Hellfire - Demon Style

"Desoto," I said, "No, it's... it's just not... We shouldn't be in love. It's against the clan's law, and I... I'm..."

"Scared," he said simply, gazing deeply at me with his dark amethyst eyes.

"No!" I practically screamed it as I snapped from my trance, "No, I'm not scared, I just... I..."

"You want to protect me, but you're scared." He was almost purring at this point.

I opened my mouth to argue, but he vanished. Before I could blink, he was behind me. He gently took my hand and led me to the window, where a beautiful veiw of the city greeted our eyes.

It looked so cold to me.

"You don't want me to be hurt for our love," he whispered in my ear, "but you're too afraid to let me go."

I didn't respond as he began to sing.

"The world is cruel, the world is wicked-" he spun so that he gripped my shoulders as he faced me, and I didn't miss the desperate look in his eyes- "It's I alone whom you can trust in this whole village! I am your only friend."

He brushed a stray lock of hair from my face as he pulled closer.

"I who will always protect and guide you, I who look upon you without fear-" he paused to brush his lips to mine- "How shall I protect you, then, unless you always stay with me? Away with me?"

He pulled me back away from the window, across the room, and into the dark hallway leading from here to his room upstairs.

As we ascended, he continued to speak and sing to me.

"Remember what you've seen, Caroline."

"You are unique."

I chorused behind him.

"I am unique."

"And you are honest."

"And I am honest."

"And these are crimes for which my world shows no acceptance."

He opened the door to his room; it had dark, bloodred walls with a cream ceiling, a dark cherrywood bed with cream sheets, and a cherrywood dresser in one corner.

"You do not comprehend!" His sweet voice was all I could hear in my entranced state.

"You are my one defender..." I sat slowly on his bed, where he soon joined me.

"Out there they'll revile you as a monster."

"I am not like them."

"Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer."

"I am unlike them."

He took both of my hands into his and looked me in the eye, that desperate look still glittering on his face.

"Why invite their calumny and consternation? Stay with me!"

He cupped my cheek in his hand and looked down at my hands before raising them to his lips and kissing them.

"Be faithful to me."

"I'm faithful.

"Grateful to me." His eyes glittered as they flicked to look at my face.

"I'm grateful." I couldn't meet his gaze; I looked at my hands instead.

"Don't fear my strength, have faith, and stay with me."

"I'll stay with you."

I could feel his smile as he leaned in to kiss me.