Demon Princess #4: Reign Storm

Chapter 3

 I scrambled up to my feet.

"Rhys!" I yelled, realizing with shock that he'd thrown me out of his kingdom like I was a half-demon piece of garbage. 

That jerk! 

"Um...everything okay, Nikki?" 

The familiar female voice made my shoulders tense and I slowly turned to see that Melinda and Chris were staring at me from the sidewalk. I scanned the rest of the street to see if anyone else was within hearing distance. 

I cleared my throat. "Oh, yeah. Everything's fantastic." 

Melinda cocked her head. "Considering that you just appeared out of nowhere...and...plunk." She made a smacking gesture with her hand. "Just saying, not exactly something you see every day." 

I wasn't in the right frame of mind to explain. "What do you want?" 

She grimaced. "Ouch." 

"Sorry to be a little sharp, but I'm kind of in the middle of something." 

"You were almost in the middle of that snow bank there." Chris nodded toward the pile of snow next to me, which would have made for a much softer landing. 

The last time I'd seen Chris, he'd just shifted into his dragon form for the first time ever, something that had come as a total surprise to him. 

"You look less...fiery," I said. 

"Thanks?" He grinned. "Let's just say, I feel like a new person. Way less, uh, crazy than I was before. Who knew?" 

"Your mother did," I said pointedly, unable to keep the accusation out of my voice.  

His jovial expression faded a little. "Yeah, well, her and me -- we're going to talk. I understand that she was trying to protect me, but I would have liked to have known a long time ago that I'm half dragon." 

Melinda's lips were thin, her arms crossed tightly over her black wool coat. She used to wear a lot of bright colors -- pink, turquoise, violet -- but now my blond former BFF had chosen a palate of only black. I guess that was the latest fashion trend for demon slayers in training. 

She'd tried to kill me only last night before we were interrupted by both a murderous faery-chick and Chris's first shift. 

Then again, she'd thought I was evil. That came with the territory of being a slayer, I guess.  

I watched her warily, my arms crossed so we looked like mirror images of each other. 

"I thought you two should talk," Chris said. 

"I told him it was too soon," Melinda replied. Her gaze also held wariness, but there wasn't same hate there like I'd seen before. "But maybe I was wrong." 

My heart lightened just a little. "I'm not seeing any swords today." 

"No swords today. Or ever. Not with you." 

"But what about your family?" 

"They don't need to know. Besides, they left this morning to go to a society convention over the border." 

I made a face. "Let me guess. A demon slayer society convention?" 

She nodded. "Everyone in the organization is there, planning, plotting, discussing prophesies." 

"Sounds like a blast." I shifted my feet nervously. "But you're not with them." 

"They told me to stay home while they seek advice on how to deal with me -- a slayer who doesn't want to slay." Melinda shrugged, then a small grin turned up the edge of her lips. "It's been a hell of a weekend."