Trouble in Shangri-la

Aesma Daeva One of the Daevas, Aesma Daeva ("madness") is the demon of lust and anger, wrath and revenge. He is the personification of violence, a lover of conflict and war.

Together with the demon of death, Asto Vidatu, he chases the souls of the deceased when they rise to heaven.

It seems as if, after many days and many nights of being lost in my own dreams, that the world we have been fighting for for so many years, is itself, lost. For many years I have wandered the void between this world and the next. Stuck between the spaces of what was once my past and what could one day be my future. It has accrued to me, as it never has, that the curse or blessing that has been imbedded in me has never been afforded to anyone of my kind before.

I am alone.

The only one of my kind.

The first, the last, the only.

When my master summoned me to his side, the same thoughts that once had plagued me seemed to plague him, for he sat and stared at me intently for the longest time before he finally spoke.

“Tell me Hirase,” he leaned back in the plush black leather of his seat and regarded me with cold eyes, his long legs stretching and his hands resting casually on his lap, “how long have you been working for us my pet?”

I shifted, running constantly cold hands up and down the bare skin of my thighs. The calculations ran through my head, along with the resultant price for my services. I licked my lips, eyes downcast,

“Long enough to run up a sizable bill Master Daeva.” There was an almost imperceptible shifting in his facial features that was almost a smile. I didn’t have to see it, for I felt it more in the shifting of power in the room than anything else.

“I’m sure that’s true. But tell me, how long. In years pet, not price.”

I was silent as I thought, having to shift through my own head with difficulty, because the prospect of time had become lost to me many years before. It took me longer than I would have liked for the answer to come, and when it finally did I was grateful.

“Well over six hundred human years Master.” Momentarily forgetting my role as servant I let my eyes rest on his face and saw the surprise there. Rather then chastising me, he seemed oddly pleased, and he beckoned me to him. He was a handsome man, my master, demon though he was. As I lowered myself to sit at his feet, one hand resting on his jean clad leg, more from affection than any real need to keep my balance, I snuck a glance at him from beneath my lashes. His hair was a glossy green, so dark as to be almost black and it curled down his back in soft waves. Around his hairline, along the center of the underside of his arms, and along his spine, his skin was tinged a pale green. His eyes were the same dark green as his hair and were set into a face of strong sharp lines. His nose was straight and long, eyebrows thick and arched, mouth full but with a cruel twist that reminded many of the horrors he was capable of, and how much he enjoyed them. He was tall, almost seven feet, and so corded with lean muscle that when he lowered his hand to stroke softly through my hair, he had to concentrate not to press down too firmly on my skull, least he snap my neck. It used to annoy me that he would caress me as if I were some pet, but as he constantly had to remind me, I was. Any complaining on my part would have to be dealt with, and since he enjoyed the resulting punishment far more than I did, I had learned to keep my little rebellions to myself. His hands, so hot, so large, and so much different from my own, traveled under my hair, to my neck and rested there.

“Six hundred human years. That’s not so very long.”

“No master.” I said obediently, though it seemed quite a while to me seeing how I was still human, technically anyway. His voice brought me back from my brooding.

“Your contract expires as of today, did you know that?” My head bowed under the weight of his hand, and an emotion I had not felt for many years washed through my body. Pain probably though it could just as easily have been sadness.

Maybe both.

“Yes master.” came my slow reply. I had been at this for a long time now. This was my life, if you could call an existence such as mine a life. Master Daeva, a Persian demon, was not my first employer, nor would he be my last. Though oddly, he was my favorite.

A long time ago, before anything but after everything, I had been human.

No longer though.

I had no idea what had happened to me, or what my life had been like, the memory of that former reality having faded over time. I do know this.

Heaven lost me, and hell would not have me, and so I work among the demons and any other beastie that takes a liking to me until my contracts expire. My contracts, my lifeline among the nightmares and dreams of my world. If someone wants me to work for them, no matter the job, (and believe me supernaturals have quite the imagination,) my contracts keep me safe and free. For the right price I can be a servant, a helper, a companion, a friend, but never a slave. I escaped purgatory once, and will not be dragged there again.

I glanced up to find the demons eyes resting on me, searching my face.

“Do you have another client set up?” I shook my head. It had been stupid of me not to have a job ready so that I’d have an owner, a protector and wouldn’t be snatched up by the first monsters that happened to find me. Master Daeva chuckled and pulled lightly on my hair so that I would have to meet his eyes again.

“That’s good because I have one more job I would like you to do before you have to leave.” I frowned at him.

“I can’t do it. If my contracts already expired and I do one more job for you, then what’s to protect me from you keeping me for good?” This had been a running argument between the two of us whenever the ending of my contract had made its way into the conversation. No one wants to do a job for a demon unless they make an unbreakable deal first, that both parties agree to. If there isn’t one, then a demon has the right and the inclination to go back on his word, or find some sort of loophole, that will go from you doing him a favor, to you working for him, to him owning you completely. They were a tricky bunch, demons. He tried to make himself look hurt, but the fangs that gleamed from between his lips ruined the effect, and finally Master Daeva gave up the charade in disgust. He leaned toward me until we were almost nose to nose and I had my back pressed against his thick mahogany desk in a vain attempt to remedy that. He spoke low, almost growling in the back of his throat, and I tried not to take comfort from the smell of fire on his breath.

“Let’s cut to the chase Hirase.” I blinked rabidly, momentarily thrown , then I placed my hands on his shoulders and tried to push him back. At any other time I never would have done such a thing, but the ending of the contract gave me freedom even as it took away safety. The subtle reminder that I no longer belonged to him made his eyes blaze and a muscle twitched in his jaw. Sharp needles of pain shot through my arms where I touched him, and I screamed, drawing away. He smiled and I shuddered as I saw the rows and rows of sharp fangs in his mouth. Slowly, he came off his seat and went to his knees in front of me, large body blocking out most of the light in the room as he stared down at me. I whimpered.

“Oh pet, don’t be afraid.” He stroked my face, his skin so unbelievably hot compared to mine which felt like ice. Gently he wrapped one hand around the back of my neck and drew me to him until I was almost flush against his body. I could feel the hold he had placed on me during our time together tighten almost painfully in the back of my skull, demanding obedience. I had forgotten what a threat Daeva was. Never again would I take a contract with a demon this powerful. First though, I had to find a way to get away from him.

“How can I not be afraid? You’re not keeping your word. The contract states that after my service to you is done at the end of two hundred demon years, then I am to receive my payment and you are to let me go with no ill will.” He considered,

“This is true, but then, your service to me is not yet done now is it?” He glanced at the clock sitting on his desk. “And according to my clock, two hundred demon years won’t be up until the little hand gets on the six.” He was quiet for a minute as he thought, and I began to fill the first icy stirrings of panic.

“Which means that in human time, you have about three months, maybe, to do what I’m about to ask you to do.”

Stunned, I opened my mouth, closed it, and stared at him. My panic had become full blown now making my skin tight and my pulse race.

“But, I’m not on the human plane, why should their time matter to me.”

“Because there’s something I need you to get back for me, and the humans have it. If you get it back for me, then I’ll owe you one. I might even go so far as to try to find out why you were tossed in purgatory.” My eyes widened and involuntarily I lunged against him, something that I remembered as being Hope surging through my body and leaving me weak and shaking against his chest.

“Don’t lie.”

“I’m not lying. I’ll help you if you help me.”

My eyes closed, “You swear?”

“I swear.”

I thought hard, but really there was no competition. My existence was, intolerable. I wanted to belong somewhere, to one side, good or evil both sounded good at this point. I needed to know my place, who and what I was. I was going insane. Making a decision, I pushed myself off of Daeva’s body, and scooted back enough so that I had enough room.

Lowering my eyes, and tucking that part of me that was still me away, I rested my hands on the cold obsidian floor and leaned over until my head was resting in his stomach. Not a sign of submission so much as an act of truce. He would either break my neck while I was pressed against his skin, or I could rip out his belly with my mouth, which I knew from experience wasn’t so hard to pull off. His hands shifted through my hair, tightened, and desperation had me making a low sound in the back of my throat even as I opened my mouth against his white button down shirt and felt my teeth lengthening and sharpening in preparation. Then he raised me up to my knees using my hair and pressed his mouth against my cheekbone, biting down hard enough to draw blood. I winced and would have jerked from him, but he held me immobile. Thinking about it I had to thank him, if I had jerked away from his jaws, then his teeth would have ripped a lot more of my skin away than either one of us had intended. He pulled away and smiled. I felt the skin reform and raised my hand to my face, rubbing light fingers over the four small scars that dotted my cheekbone.

“My mark so that all supernaturals above ground will know you belong to me and are under my protection.” I scowled and struggled valiantly to keep my mouth shut. He laughed, and just like that, I had my job and soon my purpose back.

Humans smell funny. This is probably not the best thing to notice right away, but it’s what hit me first when I came topside. The smell and the noise, the god-awful noise. The overload blindsided me, and I had to crouch panting on the pavement before I got my equilibrium back. Even though I had been warned, it had been a good many years since I had been sent top side, and that was only a brief run while doing errands. Even the werewolves and vamps that I had worked with before didn’t really live on the human plane, but in the one hidden behind the very thin veil beside it. This was my first hands on experience with humans and their environment. It felt odd to say the least. Fortunately though, I had been briefed thoroughly on the humans and their ways. I knew their modern slang, and the way they separated the different types. I knew of their inventions, automobiles, and cell phones and such. I had been briefed on their religions and their accomplishments, their fears and desires, goals and dreams. They were very simple, these humans, if a bit arrogant. Of course who was I to complain? I’d lived with demons for the past few centuries. And my track record before then wasn’t too great either.