The Demon’s Bride

Debora, the Black Annis had taken the appearance of a beautiful woman, the sharp claw on her both hands had also disappeared. It was the ability that the Black Annis have in order to take the guards down from humans and to escape from the human who captured them. A frightening power that labeled them as the vilest creature. 

The eyes rolled a few times, hinting that Ian had left the White's Mansion not long ago. 

"Good." Debora whispered, her beautiful face turned appalling from the curling smile that contorted her lips. The eyes rolled again, wanting Debora to give the reward she had mentioned beforehand. "Oh-" Debora chuckled, "-I forgot about our deal, well here is your reward." 

The eyes was anticipating the payment from Debora but saw her hand wrapping to his small body and gave it a firm squeeze to crush it.

She whispered. "Thank you, little one you did well." The chilling glint passed to her eyes as she laughed eerily again and heard Georgia from behind. 

"We have come, Debora. Did that Demon left yet?"

Debora looked at the gate of the house and turned back to see her fellow Black Annises crowding behind her in a group. "He has. We will move now. The house is dangerous, take the girl and quickly go."

When Georgia had moved however, the other Black Annises didn't move yet, they still looked a little hesitant. One of them who's very courageous spoke up for the fellow comrade. "What about the magical barrier in the Mansion? We will die before we enter the building if it is still active." 

Debora looked at her with irk and clicked her tongue. She exclaimed. "No need for futile worries, someone else had taken care of it! Now shut your mouth and go!" 

They all looked at each other. The worries on their face had faded into a spine-chilling wide smile. "Alright!"

Following their words, screams of the birds hanging on the tree riot. The Black Anises walked over to the entrance. Blood lust and droll seeping out from their smile as they entered the Mansion. The creatures roaming out of the forest were eerily somber in blood lust smearing over their beautiful faces.  A maid named Helena had just went out of the mansion with a broom to sweep the ground and walked over to see a group of beautiful women coming to the entrance but their faces had twisted into a vile smile. Instantly she felt chill running down to her blood when she saw such a murderous smile. "Danger!" She shouted.

Helena ran toward the Mansion, hoping that she would be able to find Austin who was left as the only guard at the Mansion. Debora's smile grew more appalling as she saw Helena running away with an aghast face and whispered to the woman beside her. 

"Kill them. Kill anyone in our way." 

Before Helena's hand touched the doorknob, the Black Annis used her claws to slashed her neck in a swift movement. Helena's eyes turn vacant when the blood coming off from her neck splattered over the Black Annis's face. The Black Annis licked the traces of blood over her upper lips and continued to enter the Mansion. 

 Austin and Elise were playing after the absence of Aryl who had to go with her friends. Making another flower crown, Elise looked at the lots of birds passing to the garden. 

"What is it, Elise?" Austin walked over to her. 

"The birds are crying." Elise pointed up the sky. For some reason, her heart felt an immense uneasiness as though something bad would happen now. 

Austin looked up and found it nothing wrong for the birds to fly from their nests in a group and only noted that there were quite too many birds in the forest. He replied lightly. "They're crying? Maybe they are onl-" Austin felt a threatening blood lust from the entranced and cursed under his lips. "Shit! Black Annises!" The Black Annises are creatures that loved to eat children but with these amounts, there was only one reason why they grouped out, the sweet child. 

The black dot on his yellowish eyes turned into a sharp oval when he sensed something coming over. "Elise, stand back!" 

Elise turned startled quickly to Curly's side but the dog growled to the delicate woman who appeared behind Elise. Georgia ran her index finger to Elise's cheeks and greeted pleasantly. 

"Good afternoon, sweet child." 

Austin snapped his eyes toward Georgia and ran to shield Elise from her. Fur grew out of his whole body. The muscles grew larger in size as his head turned into a tiger head. The clothes that he wore ripped apart to show his upper body that had black stripes on his gold fur. Sharp long canines protruded from his mouth. "Go away, you foul ugly creature!" He exclaimed, there was no sweetness nor gentleness that he used to have as he talked with Elise. 

A muscle on Georgia's face twitched from being called ugly twice, her smile stale as her beautiful face crumbled like a chalky paint from the wall, showing the blue skin wrinkly drought skin and a large bumpy nose. Her slender hand became one with the fingernails on her hand, making it look like a beast's claw to Elise's eyes. 

Elise walked a few steps behind, afraid by the blue creature that towered in front of her. Everything surrounding the appearance of Georgia was blood-curdling and frightening.

Without exchanging a single word, Georgia ran to charge to Austin using her claw. The attack was fierce but nevertheless futile in front of Austin. Austin saw a blind spot when he evaded the attacks from Georgia. With a faint smile, he stretched out his hand to pierce the rib cage and took out her heart to burst it. 

Before he was able to draw out a sigh, he felt a slash from another Black Annis behind him and when he turned around, he saw that not only a handful of Black Annises were there, but he could also smell the scent of blood from the Mansion. 

"Elise!" Austin shouted and the girl was quick to understand what he cued and hid behind his guarding perimeter. 

Fighting without the help of the rest of his subordinates was certainly hard and the Black Annises wasn't a stupid creature without a brain. They were sly and would use whatever it means to capture their prey. Even though Austin was sure he could take care of them, he wasn't sure whether he could do that while protecting Elise alone. 

In between his fight, he used an arm to sweep all the Black Anises in front of him and mouth to bite their necks. He lowered his face to the little girl and whispered. "Elise, go to Lord Ian's room. In the second drawer under his desk, you should find a large stone. It's a communication stone, call the Lord if you could." 

Elise was afraid. She could feel her head grew faint when she saw the bloodied bodies that lay in front of her, but Austin now is in great danger and she was bright to understand her presence only dragged Austin's legs. 

"Don't worry, Cerbe- Curly will help you if you find any trouble. When I say Go, run with your fastest speed, understand?"

Elise hurriedly nodded, her hands were trembling and she could feel tears layering her eyes. Austin cleaned and munched down the Black Anises on his way with his mouth before spitting it out and exclaimed. 

"Go!" 

Elise held Curly in her hand and ran to the mansion from the back door. When she entered, a sight of a dead maid laying on the hallway frightened her to near death. Curly barked once to wake her up from the fear and Elise began to run to the second floor without meeting a single Black Annis on her way. Elise was about to gratefully thank God but her naive wish ended when she saw a beautiful woman that was clearly out of the place standing outside Ian's room. 

"Oh my, what do we found here? The sweet child is greeting me." Debora smiled walking a few steps toward Elise when the girl took steps to the back.

Elise felt her throat parched as though sand stuck on her neck when she noticed blood dripping from Debora's hand that she hid behind her back and not a single voice could come out from her lips. She sneakily stole a glance toward Ian's room on her left. A little more and she could enter the room. She needed to enter the room in haste now as Austin must be having great trouble handling the Black Annis but with the woman in front of her, she had nothing to protect herself from the woman. 

Being able to enter the room now would only be a stroke of sheer luck for her and that didn't seem to be taking place. Debora noticed the large eyes fishing at the door. A shrilling voice slipped under her lips, "Do you want to enter here, sweet child?" 

Elise didn't reply anything and Debora dropped her smile. "It would seem that you have known who I am. Have you met my comrade from outside?" As she spoke, the face crumbled again in a chilling way that made Elise shivered from disgust. 

"You have to choose now sweet child. Come here or I will come for you." Debora didn't give her a choice, it was a threat that she would kill her if she didn't come to her with her own will. 

Elise took a step back slightly to have Curly jumping down from her arm. "Curly!" she exclaimed and saw Curly running straight to Black Annis to bare his fangs. 

"How foolish!" Debora shouted to thrust her claw straight to the dog's body but suddenly, the Dog grew larger with his three heads protruding. Debora collapsed to the floor behind her and spoke in horror. "C- Cerberus!" 

Curly didn't care what Debora said and brought his mouth forward to eat the ugly creature. A loud dying scream entered the Mansion, warning the rest of the Black Annis of the death of their comrade. Elise immediately threw her sight away from the gore and ran toward Ian's door to open it and entered the place. She followed Austin's words, trotted to the desk and pulled the second drawer to take a large red stone from the desk. 

Austin said to communicate, but she couldn't understand how it works. After a few seconds of contemplation, she heard growlings from Cerberus who had found another Black Anises running to attack them. 

"M- Master-" she whispered and forced herself to speak a little louder. "Master Ian!" 

"What is it?" Ian's voice came across. He was still in the middle of the road to attend Mr. Brown's party and drew his brow into a frown when he noticed it was Elise's voice. "Puppy?" 

"P- Please save Austin." Tears ran down her cheek as she pleaded. 

Ian noticed the fear and chaotic mix of fright from the girl's voice and even though he couldn't see her tears, he could feel the same feeling of anger overlapping his dead heart. Red mists appeared from his feet and in a split of a second, the red mist had taken over half of his bodies and transferred it behind Elise. 

"Where are they?" A cold-blooded voice came from his lips. His red eyes vacant from feelings, in dire to see death to its seeker. 

"In front-" Elise sobbed, the relief came over her as she lost her power to walk again. The blood and the frightening scene repeated over to her head, making her whole body to tremble from ineffable dread.

"Stay here, don't come out of the room until I came back," Ian spoke as he walked out of his room and was quickly greeted by the Cerberus he brought back from the underworld. "Go back." The Cerberus heard his order and shrunk back to his small body. "Stay here and eat every enemy who came here."

"Woof!" Cerberus agreed and sat as the watchdog.

A few steps as Ian walked down the hallway, he smelled the thick fragrance of blood from the backyard. Austin must be there, he thought to himself to narrow his eyes slightly. A Black Annis came charging toward him when she spotted someone walking down the curving stair. Ian slipped off a thrilling smile as he cut down ripped off the Black Annis's claws. The Black Annis resonated a loud cry but before she could understand what was happening Ian had ripped off her head from the body and threw it across the floor.

He wiped the blood splatter on his face and looked toward Debora. "We have the head here." Ian commented to see Debora holding a disorientated face. The color of her beautiful pale skin flickered between black and white from surprise, an ugly sight to behold.

"Everyone attack him! He's alone and defenseless now!" Debora ordered with a shout. They hesitantly looked at each other and cooperated to attack.

"Defenseless?" Ian chuckled, showing his hand to catch the head of the Black Annis and tore it off again. "My hands are more than enough for you."

The Black Annises kept on attacking and Ian mercilessly killed them by ripping out their head. It took him less than three minutes to kill eight of the Black Annises. Debora stood alone in the middle she had lost her composure and could only step back in fear.

"What are you waiting for?" Ian provoked.

Debora's beautiful face shattered like chalk, turning it to a blue wrinkly skin with a long bumpy nose. "How ugly." Ian berated wholeheartedly.

"Don't call me ugly!" Debora used her last power to ran and stab him with her claw. Ian grinned and captured her slender neck in an instant. She was frozen stiff as her movement was halted from the firm grip on her hand.

"W- Wait!" The Black Annis reformed back to its beautiful appearance and pleaded using her delicate teary eyes. "Please let me go. I can do anything, whatever you say. We can have a great time together."

Debora was surely good at her works, attaining a very beautiful face she knew how to hone her skill. If it was used to male humans, they would have fallen to her trap and abide by their sexual urges, but Ian wasn't a human and he wasn't in the mood to play with their games. "Unfortunately, I have no taste for a wrinkly, old, and blue-skinned woman."

As he spoked, Ian shredded her head and rolled it down to the floor. With a sigh, a red mist appeared to swallow his body and teleported him to the garden. Austin noticed the Lord's presence and smile in delight. "My Lord!"

"Dumb cat, I should have exchange you for a dog!" Ian uttered sourly and saw the soulless bodies laying on the floor to participate in the bloodshed.

Sun was about to start going down by the time Ian opened the door to his room. Elise had been hiding in the corner of the room while hugging her trembling knees in the cold ground. When she spotted Ian, her small body stood up immediately to only slumped down forward. Ian reached out his hand instinctively, taking a hold of the petite body in with one palm. "Calm down. Austin didn't die and you are saved now." He comforted carefully.

"R- really?" Elise's tears ran down from the rim of her eyes in relief.

He confirmed. "Yes."

The little puppy was too mysterious for him. When he saw her hurt, rage boiled down his blood, revealing a feeling that he never thought he had before. It was odd, the girl was odd, he concluded, not wanting to dwell on his hollow heart.

Austin had turned back into his human form with a torn shirt and entered the room to see Ian carrying Elise in one hand toward the lounge chair. "Austin." He heard the Lord called his name and straightened his form to a bow.

"Clean the house, call in the servants, and confirmed the death tell the Church of what had taken place in the Mansion." Austin didn't dwell long and fastened his steps to go down his lord's order. As he passed his order, the raven came beside him and took a rest at his shoulder. "Cynthia, I'm back at the Mansion cancel the trip come back here."

Cynthia and Maroon who took a rest immediately after the Lord disappeared received Ian's words and breathed out in relief. "Yes, milord we will now."

"Come here." This time Ian's words were directed to Elise. She trotted over to him and had him carrying her on his hand. He swept his hand over her eyes and made her fall to sleep so she could stay calm for now. 

When the evening ended and the Sun set down to bring darkness to the Mansion. Ian sat down in his office with his two aids and butler. He swept his eyes and muttered out. "Someone had broken the protection magic to my mansion, helping the hideous ugly creatures to destroy my mansion. How irritating."

Yet when he stated "irritating" but his face had some mirth and dark amusement brimming to his eyes. The three people shook their heads. They still couldn't understand what was happening in hell's name inside Ian's mind. 

Austin wondered and spoke up. "But, my lord. Your protection magic is the strongest in the Empire, isn't it? How could they break you magic without you knowing? " 

Of course, there was a way. For someone to break the protection magic he gave seamlessly without making him noticing it until someone had to actually inform him first. There was a way but that one way is very despicable that most humans wouldn't be able to think such a hideous way. 

Ian leaned to his chair and chuckled faintly. "There's only one way, human sacrifice."

Cynthia drew her brows to a concentration. To use human sacrifice as the base of their magic and break Ian's magic, there's only one being that would use sacrifices like cutting butter, the dark sorcerers. "It's the dark sorcerer work again." Her words were sharp as dagger.

"Correct." Ian returned. "Meaning they have dared to put their dirty soles in my Land."

"Is their objective, Elise, Milord?" Austin questioned the obvious.

"There isn't anything far valuable than Elise here in our house." Ian confirmed, standing up from his seat, he walked to take his cigar out from the second shelf of his desk.

"Then," Cynthia added. "If Elise is their objective, it meant they know that she is the sweet child. Then wouldn't it be the best for us to strengthen the protective magic in the mansion, my lord?"

"I've planned that, having rats setting their feet in my mansion is something I utterly dislike after all." Blowing out a smoke from his lips, Ian turned his eyes to have his lucid red eyes reflected back the light from the candle across him. "I guess you know what your works are now, I assume?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Of course."

"Good." He sat on his desk, crossing his legs. "You can go now and tell Maroon, in estimation of five days, we will be having a troublesome guests." Cynthia and Austin bowed to exit the room while Ian sat there silently, having a vacant look upon his gaze.