Chapter Nine: In Which Our Demon Gets One-Upped
3181 Words
Barbatos..
The words she had flung at him had been carelessly cruel. After all, many Demons had multiple humans and weren’t considered ‘cheaters’. But even that defense showed the words had hit their mark, because even as he tried to justify how Stolas and others he knew served humanity, but took few lovers over the years, and generally only singularly, Barbatos could feel the guilt gnawing at him. He growled, and in the next instant was in front of the girl.
“Stay!” He commanded, and she squeaked and came to a halt. Right before her little fist flew out and tried to nail him in the nose. He caught it, but cursed even as she began yelling.
“No Demon gives me orders, you hear?!” She shouted. “Scratch that! No man either!” She swung her other fist, and it too failed as he caught her by the wrist. If she stayed, he was going to have to teach her how to better defend herself. “But especially not two-timing, cheating, unfaithful, ..” This time, her knee came up and actually did catch him unawares.
Barbatos cursed and doubled over, but used her still captured hands to pull her into his chest where he wrapped her tightly in his arms. She struggled, but he growled by her ear, and she hesitated long enough for him to utter his response.
“Then you shouldn’t have made a pact with me, girl. You’re mine.” He snarled, and sunk his teeth into her Mark, making her go limp.
Bethany..
Her head swam. And somewhere, she disappeared inside her own mind. Lost in a hallucination or a dream, she wasn’t sure which, everything else was just.. Gone.
Barbatos’ grip on her never slackened, not that she knew it at the time, and once her body hung limp in his arms, he scooped her off the ground and carried her back to the farmhouse. She woke upon a rather rough-hewn couch with lumpy pillows, and she got the impression that this was something handmade.
She wondered why she had been brought inside the house, but a familiar heavy weight on her legs had her reaching downward in distraction.
“Move Ginger, you’re so heavy.” Bethany complained, and the wolf-dog grumbled and pointedly yawned before hopping down off the couch. He promptly stretched on the floor next to her with another yawn, and Bethany grumbled her own complaint, forcing herself to sit up.
Muted voices captured her attention next. She winced as she recognized the two male rumbling tones, and tried to decide if she should try to pretend to still be asleep. Ultimately, she determined it was probably safer away from the two men. She could sleep in the orchard or barn or something, until she made up her mind about what to do next. Too late, she realized, as she crept towards the open front door, that the voices were coming from outside.
“..but why did you have to bring her here?” It was the human speaking, and Bethany tried to squelch the hurt the comment inspired. She blinked rapidly to clear away any traitorous tears. She didn’t need the two men anyway!
“What else was I supposed to do with her, Drew?” Barbatos sounded half-exasperated, like the conversation had been dragging on for a while. “Did you want me to just turn her over to the slavers? Or leave her to wander the woods? Or maybe make her sleep in the barn like an animal?” Now Barbatos’ voice had an irritated edge to it that Bethany recognized from their travels together.
“You could have just not Marked her altogether. Then you wouldn’t have had this problem.” Drew retorted harshly, and Betehany had to force herself not to physically recoil. A feeling which got worse when Barbatos sighed heavily.
“It was a rash decision, guided mostly by Virtue..” Barbatos replied softly, and Drew snorted.
“Oh great, the one thing you hate more than all the others, and yet you use it, without consulting me, to make a life-altering decision!” Drew argued. Barbatos stiffened, and Bethany found herself trying not to show her emotions as she spied on the two men.
“I ask again: what would you have me do? You continue to run this conversation in circles without providing any alternative solutions. So tell me Drew: What would you do? Barbatos spat. Drew ran a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, seemingly defeated.
“I don’t know, ‘Tos. Ok?” He flapped his arms as the one hand retreated from his head, letting them slap against his sides in a half-hearted shrug. “I just.. Don’t want her here, is that so wrong?” Bethany stiffened as Drew’s words hit her in the chest. The familiar pain of rejection speared straight through her heart, making her eyes fill with hot, painful tears that stung her nose and made it hard to see. She shoved it all away, using her anger as a buffer. Her trusty shield. And with that, she straightened, stomping towards the two men.
“Well I can help with that then.” She sneered, shoving past them, with Ginger on her heels. Unfortunately, her exit was ruined, when Ginger stopped to look up at Drew and whine, who reached down to pat his head gently. “Ginger, come.” She barked, and the wolf-dog whined again, but followed with his head down as she marched onward.
“Wait-Bethany-you said it was Bethany, right?” This was muttered aside to Barbatos “You can’t-” Drew shouted after her, but she ignored him, and whatever he tried to say after it, and kept pushing forward with Ginger on her heels. Once she’d gone a fair distance from the farmhouse, she found herself in the woods again, but there must have been a stream nearby because mist began creeping over everything. It happened so gradually, she hardly noticed, until it was hanging in the trees like great spiderwebs. Somehow, she must have gotten turned around, probably while gawking at the cloudy mist, because she found herself coming out of the forest and approaching the farmhouse again.
“f**k!” She yelled, turning back to shove her way into the trees.
But the mist swarmed her even faster this time, and once again, she was being spat back out of the woods approaching the farmhouse. And this time, she saw Barbatos and Drew walking the treeline with their hands shading their eyes, as if they were looking for her. She shoved off into the woods again.
This time the mist blanketed her even faster, and spat her out mere steps from the edge of the woods, where she could clearly see the farmhouse nestled in its little valley, and Drew and Barbatos getting closer as they scouted the treeline.
“Fucker!” Bethany kicked the nearest tree, which made her toes hurt, and Ginger barked a startled sound before side-eyeing her like she’d lost her mind. She stormed back into the woods, and after three or four more failed attempts that went much the same, she noticed that Ginger, who had been by her side before, had disappeared at some point.
“Ginger?!” Bethany panicked. She couldn’t just leave him behind when she left. Granted, she couldn’t seem to leave, but still.. "Ginger!!” She shouted.
“Calm down.” A masculine voice stated, and she spun to see the human man, Drew, rising from a kneeling position, where he had been petting Ginger, to give him one last rub on his massive red and white head between his ears, before turning to face Bethany. Ginger simply stayed seated, looking at her like he still thought she was slightly crazy. Bethany stuck out her tongue at him, and Drew watched the interaction with a raised brow, gave Bethany the same look, and then cleared his throat. “As I was trying to say-” He continued speaking, like nothing had happened, brushing his hands off “unless you know the way, it’s impossible to escape one of Barbatos’ little conjurings. Unless he lets you out. And I don’t think he plans to do that any time soon.” Bethany cursed in anger, and spun around, ready to stomp off again before the words fully sank in.
“What do you mean ‘conjurings’?” Bethany demanded, turning back to face the man, who gestured around his head.
“This whole place. It’s not ‘real’ real. Or maybe, it’s not our real? I don’t think I understand what Barbatos meant-”
“What I said, you dreadful listener, was it’s an alternate timeline. I just pulled a small part of its possibility away and attached it to yours. It’s one of countless possible futures your Earth could have had, if humans had been destroyed by the various problems plaguing humanity.” Barbatos commented, cutting off Drew and startling Bethany.
“Holy crap.” She muttered, both at his sudden appearance, and at his words, taking a look around them. “This is..”
“Terrifying, right?” Drew shot her a grin, and there was a small sense of bonding that quickly faded, as she remembered she was supposed to be angry at them both for their words.
“Let me out.” She insisted to Barbatos.
“I can’t do that.” He growled.
“Yes you can!” She stomped her foot. “I want to leave. You’ve both made it clear you don’t want me here.” Though part of her hoped they would refuse to let her go, another part of her wanted to fight for her freedom. Why was she like this?
“You bear my Mark. You are mine.” Barbatos snarled, and Drew scowled. As if sensing Drew’s expression, Barbatos raised a hand. “Drew’s just going to have to get used to it. I will protect what is mine. Even if my instincts are a little rusty. If you refuse to come back to the house, you can sleep in the barn for all I care.” Barbatos pointed, and it was Bethany’s turn to scowl.
“Fine!” She spat.
“Fine!” Barbatos growled back, brows lowered as fur popped out along his back and began to bristle. She stomped off in the direction of the barn, having to once again call for Ginger, the double-crosser. Bethany pushed down the part of her that hoped the men would follow after her and beg her to come back to the house.
They didn’t, and she shoved the little broken pieces of her heart under one of the many, many closed doors in her mind.
Barbatos..
“Will you at least take her some dinner?” Drew sighed, as he bustled around the kitchen, cleaning up after their meal. Barbatos was pouting, though the Demon would never admit it, Drew would phrase it that way, Barbatos was sure.
“I called for her, she refused to come. She can forage in the forest for all I care.” Barbatos felt the hair on his neck bristling again.
“She’s human, she needs to eat.” Drew remarked.
“Doesn’t act like it.” Barbatos muttered, and Drew threw a towel at him that hit him in the back of the head, which he ignored. “Anyway, I thought you were jealous?” This time, a utensil whizzed by his ear that barely missed. Barbatos glanced at it briefly.
“You bring a strange woman home to your lover and you don’t expect me to be upset? You bet your Hellfire-scorched-ass I was jealous! But, I don’t know..” The way Drew fell silent, even though Barbatos wasn’t facing him, he could tell he was probably chewing that delicious lower lip. “I still feel.. Guilty.. I guess? Leaving her like that? After she overheard..” Ah, so that’s what this was about.. Barbatos thought.
“She already knew I didn’t want her..” Barbatos grumbled. This time the utensil didn’t miss, and Barbatos rubbed the back of his head. He was actually quite proud of Drew for his accuracy.
“That just makes it worse!” Drew seethed.
“Well I was thinking of you at the time!” Barbatos barked, only to have the surprise of Drew placing a smacking kiss to his cheek.
“Ok, well, that’s cute. But what’s with you today? It seems like your reaction time’s off. Everything’s taking you by surprise. Not that I think you use your Virtue all the time, because I know it gives you a headache, but Bethany walking out during our conversation, me sneaking up on you when you first came home, the spoon just now..” Drew let the list drop, but Barbatos sensed Drew continuing it in his head, and winced. He turned away as Drew came around to sit beside him.
“Yeah well.. Maybe I felt like I deserved it.” He offered, knowing that Drew would assume he meant the towel and spoon, but the question still churned away in his own gut too.
Why was it that the human girl seemed to blot out everything else?
Bethany..
She paced off the dimensions of the barn.
Although there was space for livestock, very few stalls looked like they’d ever had occupants, and the few who did seemed more for other things like milk or wool, than eating, which baffled Bethany. Why have all this space, and not keep animals to eat?
The only conclusion that Bethany could come to was that Barbatos liked to catch his meat, rather than raise it.
Ginger had had a good sniff around, and was now lying in some hay or straw; Bethany wasn’t sure what the difference was, with his head on his paws, his eyes trained on her as she paced.
“I mean, if they don’t want me here, they could let me leave, right? Why keep me? She asked Ginger angrily, throwing her hands in the air. She was purposefully ignoring the fact that she followed Barbatos here, and that she put herself in this position. Because if she had to face the fact that she was being rejected again, she just might start crying, and that might never end.
Bethany shuddered.
She hated herself when she sank into depression.
“Nobody wants to see that.” She barked at Ginger, pointing a finger at him. His ears lifted briefly before drooping again down the sides of his head, where they remained at half-mast, not really folded over, but still as if they'd slid down the sides of his head. Bethany sighed.
“It’s not your fault Ginger.” She told the dog, like he ever had any doubt that his pack-mate was just this side of unstable and blaming the world for her problems, so she could ignore the fact that she blamed herself whether she deserved it or not. Bethany sat down beside the creature and scrubbed at his shoulders and chest. “Though don’t think I hadn’t noticed you consorting with the enemy earlier, you traitor.” She scolded lightly.
“What enemy?” The human male's voice cut in, making her jump and scramble to her feet, an instinct that might prove hard to quell. As he approached her, she could see he held a couple of bowls, and there was a delicious smell coming from at least one of them.
“Venison stew, cornbread.” The man held up each bowl to indicate which was which individually. “I’m sorry there’s not more, but we did call for you..” Bethany crossed her arms, trying to ignore her watering mouth.
“I don’t need your charity,” Bethany sniffed.
“Ok.” Drew set the bowls on the barn floor. “Maybe you don’t, but surely your dog is hungry.” He pulled a wrapped bundle from under his arm and set it down too. Bethany hadn’t even seen him carrying it. She was too distracted by the stew.
As Drew unwrapped the bundle, she noticed it was a bunch of chopped up and cooked meat in a cloth napkin. Ginger whined, nose lifted to the air.
“Come on fella. Have something to eat. You look half-starved.” Drew murmured, and Ginger, the backstabber, didn’t even wait for her word, but raced straight for the meat, leaving her standing there, hand outstretched, a protest dying on her lips.
“Traitor.” Bethany grumbled. Meanwhile, the man had straightened and turned to leave.
“Better get yours before he does.” Drew called over his shoulder as he left, and Bethany wanted to argue, but one look at her dog scarfing down his meal made her wonder if she was being ridiculous.
“They probably poisoned it.” She complained bitterly, marching over to pick up the two bowls before Ginger could get around to emptying them too. He barely even glanced her way, too absorbed in his own meal to care. “Seriously Ginger,” She gave the food a cautious sniff “You should be more careful. Who knows what people will do with your food.” She turned over the bread suspiciously, eyeing both sides, looking for tampering.
“They could spit in it, or put other worse body fluids in it..” Bethany swirled the stew. “Or put stuff in it to make you sick, or to make you fall asleep, or die..” Her stomach rumbled loudly, and she eyed the food regretfully.
“I should really throw this out.” She muttered, bringing the stew closer to her face for a better sniff. Her stomach rumbled again, and she knew she had gone hungry enough times not to waste good food. Even to make some kind of a protest.
“Oh well, here’s to not dying.” She toasted Ginger with the bowl, then greedily shoved cornbread in her mouth and washed it down with stew. She licked every drop and crumb possible from the bowls, and then collapsed with Ginger into some of the straw or hay in a stall and fell into a food coma worthy of a much bigger meal.
She didn’t see Barbatos come by late in the night to collect her bowls, nor did she wake up when he threw a thick quilt over her and Ginger, who had tucked himself in his favorite spot, with his nose buried in her armpit. Of course, he only slept there when he felt safe, so when she woke up with her arm half-numb, wrapped around his soldiers and the heaviness of the quilt keeping them both warm, she was a little surprised at first. But the comfort of the situation had sleep quickly pulling her back under, so she was out again before she could think too hard about what it meant.
- Writer
