Page 31 of Dark Desire (Dark Souls Spin-off Short Story)

“Human?” His question felt like icy liquid sliding over my skin.

He bent down, wiping his talon against one of the rocks to gather my blood.

A long, forked tongue slithered out of his mouth and lapped at it.

His haunting eyes sparkled with excitement.

“No. Witch. My favourite. What is it you need from me?”

Pushing down my fear, I tried to find my voice. This suddenly felt like the worst idea I had ever had but it was too late now. “I-I need your help. To find a raven.”

“A raven?” He tilted his head to the other side.

“A demon. Like you. But different. I cursed him into a raven to save him from death and I can’t find him to change him back. I thought, being a demon yourself, you would be able to locate him easily?”

A dark cackle echoed through the air as he stood up straight.

I scrambled to my feet too, taking another step back when he stepped out of the spell circle.

The way he glared at me suggested he would happily eat me alive.

Shit. Suddenly, he lifted his chin and sniffed the air, glancing subtly over his shoulder into the dark forest. His slow, chilling smile sent a fresh wave of unprecedented fear through me.

He turned back to look at me. “I’ll help you find your raven. But you must give me something in return.”

I swallowed. I expected this. Nothing came for free when dark magic was involved and especially when making a deal with a demon. “What do you want?”

He moved forward again, his long legs closing the distance. I staggered back, a silent scream choking my throat. “Your soul to start. For all eternity.”

Oh, fuck. What choice did I have? I was about to die anyway. Even if giving my soul to a demon of The Underworld meant I’d be trapped in hell as his slave for eternity, I’d at least know I died making things right.

I opened my mouth to speak, but a bone-chilling roar shook the trees and made me jump. My eyes widened when I realised it hadn’t come from the demon in front of me. Another slow, malicious smile spread across the demon's face as he stared at me, unfazed by the roar of aggression behind him.

“Oh, look what we have here,” he sneered without looking behind him.

I peered around his massive frame to see Zoran standing between two trees, breathing heavily with his fists clenched at his sides.

He was glaring at the back of the demon’s head with his rage-filled red eyes, as if he was ready to send him back to hell.

His shirtless torso was covered in fresh blood, matching his hair that fell loosely around his face.

He looked furious, menacing, and absolutely delicious.

His lethal gaze darted to me, and my heart seized in my chest.

“She’s mine,” he growled, his voice so deep and primal, my legs turned to jelly and I started to sweat.

The demon chuckled, slowly turning to the side so he could look between us both. “She hasn’t given you her soul. She’s still up for grabs.”

Huh? My eyes darted between these two monstrous men, unable to comprehend what was happening. Why would I give Zoran my soul? He was a vampire seeker, sent to kill me by The Fates. Wasn’t he?

“She’s mine,” Zoran repeated, raising his voice with more possessiveness.

My stomach flipped again at those words.

The insane thought he actually meant ‘mine’ as in his woman, his lover, his everything, entered my mind, and I wanted to slap myself silly.

Of course, he meant ‘mine to kill’. I was his mission.

But was he willing to take on a demon of the Underworld for it?

“Yet she summoned me,” the demon sneered, clearly finding this entertaining as he turned to face Zoran. “You must not be pleasing her well enough.”

Okay, this was starting to feel weird. I glanced back at Zoran as he curled his lips over his razor-sharp fangs and hissed.

Very weird. Whose side was I on? Zoran wanted me dead.

This demon was going to help me in exchange for my soul.

I knew which side I should be on, yet my heart and my head were screaming at me to choose Zoran, to race into his arms and tell him to send this horrifying demon back to hell.

I’d made a fucking mistake. I could feel it in my bones.

“I don’t want to kill you, Demonski Upir,” the demon taunted, rolling his shoulders. “This isn’t personal, just business.”

What the hell did he call Zoran?

“It’s personal to me,” Zoran growled. “You’ll have to fight me to get to her.”

The demon laughed vindictively, and I moved away from him, feeling the hair on my skin standing on end. Zoran’s eyes tracked my movement as if he could sense my creeping fear. He exhaled deeply before glancing back at the demon, who was pacing back and forth with an evil smirk.

“I’m a pure demon. You’re a hybrid. You think you stand a chance?”

Fear and horror gripped me as I realised that Zoran fully intended to fight this demon to the death. I suddenly stepped forward towards him, causing both of their attention to swerve to me.

“Zoran, don’t!” I shouted but the demon grabbed me around my waist and yanked me into his body.

I screamed and tried to pry myself out of his iron grip hopelessly.

It all happened so fast. One moment, Zoran was standing there, and the next, he’d morphed into the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.

He looked a lot like the demon manhandling me, but his body and face remained more human-like, just larger and more muscular.

His red hair had vanished, replaced by black spiralling horns with a red sheen to the scales, and his eyes were pitch-black.

Scaly vines and demonic tattoos rippled across his skin and huge feathered black wings with red tips flared out behind him.

My mouth dropped open as I stopped struggling, mesmerised by the sight of him.

My heart leapt into my throat when I realised I had seen this demon before. The raven.

“Let her go,” Zoran hissed, his voice sounding so ancient and ethereal I almost didn’t recognise it. Was this even Zoran? Only the burns and scars on his body, his defined jawline and plump lips gave any indication that this was the same man.

“Here he is,” the demon sneered. “A demon willing to die for his soulmate? It almost makes my black heart ache. But you’re too late.

You should have claimed her soul when you had the chance.

” My eyes widened as I heard that word again.

Mate? I was Zoran’s soulmate? I was the raven’s soulmate .

Everything suddenly slotted into place. It felt like my soul was being ripped from my chest when I saw those witches burning him alive.

The need to go against my oath and save him from death.

The way I’d been literally drooling and going completely insane for my masked assassin and so-called Zachary.

The mind-blowing sex. The odd emotions it triggered.

“Mate?” I gasped, my eyes finally meeting Zoran’s demon.

“Now she’s mine,” the scary demon hissed.

Those words triggered Zoran to lose it. In a flash, he’d bounded off the ground and into the air at such insane speed that it was a mere second before he crashed down on top of us, causing the demon to let go of me as I rolled away in the dirt.

I glanced up, my heartbeat pounding in my ears, but not loud enough to cover the sickening sounds of their bodies colliding.

Fists, legs, and arms were flying with such violence, and each impact caused bones to crack, roars to echo and trees to shake.

I scrambled back, watching on with horror as they rolled and fought like two elements battling for destruction.

Zoran was propelled through the air, slamming him into a tree, which caused the trunk to snap from impact and the whole thing to tumble to the ground.

I screamed, fear and terror taking over as I worried he was dead, but he immediately got back to his feet and threw himself back into the fight.

I tried my best to call on my magic to help, but I was too weak.

That fight with the vampire seeker and completing the summoning spell had completely drained me of magic.

Zoran got a grip of the demon’s neck and threw him over his head. The demon crashed onto the ground on his back, giving Zoran the chance to grab a broken branch and stake him through the chest. I nearly whooped with relief, but then remembered a demon can’t die from staking.

Zoran’s head whipped around to find me as the demon ripped the stake out and pulled himself back to his feet.

Zoran bellowed, “Run!”

I shook my head, whimpering, because I really didn’t want to leave him.

“Darcie, run! I need you out of here!” Zoran roared his command so loudly, it made me jump to my feet and scramble away.

I startled when the sound of their bodies bulldozed into one another again, every fibre of my being telling me to go back, but I forced my feet to keep moving.

Sweat coated my skin and tears lashed down my cheeks but I didn’t stop until I saw my church come into sight.

Throwing myself through the gate, I fell onto the porch, holding the pillar for support as I tried to catch my breath and stared out at the forest.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! What have I done?” I cried, slamming my hand into my head multiple times.

I felt sick. Physically sick. Zoran was the demon I cursed into a raven?

How? I shook my head. And I’m his soulmate?

I couldn’t comprehend it. Or what any of the last few days between us meant.

All I could think about was the fact that he might not make it out of that forest alive, and it would be all my fault.

Could a demon even be killed? Weren’t they already technically dead?

How the hell do you send it back to the Underworld? I had to do something. Anything.