Prelude

Each step of his leisured stride caused the battle adorned ground to cough up muddy blood. He gazed over his playground and smiled. Two pairs of fangs, the upper and lower canines, were exposed under the setting sun. Darkness would soon fall and with it the silver night orb of the sky would rise.

He would then be invincible.

"Demon!"

Grin still in place, he halted and turned towards his last standing opponent. "Life houses within you still." He hoisted his blood-stained sword over his shoulder and graced his clothes with another scarlet smear. "Why do you not flee?"

The young woman held her ground. "Because you still live."

The demon laughed, throwing his black locks behind his shoulders. His eyes, darkly inked vortexes, were tainted with amusement.

She took that moment during his guffaw to reach back and pull a fletch-less arrow out from her neatly cluttered red quiver. She secured it on her dark wooden bow and pointed it at the demon that stood multiple yards in front of her. "I aim for your heart, demon!" She gripped the bow and arrow tighter.

The demon snickered and stabbed his sword on the ground. He extended his arms as if to welcome the attack from the priestess before him.

"Proceed with your intended assault. Results shall not arise from it. A simple bellatrix-in-training is hardly a master in comprehension of such a position. Indeed. Attempt to kill me." His hair swirled around his face, dancing with the hasty burst of wind that visited the bloody battlefield. The gust soon left as if saddened by such a sight.

The adolescent bared her teeth in anger. "Die!" She let the arrow go, its pathway to the demon's heart. Swift as a gale eruption, the shaft began to glow with a dull white light. A silver fletching appeared only to quickly fade away.

The demon's grin did not waver despite the arrow's half buried shaft in his chest. He slowly lifted his head and faced his opponent. His grin then turned into a snarl.

The sun had finally set.

She stood wide-eyed at the demon before her. Her breathing was heavy, slightly gurgling with the blood in her mouth. Her clothes glued to her skin, her blood as a sealant. It was a miracle she was able to stand, much less shoot an arrow that was true to its target, but it was too late. Her bow fell from her hands. She stared at it feeling dizzy as her vision started swaying into darkness.

Meanwhile, the demon was heartily welcoming the rays of the gloomy moon. He could feel the beams breach his skin and flow into his blood as raw power circulated throughout his entire veins. An endless cycle of destruction.

The night enveloped them both, closing in the world around them into an inky abyss where one would meet their grave, the other a flawless victory.

The demon grasped the hilt of his sword and pulled it out from the bloody dirt. Immediately, as if sensing its master's new power, it radiated and cleansed itself of the red mud-veil. Brightly polished, it gleamed under the moon's rays.

The demon smirked as he walked up to the young woman. He stopped several inches before her and leaned his frame into hers. He peered at her, his long hair caressing her cheeks, the protruding arrow in his chest digging into her collar bone.

She met his stare despite her blurred vision. Liquid red orbs bore into her. She blinked. Indeed the demon's eyes were now red when only moments ago were nothing but black, unreflecting slits.

Grunting, she struggled to stand and somehow managed to push the demon away. The force caused her to back step away from him. Her heavy breathing began to hurt her chest, but she still fished her words out, desperate to know.

"Why?" she croaked. "Why did you have to kill them all and leave me for last?"

He reclaimed his full height, gazing down at the black haired beauty before him. His grin finally died. She noticed the blank look that washed over him before it disappeared just as rapidly. Anger quickly molded onto his features.

"The reason is known to you, wench."

She fought back her fatigue. Despite her body's swaying, her words came out hard and solid, "I didn't do anything."

With a single, furious tug, the demon pulled out the arrow lodged in his chest. Blood splashed on the young woman's face despite the distance her dizzy dance had placed between them. Arrow in hand, the demon snapped it in two. The broken wood splintered into a fiery, white ring that erupted out like a small explosion. The pieces then immediately cindered and fell to the ground, blackened and useless.

The brought a hand to his chest where the arrow had been. Though the wound began to quickly heal, blood coated his palms and ran down his fingertips. He then pulled his hand away and balled it into a fist.

She flinched.

His eyes met hers.

They locked for a brief moment with an intensity that wasn't present in their previous stare downs. An intensity they hadn't felt for a while. She closed her eyes.

It felt strangely smooth. The blade cut easily thought her skin and ribs. But there was no pain. Her earlier obtained fatal wounds had already shocked her nerves beyond that.

The demon watched as her body gracefully danced its way down to death. A bloody splash stroked her physique as it hugged the soiled land. He stared at her for several moments. Motionless.

It was all her fault.

He had killed them before her. Her entire family and clan members. Any possible family ties and carrying on of the clan tradition was forever gone. That way, when she died, she died in despair with the knowledge that he still lived and would continue to live.

He finally turned away from her body and stared at his free hand. Her blood had plopped on his palm. His other one tightly grasped the sword's hilt at this realization. For some reason –an undesired habit that tried to reach out to a past comfort perhaps– he brought his bloody fingers to his chest where his wound was nearly completely healed.

Her blood touched his.

He gasped. A tight, burning sensation began to lick his entire body, poisoning his blood, pushing out the moon's power. He collapsed to the ground on one knee, using his sword as a support. Again his hand went to his wounded chest. It radiated with the flames that were searing him weak.

His eyes gaped open.

"A deception," he grunted. "The arrow—Foolish to not have realized."

As if summoned, the arrow that was earlier broken so easily reappeared, swallowed in his chest. He tried to reach for it, but this time a barrier kept him away. Grunts of pain escaped the demon's lips as the arrow burrowed into him.

"No…!"

The arrow was now fully embedded past his ribcage. Blistering flares erupted through the demon's body. Froths of pain exploded in his chest. For the first time in several years the demon was in agony he could not fight off, and for the first time in his long life he felt fear.

The young woman's motionless figure gazed at the demon with glazed eyes. She was near death, but she had seen how long he had stood over her, inert and silent.

She blinked away her tears, astonished she even had the energy to cry. I am the last of my clan...my family...Die, demon! Die as you killed my loved ones!

As her thoughts began to waver and her sights darken, she made sure that the demon's death would be the last thing she saw.

The last of my bloodline.

Her thoughts faded away into a lost realm as the demon fell into the same white ring of fire as the arrow had when it snapped in two. One piece for the demon, the other for the demon slayer.

Author's Note:

I have been, and probably will be for a while longer, inactive here in FictionPress. If my story Inner Demon captures your attention, I recommend you read it on my Wattpad profile. The story there is revised and more polished than what is posted here. Scenes have been added and deleted and the number of chapters has increased by two or three.

I plan to come back to this website with the same version eventually, but since I have more active feedback in Wattpad, I will be continuing it there. The link to my Wattpad profile can be found at the top of my FictionPress profile here.

Thanks!

April 3, 2013