Free Burden to Bear by Amira Rain

harder.
    Finally, in the early afternoon, he reached his grandfather’s estate.  At the gate, he yelled into the intercom, “Grandfather, come help me!  Sarah’s been hurt.”
    He was quickly emitted through the gate, and when he pulled the Ferrari up at the big house, his grandfather was already waiting outside to assist.
    Grandfather was in his early eighties, but still a very strong and agile man.  Like Douglas, he was tall, gargantuan, and hairy.  He jerked open the car door as soon as Douglas braked to a stop, and lifted Sarah easily. 
    “The healer is waiting,” he explained as he immediately made his way to one of the cottages nearby.
    Douglas jogged behind him.
    The healer was already preparing a cot for Sarah when they walked in.
    “Welcome,” she said as Douglas and Grandfather entered.  “Please lay her on this cot.”
    Grandfather laid Sarah down gently, and the healer began to arrange herbs and flowers around Sarah’s unconscious body.
    Douglas observed her.  She was a tall, thin, older woman with long gray hair.  She wore an old-fashioned dress of some sort of floral print.  He could not detect anything supernatural about his woman.  Did she have the power to heal Sarah?  She looked like someone’s crazy old aunt.
    He looked up at his grandfather questioningly.  Grandfather nodded reassuringly and put a finger to his lips. 
    The healer hummed a gentle folk melody and examined the punctures on Sarah’s chest where Wilson’s fangs had entered her.
    “It did this quickly,” she murmured.  “Usually, they are more careful than this.”
    She strode over to a counter and pulled a few jars from a cabinet above it.  She turned to Douglas, her wrinkled face serene.  “Describe the creature that fed from her.”
    Douglas gulped.  “Reptilian.  I think it was a snake demon.  But it was not a shifter, so it never shifted.  It used magic to put her under this spell. It even smelled like dark magic. It carried her to its home, pushed out some fangs, and started to feed from her.”
    He suddenly remembered the ghastly sticky liquid inside the demons.  “Oh, yes.  It had no real blood.  Just some shiny pink liquid.  I think it was drinking her life force.”
    The healer nodded. 
    Douglas added.  “There were two of them.  One was old, I think.  When I killed it, its blood was gray.”
    The healer grabbed an old book from under the counter.  She shoved it at Grandfather.  While Grandfather was paging through it, she took herbs from various jars and ground them with a mortar.  Then she added a few spoonfuls of black paste from another jar.  She mixed these together.  Then she carefully applied the concoction to the puncture wounds on Sarah’s chest. 
    “Ah- ha!” Grandfather exclaimed.  The healer and Douglas walked over to where he was seated and looked at the page where he was pointing.  There was a drawing of two snake demons.  They looked just like Wilson and that other creature who had been living with him. 
    Grandfather started reading.  “Snake demons choose to live in pairs.  An older snake demon will choose a younger snake demon to be its mate.  The younger snake demon hunts for human prey, brings it back to the lair, and copulates with it.  Then the two feed on the life force from the human.  The human then dies,” he finished solemnly.
    “You stopped him just in time,” the healer said to Douglas.  “Did it copulate with her?”
    “No!” shouted Douglas. 
    The healer looked at him in amusement.  “He must have known you would try to stop him.  He didn’t follow their normal rituals.  That’s another reason she is still alive.  Usually, they both feed together, after the younger has copulated.  Then the two demons copulate.”
    Douglas shivered.  “You mean those two things were mates?  Yuck!”
    “You’re lucky you are alive, too,” said the healer.  “They are pretty powerful beings.”
    The healer had Douglas and Grandfather lift