Chapter 3 III. Third meeting

Transylvania, 1694

Aidan

I was in my room, writing a letter to my lady, when a warrior comes bursting into the room.

"My prince..." he says, almost without a breath.

"What is the matter, warrior?"

"Demons... at the gates," he manages to say.

I jump from the chair, grab my sword, and run as fast as I to the gardens. Demons already broke the gates and warriors were fighting.

I grab my sword and join the fight. Demons are hard to kill because they are fast and very strong. But as a member of the royal family, I am different from ordinary werewolves. Additionally to shapeshifting into a wolf, I also have a beast inside of me. When I let the beast free, I grow stronger and faster.

I let the beast free and I feel how my body grows. It matches the speed and strength of a demon. When I let the beast loose, I let him take control, while I watch how the beast kills demon after demon.

I also get a glimpse of my father fighting, but I lose sight of him when more demons appear. I am not scared for him, because the Werewolf King is very strong. I have seen him kill many demons before.

Everything that I know about killing demons, I learned from my father.

The fight lasts for hours, more demons appearing to replace those killed. If demons won't stop appearing soon, they will kill all the werewolves from the castle. My beast keeps killing demon after demon. When I look around the gardens, I see them filled with more corpses than I can count, both from demons and werewolves.

It is almost dawn when I see my father on his knees in front of the Demon King. Is the biggest demon I have ever seen. Probably 2.5m (8'2) tall. Four tall horns stand proud on his head, his eyes as completely red, a crooked nose, and a big mouth with big fangs. Demons have a human appearance.

I see my father breathing ragged, bleeding from many wounds. My heart stops when the demon cuts my father's head.

"No! Father! No!"

The Demon King laughs. In my beast form, I run forward to where the demon is. I see him lifting my father's head in the air, and I let my beast take total control of me. I don't usually let the beast free like this, because when this happens I remember nothing.

I recover time later and I am surrounded by a mountain of dead demons, but no trace of the Demon King.

I run to look for my father's dead body. As soon as I find it I take it in my arms. And I cry.

"Father!"

The days that followed comes and go, and werewolves come to pay their respects to the greatest Werewolf King in the last two thousand years.

A week after my father's death, lady Charlotte comes to me. When I see her, I embrace her and cry on her shoulder.

We keep a month of mourning and all this time lady Charlotte is next to me.

After the month of mourning is over, I am crowned King.

It is thanks to my future Queen that I can perform my duty as the new Werewolf King. I never expected that at the age of twenty I will become the new Werewolf King.

"I am sorry that I have to make you wait, my lady," I tell her the night after my coronation. "I know I should tell everyone that you are my Queen and have the mating ceremony already, but I can't. Not until I kill the Demon King. I don't want to put you in danger."

"I understand, my King. I will wait for you as long as it takes," my lady says.

I bring her closer and kiss her. This is our second kiss.

"You are mine, and I am yours. In the morning I want you to leave for France."

"Before I go, I have to do something," she says.

"What do you need to do, my lady?"

"My mother was a powerful Elven oracle. She taught me a lot before she died. I want to put a shield spell on you, but I can do the spell only on a Crescent Moon."

"That is in three nights," I say.

"Yes. I will have readied everything I need by then."

On the third night, I go with lady Charlotte into an empty room. She draws a pentagram on the floor, adding elements unknown to me. She puts five candles, a white one, a black one, a blue one, a green one, and a red one, one at each point of the star, and lights them.

"My King, go stand in the middle."

I obey.

"I invoke the five elements: earth, fire, air, water, and void. I place a permanent shield spell on the Werewolf King, so no enemy of his can kill him. If his body is hurt he will regenerate during the night."

I expected to feel something different, but I don't.

"Come to me, my King," my lady says.

I obey.

"For the spell to work you have to kiss me," she says.

"This is something I will gladly do," I say, and kiss her.

During the kiss, something strange happens as I feel some sort of power entering my body. I break the kiss and look at lady Charlotte.

"What just happened?"

"I gave you a little magic of mine, to create a seal between you and the spell. Now nothing can break the spell."

I tuck a hair strand behind her left ear and hug her. When I release her, I see something strange behind her ear. I touch it.

"What is this, my lady?"

"Just a birthmark. My mother had one identical to mine, in the same place."

Her birthmark is a pink dragonfly.

In the morning I make sure she departs for France.

"Next time we met I will make you my Queen, " I tell her before she leaves.

And the same day I start my campaign against the Demon King.