Violet Light

Tat tat tat.

From one of the manor’s numerous windows, a noise like a psychotic moth ramming into the glass outside interrupted the silence of the night, disturbing the rest of the sleeper inside.

“Mmm…” a voice moaned from the four-poster bed that was situated against the center of the back wall.

Tat tat tat tat!

The glass of the window rattled in its frame as the nose persisted, this time a little more urgently than the last. 

“What is it…?” a muffled woman’s voice groaned. She had hardly gotten the words out of her mouth before she was suddenly interrupted once more by the noise, this time sounding much more frantic.

TATTATTATTATTAT!

“For the love of all things above and below, what?” the woman finally cried out in frustration, tossing the blankets away from her body and stomping out of bed. The milky moonlight that seeped through the clouds bounced off of her light skin and silky nightgown, making it appear as if she were glowing in the night as she approached the window. Slinging back the half-drawn curtains, she found herself scowling into a pair of wide, glowing purple eyes. 

“Z-Ziron?” the woman stuttered out in surprise as she recognized the handsome face on the opposite side of the glass. 

“Cora, I need you to open up,” he said, speaking calmly, but his mannerisms were clearly panicked as he placed a hand against the glass and looked back over his shoulder nervously. 

“Where’d that damned demon go?” a furious voice shouted off in the distance.

“Preferably now, if you don’t mind, love,” he then said, turning his attention back to her. 

“O-of course,” Cora said quickly, fumbling with the window as she unlocked it and slid it open. Just as she was stepping out of the way, another distant voice called out,

“I think I see ‘im up ahead! This way, this way!”

“Shit!” Ziron said through clenched teeth as he tumbled onto the carpeted floor of the room, slamming the window shut and tugging Cora down with him out of sight. 

“Hey—!” she began to protest before Ziron placed a slender hand over her mouth, shaking his head.

“Shhh…” he whispered into her ear as he held her tightly against his body, his chest heaving with heavy breaths and perspiration soaking through his clothes. The glow of torchlight suddenly filled the room as the owners of the distant voices got nearer, and Cora could feel Ziron tense around her.

“I don’t see ‘im, Ulysses! This’s just Birdwell’s Manor!”

“Well, shit, I coulda sworn I saw ‘im up perched on that there window…”

“Pro’lly just a tree branch ‘r somethin’ messin’ with ya in the dark. Now keep yer voice down before those rich catdaddies wake up and blame us for trespassin’ ‘r somethin’!”

The voices and the torchlight eventually faded away, and Ziron finally released Cora from his suffocating grip, exhaling a sigh of relief as he relaxed on the floor. 

“Thank you, Great Lord Garzonas, they’re gone…” he said breathlessly, closing his eyes. Cora sat up on her knees and looked down at him, running a hand through her mess of dark curls.

“What in the name of the Seven Realms is going on? What have you done this time? Why are you being chased?” she demanded. 

“It’s good to see you, too, love,” Ziron chuckled softly before delving into a coughing fit. Cora’s scowl softened into a frown of concern, and she slowly raised one of her hands near him. Suddenly, flames as purple as Ziron’s eyes burst to life in her palm, the flickering tongues licking her fingers as they bounced around in place. The flames drove back the darkness that had shrouded the room and instead filled it with a gentle violet light. There, Cora could clearly see Ziron laying on the floor before her, writhing in pain. His long indigo hair was sprawled around his head, obscuring his ears from view with the exception of the protruding pointed tips, and he was clenching one of his sides with a look of agony plastered on his face.

“Ziron!” Cora gasped, shocked to see him in such a state. “What-what happened?”

“Well,” he grunted as she helped him sit up against the wall. “You know how I’m from the Third Realm, right?”

“Yes…” she replied, glancing up at him skeptically as she began to gently pry his hand away from his side. A thick, dark liquid coated his palm and had soaked through the black fabric of his shirt, making it glisten in the light. Blood. Lots of blood.

“And, as you know, every Realm is controlled by its own respected ruler… The Third Realm being ruled by Her Majesty Empress Slo’viti… The great… wonderful… Empress… Slo’viti...”

“Ziron, I know this stuff already,” Cora replied as she began to tug back his shirt to gauge the severity of his wound. “I devoted the past twelve years of my life learning about the demon realms so I knew what I was getting involved in with the day I decided I wanted to summon one of your kind. I feel like you’re trying to avoid the question.”

“Oh, no, quite the contrary, sweet flower—Ah, Fuck! By my tail, are you trying to kill me, woman?” Ziron cried out, shrinking away from Cora’s touch.

“Sorry!” she exclaimed, giving him an apologetic look. She had managed to move the drenched fabric of his shirt away from his skin to reveal a grotesque gash gaping on his left side. He hissed and pounded his fist against the floor, muttering a string of indecipherable profanities before eventually regaining his composure. 

“Right, right…” he said, breathing heavily. Large beads of sweat stood out prominently against his light grey skin, and a miserable expression had formed on his face. Lifting his beautiful purple eyes to look at Cora, he gave her a weak smile and raised a hand so that his fingers could graze her cheek. 

“Long story short... Empress Slo’viti isn’t... as wonderful and great… as she claims to be…” 

“The Empress did this to you?” Cora exclaimed indignantly as she carefully worked the rest of his shirt off of his torso and waded it up against the wound to prevent it from bleeding out more. “That bitch! I’ll kill her for that! Why’d she do it?”

“Oh, you humans… such violent little creatures when it comes to things you’re passionate about… That’s one reason I find you so fascinating...” Ziron chuckled, giving her an affectionate look. Cora blushed and waved her free hand dismissively with an embarrassed smile.

“Just answer the question, Z…”

Ziron smirked and bowed his head. “Of course, my lady… Essentially, the Empress does not approve of relationships between humans and our kind. She would rather we kept our interactions strictly to the kind of business deals that you originally summoned me for; an exchange of some sort on your end for access to a magical power source from our end. So, when she found out that I was making more frequent visits to the Human Realm than I should be, she got suspicious and did some investigating. She discovered the reason I was continually sneaking away was to see you, and, of course, she was none too pleased to learn about that… So she banished me and gave me this lovely marking as a reminder to never return…”

While Ziron was speaking, Cora had cleaned his wound up as best as she could with his wadded-up shirt and had asked him to lay back down. He did so obligingly, keeping a steady eye on her the entire time. She tossed aside his now thoroughly soaked shirt and looked down at him.

“I’m going to stop you right there,” she said, grabbing one of his hands. “This is going to hurt like there’s no tomorrow, and I need you to be as quiet as you possibly can be. We don’t want to wake my father…”

“Ah, fuck your father,” Ziron scoffed, grinning. “But what are you planning on doing—oh.”

Ziron stopped talking as he noticed her flaming hand inching closer to his injury, and he took a deep breath, bracing himself. Pursing her lips together, Cora pressed her palm against his wound and closed her eyes. The sickening noise of burning flesh and the repulsive smell that followed was enough to make her gag, yet she remained unwaveringly in place. 

Ziron sucked in a harsh breath before thrashing around in pain, curses spilling from his lips at an alarming rate.

“Hey, Z, it’s alright, hold on… Just a little longer…” Cora said softly, squeezing his hand in reassurance. She had reopened her eyes at this point and was gazing down at him with all the calm and patience of a cat stalking its prey. 

“A little bit longer and I might do something regretful…” Ziron grunted through his gritted teeth as he continued to squirm restlessly in place. More beads of sweat had appeared along his hairline, rolling down his temples, and his grip on Cora’s hand felt like an iron clasp. 

“Oh, yeah?” she asked coquettishly, arching an eyebrow and smirking down at him. “Like what, exactly?”

Ziron let out a harsh laugh, panting heavily as he managed to turn his gaze up to her lovely face. “Keep your hand there a little longer and you’ll soon see, flower…”

“Mm, I think I like those odds…” she replied, leaning closer to him with a ghost of a smile dancing upon her lips. If she could just hold his attention for a few seconds longer, he would be alright in no time, she reasoned. Ziron’s eyes locked onto hers and his thrashing limbs immediately began to slow down. He was still breathing in hard, jagged pants, but he seemed to hyper-focus on Cora and Cora alone. 

Suddenly, the purple flame ignited in Cora’s hand faded away, briefly plunging them back into darkness before a soft violet glow replaced it. Ziron shuddered in relief as the gentle light stretched across the expanse of his body and sank into his skin. 

“There you are, good as new. Sorta,” Cora said as she removed her palm and leaned back to observe her handiwork. A thin white scar stood out against Ziron’s skin where his wound had been, but overall, it appeared to be well-healed. 

Moving with the agility and gracefulness of someone who had never been injured a day in his life, Ziron was suddenly on his feet and had swept Cora into his arms. Despite being a relatively slight and agile fellow, he still towered above her in height, shrouding her with his body. She stood there in his embrace, shocked by his sudden movements, as he pressed his lips against her neck and whispered,

“Thank you… I don’t know how I managed to live so long without you… Why didn’t you decide to summon a demon sooner?”

Cora chuckled and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck, grinning up at him. “Because I didn’t know I needed one at the time…”

“Well, I’m certainly pleased that you came to your senses,” Ziron grinned, his sharp canines flashing in the moonlight. Cora felt something snake around her leg and she suddenly realized it was Ziron’s tail pulling her closer to him. 

“What are you doing?” she asked calmly despite her racing heart.

“Come with me,” Ziron replied. He was so close that his breath tickled her face, making her blush again. “To another realm. I’m obviously not safe here in your world, and I know that you hate being pent up here with your father.”

Cora suddenly scowled and looked away, her toes curling with frustration. “I’m not pent up. I’m imprisoned. He has me imprisoned in this damn house! I can hardly step foot into town, let alone the garden!”

Ziron chuckled before twirling her around as if they were dancing. “Oh, how ironic! Me, a demon, come to rescue the beautiful maiden from a crazy man! Don’t you just love a good plot twist, Cora, dear?”

Cora laughed as he spun her back over to him, the skirt of her nightgown flaring out around her legs. Once she was back at his side and he had an arm securely around her hip, Ziron snapped his long fingers, and a deep purple portal appeared before them.

“Ready to be spirited away, my love?” he asked, kissing the top of her head. Cora grinned and nodded, adrenaline racing through her body. Finally, she could leave this place! The place that drove her to take up the Dark Arts in the first place. Perhaps she shouldn’t be too angry with it, as it resulted in her meeting Ziron, after all, but the problem for her wasn’t so much the place as it was her father. A fat, rich, overprotective, selfish, wealthy old man that she despised with her every fiber of being. 

Just as Ziron was helping her into the portal, Cora’s bedroom door was suddenly slammed open, revealing a round, heaving man dressed in silk pajamas.

“What in the blazing hells?” he exclaimed, his panting breaths causing his white mustache to flutter above his upper lip. “Cora—!”

Before the man could even finish his sentence, Ziron had spun around, hissing animalistically, as he lunged towards the man with unnatural speed. He lashed out, gripping the man beneath the folds of his neck, and slammed him roughly against the wall so that cracks appeared through the plaster.

“Hello, Pops,” he snarled, grinning maliciously and glaring at him with wild eyes. “Mind if I call you that? Pops? Doesn’t really matter as I have full intentions of making your daughter my bride eventually. How does that sound? Having a demon for a son-in-law? All of high society would just love that, wouldn’t they?”

The man’s face at this point was as red as a cherry and was slowly turning purple with a lack of oxygen. His small, beady eyes widened as he stared at Ziron and he began to frantically splutter, struggling to speak.

“O-over my dead b-body…” he finally managed to wheeze out, feebly grabbing Ziron’s strong arm. Ziron sighed and shook his head in a disappointed manner.

“You really have to come up with something more creative, Birdwell,” he sighed. “Do you know how many people I’ve killed who have had that as their last words? Too many. But if you insist, it is something that I can easily arrange.”

The man’s eyes flickered fearfully over to his daughter, and he opened and closed his mouth, gasping for air. “Cora…”

“What do you say, Cora, love? Should I honor your father’s request?” Ziron asked, looking back at her over his shoulder. Cora maintained a cold, expressionless face as she gazed back at her father heartlessly.

“I could care less,” she seethed. “Do as you please.”

“Gladly!” he exclaimed before turning his attention back to her father and frowning. “Oh, dear, it appears that we might’ve waited a tad too long…”

As Ziron peered into the man’s face, he noticed how limp he had become and how his small eyes had glazed over, looking blank and lifeless. 

“Leave him. Let’s just go,” Cora said dismissively, turning back to the portal.

“As you wish,” Ziron shrugged with a grin as he dropped her father to the floor with a sickening thunk. He then glided back over to Cora, sweeping her up into his arms from behind. She let out a yelp of surprise before giggling and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Did you mean what you said?” she then asked meekly, peering up at him as if she were a little girl asking for a treat. Ziron looked down at her and flashed a charming smile.

“About making you my bride? Every word, love. Just you wait until we arrive in this new realm. You’re going to love everything about it.”

“I can’t wait,” she replied, nestling her head into the crook of his neck. With that, they entered the portal, only to have it close silently behind them, leaving the manor utterly lifeless as if nothing ever happened.