First, I was stuck with this demon, I had no soul – no emotions, and now I was having anxiety attacks from touching people.
Great. All this because I summoned a demon and said a few wrong words.
No. this was because of him, it had to be. What kind of demon responds to a misspoken chant? One purposefully trying to sabotage me. We didn’t even form a proper circle or have anything set up right for it to have even reached anything. And with how the book practically begged to be read, it seemed like he was just waiting to fuck up my life.
My skin continued to intensify with a sizzling blaze that started at my scarred arm and tore its way through the rest of my body. Blinding pressure filled my head, aiding in the spinning of the van. I gripped the mattress to keep from scratching myself out of the skin I felt trapped in. My muscles felt as if they were clawing to get out and feeling every bit of the pain with it.
After what seemed like hours, the door slid open and Erius stepped in with a handful of bags. He looked over me with an actual hint of concern.
“What the fuck is happening to me?” I snapped.
He set the bags down on the bed. “I can hardly answer that question being I do not know what it is that happened to bring all this on.”
I scuffled up to my feet. “You don’t know what happened? You are what happened! You’re the demon—you should know when the summoning chant isn’t correct.” Fire continued to shred through me, racing up my arm and chest until it engulfed my eyes, blurring my vision to the point of mind trembling pain. The light felt as if shards of glass were pushed through my sockets to be embedded deep into my skull.
I cried out, throwing my hands over my face as I fell back onto my bed. Another shocking jolt shot through me as I landed on something unseen. My body flew forward, crashing into Erius as I struggled to see what was now attached to me. I spun around frantically, trying to knock it free when his arm hooked around my waist and anchored me to his chest. Still, I continued to swat at the long, fuzzy snake stuck to my skirt.
“Stop thrashing, Mina,” he ordered.
I froze against him, shocked he said my name and the warming feeling it brought me.
A deep crease appeared between his brows as he looked over me, grabbing whatever it was I had sat on. The contact sent another shockwave through me, and I could feel every sensation his hand brought. I turned to catch a glimpse of it from the corner of my eye. He gripped the end where a blonde patch of hair sat. I followed the slithery thing down to my skirt where it tucked under the fabric. It wasn’t a fuzzy snake at all.
“Is that a tail?” I gasped.
He grabbed hold of something above my head and pushed it back, tilting my head up. He gently tugged to the left, exposing my neck to him. I held my breath as his nose trailed down my jawline and for a moment, I thought I may be dreaming again because there was no way this was happening to me.
After several questionably deep inhales, I realized he was sniffing me like some animal.
“You still smell mortal. Faintly, but it is there.”
“I still smell mortal. What the fuck does that mean?” I barked as he finally released me.
“See for yourself,” he said, gesturing to the shower where I had a suction cup mirror. I ran over, throwing the curtains open to snatch it from the wall, but the reflection was clearly there, along with hands that weren’t mine. They weren’t even hands to begin with but claws.
It wasn’t just my hands that changed or a tail that sprung free. It was my eyes, now as black as Erius’s with a faint glowing golden iris. My nose, my beautiful nose, gone and replaced with a goat-like snoot.
Did it end there? No, of course it didn’t. Growing from the top of my forehead were two spiraling ebony horns. Twitching alongside them were large floppy goat ears, all adorned with an odd fur that covered my entire body.
“I’m a goat!” I cried out.
“You are not a goat.” Erius sighed, finding some odd amusement in my tail as it began to twist around his hand.
“No?” I grabbed my tail and pulled it back, wincing as I did. “Stop that!” I held it tightly while it thrashed about to break free.
Erius looked from his wrist to my tail before his eyes slowly climbed up to my face. “You shouldn’t do that. Tails are delicate,” he said with an amused grin.
“Like you care! You did this to me!” A feral animalistic hiss slipped from my lips.
He did his stupid eye thing as his grin grew wider. “I did nothing of the sort. I am an innocent victim.”
“What am I?” I asked through clenched teeth.
His eyes raked over me with his stupid growing grin. “I am truly unsure. But I do know someone who may.”
“Call them up then!” I order.
He laughed again, pulling a phone from his back pocket and shaking his head. “I will drive. You should stay back here,” he said as he tapped the screen.
“Wait. Where are you going, I have work in an hour!”
“Do you know how to change back?” We looked at each other for a silent moment before he took a seat in the driver’s seat. “Thought not. I do not suppose you want to go to work like this.”
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