Chapter Thirty-five
Hamel stared into the Demon King’s eyes, both in a trance locked inside Hamel. But he had a foot up on the demon. It didn’t know he was a transformer with a second soul that fought rougher than he did.
Flicking its tail, the feline sprang forward like a loosened rubber band. It tackled the king and rolled him on the ground. It wrapped its teeth around the demon’s neck, but didn’t bite down.
The demon came screeching out of Hamel, probably ready to shit his pants. The man on the throne recoiled a touch, barely noticeable if you weren’t watching closely. Then his eyes narrowed.
“So, you’re a transformer, dear guest. Why didn’t you say that earlier?”
Hamel shrugged. “I didn’t think it made a difference who I was, and you never asked. So . . .” He let his answer drift off like it didn’t matter to him. The king broke into a smile, his body language shifting from superior to cautiously friendly. Hamel would do the same, but even more watchfully.
The demon steepled his fingers. “Let’s make a deal, you and me, warrior.”
“I’m always open to suggestions.” Hamel listened very carefully for subterfuge or any trickery.
“I will pay you the equal amount of gold as those who paid you, to leave and tell the world the woman is dead.”
Hamel thought on that. It seemed like a straightforward, fair deal. But since when would a demon be fair? The king could use this as a stalling tactic, but for what? To keep the woman here until after sunset. Then she couldn’t return to Earth. That had to be it.
Now the question became whether he should accept the deal. If he did, that would keep him in the castle longer, hopefully long enough to find Melinda. But then there’d be more opportunity to ambush him. Fuck. He hated decisions like this.
He’d just have to stay on his toes. “I accept your offer, King.”
“Please, call me Cuzork.”
Hamel thought he’d just call him ‘dork.’ “My name is Clint, Cuzork.”
“Nice to meet you, Clint.”
Hamel felt the demon’s voice trying to seduce him, trying to put him under his control. “I am a transformer, Cuzork. Please don’t try to spell me. I’d hate to have to kill you.”
The king burst into laughter, but Hamel saw the red heat in his eyes. “I assure you, Clint. No tricks from me. I have nothing but respect for your kind.” He stood from his throne and clapped his hands twice. “Let’s eat to seal our deal, warrior. You must rest before you leave. It is a long journey into the desert and you just got here.”
Well, fuck. This couldn’t have worked out any better. The demon asking him to stay instead of him asking and seeming suspicious. “Yes, that would be welcome.” Good god, could he sound any lamer? He felt like he was in a cheesy medieval movie playing the role of the rogue warrior assassin. All he needed were cheap scenery pieces and buxom maidens walking around with empty baskets.
When he blinked, the room turned from expensive, garish shit to a simple wooden table covered in cloth and with plush cushioned benches. The table was set with gold plates, eating utensils, and goblets similar to the one the succubi had. Again, very lavish and over-the-top.
The demon gestured Hamel to the table to sit. Hamel took the bench on one side while the king sat opposite. “If you could wish for anything to eat, what would it be?”
This would be a story for the record books if he made it back to tell. “I’d wish for a big juicy steak, rare. I don’t suppose you have cows here?”
“No need for earthen animals here. We work in magic.” From a side door, a nearly naked woman walked in carrying a platter with the best-looking slab of meat he’d ever seen. And damn, it smelled divine. She set it on the table between the two. Hamel waited for the king to make the first move. He trusted the king as far as he could throw him. Actually, Hamel could probably throw him a good distance, so that cliché didn’t really work.
The demon smiled. “Dig in, as humans say. What are you waiting for?”
“I was contemplating the reasons you would want to poison me. There are several. But I must say, if I don’t return, an army of transformers much stronger than me will come looking. And your succubi can only take so many.”
The demon king frowned. The red in his eyes flashed again. He waved a hand over the platter, but Hamel didn’t see anything change. The demon must’ve removed whatever poison was there. He forked the meat onto his own plate and cut into it.
“Tell me. What is the relationship between you and the woman?”
Wilson’s warning came screaming into his head. He shrugged. “I was hired to bring her back. She is no one to me.” A commotion came from behind a door, but it didn’t open.
The demon grinned. “Would you like to fuck her before you go? I know that is all Earth men think about. She is pretty, yes?”
Hamel just about came out of his fucking chair and over the table, claws extended. No one talked about his mate like an object that meant nothing.
At his silence, the king added, “Perhaps one of the other ladies in the harem. They are all fabulous lovers. They could suck a nail out of a board.”
“I think,” Hamel said, trying to keep calm and play along, “I’d like to take the woman. She would be a nice notch on my belt.”
The king laughed. “You devil. Of course she would be. Fuck her brains out. Put your seed into her again and again.”
Hamel looked at the steak on his plate. If he didn’t divert his eyes from the bastard in front of him, he’d kill him. The amount of disrespect for the fairer sex was disgusting. It was probably the same toward humans in general. He needed to change the subject before he lost control of his cat. It couldn’t take much more of this talk about their mate.
“Cuzork, I’m curious, how do demons possess humans? How’s the whole process work?” He needed more information than what Wilson had provided if he was to find a weakness in the whole possession process. For shifters, they had animals to kick out the spirits, but if one tried to attack Melinda, how could he stop it?
The king appeared happy to have the question brought to him. “It’s quite scientific, actually, besides for the spirit part. Demons are spirits just like what’s in humans and those like you. We have power here, but in the other realms we have almost nothing. The only way to gain power is through the native species.
“We look for those who are weak, those whose spirits we can push aside, and take control of their brain. In humans, the brain controls everything. Once we get access to that, then it’s like nothing happened to the person, except a change in personality.” He smiled.
“So the trick is finding someone with a weak spirit.”
“Yes, the number of weak humans grows exponentially. They don’t treat each other with respect. They hurt each other, steal from and beat each other. Only a few places strengthen the spirit. As you can imagine, we despise these places.”
Hamel asked, “Then why haven’t you possessed all these weak humans?”
“That’s where science comes in. The human brain is very complex, even for us to understand. It’s taken hundreds of years to discover how to move the body through the motor skills. It takes practice, exactly like human infants learning how to walk. By the time we get everything under control, the body and brain give out.”
The mystery was unfolding for him. “What if you possessed a baby? Their spirit is weak, right? Then you could grow with the child and learn all the motor skills as they age.”
“Yes, we thought of this years ago. Where do you think your stories of possessed children come from? There is some fact to every myth, to every legend.”
“Then why haven’t you possessed all the babies?” Not that he wanted the children possessed. He was just wondering.
“Though the brain is powerful, it is fragile. The problem comes when we push the connections too hard to get all we want. We can’t help it. The electro-chemical synapses overwork and burn out. Quite effective in killing the body, unfortunately.”
Hamel nodded. “I would think so. Is there a way around it?”
“Currently, there isn’t. Babies need stronger brains, more connections, for us to effectively control them for some time. We thought there was a solution several years ago, but . . . it didn’t work out.”
A bad vibe crept over Hamel.