Amanda Sims strolled casually down Decatur Street, carrying a worn brown leather satchel over her shoulder. Sunglasses covered her eyes, obscuring the crimson glow shining from behind them. As she moved among the morning tourists, she subtly sniffed the various aromas of the crowd. The scents of coffee, beignets, and human sweat mixed in the humid air. Patting her full belly, she burped and quickly covered her mouth with a delicate hand.
How rude and not very ladylike! Amanda smiled. But then again, I ain't no lady.
Well-fed on Amanda and Stefon, Rygen's anger towards Samedi's control over him was somewhat eased, replaced by satisfaction from the feast. He even enjoyed the plan he was about to carry out.
As he turned the corner near his destination, Rygen reached for the beaded necklace around his neck, enchanted to conceal his mystical presence. This was the same spell Samedi had used in the warehouse, ensuring the princess wouldn't notice him as he carried out his plan.
Ultimately, it hinged on her not being with Angel when he approached disguised as their friend, Sims. Flicking his gaze up at the roof, he inhaled deeply, sensing the demon princess along with the smell of another human female. However, Angel's scent was absent. Perfect! He smiled, feeling pleased, and stepped up to the shop entrance, eager to start his act.
At the main counter, Davis sat on a stool, sipping iced coffee and flipping through a geometry book while jotting notes on a nearby pad. The morning had been fairly slow, with hardly any customers. While he enjoyed chatting with patrons, he also valued the quiet to focus on his studies. Deep in thought over an equation, he was startled slightly when the bell rang, breaking the silence.
Looking up, Davis saw a young woman enter and greeted her with a smile. "Welcome to 'Charmed, I'm Sure.' May I help you with anything?"
Rygen glanced around the store, made sure they were alone, and offered a genuine smile to the young man. "You might. Are you the shop owner?"
Davis shook his head. "No, I just help Miss Collins out part-time. Were you looking for her?"
"Not particularly." Stepping further into the shop, Rygen smirked. The wooden floorboards creaked softly beneath his feet as he examined the various trinkets and artifacts on display. He noticed that most were worthless junk, but he also showed a keen interest in some items that clearly possessed real power.
Whether Collins knew the difference between the two was uncertain, but he would not dismiss her outright. "There is quite a variety of magical items here. Are you a practitioner yourself?"
Davis laughed. "Afraid not. Miss Collins is the one with the gifts. I find it fascinating to learn about the various aspects of witchcraft, from herbology to spell casting, and even the concept of summonings seems intriguing."
So, he thought to himself, the witch knows her stuff. Moving among the displays, he continued to interrogate the human. "Summonings? You mean like calling up a demon from Hell?"
"Something along those lines, I suppose." Davis shrugged. "I enjoy learning about the concept of creating a circle, the materials needed, and the lore behind it. We have a few books on the subject if it interests you."
The young woman approached the counter, her eyes surveying every part of the store. "Honestly," her voice cooled, "I am not very fond of summonings. They bind the demon to the summoner like a slave. It's pathetic."
Sensing he'd upset the young woman, Davis lowered his head solemnly. "I didn't mean to offend you, miss."
As he peered down into the cabinet with the crystals and amulets on display, Rygen let his sunglass-covered eyes lift to the young man, and he offered him Amanda's sexy smile. "Oh, you didn't. It's just a personal pet peeve of mine." He added, smacking his lips generously. "Have you ever seen a demon before?"
Grateful he hadn't offended the lady and surprised by her behavior, Davis chuckled nervously. "No. As much as I love the study of magic, I'm agnostic. It's difficult to believe that summonings, or demons, could actually exist."
"Oh, they're very real." His false smile suddenly appeared cool and predatory.
Out of the young man's view, his hand traced a small figure-eight circle, and the lock on the shop door clicked silently. Removing his glasses, he let Davis see his eyes, where a faint red glow tainted Amanda's usual blue. "Would you like to see one?"
"Miss?" Davis felt dread creep along his spine as the temperature in the store seemed to drop ten degrees in seconds.
Pulling a strange-looking glass orb out of her satchel, he wove silk into Amanda's voice. "Do you know what this is?" The young man's palpable fear made his stomach growl. Perhaps there was room for more?
"N…no?" Davis found his gaze drawn to the orb. "What is it?"
"It holds a particularly fun spell." Rolling the orb under his finger along the glass top of the case, he explained, "When released, it creates a silent bubble that muffles all the sounds within it from the outside world. Once you speak the incantation, all you have to do is tap the ball three times to activate it."
To demonstrate, he spoke a spell that Davis couldn't understand. "Absorbe omnes sonitus intus," then tapped the top of the orb three times.
Davis watched in awe as the glass orb pulsed, and a soft, grayish light burst out, bathing the entire store in its flickering glow for a few seconds.
Once the light faded, Rygen dropped the ball back into the satchel and then set the bag aside on the counter. "Now, no one outside the room will hear a thing."
"Uh." Starting to slip off the stool, Davis asked, "Why is that important, ma'am?"
Rygen laughed. "Isn't it obvious, meat?"
Swiftly, he lashed out with a clawed hand and grabbed Davis by the collar, pulling him hard against the counter. "It's so no one can hear the sound of your screams."
Davis did indeed scream as the woman before him started transforming into something truly frightening. He saw the muzzle of a creature he recognized from one of the books Cassie found last year. The very rare tome described some of Hell's most violent and dangerous demons.
As a courtesy, she had allowed him to look over it for only an hour before passing it to one of her coven sisters, who took it to the local museum for curation. In it, scholars from centuries past drew depictions of the demons, and Davis noted that, with this one, the sketches were eerily accurate.
In awe as much as frightened, Davis whispered its name, feeling more than hearing his own voice: "Rygen!?"
The hellhound blinked in surprise. "You've heard of me?"
"I…" Davis gasped as the demon's claw tightened around his neck.
Curious, Rygen loosened his grip and growled, "How?"
The young man grimaced at the growl, but with the pressure off his esophagus, he swallowed and then responded. "I saw you in one of the books Miss Collins had." Shakily, he continued. "You're a hellhound, one of the deadliest ever recorded. It called you 'The Devourer'!"
"Mmmmm!" Drawing his long black tongue along his lips, he purred, "That I am."
Violently, he yanked Davis over the counter and slammed him forcefully onto the floor in front of it. The impact knocked the air from the young man's lungs, and he struggled to catch his breath. Above him, the demon's shape continued to morph into its natural form, bones cracking and skin rippling under shifting fur. When the transformation was complete, Rygen dropped down onto all fours.
Davis pushed himself up against the counter, squinting without his glasses, which lay somewhere on the floor. His voice cracked in panic. "What do you want?"
Sniffling hungrily, he inhaled his scent, now soaked with fear and despair—his favorite seasonings. He shook his head in mock sadness. "Unfortunately, I'm in a hurry, so I don't have time for what I want: to feast on you slowly and savor every morsel." He clicked his tongue. "So I'm afraid you'll just have to go to waste."
Hyperventilating, Davis shook terribly as the demon's claw traced a path from his groin to his throat. Tears streamed down his face as he wept, "Please, please don't."
The beast's maw turned into a wicked, dark grin as he pushed his fore-claw deep into the young man's throat and dragged downward, splitting his torso open from throat to groin. Davis's arms flailed about helplessly as his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he gargled out agonizing screams. Screams that no one but the hellhound heard. Blood splashed out and down both sides of his quivering body, with more crimson pouring from his mouth.
Rygen relished his victim's suffering as life seeped from Davis's mutilated body. As the last spark of life faded from his eyes like a snuffed candle, Rygen set his other claw into the man's torso and, with both paws, pulled his chest apart like opening a fresh bag of chips. Cracking his ribs out of the way with sickening pops, he plunged his claws into the young man's torso and ripped out his heart. Sniffing it lovingly to inhale the tangy-iron fragrance, he bit deep into the tissue, chewing it slowly.
After finishing his morsel, he stood up on his hind legs to his full height, burped loudly, and transformed into Amanda Sims. For the next minute, he licked his hands with Amanda's slender tongue, cleaning them of blood. Once he was satisfied that the evidence had been wiped away, he noticed a bottle of hand sanitizer sitting next to the register. Pumping the nozzle five times, he rubbed the gel through his fingers and palms. As much as he loved blood, it left an irritating stickiness on his faux human skin.
Finished, he cracked his neck, then retrieved the satchel that had fallen off the counter. Pulling his hand out of the bag, he grasped a large vial of red fluid and removed the stopper. Whispering a spell under his breath, he flicked the vial outward in a semicircle toward the center of the shop, and the vibrant red fluid expanded into torrents of cold mystical fire.
He watched, snickering, as the books shriveled, the trinkets burned away, and the artifacts and jewelry melted. The smell of burning paper and melting metal filled the air. The incense table blazed brightly, creating a mix of contrasting aromas that wafted through the shop, filling the space with a potpourri scent. Jars filled with powders of various colors erupted, covering the floor in layers of rainbow dust.
Looking down at the counter where the crystals and amulets were displayed, he shook the vial. A small amount of the liquid spilled onto the case, instantly melting the glass. It then dripped onto the collection of crystals, causing them to explode like popcorn kernels.
With a quick kick, he knocked over the stands and danced between the flickering fires, tossing items that missed into the flames as the shop disintegrated before his eyes. It took only minutes for everything to be destroyed.
Satisfied that the witch could not salvage anything, he walked casually over to the employee's body and knelt beside him. Sliding a delicate finger along the ridge of his mangled ribcage, he collected some warm blood on his finger and sucked on it slowly.
"I'm sorry I couldn't finish you, my dear boy. You deserved the full treatment for knowing who I am."
Looking up at the ceiling, he thought about his next move. According to what Samedi had told him, the witch was in the apartment above. That's where he should find Angel, or what was left of him. He glanced at the side door and smirked. Let me see how much damage I did to the meat.
Moving to the door, he grabbed the doorknob and yanked hard enough to crack the wood in the frame. With a sniff, he confirmed no one was in the hallway and stepped outside. Another strong sniff widened his eyes in surprise. Angel wasn't upstairs, as he expected, but outside behind the shop, with no noticeable scent of the blood.
This didn't make sense to him. He thought the man would be in bed, dying, and easy to grab without the princess noticing. Carefully, he moved to the door that led to the back parking lot and slowly opened it. He peered through the crack and felt genuine surprise at what he saw.
Angel, looking no worse for wear—as if the night before never happened—was retrieving a box from the trunk of the same car that the hellhound had all but destroyed the night before.
Rygen growled deeply. Impossible! He should be near death. I know I wounded him. I tasted his blood!
Making no sound, he shut the back door and closed his eyes. This changed everything. Since the bubble spell was limited to the shop, any warning from the man could reach the princess on the roof. He considered luring Angel to the apartment, where he could quietly use the Muffle Ball and secure him there. However, this might attract the attention of the princess and the witch above.
Fuck! he swore silently.
He would need to get Angel into the destroyed shop, act distraught, and hope the tactic would succeed long enough to catch him off guard. Executing this modified plan would rely on a mix of luck and timing, but he saw no other options.
Backing slowly toward the shop's side door, he closed his eyes and focused on listening. He would have to wait for Angel to come through the back door, and then put his new plan into action.