Her Witch, Her Demon [WxW]
14. The Abduction

Meredith absentmindedly traced circles on Nyx’s arm while gazing at the light blue skies. They were in Nyx’s garden, both of them lying on the grass, and Meredith resting her head on Nyx’s taut belly. The garden was almost as large as a small forest, with a blend of colorful plants, many of which Meredith had never heard of before. Nyx herself had grown this garden when she bought the house twelve years ago.

“Can you fly?” Meredith asked, suddenly curious about what else she didn’t know about her girlfriend.

“Not yet. But I can shapeshift.”

Meredith gaped, turning herself to look at Nyx. “You can shapeshift?”

Nyx nodded. “I don’t use that skill much though. I like the way I look.”

“I like the way you look too.” The words just came out without a thought.

Nyx grinned. “I know. I’m gorgeous.”

Meredith rolled her eyes but smiled. “Yeah. And so humble too.”

They both laughed heartily until they settled into a comfortable silence.

Meredith suddenly thought of something and she eased herself so close to Nyx that she could feel the demon’s warm breath on her face. “You said you can’t fly yet. Does it mean you will in the future?”

“Honestly, I don’t know,” said Nyx. “Digrons evolve every fifty years. For every evolution, I’ll either gain a new demonic skill or advance a skill I already have. Maybe the ability to fly will be one of these new skills. Maybe not.”

“I see.” If Nyx was forty-eight, then her first evolution would be taking place in two years. What kind of demonic skill would her girlfriend awaken?

Nyx had already explained to her that demonic skills were either unique or generic. Generic demonic skills were found in all demons, depending on their hierarchy or species. While all demons could conceal their nature regardless of hierarchy or species, only royal demons and some greater demons could teleport. Both concealment and teleportation were generic skills.

A unique demonic skill, however, was only unique to an individual demon and had nothing to do with their hierarchy or species. Almost every demon had at least one unique skill. Nyx had one too, and she called hers Ultimate Control.

“The simplest way to describe it,” Nyx had said, “is that I can use it to control anyone. But it’s not that simple either. It’s kind of hard to explain.”

Well, Meredith wasn’t surprised about that. Almost everything she’d been learning about demons ever since she met Nyx was nothing she had imagined. The more she learned, the more it blew her mind.

“I may not be able to fly,” said Nyx, running her fingers through Meredith’s hair, “but I can still take you wherever you want with teleportation. Is there anywhere you want to go right now? The Eiffel Tower? The Pyramids of Egypt? The Great Wall of China?” Nyx paused, a twinkle in her eyes. “Walmart?”

Meredith snickered, shaking her head.

“So, where do you want to go, my love? I’ll take you there right now.”

Meredith bit her lower lip, lost in thought. She’d never been to any of these places. Well, she’d been to China to visit her grandparents when she was thirteen. But she’d never been to the Great Wall. If she was visiting the place for the first time, then she would love to do it with Nyx.

There was just one problem though.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Nyx asked. “If you don’t like any of these places, I can just take you somewhere else. Wherever you want.”

Meredith couldn’t help but smile. Her demon was so in tune with her emotions. “It’s not that, Nyx. I just…” She shuddered upon recalling the discomfort she felt after Ezerix teleported her. “Teleportation feels... I don’t know. It feels weird on my body. I don’t like it.”

“Oh, right. It feels that way to humans and witches. But it only happens once. Your body gets used to it.”

“It does?”

Nyx nodded. “You won’t feel sick again, I promise. But, it’s still okay if you don’t want to teleport. We can always travel the world another way. I don’t have a plane. But I can buy one if you want.”

“What?” Meredith gaped. Yet Nyx looked every bit as serious. It didn’t even sound like she was bragging or anything. Just stating facts. “No need to buy a plane, Nyx.” Meredith sighed. “We can just teleport.”

Nyx’s smile widened, her eyes lighting up. “Yeah? So where do you want us to go?”

“Thorsten Museum,” said Meredith, “I’ve always dreamed of seeing the Heavenly Pearl.”

“It’s an amazing piece of art,” Nyx said. “Viggo was quite the master.”

“Yeah.” Meredith nodded. Growing up, she’d been intrigued by how Viggo Thorsten had been heavily influenced by ancient Chinese art. It gave Thorsten’s art a unique flavor compared to his contemporaries in the mid-seventeenth century. “Wait, Viggo?” Meredith raised a brow. “Nyx, did you know Thorsten personally?”

Nyx laughed heartily. “I’m forty-eight, my love. Not four hundred and eight.” Meredith grinned. Well, she had to ask. “Speaking of art,” said Nyx, “I have something to show you.”

“Really? What is it?”

“It’s a surprise and it’s right here in my house. How about I show it to you then we’ll go to Oslo later to see the Heavenly Pearl?”

Meredith stared intently at Nyx, hoping to figure out what the demon had in mind. But as usual, Nyx’s hazel eyes showed nothing. Meredith sighed, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“Alright, then,” she said. “I can’t wait to…”

And then she froze, goosebumps suddenly invading her skin. Strange magic which was neither witchcraft nor demoncraft, yet felt like both at the same time, wrapped around her like a heavy smog. It suffocated her to the point where she almost succumb to delirium.

Nyx must have sensed it too because she too was on her feet, clutching Meredith closely to her body, while glaring at nothing in particular. A soothing breeze washed over Meredith, and the pressure on her throat cleared like a mist. Nyx’s demon energy enveloped Meredith like a blanket, as Nyx held her firmly.

“What’s happening?” Meredith whispered to her girlfriend.

“I don’t know. But something is coming.” Touching Meredith’s forehead with the back of her palm, she asked, “Are you okay?”

Meredith nodded. She didn’t know how Nyx did it, but her demon energy seemed to have counteracted the effects of the strange magic in the air.

“I’ll get you to safety. Let’s go…”

Nyx barely finished talking when a circular red portal opened out of thin air and about a dozen people covered from head to toe in long black apparel walked out of it. Their aura dripped with so much darkness that Meredith’s vital energy crackled fiercely within her in defense despite being shrouded by Nyx’s protective demon energy.

Just before Meredith could harness her vital energy to fight back, a sharp pain tore through her head. She screamed, her knees shaking in agony. Then she fell to the ground, her energy completely drained.

“Meredith.” Seething in fury, Nyx lunged at the group. But together, they chanted a strange spell Meredith had never heard of before, and an enchanted circle appeared beneath Nyx’s feet. The demon couldn’t move outside the circle no matter how much she punched through the invisible walls around her.

What the hell? What kind of magic was so strong that it could trap someone like Nyx? The intruders chanted another incantation to which Nyx growled in anguish.

“No. Please stop,” Meredith cried. But she felt so utterly drained that her voice was barely above a whisper. “You’re hurting her.” This magic was just too powerful, way beyond her own. Yet, she couldn’t sit back and watch as these people tortured Nyx.

Why was she always so helpless? She was no ordinary person. Hell, she was no ordinary witch. She was a Huang witch, for fucks sake. Her ancestry was full of powerful witches that traced back thousands of years. Even if she sorely underutilized her potential and didn’t know enough spells, that didn’t mean she was weak.

She’d been practicing a lot now, and her vital energy, like a muscle, was getting stronger every day. She wouldn’t just cower as her lover got hurt. She had to do something. She would do something.

With every last bit of vital energy roaring within her, she chanted, “Axa ti nikla iri santi de ruk’a.”

Coughing fits racked up the attackers. Over and over, they coughed, blood oozing from their orifices, their breathing getting shallower by the second. The overwhelming energy pressing against Meredith slowly waned as the attackers grew weaker and weaker. Meredith struggled to her feet while at the same time keeping her vital energy working on the spell. But though the attackers were getting weaker, there were still far too many for Meredith to handle by herself. Like a candle against a cyclone, her vital energy slowly dimmed, draining her physical energy in effect.

Thankfully, her spell had weakened the attackers enough to break the enchantment circle around Nyx. No longer trapped, Nyx phased through the attackers like a dark specter, tearing out the heart of everyone. Heartless bodies dropped like flies before disintegrating into ash.

Just when Meredith thought everything was over as the last body disintegrated, a second portal opened and this time only one person stepped out. They wore the same black robes as the others. However, unlike the others, this person’s presence was so ridiculously strong that it pressed heavily against Meredith’s chest.

Yet she powered through, ready to cast a spell.

But the intruder raised their hand and balled their fist. The blood seemed to overflow in Meredith’s body, her heart pumping faster than normal. She held her chest and screamed. The ringing in her ears threatened to burst her eardrums and the pounding in her chest exploded her heart.

The last thing she saw before her well of vital energy dried up was Nyx being pulled into the portal by the attacker.

Meredith shielded her eyes from the sharp glint of the rays filtering through the windows. For a moment, everything felt right with the world, as if nothing would ever hurt her. Wait, no. This didn’t feel right.

She was supposed to be dead. She died. She was certain of that. As if to remind her of her place in the underworld, a sharp pain, like a dagger, tore through her chest. She cried out while gripping her chest.

“Mei Mei.” Warm hands wrapped around Meredith. Though everything was still blurry, she knew exactly who was holding her. These were the same arms she had felt safe in ever since she was a child. “It’s okay, Mei Mei. Baba is here,” he soothed her. “Your mother and I are both here. You’re safe now.”

“Baba.” She hugged him back tightly. “Baba…” Instead of words, she was overpowered by tears, while she violently shook in her father’s arms. Baba didn’t say anything, only holding her and keeping her safe. After what felt like hours, she finally pulled out of his embrace. The worry in his eyes was too much for Meredith to bear.

Her mother sat close to her bed, looking at her silently.

“Do you feel better?” Baba asked.

Meredith nodded. She felt like she just came back from the dead. But she felt more alive after crying. It was therapeutic.

But how were her parents even here? Where was here though? The familiar paintings on the walls, and the bed… wait, she was in her own room. Did her parents bring her here? But how?

She had not been to her parents’ house in weeks. While she’d moved into her own apartment, she often spent time with Nyx. Nyx. Wasn’t she with Nyx until... She gasped. “Baba, where’s she?”

“Who?” asked her dad.

“Nyx. My girlfriend. Where is she?” Meredith tried to bolt out of the bed. But her parents held her back. “She’s in danger.”

“Mei Mei, you need to calm down.”

“I need to find Nyx, Baba.” She shouted in frustration. “Those people… Someone took her. And, oh god, I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t…”

“Mei Mei,” her father took her shaking hands, “tell me everything. What happened?”

“I… It just happened so fast.”

Then she told her parents everything. From how she was talking to Nyx in the garden to when some people suddenly emerged from portals and attacked them. The last thing she saw before she passed was the attacker disappearing with Nyx through the portal.

“I don’t know who they were,” said Meredith. “I couldn’t tell if they were witches or demons. Their magic… it was so strange. It was neither witchcraft nor demoncraft but at the same time felt like both.”

“Hold on,” her mother said suddenly. “Their magic felt like both witchcraft and demoncraft at the same time?”

“Yeah. And at the same time, it didn’t. It was weird.”

Her parents exchanged glances.

“What is it?” Meredith asked. She’d been with these two long enough to know that something was up.

“Mei Mei, did you see their faces?”

“No, Baba. They wore long black robes with hoods hiding their faces.”

Baba stood up, rubbing his temples. “And did you see a symbol on their robes? Perhaps, a silver crescent?”

Meredith paused. “H-how did you know?”

“Shit. Crescentra magic.” Baba seemed to be hyperventilating while pacing the room. “This is bad, Andrea.”

“It can’t be,” said her mother. “It doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Didn’t we say the same about the Durug?”

Mama’s eyes widened. “My goodness, are those psychopaths really back?”

“If they took Onyx Castle then we have a much bigger problem, Andrea. Who knows what kind of sinister shit they’re planning now that they’ve abducted a royal demon? We have to do something. The Witch Council has to stop them.”

Meredith look back and forth between her parents as they discussed with each other in panic. It was like they had completely forgotten that she was in the room. What the hell were they even talking about? Who could have kidnapped Nyx that had got her parents so worked up? Crescentra magic? What the hell was that?

“Okay, are two going to tell me what’s going on? Do you know who took Nyx?”

Baba sighed. In his eyes, Meredith saw that the man was battling with himself about whether to tell Meredith about this.

“Baba.” Meredith’s frustration turned to anger. Why were they treating her like a kid? “You know what, if you won’t tell me, I’ll just go find the answers myself.” She stood. This time she wouldn’t let them stop her.

“They’re called Crescentra,” Baba suddenly said.

That made Meredith pause. “Cresentra?” She’d never heard of that.

Her father nodded. “It’s like the Durug. Except it’s the witch version.”

“They’re witches?” Meredith gaped. But their magic felt so... different. It was nothing like witchcraft. But also nothing like demoncraft. This was all too strange. What was going on? Meredith had felt the power of that magic. It was far more potent than any witchcraft. How was that even possible?

“Crescentra are extremists among witches,” said Mama. “They hate demons so much that they will go to any lengths to exterminate them. So they created a unique magic system that combines witchcraft and demoncraft to make them much stronger.”

“Cresentra magic?” Meredith asked and her mother nodded.

“But witches aren’t meant to wield demoncraft,” Mama added. “Eventually, it corrupts them. Though they’re far more powerful than the average witch and even as powerful as royal demons, it’s always at the cost of their humanity.”

Meredith gulped. Are these the type of deranged people that abducted Nyx? The pit in her stomach widened. “We need to find her, Baba. You found me, right? You can track Nyx, can’t you?”

Her father sighed. “Mei Mei, I only found you because your mother and I have put a one-life spell on you.”

“What?” Meredith gaped.

“Ever since we found out that you were seeing that demon,” said her mother, “we knew it was only a matter of time until someone targeted you. We knew that telling you to stay away from Nyx wouldn’t work. You’re too stubborn for that. So your father and I put a one-life spell on you. Clearly, we made the right call, Meredith.”

To think that they had been protecting her by casting a spell as costly as a one-life spell. The one-life spell directly drained the lifespan of whoever cast it. To protect her, her parents had used some of their life force to cast the one-life spell which granted Meredith immunity from certain death. Since the one-life spell linked the life force of the two parties, whoever chanted the spell could track down the one who had been spelled.

Meredith touched her chest as the fathom pain ripped through her. Her parents had saved her life. If not for the spell, she would be dead by now. She thought she had imagined the whole thing, but it seemed she had actually died.

That person… Crescentra had tried to kill her. They were witches, yet they didn’t care that she too was a witch. But if Crescentra resented demons, then it made sense that they would kill a witch sleeping with a demon. They were just as hateful as the Durug.

What were they doing to Nyx? What did they want with her? She needed to find her girlfriend. If she had to learn every tracking spell on Earth to find her girlfriend, then so be it.

“Mei Mei, what are you doing?” Her father asked when she began to leave.

“I’m going to find Nyx, Baba. Please don’t stop me.”

“We can’t stop you. But you need to rest. Your mother and I will track her down.”

Meredith paused for a moment, staring at her parents. “You will?”

“I don’t know what you see in that demon, Mei Mei, but obviously you really care about her. So yes, we’ll help you. But you need to sit, please. Your body is still healing, Mei Mei. You died, for god’s sake.”

Her father’s frustration held her back for a moment. All she’d been thinking about was Nyx’s safety and she had completely forgotten that her parents might be worrying about her safety too. Honestly, she thought they wanted nothing to do with her anymore. How wrong had she been? Not only were they worried sick about her, but they had sacrificed part of their lifespan to cast a one-life spell for her protection.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sitting on her bed. “I just… I’m so worried about Nyx. I don’t want to lose her, Baba. I can’t.”

Her father put a warm hand on her shoulder. She expected her mother to berate her for what she’d said, but the woman only watched her in silence, her dark eyes full of worry. She hated that she had made her parents worry so much. But the way they worried about her was the same way she worried about Nyx.

Could they at least not understand that?

“Onyx is a royal demon,” said Baba. “She’s strong. I’m sure she’ll be fine. But don’t worry. Your mother and I will try and find her. Alright?”

Meredith nodded. When her parents asked her for something belonging to Nyx so they could track her down, Meredith gave them Nyx’s bracelet. Well, technically it belonged to Meredith. But since Nyx had crafted it herself, the demon still shared a connection with the object.

In bated breath, she watched as her parents cast spell after spell. But after close to an hour, they looked at her in dejection. None of the spells worked, they told her. Crescentra magic was blocking their own magic. It made it impossible to trace Nyx, they said.

Meredith’s hands went numb. If two powerful elders like her parents couldn’t even track Nyx, then how was Meredith supposed to find her? This was bad. While it made sense that her parents could feign incompetence so didn’t find Nyx, she was certain they were speaking the truth. Since triggering the fated bond with Nyx, she’d always had the feeling that Nyx was close to her in both body and mind. It didn’t matter how far apart they were, she could always sense Nyx’s calm yet protective presence around her.

But something had changed after coming back from the dead. There was an emptiness in her mind and body she just couldn’t explain. It was like she’d lost a certain part of herself.

The implication of this feeling sent bile up her throat. No. It couldn’t be. She refused to believe that Nyx… Onixcasria… the daughter of Lucifer and Lilith, was dead. No. It couldn’t be.

No matter how scary Crescentra was, they were no match for Nyx. Meredith was certain of it. Nyx was a digron. Sure, she hadn’t evolved yet. But she was still a digron. Also, she had Ezerix and Baatrov. Those two would protect her in life-threatening situations.

But as logically as Meredith tried to handle the whole thing, it still did nothing to calm her down. Nyx was strong, yes. But their adversary wasn’t weak either. Perhaps, even stronger. That person had easily overpowered Nyx and killed Meredith at the same time with a mere raise of their hand.

If they couldn’t even do something as simple as finding Nyx’s location, how could they even hope to defeat Crescentra? Was there nothing she could do?

Is there no way she could defend against Crescentra magic? Magic that fused demoncraft with witchcraft. Meredith suddenly stopped pacing. Demoncraft. Crescentra magic was both witchcraft and demoncraft. And it was obviously more powerful than witchcraft.

If her parent’s witchcraft was not enough, then demoncraft might do the trick. Demoncraft might be potent enough to track down Nyx.

“Rexadan,” Meredith muttered. And in that instant, she was filled with hope. She emptied her handbag, tossing aside the things inside.

“What are you looking for, Mei Mei?”

“My phone.”

Her dad paused for a moment, put his hand in his pocket, and fished out her phone.

Meredith heaved a huge sigh of relief. Quickly, she scrolled through her contacts and found Rexadan’s number. When she called Nyx’s brother, he picked up on the first ring.

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