Page 6 of My Daddy is a Demon (Demons for Hire)

Iris

For all my years being afraid, uncertain, I never had a thing to truly fear or be unsure of. I was kind to those kind to me, even to those unkind. I was patient with those who would judge my being poor or being an orphan with no clue of her ancestry. I gave until I had nothing left. But the truth is, I always had more, I always will, and I have nothing to be unsure about.

No more fear will tie me down—not in this life or the next.

“What… are you ?” Bael’s voice trembles as he gapes at me.

Watching him slip out of nothingness to intrude on Valen and I was triggering. For so long I just wanted someone to want me. To love me. Protect me. The humans who found me a lifetime ago refused to give me any of that. But a demon walked out of Hades ready to give me that and more.

“…Bael, honey, I am the end of you.”

My words do not tremble. I am not touched by fear or hesitance. I march towards the demon, his dark black skin streaked with blood. My mate has hurt him, yes. Yet, the king of hell, one of the several that Valen explained exists in all the levels of Hades, he was just toying with my mate. Playing games the way Valen always did before.

Now it is my turn to play their little game.

“Nothing so pretty could harm me, little girl,” he spits.

Dropping Valen at last, he stands, towering over me. I do not cower or even consider bending before him. Kneeling to a king of darkness is not happening today on my land, with my lover, my mate at my side. Instead, I will show him he has made his worst mistake.

“Yet my beautiful Valen has hurt you, yes? Not just those wounds on your body…I mean the ones on your poor, pathetic heart. He has chosen me. Not just as his mate, which is unbreakable, yes? Valen chose to be at my side, here on my plane, instead of being in Hades with you. You thought you meant something to him. Poor thing.”

Twisting my fingers, I conjure a ball of flame, of flickering blue energy buzzing inside of it. I’ve just begun to play with these powers. Powers I had no idea I had, despite always feeling them flow beneath the surface. I made things happen. Helped things grow. Could hear what others thought of me without them saying a word.

My garden grows not just because of a special mix of soils and minerals. It is because I will it. I nurture it, protect it, command it with my gentle touches, my patient attention. It is the way I will love Valen. The way I will begin to love myself. Our children. It is how I will learn all these magical parts of me I am just meeting.

“Once I am done with you, pretty girl, he will no longer choose you. Not that he will survive what I plan to do to you.”

“You have it wrong again, little fella. Coming here now, attacking him showed your hand. Exposed a weakness. I have frightened you.”

Behind him, Valen gets to his feet, smirking at me. Pride glows inside of me. Well, it glows just about everywhere because I can see how it shimmers in the air. I have never known pride from another, love the way he has shown it, protection, none of the things we all crave. Yet here I stand proud, protected, and most definitely loved.

For a moment, the rest of the world fades away. It is just us, sharing a moment, speaking again without need for words. I smile back, nodding my head. Telling him that yes, we’ve got this. We’ve got this weak monster in front of us, but also this. This life, we’ve got it.

“Nothing frightens me,” Bael speaks, spitting blood out with a sneer. “He and I play this way all the time. He is a trickster. Do you think you were the first?”

“Oh, I was. I am the first. Because I am nothing close to the others before me. That is what has you scared. Why you pulled him back, from my arms, to try to stop what you saw us building. It cannot be stopped, Bael. We cannot be stopped. Not in this life or the next, not now that we have found one another.”

Bael circles me, sizing me up as he listens to me. I have lived all those years with such uncertainty. It was a sickness. A cold I could not shake, an ache I could not soothe. I never knew I did not need anyone to love me. To protect me. Or to want me.

Because I can love me. I can protect myself. I can want the world for myself.

It does not mean I do not need Valen. Because I do. I want him. He is mine, my mate, my partner, the other half of me. As I am the same for him. This demon, this powerful entity who rules his level of hell however he sees fit, he thinks he can change that. Thinks he can tear us apart, hurt us with each other. As I said, he has it wrong.

With a sigh, I toss the ball of flames at him. I conjure another, letting it build as the other burns through his skin. It will heal, as most the damage I do to him will. But ball after ball of fire, each hotter, each heavier with magic, will beat him down enough to do worse.

It will take special magic to end a demon.

“Earlier I said we would have a good time together,” Bael hisses with a smirk. “You said I was wrong but…here we are, having fun.”

Catching the next ball I throw at him, he turns it back on me, the flames flickering red, lava hot, full of hate, rage. I do not dodge it in time, so it burns through my arm as it hits me. I let out a shout of pain before I curse myself. I am new at this, this being my first fight with a demon, but I have to do better if I want to survive it.

I’ve had just a few hours between lovemaking with Valen to toy with my powers. To test out what I can and cannot do. This magic has layers to peel back, to peek behind. Magic from witches and shifters. From conjurers and seers. I plan to have a damn good time doing that, sifting through the layers of this newfound magic.

First, I must end this thing with Bael. Need him gone so I can start a life with my demon. With my sweet daddy. I want him along with anyone like him who might ever try to darken our doorstep to know they ought to reconsider. I never want us to have to fight again, but if we do, I want those who would come looking for a fight to be ready.

Once this is all over, I will train this newfound power. To perfect all of the abilities inside me. I want to be prepared to fight if another fight comes for us. Which is a definite possibility due to who and what Valen has crossed paths with. Not to mention those who come for me once word spreads that I am a very unique individual.

“It is fun,” I agree, tossing two more orbs at him, almost effortlessly. Each time I create something or trust in myself, this power inside of me grows stronger. I become more confident. Surer that this is who I was always meant to be. “Good thing I am having a good time. Because once the fun is over for me…it is over for you as well, demon.”

Four hits crash into him, one, two, three-four, in fast succession He stumbles back against the mountainside, wounded. Coming back, he gives a wave of his hand. I go airborne, hurtling back as his dark power does its best to tear me apart. It hurts. It is a pain unlike any I have ever known, down to my marrow, even deeper, to my very soul.

It is nothing in comparison to the pain of loss, loneliness I’ve known for so long. No one embraced me. No one encouraged this magic or my wonder about it. Not before Valen came to my calls of need, my fear, my desire to be saved, to matter. He was my savior.

Now it is my turn to save us both.

“Don’t hold back, little one. I want the best of you. Before I destroy you, I want your lover to see how good it could have been. I will take you from him, skull fuck you to death while he watches. Then I will fuck him until he remembers he does not get to have a mate. Not while I still want him. Neither of you will ever escape me.”

Laughing at how he reeks of desperation, I focus on Valen to draw me back to earth. Still reeling from the tearing, twisting pain of his power trying to tear me apart, I sputter out a cough. Blood freckles my hand. Seeing it enrages me. I glance towards Valen, seeing his wounds bleeding as well. This sends me over the edge.

Everything becomes red. The earth, the skies overhead, even the tufts of soft clouds. I rush towards the smirking demon who thinks he can take what is mine. Take what I have just found. I will not allow it. I will not give up my first taste of happiness. First taste of being whole.

“He does have a mate. I am his mate. Our bond had been made, we’ve sealed it as tight as any bond could be. I am with child,” I call it out with pride, watching Bael’s face twist in rage. “His child. He will have spawn, know love, know happiness, despite all the darkness of his past. Darkness you fed off of. We will always have one another while you have nothing. No one. Just the torture you wish to inflict on us.”

Fear weighs him down. I can taste it. Smell it. Not just that I could hurt him. He is a demon so what more damage could I do to his ruined body? It is not his body he fears being hurt. His soul is ruined, yet it yearns for one thing. It yearns for what he had with his second in command, his best friend, and his sometimes lover, Valen.

“You cannot have him,” Bael hisses, lashing at me with his tail

“Yes, I will have him. I have claimed him. He belongs to me, Bael, not to you. He has never belonged to you—always to me. He is mine and I am his. Nothing will change it.”

Once the words fill the space between us, he roars in pain. Not just from the balls of energy, of fire, hitting him over and over. But from the truth of what I declare. He cannot tear us apart. Even if he killed us both we would find one another again. Nothing can end us.

“No. No! Valen is mine. My toy, my gift, my little trickster.”

“Yes, he was yours to toy with long enough. Now he is mine. To treasure. Go back to Hades empty handed. You sense I am holding back,” I taunt with a smile before I sneer, shooting powerful shards of white light, piercing his flesh with the sharp barbs.

Bael goes down before I stop. I hesitate, waiting for him to give up. To call it off. Go back to Hades without the prize he came for. Suddenly the world melts around us, being overtaken by their world. He has taken us to Hades, hoping a trip to hell will ensure his win.

Once again, the king of hell has it wrong—I will win wherever we fight—because nothing, not even a demon, will ever tear us apart.