Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 3: The Merciless Maiden

"Demons do not feel," she coldly reminded him. "Have you forgotten this?"

"No," Gus calmly shot back, fighting down his rising nausea. "That is why I was caught off guard by his strange mannerisms and behavior. He doesn't act like a demon in the slightest."

Her eyes narrowed, and she looked down at Xaphile's black hair for a moment before ramming her sword into the dirt and squatting down. Gus watched as she gripped his thin horns and turned his head, examining his features with genuine distrust before he rubbed his eyes.

He was beginning to feel lightheaded from the poison spreading throughout his body, but when he swayed, she looked up at his mauled arm and started digging around in her cloak. Moments later, she pulled out a small glass vial and tossed it to him, watching as he snatched it.

"Drink that," she grumbled, going back to staring at Xaphile. "It'll stop the poison from spreading any further, but when we return, head to Amelia's shop and have her patch you up."

"I will... and thank you, I owe you my life," he grunted, and after uncorking the glass vial and downing the contents, the two of them were quiet for a while.

"This... creature," she eventually muttered, rolling back on her heels. "What did he want with me? Do you know?"

"No," Gus admitted, "but he definitely said a great many things that confused me, first being that you and he had been acquaintances for many years, and also, as strange as it was to hear it, that you had died several months ago."

"What?" she scoffed, frowning at him. "Humans don't associate with monsters, much less befriend them. That much should be obvious, even to a bizarre creature like this. And it should be common knowledge that I'm very much alive. I'd never let myself die, for any reason."

Gus fell into an uncomfortable silence for a moment.

"That is, in truth, the biggest reason I am begging for you to show mercy," he murmured. "I cannot help but feel that he truly believed that you had died, My Lady. The expression I saw didn't just touch his face, it touched his eyes, and it touched them so deeply and painfully that he genuinely reminded me of Marty Crawford for a few seconds."

Ella blinked, eyebrow twitching.

Gripping Xaphile's dark hair and lifting his head up, she leered at his features, nose wrinkling.

"I don't know this beast," she sneered. "To think, he put his filthy hands on me..."

Gus winced when she looked down at his horns with a malevolent expression of disgust, but to his surprise, she actually dropped him again and stood up.  

Walking over to her sword, she jerked it out of the dirt once again and carefully wiped it clean of the blood coating the blade, sliding it into the sheath strapped to her waist; then she snatched her daggers and sheathed them within her cloak. He watched as she dragged her hood up and turned, planting a hand on her hip.

"Well?" she snapped, tapping her foot. "Grab it. I've decided not to kill it. Are you happy?"

Gus immediately ran a hand through his hair, sighing in relief.

"Ella, thank you. Thank you heeding my words and for sparing him."

"Who said anything about sparing him?" she coldly inquired. "You're taking this beast back to the village as a prisoner. He'll make a good display, at the very least."

That made him pause, and for a second he had to backtrack and process her words, but once he did he blankly looked up at her, lowering his hand. It took him a second to find his voice, but find it he did, and with a croak he asked, "you're going to make him into a display?"