Accidentally Married To A Demon

by Mila Young

  Bram was rushing forward too, with Dracul at his side. The faun jumped up into the air, smoothly launching himself at one of the beasts that had its back turned, kicking at the creature with all his momentum and both feet before launching himself up into the air and landing on his feet again.

  "Don't see that every day," I said aloud, gathering in as much power as I could muster. Growing the plants had taken a lot out of me, and all I could manage was a little extra push to send the creature sprawling to the ground. "Really starting to wish that I paid more attention to Mom's lectures about stamina."

  Not something I said every day either.

  The combined attacks were enough to send the creature to the ground, stunned, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. Dracul jumped forward, digging his teeth into its heel, dragging away at it until I could see blackened tendons being ripped out, making my stomach revolt at the sights and smells surrounding me now.

  I wasn't a fighter. Everyone else seemed ready and willing, waiting for something, and all I could muster was enough energy to knock a couple of the creatures over.

  Rog turned around, jumping clear of the slashing claws aiming to rip his chest open, teeth barred and a sadistic grin touching his features as I moved forward, feeling another crackling bolt of power gathered up and ready, launching it at the nearest of the hellhounds.

  It was enough to rip a hole in the creature's chest, dropping it to the ground, but I took a step back, seeing that three more were turning their attention back on me.

  "Oh... hell."

  Chapter 19

  It was easy to miss just how massive the creatures were until they were heading toward me, still acting like they were unsure of whether I would be able to shoot them down again.

  Bram was doing his part, keeping those that he could distracted with Dracul at his side, moving quicker than I ever thought a faun could go to keep two of the beasts occupied. Two more were dead, one was whining and looking down at the leg that Dracul had ruined. That left three for me, and the rest attacking Rog, who realized that Bram had the right idea.

  Both of them could move a lot faster than I could and were too busy keeping themselves alive.

  I nodded, taking in a deep breath and trying to gather in the energy like I had before, but my chest was pounding so hard I thought it would explode, and it felt like I was trying to grab at a very slimy fish with my bare hands.

  Once I had some in my grasp, I lashed out, launching it at the closest one, hitting him right in the chest with the blast. Not enough to kill, but enough to stun, sending it stumbling backwards.

  The other two rushed forward, thinking I was distracted. A good assumption. I turned around, sending another blast that I didn't know I had in me straight into the face of a second, knocking a handful of fangs out and sending it crashing into the side of the farmhouse terrace.

  Leaving one. I tried to turn in time, reaching out for anything that I might be able to gather. Nothing came. All I could really focus on was the massive claws that were coming for my throat. Just one swipe would take my head off. About as good an end as a non-practicing witch could ask for, I supposed.

  Suddenly, the claws stopped short. I took a step back, gulping and looking around, trying to understand why I was still alive. The hellhound looked about as confused as I was, finally turning his attention down to his feet, where I could see a grouping of knotted roots had jumped up from the ground, wrapping around his legs and firmly holding him in place.

  Almost before I could say anything, I could hear the screech of something approaching at full speed. It was a blast of light, and it decimated the head and some of the torso of the hellhound, leaving only an exposed ribcage as it dropped to the ground, oozing the same foul blood as the others.

  The fae were joining in the fight, I realized. The rest of the town had come, jumping to our aid. Roots were coming out of the ground all over, grabbing and holding the monsters in place, leaving them open to attack, which came in swarms. The hellhounds could take on a single fae at a time, but not all of them attacking at once.

  Cretu ran over to where I was still standing, trying to wipe off the black blood that splattered onto me.

  "Are you all right?" she asked, trying not to look too concerned.

  "Yeah, but these clothes are done for, I think," I complained about the most menial things because this was too much and I barely held it together. "How... how did you know that we needed help?"

  "The vines told me. They told me everything."

  I nodded. "Of course they did."

  "You need to have a little more faith in what you can do, young one. Maybe then you wouldn't have needed my help at all."

  "People keep telling me that," I whispered, looking around the vineyard. The massacre was mostly finished, leaving all twelve of the hellhounds dead, and almost without pause, the fae started to clear away the bodies, like their very presence was an affront, something unclean.

  My attention turned back to Rog, who was leaning against the house, holding onto his stomach, where I could see more of the black blood dribbling.

  "Shit." I held my finger up to Cretu, who shrugged her shoulders and flipped her graying hair back again. I ran to Rog’s side, my fear battling into me.

  "It's nothing serious," Rog told me as I approached him. "Hellhound wounds take a little while to heal and—"

  "Shut up, you big baby, and let me take a look at it," I whispered, pulling his shirt up to reveal the wound. It was deep, but not bleeding profusely. I wasn't going to assume that I knew anything about demon anatomy, but if he said that he would be all right, I knew that he was just playing his macho man card.

  "Do you know what you're doing?" he asked as I pulled his hand away and replaced it with mine.

  "If there's one thing I learned a lot of, it was healing spells," I answered. Not much of an answer, but even with his physiology, I found that it all came back to me a lot easier than I thought it would.

  Odd how now that the battle was over, the power was a little easier to gather up and use.

  The wound was closed, and I opened my eyes, seeing a black handprint left where the wound had been.

  "See?" I said with a small smirk. "I told you I'd find a way to leave a mark that stayed."

  "It'll heal over in a few days," he answered, rolling his eyes. "I think so, anyway."

  "How touching."

  I scowled, turning to see the vampire sitting on our terrace. If there was anything gratifying about her presence, it was that her porcelain-like skin looked like she had just bitten into the world's sourest lemon.

  "You here to finish the job?"

  "And go through all that work? Please, there is a reason why we leave all the dirty work to the hounds. It'll be an absolute bitch to summon them up again."

  "So what happens next?" I asked, walking up on the terrace.

  She eyed me, her eyebrows furrowed and fingers lightly toying with her hair. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that she was nervous to be around me now.

  "Well, considering that you survived, and we won't be killing you ourselves, I suppose the deal still stands."

  "You have got to be shitting me," I snapped.

  "We can lower it to the forty barrels that you already have, leaving you to start growing this place back its former glory. In fact, I have already laid claim to the forty while you were fighting, and so you may consider our deal completed. You are no longer bound to the demon or his land any longer."

  I took another step closer. "If you think that we're just going to let you walk out of here..."

  The vampire held her finger up. "You should remember that while we are most definitely not in the mood to enforce deals without our hounds present, we are more than capable of defending ourselves when attacked. Consider the matter resolved, and there will be no more trouble in this matter. Fail to do so, and more serious action will need to be taken. Consider that carefully, young one."

  Once again, even in the growing sunlight,
the vampire was gone in a flash, likely anxious to return to the comfortable shadows of their shack at the edge of town.

  "What do you think?" I asked, seeing Rog and Bram join me on the terrace.

  "Vampires have always been good for their word," Bram noted, patting Dracul on the back as the dog panted and settled down on the ground to rest. "Your contract with the demon is broken."

  "I can verify that," Rog agreed, though his voice seemed to crack and when he met my gaze, something darkened behind his eyes. "You are no longer bound to me or to this place."

  I sighed, shaking my head, unsure how to feel. I should be rejoicing, and part of me already planned to get the hell out of here, yet part of me ached when I stared at Rog.

  Rog lowered his gaze and turned to see that the dryad was, in fact, already tending to the vines as the rest of the fae were almost finished clearing the bodies.

  Why wasn’t I jumping up and down for joy?

  Chapter 20

  candiestkane.blogspot.com

  Hey guys. I know it's been a while since I've given you all an actual, proper update, but things have been all kinds of crazy around here. I won't bore any of you with the details (mostly because you'd all think that I'm crazy if I did) but the fact remains that it looks like the little vineyard that could is actually... coulding. Is that a word?

  Probably not. Anyways.

  I've actually made some friends out here. Maybe found someone... I didn't really expect to, foreign country, foreign culture, all that noise, but it's a little weird that I feel an intense connection with these people. I don't know if any of you know what I'm talking about when I say that I've always felt like an outsider, and here everyone's an outsider, and we're all fitting in together.

  How fucking weird is that?

  Chemistry is always an interesting thing to look at, and I've always found that the people that you connect with are there for some kind of reason. I'll not go so far as to say that magic is to blame, but in the end, someone is. And I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

  Anyways, you'll know when I do. And until then, I need to get back to work.

  All the hugs in the world,

  The Candiest Kane around.

  I put my laptop down, shaking my head, unsure of what I was going to do next. I was free to head back to New York, but in the end, what did I really have waiting for me there? Friends, sure, but I could always stay in touch with them from afar. And it wasn't like I couldn't just find my way back to the Big Apple if I started feeling homesick.

  There was something about this place that was pulling me in, like the world's most inviting sand trap. And I knew it all revolved around Rog. As much as he drove me crazy, I couldn’t deny that something had happened between us. Something I wanted to explore further. The way he made me feel was unlike anything I’d experienced with any other guy.

  Sure, he was a demon, but I wasn’t exactly perfect myself. Why had the vampire called me demon witch? What was I missing?

  The vampires were still in play, and I doubted that they would forget that I’d flaunted their judgment and fought back. Or that the rest of the fae had fought back. Although they said that it was only because I was a part of their community now. And they were protecting Bram. None were really happy that they'd found themselves defending the demon as well, but there would be time for that later.

  I chewed on my lower lip, unsure what I ought to do.

  "Penny for your thoughts?"

  I tasted bile as I jumped up, sending my laptop rolling over the bed, although thankfully avoiding an encounter with the floor.

  It wasn't the vampire. Or Rog. A woman's voice, one that tugged at my heart's least-played strings as I looked over to see Moira standing in the corner.

  "You know, this room was mostly abandoned when I was here," she noted, looking around. "Rog must have fixed it up for your use, which makes me wonder who the third room is for. Or was for. Not really important. I never knew where he spent his nights. I guess demons don't need a lot of sleep."

  "I guess not," I whispered, trying to make out what I was looking at. "Are... are you real? Because I'm still pretty sure that the last time I saw you, it was a trap to get me to this fucking place for some reason."

  "I would have thought you knew the reason by now." Moira sat on the bed, patting it to get me to join her.

  I wasn't quite there yet. "Nope, completely in the dark. I still have no idea what you were up to around here."

  "This place has a way of growing on you. I started out studying the nature of the demon that inhabited the vineyard, but I found myself... just realizing that there was a lot more to this little town than just a demon. Sure, the vampires suck—"

  "Pun intended?"

  "Very much so," she laughed. "But in the end, the rest of them are... dear to me. I never thought that you would have to deal with the hellhounds, of course, but the vampires took a very quick interest in you."

  "They kept calling me a demon witch or some shit like that," I said, joining Moira on the bed.

  "Huh. I guess I'll have to look into that."

  "How? They got libraries in the afterlife?"

  "I'm still around here," she said, waving her arm around, and I assumed that meant she was a ghost. "I've found that I have nothing but time on my hands. But in the end, when they demanded that I pay their price, I couldn't go through with it, and... well, you saw the kind of pull they have."

  "Those hellhounds looked a lot like werewolves," I commented.

  "Really? I didn't see much of them. They came for me at night."

  I tried to shake that thought off. They were terrifying enough in the daylight.

  "But these people... need someone to look out for them. Bring them together, otherwise they'll just bicker and keep tending to old grudges, leaving them divided, which allows the monsters to keep them in check. Having someone like you... well, you saw what they can do when they work together."

  "Vamps aren't likely just going to let that slide."

  "You've seen them. Decrepit things that have no interest in the world aside from their tiny domain, and even then, only what it can provide them in their preferred form of food. They won't pick a fight with you."

  "I doubt that'll be the end of it, though."

  Moira nodded. "They might summon more hellhounds, but until then, they won't bother with dealing with you themselves."

  "What did they ask of you?" I suddenly interjected, leaning forward.

  "What?"

  "You said that they had a price for you. What did they want you to do? And what did you want from them in return?"

  She sighed. "I wanted to share my magic with the fae in the village. They wanted some of it for themselves, and I couldn't bring myself to allow them any more power."

  I nodded, looking down at the sheets. "Yeah, I can see that."

  "But that's why you have to remain here," Moira insisted, taking my hand in hers, even if I couldn't so much as feel her touch. "Take over where I stopped, keep helping the fae."

  I couldn't say no to that. Even if it hadn't been my favorite aunt asking me, I had grown more than a little attached to these people, for all their dangerous dispositions and quirks. Besides, Dracul would never understand why I suddenly stopped visiting.

  "Fine," I whispered. "I'll stay."

  "Perfect."

  I looked down at my hand, suddenly feeling something there. A prick into my finger.

  "Ow! What the hell was that?"

  A paper came up from the desk, and I could see Moira signing her name into it with my blood.

  "That's precisely what I needed," she said, a devious smile coming across her lips. "With blood freely given, I can now return, but my life is bound to yours."

  "What?"

  Before she could answer, Moira faded into the air, leaving the contract floating to the ground.

  I reached out to snap it into my hands before it could fall, looking over the terms this time.

  The binding of my life to hers w
as in there, along with more terms, binding me to the town again.

  And more.

  "Goddamn it!" I shouted. "I'm not marrying him! Why would you even include that in the contract anyways?"

  I looked around the room, waiting and hoping for some kind of answer, but all I could hear was my own voice bouncing back at me.

  "Shit." I put the contract back down on the bed. "This is why I stopped practicing. So much drama, all the damn time! Why can't you witches just give it to people straight, no games?"

  Again, there was no answer, and I shook my head, looking at the spot where my finger had been pricked.

  At least I had the contract this time. Which meant that I knew what the terms of my imprisonment were.

  "Rog!" I roared as loud as I could, sweeping the contract up. "I know you're the one behind this! Get out here and explain yourself!"

  I knew he could hear me. And I would find him and make him explain it.

  Book 2 coming soon…

  Thank You

  Thanks for reading Accidentally Married To A Demon.

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  Book 2 in Fiend’s Peak is coming soon

  Discover more books from Mila Young and find your Happily Ever After! Start Reading.

  Shadowlands Sector

  They call me an outcast, weak.

  I’ve fought my whole life for survival, running from an attack on my family I ended up hiding with the Ash Wolves. This one move might be my biggest mistake of all. And I’m the queen of mistakes…

  I let them believe I’m broken, let them believe the lies. I let them believe anything they want…as long as it isn’t the truth.