Arkemoz wasn't sure what to think. The confirmation that angels were indeed on Earth and doing something to his kind was leaving him nervous and angry. But despite that, no matter how ridiculous it was, the thing that was bothering him the most at the moment was the fact that James hadn't spoken since they'd rescued Denise, preferring to stare off into the distance as they drove down the road. Arkemoz didn't want to disturb James' thoughts, but he also didn't like this silence. It was irritating him for some reason.
In Hell, he hadn't had many demons to talk to, and he hadn't minded the constant silence for the most part. But it was a different thing when he was around someone who tended to talk, maybe even seemed to like talking to Arkemoz, and now they didn't. And even worse, Arkemoz couldn't even give James time to himself because they first needed to get back to the Aegis base.
Arkemoz sighed before he could realize how loud it would be in the empty, relatively small space inside the car. He tried not to look when James turned his head to him.
"You okay, Arkie?"
The demon frowned, meeting the vampire's eyes. Why wouldn't he be okay? Without him even saying anything, he somehow seemed to have improved James' mood because now the vampire was smiling softly. Arkemoz wondered if he was being mocked again. That had completely left his mind with how reserved James had been, but now that worry was back.
"Thanks for saving our asses back there," James spoke again, still not bothering to look where he was going. Arkemoz didn't comment. Vampires seemed to have great reflexes.
"It was no problem. Demons are resistant to fire."
James' eyebrows rose and a grin appeared on his face. He always seemed to get like this when Arkemoz spoke about his species. As if James was particularly delighted to find out something new. Arkemoz wondered why, but given that James didn't seem to know much about demons, perhaps he just wanted to know what he was dealing with.
"That's really neat. Got a lot of fire back home, huh?"
The rigid way the vampire had been holding himself this whole time wasn't as prominent anymore, which Arkemoz took as a good thing. If talking about random facts about demons helped James relax, Arkemoz wouldn't deny him that. Even though he didn't understand why James liked to hear about it so much.
"Some, yes. It's actually the same as it is on Earth." That had actually been a small comfort when he'd first gotten here. Barely anything was the same, but the warm, yellow fire was. In Hell, there were more colors as well, but they all behaved mostly the same way.
"Not a lot of things are, I take it?" James patted his shoulder. It was a thing James did often it seemed. But somehow it brought more peace to Arkemoz than it had any right to.
"No. But...." Arkemoz sighed. He wouldn't say he was feeling homesick exactly right now, but there was a certain melancholy to all of his thoughts of Hell. "My home dimension has very little in it aside from rocks and fire. So it's not that things here are different as much as my home has nothing comparable."
He wasn't explaining this well, but James seemed to understand what Arkemoz was trying to say as he squeezed his shoulder.
"I'm sorry about earlier." Arkemoz frowned, unsure what exactly James was referring to, which the vampire must have noticed because he went on right after a short pause. "You know, back at that house."
Oh. He should have figured that out. What else James could have been talking about? Arkemoz nodded, looking out the window again. He appreciated that the vampire noticed that he'd been upset with James laughing at him, but with everything that had happened in the meantime, it felt so inconsequential now. Arkemoz was mostly bothered by the fact that James seemed to make a habit of making fun of him for his ignorance rather than that one specific instance of it.
"I don't laugh at you." James sighed. "I mean, I guess I do. But I don't mean it in, like, a mean way."
Arkemoz scowled. Perhaps this was just him not understanding humans again, but it seemed to him like there was no other way to laugh at someone.
"I just find you—it cute, all right?"
If anything, that only made Arkemoz feel more confused. "How is my ignorance cute?"
James grinned, which made Arkemoz feel more annoyed. "It's not just that. You take things too literally and look so adorable when you're grumpy.... It's very endearing."
Arkemoz huffed, now feeling more than a little insulted and self-conscious as he folded his arms, but that just made James' grin widen. "Yeah, see, just like that. But I'm not making fun of you, just to be clear."
Arkemoz still didn't see the difference, but he just sighed and shrugged. As long as James wasn't intentionally mocking him, he supposed he didn't care.
Or at least he could keep telling himself that.
"I really do like you, Arkie. You know that, right?"
Arkemoz blinked, staring straight into the vampire's striking blue eyes. He seemed serious for once, which once again made the demon's heart do strange things. It certainly explained why James insisted on buying him things, though the demon briefly wondered why James actually liked him given how unpopular he had been in Hell even before being labeled a pacifist, but he supposed that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. After all, he liked James as well, and he wasn't even sure why when he thought about it.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder about the implications. He was getting the sense that the word like could mean many things in this society, and he didn't want to seem foolish by assuming.
James grimaced at Arkemoz's silence and rubbed the demon's shoulder, not taking his hand off it as he turned his gaze to the road. As the silence once again became excruciating, Arkemoz cleared his throat.
"Are you okay?"
James waved his hand, smiling easily. But now Arkemoz knew what a genuine smile from him looked like, and this wasn't it.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? I mean we didn't get Nathan, but no one got hurt, and we got more information. And Denise is fine, so that's good."
Arkemoz wondered where Denise was right now. She'd told them she was going to report to the leader of the group about what had happened on the way, but he couldn't see any cars behind them or in front of them. He supposed it was possible James had just taken a different route, though.
Now that he thought about it, it was surprising that they were alone here, but he remembered hearing that a part of the vampires who had gone with them had gone after Nathan while the rest returned to the headquarters, so he supposed it made sense.
"You didn't want to meet with him."
James grimaced again. Arkemoz wasn't sure why he was constantly trying to talk about this, but as long as James didn't tell him to mind his own business he would. It felt important.
"Well, me and Nathan don't exactly see eye to eye anymore, with me not drinking blood anymore." James laughed, though it sounded a bit forced. Again with the metaphors. Why were humans allergic to saying things directly? At least he could understand this one from context. "Though I guess we never really did. I just found his obsession with me funny at the time. And whenever I got tired of him, I ditched him in various ways, which he never took as a hint."
Arkemoz frowned, looking outside of the window. That seemed incredibly cruel, especially to him since simply leaving a partner wasn't something demons did. But he was getting the sense that vampires when drinking blood didn't truly care about much else aside from themselves because he couldn't imagine James actually doing that now.
"I hope he gets it through his head this time," James continued, his voice noticeably softer. Then he cleared his throat. "Anyway, I'm fine, Arkie. We need to focus on this angel problem."
Arkemoz took that as a very clear sign that James didn't want to continue on with this topic, but he was right either way. They had bigger problems. Angels on Earth. He still had trouble believing that, but it at least explained why those vampires had had access to angelic magic.
"I've never heard of angels working with the lesser species." James raised an eyebrow at him, and Arkemoz glared. "It's what they call everyone else."
"Of course it is." James huffed, sounding almost amused. Arkemoz wasn't sure why. It was frankly infuriating, but then again, demons also tended to think this about humans. "So you do know stuff about angels?"
Arkemoz scowled, unable not to feel bitter about this. "Of course I do. It's all demons care about." He shook his head. "I don't understand why they would willingly help vampires, though. There must be more to it than that."
James let out a deep breath, leaning onto the steering wheel with both of his hands. "I sure hope Aegis knows how to deal with this mess."
As did Arkemoz. It certainly depended on how many angels were at play here. To kill one, several demons were usually needed, but perhaps vampires could do the same with how fast they were. However, it all depended on Aegis having access to weapons made of celestial gold—a metal from the angels' own dimension. After millennia of war, demons still had yet to discover another way of killing an angel just as effective as celestial gold, so it was fair to assume that there wasn't one.
He hoped that Azralis knew about some, or had them just in case. Or perhaps Qironin knew something, given his shocking amount of knowledge concerning angels.
The rest of the trip was silent, but it was a bit more comfortable than before, so Arkemoz didn't mind too much. Unfortunately, the side effect of the quiet was that he had nothing but his thoughts, and the more he thought about angels, the angrier and more on edge he got.
Stupid angels. There was just no escaping them, was there? If Arkemoz were still on his own, he would seriously consider opening a portal to another planet and leaving Earth behind. But change was difficult, and he didn't want to deal with it again. So the only option was to fight them—something he had left Hell in the first place to avoid.
He truly hated irony.
He got out of the car as soon as James parked it, his tail hanging straight and motionless. It always got like this when he felt like he had a reason he might have to use it soon. He realized there would be likely nothing that could hurt him here, but he didn't bother forcing it to relax.
He followed behind James inside the building, wondering where exactly they were going. The building was noticeably emptier than usual, and the people who were there rushed past them, looking serious and tense.
"There you are!"
Arkemoz almost flinched at that, turning around to look at Denise. She seemed serious as well, though much less so than everyone else here. In one hand she was holding a paper folder, which she raised up for both of them to see.
"How the hell did you get here faster than us?"
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
That was a fair question, but Arkemoz hadn't even thought to question it.
"I guess Amy is a better driver than you," she replied, smirking at James. This was clearly a taunt, but James mostly looked confused rather than annoyed.
"Who?"
"Anyway." Denise waved the folder again. "We've got new orders from Black. Well, it's from people higher up, but whatever. They want us to hunt down weapons to use against angels. Because apparently they know about some."
Arkemoz let out a breath. Well, that was a relief. He had thought of traveling to a planet where angels and demons were currently fighting and stealing some of their weapons without being killed, but this sounded much simpler and less risky. No matter where these weapons were, surely it would be less dangerous than Arkemoz's idea.
"What, right now?"
Denise nodded, her eyebrows raised as if to express her surprise as well. But Arkemoz found it refreshing. He didn't like waiting.
"Come on, we gotta go. You too, demon boy."
Arkemoz scowled at her, not appreciating being called that in the least. He could see James trying to hide his smile from the corner of his eye and Arkemoz shot a glare his way, too. Avoiding his gaze, James muttered something about only just getting here under his breath before following after Denise.
Arkemoz quickly joined them, heading for the car yet again. He missed teleportation, but perhaps on Earth it couldn't be done as easily as in Hell. There must have been a reason for no one here using teleportation after all.
As he climbed into the passenger seat for what felt like the tenth time, he stretched out his tail, touching the wooden stake in the pocket of his coat. Despite it being completely useless against angels, it did offer a sense of protection. He wished he had his dagger, though. He was probably never going to get it back, but he missed it. He had very few things to remind him of his home dimension. Unlike its inhabitants, Arkemoz did sometimes miss the place itself.
"All right, so," Denise said loudly as she sat down in the back, opening the folder. "Apparently there are a lot of places with these special swords, but the one we got assigned is this cavern."
James looked back at her with a frown. Arkemoz took that as that being an odd thing, then.
"Oh, it gets weirder, don't worry, Adley." Denise proceeded to laugh, gesturing with her hand to underline it. "Aegis is apparently buddies with a dragon."
There was a moment of silence, with James looking completely shocked, and Arkemoz feeling confused. He didn't think he'd heard of a creature with that name, so he could only guess as to what it was.
Finally, James managed to speak, practically choking on his words. "W-what?"
Denise nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I thought they were all dead, or something. But nope."
Arkemoz was starting to realize that James hadn't been watching the road at all during this whole exchange. He didn't like how much that tended to make him nervous because nothing here could kill him. However, crashing would hurt a lot, so he'd rather avoid it.
"So anyway, you know how dragons like to collect shiny stuff? This one should have one of those special angel swords. So we're supposed to ask her to give it to us."
If possible, James' eyebrows flew even higher. But at least he was now paying attention to his driving. That made Arkemoz relax slightly. "This dragon's a lady?"
Denise snorted. "I love that out of all of that this is what you focus on."
James shook his head. "And she's just gonna give it to us?"
"Yeah, should be easy. I think Black doesn't want to put Arkemoz here in unnecessary danger."
Arkemoz scowled, folding his arms. He wasn't useless. He'd just demonstrated as much. And he wasn't weak either, just because he'd gotten captured by a group of vampires. Denise had just gotten kidnapped by a single vampire while she was with two others, and no one insinuated anything.
He'd sort of expected James to say something, but the vampire just looked somewhat pleased by this. That all but stopped Arkemoz's desire to complain. He wasn't usually one to let others influence what opinions he voiced, but somehow the words just wouldn't make it out of his throat. And so he just leaned back into his seat and stared out the window into the dark field they were passing with a glare.
"So, to sum up, we're going to go ask a dragon to give us a sword and assume she won't eat us."
The fact that Arkemoz had no frame of reference for how crazy this was was annoying him beyond what he thought was normal. James seemed very put off by this whole thing, but Denise seemed fine with it.
"The file specifically says not to make jokes like that," Denise said with amusement, looking down at the folder and tapping it with her finger. "Dragons don't like the stereotypes."
James scoffed. "Isn't collecting gold a dragon stereotype?" He made an unsuccessful grab for the file, drawing Arkemoz's attention away from the window, which was the only reason he noticed that Denise was now looking at him.
"You know what a dragon is, Ark?"
Arkemoz narrowed his eyes at the name. So this wasn't just something that James did, but rather a general Earth thing. Or perhaps everyone at Aegis was attempting to irritate him. Was his name really so long and complicated that they didn't want to use it? It was pronounced in a different way than it should be to suit his now human vocal cords as it was.
"No, I've never heard of them," the demon admitted, though at least he didn't feel ashamed of it. Perhaps because Denise was clearly not trying to mock him. He took the folder when she handed it to him and opened it, blinking at the photo of a clearly huge, red, winged lizard.
He wasn't sure what he'd been picturing, but this wasn't it. There was even a small black silhouette of one of these dragons with a human next to it, to illustrate how massive a dragon was. Suddenly James' joke about this dragon eating them seemed far more realistic than Arkemoz had originally thought.
It seemed that a lot of the information on this creature was unknown, including her age and origin, however the file told her that her name was Firith, and there was a string of numbers next to her location. Arkemoz had no idea how that represented location, but he wouldn't ask.
"So where are we going, anyway?" James asked, looking back at Denise, who raised her index finger as she fiddled with her phone. A second later, the car's computer came to life, showing a map with an arrow on it. Arkemoz felt more than a little embarrassed that it took him more than a few seconds to realize that this was some kind of navigation system.
Arkemoz hadn't actually been in one of his people's ships, but he was familiar with the systems they used to navigate space, and this was a similar idea except on a much smaller and simpler scale.
Next to him James muttered something about modern technology and witchcraft as he shook his head, making his hair fall in his face. Arkemoz hadn't actually given much thought to this, but in retrospect it was fairly interesting how much humans tended to customize their hair, though apparently males tended to wear it on the shorter side. He wasn't sure why because James' looked nice the way it was.
He stopped thinking about that, knowing full well that it didn't really matter, though he was now absently playing with his own hair as he looked down at the folder again.
"There isn't a lot of information about this dragon. Or dragons in general," Arkemoz complained as he looked through the papers. Did Aegis not want to reveal information to their underlings, or did they just not know anything? He hadn't gotten the feeling that Aegis would lie like that, nor could he think of a reason why they would lie, but he barely knew anything about Aegis still.
"Well, I imagine they don't wanna share," Denise replied, shrugging before frowning in thought. "Though you're not wrong, now that I think about it. Even the way Black told me about the cavern was vague as hell."
The human need to constantly use the word hell in any and every context was something Arkemoz wasn't too fazed by at this point, but it still always made him confused for a split second.
"Oh great. So they don't know if this dragon even lives there?" James once again proceeded to shake his head. He truly didn't like Aegis, did he? Arkemoz wondered if he'd just not seen it before or if James had been trying not to show it so obviously.
"No idea. Black was kinda weird about it in hindsight, but I got the sense that he just didn't have time to properly explain it." Denise shrugged again, looking far less bothered by all of this than Arkemoz would have expected.
Wasn't this a problem? They essentially might not know where they were even going, though surely if Aegis thought this could be very dangerous they probably wouldn't send Arkemoz there. He might have been strong, but that didn't change anything about the fact that he'd avoided fighting as much as possible, including training. He knew how to fight somewhat, but he was no expert.
"I'll have a few things to tell him once we get back," James muttered, gripping the steering wheel tightly as he subtly looked at Arkemoz from the corner of his eye, most likely assuming the demon wouldn't notice.
"I'm sure they'll pay you overtime," Denise joked, leaning back into her seat.
"They better," James grumbled without looking at her. "I haven't even had time to eat."
Denise laughed. "No wonder you're so grumpy."
They continued on like this, with Denise eventually putting some of the powder in a bottle of water and giving it to James, who did seem to become less tense after drinking it. It really made Arkemoz wonder just what was in that powder, but he could only theorize.
Blood was a strong, and the most universal ingredient when it came to magic. If vampires needed it to survive, it meant that they likely fed on the magical energy within it. However, Arkemoz had no idea if the specific energy held within blood was what vampires needed, or if it could be just about anything with enough energy. It was safe to assume that the powder also held a lot of magical energy if it worked as a substitute.
But that didn't bring him any closer to figuring out what it actually was. And the fact that demons tended to only use blood magic didn't help because he had no idea what could resemble it.
He spent the rest of the trip either absently staring at the information in the folder or looking out the window as the sun rose again, becoming a bit blinding at one point. No one said anything, but he could tell his two companions didn't like that at all. Arkemoz hoped this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but they were heading to a cavern, after all. There wouldn't be any sunlight there.
A few hours later, James stopped the car by a forest, after driving through a small town. Thankfully, there were some clouds in the sky now, which seemed to make both James and Denise more relaxed. Arkemoz still wasn't sure how much sunlight was too much for a vampire, but surely they would tell him if they feared they might die.
"It should be this way," Denise said as she got out of the car, pointing between the trees while she stared down at her phone. The forest was thick but not in a way that would make it difficult to traverse. At least Arkemoz hoped so. But with his new boots, he was feeling more willing to take a chance with difficult terrain.
James gave the sky a look of concern but followed behind Denise as she and Arkemoz walked into the woods. The trees made their surroundings eerily silent, and Arkemoz didn't like it. It was never quiet in Hell, on account of earthquakes and lava, and he was getting the sense Earth was not the quietest place either. So this was nagging at him almost subconsciously.
The cavern was apparently very far away, but Arkemoz supposed that made sense given that he shouldn't have expected it to be possible to reach by car. But at least the forest was vast and provided enough shade for him not to be constantly worried about the two vampires.
He did envy their reflexes, though. He had managed to stumble a few times already, be it due to a rock, roots, or whatever else, while James and Denise easily avoided everything. And they were also walking at a pace Arkemoz had a hard time keeping up with. He was getting the sense that they could go even faster without him present, but at least neither of them seemed to even be thinking it.
He was about to ask how much farther the cavern was when Denise stopped, raising her hand as she once again looked down at her phone. "The entrance should be somewhere around here. It's supposed to be magically disguised."
As soon as she said that, Arkemoz's eyes came across a large hole in the ground, on a hill a little away from them. In fact, it was almost mindbogglingly large, but if a creature as big as that dragon was supposed to fit through, Arkemoz supposed it made sense.
"That's not really disguised, is it?" James remarked as he also noticed it, his eyes narrowed. Arkemoz wondered if this was cause for alarm.
They walked to the entrance, looking inside of it. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, with rocks and dirt making up most of the walls, with some moss growing around as well. But clearly this had to be what they were looking for. What were the odds of there being two caves in the same place?
Denise gave both him and James a look. "Let's go, slow and careful. Something feels off."
"You mean aside from walking into a dragon's lair?" James asked, and Denise shook her head at him, huffing out a laugh. Arkemoz stayed silent as they ventured down into the cavern. He was almost shocked at how large it actually was now that they were inside of it.
The walls of rock grew taller and taller, wider and wider, until it didn't even feel like they were in a cavern anymore. Frankly, it felt very familiar to Arkemoz, but he didn't let that fool him into a sense of security. Denise was right, something did feel wrong. It only made Arkemoz's desire to have his dagger back more intense.
But they kept going, only stopping once they came across pillars as the sharp, rock walls became ones lined with etched stones.
"Well, this is weird."
Arkemoz supposed he agreed with James on that, though the sheer size of the cavern was a much stranger thing to him. How deep in the ground were they to allow for this? Or perhaps this whole place was held together by magic. That would explain a lot, actually.
"Didn't dragons live in castles, or something?" Denise was frowning at their surroundings. "Or maybe that's another stereotype. Maybe this one is just really into the aesthetic."
The deeper they went, the harder it got for Arkemoz to see in the thick dark, but he could still make out the outlines of everything around him, which meant that he didn't need to worry about walking into a wall or losing sight of his companions. However, it became more and more annoying the longer it went on. Arkemoz couldn't help but curse his semi-human eyes. If he were better at adjusting his body, perhaps he could give himself his normal eyes, but unfortunately, he wasn't able to.
But even though he couldn't see all that well, he could tell that their surroundings were becoming more and more artificial the farther they went, to the point that what they were currently walking through looked more like a stone corridor rather than a cavern.
The pillars had gotten more detailed, with what he supposed were dragons etched into them, however they looked more like winged snakes to him. There were also arches leading out from the pillars and connecting to the ceiling, from which occasionally hung metal chandeliers. Unfortunately, there was no flame to light their way.
There also seemed to be tapestries hanging over the walls, however Arkemoz couldn't tell what was on them, and he didn't ask either, especially given how every step they took echoed through the entire place. He couldn't imagine what speaking would do. That was the reason neither James nor Denise were feeling like talking either, he assumed.
And itwas a good thing too because as they entered another, even larger room with anarched ceiling, voices were heard up ahead. Loud voices, and the sound ofpeople running, their footsteps echoing all around. And then, out of nowhere, therewas a burst of fire.