Zeltis awoke and put on the shoes before going to the dresser to grab Alex’s wallet.  As he glanced at the mirror on the wall Alex exclaimed from inside his head.

“What’s the matter now?”  Zeltis said, a little annoyed.

“Why is my, er, your, our hair white?  And the eyes are red?”  Zeltis could tell Alex was confused about how to address himself/Zeltis.  Alex was also surprised when he saw the reflection in the mirror. 

Zeltis could easily sense Alex’s emotions and thoughts.  Alex obviously didn’t know anything about how to mask/shield his thoughts, though that did make things easier for Zeltis.

“Well, the longer we are linked the more my attributes will show when I am in control.”  He didn’t add that usually by now he should have been in control more often, but Alex was somehow different than expected.  After hearing about Alex’s mother Zeltis had some suspicions but he wanted to be sure.  Hopefully the roommate would be able to give them more clues.

“Really?  So this is similar to how you would really look?  The hair is really long.”  It wasn’t a huge mirror but he could see the silvery white hair going down to about mid back.

“Yeah, I never bothered to cut it.”  And Ashrana had loved his hair long.

“Don’t forget that only people with spirit power can see this form.”  He really hated the itchy ski mask, but understood the necessity.  Though, it might attract trouble in another way if people think he might be attempting a robbery or mugging.   “I don’t want to attract attention, so I will just hold onto the mask until we get to where the demon is.”

“Ah, yeah, good idea.”  Alex agreed.

Zeltis looked up a taxi service on the phone before dialing.

It didn’t take long for it to arrive.  The older man turned to look at Zeltis as he sat down and shut the door.  “Where ya headed?”

“Please just follow where I direct you.”  Zeltis said, and the driver wrinkled his brows but shrugged and turned around.

This city was very different from where Alex lived.  His city was a large and very metropolitan area with lots of high rises.  This city though, was more rambling and had more old style buildings with fewer high rises.  It felt more like a large town rather than a city.

Zeltis kept giving directions until they reached a trailer park and asked the driver to stop.  They paid, and the driver left them there.  Zeltis pulled on the mask before striding through the rows of mobile homes.

Zeltis walked until there was a small courtyard with a street lamp and a covered area with a picnic table underneath.  There were five teenagers smoking, chatting, and laughing.  When they finally noticed Zeltis walking towards them they grew quiet for a moment before a couple started laughing and the rest joined in.

“You some kind of a weirdo or something?  Why are you wearing a ski mask?”  One of the two girls said with a snicker.

“Wait a minute, Zeltis we don’t want normal people getting pulled into this do we?”  He asked urgently.

Zeltis didn’t bother answering.  He could care less if the other humans got hurt though he supposed if they called the police it might be troublesome.

“The human’s can leave, I only came for the two demons here.”

They all burst out laughing and one of the guys snorted.  “This dude must be crazy.”

Before they could say anything more Zeltis lifted his hand and shot out a spike of ice straight at one of the guys who had been looking at Zeltis more seriously since he mentioned demons.

The guy barely managed to push the guy next to him so he could avoid the spike, knocking the guy onto the ground.

“What the hell was that about Ben?!  That hurt.”  The other guy said after crawling back up to a sitting position.

“Wow, did you see that?! What was that?”  One of the girl’s said with wide eyes.

The other girl glanced at her a little surprised, then glared at Zeltis.  She jumped up and the guy Zeltis shot at wasn’t far behind her as they got to the ground in front of Zeltis.

“You two gonna beat him up, if so I want in.  I’m kinda pissed.”  The guy who had been on the ground said before standing up.

Zeltis put up both hands and shot out a couple more spikes at the guy and girl in front of him.

They managed to dodge and then started to transform.  They both grew fur and snouts, ears and fangs.  They looked like two giant fox’s standing on two legs.  The male was a bright red with white fur on it’s belly, feet, and hands.  The girl fox was a orangy red color also with white on her belly and snout. 

Zeltis could tell that Alex was confused as to where their clothes had gone and how the fox’s still had human like eyes and hands, though with claws.

“Ahhh! Monsters!” The girl who had seen the frost spike screamed and fell back off the table.

“What the heck are you talking about?”  The two guys said, looking at her confused.

“Can’t you see them?  They turned into giant foxes.”  She said again, but now looked a little doubtful.

“Are you high?  They look the same as a minute ago.”  One of the two guys in the back said.

“Yeah, just stay back and watch if you’re going to be freaking out.”  The other one said before running toward Zeltis and throwing a punch.

Seeing a normal human coming at him was like watching someone move in slow motion to Zeltis.  He easily stepped aside and knocked the guy out of the way.  The boy fell a few feet away, unconscious.

“Wow, that was one hell of an attack.” The other normal guy said and stepped back a little.

The two foxes jumped forward at almost the same time both swiping at Zeltis.

Unlike with the human these two were much faster and since they were coming together it was a lot harder to manage to block or dodge both attacks.  He got a small scratch on his arm for his trouble and summoned his ice blades.  Despite their low level, they had good teamwork so he knew this would be more troublesome than he had thought.

“Cool, he has swords coming out of his arms!” The girl said and got out her phone to try and take a picture or video.  “Hey the foxes and the swords don’t show up.  Maybe I am seeing things.  But it sure looks cool.”  She said and continued to take a video even though it didn’t look the same as what she was seeing.

Zeltis could tell Alex was worried about her taking a video but he didn’t have time to do anything about it.  He was too busy countering attacks coming from both sides.  The two foxes were fast and almost always attacked together.  He guessed that they must be a mated pair that had inhabited this boy and girl so they could stay close to each other. 

“Their moving so fast and it’s hard to tell how they are attacking but this is amazing!” The guy at the side said excitedly.  He was now seated next to the girl as they watched the battle like it was entertainment.

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“This is definitely going on yourtube.” She said as she continued to capture them on her camera phone.

“I bet it will go viral.  It’s totally epic.”

Again Zeltis could tell that Alex wasn’t happy but Zeltis had to struggle to keep blocking or dodging the two’s attacks.  In that moment of distraction the two foxes opened their mouths and let out a strange sound that rattled Zeltis then both struck at him at the same time.  The male sliced deep into Zeltis’ shoulder and the female sliced into his abdomen.  He grunted and opened his mouth to fire a ball of fire toward the female. 

She screamed and fell back, rolling around on the ground to try and put out the flames.  The male roared in anger and started slashing left and right in anger.  With only one enemy to deal with, Zeltis was able to easily block the incoming strikes.  With a strong counter, he slammed the male down to the ground and grabbed him by the neck.  Immediately the mist started to seep out of the shocked male.

The female burnt but back up, yelled and ran towards Zeltis.  While taking in essence he couldn’t move much and the connection to the male was broken, but the male was severely weakened.

“Wait a minute, you don’t think he’s going to kill them, do you?  Maybe we should call the police or something.”  The guy watching said as he started to feel nervous at how serious the fight was getting.

Zeltis spun around backhanding the female with his ice sword arm creating a long wound down her side.  She crashed to the ground again with a short howl and a whimper.

Hearing what the guy said Zeltis turned toward him, his blue eyes cold.  “Don’t even think about it.  Just stay out of my way or you will end up hurt or worse as well.”

The two observers both gulped at his deep powerful voice and sat stunned as he again grabbed the male.  The mist started again and even though the girl was able to move a little, she was too weak and slow to get to them before the mist was gone.  The guy went back to looking normal but Alex noticed something troubling.  Even though before he hadn’t seen the enemies long, he could see a clear difference. 

Not only was the guy pale but it looked like he was practically a mummy.  His skin looked loose and pasty.  He was clearly not breathing.

“Is he dead?” Alex cried out internally.

Zeltis was already moving toward the girl when the girl and guy who were filming also noticed the emaciated look of the defeated guy.

“Yes.” Zeltis said simply starting to grab the now squirming and crying girl.

“But why?  You said that the others didn’t die, why did he?”  Alex said frantically and Zeltis sighed.

“The demon had already consumed the man’s soul.  He was already long dead before I came.  He is only an empty shell now that the demon is gone.  It is likely the girl will be the same.” 

Zeltis could tell Alex was shocked and the two other teens were crying and clutching each other, too scared of Zeltis to do anything.  The phone had fallen, forgotten.  Zeltis grabbed the fox-girl by the arms and the mist started to stream out toward him.  Her tears falling right in front of him didn’t faze him much but he could tell that Alex was still in shock.  It didn’t take long before another mummy like corpse lay on the ground.  Without waiting any longer Zeltis used a burst of speed to run over to the two frightened teens.  They were so scared that they wet themselves as they shook and stared at him in fear.

He picked up the phone and deleted the video before dropping it again. 

“Wha..what about the….the bodies?” Alex asked shaken and sounding like he felt sick.

“Indeed.”  He reached out his arms and flames appeared that quickly burned up the dried out husks that had once been human. 

Though Alex couldn’t, Zeltis heard both the girl and boy vomiting at the disturbing sight.

Zeltis turned toward them again.  “I wouldn’t speak of any of this if I were you.”

They shook their heads and he turned away.  He used a spell and like a missile, he flew up and away from the scene. 

“Ahhhhh, too high, too fast.  Ugh, I want to hurl.”  Alex said in his head.

Zeltis just focused on making sure he didn’t run into anything and he was already starting to slow down.  He didn’t like using that spell.  It took a lot of energy to cast and left him feeling a little weak.  Luckily he didn’t sense any other demons in the area so he felt he should be ok.  He had managed to fly not too far from where their hotel was, but landing would also be a problem. 

He saw the hotel about a mile ahead but he was already falling down.  Luckily it looked like he might land in a small pond in the middle of a housing development.  He didn’t relish getting wet, but it was better that slamming into the ground at the speed he was going.

He fell with a huge splash and spluttered as soon as he surfaced.  He quickly got to shore and climbed out, his clothes creating a muddy mess in the grass around the pond.  It felt heavy and uncomfortable, especially the mask.  He went ahead and took that off before slogging his way back toward the road.  It was rather cold but he had enough energy to create a sort of heat blanket around himself that not only kept him warm, but started to slowly dry his clothes.

As he got closer to the hotel, he saw more cars going past but there were hardly any people out on the street.  The few people he saw didn’t even notice him despite his soggy appearance.  Still, by the time he reached the hotel he was only slightly damp.  Still the staff did give him strange looks as he made his way back to his room. 

He relished in a hot shower, leaving his things in a pile for the made to take care of.  He dressed in a clean pajama and was soon in bed.  The darkness of unconsciousness was a welcome relief to both of them after the rough night.

Next chapter

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Author's notes.

Wow this took a little long, sorry.  This just did not want to be written.  I kept going back and forth about what kind of demon I wanted and where they would fight and ended up with this.  I thought about letting the video be posted since his face isn't visible but didn't see any reason that zeltis wouldn't try to do what he could to prevent it.  If people have any thoughts or advice that could make this better please don't hesitate.  I love to hear your ideas and comments.