodded. “Clearly you take after your mother. I’m glad. I’m ~glad~.”

Lilitha stepped out of the older Diablon’s arms. It was all too much.

“Don’t be afraid,” Damon said. “You’re here with us now, where you belong, and we will protect and keep you.”

“You’re back home,” Silus said. “To me.” And he dropped his head into his hands.

The female crouched beside him and grasped his shoulder. Mateus looked angry, the flickering light of the fire probing his naked bulk.

“Come sit, Lilitha,” Damon said, holding out his hand. “This is much to take in.”

Though the flames were hot, Lilitha shook as she sat down on a wide, flat log. It had been cut in half, its surface smooth and glossy. There was enough room for Damon to snuggle in behind her, and he held her against him, straddling her between his thighs. A magnificent white tree stood over them, the play of the firelight making its ghostly trunk gleam. Huge branches, as thick as Mateus’s torso, reached over their little gathering, dropping leaves into large, soft piles around the fire.

“Welcome to the clan,” Damon said, kissing her cheek. “Your new home. Your family.”

He introduced them all, but Lilitha barely heard him; there was a sharp ringing in her ears. All she could do was stare. Her supposed father was sitting on the ground, chin in hand, eyes glittering as he stared back at her from across the fire. Like Damon, he wore britches beneath his cloak, leaving his chest bare.

Carmella, the female, was settled beside him, her head on his shoulder. Lilitha’s eyes lingered over her dark skin as it shone against the firelight. She’d never seen anything like it before. Mateus stalked around the perimeter, looking angry and irritable, sometimes shaking his head like there was a fly buzzing around him, occasionally snapping off a branch. Lilitha couldn’t look at him. He was despicable.

She cleared her throat. “I-I don’t understand…any of this.”

“You will, in time,” Silus said. “Just know that I loved Charmaine. I loved her very much. We loved each other.”

“Charmaine?” she said. “That’s her name?”

Silus nodded.

“So, it’s confirmed then,” Mateus interrupted. “Charmaine is dead.”

“Yes,” Silus said. “If what your human father says is true …?” He looked at Lilitha desperately.

Startled, she looked around at Damon. His left eye was red and already swelling from the fight. Blood trickled out of his nose. He wiped it away.

“What have you told them?” she said.

“What they needed to know.”

She turned back to Silus, then dropped her eyes to her lap and nodded.

“Such an unlikely thing,” Mateus said warily. “How can we be sure?”

“What does it matter?” Damon said. “She’s one of us.”

“Because she ~looks~ like her,” Silus said, his voice shaking. “~So~ much. I’m sorry,” he told Lilitha. “When the humans attacked, we all scattered—and I lost her. I searched for so long but I never would have thought she’d end up where she did. I thought she was dead. I thought ~you~ were dead.”

“H-humans attacked you?”

“I told you, Lilitha,” Damon said in her ear. “I told you.”

“Further down south where we once lived,” Silus explained. “Where the humans are more bold. It is safer up here.”

Lilitha was shaking her head. Her father. Her mother. Herself. Gripping Damon’s hands, she squirmed between his legs, suddenly feeling very very cold. Damon wrapped his arms around her, rocking her.

“I know this must be a great shock,” Silus said. “It’s a shock enough for me! But give yourself time. It won’t be long before you are one of us and you’ll leave your past behind. It is your destiny. It is who you are.”

The fire snapped then leapt in a sudden gust of wind, casting them all in scarlet light. Damon lowered his chin onto Lilitha’s shoulder. Nobody spoke. Except for the crack and lash of the flames and Mateus’s footsteps, there was quiet.

“Have you eaten?” Damon finally said.

She shook her head.

“Mateus, go get some food,” Damon said.

“You go get it,” he grumbled, snapping off a low-lying branch.

“Do it!”

“~Oh~, you two!” Carmella snapped, rising to her feet. “For God’s sake! Another female and you go berserk!” And she left in a huff.

The two Diablons looked away from each other, Mateus snapping branches, Damon tightening his embrace around Lilitha.

“She’s not yours, you know!” Mateus snarled, rounding on him.

“I claimed her!”

“You can’t claim a female!”

They glared at each other, eyes and ivory aflame in the flickering light. Lilitha jerked when Damon’s tail cracked like a whip.

“I let you have her first because it was only fair, but I never accepted your claim,” Mateus growled. “Especially since you deceived me. Tracking humans indeed!” He snorted and spat. “Can’t believe I fell for your tricks. And then to discover your lies. A Diablon in their midst! Female, no less!”

Mateus snarled. His tail coiled and lashed, thudding into the tree behind, piercing the wood. With a thrust of his massive frame, he yanked it free. He looked over Lilitha one more time before he turned and vanished into the night. There was a great roar and a series of violent snapping and rustling. Damon sniggered.

Carmella returned shortly after, clutching a basket. She looked around. “Where’s Mateus?”

“Gone,” Damon huffed.

Lilitha lifted her nose and closed her eyes, swaying in Damon’s grip.

He laughed. “Hand it over.”

Silus was watching Lilitha closely as she opened the basket, the flesh inside thick and raw and oozing. She met Silus’s gaze. Not her father. She couldn’t call him her ~father~.

“Go ahead. Don’t be afraid,” he said.

Her heart was pounding. She was sweating beneath her cloak. She lifted out the flesh, wet and oozing in her hands, then bit down. They were all watching her, so she closed her eyes, shutting them out. She devoured it all, and when she opened her eyes next, it was to meet Silus’s satisfied smile.

“Good,” he said.

Lilitha gazed at her glistening fingers, feeling hollow and drained.

“Must this be the only way?” she said, and was surprised by the steadiness in her voice.

“It ~is~ the only way,” Damon said.

“Might we not—”

“You can try the lesser beasts if you like,” Damon said, “but they will not meet your needs.”

“We Diablons can survive for a time on the flesh of animals, it is true.” Silus said, his jade eyes catching in the firelight. “We have done so before when times have been difficult, but we become a mere shadow of our real selves. Our alphas become weak. Our females cannot breed. We risk being undefended, childless and broken. Without human flesh, as a species we Diablons die.”

Lilitha wiped her fingers against her cloak, then looked up as Carmella stood. “I’m off to find Mateus,” she said, and vanished into the trees after him.

Lilitha turned back to the fire. “What exactly am I?”

“You’re part of a great species,” Silus said. “Thousands of years old. Enlightened. Proud. Loving. Spiritual.” He looked around the treetops, the lines in his face softening. Damon was playing with the ends of Lilitha’s hair. “We are a part of the forest, the trees, the earth, the water. We listen when nature speaks, hurt when she feels pain. Unlike humans, we live as part of her. We are one with the world.

“You’ll never see us in large groups, preferring small clans like this one, spread far and wide, usually within the cover of forests and other wild places, or in the shadows of the mountains.”

“Why?” Lilitha asked. “Why not exist together? Like humans? In settlements?”

“Because it’s the best way to stay safe, the best way to survive, and because we need a significant food source. If we were to exist in a large group, we could decimate a town the size of yours within months.”

Lilitha winced.

“We must eat, Lilitha,” Silus said. “Just like every other creature.”

She squirmed in Damon’s lap, rubbed her blood-slick fingers together.

“We Diablons have existed alongside humans for generations,” Silus continued. “Pervading human culture as myths and legends, as demons, monsters, phantoms—and so many more.”

Lilitha looked at his horns, the light of the fire dancing against them. Feeling sick, she clutched at Damon’s hands.

“It ensures our survival to keep them in fear of us,” he explained.

“But does that need to be so?” Lilitha said. “Why can’t we coexist? As I have?”

“And how should a predator live amidst its prey?” Silus said. “Do you think they will hand over their children willingly?”

“We do not need to eat their children. Animals are enough. I survived.”

“Did you though?” Damon said. “You resisted for a long time, I grant you that. But with just a sniff of human flesh, you shed your human self and gave in to me quickly enough.”

Lilitha stiffened. A sudden rage flared through her, as hot as the flames. “Let go,” she growled.

“No.”

“Let go!” She squirmed in his grip.

“Don’t be angry,” he said, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I’m not criticizing. You merely did what you were born to do. You did the same as what we all would have done in your place.”

“It isn’t right,” she said.

“You must let go of your human thinking,” Silus said. “Or it will destroy you.”

“Then let it destroy me.”

“That won’t happen,” Damon said.

“Watch,” Lilitha snapped, and she wrenched free of Damon’s arms.

The two Diablons watched her from the ground, their horns uplifted, ivory gleaming. Lilitha’s gut lurched, her skin iced over, she shook. Then her meal surged up her throat, and she rushed away and vomited into the bushes.

She closed her eyes as she gasped for breath, unable to look at the bloody mess at her feet. Waves of nausea shook her body from head to foot. Footsteps approached. Damon brushed the hair out of her face.

She pulled away. “Leave me.”

He let her hurry away. She kept looking over her shoulder but he wasn’t following. She managed to retrace her steps back to the little overhanging ridge. Not far from there was Clara. Lilitha found her easily. ~Too~ easily. Like it was instinct.

Her friend was sleeping within a cradle of roots beneath a large tree overgrown with vines and bushes. It was warm and dry. She’d made a little bed for herself.

Clara woke up with a start. Her eyes grew wide. “What has happened? Why are you covered in blood?”

Lilitha started to cry.