Seduce Me ~ The Path To Forgiveness

Path One, Step Thirteen: My Happily Ever After

My scream cuts off abruptly as my constraints gently lower me to the ground and realization strikes. My father had told me that a demons name is a powerful thing, a close guarded secret not told to others lightly, capable of summoning them from the furthest reaches of the earth. Erik granted me the privilege of calling upon him should I ever be in danger and, if he truly is the son of the beast who had me chained and tortured, he must have known I would be. "My father is a cruel man. He's brutal, merciless and uncaring. No one will shed a tear for him when he dies." I recall his angry and hateful words as my feet touch down on the soft grass, at the time I had felt sadness at them yet now I couldn't agree more. The wispy tendrils release me and sink back into the ground as my thoughts continue to whirl around in my mind. I turn to Erik just as he drops to the ground, his chest heaving in exhaustion with his head lowered.

"Are you alright?" I can hear the panic in his voice as he turns his gaze to me, his eyes flickering between amethyst and gold, but I'm too stunned to respond to his question.

"Y.. you're a demon?" I ask and guilt floods his features, an expression I've seen cross his face countless times yet never would have imagined on his kind, before twisting into a pained grimace. I watch in shocked awe as lines of scarlet spread over his exposed neck, painting twirling designs along his skin, and matching horns materialize on the sides of his head, curving back before curling down along the side of his jaw.

"Have you not been feeding, Uzaeris? She seems more then willing." My monsters asks as he drops from the balcony and lands gracefully several feet away, his gaze locked to Erik.

"You don't have permission to speak my name." Erik growls in a deep voice that reverberates through the air and my monster quickly drops to one knee respectfully, never taking his eyes from Erik.

"Forgive me my lord, I'm only concerned for your well being." He smiles, his tone sickly sweet.

"Leave."

"I beg your pardon?" My monster asks with a raised brow, the corner of his lips curling into a smirk.

"Go back to my father and leave us be." He commands as he struggles, and fails, to stand with rage burning in his golden eyes.

"And why should I? You're clearly in no state to fight me so how about you just come home quietly? Maybe I could even convince your father to give you the little whore if you're so attached to her."

For a moment I imagine myself back in that hell, on my knees with a thick metal collar biting into the soft flesh of my neck and Erik behind me with golden eyes and a cruel smile holding my chain leash in his hand, and I am repulsed. Erik seems to share my disgust as he snarls viciously at my former captor and continues fighting to get on his feet.

"Must you insist on the hard way?" My monster sighs with a contemplative look. He turns his back to us and an opportunity arises. His words are true, Erik clearly doesn't have the strength to fight but he's misjudged my own. Demons or not my father sent them to me with one request, have faith, and it'll take more than this revelation to sway my heart, for the truth of Eriks lineage doesn't change the kind of man I know him to be. I feel my heart standing on the edge of a precipice, knowing just how to turn the tide of this battle, and dive into it without hesitation. I quickly close the gap between us, sinking to my knees and tilting his face to meet mine, my lips stopping just inches from his.

"Kill him." I order and that's all the permission he needs as he brings his hand up to cup my cheek and the familiar enthrallment from our first kiss causes me to melt into his touch.

"As you command, princess."

"No!" My monster screams as he realizes his mistake but it's already too late, Eriks lips colliding with mine. Lust and heat wrack my body in waves, quickly draining away as he feeds off the sexual energy required to power a demons abilities but his attentive fingers running down my back and along my hips only fuel my fire, and the world slows to a crawl around us. From the corner of my eye I watch the smokey tendrils erupt from the ground and faintly hear the thud and gasp of my monster as he's thrown against the side of the stone manor. Just as I begin to feel faint, blurry spots flickering in my vision, Erik releases me. I sway and he's quick to steady me as he eyes me worriedly but I wave him off, as touched as I am now's hardly the time. I watch him rise to his feet, power radiating from him with an almost palpable violet glow, and turn to the demon restrained to the wall. The ethereal tendrils slip back into the ground and the tension is thick in the air as he shakes off the pain of the impact and watches Erik carefully, looking a bit unnerved.