Corson

The talons, which were a part of my skeletal structure, slid silently from the backs of my hands as I released them from my body. At nearly a foot long, they almost touched the ground while I walked toward her. Wren showed no response to them. She’d seen me use them multiple times since we’d started our journey into the Wilds, but no matter what she thought of me, she knew I wouldn’t use them on her. I wouldn’t have released them if I’d believed they would upset her.

“I could gut and skin that deer for you without a problem,” I offered, hoping to distract her from our conversation by helping her. I lifted one hand and held my hand before my face. The white talons shone in the sunlight filtering through the trees. “These will make quick work of it for you.”

“I don’t require help, demon,” she replied

“Corson,” I said. “You could call me by it.”

I itched to trace my finger over the tip of her chin when it rose more stubbornly into the air. “I’d prefer not to. You may be immortal, and it may take a decapitation to off you, but you’re still more likely to die out here than I am.”

“Is that so?” I drawled.

“Yep.”

“Are you afraid you’ll get attached me if you use my name and then something will happen to me?”

“Of course not,” she scoffed.

The sun setting over her shoulder made her pale hair shimmer with oranges and golds as I strolled closer to her. Eyeing the string tied around the end of her braid, I contemplated pulling it free to undo the braid and run my fingers through her hair. Does it feel as silken as it looks?

“You think I’m incapable of surviving the Wilds when I survived Hell?” I inquired.

Stopping before her, I searched her eyes for the small flecks of sea green I’d noticed the first time I’d seen her. Every time I got close to her, I looked for that green. The color was such a striking contrast to the blue of her eyes, but so small it was barely noticeable.

“I think you knew Hell and that, once you were free, you knew the safety and protection of the wall, but you don’t know the Wilds.”

“And you don’t know what the fallen angels that recently escaped Hell are like,” I reminded her. “You also don’t know what the creatures who lived behind the seals in Hell are like.”

“You don’t know what those creatures are like either,” she retorted.

“True,” I agreed.

I’d lived with Hell creatures, demons, and fallen angels, and I’d dealt with some of the things locked behind the seals while in Hell, but not all of them. Now, the seals that once kept the worst of Hell locked away to keep demons and other Hell creatures safe, had been destroyed and the occupants were free. Not all the things imprisoned behind the seals had managed to escape Hell, but none of the seals existed anymore. Many of those seal creatures were determined to slaughter everything in their way and were incapable of any reasoning.

Unless a new gateway opened into Hell, one Kobal didn’t control, a lot of the creatures that escaped the seals would remain trapped within Hell, but enough had broken free to wreak havoc on this plane.

I may not give a shit about most of mankind, but there were a few people I’d come to consider friends. Plus, the existence of demons and angels hinged on the survival of mankind. Out of the three species, humans were the only ones with a soul and the only ones capable of creating new souls. If humans became extinct, without the souls of their dead to feed us, angels and demons would perish too.

That was why we’d left the wall, built to separate these wildlands from the civilian population, to travel into the Wilds. Most of the old occupants of the seals, and the angels, avoided going near the wall. Not only was Kobal at the wall, but so was a human military presence and a fair number of paliton demons.

Until recently, most of the civilians on the other side of the wall hadn’t known about the existence of Hell and demons. When the gateway opened, they were told that a war with a foreign government had torn their country apart and left the central states decimated. The people who resided on the other side of the world had been told the same thing about the countries affected there. After the gateway opened and Hell spilled free, the human governments built the wall in an attempt to keep their citizens safe.

When the seals fell and Hell came to Earth, the wall and all those defending it were incapable of keeping the outpouring of monsters back. The tidal wave of Hell creatures going over the wall had eased since the initial rush, but the truth could no longer be hidden from the civvies.

Most of the escapees from the seals remained in the Wilds of this country and Europe. The fallen angels hadn’t been seen much since Lucifer’s demise, but I didn’t doubt they were trying to gather a new army to fight Kobal, and I would do everything I could to stop the bastards.

Until then, I had Wren to contend with, and she was probably more hostile than most of the seal creatures.

“One day I’ll hear you say my name, Wren,” I said.

“I doubt that, demon,” she snorted. “Where are your earrings?”

Hostility flashed through her eyes. Did I crave her so badly that I’d imagined the tinge of jealousy in her words? She’d only ever seen me wearing earrings once, but I knew the others talked and that she was aware of what those earrings meant.

My neck warmed as the flecks of green in her eyes deepened in hue and her steady gaze held mine. I wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed. I’d never be ashamed of pursuing the things I wanted. It was the way of demons after all, but I found myself not liking the fact Wren knew so much, yet so little about me. She’d judged me and found me lacking.

Normally that wouldn’t have bothered me, but it did with her.

I rubbed my thumb and index finger together as I resisted running them over the high arch of her cheekbone. “I’ve decided to try something new,” I replied with an indifference I didn’t feel.

“Hmm,” she said by way of reply.

She turned and stalked into the woods with far less caution than she typically exhibited. I stared after her for a moment as I debated following her. Wind howled through the branches, causing them to click loudly together. A shiver ran up my spine as the chilly air cut through my clothes. The Wilders had revealed to us that when the gateway into Hell opened, this area became warmer. They said the closing of the gateway hadn’t changed that, but it was nowhere near as hot as Hell was, and I hated the chilly November air.

It didn’t surprise me the gateway shutting hadn’t put the temperature back to what it was supposed to be. The closing of the gateway had done little to repair the damage its opening had wrought on Earth. That’s why demons could now retain their immortality on this plane, when before we would have been forced to return to Hell.

Earth was far different from Hell, mostly in a good way, and I had adapted to it during the fourteen years I’d lived here. The only thing I missed about Hell was the constant heat. I found snow worse than a barta demon on a rampage, and I despised the bear-like barta demons now roaming Earth as well as Hell, but I enjoyed the changing seasons and the sunrises and sunsets that marked the days.

All my days in Hell had blended one into another with no way to mark their passing. I found myself stopping to watch every sunrise and sunset with an awe that hadn’t dissipated over my years here.

Unlike humans, I felt no dread over a sense of time slipping away from me when each of those days ended. While in Hell, I’d watched some people complain about their gray hairs and aching joints. Since coming to Earth, I hadn’t heard anyone complain about aging. Probably because many of them knew they might never get the chance to grow old and those who did were fortunate to have made it so long.

I was aware my time on Earth had changed me. It had changed most demons in some way and it had also changed the humans. Every species adapted or died. Many demons had become a little more caring, like humans, while many people had become more vicious with their need to survive and more able to endure adversity, like demons.

Wren was one of those who had adapted exceptionally well, I decided as I watched her walk away. Knowing that it was time for me to return to camp, I started after her.