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It takes Abram two days to find Yves after Riko snatches him out of Hell. Yves wakes up hurting and cursing the human body he’s been stuffed into, just like he’s been doing for the past 48 hours. But this time, instead of just bruising, he feels clawed fingers running through his hair. He can’t help the way his lips curve into a smile, even when it pulls at his split lip.
“Yves. My Yves, what have you gotten yourself into this time?”
He cracks his swollen eyes open. Red hair falls in a curtain around his face, tickling the skin along his cheeks and neck. The face of the other half of his soul stares back, blue eyes deep and shadowed. Abram’s human body is bare—he’s never had a great grasp on human modesty—raised scar tissue twisting over golden skin.
He imagines Riko finding a naked stranger in bed with the demon he’d made his pet. His laugh makes his ribs scream in protest.
“Took you long enough,” he rasps out. Natanyel huffs an irritated breath, leaning away from Yves’s prone form. He’s sitting on the bed next to Yves, his long hair pooling in his lap as he scans the cuts and bruises covering Yves’s body.
“I found you a day ago.” Ah. “I was thinking of ripping the spare’s rotting soul apart before I realized what you’d done.” Ah.
“Abram,” he murmurs quietly.
“Why would you do this?” Yves hates the tremble in his partner's voice. “Yves, I do not understand—”
“He is Kaiylee’s son.”
Abram blinks, a tiny furrow appearing between his auburn brows. Yves waits, remembering how hard it is to recall human names when you haven’t roamed their world for a long time. Abram inhales sharply his expression clearing.
“Dies Lucis.”
The Day of Light. The first of humankind to succeed in making a deal with a demon without dying in the first twenty-four hours. The first to earn their respect. The woman who’d taught them human tongues and human life.
Abram is glaring at him.
“Sentimental fool.”
“I could not allow the Moriyama spare to break her son like they did her.”
Abram scoffs at him and leaps from the bed to pace the dorm room like a caged animal.
“So you decide to make a Deal with that— that—abomination—!”
“Nothing you say will change what I did, Natenyel.”
“You shouldn’t have done it in the first place!” he roars. His forehead splits around the two black horns that burst free in response to his rage, his eyes burst into blue flame like distant stars, and white tusks tear through the skin of his cheeks.
He reaches out with shaky hands and brushes Yves’s hair back from his forehead. “Don’t you know that I can’t leave you here?” Yves grabs his wrists, pressing his thumbs into Abram’s pulse points.
“You are not leaving me, my soul,” he says gently. “I am asking you to let me stay here so I can save the parum sol.”
Clawed thumbs brush over the purple skin below his eyes. “You can’t ask me to do that.”
“I can, and I am.”
“Yves—”
“Were you lying all those years ago when you told me you’d never deny me anything you had the power to give me?”
Abram’s expression shudders, grief and resignation washing over him.
“I’ve never lied to you,” Abram says, just like Yves knew he would. Yves’s little liar has never quite managed his signature party trick with the one being who knew him inside and out. His eyes die down to something closer to human as he shoves Yves back, a disgusted curl to his lip. “You’re such a pain in my ass, I should have left you in the ether and never looked back.”
Yves lets the momentum take him back to the mattress, blinking lazily as Abram sits beside him again, his thigh pressing into Yves’s stomach. For a long moment, he just stares at Yves.
“You knew I wouldn’t care about her son.” Yves nods. “And you knew that if Riko trapped you here, I would do everything I could to tear him apart.”
Yves feels his own tusks begin to bite into his cheeks as a manic grin tugs at his mouth.
He nods.
⋅───⊱༺ ♰ ༻⊰───⋅
“This is the stupidest thing we’ve ever done.”
Kevin opens his eyes to glare at Aaron, no doubt breaking his concentration in… whatever he’s trying to do.
Andrew doesn’t know anything about summoning demons, and Kevin hadn’t bothered to explain it. Even with all the monsters of shadows Riko has sent after Kevin this year, Andrew still isn’t sure he believes in magic. He supposes the circle of occult symbols and scribbled Latin, written in chalk soaked by Kevin’s own blood, might do the trick. If it works.
“Just shut up and let me do the talking when he shows up,” Kevin snaps, lighting the final candle of the circle; the flickering firelight is the only thing illuminating the dark dorm room. He snaps the old, silver lighter closed, pressing a kiss to the cold metal absentmindedly, like it's part of the ritual. Andrew knows it's just because it was once his mother’s.
Kevin walks to the south side of the circle and sits down, his legs criss-crossed and wrists resting lightly on his knees. The candlelight reflects gold off the black symbol painted on his forehead.
“For protection,” he said as he painted it on each of their foreheads with stained black fingertips. “He probably won’t kill you… but just in case.”
Now, Kevin gestures to them.
“Sit down.”
Aaron glances at Andrew, and they lock eyes. Aaron sighs and takes his place on the west side. Nicky groans, face twisted with nerves as he hops from foot to foot before settling on the east side.
“This is how horror movies start, guys! We’re the stupid college kids at the beginning of every ghost movie that fuck shit up for everyone else,” he rambles.
Kevin ignores him, green eyes flashing gold as he looks to Andrew. Andrew sighs deeply and pushes off the wall that he’s been leaning against since Kevin started his ritual.
He sits on the north side.
Kevin nods, half to them and half to himself, before he raises his arms and begins to chant. Andrew doesn’t understand the words, and Kevin assured them that they didn’t need to. Andrew watches him and waits. They all feel it when the air… shifts. The shadows seem to lean closer, the candles doing nothing to cut through their black depths.
“Now!” Kevin hisses between chants, and they lift their arms with him. Andrew would feel ridiculous, moving his arms through the fluid movements above his head, even with how strangely graceful they are, if it weren’t for the way the shadows poured into the center of the circle like slick oil. It takes him a moment to realize his lips are moving. He speaks the words with the same ease as Kevin, though he still hasn’t got an inkling of what is being said.
The candles go out, and a hush falls over the room. Andrew can hear his heartbeat in his ears. They are not alone.
I was beginning to think you forgot how to cast.
The lights flare blue, bathing the creature in the center of the circle in their eerie light. Nicky screams.
The thing in the center of the circle is tall, tall enough that it has to hunch over to fit in their dorm, its shaggy red coat flattened to its body by the ceiling. It is canine, at least most of it seems to be, its body and face shaped like a starved coyote, down to the protruding ribs and long, thin snout. But its limbs are… wrong. They are stretched out and too human for Andrew’s taste, the fingers long and nimble and ending in jagged talons. Its legs are crossed beneath its giant body, mimicking Kevin’s stance. Elegant horns curve over its head, nestled against long, pointed ears. It’s the eyes that make the hair on the back of Andrew’s neck stand on end. They bulge strangely from its face, wet and black. They are accompanied by a wide, permanent grin with thick tusks on its upper and lower jaws. A long prehensile tongue flicks out to lick its chops as it turns to Nicky, silencing his shrieking with one look.
“Natanyel,” Kevin says, his voice quiet in the darkness. The demon turns back to him, its head cocked at an unsettling angle.
Ah, yes… that is what you called me. You and the… spare.
Kevin closes his eyes.
“Riko.”
An inhuman giggle echoes through the room, but the Natenyel’s mouth never opens. It hasn’t opened at all, Andrew realizes; wherever the demon’s voice is coming from, it's not its mouth.
Yes. Riko. I apologise, your human language can be so… forgettable.
Kevin opens his eyes and glances around the circle, at Nicky’s trembling form and Aaron’s unnatural stillness. He hesitates.
“You’re scaring them.”
Another bone-chilling laugh.
Perhaps they should be scared. You have brought something you don’t understand into their home. A large talon extends to scratch a line through the chalk circle on the ground. The chalk circle it’s not supposed to be able to touch. With a faulty protection circle.
Kevin's eyes go wide, and then confused, and then wide again.
“Your father.”
Its grin widens, the skin around its mouth splitting with a wet snap. Nicky makes a gagging noise.
Is dead, yes. I am the Butchering now.
“What the hell does that mean?” Andrew snaps at the look of awe on Kevin’s face. The demon’s head twists around its neck so it can see Andrew, the popping sound it makes almost enough to have Andrew grimacing.
“Natanyel,” Kevin says, voice a little softer this time. “You’re scaring them.”
There’s a pause and then a long sigh.
Fine.
The sound of cracking bones fills the room as the demon’s body seems to cave in on itself, a rip forming down the fur on its spine as its skin… falls off. It slides off the demon with surprising smoothness, disappearing into the liquid darkness.
There is a man sitting in the center of the circle.
He’s short. Andrew can tell, even when he's sitting down. His hair flashes red beneath the overhead lights, silky red curls sliding over bare, freckled shoulders as he leans over his crossed legs. Andrew’s breath catches as he follows the knobs of his spine with his eyes, down to the dimples of his lower back. The man makes a soft humming sound and rolls his shoulders, shadows lifting from the ground to cover his bare body in sheer black silk. He turns his head, and Andrew catches sight of glowing blue eyes and long lashes casting dark shadows on perfect cheekbones.
The man, Natanyel, raises his hands, inadvertently showing off the black claws adorning his slender fingers. “How’s this, parum sol? Human enough for you?” he asks, voice a low purr.
Kevin wrinkles his nose. “At least you conjured clothes this time.” Nicky makes a strange choking noise at that. “You still look like him.” This Kevin adds quietly, against his better judgment, by the way he grimaces.
“And you still don’t know when to keep your fucking mouth shut,” Natanyel bites back, a snarl in his voice. “Now tell me what you want before I decide that I’m done with you and this charming little family of three you’ve dragged into your bullshit.”
Kevin swallows thickly.
“Natanyel, I didn’t mean… I didn’t want to leave him— Yves—”
Natanyel’s hand snaps out to fist in the front of Kevin’s shirt, dragging into the circle so the demon is snarling in his face. His cheeks tearing open to show his tusks.
“Don’t. Say. That. Name.” The voice that comes from his mouth is inhuman, a deep growl that shakes the very air. “You have no right!”
Andrew jumps to his feet, hands going to his sheaths where Renee’s holy knives rest. Nicky and even Aaron pop up as well, hovering at the edges of the circle as they eye the twisting shadows around Natanyel.
“I don’t know why he even gave you that name. It’s not like you’ve done anything to deserve it, no matter what your mother ever did for us.”
Kevin flinches, his eyes squeezing shut for a moment as he breathes shakily. He lifts his hands to grip the demon’s wrist.
“... I don’t know why Yv— Jean, did what he did, but I think… I think I can fix it.”
“Do not lie to me!”
“The Deal! Yve— Jean made a Deal for my soul, not just my life. Riko promised to release my soul to Jean himself at the time of my death, rather than keep it in Moriyama possession for the rest of my afterlife.”
The demon stills and cocks his head to the side, red curls swinging forward as they slip off his shoulders. He slowly places Kevin back on solid ground, earning a shaky sigh of relief from Nicky. “No mortal may own another’s soul; it is against the rules of your very nature.”
Kevin watches him with solemn green eyes. “You’ve been gone from this world for a long time. Kengo found a way.”
Natanyel sets his jaw and growls out something vicious and surely disparaging in Latin. Kevin clears his throat and continues, leaning closer toward the demon with an eagerness that has Andrew bristling.
“They make contracts, but they are not as strong as the ones between demons and humans. They need to be renewed every year.” Kevin swallows. “And mine expires in four months.”
Natanyel stares at him for a moment. “So… you stay out of Riko’s hands for four months, your contract expires, Riko is forced to forfeit his deal with Yves, and Yves is free.”
Kevin’s eyes light up, and he nods eagerly. “Yes, exactly—”
“Or,” Natanyel interrupts flatly. “I could kill you right now, skip the four months, and get the other half of my soul back.”
“Try,” Andrew says, voice soft and even in the silence that follows the demon’s threat. He unsheathes a single knife from its sheath, its holy nature making it glow in the dim lighting. The demon’s head angles toward him, unnaturally blue eyes finding the weapon. Natanyel’s laugh echoes off the walls of the diner.
“Holy metal won’t help you here, fortis cor, my blood is older than humanity itself, let alone your cults and doctrines.” In a blink, the knife is torn from Andrew’s grip and is dancing over the demon’s knuckles as he’s suddenly standing in front of Andrew, his long claws clicking delicately over the silver metal. Tiny whisps of smoke rise from the skin where the blade touches, but he barely seems to notice, lips curling in condescension. “This may work against the petty imps that Riko has been sending after Kevin and your Foxes, but they will not stop me from killing your charge. I would do it easily. I wouldn’t even have to touch him.”
Andrew snarls, taking a half step toward the circle as he reaches for his armbands again—
“You won’t.”
Natanyel catches the blade abruptly, both the demon and Andrew turning to Kevin. The demon takes slow stalking steps around the edge of the circle until he’s facing Kevin again.
“I won’t… what?” Natanyel prods, a dangerous note to his voice as his eyes narrow.
“You won’t kill me,” he practically whispers.
“And what makes you think that, parum sol?”
Kevin smiles, and it's a broken thing. Something oddly sad and hollow. Something that Andrew had never seen on his arrogant face.
“He’d never forgive you.” Silence. The demon’s shoulders sagged, and he sighed, digging his thumbs into his temples. The blade is still in his hand, held away from his face even as his skin continues to smoke.
“No. He wouldn’t. Sentimental fool,” he sighs.
“If you’re standing against a Moriyama, you’ll need more than holy metal. And this one isn’t going to cut it either,” Natantyel announces as he flicks his fingers in Andrew's direction. He smirks at Andrew. “Not that you haven’t done a wonderful job, foris cor. For a human, anyway.”
Andrew bares his teeth at him, which only seems to make his smirk widen. Kevin ignores Andrew and frowns at Natanyel.
“What are you saying?”
“Your brother took the only person I care about and tortured him, is still torturing him as we speak. All because he could.” The lights were flickering again. “I want to drag him out of his world into mine. I want to peel back his skin inch by inch until I can get my hands around his bones and fashion them into instruments. I want to unravel his soul and keep him in unbearable agony for the rest of Eternity.”
“Oh my god,” Nicky whimpers, sounding like he's on the verge of throwing up. Natanyel turns his dead-eyed grin on him.
“Oh, a doubt your holy father will have anything to do with it. The point is, I want Riko Moriyama dead, but Jean’s eventual freedom depends on their deal breaking off cleanly, so my best bet is keeping you alive.”
Kevin’s eyes go wide. “You… want to make a deal.”
“I know Riko’s been sending imps after you since you left, I know they’ve been getting more and more powerful, and I know they’ve been going for all your Foxes, not just this charming family of four. Recruit me this coming semester, and I’ll make sure none of them touch your team again.”
Kevin seems stunned by the offer, his mouth hanging open. “Can you even stay here? Yv— Jean says projections only last a month at most.”
“Oh, this isn’t a projection.” In a flash of movement, Natanyel slices open his palm with Andrew’s knife, crimson blood spilling forward. “This is a genuine meat bag.”
Kevin snatches his hand as if he can’t help himself, barely seeming to notice the black claws flexing and the arched eyebrow the literal demon aims his way.
“What’s in it for you?” Andrew interrupts. Kevin and his demon look at him in unison. “You’re not doing this out of the kindness of your heart.”
Natanyel nods and fixes Kevin with his strange eyes. “When Riko comes for you, you will tell him no. You will tell him no and stand with your Foxes.”
Andrew narrows his eyes. “That’s it?”
Natanyel shrugs. “I only want Yves back. It’s not that complicated.”
He disentangles his hand from Kevin’s only to hold it out for a handshake, his palm still smeared with blood.
“So… do we have a deal?”