by Jason Herc
If Outsiders already populated the Abyss, I didn't see why the powers in charge were putting up a fuss now. Unless he was looking for me…no that was ridiculous. I had wandered into the Abyss by accident, and I wasn't even a real Seeker yet. I wouldn't even register on his radar.
Still, the timing was strange. "Do you think this is related to me?" I asked.
The two succubi shared a glance.
"I don't know," Allura said. "Who can know the mind of the Obsidian Emperor?"
"He's looking for something. Or afraid of something." Ember glanced around the sky as she said that, as if worried some lightning from the gods would punish her for her words.
"Registering can't be that bad." I eyed the cluster of guards in the distance warily. "Although, I think it would be a good idea to hide the fact that I'm human." I looked at Ember. "Or from Earth."
"Don't worry. I have a plan." Allura reached into the folds of her dress and pulled out a black, metallic collar. The surface was smooth and reflective. I stared at into the surface and noticed that my reflection was moving, and not in time to my own motions.
The fuck? I stared more closely, leaning in further—
"Aidan!" Ember pulled me sharply to the side. "What are you trying to do?" she hissed at Allura. She raised a clawed fist to Allura's face.
I rubbed my temples. What had just happened? I glanced back at the object in Allura's hand, but this time I avoided making direct eye contact with the collar.
"What is that?" I asked.
"An obedience collar," Ember snapped.
Allura tapped her foot impatiently. "Yes. I took it from the boviaries. One of their pets had it around its neck."
"Obedience collar?" I pressed.
Ember scowled at Allura. "Meant to enslave other demons. Succubi don't use them, certainly not on humans, since humans are susceptible to our seductive powers. When we want to keep a resistant demon in line, though…" Ember trailed off. "Oh, I see."
"So you agree?" Allura asked.
"Ask him," Ember said. "If he trusts you."
Allura nodded. "If I bind you, temporarily of course, with this collar, we can pass you off as a demon under my control. My pet. The guards won't look twice at a pet, any more than a sword or cow. Actually, they're more likely to inspect a sword or try to eat the cow."
A hint of anger churned within me.
How dare she suggest that? Kill her. Tear her limbs from her body. Crush her—
I shook my head as I pushed the darkness back down. The voice wasn't entirely wrong, though. She would be enslaving me, even temporarily, which didn't sit right with me. What if she never released me? I could ask Ember to use it instead, but that wasn't much better.
Could this all have been an elaborate ruse? Had Allura snatched the collar, knowing what lay in store for us at the city gates? She could have forced it on me by surprise, although Ember had kept watch over me when I slept.
"You would release me, after we're past the city gates?" I asked.
Allura began to reply, but I waved my hand. "Ember, not you."
Ember's eyes widened slightly. She nodded. "Of course."
I didn't detect any deception through our bond, but people changed when they acquired things of value. I looked at the obedience collar out of the corner of my eye, which seemed to keep me safe from its hypnotic charms.
I needed to find out more, first.
"What happens when you put the collar on a Seeker?" I asked.
Allura placed a finger on her lips as she considered my question. "It likely wouldn't work on a god. But it could still enslave a lesser Seeker."
"Who can use the obedience collar? Who can command the wearer?"
"Any other demon. It's an infernal device for creatures with an infernal aspect."
"Would a human be able to command the wearer?"
"No, humans lack the infernal component.""
"What about a Seeker? Or a human Seeker?"
Allura pursed her lips. "Seekers typically can't use infernal devices, either. If anything, they try to eliminate all infernal components from their Flame."
That reminded me of the tainted core from the fire gnats and their poison. I looked over to Ember. "Is that related to the poison from the fire gnats?"
"I'm not sure," Ember said. She looked at Allura uncertainly.
"Poison?" Allura asked. "That could be one way of looking at our infernal aspect."
Except I was pretty sure that the dark streaks from their poisonous bites were related to that angry voice within me. That they gave me a raw, brutish power. If that was an infernal aspect, I already had it within me.
I had to test out my theory.
"Give me the collar," I said.
Allura clicked it open and move to place it around my neck, but I stopped her. "No, I meant give me the collar. I'll place it on Ember, if she's willing."
Ember gasped in surprise. After a moment's hesitation, she nodded. "Yes, I'd gladly wear your collar."
I had chosen Ember because I was fairly confident that she was loyal to me. If Allura intended to betray me, binding her allegiance forcefully would only delay her betrayal until some future time when she had an opportunity.
I needed to give Allura a chance to show her true colors, preferably before I shared my Flame with her. I didn't understand the consequences of doing that, and it would be best to find trustworthy partners before taking that leap.
Ember, on the other hand, would likely behave the same with or without the collar, since I didn't plan on using it for anything.
I held up my hand to Allura. She gave it to me, her face uncertain.
"Are you sure about this, Ember?" Allura asked.
I waited for her answer as well.
Ember nodded. "Of course. Aidan and I are as good as one, now. Sharing bodies is one thing. Sharing his Flame…you'll understand when you experience it."
Ember held her blonde hair up in a bunch, exposing her neck for me. I unclicked the metal clasp, squinting the whole time so I wouldn't stare at its reflective surface again. I closed the collar around Ember's neck.
She drew in a sharp breath. "Oh my," Ember murmured. "I've never been placed in an obedience collar before."
Allura stared. "Aidan's not a demon, though. Is it working?"
That had been my true reason for wanting to test the obedience collar. Ember had insisted I couldn't be a human, as had Allura when we first met. I knew pretty damn well that I was a human, but what if I was something more? Did I have a demon's blood running in my veins? What if the rage hidden in my heart was something more?
"Well, only one way to find out," I said. "I have to make her do something, right?"
"Oh, I can think of so many possibilities," Ember said, half-panting now. Her eyes grew wider and wider. "You could make me—"
I chuckled. "Not quite like that." I wasn't sure what to order. "How about you jump three times on one foot?"
Ember raised an eyebrow, then laughed. She didn't move.
Allura let out a tense breath. "The collar's not responding."
I tried not to let my disappointment show. "One more try." I turned to Ember again. "Hit me."
"Hit you?" Ember frowned. "No. I like you!"
"Hit me," I repeated.
"Never!"
"Hit me, damn it!"
Ember punched my shoulder. She only used a fraction of her strength, but it hurt.
"You throw a solid punch," I groaned as I rubbed my sore shoulder.
"Oh my." Ember held her hand up to her mouth. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. Did I hurt you?" She wrapped herself around me, kissing my shoulder.
"I'm fine." I disentangled myself from Ember. "So it does work. Sometimes."
"What does that mean?" Ember asked.
Allura studied me. "He could be part demon."
"A cambion?" Ember asked. "Half-demon, half-man?"
"Or the descendant of one," Allura said.
"Aye, succubus!" a hoarse voice shouted from further back a
long the mountain path, interrupting us.
I glanced backward. Shit.
It was a group of bull men. Boviaries. One of them gave a cry, and the herd of about two dozen boviaries ran up the path toward us, their hooves kicking up a cloud of dust behind them.
I looked further up the path, towards the armed guards on the other side of the drawbridge. "Will they protect us?"
Allura scowled. "Not likely. They're more likely to watch us kill each other for sport."
Ember scanned the terrain. "We can carry Aidan higher. They won't be able to follow." She spread her wings.
Something thudded into the rocky ground at our feet. I bent down to pick it up. A bolt. Another bolt flew past the air above us.
A warning shot. Flight by air wouldn't be an option.
I stood back up to find several of the boviaries at the front of the group carrying what looked like crossbows.
The herd came to a stop before us. The largest bull man stepped forward and pointed to Ember.
"She giving you trouble?" he asked me.
I blinked in surprise. He must have seen Ember punch my shoulder. "It's not what you're thinking. We're all good—"
The boviaries' leader squinted at Ember's neck. "She's collared?" He scratched behind one of his horns with a hairy fist and turned to a smaller boviary behind him. "We looking for succubi?"
The other boviary grunted. "Yes. That's what the Gluttonbarge master said. A pair of succubi."
Damn it. Festus. I looked over at Ember and Allura. They were both frowning now.
"You a pet, too? Where's your collar?" the leading boviary asked me.
I sighed. Everyone I met seemed to assume I was enslaved to a succubus.
"No, they're mine." Well, they would both be soon, if things went as planned. "I'm…a succubus trainer."
The boviary leader's nostrils flared as he snorted in laughter. "Succubus trainer?" The smaller one next to him elbowed him in the ribs.
"He mentioned a Seeker. Careful," the other boviary said.
"He doesn't look like much." The leader unslung a massive waraxe from his back.
I reached for my sword. "You've got the wrong idea, bub." I heard the succubi spread their wings as they readied for battle.
A dozen crossbows instantly pointed at us.
"Wait!" I held up my hand. "You don't want to do this. Who are you looking for? Maybe you have the wrong people."
The boviary leader shrugged his massive shoulders. "Don't care. Someone killed our herdmates. Someone has to die. You'll do."
Cut his fucking head off! I winced slightly at the sudden voice in my head.
Ember tried to step in front of me, but I pushed her back with an arm. "No," I hissed. "There has to be another way." There had to be a way to even the odds.
Allura crept closer to me and whispered in my ear. "Aim for his pride. Challenge the alpha to a duel."
I glanced back at Allura. Was she goading me on in an attempt to save herself? I looked back at the boviary leader swinging his waraxe through the air menacingly.
"Fine," I whispered back to Allura.
"But—" Ember began.
"Hush." I didn't know if it was the collar working, but Ember slammed her mouth shut. Her purple eyes were glaring at Allura, though.
"Who are you anyways?" I asked the boviary leader. "You the alpha in charge of these cows?"
Some of the boviaries in back grumbled. A few lowered their crossbows and unslung their own waraxes.
The leader laughed. "You're calling my herd a bunch of cows?"
I shrugged. "Well, takes a cow to lead cows, right?"
The boviary stopped laughing. His face twisted in anger. "You calling me a cow?"
"Moo, moo, motherfucker."
"What did you say?" he snarled.
I drew my sword and pointed it at him. "You and me settle this right now. One on one, if you're not afraid."
The boviary leader screamed. "I will rip your tongue out of our mouth and crush your bones while you beg for mercy."
"You agree to a duel to settle this?"
"Yes!" he roared.
"Out of the way!" I yelled to the others as the boviary lowered his head and charged.
CHAPTER 12
I dodged to the right like a matador as the massive demon blew by me. The boviary swung his waraxe as he passed me, and I had to twist away to avoid its wide edge.
He whirled on me, faster than I had expected with his size, trying to split me in half with a vertical strike.
I raised my sword to block the boviary's strike. He grinned, as if expecting to cut through my thin, rusty blade.
Against the old me, he would probably have been right. But I was changing.
I unleashed the fury that had been roiling within my gut. Each time, it came forth more easily, and a shroud of black fire instantly surrounded my body. Dark flames trickled up the length of my sword as well.
The axe blade met my burning blade with a sharp clang. The boviary roared and pushed harder on his waraxe, trying to force me back. The rage fueled me as I met his strength with my own dark strength.
I looked up at where my sword had met his waraxe. My sword's edge had sunk half an inch into his axe. The boviary's eyes flashed down to where our weapons met, then pulled back.
"Lucky strike," he growled. He swung his waraxe sideways in a wide arc.
I met his blow with my sword held vertically this time, the thin blade standing firm.
The boviary's eyes widened. This time, my blade had cut an inch-deep notch into his waraxe.
The boviary screamed in rage as he charged forward in an attempt to overpower my block.
I grimaced as drops of the spittle flying out of his mouth hit my face, accompanied by the stench of rotten teeth.
We pushed against each other, sword against waraxe, neither giving way to the other.
I didn't know much about fighting with weapons like this. I should probably have backed off, but a living fury had taken control of my body. I couldn't make myself step away. The flickering flames around my body pushed me forward.
Destroy him. Crush him. Pound him to dust.
I screamed, echoing the boviary's own warcry, as I pushed back, neither of us relenting.
The darkness dancing across my body flickered, and I caught the sight of something black in the corner of my eye. A sudden motion.
The next thing I knew, the boviary fell to one knee, yelling in pain. I rolled to the right and used the distraction to stab him in the side of his thick neck.
The tip of my sword slid between his vertebrae, and the boviary's body went slack. I withdrew my blade, and the raging fires around myself and my weapon died down.
I spun around at the sound of angry bellowing, but Ember and Allura had already stepped between me and the rest of the herd.
"Be gone. He killed your alpha in a fair duel," Allura said.
I pushed my way between them to face the herd. "Who's next?" I flung crimson blood off the tip of my sword.
The remaining boviaries looked at each other in confusion, refusing to meet my eyes. With their leader dead, they seemed to have lost their bluster.
When no one replied, I sheathed my sword. "Well, scram! Get out of here!"
Ember and Allura spread their wings wide at the same time, like two living scarecrows.
The boviaries turned and ran down the path, away from us. I watched them go.
"They really do act like cows, don't they?" I looked over at Allura. "Did you do that?"
"Do what?" she asked.
"When we were locked in a stalemate. You threw your shards?"
Ember stepped forward to wrap a wing around me. "No, that wasn't her. That was you. Something…came out of you. It was too fast to see."
"A dark shape," Allura said. "Like a shadow."
I frowned. I had relied on that dark power over and over without fully understanding it. Ember and Allura had mentioned it might be related to an infernal component of myself.
&
nbsp; If it was part of me, it probably wasn't dangerous. Except I hated not being in control. Something had happened without my knowledge, like the rage had a mind of its own. Until I met Master Beastley or someone else who could answer my questions, I was flying blind.
"We should go soon," Allura said. She was looking towards the city gates. "The guards definitely saw what happened, and they'll be suspicious if we linger too long."
We began trudging up the path to the city gates. Several of the guards were clearly looking in our direction. A few pointed.
"Okay, so what's the story? Ember's my pet. Allura's my pet-in-training. And…" I pointed to myself. "I'm the demon stud in charge of you both."
Ember grinned. "I like that story. Maybe we can make it real."
Allura nodded. "Good enough."
Without further delay, we crossed the iron drawbridge and arrived in front of the city gates.
Four guards stood in front of the gates, two on each side, each holding a long spear. They looked like men, although their skin was rough and scaly, like a lizard.
The tallest stepped forward
"State your name and business," he said.
"I'm Aidan," I said. "The dark feathery one is Allura." She bowed slightly. "This is Ember." I tugged on her wing, and Ember giggled.
The guard rolled his eyes, then took his time studying the three of us. "What was that bit of fun down there about?"
I shrugged. "The big one couldn't keep his hooves off my succubi."
The guard seemed to accept that. He nodded. "A pretty little trick with your infernal aura. What's with your appearance?"
He reached out to examine my arm, pushing up the sleeve. "Soft, like the Fallen Ones, or an Outsider." He looked up at me. "Where are you from?"
"Beyond the mountains. I grew up in the Black Plains." I held up my hands. "As for this appearance, it's for the ladies. The succubi love this type of thing. It's a fetish."
"Disgusting," one of the other guards in back muttered. "What kind of demon wants to look like that?"
"Fucking succubi," another guard growled.
"Twice a night." I grinned. "Don't knock it until you try it. I'm hoping to buy another collar for my second pet."
The lead guard bent forward to examine Ember's collar. "A cheap trinket, but functional. We've been seeing more of these lately. Might have luck finding one in the Occult Den."
