Chapter Eight: Jealousy’s Concern
2618 Words
Drew..
The peace and quiet of the farm shattered around Drew as unexpectedly as glass breaking. A dog’s barking had his head snapping up from his task harvesting corn. The chickens were next, going from a steady chuckling hum in the background to a squawking storm that he tried to calm before giving up and chasing down the noise.
He wasn’t too proud to admit the fear creeping up his spine, causing rank fear-sweat to slick his bare chest and armpits.
There weren’t supposed to be any dogs here. Of course, the occasional animal slipped through, very rarely, but Barbatos was so careful. With his Virtue, he’d been able to foresee nearly every weakness in their little hideaway and fix it before it became an issue.
The fact that a dog got through..
Well it wasn't like a squirrel. It wasn’t like the pollinators Barbatos purposefully cultivated or let through.
It was a damn dog.
It was almost human.
And it could always be a Hellhound….
Then the sound of laughter rang out, and Drew grabbed his rifle and ran, glad Barbatos had insisted on teaching him how to shoot, and then pressured him to become a better marksman. Because Barbatos had been warning him bad things were happening to other Demons’ Marked, and Drew was going to be damned sure that never happened to him.
The Mark on his chest burned as he drew closer to the sound of the laughter, and forced himself to a stop.
There were two people here.
Or rather, a dog, a human and a Demon.
And the human was a young woman.
A pretty young woman.
And the Demon..
The Demon was his..
“Barbatos?” He asked shakily. He let the muzzle of his rifle touch the ground as Barbatos’ shoulder’s stiffened. It couldn’t be..
But the young woman’s torn shirt showed off a shoulder marred by a design that, even though Drew couldn’t see in its entirety, he knew he would recognize anywhere, because how long had he admired that self-same pattern in the mirror on his chest?
“Barbatos?” Drew asked again, but weakly this time. The girl had stopped laughing and was holding the silently observing dog against her side as she sat on the ground.
“Definite wifey energy..” She whispered to the animal, and Barbatos growled at her, making the dog’s lips curl back to reveal a threatening amount of sharp teeth bared in a snarl.
“What have you done?” Demanded Drew, and when Barbatos turned to him with a pleading expression, Drew felt his heart break before a word even escaped Barbatos’ mouth.
“There were slavers and-” Barbatos protested, and Drew knew then that he simply didn’t want to hear any more. He threw up his hands and turned on his heel, silencing Barbatos as he stalked stiffly back towards the farmhouse. He knew of Barbatos’ weakness towards rescuing slaves. Intervening on their behalf like he was the only being in creation who could champion their cause. Only he’d never brought one back.
And he’d certainly never marked one.
Drew was fuming.
Worse, he was hurt, but he'd never admit it to Barbatos, so he took all that hurt and fed it to his anger.
What did it mean that Barbatos had brought a young, pretty woman back with him?
Was he tired of Drew already?
Drew thought he had a few more good years, at least before his Demon went searching for ‘fresh meat’. Drew had to resist the impulse to throw his rifle onto the table, and instead, carefully made sure there were no rounds in the chamber and the safety was on before storing it away. Barbatos taught him to respect his weapons, at minimum.
Barbatos! Ha!
Fickle Demon!
"I can hear you, you know." Barbatos leaned against the doorframe of the entry to the farmhouse, watching Drew fume and sputter as he banged around inside. Drew quickly shut Barbatos out of his mind, and Barbatos flinched.
“It’s no more than you deserve.” Drew gritted his teeth and slammed the basket of corn on the table in the dining area, and then dumped it into the larger waiting container there. He needed to shuck these and freeze them. It would be a good task to take out his anger on.
Ignoring Barbatos, he began ripping corn husks off and throwing them in the empty basket. He’d take them to the compost pile later.
“Drew-” Barbatos tried softly, but Drew just grumbled under his breath and ripped cornhusks harder. “Drew-” Barbatos’ hands stilled his own, and Drew stared at them angrily. He thought about biting Barbatos briefly, but sighed instead.
“What, Barbatos? Ready for me to move out, are we? Upgrading to the latest model? I see she comes with her own pet.” Drew spat viciously. Barbatos merely stared at him for a second or two, and then burst out laughing, which only made Drew angrier. He wrenched his hands free and took what few ears of corn he had managed to shuck to the sink to scrub the silks from them. Barbatos followed.
“Now Drew,” Barbatos purred, trapping him against the counter. “You know I only have eyes for you. Crave you. Desire you.” He ground his erection against Drew’s ass, sliding his hands down Drew’s arms to gently relieve him of the corn he was brutally scrubbing. Then one of Barbatos’ slick, wet hands slid over Drew’s naked abdomen, towards his waistline. It headed straight for the button and zipper of Drew’s denims to free his own suddenly awakening erection while Barbatos’ lips and teeth slipped along Drew’s neck.
Drew made a soft noise, whether it was a protest or agreement, he couldn’t tell, but Barbatos had a hand over his mark, massaging it as he stroked Drew, his fingers occasionally slipping back to pinch a n****e or scrape a sharp nail around an areola. Drew’s hips bucked into his lover’s calloused hand with a hiss, then Barbatos’ teeth sunk into Drew’s shoulder and Drew stiffened. That was where the young lady, the girl, had her Mark.
Drew pushed away from the sink, unbalancing Barbatos, and turned swiftly, shoving himself back into his pants so he could button and zip up.
“You say I’m the only one you want?” Drew sighed. “But how long can that last?” He gestured at his own shoulder and the fresh bite-mark there before storming past a stricken-looking Barbatos, then out into the warm sun. He barely even noticed the young woman or her dog sitting on the porch as he passed them.
Bethany..
Bethany watched the man, Drew, storm past them and out into the farmland. She was relatively certain he was human, based on the Mark, the farmer’s tan, plus the bit of slight sunburn, and the just general human imperfections of ‘Drew’, overall. But then again, she’d been pretty sure Barbatos was just too plain and messy to be a Demon, too.
“What do you think, Ginger?” She nodded in Drew’s direction, tossing a stray pebble out into the grass, missing the stone path by about a foot as she did so. “Human, or non-human?” Bethany chucked another rock with a scowl. He was tall, he had that for him. Taller than Barbatos even, which was quite a shocker to her, she thought all Demons, and whatever other ‘Beings’ there were, had height on their side, but apparently not. Other than that, Drew had dirty blond hair, brown eyes, and had the kind of body that looked like he’d built up some strength through hard work and manual labor. At least what she saw of it. And he’d shown quite a bit of it off.
But it wasn’t flawlessly beautiful, like the Demons usually were. Like, he was obviously strong, yeah, but he also had some meat on him, softening the muscle-tone.. Bethany scowled harder. “Can’t be another Demon.” She muttered.
“Oh Drew is most definitely human.” Barbatos spoke from behind her, making her straighten abruptly with a quiet squeak that Ginger didn’t appreciate. The dog huffed and jumped to all fours in alarm, only to discover his packmate was ok. Having decided she was in no danger, he trotted off, ceding his guard-duty to Barbatos with a beady-eyed glare, which was returned by the Demon, to go on the prowl, exploring his new environment.
“Fine! Go pee on something then!” Bethany yelled after the dog, and Barbatos snorted. Barbatos thought that was probably exactly what the animal intended to do, a low-key marking of his territory to irritate him in the only way the beast knew how. By staking a claim to something that belonged to Barbatos himself.
Things fell silent between Bethany and Barbatos. It was an uncomfortable silence she refused to fill with her usual crass chatter. Instead, she waited for Barbatos to speak, who seemed relatively content to be silent.
Bethany cleared her throat and sat back, refusing to be out-waited. She leaned against a porch-rail post and crossed her arms. Time ticked by in impossibly slow increments that grew longer and more heavy by the second. Bethany could feel her eye begin to twitch. The wait became interminable.
“Alright, fine! I can’t stand it any more! What the f**k man! Just say something!” Bethany yelled, making Barbatos twitch. He’d settled, leaning on the railing across from her, looking out at the farm, and now his head turned to her, eyes slightly widened.
“It’s not often a human surprises me..” Barbatos grumbled, and Bethany wasn’t sure if it was meant to sound like a threat, but it certainly came across as one. She pointed in the direction Drew had gone, deciding a bit of redirection might be in order to take the heat off her.
“Something makes me think he isn’t used to surprises either.” She answered neutrally. Barbatos grimaced, then looked away, releasing her from his glare.
“No.” He sighed. “He’s really not.” Barbatos lapsed into silence again. Bethany growled under her breath in frustration. She stood in a swift jerk and brushed off the seat of her pants.
“Alright. Well, since you’re such a marvelous conversationalist..” She dead-panned. “I think I need to go somewhere quieter.” For a brief moment, Barbatos looked baffled, but the expression was a mere flicker, there and gone, and Bethany barely caught it before she was forcing herself to stomp away from the porch. Leaping the single step down in an unnecessary bound, she stiffened her back and strode away. He didn’t even call after her, the giant i***t, she thought. Not that she’d ever admit to herself that it hurt her feelings that he didn’t.
She strode past a garden full of a wonderful variety of vegetables and fruits, the sight of which once again made her mouth water, even if all the plants weren’t bearing ripe produce at the time. She considered skirting the small cornfield, but her anger made her plunge straight into it, shoving aside thick stalks if they got in her way, and making a huge racket cursing and complaining as the cornstalks rattled their leaves around her. And this was how she once again ran into Drew, and he looked even less pleased to see her the second time around.
Drew..
The woman literally bounced off his chest as he turned, making him grab her by the shoulders to steady her before she could fall, and thrust her back away from himself in disgust.
“Watch where you’re going!” He spat waspishly. She looked up at him angrily, but there was more. A flash of, he thought, hurt, that came and went so quickly it was nearly impossible to see. She crossed her arms over her chest and c****d a hip, glaring.
“I tripped over the god-damned roots of these blasted cornstalks, ok? Excuse me if I wasn’t looking at the sky, you freaking giant, when it happened.” She snapped back. Drew felt his eyebrow raise. He had never been considered that tall by any stretch of the imagination.
“What were you even doing here?” He asked, and Bethany looked away.
“I just..” She hesitated, and this time, Drew was certain he saw something besides the anger she displayed flicker across her features. “Barbatos made me mad, ok? And I wanted to.. I don’t know.. Explain?” She let out a breath, running a hand through her wild brown hair.
“Explain what?” Drew questioned blankly. The woman fidgeted.
“The um.. I mean.. I guess..” She seemed to be having trouble deciding what she was going to tell Drew, and he was almost certain it was going to be a lie anyway. He felt his patience run thin.
“Enough. I don’t care.” He dismissed the dirty creature with her big brown eyes, wild hair, torn clothing and pouty lower lip. A frustrated scream next to him made him turn back to see her stamp her foot with balled fists like a child.
“You and that Demon deserve each other!” She hissed venomously. “You’re just alike!” And with that, she shoved her way through the rows of corn away from him, and Drew was left angry and dissatisfied with the confrontation. He yanked ears of corn from the stalks while cursing about belligerent Demons and hot-headed human women.
Bethany..
Her chest ached, deep inside.
If this was how it was going to be with the Demon, maybe she would be better off by herself, with just Ginger for company.
Why did she keep torturing herself like this? If nobody wanted her, why couldn’t she just admit it and move on? Why did she have to try so hard? The tears sprang unbidden to her eyes, hot and burning in their intensity, and she allowed herself only a single, harsh sob before she stifled any other sounds. She’d made her way into some fruit trees now, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be heard. Still, her vision swam and she had to crouch beneath a tree, because she couldn’t see through her tears. The parade of people who had walked out of her life marched through her head and she hugged her ribs as her nose burned and the tears fell on the tree roots. She wondered bitterly if the salt was bad for the tree, and decided she didn’t care.
“Bethany..” Her name, spoken in a soft rumble that was almost a purr, had her bolting upright and wiping at her face swiftly so she could see. No one could see her this way. No one was allowed to know how much she hurt. She turned a quick circle and was horrified to see the Demon materialize out of the shadows.
“Bethany.” He said again, almost gently. “Did you try to summon me? There was this feeling, a tug, like you had called or were in need..”
“No! Go away!” Bethany spat, turning away from him and pacing off. “Who needs a two-timing Demon on their side anyway? Ya cheater!” Bethany flung over her shoulder as she tried to run through the orchard. It was easiest for her, shove her pain out in little angry bites, make someone else feel it instead.
She hardly made it half a dozen steps before Barbatos was in front of her.
- Writer
