Nakos died, unconscious, with a forceful thrust to the back. Aridon then used demon touch to sever the dead man’s head from his body, fingers neatly slicing through like a sharp knife, and carried it by the hair to Dalius’ table.
He dropped the head carelessly on Dalius’ plate. Then leaned forward into the human man’s face.
“Know your place.” Aridon’s whisper might as well have been a shout. Only a child was heard as he cried in his mother’s arms. “You are currently under Contract, so I can’t touch you. But next time you speak out of turn, I’ll declare it breached and it’ll be your head. Is that understood?”
Dalius clenched his jaw.
“Yes, Master Aridon.”
Aridon turned and without another glance around, strode back to the entrance. Clophas, following closest behind him, paused only long enough to smirk at the room before leaving. Most of the other demon spectators also followed.
“Captain, get this cleaned up.”
Lita flinched with everyone else as Diana Veran broke the silence.
“Yes, Mistress.”
Diana jerked her chin and was the last demon to leave, letting the doorway curtain swish closed behind her.
Lita couldn’t move.
Her heart pounded in her ears and all she could see was the decapitated, mutilated corpse.
Abruptly, she twisted in her seat and threw up.
She’d eaten so little that not much came out but for a few minutes heaving was all she could do. A few others had the same reaction.
By the time she was done throwing up, Dalius had strode across the room and was looking down at the corpse, head in hand.
“Friends,” he said to the quiet. “This is what we have to look forward to. Long live the immortal demon.”
Bitterly, he knelt and gently placed the head next to the body.
For a moment, there was no reaction to the gruesome scene.
Then the people closest to the door realized they could no longer hear footsteps. That was all it took for them to bolt. That started a panicked rush for the kitchen doorway. No one wanted to go the same way as the demons, just in case any of them lingered.
Lita barely made it to a connecting hallway before she put her back against a wall and slid down it to cover her face against her knees.
***
Day One - Diana Veran - Plot continuation
It had to be done.
They couldn’t afford humans to be where they shouldn’t. To figure out things they shouldn’t. To step out of line.
There was too much at stake for that.
Still.
Diana closed her eyes. Feeling Lita’s trembling hands trying to work the knots out of Diana’s hair. Stupid girl. Stupid humans.
Maybe, just maybe, this stupid child would become wiser from the experience and Diana would no longer have to play games with the creature. Voids it!
She abruptly slammed a fist against the desk, scattering parchments to the floor.
Which scared the human and made her jump back and cower.
Lita’s scent, already reeking of stress and bile, turned sour with abrupt fear.
Voids it! Diana hadn’t meant to scare the creature. And it made her angry at the distress it caused her. Angry that she cared. Angry at the jumpy human.
Angry that her own dormant nightmares were hovering around the edges of her vision. Making her weak.
“Get out,” she snarled through her fangs.
Lita didn’t need to be told twice. Forgetting all etiquette, the girl stumbled toward the door and left quickly, letting it slam behind her.
Leaving Diana alone with her turmoil.
Diana covered her face with both clawed hands. Shaking.
Voids it! She was not a little imp or a formless element anymore. It seemed as she got older, and the more evolved and sentient she became, the more sensitive she became as well.
It made her want to rip someone’s throat out.
The Lord of the Void, the blasted god that had abandoned creatures like her to form and deform without direction, would’ve been her ideal choice. Aridon was her second.
She snarled.
She needed to do something. To relieve the stress and pressure pounding behind her eyes. Abruptly she stood up. The outside hallway, facing a row of windows, echoed as she slammed the door behind her.
She only paused once in her mad walk away from her room.
Once to look down the hallway that led to Aridon’s rooms.
She could smell Clophas’ scent mingled with Aridon’s, not fresh enough to have vacated Aridon’s sanctum yet.
Even if Aridon had been alone… She clenched her fists hard enough for claws to dig into her palms and drip blood.
Aridon.
Even if he’d been alone, she wouldn’t go to him like this.
He’d mock her weakness. Spit on her thoughts and rage at her softness. But if she could calm down before going to see him, get herself into the perfect mold he expected from her, he might act tender. Pull her into his arms and whisper the things a husband should speak to his wife.
Only then could she find comfort where she wanted it most.
She turned away from his hallway and made her way downstairs.
The training room was empty at this hour and the only light came from the skylights. Voids it! She needed to get a lighter to keep the lamp lit. It had been out for weeks now.
The old clock ticked as she walked to a wall of practice weaponry and pulled down a staff. Ready to beat the voids out of a dummy.
Distraction kept her from noticing other scents and sounds. About ten minutes into her mad training, she finally noticed someone was watching her.
“What is it, Captain?” she snarled. Keeping her back to him and wiping away angry tears. Had he noticed? No. He couldn’t have noticed. It was too dark.
Had she scared her favorite with her fangs and constantly forming and deforming appearance? Even in the dark it would be a strange sight. And humans were so weak like that. He had to be afraid. She took a sniff as she waited for a reply, the man pausing longer than necessary.
No. She smelt no fear. Good. Her shoulders unconsciously relaxed.
“Would you like a partner, Mistress?”
“You should be in bed.”
“Can’t sleep.”
The man walked to the rack and pulled down another staff. It brought him within her line of sight and she crouched further. Trying to hide in the shadows as he stepped onto the neighboring mat. And waited.
Deciding talk was useless, and that if the idiot human wanted to risk fright it was his funeral, she finally stood straight.
The clash of wooden weapons echoed through the room.
Every time the wooden poles hit each other it sent jolts through her body. And little by little, her riled-up emotions calmed. It became easier to keep her human form and tone down her demon strength.
Then the Captain made a mistake.
It resulted in Diana’s staff coming in full contact with his arm and there was an audible crack. Diana froze and the man gasped and dropped to one knee. To his credit, he didn’t drop the staff but she could smell his pain.
“Voids it!”
His face was the most easily accessible skin contact, so it was his cheek that she touched. Her own arm ached fiercely as she traded the break for her health.
“You didn’t need to do that, Mistress.”
“It’s already healing,” she snapped irritably. Which it was. She could feel the bone knitting itself together. “And I can’t afford my Captain to be injured.”
“Thank you, Mistress.”
He bowed his head to her.
“Go back to bed, Captain,” she snapped. Briskly she snatched his weapon away and walked over to the rack. “We have work in the morning.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
She left him kneeling respectfully where he’d dropped.
Feeling better, she climbed the flights to the bedchambers. Felt the cold spring breeze from the open windows.
And was pleased to smell that Clophas had vacated Aridon’s rooms at last.
Collected and calm, she walked down that corridor and knocked on the thin stone wall marked by a doorframe.
“Who is it?”
“Diana.”
Aridon’s voice was full of smiles as she heard him purr, “Come in, sweetheart.”
The stone wall of the doorway melted away when she demon touched it open then flowed back into place when she closed it behind her.
Aridon smiled and opened his arms to her.
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