Chapter 5

TW: kidnapping, torture

All Latin will be translated at the bottom of the chapter

Chapter Five

I yawned and stretched, groggy. Glancing out the window, it appeared to be the afternoon. How long had I slept? Man, time would be much easier to tell if I could just find a clock or a watch somewhere. Maybe I could bring one from Heaven or Ethereal. I undressed myself, tossed the clothes into the makeshift hamper I made and walked to my closet. What did I feel like wearing today? I threw on a knee length, black and silver dress, tied my hair in a pony tail and walked out, I stretched my wings, enjoying the feeling of it. I walked down the hall and could hear Zukira chatting excitedly about something.

"I'm just so glad you're back! I've missed you and was so worried about you!"

"About who?" I rubbed the last of sleep from my eyes.

"Nyxie! Just in time! My daughter Rune! I haven't seen her in so long cause her father took off with her but she managed to get away!" Zukira was bouncing up and down.

I chuckled. Zukira sure was excited. "Glad to hear that. I can relate. I adopted a little orphan named Alexisia while I was living in Heaven and my then mate took off with her when we split. Like you, I hadn't heard anything since. But congrats that Rune is back."

"Aw, I'm sorry, Nyxie. I didn't mean to remind you about Alexis."

I shook my head. "You didn't remind me. It was one of the many memories that were forcefully repressed from my mind. I recalled it when I was on my little vacation in Ethereal."

"Oh, well, uh, meet Rune." Zukira gestured to the slightly taller girl beside her. She was blonde, had her mom's eyes and wings and was a ferret, from what I could see of her tail and ears.

"Nice to meet you, Rune. I'm Nyxie," I waved.

"Hello. Nice to meet you, too." Rune waved.

Erys, who had been sitting, stood and pulled out a chair for me to sit next to him. Man, I really landed such a sweet heart when I married him. Sure, we had some things we needed to work on, but no relationship was perfect. I reflected on some more memories that were coming back to me. As I was doing so, another one resurfaced.

— — — — —

I was sitting in the forest, playing with the water in the lake. Erys was late to our usual play date but I knew his parents sometimes kept him a bit longer. A sharp pain on the back of my head caused me to cry out before everything went black. When I woke up, I found I was tied up in a cave somewhere. I had a pretty good idea who was behind this. Marco was the first to step out of the shadows. He had multiple sticks of varying thickness in his arms and took pride in testing their durability on me. I was being hit by rocks and knew that it was Kiley doing it. All that was left was Caleb. Not long after I put that together did he step out and try to get my clothes off. I kicked and screamed, fighting him off as best as I could. After a while, I was too tired to fight anymore. I just hung my head down so they wouldn't see my tears.

"Where's your lap bear now, bitch?" Marco slapped me with a thorny branch across my face, leaving trails of blood on my cheek. "He ditched you. Even he knows to leave vermin alone if it causes him trouble." Marco spat on me.

"No one will save you now," Kiley slammed my head against the wall.

Somehow I managed to keep still despite my tears. "He'll be here. You don't know him the way I do."

Caleb just laughed. "You don't know a thing about demons. Your naivety is almost cute." He had my shirt up at rib cage level.

I just bit his arms as hard as I could. "He isn't like the rest." I spat the blood from Caleb's arm into his face.

"Say, Kiley. Let's get some more sticks and stones to break her bones," Marco nudged Kiley and the two left, laughing.

It was just Caleb and I now. "Oh look, they left." His rough fingers ran down my arm.

"Get your hands off of me!" I folded up and managed to get my feet in between us. With all of my strength, I kicked him back.

He hit the adjacent wall so hard, I heard his spine crack and the echo resonate. "Ugh, you fucking brat. I'll teach you to mess with me." He left me alone and came back minutes later. I only saw his feet, I chose to stare at the ground. Though maybe if I had looked up, I could have dodged the dagger that planted itself in my stomach.

"Do your worst, I won't give you the pleasure of crying out again," I growled. For the first time since I had woken up, I made eye contact with him. I didn't flinch as I saw another dagger fly at me. This one landed in my foot. Tears silently left my eyes but I refused to let him see me scream. How many more daggers did this kid have? That question was answered as another lodged in my foot, another in my stomach again, one in my arm and the last in my knee. Caleb approached me and twisted each of the daggers around. I was biting my lip so hard by now that I tasted blood. My claws dug deep into my palms, and they were probably bleeding as well.

"Conlidam," he whispered.

I didn't know what that meant but it was soon shown when all the blades shattered-even the parts that were twisted into my flesh. At that point, I couldn't hold it in anymore and screamed in agony. How was I staying conscious, let alone alive through all of this torture? In between agonized sobs, I opened my eyes to see Erys ramming into Caleb. I could tell from his body language that he was pissed off. "E-Erys..." A huge wave of relief washed over me and I slumped over.

"You again, huh, fucker?" Caleb stood up and let his horns show. They were like Erys' but a sort of off white color. "Let's fight." He charged at Erys.

It didn't faze him. He had probably guessed that it would happen and braced himself. I forced myself to stay awake to see what would happen. Erys had dug his hands and feet into the dirt to meet Caleb head on. He moved only a few inches, pushed with all his strength and threw Caleb off to the left and into the wall. The force of the blow was so strong that some rubble fell from the ceiling.

His gaze moved to me, pitch black eyes widening when he saw me. Black eyes, yeah he was pissed, alright. "Nyxie, oh dear god...." He let out a menacing growl and turned his attention to Caleb. "YOU DID THIS TO HER! I'LL MAKE SURE YOU REGRET EVER LAYING A HAND ON HER!" I watched, a little fascinated, as my demon friend transformed into a huge black bear. Did that hurt at all? He raced at Caleb, snarling. Caleb was pinned to the wall by two huge paws the size of his head.

"So," Caleb coughed under the weight of Erys' paws. "You think being a bear will make a difference?"

Without hesitating, Erys raised a paw and slashed at Caleb's face, tearing flesh and even some muscle away. "YOU'RE A LOW LIFE OF A DEMON! NO, NOT EVEN A DEMON! YOU'RE NOTHING BUT DIRT!" Erys took Caleb's shoulder in his mouth and thrashed him out of the cave.

"I-I'm sorry...It won't...happen again..." Caleb stammered, barely able to stand.

"It won't," still a bear, Erys approached the severely injured boy. "And it won't because you won't live to try." He took the boy's head in his mouth and thrashed his head about.

I heard a sickening snap and flinched. I heard a thud and started hyperventilating, feeling extremely weak and dizzy. "Help..." I whispered.

Erys rushed over to me and broke the chains on my wrists with the swipe of his bear paws. As quickly as he had become a bear, he reverted to his demon form. "Oh elder gods, I'm so sorry! I should have been there! Then none of this would have happened. Oh god, Nyxie, I'm so sorry..." His embrace was warm and comforting, his cinnamon scent relaxing.

"Y-you're, here now..." I was just strong enough to reach up and touch his hair before I blacked out. When I woke up again, I was on something soft and warm. I felt something fuzzy over me and heard fast paced foot steps. "E-Erys? Is that you?" Slowly I opened my eyes. The room was spinning and my head was pounding. I felt some bindings on my arms, legs, feet, and stomach. I was probably in a healer's hut.

The fast steps stopped and I heard a soft thump beside me. "Nyxie! Thank god! I was so worried that you wouldn't wake up. You'd been out for about a week." This was the first time I'd seen him cry, even a little. "The healer said your injuries were life threatening. She was surprised you had managed to survive at all! Not that, ya know, it's a bad thing. I think it's a testament to how strong you are and you're not a push over. Please forgive me, please plea-"

I placed my finger on his lips to quiet. "I forgive you."

His jaw dropped. "You do? If I were you I wouldn't and for good-"

"I forgive you," I smiled.

His smile was huge as he bowed. The bow confused me. "Thank you!"

"Just don't be late again."

"Of course! And I promise, whenever I have free time, I will always be by your side."

I couldn't help my giggle. "Silly Sparkles." I just coined a new nickname for him.

"Featherfluff."

To his credit, he never did leave my side. He would follow me whenever I needed to relieve myself, but he would look away like a gentleman. I had to beg him to go to the bathroom himself. It was the quickest few seconds I'd ever seen anyone do that. He'd let me play with his hair, no matter what hairstyle I put it in. After I was fully healed a month later, he still stayed by my side. Erys was intent on making up for his tardiness that day. I held it over him for about two days after I had fully healed but we stayed best friends. Maybe it was hero syndrome talking but I had fallen in love with him. I didn't dare speak it though, not knowing how he felt about me. One thing was for sure, we were definitely closer after that day.

— — — — —

"Nyxie? Are you okay?"

I blinked several times and shook my head. "Huh?"

Erys was staring at me, concerned. "You've been sitting silent and spacing out for several minutes now. What's on your mind?"

"You are."

"What do you mean?"

"Another memory just resurfaced. It was when you had saved me from Caleb and killed the kid for how badly he had hurt me. After that, you refused to leave my side."

"I remember that day."

"You were my guardian demon," I smiled and leaned on him, holding onto his arm.

"That's a new one. I've heard of guardian angels but never a guardian demon," my prince chuckled.

"There's a first time for everything."

"That there is."

A little imp ran up to me and tugged on my dress. "Oh, hello there. What is it?"

"Hospes! Says she's family!" The little thing squeaked.

"Hospes means guest," Erys translated.

"Oh, okay." I stood and followed the little imp. He led me outside of the castle and to a little patch of grass.

"There, the strange white haired one." The imp pointed and made his way back to the castle.

Who was this? I couldn't recognize her from the back. "Um, you requested to see me?" When she turned around, I gasped. "Alexis?!"

"Hey, Mom. I finally found you!" She gave me a huge squeezing hug. "You're hard to track down, ya know."

I squeezed her back. "How did you get away from Daniel? He's such a control freak."

"Well, I cooked a meal that he devoured, but he didn't know that it was loaded with spicy foods. I had hidden the spice pretty well. He's probably still in the bathroom having a bad allergic reaction."

I laughed. "You clever girl!"

"I got out just in time, too. He was talking about mating and how since there was no blood between us, he could mate me without consequence and just ugh!" She shuddered.

"Yeah, just about. He was terrible in bed." The both of us laughed as I took her back to the castle. "So, what's new with you?"

"Well, to prevent me from doing anything to him, Daniel locked my powers. All I can do is empathy. I'm 18 now and have no interest at all for guys. All the guys in Heaven are so arrogant and it's suffocating. What about you, Mom? What have you been up to? I hear you've made history but that's about all I know of it."

So word of my adventures had spread. Interesting. "Well, I was fighting in the last siege of Hell, but I saw one demon and felt compelled to defend him. Fast forward a couple months and it turns out we knew each other as kids. We're married now and have three kids. Damien and Kanna are twins and Elly came a little later. So you're the oldest of four right now. Oh and did I mention-"

"Princess!" Veraque greeted me as I walked in the castle with Alexis.

"That," I laughed. "I'm sort of Princess of Hell because my husband is the prince."

Ally's jaw flopped down. "Holy hell, Mom! You sure know how to climb up the ladder, don't you?"

"How was I to know that the demon I protected was the Prince of Hell?"

"Princess Nyxie! You're back!" Elysium came to greet us as well. "Say, who's this?"

"Oh, uh, Alexis, this is Veraque and Elysium, two of the elders of Hell. Veraque, Elysium, this is my adopted daughter Ally. We were reunited just now." I led Ally inside and gave her a tour of the castle. I walked down the hall and turned to Veraque, who was still happy to see me. "Say, Veraque, where can Ally sleep?"

"Oh! We have an empty room two doors down. I mean, we have a lot of empty rooms but that's the first that comes to mind." He wagged his tail. "So, Nyxie, how do you feel?"

"I'm feeling much better, thank you."

"What's he talking about?" Ally tilted her head, a little wolf ear flopping.

"Oh well, as it would turn out, a lot of my memories had been forcefully repressed so Len, the head elder here, helped Erys and I to restore our memories. Not all of the ones I've been recalling are pleasant so I took a little vacation back home." I stretched and leaned on the wall of the throne room. It seemed more of a hangout room now. All the elders, Kira, Erys and Rune were in the room. "So Veraque, how do you like the new changes to Hell's flora and fauna?"

"I love it! Dragons are so cool and the flowers are so pretty! And you have all this stuff in your home realm?"

"Yep, that and much more. Nanira asked the Bandersnatch and griffins if they'd like to join Hell but they wanted to let their little ones grow a bit more. Nanira is the Goddess of Ethereal, and she can talk to any animal she chooses simply by touching them. I love her gift. I'd love to talk to animals." I could just imagine it. I would touch a cat and talk to it. Well, maybe not a cat. Everyone knew that cats were jerks with fur, so I'd rather not talk to a cat and be lectured about grooming and hunting. Maybe a dragon? No, dragons were just overgrown cats with scales. Granted Kyoko was a rather respectful dragon, she had her moments. "Oh, hold on. I'll be back. I'm gonna get something for everyone! And this will be so very useful." Without a word more, I left for Ethereal again. Let's see, how many would I need? King, queen, prince, princess, elders, Zukira, Delirus, the kids. So about...15 watches. Surely this would save so much time for everyone. I chuckled at my unintentional pun. I went to a watch shop once I reached Ethereal. I picked up 15 watches and went back to Hell, handing them out to each of the people I'd thought of. Everyone followed my instructions on how to set the time. I gave Kira the watch for Delirus, since I didn't know where he was. "There, now everyone will know what time it is."

"Hm, this can prove quite useful. And what did you say it was called again?" Len inspected his, curious.

"It's called a watch. It will tell you what time of day or night it is."

"This will be much more useful then just the position of the sun in the sky." Len nodded.

"Great, now there's no excuse for being late to meetings," Salax groaned.

"You'd be late no matter what," Furo yawned, promptly going to sleep in his chair.

"He's got a point," Elysium nodded.

"I think they're neat!" Veraque was happy. Zukira liked hers, Erys was neutral. I still had to give the king and queen theirs, but I left that with Len to do. As for the kids, I left their watches on a pillow with a note saying it was from me. I liked the one that I had gotten. It was black, had a dark red faceplate, silver time marks and gold hands. Speaking of time, I looked at it. "Shit, it's already going on 8?" I looked out one of the windows in the room. Yep, sun was down alright. "I'm gonna get to bed, guys. It's been a busy day for me. Ally, feel free to get acquainted with everyone. Guys, this is my adopted daughter, Alexisia. Be nice to her." I waved goodnight to everyone and went in my room for the night.

Latin Translation: Conlidam- shatter, hospes- guest