Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact!
Premise: Here, we shall explore the meshing of cultures and misunderstandings that come with the accidental abduction of one person from among her family and friends. This is a story of someone finding themselves lost among three different worlds and cultures while she struggles with finding her place in the complex maze of court politics and falling in love.Ā
Please Note: Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are expanded on as necessary when they might be important to the chapter. Past is not expanded upon when it does not call for it. Each chapter will come with a Content Warning. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
This story will follow cannon events while folding in lore and world building from other parts of the fandom and a personal story. My OC will be named Lyssa. Lyssaās character will be written in first person and sometimes deviate into the third person if I want to expand into the other characters perspectives.
š= Smut
Main Series:
Take Flight, Lesson 1-1: Royal Academy
Take Flight, Lesson 1-1 Part 2: Royal Academy
Take Flight, Lesson 1-2: The Seven Brothers
Take Flight, Lesson 1-3: Mammon, Avatar of Greed
Take Flight, Lesson 1-5: Good Luck
Take Flight, Part 7-2: A Multi-Day Tour of the Demon Lord's Castle
Take Flight, Part 7-4: Multi-day Tour of the Demon Lord's Castle, continued
Take Flight, Lesson 7-7: Welcome to the Devildom History Tour
Take Flight, Lesson 7-10: The Tour BEGINS, (finally)
Take Flight, Lesson 7-12: It's Evil to Pretend You're Never Evil
Take Flight, Lesson 7-17: Not Every Old Friend is a Friend, Family Included
Take Flight, Lesson 7-20: Pillows, Questions, and Lectures, Oh My!
Take Flight, Lesson 8-1: Dragons and Demons- š= Diavolo/Lyssa
Take Flight, Lesson 8-2: The Charmer š= Diavolo/Lyssa
Take Flight, Hard Mode Lesson 38-16: The Punishment that Followed -Lucifer, Diavolo Threesomeš
Random Chapters that can be read as standalones (probably):
Take Flight, Part ?: Demons and Dragons
Take Flight, Part ?: Diavolo Smut š
Take Flight, Part ?: The Confession -Luciferš
Take Flight, Part ?: The Talk
Take Flight, Part ?: Avoidance -Diavolo/Lyssaš
Take Flight, Part ?: The Pregnancy
Take Flight, Part?: Stood Up -Diavolo/Lyssa/Luciferš
The source of my "Give a fucks" explanation. No one really understood the spoons explanation when I tried to tell them about it, so I swapped if for the question "How many fucks do you have to give in a day? Is that fight worth 3 of your 5 fucks to give and then driving yourself into the negatives when you need at least one at then end of the day for your bedtime routine? The negatives are when you feel so depleted that it's hard to do anything more than move."
Diavolo definitely knew what he was doing. Drama, suspicions, and another relationship forming.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and mentions of characterās past and history which ARE expanded on as they ARE slightly important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
References are made to previous chapters. See the Masterlist.
Definitely spicy in the beginning...and the end! š= Diavolo/Lyssa
------
Leaning back on my elbows on the desks surface, I was breathing harder than normal and eyeing Diavolo, who hovered above me with his hands planted on either side of my body. He was flushed and there was a sheen of sweat across his skin. His head dropped to my neck and he scraped fangs across my skin. I shivered and ran a hand through his hair, tugging a little when he remained focused on leaving another mark. He drew back and I kissed him, a lingering thing that he deepened.
What would happen if I tried to...
A sharp knock at the office door startled us apart, but Diavolo looked at the door and growled lowly. His brow was furrowed and his lips pulled into a frown, a stark contrast to his usual cheerful smile. My head dropped back on my shoulders and I groaned with the interruption. Heat was still throbbing through me, making my stomach and toes tingle. I couldn't remember how many times Diavolo had brought me to orgasm or how many times he had filled me, but it certainly hadn't satisfied the Rut. He might have even made it worse.
Was that supposed to happen?
Diavolo looked at me sidelong and then rubbed a hand over his face. "Your Rut scent hasn't even remotely faded," he sighed. "And I want nothing more that to continue this..."
He was still hard inside me when he pulled out and I couldn't help the flex of my claws on the desk, gouging deep marks into its surface. The heat in my body flared briefly and every muscle protested for a moment, but I didn't reach to pull him back. The scent of sex was heavy on our skin when he stepped away and I sat up.
For a second, I didn't want to look at him and then I forced my eyes onto him as he fixed the boxers and the pajama pants I hadn't shredded. We considered his shirt together and then I looked at mine and grinned. My pants and underwear were fine, but Diavolo had ripped my shirt open and destroyed my bra.
Well, at least something had survived. It wasn't like I hadn't ruined my clothes in pranks or destroyed clothing during heated sex before, but I generally drew a line at wandering around stark naked. At least the thought was cooling my blood a little as I considered that issue and then discarded. Breasts bare to the world wasn't something that I was ashamed of. And it wasn't like I could run into any of my family in the Devildom on a walk back to my room.
As I hopped up, I froze as warmth trickled down my thigh. For a moment, I thought it was blood, but an inspection found the fluids to be a mix of Diavolo's cum and my slick. He was grinning at me when I scrambled for my clothes and then another sharp knock sounded. Diavolo growled again as I slipped the pants over my hips.
Considering my issue again, I decided to unVeil my draconic features. Light colored wings shimmered onto being over my shoulders as the trail of scales rippled across my skin from eye to navel to hip and out of sight. My eyesight became clearer and fingertips sharpened into true claws and my teeth shifted fully to fangs. I glanced up at Diavolo and found his fascinated gaze on me as he stepped closer, bringing a hand to my face. He ran a thumb over my scales and I shivered with the touch, suddenly feeling vulnerable.
I stepped away from him and dropped my wings around my shoulders and chest, linking the wing claws almost like a cloak around my neck and covering the majority of my skin. He looked like he wanted to say something, but I skittered around him to the door and pulled it open. Lucifer stood in my way.
Dark, crimson hued eyes met mine and whatever strong emotions he was feeling weren't evident in his expression. His mask was also in place even as he unclasped his cloak and swung it around my shoulders. "This will provide you better cover than your wings," he stated and we stared at each other for a second before his eyes focused over my shoulder. "Breakfast will be soon. I recommend you see to yourself, Lord Diavolo."
"Lu," Diavolo began, but he stopped when I looked over my shoulder.
"I'll see that Lyssa makes it in time," Lucifer said and that was the end of the conversation. He put a hand on my back and steered me away from the empty office and Diavolo.
Feeling his touch through the cloak on my wing made me itch and intensified the feeling of vulnerability so I Veiled my wings and allowed them to fall under the gentle cloak of my magic. He glanced at me when the cloak shifted and dropped a few centimeters.
He grabbed my shoulder and then turned me to face him. His eyes traced carefully over my body and I tugged his cloak tighter around myself as I scowled at him. "What?" I snapped.
A pause. "Nothing. Just...don't assume that this will become a-"
"I'm not delusional, Lucifer," I cut in sharply. "I know I'm not worth much of anything to anyone." I shrugged his hand away and gestured with a mocking bow and a hand thrown out for him to continue to lead the way since I knew I would be lost without him.
He stared at me, his mask fracturing into something else. It was anger and...pity. My expression tightened as I recognized the emotion. Pity was the last thing I wanted or needed. It was useless and stupid and did neither party any good.
I wrapped my arms around my stomach and turned from him, preferring lost to pity. There was only a moment in which I outpaced him and then he was at my side again. We continued in silence, his hand finding my shoulder to guide me around the twists and turns of the castle.
"So the scent two days ago was yours and not a perfume that Asmo gave you," he said suddenly.
"Yes."
"Dragons are capable of Ruts, then?"
I wanted to hit him, but I squashed the feeling down. "Yes," I answered again.
He seemed to be waiting for an explanation, but when I didn't offer one, he tightened his grip on my shoulder and pulled me to a stop at his side. "Lyssa," he sighed in a reproachful tone.
"What?" I snapped at him. "I'm going through a Rut. It's the first time I've been affected by it, but I know what to expect. Its fight or fuck, Lucifer, and Diavolo was receptive to me. Consenting adults means its none of your business, so don't try and lecture me about decorum and crap." I was getting tired again and I was sore everywhere. I tried to push his hand off my shoulder, but his grip was tight and painful.
"Why didn't you ask one of us for help? We are your assigned guardians in the Devildom. There are potions that can help to suppress your-"
"No," I snarled. "You and most of your brothers have threatened, tried to maul or eat me, and attempted or actually did attack me. I'd have only tried to fight them and that would have been messy for everyone. If anything, Diavolo is the only choice I would have taken right now."
He didn't like the flaws of his brothers or himself being pointed out, the failure on their part to actually be guardians to me, and his expression was darkening. If I ditched the cloak, I could probably slip out of his grip and get a head start on him, but I also didn't want to spark the predator in him with a chase so I looked away from him.
If he wanted to hurt me, fine. I'd survived these things before, could do so again. Never mind the small part of myself that had slowly been uncurling around them...him. Pain wasn't new. I would seal that part away again and bury it, ignore it, whatever survival took.
And then, he said, "Yes, we have failed in that part of our duties, I failed." His fingers loosened. "You're...an infuriating woman to deal with and you stick your nose where it doesn't belong, and..." I braced myself for his vitriol. "...you're also...charming...in your way, and your persistence is remarkable in the face of what we've put you through."
I turned my head to him and blinked in surprise. There was a slight darkening of color across his cheeks and nose, but I didn't dwell on it. "Thanks...I think," I offered.
For a long moment, we just studied each other. Gathering myself, I lifted a hand towards him and his eyes flickered between my eyes and my fingers. Almost gently, I lightly brushed the skin of my fingers and palm against his cheek, mindful of my claws. He didn't pull away from me, but I did and I tucked my hand against my stomach again. It was the first time he had allowed me to touch him and I had to ignore the way my stomach was twisting.
"I...Potions that work on demons for their Ruts...might not be safe for me, considering how human I am. Plus, a dragon's Rut usually can't be suppressed during a Breeding Year and I don't find your brothers physically attractive so fighting with them would be the only option."
Lucifer pressed a leather-clad finger to my lips and I stopped talking, realizing I had been rambling. "I think I understand," he said. "But will you be able to keep yourself together for the day?"
I could feel my scales bristling at his tone, but I settled myself with a growl. Now wasn't the time to be arguing with him, not when I was half-naked and smelling heavily of another male and sex. "Yes, it won't be a problem," I said finally.
He studied me for a long moment. "Your scent..." his voice trailed off.
For some reason, I could feel a blush creeping across my face. Ignoring it, I answered, "That won't be an issue after I shower and change into new clothes."
"You reek of Lord Diavolo's scent," Lucifer said, his eyes darkening just a little. "Generally, a demon's scent will linger with yours for a while after sex."
I almost made a comment. The words were right there, but I held it back. It wasn't my place. "It's not as if he marked me," I grunted. "A shower and clothes will dispel it." Especially since I had taken Mammon's shirt a few days ago and Asmo likely wouldn't care if I borrowed a scarf or something with his scent.
"I know a spell," he sighed.
-----
It was an hour later fresh out of a cold shower and changed into new clothes that Lucifer and I joined his brothers and Diavolo in the large dining room. Asmo was staring hard between Lucifer and I as he explained the plans for the second day of the retreat. Mammon had snagged me into the seat next to him at the end of the table and immediately claimed my attention to lay out a hypothetical plan about a painting and how I might, possibly, hypothetically be able to help him tonight with it. I just leaned my chin into the palm of my hand and listened to him and Lucifer as they both spoke about what was going on.
A list was handed out to each of us containing the items we would be looking for through the castle. A scavenger hunt sounded interesting, but it would also mean I would be alone with whoever I was paired up with. Hopefully, I'd get Simeon and Luke or even Solomon, not that I was holding up much hope for that when the point of the retreat was to mingle with both the demon and angle students.
Eventually, Mammon's planning lapsed into silence as he nodded off against Beel's shoulder, who was none too pleased to be used as a pillow. He kept trying to shove Mammon off his shoulder with the complaint that his older brother was heavy.
"Shut up and at least let me rest my head against your shoulder, Beel. Lucifer kept me up until morning...I didn't get a wink of sleep..." he yawned widely and Asmo's eyes immediately shot to me, a smile curling at his lips.
And then Diavolo had to go and add his own statement. "Yes, Lucifer just kept going and going last night, didn't he? I'm sure you had a hard time, Mammon." Mischief gleamed in his golden eyes when I stared at him. Yep, he knew exactly what he was stirring up with those words. "Though I have to say, it was fun to watch." He chuckled and grinned at me as I felt heat creeping up my neck.
"That's NOT funny!" Mammon grumbled, likely already resigned to the way his brothers were about to react.
Asmo squealed excitedly and clasped his hands together, leaning over the table towards me like he could physically touch me if he just leaned far enough. "Lyssa wasn't in our room this morning and Simeon said that she disappeared with Lucifer and Mammon after a late night visit!" He rapid fired questions at us about different positions and who liked what and who had watched or done what with each other. I was glad to see Simeon react quickly and press his hands over Luke's ears when Asmo began his questioning. The smaller angle appeared displeased, tugging at Simeon's wrists as they engaged in their own quiet conversation.
Levi took a quick look around the table and then grinned widely as he began furiously tapping away on his phone. "Big news: Last night Lord Diavolo, Lucifer, Mammon, and Lyssa totally [CENSORED]!"
Mammon looked disgruntled as he barked at Levi, "HEY! Don't post stuff like that! I don't want my personal information leakin' online." We all glanced sideways at him.
Satan was the one who broke out of his shock first. "Wait, that's the part you have a problem with, Mammon?"
Asmo laughed again, clapping his hands together. "I bet they were on the [CENSORED], and Lucifer [CENSORED] and [CENSORED]! Right, am I right?" he asked me and I sighed at the way he and Levi were watching me so rapturously.
Solomon glanced between the four of us, probably noting Diavolo's amusement, Lucifer's lack of reaction, Mammon's furious blush, and whatever expression I was wearing. He seemed to make a decision and calmly said, "So, back to business. I think you mentioned that day two of the retreat was supposed to be-" his voice trailed off and Simeon forcefully finished "-a scavenger hunt, right?"
The eldest sighed and crimson hued eyes flickered briefly over me before Lucifer said, "Yes, we'll be having a scavenger hunt." He tried to keep going, but Asmo interrupted him again-much to Lucifer's annoyance.
"Wait, wait, wait! I know someone got laid! And I want to know who it was!" Asmo cut in impatiently, looking at me expectantly. "Your scent has been changing all week, Lyssa. You're wearing Mammon's shirt and my scarf, probably to cover that delicious scent. What is it, by the way? It's something familiar and I am dying to know what it is!"
Mammon seemed to give up on trying to glare Levi into submission as his younger brother continued to tap furiously away on the device. He laid his head on my shoulder as I smiled lazily at Asmo and patted Mammon's hair. Power rose to my other palm as I watched Levi out of the corner of my eye.
"Maybe I've just come to like yours and Mammon's scents the best this week. As to the scent you've been picking up from me, you and I can go shopping sometime and we'll get ingredients to recreate the perfumes and other scents I use at home. Sound good?"
My finger was tapping against the table's surface and carving a certain rune as I directed the energy I had spun for my spell. Asmo was beaming and going strong on the suggestions for what else we could do on an outing together and the different stores we could check out and different products to try. Beside him, Levi's phone sparked and made the water demon yelp as the device crackled with electricity.
Through it all, I was aware of the golden eyes that remained on me. Satan's attention had also not wavered through the muddled conversation. Beel, thankfully, seemed to be thoroughly content with eating the food that Barbatos had set for everyone, including Mammon's share. "Awww...I was almost ready to make my post," Levi grumbled, glaring at the now smoking device.
"It's a good thing you carry an extra one or two phones," I reminded him and his expression brightened.
"That's true! Thanks for reminding me, Lys! I'll just run to the room and-" He was already inching away from the table to make an escape when he froze under his eldest brother's dark, unamused glare.
"As I was saying-" Lucifer began menacingly, already in lecture mode as he picked up the dropped thread of conversation he had been leading.
As for me, I could only stare at Levi. When had he begun to call me that? Had he picked it up from Diavolo or was it something I just hadn't noticed the brothers' doing?
-----
An hour or three into the scavenger hunt and Simeon, Asmo, and I had already crossed paths with several of the other groups. Thankfully, Asmo seemed determined to get in everyone's photos and charm the statues and paintings to all look at and admire him. He was as distracted as I could hope and Simeon was attempting to mitigate the damage done to the hunt and the angry growls Asmo was getting from his brothers. Solomon just stood on and watched in amusement as his pact-mate continued on with his antics. Apparently, the scavenger hunt was devolving into...something else.
And maybe (un?)fortunately, Diavolo and Lucifer had also joined in the sideshow to watch the plans of the day come completely unraveled. Diavolo was standing so close to my back with his arms crossed over his chest that I could feel his body heat radiating against my shirt and skin. He was doing that not-touching thing that drove me crazy. Maybe if I ignored him he'd go away. But that wasn't happening and he knew I knew. At least Lucifer was thoroughly distracted by the antics of his younger brothers. Mammon was casing something and Asmo was still busy with a statue Satan was trying to get a picture of and also looked like he was contemplating murder. It seemed to be enough to pull his attention from Diavolo and I...maybe?
I almost jumped when Diavolo's fingers slid along my hipbone. Okay, he wasn't doing the not-touching thing. His other hand pulled my hair to the other side of my neck so he could lean closer to my ear and gently say, "This isn't nearly as fun as the hunt from earlier."
His breath was warm against the shell of my ear and I was remembering the things he had done to me earlier with that tongue of his. Arousal was settling into the pit of my stomach. "Uh...huh," I responded intelligently.
"Did you do it on purpose?" he chuckled, guiding me to step back into him until my shoulders were against his chest and my ass was...
Safe topic, safe topic, safe topic. I was scrambling not to think about the way his dick was pressing into the seam of my jeans and seemed half-hard. Levi. SAFE TOPIC!!! "Uh...yeah, I sparked Levi's phone to stop him making that post. Was that the wrong thing to do?"
"Not precisely," he chuckled. "Barbatos would have handled any situations should something have...arisen. And that wasn't what I meant, but its good to know." His arm slid around my collarbones and then his other slid across my stomach, pulling me flush against him and...yes...he was definitely hard. "So, did you spark me into a hunt on purpose?"
My gaze darted to the others ahead of us, but they already drawn enough ahead that I was certain even demon hearing wouldn't hear our quiet conversation. Even a quick check of my three pact-bonds found Levi, Beel, and Mammon sufficiently distracted.
"And if I said yes?" I asked.
His chuckle tickled the hairs on my neck as I tilted my head enough to give him access. He slid his fingers beneath the scarf I was wearing and loosened it enough that he could slip it off my neck and revealed the hickeys and other bruises he had left that morning.
Diavolo scraped blunt teeth over my skin and I shivered against him. He ground his cock against my ass and pulled me a few steps deeper into the shadows. "I'd remind you that demons are possessive and dangerous," he breathed against my skin. "I want you and I don't like that you smell like my avatars."
I leaned my head back against his shoulder, but snorted a laugh at his last remark. "This isn't a claiming, Diavolo. It's just sex, good sex, but just sex. Getting involved publicly with one of your exchange students would make things too complicated for you with your court and your goal of bringing better connections between the realms."
His hands paused just under the hem of my shirt on my stomach. He rubbed a thumb across the jagged claw scar on my hip as he considered something. I turned my head enough to glimpse his face and the frown he was wearing as he stared ahead of us.
"Diavolo?" I asked.
He huffed a laugh and buried his face in my shoulder. I reached back to him and brushed my fingers against his cheek.
Ah. He'd been caught up in a momentary lapse in judgement with the retreat and the Rut. This should have been a reprieve for him and I'd reminded him of duties and responsibilities. Even if he did find me attractive and interesting and we had shared a romantic interest in each other-and there was no way that could be possible-there were certain lines that shouldn't be crossed.
Would he draw that line now? The hurt was a small pang, there and gone, as I pressed a kiss to his other cheek. "I'm going to be stuck with my Rut for at least several weeks." Unless I was cursed with the full Rut, then twelve months, at the most. "Would you...mind...helping me through it?" He rolled his head on my shoulder until he met my gaze, something curiously soft in his eyes, but I was only imagining it. "There are plenty of dragons that come through their Ruts as friends and, except for that short period of time, never think of sharing a bed again."
He smiled at that and gave me a lingering, chaste kiss. "I think we can manage that," he chuckled.
"Just...do me one favor and don't rip my clothes this time."
-----
He shredded the shirt and scarf this time and I ended up with scraped palms from using the stone wall to balance myself against his forceful thrusts. Technically, he had lived up to my request.
Smut...just that. DiavoloxLyssa. More fun plot development on the forming relationships.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! FEMALE Named character and ANATOMY, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which ARE expanded on as they ARE slightly more than usually important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
References are made to previous chapters. See the Masterlist.
š= Smut, Diavolo/Lyssa
-----
"Why is she sleeping like this?" Diavolo.
"How is she able to sleep like that?" Lucifer.
"No idea. I've found her sleepin' like this before, in the tree in her room." Mammon. "Didn' know she could sleep like this on people, though." His pact-bond flashed with jealousy again.
Identifying the voices of those around me was easy enough, as was the topic of their confusion. Somehow, I had managed to perch on Diavolo's side in our sleep and draped my arms over his chest and back and thrown my legs across his. Because of course I would.
Perching on something for sleep wasn't unusual. It provided a better defense than sleeping in a bed and it was generally more comfortable, depending on the weather. I had not, however, perched on someone in my life. Of course, I'd never really shared a bed with anyone unrelated in my life, either. Lucifer had still been going strong in lecture mode when I had fallen asleep sitting beside Diavolo. How I had ended up on his side probably spoke more to how Diavolo slept than me...probably.
As it stood...
"I know you're awake, Lys," Diavolo said, amusement lacing his voice.
...I pushed back from Diavolo with a grin, flapped my wings to gain space, and then spun and was off through the door.
Barbatos was in the hall with something in hand when I hit the wall, bounced off it and then sprang to the other wall behind him and was off running with a mad cackle. There was a bang behind me but I didn't stop to assess who was chasing, there was no need to.
-----
No matter how many times he said it to himself that their developing closeness didn't bother him, there was something in those interactions that fractured his pride, just a little. The look on Mammon's face said enough for the both of them. It wasn't a good feeling to be the ones left behind, no matter how hard they had pushed them away.
-----
Really, I should have learned from the day before. I had no idea where I was going and this really was Diavolo's home. For every turn that I took, his scent seemed to linger around the other and he kept prolonging the chase. The shadows twisted on each other and I turned a different direction, a sound in that direction and I went straight...
Arms around my waist and the breath was yanked from my lungs, the world was a swirl of color, and then cold stone to my back and hot lips covering mine. Silk beneath my claws parted much easier than his blazer of yesterday. His hands were under my shirt, tracing fingers over the soft flesh of my stomach as mine felt across the peaks and valleys of his abdomen. His skin was taut under my touch as I worked the shirt off his shoulders and my lips followed a path down his neck and fangs dug into his collarbone.
The grunt he gave when his flesh dented under my bite was a pleasing sound, so I lingered there and sucked a bruise into his skin. He wedged his thigh between mine and dragged the plane of his muscles against my core, making me gasp. Against my hip, I could feel the hardened length of his cock rubbing through the soft material of his sleep wear.
"Diavolo," I gasped and he chuckled against my neck.
"So reactive," he murmured, and one hand slid into my hair to tighten sharply and yank my head back. Teeth scraped against my pulse point and I growled at the sKIN-CrAWLInG shiver, jamming a palm into his face to dislodge the teeth.
"U-u-uhh-um," I stuttered. Heat was rushing from my belly to my neck and face when I clapped a hand over my mouth and the other to my shirt. I had never done such a thing before in my LIFE. Diavolo was blinking rapidly at me, like he was trying to process the information and had hit a snag.
"So," he began. "The side of your neck is fine, but was it the hair pulling or the throat that made you react?"
Was he...was he really...asking me what was and was not ok?
"The...throat," I said thickly.
"Bad experience or just a thing?"
"It's...just...too vulnerable...for a dragon." It was an act of submission to our ruler to give our throats, but he was asking me as part of this situation, checking in with me(?). Why?
To my confusion, he smiled. "Lys, I'm assuming you didn't mean to smack me in the face," he said gently and I shook my head. "See? So, that means it was something else that made you react." His fingers traced over my cheek as his smile widened into a grin. "You're attractive and interesting, but I'm not in the habit of taking an unwilling partner. I don't want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable."
The embarrassment was fading as his words took hold and increased the confusion. Humans partners had been easy because I was the stronger party and I hadn't been interested in someone unwilling. Dragons...we usually fought if we clashed in something that didn't meet both our tastes.
"Oh," was all I could think to say. Perhaps I had assumed that demons, or at least Diavolo, would be the same. But he wasn't. I knew that, had already seen and acknowledged several ways in which he was different from what I knew of dragons, but instinct was a tricky thing.
His smile faded a bit in the face of my silence. "We should stop here," he said. "I'm sure one of the Brothers would be glad to help you with your situation."
My fingers closed on the collar of his ruined shirt when he started to pull away and he paused with a quizzical look. "I'm okay, Diavolo," I said. "I really am. I'm just...used to a different reaction. I like you, I really do, and I like the way you make me feel. It's different, but it's also good." I was babbling then and I stopped, feeling the blush creeping up my ears, but he was smiling again and I had to view that as a good thing, or I was going to probably die of embarrassment before my Rut was done. But, if we were checking in with each other... "Do you...want...me to find someone else?"
My hands smoothed down his collar to his shoulders so he could pull away if he wanted to. I had dealt with rejection before, could do so again. There were other ways to get through a dragon's Rut, other demons that I could probably find who were compatible enough to fight or fuck with. There were ways I could balance the exchange program and the Rut without interfering with my responsibilities.
Diavolo startled a gasp out of me when he lifted me by the thighs, caged me against the stone wall with his body, and dipped in for a kiss. His tongue tangled with mine and heat stirred through my body again, starting at my core. My arms slid around his neck and my legs locked around his back as he rutted into me with those little movements that dragged his hardening length against my clothed slit.
He drew back, just a little, to say, "No, I don't."
-----
The door to the...office?...was smoother against my back than the stone wall had been. It was hard to care about our surroundings when Diavolo was exploring my body with teeth, tongue, and hands and making me arch into him with little gasps and moans. Heat was burning just beneath my skin everywhere he was touching me and making my head spin. Locking my ankles around his waist drew him as close as possible and made it easier to meet his thrusts.
I littered his collar bone and neck with little love bites, occasionally licking or sucking the fading marks. His hands moved from my breasts to my hips so he could hold me against his growing erection and grind into me.
It was a pleasant way to explore and map his body as my hands traveled the expanse of his chest and dipped teasingly towards the hem of his pants. His little grunts and moans just spurred me further as his grinding provided enough friction to satisfy me for now. He groaned when my hands slid back up his chest and paused to brush a thumb across his...bellybutton?...yes, a bellybutton. Interesting, but his teeth were sinking into my shoulder and that was more interesting.
He yanked my shirt open, sending buttons skittering out of sight. That earned him a laugh and he gave an amused rumble that vibrated back into my own chest. The bra straps snapped easily under his hands before his fingers were deftly rolling my nipples into peaks. Electricity was shooting through my entire body, my toes tingling with it.
Sweat was dripping down my back and I could see the sheen of it on Diavolo's skin. His neck and shoulder were tantalizingly exposed to me and, unable to resist, I bit that spot again. He gave a startled moan against my own skin and said, "Keep that up and I will take you across the desk." That was a growl and I pulled back to catch his half-lidded gaze.
Wait, there was a desk? A quick glance around confirmed, yes, a desk, a couple of chairs, and empty bookshelves around the room.
I just had to bite him again, that reaction was too tempting to not investigate, so I sank fangs into his shoulder hard enough to break skin, just a little. His blood was sweet and bitter and metallic and could be addictive.
His hand slammed into the wood next to my head, spraying splinters around, and startling me back. Only then did I notice him breathing shakily and trembling in my grasp. Worry crept into my stomach beneath the heat and I dropped my feet to the floor and slid fingers through his hair.
"Diavolo?" I asked softly. Had I crossed a line of his own?
He grasped my chin and tilted my head back enough that he could return the favor to the side of my neck and make me gasp in pleasure and pain. His tongue ran carefully over the marks he had made and his weight against me was the only thing keeping me upright.
His hands slipped to my ass, gave a brief squeeze and then lifted me by the back of my thighs. Keeping his mouth on my neck, he walked us to the desk and gently set me atop its surface before he settled himself between my legs and yanked me as close as possible, his erection rubbing against my clothed slit again.
"Lean back, sweetling," he commanded me and I shivered with his tone as I complied. Golden eyes slid across my breasts and down before flickering to my eyes and the blush that was creeping us my back. "You're lovely when you're blushing." I blushed harder and I just knew it was spreading down my chest with his chuckle. His fingers fingers slid into the hem of my pants and he watched me closely as he slid the last cloth barriers over my raised hips and then let me kick them the rest of the way off. He leaned over me and gave my neck a kiss, his breath feathering over my ear as he huskily asked, "How many times do you think I can make you cum on my fingers before your wet hole is ready for me to fuck?"
What the fuck?! My brain froze with the way he uttered those words and was running his tongue along the shell of my ear.
"Just fuck me, Diavolo," I groaned, forgetting for a second how big he had felt against my hip.
"Mmm, not yet." He took my hand and guided me to rub him though the soft material. He was...big. "Unless you've been one of my longtime lovers, the initial stretch could hurt, a lot."
Jealousy was not a useful emotion, but there it was. And there it was stuffed away. We will not go down that line of thought.
"Fine," I huffed.
He drew back and traced his fingers down my abdomen to rub a thumb over my core and then there was uncertainty in his eyes when he glanced up and I hadn't reacted much to his touch. Had he never had a human lover before? While I watched his eyes and traced fingers along my own stomach, he watched my hand as I parted the trimmed hairs and spread my labia to tease at the head of my clit with one finger. I dropped my head back and groaned.
Diavolo huffed a laugh before he was touching he, softly at first and then mimicking the pace and circular pattern I was showing him. I touched his wrist and our eyes met before I was rotating his hand and pressing hand thumb to my clit and putting pressure on his index finger to guide his first finger into my core.
"Th-this is...easier...for you," I said, but he had begun pressing his finger deeper into me, past the first knuckle and then the second. My hips rocked towards him as he withdrew to the first knuckle and kept his thrusts shallow.
Until I was sobbing and clenching around his one finger. I was leaning on my elbows and my head was tilted back.
"So tight," he teased.
Bastard. He was doing this on purpose, probably trying to test some of my limits. Well, fine.
"Diavolo. Please." Had I just whimpered? He pushed another finger into me to the first knuckle and (ok, fine I had whimpered) rocked them deeper into me when I gasped and arched up in pleasure. Out of the corner of my eye, he dropped his head towards me and I caught a glimpse of fangs. He was going for my throat.
I dropped my chin and turned my head so he went for the side of my neck instead. Fangs scraped against the meat of my neck and I groaned, reaching one hand for his chest and balancing on one elbow as I felt downwards and then slipped one hand into his pants, fumbling until I slipped the boxers he was wearing down just enough I could get my fingers around him. I met the pace he was using on me and he bucked against me with a warning growl. Tightening and twisting my grip drew a gasp and a hard thrust.
Chuckling at his reaction, I struck his shoulder again, barely noting he was already healed from my last bite. I had sunk fangs into him when he thrust his fingers sharply and added a third. Stars were bursting in front of my eyes as I clenched down on him and came hard. My grip was tight on his cock and he was pulsing dangerously in my hand.
My scream was muffled into his shoulder as he continued to thrust his fingers and kept me on the edge of a second orgasm. I released him so I could slide my arms around his neck. It put me flat on my back but I was past caring as I chased a second high, but three fingers was also stretching me out and making me wince.
He was rocking me on the edge of another orgasm and had kept me there for several long minutes before he whispered to me, "Beg. Desperation...looks...good on you....indulge me just a...little longer."
"No," I growled, releasing his shoulder and rumbling the noise in my chest and stomach. He huffed a laugh and nipped at my ear before his thumb pressed tightly against my clit and the circular motions he was making had arching into him with a gasp of, "Dia."
He groaned with that. "Are you ready, Lys? I...hah...don't think...I can...hold back much longer."
The stretch of his fingers in me was still making me wince a little, but I didn't care. "Fuck me, Diavolo." He groaned and removed his hand, making me clench down on nothing and give my own frustrated whine.
There was the soft whisper of his clothes over his own hips and then he was running the head of his cock against my slit and had me shuddering. One hand came to rest on my hip as he asked, "My turn, sweetling. Hard or fast?"
"Both," I hissed, arching up into his chest and trying to thrust into him him. His hand held me in place as he began to rock into me, making us both moan. "Dia."
"Both, hm?" He mused, slowly rocking himself into me inch by inch. I was held between his hips and the desk, unable to do anything except to try and meet his thrusts. The stretch was borderline painful and made my eyes water, but the pleasure was louder when he hilted himself inside of me. He paused to give me a moment to adjust but I was squirming against him. He tweaked a nipple and caught my attention. "What if we did neither?"
I could only groan at with the frenzied need he had stirred up. "Diavolo. Please."
His lips on my neck turned into a sharp nip and drew a gasp from me. Another at my ear and then a scattering of love bites as revenge for those that I had given him earlier. He started a gentle rhythm of fucking into me and his fingers slowly circling on my clit had me groaning in frustration.
-----
Against his better judgement, Lucifer had sent Mammon off to get the others gathered in the dining room and had followed after the sweetly tantalizing smell of Rut pheromones. With Diavolo's scent woven through it, he was almost assuming that Diavolo's Rut had awakened early, except that they had gone through the last one together and that hadn't been terribly long ago.
He followed their scents through a twisting path that took him deeper into the castle. Along the way, he made sure to neutralize their scents with a certain spell. Best to keep the rumors at a minimum and keep his Brothers from being able to try and track them. Lucifer rounded the last corner and stopped in his tracks when the separate scents finally registered.
Lyssa was the one starting a Rut and she had become the object of Diavolo's attention, to which she hadn't been objecting. Lucifer wasn't sure what he had been expecting when he had started pushing Diavolo towards her as he seemed to develop an interest in the exchange program. Certainly, he hadn't been expecting to be standing in front of an empty office listening to his former lover fornicating with the human, dragon he had to remind himself. Somehow, that was better than human, but was it?
Was it really cheating when he had ended their relationship and pushed them towards each other?
Take Flight, Lesson 7-20: Pillows, Questions, and Lectures, Oh My!
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are expanded on but they are not very important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
A/N: Some spice if you squint towards the end.
Some references are made to previous chapters. See the Masterlist.
------
The dinner that evening, night (?), was a spread of cuisine from across the Devildom. Mammon and Beel steered me away from the foods that might affect me due to my human physiology, but it was an otherwise enjoyable experience as Barbatos flitted through the room, ensuring that everyone's drinks were topped off and the empty plates were taken by the little Ds. My eyes occasionally strayed to Diavolo's butler as I considered Diavolo's words of earlier about the other demon's advice regarding me. His smile was slight, and knowing.
It was like he was inviting the recipient of his smile to indulge in a secret with him, to confide in him as a confidant or more.
Mammon jostled my elbow and I blinked away the feeling of wanting to share something with him. I might have been immune to certain things in the Devildom thanks to my dragon blood, but that didn't exempt me from everything. Something to remain aware of. As was the amount of wine I was being given. The Brothers were drinking something called Demonus, which appeared to be the equivalent of human wine or brandy.
The atmosphere around the table was somewhat mellow as everyone engaged in their own conversations. Satan had taken the seat next to Solomon and was grilling the Sorcerer about his time with the dragons. Simeon and Luke appeared to be interested in that conversation as well. Beel was happily chowing down on his own little section of food that several Little Ds kept him supplied with. Levi was tapping away on his phone beside Lucifer, who looked torn between considering confiscating said device and watching me. Asmo was...posing?...with his food and snapping pictures. And...Diavolo...was watching everyone with a slight smile, his public mask. Beside me, Mammon was eyeing something on the opposite wall-a gold vase with runes and something that looked like an ancient text.
After dinner had been cleared and most of the Brothers had scattered to their own devices, I had to dodge an intensely curious Satan. Apparently, demon libraries had nothing on the dragon cultures or physiology or anything of the like. Somehow, that put me in Lucifer's company, but then I'm not above using someone's dislikes against them if they were trying to pressure me.
Lucifer's gaze was a light crimson that evening and I could only sigh with relief as his brothers decided to avoid him, or at least give him some time to decompress. I knew he didn't want me there, knew that I was intruding, but he really was the only one that wouldn't ask me thoughtless questions about dragons and my family. He'd always been civil, if violent a few times.
"I really didn't expect you to be able to keep a secret of such magnitude," he observed from his seat by the balcony railing. There was a glass of Demonus in his hand and a decantered bottle of it on the table beside him.
He'd known me for all of a month and had thought he knew me well?
I smiled at the incredulousness of the situation. "When it calls for it, yes, I can," I answered. My thoughts briefly flickered to the demon in the attic. No one except Lucifer mentions him.
"And does it?"
Shrugging, I glanced into the room that I had escaped to. There was no one waiting outside the door that led to the hallway. "Secrets that aren't mine tend to remain that way," I said. "Besides, what's the point of passing them along?" I was still assessing the demon in the attic, anyways. Chances were, there was a good reason he was there.
"Power. Control. Conflict. Humans have made war for less than pride."
"Humans are weird. I prefer dragons." Violence was simple.
A shadow passed by the door and I withdrew further into the balcony and deeper into the territory Lucifer had claimed for himself. Discouraged from escaping, I collapsed into the chair opposite Lucifer's and stared at him.
"Do you know both sides of your family?"
He sounded genuinely curious and I looked at him, then. There was a faint blush across his cheeks and his tie had been loosened a little, but his uniform was still immaculate even in his relaxed state.
"My dame never hid my sire's family from me. She ensured that I met them when I expressed interest. When I matured into an adult, I spent some time with them in the human world, long enough to understand the basics of their cultures, technologies, magics and other things."
"It doesn't sound like you stayed with them."
They rejected me. I wanted to say the words, but they lingered on my lips like a poison. "In the end, we were too different," I answered instead. It was close enough.
For a while longer, I stayed with Lucifer in silence before I took the risk and slipped away, intent on returning to my own room.
------
Mammon found us an hour or two after Asmo, Simeon, and I had retired for the evening. He was boisterous, loud, and caught the pillow that I threw at him with a boyish laugh. "Yeah! Pillow fight!" he announced, hurrying in as the door bounced against the wall with a clatter. "The Great Mammon and Lyssa vs Asmo and Simeon!" Asmo was still fast asleep, oblivious to his brother, and Simeon was rubbing the sleep from his eye. "Let's get it on while that ass, Lucifer, is sleeping!"
A shadow fell across Mammon's back and sleep was shocked from my system as Lucifer appeared behind his brother. Trust the eldest to show up at the most opportune moment to get Mammon in the most trouble. "Who did you just call an ass?" Lucifer asked sweetly. "I would rather be sleeping, but apparently someone tried to break into the castle vault."
"EEEEP!" Mammon made a dodge to avoid Lucifer's ear grab and then Lucifer stood in the doorway, eyes slitted at his brother. Simeon had pulled the covers over his head and was using a pillow to block out the sound. I really, really wanted to join him in that but Mammon was crouching beside my bed and Lucifer was eyeing me, like he was considering a certain course of action.
"Mams," I said and Mammon gave me a wide-eyed look. "Did you actually try and steal something you shouldn't have?" A scheme was one thing, stealing was another. I'd experienced enough of his theft myself that I was making adjustments for it, but that didn't mean I got him out of lectures and punishments when Lucifer caught him. I'd sprung him from some of the more severe ones, but that was also different.
"Noooo," Mammon said evasively.
Simeon curled into a ball under his covers and I sighed. They would remain at a stalemate for the night if I let them and then I would get no sleep. Or Lucifer would try and string Mammon up here for the lecture. And Simeon would also get no sleep, which was hardly fair for either of us. Throwing my own covers back, I caught Mammon's tie and pulled him along with me. The greedy demon followed reluctantly after me until I was standing in front of Lucifer, glaring at the eldest expectantly.
It looked like Lucifer was almost faintly smiling as he stepped back and allowed me to exit the room with Mammon in tow. The door clicked shut behind us and then I was following Lucifer away and trying to smother a yawn with my free hand.
"Aw, c'mon, Lys," Mammon muttered at me, but he was making no real effort to escape. "I didn't even get to look at nothin.'"
"Ya still made the attempt," I returned, amusement lacing my tone. "And, since I met you, when have I ever gotten you out of trouble with Lucifer?"
Mammon's steps faltered for a second and then the tie tightened on his neck and he hurried to keep up with us. I wasn't watching where we were going as I followed the sweep of Lucifer's cloak until we were standing outside the room that I had found him in earlier. Apparently, his claimed territory had been the room he was sharing with Diavolo.
I tried to drop Mammon's tie and retreat, but Lucifer caught the collar of my shirt and dragged me backwards. A whine vibrated in my throat and Lucifer chuckled darkly. "You were the one that suggested Mammon would be more likely to stay put if you were around and you're correct. Besides, we can hardly have you wandering the castle on your own after dark."
He was right, damn it. I hadn't considered that when I had followed Lucifer and now I was stuck. But at least I wasn't the only one that would be stuck with them. Diavolo was sitting on the edge of one of the beds, already dressed down into pajamas. For a second, my brain got stuck on the idea that Diavolo could wear something other than his uniform and then I was speeding towards him, just to fuck with Lucifer and Mammon, yes. That was all.
It had nothing to do with the fact that the neck of his shirt exposing a swath of his neck that I could bury my face in more so than when he wore his uniform. Nope. Nothing to do with that at all. The Rut was absolutely not clouding my judgement, just a little, and making his scent way more appealing than usual.
Diavolo raised an arm with a grin when I reached him and I slid into his side, arms around his neck and nose pressed to the skin of his shoulder. The flash of jealousy from Mammon's pact-bond was pushed away because there wasn't anything to be done for it.
------
There was no reason in the entire Hells to be jealous. After all, he had been pushing Diavolo towards her. It fit perfectly with keeping him distracted and keeping her free time limited. The lecture was as much necessary as it was to keep them all distracted. After the year was over, there would be time enough to fix things. Never mind that he wasn't sure which he wasn't jealous of.
Take Flight, Lesson 7-17: Not Every Old Friend is a Friend, Family Included
Realizations.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which ARE expanded on as they ARE important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
Some references are made to previous chapters. See the Masterlist.
------
Somehow, after Diavolo's interrogation, I was pulled into an underground labyrinth with Mammon, Levi, Beel, Asmo, and Solomon. Apparently, keeping Mammon from trying to sneak into the castle vault or stealing certain paintings and keeping Levi from tripping was enough of a distraction for a painting of Asmo's ex (one of many) to activate it's curse and transport us else where.
Coming to with Solomon was not how I had planned to spend the rest of my evening after the things I had already gone through. Him interrogating me, or trying to, was also low on my list of things to focus on. I owed him less than nothing if he was going to be a giant prick about having guessed correctly about my heritage and provided a means by which I could safely talk about certain things.
Solomon showing off how to summon Asmo to us was another lesson he thought he was teaching me. His summoning chant was...weird...but it did summon Asmo so I had to admit I was impressed by that.
Having Asmo try and enchant me again was less than thrilling, and ignoring them made both Solomon and Asmo upset, but I'd had enough that day and I was tired. So, I was tracking Mammon, Levi, and Beel using their pact-bonds for the second time that evening. When they rushed by at the end of a corridor, they were screaming and being chased by a giant snake that was snapping at their heels.
And I noped right the fuck out, shut down my bonds and turned in the opposite direction. They were grown-ass demons. They could take on a giant snake. Until they couldn't and then they rounded another corner and Mammon grabbed me around the waist and continued running and screaming. I just hung there like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder, letting everyone run deeper into the labyrinth.
When we stopped, I wriggled away from Mammon and hopped towards Levi. I silently held my hand out and waited for him to reluctantly hand over his phone since I had left mine in my assigned room. I handed Beel a snack when he eyed the phone in my hand and he gulped it down still in the wrapper.
"Asmo, if the snake comes back, would you charm its scales off?" I asked absently and then Solomon and Asmo were engaged in a side conversation.
Flicking through Levi's contacts was an interesting lesson in...weird...then weirder, and then I found Lucifer's contact and thankfully dialed it. He picked up on the first ring.
"Levi, if this isn't an emergency-"
"Lucifer, can you please just come and get us from the underground labyrinth?" I asked him.
There was silence for a long moment and then, "Lyssa?" His tone was suspicious and incredulous.
"Yes?" I kept half an eye on the little group as Henry 1.0 slithered around the corner.
"You are never polite. To anyone. In fact-" I turned the phone a little into my shoulder.
"Asmo, I said CHARM it, not try and sex it up!" I screeched overtop Lucifer's comment. "Beel, STOP TRYING TO EAT IT! LEVI MIGHT ACTUALLY MURDER YOU! Solomon, Mammon! DO SOMETHING AND HELP THEM!" To Lucifer, I asked, "What?"
"Never mind, it is you. Why should I come and find you?"
"Because if you don't, I will find a way to set fire to your desk and all your paperwork, for a week, when we do get out." I was tired, depleted of energy and done. If being polite failed, violent threats would probably rile him enough-
"Actually, stay lost for a bit longer. You have Beel with you. I'm sure you'll make it back by dinn-"
"Is that Lys?" Diavolo's cheerful voice came across the speaker and I could have cried in relief. "Where is she? I wanted to show her the gardens-"
Pitching my voice up, I almost yelled, "Diavolo! I'm lost in the underground labyrinth with Solomon and several of your Avatars. Can you please send someone to find us?"
"Hey, Lys, wait where you are. I'll have Barbatos open a portal in just a moment," Diavolo called back and no more than a second later a portal opened two steps away from me.
There was a split second in which I stared at the brightly lit study beyond the portal from which Diavolo, Barbatos, and Lucifer stared at us. The phone dropped from my numb fingers as I ran at the exit and launched myself at Diavolo on the last step. He caught me with a surprised expression as I threw my arms around his neck and just hugged him.
There was a screech and then a bit of a stampede as Solomon and the Brothers escaped the tunnel. A chaotic couple of minutes followed that as someone dealt with Henry 1.0, Barbatos closed the portal, and Lucifer sorted his brothers.
And in that time, I just started shaking and the tears didn't stop. Too much fear and whiplash and events that had been too much for me to deal with. Dame had almost broken me, almost broken herself, almost broken my family, and it wasn't fair. She had taken what was needed and left me with the consequences. Just like my entire life, and it hurt to breath.
No noise, no sound, not even breath. Quiet, stay quiet, don't be noticed. Lungs burning, one shaking exhale and a gasp. Listen, wait, no tears, quiet, stay quiet, don't be heard.
The tears were slow and painful and silent. They burned in my chest and throat, it hurt to shed those tears.
Hands that reached for me, always hurting and hurting and hurting. Silence was the only defense I had, silence was the only protection when claws and fangs and wings failed. Quiet, just keep quiet and this will pass.
------
Time passed, arms slipped around my shoulders and knees. I was lifted and I only tightened my grip when someone else tried to take me. Voices overlapped and I didn't care. I kept my face buried in Diavolo's shoulder and just shook. Eventually, the sound of my harsh breathing-when I did breath-was the only thing in the room.
Warm arms held me, fingers slipped though my hair, adjusted my body so we were comfortable. How long did it take for the tears to ease, for my breaths to quiet even as they continued to shake?
My grip eased on him when he set his chin on my own head and we sat there. He just held me and then gentle fingers traced across my cheeks and wiped away the tears when I laid my head on his collarbone instead of my forehead. Darkness crept around the edge of my eyesight as the world faded in and out and I struggled between sleep and consciousness.
"Lys?" Diavolo asked.
"Mmmm," I hummed back.
His fingertips traced over my cheek again and I turned my head towards his touch.
"What...do you do next?"
Next?
I tilted back from him a little and he lifted his chin from my hair so I could meet his gaze.
He wasn't sure how to take care of someone who was upset. Had he been mimicking someone he had seen sometime in the past? The thought slipped from me as I laid my head on his shoulder again. 'Water?" I rasped.
I had been screaming and then crying, so dehydration was very possible at this point and my voice and throat were raw. The last time I had had something to eat was...yesterday around lunch. I'd gone to bother Lucifer about skipping the event and that had been our dinner.
My stomach growled audibly at the thought and I could feel the blush rising across my neck again. Diavolo's hand on my hip kept me in his lap as he raised his other hand and beckoned to...someone else.
Wait. Had I really been clinging to him and sobbing my heart out while the others had watched on? And then he had sat with me on a-a quick glance said we were sitting on a-couch until I had come back to myself?
A gentle clink drew my attention over my shoulder to Barbatos, who had set a tray on the end table behind me. There was an assortment of treats and tea that he must have prepared. Had he seen me breaking apart?
Emerald eyes flicked over me and he smiled slightly at my attention. Then, he was gone and I just blinked at the suddenly empty spot he had occupied. I was not crazy, Barbatos had been there.
The two steaming cups of tea with the strong scent of mint and honey were proof enough of his presence. Discomfort began to lodge in my stomach like a heavy stone, even though I didn't think Diavolo was holding my actions against me.
Welp, we had come this far. Might as well finish it.
I prodded the hand on my hip. His grip wasn't uncomfortable, just...possessive...and I didn't know whether I liked that or not. The reluctance with which he released me said almost enough to me about where I was standing with him, but I was up and walking towards the tea on his other side so that I could take a moment to think.
He had never had anyone lean on him like this, not in sadness, and he liked the feeling of being needed. Why had I reached for him when Mammon and Lucifer had both been as close as he had? He had only just been interrogating me and using the Rut against me not even two hours prior to that. The Ruler's bond had risen because of his questions and the answers I had given him.
The cup of tea was warm in my hands and the fragrance had a calming effect on me. Lucifer...I hadn't reached for him because he had tried to attack Luke and I not too long ago over that grimoire. The eldest brother might be a steady beacon to his brothers and he might have warmed up towards me a little, but he still registered as dangerous to me. Mammon...had been caught up in chaos when I had had enough and he was usually a chaotic presence around me. Diavolo had sent the portal that had brought me out of that place. He had been one of the only ones since my arrival to offer help and solace.
Diavolo was dangerous in a different way than Lucifer and his brothers, one that registered as almost normal to me. That was why I had taken to him in that moment. He also carried a scent that reminded me of the pine forests and rain after an ocean storm of home.
The tea was soothing to my throat as I glanced at Diavolo and realized he was still watching me. I wasn't sure what to say. Thank you sounded like an idiotic thing with everything else that had happened. Sorry was just a flat out lie. I didn't want to walk away from him and the warmth he had offered me, but I also didn't feel like returning to him when he seemed to be sliding into some sort of an attachment for me. So, I settled for silence and munching on the snacks that Barbatos had brought while waiting for him to say something.
"Your eyes are puffy," he observed.
"It happens when someone cries for a while." My voice was a little stronger and the soreness of my throat seemed to be minimized when I talked quietly.
"How...did you and the others get trapped in the labyrinth?" It wasn't his actual question, but it was the one he went with.
"There was a painting of a witch named Helene. Apparently, when she was alive, she had an affair with Asmo and it resulted in her lover's nephew cursing her into an eternity as that portrait. She activated a spell and teleported us there, where Mammon woke up the snake and then we all got caught up in being chased by it." He was smiling by the time I was finished and I was grinning with resignation.
"It's never dull with the Brothers," he laughed. Silence settled between us again and, in that silence, I could feel the Rut reawakening. It was a small hum at the moment, something easily ignored and passed off, but it's energy was there. "Are you...feeling better?"
"Yes." I hadn't meant for the word to be sharp, but there it was. Nothing changed in his expression, though, and I sighed, picking up the tea again. Even cooling down, it was still doing good for my throat. "Why do you pay so much attention to me? You don't seem to be as interested in the angels or Solomon." He wore his public mask with them, but with just the Brothers and I...he seemed to express a wider range of reactions and emotions.
"You're an anomaly. You haven't once been impressed by titles or power and you seem more interested in getting to know individuals than anything."
That was because I was used to dealing with my own family, most of whom had been born from the royal bloodlines of the dragons. Not that I was going to tell him that. I favored him with a long look as I finished the tea and set aside the cup. "You don't touch the Avatars in any way, even Lucifer. Yet, you haven't shied back from doing so with me since the second day I was brought here."
He lifted one shoulder and dropped it in a half shrug, smiling crookedly as he did so. "Barbatos was the one who recommended that I do so. His advice has always been useful and accurate." There was something else there, something in the way that he interacted with the eldest...
That I was not interested in looking at closer.
"Shouldn't we return to the others?" I asked abruptly.
"We can, if you're ready to."
Except that I wasn't.
The last hour or so had been almost an oasis of peace, away from the chaos and the awakened pain that had been my dame's pull on my memories. Did I get this tired with my own family and just never noticed? It wasn't that I wasn't growing fond of each brother in their own way, including the one in the attic. It was just that...
My entire life had been spent in the protection of others. When was the last time I had been protected? There had been times when I had broken apart, but it had never been with any of the partners that I had had in the past, never even among my own siblings. Even Mammon wasn't really a protector when he couldn't stand against his own family, not for me, not that I wanted or expected him to.
The Devildom was nothing if not a test for me in the ways I could fight for myself and be forced to depend on others. It was uncomfortable. Maybe that was the reason I was collecting the Brothers' pacts, a means of assured safety and control for myself. Being left powerless by my own dame had just been the painful accounting of my life I had always chosen to ignore.
Love could bind, but it was also a choking leash. The dragons had always been bound by their love for each other and the loyalty they had been forced to give their ruler in return for their sanity. In the Devildom, there was no leash, not really. And the stark reality of the earlier reminder of my own choking leash had left me disquieted.
Humans were lucky in that their own freedom was practically assured from birth.
"Lys?"
I met his golden eyes and found myself wondering when he had started calling me that? Why hadn't I noticed?
"Not yet."
Just for now, I wanted to stay with him and that little bit of peace I had found.
Take Flight, Lesson 7-12: It's Evil to Pretend You're Never Evil
Put on the spot and pulled aside from the tour, things take a spicy turn. Until they aren't. Until things go astray and come back to bite us.
A/N: Uhhh...so this ran off on me. I REGRET NOTHING!!! Just a note, this became a little lore heavy from my own created universe. I think I made it succinct enough for people to understand and enjoy. I've edited this thing several times, so let me know if anything is too confusing and I will take another look.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and MORE THAN slight mentions of characterās past and history which ARE expanded on as they ARE important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
NO SMUT!
Some references are made to previous chapters. See the Masterlist.
------
We continued through the underground tour of the Demon King's palace, the Little D chattering animatedly to anyone who was still listening to it. Mammon's eye was roving over certain items even as Beel kept trying to gnaw on him, which he would stop doing when I gave him the different snacks I had brought for him. Levi was actively engaged in his phone and I was using guiding him as a distraction from how close Diavolo kept coming. Simeon, Luke, and Solomon were discussing the merits of the Devildom's history as compared to that of the Celestial Realm's own version of those events. Asmo had fallen back a little to admire himself in the reflection of a cursed shield. Lucifer, though, seemed more interested in Diavolo and I than the tour itself.
Diavolo's touch to my shoulder had me looking back at him. He curled a finger at me and I allowed the others to draw ahead of me, Levi included even as he tripped over an uneven part of the pathway. Mammon and Lucifer both looked at us, but kept moving. Belatedly, I tightened the pact-bonds and sealed them before allowing them to fade from my attention.
Easier not to have my pact-mates' emotions distracting me while I was being bothered by my own and Diavolo's scent.
"Are you enjoying the tour?" Diavolo asked me and, for a second, I was distracted by the way his lips moved.
Stop it. It was easier said than done.
"I find it-" I hesitated over the polite lie. He could tell truth from lies and, anyways, there was no reason for me to spare his feelings. "It's interesting, if a little dull sometimes," I settled on.
He grinned at me and I had to look away to the others in order to keep moving. Was he teasing me? Probably not...hopefully.
It might have been several weeks since I had been summoned to the Devildom and I might have gained three pact-mates in that time, but I still didn't fully trust any of them-except maybe Mammon, but this was a different matter.
I hadn't thought I would be affected by the Rut, which only came about every twenty years. It would have been the first to affect me in my life since I had been too young for the last to have an impact on me. And of course it had to happen in the Devildom, away from the safety of other dragons.
Diavolo caught my elbow as the others passed around a corner. Reluctantly, I stopped and looked at Diavolo, whose expression was somewhat bemused. "I asked if you were alright, Lys. You seem distracted," he said.
I am distracted.
"You know you ask me anything, right?"
Not about this, nope. Not right now.
He must have read something in my expression because he pulled me just a step closer so my hip brushed his. His breath was hot on my ear when he dipped his head and breathed, "You smell much sweeter today than usual. Did one of the brothers gift you with a perfume? I might have to track it down."
I shivered and only watched him, my eyes tracing over his features and then his lips again.
"Lys?"
"I'm...not really fine," I admitted with a nervous swallow. "Its just personal stuff." And it was.
He pulled me around just a little and stepped closer, bringing me that much closer to him. I could feel the heat of his body through the layers of his uniform and when I tried to step back he followed me, neither crowding nor pushing until I felt the railing pressing into my back and his chest flush to mine. His knee brushed the inside of mine and my legs opened to him.
He pushed closer to me and dropped his head to the juncture of my shoulder and neck, inhaling deeply. "You smell a little like a demon in Rut."
Demons have Ruts?
"We do, yes."
Oh, I said that out loud.
"You did. Why do you smell like you're in Rut, Lys?"
I didn't want to answer him. Sweat was sliding down my back and he smelled good. Fight or fuck. That was how dragons usually got through their Ruts. My temper had been closer to the surface these last few days, but I was leaning closer to fuck than fighting right then.
"Were you given something to eat that put you in this state?" Diavolo asked, pulling away from me.
Hopping up on the railing, I balanced there on my hands and grinned to see Diavolo's eyes widen just a fraction. He steadied me with a hand on my back. Falling would be easy enough if he were interrogating me. Wings generally made safe for dragons what was dangerous for a number of other species. A number of demons had wings in their Other form and I was fairly sure Diavolo had wings, too, but the next level wasn't too far away and at least a couple below that within a few wing-lengths.
Still, I didn't feel much like leaving his warmth.
"Were you given something to eat that made you give off this scent?" he asked again.
"No, I wasn't." Likely, he had seen glimpses of my claws and fangs over the weeks and had put something together along with our conversations. They were the ones that had decided I was entirely human.
"You haven't lied when you said you were human," he stated, looking a little puzzled.
"I am human." Just not as human as they thought.
"Do you come from a family of witches and sorcerers?"
It was rather fun giving him half-answers and watching him try to figure things out. He wasn't stupid, just a little dense sometimes or else he pretended to be. Like when Lucifer and I directed sarcasm in his direction.
"Magic runs thick in my bloodlines," I said.
Frustration flashed across his face and he ran a hand through his hair. I touched a thumb to one of his cheekbones, testing what he was comfortable with. And maybe his actual intentions.
He stepped into me until he was leaning against the railing and my legs were opened to him. I hooked my arms around his neck and pulled him as close as possible. His head tilted to the side as he considered me, his golden eyes glittering.
"Am I reading you correctly?" he asked. "Or is this a human thing?"
"Humans don't have Ruts."
"But you are human."
"Yes."
He lowered his head until our lips almost touched, his breath feathering across my skin. I wanted to initiate the kiss, but I waited. Diavolo was the stronger one here and thus I had to be patient. "You aren't fully human."
"No."
He pulled back and I growled lowly, loosening my grip on him. If he was just interrogating me, his scent wouldn't have been as heavy as it was, sharper than usual and headier. "Were you sent by the Council of Lords?"
My head cocked to the side and I frowned at him. Dame had her own council of advisors, but the way he said it, it sounded like it was more like an organization. "The Council of what? Is that an assembly of your nobles?"
"Council of Lords. And yes, they are...of a sort."
I studied him for a long moment. "I wasn't sent by anyone, princeling. Demon lords, nobles, humans, or otherwise." My blood was cooling and my temper was rising again. "In fact, I didn't even know demons existed except in stories until the day you snatched me from my family." From their seat and heart of power, as it were. "If you've nothing else to discuss with me, I would ask that you stand back and allow my leave. As I've said before, you are not my ruler and there is no reason for me to yield to you."
It was hard to bite my tongue with the Rut washing through me, but I wouldn't betray those dear to me just to satisfy that itch. Diavolo was watching me.
"You've been telling the truth this whole time." No fucking shit, asshole.
My lips curled up in a snarl and when I yanked him down to me, it was more of a violent clash of teeth and tongue than anything. His hand on my waist tightened almost painfully, enough that I gasped. He took the chance to take control and slide his tongue alongside mine, deepening the kiss and tasting me.
His lips muffled my groan as I fumbled at his blazer and tugged the buttons apart until his hands caught mine, pressing my fingers into his abdomen and stopping my frustrated tugging. He pulled back and I did snarl at him. He shouldn't have pulled me back from the others if he was only going to be frustrating. But I wasn't so lost in the Rut, and it's influence wasn't so strong, that I couldn't stop my own actions and accept rejection.
I yanked my hand from his and pushed at his chest, but he didn't step back. "You'll fall," he said, a little breathless.
The laugh he ripped from my throat was sharp and harsh. "I'm not afraid of heights, princeling. These heights are nothing to the mountains of my home." My frustration was growing such that I wasn't even sure anymore if I wanted to fight or fuck.
Finally, he stepped back enough to allow me down from the railing, but he didn't move back any further. He kept me trapped between his body and the air at my back. "You are frustrating, Diavolo. What are you even doing? I've answered all the questions I am willing to right now."
"Just...will you answer one more?"
I pressed the palm of my hand into my forehead and tried to will my rapid pulse to slow down, not that it worked. "You can ask, but I might not answer."
"Is this just the Rut, or...is there someone else that you want?"
Did I want him or would I have jumped anyone that had pulled me aside? was his actual question and I tamped down the desire to jam my palm into his face. One, rude. Two, stupid in more ways that one.
Slowly, I drew in a deep breath and answered, "Rut aside, you and Lucifer are the only two individuals that I find physically attractive enough to want to fuck." My glare was only a little reproachful. He was also trying to be considerate, which was more than I could say for a few of my past partners.
Violence or sex didn't have to be the answer to my Rut. There was...one...other way to handle it, especially if it felt like the situation could take a turn for the worse. But it was uncomfortable and embarrassing, usually for both parties involved. In fact, it was starting to look like the more appealing option. I started to coax my family-bonds to the forefront of my consciousness, the less mature Twins being left as they were.
"I think...this would be better moved elsewhere, Lys," Diavolo said, placing a kiss to my forehead and then stepping back.
I blinked at him, caught on the family-bond of my dame. Her bond was starting to awaken at my attention, its seals starting to loosen. That was shut down like slamming a door on someone's face.
Diavolo was offering me his hand, a bemused look on his face. He was right. This wasn't the place to even be engaging in this conversation. Probably, he hadn't meant for the turn this conversation had taken, but I'd been caught up by my own blood.
And then the ruler's bond woke on Dame's side and, of course, this was the one that I had no control over. It was like being thrown into the middle of the Arctic ocean as her annoyance and worry washed through me. It was still a strained thing, complicated with the distance, realms, and different surrounding magics. Words were almost impossible, but I caught enough flickers of images from her side to understand she was in a meeting with her own council of advisors.
She only did a quick assessment of my emotions and then she was draining the magic that the Rut had awakened with. And, just as quickly, she shut the bond down. It wouldn't be a permanent solution, but she had bought me time and embarrassment. I could only cover my face with my hands to try and hide the embarrassed flush creeping up my neck.
"Lys?" Diavolo's voice was concerned as he stroked his fingers across my own. "Your scent has changed again."
"I know."
"Can I ask what happened?"
"No."
"Oh."
A tense silence hung between us for a long moment. "Lys," Diavolo began. "Are you...embarrassed?"
Feeling humiliated, but, "Yes. And it has nothing to do with this situation."
Another moment of silence and he leaned into me, pressing my hips to the railing again. "Lie," he stated.
Well, fucking FUCK.
"It has nothing to do with you, princeling."
Trying to use that nickname to draw a line between us backfired. His fingers slipped beneath mine and, gently, he cupped my face until I was looking at him. His eyes were almost amused as he smiled at me. "That's not quite a lie, but it isn't fully the truth either."
At that point, I could only sigh and fight down the emotions I was almost choking with. "I'm not even remotely related to a demon as far as I know."
"Alright."
"And there's a way to put off the effects of the Rut."
"Really?" His tone was more than a little interested. He must have read the confusion in my expression, because he continued, "Demons haven't figured out a way to do such a thing. That kind of information could be useful, later."
Oh. Except, "I can't tell you how it was done, only that it put off the effects of my own Rut for a while." Revealing that dragons could form bonds between each other and that a ruler's bond gave that individual absolute control of the other party wasn't something that was lightly shared outside of our own species.
And telling the Ruler of another species that I was the daughter of our own Ruler wasn't something I would willingly share. Besides, I wasn't even remotely an Heir, so that information would gain them nothing even if it was known to him.
One of his thumbs stroked across my cheekbone before he released me and stepped back. His public mask was slipping into place again when he next smiled. "That's alright, Lyssa," he said. "It's probably something species specific, so it likely wouldn't do me any good to know."
And that was the line he was drawing. Somehow, being on the other side of someone else drawing a line, I felt insulted. It didn't help that the heady scent of our arousal was still lingering between us, musky and somehow sweet.
Without thinking, I grabbed his wrist when he took another step back. Rather than looking at him, I looked down at my fingers and the grip he was allowing me. "It's just...a sensitive topic, Diavolo." Humiliating and sensitive. "I can't talk about it without the permission of my own ruler and she's a long way away." It was the truth and yet more complicated.
A finger under my chin lifted my eyes up to his and then he was kissing me in a chaste manner, just a there and gone brush. I didn't follow him when he pulled away but I kept eye contact with him and he let my hand slip into his.
"I...shouldn't have pushed you so hard for answers," he admitted and I smiled wryly.
"You look after an entire realm, Diavolo. I understand some of the duties that come first when it comes to your people." Dame had to put the majority of dragons before even her own children, sometimes. "It's not like you can set those duties aside for anything." Dame has us and her own siblings, but did he have anyone?
It suddenly clicked for me why he was so tactless with the Brothers and I sometimes. Diavolo didn't have anyone else but Barbatos, the Brothers, and, by extension, me. In his own way, like the Brothers among themselves, he was trying to connect with us, but he was also a Ruler and therefore not used to being told "No." Even Lucifer had a hard time turning him down and, more often than not, appeared to give into him. Diavolo might consider Lucifer his best friend and right hand, but there was only so far a relationship like theirs could tilt before it became a power imbalance unless Diavolo could accept the "No" that someone gave him.
"You can still ask me for help with anything, Lys," he said quietly and brushed his lips across my knuckles.
"I'll keep that in mind, and maybe even take you up on that," I answered with a heated blush.
With our hands still linked, I tugged him in the direction that the others had vanished to and assumed he knew where everything and everyone would be, like my dame would have. That was my mistake, but it also gave us time for me to calm down and the scent of arousal to fade from us.
-------
We were lost and I couldn't stop giggling at his confused expression. There was no fear of danger here, not with the master of the castle at my side. Our fingers had become linked at some point and I was having too much fun with our situation. It was also cute that he didn't entirely know his way around his own home. Oh, he recognized everything and could even recount memories of the the last time he had come through the area, just not which direction led where. Or he was pretending to do so. Either way, I didn't really mind and there was no reason for me to call attention to either fact.
Until enough time had passed that concern from Mammon, Beel, and Levi was evident from their pact-bonds, even under seal. "I can track their general direction," I offered to Diavolo and he looked at me curiously again. Why hadn't he asked me to do that already?
"Alright," was all he said.
Allowing the seals to ease open so they didn't overwhelm me took most of my attention from Diavolo. Following the pull of the general direction also took most of my attention because I was trying to manage all three pact-bonds at the same time, and he didn't say anything to distract me, so overlooking his curiosity in that instance didn't even register as anything important.
There was a tentative pull back from Mammon and his worry turned to relief. Probably he could feel that I was looking for him with our pact-bond. The worry that Levi and Beel were feeling was becoming a distraction so I allowed those two to fade from my attention, just becoming something that I was peripherally aware of-like my family bonds.
For a while, we just walked in silence with our hands still linked. There were times that I had to walk back and forth while looking at the stone ceiling, and then turn back and take a different turn than what we had originally taken, but his grip on my hand was a gentle constant that kept me aware of him.
And then I was standing in the middle of a corridor and staring at the ceiling above us, feeling Mammon's pact-bond tighten and pull, loosen, tighten and pull. To my senses it seemed like he was doing the same as I had been for a while. The pact-bond was almost like a taut string being pulled tight between us until it was a straight up and down.
Pointing at the spot where I could feel the pact-bond pulling me, I said, "Mammon is right above us, probably everyone else, too. Unless he separated off the main group to look for us."
"Can you tell how many individuals are with him?"
I coaxed my other two pact-bonds to the surface and pulled on them. It resulted in the same general location, just slightly differing from Mammon's. "Unless there are multiple rooms above us, then definitely Levi and Beel. Otherwise, no, that's not something I can tell with pacts." Images and words wouldn't pass through them no matter which way that I pulled or pushed. They just didn't seem to work like my family bonds, which was why I kept thinking of them as pact-bonds.
"With just pacts, right? Do you have another way to track individuals?"
"Yeah."
"Is it with a spell or anything?"
I was focused on the three pact-bonds moving in the small circles above us, almost like they were confused about my location. "Not a spell," I replied absently when Mammon pulled out pact-bond tightly again.
"How many pacts do you carry?"
"Three."
"What else do you use to track location, if not with pacts or spells?"
Bonds, I almost told him. Except the words lodged in my throat and refused to cross my lips. I snapped my attention to him on that question and the restriction it had evoked with my ruler's bond.
His expression wasn't that of a friend or a potential lover. The only one I had seen where that mask before was my dame when she was dealing with us as a ruler and not as a parent. It was the cold calculation and differentiation that she had to make with us, her own children, and what Diavolo was looking at me with right then.
A cold chill slithered down my spine, but I didn't release his hand, couldn't even if I had wanted to. His grip was stronger, just shy of painful. I released my pact-bonds and buried them again, not that it would help.
"I can't tell you that," I told him flatly.
The ruler's bond was pulling tighter around my throat, awakening with it's master's attention and a Ruler's weight behind it. This wouldn't be my dame checking on me as she had done earlier...if we kept on this topic.
"Can't or won't?"
"Can't," I snapped back and then the ruler's bond had entirely awakened and was pulling at my memories-something that was difficult and slow and painful this time, because she was pulling the full memory of his questions and my answers across realms. "Stop asking!"
And then I doubled in on myself, keening, wings closing around my body. Pain and worry and fear consumed me. Would she break me? Could she survive breaking me? Our thoughts were meshing and we couldn't stop this, even trying, pushing, pulling. Don't break! I'm sorry.
Lyssa.
Screaming and holding the wave from my bonds and pact-bonds was all I could do.
------
Mammon was off and running right before the high screams reached them. They already knew who it was. Levi and Beel both went pale in that moment, Levi doubling up clutching his head while Beel caught his brother before the fall and crouched over him. Then the screams pitched higher and Luke and Simeon weren't far behind as they looked for a stairway to the next level.
Lucifer was the one to go over the railings to the next level down. He was the first to reach Diavolo, who was kneeling helplessly over a writhing form.
-----
She was finally unconscious. Solomon was kneeling next to the couch that they had placed her on for examination, his own powers pulsing around her. Red was flickering in and out of sight wherever his power tried to push at her skin. He was frowning and it was driving Mammon into a pacing frenzy. Beel and Levi watched him from across the room where they could also see Diavolo and Lucifer quietly discussing something.
After the initial flash of agony, the pain had subsided into a minor headache for Levi. Mammon and Beel hadn't received any of the backlash across their own pacts with her, but they had known something was up.
"It's a magic tied deep in her blood or soul, maybe both," Solomon finally said. "There's nothing to suggest she's being affected by demonic magic, so I doubt its an attack by one of your nobles, Diavolo. As far as I can tell, it's her own magic, but not. Lyssa is being both attacked and protected by that same magic. Her own efforts were divided into shielding her pacts and herself."
"Lys was sheildin' us?" Mammon asked, stopping in his tracks and staring at the rug he was pacing on. "If she hadn't done that, would she be ok now?"
"Doubtful. That magic wasn't looking for the pacts and seems to be just sliding over them. Like I said, this magic is independent of her's. What was happening just before the attack set in?"
Lucifer and Diavolo paused their conversation when all eyes in the room turned to them, Solomon's gaze especially interested. "I was questioning her about some of the inconsistencies we've seen with her these last few weeks," Diavolo told him.
"And what are those?" Solomon asked, his gaze sharper.
Diavolo detailed out the things he had seen and been told about with claws, fangs, and then wings that day. "I've looked into the different nobles that would have an interest in the exchange program failing, but none of them have been very active in the last few years," Lucifer said, his voice suddenly tight. "I cannot find anything to suggest she is anything but human."
"Lyssa is, I believe, mostly human. What else her other species is, it isn't demon and she was speaking the truth when she said that she didn't know we were real until a few weeks ago." She groaned and all attention turned onto her right then, but she remained unconscious. Continuing, Diavolo said, "Solomon, you have extensive knowledge of the human world. Do you know of any kind of non-human species that live alongside them?"
"There are...a few," Solomon said carefully. Whatever else, his first priority was the continued protection of the human realm. "For example, there are werewolves that can just as easily pass as humans, except for the few days in a month they get furry. Mostly, though, that transformation can be managed through potions and the purchase of a sorcerer's skills."
"Anything else? It doesn't seem that the characteristics she has been showing are in any way furry," Diavolo pressed.
Solomon pursed his lips and studied the demons present. The lot of them had been slowly falling into Lyssa's orbit as she worked to get along with the Hell Lords and ensure a peaceful home environment. She obviously knew a bit of magic and the knowledge and vocabulary she had been showing signs of meant that she was an educated woman, not separated from the human realm. Giving the demons knowledge of species such as elves, sirens, and vampires didn't seem like a good idea. The werewolves were an open secret and easily discovered in dealing with the Sorcerer's Society. Still, there was one possibility, even if it was a remote one. They could, after all, look after themselves.
"About a hundred years ago, I spent a decade or so as a...guest...of a species that looked human most days, but they could also transform into dragons," Solomon said. "As much as their majority despised humans, and attempted to kill me on a daily basis, their ruler seemed intent on bringing human blood into their species, to help with something that was twisted within their own. That, however, was something of a failure at the time since the children they kept having had to be killed for one reason or another. Deformities and such."
"What about claws, fangs, and wings in a human form?"
"They did have those, though they seemed to be able to control which they were displaying. Wings seemed to be a rarer feature than the others."
Diavolo stared at Solomon for a moment, considering the sorcerer's words. Then, he nodded. "That seems to fit enough facts that we can assume Lyssa is at least part dragon. When she first got here, it appeared that they had tried to summon her back, but I was able to thwart it. Now, it's an attack on her? Should I assume they are hostile to her now?"
Of course, Diavolo was assuming that demons would naturally overpower a mortal species that resembled humans. Not that he was wrong.
"I don't know. As far as I know, they are a long lived species and their ruler had been in place for a long while. He wasn't fond of humans, per se, but the fact remains that Lyssa retains mostly human blood if you don't think she was somehow tricking you."
"No, she wasn't. I assumed she was entirely human when we brought her here and she went along with that. If this is the result of a few questions, I can't fault her for not telling us she was also something else." He was looking at the woman in question now, his arms still crossed over his blazer.
"She's probably one of the results of the earlier experiments that I mentioned, maybe even a generation later," Solomon decided on.
"Hybrids," Lyssa croaked, her voice likely hoarse from screaming earlier. "We're called hybrids by the courts. I'm a second generation product, unable to fully transform even though I retain our secondary features." She looked like she was waiting for something and then sighed in relief when nothing happened. "Our ruler doesn't need to be assumed to be hostile to me or demons, in general, Diavolo. The attack was an accident. Normally, they would try and protect me, but its hard across realms. Our magic is thinned and I'm on my own here."
Every word she gave them was the truth.
"Courts? Are there more than one?"
Solomon looked to Lyssa and she shook her head at him. "We only have one ruler at this time for the entirety of our species."
"Solomon?"
The sorcerer shrugged and stood from his spot, dusting his outfit at the knees. "I was a guest so my information and interaction was rather limited. There could have been more than one court, but I'm not sure."
Lyssa was watching the other human before her blue-silver gaze slid across Mammon, Beel, and Levi. The relief on her face was so apparent that it made Diavolo relax. Whatever else, Lyssa really didn't mean them harm. If anything, she was walking a fine line between loyalty to her own kind and participating in an exchange program with them. The pacts she was collecting were likely a means of ensuring her own safety. She tentatively pushed herself up and placed a hand on her temple.
"The ruler you were with, Solomon," Lyssa began and paused again, like she was waiting for something. "The ruler you were with was likely Mathis. He probably had you brought in because of your knowledge of magic and your human blood. A hundred years ago was probably about the right time to bring in the humans he did. Did he place you with any females during the time that you were with them?"
Her gaze flickered up to the other human. Solomon was frowning at her as they studied each other. "Let me guess, he rotated you with several female guards on a weekly basis and you seduced one or more in an attempt to escape."
There was no judgement or sympathy in her voice or body when she stated that fact and Solomon's eyebrows went up in surprise. "That's...fairly accurate. I got away because one of them fell in love with me."
She hissed and pressed the heel of her palm harder to her temple. "Then you might just have a child or two running among the dragons. Mathis only released the humans that were no longer useful to him since he didn't want too many from the same bloodlines to cross with the...dragons, let's just say dragons...with the dragons that he ruled."
Solomon actually seemed to freeze up at that news. Apparently, he hadn't been expecting that. "He was fairly brutal. Some of the humans he brought in were killed in the worst ways."
"They probably pissed him off or his orders weren't strict enough with those dragons." It was an absent remark, like those were just facts to her.
"Are you in danger from this...Mathis?" Diavolo asked, frowning.
"No."
Truth. Then...
"He's no longer your ruler, then, or at least not your current one."
She was studying him with a guarded look when she dropped her hand into her lap. "If you're actually serious about bringing peace to the three realms, the mortal one especially, you'll likely run into some hybrids that have been placed within the human leadership around their world. Our current ruler wants as little conflict with them as possible. The humans that were still with us when the ruler took their role were given the choice of going back into the mortal realm or remaining under our protection." The information was almost offered as a distraction, except that it was actually important.
She's a long way away. Lyssa had given him that information in the heat of a moment and now she was protecting the information on the gender of her ruler. He didn't bring it up or correct her, but the information was interesting. Just another piece to fit into the puzzle that she was and where she fit into the worlds at large.
Lyssa was quiet for a long minute as she continued to hold Diavolo's golden gaze. Beel, Levi, and Mammon were almost holding their breaths as they waited for a decision to be made. Lucifer was observing the other human and waiting for something to happen.
"Where does your family sit within the hierarchy of the dragon courts?"
She almost seemed to freeze with the question and a low growl was emanating from her throat. "I'm not going to tell you that."
"Even under threat of torture?" He wasn't going to, but it was interesting that she smiled and the three Avatars she had pacts with tensed up.
"Even under threat of torture," she confirmed.
"You're used to threats of violence being held against you," Diavolo observed.
Her smile widened just a little and then she pulled the shirt she was wearing over her head so that she was showing off the skin of her stomach, shoulders, and arms. It wasn't how he had wanted her to get undressed and certainly not in the presence of others, but...
She was slender, fit, and there were a number of scars that crossed over her shoulders and stretched out of sight onto her back. Just above the waistline of her jeans, there were three jagged mark from what looked like a claw across her hip. Across her stomach, there was another set of four lines that crossed over her skin. Some of those scars were almost faint against her skin, but others were still the knotted ugliness of wounds just barely healed. Diavolo's stomach twisted at the sight as he studied her skin. Even Solomon didn't have so many scars and he had to be thousands of years older than her.
"Violence isn't anything new to me, Diavolo," she admitted. "Fights are common among dragons and the species at large, but hybrids are threatened all the more due to our human blood. There aren't a lot of us and fewer every year unless they are outside of the location we live."
Truth. She lived among the bulk of that species and it was a willing existence, at that. For once, Diavolo didn't know what to say. In the silence that followed, she put the long-sleeve shirt back on and pulled her golden hair from the collar.
She was still holding his gaze, so calm it was as if she were already sure of the decision he would make. "Well?" she asked.
"Well what?"
"What are you going to do with me?"
His thoughts flashed to something very not related to their situation at hand and he had to take a second to redirect those thoughts. Her expression drained of emotion as she continued to hold his gaze. Fearless.
And then she glanced at Mammon, Levi, and Beel and there was the fear he had expected. The scent of it was sweet, almost cloying, not unlike when she had been giving off those Rut pheromones, but it was also somehow sickening.
"If I am to be killed, will it hurt them? Or is there someway to sever the pacts beforehand?"
Mammon lurched towards her, but stopped under his brother's glare and the weight of Diavolo's continued silence. She was afraid of hurting those she had taken pacts with.
"Are you a threat to my realm?"
"No."
Truth, again.
"Is your family a threat?"
Her silence was a heavy one when she turned her eyes back to his and considered that question. "I don't know. They're likely angry that I was snatched away from them, but I don't know that their strength would even come close to that of your Hell Lords."
She was giving the truth as she understood it and still she was calm for all that she had and had not revealed. Likely there was a secret there she would take to the grave and those she would protect with it.
"And Diaval?"
Her head tilted even as she grimaced. "You should find a way to communicate with him if he was truly sent in my place and you intend for the exchange program to be a success with him. I can't say for sure he could blend in with the normal dragons."
So, she thought an individual demon wasn't a threat, even one from among his own nobles. There had also been reports of her being involved in scraps with some of the lesser demons and putting them in their places. Her fear had been real when Levi had threatened her just before their pact had been made and when Lucifer had threatened her and Luke. But maybe that had been fear that she wouldn't be able to protect Luke. And she hadn't brought any of her pacts to bear against Lucifer even during that threat.
"You didn't summon Beel, Mammon, or Levi when Lucifer threatened you."
Lyssa frowned at that, her expression twisting in confusion. "Mammon was there. He would have tried to protect Luke and I don't believe Lucifer would have turned on his own family." She really hadn't thought of using the Brothers against each other.
She was used to fighting for herself and protecting her own.
"Then, I don't see why we can't continue as before," he said and she startled at the words. "You still meet the requirements that were set for the exchange program and I see no reason to lose the progress you've made here over this." He smiled and she looked suspicious. "Besides, this could be an interesting development with your...family." Her face twisted in a snarl at the insinuation he was making and he had to work to keep his laughter to himself. She was cute when she got defensive.
After that, Diavolo and Lucifer took their leave to discuss things further in private and left her alone with Solomon, Beel, Levi, and Mammon. There was a crash, a yelp, and then laughter; and he wasn't jealous at all.
Take Flight, Lesson 7-10: The Tour BEGINS, (finally)
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are NOT expanded on as they are NOT very important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
Some references are made to previous chapters. See the Masterlist.
-------
The brothers and angels were trading quips back and forth with some amusement when Diavolo and Lucifer returned together to the Castle entrance hall. Diavolo's eyes swept over my little group and lingered on me for a moment before passing over the others.
"Well, it looks like everyone's here now," Diavolo stated with some satisfaction and his arms crossed over his red blazer.
Lucifer was eyeing Mammon as he said, "In that case, let's begin our tour of the Demon Lord's Castle." Mammon breathed a sigh of relief that his last comment hadn't been mentioned, until Lucifer's eyes narrowed and he continued, "Mammon, when the tour's over, I expect you to come to my room and explain everything in detail about what you just mentioned."
"YIKES!" Mammon yelped and I stifled a laugh. It was so like him to talk about stealing something and then Lucifer catching him, whether or not his brother had been in the room for the conversation.
"What an idiot," Satan muttered, shaking his head.
"Now, now. I think its nice to have at least one foolish character in the group you can tease. It lightens things up a little, don't you think?" a voice asked and I jumped, growling deep in my throat. For a moment, I forgot my draconic features were Veiled and my shoulder blades flexed like they would have with my wings. Instead of curling my wings protectively around us, I had to settle for a hand on Luke's shoulder as I looked around for the source of the voice.
"HEY! Who're you callin' foolish?!" Mammon snapped, keeping his place at my back.
He did that automatically, like it was a given for him that he was my protector.
Simeon appeared as surprised as I was and stepped closer to Luke as well. "Where did that voice come from?"
A...ball...of black inkiness resolved itself from the shadow of one of the planters by the double doors. It had thin arms and legs that seemed more a suggestion than anything and a hat with a yellow stripe around the brim.
"Whoopsie! Guess I should have introduced myself first! Hello there, I'm little D. Number 2. Ah, but call me Number Two if you would, mmkay?" it said. Its mouth was full of razor sharp teeth that made me want to raise my hackles and growl again.
Luke startled at the appearance of the thing and stepped back into me with a yelp. "Wh-what is THAT?! A tiny demon...?"
Beel appeared to drooling on his jacket as he eyed it. "Looks yummy," he muttered.
Solomon caught Beel's elbow and shook his head at the larger demon. "Careful, Beel. He'll make you sick to your stomach."
A laugh made me look at Diavolo. His golden eyes were gleaming with amusement. "You all know about the Little D's, don't you? After all, they help Lyssa with any tasks we assign." His expression dropped a little. "Apparently, Barbatos has some student council business to attend to at the moment, so I thought I'd ask Number Two here to be our guide. He may be small, but he's very helpful."
I was staring at it. That was one of the shadow things that were assigned to guide and advise me when the Brothers had other duties to attend to? They'd never actually detached from the shadows they followed me through so I'd never really seen them.
Lucifer was smiling sharply at Mammon as he said, "Yes. He's MUCH more helpful than a certain OTHER 'number two' I know."
My first pact-mate shrugged at his elder brother. "A certain other number two? ...Who's that?"
Levi stared at Mammon and then shook his head. "You know, every once in a while, I'm actually a little envious of you for being like this, Mammon..."
The little spike of hurt I felt in our pact-bond said he wasn't near as oblivious as his brothers made him out to be, but he didn't say anything to contradict them so I stayed quiet as I watched him. The Little D, in the meantime, launched into an enthusiastic rundown of what we were going to be seeing on our tour. I tuned him out in favor of reaching my hand out to tug at Mammon's leather jacket.
His head was down, just a little. "Hey," I said softly. "Thanks for having my back earlier. I appreciate that my first pact-mate would do that for me." Mammon gave me a small smile and stepped closer to my side.
We started with a portrait that bore a striking resemblance to Diavolo. However, upon closer inspection, I could see the differences in their features, the subtle broadness of the jawline, the smaller nose, the way the eyebrows drew together, and the eyes. They weren't quite the gold that Diavolo's was, containing more black than his.
"Surely you don't need to introduce HIM, do you?" Satan asked sarcastically.
"Don't be so sure, Satan. After all, I'm guessing Lyssa doesn't know who this is," Simeon answered.
Looking at them, I had to stifle a laugh. Despite Satan being one of the born demons, he and Simeon looked very much like brothers in that moment. Their eyes were almost exact opposites but the depth of their coloring suggested they were in the same color spectrum and their body language. They were both standing side-by-side with their right hand propped on their hips and regarding me with the same look.
"I can guess," I said dryly and Diavolo's smile thinned, just a little.
"Right, so this is a portrait of the great Demon King himself!" the little D rambled excitedly.
Luke was studying the portrait with interest from a little ways back. "Ah, right, so that's what he looks like. The last time I saw him was at a ceremony over a thousand years ago."
"Yes, I haven't seen my father in several hundred years myself. He's slumbering at the bottom of the Devildom now." Diavolo was studying the portrait now and I had to wonder if he had any good memories of his father to have that sort of pained expression on him. "I'd say he isn't much interested in the world at large these days." His tone was a touch unfriendly and disappointed.
Solomon was inspecting the case below the portrait with a crown of some sort in it. It was dark for all that it was gold and adorned with many different jewels. "Whose crown is this? Could it belong to the Demon King?" he asked.
"Actually, it belongs to the former Demon King before him," Lucifer said after a moments glance over it.
"Ah, so it is," Solomon exclaimed. "Here is the former Demon King's inscription inside it."
"You seem to know quite a bit about these things," I noted with amusement.
Lucifer glanced at Diavolo and then back to the crown. "That's because when I first came here, Diavolo explained what each item here was. It took him hours."
"Haha, right! I did, didn't I? Ah, the memories!" The demon prince's expression was brighter and softer when he smiled, really smiled. It cracked the mask and lit up his features, taking his general beauty and making him-
I tore my gaze from him, heat creeping up my neck and ears. Don't go there.
In the silence between them, Mammon laughed at his elder brother's pained expression. "Man, I've got to hand it to Lord Diavolo. Even when Lucifer gets sarcastic, it STILL doesn't bother him...!"
"Assuming it registered as sarcasm to him in the first place," Solomon observed.
After that, the Little D led us on a tour through the twisting halls and enthusiastically launched into explanations about the importance and history of the pieces. Over time, I was tuning the droning out and kept half an eye on Mammon whenever he paid a little too much attention to certain pieces. Luke drifted off to his other housemates and I let myself relax into the tour as everyone else seemed preoccupied with their own thoughts.
Diavolo coincidently stood beside me when we stopped to admire certain items or paintings. His presence was distracting as his scent invaded my senses and my gut twisted uncomfortably. Cinnamon and rain, something like home. It made my heart ache, too, and it had only been a few weeks since they had brought me here. I tried to skitter away from him and towards the pact-mates that were safer for me in my rising state and changing scent, but he followed me and the brothers instinctively gave way to him.
By the Saints, I hated the dragon's Rut. It was hard to concentrate on anything besides him. Meanwhile, Diavolo and Lucifer bickered lightly about the first days when they had met, expanding on the history of some pieces and helping to distract me from Diavolo's presence so close to me.
"No, don't bring that up-" Lucifer started, but Diavolo was already grinning at his friend.
"Oh, what's the harm in it? The first time I met you, you were simply so divine, so awe-inspiring that you took my breath away. I couldn't believe such a beautiful, magnificent angel actually existed. And then there was the way you refused to even shake my hand at first."
"Why do you sound so happy right now...?" Lucifer sighed.
I was watching Diavolo closely and he did seem rather pleased at the memory. As the child of a dragon ruler, and not even her heir, others had a hard time saying no to me even when they hated me. As for my siblings, who were the legitimate Heirs, other dragons hardly ever tried to contradict them. That fell to us siblings and other family members who had equal status to them. But Diavolo had no siblings and his father had been asleep for the last several hundred years. Lucifer was, perhaps, the first that had ever refused him anything he had wanted and that had made him desire to have Lucifer at his side all the more. What had occurred that had made it possible to bind the brothers to him so tightly?
Diavolo caught my eye and grinned at me, making heat flush up my neck again. I broke eye contact first and looked back at the Little D, who was attempting to explain something about another portrait. Levi, Beel, and Satan discussed...something...in the background but it was too hard to focus on their words.
I lost track of how long we continued on through the tour.
Take Flight, Lesson 7-7: Welcome to the Devildom History Tour
New realizations and getting comfortable with each other.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are NOT expanded on as they are NOT very important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
A/N: Please not that I am not bashing on any OM characters here. I love them all for their little differences. However, these are still early days for my character in meeting our boys. These are simply her thoughts and emotions just barely a few weeks after she was "accidently" kidnapped and told she would be participating in the exchange program, willing or not.
Masterlist
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"Well, it seems we've gotten ourselves settled here in our room now. our belongings are in order, and we've decided who'll be using which bed," Simeon stated. "So, Asmodeus, Lyssa, let me take this opportunity to say that I look forward to sharing a space with the two of you these next few days."
I glanced at him and shut the drawer I had just shoved my backpack in after having dumped its contents in right before that. Two shirts, jeans, underwear and bra changes, and pajamas. Yep. My stuff was sure in order. Asmo had claimed the middle bed and smiled at me when he saw my frustration and now they were both watching me.
"Yes, me too. And I have to say, Lyssa, Simeon, you two certainly lucked out, now didn't you? Considering you get to share a room with me." Asmo fluttered his eyelashes at us and I was staring because I had never met anyone as conceited as he was. Maybe he was the Avatar of Vanity and not Lust?
"Ah, yes. I suppose you could say we're lucky to have you on the team," Simeon said and was that a resigned note that I heard in his voice.
"Hehe. Now, now, there's no need to hide how thrilled you really are right now." Was he...joking...with us? "Stop and think about it for a moment. You'll be sharing a room with me-with Asmodeus himself. Which means you'll be there to see me when I first wake up in the morning, after I've stepped out of the shower, when I'm changing my clothes-"
No. No he was not joking with us. I was almost fascinated with the vanity he was displaying. It was something else when you tried to consider the different emotions that would have gone into building himself up to be like this, if Simeon was any indication of how they had been before their Fall.
How broken were they that they could have come to such an extreme? Mammon had his share of insecurities that he covered with bravado and denials, but he cared deeply for those he loved-not me. Levi was just straight up socially shut down and his insecurities were painted across his life with his manga and anime. I could say that Beel literally ate his feelings and was always thinking about food, because it meant not having to think about other things.
Asmo was...something...about himself. He wasn't quite so vain that he didn't notice things around him, even when he was needling his brothers. Were they trying to connect with each other when they squabbled?
My own siblings and I had had our share of fights that had ended with hurt feelings and much needed space before we had reconciled our differences. Our dame was...strong...was one word for her. Maybe resilient or stubborn were a better term for what she had endured through her childhood with her own siblings. Had things turned out even a little differently, would we have been like these brothers?
Lucifer was the head of their family and even I could see that he had been their shield for a long time. He was the first to react and the first to step forward. Diavolo called him his right hand and best friend and, maybe, that was true to some degree, but-
Asmo was still going on about how we were lucky to be rooming with him, but he seemed to be winding himself down. "-if that's not what you call amazing luck, I don't know what is!"
Simeon was smiling, but there was something pained to it. "Ahaha. I have to say, you really are funny, aren't you Asmodeus?"
"Funny? I believe you mean beautiful...It's okay, you can just come out and say it, you know?" The tone was playful until it wasn't. "What sort of image did you have of me in the first place, Simeon?"
"...hmmm. Let me think. Well, I suppose I still think of you the same way that I did back when you were up in the Celestial Realm." Their body language was shifting, neither bothering to hide themselves any more. They had been brothers. "'Lucifer, the pride of the Celestial Realm, loved by all of creation...There was one angel he thought especially beautiful, one whom he praised and kept at his side. 'Twas Asmodeus, jewel of the heavens.'"
"A traveling minstrel wrote that about you once and it turned out to be an image that stuck. I suppose I see you as someone who's very attached to that reputation, and works day in and day out trying to live up to it."
"Huh? So, you're saying that your image of me is of someone who wants to be loved?"
"Yes, I suppose that would be accurate."
Asmo's body language shut down again, seeming almost like he was drawing back into himself. It sent a pang through my heart, a there and gone thing. "Mmmm...I don't like that's a good description of me, personally. I mean, naturally, I think no one in the three worlds is more deserving of love than I am." Which didn't mean that he felt he was actually receiving it. "But that's just common sense, now isn't it? I mean, is there anyone out there who DOESN'T love me?"
I could name at least twelve or more people that would try and fight him right this instant and would have stated their absolute hatred of him and his brothers. But I kept that to myself. It wasn't like I wanted a fight to break out between my family and the brothers.
"Hmmm, I wonder. If you were ever to come across a soul that you couldn't charm-that you couldn't control-how would you react? Hmmm..." Simeon did not sound thoughtful, as his words might have seemed. "It's and interesting question. Wouldn't you agree, Lyssa?"
Subtle, that. Real subtle, Simeon.
"Lyssa, what do you have to say about this?" Asmo was suddenly in my personal space and I only tilted my head a little at him. "You think there's actually someone out there who does not love me?"
A smile twisted my lips and I wasn't sure if I was angry or sad. "I don't know," I answered. Given time, maybe he could win over my family.
"...You don't know?" Asmo repeated, pouting. "Are you just not very bright, is that it? Or perhaps it's an issue with your eyesight?"
The pulse of rage that swept through me was there and gone, something that was diverted through my bonds and dispersed to my family. It was safer than sitting with it among demons. Thankfully, Satan appeared in our doorway and said, "Hey, the tour of the Demon Lord's Castle is starting soon."
Simeon was wearing his usual smile then and I was starting to realize how much of a mask it really was. "Well, I suppose we should get going, then."
Avatar of Wrath? More like Avatar of good timing. I slid around Asmo and Simeon, glad for the excuse that Satan had brought us.
-----
Luke was pouting when we got back to the entrance hall. I made a beeline straight for him, Mammon, Levi and Beel. Safety in numbers, right? Right!
"I want to go home," Luke mumbled when I was beside him and I could only smile sympathetically.
"What's wrong, Luke? You seemed to be in such high spirits earlier," Simeon said, concern written across his face and in his voice.
"Yeah. Suddenly, that cute little tail of yours is hanging down like a sad doggy, you know?" Asmo cut in and all sympathy I had for him vanished.
"I'm not a dog! And I don't have a tail," Luke stated firmly and then looked to Simeon. "You're so lucky, Simeon. Unlike me, you have relatively decent roommates. First off, Leviathan is taking up half of the room to perform a strange ritual worshiping some sort of idol!"
Levi smiled at Luke, an almost sharp edge there and I was reconsidering how safe Luke might be with my pact-mates. "Well, tomorrow is the birthday for one of my favorite characters. When the clock strikes midnight, I've got to go online and start streaming. To share my deep passion, and joy, and infatuation-"
"Ugh, at least speak in a language I can understand!" Luke groaned. "As for Beel, HE suddenly started eating one of the paintings in our room..."
Beel was smiling indulgently at Luke, like he was looking at a favorite little brother. "The fruit was so lifelike, I thought it was real!"
Luke looked at Beel with an incredulous expression. "Right, but shouldn't you have realized it was a painting BEFORE eating the entire thing?"
"Hey, now, Levi, Beel," Mammon said. "You shouldn't tease the doggy too much, got it?"
"I'm NOT a doggy!" Luke stated firmly.
He was ignored as Asmo observed, "What's going on? Suddenly, you seem to be in an awfully good mood, Mammon. Did you spot something in your room that you might be able to sell for a profit?"
And like that, they were off. I just sat back and watched them needle each other back and forth. They were including Luke like it was only natural, like he was one of them. Considering as teasing between siblings gave me a new look at their interactions.
Mammon's pact-bond was leaking a feeling of contentment and happiness. Loosening my internal grip just a little on that pact-bond, I let the feeling wash over me, let it wash the rage and frustration of earlier away. It almost looked like he was glad that he had been able to find common ground with Satan and Solomon and I was happy for him.
Satan gave his brother an exasperated look and tried to pull Solomon into taking responsibility for Mammon, but Solomon turned it back on him as they were brothers.
My hands settled on Luke's shoulders and he seemed to settle with my touch. After that, we just watched the others trade insults and comments.
Take Flight, Part 7-4: Multi-day Tour of the Demon Lord's Castle, continued
Room assignments, surprises, and food! Oh, my.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are expanded on as they are important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
Masterlist
------
The silence was almost deafening in the absence of the chatter that had been the background. Resolutely, I ignored those facts and kept my chin on Diavolo's head with his cheek partially squashed against my chest. If he was going to do things like this to me, then I would play along and refuse the embarrassment that I had been reacting with since I had arrived. Besides, he and Mammon were the only ones who really touched me and I had been feeling the loss of those little, daily touches that my family were always exchanging with me just because there was a shared affection between us.
It was an ache that I refused to address in front of the demons, but touch-starved was a word that I understood now. Maybe he knew it, too, maybe he knew more about me than he was letting on, but I had never rejected the touches that he and Mammon had brushed over my skin, my shoulders, my arms. This might have been an escalation, but it wasn't wholly outside the realm of appropriate or what I had come to expect of his impulsive nature.
When Diavolo loosened his grip enough that I could slide down his chest, I allowed my hands to remain on his shoulders to support myself should he release me suddenly, but he didn't. My toes had barely touched the marble floors when his arms tightened around my waist again. Glancing up at him, I realized I could meet his gaze at this height. There was something molten in his expression, almost hungry. And then he had released me and I stepped back.
"Lyssa!" came a familiar shout, the voice high and child-like. There was a trembling pitch to it that had me spinning to him and going to one knee to catch the hug that Luke threw at me. I felt it when Diavolo stepped away from me, almost like the sun had retreated from me.
"What the...? HEY! What's the big idea runnin' up and huggin' Lyssa like that?" Mammon grumbled.
"Ugh...THIS is why I hate normies," Levi added.
"Hello, and good morning! We've already got quite the crowd here, don't we?" came Simeon's soothing voice.
I was patting Luke's back and smoothing his hair down as his trembling continued. My eyes met Simeon's curious blue gaze and then flickered to Solomon's not-quite interested gaze. His smile didn't quite reach his eyes and a chill slithered down my spine again. I was never quite sure what to do around him as he reminded me of some of the more ancient dragons that had already seen too much of life and refused to leave their dragon forms.
It was an instinct that had me grasping Luke to my body and almost try to curl around him by turning my stance to give Solomon my side instead of Luke's back.
Solomon watched this all and just gave a dry chuckle. He had one hand tapping away at his chin and the other wrapped around his stomach as he observed me and said, "You demons sure know how to get any early start. I see you managed to get here before us."
Luke stepped back from me, his eyes bright and his hands fisted in the material of my shirt. "Lyssa, I'm SO happy you're alright! So, SO happy," he said.
"What's all this?" Satan asked with a little interest.
Asmo chuckled and was the one to answer, "I'm guessing he must feel responsible for what happened...You know, for how Lucifer nearly attacked Lyssa."
My hair tipped across my face as I bent my head and glanced at Lucifer through it. He, at least, had the good grace to look a little contrite. After all, it had been a book, and Luke's life was more important to me than a stupid grimoire. Besides if it had actually been that important, Lucifer should have put more safe guards around it with the exchange program going on.
Luke continued to apologize until I gently interrupted him, "Don't worry about it. I'm alive. It's alright."
His smile was both relieved and beautiful. "Are you actually an angel? Is that it? An angel disguised as a human?" Luke asked in his usual chattering way and I could only smile at him.
What would he think of the truth? Not an angel, but a hybrid-dragon?
"I've heard rumors that Simeon and Diavolo met and mediated a solution together. Is that right?" Solomon asked and my eyes cut to Simeon as anger flushed my body.
Simeon was smiling at me, like he was indulging a child, as he said, "Yes, we did." I got slowly to my feet under his gaze, my hands still on Luke's shoulders. Diavolo's laugh made my shoulders stiffen.
"Indeed yes. Isn't that right, Lucifer?"
Lucifer's voice, when he answered, was reluctant, "...Yes."
Of course they reached a solution without me, the human of the exchange program, the burden to be looked after. It wasn't like Luke and I had been the individuals that had been attacked.
Luke was watching me, his chatter having faded away. Asmo laughed at the concern that Luke was watching me with. "Hehe. Just look at the expression on Luke's face. He looks like a dog with his tail between his legs."
"Shhh! He'll hear you, Asmodeus," Satan said in a mocking whisper.
The growl I uttered as more of a sound that vibrated in my chest as I drew Luke into me and slipped my arms around his neck. For his part, he just put his arms around my waist and leaned into me.
"All right, then," Diavolo said. "Now that we're all here, perhaps we should go ahead and explain how this retreat is going to work." His expression was again that of his mask with his public smile in place among the extended company.
"Certainly, My lord," Barbatos said. "The aim of this retreat is for demons, angels, and demons to intermingle so that each may gain a better understanding of each other."
"Well, as we're stayin' the night, I say the best way to intermingle is by havin' a pillow fight!" Mammon stated, starting to slink towards me.
Barbatos ignored him and continued, "Now then, I'll begin by explaining what we have planned for each day of the retreat.."
Mammon muttered something under his breath that had Levi laughing at him. The chatter around me died to background noise as I allowed my ears to listen and my attention drifted over those individuals present, noting the mixed emotions that were leaking over from Levi, Mammon, and Beel's pact-bonds.
They were excited, annoyed, and trepid in varying degrees depending on their personal temperaments. Simeon and Solomon were both studying Luke and I with different amounts of interest. Lucifer looked like he had something to say and his eyes were on Diavolo, whose golden eyes were watching me. Satan wore a bored expression as Asmodeus chattered happily about something.
Devildom cuisine for the first night prepared by Barbatos, Luke was going to make something from the Celestial realm, and I was going to be making something for everyone from the human world. There was some general excitement over the idea that Barbatos, Luke, and I would be making something different each night.
The merits of a scavenger hunt were discussed and I wanted to dig my palm into my forehead. That sounded like a disaster in the making. Did Diavolo ever consider the different personalities of those involved? Probably not.
"Incidentally, there will be a dance following dinner tomorrow," Barbatos continued and I had to frown at that.
A dance meant a dress and I hadn't packed anything of the like, not that I would have owned anything resembling a ballroom gown. Something to worry about later, then.
And then there were roommate assignments. Something to make everything worse, more embarrassing, and complicated. Diavolo had decided to take a room with Lucifer, despite having his own room here. Diavolo called it part of the experience, but there was something to Lucifer's expression that had me frowning. His usual expression was almost pained, his head turned away from Diavolo, if only just a little. That wasn't the reaction of a chagrined friend, dealing with an overzealous situation.
That was...something I was not getting involved in. At least, I hoped not. Rooming with Asmo and Simeon would be stressful enough for me. Luke being with Beel and Levi loosened a knot of worry in my chest. Two of my pact-mates. Luke would be fine with them even if he was away from Simeon. Of course, we could always swap rooms-like Mammon was trying (and failing) to do with Asmo. It made me smile with Mammon's disappointment, and then he fell into the pattern of denying everything and the happiness faded.
Satan and Asmo kept needling at Mammon but I dropped my head to look at Luke instead. At least children were simple. It was harder for them to hide what they were feeling and their actions usually aligned with what they were feeling.
"How long do you all plan on goofing around?" Lucifer asked, his voice tight and I found myself looking at him. "Let's go. Time to take your belongings up to your rooms." He swooped on Mammon and grabbed his ear, dragging his brother along.
"Owww! Hey! Lucifer, stop! Quit pullin' me along by the ear! Ugh, COME ON! What'd I do to deserve this, huh?!" Mammon complained. His eyes cast back at me and I couldn't help the laugh that rose from me.
Take Flight, Part 7-2: A Multi-Day Tour of the Demon Lord's Castle
The tour starts with an odd twist!
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are expanded on as they are important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
Masterlist
----------
"So, why can't I skip this thing?" I asked Lucifer, raking a hand through my hair. "I haven't been feeling all that great these last few days, and I doubt I'll be the best company for the lot of you, including your princeling." The last bit was a muttered grumble and I had cast my eyes around his study so as to miss his glare.
They had told me about the multi-day tour of Diavolo's castle and called it a retreat, something I hadn't been the least bit interested in-especially as they had each threatened me in some way or another on a weekly or daily basis. I was used to threats and challenges of violence, being the least pure of dragon blood among my siblings meant every disgruntled dragon tried to take their frustrations out on me. My usual methods of dealing violence to violence wouldn't have proven effective against demons, so I had smiled or snarled or fixed their issues as the situations had arisen.
Right now, though, being in close proximity to Lucifer and his brothers for the duration of this trip was going to prove uncomfortable and difficult to me in equal measure. Being so whisked to the Devildom so close the the dragons' Breeding Year was proving to be an issue, despite the fact that my blood was mostly human.
Having a menstrual cycle among demons who could smell the blood, had been a lesson in humility and a strain on my nerves to explain to them what my body was going through. No way was I going to be able to hide the changing of my scent as the Rut closed in on me.
I hadn't thought I would be affected by the Rut, which only came about every twenty years. I had forgotten among the demons how much Other I was and how that made me too different to be human enough to live among them with my sire.
Not that I would have traded my childhood with eight siblings, my uncles, aunt, dame, and Lecorn for anything else in the three realms-even with the violence and pain that had come with it. And now, on the eve of this trip, my scent was changing and it didn't bode well that Asmo had started nosing around me and my room. Avatar of Lust, indeed. Of course he was the first of the brothers to start noticing.
Lucifer waited until I looked back at him to answer, "It is mandatory and no amount of not feeling well will get you out of it. And do not call Lord Diavolo princeling." The last part was hissed at me, but his expression was almost exasperated since Diavolo had already granted me permission to call him that among the brothers and his own company. It was one of the things I could do safely to ruffle his feathers and I did it every time we were alone.
Grinning at his reaction, I almost proceeded down our usual spat over the nickname but thankfully caught myself before I did because he had tilted his chin up slightly and looked like he was scenting the air. "I recommend that you leave behind whatever perfume that Asmo has given you. It will give my brothers the wrong kind of ideas."
Fuuuuuck!
Blood rushed to my head and I felt the blush darken my cheeks. His head tilted to the side for a moment as he considered my reaction. Ice slithered down my spine "Fine, yeah, will do."
I fled his study before he could so much as utter another syllable and was gone before the door clicked shut behind me.
------
Mammon was a little too jazzed about the whole trip even though he had been the most vocal of his brothers up to yesterday about not wanting to go. Some part of me had held out a tiny slice of hope that Lucifer would listen to his favorite brother and somehow convince him to try and persuade Diavolo to cancel the whole thing.
"All right! It's finally time for our retreat! Three days and two nights!"
Sitting cross-legged on the dining room table with my chin propped in my palms, I watched at the five brothers made a giant commotion, playfully egging each other on and Asmo, Levi, and Satan riling Mammon along into an outburst towards me.
"Ain't ya excited for this trip, too, Lys?!"
"Nope, not even remotely."
"Ah, don't be such a stick in the mud, Lys! Where's your spirit, huh?! You should be pumped!"
I smiled wanly at his enthusiasm. Maybe by sticking with Mammon this whole trip would be bearable. His brothers might call him a scummy, unreliable moron, but he had been the one who had consistently been kind and tried to keep his brothers at bay for me. That he was also my first pact-holder didn't hurt for swaying my affection towards him. That and he was also the densest besides Beel and would probably take the longest to realize my change in scent.
The five brothers continued to bicker in front of the dining room, loitering in the entryway as we waited for Lucifer. The eldest, surprisingly, was the last to join us. Briefly, my thoughts flickered to the demon in the attic. Eh...demons probably didn't die of starvation or thirst over a long weekend and Lucifer was the type that he made sure everyone ate their meals at least once a day. I had my own private thoughts as to his actual identity, but that wouldn't matter if I couldn't net Amos' pact.
"Whoa, Beel, that bag of yours is waay too big! Pfff, I bet it's stuffed with food, ain't it?" Mammon asked, circling around my third pact holder. I chuckled under my breath because Mammon had added another suitcase with snacks for Beel to my stuff when he saw I was brining only a small backpack.
Fuck, maybe I could reel in Beel, Solomon, and Luke, too. That ought to be a safe enough group to stick with, although I wasn't sure if Simeon would be able to scent me. Maybe angles were safe, but I didn't hold out much hope since Lucifer and Asmo had begun to notice the difference and five of the brothers around me were fallen angles. If other normal...born(?)...demons were able to scent the change as well...don't go down that road. One step at a time.
Lucifer's glare when he saw me on the dining table had me grinning at him. "Get. Off," he told me.
"Nope."
His eyes flashed crimson and I grinned wider at him. Getting murdered would fix all of my issues here, but maybe it would be wise to stop ruffling the feathers the most powerful Hell Lord under their prince. Then again, wise and I were only passingly acquainted and it was fun to tease him.
Still, I wasn't suicidal or all that keen to get him in my personal space. So, I hopped off the table when he took a deliberate step towards me and his shoulders relaxed even as his glare remained centered on me.
Asmo was harassing his brothers back over giving him a hard time about the amount of luggage that he was bringing when I slipped over beside Mammon.
"Man, even LEVI makes more sense that you, Asmo!" Mammon told them with a shake of his head.
Lucifer was still eyeing me when he finished his descent from the stairs, but I already knew my scent was obscured beneath Mammon's. I'd stolen some of Mammon's shirts from his laundry, not that he had minded with how much he sputtered at seeing me wearing his things.
"It looks like everyone's here," Lucifer said and his brothers all looked at him. "It won't do to keep Diavolo waiting. We should head over to the Demon Lord's Castle, right now. I want to get there before the angels and Solomon do."
Mammon threw an arm across my shoulders and leaned his full weight into me. "So, we're goin' to the Demon Lord's Castle, Lys, 'cause there aint no guarantee you'll come back from this alive, ya know?"
We were walking almost lock-step out the door together so I had to watch my feet as we went down the stone steps. So, I was distracted when Satan took up my thread of the conversation. "I know you want Lyssa to be interested in you, but you do realize it sounds as if you're trying to scare someone, don't you Mammon?"
It was a false show of concern on Satan's part, but he would have taken over almost any thread of conversation to needle at his older brother. And then, there was Mammon, himself. He hopped away from me faster than as if I were a diseased carrot, his face bright with a blush under his stark white hair.
"What?! Whaddya mean?! Pff, why should I want Lyssa to be interested in me, huh?!" he snapped back at his brother. "There are a lotta rumors about that place-"
My hand tightened on the suitcase he had asked me to carry for him and my stride lengthened so that I could get ahead of them and hide the fact that my own face had darkened with pain. His pact-bond told me one thing about his emotions sometimes, his words and actions said otherwise. Their chatter became noise to my ears.
I was about to pass onto the path that would take me out the gates and onto the path towards RAD until a hand on my shoulder stopped me. Glancing up, I met Lucifer's dark, red-tinted gaze.
"The cars are this way."
Why the fuck had we been walking to RAD all this time?!
------
Diavolo and Barbatos were the ones to greet us in the castle's foyer. It was...grandiose...with the pictures, what I suspected was real gold lining the walls, the other decorations, the marble floors...
But it was Diavolo that held my attention with his outstretched arms and his words, "Well, good morning. I must say, I couldn't wait for you to arrive!"
He made a beeline straight to me and I yelped when he slid one arm around my waist, lifted me off feet and then slid his other arm around my thighs and just beneath my ass. I caught myself on his shoulders and stared down at him as he grinned up at me.
"Umm...hi?" I asked as I wriggled against his hold.
Behind him, Barbatos was watching us with gleaming emerald eyes even as he greeted everyone else, "Welcome to he Demon Lord's Castle. It's a pleasure to have you here." I was still dangling off the floor, captured in Diavolo's hug and it didn't seem like he was going to release me any time soon.
"Good morning, Diavolo. And you too, Barbatos," Lucifer said, his tone carefully neutral. "Well, it seems that neither Solomon nor the angels have arrived yet, have they?"
"Man, now that's just shameless," Mammon laughed. "Listen to you pretendin' like you didn't hurry over here, all frantic to make it to Lord Diavolo before Solomon and the angels could."
"Hm, did you say something, Mammon?"
I twisted in Diavolo's arms just in time to see Lucifer stomp on Mammon's foot, forgoing any sense of subtlety. His expression might have been disapproving while Mammon yelped and tried to retract his statement, but his eyes were almost glinting with...mischief? Diavolo's rich laugh vibrated in his chest and spread to me until I was grinning. What had I been worried about?
"Well, Lucifer, Mammon, I see that you two are getting along as swimmingly as usual," Diavolo said. His arm dropped from my waist and joined his other on my thighs so it was more like I was...sitting?...on his arms and leaning against his chest.
Asmo was pouting at his brothers, his eyes flickering interestedly over me. "At least Mammon is predictable. No matter what, you can always count on him to act stupid."
"Oi!" came the protestation.
"Yeah, it's embarrassing to think that Solomon and the angels are about to get a front row seat to all of Mammon's idiocy," Satan groaned.
"WHAT?"
"Ah...Diavolo, are you going to put me down?" I asked when he just continued to hold me and smile indulgently at the brothers.
"Ah, speaking of our other guests, they've just arrived," Barbatos smoothly cut in.
Fuck it. I set my chin on his head and wrapped my arms around his neck. His cheek pressed partially into my chest. He'd already messed up the careful plans I had set. An astonished silence fell across the entire hall.
Stealing these! Might have to draw up a ficlet over these new interactions. Almost makes me want to play NB...if I didn't hate the new dance system so much. <.<
I am here because my emotions are a wild wave crashing through with the jagged pieces of my broken heart. I am here because I cannot deal with the rage, grief, and all the other emotions that broke me. Alcohol was the quick and easy answer that I turned to after May 18, 2019 when the first rape occurred at the hands of a stranger in a place where I was supposed to be safe. It has been so long and there have been so many other traumas and experiences that the memory of if it was a gun or knife has faded and started to bother me. I'm having to learn that this is actually a normal part of memory and that these memories will soften or blur with time time and that is ok.
I haven't been allowed to feel safe for the last four (almost 5) years up until June 25, 2024 of this year. Its been a long time since I was allowed to be in charge of myself as well and allowed to do what I feel is necessary to my first steps in recovery. I am in rehab because I lost all feeling of control and this is the first place where I am allowed freedom and sobriety as long as I don't touch alcohol.
I am here to find a new path to freedom and to regain the control which I lost so long ago.
Now, to the letter (read at your own discretion):
------------
Dear Addiction,
You found me in the worst moment of my life and dug your claws deep into me. There was comfort at first in the oblivion and gentle numbness that you wrapped me in when those memories became too much and the pain too great to bear. you took my hand and helped me to walk a path of destruction I never dreamed I was capable of. My life became a series of destruction and self-sabotage as you seeped into the cracks of my broken faith in God and in humanity.
The masks that I had worn my entire life became brittle and riddled with cracks under your influence. I always knew what the next wrong thing with you was but I was powerless to stop it. You took my strength as your defense and twisted my kindness until those around me had used me to their satisfaction and felt compelled to throw me down a flight of stairs or to try and choke me into unconsciousness for their own sick pleasure.
Compulsions and desires, not wants and needs, are what drove me to the edge of sanity and freedom. First it was the destruction of my faith in humanity and in God. Then, it was the desire to escape pain and memories of death and the things done to me. You hid beneath the darkness and wrapped me in your wings.
I questioned who I was and why it had been me to survive when my unborn and her father passed together. You helped me survive the torture he family blamed me with. Breathing became difficult and you helped me until you no longer did, until you started to burn me along with my life (again and again and again).
Really, it's not you I'll miss. It's the way you made me feel in the very beginning of it all.
Let me now feel the sting, the pain, the burn beneath my skin. You've put me to the test time and time again, but I've proven that I am strong. I won't let myself believe that what I feel is wrong. It just means that I am alive and very much human.
I loved and hated you in equal measure from start to end. You taught me how to fight with everything in me, but I'll teach you how to lose.
Light shining from the sober side of life was always like a candle burning down before my wild eyes. Even on my darkest nights, you were my sword and shield. We were tired soldiers in an endless war together, but I have to keep in sight what it is that I am now fighting for, and what it is that brings my weary soul staggering back from the edge.
You may not have killed me yet, but you provide no life worth living. I might be losing my mind burying the trauma and the grief without talking about it, but that is still better than losing my entire self within you.
Standing face to face with my own humanity has shown me that I just want to be ok. I really just want to be whole once more and no longer defined by the jagged edges of my broken heart.
I know that I am a resilient warrior beneath everything and yet that warrior side has protected the gentle kindness of my youth from you this whole time. So, no more I say.
No more.
You cannot take from me what was never yours to touch. Scars that you have left on me and my shattered heart will remain until I grow so much that they simply fade away with time. I know I am worth at least that much to myself.
So, for how you ate my shame and the excessive cares that I had for other people's opinions: I thank you from the bottom of my heart. However, it is time to take your claws, your wings, and your darkness from me and be banished by the light that will become my life.
Faithfully yours no more,
Me
Lyrics and Songs that helped inspire this letter: "Meet Me on the Battlefield" by Svrcina and "Warrior" by Beth Crowley
A summoning is attempted and explanations conclude.
(A/N: Liberties were taken with this lesson and some of the dialogues rearranged due to the shortness and oddity of the lesson itself).
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which ARE expanded on as they ARE important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
Probably ok to read as a stand alone.
Masterlist
-------------
It was later that evening, after Mammon had shown me to the House of Lamentations and after I had been assigned a room on one of the upper floors. The first thing I had done was lock the door, set a locking spell against intruders, and then taken to the thickest parts of the tree for cover so that I could settle in and keep half an eye on the room beneath me.
It took a few minutes to get comfortable and find the best vantage, but I found it and dug claws into the bark of the tree. With that done, I was able to turn inwards towards my bonds and finally assess if Diavolo had actually done anything when his power had rolled through me.
They were like a spiderweb, connecting through the generations and then crossing between friends and lovers who had come to bond themselves together. The silken threads were taut, but unbroken, when I ran a mental claw across the strands that connected me to my family. Very briefly, their emotions resonated back to me and relied bits and pieces of their surroundings and going ons. There seemed to be a great amount of activity, anxiety, and worry mixed with strangled fury.
The strands of my eight siblings, aunt, uncles, and dame lit up furiously and there was only a short pause before I was being bombarded by the worry, thought impressions, and other emotions of everyone. Outwardly, I had to shake myself as the sudden burst of adrenaline that spiked through my body. Inwardly, I passed as much information as I could through the bonds to everyone. It was like pushing a leaf through molasses and I don't know how much got through to everyone.
There was a sudden dimming in the bonds of everyone except my dame as she opened our secondary bond and threaded the two together. This was dame acting as both my ruler and parent as she limited the number of bonds that were connecting to me and trying to strengthen a central one for communication between us.
After a long minute, the two bonds melted into each other and our bond shone a little stronger to me. The first thing to reach me was the worry that she was feeling and then there were bits and pieces of memories of her soldiers being mobilized, a frantic search for me or the magic source that had penetrated our wards and barriers, and the whole thing ending up fruitless. There had been no outside attack against us. I had been the only person or thing removed from the dragons' stronghold. Finally, her words reached me.
Disap-...how...what...doi-...Lys...who...
Words were harder to pass through realms, apparently. She wanted answers and was sending her questions as best she could, but it just made no sense what she was saying. Instead of trying to send words myself, I focused on the scent of this realm and the image of Lucifer and Diavolo standing before me in that assembly room. I kept sending those pieces of information until a burst of anger touched my thoughts. There was a masculine hue to that emotion and it wasn't hard to recognize Mathew, my eldest brother. He was trying to work his way through our dame's strangle hold on my other bonds and he had been mostly successful, probably because she had recently been sharing the duties and powers of her thrones with him as her first heir. I started to push the scents and image to him as well and the anger quieted.
Between the two of them, I was able to piece together most of the situation that had occurred after my disappearance. I had vanished in the middle of training with Mathew and he had been the one to raise the alarm. After it became apparent that I was no longer present in the dragon stronghold, they had turned to interrogating the nobles and dragged our Seers from their beds to try and look look for me through magical means. Scrying had failed miserably and only pointed to a spot in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, at which point I had decided to check on my bonds for any damage and come into contact with them.
It took us a long time to communicate anything across the strained bonds, but they eventually seemed to understand that I was alive, in a strange realm, and among strange beings that were intent on keeping me with them for an as yet unspecified. At some point, dame and Mathew must have joined each other in a room because they were getting different pieces of relevant information to me. What I thought I could sense was that they wanted me to stay hidden until they could figure out a way to reverse the spell that had summoned me.
Bang!
The crash of a body against the bedroom door startled me away from my inward focus and snapped closed my bonds from my conscious thoughts. Reflexively, I buried them as deep into my mind as I could and pulled several layers of protection over them. The whiplash of that disruption in concentration was settling into a migraine between my temples.
"Oi! Human, who said ya could lock the door?!" came Mammon's irritated growl.
Lowly, I growled back and extracted my claws from the tree bark, willing my fingers to become more human in appearance once again. I dropped onto the floor and wrapped my injured arm around my stomach again. The pain throbbing through the broken limb and the migraine behind my temples pulled my mood into a foul area, but I bit back the first three responses as I dissipated the locking spell and threw the latch on the door.
"What is it, Mammon?" I asked tiredly. He hesitated, his eyes gliding over me, and I lightly poked him in the chest. "You're the one that was demanding that I open the door a second ago. Cat got your tongue?"
"Wha...no, it don't," Mammon answered distractedly, his eyes suddenly darting around and behind me. The attempt at humor had been lost on him and I just sighed as I waited for his inspection to be done. "Lucifer wants ta see ya. In his office. Apparently, he and Lord Diavolo weren't done explaining things when you grabbed me."
I ran my fingers through my hair and stared at him. It was true he hadn't put up much complaint when I had done that to him and he had been the least invasive of the demons so far, including Lucifer and Diavolo. "Sorry about that," I settled on for my answer and he glanced down and away.
"Wasn't no big deal, human. Jus' don't be doin' it again," he muttered. "Come on, Lucifer doesn't like to be kept waitin'."
The door closed softly behind me as I followed Mammon through several halls, down two flights of stairs, and past so many paintings it made my head hurt just that much more. He gave a loud rap against one of the identical doors and received as sharp assent for me to enter and for him to remain outside. I cracked the door open and slipped inside as quickly as I could.
Lucifer was sitting behind an ornate desk piled with papers around him. For a moment, I was struck with nostalgia. Dame's desk is the same way. Difference was, her study was always messy and on the verge of a chaotic explosion from the Twins that passed through frequently. This study was immaculate with the books all neatly in their place across almost every wall. His fireplace crackled with a fire and the two chairs in front of his desk were precisely placed. The only thing that seemed even remotely out of place was the way that Diavolo was leaning casually into the couch across the room.
Ignore the skulls, ignore the skulls, ignore the skulls.
Why someone would have human or animal skulls about their office as decoration was a mystery I was content to let be. It just gave me the creeps and made me want to exit all the faster from their presence.
I gave them a second to invite me further in, aware that golden eyes had landed on me from the second I had entered. Lucifer, for his part, was continuing to work away on one of the documents in front of him. With a yawn, I strolled into the heart of the study and plopped myself in one of the two chairs. Red eyes flickered up to me and I returned his gaze as steadily as I could. After a long moment, I dropped my eyes from his gaze.
No use trying to play dominance games with them. This place isn't like home.
Most likely, they were all more powerful than me and I was stuck here, at their mercy and good graces, until Dame could reverse summon me home. The auras alone that I could sense made my instincts rattle on the side of caution about provoking them. But I will not be their prey, either.
"It is polite to wait until you are invited to sit," Lucifer said, setting aside the quill-quill?-that he had been using.
"It's polite not to go around snatching people out of their homes at random and making their families worry," I returned and saw Diavolo smile out of the corner of my eye. Lucifer just glared at me, so I skipped past that silence and continued, "Besides, you were the one who summoned me, so I see no reason to stand and wait for you to finish ignoring me."
There was a flicker of something in Lucifer's red eyed that glinted back at me. I turned a little in the chair to cross my legs and prop my chin on the palm of my good hand. For all intents and purposes, I was ready to wait them both out, politely, but Diavolo had other plans.
He got up from the couch and closed the distance between us until he was standing beside me. I gave him a sidelong look and continued to wait. His smile was almost apologetic and kind, but it didn't quite reach his eyes and so I didn't put any trust in that mask of his.
"I'm afraid this is my fault," he offered. "I had to insist we meet again because we hadn't quite finished going over the details of what will be expected of you in the year you are here."
My hand slipped on my chin as I startled towards Diavolo. "Excuse me?" I demanded.
"We can't excuse your presence just yet, but if you are patient we will only be a few more minutes," Diavolo said patiently and my migraine throbbed.
He had taken my question literally, like the meaning behind it had escaped him. It was as surprising as flustering. "No, I mean, not that. I meant to ask what the fuck you meant by a year? When in the thrice-fucked Saints did I ever agree to that?"
The sudden release of a murderous aura had me spinning in the chair back towards Lucifer. He was smiling, but there was a dark and ominous energy pouring from his body to seep into everything around it. It was heavier than any I had ever felt before, and I froze in the face of it.
"Disrespect towards Lord Diavolo will not be tolerated. I suppose your manners are something we will have to work on while you are here with us," Lucifer said, steepling his fingers under his chin.
"You can try," I spat back before I thought about it. His smile was content as he stared back at me.
Fuck. He probably took that as a challenge.
I jumped when a large hand touched my shoulder and gripped me lightly. "That is enough, Lu," Diavolo said quietly and the smile and aura disappeared from Lucifer like it had never existed a all. "And, Lyssa, please do not provoke my Avatars too much during your stay here. They are here to assist you, but there is only so much they can do." Tolerate, was the unspoken word and I only glanced side-long at Diavolo.
I wasn't going to agree to something I would likely be pushing anyways just by existing in the same space as them. In the silence that stretched, Diavolo brushed some stray hair out of my face and then took the chair opposite mine. The feeling of his touch lingered on my cheek and kept my heart galloping at a million miles.
"Now, as to the year. Did you not read the contract before you signed it?" Diavolo asked.
I had to pause for a minute as I stared blankly at him, searching my memory for a contract that might explain this situation. It was true that as the primary heirs, my older siblings often had to delegate some of their tasks and paperwork to me, but...
"There has been no contract proposed to me personally for something like an exchange program in Hell. I would remember something like that, so that would be a solid no, princeling." The nickname just slipped from my tongue without thought as I was thinking of my family and paperwork.
The subtle change in Diavolo's expression brought me out of my stupor. Something in his mask had cracked and he was gazing at me now like he was seeing me for the first time. Apparently, I was trying to get murdered tonight.
Fuck it. Roll with it.
"If you don't like what I call you, I can always drop it." Make it seem intentional. "Most of my family goes by nicknames so it is simply habit to assign such to others as I get to know people."
Diavolo gave a delighted laugh and the mask was suddenly just gone. "No, you may call me whatever you wish, Lyssa," he said over Lucifer's angry sputter. "But perhaps not in public."
"That's fine," I agreed.
There was a pause and then Diavolo asked, "What would you call Lucifer if you were to assign one to him?"
Lu had sounded like an unconscious thing only between the two of them. And asshole and lap dog would most likely get me murdered. "Prideling," I answered, opting for something safe and Diavolo laughed happily at that.
"No," came Lucifer's flat and immediate answer to my relief.
Before Diavolo could nettle his friend, I said, "Noted, but I still have to ask about this contract."
Lucifer looked like he had several things to say, but dropped it after a glance towards his prince. It took him some shifting of documents before he extracted a thin set of papers from a giant stack. Silently, he held it out to me and I had to lean forward to grab it as my arm throbbed painfully. I couldn't hide my wince as I took the set of papers from him and settled back into place. His frown was ignored in favor of balancing the contract on a knee and skimming the first page.
It seemed a standard agreement of shelter, safety, and attendance of lessons. It was vague in details, obviously something that was meant to be worked out in more detail later. There was a specific clause that prohibited the acquisition of my soul through trickery and pacts. I might have stared at that one for a long minute before moving on, filing the question for later. The whole thing was also entirely unfamiliar to me until I got to the very last page and found the signature, and it wasn't mine.
With Permission of Child's Guardian:
Serina Terald
It was the same, looping and elegant signature that I had seen many-a-time on different documents and requests and other things for my uncle's mother. She wasn't even a blood relative!
"That's my surname, sure, but Serina has never once been my guardia-" I started, but trailed off as a thought occurred to me.
The circumstances around my birth for Dame's courts was chaotic and uncertain. She wouldn't have had the time she needed to take care of me directly. And Serina was in many of my earliest memories, so it was possible that Serina had been given temporary charge of me. And apparently signed a contract for me to go to Hell.
I growled in frustration and tried to rip the thing apart using one hand and my fangs. Claws were easier to drag through the document and shred. The pieces fluttered to the ground in chunks and strips for a moment, then jumped back into my had and reformed whole and undamaged.
A magically binding contract, then.
"Fucking fuck! That bitch." The contract didn't even wrinkle when I crumpled it in my fist. Frustrated, I threw it back onto Lucifer's desk and dragged a claw through my hair. "My dame never would have approved a contract like this, had she known. Serina did this in secret and without the permission of my parents!"
Diavolo touched it and the paper shimmered for a moment. "She was within her rights to sign for you, but I can't imagine why she would have signed for something over twenty years away. That is a long time for humans, as I understand it." He looked at me and I saw his gaze drop to my claw. I Veiled my claws and fangs again in that split second he stared.
Golden eyes caught mine and I had to look away, but his fingers catch my chin and lift my eyes to meet his again. I didn't have it in me to resist him. "There have been centuries of fighting and bloodshed with this truce being only a tenuous thing. Humans, angels, demons, I imagine a universe where each accepts the other. Where we are brought together as friends. This is my dream and I'm asking you to be the foundation for it. One year, that's what I'm asking of you."
Without meaning to, he stirred a bloodline memory passed to me from dame. Dragons fighting each other over blood prejudices, a forgotten grudge, and being beaten down beneath the heels of tyrants and madmen. "I will drag them to a better future, willing or not. That is my only duty."
One of dame's predecessors, another madman that had given her two of her children. The dragons had needed a mother to rule them in order to heal old grudges and finally come together in peace. She had struggled with old traditions and torn apart an old, unfair hierarchy. The struggles had taken her from us in more ways than one, but she had won out with her own iron strength and kept the dragons sane through it all.
Was this so different? Heaven and hell, angels and demons. At least he seemed to believe his own rhetoric, but only time would give me the truth and, one way or another, I was stuck here for at least a while.
"I can only try," I sighed and he beamed at me, his smile genuine.
The change in his smile had me blinking rapidly back at him. I had noticed earlier that he brothers and Diavolo had been rather good looking in a statuesque way. This...this was...
I shook myself and set the bones to throbbing again. The sharp pain was a welcome thing that brought me back to my senses. He released me and sat back in his own chair as the conversation turned naturally back to what tasks would be required of me, which turned out to be centered around school of all things. They introduced me to the apps that would be helpful and keep me updated on the different assignments.
Diavolo's attention seemed centered on me and he seemed to be dragging the conversation on as he leaned over my shoulder to show me the different apps and how to use them. Lucifer just watched us with his chin resting on steepled fingers, his eyes once again entirely black. The purity of my soul was brought up like a casual topic and I was warned of the various ways in which a demon would try and steal it.
"With that, our explanation has come to a close," Lucifer stated crisply, shifting more documents again. "But to sum it up for you, you will be an exchange student here at RAD for one year, and you must do your tasks. Your tasks will include interacting with the general student body and public, living within the walls of the House of Lamentation, and attaining passing grades for each of your classes. As your magical strength has yet to be measured, my brothers and I will be lending you a hand while you get settled in the Devildom. And when your exchange period comes to an end, you are to submit a paper about your stay here in the Devildom. It's as easy as pie, don't you think?"
My eye twitched when he smiled at me, his eyes gleaming towards crimson again. That eye color change had to mean something, right?
"You could always send me home, now, instead of a year from now," I responded with a tight smile.
"I'm afraid that isn't an option," he said with a wider smile. "You were chosen out of the many applicants and that is something you can't change."
"You'll be staying here for the duration of the exchange program, with Lucifer and his six younger brothers," Diavolo cut across any response I could make. "If you're in need of anything, feel free to ask it of us and we will procure it for you."
Leaning back in the chair, I stared at Diavolo. "Gee, I can't think of anything right now. Except, maybe, clothes. Seeing as I was snatched up without any forewarning, I didn't get to pack anything." And I was still wearing the training clothes I had been when I was sparring with Matty this morning. I would need to shower and change soon if I was to avoid smelling rancid tomorrow.
My words were meant sarcastically, but Diavolo gave me a genuine smile that lit up his golden eyes. It was like he was happy that I had mentioned needing something for any duration of a stay here and it sent a little stab of guilt through my gut, which was promptly tucked away.
Of course, that was the moment that my bonds flared and power rose up and twisted around my limbs. The pain was blinding and I was crippled with it, folding in on myself with a scream lodged in my throat. Images, emotions, thoughts, everything rushed together in my head.
Dame and others, standing together, voices blending in words, a symbol etched on the ground before them. Frustration and fear, and wHy isn't ThIS worKing? An assessment of her body, taking the pain and broken bones, mending the ligaments in case she needs to fight. Then darkness and I was alone again, their power dissipated and my bonds fading back into the recesses of my mind, a hand on my shoulder, and an unfamiliar power throbbing in my bones.
Diavolo's concerned face swam into focus through the tears and the tight ache in my chest. I gasped a breath in and stayed curled in on myself. At least the pain was only an echo now.
The power gentled and swept through me again, a rushing feeling to it, almost like an ocean wave. Gritting my teeth, I swept the power back and forced it through my skin. Electricity cracked and sparked and snapped around us before it fizzled out and Diavolo stepped back, hands raised in a calming gesture.
"I only broke the spell meant to summon you away. You're safe now," he said soothingly and I wanted to scream.
We had had one chance to bring me out of this place, one. The remaining images and thoughts and emotions foreign to myself settled into place, allowing me to understand that they had used the only symbol they had had and core stones that would work with it on this attempt. It would take a good while to bring together the materials again for even the shadow of an attempt, well after the remnants of the Diavolo's summoning had dissipated.
I am stuck here.
That was the last thought that followed me into the darkness.
Just a heads up right now: on the day when Trump dies, Iām going to be extremely tasteless about it. Itās going to get ugly. You are going to see a side of me I am not proud of. I donāt want any call-outs in my inbox, Iām stating right now that lines will be crossed.
Anyways all of yāall AND the evil that literally lives inside of you are invited to the sick ass house party Iām throwing when lord dampnut kicks the bucket
I feel like all you Americans need to take a look at what happened here in the UK after Maggie Thatcher died. Because when it comes to tasteless celebrations fuelled by anger and the death of a hated political leader, we REALLY pushed the boat out. We had street parties. We had burning effigies. We pushedĀ āDing Dong the Witch is Deadā to the top of the charts out of sheer hatred. Bone up kiddos, and I really hope you manage to do that truly American thing, of dramatically outdoing us with your celebrations.
Look, Iām gonna level with you americans for a second. When old wrinkly and orange kicks the bucket, for once in my life, possibly the only time, Iāll actually want to be able to see the fireworks from across the Atlantic. And I daresay I wonāt be the only one. So listen to me and listen closely, cause Iāll only say it once: When the moldy Cheeto bites it, itās the one and only chance youāll likely have at being loudly, unbearably, obnoxiously American in your celebration and for once, the rest of the world wonāt complain.Ā
Holy damn, I have not been paying attention these last four years, lol. Crusty Cheeto is running again AND we got a female vice president? I need to get my head out of my sandbox once in a while.
In which nothing makes sense and the trials begin.
Content Warning: General spoilers for the main story. Minors and ageless accounts do not interact! Named character, and slight mentions of characterās past and history which are not expanded on as they are not important to this chapter. Weirdly, I switch between past and present tense. Sorry, not sorry. Unbeta read.
Masterlist
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Lucifer crossed his arms over his chest and sighed, glancing towards the source of the noise. "Well, you've got that done now, and it seems the idiot has arrived as well."
Idiot? They had gone through so many things that I couldn't imagine who they were speaking of.
The doors flew open with a distinct crash against the inner assembly walls and someone with white hair barreled through towards me. I was bracing for an impact when the male skidded to a stop two inches from me, indignation written on every part of his face.
"HEY!" he yelled and I took a step back. He followed and I stopped. "Just who do you think you are, human? You've got a lotta nerve summoning the Great Mammon! Listen up, because I'm only gonna say this once. If you value your life, then you'll hand over all of your money now! And anything else of value, too!" Money? This person was trying to...rob...me? "Otherwise, I'll wipe that stupid, happy-go-lucky look right off of your face...by eatin' you! Starting at your head and working my way down, until-"
I was growling beneath his rant, the beginnings of a Shift starting to shiver through my bones and make my skin squirm. The bones in my arm Shifted wrong, scraped against themselves, and blinded me with pain for a breathless moment.
"Mammon!" came a sharp voice through my blurry vision. "Shut up or I'll punch you!" There was a smack and then a yelp and I blinked the tears of pain away to see that Lucifer had partially placed himself between me and the white-haired male.
The other-demon-was rubbing the back of his head and glaring at Lucifer. His shoulders were hunched forward and he had shrunk away from his brother. "GAH! OWW! Hey, what's the big idea?! I thought you were gonna actually give me a chance to shut up before punching me!"
Taking two careful steps back and to the right put me squarely behind Lucifer. Let him deal with the irate brother. My shoulder bumped into something solid and I glanced back to see that Satan was standing behind us and smiling insincerely down at me.
"Lyssa, Mammon here is the Avatar of Greed," Satan was saying as his brothers bickered in the background. "He governs and oversees all forms of it. Whenever he takes a liking to someone, they suddenly find themselves awash in money. But from what I hear, if he decides to break it off with someone, that wealth evaporates. They're left without a Grimm to their name."
The information slid through one ear and out the other. Too much was happening all at once, there were too many threats, too many people, too many scents, too much new. Instincts were rising to the surface that had been long buried.
Run. Hide.
The thought was pervasive as the other, smaller demon crowded into Satan's personal space and forced me to step away from them again. His honey-like eyes were shimmering with power. Everything inside me crawled and stopped for a second, entranced and then sound was rushing around us again.
Bones shifting, sliding, flowing. Reshaping to the sharpened claws of defense. Skin hardening, beginning to crack and split-
Something wrapped around my waist and yanked me back, turning away from the others and setting me on my feet to the side. "That's quite enough," Diavolo's husky voice washed over me, power slithering through my veins and making me shudder.
The Shift gently reversed itself and my human features became the only thing visible. It wasn't even directed at me and his power was calming my heart, bringing my racing thoughts to a slower state of being. Warmth was seeping through the haze of panic that had been setting in and I had to shake myself and hop away from him like a startled rabbit.
He was a Power, and he knew it. The others knew it too as they stepped back and away from him, giving us space where there had been none before. His power slipped over my own and flowed away, not touching anything else. Golden eyes settled on me and I narrowed my own at him. He might be a ruler, but he wasn't mine and I had been taught not to bow before anyone else's authority.
Diavolo reached a hand towards me and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear with a chuckle. I was digging deeper into myself than I had thought I could go just to not move away from him again. "Quite different from Solomon," he murmured and then the pressure on my shoulders released and I could suddenly breath again. I hadn't even noticed when I had stopped breathing. His attention turned to the blonde who had tried something. "Asmo, do try and not enchant our guest while she is here. It won't be a very good look for the exchange program if one of our humans were to became enslaved to one of the Avatars."
The way that Asmodeus was pouting at the reprimand and Satan was eyeing me thoughtfully just set my teeth further on edge. "She overcame me," Asmodeus said with a sniff and I had to check the growl building low in my throat.
Diavolo's gaze landed on me again and I met it with as steady a gaze as I could muster. Strangely, the longer I held his gaze, the less unsteady I became. It was Lucifer that broke our odd little staring contest.
"I just so happen to have a job for my masochist of a brother," the eldest broke in, gesturing at the white haired demon beside him. Unlike before, Mammon was quiet as he watched me. "Mammon, you are going to be in charge of seeing to this human's needs during the whole exchange. I expect you full cooperation."
Mammon's gaze whipped to his elder as he protested, "What?! Why me?!"
"Aww, lucky you, Mammon! I'm so jealous..." Asmodeus began.
"Alright. then why don't YOU do it, Asmodeus?" Mammon growled back.
"What? Hell no, too lazy."
"I thought you said you were jealous of me?!"
Satan was shaking his head at the bickering of his brothers. "Just give up, Mammon. There's no getting out of this. You know you can't refuse a direct order from Lucifer."
"But why does it have to be me?! What about Beel. Why can't he do it?!"
We collectively looked over at Beel, the large red-head, and saw him munching on part of a chair and it didn't look like he had broken it apart when he had started on it. Hell fucking no. I wasn't going to be left alone with that one anytime soon if I could help it.
The whining was beginning to get on my nerves. At this point, I'd have grabbed any one of them just to get out of this room. As it stood, Mammon's loose, yellow tie was a convenient leash to grab when I stalked towards him. He, still being focused on his brothers, yelped when I snatched his tie and proceeded to drag him by it towards the doors he had flung open earlier.
"Hello, babysitter, you're going to be showing me around this place you call home," I growled at him. "First, we need to stop somewhere and get medical tape to immobilize my arm. My bones seem to have had a disagreement with the stone wall I ran into and lost the bet."
"You're all useless, you know that?!" Mammon yelled over his shoulder. "I hate you guys, every last one of ya!"
I caught Lucifer covering a smile with his hand and Diavolo grinning openly at my treatment of the Greed Avatar. Mammon continued to complain at me, but allowed me to pull him along, out of the assembly room, and away from the other demons. Just getting out of that room allowed me to breath better.
It was eerily silent when Mammon stopped complaining suddenly. Anxiety began to build in my stomach as the only sound continued to be our footsteps. I stopped and Mammon stopped behind me as I tried to center myself. A few breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth and I caught the scent of fresh air. Just beyond that was the rustling of some sort of plants. In that moment, it didn't matter if I was showing myself to be more than just human. I needed to get out of there.
"Alright, human, listen up," Mammon said as we continued to walk towards what I presumed was the entrance. "As much as I don't want to look after you, I've got no choice. It's a huge pain in the ass, and I'm too important for this kind of thing, but Lucifer told me to do it, so I will. But in return, you better make sure you don't cause me any trouble, got it?!"
Silence was my answer as I released him and picked up pace once the huge, grand double doors came into sight. I wasn't running towards the exit, but I was certainly moving more swiftly than my demon babysitter.
"Hello? Earth to human! Seriously what's wrong with this one...?" Mammon muttered as he lengthened his stride to catch up with me.
The doors responded to my light touch when I reached out for the wood. They opened seamlessly and allowed me passage into the darkness beyond them. I didn't hesitate before I left that building and made my way swiftly down the steps and onto the paved path beyond. We passed a number of buildings and manicured lawns with well kept ornamentations, but those held no interest for me as I followed the path away from those other demons.
"Earth to human," Mammon said when I finally paused at a fork in our path. He waved a hand in front of my face and I suppressed the urge to bite him. Who knew what demon blood would do to me?
"Which way?" I asked.
"Oh, now ya want to talk to me," Mammon grumbled. I released his tie to rub at the headache forming between my temples and wondered, just for a moment, if it wouldn't just be better to unVeil my draconic features and just fly somewhere far off to figure out a way home on my own.
But no, this was a completely different realm. I could tell just by the scent of the place that this was not home. Home was pine trees and oceans, stone and musk, the laughter and delighted screams of my less-mature siblings. This was rot and sulphur, darkness and a wind that sounded eerily like the moans of the long tormented.
Hell was an apt description of this place, even if it was not the realm itself. Its denizens certainly didn't smell anything of humans or dragons, if the small sample size of my exposure was to be trusted. They each carried a personal scent with an overlay of something burnt and sickly sweet and the magic of this place that thrummed through the ground held a feeling of twisted, broken, and wrong.
Mammon's touch on my shoulder startled me into looking at him. His expression could almost be described as worry as he studied me. At the very least, I was glad that he had ceased his complaints for a moment.
"Our home is this way," he said gruffly and pointed down the right fork. My feet automatically took me that way and Mammon fell in behind me.
For now, at least, I had to find a way to survive here and it began with arriving at the home where the brothers lived.
