Ink

“Happy birthday Cam.”

Cam blinked. “What . . . oh. Oh!” His cheeks flushed. He’d forgotten his own birthday. All things considered there were alot more important things going on right now than his turning eighteen.

“Pretty messed up day it’s turning out to be.” Jake said looking out the window. They were in a car: a Lexus, Rx Hybrid to be exact. A few hours ago they’d been pushed into what Jake could only describe as a vortex of crackling electricity. They’d popped out the other side at a garage complex. To say that he hadn’t expected a Demon King to ride in a car was an understatement. He hadn’t imagined a demon would even know how to drive. He was glad he did though. No way did he want to go back into another one of those vortexes.

It was obvious that Aimon had expensive tastes. Jake being a car fanatic himself, should have felt elated, but all he could manage to dredge up was a numb sort of horror.

He kept sneaking glances at Cam to see if he was ‘changing’. Aimon had said that soon he should start feeling the effects of the link he had with the demon. So far Cam looked and acted pretty normal.

“Yeah.” Cameron said. “Thanks Jake. Mom was going---. Oh shit, MOM!”
She’s gonna come home and walk right into that thing. He’s---“

Aimon locked eyes with Cameron in the rearview mirror.” Calm down Cam. I’ve set a repellant spell on the house before we left. Anyone who comes near it for the next twelve hours will be compelled to go elsewhere. That should give the demon more than enough time to look for you. Once he sees that you aren’t there he’ll leave. ‘He’ is not up to his full strength yet, so he won’t stay and risk getting into confrontation. The first thing he’ll want to do is feed.”

“Feed?” Cam felt his skin crawl. “What does he eat?”

At first neither boy thought the demon was going to answer. He took so long to do so. Then he said, “We can eat human food, but we metabolize it so quickly that it has to be consumed in large amounts. Otherwise we need protein. We can get that from animals, but those are rarer to come by in the city. ‘He’ is not above killing people.”

“You mean he eats people?! Have you. . . ?!”

Aimon shook his head, yet his face remained as solemn as if he were talking about the weather. “I never acquired a taste for them.”

Jake snorted. “Well that’s good to know.” He stiffened a bit when Aimon turned those piercing emerald eyes on him. Deciding to change the subject to something a little lighter, Jake asked. “Where are we going?”

“There is no particular destination. We are only trying to put distance between the demon and ourselves. The further we are from him, the less likely he will be to sense your brother.”

“Why didn’t we just hop---“Jake waved his hand in the air. “—Through that vortex thing.”

“Because humans are not meant to walk in between the worlds.”

Jake really didn’t want to ask. He really didn’t . . . but, “Worlds?”

Aimon’s sigh was long suffering. “ Terra quod Abyssus. Your closest translation would be between Earth and Hell.”

Aimon saw a sign for a hotel up ahead and turned off the next exit. “We will lodge here for the night.” He waited until he had pulled into a parking space, before he turned to Jake. “You will secure a room for you and brother.”

Jake turned his pockets inside out. “Ah, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but I don’t have any cash on me.”

Aimon extended his hand towards Jake with nothing in it, but when he drew back a wad of cash was lying on Jake’s palm.

“Did you get this money from the same place you put your sword and the book?” Jake asked.

“The book has gone to The Order. “The money—“, Aimon cocked his head to the side. It was the same thing he done back in their house before they all had to leave, like he was listening for something. He looked down at Jake. “--is none of your business.”

Jake shrugged and nudged the passenger side door open with his shoulder. He slid out and slammed the door. Cam followed suit. The two brothers stood together and looked at Aimon through the window. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Later. It is time now for me to hunt.”

Jake looked as if he was about to say something more, but Aimon’s form was becoming misty. In a few seconds he had disappeared all together. The brothers blinked at the empty car seat for a moment, and noted that Aimon had left the keys in the ignition. Jake opened the door and reached across the seat to get the key. For a moment he contemplated getting in the car with Cam and driving off. He didn’t know where they would go, but at least they’d have each other, and try to put all this crazy shit behind them. The thought was a fleeting one though. If they left now, either Aimon or Cithru would eventually find them. Their best bet was to stay with Aimon. The fact that their hope relied on a soulless demon that could walk between Earth and Hell put into focus just how desperate their lives had become.

Jake backed out of the car, trying to shrug off his melancholy. They had to take this thing one step at time. He turned to his brother. “You ready Cam. . . Cam?”

The parking lot was empty.


*****
Cithru’s teeth ached with his need to feed.

He scanned the park from where he was hiding in the bushes. He’d had to wait until near dusk to hunt, because of his current appearance he couldn’t risk moving under the public’s eye.

He’d waited for the right prey to walk by. All he’d gotten so far was a mangy stray. The dog barely had enough meat to tease his empty belly. He spied a male jogger coming up the path. The spot he had chosen angled alongside a well-trodden walkway, which was a popular place for joggers. Others had come along but always with a companion. This one was alone.

He could hear the annoying chatter from a voice box the human surrounded his ears with, as he got closer. Cithru crouched, and waited. When the jogger was almost upon him Cithru pounced.

He had one moment to register the wide frightened eyes of his victim. A mouth gaped open, but the brain was too horrified by what it was seeing to instruct the vocal cords to work. Cithru preferred his meals alive and kicking, but he couldn’t risk the screams. In a lightning quick move he reached up and neatly broke the man’s neck. There was a bone-sickening crunch as his enthusiasm tore the skull from the vertebrae of its spine.

Cithru caught the dead weight before he could hit the ground. One of the sneakers popped off when Cithru dragged the man into the bushes to feed.

He left it.

****

Jake had never been so terrified in his life. In the two minutes it took to find Cam, he’d managed to formulate all manner of macabre notions of what might have happened to his brother.

Cam hadn’t gotten into trouble, yet. Jake saw the glass first and not long after, his brother. Cam was crouched beside a vending machine. The kind with everything in it from candy bars to sandwiches. He’d broken the glass out.

Several empty wrappers littered the ground around his feet. He was working on stuffing an entire honey bun into his mouth. His eyes were glazed, chocolate smeared around his mouth, and if Jake wasn’t mistaken, he was growling.

Jake froze where he stood, looking down at his baby brother and not having any idea what to do. “Cam?”

Cam looked up at the sound of his name. The eyes that peered back at him held no recognition.

“Shit! Shit! Aimon why did you leave us?!” Especially when he knew what was going to happen to his brother.

Cam slid to his feet, those glazed eyes intent on Jake. Jake took a step back, weary of the predator glint he saw in his brother’s eyes.

Cam lunged.

Jake had just enough time to get his arm up before his brother rammed into him. The impact sent them both to the sidewalk. Jake saw stars when his head slammed into the concrete. Shooting pain exploded through his skull and at the back of his eyes, but he had no chance to recover. His arm was tucked under his brother’s chin, holding his mouth at bay.

Cam snapped with his teeth and snarled. The look on his face was feral and hungry. Jake was trembling with fear, and the effort it was taking to keep Cam’s teeth from reaching his face and throat. His strength bordered on inhuman.

Cam made a gagging sound as Jake’s elbow dug into his throat, but he still didn’t let up. Jake was torn between yelling for help and not letting anything happen to his brother.

“GOD! PLEASE!”

Suddenly Cam was yanked off of him. Jake rolled onto his knees and got shakily to his feet. For the first time Aimon was a welcome sight. He held a struggling Cam to his chest. Cam might have been a baby for all the ease Aimon held him with. “Jake go!”

Jake shook his head.

“NOW!” There seemed to be a push behind the command. Jake stumbled forward a bit, as if an unforeseen hand had nudged him in the back. “You can’t do anything for him,” Aimon said.

Jake finally relented, but he wanted to make sure, “You won’t hurt him?”

All it took was Aimon’s nod, and Jake walked away.

****

Aimon probed the hotel room with his mind to make sure it was not occupied. It wasn't. He opened the door and carried Cam inside. He took Cam over to the bed, and laid him down, pressing his lower half over Cam’s kicking legs to still them.

The wrists he had caught were forced behind Cam’s back, and held there by the power of Aimon’s will. Aimon caught Cam’s face between his big hands and forced his thrashing head to be still. “Cam? I know you can hear me. You don’t have to feed him. There is just you, you need worry about. Only your needs Cameron. Focus.” Cam stopped struggling. Aimon’s voice had taken on a lyrical quality he couldn’t help but want to hear. “Focus!”

Aimon’s warm breath ghosted across his lips making Cam shudder. His pupils unclouded a bit more, and enlarged instead. The only way to subdue Cam’s hunger was to turn it into something else. One of the easier emotions was lust. “I am here Cam, feel me.” Aimon moved his hands from the side of Cam’s head and glided them down the slender neck to stroke his shoulders.

“Aimon!” Cam sighed.

Aimon continued to caress Cam until every trace of his hunger was gone. Lust was an emotion the beast could deal with. Cam could function with this emotion. However, as the strength of the link between him and the demon increased it would take more than a few hand strokes to quell Cam’s urges.

Aimon released the boy slowly and stood up from the bed. Cam sat up. His cheeks were flushed and he ran the back of his hand against his mouth. It came away with chocolate. He grimaced. Earnest eyes looked up at Aimon.

He asked, “What just happened?”