by Noah Harris
Georgios waggled his dick. “I fuck all you bald men! You weaker than faggots!”
Someone shouted from an upstairs window. Several windows had people leaning out of them, staring down at the scene below.
“Let’s get back inside,” Luke suggested.
“Who were those guys?” Richard asked as everyone filed back into the bar.
“Skinheads, you never seen them before?” Luke said.
Richard shook his head. Sometimes he still felt like a newcomer in this town. As much as he’d experienced, he had still only been here a few months. There were many corners of the city, many cliques, that he didn’t know.
“They’re like punk rockers, but not normal punks. Most punks are anarchists but those guys are Nazis,” Luke said.
Georgios perked up. “Nazis? I was fighting Nazis?”
Richard put a hand on his shoulder. “Your grandfather would have been proud.”
Georgios beamed.
Luke hurried behind the bar as everyone clamored for a victory round.
“You know the dumbest thing about those motherfuckers?” Tyrone said as they waited their turn. “Their scene started a few years ago with a bunch of cats listening to ska music. Black music. Skinheads weren’t Nazis back then, just punks. Then the Nazis moved in and took over the style.”
“Nazis who listen to black music?” Richard asked.
Tyrone shrugged.
Laszlo sat sipping a glass of wine at the bar, as calm and collected as if nothing had happened.
“I see now why so many of you are socially maladjusted,” the occultist said.
“You try living as a queer, breeder!” someone shouted at him.
Laszlo seemed unperturbed. “I presume by ‘breeder’ you mean an insult to straight people. I meant no insult to gay people by what I said. I was merely making an observation about how your marginalization leads to social nonconformity. Being socially maladjusted is actually good for society. Those at the fringes are often at the forefront of social change. They are also more in tune with occult forces.”
The gay man gave him a confused look, shook his head, and walked off. Richard now saw why Laszlo spent so much time with demons and spells and obscure tomes. He lacked the social skills to deal with regular people.
Once he and Tyrone got their drinks, they sat down with the occultist. Steve and Adam joined them. Just as Georgios had promised, Adam looked a bit rumpled and exhausted. Steve shot him a scandalized look.
Laszlo adjusted his tie. “Now that the, ahem, festivities are complete, let me tell you what I’ve found in the star charts,” Laszlo said to Richard. “As you remember, a comet is passing through the constellation Taurus, disrupting the celestial balance. Since you are naturally adept at the magic of the demonic plane and were born under the sign of Taurus, you are able to disrupt any spell if you wish. But now there has been a new development, one with an even greater significance.”
“Oooh, sounds sexy and mysterious,” Steve cooed.
Laszlo inclined his head. “Not so mysterious for those who make a study of such things, but certainly sexy.”
Steve nudged Richard. “That’s his specialty.”
Richard nudged him back. “Quiet, this is important.”
“It is more than important. It is essential,” the occultist said. “The rules have changed. A second comet has appeared. Like the one in Taurus, it is invisible to the naked eye. It’s so faint that the astronomers at Palomar Observatory only discovered it a few days ago. It’s disrupting everything.”
“What constellation is it in?” Richard said. If it was in Taurus, it would give him more power than he had before.
“Virgo.”
Richard and Tyrone looked at each other in dismay.
“There are no virgins around here, that’s for sure,” Tyrone said.
“No, I suppose not. Anton Black’s cult was fortunate in finding one, and a sensitive at that. They could have opened a portal and brought forth a whole horde of demons. It’s a good thing you bedded Georgios when you had the chance, Richard.”
Richard turned to Steve. “You told him all that?”
“I told him everything, honey. He’s been a great help.”
Richard blushed. He didn’t want a near-stranger like Laszlo knowing all the things he had done, especially considering Laszlo was straight. As if anticipating his thoughts, the occultist laid a hand on Richard’s arm and said, “Have no fear of me judging you ill, my young friend. I am far beyond such petty human reactions.”
I’d kind of like to see you have a “petty human reaction” every now and then, Richard thought. Out loud he said, “So we need a virgin to disrupt their magic? Yeah, that’s going to be hard in New York, especially in the crowd I run with.”
“Ah, but Virgo is more than the star sign for virgins. It’s also a general sign for women. I’ve done some research and I’ve found a ritual that just might seal the portal that you partially created for the Hooded One, and seal it for all time.”
Richard’s breath caught. Seal it for all time? He’d be free!
So why did the thought suddenly make him feel sad?
No, he told himself. You don’t have the luxury of having some weird obsession with a demon, not with the fate of the world at stake.
“What do we have to do?”
“You need to have two people for this ritual—one born under the sign of Taurus, that would be yourself, and a woman, preferably one born under the sign of Virgo although that is not essential. With your facility for planar magic, you can compensate for that. Do you know any local women born under the sign of Virgo who would be willing to help with this?”
Richard traded looks with his friends.
“I don’t know any women at all,” Richard admitted. “Guys? Know anyone?”
Steve made a face. “Oh, honey, I don’t go near the creatures.”
“There’s my momma,” Tyrone said reluctantly, “but she’s too old and weak for this shit.”
Adam only shrugged. “I don’t think my mother is up for it either.”
Laszlo looked around, baffled. “Very well, I understand not wanting to involve family members, but what about other women?”
None of them replied.
Laszlo’s jaw dropped. “You mean you don’t know any women at all?”
Richard shrugged. “We’re gay.”
“What difference does that make? I’m straight and I have many friends, both male and female.”
Richard shrugged. “It’s just that we kind of separate ourselves from them as a community.”
“What about lesbians?”
Steve held his nose and raised his eyes heavenward. “Especially lesbians!”
The occultist looked dumbfounded. “Shouldn’t they be your natural allies?”
Steve laughed. “Honey, the lezzies hate us even more than the breeders do.”
Laszlo shook his head in dismay. “I must say you are one of the most disassociated subcultures I have ever happened across, and I won’t even begin to describe some of the others.”
Richard frowned. “Now listen here. Most of us grew up having to pretend we liked girls. We hated that, and yeah, some of us ended up hating women because of that. But look at it from our side. All our lives we only wanted to be with men, and now that we finally get the courage to be ourselves, that’s what we do.”
“But you can’t cut yourself off from the other half of the human race, the other half of the souls in this plane of existence!”
No one had a response to that. Richard thought of his time in Chillicothe, and the warmth he felt from his mother, his kid sister, and his female cousins. In New York he had no females in his life at all, and he realized he missed that. Even with all the crap going on during that visit, they had been a relaxing influence on him.
Laszlo went on, this time taking a more conciliatory tone.
“Never mind. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. You must find someone, though. I cannot involve any
of my female friends. I have to admit that they are all occultists or priestesses of one sort or another. I, too, am somewhat limited in my social circle. Some of them might be tempted by what the demons have to offer, and even those who would want to seal the portal might be tricked in some way. It’s best if we find a woman who knows nothing of the occult.”
“Then how will we get her to volunteer?” Richard asked.
Laszlo scratched his head. “I must admit that is a conundrum.”
“So what does this ritual involve?” Tyrone asked.
“The disruption in the magical order of the universe is of a twofold nature. Richard is the link to Taurus, and a feminine principle is linked with Virgo. It is especially important to involve this feminine principle since we are dealing with demons who lust after their own gender. Thus, the woman acts as a sort of neutralizing force. The ritual requires certain magical incantations that I can teach you, Richard, but also something from the other side.”
“You mean from the demon plane?”
“Yes, a part of a demon, in fact.”
“Like a hair or something?”
“Yes, could you get that?” Laszlo asked. “It would mean another dalliance. You’d have to take care. Demonkind know of the power of their substance and would not willingly allow you to take any.”
“Wait, could it be,” Richard leaned closer to the occultist and lowered his voice, “a body fluid?”
Laszlo looked surprised. “You want to cut a demon and take his blood? That’s very dangerous…oh. Oh dear, I think I know what you mean.”
Everyone laughed.
“You’ve been hanging out in The Hole in One too long,” Steve said, wagging a finger at the occultist. “You’re getting a dirty mind.”
“Would it work?” Richard asked.
“Well, um, yes it would. That would be perfect, in fact. A bit of dried demon seed would be a most efficacious material component for the spell.”
“I can’t believe we’re having this conversation,” Tyrone said, shaking his head.
“Believe it,” Richard said. “I’ll do anything to put all of this to rest.”
“Everybody stay where they are!” a voice boomed from the front door.
“Shit,” Tyrone whispered. “The pigs.”
Four cops sauntered into the bar. Everyone fell silent.
Tyrone pulled a small packet out of his pocket and tossed it into a dark corner.
“How can I help you, officers?” Luke asked from behind the counter.
“We had a report of a disturbance,” the lead one said. He had a paunch and looked at Luke with disgust from beady eyes set deep into a greasy, pockmarked face.
“Yeah,” said another, slapping his nightstick into the palm of his hand. “Care to tell us about all those broken bottles and bloodstains on the street outside?”
The other two cops hurried to the doorway of the darkroom and shone their flashlights inside.
“Aw, gross!”
“You three! Pull up your damn pants and get out here!”
Three men came out of the darkroom, shamefaced. The cops cuffed them. Richard felt relieved to see that Georgios wasn’t among them. Being illegal, he couldn’t afford to get arrested.
Where was he, anyway?
Then he spotted him in the crowd, glaring at the cops with hatred in his eyes.
Oh shit.
Richard got up and started to move in his direction.
“Stay where you are!” one of the cops barked at him. Richard stopped.
Beady Eyes sauntered up to the bar and glared at Luke.
“You know I could shut this place down for encouraging lewd behavior.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want that to happen, sir,” Luke said, sliding his rag across the bar as if he was cleaning it. Beady Eyes moved his hand over the rag, then to his pocket.
“That’s better,” the cop said. “But the Three Musketeers come with us. Now what was the disturbance outside?”
“Some skinheads, sir. They started throwing bottles at my bar. Beat up one of my patrons the other day.”
Beady Eyes snorted and looked back at his friend, who was still smacking his nightstick into his palm.
“Lowlifes beating up on lowlifes.”
The other cops snickered.
Beady Eyes turned back to Luke.
“Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Luke’s face turned red, but he kept his mouth shut.
Just then Georgios piped up. “Why you speaking bad to my faggots? The fascists start the fight.”
“Stay out of this if you know what’s good for you!” the cop with the nightstick shouted.
“Fuck you, fucking fascist!”
The cop stormed in his direction.
Richard rushed over to the packet Tyrone tossed aside, scooped it up, and holding it up so the cops could see it, sprinted for the door.
“Stop!”
As he hoped, the cops all ran after him.
That got Georgios off the hook for the moment, but now he was carrying what he was sure was hundreds of dollars’ worth of drugs with four police officers hot on his tail.
Damn you really know how to land yourself in trouble, don’t you? He chided himself as he hightailed it down the street.
Luckily, he was in better shape than the cops and lost them after a couple of blocks. He got to a major street and merged with the evening crowd.
Well that’s one problem solved, now I got a pile more to get through. I think I have an idea how to kill two birds with one stone, though. Or maybe three…
“I need a demon,” he whispered into the sulfuric breeze. “A demon who can strike fear into the hearts of straight men.”
Richard stood in the summoning room, its mundane, earthly features fading away as the demonic plane came into view. Adam stood in the front hall, a gun in his hand, guarding the door in case Anton and his friends came back. Steve, Tyrone, and Georgios were there too, armed with knives. Richard’s little show at The Hole in One had given time for Adam and Steve to get Georgios out of the bar, but the cops still arrested the three guys in the dark room and shook down Luke for more money than he had already paid them.
His friends and his community were getting it from all sides. It was up to him to do something about it.
“I need a demon,” he whispered again.
The vision of the rocky plain solidified. Faint shadows flitted at the edges of his vision. Those shadows began to close in.
A sudden gust of hot wind at his back made Richard’s muscles tense. He felt a presence behind him. Slowly he turned…
…and beheld a demon that would make any man tremble, gay or straight.
He stood ten feet tall, a massive creature with muscles of immense proportions. His skin was as red as the flames licking the horizon, except for the thick hair, almost a hide, that covered his legs down to his cloven hooves. Between those legs hung a heavy cock of such a size that Richard knew it would kill a mortal man. A huge scrotum hung behind it, black and wrinkled. He looked into the demon’s eyes. They gleamed with hot desire from between a pair of curled horns.
“Ah, the little mortal with the demonic lust,” the voice rumbled like an earthquake. “You have become famous in my realm.”
“I—” Richard’s voice caught. “I called for a demon to scare off some men who have been bothering my community.”
The demon indicated his manhood with a hand as wide as Richard’s chest. “This will strike fear in any man. But if you wish me to do this for you, you must pay the price. Mortals must always pay the price.”
The demon’s cock began to stir. It swelled, lengthened, grew erect. Richard took a step back and gulped. By the time it became fully engorged, it was as thick as his thigh. Blue veins the width of his fingers stood out hard and pulsing on the smooth surface. The bulbous head was as big as the one Richard had on his shoulders.
Richard took a step back.
“Go. I’ll call another.”
The demo
n scowled. “Why?”
“I cannot take you.”
The demon chuckled, a sound like lava flowing down the side of a volcano.
“Yes, you can.”
“It’s impossible. You can’t fuck me. I’d die if you tried.”
The demon shook his horned head. “That is not what I seek. I wish to bathe you in my seed.”
Richard took a tentative step forward and touched the demon’s giant member. It felt warm, and silky smooth. He’d never seen one this big before, didn’t think it could be possible even for a demon. It measured a yard at least. He stared at it, the sight of it making his own cock grow hard.
He looked down at himself. He’d always been proud of his size, but compared with this monster he looked pathetically small.
“Suck it,” the demon whispered. “Suck it and lick it until I spray all over you. You will look so beautiful with a sheen of demon cum over your face and body.”
Richard grasped the cock with his other hand and found that with a hand on either side of the shaft his fingers did not touch. He stared at the giant meat, entranced, and slowly began to run his hands up and down the shaft.
“Mmmm,” the demon growled. “We so love the human touch. You are material, and when you make us manifest materially we know pleasure unlike that which we can give each other. Suck it!”
The order shot out across the blasted landscape like a thunderclap. He knew that shout would bring other demons running, scuttling, and flapping to where they stood. They would leer and stare and desire him.
Let them watch, he thought, his cock so stiff it was almost painful.
Even though the head of the demon’s cock was just about level with his face, Richard dropped to his knees. He ran his hands lightly over the huge sack at its base, then against the rough hair of the demon’s thighs. Shivering a little, he moved his face to within an inch of the throbbing organ and breathed in the musty odor. Closing his eyes, he stuck out his tongue and moved forward until the tip of his tongue touched ever so lightly against the silky skin of the demon’s dick.
The demon sucked in air with a sharp hiss.
Richard ran his tongue along the length of the shaft until he reached the glands, having to stand up to do so, and then ran his tongue all the way back down again.
