The War God's Woman

57. Secret Lovers

"Have you seen this?" Ana asked Zahira, showing her a frozen image from a video clip. Zahira recognised Orion. She shook her head. Ana pressed play and Zahira watched the footage. "It's all over the internet."

Zahira stared, open-mouthed. The footage showed Orion fighting some kind of monster. Zahira shivered. "What is that thing?" She exclaimed. The creature seemed to be some kind of giant serpent but with the upper body of a woman.

"A demon." Jaz's voice came from behind them and both girls jumped.

"A demon?" Zahira replayed the footage, watching Orion fight over and over. She froze the image on his face. His eyes were a startling white. In this fight, Orion didn't look handsome – he looked inhuman.

The café was quieter than usual that day and Jaz allowed them to keep an eye on the news. All day, specialists of some variant or other were discussing the video on channel one. They were debating if the footage could be faked, but as more and more clips flooded in from different spectator's phones, recorded on different nights from the past week – the idea of a hoax seemed less believable.

"This man, Orion, calls himself a Star Immortal." The reporter spoke to the camera. "And claims that he is here to rid the world of monsters. But can we really trust him?"

The debates raged on.

"I've found another one." Ana exclaimed. "This one was filmed on Wednesday night."

"That's three nights ago." Zahira and the others rushed over to Ana to watch the clip. Again, it showed Orion fighting the snake- demon. The demon sank her teeth into Orion's arm and Zahira quickly looked away, feeling sick.

"I recognise that sign in the background." Cesar pointed at the screen. "That's Bruno's place, that's only two streets down from here."

                On her break, Zahira retreated to the store cupboard to secretly call Orion. She'd been watching the news, hoping to see him being interviewed or hear some confirmation that he was ok after the last fight. But the news reporters didn't seem to know. Zahira clutched her phone to her ear and waited anxiously for Orion to pick up.

"Zahira?" Orion's voice sounded tired.

"I...I wanted to check you were alright." She mumbled. Orion didn't immediately reply. "Hello?" Had they been cut off?

"That makes me happy." It sounded like he was smiling.

Zahira bit her lip.

"You're on the news. They are showing clips of you fighting a monster. Are you hurt?"

"I'll be fine." This sentence didn't entirely reassure her. It implied that he wasn't fine right now.

"Oh."

                  Zahira stood outside the door of  Sophia's penthouse apartment, worrying. She'd come because she wanted to check that Orion was alright. But...

But he hadn't actually invited her over. This was rude of her, wasn't it? She bit her nails and stared at the front door. She was almost in tears because she was so unsure what to do. She didn't want to invade his privacy. But she was his girlfriend, didn't that mean she could come over if he was hurt?