The Arsenic Widow #Wattys2015 (mxm)

Chapter Thirty

It's Thursday so that means.... Another chapter! Yay! Say it with me! Yay! Are you saying it? You better :P

I hope you guys have all had an awesome week! Personally I've been bogged down with University work but it hasn't been as bad as last semester so I'm not too sad!!

Anyway, enough about me! Onwards to the chapter and to poor Incent's future!

Edit: I thought I'd take a moment to explain. The bond and magic flowing between the demon and Incent makes Incent's memories blurry and incomplete. The magic makes him believe he's in love with Lothaire. He's formed a bit of Stockholm's Syndrome as he's been abandoned and he knows he isn't strong enough to defeat Lothaire. Even though he's a hunter, he knows when he's in a bad situation and won't make it worse :P

Soon we were on the paths, travelling back towards the castle. Unfortunately this time I had no horse to ride on, but fortunately I wasn't riddled with sickness. However I still leant on Lothaire for stability every so often or simply just to comfort myself with his presence.

Every so often I thought about Acorn or even Tim but I would quickly shake it off and continue with my walk through the woods, content with listening to the hum in the trees from the insects and the birds. It got a bit difficult to hear them, however, as most creatures went quiet whenever a demon was near.

The silence was nice too, I suppose.

I trudged along, holding on tightly to the skin filled with the soup. If I lost this, I would have nothing to eat. Or so Lothaire had said. He didn't need to eat everyday to survive. Even though he was a demon and they were usually hungry for everything and anything, he was different. Older. The same hunger that ran through the majority was wasted on him.

"Lothaire," I asked softly, walking along behind him and trying not to step on his tail. "What are we really going to do when we get to the castle? You're not going to hurt anyone are you?" Even now I couldn't shake off the need to protect the friends that I had made.

He threw his lizard-like head back and laughed, his tongue flicking in amusement. "Oh, Incent. You're so naïve. Just like the first day we met. Of course we're going to hurt people. We're demons."

I shook my head, "I'm not."

Suddenly he turned around, his eyes burning in anger. "What was that?"

I stumbled and came to a halt, scared of the look in his eyes. "I just meant... I'm not a demon?" I didn't know how else to word this to make it sound better. I meant what I had said, but no wording was going to save me.

"Oh, I disagree." He took a step closer like a predator hunting his prey. It was the step they took when they knew they had it practically within its grasp and wasn't worried that the prey could escape. "I have killed, you have killed. I've had sex, you've had sex. I've done 'bad' things, so have you. I fail to see how I am different from you, except for our looks of course. Are you that superficial?"

I lowered my eyes and looked at the floor. "Yes, I've done those things. But..." I tried to stop myself before I said anything else.

"But?" he asked, eyes flashing dangerously now.

Gulping, I finally met his eyes and shuddered at the darkness I found in them. Don't get me wrong, they were bright eyes with the same reflective quality of a cat, but they were soulless eyes; even I could see that. "But I didn't kill for my own enjoyment."

His hand was around my throat before I could finish my sentence and my feet no longer touched the floor. I gasped for air and clawed at his scaly hand, wanting him to let me go.