In Flames - 4. Chapter 4

After Atoki had made a fool of himself on his knees and Vuuraska had helped him get dressed, the demon had melted back into his more feral form and Atoki had gathered up the remaining toiletry and clothing items. He dumped all his old stuff, except the coat, behind one of the cisterns and checked his hair in the mirror.

“Would you believe I actually used to be proud of the way I looked?” Atoki ruffled his fringe and sighed, “And then it just became something I had to do to keep him happy.” He scowled as he walked past Vuuraska and out of the bathroom, “You think I should cut my hair?”

“No!” The demon replied so quickly that Atoki stopped to look at the big horned lion-wolf demon, “I mean, I like your hair.”

“Thanks.” Atoki reached up and ruffled the thick head-fur between his horns, “I don’t think I should stay here long. When Aris finds out where I am…”

“Then he’ll have to deal with me.” Vuuraska rubbed against the boy, purring like a southbound train, and Atoki couldn’t help but smile at the demon, even if it was just in the privacy of his own head.

“Why me?” the question had bugged him since he’d decided to believe that this apparition was real, a point he’d managed to prove outright when he’d tried to suck the demons cock. And what’s with that…? He checked the wolf-lion over as they walked together. His erection had been nothing like what Atoki had been used to, shaped differently; smooth, pointed, tapered, red. He’d tasted like wood smoke. Well even when he walks on two legs, he’s a long way from being human. “Why me?” He repeated, “Out of all the needy messed up people in the world, why me? Why now?”

“Because you asked.” The beast that was Vruuaska shrugged fluidly, “Fire, take me. Fire, break me…” he intoned the words as though speaking from a book in his head, “Fire please, I implore you, save me.’ So I did.”

“But why?” Atoki felt chilled, hearing his words in that thick lava voice, knowing that when he’d thought them, he had wanted nothing more than to leave the world behind, to be saved from Aris and his torture.

“Because…” Vuuraska fell silent, then stopped walking. Atoki turned to stare at the big horned creature. He stood four square on the pavement, head down. Suddenly his claws extended and dug into the concrete like it was paper. “Because I was sick of not having anyone, and you sounded like you needed someone. I wanted to be…” The claws retracted and the demon walked forwards, rubbing against the boy, “I wanted to be wanted. To be needed, to be useful. Because you are beautiful and fragile and you loved the fire so much it hurt.”

“You’re special Atoki.”

Atoki stared at the giant creature, then reached up, brought his face down with a hand on his cheek, and placed a gently kiss on the end of his muzzle. Huge fire bright eyes stared at him, and Atoki could read confusion and desire and a dozen other things in them.

He smiled. Turned out that the fire had emotions too.

“Thank you.” Atoki made sure he held the demon’s gaze when he spoke, “I don’t think… no, I didn’t really want to die.”

“Good.”

“So what now?” Atoki found his hands wandering into his pockets, looking for things to fiddle with. It had been so long since he’d had any sort of free time, any reason to be outside and at his own leisure. “Wait, you said there was someplace else we could go.”

“Yes. Hell. There will be a house waiting for us there. Do you want to go?”

“Maybe…” Atoki looked around the town, could he leave here and never come back? Did he have a choice? “All my stuff is at… the house. He’ll be looking for me.” His bones were still grating together when he walked. Regardless of his strip wash, he still felt dirty, greasy, and he was in pain. “I want to go somewhere and have a shower, then sleep in a bed for about eight hours solid.”

“I can arrange that.” The big demon was grinning again, “Not a problem.”

*

Vruuaska had managed to get them a hotel room by the simple expedient of walking into a bank, taking a massive wad of cash, and letting Atoki book himself in under a false name. With a big enough deposit, apparently cash and no forms of identification were OK. He followed his Master into the room on all fours and took the time to examine the inside of his head.

He’d been summoned before, though his shapes had been different. Been called into life and existence in other fires long, long ago. A few times those relationships had lasted beyond a single night, but his character, his connections to those whose awe and adoration called him, were coloured by their moods and their intentions. He’d torn through buildings, destroyed cities. He was a beast who killed whole communities because that was what the builders of the fire had wanted. He had been called for war and vengeance.

Sometimes he had stayed with one Master for a while, been a useful pet, a tool for their manipulation and intimidation.

No one had ever needed him, wanted him, desired him. Atoki had fallen to his knees to pleasure him, when it should have been the other way around, and now Vruuaska found himself wondering. He’d never been sexually active before. It had never been a function of his calling, and while his shape had come equipped for it, the act hadn’t been anything he’d thought about until Atoki had started to show him. He had wanted to explore the human’s body in order to understand him better, but had never thought that the boy’s need of him might be more than fleeting.

Apparently he’d been wrong.

Atoki stripped off all his clothes as he walked through the rented room towards the bathroom. He acted like he was not ashamed, and that his heart wasn’t torn apart, but the demon could tell that it was all a front. He followed. The boy sat on the edge of the bath, running the water into the tub. Steam was fogging up the mirror and the tiles.

“You wanna join me?” His tone was suggestive, and Vruuaska stopped. His heart thumped a thousand miles an hour. He wanted it… Fuck he wanted to make the boy who had called him happy, wanted him to feel good, but Atoki’s eyes had that slightly unfocused, glazed look, like this was something he did out of habit. Like he didn’t really want the demon.

“Umm…”

“Join me.” Atoki’s tone was commanding, demanding, and Vruuaska had no choice but to shift his shape into a more human form and step forwards.

“Yes Sire.” He got into the bath as directed and leant back in the hot foamy water. It was… nice. He’d never taken a bath before. It wasn’t usually high on his Master’s lists of priorities. Kill things, wreak havoc, then make him go away again. Back into the smoke and ashes and the ruin left behind from the fire from whence he had come. That’s what they’d wanted. Use him and then dump him.

Atoki turned off the taps and settled into the bath, positioning himself directly in the demon’s lap. The boy relaxed back against his chest, water rising to his shoulder and he gave a contented sigh.

“God that’s good.” Atoki gathered up the washcloth that Vruuaska had stolen for him and handed it to the demon, “Please?”

Vruuaska washed the boy’s back with slow strokes, dipping the cloth into the hot soapy water, rubbing it across his neck and shoulders. Atoki made small, soft noises, and melted under his hands, becoming soft and boneless in his lap. And Vruuaska knew why he wanted to be there with his new Master. He loved the skinny, beautiful creature in his lap. Loved him in some strange and intangible way. With that knowledge tucked away safely in the back of his mind, he washed the boy’s front gingerly, mindful of his bruises, and helped him to wash his hair.

He was aroused the whole time.

Whatever energy that had kept Atoki running, it seemed to have run out, and Vruuaska had to hold the boy upright while he dried himself half-heartedly. He wrapped Atoki in a sheet and tucked him into the big double bed, laying the quilt over him. The boy fairly dissolved into the mattress, made a high pitched mewling sort of noise, and slept soundly. Vruuaska, wet, and naked, his thick fur plastered to the muscles of his chest, looked down at the sleeping boy. Someone had dared to touch him, and now, he would pay. He turned his back and was planning to leave the hotel and extract vengeance.

“Vru?” One syllable, soft and sleepy.

“Yes Sire?”

“Don’t leave me.” Atoki rolled over, curling up into a ball. He looked small and somehow helpless.

“I won’t. I promise.”

Already, he knew the was going to break that promise.

*

On the sixth, the whole town was hung over. The whole town except for Aris, because he was still pissed. The stupid little fucking whore had managed to knock him out, then run away, and Aris had dealt with the shame of having his friends arrive to find him out cold and his bitch gone.

Atoki had been nothing but trouble, and now he had gone and done this. The big man already knew what he was going to do with the slut when he caught him. It had been about time the boy was farmed out, and sharing his among friends was a polite way to repay them for similar favours over the years. He had finally trained the kid up to be ready, and now he’d vanished.

Aris had walked around all night trying to locate the little shit, gone home at four and slept badly. When he awoke, he had taken a huge handful of painkillers for his head, drank half a bottle of scotch and gone back out again to look for the bastard.

Aris cursed the boy as he walked.

Ungrateful prick that he was. He’d been to every fire site, checked all of the usual haunts and there was nothing, no trace of the kid. He’d even been round to former friends of Atoki, people whom he hadn’t let the boy’s associations continue with, but they had not seen him. They were worried about him though. Aris had told them not the worry, and stormed off.

Now he was home again, angry and rudderless. He was hoping that if Atoki ever decided to run away, then he would need to be back for his stuff. He left the front door unlocked and open, and settled into an armchair in the darkened lounge, facing the doorway, to await his return. He would give that tender pale arse such a hiding that the boy would bleed and beg for the mercy of being fucked instead.

He waited.

A shadow fell across the doorway, followed by the scent of burnt things; creosote, tar, bitumen, wood and the hot feeling of lava and fire. So maybe Atoki had made it to the fire after all.

“You fucking stupid little shit!” Aris was out of his chair as the door opened inwards, starting up his tirade, “Do you know what you’ve made me do-!”

There was a creature in the doorway. A beast of smoke and flame, with horns that rose to the ceiling. It snarled. Fire eyes flashed, and the beast let out a roar.

“Holy…”

“Your death,” the beast snarled in a voice like thunder on tombstones, “Will be neither quick, nor painless.” A huge paw lashed out, claws rent his skin from bone, “And you would do well to consider that merciful indeed…”