This party was much tamer than the rager Yaten had thrown last night. It helped that this party was at a much smaller house, so even though way too many people had been invited, not everyone could fit and so some people were choosing to leave. It was still unbearably crowded though.
There had been a couple moments tonight where I'd felt a little uncomfortable, like someone was watching me, but I hadn't seen anyone actually watching me so far so I brushed off the feeling. It was probably nothing, and tonight was more about Mina than me anyway.
The red cup I was holding only had smelly cheap beer in it, but I felt like I was actually enjoying myself more than last night even with an inferior drink, less alcohol in my system, and while acting like a wallflower, which was completely out of character for me. I was only pleasantly buzzed, nowhere near blackout drunk and I planned to keep it that way. Watching Mina try to flirt with, what was her new boyfriend's name again? Malakai? Machite? Well whatever his name was, watching the two of them act like cats in heat on the animal channel was stupendously amusing.
At my insistence, Mina was wearing my lowest-cut top and a much shorter skirt tonight, and her new boyfriend seemed to be struggling mightily not to stare straight at her chest. He was doing very well at it so far, but Mina wasn't use to wearing such exposing clothing and was definitely squirming every time his glance did slip downward. She'd already spilled her drink on herself twice. I knew I had an idiot's grin on my face right now but it just felt so damn good to see silly young lovebirds performing the mating ritual of tipsy college students, notably because one of them was my friend.
"Would you like to dance?"
I shivered despite myself, rubbing my arms. I didn't bother tearing my gaze off Mina to reject whoever had asked me, no matter who the owner of the attractive baritone was. There was a large group of people clustered in the open living room area dancing to the pounding music, but I was strictly filling in as a supporting role for Mina tonight. Not to mention, it was way too soon after-I caught myself before I could finish the thought. "No," I responded, taking another sip of my beer and grimacing. The smell really was terrible.
"Pity," he said, and something about how familiar the voice was made me look to see who he was. My throat was suddenly parched, and I felt the smile die on my lips. I knew that face. Almost subconsciously I took a step away from him. My heart started hammering in my chest, and I felt a sudden impulse to run very fast and very far away, because that was a face I'd only seen once before in my life, while it was safely contained inside a summoning circle. And now, that same demon from two nights ago was casually leaning against the wall next to me at a college party as if it was his home turf.
My hands were trembling so badly that I dropped my beer cup onto the floor, and I don't think it even registered that I'd dropped it until someone made a loud noise of disgust. I looked around for the nearest exit, I suddenly needed a lot more air. There were too many people between me and every door, I'd never make it through the crowd.
I racked my brain for something, anything that might help me. I was having a lot of regrets about drinking any alcohol at all now, since my brain didn't seem to be working quite right. I didn't know much of anything about demons except what Rei had told me. There were lots of different kinds, and most of them made pacts, or deals with humans. Some of them didn't though, and a lot of them were fatally dangerous. We'd been reasonably safe when we cast the spell, having a summoning circle around anything we conjured that would protect us. But now, here, out in the open at a college party, I was completely exposed and defenseless. I wasn't ready to die. I didn't want to die!
Sluggish through inebriation, something twitched at the back of my mind. How had the demon gotten here? Had someone else summoned the exact same demon? That was hard to believe but possible. Had he followed some magical trail left by Rei or I here? But that seemed unlikely too, I'd scrubbed the carpet within an inch of its life after we did that spell, and neither of us had performed any spells since-I covered my mouth in dawning comprehension. The wild magic last night. It hadn't been a spell but had that been enough to lead him to us? Would my negligence in missing my phone reminder cost me my life?
My mind was racing and another thought occurred to me. The demon was probably stronger and faster than anyone else at this party. He could have torn me apart the moment he saw me tonight. Why didn't he? I hung onto that thought like a life jacket in a rip tide. He could have already killed me, easily and with no difficulty. He hadn't, why?
I struggled to get my breathing under control, I could taste my pulse on my tongue. After what felt like hours, I finally found my voice again. "W-w-we-we sent you back," I rasped out. "We sent you back!" I couldn't control the tremors in my voice, I sounded like a scared little girl. If I was honest with myself, I felt like one too.
"You did," his voice was wholly unnatural, and yet so scandalously smooth. It seemed to fill up the air around me, muffling every other sound of the party. He didn't sound angry or upset though, and it did register somewhere behind my deafening panic that he at least wasn't exposing any emotional reaction over us summoning and sending him back to whatever hell he came from. He leaned an elbow against the wall, seeming to study me. And seeing him a second time, I realized that his outfit had changed from the night we'd summoned him. Instead of a pressed suit, tonight he was wearing jeans and button-up shirt with boots, like he was just another drunk student at this party. He'd dressed down, but something told me the jeans he was wearing might be worth more than my car. He was a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Questions were spinning through my brain at a dazzling pace. How did he find me, was it the wild magic? But how did he know it was me? What did he want? I didn't trust half of the questions because they seemed like they might give him some fearsome ideas, and I didn't want to encourage his creativity right now, especially if he was here to kill me and just taking his time about it. I finally settled on one I felt was the safest.
"W-why are you here?" Only one stutter, that was progress. I wiped my hands down on my thighs, trying to stop them from shaking.
He looked amused for the briefest second, and then it was gone. "I came to see you," he answered. I was still alarmed and full of adrenaline just by his presence, but I couldn't help noticing that he was still stunningly handsome as I watched his lips move to form the words.
He could have already killed me, I reminded myself. Now was not the time to be admiring his features. Okay, so he had definitely tracked me down after the spell. My brain was still struggling to process past the decelerating effects of the beer. He hasn't attacked me yet, find out why. Right. Focus.
"Why?" I mentally kicked myself as soon as the question left my mouth. My over-active imagination already had a lot of terrifying ideas as to why he'd come to see me, and none of them were answers I wanted to hear. Well maybe he just wanted to make a pact and I could just turn him down politely? My palms were so uncomfortably sweaty. I should be so lucky.
He tilted his head, and it made his bangs fall down over his glittering eyes. Were they glowing or was it just the flickering party lights playing tricks on me? He seemed to be considering his answer before he finally replied, "You called for me. Did you not?"
"It was a mistake," I blurted out, words tumbling out in a rush. "The spell went wrong. We didn't mean to summon you, p-please don't kill me."
He frowned but it was only for a moment, and then he laughed, and it was a warm low rumbling sound that gave me the impression of velvet and vulnerability. Morgan Freeman would have been envious of that voice. "I won't kill you."
Relief was a refreshing feeling, and some of the tension left my shoulders. It occurred to me that nobody else at the party seemed to have noticed his presence, and I risked a glance around only to discover that a gap had formed between us and the rest of the people at the party. I guess he was mostly concealed in the shadows of the corner wall, but still, with his looks alone it was hard to think of a reason why some of the drunken sorority girls hadn't wandered over here yet. It was probably for the best that nobody else had approached, given that he looked deceptively human, albeit unnaturally gorgeous. I turned back to face him, clenching my fists to fight the impulse to push the hair out of his eyes and to hide the fact they were still quivering. Buzzed brain, you have to concentrate better than this!
"I don't want to make a pact," I answered before he could ask, proud of myself when my tongue didn't trip over any words. "Neither does my best friend. I think we should just pretend the spell never happened." The music was very loud and I had to raise my voice a bit just to be heard over the volume, but it seemed to be giving me more confidence.
The demon raised an eyebrow, and I thought I saw his lips twitch like he might smile. "I cannot," he replied, straightening up from his position against the wall.
"Can't, or won't?" I asked. He'd seemed relaxed while he was leaning against the wall and some of my anxiety started creeping back up again now that he seemed no longer nonchalant.
"Won't," he took a step towards me, and I took an instinctive one back. He was smirking now, and it made me feel very much like prey. Was it always this warm from the body heat of the crowd or had I just surpassed the threshold into disturbingly toasty? "At least let me see you home." I hadn't been this flushed before he'd appeared, but I was sure that butter would melt if he just spoke to it for long enough. That voice was profane.
"No thanks," I said, looking over my shoulder to see if anyone had noticed us over here yet, but we were still beneath the notice of most of the other party goers. Not even Mina was paying attention to us, she was still too busy flirting. I didn't know if agreeing to allow him to take me home would count as making a pact or not, but it definitely didn't seem worth the risk. It probably didn't count as making a deal, but it would give him more time and opportunities to try and I knew I wasn't sober enough to turn down a good sales pitch.
He reached out towards me and I flinched back, moving out of reach. "I said no," I repeated. I knew that I was straddling the line between polite refusal and potentially offensive courage, but I knew I didn't have enough energy to keep this up for much longer. If he kept pushing me, I knew I'd have a pact with a demon by midnight. The demon glanced at the bandage on my arm.
His expression smoothed over into something unreadable, but he let his arm drop. "I'll go, for now," and just like that, he vanished. Not in a dramatic puff of smoke or anything, it was like one second he was in front of me and then before I could blink he wasn't anymore. It was incredibly disconcerting, but it did confirm my suspicions that he could have killed me before I could sneeze if that's what he'd wanted to do.
I made hasty exit out of the party, I'd had about enough stimulation for a lifetime in one night. Mina would have to forgive me for ditching her, but I rationalized that she might be going home with someone else tonight anyway. I sucked in a greedy gulp of air as soon as I got out the door, and it felt like liquid ice in my lungs. It was freezing cold outside, but it reminded me that I was still breathing, fully unscathed, and still had my immortal soul. And that thought cheered me up enough to wobble my way back to my apartment, morale boosted. I'd come up against a demon and gotten away intact, how many girls my age could say that?
AN: Rewritten because I hated the previous version I wrote. Hopefully this one is better.