Claimed by the Demon Knight: Book One (8 page)

Tenuxhal's eyes were wild and he was vibrating with the effort not to behead Rhoads then and there and just be done with the whole fucking nuisance.

Both warriors were panting, one fighting for control, and the other struggling to keep her stomach from turning inside out.

"You fucking bitch!"

"M'sorry 'bout that," she mumbled half-heartedly.

"You... you fucking puked... you... FUUUCK!" Tenuxhal focused his psychotic glare on Elsi, only to find himself staring ineffectively at the back of Rhoads's head, watching her take in heaving breaths as the witch fought to keep from repeating her faux pas.

Elsi cringed further as the crude narrative increased in decibels somewhere just above her, and closed her eyes against the caterwauling noise. Then there was another noise, strangled and guttural, and a swishing sound as the side of the blade disappeared from her neck, and instead slashed murderously through empty air until it collided with the solid rock wall, grating and sparking, and showering the room and Elsi in bits of rock and dust. A final disgusted snarl and the knight turned abruptly and abandoned the room as if it were on fire, not even bothering to slam the door behind him, much to Elsi's relief. One more loud noise and her skull would surely rend itself into pieces.

Exhausted, head throbbing painfully, she carefully eased herself back down onto the bed, ignoring the unpleasant sensation of bits of grit against her bare side. She pulled the covers over her head, trying to drown out light and noise, though there was little of either in this place. It was a pointless task. The racquet in her head was more than enough to keep her awake.

A few moments later she became uncomfortably aware of the sound of rumbling somewhere close by, the whine of a Infernal Tempest after tempest being released inside the walls of the Black Citadel, followed by thundering echoes of heavy concrete exploding and falling as Tenuxhal systematically destroyed what was left of several of the towers inside the grounds. All that anger was because of Elsi. It made her shudder and be reluctantly thankful for Tenuxhals' incredible, yet inexplicable efforts to redirect his rage and aggression. Being fried into a witch-shaped piece of charcoal was not something Elsi wanted to experience, ever.

She took solace in one fact as she slipped into an uncomfortable sleep. There wasn't much puke on the floor to clean up.

Most of it had landed on Tenuxhal's feet.

~~~

U
nder the dark sky, Tenuxhal growled in disgust and used another handful of the harsh desert sands to violently scrub away the last remnants of vomit from his black boots, retching uncontrollably as he did so at the sour smell of bile.

Disgusting vile stuff. He needed something to erase the memory of it from his senses. What could he do? He didn't particularly feel the urge to feed, and destroying things wasn't working in the slightest to ease his fury. He sure as hell wasn't going back in that room anytime soon. He couldn't handle seeing the vomit on the floor. And on that note, Rhoads could fucking well clean up her own mess.

Then he remembered the drinks. Beelzebub didn't drink, fucking teetotaller... but some of the others knights did.

There was a large stash of vodka preserved in storage, along with the rest of the food. One bottle would surely do. And when he was done with the bottle, he would break it over that burnett head.

Tenuxhal bared his teeth at nothing and grinned at the idea. It quickly turned into a snarl and a dark frown as another whiff of the sickly scent caught in his sensitive nose. He shook his head and snorted ineffectually in an attempt to expel the pungent scent, then he stomped off with purpose across the sand to get himself thoroughly plastered.

~~~

T
he next time the witch awoke, a tray of food sat beside the bed, Tenuxhal conspicuously absent. Elsi sat up slowly. Energy was nice and all, but she still needed to eat. She was shaky and painfully weak. She looked at the tray. More bread and water. Delightful. When it came to his culinary skills, the knight certainly had a flair for boring. Elsi was going to starve to death in this wasted place if she didn't get some real food soon.

She reached for a piece of bread, and something on the floor caught her attention. A white towel lay strewed across the spot where she'd lost her guts earlier, as if it had been tossed there haphazardly, from a distance. Elsi raised one long, brown brow, then snorted. It seemed rather ironic, and Elsi couldn't help but laugh at the notion that when she'd finally found Tenuxhal's Achilles heel, it was not something she could ever produce on a whim, or would ever want to.

A
fter spending a few days trapped in bed, with the knight hounding her, Elsi was convinced of one thing...

...That Tenuxhal could start a fight in an empty house.

Elsi sat up in her bed, less dizzy than before, and regarded the demon she'd come to know all too well. The knight lounged across the room, well-muscled red limbs stretched out comfortably along the entire length of the dark gray couch, freshly opened bottle of vodka resting upright on his bare chest, reinforced by the tips of strong fingers and claws. He lay like that, comfortable, careless, white hair tousled perfectly, looking for all the world like a debauched rock star. His large steer horns only adding to the ridiculous look.

To watch him as he was now, Elsi thought, and not know him, one might think he looked like a little kid, full of mischief, youthful laziness, and cockiness, all wrapped up into an undeniably boyishly handsome package. On the one hand, yes, he did possess those traits. On the other hand, when he angered, he worked himself into a frenzy, becoming a sadistic, brutal, lethal, cold, calculating, taunting, menacing, homicidal chaotic sonofabitch.

That was the demon Elsi had come to know, and being unarmed in his presence was unacceptable.

"Where's my staff?" She asked.

"I took it. Why?" said the man from across the room. Tenuxhal didn't even deign to open his eyes.

"Uhh... it would be nice to be able to defend myself."

"You got nothing to worry about witch. Regular demons don’t come around here. Too damn scared." Silver eyes opened and slid sideways, sly and mocking.

"I meant from you," she snapped, and if Tenuxhal heard her mumble 'asshole,' he didn't acknowledge it.

"Che. You aren't worth killing as you are now. I ain't interested in the weak." He turned his gaze away and took a long, lazy pull from his bottle to emphasize his disinterest and display his contempt.

Elsi felt the heat in her face as she flushed, her temper beginning to rise. She knew what the demon meant. As much as she loathed the feeling, she was an invalid right now. But still. What a dick.

Tenuxhal reached back and stretched languidly before raising his knees and feet up then bringing them down, rocking himself forward in a fluid motion into a sitting position, twisting as he did, so that he faced forward on the couch.

"You don't seem to realize the position you're in, human. Just because I'm letting you heal, don't go thinking that means I've forgiven you."

"What?"

"I came back for a good fight, and you didn't keep up your end of the bargain."

"Screw you."

"You ruined my fight."

"You ruined my weekend."

Even the air in the room seemed to still in wary anticipation of what was surely to come, as the two warriors glared icily at one another. Elsi knew she shouldn't be so quick to talkback. She was already in deep enough shit. She felt the knights energy rise in warning, clashing against her own, the friction between them becoming more intense until Elsi winced and shifted uncomfortably, her very movement conceding defeat. Ten flashed a quick grin.

"Heh. Your weekend should be the least of your concerns. Or haven't you figured it out yet, witch?"

He took another quick sip of vodka and stood up, placing the half downed bottle on a small table. Elsi watched him from her bed with a unimpressed scowl, nervousness building quietly on the inside, as the demon rose and sauntered in a casual fashion towards her, flaunting himself, confident, bold, hands in his pockets as he stopped at the very edge the bed, all eight feet of him looming over the prone Elsi.

"Rest assured witch, I am going to kill you. And when I do, you will be at full power, and the sound of my sword running through your heart will be the last thing you hear." He grinned, revealing his oversized and very sharp canines. A ridiculously long pink tongue quickly ran over his front teeth.

Elsi's expression faltered at the very real nature of the threat, and her composure crumbled easily in her unhealthy state.

"Stay away from me you psycho fucking monster!", she spat, fear and disgust hopelessly intermingled.

The feral grin fell away in an instant. "Monster?", he said tightly. A muscle at the corner of the knight's eye twitched and it took Elsi only a fraction of a second to realize that she had said the entirely wrong thing.

“Was that supposed to be an insult?”

"Y-you assholes tore up my town, tried to murder my friends, tried to take over the world, you..." She was stuttering, tripping over her tongue in her haste to explain herself, excuse her poor choice of words. Why though? Elsi had no reason to apologize to her enemies, least of all Tenuxhal. It was the lightheaded feeling that was creeping in around her that was the cause. It made her weak in mind as well as body. She fucking hated feeling like this, especially in front of this arrogant fuck.

What she wouldn't give to be healthy again and have her full powers back. She had a mountain of stuff she wanted to return to Tenuxhal, with interest.

Tenuxhal cut her off sharply, voice rising in pitch and intensity, mirroring his emotions, and he bolted forward. He stopped just short of throwing himself onto the bed, and leaned towards Elsi, his arms braced against the mattress.

"Wrong, you stupid bitch!"

Elsi recoiled, pushing herself away as quickly as her sore and torn muscles would allow, shuffling across the bed until her back met the solid wall, causing pain to flair out through her ribs. Even then she pushed.

"Beelzebub tried to take over the world. Not us! We were just hired help. And we didn't have much of a fucking choice!" His eyes opened white and wide in his head, suddenly distant as if he were reliving an old nightmare. "You helped Beelzebub or he'd make sure you end up as someone’s dinner!”

He was yelling now, searing silver eyes returning to Elsi's with ferocious intensity, and each thought punctuated by the sound of fabric tearing as his hands clenched spasmodically and his sharp nails clawed at the bed, gouging it until its edge lay in shredded ruins.

Elsi had nothing at all to say to Tenuxhals's outburst. She didn't particularly want to acknowledge what she'd just heard, as if it might incline her to feel something less than bitter hatred towards the bastardized demon in front of her. She couldn't meet those pissed off silver eyes, or stand to see the suddenly victimized and abused expression of a veteran of war. It didn't fit there. And the demon didn't deserve to wear it.

Elsi dropped her gaze until it fixed somewhere just passed Tenuxhal's giant claymore, and scowled impartially. A stone-faced woman who'd just been scolded.

Tenuxhal huffed and tried to reign in his anger before he blasted the human through the very wall that she now huddled against for protection. Tenuxhal took a slow steadying breath to calm himself.

"Demons, Rhoads, exist in Hell. Which is exactly where you are, right now, at this very moment."

Elsi blinked. This was some kind of fucking moment for Tenuxhal to be sure. Was he... was he actually lecturing Elsi about Hell and demons, as if she didn't already have a clue about all of that shit? This was necessary information all witches had to know. Elsi swallowed down a wandering ribbon of bile that was snaking its way up her throat, a product of the situation, her fear, her dizziness, and her proximity to her captor.

She'd been stabbed many times before. It had always been... uncomfortable. This was far worse.

Tenuxhal tapped the centre of his own exposed chest. Apparently he wasn't finished by a long shot.

"And all we do here, all we've ever done, is mindlessly kill and feed and survive, with no purpose, and no hope. You feed and feed and try to get strong enough so that maybe you don't have to live in fear of becoming another demons snack, and end up being completely obliterated from the Rebirth cycle.  Don't you get it Rhoads? This is what Hell is all about. Once you die here, you no longer exist at all."

The scowl had reluctantly fallen away from Elsi's face, replaced with the beginnings of enlightenment, and a sense guilt and shame that she swore she had no cause to feel. She still refused to look at him though.

"Welcome to Hell, Rhoads. Don't worry. You won't be staying long."

~~~

"T
enuxhal" Elsi didn't want to talk to the knight, and it showed in her voice when the demon's name came out sounding all too petulant and pouty.

"What?" The sharp snap of a question was loud in her ear.

"When did you start drinking?" Elsi didn't want to talk to the demon, but her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Tenuxhal blinked at the strange question, sparing Elsi a sideways glance as they moved slowly towards the bathroom.

"You don't seem like the... umm... type." Elsi winced against the stiffness of her maltreated body and underused muscles.

"When you got here." That had been close to a week ago now. Tenuxhal didn't say when he'd actually started drinking - didn't want to bring up that wretched moment ever again.

Elsi looked away and snorted at the implied insult, surprised and genuinely offended.

"Shit mellows me out. Keeps me from killing you," the demon added bluntly.

Elsi's blood ran just a shade cooler as those particular words came out of the creature who currently had a powerful arm wrapped around her small, plump body. It hadn't escaped her notice, though, just how gently Tenuxhal was holding her, avoiding her most painful wounds, offering just the right amount of support to allow Elsi to do some of the work herself. She supposed that the vodka was working.