The Cruel Prince

VANISHED

Big strong arms swept her from the ground before she could even make it pass the gate, and she didn't have to look up to know it wasn't Banye's arms. It was someone else, thought it somehow resembled him, it was Xan who picked her up and the sound of the heavy galloping horses told her there's something wrong.

Ying Yue whipped her head to the field and saw only two came back, neither of them her lover. Her heart splintered, she knew something happened, and she dreaded it, Banye didn't came back home.

"No!"

She squirmed from his steel arms unable to break lose. "Where's Banye?!" She demanded, her voice shattering in anxiety. 

With a grim face, Xan could only turn his glance away. He didn't let her go until they were at the foot of the palace where Nikita stood with the same shock and dark grim look on her. She darted her eyes between the two men, begging for explanation. "What happened? Tell me what happened!"

Both men dismounted, Xan had been careful on his handling with Ying Yue who was too stunned at the time.

Sheen of tears coated her eyes, unable to believe Banye hadn't returned with them.

Banye, a powerful demon of the underworld, the son of Yama himself is bested by a mortal prince? It's hardly possible to believe.

"Please, please, tell me what happened!" Ying Yue begged, tears began rolling down her cheeks unable to contain them.

Xan sucked a steadying breath while Wan strolled over to Nikita. He stood inches away from her, towering her, his head inclined down but she's too distraught to meet his grim face.

"There was a light." Xan began explaining in terrible slowness and great detail. "It was blinding as the sun, it was like a sudden lightning and it came from the human prince. He blinded us. We were baited, it was a trap and we didn't know it was. There's a small village in the southern territory, we tracked the mortal prince out there and found half the village massacred. It was gruesome, blood and dead bodies everywhere. It was the worse so far from his series of slaughters.

Banye and I went inside one of the hut where an entire family was murdered. It was bad, the scene immediately made me sick to my stomach and I fought the urge to throw up.

He was there, the prince, he was smiling wickedly – sat on the dining table, as if he knew he we were coming and he's waiting for us.

There was such hunger in his face that couldn't be satisfied by murders anymore, it is as if he turned into something else, a savage hellraiser. He looked at Banye, slowly widening his smile.

"How pleasant of you to come, I've been waiting for hours." Jungjae purred.

"What have you done?" Banye snarled with merciless fatality.

"Oh, this?" Jungjae made a show of twisting around admiring his work. "This, my prince of the underworld is my payback." A malevolent grin pressed on his lips. "Tell me, am I in par with your wife yet?"

"You scumbag!" Banye growled dangerously. 

"Banye picked up his sword enraged, he meant to kill the mortal prince then, but when his blade landed on him. It made no impact at all. It was like he's slicing though metal air and the prince didn't even move, not as much as blink as his nefarious smile gleamed on his cheeks.

He wore a shield a magic protecting him from this land. It is as if his body is somewhere else and he appeared in realistic apparition. I know I'm a demon, but even I don't have that kind of power.

He got up circling Banye like a prey, taunting him."

Jungjae sniffed Banye sucking the leftover stench of fresh sex, making Jungjae stifle a disgusted sneer. "Have you made my brother suffered enough? Tell me what's it like to fuck his wife night after night? How tight and wet she gets? Does she scream your name, or does she scream my brother's name?"

"You piece of trash! You should've died on that cave. My wife should have done both worlds a favor and killed you."

There was a purr, a laughter that is too soft. "Ah yes, the succubus. She was every bit of a whore charming me inside that cave. I'm glad she died and rotted before anyone even found her, she deserved no better death."

"But then Banye went still and I haven't seen him done that in a long time. I knew he was angry and the mortal prince had riled every bit of calmness and patience left in him. He shifted, and picked up his sword again, this time when he struck, the prince's shield cracked, and I saw the panic on his face. Banye was able to break his shied and he's going to get to him.

That's when this light, this bright light flashed like a wave blinding us. I had to duck covering my eyes. It burned, the light was like fire burning my skin, and I heard Banye screamed – after that, the darkness sucked the light away and Banye was gone. I didn't know what happened. It was like the light melted him and he vanished, the prince was gone as well. I was left in the hut alone and I didn't know what to do so I came back out."

"He was right." Wan continued. "I waited outside restless, guarding the perimeter. They were taking long, longer than usual and I didn't know what's going on. I waited for them to come out, I wanted to come inside the hut myself and find out what's going on, but I couldn't, Lord Banye stationed me outside and I had to keep watch.

I saw the light, it was a sudden flash so bright that it blinded me for a few minutes before I could even see again." Wan blinked hard as the phantom pain haunted his eyes. "When Xan came out, he was in distraught. I asked him what's the matter and he told me in a panicked breath, Banye is gone!...He just disappeared."

Both men looked at each other, both grim and exhausted.

"No, he couldn't be dead, that's impossible! Our lord is too strong to fall prey for a trick like that!" Nikita cried in agony.

Xan only shook his head at her with tight lips, he didn't know how to answer, he saw everything that happened.

"No, he's not dead." Murmured Ying Yue quietly. "I could feel him, I could feel his soul throb inside me. He's talking, he's connecting, he speaking to me. I need to reach him. He's out there, alive and trapped. I need to find out where and Jungjae is the only one that could tell me."

"That's suicide, you know the mortal prince is haunting you too!" Xan snarled. "I still have another job, and that is to protect you from that lunatic!"

She met his daunting eyes. "Then come with me, protect me while I search for him."

"No! You know what happened – even Banye was taken!" He opted for immediate refusal.

"You're forgetting I'm not a demon, I'm human. Whoever that powerful shaman Jungjae is working with can't do anything to me."

"But he can curse you, he can do so much things that will make you regret you're alive!"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take. I need to get Banye back! He is alive!"

"No!" Xan growled with finality, "We'll think of another way, anything that does not include you getting hurt. It'll be one hell to pay if something were to happen to you."

Ying Yue scowled and whipped her gaze back on him with frustration. There's no point talking to these men. She knew she's capable, a lot more capable than they're allowing her to and by god, she is going to get Banye back, and nobody is going to tell her otherwise. She is his lover, and part of his soul lives in her. She is going to free Banye from wherever he's trapped in no matter how difficult and risky because no one else can do it, no one else but her.