In Flames - 15. Chapter 15

Vruuaska landed heavily, and moved forwards, making sure to keep his tail out for balance as he big paws gripped the lava and rocks of home. He turned as the other two demons followed him through the fire and smoke. Sitka brushed ash off his black skin with one hand.

“Now that is a cool way to travel.” He turned to his new friend, the big feral demon wearing a smile to go with his excited burning eyes, “Good skill.”

“Wish I could do that.” Shindae’s own fire glowed brighter as he shook off the transfer, “You’re going to be a great scavenging partner. You got the bag Sitka?”

The horned demon held up the little sac.

“You know, if we still had to actually carry everything, I’d have told Jahke to stuff his library a long time ago.”

“No you wouldn’t.” Shindae slapped his friend on the shoulder, “You couldn’t tell that boy ‘no’ if your life depended on it.”

Sitka looked sheepish, and scratched the back of his head.

It had been both weird and interesting going back up top. They’d arrived in a different place and time, and Vruuaska didn’t recognise anything immediately. But there was the soft, thin texture to the air that was familiar. Briefing had been just that, brief. The trip was a general scavenging mission, which Sitka said was code for ‘go upstairs and steal shit.’ Sitka’s bag-of-holding came in handy, in making a collection of paperback books and a king sized feather duvet take up less space and weight than a punnet of grapes.

After that, they’d sat on a little stone bridge over the river, and Shindae had pointed out to Vruuaska the finer points of choosing humans for recruitment. Some people noticed them, but only in a very roundabout sort of way. They saw two black guys sitting on a bridge with a big wolf-like dog. A few sensed their other-ness, Sitka pointed them out, an old woman who hurried as she hobbled by, a wide eyed child of indeterminate gender who pointed at Vruuaska and said ‘fire’ in a small voice before being dragged away. Shindae said that these were the people who might have the potential to be live recruits, those who would make new demons. More likely though was that their souls in death could be harvested, used, forged and taken for power. Vruuaska flicked his ears and nodded, but he didn’t understand.

Collecting Vruuaska’s food supplies had taken most of the rest of the afternoon, and the feral demon had experimented with the tastes he enjoyed; preferring pine to oak and beech, the deliciousness of gently charred newsprint, the weird tang of bitumen. They took enough of everything to last for a long time, and Sitka lamented about the fit Tobias was going to throw when he realised that they were going to have to start building a coal shed in the kitchen.

Vruuaska had got them home by fire. It had been easier this time, less ritualised and romantic. The other demons had their routes, long practised, back to portal stones and glyphs. It surprised Vruuaska that while they could sense the souls of people, that they could not feel where the world was thin, where crossing over would be easy. Shindae smiled, and said that it looked as though Vruuaska had a particular skill after all. Perhaps he would be more than just a scavenger.

Now Vruuaska took a deep breath of the burning scent of Hell, and hoped to see Atoki soon. All day he had missed the boy, missed his sweet laughter and delighted touch. Now he wanted to be back with the boy again.

“Come on, we should be getting back.” Sitka looped the bag back onto his belt, “We’ve been gone all day.” He started down the path, “You coming Vru?”

Both the older demons turned back to look at their new friend. Vruuaska stood where he landed, but now his head was low, tail thrashing back and forth.

“Vru?”

“Something’s wrong.” His long tipped ears twitched, flicking around as though searching. “Where’s Nami?” Vruuaska snarled, his eyes flaring brightly. Before they’d left, he’d been able to feel his lover, sense that he was happy, to know that he was safe. Now there was a flair of something, but it wasn’t the same. Something was wrong.

“Vru?” Sitka placed a hand on Vruuaska’s shoulder, but jumped back, shaking ash and burning embers from his palm, “Shit! Shindae, he’s burning.”

Vruuaska snarled. His claws dug into the stone, his fur bristled. Everything in his head felt tight and confused, not the clean warmth of the fire and the love he felt when he thought of Atoki. Someone had tried to hurt the boy he loved. Vruuaska swung his head towards the palace. The Devil himself… he’d threatened Atoki when they’d arrived. Vruuaska rolled his shoulder and shifted from the smaller more usefully sized version of his feral form into his full height. Suddenly he was looking down on his new friends.

“Fuck… did you know he could do that?”

The big demon didn’t stop to answer, or listen, just pounced. Vruuaska pelted towards the palace without taking any conventional route. He bashed into other demons, made a mess of the paths, his paws crunching and digging on the gravel, claws renting gashes in the stone. He could think of nothing but Atoki, and the thought that he might be in danger.

The palace in the centre of hell didn’t actually have anything approaching a main entrance. There were many, of various types, but the grandest was the one Vruuaska chose to shoulder his way through, one of the two foot thick stone doors smashing to the floor, part of the edge gone shiny and liquid as though it had sunk back into the core of the earth.

“WHERE IS HE?” Vruuaska’s roar shook that part of the building, almost wordless in his anger. The demons present scattered from the beast as he walked forwards. Fire scorched the ground where he trod, smoke rolled off his fur, ashes and dust shook loose from his mane. A small, snakelike figure crossing the passageway became the focus of his fiery attention, “WHERE IS NAMI?”

Two marble pale hands were thrown up in a beseeching gesture of defence.

“Whoa, calm down. I have no idea who that is. Who’s your major?”

Vruuaska roared in response.

“The major demon in your house, who is it?”

“Kiorl. Where is my lover?”

“Oh shit! Follow me.”

Vruuaska barely kept pace behind the slim, scaly figure as they moved through the palace. As soon as Vruuaska sensed that Atoki was near, he felt a wash of peace pour over him. He didn’t want to be calm, but it was unavoidable, and by the time the demon pushed open the chamber door, he was practically back to his normal size, no longer shedding dust and ashes when he walked.

Atoki was curled up in a ball on a well-worn couch, sleeping like a child. Vruuaska crossed the room in a daze and scooped the boy up in his arms, not noticing that he had changed forms as he walked.

“Hmmm… babe?” Atoki opened both eyes blearily, and Vruuaska collapsed in a heap with the boy in his arms as the last of the panic and tension left his body. Atoki stroked his fur, rubbed the base of his horns, murmured wordless love into his fur as he shook.

“Well done Asina,” Nassau touched the scaly man gently on the shoulder, “How much damage did he do?”

“Nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of work,” The demon replied, “Except the door. He’s as hot as the sun when he’s angry, huh?”

“They’re a bit attached,” Kiorl shook his head gently, “Go placate the masses Bir, I’ll get these two home and then I’ll see what I can do about the door.”

Vruuaska inhaled the scent of the boy he loved, ignoring the rest of the room. Atoki smelt like himself… but different somehow, subtly changed and shifted. When Vruuaska kissed him, he felt heat reflected back at him in the most delicious manner. He broke the kiss with a concerned frown.

“Something is different.” He looked his mate up and down then turned to Nassau, “What have you done to him?”

“Vru, look.” Atoki held out his hand. Wrapped around his wrist was a line of fire about the width of the big demon’s thumb. The tattoo burnt like a real flame and was warm to the touch. “What is this?”

Nassau crossed the room without his feet touching the floor and sat, cross legged and reposed before them.

“Protection, and a gift.” He smiled at Atoki, and the gesture was as calm, cooling and full of love as any facial expression could be, “Through your lover, you have immunity to fire, specifically his fire. Now should anyone touch you whom you do not desire, they will be subject to that same fire that just melted a basalt and diamond door.”

Atoki frowned, rubbing the line of flame, confused.

“No one may touch you. Not even Sathriel himself.”

“Am I still human?”

“Yes.” Nassau stood, “But I also made you immortal. I sort of saw that you and Vruuaska might want to be together for a while longer than another sixty years.”

Atoki blinked. Twice. Vruuaska hugged him tighter in his arms. He could feel the boy’s heartbeat against his skin, going fast as puzzlement flitted across his eyes.

“Immortal? Oh, right then.”

Whereupon he promptly fainted.