Demon's Reign (Updating Every Sat & Sun)

three

"You two know each other?" Ashleigh asks.

"She's from the bayou. We collaborated on my first mission here in New Orleans. Didn't go well, did it, Katya? And now she calls on me for help whenever she needs to get out of sticky situations with Demons."

"You didn't exactly help me that last time," Katya spits.

"What are you doing here, Katya?"

"Money."

"Cemetary tours and exorcisms don't pay well enough anymore?"

Katya looks down at the ground, orange dyed curls covering her face from view. Even in ACUs, she had her hair out and her top open. She looks up and her black violet eyes meet Sauda's.

"I've got people to take care of, you know that, and tourist money isn't cutting it."

"We don't really have too many jobs for a medium, but the more Castors, the better."

"No. It's different now Sauda... I specialize in Death,"

"You use magick now Katya!? No." Sauda throws up her hands and walks away. "No Demon-Castors, Ashleigh. Or have you forgotten Yemen?"

"I'm not a Demon-Castor!" Katya yells. "I cast with runes, but I don't use blood or sex. I didn't sell my soul... but I can control ghosts and corpse's but they're not alive—just animated for a while. I can... become incorporeal and phase between solid things. But I didn't sell my soul."

"Earth, fire, and water. They're all elements of life. Katya's element is just death," Ashleigh explains.

"Dark Castors, and Light Castors," Malik explains, "but that doesn't make them bad... and Ashleigh is our little air bender. The Avatar—".

Ashleigh hits him in the arm as he laughs.

Sauda can feel the headache building between her eyes. She rubs the bridge of her nose. Closing her eyes as she tries to massage the pain away and think.

"Okay," Sauda says," I'm going to go pledge the Demons in, and then take a shower. We'll go back over this at PT tomorrow."

She walks to where Jordan and Dix wait with six people. Sauda stands in front of them at a table that has a knife, a bowl, and pre-written blood contracts on tan parchment paper.

"Everyone knows how this goes?" Sauda asks. "Your pledging fealty like you would do to your Demon ruler in whatever region of hell you're from."

They all nod their heads, not getting the hang of "yes sir" yet.

"All right. Line up."

Sauda watches as each Demon joins a line in front of her, waiting to share some power with her as their new leader. When they had their first meeting about Demon recruits, they had no clue how to keep any Demons in check if they were to get out of control. It wasn't until the very first recruit heard rumors of what they were doing and came to them begging to do anything, including signing away their loyalty, that they got that idea. Now every new Demon who came to them had to pledge and sign a blood contract. Blood contracts and pledges were a serious thing and turned a lot of Demon's away. Sauda needed more than just a promise to be a good petty demon.

Sauda picks up the knife, slicing her forearm in a neat line. She presses her thumb in the blood that wells up, leaves a print on the contract, and then holds her arm and the knife out to the Demon first in line.

The green-skinned woman smiles, yellow reptile eyes blinking. Up close, Sauda can see that her skin is covered with iridescent clear scales that show bruises underneath.