The Demon's Lover ✓

Lover - Five

2011 © Sonia Bartlett ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Chapter 5

Serlina was shocked. Naturally, of course, this was a huge understatement. From the moment she’d seen Christian standing there through the dim light of the tunnel, she felt a tugging at her heart and if that was not shocking enough, he had forced her to shift.

To shift. Serlina had never met a demon–or anyone for that matter–who’d been powerful enough to force her hand to do such. It was reveal her secret, or die. Serlina didn’t like that.

Clearing her mind of the frantic nonsensical mutterings, she slowly shifted back into her human form. Ignoring the sharp intake of breath she heard from Christian, she pushed his large paw off her chest where it had been all but crushing her.

“My name is Serlina Parisa,” she said finally looking into his grey eyes, the blue being completely dominated by the lighter color, “and I’m here to help.”

“Help?” he gasped, shocked. He was still in the same position he’d fallen into when they’d dropped. “Since when,” he asked sarcastically, flicking his ear around, “does this constitute helping anyone, let alone me?”

Serlina got up slowly, wincing at her still broken and extremely painful leg, and hobbled over to his other side cataloguing the damage. “Who said I'm here to help you?” she snapped.

She noticed he, too, was a quick healer. The torn and bloody skin was already starting to close over his wounds, and if she didn’t get the rubble and bits of rock out first, he would be in a bloody awful lot of pain for a good while. Reaching over his large back she began removing all of the bits and pieces of the reddish-colored rock from his where they’d stabbed into his skin.

The same tingles she’d felt when he touched her, more than a week ago, resurfaced tenfold for this time she was touching him. It didn’t matter if he were in a bear form, or his human one; her body still recognized him as Christian.

“What are you doing?” he questioned suspiciously when he couldn’t see her.

“Helping you,” she said irritably, desperately trying to ignore the sensations she was plagued by and just finish what she’d started.

“But you just said–”

“Do you want my help, or not?” she retorted, yanking a jagged sliver of rock out with more force than necessary.

Grumblingly he subsided, wincing at her action. Suddenly he questioned, “What are you? What are you here for?”

She laughed mirthlessly. “That’s a good question. In fact, I think I’ll use it. What are you? Your scent is that of a Hemon, yet you shift.”

His laugh was equally unamused. “Every Hemon has a power: telepathy, speed, control of the elements. Mine just so happens to be shifting.”

“Impossible,” Serlina breathed. It had to be. No Hemon ever had had the power to shift, much less the ability to shift into anything and everything!

“Then I’m as much a figment of your imagination as you are mine?” he queried sardonically. “Tell me, how is it that you’ve the power to shift into more than one form?”

“A genetic mutation, as far as my father knew,” she said briefly, hesitating before adding, “I always thought it was something else though. Each shifter picks their animal whenever they so choose, though generally not before age five. I shifted when I was two. I’d always been fascinated by snow so all I could imagine was shifting into something white. My first shift was into the tiger, and that’s what everyone thinks I turn into,” she continued absently pulling out the rest of the rock.