25
I took in the sight of the demon and shuddered, holding myself around my belly, shivering in the cold. He cocked his head at me, as if asking himself silently what I was doing. It felt as though he was studying me and who knows, maybe trying to find my weaknesses. Either way the look felt far too deadly and I felt as though I had no choice but to tear myself away, before it consumed me.
I looked back at the branches of the willow, now looking more like thick long charred limbs, dripping with black blood from a source above. It stained the earth around it, attacking life and burning it like acid. This was when I found myself questioning again, had I done this?
“Am I…killing the earth?” I asked the looming figure above me, still situated in the dead branches of what was the twisted tree. He was now lounged out, one leg bent and the other stretched out in front of him. A strong muscular arm was resting casually against his bent knee and I could see the spikes of bone that grew up through his forearm as if he was wearing skin and bone gauntlets. His long jacket high up at the collar but cut off at the sleeves so his huge arms were bare. I could just make out straps across his large bare chest, as if this was holding his jacket together and allowing it to move freely with his torso. His legs also looked encased in some type of material but from down here I couldn’t tell you what it was and even then, I would probably have to touch it to be certain.
But what was I talking about, I didn’t want to be anywhere near this beast!
“You think you have that power, little human?” he asked in a mocking tone, answering my question about the earth and what I was doing to it.
“I…I am half Vampire,” I told him, and he growled a snort of annoyance before snapping,
“You are a mere pup! A kitten with sharp teeth. One to be played with and nothing more…you make him weak!” I swallowed hard when he snarled this last part.
“I…I…don’t know…” I started to say, backing away slightly when I saw him swing his legs around so that he was sat on the edge. He rested both hands either side of him and he leant forward.
“You know of whom I speak, for I know you to be no fool…Keira,” he said, curling his lips up and giving me a flash of demonic teeth when he uttered my name. The whites glinted even in the dark and I could see a row of fangs with two larger ones where a person’s canines were found.
“Well, you may know my name, but I don’t know you and it’s clear you know nothing about me other than that name!” I shouted as my hands balled into fists at my sides. Then I heard the wood splitting and I homed into his hands as his talons curled, growing longer and cutting into the wood.
“I know of your sweet little pussy that has a King weak at the sight of it!” he snarled down at me, straining his neck forward.
“How dare you!” I shouted, and I don’t know why but I followed through with my first impulse and when glancing down I suddenly spotted a palm sized rock on the ground. Before I could stop myself, I picked it up and threw it at him.
His hand snatched up, catching it in the air before it could hit him, being now only a hand’s length away from his face. Then he turned his head like a confused beast would, bringing it closer to look at. I couldn’t tell if he was mesmerised by the rock in his hand or just shocked that I had thrown it at him in the first place. I knew it was the latter of these two when he finally looked back at me and grinned.
Then, before I had chance to react, he pushed off the branch and landed on his feet right in front of me. I froze in shock with only my head able to move as I looked up slowly, doing so until my neck strained back as far as it would go. By the Gods he was tall, the size of Ragnar at least. I moved to take a step back, but his hand snapped out, capturing the top of my arm in a bruising hold.
Then with the rock still in his hand he raised it up and I flinched, automatically thinking he was about to bring it powering down over my head. He smirked at this as I could see the glint of his teeth again, his other features however, were still mainly lost to the dark. Then he continued to raise his hand up and as if to prove a point at how indestructible he was, he bit into the rock. My mouth fell open as he simply chewed the stone as if it was nothing but an apple. The rest of the stone didn’t even break, it now just had a piece missing with teeth mark grooves on its inside.
This was when I tried to get away from him, knowing that with very little force, he could take a bite out of me just like that rock. This was why he did it, as a warning, telling me his teeth could cut through my flesh and bone as easily as biting into an ice cream. He tossed the rock aside, and with a mere flick of his wrist it was powering through the air as though just fired from a cannon.
“Let go of me! You’re hurting me!” I shouted up at him as I fought against him to free myself. The instant I told him he was hurting me he did the complete opposite of what I expected. I had thought he would have tightened his grip further but instead, he loosened it so that I still couldn’t escape but at least it no longer hurt. If anything, it seemed as though he was just unsure of his strength in this world. For it was fairly obvious to assume he was from Hell.
“You cannot fight me,” he stated on a growl and I wanted to say, well duh. I mean not only was the guy huge and basically looked like the Devil on steroids, I was also pretty sure strength wasn’t his only demonic party trick…not if that rock was anything to go by.
“You think I would even try!?” I asked him, lacing my words with both sarcasm and anger.
“Then why run?” he asked, and I couldn’t help my reaction. I snorted. I swear the second the sound was out it was like it was the first time he had ever heard it. I don’t know why my reaction seemed so foreign to him or such a surprise. But he even recoiled from it.
“That sound, I know that sound,” he said cryptically to himself and he seemed momentarily stunned.
“I…please, please just let me go and I will…”
“NEVER!” he suddenly roared at me, getting lower down in my face so I could even taste his breath and it too was like the early morning air.
He snapped his teeth as he saw me flinch back, pulling on his hold to try and get away from his rage. The second he saw my fear something seemed to snap within him and he raised a hand to my cheek. I tensed again as it started to come closer and a low growl of warning rumbled from him. The sound was a familiar one, but I dismissed the urge to dig too deep into my memories to find it.
This time I decided it was wise to remain as still as possible, as though you would when being slowly approached by what could be a dangerous animal. I had a strong feeling that with this creature in front of me, if I was to run, he would only end up enjoying the chase.
So, as much as it pained me and went against every reflex I had, I remained still as he came closer. I closed my eyes tight waiting for the first feel of his fingers against my skin. Then the second I felt his touch, I froze, almost as if waiting for the pain…a pain that never came.
I could barely believe that a being such as who faced me now could be this gentle. But as he curled his finger in, his deadly black talon tucked the sharp end away from my face, so it wouldn’t catch on my skin. Then when all was safe, he ran the back of it down my cheek, leaving a cool trail in its wake.
“Even through my claws I can feel your cold skin quivering against me,” he told me, this time with his voice a much softer rumble.
“Like your human milk flowing into the black river that surrounds my home,” he said in a strange tone that at a guess, could have been in awe.
“And like that river, one touch is all it takes to damn your soul, imprisoning it for all eternity with a single finger holding the key.” I swallowed hard and bit my bottom lip, and his once black cold eyes void of white, now turned into that of a demonic, Hellish sun swirling as they gazed at my mouth.
“Tell me my quivering cream, is that an invitation?” he asked cocking his head to the side. The second he said this I let my lip slip from my teeth and he scoffed at this. Then with his hand still close to my face, he ran his claw along my jaw and all the way across my lips, this time using the sharp end. My breathing stopped as the second I gasped, I felt the sting. I could now feel the small drops of blood pooling around his nail and once it overflowed down my chin, he pulled his hand back. Then he raised it up to his face, first inhaling the scent, by taking a deep breath and making his massive chest rise.
I licked my lip and tasted the copper tinge, swallowing it down quickly to rid myself of the metallic flavour. He groaned long and low in a grumbling sound, one building from his chest and rising up in a silent howl as he threw his head back. It was almost as if the frequency of the sound was too high for us humans to hear but maybe there was demonic dogs down in Hell whining at the sound.
Then he raised his hand up and offered his own hand to himself in a dramatic way, as if it was an offering from a higher power.
I felt myself tense as I watched in fascinated horror as his finger now coated in my blood disappeared into his mouth. The second my blood must have hit his tongue, this time he did howl, and it was so deafening I swear my ears were now bleeding as was my lip. It was a demonic sound unlike any other I had ever heard and given my past few years history, I had heard many. It was almost as though it had different layers to it.
Then he brought his focus back to me and the next words he spoke, I may have not understood their meaning, but I knew that they meant a great deal to him.
“Sarrat irkalli ma sebu wardum…” He spoke in some ancient sounding language as if speaking to someone else, like this was a vow he was making. Then in a blink of an eye and a tug on my captured arm, he twisted me, spinning me around so that my back was plastered to his front. A massive arm banded across my torso, holding me easily against him and I could now feel his long jacket curling around the bottom of my legs, as if it was also alive and needed to touch me.
And like this I could now feel that his bare skin was more like armour because it was hard and ridged…but surely flesh couldn’t be that solid, could it?
I was about to let out a scream when I felt a hand clamp securely over my mouth, his talons now tapping gently against the side of my head, curling and catching in my hair. Then I felt him lean down, close to my ear as I was held immobilised against him. Once his lips were at my ear he finished the rest of his ancient sentence in hushed tones and a throaty whisper. Then, once finished he released my mouth, now resting his hand at my hip, curling it round my flesh in a possessive way.
Again, I had no idea what it meant, which was why I asked,
“What…what do you want with me?” I tried to keep my voice as steady as I could but now that I was so close, I felt all my bravery leave me in a whoosh of air, one that got expelled once he yanked me into his body.
“You are the enslaver and I want to punish you for it,” he told me simply and when I didn’t reply quickly enough, I felt his talons drag against my belly, tearing into the silk but thankfully not my skin.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told him, but this obviously wasn’t the right answer as he growled in my ear.
“I…”
“You keep him in a cage and what I want is the fucking key back!” he snarled before I could start to beg him to release me.
“No, I…”
“He belongs to me and I will take him back. I will release him from your slavery and set him free. Only then will he be strong enough to defeat you,” he said snarling this promise, making me shake in fear.
“Defeat me? Why, why would you want to kill me?” I asked him this time forcing the words to sound stern.
“If I wanted to kill you I could crush you in my arms until your bones snap like the death you brought to this place.” As if to prove his point he gave my body a painful squeeze thankfully releasing me just as quickly when I cried out.
“No, I need him to see you weak and on your knees before him. For you will answer for your crimes at the foot of his kingdom and at the foot of his rightful place.” Suddenly it started to become very clear that whoever this demon was, he felt I had wronged him by taking someone from him. Was it Draven, did this person want him back in Hell?
This was when my heart nearly stopped as I finally knew what I had done.
“My mark…I…brought you here…didn’t I?” This was when his hand reached up and with his elbow bent outwards, he cupped the back of my neck before tapping on the birthmark hidden beneath my hair.
“You released me from my prison and now it is time I free the King from his. I will drag him back to Hell so that we may rule the underworld together.”
He paused to pull me tighter, then curling a hand around my breast he squeezed, grazing his thumb claw across my erect nipple. I gasped before crying out at the bite of pain.
“Then we will watch as you fall and what will you do…” he paused to lick up my neck before delivering his final threat…
“…when you have no wings to catch you?” Then he let me go suddenly and I fell forward into the grass. I quickly scrambled away before turning, flipping to my bum so that I could face him.
But he was gone.
He had vanished from sight and all that was left was the remains of my nightmare world as it started to evaporate around me. Then I heard his voice again but like before, there was no body to go with it.
“Run home, my little slave,” he said in my mind and I did just that. I scrambled to my feet and ran from this place as fast as I could. But the world around me was moving as I was. It was travelling past me in a whirl of shades of darkness so that I felt trapped by the shadows. I turned for one last look back to see him standing there in the shadow, a looming force of the destruction I knew he would soon bring to my life. All around him the world blurred, swirling like the cutting wind had the power to carry it away. I was almost frantic at this point and it was only when he lifted an arm up that I could see, he was pointing my way home. I turned to look in the direction he was pointing to and then in the distance I could see the castle.
And finally, I could hear him calling my name.
“KEIRA!” I could feel a sob break from my lips as I shouted for him,
“Draven, Draven…DRAVEN!”
And finally, I reached for the outstretched hand through the fog of death, and the second I did I heard his voice one last time threaten my mind and sanity with a warning he wanted me to deliver.
“Run home and tell the King…” I didn’t wait to hear the end of it as I clasped my hand in Draven’s. I opened my eyes, but I wasn’t quick enough, for the sound of his voice still lingered in my mind.
The voice of a Devil…
“I will be coming for him…soon.”