I couldn't stop myself from grabbing his arm after the news.
"Please, I have five siblings, I'll become your prisoner if you set my father free."
The way his smile grew made me wonder if he baited me into saying those words. He leaned down and wrapped his arms around me to lift me. The movement surprised me and I wrapped my arms around his shoulders.
"I will show you your father before setting him free and I expect you to keep your promise."
He took me to the dungeons and set me on the ground in front of the only closed door. I reached out and opened the small flap that was normally used to give prisoners food.
"Father are you there?" I asked while dreading the worse.
"Briar? Is that you? You must run away before the lord finds you here!"
"I have already found him and he has traded his life for yours," Dmitri said behind me as he snapped his fingers.
Small imp servants appeared and started to open the cell door.
"Briar, my dear son, why would you do that?"
I gave him the keys to Kate's motorbike as the servants helped him out.
"Goodbye, father."
I had to cover my ears to hide the screams of my father begging Dmitri to stop the trade. I grabbed the wall, as soon as it was over, to pull myself up. He wasn't kidding about the chew toy part, it was hard for me to get up and Dimitri started walking away from me.
"Since I'm your prisoner, is there anything I'm supposed to do?"
"No. You're broken."
I tried to ignore those words as he walked away faster.
'I guess I should explore this place since I'm stuck here.' I thought as he walked out of my view.
The first room I found was a giant library, then the kitchen, dining room, a workshop, and finally a room that just had a glass rose. Something caused me to walk into the room because the whole area felt depressed to me. I walked over to the rose and reached out to touch it.
"So mournfully beautiful." I heard myself whisper before loud crashes started to come closer.
I backed away from the rose as Dimitri came storming in.
"HOW DARE YOU!"
He grabbed my wrist and I could feel the claws digging into me.
"Let me go! I am not some girl you can just boss around!" I told him while trying to pull out of his grip.
He lifted me off the ground and threw me out of the room. All of my breath came out with the force of me hitting the wall.
"Never go in there again." I heard him say as I started to see spots. "You are small as a girl."
Those last words echoed in my head as the darkness took me. As I started to wake up, something in my gut told me to keep my eyes closed.
"Sir, you need to be more careful with your temper. He is human, and humans can break in many ways." I heard a growl next to my head. "What did I just tell you about your temper? How was he supposed to know to not touch the rose? Did you tell him?" The growls stopped. "I thought so."
I heard footsteps leaving the room and I opened my eyes. There was a man, which looked about the age of my father, with wings and a tail standing at the edge of the bed.
"I see that you are awake! I was worried that my master might have killed you. What is your name young one?"
"Briar, could you tell me why he almost killed me?" I asked the butler.
I saw a flash of sadness in his eyes as I sat up.
"Please don't judge my master for what happened to you. The rose is very important to him because it is part of his curse, and if it breaks, he dies. So, please don't touch it ever again." I nodded my head at the words. "Dinner will be ready in a half-hour. Is there anything I can get you?"
"Could you point me to the workshop? I saw one earlier."
"Sure, let me help you up first."
I heard laughter by the doorway. Dimitri was leaning on the doorway with his hand covering his mouth.
"Aw, does the little girl need help?"
I got so mad at him calling me a girl, that I threw the nearest object at him, which happens to be the bedside table. He avoided the flying projectile while running away laughing. I noticed that the butler was trying to hide his laughter. After he stopped, he helped me to the workshop.
"I will come by later to let you know when dinner is ready."
"Thank you," I told him as he walked out.
I saw a woodblock and some wood carving tools. I started zoning out as I remembered the years when I was younger. Before father got the accounting job, he used to spend time with all of us and I remember when I used to watch him work on beautiful wood carvings.
'I wonder if I will ever get to see him again.'
I felt a tear slip down the side of my face as I worked. A hand reached out in the corner of my vision and wiped the tear away. I quickly moved away from the hand, and I saw that it was Dmitri that did it.
"What are you doing?!"
I watched as his tail twitched while he licked my tear off of his finger.
"You were crying, why?"
"Because I was thinking of my father."
I saw his right eyebrow raise and it looked like it almost touched his horn.
"If you were thinking of your father, then why did you make that?"
He pointed at my wood carving and I was astonished by it. It was a statue of Dmitri with his wings out as if he was angry, but the eyes looked so sad. I wasn't paying attention to what I was making but it surprised me with all the details I put into it.
"I didn't even think about what I was making until now."
'I swear one of these days, I'm going to smack that smirk off his face.'
"So, part of you was thinking of me."
I picked up a piece of unused wood and threw it at him. He was caught by surprise and I got him right between the eyes. After he was still looking shocked, I got worried about his temper and I thought he was going to hit me. He started to smile and laugh after a few seconds.
"You have a good arm! I thought you had to aim like a girl!"
"I am not a girl!"
"Briar! Dinner is ready!" The butler said before walking into the room. "My Lord! I did not expect to see you here! Please follow me to the dining room." He bowed before walking away.
****
The whole month of living with the demons was rough with his temper but there were also times where he was sweet. Later, I found out the butler's name was Francis and he could hide the demon features to go out to the nearby cities. I learned that fact after I got in trouble for Dimitri yelling at me when I kept on poking his cheek while saying I was bored. Francis came back from getting food with two small packages, inside them were two game systems so we can play games against each other.
I was trying to sleep, but the light from the full moon kept on shining in my face. Out of nowhere, I heard strange howling nearby my room. I got up and grabbed a candle to see with. I like using candles when I read in bed because it felt more natural and the bulbs hurt my eyes after a while. I carefully opened the door and followed the sounds of the howls down the hall, to the room with the rose.
'Curiosity killed the cat.' The reasonable part of my brain whispered to me as I reached for the doorknob.
I opened the door to a frightful sight. Most of the furniture was ripped apart except for the stand that held the rose. I heard the howls again and I looked up at the window, I thought my heart stopped at the sight. A large beast that looked completely unnatural with bent wings, a body that looked like a mix of man a beast, and horns that looked longer than my arm. When it howled at the moonlight, it sounded so sad and something compelled me to walk towards it. I didn't realize that I was crying until one of the tears hit the flame and caused a spark to hit me.
"Ow!" I hissed out before dropping the candle.
The beast turned towards me and I started to back away from it as it walked towards me.