"I'm a fucking what?"
"A Druid. You're a denizen of a race that went extinct two thousand years ago. The best way to describe them is the total opposite of demons in every aspect, physical and mental."
I shook my head and closed my eyes. This was so much worse than I thought it was this morning. I wasn't even fucking HUMAN.
Just as I started to feel tears gathering behind my eyes, I felt his warm arms wrap around me.
"shhh, it's okay. We don't have to finish now, I can tell you the rest later."
"No," I said, pulling away and wiping my eyes, "No, just tell me now, I need to hear this. Just rip the bandaid off, Dark. I'm not as porcelain as my skin is now."
He nodded slowly after a moment and continued.
"Like I said, a Druid is in every aspect the opposite of a Demons. Your hair and skin, for example," he said, taking my hand and looking down to where our skin touched," are lighter. You even look less tainted."
"Druids are also female. Every Demon that has ever existed has been a male, and there are no records of any Druids that weren't female. And, like Demons, no one knows exaclt how they come to be. They just are."
He put one hand on my shoulder and one on my cheek, his thumb stroking back and forth as I looked up at him.
"They aren't built for hunting and fighting like Demons. Their mental powers are still extremely potent, but not near as brutal and designed for pain. They are kind-natured souls, feeding on primarily joy instead of fear. But the most important difference of all..."
His hands slid down my arms to grip my hands lightly.
"They can feel. Demons feel little to no emotion, and certainly not the compassion and love that Druids are prone to. But as fundamentally different as our are, they were incredibly important to each other before the Druids died out."
I looked up into his bloody gaze curiously.
"What's so special about Demons and Druids?"
"Druids are also empaths, which means that they can impress their emotions on individuals near them, whether consciously or unconsciously. When you put the two of us together, opposites that we are, you essentially get two parts of a whole. light and shadow, goodness and depravity."
I blinked.
"Druids and Demons used to exist in equal numbers, probably for this reason. We would often pair up with one Druid that mutually agreed to be our mate. I never had one, but I heard that the experience was..." He laid his forehead against mine and closed his eyes, trailing off.
"Some believe that the reason Druids began to die off was because of Anjali-Apeksha, the Druid that bound us to the humans nearly ten thousand years ago. Allegedly, she fell in love with a human who was later murdered by a jealous Demon who wanted her as a mate. So she decided that she would bind us to our prey; the perfect humiliation."
I pulled back and looked at him, causing him to open his eyes.
"So you're saying that I'm making you feel emotion? I can do that?"
"Yes," he said simply.
"You are the very last of your kind; I can't believe my ridiculous luck for having stumbled upon you. But now...I'm never letting you go."
My eyes widened. "What...I'm not... You want me to be..."
He nodded.
"My mate."
"The High Council recognizes Councilman Mikhail Icarod of the Vesuvian Clan. We bid you state your case."
At the speaker's announcement, Mikhail stepped forward before the twenty five denizens of the High Council. Looking up at each of their faces, many of whom he'd known all his life, his expression was even more grim than usual.
"The Demon known as Dark has the Druid."
His statement was met with gasps and mutters as the weight of his words fell over the room.
"And how did this come to pass?" The Head Consul asked.
"He spirited her away while I was too weak to resist him. She had been wearing the warding ring, but he's formed a bond with her, right under our noses. I was careless."
The council grew more agitated.
"And if he joins with her? If he gets past the barriers? What then, Reaper?" someone asked, "you could have doomed us all!"
The head consul raised a hand.
"Peace! Mikhail has never failed us before. He will remedy his mistake."
She then addressed Mikhail directly. "Mikhail Icarod, your task should be obvious. Find the Druid girl and bring her into custody; it has become much too dangerous to continue our attempt to hide her in plain sight. You have stood watch over our asset for twenty years; it's time to bring the vessel in."
Mikhail inclined his head. "Mission received. Has there been any word on the missing Host and Councilman?"
The Circle Chamber fell silent.
"Dead. They were found seventeen hours ago with evidence that suggests a Demon's involvement."
The Reaper hung his head. Yulaas and Yoseff had been his companions since childhood. That much, at least, had not been a facade.
"I see. Very well. I will find and retrieve the vessel as bid by the White King and his Council. For the resistance and the light."
"For the resistance and the light," the Council echoed.
"Adjourned."