Kas grunted. He didn’t ask what she was laughing about, or if she’d slept well or anything. Having a quiet asshole for a bodyguard was better than having some angry, hungry, potentially handsy demon, but if Mia had to choose, she’d have rather someone like Adron, or Scilra, demons she could talk to.
She stepped up to the door, and touched her necklace. The small amber crystal on its tip dangled just above her sternum, a bit warm to the skin, and touching it earned a tiny glow for a moment. The huge white teeth that blocked her door pulled apart, revealing the inner balcony of the spire, the pit in its center, and demons coming and going, jumping up and falling down the huge hole as they moved from balcony to balcony.
She touched the crystal again, and the teeth clamped back down again, effectively closing the door. Kas, standing beside the door inside her room with her, rumbled quietly in his throat, and said nothing.
“I figured Zel would have come get me by now.”
Kasimiro said nothing.
“I thought she’d might… I dunno, try and corrupt me or something. Not with her blood or whatever; not gonna be a betrayer.” Unlike Hannah, Mia had the strange ability to consider the future when making decisions. 666 deaths as a remnant, just so she didn’t die anytime soon? Becoming a betrayer was not worth, not worth at all.
Kas said nothing.
“She wants me to use my aura for her. Why? Apparently all demons can make auras using ‘sin’ or whatever. What’s so special about my aura?” This time she walked up to Kas and looked straight up at him.
He stood there, or kinda stood kinda sat, hunched over with long, muscular arms touching the floor, and raptor legs bent at the knee. Sometimes his body looked mostly human, considering how human his chest and stomach looked, and even his arms, big as they were, looked human, save for the occasional small black spike on his elbows and whatnot. But he had demon hands, complete with claws, plus he had raptor feet, a big long tail with spikes on top, and most importantly, he had the head of a dragon… shark… dinosaur. No human face, but a big long snout with big teeth, and a complete lack of eyes. One of the eyeless breeds.
He was also almost as big as Diogo, and probably would have been if he ever stood up straight. But considering the hunched torso and back and the big tail, standing up straight didn’t seem to be in the cards for his species. So, dragon dinosaur demon, with the flat head of a shark, and the horns of a bull, except massive.
She hadn’t asked him about his many scars. Maybe someday she would.
“You said you can feel my aura?” she asked.
Kas looked — probably — straight down at her, and clicked once deep in his throat. If he’d drawn in more air when he did that, he could have croaked like a frog.
“I’ll take that as a yes. So, the aura, it’s… it’s always sexual? ‘Cause, I mean, yeah I’m a young woman and I got a sex drive.” No point in being shy about that, not anymore. “But it’s not the only thing on my mind.”
Kas let out a slow, deep rumble in his throat, similar to a crocodile throat singing. He didn’t want to talk to her. Well, too bad, she needed answers.
“I’m going to keep asking, you know,” she said, adjusting her white silk toga. The fact it was sheer meant Kas and other demons could still see everything, but at least it was something. “Just make it easy on yourself and give in.”
Another rumble, but no answer. She stood there, tapping her foot, looking up at the huge demon, and sometimes at the chunks of black metal strapped to his body. It was a nice body.
“The taste of it changes,” he said, deep voice rumbling like he’d been smoking for centuries. “It’s often too subtle to tell what it is, or notice it if I wasn’t looking. And then it grows, and it’s sexual.” He shrugged, and managed a quick gesture to her before he set his claws back on the metal floor. “You’re hornier than any betrayer I’ve ever met. I don’t need the aura to tell me that.”
She folded her arms across her chest and glared up at him.
“I doubt that.”
He snorted. “I can smell you.”
“I… I don’t smell! Not like that. I mean…” Did she smell? Hell did this weird thing where it wiped away things like sweat and blood and stuff, either lost to the air or sucked into the stones. Bathing didn’t seem to be necessary, at least not for that kind of stuff.
“Humans always have a smell when they’re aroused. And their breathing quickens.”
“I’d just finished walking up a thousand stairs!”
“And their eyes lock onto certain body parts.”
Shit, she couldn’t deny that one.
“In case you haven’t noticed, demons are walking around either naked or half naked all the damn time, are having sex everywhere, and every single one of you has a body built for… fighting and fucking.” The demon motto. She gestured to Kas’s chest and stomach. “Look at you! You have the head of a shark dragon but that’s the chest and stomach of a human man. What’s that about?”
He shrugged. “Some demon breeds are older than others. Less and less of us are born, and more of the newer breeds are born.”
“Less are born? So… do… demons give birth to all types or something, and now the newer breeds are…” She threw up her hands. “I don’t know. I still don’t know how demons reproduce. The way you guys fuck each other, I figured I’d see pregnant demons everywhere, but that doesn’t seem to be a thing?”
If Kas had eyes, he’d probably have rolled them, considering the head tilt.
“Just like a betrayer, you know nothing.”
“You’re right, I know nothing,” she said. Kas tilted his head to the other side. He hadn’t expected her to say that. “Well, I don’t. I’m completely out of my depth, have no idea how anything works. Every day, I’m just slammed with a million new things and Da–” She clenched her teeth and looked away. “I’m pretty overwhelmed, and I suck at putting random shit together. Give me a nice encyclopedia or something and I can read it, memorize it, and understand it. But down here, all I’m getting is random bits of information and I can’t figure it out.”
Kas rumbled, clicked once, and shrugged.
“Not my problem.”
Mia scrunched up her nose, marched up to the big demon, and poked him in the chest. Damn, that was firm. Why did a demon with a dragon face and no eyes have the chest and stomach of a Greek god? The long, thick arms and shorter legs and raptor feet should have looked weird, but on his body it just made him look like a deadly, amazing beast. No wonder Zel picked him to guard her.
“I can make it your problem,” she said.
Kas clicked once, deep in his throat, before letting out a long, rumbling breath. No need for a translator on that one. He didn’t believe her. That was easily rectified.
She touched the amber crystal on Zel’s necklace, and the door opened.
“I’m going to go exploring,” she said. “And I think I’ll keep running around randomly, talking to big random demons, and stumbling into rooms full of violence and stuff, until I get some answers to my questions.” And doing her hardest to hide how absolutely fucking terrified she was of everything she’d just said, she marched out of her room wearing only her sheer, giant silk scarf and Zel’s necklace, picked a random direction, and got walking.
Some grumbling and scraping noises made her smile. Kas came up behind her, grabbed her shoulder, and turned her around. Damn that was a big hand.
“You’re making my job difficult.”