The Diablarist King

8 - An Unexpected Visit

     Let your owner rest, then. I shake my head, moving to lie back down when suddenly my arm jerks forward, shoving Eva. My brows furrow, looking down at my trembling hand. I didn't do that. Eva stirs only slightly, and I, involuntarily again, reach over to pull her on to her back. Her arms go up, and her hands tiredly drape over her head as her eyes flutter open. For a brief moment, those dazzling purple jewels stare up at me, and a shy smile spread on her full lips. "Alekso, you promised..."

     In an instant that smile is gone. She focuses, and a terrified expression marrs her once calm features. It is only then that I notice the hand touching her is no longer mine. Instead it is red, clawed, and dragging down the sheet covering Eva's body.

     Kaz, you bastard! I growl. Relinquish control! I never said you could do this.

     Oh calm down, you know I will not hurt her. I just wish to touch her myself.

     I fight to stop his hand, to get my body back, but he is too strong. The fool! Eva doesn't know about him yet. She wouldn't know that Kazaxon and I are one; that she is safe with him.

     You're scaring her, Kaz!

     Try as I might to stop it, the world around me grows dim. Darkness floods my vision as Kazaxon blocks me completely.

EDEVA

     The man leaning over me Isn't Alekso. In fact, he isn't man at all. No man has a frill of horns adorning the sides of his forehead like a dragon, or dark red skin, or eyes so black I cannot see my own reflection in them. They certainly never had sharp, serrated teeth which he bore to me in a slow grin. He is a demon. The longer I look at him I realize he is extremely similar to the big, beastly one I met last week. Those eyes I swear at the same ones.

     My Edeva.

     I gasp. Though the demon's lips did not move, I hear him in my head clear as day. It is a deep, rasping voice with a slight accent as though he is not speaking his native tongue, made more intimidating as I stare at the sharp fangs, knowing that though they are still, he is definitely the one saying those words.

     "Your Edeva?..." I whisper, managing to turn my head from the fearsome sight to try and find Alekso. He isn't here, and I worry if this is normal for the wife of a diablarist. Do demons simply appear in your dreams, possibly attracted to whatever power they gave out? Would I need to get used to this? It does not feel like a dream, though. My arms are so heavy I can't move them; I can barely move my head about too, and I have had this sensation at the edge of a dream before, but I could never feel. "Where is Alekso?"

     Look at me, Edeva. A clawed finger gently touches my chin and guides me back to face him. You have such lovely eyes. I could lose myself in them.

     As his thumb drags across my bottom lip, his other hand continues to pull the sheet away from me, exposing my breasts as they rise and fall with deep, labored breathing. His gaze does not travel. Shadowy eyes stare in to my own, and while he has no pupils or irises, I can still read his expression. He is overjoyed simply to look upon my face.

     "Why, you are the demon from the field, aren't you?"

     You remember me. When you did not tell Alekso, I worried you were so frightened to think of it that you made yourself forget.

     "How... How did you know I never told him?" I do not understand what is happening. I hear stories of succubi and incubi seducing men and women with their otherworldly beauty and then devouring their souls, but this demon is not beautiful. His appearance is far more subdued than when I saw him in the field, but no less ghastly. The frills on the sides of his head are just above his pointed ear, parting a little before the top of his head. The horns, though smaller, look sharp. They curve back and then slightly up. He could slam his head in to someone and slice ribbons from their skin. His nails are black, thick and pointed like claws. His teeth are still all fangs, and I believe that is why he speaks in my head rather than to the air. Behind him, his tail sways back and forth, and I see it has a sharp, shiny tip. A stinger.