City of Demons by Cheree Alsop

Author:Cheree Alsop [Alsop, Cheree]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-01-19T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Silence filled the room. I wanted to shake her, to scream, to plead, anything to get her to tell me what Briggs has said, but I made myself be patient. It was the longest minute of my life.

Finally, she said, “Briggs told me to tell you that when he first met me, I didn't stink, but before he helped me escape, I stunk.” Her voice softened and she looked away from me again. “It's embarrassing, but he said you would understand.”

Her words made my heartbeat slow. Professor Briggs was a warlock. His affinity was that he could smell good from evil. When we first met, I had asked him if I stunk. I was convinced that with what had happened to Sebastian, I must have been the evilest person he had ever met. But Briggs had surprised me by saying that I didn’t stink. I think even he was disappointed because it contradicted his prejudice against werewolves.

I rose and walked around the perimeter of the room to the bed and then back to her as I thought.

“You didn’t stink when he first met you?” I repeated aloud.

Lark nodded. “Yes. I figured it was because I hadn’t had a surgery for a while. They let me shower sometimes if it’s been a while since surgery.” She smiled. “I like showers. The sound of the water makes me happy.”

I glanced at her. “But you had another surgery after you met Briggs?”

She pulled down the middle of her shirt to show the scar I had seen that ran down her sternum.

“This one,” she said. “This is the one I had before Briggsy helped me escape. That’s why I was bleeding when you guys found me.”

I was shocked to hear that the wound was so new. With her healing ability, the scar looked years old now.

The tendrils of black that snaked from her heart ran down past the scar as well as up. I wondered how much the angry red flesh that surrounded the marks hurt. Lark didn’t give any sign of the pain.

“Was it heart surgery?” I asked. “You were younger in the memory I saw of your other heart surgery.” I immediately regretted the words when I remembered that it was her mother’s heart she had gotten.

Lark didn’t appear to mind. “I begged him not to take her heart out. He promised me he didn’t. Instead, he said he gave me something special to help me find my way.”

My breath caught in my throat. I saw the lines again on her chest, the dark, angry, snaking marks. I pictured Dr. Fagrin talking to her, reassuring her. “You hear voices in your head?” I said, repeating what she had told me. “Demon voices?”

“One demon,” she replied.

My voice was steady when I asked, “Is his name Chutka?”

Lark watched me as though she couldn’t understand the urgency of my question. She lifted one shoulder. “He doesn’t tell me his name, but he tries to get me to do bad things.”

“Like attack Alden?” I guessed.

She bit her lip and nodded.

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