The Demon’s Bride

Esther was standing in front of the door, appearing normal with the faint smile on her lips which always looked as if she was laughing at the other person. Her voice similar to the sound of waves hitting the rock, a little rough but pleasant to hear. Elise took her time staring at her aunt.

"Are you alright?" She asked her.

Esther smiled, "Do I look like I'm not? There no thief or burglary here, I am living in the epitome of peacefulness." She brought both hands over her chest and separated them to make her point.

In narrowed his eyes while looking at Esther, "We heard you came back home alone. Where was the others? They didn't come with you?"

Esther opened the door wide enough for them to enter and Ian held Elise's hand before she enter. As if not noticing what happened, Esther continued to speak, "Well, there was a very unfortunate accident. Miss Harriet was harassed sexually on the back of an alley after separating or about less than a minute with us. Sir Maroon and Lady Cynthia went to check in the culprit. I thought they have came back by now."

"They didn't however," Ian answered and he gave Elise a look. Judging by how all of a sudden his house felt very tippy as if it had been placed on the tip of a cliff's tongue, he instructed her to go to her room first by tipping her chin. His voice remained aloud. "You can go back and rest, Elise. You didn't get a wink of sleep. I will see you in the dining room if you want breakfast," leaning forward, Ian kissed the temple of her forehead whilst whispering, "Don't open the door unless you are certain it is me."

Elise met his eyes and she knew that currently she couldn't use much of her power. She nodded her head, giving one last look to Esther before walking away, "Leaving already? But I wanted to speak a little with you, Elise," Esther said, stopping her heels. "It is something about your father."

Elise turned her face, showing a smile without a hint of unrest as if she didn't notice how off Esther was to her usual self, "I am quite sleepy," she yawned. "Can we speak about it next time?"

"Instead, I would like to speak with you Esther," Ian offered the woman a smile, he turned to Elise, giving her a nod for her to leave the place. "Can I enter?"

"N...Yes," the corner of Esther's lips twitched and her expression turned rigid. Ian made his way to the room when the door behind him closed with a clinking lock, he turned his eyes at the woman who was smiling widely. "What do you want to speak about, Milord?"

"Just some simple things," Ian pulled out the black gloves from his coat and pushed his five fingers inside the gloves. "Like first of all how are you?"

"I am fi..ne," Esther forced the three words from her mouth through clenched teeth. Yet in the next second, her smile went intact again as if earlier she had dealt with a simple headache. "I slept well enough to be alright. I heard you two went to Hell. Was it to find Lucifer?"

"You sound like you want to meet him," as he spoke, Ian's eyes were still on his hands, wearing the gloves as if he wasn't interested in the discussion but something else. "Now we should get to the point. Where is the person who controls you?"

Esther struggled and her expression seemed as if she was electrocuted. She managed to force her finger to point on the corner of the room, "T-There!" 

Ian raised his palm toward the wardrobe, blasting fire enough to set the entire corner of the room to be burnt as well. A woman stepped out from the wardrobe screaming in pain. Ian narrowed his eyes when he saw it was one of the maids. The maids shook her head, "N-No, M-milord it isn't me." The maid squeezed her words while her eyes glaring behind Ian.

From behind, Esther smiled and she was about to take a stab on Ian's heart using a bright red dagger only for her to see him suddenly disappearing. Ian set himself behind Esther and stabbed his heart through. "You know, I got to say you hae a very bad acting."

"H-How did you know?" 'Esther's' skin melted, showing a complete different face from her earlier. 

"From the beginning," Ian answered stately without an ounce of concern. "I know you had acted as if you are Esther who was being controlled in order to take the advantage to kill me. I thought to give you the benefit of the doubt. But humans really never understand how demons can sense each other even if someone else had taken else their spot."

The dark sorcerer was fading in each second. "You know and yet... you killed your own maid? You don't have a heart."

Ian can't understand why he had to heard this from a dark sorcerer. His lips was curving to a smile while his eyes remained vacant and void, there was no emotion in his eyes that scared the dark sorcerer. "Yes, I don't," he agreed, "But for your own correction the woman didn't die."

"What?" The dark sorcerer's eyes quickly flew over toward the body of the woman that should have sprawled over the ground but he saw nothing. The scars on the walls had also disappear and the wardrobe appeared to hold not the slightest scorch. "W-What is this?!"

"Hallucination. I learned it after a spar with my uncle an hour ago. I am very gifted, aren't I?" Ian grinned over his own praise. "And while I am the worse person you ever met, I am still much better than you. Where is the woman?"

Elise ran back to her room, locking herself inside when she felt a sudden pain on her heart. She squeezed her hands in front of her chest and ran toward the basin, throwing up mouthful of blood. Her head became dizzy all of a sudden and she questioned if this was the side effect of being in Hell. It didn't appear that she was able to go there, the blood of her angel's side was throwing a fit.

If only there was her father who she could consult about her undies heritage. But God had made it difficult for her by having each of her family members so unique where she begin to ask herself if they all inherit the same difficulty of speaking and interacting with their own family members.

Elise left the bathroom after she had washed her mouth, and she took off her coat. She knew her room was the only place she could stay now while Ian ends the matter. She was wondering how Aunt Esther's condition was when she heard glass breaking from outside her bedroom, causing her to frown. The sound was too loud for her to differentiate the sound with vase breaking.

The frown on Elise only deepened further when she heard screams from the servants inside the house.

Oh no! It was another disaster which was coming on their way!