The Demon's Daughter

Into the Woods

Guarding Madison did prove to be an easy task, and as the days wore on Cillian occupied his time surveying the surroundings and listening to the conversations taking place. Madison was an interesting topic of conversation among the girls and a few of the boys. Most centered on his presence then slowly shifted into Madison’s parents, which they thought consisted of an ultra-wealthy businessman for a father and a designer for a mother. Madison, for her part, ignored all of the extra attention. She didn’t seem to care much about what others thought.

“Like her dad got her another bodyguard,” a girl whispered after class had commenced.

Cillian was sitting in the back of the lecture hall, but his ears perked at the word “bodyguard.”

“Right?” the other girl said with a quiet laugh. “At some point I’d let her die.”

“What happened to the last one?” the first girl asked. “I vote she pays them to sleep with her.”

“That’s the only way she’s getting any,” the other girl responded.

“Miss Carter and Miss Ames, is my teaching disrupting your conversation?” the teacher asked in annoyance.

The girls immediately stopped talking.

Cillian wondered what happened to Madison previous bodyguard as well. She hadn’t mentioned any trouble and neither had her father. Then again, Leo Beck was a man of few words. Her previous guard had been a demon though, and one that had worked in The Commission at that. There didn’t seem to be a decent reason to hire Cillian, who had no connection to the Becks or The Commission. Something felt off, and Madison was the only person Cillian could actually speak to who might have an idea as to why.

The garden and the dorm were the only two areas on campus that provided a relative amount of privacy, so Cillian brought up the topic that evening when Madison was tending to her plants.

“Your father could have chosen anyone at The Commission for this job,” he remarked. “It’s not exceptionally difficult. Why did he go out of his way for someone not connected?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Madison admitted. “Not that I don’t find you interesting and all, but if all he had wanted was a werewolf instead of a demon, he employs an entire pack already. You’re not a first choice.”

“I’m an odd choice,” Cillian said. “I have no connection and no name anyone would recognize.” Suddenly it made sense. “You father doesn’t trust The Commission.”

“Who does?” Madison scoffed. She looked up at Cillian. “You’re serious? You think my father hired you because he’s suspicious of the people he works with?”

“Why else go out of his way? No offense, but he doesn’t seem like the type to trouble himself for no reason.”

“My father isn’t the type to care about my well-being in the first place. I’m nothing but an embarrassment to him,” Madison retorted.

“If your father didn’t care about you, he wouldn’t bother having someone protect you,” Cillian pointed out.

  Madison glared at him.

 “Don’t get me wrong. He’s still a d**k, but he has something akin to affection for you. It must be hard having a child that can be injured so easily,” Cillian said. “He never had to worry about that before.”

“Never thought I’d hear a wolf defend a demon,” Madison commented.

“I’m not defending his words or actions. I don’t even know the man—”

“Exactly,” Madison said, cutting him off. “Family means something different to you because your pack means everything to you. You’d die for your alpha, wouldn’t you? No questions asked, you’d put your life on the line if he needed you to. That’s expected. Even humans feel connected to one another in similar ways. Demons don’t.”

“Stop,” Cillian ordered.

“What?” Madison snapped. “First you defend my father and now you order me—”

“I hear something,” Cillian said.

Madison stilled.

“We should find cover,” Cillian said, taking Madison firmly by the arm.

Madison didn’t complain. She knew to trust a werewolf’s instincts over her own. Evolution had given them superior senses, and right now Cillian was tense and on edge, which meant something was definitely off.

As if on cue, the ground beneath them opened up. Cillian had experienced this once before and it was when Leo Beck had brought him here almost two weeks ago. The sounds and smells were overwhelming, and Cillian almost let go of Madison in the moment, but he knew if he did he’d never find her again. Instead, he pulled her closer and wrapped his other arm around her. Suddenly they were topside again, but they were no longer at the school.

Cillian surveyed the surroundings quickly. They were in a densely wooded area. He couldn’t hear any traffic, and there were no humans nearby. In fact, there didn’t seem to be anything nearby at all. All he could smell was sulfur and blood. Blood? He looked down and saw Madison lying on the ground, her clothes torn in various places, blood soaking through the thin cotton of her t-shirt and shorts. Cuts and scratches adorned the exposed skin on her legs as if some talon creature had tried to grab her.

“Madison?” Cillian said, kneeling next to her unmoving body. He could just barely make out the sound of her shallow breathing.

“Hell is hard on humans,” a voice said from behind him.

Cillian stood up and whipped around, ready for a fight.

“The demons down there try to keep any living human they can get their hands on. Looks like they almost got her,” the man said, staring at Madison. “You should have let her go. Now you have to watch her die.” He took a step toward the couple.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you take another step you’ll find yourself right back in hell,” Cillian growled.

The man laughed. “A demon versus a werewolf. I like my chances,” he said. Without another word, he sprang at Cillian.

Cillian deflected the attack before shifting into his wolf form. He felt his strength grow as his paws hit the ground. His red eyes found his opponent and he bared his teeth in a snarl. Whoever this demon was, he was going to regret his actions. Cillian felt the urge to rip him limb from limb rising as the demon charged at him again.

Joshua hadn’t expected Cillian to be an alpha, and he had to hide his shock. Sure, he was a large man in his human form, but that had no impact on his wolf form. Staring at the werewolf in front of him now, Joshua knew he was evenly matched, if not outmatched. Most powerful werewolves were employed by The Commission, and Cillian most certainly wasn’t. Leo had known what he was doing when he hired this wolf. Joshua cursed internally. He had a job to do, and he needed Cillian out of the way to do it. With that in mind, he attacked again.

Werewolves had many advantages in battle, which is why they were classified as warriors. They were rarely matched with demons though simply because demons, depending on their specialty, had a host of tricks they could employ. Joshua’s trick seemed to be strength and fire, or so Cillian determined as he dodged a flaming branch that Joshua hurled at him. Cillian was able to quickly evade the attacks, however.

“For an alpha, your offense sucks,” Joshua goaded.

Cillian snarled at him but didn’t attack. He wouldn’t be baited into a sloppy attack, especially not by an arrogant demon. He dodged a few more attacks until he saw his opening. Without hesitation, Cillian lunged at the demon and locked his jaw around one of his arms. With a jerk of his neck, he tore the arm out of it’s socket and tossed it a few feet from the duo. The demon called out in pain, and struck at Cillian in rage, but Cillian wasn’t done yet. His adrenaline was pumping, and his wolf had tasted blood. It wanted more now. This time it went for the demon’s throat. Anything died once it was decapitated, but even so Cillian couldn’t stop tearing the demon apart until all that was left was a bloody mess of bones and torn clothing.

It took a few moments after the battle for Cillian to remember why he had been fighting. Madison! He went back over to her unmoving body. Her breathing was still shallow, her wounds still bleeding slightly. His wolf paused at the sight of the blood. No, Cillian thought forcefully. He needed to clear his head before he unintentionally hurt Madison. He could hear water running nearby. Washing the blood from his paws and face might be the best course of action right now. As he approached the creek, Cillian thought about what Madison had asked when they had met.

“Do you know what you look like in wolf form?” her voice echoed in the recesses of his mind. The very thought of Madison kept Cillian’s consciousness intact. He had never felt so connected to his human self while in wolf form.

Cillian looked down at his bloody paws. They were the size of a human’s head. He knew that because he had stood next to Madison and had been careful to not stand too close. The blood on them made his black fur look shiny and slick as if it had been oiled. Cillian looked around and found a spot where the water had pooled and stopped flowing. He cautious walked to the edge and gazed at the reflection in the pool of water, finally able to assess what he looked like in wolf form with the consciousness of a human.

His eyes were a deep red. All alphas had red eyes, some bright, some dark. It depended on the person. He had seen his father as a wolf and his brother, so he had known that. The color didn’t throw him as much as the meanness he saw in them. Cillian had never viewed himself as a mean person, but the wolf he was staring at looked cruel. His snout was covered in blood, which was hardly visible due to the black fur again, but this time there were bits of flesh mingled in. Perhaps it was a blessing that he had never been able to see himself before with human eyes. He plunged his head and paws into the water and attempted to clean them as best he could before getting out and going back to Madison.

Madison was unchanged. With his head clear, Cillian no longer had to urge to taste the blood that was smeared on her legs. It was getting dark, and her exposed legs would soon be cold along with the rest of her body though. She was already struggling to stay alive the way it was. Cillian looked around and found some logs that he dragged over and stacked together using his paws and mouth. Luckily one of the branches was still smoldering nearby, and he was able to use some dry leaves that he kicked near the logs to light a small fire near where Madison was lying. It was barely enough to keep her warm, but it was all he could do in his current form. He could shift back, but he had no clothes and would be unable to protect her that way should someone come after her again. It was safer to stay in wolf form in case of another battle.

Wake up, Cillian thought, gazing down at Madison’s small frame. He gently nudged her with his snout. She didn’t move. Cillian sighed and paced around Madison for a few moments before lying down behind her. He was a light sleeper the way it was, but this way if Madison moved or woke during the night he would know.