Slay My Soul

Chapter 21 Eve

Summoning a Demon turns out to be a lot more than a quick five-minute gig. It takes Carino and his circle three days to be ready to call them forth. He could summon them one by one but figures it would be better to summon the seven princes at the same time and talk to them together, rather than repeat ourselves.

Carino walks to each circle and touches the circles as he passes, calling forth the Demon brothers.

“Astaroth, Xaphan, Naberius, Azreal, Damascus, Abaddon, Leviathan.” He touches the last circle and steps back. The circles flare to life, glowing rings of fire. A hole caves in at the center of each circle and clawed hands scramble for the sides. As soon as the behemoth Demons are standing topside the holes refill. They are certainly not happy to be here. Pacing and snarling in their enclosures. The brothers are large muscular beasts, sporting reddish skin, large black horns, sharp claws, and teeth. They certainly look capable of ruling a legendary hell like their namesake.

“You are wasting our time, we can not fight for you, we are already bound!” One growls, clenching and unclenching his claws.

“We did not summon you for that,” Carino says smoothly.

“State your offer!” Another snaps at him.

“I’m not sure if you know the details of your brother’s contract-”

“We don’t!” One of the others snarls. “Just that he is bound and has included the Legion in the deal.”

“Let me explain what it is I believe you are fighting for-” But Carino is interrupted again.

“We don’t care. Our brother obviously deemed it important and worthwhile to agree.”

“I think you will care once you know-”

“It makes no difference, we are bound, it can’t be stopped,” one of the brothers says scowling.

“Shut up!” I snap, drawing their attention. “We need to explain so you understand what we are offering.” They look at me with darkened eyes, one even licks his lips. That’s right, they haven’t had a woman in a very long time. Garret growls from the sidelines, not liking these men eyeing me like a lollipop they want to lick. Their intense gazes mentally undress me, and I sidestep to Garret feeling slightly unnerved, breathing a sigh of relief as my dragon wraps a possessive arm around me.

“Mixed mating has begun again, soul bonds being formed between races. We think Asmodeus has exchanged your freedom from your realm to find potential mates in exchange for destroying the vampire king’s enemy, which unfortunately is us,” Carino says. “We summoned you here because a prophecy from the Fates has come to light and we know Eve here, is a mate to one of you Demons, we just don’t know which one of you it is.”

“There are thousands of us! How are we to know which of us belongs to you?” One of the brothers asks, looking at me with renewed interest.

“That is what we wish to negotiate with you. Eve will enter each circle, and you will check if you are her mate, if you are not let her exit the circle unharmed. If it is none of you, then that means she is mated to Asmodeus. We are sure it must be one who is of royal rank, one who is in the line to succeed the King, which is why we have summoned you seven only. Do you agree to the terms?” The Demons nod eagerly in agreement.

I step forward to the circle furthest away from the others. The Demon is pacing inside, hope showing clearly on his face. He extends a hand to me and I step through the circle placing my hand in his. He pulls me close and takes a big sniff of my hair.