The Demon in the Pastry Shop

12: The Fancy of Failure

 "I told you she was rare," Lovell stalked around Silus' stilted form. His tail swished.

Silus did his best to compose himself and found that sitting or leaning against something kept him from killing Lovell just a little more. On the outskirts of the Realm where Kit lived, there were a system of caves and Silus brought Remis and Lovell there to wait for her inevitable escape attempt.

"I'll make this clear," Silus declared, keeping his eyes hooded from his boss and from Remis who stood around waiting for orders. He stood up from the boulder he sat on and asserted, "this task comes directly to me from the Collector. I will be the one to bring her in. If either of you try to take this assignment away from me -I will kill you."

Remis pursed his lips and nodded solemnly. He went back to inspecting his pins.

"The only reason the Collector gave you the lead on this over me is because you know the thing," Lovell rolled his iridescent eyes.

"I don't care what you think," Silus turned toward him, clenching his jaw, "all I'm saying is if you try to take over this operation, I will terminate you. You will not get in the way."

"Fine. I'll stay hands off," Lovell laughed. Like this was a game to him. It probably was. The more riled up Silus got, the more it fueled him. He was a Terrorling, after all. "But I'll be watching you, Silus. I've never seen you act like this before. I don't trust it."

"You don't have to. Just don't get in my way."

Lovell snarled at him, flashing his sharp teeth only for a moment. Silus' snakes hissed viciously. It took everything in him to calm down. Shaking his head, he stomped off to clear his head.

Over his shoulder, he called, "follow me and I'll shoot you."

When he found a narrow path that lead out onto a cliff, he followed it. It was getting late now. He felt awful. He was familiar with feeling awful or conflicted about his job, but this was different. Silus felt sick about it. His snakes shuddered with illness.

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out all the notes Kit wrote to him. Foolishly, he wanted to keep them all and he even brought them on his person. A warm breeze rustled their edges under his thumb but it didn't effect Silus at all. He felt like he was made of stone again.

The way her face changed when she saw him earlier stuck in him like a knife. What was he doing? Hunting a poor spirit who made pastries to look like his snakes. Though the moral torture was constantly repeating itself in his head, the part that pressed harder on his headache was making sure that Lovell and Remis never found out that he was infatuated with their target.

Silus flipped through her words. His snakes leaned over to look at them as though they could read. He thought they just wanted to look at the things Kit had touched.

If I'm being honest, this sneaking around is pretty fun.

I'm afraid of guns, not demons.

You always look so fetching that I forget why you have to come to the back in the first place.

They were simple tokens of conversation, but they stirred something up inside him. So much about Kit he couldn't take with him when they parted ways. In a morbid sort of way, Silus understood why the Collector wanted to collect Kit. There was a way Silus kind of wanted to collect her too. Though, Silus, of course, didn't want to hurt her.

No. Absolutely not. He wasn't lying when he told her so. It was the reason he was giving her so much time to get away. Soon, Lovell and Remis would become suspicious of their position and his tactics. He couldn't stall for her much longer and he needed his heart back. Kit was still practically a stranger. Silus wasn't prepared to sacrifice his first heart for her sake. He knew he would come after her. Viciously. Brutally. He wasn't going to hold back.

He would feel sick about it later. Probably worse than he had ever felt before, but Silus was a demon. An Awakened Idol parted from his true center. He would do anything to get it back. That included kidnapping Kit and handing her over to the Collector for his personal treasury.

Silus really hoped he wouldn't find her.

Remis' voice shot out of the tunnel in the rockface, "hey, big demon in charge -you better get back here before Lovell kills your Bell Spirit."