All The Wrong Signs
The Call

Blaze’s POV

As if my luck couldn’t get any worse, I found myself face to face with Kyler. The bastard was circling around me, studying me as if he had never seen me before.

Had he realized I had been missing?

I had only been gone for a few days, but it felt like months.

Had I only been with Riley for days?

The traitorous witch.

“Something is different about you,” Kyler said, putting his hand to his chin as if he was lost in thought.

I rolled my eyes at him. Clearly, he had no clue I had been missing. I had no idea what, if anything, would be different. I didn’t feel any different.

Ok, that was a lie. I felt pissed. Furious even.

Not that it surprised me. I had figured the little witch would betray me eventually, just not yet. I had hoped that she would give me enough time to figure out how to free myself from this wretched place.

“I styled my hair different today. Do you like it?”

Kyler frowned up at me. “You will give me what I want!”

“I’m not a fucking genie or a fairy,” I said, purposely rolling my eyes at him.

Kyler grew madder but didn’t give. “I know you followed my father’s instructions faithfully. Just as you will me!”

I shrugged, “hasn’t happened yet.”

“I’m close,” Kyler muttered, more to himself than to me. “I can feel it. You have a weakness demon and I will replace it.”

I laughed at him. Weakness? What was that? The only person I cared about since my mother’s death was Petra, and she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

I stood unable to reach out and snatch the bastard like I really wanted to do for what felt like hours. Each second ticking by agonizingly slow. I’d done a lot of evil shit in my past. Was this my punishment?

Kyler left, stomping his feet, clearly upset that he had yet again failed to break through to me. He was too chickenshit to really come at me. He hadn’t even tried to torture me today. It became pointless after a while. I could heal at inhuman speed, and he couldn’t risk actually killing me.

After the last couple of days, I just wanted him to leave. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him today. My temper was boiling under the surface and it would do me no good to snap at him. I couldn’t touch him, only cut him with my words.

I couldn’t see Kyler anymore, but I could hear the shit breath as he flipped through old journals just as his father had before him. The idiots weren’t smart enough to cast a tracer spell on me. They were confident that I had been forgotten and would never be called forth.

Not that I would admit it. Demons didn’t have emotions. But the shit hurt. Being forgotten by everyone. The people I would have laid my life on the line for just forgot me like I didn’t exist. Even knowing it was all spell work, it didn’t make things easier. It would never make things easier.

Kyler wasn’t that good of a wizard. In fact, the few spells I had seen him try to cast ended up not going as planned. Orik was probably rolling over in his grave. He had been the most powerful of them, but he hadn’t just kept my name a secret from his family, he kept it all.

Sure his children had power, knew how to wield it, but Kyler. Kyler was a fucking idiot. His long shaggy hair was the most mousy shade of brown that I had ever seen. His mustache looked like a 12-year-old boy had grown it out. There was nothing impressive about the man.

Hearing Kyler slam a book closed, I braced myself, waiting for him to appear. He pushed his glasses up with one of his index fingers. “I could sell you, you know. Let someone else take a crack at pulling all of your secrets out of you.”

I smiled. It was a threat I’d heard a thousand times. “Is that supposed to scare me?”

It was, although I wasn’t sure why he thought it would be. I wasn’t worried about him or anyone else. The idiot forgot that the curse on the very stones I stood on made people forget about me.

The only person who would remember me now was that traitorous witch and the Wumbert direct descendants. Petra’s memories would fade quickly. My only hope of getting out of this hole was the very person who sent me back, and she didn’t even know my damn name.

When Kyler left, I was once again in pitch black. I knew he left me in the dark to fuck with my brain, but he forgot I was a demon. He would have better luck, leaving me in a bright room.

Closing my eyes, I thought of every way possible I could kill Kyler once I figured out how to get my hands on him. My first instinct had always been to lock him down here in my cell, but no, that was too good for him. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted revenge.

I was picturing what his face would look like as I strangled the very life from his lungs. The way his eyes would bulge as his face turned a deep purple shade. I could almost feel his throat in-between my hands when I felt something stirring just behind my navel. It was like my body was being pulled in on itself.

She was calling me back.

I landed with a thud in her living room. The room shook at my impact. Anger was rolling off of me as I turned to replace her. I had just spotted her laying on the couch, and had started approaching here, when Petra blocked my path.

I tried to throw her out of my way, but she put her hands on my shoulders, calming me. “Blaze, Blaze stop.”

“I will make her regret ever…”

“She didn’t send you back,” Petra said, rolling her eyes as if she had already told me that a thousand times. “Her friend marked out your sigil. I can tell you she was a wreck when I appeared.”

I frowned, “why are you here? I told you not to interfere.”

Petra looked up at me, “because I felt you leave.” Something stirred behind her eyes. “I knew if I didn’t hurry, I would forget you all over again. She’s the only link to you I have.”

I looked over her shoulder at Riley. “How the fuck did she summon me if she’s asleep?”

Looking down, avoiding my eye contact, Petra shrugged. “I had to dig the memory out of her mind. It wasn’t easy. The spell Orik put on you is strong, and she is so…”

“Weak,” I finished for her.

“She passed out after she summoned you.” Looking up to meet my eyes, she sighed. “I have no idea if she will come out broken or not. It’s possible she will never remember that memory again.”

I let out a long breath, my lips thinning into a hard line. “You shouldn’t have come.”

Petra shrugged, sitting down, putting a hand to her forehead. “You are welcome, you fucking bastard. You do realize that the whole experience was hard on me, too. I had to keep going back over and over, and…”

“And how did you get her to agree to dig through her mind?” I asked, curiously.

“Once I told her how to send you back if you misbehaved, she was game. You know Blaze,” Petra said, looking up at me. “I’m pretty sure your little witch likes you.”

I frowned. “I’m pretty sure I don’t give a fuck. She’s only a means to an end.”

Petra snorted, “go ahead then. Attack her while she’s down. She only tried to save your ass. When I got here, she looked like she had been crying for hours. I’m telling you, as your sister, she did not do this on purpose. Go easy on her. She went through a lot to get you back.”

Looking past her, I laid my eyes on Riley again. Her face was scrunched up in pain. It was never a pleasant experience to have anyone did through your mind.

“I don’t forgive,” I said, looking up at Petra. “But…she is safe for now.”

Petra shook her head. “You are a stubborn bastard. Are you sure you haven’t slept with her yet cause I have no idea why else she would have been worried about you.”

“You are dismissed,” I said flatly.

Winking at me, Petra vanished, but her laughter drifted behind almost as an afterthought.

Sitting down, I stared at Riley. My anger was somewhat subdued. Her friend had marked out my sigil. It could only be the blonde. I knew I should have dropped something on her fucking head. I hated having outside interferences.

As far as I was concerned, Riley was mine, until I was done with her. And I did not share.