Chapter 4 Chapter Four

Ashara’s POV

I leaned against the wall, watching as both men dropped to a fighting stance, though my eyes stayed on them, my mind barely was.

It was impossible. I could be a fallen goddess, and without my real body, but I was still a goddess. And a goddess couldn't be fated to be a Vampire’s bride. Such demeaning fates were left to the lower immortals. Gods and goddesses design fates, not get enslaved to them.

I watched the vampire, his broad shoulders and the muscles of his back rippling with action, his slow, predatory step as he and the demon stalked each other, searching for an opening to exploit for their first attack.

I followed the sweep of his silver hair over his shoulders, the dark, aristocratic clothing that hung on his big body, perfectly matching his pale skin and aristocratic face. Though he looked slightly unkempt, everything about him was classy and a strange sort of beautiful. I could swear I felt excitement coursing through my veins the longer my gaze lingered on him.

Still, I couldn't be so demeaned as to be bound to a mere immortal. This would only give the bastard gods who condemned me to this life more material to ridicule me. I clutched my head tight, shaking it hard, hoping it was all a hallucination.

But when I looked up to them again, it was still the vampire and the demon in the room, clashes of steel ringing around the room nonstop as they fought for me, and following them around as they fought was an invisible pull to not just the vampire, but the demon as well. I could excuse the pull to the demon as something probably caused by the human essence in me that would desire such a wild male, and a pull that can be tamed, but I couldn’t dismiss the pull to the vampire the same way. I had watched him get bloodied, I had watched his heart beat, for me.

It was real.

The demon threw the vampire against the wall, and the room shook like it was being pulled right from the ground, from its core.

The Vampire growled as he dodged the demon’s blades. The sword chipped away the stone where his head had just been.

The Vampire peeled away from the wall before he was trapped to it. He weaved through with expertly done footworks, dodging continuous swings of the demon’s sword. His body moved in complete sync with his legs, his robe torn open a bit, revealing chiseled muscles, wet from sweat.

That little peak did something to my core that I couldn't explain. I squished my thighs together as I felt something grow between my legs. Something that shouldn't. Get a grip on yourself, Ashara. Get a fucking trip over yourself. You can never be a Vampire's bride. You can never…

The demon’s teasing voice broke through my thoughts, and my eyes snapped to them again, fast like they were being commandeered by some unknown force inside of me.

“Do you know the demon possessed a human girl, and that body isn't hers. Have you even tried to think if it isn't the demon that blooded you, but the human underneath?” He brushed his sleeves over his lips, over a wry grin as he kept charging at the vampires, his sword swinging determinedly for the vampire’s neck.

The Vampire dodged another attack to his neck and then traced to me, mid-fight.

He snatched my chin and tipped it up, forcing my eyes to level his. “Is it true, demon. Is it true that another lives inside you?” He demanded, voice tight yet tough. They rang against my ears with an authority that demanded an answer.

Every inch of my soul screamed to lie. He looked desperate for a mate so he could be easily manipulated to do whatever I wanted. But I remembered the ridicule and embarrassment that would come from God's realm at me for being mated to a mere vampire, and my pride stole my answer. “Yes. The demon exorcist isn't actually wrong, Vampire. I do have a human breathing in me. She could very well be your bride, vampire. In fact, that is very plausible.”

I yanked my jaw from his grip, and I pulled away from him, retreating. I forced a tight grin as I unleashed my claws and steered them to my neck. “You should do as I say, Vampire, else I would kill myself and your human mate inside of me,” I said.

“You won't dare.” He growled at first. But he didn't move. Somehow, the rage that had instantaneously jumped into his eyes disappeared immediately, and the tension in his shoulders calmed.

“I believe you are my bride. If it were a human, then I would have gotten her centuries ago. Fate waited this long because it had to come up with something special for me.”

I thought that was an attempt at flattery, but there was no humor, amusement, or warmth in his voice. He was really serious when he said that. He really thought of me as special. I shook my head hard; my teeth rattled. I shouldn't let him get in my head.

“Delay isn't always special, vampire,” I told him.

He took a step closer, carrying his big body with him, shoulders swinging with his massive strength. “It is rare for a vampire to be mated to an ordinary human.”

“And do you know what is rarer? Being mated to a goddess.” I retorted.

A harsh, grating laugh rang out from somewhere in the room. The vampire and I turned to the demon who leaned against the wall, hugging his sword, while trembling in a fit—a fit of fucking laughter.

My claws sharpened, and I wished I could just dig them into his annoying hide. “I am a goddess.” I barked at him, unable to keep back all of the fury splitting me open from within.

“If you are a goddess, then I am a god.” He said, “Madam demon. There is nothing divine about you. You are just one, weak, delusional demon with a fantasy for grandiosity.”

I gritted my teeth until they hurt. The bastard. I would have loved to rip out his neck, but he was right about one thing, though. I was weak. And I fucking hated it.

I fought the urge to explain to him that I was betrayed, that my body was stolen from me, and that once I got it back, then I would recover all of my divinity. I wouldn't explain myself to an ordinary demon. He was beneath me.

I steered my gaze back to the vampire. “I am sorry, vampire. But it is more impossible for me to be your bride than it is rare for a human to be. I am not your bride.”

“Yeah.” The demon grunted from where he stood, still chuckling.

The insolence.

“She isn't your bride, vampire, and I can help you prove that once I exorcise her from that human.” He said.

The Vampire growled at him. “That wouldn't be happening. What if she is the one who is my bride? Then she would be living in your gourd forever and at your mercy.”

“Because that's what she deserves, Vampire.” The demon peeled from the walls, carrying himself with menace as he strolled forward.

The Vampire, rowed his head, straightening his neck for another round of fighting. “Until I find out which of them is my mate, the human or the demon, she is saying here, untouched and unexorcised by you.”

“Well, let's see how it goes.” The demon’s lips broke into a half-smile, and he raised his sword.

In another flurry of swinging arms and weapons, they charged at each other.

I didn't wait to find out who would win. I had no business with either of them. I wasn't letting the demon trap me to high ground, nor would I let the vampire claim me as a bride. There was nothing more insulting to me than to be a leech’s bride.

I watched them chase each other about the room, claws and sword swinging. I waited until both of them were so immersed in their fight, and I traced away immediately.