Familiar Beginnings

by Alice Winters

Etienne strokes Enzo’s neck. “Poor baby.”

  “And you must like me if he let me ride his back. There’s no way he would’ve trusted me if you didn’t,” I remind him.

  Etienne folds his arms over his chest. “Maybe… maybe not. I’m glad you found your bird, though.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Is he alright?”

  “He’s hurt, but he’ll be okay. Demons are very resilient.”

  “Good. Let’s get you guys back. Leo was losing his mind that you ran off while wounded like that,” Etienne says.

  “Badrick, could you carry Iya home?” I ask.

  “But… his genitals.”

  “Um… I’ll have someone disinfect your back when we get home?” I helpfully suggest.

  “I suppose,” he says with a huff. I would huff too if I had to carry a naked Iya anywhere.

  Iya puts me down. Etienne helps me onto his horse’s back as I hold onto Menace and then Iya gets onto Badrick’s and together, we head back toward home.

  Chapter Nine

  The bedroom door opens and Havoc walks in. While I know he was off getting fixed up, I’ve spent the past few hours anxiously waiting to hear how he’s doing. Even though Leo must have some type of magical ability that allows him to work with light or healing magic, we both required a doctor to stitch us up first.

  It left me to sit on the bed and force Menace to allow me to hug him to my chest while I waited. He wasn’t very compliant at first, but by the time Havoc arrives, Menace is sleeping in my arms.

  Havoc quietly shuts the door behind him, and Menace pops his head out from under the cover. He looks between us, then acts disgusted that he’d been cuddling with me and crawls away. He promptly licks himself where I’d been touching him, like he’s going to remove my scent that way.

  “They forced me into a different room and threatened me to stay put, so I immediately threatened them and left,” Havoc says as he pulls my blanket back. He climbs onto the bed, and I grab for him before he even lies down.

  “I hate feeling weak,” I mumble.

  “Trust me, I know.”

  “How about we rest for one day and then, head falling off or not, we jump back into action?” I suggest.

  “Sounds perfect.”

  I push his shirt up, revealing a line of stitches across his side. I gently brush my fingers near it. “I’m sorry you got hurt because of me.”

  He gives me a grin, like it doesn’t bother him. “Aren’t I always cleaning up your messes?”

  I snort. “That’s hilarious. I’m always cleaning up your messes.”

  “We should have a running total of who makes more messes.”

  “I don’t have enough fingers or toes. I’m not sure there are enough fingers or toes in this entire building,” I say.

  “That’s why I’m using a pencil and paper instead of toes!”

  I snort as I slide my fingers around his waist and squeeze him to me. I close my eyes as I press myself against him. I realize that I don’t know where we’re at or what’s going on, because my brain has been so focused on Havoc. It’s the only thing I can seem to care or think about. Everything else is meaningless when Havoc isn’t around.

  “Anyway, I just really don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never messed up anything ever,” Havoc says like he’s not the biggest liar known to mankind.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “You don’t remember a crucial time in our lives that you ‘messed up’?”

  He seems to think for a long moment, gives me an innocent smile, and goes, “Nope.”

  “Oh, that’s it, you’re getting it shoved right into your brain,” I say as I reach for his face.

  “No! I don’t want you to force one of your lies on me,” he says as he grabs my wrist.

  “Ow, my wrist!”

  He quickly jerks his hand back. “I’m so sorry!”

  I grin at him. “My wrist is fine—you fell for my trick,” I say as I press my hand against his face.

  “And people say I’m the evil one!”

  “You are!” And that’s when I push him into the memory.

  “Do I need to go over the plan again?” I ask Havoc.

  He yawns, even makes a show of it. “Heavens above, do you ever get tired of talking?”

  “We’re planning our escape and you feel like right now is a perfect time to be a smartass?” I ask.

  “I’m not sure when a bad time would be.”

  I’m going to strangle him. As soon as he’s my demon, he will be strangled. The plan that he doesn’t feel like hearing again is that I will break his bind with Geoff, make him my own demon, and then we will get the fuck out of here. Obviously, we’d like to kill Geoff, but I feel like that won’t go well with Geoff’s control over me. So a quick and efficient retreat is what we have in mind. And Geoff is headed into town, so we have a short time frame to make any of this work and Havoc’s too busy being a pain in my ass.

  “Fine, ready then?” I ask.

  “What are we doing again? Chess?”

  “Yes, chess, and I’m going to ram my queen up your ass if you don’t stay focused.”

  He gives me wide eyes. “Violent… I like it.”

  I sigh and pace a little more. “Do you think he’s far enough away? The moment he feels me fucking with your bind, he’s going to rush back.”

  “I’d give him another minute or two. You have everything prepared? And you think this will actually work? You do realize I’m a very high-level demon, right? And Geoff has me bound with spells and runes.”

  “It’ll work.” It has to work or we’re both dead—or worse, tortured. Geoff is not a kind man. He won’t toss me in a room and tell me to contemplate what I’ve done. He’ll ruin my life.

  I kneel down and set to work. The first thing I need to remove is the spell keeping him in the circle. Then I can start working on the bind that connects him to Geoff. What’s going to help us is that both are old spells. Geoff’s had Havoc for over a decade and hasn’t redone the runes or magic on his binds. While I’m not stronger than Geoff, maybe I can be against an old spell. Especially if I try harder than I’ve ever tried before.

  The circle doesn’t take long to break, only a few minutes, but that’s because it’s runes keeping him there, not Geoff’s binding.

  “Ready?” I ask as I grab some ash and step up to the naked demon and reach out for him. I’d asked him to take his clothes off so I can work with skin-to-skin contact.

  “I’m pretty sure you just wanted to get me naked so you could rub your hands all over me.”

  I blush but make sure I cover it up with a glare. “I feel like you think this is a joke. You’re just acting like this is foolish. Don’t you want to be free?”

  He reaches out and grabs my chin so I’m forced to look up at him. “Human, you can’t break a demon’s binding. I know you have this wild and crazy idea in your head, but it’s not going to work. You’re going to piss him off and he’s going to beat you within an inch of your life. And we’ll have accomplished nothing. This is merely a joke that I’m finding amusing.”

  “Are you worried you won’t see me again?” I ask. Or maybe I’m the one worried about that.

  He’s quiet for a moment. “I can only hope. Please continue and then maybe there will be some silence.”

  I sigh and go back to running the ash down his chest and over his arms. I draw the summoning circle and his true name right onto his body so the contact is as close as can be. First, I must break the hold Geoff has, then I must bind him to me.

  I slide my fingers down his leg, closer to his groin than I want to be.

  “Want me to spread them a little for you?” he asks.

  I try not to get distracted by the comments as I keep working. When I get to the rune-inscribed shackles on his arms and legs, it’s hard to get the ash under them, especially when the skin is infected and bloody. I wish I could break them, but I don’t have time, so I work around them. />
  With blood from a cut on my hand, I finish the spell and press my palms against him. I take a deep breath and push my magic into Havoc, letting it wind around him until I feel the black magic that Geoff has bound to him. I concentrate, slowly chipping away at the magic, tearing it back and revealing Havoc’s own magic that makes him what he is. How could he even function with such a suppressing hold on him?

  It feels like I keep slamming into walls, but I push all the magic I can into this, even though I know I’m exhausting myself. If Geoff attacks me, I’ll have nothing left.

  And finally, after what feels like hours, I snap the bind and Geoff’s magic dissipates.

  I don’t realize I’m leaning against Havoc until I push my exhausted body off and look up at him.

  The shock on his face startles even me.

  “W-What? Did I do something wrong?” I ask.

  “You… broke the bind.” It comes out barely a whisper.

  “I told you I wou—”

  Geoff slams into the door. There’s a spell on it, but Geoff doesn’t seem to think the spell is of any concern as he blasts through it, breaking the lock and everything. Thankfully, I already put the binding symbols on Havoc, so all I have to do is touch them and make him mine.

  I press my hand to his chest and find that I am absolutely exhausted, but I have just enough magic left to bind him to me.

  “I’m free,” Havoc says as he looks down at himself.

  “Havelocke, I hereby bind you—”

  I don’t get the next part out before Geoff uses his spell on me, sending me to the ground in excruciating pain. Through the pain, I fight to reach for Havoc who is looking down at me. But he’s not reaching for me, he’s not helping me, instead he’s just watching.

  “Ha! I’m free! I’m free of you assholes,” Havoc growls.

  “Havoc… please. Bind yourself with me.”

  “Oh, sweet child, you’re such a fucking idiot,” Geoff says to me. “Demons are always, always only doing shit for themselves. You have humanized him, but they’re not humans.”

  No, not Havoc. Geoff is wrong. Havoc and I have spent years together. He cares about me and I care about him. He wouldn’t do that, right?

  “Oh, you dumb, moronic child. You thought he cared!” Geoff says as he walks toward me and as he does, Havoc just casually backs away while I stare at him in disbelief. “He was using you, and you were stupid enough to go along with it.”

  “No… he wouldn’t!” What about all the times I risked my own life bringing him food, and how I’d talk to him and care about him?

  But I’m a human and he’s never seen anything but pain and suffering from humans.

  I know the feeling.

  I look up at Geoff and know that this is it. I’ve wasted years of my life studying demons, demon binding, and demon magic for this. To get beaten and tortured by Geoff while thinking that death would be kinder.

  Geoff kicks me in the side, and I try to push myself up. He kicks me again and that word puts me on the ground once more, pain tearing through me.

  I am a fool.

  “Look at him,” Geoff says as he grabs my hair and yanks my head back, forcing me to look at Havoc as he opens up a gate to the demon world. “He’s not even going to try anything. And you want to know why? Because he’s not a fucking idiot like you.”

  He slams my head to the ground as I lie there, infuriated. I want to call for my magic, but the moment I try anything, he’ll send me back down. And I don’t know what hurts worse, the pain coursing through my body or Havoc walking away.

  Fine, I don’t need him. Everyone has walked away from me in my life, so what’s another person? I turn to Geoff as I prepare for my next move, and that’s when I hear something.

  “While this disgusts me to help a human—and a mage at that—I suppose I have no choice,” Havoc growls as he pulls something out of the gateway. When I see the sword, I question if he’s going to hack me up too while he’s at it.

  “Oh, demon, don’t fuck with me. I will kill you,” Geoff says as he throws fire at him. It hits him, singeing his skin, but because he’s naked, nothing on him starts burning. Havoc throws the sword straight at Geoff and the metal slices his left arm. Geoff steps back to get more room and that’s when Havoc reaches me. He drags me up and slams my hand against his chest.

  “Don’t you dare,” Geoff growls as I feed my magic into the bond.

  “Silve!” he snaps, but the bond has been thrown into place.

  I can feel it. I can also feel Havoc grabbing onto my magic as he rushes Geoff. I know he can’t defeat him like this, but maybe it’ll be enough for us to get away. I crawl toward the door as they fight, hoping that if I pull myself far enough back, I can escape.

  I push myself to my feet and just as Geoff is driving magic at Havoc that could kill him, Havoc disappears. For a moment, I think both of us are confused before Havoc is beside me again, dragging me after him.

  “What the fuck was that?” I’m not sure if I’m talking about his deserting me, him seeming to disappear, or any of the other things that have happened.

  He pushes me through, and I throw magic at the door, creating an inferno Geoff will have to pass through. Havoc drags me after him as I fumble over my own legs until they start working again.

  He slips outside to where I have a horse waiting for us. I’d pulled him out on the chance this worked and we could escape. Havoc literally picks me up and tosses me onto the animal before climbing onto his back and pushing him into a run.

  “His magic is going to hurt me when we go through that gate. Please don’t leave me behind.” I’m a little nervous after what went on in that room, but I have to trust him. I know the man who had cared for me is still in there.

  He grunts something, which doesn’t make me very confident as the horse rushes for the gate. It’s a spell that seems to knock me out every time I hit the gate, but I’ve never had someone to pull me through it. Let’s see how this goes.

  “It went perfectly well. I don’t see a single mess in that situation,” Havoc says.

  “Really?” I ask suspiciously.

  He nods, looking very earnest. “Yeah, that was nothing compared to the time you got me chocolate with raisins in it.”

  “I really hope you’re joking.” But I’m sure he’s not.

  He grins at me before kissing me. “I… I am sorry.”

  “I don’t want your apologies.”

  “I was… honestly going to leave you. Because there I was, free for the first time in so many years and I don’t even have a choice but to immediately be bound again? Freedom for a split moment then back to servitude? It was really hard getting myself to understand that you weren’t like the others.”

  I slide my fingers through his hair. “I know. But when you walked away, I wanted to punch you so hard.”

  “It was probably the evilest thing I’ve ever done.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  He squeezes me gently. “But it ended up alright in the end.”

  “It did. Now we need to stop him this time instead of running away again.”

  “I really hope this worked and it snapped the spell he has on you. Are the markings still visible?”

  I drop the illusion I always wear on myself and look down at the lines running across my skin. “They are, but I think it worked. I lost all other spells and contracts that were magically tied to me.”

  “You did. We’re no longer in a contract with each other. I’m free from a contract for the first time in hundreds of years… and I was wondering… if you could put one back on me.”

  I raise an eyebrow, convinced he’s talking crazy now. “I made that ring so you don’t have to worry about someone else ever forcing you into a contract. You’re free.”

  Havoc frowns, and I find it strange. “I don’t like it. I want to put the contract back into place.”

  “You can still use my magic and stuff if we’re not contracted, since I’ll allow you access to it. I just ca
n’t control you.”

  He grabs my face in his hands. “Don’t you want to be in a contract with me?”

  “Well… of course, but I don’t want to take your freedom, Havoc.”

  “Bind me to you before I force you to,” he growls.

  Emotions fill me as I realize that he desperately wants us to be connected. I lean into him. “Are you positive?”

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

  I know Havoc’s bind by heart since I’d practiced it so many times as a child. I trace it over his skin with just my finger, knowing that ink or ash or anything else would be unneeded. Especially when he wants the binding.

  “Cat, I need you to prick my finger,” I say as I hold it out. Menace doesn’t even hesitate as he stabs a claw into my finger, drawing blood. I kind of feel like I should be concerned about how quickly he jumped on board with making me bleed, but I let it go since he did snuggle with me.

  I run my finger down Havoc’s chest and press my hand against him. I don’t even need to say anything; I can feel the binding. It’s like an old friend and my magic tangles with it easily as his grips onto it. It feels strangely intimate. So different than any other demon I’ve ever connected to.

  When I open my eyes and look up at him, he’s mine again. But this time, it was his choice.

  Havoc gives me a blissful smile. “Thank you. That feels much better.” He leans in and kisses me, and I can’t help but wonder how such a horrible twelve hours could turn into this.

  Then I grab Menace and pull him between us. He fights and pushes to squeeze out of my hold, but with my arms around him and Havoc’s arms around me, he’s given no choice but to oblige. I think I might even hear a tiny purr at one point.

  Chapter Ten

  I wake up with the feeling that I’m being watched, which is never good when someone wants to murder you. I open my eyes and look up into a pair of eyes staring down at me.

  “Holy fuck!” I yelp as I jerk back, jarring my sore neck. Havoc lunges out of bed, lifting his hands up into a karate-like pose, even though I’m positive he doesn’t know karate.