The Demon's Soul

As we traveled I kept glancing every few minutes at Marc who was sleeping soundly now in the backseat of the car. The wound on his arm was nowhere to be healing as infected skin turned greenish brown in color.

"You need to get some rest. You didn’t get enough sleep last night," Luke said looking at me as he drove.

"I’m worried about him," I said softly before taking my eyes away from my friend, "How much longer until we reach the kingdom?" I asked him.

"Less than an hour," he replied. We were going to the witch-kingdom where Elvis was because he was the only one whom I knew could cure Marc’s spreading infection and stop him from transforming, "I hope you know what you’re doing Lillian. By elongating his existence your only going to cause him more pain," he said.

"Sometimes hope is the only thing you can rely upon," I said with a weak smile and saw him smile a little at my words.

As the sky filled with light colors we finally reached our destination. When we got inside my parents were surprised to see Marc with us but when I explained the situation, their face paled. Luke had called Canrart here the previous night to talk about the crossbreeds. Canrart was trying to figure how the crossbreeds crossed over to the human dimension while Elvis sat there quietly analyzing my friend from his seat. Once we were done talking, Elvis took Marc with him to the examination room.

It had been almost two hours now since the time we reached the Presaxil kingdom and Marc was kept under the witch kings observation. I was now standing alone outside one of the balconies of the huge mansion. A bird flew to the nearest branch and settled there chirping contently. I looked at it for few seconds before moving my eyes ahead of me at the vast green forest.

"Lilly," I heard someone call me and I turned to see Canrart coming to stand next to me, "What are you doing here? Picking the corner most open space of this mansion," he asked me tilting his head with a smile and I shook my head.

"It’s nice and quiet here," I replied to which he nodded. It was peaceful here, yet so unsettling in my heart.

"That it is. Can you tell the trees that adorn the forest are millions of years old with spirit energy," he said looking at the forest, having a far look as he spoke about it.

"What do you mean by spirit energy?" I asked him curiously.

"Though we find it bullshit but the people here worship it like Gods, calling them spirit Gods," Canrart explained, "They say when the supernatural creatures die, their remains are buried there and the leftover energy is fed by the trees."

"That’s like a creepy graveyard," I commented wearily to which he chuckled.

"Actually worst than a creepy graveyard. You know when-" he was saying when dad arrived looking for us.

"Lilly honey, Elvis is asking for your presence in his study and Canrart," he said looking at the vampire with a pointed look, "You were supposed to get your arm checked and prepare for the crowning."

"Yeah yeah. There’s not much to do because everything’s prepared and we are waiting for the final consent," Canrart replied swishing his hand like it was no big deal and as he left he turned back to me and said, "Three is a good time if you want to witness," I looked at him confused to what he was talking about.

When I went to the study, Luke, Elvis, and Marc were already present there talking about Marc’s bite. Marc looked tired and his skin had lost it’s color, turning it to a paler complexion. What happened in the examination room?

"Lilly, take a seat," Elvis spoke politely, gesturing his hand towards one of the empty seats. It felt like I was going to hear something I didn’t want to but I knew the truth was always a harsh reality and I had to brace myself to whatever Elvis, the witch king had to say. Luke had a neutral expression which just added to my worries to what was going to be said. I took a seat next to Marc who smiled at me brightly despite his current condition.

"I looked at Marc’s bite and injected him with our fresh potions just an hour ago. Could you take a look at his arms," the witch king asked me and I turned towards Marc who pulled the loose sleeve of his shirt up, exposing a skin that looked like it had scales and looked way worse than the last time I saw.

"What did you do to him?" I asked shocked and worried, "Last time I checked it wasn’t this bad."

"Calm down, Lillian," Luke said to me who was leaning his back on the wall, "Elvis injected him with a potion that only reacts with the high resistant crossbreeds, which means your friend was attacked by the leader of the crossbreeds," he said.

"Crossbreeds have leaders?" I asked flabbergasted, "You mean like alpha, beta?"

"No, Lilly," Elvis replied, "Crossbreeds don’t follow the law but to lead a group of them, they have leaders. As you may have heard, crossbreeds don’t possess intelligence the way we do. They are animals who only know to hunt and kill. Normally when the leader of the crossbreed attacks, it goes for the kill, therefore making no survivor of it. But here as you can see Marc was clawed and the venom running in his veins is just going to worsen everything. As Luke killed the crossbreeds, the remaining ones are going to start hunting in search of their master."

"Loyal, aren’t they," Luke chuckled to which Elvis sent a little glare.

"Only if you could keep your savage side in control this wouldn’t be the problem right now," Elvis accused Luke.

"And what? Let us as an offering for their night snack?" Luke rolled his eyes, "I’m sure they wouldn’t go back happy if we asked them to and they would have loved to have my head off with the rest."

"I’m grateful you saved us," I heard Marc say next to me.

"Stop bloating his ego, boy," Elvis snapped at him, who shrunk back into his seat, "He turning to a crossbreed is not the only problem anymore. Like I said the other underlying crossbreeds are going to search their leader and as the leader is already dead with his essence left behind on Marc they will come here for him. That’s before they realize and kill him with others."

"Shit," Marc and I cursed together after hearing it.

"Can’t you take the venom out before they come? If the venom is out they won’t come after him right?" I asked Elvis and Marc nodded.

"Then let’s kill the boy and have a happy ending with the crossbreeds," Luke offered suddenly void of any emotion and Marc’s eyes had gone wide with fear.