Ink

Jake was unprepared for the figure that leaped out of the crackling vortex. It was all he could do to plaster himself against a wall to avoid being touched by the thin fingers of electricity in such a tiny space.

Quick as anything, Aimon’s dark figure had descended before him. The doorway snapping closed as his booted feet hit the floor. Jake barely had time to draw in a breath as the front of his shirt was balled into a fist and he was lifted off his feet as if he weighed no more than a feather.

Aimon slammed him into the wall, leaning in close enough that they were sharing the same breath. He snarled. “What the fuck were you thinking, mortal?!”

All Jake could do was stare. His eyes widened as something dark and ugly flickered behind the handsome veneer that was Aimon as he knew him. But as quickly as the monster had come—a pale writhing thing with ivory horns—it was gone.

Fingers scrambling up to clutch at the big hand in his shirt, Jake sought an anchor, even in the thing he now feared. His entire body was trembling, beads of sweat shone on his forehead. He licked his lips and tried to speak. All that came out was a soft wheeze of air. This was a side of Aimon he’d never seen before, so perilously close to losing control that the tight quarters vibrated with his displeasure. Worst still, Jake had a new awareness of the demon.

Now he knew what Cam had felt, except the tingling in his arm was now a throbbing burn; It’d felt that way ever since Aimon had touched him.

Aimon’s hand caught his arm, pulling it up to eye level so that he could glimpse the tattoo itself. The bird Jake had drawn was crude at best, but it wasn’t the bird with the serpent in his beak that really mattered, it was the connected circles, the pattern a mark of his beast. The sight of his mark seemed to have deflated some of the demon’s anger, because the next time Aimon looked at him his eyes were not flashing with deadly fire.

“Have you any idea what you’ve done, Jake?”

His lips parted to answer, but his words were swallowed by loud banging on the door.

“Hey, kid, open this door RIGHT NOW!” The door was hit again, then Jake heard Officer Myers yell, “Goddamn it! Get me the keys to this thing!”

Aimon growled, and released Jake abruptly. Jake gasped as he fell, landing on hands and feet on the floor. “This will have to wait until later,” Aimon said. He called a doorway in the furthest corner of the room, then reached out and grabbed Jake up by the collar of shirt.

Jake didn’t fight as he was lead to the doorway. He was surprised when one big arm slid around his waist, and pulled him in close to Aimon’s hard body. He could smell the cinnamon spice and darker musk that was Aimon’s natural scent. Inexplicably Jake felt his body responding. His muscles relaxed and his frame molded perfectly to Aimon’s side. He clenched his fist in Aimon’s long overcoat to hold him steady. But other parts of him refused to relax. He was hard and aching in an instant, cock straining against the zipper of his jeans. Jake’s mouth hung open as he panted for air in a considerably hotter atmosphere.

The demon looked down at him, and something primal and hungry flickered behind those dark eyes, but then Aimon wrenched his gaze away. Jake could see his jaw clench in frustration, and then there was nothing more to think or see. Aimon stepped into the vortex and they were gone.

The door exploded inwards seconds after the last spark of electricity disappeared. Officer Myers, and Bentham and several others spilled into the room, only to find it empty. There was a strange hum in the air and static electricity made the hair on everyone’s arm stand on end.

“Where in the hell did he go?” Officer Bentham demanded, wide eyes searching out every corner of the room, as if he expected to find the boy tunneling through a wall.

Myers shook his head. “That’s what I’d like to know.”



********

One minute Jake was falling in black space, clutching to Aimon, and the next he was he was ripped from the darkness and plunged into the light again. They emerged in a large bedroom. A bed that looked made for a King was the room’s main centerpiece. It was covered with a heavy black comforter with a golden leaf pattern inlaid into the fabric. Thick pillows of all shapes and sizes crowded the headboard, and a black wardrobe and dresser occupied the walls to either side of the bed. Tall windows let in the fading bluish-purple light from the setting sun, until Aimon switched on a bedside lamp.

He set Jake down on the bed and began to walk away without another word. Jake jumped to his feet. “Wait! Where are you going? Where is Cameron?!”

Aimon turned slowly on his heel. And the look he shot Jake dried the saliva up in his mouth. Aimon walked back toward him and Jake tried to get away, forgetting the bed was at his back. The backs of his knees hit the bed and he sat down heavily. The demon king loomed over him. “Save your questions, Jake! Thanks to you we will have plenty of time to talk.”

The tattoo on Jake’s arm begin to tingle, and a slow fire erupted in his belly. Jake gasped, sucking in a big gulp of air, which proved to be a mistake. The heady scent of Aimon; wood smoke, spice, and something wild Jake could not begin to name had the effect of a match to dynamite. The licking flames of his arousal in his belly suddenly exploded into a flash fire, spreading to every cell and fiber of his being.

Jake moaned. His legs fell open to accommodate the aching shaft between his legs. He gasped, “What is happening to me?”

“You are feeling the effects of being connected with me, Jake. I’d advise you to take a cold bath. I have to go. The hunger is calling me, and I must feed soon.”

“But what a-about Cam--”

“We will talk when I return. Go now. A cold bath will ease most of your discomfort.”

"Wait! Where am I?!"

"My personal estates on Earth."

Not waiting to see if Jake followed his instructions, Aimon crossed the room in a few long strides and called a doorway. He stepped into the vortex, and just like that he was gone.



********

When Aimon returned it was to find the boy shivering in a ball in the center of his bed, moaning. Growling his displeasure, Aimon moved swiftly to his side and lifted the boy in his arms. Jake’s face rested in the crook of his neck and the boys arms clung to his broad shoulders as he carried him to the bathroom. “I don’t feel so good. ‘Em burning up. M-must be sick.” Jake almost sobbed.

“You’re not sick, Jake.” Laying Jake in the tub--clothes and all-- he plugged the drain and turned the cold water on high. Jake tried to get up when the cold water begin soaking into his khaki pants, but Aimon knelt beside the tub and placed a big hand on his chest holding him still. “No, you must cool down, or the fever will rage.”

Jake shook his head, struggling feebly against the big hand on his chest. “Y-you said I wasn’t sick.” The boy’s face was flushed, sweat dripped from the top of his head and everywhere else on his body. His clothes were soaked in it, and Aimon could feel the heat of his body radiating from his core, even through the shirt.

“Jake.” He waited until he had the human’s attention. “Do you remember when I told you that all demons fall for different reasons and have unique powers to call?” When Jake shook his head he continued. “The one who wanted Cam has him.”

“NO!” Jake bucked against Aimon’s hand but couldn’t get free.

Water sloshed around in the tub and splashed across Aimon’s chest. He paid it no heed. “Listen to me! Jake, listen! The demon that has Cam has the hand of power for the elements. He controls water, air, fire, and earth. We suspect he used the water element to reach Cam through the water vapor in his shower. It was the only way he could manifest in Terra quod Abyssus.”

Through their link Aimon felt something he hadn’t felt in hundreds of years: fear and pain. The pain was so deep it sliced into him like a blade. Only with the utmost discipline did he push it to the back of his mind. He had to. He had enough problems to deal with other than his knew found feelings.

Suddenly Jake stopped struggling beneath his hand, like all the energy had deflated from his body. He turned his head. There were tear tracks running down his reddened cheeks, and his eyes were full of sorrow. “And what is your hand of power? Why did you fall, Aimon?”

Aimon twisted off the water tap and gathered himself off the floor to sit on the toilet. A heavy silence crept into the room broken only by the sound of water dripping every few seconds from the tap into the half full marble tub.

Finally after studying his new ward for several minutes, Aimon began to speak. He figured that Jake should be privy to what he had gotten into and how it had come to be. “Many ages ago, and now it is so blurred I can barely remember. I was young like you. I was a Prince. Our kingdom was not a very rich one, but I held the title just the same, and I was fortunate in other ways. When I came of age I discovered that women and men alike found me comely. I never wanted for a bed partner and I spent my days wining and dining, and bedding anyone I fancied.”Aimon’s eyebrows drew down in a scowl as the memory assaulted him, broken and jagged; it was like looking through a murky prism. He could remember the facts but never the details. He saw the outline of bodies but never the faces, and the places he’d been but never the name or time he’d been there.

But he remembered one detail extremely well. “I was killed when I was still relatively young. Some poor pig farmer slit my throat while I was in a drunken stupor for sleeping with his wife. I was supposed to pass on. But I did not go quietly, no, I haunted this plain. Most spirits are not strong enough to stay, but I was one of the unlucky few foolish enough to fight to stay in this world. I haunted the man who had killed me, haunted him until he took his own life out of guilt and terror.” Aimon could still see the man standing on a stool and looping a thick piece of rope around his neck. Then nothing but swinging legs and a screaming wife.

“Then what happened?” Jake’s voice was so low that if Aimon hadn’t had exceptional hearing he never would have heard.

“Then a traveler came to escort me to Hell. But I had no wish to go. I made a deal. My soul for my life back. My soul for women, men, riches, and fame. I learned years later that I could have made a different choice. I was not yet out of the favor of The Creator. With my soul I could have chosen to make a change, without it I could not.”

“So you fell from grace because of greed.”

Aimon shook his head, feeling that hollow pit in the center of his being like a wound that would never heal. “Lust. I lusted for the flesh, and the fortune with which to buy it. I was reborn a demon. Not just any demon, but because I had had the strength to withstand the draw from the Earthly plain I was deemed powerful enough to be a Demon King. And my power reflected my sin.”

Jake’s eyes grew wide as realization dawned. “Your power is lust?”

“I have the power to influence emotions. I am something of an emotional incubus, which means I can make you feel what I feel: hate, joy, sadness, or I can make you feel so much at once that it would drive you mad. My most powerful hand has always remained lust. Lust is with me always and so you feel it too. Were there more of you bearing my mark the effects would be slight, but like Cam, you bear the full weight of my power.”

Jake’s eyes were wide with fear. “C-can the mark be removed?”

“Yes. I have spoken to the The Ordo and they say it can be removed only one way. My soul must be returned.”

Jake exhaled loudly and scrubbed his hands over his face. He nodded."Right now all I want is my brother back. If killing Cithru is the way to get your soul. I say we kill to birds with one stone."








CHARACTER'S SONGS

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I was listening to music while I wrote this and I started thinking along the lines of what songs fit certain characters and I came up with a list of them. If anyone has any good ideas of what songs they think fit one of the four main character please do tell. I'll probably check it out when I'm writing about them the next time.

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Cithru

Disturbed- Down with the Sickness

Thrice-Red Sky

Lost Boys Soundtrack -Cry Little Sister

Jeff Buckley-Eternal Life



I figure that Cithru is a billy badass and he's definitely twisted so he needed something heavy, hard hitting, and intense. Down With the Sickness I feel represents him the most, not exactly for what the songwriters intended it to be but it can be twisted in a way that suits Cithru. Red Sky kinda reminds me of destruction--which Cithru is definitely an advocate. Eternal life--well that sort speaks for itself. Eh?

***********





Aimon-


Thrice - Firebreather

Jeff Buckley-Lilac Wine

Three Days Grace-Pain



The first line of Firbreather by Thrice is "Tell me are you free?" I think that is a question Aimon asks himself everyday. Lilac Wine is more romantic and seductive which suits Lust perfectly. Aimon has a scorching hot side I've yet to reveal. Pain--yeah, he'd rather have pain than pleasure; it reminds him that he's alive.Plus, he feels that he deserves it for his sins.

*************

Cameron

Coldplay- Trouble

The Kooks-Naïve

A Perfect Circle -Pet



I kinda think all these titles are self explanatory. Trouble? Yeah, he's definitely ass deep in alligators. Naive? Yep. Pet? What do you think Cithru wants with him?

*************



Jake-



Three Days Grace -Drown

Switchfoot -Dare You to Move

One Republic- Goodbye Apathy

Drowning is kinda what Jake's feeling like. He's overwhelmed, unprepared, and yet trying to be a hero. He needs saving. Any takers? Dare you to Move--okay first off I loooovvvveee this song. But the first few lines say something like: Welcome to Earth. Welcome to the planet. I feel like Jake is finally having an eye opening experience, like he was living in a bubble and now he's seeing what is really going on around him. Goodbye Apathy--well you have to listen to the lyrics. I think it fits Jake.