Summoned

Chapter 1

It was the warmth of the fire that drew me.

Having been ripped through the vail of shadow into the realm of man I was not in the best of moods. A summons implies that someone wants you, but not only had I been summoned, I had been translocated to a forest of all places.

Pale moonlight streamed through the trees casting deep inky shadows, which I cloaked myself with. I was used to hellfire, the pure warmth of Perdition, the cold night air didn't suit me. It reminded me too much of the cold fire that burned in the higher plains of existence where the Malakhim roamed in the towers of ice that they guarded.

But to be summoned, without a circle to bind me – to be translocated to a remote place without so much as a by your leave? Someone would pay for such insolence. Someone would pay for not observing the forms. Because leaving me unbound left me with the freedom to wreck, to ruin and to have fun. It's simple: holding circle, summon, bind, command, release.

I felt like raging into the night, but I was cold, wrapped in nothing more than cool shadows cast by moonlight so perhaps it was not surprising that the fire drew me. Although, I am no moth to blindly charge in and revel in flame. Caution is required, even if very little in the world of men can harm me. You just never know what the little so-and-so's have been up to since I was last here, what they may have learned or found out about the ethereal. So yes, caution always.

I kept the cold shadows around me, blending into the night as I approached the clearing where the fire was burning. It wasn't the largest of clearings, just small enough for a modest campfire and two logs, each facing the other across the fire. A man sat on one of the logs, he was dressed warmly, and I envied him that. Jeans, boots a padded winter jacket. Oh yes, I envied him for a moment until I spied the pile of clothing next to the empty log opposite him.

"I know you're there, you can come into the light," he said roughly.

Ahh, my summoner.

I studied him for a moment, he sat in a resigned way, his gloved hands on his knees as he sat. Firelight glinted off his face, which was shadowed by a short dark beard interspersed with white hairs giving him an almost regal look. He was nothing like the sort of person who had summoned me before, but then – I guess, times change.

"I said you can come into the light," it was said more forcefully and with annoyance. Who did he think he was? There wasn't even a simple binding circle to hold me, or even a protection one to stop me from ripping him limb from limb. Which of course was an option, I am a demon after all.

I hesitated just for a moment, and then let the shadow fall away from me as I entered the circle of light and warmth. I was of course naked. Hell has no need for clothes or modesty, and to be honest I have nothing to be ashamed of. Brag about certainly, but that goes without saying. My body is lean and a little toned. Oh please, even demons – especially demons, get vain about how we look. I'm no exception to that. I have a nice body, one that I spent time crafting into what I consider perfection. Age is something I play with when I'm summoned. Sometimes it works to be an old man, other times it works to be a child. I chose middle-aged as shadow slipped away from me, although perhaps a more demonic form would have been more appropriate given my audience.

"You may dress," the man indicated the pile of clothes next to the other log, "and then sit."

"How kind," I whispered and then shot across the clearing and grabbed him by the throat forcing him to his feet. "Foolish, no protection, no binding. We will have fun..."

He said a word, a single long word and that stopped me cold.

My name.

Not the name I am known by, but my true name. Something no one, not even the Masters in Hell knew.