Page 152 of A Soul to Touch

Her legs kicked in the air as if she was trying to find purchase. She was forced to lift her body by just her shoulder so she wasn’t loosely hanging there.

“A Mavka?” the Demon asked as it turned its angular, near bat-like features to Faunus. It was hard to tell that it was male, especially when his voice was rather distorted and high-pitched. “Did I steal your meal?”

The sniggers he made were more like clicks as he hovered in the air.

“Give her to me!” Faunus bellowed, his sight turning a pale red.

Fear and anger warred within him, one cold and the other unbearably hot. His heart felt as though it was moments from freezing over, whereas his extremities were about to burst. His fur and spikes stood on end, and his tail straightened as it puffed.

Faunus looked to the trees, and the Demon used its wings to flap away from them. When he turned to the top of the house, about to leap to it, the Demon fluttered the other way.

The way he bobbed up and down in the sky was like a taunt, coming closer only to suddenly bounce upwards in height.

“I didn’t think when I followed the scent of blood that I would come across a Mavka. No wonder the smell here is strong, and yours lingers. Have you been working with this human?”

His hands clenched until his claws were stabbing into the plump flesh of his palms.I should have realised sooner that it was a Demon.

How could he mistake that whooshing as its wings flapped?

Even now, it was hard to smell him through the lingering blood of his dead kind. Faunus had been upwind of the Demon, making it even more difficult to sense.

The growl that Faunus produced was beastly, even to his own ears. “If you harm her, I will hunt you to the very ends of Earth and rip you limb from limb.”

He would make it his only goal in his disconsolate life to annihilate this winged Demon. Then, and only then, would Faunus march towards Jabez’s grand castle within the Veil and use whatever strength he had left, whatever remained of him and his broken skull, to kill that monster. Even if it cost him his last heartbeat.

After everything he’d experienced with Mayumi, every tender touch, every heart-achingly beautiful word they’d shared, he knew he’d see no other point but revenge if she were to be taken from him.

She had been the centre-point of his life for too long, his obsession. Without her, knowing she no longer shared her breaths in the same plane of existence as him – even if he could not be with her – Faunus thought he might give in to his mind and let it go.

What was the point of his humanity then, if he couldn’t have the one creature he’d sworn to protect? The one creature he’d grown to... love.

Mayumi’s and the Demon’s voices overlapped at the same time.

“Faunus!” Mayumi shouted while reaching down to the hilt of her dagger. “Catch!”

“Wait...” the Demon said with his red eyes narrowing at him. “I know you.”

Shit!He only had a second to get into position before Mayumi stabbed her blade into the calf leg holding her and drew it down. The Demon screeched, hands tightening in pain and tension as his body dipped.

He released her, and Faunus caught her mid-air when he leapt. She was silent as she fell until she landed in the cushion of his arms, where she gave an impact oomph.

“I knew you’d catch me,” she said quietly, a glint of tenderness and trust in her eyes.

Her expression hardened when she looked upwards.

“You’re the feline-skulled Mavka! The ram-horned!” the Demon shrieked.

“Fuck,” Faunus gasped out, his orbs turning to such a stark colour of white it blinded him for a second. He tossed Mayumi to her feet, and she stumbled before righting herself. “Stay inside.”

He began to change, morphing into his monstrous form. Fear and panic was settling deep with every second it took to change.

“We’ll fight him together, Faunus. I’ll get my bow and–”

“I must let him know!” The Demon yelled. Before they knew it, he dipped to the side and began flying through the forest. “I must let our king know!”

It was exactly what Faunus anticipated.

No!

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