All The Wrong Signs
The Summons

Blaze’s POV

Endless night.

It’s all I’ve known for centuries.

Being a demon, my eyes could adjust to the dark, but there was nothing to see. I was chained in a deep, dark hole, long ago forgotten by everyone except my captors’ heirs.

Generation after generation, the descendants of my original captor have tried to figure out how to use me. The only problem was they had forgotten how to summon me for themselves. The stone ground beneath my feet kept me imprisoned. My name etched deeply into the rock around me.

All it would take was for them to speak my name.

It was simple. Maybe too simple.

Pure greed was why they couldn’t control me. The man who captured me kept my name a secret until his dying breath. Sucks for his family because if I ever replace a way to free myself, I’m taking each and every one of those bastards out.

My name alone kept me bound inside the circle, but their fear of me and my smart ass mouth had been what had gotten me chained. I had hoped that they would just forget about me, move on with their life and maybe by some accident the earth would split and break my seal or some stupid idiot would summon me to them.

Even imprisoned, I could be summoned. I used to be feared by humans and demons alike. Now few still remembered me. Demons didn’t forget, but something about the spell I had been put under had made me become invisible, like I had never existed.

My original captor Orik had been a semi decent sorcerer. He had been obsessed with capturing a demon and I had been the unlucky bastard he had come across in some ancient text.

All my years locked up, having these want to be sorcerers staring at me trying to break the code has given me plenty of time to think. I’d been one hell of a demon, leaving a trail of chaos in my path.

I came from a powerful bloodline that could go back to Lucifer himself. I was a fucking demon prince. Once free from this prison, I would make everyone responsible for my imprisonment pay. I wasn’t stupid. Someone had given Orik the book with my name in it. I just had to figure out who.

Hearing a noise, I knew that the latest generation of Orik’s bloodline was coming to feed me. This one was probably the stupidest one yet, but also the most determined to figure out how to make me obey his orders.

I squinted as a light blinded me from above. Kyler Wumbert was too afraid of me to actually come down to my prison with me. No, he preferred to stay above me.

“Are you ready to obey me now, demon?” Kyler shouted down.

His latest tactic had been trying to starve me, like no one else in all these years has ever thought about doing it. They had no idea it would take centuries to starve me out.

“Answer me, you pathetic pice of shit,” Kyler shouted, stomping his foot like a child having a tantrum.

My hands balled beside me. He better pray to god that he was long buried deep in the dirt by the time I finally figured out how to get free. Even then, I’d probably dig his ass up just to torment him, even in death.

“Still haven’t figured it out, have you?” I said simply.

Kyler yelled down every cuss word in the book and even added a couple of new ones I’d never heard. Eventually, he calmed down. Kyler was too afraid of killing me, so I had known he would bring food soon. He shoved down an enormous slab of rancid meat.

As it hit the ground beside me, I curled my lip. The idiot knew nothing about demons. He thought all of us were the same. More to piss him off than anything else. I kicked the slab of meat, sending it flying to the wall.

“You fuck. Starve for all I care,” Kyler yelled down.

Oh, he cared. I could feel his eyes on me. He still had the bright lights on, trying to figure out the signal that I stood in the center of. My name was literally written around the damn thing, only it was in a language long forgotten by humans. If another demon found me, they would know instantly my name.

Orik had only told his children the basic information, just enough to keep them from trying to steal me for themselves. The idiot had a heart-attack and before he could pass my name along fell out dead on this very stone floor I’m trapped on today.

I had thought it funny at first. Without my name, they couldn’t control me. But then I realized that without my name, they couldn’t free me either. Or rather, wouldn’t.

While another could summon me, once dismissed, I would end up right back here. I would be here until they either destroyed the sigil or spoke my name and freed me of their own will. Let’s face it, I was only getting free one way.

The one thing Orik had made certain his kids knew was to never destroy my sigil. His descendants were well aware that it was the only thing keeping me from attacking them.

Kyler was still cussing above me, but something drew my attention. I knew instantly that someone had found my sigil. Blocking Kyler out completely, I tried to focus on it. Just because they found it didn’t mean they would call upon me.

Sigils were a funny thing. It wasn’t enough just to have one on paper. You could only call upon it with blood or by speaking its name. I needed them to speak my name. I needed them to hear me.

Humans always believed that demons preyed on the weak. It wasn’t necessarily true, it was that we could reach the weak easier. The broken listened. They wanted to believe in something greater than themselves.

Kyler, either tired of me ignoring him, or aggravated that he still couldn’t decipher anything different, left. I was once again plunged into darkness. I flexed my arms, pulling at my chains, wishing for once they would just fucking break. Silver was a weakness, but nothing we couldn’t eventually make our way out of. Unfortunately, as long as I remained in the sigil, they remained intact.

I closed my eyes, trying to focus. Nothing. Everything was quiet and black. Whoever had found my sigil was now unreachable. Had I imagined it? I had longed for so long for someone to run across me that maybe I had just dreamed it up, tired of listening to Kyler’s never ending bitching.

Alone in the dark, I wished I could sleep. Demons only slept to heal, and I had nothing to heal from. In the past, Orik’s offspring would try to torture me. I healed slower underground without the proper food to keep me thriving. But I still healed. Sleep could be blissful.

A humming sound filled my ears, making me look around. What was that noise? Were the humans disturbing the earth again with those god-awful machines? A glimmer of hope passed that maybe it would shake up the earth enough that it would break the ground.

I waited, but the earth never shook, yet the noise continued. Closing my eyes, I focused. Reaching the human realm was like breaking through the water, while the connection was incomplete, it could be difficult.

Blood. My sigil was being mixed with blood. It wasn’t complete, but my sigil knew when it was being summoned. I reached out, trying to replace the source, when I felt her. A her?

Why was a sorceress interested in me? Fuck that, I didn’t care. I just wanted out of this hellhole. I reached for her mind. If I could just connect with her, I’d give her my name, if that’s what the hell it took. It’s not like she would remember it once I broke free.

Once I felt her mind, I started saying my name over and over, hoping that she would hear it. Over and over I sent it to her, begging her to hear me through the time and space that separated us.

“Blazenthibou.”

“Fuck yes,” I screamed as I felt my body being summoned.

I landed with an electric shock, confused at first as I adjusted. It had been centuries since I had last been among the humans, and it took a minute for me to adjust.

Thankfully, Demons could pick up information quickly. I may have been hidden in the dark for centuries, but it was like my brain received an upload from other demons around the word, bringing me up to date with the times.

My little sorceress was getting my sigil engraved, no tattooed, into her flesh. Brave one. It would be much harder to destroy. Until the bond was broken, I would be attached to her body.

I tilted my head as she looked up, our eyes meeting. As she glanced back down at the man who had marked her flesh with my sigil, I wondered if he too was a sorcerer.

Standing up, the raven haired sorceress looked back up at me. As she approached, I stood up straight awaiting her orders. Wondering just what she needed a demon for. Instead of speaking, she pressed herself against the opposite side of the door and walked away.

I sighed. So it was like that. Another human who thought that just because they summoned me, I was supposed to await their ever beck and call.

Turning, I walked behind her, pausing when another red-headed witch stood up and began talking to her. This one was definitely a witch. She had runes tattooed on her fingers identifying her as such. My eyes instantly ran to my summoner’s fingers, but she had no markings. Only my sigil on her hand.

I watched her as she went and paid a woman. So she had paid for my mark? She must be desperate.

Our eyes locked, and I could see the challenge in them. I frowned. Had I already displeased her? I needed her, needed her to trust me and not keep me on a tight leash so I could deal with those who Klyer and his entire family.

I followed behind the two girls outside. “Skylar, tell me you see him,” my summoner said, looking over her shoulder once again.

I smiled, as her friend answered her, confirming what I already knew. No one could see me. No-one but her.

As they pulled away, I watched them leave. My eyes once again connecting with hers until she broke our eye contact, and the car disappeared.

It suddenly dawned on me that the little sorceress had no idea what she had just unleashed. No one in their right mind would have just turned and left me without giving me a direct order, even if it was just to bide my time until they called again.

Interesting.

I laughed, “Run, my little sorceress. You can’t hide from me. I’m etched into your very skin.”