Eclipse of the Moon Ch. 03

"Angel Stewart, don't you walk away from us!"

"Leave me alone! I don't wanna talk to you anymore!" She was halfway up the staircase before she stopped to look down at her parents who were now standing in the entrance lobby looking like they were ready to explode. God only knew she was about to.

Her mother looked at her, irritation painted across her face, "We're going to talk about it whether you like it or not. You're acting like a child."

"Only because you always treat me like one."

"Your mother and I don't appreciate the attitude you've been giving us lately. You've been nothing but moody ever since we got here and it's time to put an end to it" her father barked, anger leaching into his usually calm voice. He shook his head, an exhausted sigh leaving his lips, "You need to tell us what's going on, Angel. We can't fix anything if you don't let us in. Did we do something? Did something happen?"

"God, no, I just want to be by myself" Lior snapped, trying not to let her voice crack as she blatantly lied. Her hands tightened on the rail, "Just give me some space. That's all I want is some space."

"We've tried giving you space" her father continued, "and I'm not impressed with the results, Ang. You've missed classes, been out until all hours of the night without phoning us to let us know that you're still alive - Christ, we had to call 911 a few nights ago because you didn't come home! Someone could have abducted you for all we knew-"

"I told you I was going out!"

"But you didn't tell us that you weren't coming home" her mother snapped, "You didn't tell us who you were staying with or where you were going. You didn't answer any of our phone calls-"

"Maybe that's because I didn't want to talk to you" Lior replied, meaning it to be much quieter than it had actually come out to be.

"This is completely unlike you, Angel! Stop being so selfish" her mother scorned, face tight as the frustration started to ebb in.

Fire burned behind blue eyes, tears hot behind them, but she refused to let any fall. She clenched her fingers so tightly that her knuckled turned white, "Selfish? You want me to stop being <selfish?! Are you kidding?!"

"Angel-" her father started, but was quickly interrupted.

"No! You uproot me and Aaron from our friends, move us to some random hicksville place that nobody has even heard of, and I'm the one who's selfish?! Did you ever stop to think that maybe your children were fine where they were?! That maybe we didn't wanna move out here?!" She pushed her fingers through her hair, look scathing, "No, of course not, because we always have to do what's best for you and your goddamn job!"

Her mother looked stricken but the expression was quickly replaced with a much angrier one, "Don't you talk to me like that, young lady! We moved here because it was best for everyone - we moved out here for a better life, and you know that!"

"We didn't need a better life" Lior choked out sharply, "you needed a better life. You and dad needed a better life. I was fine back home - this, this place is never going to be that. I hate this place... I hate it here. And I'm sorry if that isn't conclusive to your fabulous new life, but it's how I feel."

"It's an adjustment for everyone, Angel" her father stated in his parental-calm-voice, although he was still clearly on the defensive.

This, in turn, made Lior wanted to scream until her lungs were sore. It felt like it was the only thing that would stop her insides from corroding at this point.

She wanted them to understand but knew that they would never be able to. They would never be able to because she would never let them. Angel shook her head, "It doesn't even matter. Really, it just doesn't even matter. Just go to your party - tell the neighbors I say hi."

"You told Julian you would go" her mother argued disapprovingly, "and we made a commitment, Ang. Your brother's already there."

"He'll understand. They'll both understand. Just go - I'm not gonna pretend that everything's okay just because of some party our neighbors are throwing. I don't even know them. You know them. I don't wanna go-" her voice crackled a little as she looked towards her dad, eyes silently begging for reprieve, "Please don't make me go."

She knew right away that he would let her stay.

She knew because she had always been daddy's little girl - and there was nothing that her dad would ever deny her if it was within his power. And once her dad crumbled, her mom would follow soon after. Not because she wanted to but because her mom just wasn't patient enough to deal with conflict when there was a social event that needed tending to. It didn't matter that they were hundreds of miles away from the nearest town that even recognized a brand name design. She was a born socialite - a social climber - no matter where they were.

It didn't make her a bad person, but Lior knew how her family worked.

And this was how the game was played.

Her dad sighed softly, pinching the bridge of his nose before he looked back up to her, "Alright, don't go. But this doesn't mean we're done talking. We're going to have a long discussion about your behavior in the morning."

It was such a classic parent line.

But she didn't care how clichéd the line was as long as it meant them leaving and giving her the opportunity to do the same. She needed to leave... to be somewhere that nobody else was.

Her mom looked annoyed, shooting her a very pointed look to show that this wasn't over by a long shot, "I want you in your room, Angel. No TV, no computer, and no leaving the house. Till we're finished this conversation, you're grounded."

Angel stared at her mother, lips forming into a tight line. She took a stilted breath before agreeing, "Fine."

What she wanted to say was 'like hell I'm staying in this house'. But she wouldn't. She would refrain from saying anything that would sound off alarm bells about what was really going on.

She had to.

He left her no choice.

Lior finished going up the stairs, crossing the hall, and making sure her parents heard her slam the door to her bedroom. She knew her parents well enough to know that they wouldn't leave until they knew for certain that she wasn't going to hightail it down her window on a rope made of bed sheets as soon as they left.

And, make no mistake, she was going to.

As soon as they left she was out of here. She was only going to come back into this house when they came home after conveniently 'taking the garbage out'.

Sure, she would get in trouble for leaving, but it didn't matter. What mattered was not being alone in this house. Ever.

She lay on her bed, waiting to hear the garage door open and close so she could make her escape.

This room tortured her.

She could still feel the dark energy that radiated from the floor - that pulsed from the walls that were now etched with her misery. And even though she had covered them with her old collections of paintings, it didn't change the fact that she knew there was blood hidden behind them. She could cover them up no better then she could the scars riddling her body.

Even the smell was the same. No matter how many times she matted the air with freshener to drown out the scent she could still smell it - him. She could smell the blood, the sex, the heat -

She cringed, stomach wrenching, closing her eyes and shaking her head of the memories.

It was all she could think about these days. How she was going to avoid the next encounter - if she could avoid the next encounter - when the next encounter was going to be. It could have been anytime.

He could appear while they were eating breakfast, when she was showering, or when they were in the family room watching TV. And as long as she was able to see him she always had to be aware of every possible place that he could come from so that she wouldn't be surprised at his approach.

She couldn't let him know that she could see him.

The possibilities for torture were endless if he found out. There was no limit to what he would do to get her attention or just mess with her already splintering mind.

And then there was her family.

She didn't want Aaron or her parents to think that she was seeing anything either. God only knew what they would do if they thought she was seeing things again. The last word she wanted to hear leave any of their lips was 'relapse'.

She couldn't go back to that place. She wouldn't.

As long as she was in this house, though, there was no way for her to escape him. He was everywhere. Daemon Vertik was a demon possessed.

It almost hurt more that she could put a name to the face of the monster - that she was living in a place where he had once been a living guest. She didn't want to think of him as a human in any regard, even in past tense, because it meant that there was a possibility that something that evil could embody a human form. Every time she passed by his portrait on the way down the hall her heart froze.

It was a reminder that he was there. Waiting.

She opened her eyes when she heard the door to the garage close and swung her legs over the side of her bed. Propelling herself to the closet, she opened the door quickly and grabbed a sweater from the depths before moving towards the door.

She was halfway through the door when a devastatingly familiar chill fled up her spine and froze her in place. Her hand clenched the knob as she felt everything get cold, her skin prickling.

It was all it took for her to break out in a run.

She saw a glimpse of black out of the corner of her eye and it immediately turned her away from going the way of the stairs. He was there. Her heart raced as she bolted down the adjacent hallway, blood rushing against her eardrums, sweater lying forgotten on the floor.

She grabbed the frame of Aaron's door and pulled herself into his room with such force that she almost fell flat onto her face. Her eyes darted around the room before settling on the window.

Was there a sill underneath? She prayed to God that there was as she darted towards the glass.

She made it within a foot only to be stopped when the scruff of her shirt was grabbed, and she was violently jerked backwards.

Lior whimpered when her body collided against the ice-cold frame of another, eyes clenching shut as she heard a guttural chuckle sound right against her ear.

"I thought you might have learned by now, whore - you can't run from me."

Lior tried to break free, she struggled to move forward, but she was quickly pinned once his arms wrapped around her body and immobilized her.

Familiar terror rose to the surface like blood from a gushing wound, façade completely broken as fear penetrated every waking part of her. She tensed, "Please let me go - please..." her voice was choked, a petrified whisper.

The laugh he emitted was enough to make her blood run cold.

"Let you go? The only way I'm going to let you go is when you're hanging dead in my arms, Lior. And even then, when your body is gone, I'll still own your soul" he taunted in a low, crisp voice that was laden with feigned tenderness. His hand slipped around her front, under her shirt, and his clawed fingers played across the smooth planes of her stomach, "You never get to leave - you fucking belong to me."

She tensed to the point of pain as his fingers danced across her skin. She could see his arms wrapped around her - she could see the outline of his hand under the material of her shirt. She shook her head wildly.

"Don't pretend you don't want it, whore. If you didn't, you would have gone with your family when they offered you the chance. And you would have run towards an exit instead of boxing yourself in here" he taunted slowly. A clawed finger popped the first button off her blouse, smirk heavy on his lips as she jolted against him.

She clenched her eyes shut. She wouldn't tell him the only reason she had gone this way was because she had seen him blocking the stairs, or that she would have gone with her parents if it had meant avoiding this whole situation. But she didn't.

Instead, she pursed her lips tightly as button after button was snipped off and dropped to the floor with a tiny 'clink'.

"If you wanted to fuck that badly I'm more than willing to lend my services. After all, what kind of host would I be if I didn't tend to the needs of my whore?" he crooned, pulling down the collar of her shirt and nuzzling into the crook of her neck. He nicked along the wounds he had left only days prior, canines grazing the skin teasingly, threatening to break open the healing flesh.

Lior winced, pulling away from him sharply only to be brought back just as easily. Her eyes darted over the postered walls, looking for anything that she could use as a means of escape. But what did you use to escape from the grasp of a monster?

Tears spilled from her eyes, both fearful and angry.

Fearful that the past would repeat itself. Fearful of the enduring the agony that had already been forced on her before. Fearful that he would own her, body and soul, just like he had said.

Angry because she couldn't escape and that she had let a fight with her parents get so out of hand that she put herself at risk for something far worse. She was angry at herself - and she was angry at Daemon. But at this moment her anger was immediately eclipsed by a fear so strong that it threatened to make her pass out. She wished she would. At least then she wouldn't be conscience for whatever twisted plans Daemon had.

She latched onto her lip as the last of the buttons fell to the floor, black material parted now that there was nothing left to hold it closed. The shivers that rattled her frame were impossible to stop as she felt his body hard and aroused against her own. They became violent tremors when the sharp edges of his nails played along the hemline of her jeans.

She whimpered, jerking against him when his hand slid beneath the denim and slipped down across the front of her panties shamelessly. Her hands instantly went for his, trying to pry them away, but her attempts were quickly stifled when a sudden shove made her stumble towards the wall.

Her forehead hit the surface roughly, spots dancing in front of her eyes. But despite the dizziness she kept struggling, fighting to free herself from the demon that now had her pressed firmly against the wall. The sound of a low, eerie growl sounding against her ear made temporarily halt her movement.

"I wouldn't fucking push it, Lior - you might ruin my good mood" he warned, voice deep and calm. He wedged his knee in-between her legs, forcing them apart, while at the same time appraising the skin of her abdomen with his hands.

The warmth against his fingers was addicting - a complete drug - but it was nothing compared to the feeling of being inside of that tight body.

He rubbed the front of her panties teasingly, "Either way you're fucked - but not fighting me might result in a few less... injuries." He mockingly kissed the shell of her ear, "And I wouldn't want to get blood all over your saintly brother's room - not until later, anyways."

The fear grew to overwhelming heights.

It always did when it involved her family. But as the fear grew, so did the compulsive need to protect them. Especially Aaron. God, she needed him so much. She couldn't live without him in her life. He was everything to her.

She choked back the hot sob that threatened to leave her lips, clenching her eyes shut, "D-don't touch him..." Her fingers clenched against the wall, "You have me..."

The hair all over her body stood on end as he chuckled against her throat. And suddenly she was forced back from the wall, turned so that she faced him. She never opened her eyes, afraid that she would give everything away with a single look.

He leaned in close, arms trapping her, "What was that, Lior? I didn't quite catch that?"

Her stomach knotted. She felt like she was about to be sick as it twisted. But as much as her stomach protested, and her thoughts screamed, the words bubbled forward out of necessity. She swallowed the ball of elastics that had congealed in her throat, voice hollow, "Y-you don't need him - you have me." Her eyes opened, but she did not raise them to eye level - she only peered at the tan skin that stretched over his chest, "I - I won't run anymore."

Even though she tried to look through him she was painfully aware of his presence. She could feel his scolding crimson eyes searing holes into her soul, branding his name into it.

Daemon pressed his body into hers, hands running up her hips, her chest, until his fingers brushed against her cheek. He could feel her hatred towards him bubbling from within: the pure, unadulterated loathing and surrender that rolled off her like a plume of smoke as she spoke the words.

A smirk broke his lips as he leaned in and whispered against her ear, "What makes you think that you're going to be enough?"

Her heart froze cold in her chest. If someone would have hit her at this exact moment it probably would have shattered her into a million pieces.

Her fingers clenched. She had to be enough. The demon needed to be satisfied with her because she wasn't going to give up her family - she wasn't going to let him take them away.

Lior loosened her clenched form, forward moving slowly. She placed her palm on his hip, moving it upwards and feeling along his body as if she wasn't sure where he was. She felt his cold skin, moving her fingers along the crevasses of his chest as she leaned into him: "Because they can't touch you the way I can."

A lustful growl cut through the air, her fingers blazing fire across a body that had gone through years upon years of deprivation. He ran his fingers through her flaxen locks, pulling her head back so her throat was fully exposed to him. His tongue ran a slick trail across the skin, "Such a manipulative little whore... looking so innocent but making such big claims..."

She sucked in a breath when both his hands sunk beneath her jeans and landed on her inner thighs, trembling as her own hands moved to push the denim off her legs. Mind and body screamed at her to stop, but her heart knew this was the only way to protect the ones closest to it.

She stepped out of her jeans, trying to hold herself together as she felt his gaze linger on her.

Lior almost jumped clean out of her skin when she heard the front door slam.

"Angel?"

The voice was faint as it came from beyond a closed door, but it was distinct.

Her eyes widened, alarmed.

Julian.

The sound that came from Daemon was like that of an angry wolf who's meal had just been interrupted. His fingers tightened against her hips with bruising intensity, "Well look at that, we have an uninvited visitor, whore." He turned to her, "Looks like we might have to get a little blood on the walls after all."

"No" Lior intercepted quickly, urgently, eyes wide. She stumbled for something, anything, to say, "L-let me go get rid of him, please. Please, I'll be fast..."

"It'd be faster to kill him, Lior" Daemon cooed, licking his lips, crimson eyes bright with blood lust.

"Please, please, I'll do anything. Just - just let me go get rid of him" she pleaded, her body trembling with the possibilities of what Daemon could do if she didn't get Julian out of here. The silence was crippling, and it took everything for her not to look at him head on see him to try and force the connection.

"Ang? You here?" Julian's voice repeated louder.

She could hear his footsteps making their way across to the living room. She could hear the click of his dress shoes on the hard wood floors and tried to mentally will them to go the other direction. Internally, she screamed at him to get out of the house, but she knew that he wouldn't.