Lyan
I woke up to the smell of pancakes and a body pressing lightly against mine on the bed. The first thing I thought was that Jack had decided to surprise me with pancakes again. He was sweet that way.
I smiled and turned to where the pressure was, still sleepy, and kissed Jack in the cheek. He had earned that kiss.
" Woah, I see that someone is happy today"
Still with my eyes closed, I was too sleepy to open them, I threw Jack a big smile, ignoring the feeling that something was terribly wrong.
" Do you want the pancakes or can I eat them?"
I heard Jack's hand come near where I guessed the pancakes were and smacked him hard, so much so that my own hand began to hurt, which wasn't quite right. I hadn't hit him that hard.
The moment I heard a concerned voice near my ear instead of a snicker I knew something was wrong.
I slowly opened my eyes and closed them back again almost immediately. The light was too bright for my poor eyes, but by then I had already confirmed what I wanted to know. That wasn't Jack on my bed.
" Who are you?" I asked, fully awake and alert, my eyes wide open, as I backed away from him and into the other side of the massive bed.
" Do you not remember me?" The man's voice was so sorrowful that it pained me just hearing it, which I had already done. I knew that voice, but from where?
Looking into his green eyes remainded me of yesterday. Of how I'd tried to scape to no avail, of how I was now in the demon world, and of who he was. My father.
The moment I remembered it all the fear disappeared. Ashmoder had saved my life. There was no way he wanted me dead and he definitely seemed to appreciate me. I highly doubted that he'd hurt me.
I pretended to think and smiled internally when I saw his face went from smugness to fear. I relished in the fact that I could make the demon King shudder in fear for a while, but I wasn't a monster, so after a few minutes I smiled his way.
" Of course I remember you. How could I not remember the demon King?"
Despite me saying all the right words Ashmoder's face fell. Why was he sad? I had said that I remembered him, what was there for him to be sad about?
" Not demon King" He muttered under his breath.
Since I was feeling generous I smiled his way and whispered.
" Dad"
I could've sworn his whole face lit up, literally freaking lit up. I watched him as his skin glowed and he offered me the tray filled with pancakes, which I devoured in a matter of seconds as Ashmoder watched me as if I was the most precious thing in the world, which if I was being honest I absolutely loved.
" What happened?" As soon as I finished eating Ashmoder asked me a question without any context.
I looked at him, confused as fuck. What on earth was he talking about? Did he mean my scape attempt? I was sure he knew that I had tried to scape, but his sudden question made me wonder if he really knew, but he had to, right? He had covered my window for a reason after all.
" I tried to go back home" I said while shrugging with my shoulders.
" It isn't safe there"
Instead of answering him I huffed and got up from the bed and into the bathroom. I needed a looong bath.
I took off my clothes, the white nightgown I had been wearing the whole time, and turned on the faucet, waiting for the tub to fill with water.
" Who did this to you?" Ashmoder's dark voice was right by my ear, sending goosebumps all over my body.
His hands were trailing down my back, more specifically down my scars.
" No one!" I rushed to cover myself with a towel, not wanting him to see them any longer.
Ashmoder was gritting his teeth so hard that I wouldn't be surprised if his teeth began cracking and falling off. All the softness he had showed me since I had found him yesterday was gone, replaced by deep hatred visible in his expression and eyes, which had a maniac gleam to them.
Instead of pushing any further Ashmoder just stayed perfectly still, giving me time to run to the closet to dress myself in a hurry and stand in front of him again. I had come back because he was too still and I was scared of what he might do, but I couldn't face him now that he had seen my scars, those were a dirty secret, so I just looked down at my slippers. Nobody was supposed to know I was that weak. Not even my guys had asked me about them. They had just respected my privacy, unlike the demon right in front of me.
" Was it the same people that killed you?" Ashmoder's voice was soft. Too soft. It was like a hunter not wanting to scare it's prey off, which set me even more on edge.
" No" I whispered.
I could see Ashmoder's hands turned into fists by his sides, dripping black blood all over the ground, the blood not visible at all thanks to the black color of the marble floor. ' That's probably the reason why everything here is black ' I thought. It was the best color to hide blood. The whole room could be filled with blood and I wouldn't even notice. That was not a calming thought.
" Could you tell me who it was?"
" Can we not talk about this?" I wanted my voice to be deep and authoritarian. I wanted to seem strong, but all that came out was a soft whisper.
Ashmoder's teeth actually cracked as I watched, but he nodded.
" Do you want to go outside?" Ashmoder offered me his hand, letting the topic drop just as I had asked him to. My heart warmed a little at the gesture. He had listened to me.
For the first time since he had seen my scars I let my eyes go away from my feet and roam his body, slowly making my way up to his face. Ashmoder's clothes were one of the prettiest ones I had ever seen. It was a perfect red suit that clung to his body and made him seem even slimmer than he was.
After looking him in the eyes and seeing nothing but love in them I began thinking that he really, truly thought he was my dad.
I followed his gaze and found that he was glaring at my dress, a gorgeous turquoise gown with puffy sleeves and a lengthy skirt that reached up to my blue slippers. I didn't see anything that would make him glare at the dress like that. Then I looked closer and saw that his gaze was on the low bodice. It wasn't that bad. I had worn worst. The bodice didn't even show my boobs, but Ashmoder growled at it and threw a blue jacket he had picked from my closet my way.
" Cover up"
" Why? It's a good dress" I was genually confused. It wasn't that bad!
"Choose, either wear the jacket or I kill everyone that lays their eyes on you"
" Even women?"
" Why would I spare the women?"
" You must be bluffing" My voice was wavering, really afraid of his threat. I saw him perfectly capable of doing just that.
"You saw how I killed every demon on the throne room just because they saw your smile, what do you think I'd do if they saw your skin?" Ashmoder's eyes had a maniac gleam to them. He was telling the truth.
" Why are you so obsessed with my skin?"
" No daughter of mine is showing any skin to anyone" He said, crossing his arms.
That was ridiculous! First, I was perfectly capable of choosing my own clothes. Second, it was my body, and third I wasn't his daughter, at least not if those were his rules.
" And what will you do when I get a boyfriend?"
" I guess I'd feed them to the dogs"
" What the fuck?" I asked, confusion written all over my face. He was going to feed my guys to the dogs.
" That's what corpses are for after all" He said in a sweet and condescending voice, as if he was stating an obvious fact to a little child.
He was planning on killing my guys. Note to self, never ever let the guys meet my dad. That would only end up badly.
I sighed. He was just as bad as Oscar. I was surrounded by psychos.
I begrudgingly put on the jacket and the moment I did Ashmoder's eyes lit up.
" Do you still want to go outside?" Ashmoder offered me his hand with a smile, as if he hadn't just been talking about feeding my boyfriends to the dogs.
I thought about it for a few seconds, but there really weren't any reasons to refuse. I was already dressed and even had a personal bodyguard. All that could have taken me back was taken care of, and if I was been honest with myself I really wanted to see what the city looked like up close.
" Okay" I said, taking his hand. I noticed taking his hand while we walked had already become an habit. I would have to fix that. " Be ready to lose a lot of money"
" Don't worry about money. If you want anything just tell me"
Ashmoder waved his hand and the whole room turned to gold. The walls gradually lost their black color and became shinier and shinier, gold overtaking marble, but it wasn't just the walls. Everything had turned to gold. The curtains had turned to gold and bended over their own weight, almost falling to the ground. The bed and toys also turned golden. Holy crap, just how powerful was he?
Not for he first time since I had met him I wondered just how powerful he was and why he hadn't conquered earth yet. If he had wanted to, with his power, he could've destroyed the whole world.
" How is it that you still haven't destroyed Earth?" The question slipped out of my lips before I could stop it.
"I don't really want to have earth, but if I wanted to I would" Ashmoder said looking at me with an smug expression on his face.
" Lier. If you could pass over to Earth you wouldn't have sent your minions to kidnap me"
" I didn't want to kidnap you. I just wanted to bring you back home"
I knew that. Of course I did, but I wanted answers.
" Why didn't you go yourself?"
" Something's stopping me from crossing over" He whispered, grabbing my hard a little harder than he should as he walked through the castle, searching for the main door.
I knew that I should've been paying attention to the path we were taking to scape from the castle later on, but all the corridors were he same, making it impossible for me to find my way back, so instead of trying to remember something I knew I wouldn't recall I decided paying attention to our conversation was a better use of my time.
" You aren't so powerful then, eh?" I said with a smug smile, but instead of getting pissed at me Ashmoder just smiled my way, not even bothered by my words.
" That's right, but I'll always do my best to help you"
That wasn't sweet, not at all.
" King" Just in front of us a young woman with beautiful shiny red hair was walking our way, her martial steps making the ground tremble beneath her feet.
Her serious face didn't make her any less beautiful. Her blue eyes shined, reflecting the sunlight as she walked towards us. Her face was so serious that I just wanted to hide behind Ashmoder, I really didn't want to get involved in Ashmoder's love affairs, but stood my ground. Demons valued strength. If I seemed weak they would pounce of me, so I stood my ground, holding Ashmoder's hand a little tighter.
" Els " Ashmoder acknowledged the woman with a serious expression on his face.
Els looked at me and then back at Ashmoder, as if asking what I was doing there. The moment Ashmoder realized where Els's gaze was landing he furrowed his eyebrows and hissed softly to Els.
" I'm going to the market with my daughter" Ashmoder placed his arms protectively over my shoulders " we'll talk when I come back"
Els's eyes bulged out of her face and she looked at me again, roaming my body with her eyes and making an expression that couldn't be described but as hate and superiority mixed together. That bitch was beginning to piss me off. Nobody looked down on me, even if I was clearly a weakling.
I could tattle to Ashmoder and make him punish her, but that'd be way too easy and tattling wasn't really my thing, so instead of exploding and tattling I just smiled and focused all of my attention on her broken blue horn in the middle of her head. I had never seen a demon with only one horn, and much less with a broken one.
Els saw where I was looking and she gritted her teeth, but did nothing else as we all stood there, in the middle of the corridor, not moving a single finger.
" We'll be going now" Ashmoder pushed me lightly on the back with his right hand while his left one remained holding mine, guiding me out of Els's line of sight. I moved along, getting further and further away from Els, who just stood perfectly still in the middle of the hall.
' This is for underestimating me bitch' I thought as I gathered my shadows and used them to pull on her feet, sending her to the floor.
Els didn't scream even as she fell, she just snapped her head my way with what I could've sworn was pride in her blue eyes. Was she proud that I had made her fall? Shouldn't she be mad? I shrugged and let it go. Demons were weird, there was no need to understand them.
Ashmoder chuckled by my side as he too cast one last glance at Els and then squeezed my hand harder for a second.
" Well done" He whispered, pride clearly visible in his voice. Hearing him be proud of me didn't warm my heart, not at all. I hated the demon that pretended to be my father. I cast one glance at him and saw his smiling face, like the one my father used to throw my way when I did something good. I didn't like it, not at all.
" We're here" Ashmoder pointed to the middle of a wall like all the others in the castle, but by now I knew there was more to it than met the eyes.
Without waving his hands Ashmoder opened the wall and it parted to reveal the city, with it's different colors and sounds reaching me now that there was no longer a barrier between us.
" Don't let go of my hand" Ashmoder looked at our joined hands and tugged on mine a little, as if reminding me, but not even I was stupid enough to try to run away in the middle of the day when I was accompanied by the demon King.
" I won't" I assured him, squeezing back his hand.
" Then let's go squander some money"
Ashmoder's smile was so devious that it would've sent the dean fainting, not that much was needed to horrify that old hag.
" I hope you've brought enough" I joked. If he was going to buy stuff for me the least I could do was to be kind for a few hours.
My banter must've caught Ashmoder off guard because he tripped over his own feet and turned to look at me, bewildered.
" I can joke too, just so you know" Maybe I didn't want to joke or be kind to him anymore.
" Don't stop it. I like it when my little bunny smiles at me"
I huffed. I wasn't his little bunny, if anything I was a grown ass bunny.
" We'll see demon King" I said, knowing full well that it'd piss him off.
" Dad"
I rolled my eyes and didn't listen to him anymore as he kept talking, asking me to call him dad, thing I would never do. I already had a dad, Lionel. I couldn't just replace his memory and him. He had been the man that had made me pancakes, took care of me and put me to bed. I couldn't just forget him.
Before I realized it tears were streaming down my face, and we were almost out of the castle. I had to wipe my tears quickly. In the demon world crying was a sign that you were weak, and the weak died young. I wiped my tears and put back the mask. The demons couldn't know I was weak or they'd shred me to pieces, but Ashmoder already knew.
He looked at me with kind eyes and didn't ask me anything as he kissed my cheek.
" I'm not asking to replace him, just to be there. Can I be your second father?"
I nodded without really thinking about it. That was just what I wanted, to be able to keep them both.
Just as we stepped foot outside I realized what he had done. He had read my thoughts. Could he really read thoughts? Because if he could then I was fucked. All my scape plans were useless. I was alone, but worse of all he had invaded my privacy.
Despite the turmoil inside my head Ashmoder didn't show any signs of hearing it, even as I thought as loud as I could I hate you he remained unfazed. Maybe he couldn't read thoughts after all. Maybe I had imagined it all.
As I stepped foot outside and saw the shining suns I forgot all about what I'd been thinking about, too entranced by the new smells and sounds, but from the corner of my eye I could've sworn I saw Ashmoder clench his teeth, but by when I turned to check it was gone, Ashmoder was perfectly fine, smiling at me. I had to get out of here before I finally went insane, but that could wait until I tasted whatever had created the marvelous aroma that wafted into my nose.
Grabbing Ashmoder's hand harder I dragged him following my nose. He was going to end up with no money at all. I smiled just thinking about it. I had gained a personal ATM.