I’ve come to save you, I’ve come to ruin you
The runes surrounding him glow only enough to give mere contours of his surroundings.
It is of no importance. He is not afraid of a monster hiding in the dark. Most of the time, that is him.
He cocks his head–for no real purpose; the ears worn by his current form are useless.
He senses the trippity-trap of a small heart, the whoosh of tiny lungs, the blood rushing through the runty body of a child...
A dark chuckle escapes him.
Children are always so fun.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are... You have summoned me for a reason. Will you not let me see my new master?”
He turns on his own axis, peering into the shadows, as if he has not already located the urchin.
“Dominion. I have questions to ask you,” sounds from behind him, where he had known the youth hides behind some boxes.
“You do?” He softens his voice until it is like velvet in one’s ears. “What do you expect from my answers?”
“I know you can’t lie.”
“Who told you, child?” A name, give me a name.
“None of your concern.”
“Oh, isn’t it? My kind's secrets are whispered about in this world.
“There are books written about the secrets of your kind.”
“Books on demons are notoriously unreliable. Sometimes the rune circles can not even hold us in our earthly forms.”
He stretches and grows, testing his constraints. They hold, for now. He shrinks again, presses himself against the floorboards, grows a tail and swishes it in a hypnotizing pattern.
“Seems the one I picked was solid, at least.”
He grins lazily, fangs dropping from his gums to shine in the glow of his chalky prison.
“That is what it seems like.”
His summoner finally steps into the dim light.
Green eyes look down at him from under raven locks. He drops the facade of the big cat he had donned and locks gazes with them on eye level instead.
“What is your name, child?” he asks in the guise of an equal, the voice of an angel.
“You will never know,” they answer, a vow singing in their words.
Not as imbecilic as some, he judges, but all children get careless. If you just give them enough rope to hang themselves with.
He backs down again and sees them steeling themselves.
“Will my aunt die? Can she be saved?”
This first time, he lacks satisfying answers.