Chapter Text
Douma was twirling her in his arms, her heart full at the joy she felt. They were at a festival, a song inviting couples to dance going on. Kotoha laughs, enjoying her time with her fiancé.
“My Kotoha-Chan is so beautiful.” His eyes were bright and smiled wide looking at her with such love. He brings her towards him, kissing her. Kotoha had closed her eyes.
But when she opened them again, she is pulling back violently, her blood pumped full with fear.
Her fiancé had the lower half of his face stained crimson, his eyes once again donning kanji she can’t read. His eyes glow as his smile seems to be more sinister compare to before, canines on display. She tries to escape his embrace but claws dig into her arms. Pain is coursing through her. Drool is escaping between his fangs at her struggling to get away from him.
“My bride looks delicious.” The demon declares, his smile open to show how sharp his teeth are.
Terror makes her freeze when fangs flash and those rainbow eyes are only filled with lust for her flesh.
—
Kotoha jerks wake as the store owner opens his shop. He looks her way and pity is shown in his eyes. The man had been hosting her for a few days in exchange for her doing some cleaning.
Kotoha uncurls herself from the wall, eyes still red from crying and getting little sleep last night. Exhaustion is building and so that means it’s time to move on.
Three weeks, three weeks, and a handful of days since she learned the truth. She had been traveling in the opposite direction they had been going. Wandering from town to town. The first few days were in a daze but now with caution.
Kotoha was lost.
She couldn’t go back to the entertainment district. There wasn’t a reason to. But that would probably be the first place Douma looks for her.
Her immediate family is gone and she has no one to go to.
Who would believe a wanderer about demons?
Tears prick her eyes again.
She hates this terror that is in her. Making her limbs feel like lead and her blood cold. Shadows spooked her and made her only move during the day, becoming immobile once night falls.
Douma… That demon fed her lies.
Her heart clenched thinking about the memories they had shared for the few months they were together. The intimate moments that Douma made clear he desired her. Smiling at her with bright colorful eyes that should have shown his true intentions.
“My Kotoha-Chan! My dear! My bride!”
He had only been after her flesh.
She sniffs and she uses her sleeve to clean her eyes. Shakingly she gets up and bows to the store owner,giving her thanks, before leaving.
The next town was a day away and she would need to leave now before anything else happened.
—
She was alive, he knows it. The humming in his soul was no mistake. It was Kotoha, his songbird that had fled her perch on his shoulder.
Douma was tracking his bride. It was odd how he could do it but he can.
It was the blood he had been giving her in his bite marks. But only when she was under high stress.
He would move only during the night, heading in the direction he had last felt her only to get a new feeling in another place.
He’ll have her back. Douma will have his Kotoha back.
He viciously bites into the victim he had hunted down, the female dying with a whimper. His first bite ends with a frown, the taste being lackluster. Douma was seeking something else.
He wants her blood again. Douma craves her presence again.
—
Kotoha had fallen in the forest, spraining her ankle and now the sun was going down.
Her heart pounded in her chest, tears pricking at her eyes.
He would find her she just knows it. Then she would be devoured for knowing his secret.
The forest came alive with wildlife. So loud in her ears, the intensity getting worse and worse.
—
Rainbow eyes look to the north of his current position. His heart jumped and his smile was quick to form on his face.
Yes, he can feel her fear and she was within reach.
Douma was gone from the area, blood staining the walls of the house he had slaughtered.
His Kotoha was such a fearful woman but she wouldn’t need to worry once she was back in his arms.
He’ll hide her away from the world. They would have their wedding under the pale moonlight, becoming husband and wife. She would be the matriarch of his cult. Douma would worship her like the goddess she was. He would be able to listen to his songbird sing once more.
Saliva escapes his jaws as he purrs in his chest.
He'll be able to taste her again.
His speed increased on that thought.
—
The nightlife had gone silent and that's when her goosebumps rose.
Her heartbeat was so loud her ears it was near deafening. She whips around at the sound of a stick snapping. A pressure of fear fills her being.
Douma
But no, it wasn't him when she spots red eyes looking at her and a bass cackle comes forward.
The demon lunges at her and she is ducking. Adrenaline fills her, the pain numbed as she continues to dodge. Claws swipe at her and she winces as one strike meets her side. Blood hits a tree and her back meets the trunk. Her breathing is out of control.
"Haaaaheeheehee! You smell delicious !" The demon now in the moment was a feral-looking thing. Unrefined compared to what Douma had been when he first came to her.
Thinking about the demon caused her to freeze.
The demon saw this and lung once more, intending on digging his fangs into her flesh.
Only for pressure like no other fall on him as his hand was about to wrap around her throat. He had only recently been turned into a demon and knew this feeling as something similar to his master's curse.
A flash of rainbow eyes in his mind and he is stumping back, the woman collapsing as her legs failed her.
No way, she was claimed by Upper Moon Two?
The demon shakes his head, thirst for blood driving him mad.
If she was wandering around then she was free game. His superior had missed his chance to devour her.
The demon bares his fangs in a snarl once again and goes for the attack once more.
Only to be stopped short before he ran straight into a buff chest.
"Oi, Oi, that was unflashy of you! Treating a beauty like her with no respect!" A smile was on the man's face that looked at him with no regard to his nature.
He scoffs and sharpens his claws.
"Mind your-"
His head falls off after a delay in registration.
Tengen is proud of himself. He dealt with the problem with flamboyance flare and still had time to go back to his mansion where his wives were making dinner.
Oh, wait!
He looks to his back and the woman is staring back at him, eyes wide and tears still pricking, ready to fall.
Kakushi were always so slow, not they would come considering this was an unreported demon activity. Besides,it's best not to leave her by herself.
Before Kotoha could respond to her savior, he was already carrying her over his shoulder and he was dashing away from the scene.
For once, since she discovered demons existing to eat humans, her heart settled. Kotoha relaxed in the grip , watching the quickly changing landscape, taking her away to safety.
--
The demon was fuming as he took a long time to die.
She would have been a fulfilling meal! If only that slayer didn't kill him!
He tenses up with what was left of his head as it was picked up. The demon was tossed up to be readjusted in the grip. His eyes were wide and he was shaking with the remaining body he had.
Rainbow eyes study him as the head tilts with a stretched smile on display.
"Oh, it was YOU I was sensing." The demon was brought closer and he gulps. He was begging to die faster.
Douma laughs as he feels the head squirm. Then his claws were digging into the demon.
"You were trying to eat my bride! I think you deserve a different death!" The demon screams as he is frozen over, encased in ice that Douma marvels at.
Maybe he should have his ice art on display at their ceremony. Kotoha would probably like that, the art temporary once the sun rises to melt it away.
Kotoha...
He sniffs, her scent already fading but something was here.
Douma tosses the frozen remains, the demon still conscious but would die slower till the sun reaches his skin.
His nose was twitching and drool leaves his jaws when he finds it.
A blood splash on the bark of a tree.
His finger scoops it up and he brings it to his tongue.
Shivers go down his spine and he can't help but moan, a blush forming on his cheeks as his blood hummed at the familiar favor.
Yes, his Kotoha was delicious.