Slay My Soul

Summoning a Demon turns out to be a lot more than a quick five-minute gig. It takes Carino and his circle three days to be ready to call them forth. He could summon them one by one but figures it would be better to summon the seven princes at the same time and talk to them together, rather than repeat ourselves.

Carino walks to each circle and touches the circles as he passes, calling forth the Demon brothers.

“Astaroth, Xaphan, Naberius, Azreal, Damascus, Abaddon, Leviathan.” He touches the last circle and steps back. The circles flare to life, glowing rings of fire. A hole caves in at the center of each circle and clawed hands scramble for the sides. As soon as the behemoth Demons are standing topside the holes refill. They are certainly not happy to be here. Pacing and snarling in their enclosures. The brothers are large muscular beasts, sporting reddish skin, large black horns, sharp claws, and teeth. They certainly look capable of ruling a legendary hell like their namesake.

“You are wasting our time, we can not fight for you, we are already bound!” One growls, clenching and unclenching his claws.

“We did not summon you for that,” Carino says smoothly.

“State your offer!” Another snaps at him.

“I’m not sure if you know the details of your brother’s contract-”

“We don’t!” One of the others snarls. “Just that he is bound and has included the Legion in the deal.”

“Let me explain what it is I believe you are fighting for-” But Carino is interrupted again.

“We don’t care. Our brother obviously deemed it important and worthwhile to agree.”

“I think you will care once you know-”

“It makes no difference, we are bound, it can’t be stopped,” one of the brothers says scowling.

“Shut up!” I snap, drawing their attention. “We need to explain so you understand what we are offering.” They look at me with darkened eyes, one even licks his lips. That’s right, they haven’t had a woman in a very long time. Garret growls from the sidelines, not liking these men eyeing me like a lollipop they want to lick. Their intense gazes mentally undress me, and I sidestep to Garret feeling slightly unnerved, breathing a sigh of relief as my dragon wraps a possessive arm around me.

“Mixed mating has begun again, soul bonds being formed between races. We think Asmodeus has exchanged your freedom from your realm to find potential mates in exchange for destroying the vampire king’s enemy, which unfortunately is us,” Carino says. “We summoned you here because a prophecy from the Fates has come to light and we know Eve here, is a mate to one of you Demons, we just don’t know which one of you it is.”

“There are thousands of us! How are we to know which of us belongs to you?” One of the brothers asks, looking at me with renewed interest.

“That is what we wish to negotiate with you. Eve will enter each circle, and you will check if you are her mate, if you are not let her exit the circle unharmed. If it is none of you, then that means she is mated to Asmodeus. We are sure it must be one who is of royal rank, one who is in the line to succeed the King, which is why we have summoned you seven only. Do you agree to the terms?” The Demons nod eagerly in agreement.

I step forward to the circle furthest away from the others. The Demon is pacing inside, hope showing clearly on his face. He extends a hand to me and I step through the circle placing my hand in his. He pulls me close and takes a big sniff of my hair.

“Am I yours?” I ask.

“Sadly no. Just give me a moment more. I haven’t known the joy of a woman’s scent in my arms for a very long time. I won’t hurt you little one, promise.” He holds me so gently. I sense his relief and also his disappointment, so I awkwardly pat his back. He sighs and reluctantly lets go, kissing my forehead. “It’s good to have hope again.” I nod and walk directly to the next brother’s circle.

The same thing happens with him and each brother after that. None of them are mine, although I’ve been groped and cuddled more than I’m comfortable with by these strangers. While I’m doing this, Carino is explaining why it’s so important I find my mate. The mood at the end is somber.

“So you are Asmodeus’s and he is tasked with killing you all. We are also essentially killing our potential mates. We noticed women have been in the fights we attended so far,” One of the brothers says unhappily, while Garret rubs his own scent all over me like a demented cat, to get rid of the scents that the demons have rubbed on me.

“We can’t even get a message to him. The only contact is when we are called to arms and we are usually too far away to speak to him as we are driven to fight. Even if he knows, he’s bound by the contract and will have to keep fighting. What a fucking mess! It will destroy him if we succeed,” another says glumly.

“I can call our Oracle over and see if she knows if your mates are alive and in this realm,” I offer. The brothers nod slowly. I send a link to Poppy and she arrives pretty quickly.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help, it depends if the Fates are willing,” she says breathlessly, “But I’ll try.”

“Okay, let’s renegotiate. Poppy will enter your circles and you will let her leave your circles unharmed when she is ready,” Carino states. The Demons nod in agreement, and Poppy enters the first circle.

“What is your name?” She asks.

“Astaroth,” the Demon says, swallowing hard. Poppy places a palm on his chest and her eyes go white. “Eve, call Ralen,” she says, stepping back. Astaroth’s eyes go wide.

“I have a mate?” He asks hesitantly. Poppy nods and grins as I nod to Ly to retrieve Ralen. He’s back through the portal a second later, pulling a confused Ralen with him. I walk over and hug her, whispering in her ear.

“Ralen, would you like to meet your mate?” She jerks back in surprise.

“I have a mate?” She asks eyes watering. I lead her to the circle as Poppy steps away.

“Ralen, this is Astaroth.” Ralen’s eyes sweep over his imposing form.

“Holy fuck! He’s massive!” She exclaims. He flinches. “He’s perfect!” She steps into the circle and holds out her hand with the vine tattoo. He hesitantly places his hand in hers, clearly afraid Poppy is wrong, as his eyes drink her in. His eyes glow a brighter red as their skin makes contact and he shudders. Bingo! Ralen’s vines swoop into action binding their hands. I look away and give them privacy. Poppy is already in the next circle, hand to the Demon’s chest. She pats his chest reassuringly.

“Xaphan, your mate’s name is Penelope, she is a witch from the Light circle, you will love her.” I pull out my phone and message Pen to come to the training field. She messages back that she’s on the way. Poppy heads to the next brother. “Naberius your mate is one I’m not familiar with.” She turns to Mikyda. Do you have a dark Fae by the name of Helemay here?” Mikyda grins.

“Fuck man, hope you like them feisty.” He walks into a portal coming back with a green-haired, horned beauty, who struggles against him.

“No offense intended your highness, but fuck off! I was about to win a bet!” The angry woman snaps. He thrusts her towards the waiting Naberius’s circle, who is quick to grab her hands. “Hey, handsy man - let go!” She orders and then stills, as her vines shoot out. “Oh!”

“You’re welcome,” Mikyda calls out. Penelope has arrived and Carino leads her to where Xaphan eagerly waits, talking to her quietly. She shoots me a hesitant look and I nod to her encouragingly, before turning my attention to the next. Poppy tells each Demon the name of their mate and moves on till she gets to Leviathan.

“Eve?” she calls uncertainly. “I can’t get a read on his mate.” Her eyes swing to me worriedly. I grin, seeing her once-white eyes burning red and Leviathan staring at her in awe.

“That’s because it’s you, honey. You belong to Leviathan.” Poppy’s eyes go huge and tears immediately run down her cheeks.

“I never thought the Fates would bless me with one. I thought I would always be alone.” Leviathan’s arms wrap around her.

“Never alone again,” he rumbles happily.

I turn to Carino.

“So now what? I’m glad we could help these guys out, but now we are back to square one. Still no Demon mate for me,” I say sighing.

“Back to the drawing board, I guess,” he says, popping an arm around my shoulders.

“I hate drawing boards, especially blank ones,” I grumble.