Page 123 of Protected By Monsters (Everwood Demons 1)

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Isat in my room with my hellhounds, who had showered and dressed before joining me. Creeper was silent, keeping his distance from me for some odd reason as the others sat on my bed with me.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jack asked again, leaning against the pillows with me nestled into his side.

Chumley sat on the edge of the bed, while Bug was sitting cross-legged and flicking his elastic band every few seconds.

I’d noticed when he’d shifted back to man, it had disappeared, clearly burned off in the shift, but he’d found a new one.

“I’m fine,” I said for the millionth time. It was starting to annoy me how much they were stressing over me. “Creeper, why are you being so funny?” I asked as I turned to stare at him where he sat at my desk.

“I’m not,” he grumbled with his arms folded.

“He killed someone in front of you,” Bug pointed out, and Creeper growled at him. Bug just shrugged and ignored him.

“You killed someone who was trying to kill me with a monster. A bad demon,” I said firmly. But now I understood. He was worried I thought differently of him.

Seeing him covered in blood had made me hesitate when we had stopped before my bedroom door earlier, and he’d strode off unhappily as the others told me they’d shower and return. The other three had had black blood smeared on them from the creature, only Creeper was covered in crimson blood.

“It doesn’t bother you?” Creeper murmured after a moment of staring uncertainly at me.

“You guys were created to protect me. Which you all did. I can’t feel funny about that, and I do need to thank all of you. I couldn’t do anything, my hellfire was useless, and I had no weapons. Not that they would’ve worked,” I muttered. “Did you guys know Dezikiel was an angel?” I narrowed my eyes at them.

“Yes, we knew. Most of the older students know, I guess everyone knows now. Every Academy is run by a fallen angel, an angel who got demoted from Heaven and tasked with training demonics,” Jack explained.

“Why is he fallen?”

“We’re not sure. There are many fallen angels, but they still answer to Heaven. Some fall because they develop human emotions, others ask too many questions or choose to fall and live more human lives,” Bug said as he played with his elastic band.

“Did anyone else feel that the creature was… angelic?” Chumley asked softly.

“What?” I blurted in disbelief.

“Yeah, it had the feeling when I bit it,” Jack agreed. “And then an angel blade would make sense. Demon weapons can’t hurt angelics. But angelic weapons can.”

“How on earth could it be angelic? It didn’t look angelic,” I snorted, but my stomach dropped. “And an angel blade?”

“Dezikiel’s sword,” Creeper muttered.

We’d been taught that our weapons could work on other demonics, that they were crafted in a special way. And it had done nothing to the monster. And from my experience with Dezikiel and getting my hellfire that day, it hadn’t harmed him either.

It being angelic was making sense.

But how?

A brisk knock on the door cut our conversation short, and I invited whoever it was in.

I hadn’t expected it to be Dezikiel.

“Good, you’re all here,” he said as he glanced around at all of us. Miss Sage and Mr. Baron had filed in as well, closing the door and standing quietly behind him.

“Lily, it’s time you learned what Everwood Academy is. For demonics with no knowledge of what they are before coming here, we keep it from them until we feel they’re ready to know. I believe now is the time,” Dezikiel said, his deep brown eyes boring into mine as I sat up.

“Everwood Academy trains up the Everwood Hunters. Demonics who protect humanity from demons that sneak through rips or are summoned. Rips of the Gates of Hell. These rips are like doorways, small and only open for a short amount of time, letting only a handful of demons through at most before closing. They open up all around the world; they’ve been like this for centuries, and demonics have been the ones chosen to combat these waves of demons that cause chaos and damage. Angels used to handle them long ago, but unlike demonics and demons, their numbers are limited. No new angels are born anymore.”

I just soaked up this information, staring hard at Dezikiel.

Now the training made more sense. I knew we were learning to protect ourselves, as demonics were hunted, especially the stronger ones. Like me. The others could show up on tracking spells if they were in the area, and once they were deemed ready to leave the mansion, Dezikiel laid a powerful warding on them. Even my hellhounds had them.

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