Shuffle

Auri could hear his fellow Lycanthropes yelling and cheering belligerently at one another from the stairwell before he even reached the floor they lived on. He’d always assumed that Kyle had said or done something to the landlord to scare him enough to leave them be. When Kyle brought friends over (which was all the time) they made enough noise to probably keep the entire building up. Not only that, but Kyle made no secret about selling drugs from their suite. He bragged about supplying half the block, the dumbass.

Auri had never liked Kyle. It took all sorts of people, he supposed, but he’d never liked Kyle. He supposed part of the problem was that their “pack” of Lycanthropes, so to speak, was mixed. Kyle was your classic werewolf, while Auri was a werejaguar. It sounded weird and Auri hated explaining it to people, but pretty much after a few decades worth of experiments by a wizard some two hundred years ago, you could now find basically any animal under the sun in the shape of a Lycanthrope.

Auri had often thought that part of why he disliked Kyle so much was all his damn posturing. They way Kyle saw it, any feline breeds should automatically bow down to the canine breeds. Which was moronic, because jaguars had several hundred pounds of solid muscle on wolves. If he wanted to, Auri could stalk that little mutt and pounce, tearing out his throat before he even knew what was up.

But Kyle was higher up in their strange pack than he was, and really, Auri didn’t hate him so much that he needed that kind of hassle.

With a sigh, Auri climbed the last few steps to his floor and walked down the dingy hallway. He wasn’t surprised to find his apartment door open. The hallway was a little hazy. The entire place stank like pot.

Well, at least Auri didn’t have to feel bad about smoking inside.

He took a brief moment outside the door and lit up a cigarette. He took a long drag and stepped inside the door.

The apartment was a fucking cesspit, but then, it always was. Auri had given up cleaning up after Kyle after about a week. The place stank like old food, BO and weed. Auri was amazed he still had a sense of smell after living there for as long as he had.

He ignored the small mob of people in the living room and automatically tuned out the sound of yelling and whooping and belching, choosing instead to go straight into the kitchen. Auri felt the same sinking sensation in his stomach. Auri loved food. Loved it. All kinds of food, and he could really eat at any time. He’d been saving some leftover Thai in the fridge, and god that sounded good right now, but he doubted it would be there. He took a sharp drag on his cigarette and opened the fridge. His eyes widened when he saw the tiny, white container. Sitting there, right where he’d left it.

Maybe Kyle wasn’t the worst room mate of all time. Well. He definitely wasn’t a good room mate, but maybe not the absolute worst.

Auri glanced around him suspiciously and sat on the ground, leaning back against a dirty cupboard. He balanced his cigarette in between his lips and opened the container.

Auri looked at it for a long while, held in the stasis of someone who has just witnessed something un-fucking-believable and needs a minute or two to figure out what the hell they’re going to do now.

Staring back at him, from the bottom of his container, was shit. Literally. Someone had taken a shit – either right into the container or not – and left it there. Just left it there. Completely ignoring how unsanitary it was to stick a shit in the fridge, it was fucking… Unbelievable. Auri could not believe what he was seeing right now.

“So sorry to intrude, my friend, but I simply can not smoke anymore meth without a little water.” Auri looked up, startled out of his disgust by the cultured, youthful voice. Wait, did he just say meth?

“My goodness, dear, whatever have you got there?” The young man strode closer. He had one of those youthful, chameleon-like faces. Auri wouldn’t have been surprised to find that he was anywhere between 15 and 25. It wasn’t the youthful face that threw him, though. It was the large, innocent blue eyes. The curly golden hair, the cupid’s bow mouth, the sweet sounding voice. There wasn’t a spec of filth on his expensive looking clothes.

The young gentleman crouched on the ground next to him, and Auri helpfully tilted the container so he could see what was inside.

“Goodness me!” The golden haired youth exclaimed. He reached out and delicately plucked the cigarette dangling from Auri’s lips and took a long drag, “You aren’t going to eat that, are you? Peanut sauce is a culinary miracle in itself, but I’m not convinced it can make even that atrocity edible.”

“No.” Auri managed, “I’m not going to eat it.” He hadn’t even smelled it, the apartment stank that bad anyways.

The youth glanced at him, “You’re not the one that put that there, are you?”

“Good god, no.” Auri set the container down on the floor, “When I left it was full of Pad Thai.”

“Mmm. Delightful.” The youth murmured. He picked up the container and gave it a curious sniff, “Disgraceful. I do recognize that your people are rather closer to their primitive side than some, but there is no excuse for this.” He glanced at the filth surrounding them.

Auri laughed humourlessly and stole the cigarette back from the blond, “Those aren’t my fuckin’ people.” He breathed the smoke out through his nose.

He sighed, “No, I rather suppose that they are not.” The blond considered him for a brief moment, “So, tell me, duckling. How would you feel about exacting revenge on that sorry lot?”

Auri gazed at him and took a long drag on his cigarette. What in the hell was this guy even doing here? He went with his gut, “And what would you need in return for vengeance?”

“Mm. How about you take me for some of this Pad Thai you’re so broken up over?” The blond smiled gently at him before taking the cigarette back. There were only two or three more puffs left on it, and as far as Auri was concerned, the demon could have it.

“That’s all?” Auri asked carefully. Only a fool would deal carelessly with a demon. On that note, only a fool would deal with one at all. But Auri was sick of this shit. Sick to death of it.

“Yes, friend. I’ll kill every single one of them, and you’ll take me for Pad Thai.” The demon smiled angelically and tapped ashes off his cigarette, leaving them on the cheap linoleum.

“If you swear you won’t harm, torture, mutilate or kill me in any way shape or form, I’ll buy you two orders. And a soda.” Auri grinned. What the fuck. Why not?

“Deal.” The demon grinned.

“Good. So, do you just…” Auri gestured.

“You’ve got to invoke my name, duckling.” The demon leaned closer and whispered against his ear.

“Dulcis Ultionis?” Auri tried softly.

“Call me Sweet, duckling.”