Demon Coil - 3. Chapter 3

Arno was sweating in the humid air as he forced a stubborn bolt back onto an equally stubborn engine. Rex, another roommate of his, had insisted that the van be fixed up just in case things went further south with Davinhar, their local great demon overlord. The archaic vehicle design guzzled gas, but his friend was a doctor and maintained that he needed it for his work. It had taken two days to get it running properly, and Arno was grumbling to himself. It didn’t help that every time he walked into a room with Lacuna and Tali since the other night they had burst into fits of giggles and wouldn’t tell him why. He had repeatedly tried to ferret the reason out of them, but to no avail.

A holoscreen in the customer lounge played the news on mute, the subtitles set to show up large enough for Arno to read them from across the garage. The suave looking newscaster was discussing a story that had come out of the great demon’s lair, that someone paying a tithe had been killed. It showed an image of a woman with pink hair and almost white skin, her eyes brilliant gold. Well, there was what Rex was waiting for. He pulled out his phone, wiping his greasy hands on his thighs before texting Lacuna. Check the news, don’t tithe today, he fired off quickly.

What? I was just about to leave, she replied.

A girl’s dead, he messaged.

Fuck, came the succinct reply, but he was happy that he had caught her in time. Their monthly tithe was necessary to keep Davnihar happy, but he’d rather she missed the appointment than ended up murdered. At worst, one of his lackeys would come around and force her to reschedule. The ruthless part-demons who managed the lair probably wouldn’t care that she was worried about ending up dead. His thoughts meandered for a while as he finished reassembling the engine, but as he jumped in the driver’s seat to start it up, an idea struck him.

Hey, it’s Arno, he texted Sygny. Got something for you to protect.

He didn’t receive an immediate reply, and checking the time he realized Sygny was probably still at school. Shrugging, he turned the key in the van’s ignition and it purred to life. There was nothing else to pressing to do that day, and he had no desire to work on personal projects in the heat, so he set the sign on the door to “Closed” and drove the van home.

When he arrived he handed over the keys to Rex. “Just don’t drive it like it’s a sports car and you should be fine,” he told his roommate, whose glowing silver tattoos created tribal patterns over any exposed black skin that could be seen in his scrubs.

Rex just smiled serenely, clipping the keys onto his waistband. “Thank you,” he said. “I’m going to head over to the lair, see if anyone needs help.”

“Be careful!” Tali called, overhearing their conversation. Rex’s expression was still calm, but Arno could see him flex a bicep under his scrubs. Though he had never actually seen Rex fight a person, there was a gym in the basement of their building and he had seen the clawed part-demon destroy countless simulated and foam stuffed targets. Arno was sure he would be fine, and nodded as he walked away.

“Just don’t melt the tires!” Arno added at the last second, as Rex started downstairs toward the garage.

“I wonder what’s really going on,” Tali said as Arno sat down on the couch. She was wearing work clothes, which was to say that there weren’t any sequins or rhinestones on them. She had a smudge of something bright green across her forehead, which she wiped when Arno indicated it. Lacuna was there as well, looking bored.

“Who knows,” Lacuna said, flipping through channels. “Davnihar is an asshole, has been the whole time I’ve been paying the tithe. He fancies himself some kind of dominant, but he just likes hurting people. Thankfully, I’m pretty resilient, but maybe this girl wasn’t.” She seemed to unconsciously run a hand over her abdomen, but Arno knew that she was touching the scar from the bullet wound she had sustained before she had met them, left to die out in the street in front of their home. She should have died, in truth, between that and the head wound that had destroyed most of her memory, but thanks to Rex and her own determination, she had lived.

Nasah chose that moment to bound into the room, bumping into the table before he hopped onto Lacuna’s lap. He bigger than the average dog of pre-demon earth, and she let out an “oof” when he landed on her. Looking up at her with his sightless eye pits, he let his long purple tongue dangle out of his bony jaw.

“Nasah says not to dwell on the past,” Tali giggled, clearly having noticed Lacuna’s remembrance as well. “Anyway, I have to get back to work. One of those tough guy types called me up, crying like a baby because his favorite hunting rifle jammed. I’m going to teach him how to clean the damn thing, then trounce him at the range, his treat.”

“First Sygny, now some poor schmuck,” Lacuna said. “When are you going to learn to stop scaring men?”

Before Tali could reply Arno was out of his seat, facing off with Nasah as he made the move to confront Lacuna. Tali chose that moment to disappear down the stairs. “What did you just say?” he roared, unable to get any closer with the lesser demon in the way.

“Oops,” Lacuna said, kicking a booted foot up onto the coffee table. “You should have come out with us the other night. It was… enlightening.”

Arno sputtered, but his phone chose that moment to chime, indicating a new message. He pulled it out of his pocket and saw Sygny’s name on the screen, followed by: Anytime, what’s the address?

Taking another look at Lacuna, Arno inhaled deeply and then sat back down. “You didn’t have to be rude about it,” he said, before punching in a reply that gave their warehouse’s location. “He’s coming over, by the way. I want this place protected in case Davnihar gets worse about you skipping your tithe, or just for some other reason. You never know with these great demon types.”

“And you’re going to ask him out on a proper date, or I’m going to do it for you,” Lacuna said. “Sushi, right?”

“You’re definitely an asshole,” he replied, looking at the channel Lacuna had left on screen. It was some kind of action movie. “Maybe we should check the news?” he suggested, and the channel changed.

He could see Rex’s van off to the side of the lair, the back doors hanging open to reveal the ambulance style accommodations inside. The tires looked mercifully intact, despite the lava pulsing around the sides of the building, making him wonder why it hadn’t just become a sinkhole at that point. A newscaster was interviewing a representative from the lair, who, while refusing comment on the actual situation, explained that all individuals who came to tithe would be well protected. When the knock on the door came Arno jumped, having been fully engrossed in the news coverage.

Upon opening the door, he revealed Sygny wearing another complicated “fashion” outfit. “Hello!” he said with a bright smile, inviting himself in with quick steps. There wasn’t much chance to get lost in the hallway, so Sygny reached the living area before Arno and greeted Lacuna by name. Seemingly he didn’t feel the need to hide their association the same way his roommate had done, apparently just to needle him.

Arno followed him into the room, quickly outlining that he would like their doors and windows protected against unauthorized entry, doing his best to remain completely professional. After asking a few questions Sygny nodded. “It will take like… fifteen minutes, maybe?” he said.

Lacuna raised her eyebrows, but Sygny just shrugged. “Really, it’s all one spell and I’ll just need to physically go to each opening to seal them into the whole. It will be strong for a month or two, but might need to be renewed… I can probably do that once for free, in fairness to our agreement?” he said. When he smiled Arno once again noted the dimple in only one of his cheeks. He had to force himself to pay attention to the conversation.

“That sounds fine. Hopefully, after that, we will have less need of protection anyway. Davnihar is quite volatile at the moment, but if he remains so it’s unlikely that he will keep his power. I’m sure he’ll calm down eventually.”

Lacuna led Sygny around the warehouse to the various entrances and windows. It took a little longer than the mage had estimated due to the building’s size, but he finished within half an hour. Arno spent that entire time fretting about the date he was supposed to be asking the younger man on, pacing in the kitchen.

When they returned, Lacuna just shook her head at him and left Sygny there with him. “Thank you,” Arno began. “For the other part of our agreement—would you like to go out tomorrow night to that sushi bar by Quake?” His words were rushed, but he couldn’t pretend that he wasn’t truly interested in the mage.

Sygny smiled. “That sounds great!” he said. “I’m free anytime, since it’s Saturday.”

“Alright, I’ll pick you up at seven, just text me the address,” Arno said.

For a moment Sygny’s expression clouded over, but then he returned to his usual grin. “Of course. See you then!” he said, before skipping out the front door. Whatever protection he had placed on the building it didn’t seem to bother him, or at least not anyone leaving.

“He’s such a sweetheart,” Lacuna said, comically fluttering her eyelashes at him.

“Did you learn that move from Tali?” he asked, glaring.

“Probably,” she replied, and stuck her tongue out at him as well.

“Girls,” he grumbled, before heading off to bed, tired from the long day working on the van. He hoped that Rex would manage to keep it running for a while; the old engine was too heavy to repair more often.