Grayson's Veil

Grayson stumbled over roots and uneven dirt while Avice held onto him.

With his arm slung over her smaller body, he wondered halfheartedly how she was able to carry him when most of his weight was on her.

Too bad he did not care enough to lighten her load.

‘That’s what she gets for trying to be a hero,’ Grayson thought bitterly while nearly face planting as his foot caught on another root.

Avice grunted, trying to keep him upright.

“You know, you could change into one of your animal forms so we could get out of here quicker,” Grayson mumbled, his eye lids dipping as he tried to stay conscious.

Squinting her eyes in anger, she kept her face forward.

“Whatever Uphir gave you affected me enough to not let me shift or try to reach out to you,” she glanced over at him quickly. “Did you forget we are bound?”

Frowning, Grayson shook his head.

“Besides,” Avice began, “He can’t leave that area where his wards are set up. Part of the rules.”

“Rules?”

Nodding, she adjusted his arm around her neck. “Demons are not allowed in the human world. There are stipulations however so some of us can be up here.”

“I had no idea his concoction was that strong,” He mumbled, some of his words slurring.

Avice snorted. “This is Uphir, the demon physician of Hell. When he see’s something he wants to study, he makes sure the subject cannot go anywhere.”

Grayson tried to snort back but ended up blowing snot out his nose.

“Ugh,” Avice cringed as she watch Grayson wipe his nose with a crunchy leaf from a tree.

“Wait!” He reared up suddenly, nearly causing his companion to tumble. “Then how did I get away?”

With a hand on his chest and a cocky eyebrow lifted, he boasted, “if he is so difficult to get away from, then how did I escape him?” His eyes shut momentarily until he started to lean backwards.

Frustrated at his inebriated state, Avice shook her head as she pulled him to her. “It was because of me, you idiot.”

“Oh,” he whispered. “How did you find me?”

Avice took a step forward, coaxing Grayson to start walking again.

“I overheard the priest and nun talk about the amulet.”

Stumbling, Grayson brought up a finger abruptly, making Avice flinch.

“Wait! Did they see you?”

Avice tugged him forward, getting tired of his drunken questions. “No, I was hidden. Then when they were distracted I stole some of the nun’s clothes.”

Grayson paused, looking over at Avice. She was definitely in a habit, minus the head covering, her silver hair was pulled back in a simple braid. She looked almost like an innocent human.

Nudging him, Avice motioned to continue forward.

He tried. And failed.

Grayson fell forward into a heap on the frost covered ground.

“I did not realize how cold it has gotten,” he muttered into the dirt. “But it feels so nice.”

Avice sighed heavily. “I guess we are going to have to wait till you’re sober before we continue.”

Rolling on his back, spread out like a starfish, Grayson stared up at the evening sky. He faded in and out as Avice scurried around to make a fire. The night was going to be bitter cold, he could see it in his breath.

“Avice,” Grayson whispered just as she finished with the fire.

She hummed in response.

“You said ‘some of us’ when you were talking about the demons being up here. Are you one?”

Sitting down next to Grayson she stared at the fire. “I am.”

“I thought you were a familiar.”

“I am.”

Grayson narrowed his eyes at the dark sky, not too happy with her short responses.

He cleared his throat, feeling it become scratchy from lack of water. “Tell me.”

Avice sighed again, her eyes turning sad. “I was one of Lucifer’s mistresses.”

This caused Grayson to sit up. The world tilted but he ignored it as he waited for his familiar to continue.

“I… I led Lucifer’s Harem in a surprise attack on Him. It was easy, really. I just told the whore’s that He would be most impress if we tried to kill him.”

Grayson lifted a questioning brow.

Avice caught on, a slight smile on her lips. “That is how Hell works. The most deceitful will always be the most powerful. I wanted power. So, I arranged for his death.”

Her smile was replaced by a scowl. “He was tipped off. One of the demon whore’s stabbed me in the back and took away my opportunity.”

“It sounds like you were a fool for believing Lucifer’s Harem ladies would keep their lips shut,” Grayson pointed out.

Rolling her eyes, Avice continued her story. “They were scared of me. I was the strongest and the most brutal of all of them. That was why I thought they would keep shut, because they knew I would rip their heads off if they breathed a word to him.”

“Was?”

Avice finally looked at Grayson. “Yes. Was. He caught me just as I was about to bring down the knife to slice his throat. I was so sure he would be tired from playing with six demon whores that I was cocky. Perhaps if I was sneakier, or maybe I should have joined first. Maybe I should have forgotten about power and enjoyed what I had.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Lucifer took away my status, my freedom, and condemned me to always serve a witch as their familiar. I was lucky that I used to be his favorite, because normally the punishment for that offense was death.”

Avice stretched out and fell back. “The rest is history.” She raised a hand and waved it like she was saying goodbye to the past.

They sat in silence for a while, Grayson starring into the fire.

“Soooo,” he drawled out. “You use to have sex with Satan?”

Avice scowled at Grayson.

Scooting closer to her, Grayson couldn’t help the stupid suggestive smile on his face. “You had sex with the fallen angel, Lucifer. That’s messed up.”

“I was part of his harem! Of course, I had sex with him! And what part of demon do you not understand? We crave violence and power! We maim, kill, trick, and seduce everyone and everything down there in order to climb up the hierarchy! When I was one of his mistresses, I did whatever I could to be on top, to be better than the other sluts,” sitting up, she grabbed a small rock and threw it into the fire. “But in the end, my pride caused my downfall.”

A hiccup, then a cough made Avice glare over at Grayson.

“So you got caught, boo hoo. Cry me a river. Seriously, do it, I am so thirsty that I will literally drink your tears.”

Avice laughed, unable to believe the audacity of him.

“No, no I won’t be doing that,” she gasped out after laughing so hard.

Grayson sat with a stupid grin on his face, oddly satisfied that he was able to make his familiar laugh.

“So, did you kill her?” He questioned, suddenly wondering why he was so curious about Avice.

“The back stabbing whore? Yep. After Lucifer caught me, he threw my into a cell blessed with protections spells so I could not weasel my way out. Couldn’t even touch the bars the spell was so potent.” Avice tilted her head thoughtfully. “But, after a few days of isolation, it was time for my torture. Lucifer allowed the whore to be the one to inflict it.”

Grayson stayed silent, intrigued by the story.

Avice continued. “When I saw she was to be the one to torture me, I snapped. It was like watching yourself through a window, a red tinted window. I saw myself tear away from the torture table and grab her throat. I throttled the bitch. She tried to kill me with her claws but I… I was powered by my need for revenge. I remember squeezing her neck until her face turned purple. I remember waiting for her eyes to roll back. I remember releasing her, only to bite her neck and rip out her betraying throat.”

She looked over at Grayson with a faraway look in her eyes, a small dream-like smile on her lips. “Oh, Grayson. Her blood was like an aphrodisiac for me. I wanted more. So I drank every last drop of her treacherous blood, lapped it up like the greedy bitch that I was, dismembered her whorish body, and waited for Lucifer. He was impressed. He had smiled with me while stepping over her body like she was dirt on underneath his boot. He took my chin in his claws and fated me to serve witches for all eternity.”

Avice sighed.

They stayed like that for a while, both gazing at the fire and getting lost in their own thoughts. As the night sky continued to fall over them, they fell asleep next to each other, feeling a sense of trust beginning to build between them.

And as much as Grayson did not want to admit, he was beginning to appreciate his familiar. He knew if it was not for her, he would have died in that tent with no one but Uphir beside him and his wife on his mind.

But he would be damned if he thanked the fallen demon. No need to make her pride swell so much she attacks him.

When Grayson woke, his head felt like it was getting split open with a rusty knife.

He grabbed his face, not taking any notice of the feline that was sleeping, and purring, peacefully on his lap.

Groaning, he shook off the layer of frost and sat up. Even though his lap was warm from the cat, Grayson pushed Avice off him, making her do a weird body roll so she wouldn’t land on her back.

She glared at him before stretching her long feline body and yawning silently.

With the fire completely burnt out, they started walking back to the church.

Grayson ran his hand through his hair, cringing at how greasy and tangled it felt. His beard was unkempt and missing its strip of leather. He knew where it had gone.

He shivered at the thought, it made him feel slightly violated at how much he captured Uphir’s attention.

Avice croaked loudly above him. She had turned into her raven form the moment she realized the concoction had worn off. She was currently flying through the air above the trees just a few feet ahead of him, enjoying the air underneath her black, feathered wings.

Looking up, Grayson realized he could not see her very well. He squinted his eyes, trying to make the blur turn into sharper lines.

Huffing in annoyance, Grayson focused his vision on the scene in front of him. Everything had a blur to it.

A sudden sun beam peaked through the cloudy sky, causing him to put a hand over his eyes. The piercing pain told him he was sensitive to the light now.

“Avice!” Grayson shouted. He waited until he felt her land on his shoulder.

‘Yes?’ she whispered through their connection.

“I cannot see properly. Uphir did something to my eyes, I need you to tell me what he did.” Without waiting for a response, Grayson dropped his arm and looked at the raven.

Avice dropped off his shoulder to turn into a human. She grabbed his face, staring in to his eyes with shock in her own.

“What did he do to you?” She asked.

“Why?” He blinked several times, the sharp pain of the light making it hard for him to keep his eyes open.

“The color… it’s gone.”

Grayson’s iris was white, only a shadow of color was left behind. Avice gulped at the new look, fear trickled along her spine as she continued to watch him.

His cheek twitched in anger, about to unleash it when his familiar interrupted him.

“You should be able to get it back. Maybe not all your colors, but your vision should correct itself when your demon side recovers.” Avice spoke more with hope than with conviction.

Grayson did not answer, instead he put a hand over his eyes and continued to walk.

Avice rushed to walk beside him, “I’m sorry I did not see it yesterday.”

“Don’t,” Grayson snapped. “I was poisoned, you could not have known.” He thought back to the day before, remembering only bit and pieces. Even with the little memory, he knew his eyes were down cast and half closed most of the time.

An uncurling sensation deep within Grayson’s soul took his attention.

He felt something stretch and move like it had not for centuries.

‘Hmmm. How unpleasant that was,’ Grayson’s demon spoke.

Avice continued to fuss over Grayson, who was no longer paying attention to her.

‘Oh. You have… injuries. I healed most while unconscious but…this is…different.’ The demon sounded unsure, almost as if it never encountered something of this magnitude before.

‘Just take care of it. I do not care how long, just do it,’ Grayson demanded.

He heard his demon growl at the disrespect, but kept silent.

With the church finally within their sights, Grayson sighed out in relief. He needed food, water, wine, and several nights rest to come back from the ordeal that was Uphir and the gigantic centipede-like creature.

But that would require the people around him to give him that luxury.