Blood Tainted Rose

Prologue

    Blood trickled down Lotus’ arm as the General stared at her. Yasha stayed beside her so that nothing would happen to his sister. General Ichiro approached the siblings with his stern presence making it known.

    “Yasha do we have an agreement?” asked the demon expecting the right answer.

    The young boy was scared, worried about all of this. “We never agreed on anything!” exclaimed the teenage boy. “I didn’t agree to anything!”

    A low laugh escaped him as if he didn’t already agree. Yes it was true, but for a demon it was something foolish. “Exactly,” began the demon General. “You never agreed to my terms. I will offer it again. If you come with me your sister lives a long happy life. But if you don’t, everything you love and everything you know will be gone.”

    It would be treason to the humans if he sided with demons, but no human had any choice in the Neutral Grounds. In normal circumstances where a human willing decides to go with the demons is known as treason, but here it isn’t. Yasha had his sister to think about. Giving one last look at his older sister, the one that took care of him after their mother’s death, it was his time to take care of her. Taking a deep breath he kissed Lotus on the cheek like when he was young. “I’ll go,” Yasha agreed, tearing up at the thought of leaving his sister. “Just don’t hurt Lotus.”

     Gripping his hand Lotus refused to let go. “You don’t have to do this,” said Lotus. “I promised mother that—“

      Yasha releasing his hand from her already weak grip interrupted Lotus. “You would protect me,” Yasha said walking away from his sister. “But no one will protect you, but me.”

      Leaving his sister, Ichiro led him to a horse that was beside his own.

Clearly he already planned this or something. Once Yasha was on Ichiro whispered something to one of his men. Once Ichiro left with her brother the four men surrounded Lotus. Death. That’s what it was. They were going to execute her from the very beginning. That snake of a demon tricked Yasha from the very start. She could fight back if she had a sword, but with gushing blood it was out of the question. If dying here were the fate she had, it wouldn’t be so bad. Once people found her body she would be buried beside her dear departed mother. Family she had left would mourn her death. But Yasha, if he ever found out would be devastated.

     When their mother was alive Yasha’s whole world was his mother and sister. It was hard to lose his mother, but to lose his sister. Just as she was giving up hope about being saved by some mysterious force growls came from behind one of the guards. The man that was holding the sword turned around to see a brown wolf with red eyes. Suddenly without warning, the wolf attacked making the demon drop his blade to the ground. After the wolf tore some muscle, she attacked another one that wasn’t doing anything. Just standing there like a mannequin. Someone then came running in that direction holding the stolen blade in his hands. He jumped on one of the guards, cutting him with the stolen blade. He then broke the armor of the other one. Scared all four of them left the area before any further damage could be done. A minute later growls came from their direction with screams from the four demons. This strange boy that Lotus hadn’t seen before until now approached her. He came to aid Lotus, with the wolf behind him. Offering his hand she took it willingly. He was the thief that stole the sword! But he didn’t seem much like one. He seemed too well fed and cleaned up to steal. He to her was also too handsome. He had green eyes and black hair and was wearing black sleeveless muscle shirt that showed off his sculpted muscular arms. What caused him to steal that sword in the first place?

     “Let’s take a look at the wound,” said the strange boy. Inside the house he cleaned and bandaged up her arm. “My name is Ryker. Do you have a name?”