Runaway Devil
57

Kara

A laugh bubbled up from my chest as Alec glided beneath me. The night air was brisk and refreshing, perfect for air travel. Balan ran along the ground, his own preferred way of travel. Before we started this journey, I had thought that making him into a winged animal would make things easier. But he loved having his paws on the ground, it made him feel more secure and confident.

His heart beat in rhythm with mine, our breath syncing up. We would be home in a couple of days, especially if we kept up with our current pace. We were covering ground faster than I thought. After Alec ditched Hank's truck, we started devouring the distance like it was nothing.

Alec rested his hands on his stomach while gazing at me from below. I refused to look down at him, but smiled to myself all the same. There was a patch on oncoming clouds that Alec craned his neck to see. He grinned and pulled up into it, disappearing completely in the surreal whiteness.

I raised a brow and followed, determined to play back. It was virtually impossible to see anything, there was solid walls of white all around me. I hovered for a moment before reaching out mentally, trying to gauge our distance from one another.

He was close, still within the same cloud. Goosebumps rose on my skin, it was colder in there than I had expected. I closed my eyes and focused on listening and feeling the air around me. Any movement of our wings would certainly disperse more of the water vapor. There was a stillness in the air that was interrupted by a sudden gust of strong wind, clearing the cloud from around me completely. I cringed and stabled myself with my wings, pulling my knees up towards my center.

I could feel Alec's amusement as he hovered roughly twenty feet in front of me. I smirked and flapped my wings hard, sending me forward in a flurry of feathers. I collided with him, directly in his chest. He held on, keeping me pinned to him. We began our descent, freefalling as we wrestled in the air.

"Fancy a crash landing?" He asked silently with a smile. I rolled my eyes and opened my wings with a snap, halting our fall almost entirely. I held him by the shirt, his legs dangling freely. He looked up at me, his hands grasping my wrists.

"Any last words?" I grinned down at him, enjoying our game. His wings were relaxed, loosely hanging from his back. And he was beautiful. A demon with an angel at her mercy, both enjoying every second of it. He smiled and reached for my face, holding it in his palm as he pulled it down towards his. Our lips met in a gentle, chaste kiss. It was sweet, like a cold peach on a summer afternoon.

My stomach grumbled suddenly and loudly. I hadn't hunted in a couple of days, and my body wanted food. I rolled my eyes and growled at it, almost like I was telling it to be quiet. Alec chuckled and lifted his own weight with his wings. "Come on," He leaned forwards and started for the woods beneath us.

Balan was close by and he was hungry too. He had already started his hunt. I could feel him closing in on his prey. I followed Alec down and we landed silently. I looked and found him already staring expectantly at me.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to hunt?" I nodded but didn't move. I felt a bit awkward about having an audience. Alec, sensing my hesitation, shrugged. "I'm curious." He had been practicing his demon tongue with me. We had been speaking in it more and more. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the feel of my native language in my mouth.

"I'm not an exhibit at the zoo, Alec," I leaned onto one of my hips, crossing my arms.

"I've never seen you hunt before."

"Yeah, you have. You've seen me hunt for nearly two months now."

"You know what I mean." I sighed and looked at him a moment longer.

"Keep your distance and stay quiet. If I loose my meal because you couldn't be silent, I'm gonna be pissed." He grinned like a little boy, his eye alight with youthful amusement.

I placed my bare foot on the soil, feeling the thrum of life around me. A breeze whispered through my hair and I inhaled, my gaze tracking my meal. My heart beat in sync with the red fox's. I could feel my fangs push past my gums and welcomed the weight of them in my mouth.

I was salivating just looking at it. It froze, sensing my presence, and its fur stood up on end in an attempt to make it look bigger. I exhaled slowly, quieting my breath, and honing in on my prey.

I held my breath and stayed absolutely still, like a hunter lining up their crosshairs. One beat. He sniffed the air. Another moment. And then he took off. I pursued, matching his footfalls and gaining on him fast. I kept his tail in sight, a beacon to follow in the moonlight. I was almost on top of him and he knew it. He looked frantically for an out, for any escape route at all.

Before he could make his next move, my fingers were around his neck, my teeth on his throat. Its blood was warm as it sloshed in my mouth. The meat was stringy and tough, this particular fox was on the leaner side. Hyperaware that Alec was most likely watching me, I ate at a slower, more controlled pace than normal. I wanted nothing more than to just let loose and scarf down as many of these woodland creatures as possible. We would be home soon and I needed the energy. And to save time, it would have been a lot easier to throw polite manners to the wind. The image of me running on all fours with a rabbit in my mouth came to mind. The idea of shaking one like a dog's chew toy almost made me laugh.

I dug in with little regard for the skin or fur, eating anything my stomach could handle. I moved on quickly. If I was going to fill my stomach and replenish my energy, I would need a lot of food.

Three rabbits, two badgers, four groundhogs, two more foxes, and half a coyote later, I was feeling quite refreshed. Balan had taken down the coyote, he was standing over it when I found him. He looked proud of his kill. The deer back home didn't put up nearly as much of a fight. I could sense his satisfaction with a little challenge from his meal.

After we cleaned the coyotes bones of meat, I tossed them aside, under the brush. Balan licked his chops while I hunted down some water to clean up in. Alec stepped out from the dense trees with a small smile, his head cocked to the side.

"What?" I quickly wiped the blood from my mouth, smearing it up my forearm. He didn't respond, just continued his slow approach. I tried to read his energy, it was amused and fascinated. "Well, I'm glad I could entertain you for an evening. You see any brooks or ponds around here?"

"I can smell one just around that bend," He gestured over my shoulder. All I could smell was blood and the musk of game meat. I'm sure I reeked of it. "Yeah, you do," He walked closer, pulling a piece of skin, or maybe it was fur, out of my hair. He tucked the strand over my ear, and grinned at me. "But I kind of like it."

"You're sick," I smiled back at him, my fangs slowly pulling back. I ran my tongue across my teeth, sucking any left over blood or meat down my throat.

"What can I say, I like a girl who isn't a picky eater."

"Well, jackpot. I've eaten opossums that I had to ambush in the subway before." Alec finally cringed at that one. "Oh? You prefer cage free, wild meat?" I gestured broadly, dramatically referring to the woods. "No traces of exhaust or pollution in their blood?"

He chuckled and turned me in the direction of the pond. Now that the animals had quieted, the panic of new predators had died down, I could hear the pond. There were brooks feeding into it and redirecting the water through the woods.

The blood had started to dry and it made my skin feel crusty. I started for the pond, knowing all too well how cold the water was going to be. Luckily, I had an angel to warm me.

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