A Perfect Blood

exclaimed, my head reeling as I lurched to help Trent only to have my leg almost give way under me. “Al, he has the cure for the demons. You really want to kill him? I could have taken it off whenever I wanted. He was not enslaving me, he was trying to help, and I was not listening! I’m a demon, damn it! Knock it off!”
    With a growl, Al dramatically snapped his fingers, turning sideways as if not wanting to see us. Trent grunted softly as the curse broke, stiffly finding his full height. Tugging his suit straight, he stood beside me smelling of ash fires. “You okay?” I asked, almost supporting him as he threw the last of the pain curse off.
    “This is a stupid idea, Rachel,” he said bitterly, his eyes a dark black in the red light. “Let’s trust a demon to be reasonable. Brilliant!”
    Al turned. “You lied to me. Ran away. Shacked up with an elf?”
    The last was a question, and I think it was what he was most interested in. “I took a sick day,” I said, letting him wonder. “I lost my aura in the lines while cursing Ku’Sox. If Trent hadn’t put my soul in a bottle till it healed, I’d be dead. Sorry about sending Ku’Sox to you, by the way. Are you okay?”
    Al pulled his suspicious eyes off Trent and leaned across the ten feet between us, his teeth bared in a nasty smile. “I’m broke and paying him blackmail. Now that you’re alive to take the blame for unbalancing the ever-after, I’ll give you the honor of paying him instead.”
    “Trent knows the cure for the demons’ genome,” I said quickly, heart pounding. “Al, you don’t have to keep going on like this. You can move on if you want.”
    His steps slow and his hands behind his back, Al crossed the distance, the glint of hatred in his eyes for Trent, the snarl on his face for me. The scent of burnt amber flowed between us. It was as if he wasn’t even listening to me—mistrust of the elves ran that deep. “You ask me to trust an elf,” the demon growled, looking at his hands in his gloves, always apart, always alone. “You ask too much.”
    “Al, I think I know what you looked like,” I said, not knowing why. “Originally, I mean.”
    Al turned back to me, his coattails furling and his red eyes finding mine over his glasses. Beside me, I felt Trent take notice. “This is why you came out of hiding? To tell me that?”
    I wished I could bring myself to lean on Trent more, but I didn’t want to look weak. “No.”
    Al’s attention flicked between Trent and me. “You’re in trouble?” he asked dryly. “I can fix that.”
    He reached out, and I backed into Trent, my leg protesting. “No! I’m not leaving with you. Listen to me.”
    But he came forward again, even as Trent put an arm around my waist and pulled me into him. “So ma eva, shardona,” Trent whispered, and I gasped as the line lifted through me, feeling like light as it flowed, my aura scintillating like dust in a sunbeam.
    “What are you doing?” I breathed at the delicious sensation, feeling the stray strands of my hair floating and the warmth of Trent at my back.
    “It’s not a circle,” Trent said, his words a breath on my ear. “I didn’t break my promise.”
    Al, though, seemed to know what it was as his hand clenched and dropped, inches from touching me. He drew back, his expression both disgusted and amazed, and I breathlessly waited as the feeling of rising energy grew in me, a tantalizing zing of Trent’s energy mixing with my own.
    “Curious.” Al’s eyes flicked to Trent’s, and he backed up another step. “I’m broke, Rachel,” Al said in a monotone, as if it hurt to admit that in front of Trent, but his voice grew more animated as he continued. “Tales of an elven cure will get me nothing ! You will come back to the ever-after and prove you’re alive so you can tap into the funds that have been accruing in your name and I can buy some damned groceries !”
    “No,” I said firmly, and then said to Trent, far more nervously, “Can you stop that, please?”
    Immediately the line in me fell to nothing and he let go. “Sorry. It’s not supposed to hurt.”
    “It didn’t,” I said, not wanting to admit that it had felt pretty damn good.
    Al snickered, and again I blushed, lifting my chin. “I’m a demon,” I said. “I admit it, the world knows it, but I belong here, in reality. I’m not going back to the ever-after under duress.”
    Al’s posture lost the brief glimpse of indulgent amusement. “I beg to