A Demon's Past

Chapter 3

Violette, 1537

She looked around her father's bedecked ballroom, covered in the most beautiful and lavish decorations money could buy. The people there were ordinary. Not in the traditional sense of the word, but rather the definition she gave it.

To Violette, ordinary people were those who dressed in riches, with the most expensive fabrics and a ridiculous amount of pricey jewelry.  That word to her meant rich humans. They were ordinary because that was what she saw every day, what she was used to. Humans who either knew what her father was and feared him, or humans that had no idea and adored him. Either way, it wasn't a secret she came from wealth, from privilege.

She was dressed in a particularly a la mode style she had seen the late queen wear - before she was charged with adultery and executed. And as much as she did love her dress it reminded her of her mother's disappearance, as it used to be hers.

"Princess," Jane, one of her maid of honor said "There is a man who won't stop gazing upon you" Jane's smile was encouraging, and although she understood her intentions, she had no interest in an ordinary man.

Oh, but this was no man, she realized. There was nothing human about the man she saw staring back at her from across the room, not a single thing. His whole existence screamed immortality, but an immortality unlike hers. A pure and unadulterated sense of continued existence. He'd been alive before the world was created, and he would be alive much after.

Andras.

He smiled at her, a feline smile he mastered so well. "Leave me be, Jane," she ordered softly and Jane did as she was told. Violette blinked and he was there. She couldn't keep her smile from her face.

"Violette," he said as a form of greeting and took her hand to place a soft kiss atop it as he bowed. "That's a lovely dress," he said and drew closer to say "Although I'd rather see you without it."

His voice, so deep and beautiful as he was, was almost enough for her to forget how to breathe. She was innocent back then, he knew that. Used it to his advantage. 

She couldn't say she didn't get anything from him, though. She got company, great sex, and experience. Experience in heartbreak, because Andras wasn't capable of loving anything but himself.

But she forgave him years after, understood him better. 

She learned so much from Andras, learned how to stop feeling so deeply, to stop loving so fiercely. Learned how to play a part, how to manipulate and destroy other people, or how to use them to her advantage. The character she played was based on him.

But her plan had one massive flaw. She could pretend as much as she wanted in front of those she didn't love, those who didn't know her. But her mask broke apart when she started caring for someone, she thought she had forgotten how to, thought she knew better.

But then there was Blaze, and what started as attempts to annoy him unfolded into her loving him. And she was scared, terrified. He was kind, good, strong, and young.  So fucking young. He deserved better, deserved someone whole, not broken as she was. 

She was going to end her life. It was her choice, it was the only way. She'd told Harlan he could learn to live with what he'd done, she hadn't lied. She knew maybe he could, maybe he'd be able to.

But her entire immortal life had been marked by death and bloodshed, by suffering. She'd wanted to end it from the moment it started. She was weak, after all. She didn't want to fight, not anymore.

But then she learned she was destined to be with Blaze, chosen, somehow. And the worst thing, the most disgusting and selfish thing was that she wasn't sure that it could be enough. She wasn't sure she could continue living, even for him.

So she was mad at Andras for taking her, but deep down, as much as she hated to admit it, she was thankful. Thankful because she didn't have to make a choice, didn't have to make up her mind so soon.

And the bastard knew it. Knew she was grateful. She knew him so well, knew it by the way he looked into her eyes, by the way he smiled at her.

They were on a plane, for some reason. She knew Andras could convey - transport them from one place to another with magic - them from one pole to another and still have so much magic left he could set the entire world on fire, but for some reason, he took his private plane.

"Stop sulking dear, it's getting annoying," he said without even glancing at her.

"I will never forgive you, you know" she replied, seething.

"For what? for taking you? for making you fall in love with me? for lying to you? I have done so many horrible things they are hard to keep track of them all" he smiled.

"For killing my mother" She wasn't a fool. She knew Andras wasn't good, so all of those things were not as impactful to her. Because she thought they had an understanding. Because she believed he cared about her in his own way.

She was able to look past the fact he made a deal with her father to end her life, she knew he had done so to get her to make a deal with him. But she could not, would not ever forgive him for ending her life.

Andras grew serious, his charming smile fading entirely as he said "I did not kill your mother Violette." There was such sincerity in his eyes, that she almost believed him.

"If it wasn't you, who did?"

His smile returned then "Stick around, and maybe, I will tell you all about it."

She knew he was a demon, she knew he could lie as easily as he could kill. But as he took his hand, his black ring glinting in the light, and placed it atop his heart. She could feel it.

She could feel he was telling the truth.