Eloim woke with a start. He lay still, waiting for the feeling of disorientation to pass. Outside his coffin he heard a strange wailing noise. Opening the coffin lid, he looked around but closed the lid in confusion. After a moment to collect his thoughts, he opened the coffin lid a fraction and peered out again. The landscape around him was a blackened desert with an angry red sky. Opening the lid again, he carefully climbed out of his coffin.
“Hello? Lynne, are you there?” he shouted as he turned around, taking in the sight before him. “Something has gone wrong with your room, it wasn’t me, honest.” Eloim reached into the coffin and pulled out the slippers Lynne had given him for wearing in the house. With a disgusted shake of his head he placed them on his feet.
Kicking the ground, he sent up a small cloud of dust and he shoved his hands into his pockets and absently pulled out the ring he had picked up earlier in Lynne’s study. He placed it on his finger and inspected it before again looking around. This time he noticed a body laying half buried in the soil. As he approached the body, he recognised the clothing that Lynne had been wearing the last time he had seen her and he bent down to turn her over. He recoiled in shock as he looked down on the mummified face of the vampire witch. The expression of terror on her sunken features made him shudder. Her body had been drained of all blood and left a dried out shell.
“I seriously had nothing to do with this.” Eloim mumbled to himself, close to panic. “Oliver! Where are you?” He spun around, hoping to see his friend.
In the sky above him, the clouds began to boil and swirl as the wind picked up, lifting the fine dust to whirl around him. A vortex began to form in the sky as the wind got stronger; buffeting Eloim. More dust was lifted into the air making visibility nil. Closing his eyes against the wind, Eloim fell to his knees, trying in vain to try and crawl to his coffin, one hand held out before him, feeling the way.
As suddenly as the wind began, it stopped. Still with his eyes shut, Eloim crawled on, his hand searching for the coffin. Then his hand touched something cold, metallic and boot shaped. Grabbing the unknown item, he stopped crawling and opened his eyes to see a pair of armoured boots directly in front of him. Slowly he looked up and his terror grew anew as he stared into the furious features of the demon Alexia. She stood looking down on him, her wings unfurled behind her and her eyes blazing in unchecked fury.
“What treachery has happened here?” Alexia asked; her voice cold and dangerous. “The witch has dragged us here, why?” Alexia reached down and hoisted Eloim to his feet where he stood looking up at her, unable to speak, watching the fury in the demon’s face as she looked around at the landscape before her. “I will make her suffer for this.” Alexia continued in fury and then looked down at Eloim again. Her expression changed to confusion and then she smiled as she looked at him. “Are you hurt, my love? If she has caused you pain, her suffering will be eternal.”
Eloim went to open his mouth but no sound came out. Eyes wide, he stood transfixed. Finally Eloim found his voice. “You are Alexia the Demon Empress aren’t you?” he stammered.
“Light of my heart, do you not recognise me? I am your adoring slave.” Alexia gasped in shock, pulling Eloim into an almost crushing embrace before continuing. “What evil has she done that she would banish us both here to the realm of purgatory because of the love we share?”
Pushing Eloim back so she could again look into his face, Alexia continued. “We may be trapped in this place for all eternity, but at least now, we are together and our love for each other will never fade.”
Eloim closed his hands into fists, feeling the stolen love ring on the finger of his left hand. He knew that no matter what happened, he needed to keep the ring on his finger. With that thought, he was pulled into another embrace, his face squashed into the heaving bosom of the Demon Empress, causing strange thoughts to surface.
Eloim sat on the coffin watching as Alexia continued to stamp on the body of the dead vampire witch, Lynne. Her rage had lasted for quite a time now and while the cursing had stopped, with only the occasional outburst, she seemed to have got the worst out of her system.
“Excuse me Alexia, but could I ask a couple of questions when you’ve finished?” Eloim asked.
Alexia stopped and threw Eloim a bright smile and self-consciously moved a strand of her purple hair that had fallen over her face. “Anything my love, ask away,” she said.
Eloim gave a wonky smile in return. “Well when you started grinding poor Lynne there into dust under your amazingly stylish booted feet, you mentioned she had done the spell wrong.”
“You think my boots are stylish?” Alexia said, beaming with pleasure.
“Well the first time I saw you I thought you were the most stylish demon I had ever seen, you totally rock the demon warrior look,” Eloim said, returning her smile with a growing confidence.
Alexia ran over to sit next to him on the coffin and took his hand. “You really think so? No one ever notices the real me, it’s always the evil Empress they see. The breast plate isn’t a little too low cut is it?” she asked, pushing back her shoulders to give Eloim a better view.
Blushing at the memory of the embrace as his eyes were drawn downwards, Eloim shook his head. “I think it’s perfect, the best I’ve ever felt, erm I mean seen,” he mumbled.
Alexia jumped up. “It’s great being here with you, I can be myself. I don’t have to be that Empress having things killed all the time. I can just be a demon who has found her love. Well to answer your question, the witch did a variant or incomplete Amundious Quantious spell and rather than just a splash of blood, she allowed the spell to drain her whole body. So much blood boosted the power and sent us flying past our intended destination of the astral plane, right through to purgatory here.”
“Right, so she was the one that messed up and it wasn’t my fault,” Eloim said with relief.
“Of course not, now what’s your second question?” Alexia said as she pulled Eloim to his feet.
“That horde of strange creatures running up the hill over there towards us, are they dangerous?” Eloim asked. Alexia looked over to where Eloim indicated.
“I forgot about those, they are very dangerous and I think we should start running before they get any closer.” She grabbed Eloim’s hand and dragged him off in the opposite direction.
“What are they?” Eloim asked looking over his shoulder as they began to run.
“They’re wraiths, all that remains of the lost souls that end up here.” Alexia tugged at Eloim’s hand to encourage him to run faster. “They feed off the new souls, turning them into wraiths too. If they catch us, they will drain our energies and destroy everything that we are.”
Eloim suddenly speeded up. “I should have asked about them first then.”
They had run for what seemed to be hours but had lost the wraiths as they entered the foothills of a mountain range. The ground had changed from the fine black dust to sharp rocks that made running difficult. Both of them had stumbled and fallen and Eloim’s trousers and hooded top now had a number of rips and tears, while the sole of one of his slippers was starting to come off. Alexia found a shallow cave and both hid within it.
“I can’t do another day like that,” Eloim said, throwing himself to the ground. “I’m totally exhausted.”
Alexia walked over and knelt in front of him. “Those things are slow and stupid. In future, my love, we will keep a better look out for them,” Alexia said softly.
“No I mean my hunger is growing, I’m finding it harder to concentrate,” Eloim replied.
Alexia gave a wicked little smile. “Well it’s a bit forward for our first date and I thought you would be a little more shy, but help me out of this armour and you can tell me where you would like to bite me first,”
Eloim’s mouth dropped open in shock, causing Alexia to laugh.
“I’m not that sort of Vampire,” he finally managed to stammer.
Alexia leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss. “I bet you want to be though. I know you’ve been thinking of what it would be like to sink your fangs into me since I first arrived.”
With that, Alexia stood up and walked to the cave’s entrance, leaving Eloim exceedingly flustered and imagining anew where he would like to bite her.
“I have been meaning to ask you something Eloim,” Alexia said tentatively from the cave mouth. “Why are you dressed so strangely? I have seen you quite often through the eyes of my minions and you were always so stylish.”
“I was in disguise, hiding from...” Eloim stopped realising what he was about to say.
Alexia turned around to look at him. “You were hiding from me?” she said sadly. “I behaved so badly towards you.”
“We got off on the wrong foot is all,” Eloim said, still not truly trusting how well the ring’s power would work.
“I am sorry, especially about your sister. I just have this bad temper when I don’t get what I want,” Alexia said, walking back towards Eloim to kneel in front of him again.
“What happened to Polly?” Eloim asked.
“She appeared in my throne room and instantly set about my priests and magicians with that sword of hers,” Alexia whispered. “I was left with no alternative.”
“You killed her?” Eloim asked, he didn’t want to hear but he had to know.
“If we just leave it at I stopped her killing my priests,” Alexia said. “I hope this will not affect our chances of settling down and getting married.”
“Getting married, when was that decided?” Eloim said, he almost yelled the question in his shock.
“Well you can’t expect an empress to just shack up with someone. We have to do things properly my love,” Alexia said sweetly.
“And doing things right should mean I have to ask you first Alexia, I have to say ‘will you marry me?’” Eloim replied.
“Yes!” squealed Alexia in delight and leaned forward to kiss Eloim, who surprised himself when he realised he liked kissing and was a little upset when Alexia pulled back.
“So we’re now engaged then,” Alexia said, smiling at a confused Eloim whose mind wouldn’t kick start after his first kiss. “You should get some sleep, I’ll keep watch, my love,” Alexia said as she stood up again and walked back to the cave mouth.
Eloim tried to work out what had just happened, he was still struggling to get past the kiss when the memory of where his face had been in their embrace turned up and he decided that being engaged may not be so bad if he got to do things like that, not to mention the kissing again.
Thanks for reading, upvotes, comments and resteems are welcome.
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part 1? It's here : @alienbutt/the-demon-the-witch-and-a-teenage-vampire-vampire-eloim-book-3
part 2 here: @alienbutt/the-demon-the-witch-and-a-teenage-vampire-vampire-eloim-book-3-part-2
part 3: @alienbutt/zgpms-the-demon-the-witch-and-a-teenage-vampire-vampire-eloim-book-3-part-3
Part 4: @alienbutt/the-demon-the-witch-and-a-teenage-vampire-vampire-eloim-book-3-part-4
part 5: @alienbutt/the-demon-the-witch-and-a-teenage-vampire-vampire-eloim-book-3-part-5
part 6: @alienbutt/the-demon-the-witch-and-a-teenage-vampire-vampire-eloim-book-3-part-6
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