Demon Coil - 2. Chapter 2

The newly repaired hoverbike coasted to a stop in the large garage, parked next to his father’s sports car. The shiny vehicle was carefully wrapped in a cover, keeping prying eyes and hands off it. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time that his father had driven it. Sygny lowered his bike to the ground and set the kickstand before walking up into the main building. He took the elevator to the eighth floor by scanning his hand, which dropped him off in the foyer of his father’s apartment. Even after living there for several years, he didn’t think of the dwelling as his home.

Though he felt out of place there, another handprint got him inside, and the lights turned on automatically. State of the art appliances and computer systems serviced the three-bedroom apartment, technology that his father headed up the development team for. Thankfully, said father didn’t seem to be home.

Sygny grabbed a drink from the refrigerator and disappeared into his bedroom. The décor matched the rest of the apartment, sleek and modern. His phone automatically synced to the computer at his desk and started the last playlist he had been listening to, launching into a song from his favorite punk band, Blueprint. He lounged in his ergonomic gaming chair, scrolling through news streams and the personal hubs his classmates maintained. Most people were posting updates as they arrived home, content from vlogs to text status updates. Everything aggregated on his home page and allowed him to see all the content easily in a feed.

A picture of his most recent ex popped up, and Sygny winced. He instructed the computer’s face recognition program to block further photos of the offending part-demon. The quick glimpse he had caught showed a smug, green-skinned guy with his arm around a skinny dude who had shocking blue hair. Normally, he tried to stay friends with his exes and flings, no hard feelings, but Kareem had been a particular piece of shit to him. “Asshole,” he muttered as the picture vanished.

There was a loud clattering from the living area, and Sygny’s eyes flicked towards the door. He heard his father’s voice from the other room, grumbling about a new lava pool that had caused a traffic jam on the way home. It seemed their great demon overlord was pissed about something, again, causing the earth to split open and spew magma in time with his rage. Not for the first time Sygny wished that he had been born in the territory of some other kind of demon who couldn’t literally melt the earth.

Not wanting to deal with his father in such a mood Sygny grabbed his phone and brushed past the man on his way back out the front door. He was sure to catch hell for it later, but he couldn’t find the energy to care. He’d just do some homework at a café and then find a club to cool off at.

*****

Sygny approved of the music he could hear pumping through the speakers at Quake, and only waited a few minutes before being let through the door. Thankfully, it was a random Wednesday and there was no cover charge. This also meant that there weren’t really many people inside yet, but it was still early. Scoping out his prospects, Sygny walked over and leaned against the bar where a guy with dark skin and hair that looked like it was coated in gold leaf was sitting alone. After a quick smile to the guy Sygny looked out across the room, not paying any more attention to his forced companion.

There were a few other guys in the club, but the one he had chosen seemed most likely to buy him a drink. Sygny felt a moment of remorse, but internally shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time he did something like this, and once he graduated next month he could offer his magical services for money and buy his own drinks. He relished the thought, chafing against his father’s refusal to let him get a job while he was in school. Though he wasn’t a minor, and could technically make his own decisions, it didn’t bode well for his health to disobey his father.

His eyes passed over the rest of the crowd, his attention drawn to a woman alone on the dance floor, oblivious to the fact that no one else had joined her. He had no romantic interest in women, but he had to admit that her energy was electric; it made him want to get out there and dance too, even though he usually waited until he had a few drinks before feeling comfortable enough to do so. Another woman with purple hair and two sets of horns on her head was watching her intently, but her gold eyes slid past the woman for a second and locked on Sygny. He raised his eyebrows as she walked across the room to him, no grace in her ass-kicking boots.

“Hey,” she said, leaning against the bar on his opposite side from his free drink target. He caught the man’s eye again, but he didn’t seem very interested and turned back to the holoscreen above the bar. Sygny shrugged and figured he would go with it.

“Uh, hey,” Sygny said. Internally he berated himself for being unable to converse with a girl.

“This side of the club seems pretty boring. Do you want to come hang out with me and my roommate?” she asked. She waved a bartender over and ordered the nightly special, pressing it into his hands before he could reply.

“Sure, just… thank you,” he said. He took a sip of the drink to cover up his confusion, watching her from under his eyelashes.

Laying her hand on his shoulder she said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m Lacuna, by the way. We have a table over there.” She directed him, and offered him a seat next to a rhinestone encrusted purse. Not hers, surely. She bought two more drinks and when the song ended she dragged her roommate, the dancer, over to the table. After Lacuna whispered something in her ear she smiled even wider than he already had been, if that was possible.

“Hey, cutie!” she said, and winked. “I’m Tali.”

Sygny stared at her for a second before she went in for a hug and almost suffocated him in her cleavage; her heels making her taller than him. He didn’t dare move, not wanting to get tangled up in the spikes on her arms.

A little dazed, he tried to figure out how to tell them that he wasn’t interested in women after they’d already bought him a drink. However, Lacuna chuckled before he could come up with something and said, “Tali, you’re going to permanently scar the poor guy. He thinks you’re hitting on him.”

“Whoops!” she said, giggling and taking a sip of her drink. “I don’t mean anything by it, I promise.”

“Anyway, Sygny—” Lacuna said, but Sygny cut her off.

“How do you know my name?” he asked, making a move to stand.

“Hey, hey, calm down,” Lacuna said. “One of our roommates told us about you… he’s a mechanic.”

“Arno?” Sygny squeaked.

“Yeah, seems like you roped him into a date,” Tali said, her smile widening again. “It’ll be good for him.”

“I just couldn’t resist talking to you when I recognized you across the room,” Lacuna said. “Actually, I was trying to get Arno to come out with us.”

“His loss that he didn’t,” Sygny said, regaining his composure and taking a sip of his drink. “He didn’t seem too excited about my proposition. To think, he could have fulfilled my request tonight, by accident, even.” He laughed.

“What was your motive, anyway?” Lacuna asked, but the wolfish smile on her face made it seem like she might already know the answer.

“He’s hot,” Sygny shrugged. “Honestly, it was a spur of the moment thing, but I’m into it. Hopefully he doesn’t hate me for it.” He ran his finger over the rim of his glass, looking at the girls with a tilt of his head.

Tali laughed, looking him over. “He’s a prickly asshole, but he’s a good guy. Like I said, it will be good for him. You seem fun, and you’re definitely his type.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Anyway, do you want to dance?”

Sygny chugged the rest of his drink, hoping it would hit him by the time he got out onto the floor. “Sure, why not?”

Thankfully, Tali could make anyone look good by association. Sygny was sweating after not even two songs, wondering how she managed to stay upright in her sky-high shoes. Lacuna never joined them, talking to a few guys at the bar but always keeping an eye trained in their direction. He took a few breaks to chat with her, talking about superficial things, but Tali barely stepped off the dance floor except to get another drink when hers emptied. By the end of the night she was quite drunk, and Sygny was feeling tipsy.

“Get home safe,” Lacuna said to Sygny, dragging her friend away as Tali tried to plant a kiss on Sygny’s cheek. “You don’t even like dudes, I swear,” she said to the girl, shaking her head.

“Good night!” he replied.

After he stepped out into the night he immediately felt like the world came back into focus, a breeze ruffling his sweaty hair and breaking up the heat from the day, though he definitely wouldn’t call the temperature cold. He walked home at a leisurely pace, protecting the soles of his boots from the hot sidewalks magically when he approached cracks or pools of lava. When he got home his father seemed to be either out of the apartment or asleep; he didn’t care which. Not a bad night, he thought to himself, falling into bed and immediately to sleep.