Her Witch, Her Demon [WxW]
3. The Date

Nyx sat in the Seven Pearls Restaurant waiting for her date.

Nyx. She smiled at the nickname. Only Meredith had the guts to call her that. Then again, Meredith had no idea who Nyx really was. Well, the witch knew she was a demon. But that’s just about the only thing she knew. If she found out what Nyx really was, what would she do? Meredith had not taken too kindly upon learning that Nyx was a demon.

She was almost fifty, and in all those years, she had never thought she would actually find her fated one, her mate. The way her heart literally stopped beating for about five seconds the first time she laid her eyes on Meredith would forever be ingrained in her bones. Nyx sighed. The universe must be playing a cruel joke on her to be fated to a witch. A Huang witch no less.

But all hope wasn’t lost. Meredith hadn’t entirely rejected Nyx’s gift. Yes, the witch had come all the way to the Union to return the gift. But Nyx had turned things around. Using Meredith’s own words against her, she kissed Meredith until the sassy witch was too stunned to speak. Then she asked Meredith out on a date, and to Nyx’s surprise, Meredith accepted, albeit reluctantly.

So, here she was at the Seven Pearls Restaurant, waiting for the beautiful witch. It was half past seven. Meredith was supposed to be here thirty minutes ago. Did she decide not to come? Maybe the thought of going out with a demon finally disgusted her.

It was very difficult reading the woman. Sometimes Nyx could literally hear Meredith’s heart thumping so erratically. And just as she thought that Meredith was attracted to her, the witch would say things that were the exact opposite. Meredith had even said that she didn’t like Nyx at all. No woman had ever rejected Nyx. Then again, no woman had literally stopped her heart from beating.

Nyx narrowed her eyes as she looked at her watch. It was 7:45 pm. Through the glass windows, the massive city sprawled below in the distance. Meredith wasn’t coming. Had she really been stood up? She, Onixcasria, of all demons. T

here was indeed a first time for everything, as the humans often said. She just never thought that would apply to her. Then again, the person who stood her up was not ordinary. She was bound to be Nyx’s mate… the highest mate level, a fated one.

Now that Nyx had seen her fated one, thereby initiating the first fated bond, it would be impossible to get the woman out of her head. This was a whole level of fucked up. Why did she even have to meet Meredith in the first place?

When she built the Union, never once had she expected her fated one to come walking through the doors. Since that day, she hadn’t slept peacefully. The witch always found a way to show up in her dreams and Nyx would wake up panting and drenched in wetness. The longer it took to finalize the fated bond, the harder things would become for her.

How could she even think of taking things to that level when Meredith wasn’t even showing up for a simple date?

Nyx was about to stand up when she suddenly froze in place. Her heart raced like a winged horse at the mere sight of the small-framed beauty walking toward her.

Meredith wore a tight-fitting red dress that hugged her in all the right places. Her long black hair cascaded on one side of her neck and her red lipstick made her intense dark eyes stand out. No. Meredith’s eyes stood out no matter what. They were always so full of light.

It took Nyx a while to realize that Meredith was already in front of her, and another minute to realize she was still holding her breath.

Meredith’s eyes ran over Nyx from head to toe. The witch bit her lower lip. “Sorry, I’m late.”

No one ever dared to waste Nyx’s time. No one. Nyx had known Meredith for less than a week and the woman had broken every single one of her rules. Yet, Nyx didn’t care. Now she was slowly beginning to understand her parents. Except that Nyx was unlucky to be fated to a witch, one who might never feel the same way about her. Okay, she had to calm down. She was getting way ahead of herself.

She had promised herself to take things slow so as not to scare the witch away.

“You look stunning,” said Nyx. She pulled Meredith’s chair and the latter sat.

“You’re not mad?” asked Meredith.

“What for?”

The waiter came by with a menu.

“I almost stood you up,” said Meredith as soon as the waiter was gone. “I really had second thoughts.”

“You’re here now. That’s all that matters.” Nyx flashed her a smile before getting back to the menu. Honestly, thinking that Meredith had stood her up had upset her. But seeing Meredith’s presence had snuffed the rage right into the ether. “What will you have? Everything here is excellent.”

Meredith read the menu silently. With delicate fingers, she turned the pages ever so gently. Everything about this woman was refined and sophisticated. No wonder such gentle hands could produce such exquisite pieces of art.

Nyx gulped when Meredith suddenly looked up at her and flashed her white smile. This woman did things to her heart. Was this what it meant to have a fated one? It was unhealthy.

“Why don’t you order, instead?” said the witch. “Surprise me.”

Doing her best to appear calm on the surface, Nyx called the waiter and gave their order.

“Where’s everyone?” asked Meredith suddenly. She looked around the very empty restaurant.

Nyx smirked. “It’s just us here.”

Meredith tilted her head as if thinking deeply about something. “Did you… oh my god, Nyx. Did you book the entire floor?”

That actually made Nyx chuckle. Book the entire floor? She owned the goddamn building. There was no need to book anything. But of course, she didn’t say that out loud. Meredith was still not comfortable with Nyx’s lavish display of affection toward her. She’d have to take things slowly until Meredith was comfortable enough. She was a patient demon.

“It’s fine,” said Nyx. “I just want us to have some privacy.”

Meredith looked like she was going to say something, but then she simply sighed. Their food came in shortly and Meredith thanked the waiter with a smile. Nyx watched in fascination as Meredith ate without reservation. She had been worried the witch wouldn’t like seafood, but it seemed her worries were unfounded as Meredith didn’t mind going through the lobsters with the enthusiasm of a seal.

“What?” Meredith raised a brow, then gave a small smile. Nyx realized that she had yet to touch her own food and was just watching the witch in fascination.

She tried to change the subject. “You’re not wearing the bracelet.”

“I’m not.”

“Do you really not like it?”

Meredith wiped her mouth. “What’s it to you? Why did you send me something like that?”

“I told you,” said Nyx, “because I like you.”

“You sent a gift worth over a hundred thousand dollars to a woman you barely know because you like her? A witch no less?” She put her fork down, then gave Nyx a long hard look, as though looking right through her. “Come on, Nyx. What’s this about?”

How should she explain this to Meredith?

The witch might be someone Nyx barely knew, but Nyx was certain that she was her fated one. She just knew it, just as every royal demon would. But she didn’t want to scare the witch. If Meredith knew that the demon had marked her as her mate, she might just leave and want nothing to do with her. All Nyx could do was take things slowly.

“You don’t have to wear it,” said Nyx.

“My father scanned the bracelet with his vital energy,” said Meredith. “I’m surprised he didn’t sense demon energy within.”

Nyx hadn’t expected anything less from Charles Huang. The only reason that man had still not put two and two together was that everyone thought Onyx Castle, the owner of Castle Art Centre, was a human. It worked out for her too since no one could sense her demon energy because she was no ordinary demon.

“I didn’t make it with demoncraft.” In fact, she had gone to great lengths to avoid imbuing the bracelet with her demon energy. Meredith’s parents would have sensed it immediately. And while Nyx feared no one, she had to be careful where Meredith’s safety was involved.

“Oh,” said Meredith, “when you said you were into metal sculpting, I thought you used demoncraft.”

Nyx laughed. “Do you paint with witchcraft?”

“No. I…” Meredith paused. “Right.”

“Your father… what’s he like?”

Meredith’s father, Charles Huang, was a mechanical engineer and her mother, Andrea, was a nurse. They were both prominent witches in Green Front and they would hate Nyx because she was a demon. Nyx wasn’t surprised. Her family wouldn’t want Meredith either. Hell, most of them might even try to kill Meredith if they knew about her.

But she would never allow that. She would kill anyone who tried to harm Meredith in any way.

After talking so lovingly about her family and how she was an only child, Meredith finally asked Nyx if she had any siblings.

“I do,” said Nyx. “Too many of them, actually. But I’m the firstborn… kind of.”

“That must be a big deal.”

“It is.” She nodded. As the firstborn, a lot was expected from her on both her mother’s and father’s sides. That was why she left home in the first place.

Not wanting to reminisce painful memories, she changed the subject. She wanted to know more about Meredith. Not that she hadn’t done her homework about the woman, but she still wanted to hear Meredith talk. The witch’s soothing serene voice was like a salve to Nyx’s soul.

Just like Nyx knew, Meredith majored in graphic design at Calsward University and graduated a year ago. While she was in school, she got the chance to intern at UDex, the leading advertising company in Green Front. She was so good at what she did that they retained her as a full-time employee immediately after she graduated. Though she did a lot of her designs with computer software, Meredith enjoyed drawing and painting by hand.

Not wanting to hide things from Meredith, although she didn’t want the witch to know about her family yet, Nyx told Meredith how she started her businesses. This was something she could tell Meredith without holding back, after all, Nyx had not depended on her family’s fortune to start her businesses. Well, it did help that she was a powerful royal demon. She didn’t tell the witch that though.

Witches may hate demons in the general. But the most profound of that hatred was directed at royal demons. They were the scourge of the earth in the eyes of these witches.

“Wait, you’re forty-eight?” Meredith’s eyes widened when Nyx revealed that to her.

Nyx nodded with a smile.

“I mean, it makes sense that you look twenty because you’re a demon. But I was honestly expecting you to be past your hundreds or something because of the way you talk. You’re only forty-eight?”

“Past my hundreds?” Nyx gaped. Then she laughed heartily. “Do I sound that old?”

Meredith nodded. “And you’re also very strong. The older a demon, the stronger they are, right?”

“Indeed.” Though it wasn’t always that simple, especially where royal demons were involved. She had older siblings on her father’s side, all of them centuries older than she, yet none of them was as strong as she.

The more they talked, the easier it seemed for Meredith to open up to Nyx. Unlike their conversation in CAC, Meredith wasn’t holding back anymore. Maybe wooing the witch wouldn’t be so hard after all. As their conversation drifted to art, Nyx’s phone started ringing.

She frowned. Rexadan. What did that asshole want? She ignored the call and continued the conversation.

The idiot kept on calling. Twice. Three times. A fourth time.

“Maybe you should get it,” said Meredith. “It could be important.”

“It’s not.”

Then a message notification. It was from Rexadan. Nyx silently read the message: She must be one hell of a witch.

She clenched her jaws as her grip on her phone tightened. The phone crumpled like a piece of paper in her hand. Rexadan was spying on her. That impudent bastard. If he so much as thinks about hurting Meredith, he would be sorry.

“Hey,” Meredith said softly, touching Nyx’s hand, “where did you go? Everything alright?” The witch gazed at her with such concern that it was physically painful for her chest. This goddamn fated bond. The pain would only stop if they completed the bond through mating. Ah, now was not the time to think about this.

Rexadan had crawled out of the hole wherever he was, and he was spying on Nyx. Even worse, the goddamn demon was threatening Meredith. She must be one hell of a witch. Fucking hell. She couldn’t let that stand. She had to deal with it before it became a problem.

Nyx stood up and took Meredith’s hand. “It’s time to go.”

Meredith seemed a little surprised, but she didn’t protest. It was petty much the first time the witch had cooperated with her without arguing. Could Meredith tell she was fuming inside? Nyx was doing her best to keep her rage under control. Maybe she was failing at doing that.

Soon, they were outside the Seven Pearls and Nyx walked witch to Meredith’s car.

“When will I see you again?” asked Nyx. She still hadn’t let go of Meredith’s hand. “Or do I have to send you another gift?” She smirked.

“Nyx, I’m serious. No more expensive gifts.”

“Okay. From now on, only one-dollar gifts.”

Meredith laughed. Nyx tucked a strand of hair behind Meredith’s ear, and she could literally hear the witch’s heart beating faster and faster. If only Meredith could hear Nyx’s own heart too.

“Call me when you get home,” she whispered into Meredith’s ear.

The witch smiled. “I don’t think it will be possible to do that.”

Nyx raised a brow. Then she suddenly remembered that she had broken her phone in anger. Shit. “It’s fine. I’ll get one tonight.” Their faces were mere inches apart now. “Meredith, I need to know you’re safe. So call me, okay?”

Meredith paused for a while, not for a second taking her eyes off Nyx. Then slowly, she nodded. “Alright.”

Nyx kissed the woman on the forehead before helping her into the car. She stood silently for a while, watching the car speed away into the night. Slowly, the rage intoxicated her. She clenched her fist.

“Ezerix,” she called out softly.

A figure in a black cloak materialized out of the shadows and appeared right before Nyx on his knees. “Your highness.”

“Keep her safe. And be discreet about it. I don’t want Charles and Andrea finding out.”

“As you wish, your highness.” And then Ezerix was gone with the wind.

Now she would have to deal with Rexadan. If he knew what was best for him, he would stay the hell away from Meredith.

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