Demons 3 Draft 1 CH 11 (Patreon)

Protect and I stand well outside the town. No amount of reassurance let the demon consider allowing Claws near his people. He roared a reply loud enough it dropped me to a knee. Permission mixed with warning and more complex undertones. Then we wait.

When Claws steps out of the trees he is tall, almost as tall as Protect, massive, with his skin close to his body, no fraying edges. He’s healthy and well-fed. I relax, while Protect tenses.

“Claws!” I call to him and head in his direction. He shrinks as I approach, adopting the form of a tall and muscular human, except for his head, which keeps the muzzle. His skin adopts the contours of clothing; pants, and a jacket with a pulled back hood. They look more defined than the last time I saw him. He’s practiced looking at a human.

“Derrick, I am happy to see you are healthy.” He places a hand on my shoulder. “Has the wild been good for you? Did you find yourself there?”

“I don’t know. I’ve enjoyed the running and the hunts. I missed you.”

As usual, his attempt at a human smile on his teeth filled muzzle isn’t something that can comfort, but I still see the pleasure in his features. “And I you. I have thought of you often. Fought the desire to follow your scent. I hope that when we are done, you will come with me.”

“I—”

Claws steps away from me, his body rippling before settling back into the human form. “Elder,” he says, growling something complex. Respect, stubbornness, authority, subservience, and more. When he looks at me, Claws is worried, almost scared.

Protect stops behind me, not quite looming.

“Protect, this is Claws in the Dark.” I hesitate, I should add something to describe his relationship to me, but I don’t know what. “Claws, this is Protect the People. We’re in his territory.”

Protect steps around me and Claws steps back. Looking human as he does, even taller than me, he is small compare to the other demon, but he stands still now. He doesn’t show and emits any of the worry and fear I saw. Protect sniffs Claws, then me.

“He has no scent of yours.”

“He is mine.” Claws stiffens, then seems uncertain. “Derrick is his. My link to him is through how the humans made him, using my mate.”

“Fangs in the Light,” I tell Protect.

“Do you…” Claws hesitate and his form melts, loses its humanity, returning to something more creature-like. “Do you claim him?”

“Would you challenge the claim?”

Claws looks at me, and I have no idea what he expects. When Protect also looks at me, he’s curious.

“I have no idea what you’re doing.”

Protect snorts in what I now know is amusement. “I don’t claim humans.”

“I’m not human,” I state as Claws bristles in annoyance.

“I don’t claim whatever you are, then.” Protect looks to Claws. “He’s yours if you claim him.”

“He is family,” Claws says, his form settling. “My child.”

“He’s young to be alone.”

“He is stubborn,” Claws answers.

Another snort of amusement. “My territory is wide, do not hunt the humans in it. Do not approach their settlement without warning, they are my people.”

“Will you let Derrick leave if he desires?”

Protect looks at Claws curiously.

“Why would I want to leave?”

“Amanda has been taken.” Claws watches me as I keep myself from reacting.

“I ask again,” I say through clenched teeth. “Why would I want to leave?”

“Who is Amanda?” Protect asks.

“The woman who created me.”

“Your parent?”

“No!” I reply as Claws growls his protest. “I refuse to think of her like that. That woman doesn’t care about me. The only thing that matters to her is her research.” At least Jason cared. He tried to temper what they were doing by making me a little more human.

“Then why would you care if she was taken?” Protect asks.

“I don’t,” I tell Claws.

“She was taken from the military by other humans,” Claws says. “They were organized, strong. They took her to a city in the territory humans call Anounga.”

“How do you know that?” I ask. Concluding they were strong and organized is one thing, they had to be to defeat the military, but for Claws to know where they took her means he spoke to someone close to what happened. The military wouldn’t speak to Claws, even with how he helped them defeat Adam. They’d rather kill Claws and study his remains.

Claws takes something for a fold of his skin, a phone. “Jason told me.”

“You talk with him?” I’m surprised at the wistfulness in my voice.

“Who is Jason?” Protect asks, and I have no idea how to answer them. As much as I hate Amanda, as much as I hated Jason for a time, I haven’t been able to be angry at him since the rescue now that I know his side of what happened.

“Jason is the other human who played a part in making Derrick who he is,” Claws answers.

“His parent?”

Claws looks at me.

“I don’t know, okay? Claws, what do you want from me?” I’d rather focus on that than anything related to that time. “You know I didn’t work with the military to rescue her. I was there for you. Why would you ever think I’d care that she’d been taken again?”

“Because of the damage she can do. The humans who took her have equipment. They have resources. There are few reasons for them to take her specifically.”

“Okay, how do you know that much? And don’t say Jason, because after the rescue I can’t imagine anyone letting him close to anything like that.”

“He is who told me,” Claws answers. “I will go rescue her.”

I stare at Claws. He doesn’t like her. I understand how he sees her as dangerous, but why would she be more dangerous now that some random humans took her than when she was under the military’s control? He isn’t telling me everything.

The realization hurts. Not as much as when I found out Amanda and Jason had lied to me, but I thought I could trust Claws.

“Derrick,” Claws says and hesitates. He knows me well enough to read my expressions. There might also be something in my scent. Humans’ emotions carry in their scent.

“Why would one human be dangerous?” Protect asks, watching us.

“She made me,” I answer, trying to work out why Claws thinks he needs to act. “She’s could make more, if she ever figures out why the process worked with me when it didn’t with the others.”

“Has made more,” Claws says, and I stare at him.

“If she’s succeeded in replicating me, the military would use them. They’d have her research. They wouldn’t care that she’s gone.”

“She did not make them for the military, she made them for the people who took her. Jason said they are not like you. But after she was taken to the city, they began appearing. He believes they are attempts, that she is testing something different. I have been to the city, fought one. They are strong, but clumsy. They do not smell of us or have skin like you, but they are dangerous.”

“Then the military will deal with them.”

“They have tried.”

I stare at him. “Are you telling me you’re working with them?” The military that came to the town was looking for me. “Did they send you to get me?”

“No, Derrick. They did not send me. I did not work with them, but they are there. They will do something. They can use our help.”

“They want to capture me! Kill you! You do remember the promises that man made, right?”

“If he tries to take you, I will stop him. But I can not let Amanda make more of her creatures. If she perfects them, they will threaten my family, my kind. You know she is obsessed with destroying us.”

“So you rescue her and hand her over to the military, who encourage her to make more of her creatures to kill you. Why don’t you just eat her?”

“Do you want me to?”

The question stops all thought. She doesn’t deserve to live; for what she did to me, for the threat she represents to demons, for the pain her research inflicted on the family of her test subjects and the people they used to be. The answer is easy. If there is one human who deserves to die, it is her.

I can’t answer Claws. Why can’t I answer him?

“Bring her to me,” Protect says, “I will eat her.”

“No,” I reply before I can stop myself, then curse. “Don’t say it,” I warn Claws as he opens his muzzle. I don’t want to hear again about how she’s still my parent, regardless of how she treated me. I’ve seen how parents, human parents, are supposed to act toward their children. She doesn’t deserve to be called that.

But somehow I also don’t want her dead, even if she tried to kill me and have me killed.

I look at Claws. “You’re returning there no matter my decision, aren’t you?” He nods and I curse. Claw might be able to convince the military to work with him, but they fire on demons the moment they see them, and they will be armed with irradiated weapons. I can at least get close enough to explain why he’s there.

“I swear, Claws. This is the last time. The next time that woman gets herself captured or kidnapped, you aren’t going to her rescue. You’re going to let the humans deal with their own problems.”

“So long as it does not lead to a larger threat to me and mine,” he answers.

I look at Protect. “Looks like you’re getting rid of me.”

“Good,” the demon answers without any undercurrent. “I will let everyone know and celebrate.”