Pressed up against the wall of the alley was a young girl, probably still in high school, fingers tightly grasped around her neck.
Those fingers belonged to a grull demon.
"Help!" she cried, struggling for breath.
"Don't talk!" I called back. "Try and stay still,"
She nodded, fear in her eyes.
Sliding my mobile from my pocket I punched in Angel's number as fast as humanly possible.
"Hello?"
"Angel, its me Lily. There's a girl being choked to death by a grull demon in one of the alleys next to the store. Well like, behind but next to-" I tried to explain, my voice trembling as I watched Kingsley attempt to pull the demon off the girl.
"I got it. Kill the demon, save the girl and then run. There's more where that one came from down here," Angel replied.
I gulped.
"Okay. Thanks,"
He didn't reply, simply cutting the line.
"Carpenter!" Kingsley shouted and I whipped around to face him and the demon.
"What do I do?" I cried, panicking.
"Shoot the damn thing!"
"O-Okay!" I replied, hastily pulling my gun out of my pocket and releasing the trigger.
I shot the demon once, terrified that I would shoot Kingsley instead.
Or worse, the girl.
The demon cried out in pain and recoiled, allowing the girl to escape.
She stumbled slightly before bolting out of the alley, adrenaline clearly pumping through her.
"A thank you would have been nice," I muttered before firing towards the demon again.
"Die you stupid growl demon!" I yelled and Kingsley shot me a look.
"Really?"
"Duck!" I screamed, ignoring his comment as the demon raised an arm over his head.
Kingsley dropped to the ground just in time, rolling away.
The demon lumbered slowly towards us, its long arms reaching out to grab me.
"No way,"
I shot the demon twice, causing it to, ironically, growl in pain before falling to the cobblestone floor of the alleyway.
"Is it dead?" Kingsley asked, slowly standing.
"I don't know," I replied, panting for breath.
He walked over to the demon, peering tentatively at its limp body.
"Its not breathing," he called back and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Kingsley glanced around the alley as if looking for something.
"What are you doing?!" I cried.
"Looking for something I can use to behead it," he called back.
I tossed him a knife from my belt and he caught it in one-hand, smirking at me.
"Come on!"
Rolling his eyes, he cut the grull's head off in one smooth motion.
"Fine," Kingsley spoke, turning back to me with a coy smile.
"Lets. Go," I spoke, my voice hard to disguise the terror I couldn't shake.
The two of us bolted through the warren of alleys, neither of us any idea of where we'd come out.
That's if we made it out.
Two grull demons jumped in front of us, blocking our path.
Whipping around to retrace our steps, we were faced with another pair.
Soon enough, we were surrounded.
"Ready to fight?" Kingsley asked me.
I cast a petrified look up at him.
"Not really," I squeaked.
"Well that sucks," he replied, lunging forward to land a kick to one of the demons heads.
"Oh. We're really doing this. Okay!" I muttered, sliding the gun from my pocket.
"Get down!" I cried and Kingsley turned to stare at me, confused.
"What?" he asked.
"Down! Get down!" I repeated and he did so.
Closing my eyes, I fired the gun repeatedly, spinning in a circle.
Don't remind me how much of a risky move that was.
I paused for a second, not opening my eyes, afraid of what I would see.
"Open your eyes goddammit!" Kingsley yelled and I flicked them open, flinching back just in case.
Three of the ten demons were collapsed on the ground and he saw quickly to beheading them with my knife.
Now there was just one problem.
I was out of bullets.
And there were still seven upright, very angry looking grull demons surrounding me.
"Uh...Kingsley?" I called and he turned to face me.
"Oh..." he replied, the colour draining from his already colour-less face.
"Emiel...what do we do?"
"This,"
And he kissed me.
My eyes widened as his lips pressed against mine.
That were attached to his stupid, irritating, extremely attractive face.
The world was spinning so fast and it felt like I was about to throw up...but like...in a good way.
He pulled away, eyes wide as mine.
"Lily..." he breathed.
"That's my name," I replied, my own voice as breathy as his.
"There are demons," he remarked, out of it.
"Mhm," I agreed, my wide eyed gaze meeting his.
Though he was a little more deer in headlights.
"Demons...bad," he stuttered.
"Yeah. They are," a voice replied and the two of us crashed back to earth.
Angel.
And demons.
Lots of demons.
Very close to me.
With teeth.
I screamed, jumping backwards as Angel began to fight them all off, single handedly.
"How come you couldn't fight like that?" I asked...the guy next to me.
He exhaled very slowly.
"I don't think any true answer is gonna make whatever just happened any better,"
Oh.
Oh God.
I didn't know whether to blush or scream or cry or run away or all of them at once.
And there was another thing on that list I was far too terrified to mention. Kissing him again.
"Mhm," I squeaked.
Because he was right.
What.
The hell.
Just happened?
The final demon crashed to the ground and we both turned to face Angel.
"Yo'ure welcome," he spoke and I nodded, my face heating up.
"Mhm," I repeated, as if that was the extent of my vocabulary.
"Thanks,"...he managed, brushing past the two of us, his bare arm touching mine.
Something jolted through me, like a sudden burst of electricity and my head began to spin.
I couldn't think of anything but him.
Oh.
This is not good.
"Are you okay?" Angel asked me, confused and concerned.
"Mhm," I whispered before the world turned black.
(A/N: AHHHHHHHH!!!! I told you it wouldnt be as much of a slowburn as IN3IWU!!! But hey, i gotta tell you, things have to get worse before they get better and this story ain't over yet. Stay safe and totally tubular and I'll see you all in the next one xx)