Dark Hunger

Caleb growled. He shot to his feet and pushed Elize behind his back. He sniffed… demons. 

"Who is there?" Elize asked as she scented familiar smells. They were the same as the ones when she was under attack in the shady market square in her town at night. 

Suddenly something emerged from the shadows and before she knew what was happening, it pushed her from the side with so much force that she was thrown against a pine tree. "Ahhh!" she cried. 

Caleb whirled around and disbelief skittered through his veins like thorns. She was on her hands and knees on the snow, coughing badly. "P—please…" she said in shallow breaths. Expression stricken, she was trying to breathe. "I— I—" 

"Lizzy!" Caleb growled, as every muscle in his body became taut with tension. Two demons whose horns were straightening appeared behind her. One of them sat beside her and held her by the neck, as the other stood and watched him. 

Everyone wanted to take her away from him. Every damn thing in nature conspired against his love. 

"There, there, Caleb, Finally, I have something that belongs to you," said the demon on her right, his claws pointing at Elize. "We are taking her with us, so don't even try to come after us or resist. If you do that, you may never see her." 

Another demon came out from the shadows and clashed into him with his claws. He punched him on his head and clawed his skin and kicked him in the gut, but he couldn't do anything. He fell to the ground on his knees and palms, struggling to keep Elize in his vision even as the demon hit him mercilessly. 

The demon who was sitting beside her took her hair in his hands and twisted them so hard that her neck pulled up and she cried. One more demon joined them. They both continued to hit him. "C—Caleb…" she called him, her terrified gaze meeting his. 

The demon pulled her harder. He laughed. "Isn't this interesting? The most powerful sorcerer of the Lore is the mate of a vampire who Edyrm seeks? You tried to kill the demon king, and now the king wants to kill your mate." The demon looked at her and grabbed her chin tightly with his claw digging in her flesh. "At the moment, it is she who is more important that you are, sorcerer."

Caleb spat blood on the side. He growled, "If you harm her, you will see the gory side of my wrath on you, on your bloody king and on your descendants. I will live for nothing else but to hunt you all down and kill you one by one." He was in a frenzy to reach her, touch her. His wolf wanted to protect her and take her away from the demons, take her away from everyone. 

"Tsk, tsk," the demon said. 

"I can give you the riches you haven't imagined," said Caleb. "Leave her." 

"That's a very tempting thought, but you see Caleb, I am very loyal to Edyrm. We are going to take your mate. My king is going to love to use her as his sex slave. After all, you killed his mistress. It is going to be tit for tat." 

"You or your king won't fucking touch her."

The demon tilted his head towards Elize and pressed his lips to her temple. His poison tipped horns grazed her cheeks. Her eyes became wide as if dazed and her mouth became slack. She looked at him, but not at him. The tip of the horns of demons when they straightened during an act of war usually emitted a poison that was potent enough to make someone unconscious or even kill. 

"Lizzy! No!" he yelled as panic seized his chest. 

The demon laughed. "Oh, I am so sorry. Is she going to die now?" He tutted her. "She is too fragile but trust me, Edyrm is going to have fun tearing her mentally and physically, and she wouldn't even know what is happening to her." 

Caleb shuddered. "What the fuck do you want?" he said in a low lethal voice. 

"We wanted you earlier, but you see now we want her. She has more to give than you can imagine!" 

Caleb wanted to get up and press his jaws in the demon's throat now. But the bastard had his claws digging in her neck. Blood was trailing down. 

The demon pulled up Elize and they started to walk with her, when suddenly the trees started to shake even though it wasn't windy. "Check out—" 

Auril appeared—his hands surrounded with green sizzling lights that seemed to control the movement of the trees. 

Caleb couldn't believe his eyes. How did Auril know they were here? 

When the demons tried to attack him, branches from a nearby tree grew large and struck them with their sharp pointed heads, impaling them at multiple places, their yells echoing in the forest. Two demons were down, the ones who had attacked him. The remaining two had picked her up and were running away. Whatever energy he was left with, with all the strength he was left with, he barreled to the demon who was holding her. The demon released her and she fell on the snow, her gaze still blank. What if she never recovered? Rage filled his chest and he seized the neck of the demon. "You have committed a big mistake, bastard." His blood boiled to punish him. He strapped his arms around the demon's neck and snapped his head in one powerful movement. 

The other demon stared at Caleb and he knew that he was about to be killed by the werewolf. "You thought you would make my bride your king's sex slave?" Caleb said in a guttural voice, his lips peeling back showing his fangs. "My mate?" My Lizzy? He became mindless with fury and attacked the demon. And then he was all claws and fangs. In a few seconds the demon was lying on the white ground with his guts sliced till neck and blood sprayed everywhere.