Hi everyone! Here's the long awaited chapter of Enamored! I just graduated high school and celebrated for a while which is why it took a long time for me to update :) Please don't forget to vote, comment, follow me, and add this book to your library!
Xoxo, Angelique
"Because what's worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?"
― James Patterson,
The sparks that lingered from our kiss disappeared as quickly as the alien feeling that blossomed in my chest. I slowly pushed Daemon away, afraid that even a slight hint of ferocity would ignite his violent side. He simply stared back at me with his usual smirk. He slowly licked his bottom lip before speaking.
"Don't pretend you didn't love every second of it." He said. His tone was playful, but I knew better.
"You tricked me." I accused him.
Daemon saw my change in demeanor and sighed, "I just wanted to know what it would feel like."
I gave him a questioning look but he only returned it with a small smile I couldn't decipher.
"Where's Danny?" I asked him fearfully.
He glared at the tone of my voice before landing his gaze on my lip. I touched it gingerly and assumed that it was probably swollen from the kiss. Since when did you care about what he thinks? I thought.
"Your friend won the game when 'he tried' to save you from the wolf." He drawled.
Danny saved me. So that was his body that collapsed against me before Daemon came. As my gaze swept across the moonlit forest, I couldn't find my friend anywhere. Questions reeled my mind before Daemon's velvety voice soothed away my worries.
"He's safe." He said.
I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding before Daemon begins speaking again. "It's surprising you and your friends have made it this far in my game. Many give up after the first one." He grinned.
"We want our souls back and for you to leave us alone. That's the prize of winning this game." I said.
"Is it?" he said mischievously before he vanished.
A warm breath grazed the curve of the back of my ear when a silvery voice asked, "Do you know the reason why you're playing this game?"
"You murdered children who would have brought good into my world before they even had a chance to live. " I turned to him angrily causing my long brown hair hit my cheek. I continued my rant, my anger boiling over to the extreme.
"I am one of them. You're only prolonging the inevitable by having me and my friends suffer through this game. Why couldn't you just leave us alone?" I added, my eyes tearing up. I was exhausted, I wanted to go home and I wanted to give up so badly.
Daemon wrapped one arm around my waist pulling me close and cupped my cheek with his rough hand. My hands landed on his strong chest causing the dark tattoo on my forearm to tingle against my sensitive skin before he leaned in close. I closed my eyes, preparing for the pain that would come as my heart thundered against my chest.
"I love you."
My eyes snapped open in surprise. I never knew three simple words could create so many catastrophes. Daemon looked at me with his wintry blue eyes. How could someone so cold and evil learn to love? I wondered.
"W-what?" I stammered. Perhaps I didn't hear him correctly.
"I. Love. You." He repeated again, emphasizing each word with a gentle caress to . "I can't leave you alone because I love you. I've been watching you for so long and every time I lay my eyes on you I fall deeper in love. The kiss we shared," Daemon trailed as his thumb grazed my lower lip, "proved to me that this feeling I have for you is something deeper than lust."
I shook my head in disbelief as a lone tear fell from my eye. Daemon left me speechless with his confession that my silence motivated him to continue.
"I've never seen a mortal as kind as you are. Only seventeen and you've softened the hearts of the people around you with your sweet personality and your gorgeous smile. You have flaws, yet I find them captivating because they make you imperfectly perfect."
He tilted my chin in order to meet my accusing gaze. "You only know half the story of how I became the way I am today."
"And what would that be?" I challenged as I pull away from his touch.
Ignoring my question, he continued to speak. "Demons don't love." He told me. His usual rigid gaze softened for a moment that I almost missed it before he spoke again, "but they can dream."
"What do you mean?" I asked him. I was lost, I couldn't keep up with his confessions.
He turned his back towards me and fixed his gaze towards the moon that hung in the sky. "Let's say a lonely devil lives his life doing the things he has done as always. And for a brief moment, he looks up into the sky and sees her," he looks at me pointedly before continuing, "she became the light to his darkness. The girl who warmed this devil's cold heart every time he sees her that she made him willing to give her anything. Tell me, is it so selfish for this devil to have her when she's unwilling?" he asked me.
"Yes, it is." I answered.
"Do you know why I would want her?" he asked again, this time he took a step closer to me.
"To destroy her?" I guessed.
Shaking his head before leaning closer, he whispered, "No, to cherish her."
He wanted to cherish me? Impossible. Demons can't love, this is just another game to Daemon. Of course it is, he wants to win badly. I thought. I began to
"Forfeit the game." Daemon said, looking deep into my eyes. "Stay with me here, in the Nether Realm." Taking my hand into his, he continued, "I can make you happy here and have you live in comfort."
"If you truly loved me," I began, "why would you force me and my friends to play the game?"
He caressed my hair gently, his fingertips touching large chunks of silky strands, "I wanted to give you a chance to win and escape me. But as we continue playing this game of ours, I realized I couldn't wait anymore. I need you now."
Daemon took my arm with his mark and touched it softly causing a pleasant shock to course throughout my body. "This mark is proof of my love for you, a symbol of you belonging to me." he continued.
I pulled away from him and took a step back, unaccustomed to the Daemon I'm seeing in front of me.
"I don't belong to anyone." I whispered.
Words attempted to form in my brain so I can carefully say what I needed to say. Scared half to death, I uttered the first few words to his rejection.
"I'm sorry," I murmured. Angelo's warm smiling face appeared in my mind and my heart squeezed at the thought. "But I don't want to forfeit the game."
His wintry blue eyes flared in anger and his jaw clenched to my response. Taking a deep breath, he spoke again.
"If that's what you wish." He replied quietly, his eyes as cold as they were before.
I nodded in response and turned around to continue my search for Danny when his words halted my steps.
"Solve my riddle, then I will let one of your friends' soul free."
Daemon's offer was so tempting but I knew if I took his offer, my friends' lives will be at stake.
"What's the catch?" I asked him.
"I'm leveling the grounds of the game." He answered coyly.
"Since I'm in a generous mood tonight, I'm giving you a riddle to solve that will cause you to have a large advantage in the game. Give me the answer, and you and your friends win the game." Daemon smirked.
Curiosity got to the best of me that I found myself asking him, "What's the riddle?"
Daemon smiled before he began to recite the words of the riddle,
"I am an involuntary force of nature;
I am the alpha and the omega of allure.
I am the mother of millions
and when taken by force, I can last for eons. What am I?"
Involuntary force of nature? What was that? The riddle itself was complicated but if I want to use this riddle to my advantage I must answer it correctly. Before I could ask him how long I have to answer the riddle, I was alone in the dark forest with only the howls of the wolves to accompany me.
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xoxo,
Angelique