He lifted me easily enough, craddling me in his arms bridal style. My face burned again. Until he stepped out on to the edge of my small window, closing it behind us somehow.
The closest building was across the street and three stories taller than this. If he missed, we'd both be dead. But, the next thing I knew, we were already flying far over the traffic past the building I'd assumed he'd go for.
We landed on one much taller and a block away... I stared up at the night sky, the light polution too heavy to see actual stars. But I saw the moon just behind Dave's head, highlighting his pointed ears and blond hair.
He really was handsome, even for a demon. I've always thought so, too. But now...It was more obvious. Was it because he's a full fledged demon now?
When he stopped, I looked around. We weren't too high up, level with tree tops and light poles, all of which had broken bulbs. Then I knew we were in his neighborhood. He sat me on my feet and took my hand, leading me to a door on the roof.
A moment before we reached the door, it opened, a pale faced demon woman behind it. "Welcome home, master." She said softly, ducking her head and stepping aside as we got clsoer.
She plastered herself against the wall, giving us more than enough room to come in before she shut the door and moved to stand in front of it. I noticed she wore a thick iron collar and a dark, holey dress. Dave led me down the stairs into the main building.
Instead of the apartments I'd been expecting, it was like a huge hotel, several stories higher than outside would indicate. Dave looked down at the bottom and smiled.
As I was about to look over, he pushed me behind as a gleam of metal shot past us, lodging itself in the wall behind us. It was a...sword?! Dave smirked and pulled it out of the wall before he wrapped his arm around my waist, and, scaring the shit out of me, dove down over the edge.
He landed on his feet, me in his arms. Standing in front of us was a tall blond in a white shirt and black pants, a pair of pointed shades and a hat on his head.
"Sup lil man?" He asked as Dave handed the sword to him.
"Not much. Karkat and I were wondering if we could talk to you alone?" He asked, sitting me on my feet and taking me hand.
"So you're the boy my lil brother's been fawning over for years now, huh?" The tall demon smiled, exposing his huge fangs. "Well I'll be damned! Shoot course y'all can talk with me. Let's go to our suite." He motioned for us to follow him.
Dave squeezed my hand lightly and we followed him. He opened a door and went inside, leaving it open for us. The room we walked into was HUGE. Possibly bigger than my whole apartment. And there were doors leading off of it, too.
The tall demon sat back in an arm chair that looked more like a throne to me and crossed his legs. Dave pulled me to sit on one of the leather couches beside him.
"Sup?" The door shut as he spoke, making me jump. "Relax, lil dude. Nobody is dumb enough to hurt someone with that." He pointed to my neck. "So, what's wrong? I know this isn't a meet the parents type of thing."
"Yeah no. Karkat and his friends are in a bit of a pickle." Dave started, keeping my hand in his the whole time. "They were attacked by the weaker Fellows and now the others want revenge." THe tall demon's brow furrowed and he took off his glasses, exposing burning orange eyes.
"You survived a Fellows attack?" He asked, his voice incrediolous.
"M-my friends and I did, yeah." I said, trying to sound confident. It came out as a strangled whisper. Fuck.
"There were nearly thirty of them and they took them all out." Dave said for me. "And there was only a few hunters."
"Yeeehaw! Hot damn boy!" He slapped his knee. "Y'all must be some good fighters! Maybe you an me can strife sometime!" He grinned at me, his eyes bright.
Dave seemed much more relaxed now. Told ya he'd like you babe. He whispered in my mind. I smiled slightly at that. "But Bro, they're going to come and try to get permission to kill them from you. You know that."
"Of course I do. And I won't give them permission to harm any humans, weither they deserve it or not." His voice was deeper, the accent less noticable as he spoke now. "Karkat Vantas, you, your family and your friends have been granted the protection of the Strider name."
He stood up and came to stand in front of me and Dave. Dave pulled me to my feet. Don't be scared and don't freak out. It'll be okay and I'm right here. Dave's voice in my head made a small jolt of panic run through me.
His brother placed his hands on my shoulders and leaned down. I shivered as he got closer, his eyes burning brightly into mine. And then, to my total fucking shock, he kissed me.
And Dave was letting it happen! "Mphf!" I gasped and tried to move away, but the older Strider's gtip on me was too strong.
His lips were soft and rough at the same time, unlike Dave's, whose were soft and warm and felt nice against mine. Bro's almost felt like a cat's tongue someone had put lotion on.
My mark started to tingle and, unable to break away from Bro, I looked to Dave, who was watching with his teeth firmly between his lips, his fangs piercing him a bit. Though I hated to admit it, the kiss with his brother was slightly turning me on, but not in a way that made much sense to me.
Maybe because I'd much rather be kissing Dave? The thought had barely formed in my mind when Bro let go of me and pulled away with a small grin. Dave was instantly on me, cupping my face in his hands as he kissed me hard.
I whined, wrapping my arms around his neck to pull him further into the kiss. Moments later, the door opened, another demon woman wearing a collar and black dress standing there, her head bowed and her hands clasped firmly in front of her.
"M-masters. Forgive my intrusion, but-" She gasped and her arm flew to her shoulder, which was quickly becoming bloody. She pulled a shard of glass out of her arm and wiped it on her dress before continuing. "But Mistress Rose has returned. As well as Mistress Roxy and Master Dirk." She said softly, moving to where Bro had sat down.
From the table next to him, she gathered the rest of a broken glass object with her hands, one still covered in the blood that was dripping down and onto her dress, leaving darker marks on the faded black. Once she was gone, Bro sighed. "Fucking slaves."
I bit my lip hard as Dave pulled me to sit in his lap. Three other blond demons walked in, two girls and one guy. The guy moved to sit on the opposite end of the couch from us as the girls plopped between us.
The one with longer hair reeked of liquor, and the other had a familiar face. "Karkat, these are me siblings. Dirk is on the end and Roxy is next to him." Dirk simply nodded his head in acknowledgement and Roxy grinned and waved. "And this is Rose. She was following your friends tonight."
"Yes. I'm rather protective of one of them in particular. She's very beautiful and she seems like she would be fun to talk with." She tapped her chin. "I believe her name is Kanaya." She looked at me.
"Oh." I nodded. "Short black hair, always has makeup on?" She nodded. "Yeah, that's her." I sighed. "She's like a sister mom thing to me." I leaned into Dave.
Rose smiled. "Sister mom thing?" She raised her eyebrow. "That sounds nice." She sat back, resting her hand on Roxy's leg lightly.
"My man got snatched by an angel." Dirk said bitterly, making me flinch and my mind go to John. Bro snorted.
"Oh please. English was hardly yours, Dirk. Hunting a hunter makes him your prey, not your boyfriend." I looked from Bro to Dirk.
"You mean Jake English?" I asked nervous for him. "What do you mean he got snatched by an angel?" I sat up straighter on Dave's lap.
"Yeah. Freaking Egbert swooped in and told him that I'd been following him and now he's watching him like a hawk." I frowned at the mention of John, but at least Jake was still alive. And himself.
"That Egbert is going to screw us all up sooner or later, Dirky. He got to my Janey, too." Roxy sighed, crossing her arms.
"Jane Crocker?" Why was John collecting hunters? Especially ones I know? Was he going to go after my friends?
"Yeah." Roxy nodded. "I swear if he dumps an angel into her and kills her, I'll rip out all his feathers and snap his wings off of his back before I kill him." Her eyes started to glow until Dirk patted her hair.
"How do you think I feel? Dadbert was my main man and now that feather fuck is here I can't get close to him." I did a double take at Bro. "Yeah, John's Dad and I hook up. Or used to." He sighed.