The Demon’s Bride

Elise watched how Angelica took a step forward, the moment the knife fell and she raised her hand, and all the walls vibrated. A crack appeared from on the surface and noticing it, Elise quickly bring her hand before the glass blew to sharp shards. Before the shard could come to her or Ian, it caught fire from the thin air before turning to ashes.

Elise looked at her aunt, who now was smiling from ear to ear, "You are not a normal human," Elise said and her aunt that was once had her feet on the floor begin to float.

"Amazed?" Angelica smiled a taunting grin, "You poor girl. It would have been better for you if you had just died that day in the slave building. But who knows that you would escape the fire."

Elise raised both of her brows, she was surprised but not by how her aunt wanted to kill her. She was surprised because she had never thought her aunt to be the culprit behind the fire and she had become the arsonist to kill her, "So you were the one who tried to kill me."

"Close," Angelica smirked wider, happy with how Elise looked surprise, "Someone who worked with me helped me to cast you away and send your soul to the grim reapers. It failed nine years ago, but I would make sure to do it right now. You called me animal earlier but now I will show you how it feels to become a hunted animal." The woman continued to stare at Elise, she found how no shards glass that she had broken and aimed at themes able to touch her niece. Her gaze quickly shifted at Ian. Was it this man doing? She had never heard vampires holding power like he did before.

"It's nothing to be amazed for being able to suspense in air. I see that you have never fly before," Ian saw how his words ticked the woman even further. 

"You speak like you've fly before," said Angelica. She asked herself, wondering where Ian's confident came from that he could still bear a condescending smile after seeing her power? By now most people would have run, but here he was smiling.

"Believe me I do that everyday which why I could tell that you are barely floating," Ian shifted his gaze to Elise, thinking he should do his business fast so she wouldn't be harmed.

Elise from the side shifted her gaze bellow when she noticed that the carpet on the floor shifted after the house quake earlier and spotted a small knob placed on the floor as if it was a door. Was it a basement? 

She recalled years ago that there was a few moments when she woke in the middle of the night when she found her aunt nowhere in the house. Elise remembered how she was afraid to leave her room at night as there was a time when she stepped to the kitchen in the night for a loud sound coming under the floor. 

"Why did you steal the coffins?" asked Elise, she bravely took a step forward and when her eyes met Ian's, she subtly pointed the door on the floor. It didn't take long for Ian to understand what she hinted. "You are not eating the dead bodies, are you?"

"I wonder? What do you think I use the bodies for?" Angelica didn't reply as easy as Elise had expected she wouldn't.

"You are a dark sorceress," Elise concluded. She knew her aunt was a human and not other being. For a human to have magic but kept it in silence and to add the matter of the missing coffin, Elise was sure Angelica was a dark sorceress. 

"I am," confirmed Angelica with her chin tipped proudly. "I have been spending my time here in silence but now all my hard work is for naught. But that should be fine, after I kill you two. I could move to another village."

"That would only happen if you could kill we both," Ian cut the woman's merriment who had spoken as if she could already see the Goddess of Luck on her side. "Are you sure you want to do this Angelica?"

"Why? Are you afraid now?" Angelica widened her grin, she twist her hand and the shards that had fallen to the ground raise mid-air. "It's too late," she whispered.

"Of course that wouldn't be," Ian remarked, noticing how panic screams sounded from the villagers outside the house as they disperse in fear. "I was only confirming if you would like to die now."

"Try if you could do that," Angelica raised her hand and pushed it toward them, moving the glass shards to rain over them. But before the shards could touch either of Elise and Ian, once again flame engulfed the glass and by the time it crashed to Ian, it reduced to ashes.

Angelica wasn't sure at first, wondering if she had used a weak force when shooting the glasses earlier at the beginning as it had been a long time since she used her power, but now she was sure she had used a stronger current of magic to no avail!

"What are you?" demanded the brunette sorceress. 

"I told you what I am earlier, if you use your bird-brain, you would remember what I said," Ian taunted her, and his words work the right way to push another button of the woman as Angelica's eyes turn livid. "Is that all the power you have, Angelica?"

Angelica ground her teeth. She rested her hand to the side before twisting it with another surge of stronger magic current. Elise saw the furnitures in the house breaks and sharpen like stakes floating in the air. Her aunt smiled dauntingly. "Don't beg me to stop later!"

This time, the shards that were thrown to Ian was faster. He calmly manage to catch the rapid attack with the fire magic. When he saw the door to the basement he shifted his gaze to Elise, "Stay here and be careful. I will come back."

Elise didn't waste time to nod. She saw Ian swiping his hand and the fire throwing the shards outside while pushing back Angelica with his fire. At first, Angelica had the upper hand by creating distance with her flying weapons. But then, she saw how Ian took slow but steady steps toward her which pushed the dark sorceress' feet to move backwards.

Elise waited until Angelica could move further back, thinking to enter the door to the basement when she saw her aunt panicking and she yelled, "This cannot happen!" What was happening?! How could this man be stronger than her? 

This time Angelica used another magic of hers that made the sharp tools inside the kitchen that rested on the walls to quake and point their sharp blades forward; as if invisible hands were holding the tools as all of them suspended on air before striking to Ian. One butcher knife went to charge like bullet to Ian's head which didn't land as he caught the blade effortlessly with his two fingers, before turning it to dusts. 

Angelica, who was thrown in panic, stopped in stun when she saw all the tools, knives, and scissors that he didn't caught also turn to dust. Before she was able to react, Ian caught her neck, hoisting her body on air. Ian didn't miss when Angelica raised her hand to him, wanting to use her magic again, and he used his other hand to pull the knife that was on the ground with magic before slicing all ten fingers Angelica had.

"Oh no, you don't," Ian remarked and Angelica let out a piercing scream of losing her fingers. The pain was enough to stop Angelica from using magic and upon a closer look, Ian took note of a ring with red stone— the same stone that he knew he had seen before on Blythe's dagger. 

"MY FINGERS!!!" Angelica cried for her fingers that was now laying on the floor. She didn't know what was going on. She can't believe she was defeated! Was she losing to a mere vampire with an abnormal power? Ian didn't deny when he was called a vampire which lead Angelica to still thinking he was one, but the reply Ian gave her from earlier had her to rethink what was going on.

"Let's have a calm talk, shall we Angelica? And an honest one where you will have to reply my questions without lies," Ian squeezed her neck further, seeing the woman struggle, trying to breath when Angelica then saw one of Ian's eyeball turned pitch black while his irises shone red. "What do you say?"

It was then when she was finally struck with a realization. "You are not a vampire... You are a Dem-" Before Angelica could finish her words, an arrow struck her neck from behind. Blood splattered to Ian's face. He didn't blink but threw Angelica aside and move away from the nearby window when a group of arrows went through to the house as one sharply shot to the wooden floor. Elise saw her aunt laying slack on the ground, her eyes lifeless as she died. 

What had just happened?