Heart of Darkness

“I am sorry to interrupt this lovely moment. I was only excited to see that you have finally brought your wife to our world,” she spoke while approaching them slowly.

Angelica looked over at Rayven but he didn’t seem annoyed or bothered like her. There was clearly more to their relationship than what she knew. She would have to ask but for now, she would remain suspicious of this woman.

“I see you have told your wife everything and she isn’t very fond of me,” she smirked. “How sweet.”

Then she turned to Angelica, “don’t worry. I have enjoyed torturing your husband enough. Now I am enjoying seeing him change and more than anyone, I am the one who wants the best for both of you.”

Angelica looked at her for a long moment. It was hard to tell her intentions with that smirk on her face.

“I was thinking of staying here with Angelica for a few days. I hope that isn’t a problem.” Rayven said.

“Not at all. You both are welcome to stay as long as you need. I know you will have to return to the human world soon anyway so I am here to help you enjoy these few days as much as possible.”

Help them enjoy?

“Rayven doesn’t know much about the demon or the human world. He has lived in his own world for as long as I have known him. So you will probably need my help. Let me show you around first.”

She began to walk away as if she was sure they would follow and Rayven took her hand and followed her. Once they caught up with her, Lucrezia began to speak again. “Many humans come here when they are about to mate. They are often nervous because even if they want it they don’t know what exactly is going to happen and what it truly means. Many of us say that no one really knows what mating does except the ones that are mated.”

“Are you mated?” Angelica asked her.

Lucrezia smiled. “No. That means even I don’t know what it truly means. It is said to be something so deep that no words can be found to explain it. That being said, not all demons mate. Demons who have lived in the human world for a long time have adapted to the human culture and want to live like humans. They don’t want to wait until they find the one and want to have a partner to live with. So they find someone and decide to live together through marriage. Some of them have grown to have stronger feelings for each other and mate later and some just continue to live like that. It is not uncommon. Is that not right, Rayven?”

Angelica turned to Rayven, “yes. My parents never mated. They were only married.”

Lucrezia nodded. “The thing with marriage is, you can just do it. Mating is based on a strong foundation. They say two individuals become mates before mating and that is when mating works.”

Angelica nodded getting a better understanding. So demons could choose to mate or get married or they could do both. Was Lucrezia married perhaps? There was no way a stunning woman like her could be alone. Even though she was a female she couldn’t help but be mesmerized by her beauty, elegance, and even her voice was…she couldn’t find the right word.

As they walked away from the beach, Angelica began to hear voices from a distance.

“I will take you to our market. Our world is different but still very much like yours,” she said as she continued to lead the way.

They arrived at the market she spoke about. It was similar to the one in her world in many ways but still very different. She already noticed the strange things that lit up the shops and the road. It wasn’t candles.

Lucrezia smiled. “These are called lamps. They haven’t been invented yet in the human world. We are ahead in our world.”

Lamps?

“How do they work?” Angelica asked curiously.

Lucrezia chuckled. “Well, a simple way to explain it is that light is produced by heat.”

Angelica nodded even though she wasn’t sure how exactly that happened. In the market, she saw more demons but the place wasn’t as crowded as in the human world and the shops were larger. She couldn’t see shops that were made of tents. All of them were large rooms built of steady walls and she could see inside the shop because the outer wall was made of glass and inside was lit by large lamps that shone like the sun.

Some of the clothes were worn by statues that were placed near the glass walls or windows. Angelica had to admit that despite the simplicity of their clothes, they were still elegant. She found a beautiful olive green dress adorned with gleaming rhinestones around the chest.

“You have good taste,” Lucrezia said when she noticed her staring at the dress.

Angelica became startled when she suddenly found Rayven on the other side of the window. When did he leave her side?

“Seems like he is buying it for you. Now I am jealous,” she chuckled.

Jealous? Why?

Rayven spoke to a man. The man went to look for something and came back with a dress similar to the one worn by the statue. He folded it and put it in a bag. Rayven paid him and then came out of the shop.

“It will look good on you,” he told her as he came to her side and took her hand again.

Angelica blushed and looked up at him to thank him. Then they continued to walk around the market.

“I wonder if you had an ice cream yet, Rayven?” Lucrezia wondered.

Angelica found herself annoyed a little bit by how casually the woman spoke to him. As if they had spent the whole day together already.

He shook his head. “What is that?”

“Oh, you have missed a lot while suffering. I should have offered you some after burning you but it is not too late.”

Burning him? There was a mocking tone in her voice.

Lucrezia led them toward a shop where people were buying strangely shaped things that they later licked on. The bottom was shaped into a triangle and the top was shaped like a ball and people bought them in different colors.

Lucrezia bought them all in pink. “I like this taste the most. It tastes like strawberry.”

Both Angelica and Rayven looked at the thing in their hands before following Lucrezia’s lead on how to eat it. Angelica didn’t expect it to be so cold but it tasted sweet and like strawberry. She really liked the taste and once she finished the upper creamy part she ate the crunchy bottom which also tasted good.

Rayven didn’t enjoy it as much did. He finished his in a moment and was glad to have his hand free again. Lucrezia enjoyed hers as she showed them around. She took them to a few more shops. Rayven bought her whatever she laid her eyes on and liked. Beautiful bracelets and rings.

Angelica notices that both men and women wore thick bracelets or several ones around their upper arms. Rayven bought her one made of gold and put it around her arm. He didn’t listen when she told him it was enough and Lucrezia was on his side encouraging him to buy her more.

Angelica didn’t expect to see this side of Lucrezia. The cunning woman suddenly looked so friendly. They had only spent a short time together yet she made it feel as if they had known each other for a long time. She just had a way of speaking so confidently and comfortably that it made it easy to get along with her. Angelica felt both bad and stupid for easily enjoying this woman’s company.

“What do you think of these?” Lucrezia asked holding an earring next to her ear. “Does it look good on me?”

Angelica remembered the moments she used to go out and shop with her friends. She used to be so happy and missed those small precious moments.

She nodded with a smile. “It suits you well,” she said.

Lucrezia turned to the seller and bought the earrings for herself immediately. As she watched her, Angelica felt a void in her heart. She really missed having friends. She had tried to save her friendship with her friends but to no avail. It was lonely to have no friends at all. It was a different kind of relationship and when it was real, it brought so much warmth.

Suddenly she felt Rayven’s hand on her back giving her a light stroke. She turned to him and he looked at her softly. “Are you alright?”

She nodded with a smile, “yes.”

“Well, we have walked enough now. We should go eat.” Lucrezia told both of them.

Ignoring Rayven she came to walk beside her. “What do you like to eat, Angelica?” She asked her.

“Anything is fine,” Angelica said.

Lucrezia moved closer as if telling her a secret, “in these times you should eat food rich in certain nutrients. Like meat, spinach, liver, beans. It is good for blood loss. Well, that is what I learned at least.”

Angelica’s eyes widened. Did she know?

Lucrezia smiled as if answering her unspoken question. “We do know.”

We? ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

“It is normal to us. Nothing to whisper about or be shamed for.”

Angelica turned to Rayven and he gazed at her with a faint smile. He had known all his time but said nothing. He must have known it was hard for her to tell him and didn’t want to embarrass her. This was the second time he made her feel something more than what she usually felt for him. The first time was last night when he asked about her opinion regarding Constantine. She saw a glint of the kind of man she dreamed of marrying but knew she would never find. She had lowered her standard but never in her mind did the vision of her dream man disappear.

Rayven had been very good to her but she had never seen him as the man she dreamed of having. To her, that man didn’t exist. He was far away and she had given up on him a long time ago. This didn’t mean she didn’t like Rayven. She liked many things about him. She had been curious about him from the beginning, now worried and cared for him, felt comfortable around him and he even made her feel other things she never felt before. But she realized that she always compared him to men who were worse and to her he was much better than them.

Last night things changed. She had for the first time compared him to the man she dreamed of before the world shattered those dreams. And it wasn’t something she consciously did. It just happened.

Last night she had grown to respect him. Not the kind of respect that was required from a wife, but a respect that grew on its own, and at this moment that respect grew even more.

She smiled back at him before turning to Lucrezia who continued to speak, “I am taking you to my favorite place to eat.”

Angelica nodded.

Demons were beautiful creatures. All of them had striking features despite looking so different from each other. Angelica had already noticed that when she first met Skender and the other lords. Skender’s beauty was more striking than the rest. At first, she thought perhaps because he was polite and charming but now the more she watched Lucrezia the more similarities she found between her and Skender. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it but she felt like the beauty of these demons had more meaning than just being born that way.

The Lords has given her different feelings. It was as if she could place them on a scale. Skender would be first, followed by Vitale and then Acheron. Partly it was the looks as if the more striking they looked the more powerful they were. But it was also something about their aura.

As she walked around the market she got the same feeling. Walking past certain demons would give her more warning signals than others and some would catch her attention from far away.

Lucrezia was high up on the scale. Angelica could feel her powerful energy as she took them to what seemed to be an inn.

It was very bright inside, with many large chandeliers hanging from the roof. The chairs and tables were well decorated and the whole place smelled nice and looked very clean. Both men and women attended the place. Several couples sat at different tables and ate dinner or lunch. The time was still very confusing. But the place had a unique feel. There was calm music playing in the background. Sounds of instruments she had never heard before but it sounded good. In the middle of the table, there was a small vase with roses.

They went to sit at the table chosen by Lucrezia but she didn’t sit with them. “I’ll leave you two alone to enjoy the food,” she smiled. “We are having a party later. I hope you can come so I can introduce you to a few friends.”

Angelica looked over at Rayven to see what he thought of all this. “If Angelica wants to, I’ll bring her,” he said.

“I hope to see you later, Angelica.”

Angelica gave her a nod.

“Have a nice and romantic lunch,” she waved and then vanished.

Angelica became startled but then remembered that they were in the demon world. This would happen often here.

Rayven sighed. “She is too much,” he said picking up the book that lay in front of him on the table.

Angelica became curious and picked up the one in front of her. She opened it and found images of different dishes with something written beside it that she couldn’t read.

“That is demon language,” Rayven explained.

“Ah,” she nodded. She never thought so far and wondered if demons had their own language. It was only normal that they did.

“We know human language by reading human thoughts. But the language is only a little part of communication so we have to learn the human culture as well and that takes a little bit longer. Your culture is complicated. “

“I agree,” Angelica sighed.

Rayven stood up from his seat and came to sit next to her. He moved the chair closer so he could take a look at the book in her hand. He put his arm on the back of her chair and then leaned closer until her bare arm and shoulder brushed against his bare chest. Suddenly she became aware of his every movement as he lifted his hand and pointed at the dishes on the book. He explained to her each dish but all she could focus on was his hot breath near her ear, tickling her through her hair and his deep husky voice.

“So what do you want?” He asked his voice a soft brush against her skin.

Angelica’s heart skipped a beat. Why did she feel like he was asking something else? She turned to him and regretted it immediately when she found her face close to his. His lips curved into a knowing smile.

“There are other things you could want than food. Other things you would like to taste perhaps.”

Taste? Her gaze fell on his lips and then her breath caught in her throat. Rayven’s smile widened. “I was wondering if you perhaps wanted something to drink as well,” he explained.

“Huh?” now she was confused and he chuckled.

“What were you thinking?”

“Nothing!” She hurried to say and looked away. She let her hair fall over her face to cover her burning cheeks.

He grabbed the strands of hair she hid behind and removed them from her face before tucking them behind her ear. Then he let his fingers brush the side of her neck. “What am I supposed to do with you?” He mumbled.

She felt his other hand glide through her hair and touch her bare back. His thumb traced her shoulder blade sending a shiver down her spine. Angelica felt the air thicken but then the tension suddenly broke when he pulled away and went back to sit in his chair.

“Take your time to choose what you want to eat,” he told her.

Angelica blinked a few times and then looked down at the book in her hand. Her heart was still beating faster than it should and her eyes darted between the images. She only became confused by everything she had to choose from but also because she couldn’t think clearly yet.

“I can’t choose,” she said.

“How about the meat. It will be good for you.”

Angelica nodded. “Alright.”

A young male dressed fully dressed came to them and took their orders and then they were alone at the table again. Angelica looked around and watched the couples at the table, talking, laughing, holding each other’s hands, and being so absorbed in their own world.

“They are mates,” Rayven said.

“Can you just tell?” she asked.

“Mostly, but they both have a mating mark.”

Angelica looked swiftly at their necks and found a mark right between their neck and shoulder. She remembered what Lucrezia told her and became curious about the whole not finding “the one” part.

Rayven had said she was “the one” but he had existed long before her. She was born only twenty years ago.

“How do you know you found the one?” She asked him.

He became thoughtful. “It is just a feeling. I don’t think it is much different from humans. You meet someone and if they make an impression strong enough that you keep thinking about them and you recognize their voice and smell stronger than others then it means you have imprinted on them. That doesn’t necessarily mean you love them but it is the first step and what makes a demon pursue that person. Hopefully, those feelings grow into something more significant that can be tied with a mating bond.”

“Have you never imprinted on a woman before?”

He smiled looking down, “no.”

How could it be possible? He had lived for so long and never liked a woman? She knew liking someone and desiring them were different things. He had probably been with many desirable women. How many she didn’t want to think about considering his age. It wasn’t easy to wrap her head around it.

“I was too self-absorbed to notice anyone,” the smile didn’t reach his sad eyes.

“You noticed me,” she beamed at him.

He watched her in silence for a moment before he spoke, “you are extraordinary.”