Demons 3 Draft 1 CH 23 (Patreon)

The breathing from the rooms Taros and Greg occupy is deep and steady. They are sleeping. There is a guard outside the doors and on each side of the building. The men who escape the maze might have proven themselves, but they are not to be trusted just yet.

I open a window on the third floor and climb to the roof out of it. The guard below doesn’t bother looking up. Only his allies can use the rooftops with ease. I look over the city’s roofs, searching for an indication where the one I want lives, but I don’t see it. I’ll need a guide, or at least someone to give me directions. Fortunately, I know how to find someone who’ll have that information.

I jump to the next roof, then the one after and a third. On the fourth I pickup a follower, their steps not entirely quiet as the land, and run after me. I jump down between the buildings, grab a fire escape to stop my fall, and watch them drop by me as I climb on it. They land and look up at me, eyes glowing brighter in annoyance and anger.

I put a foot on the guardrail and jump up to the facing building’s roof. I’m on the other side when they look over the edge. I pause long enough to ensure they see me before I drop off the side and grab another fire escape. By the time I’m standing on it. They are looking over the edge at me.

“You are clever,” they say, head canting. “I am not hungry, but I will hunt you if that is what you want.”

“If you catch me at the end of that hunt, and eat me when you’re not hungry, is it a waste of food? Most of the demons I’ve had to deal with were suffering from hunger madness or hungry.”

They make a motion I’ve never seen a demon make. Something for another demon, not a human. I wait.

“It is not pleasant,” they say, “it is heavy, but it is not a waste.”

“Thank you.”

They cant their heads the way all demons do when curious. “You are strange. One of the man things that smell different.”

“They made me. I’m part human and part demon.”

“Then is this a hunt for you also? I will not make it easy for you.”

“No. I’m not hunting tonight. I’d like to speak with Rules us All, but I don’t know where to find them.”

They look up at the moons, then around. “Rules them All is at the aerie.” They motion to a tall building with the top floors destroyed. I don’t recall such a building from the briefing.

“Will they eat me if I just show up?”

“Rules them All isn’t hungry.”

“Thank you.” I jump up to the facing roof and run in the direction of the building. The demon doesn’t follow me.

I understand why the building wasn’t mentioned when I cross out of the inhabited part of the city. It is outside Mister Grave’s kingdom. I see the occasional demon, but even those who look at me as I jump over alleyways and streets don’t chase me. Do they know why I’m here? Did the demon send a warning?

I have to climb the building’s facade, none of those near it are tall enough. When I reach the top, it’s covered with debris. What I can tell of how it was done comes from the claw marks, the scents of the broken wood tells me it is a few years old. Walls remain in the center, and the scent of demon is thick there, I recognize it from my encounter with Rules us All. Did the demon call them Rules them All because they do not recognize its rule? Or is it a human thing again?

The walls for a large room, a quarter of the entire floor’s space. I approach carefully and stop at a rumble. Acknowledgment, warning, amusement.

“I don’t know how to enter with respect,” I say, remembering Claws’ comments. “I don’t have the language to do it.”

“Then simply enter.” The voice is deep. Unlike Claws, the words carry an undertone, just like when he roars or rumbles. Does he not do it by choice, or is it another trait of an older elder demon?

I step through the open doorway, a human-size one, and enter the room. It has no roof. I see where more walls were broken away. Debris still litters the floor. Rules us All is on my right, seated on a large chair made of bones. Skulls in various shapes and sizes hang from the wall behind them.

“Humans collect what they hunt,” they say. “Display them. Show how skilled they are in the hunt.” The undertone is amusement, curiosity, envy? I don’t know how to respond. Does it want confirmation?

“I don’t know much about humans and why they do what they do.”

“Strength,” they say, make a motion that is identical to that of a human wanting me to approach. “Humans want strength, power. They don’t grow into it as we do. Sometimes they lie about the power they hold.”

“Humans like to lie,” I say as I approach.

“It protects them. Hide how weak they are. You do not lie.”

“I’ve had to, but I don’t enjoy it. I don’t do it with demons, only humans.”

“You have weaknesses to hide from humans,” they are amused. “But not the people?”

“Humans won’t accept that I’m not interested in their world. They keep pulling me in, demanding that I work for them. Claim that because they made me, I must do what they want.”

They study me in silence. “Did you come here to ask that I free you of them?”

“No. I’m here because I want to understand why you work for them.”

They laugh.

Not in the human way. No sound comes from them, but the amusement hits me hard. They don’t even make a rumble, the intent is just there.

“I don’t work for them, Eater of the People, they didn’t make me.”

“You heard about that,” I grumble.

“I am Rules them All. I heard many things.” It’s a human thing, after all. Do they realize humans altered their name? Do they care?

“Then why are you here? Why do you let the humans treat your people as if they were theirs?”

“I am here because this is mine. This is where I was before humans fell from the sky, in their spaceships. This wild is mine, I do not give up what is mine. I let the humans come here. I watched and learned. Humans are… interesting and strange. I enjoy those things.”

“Mister Graves seems to think all of this belongs to him.”

“As I said, humans are strange, sometimes they lie so they seem to have more power.”

“So you’re letting him claim this belongs to him.”

“It serves me to let him think so. Happy humans are simpler to control, and he keeps other humans happy, or removed them.”

“Do you know he plans on making a hybrid of his father? Using a soul stone, a part of your people.” I close my hand on the one in my pocket. I know what I must do about it, but the emotions Rules them All emits as we speak run deep. What can he turn into if I anger him? If Hard as Steel was his child?

“Matthew.” They trail off. Reminiscing, I think Jason would call it, if they were human. “I watched him grow. Humans have so short lives, they fight to keep it. I understand his need to keep what is his, to refuse to give it up to the First One. He isn’t the first. If he succeeds, I will welcome him and we will hunt together. Claim more of the wild.”

Claim?

“So you don’t mind that they’re going to use dead demon?”

“If the First One can’t keep one of the dead. That is their problem.”

“Even if they’re your child?”

Amusement. “My children don’t listen to the First One’s claims. I taught them better. Anyone who hunts them dies.”

I remind myself demons don’t lie, they have no need; but Rules them All is odd. They like humans, how they think. They speak of claiming more of the wild. Claws only speaks of the wild as something that is, not something to be claimed. Is greed something demons can have?

“If I take something Mister Graves has, will you consider it taking from you?”

“If you can take it from him, then he doesn’t deserve to keep it, does he? His hunts are not my responsibility.”

“Then why did you stop us from leaving?”

“Your parent intruded on what is mine. Unlike you, Claws in the Dark did not show respect. I don’t suffer intrusions lightly. I should have eaten him, but Jimmy asked me not to, said it would anger you.” They lean forward. “Would it have?”

Their question distracts me from working out who Jimmy is. How would have reacted to Claws’ death at Rules’ hands? I haven’t spent much time with Claws, I’ve always known he was there, in the wild. What would it be like if he was gone? The thought makes me feel something uncomfortable. It isn’t like the anger I felt at learning Amanda and Jason lied to me, but it is similar.

“I think it would have.”

“And what would you have done about it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Humans are quick to anger and act harshly. Don’t be like them.” They lean back in their seat.

I put thoughts of Claws dead out of my mind, it’s harder than it should be. Rules them All confirmed we can take Amanda away. That’s all I need to know.

“Why claim more of the wild?” I ask before I consider the wisdom of it.

They watch me. “Because it’s there.” The undercurrent is certainty, appropriateness, rightness. Taking for the sake of taking? The confusion I feel shows because they are amused.

“I have heard of one like you, who gathered the people to claim a city.”

“Adam.”

“Those who speak of him call him Wants to Rule.”

“He’s dead.”

“Hunted by Claws in the Dark, helped by humans. Were you there?”

I nod. The surprise they know about Adam fades, demons travel and spread stories, I should have expected it.

“Mathew spoke about it, after I told him. The television didn’t talk about it. Humans like to hide things. After I told him what Wants to Rule did, Mathew said it was a good idea. That if he was younger, he would do it too. That I would help him gather the people and that together we would claim the wild so we decide who can hunt on it.”

“If the procedure works, is that what Mathew will do?”

“Possibly.” Something like a shrug, then a smile. “But why do I need Mathew to accomplish it?” the undertone is a mix of emotions, pride, strength, inevitability.

I stare at them. Demons can learn from humans; those who survive in the city form something resembling a criminal organization, wrapping themselves among humans to make finding them more difficult, but their core doesn’t change. They hunt to feed, then protect themselves. The older organizations become human-run things, with the demons acting as protection because of the instinct to keep their family safe. But a sense of superiority? Maybe in a fight, when strength is pitted against strength and it’s clear who is superior.

Expansion? A belief in their right to have everything? Until now, I only saw that in humans and Adam.

Unlike Adam, there is nothing about Rules them All that feels insane. They are someone who, once they make up their mind, will slowly, inexorably, do what they decided to. The one thing working against them is the demons’ dislike for gathering with those outside their families.

Demons are solitary beings. I seem to share that trait with them.

I take out the soul stone. I no longer think is a danger. “This is Hard as Steel.”

They lean in. “You hunted him?” There are no emotions in the tone or the undercurrent.

“They hunted me. I’ve been shown a way to honor them, return them to the First One, but I don’t know if it’s how you want it done.”

“If you aren’t going to keep what’s yours,” they say, no longer interested, “do it however you want.”

I pocket it and find I’m not sure how to end the meeting. With Claws, I just walk away, but humans can be finicky, and Rules them All has shown enough human behaviors walking away might offend them.

“I don’t have anything else to ask you. Unless you have an objection, I’ll leave.”

The amusement comes on a soft rumble, then the human gesture shooing me away.

With Rules them All not an issue in taking Amanda, all that remains is for me and Gregg to make it to the cells, free the soldiers, make our way through the city to Amanda’s lab, fight whatever human, hybrids, and demons protect her and then fought our way out of the city.

I believe Jason’s reply to this situation would be ‘piece of cake’.