Demons Run (6)
After eating, we checked out of the hotel and continued on our way. Roman said that we were going to the mall today and that he would buy me new clothes and any personal items that I lost. Which had been everything, the exception being my purse and its contents.
Pain and Panic seemed reluctant to come with us at first, but I was interested to see how they would act in such a public place. They were both so fascinated with humans and the mall seemed like it would be a field day for them.
Roman had checked us into a hotel that was right down the road from a mall. The mall was actually a Galleria and had two stories to it. The parking lot had scattered cars, which wasn't surprising, it was a Sunday and there wouldn't be many people.
We parked the Sierra Grande around back and entered through Ross. It was cool, as it is in most department stores. Jewelry glittered on display tables and the scent of mingled perfumes wafted over from the draft the open door brought.
Clothes lined the walls and on circular racks around the room. A woman with a poofy blond ponytail and a perky smile approached us. She was wearing the store uniform with a name tag that read: "Manager: Linda"
"Hello! Welcome to Ross, how may I help you?" She asked. I noticed her eyes were hungrily fixed on Roman. She was raking in his good looks the best way she could.
A hot, unexplainable spike of jealousy curled through me. I grit my teeth and grabbed Roman's hand. In the politest voice I could muster I said, "We don't really need help, we're just here to shop."
Her eyes merely spared me a glance before she looked back to Roman. Her eyes were flirty, and so was her body language, "You know, we just got in a new shipment of clothes that are to die for. I can help size you."
Roman smirked at her and I stomped on his foot. He barely winced before giving me an incredulous look. I flared my nostrils at him before snapping my head back to the blond; she was still eyeing him, chewing on her lip.
"Thanks, but I think we'd rather not take the advice from a woman who thinks wearing crocs to work is a good idea." I finally snapped, losing any civility in my tone. "And as far as sizing goes, I don't even think you know your own shirt size because realistically, that top is three sizes too small on you. Buy something that fits, because despite what the guy at the last cheap bar you went to said, it isn't attractive."
She was certainly looking at me now, her mouth was open about half an inch as if nobody had ever spoken to her like that before.
I smiled briefly and victoriously at having silenced her, and began pulling Roman in the opposite direction, back to the clothes.
Panic rushed up to be on my other side and whispered, "What's a croc?"
"An alligator." answered Pain in a hushed tone, "That woman was an animal poacher."
"Ohhhh."
I didn't have the heart to correct him.
"Damn, angel." Roman laughed once we were out of earshot, "Now who's the jealous one?"
"I'm not jealous!" I said too quickly, stopping to turn around and face him in the middle of two high clothing racks. Looking past him I noticed that Pain and Panic had scampered off and were playing around in an underwear bin. "But we have to get a move on and if you would have stood there she would have been flirting with you the whole time."
"What if I felt like flirting?" He asked. His face was smug, teasing.
"Then by all means, go flirt. But you're the one bitching about time." I said, crossing my arms and forcing myself into a poker face. Roman saw right through it.
He smiled and leaned down to where he was right next to my ear, "It's okay." He whispered, sliding his hand around my waist and resting it on my lower back, "I like it when you get jealous. To be honest, it kind of turns me on." I looked up at him, shocked. I turned someone like him on?
I felt heat pool in my stomach again, but this time it wasn't jealousy. It was something else entirely. I wanted Roman. As infuriating as he was, I couldn't help but to imagine what a night with him would be like. Maybe he thought about it too.
His hand stayed where it was and he didn't pull away. He nudged my ear with his nose playfully. He was moving toward my neck and my heart was racing. I could feel the warm caress of his breath. All I had to do was turn my head the slightest bit and--
"Roman! Look!"
Roman moved away from my neck and turned around. Saved by the twins. I took the opportunity to let out a deep breath I'd been holding in and squirmed a bit. When I looked to where Roman was looking, I saw Pain with a thong over his face.
He grazed the lacy black fabric with his teeth and then spit it out, "I don't think this is where it goes. Oops." He took it off of his head and held it up, "Can I get one?"
Roman smirked and responded, "Only if you get one in Eve's size!"
He turned to me and winked. I almost melted into a fucking puddle.
We browsed a bit and I had picked out a few pairs of jeans and shorts. Roman didn't say much, but we had some fun banter like we always did, and he made fun of me a lot. We moved on to shirts where we were joined once more by the twins.
"Can we help?" Panic asked, looking at me with excited puppy dog eyes.
"Sure." I said with a smile. He and Pain instantly jumped to clothing racks and started yanking things off for me to try on. Pain was trying to get me to try on a purple leather jumpsuit, but I refused. I was not going to be like Daphne from Scooby Doo. Nope. Eventually, the twins dragged me towards the lingerie.
"Guys, I'm supposed to be finding shirts. I will shop for underwear and bras while you are elsewhere." I said, crossing my arms.
Roman had disappeared, I assume to search for clothes of his own. Thank you, leave me with the Fae who are experimenting with humans and human things.
“Ooh! Look, Eve!” Pain was holding up a purple bra and panty set. “I bet Roman’ll looooooove this!” He drug out the word love and it caused me to blush.
Panic snatched the bra out of his hands and put it on over his shirt. “Pain, help me do this! This is so weird.” He whined, trying to clasp the bra in the back. Pain walked around and helped him with the clasp.
“Excellent!” Panic did a happy dance, the C cup bra strapped firmly to his flat chest. I looked around and sure enough, other shoppers were beginning to stare.
“Knock it off, pissheads! People are staring,” I covered my face with my hands and silently prayed no one asked questions.
“Ooh, Roman! Touch me!” Panic sang, sticking out his chest and throwing a hand to his forehead. I realized that he was mocking me and my mouth dropped open in embarrassment.
Pain took Panic into his arms and dipped him. “Anything for you, angel.” Pain said in soft latin accent that scarily resembled Roman's. “Oh, darling. I love the way your eyes shine in the moonlight!”
God these two were so fucking obnoxious, but I'll give credit where it's due; they sure knew how to act.
“Oh Roman! My insatiable lust for you continues to grow by the second!” Oh, these fuckers. I took the few steps remaining inbetween the twins and I and reached up and snapped the bra straps on Panic. He yelped.
“Knock it off!” I whisper-yelled, glancing to the accumulating crowd that pretended they weren't watching us.
"Aw, angel are you really that attracted to me?" asked a voice from behind me. I stiffened and my eyes went wide with horror. Roman had decided to make a reappearance, and from his amused tone it seemed he'd been watching the whole time.
"Oooooh, the sexual tension." I heard Panic giggle quietly.
I gained composure and glanced over my shoulder. He was standing very close behind me. "Don't flatter yourself."
"Okay." He smirked, "Challenge accepted."
"What do you—"
"Guys, you were doing great. But make it a little more realistic." said Roman, "I’m never that nice to her." He shot me another one of those smirks which I returned with a hateful scowl.
“You’re right.” Pain said after a brief pause. He looked up at Panic and grabbed a fistful of his hair, screaming, “S AND M.”
I let out a groan, “I literally can't with you two right now.”
Pain started singing. “I GUESS IT’S JUST THE WOMAN IN YOU THAT BRINGS OUT THE MAN IN ME.” Then he did this awkward hip thrusting and, despite my utter mortification, I had to laugh.
Panic belted out, “OH BABY BAY. NA NA NA NA NA NA NA!”
Roman stepped forward and swatted them both in the head, “Knock it the fuck off.” He swore.
The twins winced away.
“I like it rough.” Pain joked after he recovered from the hit, winking at me.
"I'm going to hit you with a car." I said furiously. I whipped around to Roman, "And you're next!"
"Me? What did I do?"
"You're encouraging it!"
"Oh, come on, you know it's funny."
I rolled my eyes at him and walked away from the lingerie. It would be a lot funnier if it wasn't completely true.
*
We finished up in Ross having purchased all of our clothing items and continued on into the rest of the mall. Pain and Panic were now happier to be here, realizing how fun it could be, and the mood seemed to lighten up.
"What else do you need?" Roman asked as the four of us walked past the food court.
"Nothing." I said with a shrug. "I had my purse in the truck, at least."
"Not even like earrings or something?"
I cocked an eyebrow at him playfully, "Roman, are you trying to spoil me?"
"What if I am?" He asked charmingly.
"You can't answer questions with questions." I said, smiling up at him. Honestly, it was hard to remember that there was any evil in him at all. He was so… gentle, with me, at least. Sure, he teased me a lot, but only what he thought I could handle. He probably didn’t think I noticed when he was secretly trying to be a sweetheart, but I did.
"I just did."
What kind of demon treats you like a princess? Honestly, if all demons acted like Roman, you better sign me up and send me to hell for I have sinned.
Pain and Panic were trucking ahead of us excitedly, scoping out all of the stores and food carts, trying to decide which one they wanted to go to on Roman's promise that they could pick the next two places.
“Isn’t Spencer a name?” Panic inquired as he began walking curiously towards its open front.
“It is," I said, "But this establishment is also named 'Spencers.' There's usually one in every mall.”
Was it really a good idea to allow the three of them to take me into a store that's main focus was booze and sex? Nope, not in the slightest.
Did I have a choice in the matter? No, because not-so-demon boy and the pain-in-the-ass elf boys were already in the store. Fuck my life. This was supposed to be a quick trip. Now I’d spend the next hour explaining to the twins about how sex works.
I followed after them into the store and let out a small laugh as I watched the twins hit each other with rubber chickens.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two girls focusing on the twins and giggling quietly to each other. My temper flared a bit, was this 'hit on my guys' day?
I stopped mid-thought. My guys? When was I ever so possessive? With Roman, it was a different kind of possession. I was majorly jealous over my demon boy, but with good reason. With the twins, I wasn't so much jealous as much as I felt like they were my friends and these girls just didn't deserve them.
You know, it’s amazing how easily someone can grow on you within a matter of days.
I noticed Roman looking at me once I had turned my attention away from the twins, and cocked my head the side a bit, giving him a questioning look. He shook his head blithely before looking away once more.
I stepped past the twins and continued to the back of the store where all the different backlights, lava lamps, and plasma globes were kept. As much as I liked the funny parts of the store, I always found myself wandering back here at some point.
I set down my finger on top of a plasma globe and smiled as the purple streak of lightning went to my finger on the glass. Something so simple could hold so much amazement.
I heard footsteps behind me and felt Roman grab the wrist of the hand that wasn't occupied. I retracted my fingers from the sphere and looked up to him.
“Are you sure you're okay with being here? You've been through a lot the last few days. I understand if you're not up for this sort of thing.” Roman's eyes were filled with concern. I still couldn’t even begin to fathom how he was supposed to be a demon. Not once had he gotten violent with me or the twins, regardless of his frustration towards us.
“I’m fine.” I said quietly, stroking his hand with my thumb for a bit of extra reassurance. "It has been a lot, but you guys are pretty good company."
He smiled at me; this was a real smile, not a smirk. I felt my heart squeeze in my chest. God, he was such a beautiful creature. I even noticed dimples on him; it was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen in my life.
He noticed my fixation on him and there was a question in his eyes, "What is it?"
"N-nothing." I said quickly, shaking my head. "I've never really seen you smile before and, um… you have dimples."
"Is that bad?" He asked with a small laugh.
"Oh, no. No. Definitely not." I said with a blush. It occurred to me right then that we were perfectly alone in this part of the store. "They're very… very cute."
"So is your blush." Roman pointed out, dimpling at me again. This only caused me to blush even deeper.
"Thank you." I said with a giggle. Before I could say anything else really stupid, or make an idiot out of myself by flirting with him, I decided to leave it at that. "Let's go make sure Pain and Panic aren't doing anything too illegal."
By the time we got back up front, they were putting the rubber chickens back and had moved to the greetings cards and books.
Pain plucked a Birthday Card from the shelf with a very muscular and attractive guy on the front (still had nothing on Roman). He flipped it open and his eyes bulged, "Whoa! It's a pop up."
I covered my mouth to avoid the very loud laugh that wanted desperately to surface.
Panic was scanning the books when he suddenly looked very excited, “A SEX BIBLE? WOW.” He was basically yelling and several eyes in the store went to him. Again embarrassed by the elves, my horrified eyes went wide.
“Oh shit.” I muttered grabbing Roman's hand and dragging him towards the boys.
“What kind of sins can we commit with this?!” Pain's voice was equally as loud as he snatched the book from Panic's hands.
“Jesus H." I hissed, yanking them both down by their elfy ears. They both winced, but went quiet. "Hey, Team Sinning, could you keep it down?”
I let go of their ears and the both went back to feathering through the book; occasionally their eyes would bulge at the pages.
The two girls from earlier decided to walk up then. One with red hair took the "bible" from Panic’s hands and opened to a random page. She pointed, then bit her lip in a seductive way.
“That’s a fun position.” She spoke slowly then added a wink. She was focusing on Panic, and the other was focusing on Pain. I fought the urge to throw up dramatically.
Pain raised a suggestive eyebrow, “Oh really?” For someone who had never even interacted with humans, let alone females, he was a pervy little creature.
“Oh yeah,” She pressed her lips to his ear, but I still managed to hear her whisper, “Wanna try it out? I’m pretty flexible.”
Panic seized up suddenly; his face was expressionless but with wide eyes. His stiff structure no longer had balance. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted. Roman caught him before he could collapse onto the ground. Pain was tweaking and twitching with excitement. His words were incoherent babble.
“Okay, Whore One and Whore Two," I said meanly, "I’m going to need you to get away from my friends. Your suggestive language is utterly repulsive and quite frankly, I smelled Eau de Slut on you the minute you stepped within a 5 foot radius.”
I didn’t care that I was being a bitch, these girls had “STD" written all over theim. Sorry, not sorry. We needed to get out of this store. It was just too much chaos for me to handle.
“Excuse you?” She scoffed.
“I believe she asked you to leave.” Roman spoke up. His voice was cool and menacing. Pain took Panic from Roman and set him on the ground, trying to make him come to.
She took a step back to admire him before saying, "A guy like you is whipped? Seriously?"
Her friend muttered, "No kidding. All three of 'em."
Roman placed his hands on my hips and gave a coy smile, probably to show he wasn’t interested, "Sure. You could say that."
Shocks resembling the plasma under my fingers coursed through every nerve in my body.
“Whatever.”
The girls finally walked away and Pain and Panic looked very upset with me and began pouting.
“WHY’D YOU DO THAT EVE? I WANTED TO DO THE SEX.” Pain whined.
“Do you even know what sex is?” I challenged, raising an eyebrow.
“Even slugs can do it. Everyone knows what sex is. Sex is... sex.” Panic replied, seeming confused by the question.
I sighed, “Forget I even asked."
*
We left Spencer's and Team Sinning was walking around confidently with their whole 'pimp limp' going on. That over falsisity of confidence was going to cause me a major headache by the end of the day.
"Look over there!" said Panic, pointing to a huge Party City shop. "That looks cool."
"It does." I said with a smile.
Roman looked down at me, "Well, do you wanna go?"
"Can we?"
"Yeah, sure, we've got time."
The four of us walked to Party City where all of the Halloween stuff was already out. It was dark with purple lights and spooky music. Props, fake skeletons, and bats were hung everywhere. Smoke from smoke machines rolled over the floor.
It was appropriate that I'd be in a Halloween store with two faeries and a demon.
"Pain, look!" said Panic. He was gesturing wildly to an unsuspecting couple giggling at one of the Halloween props.
Pain wallowed in excitement and bounded off with Panic to hide in a dark corner. I watched as they waited for the couple to come closer, then pounced out. They both looked terrified and screamed, especially the girl's boyfriend.
They took off running straight past Roman and I out of the store. I looked back to Team Sinning and they gave me a thumbs up, huge smiles on their faces. I shook my head.
"You can go look at some stuff if you want." said Roman, "This store is fine. I'll wait here for you."
"You sure?" I asked. He gave me an approving nod. I smiled before walking towards the last isle where all the costumes were kept.
Party City had literally every costume imaginable. There was Harley Quinn, Marge Simpson, Fem!Loki, Roman Goddess, Viking Queen, you name it. I would have really loved to see Roman dressed up as Thor. He had the arms for it.
As I got deeper into the store, the spooky music got louder and my lighting became more dim. Still, I continued down the isle, looking curiously at everything. I made a turn, and there was now no light behind me. The only light I had was very dim and was possibly even worse than a total blackness. The costumes had quickly went from sexy to scary. I felt my heart beat pick up as everywhere I turned there was a scary mask. The wolf man, pinhead, Jason.
I picked up my pace and walked quickly down the maze of isles, now having no idea where I was or how to get back to the front of the store. I stopped and looked around, swallowing hard. In front of my face was a looming clown.
He was scary with huge fangs and a giant nose and a slashed up face. It wasn't a mask, it was an actual clown. He let out a dark laugh and blood poured out of his mouth. He raised his hand and there was a glinting knife, just like the one the druggie had stabbed me with. I let out a broken up sob and backed up into the shelf behind me, knocking down a few things from the shelves.
"Eve!" I heard Roman yell for me. His voice was close, "Where are you?"
I tried to call out to him or make a noise, but nothing came out. My lips trembled and my heart had frozen in utter terror. My legs were wobbling like a newborn deer and I was close to falling over. I shut my eyes tight, hoping it would be over quick, when a pair of strong and secure arms wrapped around me.
"Shh, I've got you." Roman's voice said. It was a safe haven here; I buried my face into his muscular chest and nuzzled there. "What's wrong? What happened? Did someone hurt you?"
I was shaking so bad when I raised my finger to point behind Roman that I almost couldn't lift my hand. When he turned to look I peeked up to see a plain clown. The blood had been painted onto his face. I'd been hallucinating; it was a simple Halloween prop.
"Are you scared of clowns?" Roman asked quietly; there was no trace of joking in his voice. He was quiet and consoling. I felt his hand stroke over my hair and nodded.
For as long as I can remember, I'd always been creeped out by clowns. They terrified me. Painted faces and evil laughs? No thank you. Pain and Panic appeared next to us, looking concerned.
Pain looked at the position we were in and noticed the trembling of my body. He reached up and touched my arm. "Are you okay?"
I hiccuped and nodded at him.
"What happened?" Pain asked Roman.
Roman glanced at the clown suit and nodded his head to it. "She's scared of clowns. I don't blame her. Look at the thing."
I let out a soft whimper and Panic gave me a pitying look; he held his hand out for me to take, "Come on. It is pretty creepy back here. Let's get back to the front."
I gazed up at Roman, seeking permission, and he nodded. Ar this, I turned back to Panic and took his outstretced hand. He led me into the light where I was once again able to breathe.
Panic was sweeter than usual to me; he kept trying on hats and making funny faces at me, he even made a fool out of himself at the expense of trying to get me to be happy again. He got a few smiles from me, but my heart wasn't really in it.
Roman's POV
I stood there with my arms crossed, watching Panic take Eve back up to the front. It made me a bit jealous to watch Panic hold her hand, but I knew he had no romantic feelings for her, he just felt a natural pull to her like all faeries did and would. He felt like a protector of sorts to her.
Down the isle I could see him stroking her arm soothingly, and making silly faces to try and take her mind off of her recent scare. She smiled, but it never reached her eyes.
I turned away from them and faced the clown costume. There was no way she had been so broken-up over a statue. Eve had been face to face with Ornias and hadn't batted an eye. In fact, there had been a brave amount of hostility toward him. The same woman that had ran away from demon dogs never once trembled and cried at such an inconsequential thing, but all of a sudden she was in tears over a Halloween prop? Hard to believe.
I took a step toward the statue and eyed it carefully. It was lifeless. Upon further inspection, I noticed a gray smudge inside one of the eye sockets. I wiped it up with my index finger and rubbed it between my thumb.
"Sulfur." I muttered. Sulfur was the traces left behind if a demon used any powers or did any spell work.
"Sulfur?" Pain repeated, a touch a fear rising in his voice, "A demon was here?"
"A demon enchanted the clown to become real. Eve didn't just see the prop, she saw a real live clown. No wonder the poor girl was so terrified." I glanced to the fake knife in his hand, "And alive? This is one scary motherfucker."
"That means they know where we are." said Pain quietly, "Roman we need to leave. He could appear at any time and—"
"Don't even say it!" I barked at Panic, "I don't give a shit about Barbatos, he isn't going to touch her. He will never take her away from me, do you understand? "
I didn't realize the volume and intensity of my voice. I was met by silence with Pain, but after a brief pause he asked, "You really like her, don't you, boss?"
I shifted on one of my feet and my jaw tensed up, "She's my damned. I have to keep her safe."
"You know what I meant. Damned or not, that kind of connection isn't always there, you and I both know that. Does she feel it too?" Pain asked. You know, I really hated this curious little bastard sometimes.
The fact of the matter was, Eve was just so different from everyone else. She was set apart in a good way. I felt this strong desire to protect her, and in another way I felt… possessive. She was my damned. I didn't want any other guys looking at her or even thinking about her. That's why Benjamin had been such a nuisance in my life.
"I told her it was because I gave her a piece of my soul. As far as she's concerned, that's the reason why." I mumbled.
"What about after Babylon?" Pain gave me a disapproving look. I knew he was right and that I should come to terms with what was really going on, "She won't wear your mark anymore. What are you gonna say to her when she realizes that the mark is gone, but her feelings are still there?"
I looked at Eve's smiling face, and I felt so out of place. For the first time in a long time, I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
"I really don't know."