Left in a Demon's Care -- Part 2 --
Chapter Three: Twisting a Demon's Character
"Well, this one sure is different," Lina said as she and Xelloss traveled through another gaily festooned village at high festival.
"The towns people here like their decorations, don't they?" Xelloss commented. "I thought scarecrows belonged in gardens."
"These are special. Must be a contest, because each one has a name tag and number, like an entry. OH! Pie eating contest!"
Zel's treatment of Lina was still bothering Xelloss. He wondered if he wasn't the better man, well, not in the human being sense of the word, but as a man outside of humanity. Like a super-human, which he was, naturally, being a demon but--?"
"Xelloss! Get your head out of your ass and pay attention! I said I'm going over that way. Meet me later, okay?"
Lina slid down from her horse, where her perch had afforded her a clear view, and waddle-walked a path through the throng gathering at the long table. Xelloss sauntered after her, taking his time. What was the purpose in hurrying? He couldn't stop her once a quarry was sighted.
While watching Lina fill her gut through the corner of his eye, Xelloss restored his energy his own way, passing by a group where a fight had started, and around a bickering couple, and a crying child. The horse, unhappy in the company of a demon, tugged on his reins in an attempt to join up with a brace of draft horses pulling a shiny red and yellow wagon. On the wagon was painted a sign advertising an evening hay ride through the haunted pumpkin patch. Haunted could be fun.
"Lina will love that," Xelloss thought. He hailed the driver and bought a pair of tickets.
When he asked the driver to suggest a good place to leave the horse, he was encouraged to tie him to the wagon. "Horses like company. Oh, toss in your bags as well, unless you have a room already at the inn."
"I don't think so," Xelloss said, unsure what to do.
"You either do or you don't. Everything's full up– been full for a week. Harvest Festival, you see. You traveling alone?"
"No, my wife--" Xelloss waved over his shoulder.
"Well, being a priest and all, you can stay the night in my barn, if you want."
Xelloss thanked him and hefted his and Lina's bags over the side, casting a spell as his did so to alert him if their belongings were moved or touched. He hoped he had done the right thing. Lina would let him know.
In fact, after filling herself on pumpkin pie, Lina was happy to listen to Xelloss' suggestion. "What do you have in mind?" she asked.
"A hay ride. The sun's going down shortly and it gives us something to do until dinner."
Lina grinned. "I haven't done that since I was a kid. We got time to look around the rest of the fair until then, unless you think we can stay at an inn tonight," she added hopefully.
"The weather is good. We should save our money," Xelloss said. He didn't want to let on just how much of it he had squandered on Lina's finery. "Besides, I was told the rooms are all booked up, but we can camp in the wagon driver's barn."
Lina wrinkled up her nose but didn't disagree. "Erk!"
"What is it?"
"The baby...it's kicking. I feel it more now, that's all. I'm fine. Let's check out that dried meat stand. We haven't got anything like that yet. Oh, and there's a cheese vendor!"
Baby. A truly living creature was growing inside of his Lina. It amazed and baffled Xelloss to imagine what that must feel like. Humans were a curious race, and when they did the unexpected, marvelous; at least, Lina was.
Xelloss climbed up onto the wagon, then turned and helped Lina scale the last steps. Their horse trotted alongside his new friends, sharing grunts. The only place to sit was a corner in the hay, with Lina on Xelloss' lap. Next to them was another couple, who appeared to be in their late twenties. They were the best dressed people he had seen in town and were gracefully lounging over more than their share of space. The gentleman moved to the side, accommodating Xelloss as he anchored Lina securely between his thighs.
"There's some space for you. I'm Gill and this is Maggie, my wife."
Xelloss nodded to the man and Lina handled introductions.
"I'm Lina and this is Xelloss."
Maggie smiled at Lina. "It this your first?"
"Wagon ride? Hell, no! I grew up with vineyards and... Oh, you mean the baby, don'tcha? Yeah, my first."
"When's it due?"
Lina thought a moment. "Pretty soon. Three months tops."
"And you're not home in bed?"
"Home? I'm miles from home. I got miles more to go too, right Xelloss?"
Xelloss had been attempting to follow the other man's conversation and listen to Lina at the same time. Lina looked to be having a good time. She was looking up at him expectantly. He brushed aside a cloud of her henna red hair, revealing a porcelain cheek flushed with excitement. She was beautiful. His chest tightened. Gill, the man had called himself. His face was rather flat and fish-like. Well, he didn't like the way the man's eyes raked over Lina when he thought Xelloss wasn't looking. Demons were very protective of their property, since they had so little that they could call theirs exclusively, or so Xelloss rationalized his behavior. At the same time, Xelloss wanted to get Lina off the topic of their destination, so he whipped up a distraction to put an end to both problems.
"You seem tense, dearest." He said it and instantly knew why he rarely called her anything but Lina: it was too intimate and he felt himself squirm. "How does this feel?" He rubbed her shoulders, kneading her muscles with his thumbs and fingers. Such was his strength that he could massage her through the dense fabric of her cloak.
Her sharp intake of air, and no retort, was good enough for him. He was already taken to be her husband, so a little personal contact would be expected. Since Lina leaned into him slightly, he assumed he wasn't overstepping her personal boundaries even if he was stretching his to the maximum.
"Hmmm, you are so lucky," whispered the young woman to Lina, "to have such a handsome husband who cares for you so much."
"Eh?" Lina replied.
"He only has eyes for you," Maggie continued, a touch of envy in her tone. "And he dresses you splendidly." She cleared her throat and said more loudly. "Your child will be beautiful, I predict."
"As long as the baby takes after his mother," Xelloss said. He had meant that, too. "There, better now?" he asked Lina while gently pulling her closer to his chest.
"Uh, yeah," she said her voice quiet. He suspected that she was tired.
As far as the ride went, the frightening parts were a disappointment to Lina. "Too tame," she said as they waited their turn to disembark.
"Oh, I thought that horrible looking monster jumping out from behind the hay bales was chilling!" squealed the Maggie, whom Lina had been speaking with most of the trip.
"Heh, heh, heh..." Lina chuckled shaking her head. "I got friends scarier that that!"
Xelloss could see Lina was bored stiff and not as entertained by the attractions as he had hoped. If you wanted things done right, you had to do it yourself, he mused. Xelloss' mouth moved imperceptivity and trouble stirred.
Underlings were to Xelloss like mute lizards were to dragons or pesky bees to humans- necessary evils. Low-level demons were minions he used and for which he was responsible, but at the same time he disliked them because of that obligation. Xelloss currently controlled a fleet of subordinates. He commanded half a dozen to appear suddenly and close, but not too close, to the area surrounding his aura's signature. It's a game, he instructed them. Get too near and I'll destroy you; too far and I'll ignore you. Frighten the humans to within an inch of their lives and I'll reward you.
"Look!" screamed a kid in the back of the wagon. "Something's following us!"
Screams and laughter of other children and adults followed.
"I don't see anything," Lina yawned. Then she did.
An awful looking monster with a gaping maw soared past, daringly close by, revealing its nine-inch, needle-sharp fangs. It let loose an unnerving, high-pitched screech and disappeared into a haystack.
"OOooh!"
Maggie was white-faced and gripped her cloak tightly around her shoulders. "What was that?"
"Oh, nothing, dear," Gill assured her. "Damned good special effects, I must say."
Xelloss could tell that the words sounded hollow. The man was terrified. Good. When a haystack burst into flames, unnatural, green and violet ones, releasing a horde of skeletonized bats, Xelloss had the whole wagon-load of humans screaming. He imagined how he might retell his story: "We screamed in terror and clung to each another for support. For five long minutes, there appeared to be no difference between me and them." No, on reflection, he wouldn't tell it that way at all.
"AAAAHHHH!"
The wagon rocked as folks clawed and scrambled away from a hideous, drooling creature flittering overhead. Too close. Xelloss smacked it with his priest staff a fraction too carelessly, launching the wailing thing over the heads of the horses. Damn. Xelloss directed his next thought at his spinning, servant, "Avoid alarming the horses!" The underling shut up and turned into a biscuit, or what might pass for one.
Salez snorted, as if to tell the other horses: "Pay the little turd no mind. The only creature you need concern yourself with is the nasty big one in the back of the wagon." With a heavy hoof, Salez kicked the creature/biscuit/turd to the ground, and the wagon rolled over it with a sickening (to Xelloss' sensitivities alone) crunch.
"Stop peacocking around," Lina whispered back at him.
"She noticed!" he thought, smiling. Others noticed too, but reacted differently. He felt admiration, great, gooey, globs of it aimed in his direction.
"The priest saved us with his holy magic!"
Oh, for the love of... Xelloss shook his head, a blush spreading upward. He ordered his servants to flee for their lives as he instantly he saved his own mind with a healing flash of evil intent. The warning came too late for the slower-witted ones. They had already evaporated into their astral tombs, rewarded with a quick demise.
"Our savior!"
Oh, my... Xelloss basked briefly in the soothing balm created by the hasty deaths of his minions. "It was nothing, really."
"Oh, he means that," Lina piped in. "Absolutely nothing at all."
Not that her assurance held water with this wagon full of idolaters. He was masquerading as a priest, after all. They had seen him in action; beheld the marvel with their own humble eyes. He had achieved sainthood in the judgment of his public. When Xelloss caught Maggie's worshipful expression gazing at him, freezing her feature into a kind of rapture rictus, he recoiled deeper into the hay.
Lina pressed into his thighs and grinned, and his heart changed course from sinking in shame to soaring for joy. He was wrapped in the warm glow of enormous pride, staring down into Lina's brilliantly hued eyes, shining with excitement, and something else- interest in his virility, real or imagined.
Suddenly he was aware that Lina saw him as a sexual being. This was funny because he was certain he wasn't, having no mother or father. He was created when his mistress ripped off a large portion of energy from her own person and suffused it with identity and dark purpose. And if that wasn't asexual, he didn't know what was.
Xelloss bounced back to reality when the sound of a man's voice vibrated his skull. "Would you like to join us for dinner?" Gill asked Xelloss.
"Lina?" Xelloss deferred the question to her, naturally.
"Yeah, sounds good. Grab our stuff," she told Xelloss, tagging on sotto voce, "Showoff."
"Well, if nothing else I have flair!" Xelloss thought, pleased with how everything fell into place.
"Where's the best place to eat?" Lina asked.
Instead of hunting down the improbable, as un-crowded restaurant, Gill and Maggie Bales insisted that they stay at their home and eat there, not that Lina needed convincing. Saving a buck or two was quite all right in her book. As they approached an ornately embellished carriage, Gill instructed the liveried footman. "Take their belongings and horse to be brought around."
The carriage ride lasted fifteen minutes to the gate of the Bales' estate. It was nearly another ten to the front door. The drive swept up to the massive stone building with its tall pillars. In the darkness the overhang they supported looked like frowning eyebrows.
"This place is big, huh?" Lina asked as a footman offered her a hand out.
"This manor house is the largest in the village. When father died, I inherited the estate and my younger brother got the inn, the finest in town," Gill explained on the way.
Xelloss could feel Lina's awe at the opulent furnishings and vast rooms, but she curbed her enthusiasm to look around, hiding it beneath her usual veneer of bravado. Over the delicious, although not over-large, dinner, Lina regaled her audience with stories of her past exploits. This either stunned or impressed her listeners, and in this case it did both.
"You were the one who blasted out half of Seyruun?" Gill said, his eyes gleaming. "I'm impressed. Such raw power packed into such a delicate-looking body."
"I said I was, didn't I?" Lina said. She was diving to the dessert now.
While in the company of Lina, Xelloss found that Gill's awed expression was a common response, although more often than not it was more slack-jawed shock than envious admiration. "That's right: fear the large, endear the small," Xelloss chirped. "You see, when a small, unassuming object exceeds our expectations, we are not only surprised but pleased. 'That little thing did that?' we say. In this case, the object is a young woman, but the rule's the same."
Maggie was distressed. It was bordering on rudeness when she asked, "Aren't you afraid of appearing, um, un-ladylike?"
"Better to be the one in control than the one being controlled," Lina said, closing the subject. "This dessert's great. What did you call it again?"
"Soufflé Grand Marnier," Gill replied. "It's based on whipped eggs, I believe."
"Really?" Lina said, stuffing more into her mouth. "Can't tell. I'll have another helping."
After exhausting the limits of the cook and of her hosts, Lina and Xelloss were shown upstairs to their room. As promised, their bags had been delivered and were resting on a dresser. A fire crackled in the private fireplace, filling the room with its rich glowing light and warmth. A very large bed occupied the central portion of the room. Lina collapsed across the red satin comforter.
"Soft."
"Down-filled, I assume," Xelloss said, running his hand over the lofty edges. "You'll be comfortable here tonight then?"
"After that dinner? Yeah, I'll sleep like a log. One that can't roll over any more."
"I'm sorry. Is it that uncomfortable?" he asked.
"Like trying to sleep on a watermelon, yes."
He considered his options and decided there was nothing he could do to alleviate her problem. "Well, since you don't appear to need me, I'll go check on the horse."
"You'll be back?"
"Yes," he said softly. He left the room, closing the door, and retraced his path downstairs and out to the front door. There, a butler directed him to the stable, where Xelloss found their horse well provided for. He didn't stay long. His appearance disturbed the other animals, although old Salez, as Lina had named her, only snorted at him in recognition, seemingly inured to the company of the demon when in the reassuring company of like-minded stall mates.
When Xelloss reentered the manor house, he instantly detected another body close by, a human. He could distinguish the woman's features despite her hiding in the shadows.
"Hello? That is you, Maggie, correct? Is something the matter? Did I startle you?" He knew he hadn't; he could detect her rapid heartbeat, but no fear in her. He asked out of habit to put her at ease. Human's who were relaxed were more easily tricked, or was it just that it was more fun to jolt them out of their complacency?
"No, it was just," she crept nearer. He could see her clearly in the candle light. "I simply can't resist you!"
Oh, my. He was suddenly locked in her embrace; her escalating passions, combined with the scent of her expensive perfume, cracked his defenses and clouded his senses, but only momentarily.
"You are so strong and yet, I can tell you would be gentle-- with me," she purred in his ear before nipping at his lobe.
His judgment remained unimpaired. "Oh, I think you must have me confused with some other man," he said in his defense. He felt more than saw a figure on the top landing, watching them, then pull away. Xelloss slipped to the side, and pried the woman's hands way. She was still clutching his cloak as he backed off.
"She can't give you what you need, not with her belly so large." Her dress was unbuttoned and revealed ample breasts heaving in half-view. "But I can."
"Possibly," Xelloss agreed. In a few moments' time her dismay, resulting from his refusal of her offer, would restore his energy, which he did need. "But not tonight."
He took the stairs two at a time, reaching the top with just enough time to feel Maggie's rush of disappointment and resentment, but out of range of her hands. He was about to open the door to Lina's room, when he heard her voice—and that of a man, Gill. He stamped down his anger, checking the desire to kick the door down, barely; instead, he collected his wits and turned the knob in a carefree manner.
"Not interested! Now get out before," Lina said from the bed. Turning at the sound of the door opening, she caught Xelloss' eye the moment he stepped in. "Hey, Xelloss!"
"Lina," he replied, calmly, his smile compressed into the thin line of his mouth. "My, my..."
"It's not what you think," Gill said in a rush of words. He was sweating. "I only wished to see if there was anything she needed."
"Funny," Xelloss said, although his face didn't reflect that emotion. "But I just ran into your wife who was concerned about mine. This situation reminds me of a little joke. Would you like to hear it?" Evil intent oozed from his aura in a menacing, though invisible, manner.
"Ah, well, I think I'll just be going," Gill muttered as he edged nearer the door all the while keeping a stuffed chair between himself and Xelloss.
Xelloss went on, enjoying this part of the game. "You see, swords don't kill people..." He watched the man measure the distance to the door, waiting for him to register the crucial pause prior to delivery of the punch line.
"Oh, is that so?" Gill muttered.
"Husbands that come home early do!" Xelloss nearly growled.
The blood left Gill's face and he swallowed hard. His terror fed Xelloss' spirit so that Lina could feel the energy from where she was sitting. The ghost of a smile touched her mouth.
"Oh, well, heh, yes, that's a good one. I'll remember that one."
"You do that," Xelloss said.
"Er, ah... good night, then," Gill stammered, and then dashed for the open door.
Xelloss could have, nearly did, but didn't, trip him as he passed by. He closed the door and sealed it with a spell that sizzled as the lock melted. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, thanks again. Man, you have great timing. That oaf wanted some action, I could tell. Imagine that! With me as big as a house!"
"Oh, no you aren't that big, Lina. More of a horse than a house," Xelloss snickered. "What is it?" He could tell when she was uneasy about something. He was so attuned with Lina's feelings he felt like she was as much a part of him as his cloak.
"Ah, um..." she said, embarrassed all of the sudden. "I'm kinda cold in this big bed. I was wondering if you might, you know...?"
"Hold you?" Xelloss asked, amazed that she would ask at all, as much as ask that of him.
"Yeah."
"Okay." His cloak, gloves, and shoes disappeared, joining his staff and few other personal belongings in his room on Wolfpack Island. "Is this all right?" he asked as he slid beneath the covers.
"Curl around me so I can warm up. Yeah, close. Oh!"
He was about to wrap an arm around her, but pulled back at her cry.
"Er, that was the baby. Wanna feel it kick?"
"Him. The baby's a boy, and, yes, I would."
"A boy?" she asked as she positioned his hand over the spot she'd last felt a sharp kick. "You sure about that?"
"I'm sure. He has a male aura. Was that it?"
"Uh, huh. A boy, well, that wipes out all the girl names I was thinking up."
Xelloss found a comfortable position and lay still, letting Lina snuggle in close. He had never, ever felt anything or done anything like this before. Holding Lina was unbelievably thrilling!
"Your arm's shaking. You okay with this or are my good vibes getting you down?" she asked.
He relaxed instantly. He had been giddy with excitement. "Oh, I'm fine. I shouldn't be, but I am."
"I'm just super special," Lina concluded.
He chuckled softly, "Yes, you are."
They lay awake, silent.
"Xelloss?"
"Um?"
"What are you thinking?"
"Me? Many things." Most of which I won't go into.
"Tell me about one."
"One? Okay. I was wondering if it was possible that I could be a better man than the chimera."
"That's stupid. You're terrific. You just aren't human, that's all."
"That's true." His voice sounded a little sad. He hoped Lina wouldn't notice.
Before long, Lina was asleep and the month of November passed into December.
Xelloss was aware of the position of his body and her presence. Before he had met Lina Inverse, there had been just him, usually, irised in a void, wrapped in the low hum of existence. Now his life had advanced into this quiet, aesthetic stillness shared with another living being. Utter motionlessness on his part, while she breathed, digested, and grew another living being inside as she slept.
He had nothing to offer this human girl. He could not see a future where he could play a central, starring role in her life. Even to be here, now, while on assignment required a complicated alignment of permitting circumstances, starting with pretty much sensory deprivation to control the emotions developing inside his head. If only he could sleep and dream. Until then, he would have to slowly and incrementally release the restrictions imposed by his demon nature. What had been for a thousand years a life without social interaction-- not important, meaningful ones—had altered completely this day, and he let what he could only describe as joy roll over him in a silent wave. Sometimes he just resigned himself to disaster.
End, Chapter Three: Twisting a Demon's Character