Chapter 5: My breeder

This morning, when Melisende had said her prayers, she'd asked to be spared having to go through this wedding. Even isolated inside the abbey for the last few years, she had ways of gaining information. And everything she'd learned about the Baron her family wanted her to marry had been troublesome. She would've done anything not to have to marry the Baron. Being abducted by a demon had not been the way she would've chosen to avoid marrying Lord Robert.

Melisende's abductor ran faster than she ever thought possible. The shoulder of the being who'd kidnapped her from her own wedding was as hard as a rock. She moaned, from fear or discomfort, she wasn't sure which. She still held the knife she'd taken from the table, but could a demon be killed by a mere knife? What if it only made him angry?

Melisende had been three years old when her family banished her to the abbey. Life in her family's castle had not been easy. Her cousins had been spoiled with dresses and promises of glorious marriages while Melisende might have been invisible for all the attention she received. She had a painful memory of her mother lavishing attention on her dainty cousins while Melisende begged her for attention.

Even though she'd never been accepted by her family, the castle had been home. Being sent to the Abbey at such a young age had been frightening. She'd felt lonely and forgotten, and only the priest teaching her to read had saved her sanity. A few years after her arrival, she'd discovered a secret room with shelves full of scrolls. It had opened up a new world to her. She considered herself better educated than most men, had dedicated herself to studying every scroll. Nothing she'd read in that room had prepared her to be abducted by a green devil with eyes so black, they looked like a dark night without a moon to shine some light. She didn't want this summer wedding her family arranged for her, but she wanted to be taken by a demon even less. Even worse was the way those eyes had slowly turned red as if blood dripped into them during the battle.

"Are you a demon? Did the devil send you for my soul?" She'd prefer to know her fate, but she'd fight him all the way to hell. Being a person of reason did not mean she was evil and to be condemned. She poked his back with her finger, but the strange silver material he wore didn't make even a slight dent. Maybe if she could get past his strange clothes to his ugly snake-like skin - she shuddered - she could manage to wound him.

"No, I am a Zyrgin warrior. I have honored you by choosing you as my breeder."

"What's a Zrg warrior?" Melisende pulled at his jacket, but it wouldn't budge. She stabbed at him with the knife but that didn't get past his strange clothing either. He had to be a demon; no mortal was immune to being stabbed with a knife.

"Zyrgin Warrior. It means I come from a planet many light-years away, and that I am superior to all humans." The landscape blurred around her, and she swallowed. His arrogance was unbecoming, but she was more concerned with the state of his mind. And the way his deep voice rumbled shouldn't be attractive to her. The thought of being attracted to anything about a demon made her nauseous.

It would serve him right if she emptied her stomach on him. He jumped over a boulder, and Melisende moaned when her middle bumped against his shoulder, but at the moment, she was more worried about her soul than any physical pain. Because no matter what he said, she had the awful feeling she was hanging over a demon's shoulder, on her way to hell.

"Sir Robert will come and save me," she told the demon. Please let Sir Robert come and save me. Her family was allied with the Capets, a royal bloodline that was positioning themselves to take power. Surely Sir Robert needed the alliance enough that he'd come for his too-tall intended? A strange hysterical giggle burst past her lips. Who would've thought she'd want Sir Robert to ever come to her rescue? Right now, marrying that coward looked a lot better than it did this morning when she'd fervently prayed for deliverance from her impending wedding.

"Even on horseback, that human with his ugly hair cannot overtake a Zyrgin on foot." His deep and marble gravely-smooth voice reminded her of the way the Earth sometimes rumbled under the cloister. A shiver started at the nape of her neck and worked its way down her spine to her knees.

"I suppose your running is so superior, you can outrun a horse? Ouch, stop jumping like that."

"You are correct, my breeder."

She eyed his silver-clad back, tempted to stab him again. Even if it did nothing to him, it might make her feel better. Obviously, sarcasm was wasted on this demon. His shoulder continued to bump into her middle with each excruciating move. She roughly calculated the demon's height, and measured the shadow and the length of his footsteps, and came to the uneasy conclusion that he might indeed outrun the Baron's horse. Her silver cross slapped against her cheek, and she clutched it in her fist, yanking the chain attached to it over her head. It was difficult keeping hold of the cross while he ran and jumped over every rock instead of going around it like any sane person would.