Chasing Demons

CHAPTER 3

Can demons be bastards?

"I refuse to believe you did not have anything to do with this," the unmistakable fury lingered in the air between us. I was honestly not sure what to reply without making the tension worse, no it was not my fault? The demon started it by being a bastard and a sore loser in a card game. Could demons even be bastards? Like did they have parents or were they born fully created as pure pains in existence?  I take your silence to be a confession," of course you do. "No, that is not at all how that works do I have to go over how the human court system works again?" as expected I got a snappy reply; "I do not need to know more about your humans' stupid idea of a law system, I am still not over how you rely on everyone, to be honest, and not to use divination to figure out the guilty party." I ignored the following tangent in favor of trying to pinpoint our pursuers instead the sound of heavy boots echoed in the surrounding cave.

I grabbed tighter around my gun feeling a bit nervous, heavy boots like that meant potential military, and those guys were trained and not as easy to distract as a stray bear. We had never been to this location before if we were lucky neither had the people following us, but that was a small win. "Are you expecting a fight?" eyes looking at my hand. "I hope not I do not think we will win, sounds like military" I barely uttered the words before having to drag my companion with me behind a rock, as hungry flashes of light came searching for us. I closed my eyes this was so bad, straight-up awful. All I had was a gun, a shitty knife that Ilynia insisted was a dagger, and the clothes I was standing in, which sadly did not include any armor, so in a gunfight, I would be very dead. Fuck that demon whatever his name was. He did not have to be this much of a sore loser. It was a fucking card game, not a robbery or murder or whatever that could at least warrant pitting the military against them.

"I am not about to lose to a group of overly dressed humans" I narrowed my eyes as Ilynia readied her bow next to me. "That bow is never going to be much help; they will have shot us before you even get to use it," it was at that moment I remembered my local ally here had never seen proper military before, and their best knowledge about their equipment came from me just my luck. I curled together trying to hide better as the first squad member showed up the light coming from his helmet lighting up the nearby cave. I held my breath as more showed up and began searching. White noise filled my ears as I tried to keep my composure and not make a sound. It was way it took me a bit to notice the distinct sound of Ilynia's voice whispering; "Gentle shadow heed my call, come forth and cloak us for those who wish us harm." I had half a mind to tell her now was not the time for prayer, but I dared not say anything in case it would give us away.

"Everything clear the location is secured" one of the men reported, still they took their sweet time moving on leaving me dizzy and out of breath when they finally left. "And this is why we are better you humans might have your tools, but you stand no chance against magic," came the smug comment I huffed; "You were very lucky we were hidden behind a rock so their heat sensor did not pick up on us." "And now since you owe me your life once again what about you explain to me what you have done to anger your fellow humans?" the question did not surprise me, but I knew no matter what I said she would not be happy with the answer, then again not replying would not be good either, "Well you see that is a funny story", "Funny even?" the cut in from the elf was immediate.  If you would just let me talk then maybe you would understand and besides it is just a phrase and mostly a sarcastic one at that" and again; "Right you humans with your nonsensical phrases how do you ever communicate anything again?" I took a deep breath before trying again; "Well, evidently we do not since a certain elf keeps interrupting me, can you just let me explain things now?" I took the following quite as a yes.