The Demon's Pa

After about half an hour of cursing Viktor finally settled down again as the wounds started to heal. Lucy still gave him a worried glance occasionally and she couldn’t keep her hands still so she constantly wrung them together.

After avoiding Viktor for nearly two months she was falling for him, hard and fast by the looks of it. The look in her eyes when she looked at him was so deep, it was like she didn’t even see his vampire side anymore.

That was how it had been for me as well…

I cleared my throat, “So?” I finally asked when I managed to push Alexander out of my thoughts. “Care to tell why you reacted like that to the water?”

Viktor pursed his lips and the humans leaned closer to hear what he had to say. “It’s… nothing…”

I raised an eyebrow, “You squealed like a girl.”

Viktor shot me a glare and then looked away from me and softly muttered to himself, “I did not…”

“You totally did.”

Lucy gave a small, yet firm nod, “You did.” Then she took his hand, “It frightened me… to see you in pain I mean…” Heat immediately flooded her cheeks as if she hadn’t even realised what she’d been saying before and she looked away bashfully. She didn’t, however, let go of Viktor’s hand.

Viktor gave her a soft smile, one that I’d never seen on his face before. Just being with Lucy was changing him, I realised. He was a lot less of an ass than he’d been when I’d first met him. “I’m sorry I scared you Lu.”

She shook her head, “It’s fine, I’m just glad you’re alright.” There was a pause, “You really did scream like a girl though.”

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. When I regained my composure after what felt like an eternity later I asked Viktor once more, “So?”

Looking defeated, he hung his shoulders, but when he looked up again his composure was strong and his voice filled with determination. “Listen up, all of you.” He said rather loudly so all those around the main table could hear him, humans and vampires alike. “This water,” He sighed heavily, “Is called mors est in sancto. Basically that roughly translates to ‘killer of the unholy’.”

“So it’s like holy water?” A woman asked when no one said anything.

“Yes.” Viktor confirmed, “It is a lot like holy water except that no one has to bless this water to make it holy. It comes from the earth, already ready to be used as a weapon against the unholy.”

My expression changed, as did that of those around me. When no one else said anything I asked, “So? What about it? I thought holy water didn’t affect vampires.” I snorted, “I mean, I know from experience it doesn’t.”

Viktor sighed again and ran a hand through his hair, looking frustrated and uncertain. “It doesn’t affect vampires, yes, that much is true. It does however affect demons. It burns their unholy flesh until nothing else remains.”

It took a few moments for his words to really sink in and the elderly man I’d been talking to before spoke, “How interesting. I think I understand. It doesn’t affect vampires because they aren’t really demons, even if they’re turned, but it will affect royals because you’re all half demon.”

Viktor nodded, “Exactly. What I can’t understand, however, is why on earth you al would be drinking this like it’s nothing.” His eyes turned guarded, “Where do you even find the water? The only source of mors est in sancto on earth is-” his eyes widened slightly in realisation but he didn’t say anything intelligent to go with it for quite a long time.

Lucy took his hand and gave him an encouraging look and a small smile.

Viktor smiled right back at her, “It doesn’t matter where you all found mors est in sancto, but it is important that you have a lot of it gathered and ready to use in the battle against the demons.”

“Will it work against all the demons?” I asked, “Even the weaker ones?”

“Yes, without a doubt.” He touched his throat which had been burnt by the water when he’d swallowed it. “It isn’t enough to kill, but it hurts like nothing else in this world.”

The humans all had evil glints in their eyes and I watched them uneasily. Were they going to try and kill all the royals now that they knew they could be hurt by it?

I pursed my lips, when I’d been human I’d once thrown a vampire with a glass of holy water and only succeeded in pissing it off. If only that vampire had been a royal I would have been the one person alive to save the human race. Instead here I was, hated by humans whilst trying to save them for the demons. How utterly deplorable.

My nobles looked even more on edge than usual and I spotted Samael a ways of sniffing at a glass of mors est in sancto suspiciously. I chuckled, how amusing.

“Do all of you understand?” Viktor asked the humans, “When we fight you will all need as much of this as possible.” He looked at the glasses that still had some of the liquid in them, “With this we are sure to win this war.”

“Even if we have tonnes and tonnes of this-” the human man who’d spoken gestured to his glass, “this –this-“

“Mors est in sancto.” Lucy said and he shot her a grateful smile which she returned without hesitation.

“Even if we had tonnes and tonnes of mors est in sancto,” The man tried again, “What would that help us? Its liquid and it is going to be impossible to hit a moving target with it.”

A few agreeing grunts pulled through the crowd that had formed around the table. Myron gave me a challenging glance but looked away the moment my eyes met him. I narrowed my eyes, he was going to cause trouble. I could feel it already.

“He’s right,” an middle aged woman agreed, “We can’t do anything with it. If the demons are even half as fast as you say they are, there will be no way of reaching them.”

“They could just rip us apart as they passed without any of us managing to do any damage.” Another human said.

I snorted before I could stop myself and awkwardly looked down when all heads turned towards me.

Zaiden smiled elbowed me in the ribs playfully and gave me a lopsided grin when my eyes met his. “What’s so funny?”

The humans around me all seemed to want to know the answer as well because they had their eyes trained on me. “Well uh… I was just thinking… you’re all vampire slayers, aren’t you? So taking down a bunch of meagre demons should be easy, a piece of cake.” What was I saying?

There was a moment of silence, “Even we struggle to fight vampires.” Thomas admitted. “Sometimes, their speed is just too great. Will we really be of help in the coming battle?”

I didn’t hesitate to nod, “Of course. We need you all, each and every one of you. I have assigned two of my nobles to protect and help all of you in the time before the battle and to help you get acquainted with a few other vampires.” The humans’ eyes widened and I added, “They are all forbidden to drink for humans without permission. So do not fear them, there is no need. You all are our allies now, we will not harm out allies.”

That sparked a few hushed conversations I could hear quite clearly without even trying to listen in on them.

“I hate to disturb the party,” Samael suddenly said, “But I think we should discuss battle plans.”

I nodded, “Very well. Are there any suggestions?”

Silence was all I heard.

“I have an idea.” Viktor said and hope filled me. “But first,” he turned towards the humans and his eyes turned a shade darker, “I want to know where the hell you all found mors est in sancto.”

I frowned, “Is that important?”

Viktor’s eyes were still dark and scary looking when he turned to face me, “That is where we will make our stand against all the forces of evil.”

“Oh.”

The humans had stumbled upon a spring high up in the mountains, which was the source of all their drinking water, also known as holy water, or what everyone now called ‘mors est in sancto’.

At first Viktor had been very eager to go to the spring to see if it was the place on earth with the most spiritual energy, the place where the demons would enter our realm, but his eagerness faded the more the location was described.

He didn’t believe that that was the place because of its location and the lack of demon attacks.

Even though we hadn’t spoken of war for more than half an hour he still had a troubled and thoughtful look on his face. I knew he was gnawing on the suspicion that the rivers that ran under the earth somehow connected and that this spring of mors est in sancto was one of many. He believed that we would be able to find the location with the most spiritual energy with the help of that spring.

At the feast they hadn’t offered us blood yet, but I was laughing and having a good time anyway.

My laughter was cut off abruptly when a loud piercing scream cut through the air like a deadly blade. All the calm conversations that everyone had been having around the table immediately fell silent as we all turned to look in the direction the scream was coming from. I didn’t see anything that looked out of place and going with the expressions the others had on their faces neither did they. The scream was cut off mid-way and I gave Zaiden a quizzing look.

Surely the person wasn’t… dead?

No, of course not, what was I thinking? We were safe here. It was probably just some girl who saw a spider and ran into the door when she tried to run away. It was fine. We were fine. No danger, we were at peace, we were-

Another scream came from the same direction and I rose to my feet on reflex. It was a man who had screamed. How big was the spider?

It became apparent that it didn’t matter how I badly I had wanted the threat to be nothing but a meagre spider, it wasn’t, when a few other screams started sounding as well an humans started running our way with wide terrified eyes. They dragged their family members behind them like they weren’t running fast enough.

When my eyes met Zaiden’s again he stood up, “Let’s go check it out.” I said.

“No!” Samael said firmly, “It might be…” He didn’t complete his sentence and I watched him nervously.

Was it possible that it could be Alexander? A shiver pulled down my spine. Could it be that he had finally come to find me so we could be together again?

“Ash,” Fabian ordered as he advanced, “Stay back, we’ll go see what’s going on.”

“No, I am your royal and I am in charge of all of you, I can’t just let you guys go.” I paused, “Let’s go see what’s going on.” I took off in the direction the screams were coming from at full speed and my nobles followed behind me.

The further we ran the more destruction surrounded us. Everything was going up in flames, literally.

I came to an abrupt stop when I saw a strange looking man walking towards us. He looked normal, but… off… somehow… I only realised he’d was dragging an unconscious woman behind him when he tossed her aside like a ragdoll. In an instant my eyes flashed towards Faith and she caught the woman before she hit the ground. Faith checked her pulse and shook her head, we were too late.

I snarled at the demon, because that was truly all that creature could be.

Oberon had said that Clades looked strange, did that mean that this thing was Clades? He was a lot less impressive than I’d pictured him. I frowned, he didn’t look a thing like any of the Redmourn brothers so… was it a different demon perhaps?

The demon watched me carefully, inspecting me as if it was weighing its options before it suddenly sprang for me and hell, it was freaking fast.

My nobles had no time to get to me and I just barely managed to dodge its sharp claws from tearing out my throat. I took a step backwards and readied myself to fight, briefly thinking it might have been a good idea if I had gone to see a karate instructor before landing in this ordeal. But it was too late for thoughts like that when the demon came at me again.

I dodged his attack again but grabbed hold of his wrist, braced myself and threw him into the nearest tree with as much strength as I could muster. A look of surprise crossed his face when he collided with the tree and went right through it like it was a sheet of paper.

I smiled at my nobles who were all watching me with disbelief clear in their eyes. “Don’t mess with our royal.” Samael said, his disbelief turning into an impressed look.

I looked around. The houses around us had been set alight and because the roofs had been thatched they’d gone up in flames without much wind. Trees were starting to catch fire as well and people were still running in all directions. They were still trying to get away from something, but what was there? I’d already taken care of the demon, were they that afraid of the fire?

As if on cue a group of strange looking people emerged from the smoke.

Demons. A whole lot of demons.

I resisted the urge to take a step backwards. They were so… intimidating… in their own way.

A part of me wanted to turn and run and hide, but the other part wanted to see if I could bash their heads in. I grinned, now that, sounded like fun. It would be good to see how many of them I could take on without them overpowering me. The other demon that I’d thrown into the tree might just have been a weak one and I needed to know how strong the demons could get before I sent my people to their deaths.

What were the demons doing here? They weren’t supposed to be here. Was this just another raid or was there a hidden purpose behind them arriving only a day after we had?

Surely the demon hadn’t sent them after us so he could kill the rest of the royals. Had the Redmourn brothers been wrong about him? Would he truly kill them and end his twisted game so quickly?

I was so lost in my confusing thoughts that I didn’t see the demons advancing towards us. My mind was so on edge I didn’t move when a wild looking female came right at me a tackled me to the ground.

After I collided with the ground the world snapped into focus again. Humans were dying, screaming and crying and my nobles were hissing and fighting in the city that was burning to the ground.

The wild demon snapped at my neck, her fangs missing me by millimetres, as if she wanted to tear my throat out and even when using all my strength I barely managed to keep her at bay. She clawed at my torso and I let out a low growl when I kicked her off of me.

I struggled to my feet and held a hand over the gash in my side. The wound was bleeding ferociously but I could feel my flesh stitching itself back together. I was going to be alright, I hoped.

I had my eyes glued to the female demon who was circling me like I was prey, her eyes holding no comprehension, just intent to kill.

The moment my wound was healed I threw myself at the demon, moving as fast as I could. Since I didn’t really have any experience in fighting it didn’t take long for her to have her hand tightly around my throat and looking like she was about to squeeze my head off. Her intense black eyes burned right through my head and she was so close I could smell how her limp brown hair smelled of smoke and death.

I looked around. Faith was busy repeatedly banging a demon’s head against the ground, Samael keeping him pinned down. Viktor was shielding Lucy from the demons and with his strength he was easily taking two of them on at the same time. Fabian was at his side, also helping.

Was this how I was going to die? While watching others fight and without ever seeing Alexander again?

I clawed at the demon’s hand around my neck, trying to break her hold by prying her fingers off one by one but she was too strong. I stood no chance against her alone.

Out of nowhere Zaiden was suddenly standing behind the female and he roughly grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her backwards.

The female let out an ear piercing shriek and let me drop to the ground. I landed hard on my knees.

Zaiden had things completely under control as he fought her, he’d clearly had more hand to hand combat lessons then I had, because in a mere matter of seconds her head was lying next to me on the ground.

My hand went to my throat, the ghost of her hand on my neck was still there, and I gave Zaiden a small, grateful smile, “Thanks.”

He nodded and after a short silence said, “I should probably teach you how to fight.”

I nodded and cast my eyes downwards again. Gosh I was so pathetic.

My head snapped up at the sound of someone calling my name and my entire body froze when I saw who the voice belonged to.

Was that… No, no it couldn’t be…

“Ash!” He called again, his tone playful, mocking and deadly, “Ash Carson. Come out, come out.” He was leisurely walking through all the destruction, eyeing the burning buildings with curiosity.

“Where are you Ash Carson?” His searching yellow eyes met mine and a grin broke out across his face.

“I’ve come to kill you.”

Alexander.