Chapter One
The first morning of the demon's release in 2003 found her smiling to herself while playing with the Nokia cell phone in her hand. After all these years floating in the background, she was finally free and breathing the frosty morning air. It had taken longer than she initially imagined when she first made the bargain with Lapu Lapu. From what she remembered, the demon had assumed his bloodline would have been strong enough to carry her powers forward into the mortal realm. But that turned out not to be the case. It was sheer happenstance that the girl's father was a descendant of the holy man who helped call her forth to Lapu Lapu that fateful evening. The mixture of seer and warrior lineage was potent enough to wake her from her long slumber when the girl was conceived.
She could barely stifle the smirk as she thought of the mother's face when they hung up the phone.
I wonder what she's thinking now.
After crawling into bed, the demon dozed a few more hours before her cell phone woke her. It was the mother calling, asking what the girl's decision would be.
"I slept, and I feel much calmer," she said coldly.
She caught the mother off guard. The girl had never sounded this levelheaded before.
"Are you sure?" the mother said, hesitantly.
She looked at her reflection again, this time noticing her eyes were fiery and gray. She made her hand into a fist and punched a small crack into the concrete wall next to her bed.
"Yes, Mom," the demon said, head held high. "I feel great."
She couldn't be sure that one phone call would really get the message across that the girl had accepted the bargain. The demon felt the parents had no business knowing the details of what happened between her and the girl. All deals with the demon world were between the two parties involved. When the blood spilled, the least the demon could do was adhere to the privacy of her bargainer.
Hmmm.what to do with this.
The demon noted the sun's early rays peeking over the horizon, the light streaming more steadily into the small dorm room. The new roommates, Hazel and Bethany, were still snoring away as she slowly clicked the door shut, strolling down to the main bathroom. She was a little perturbed she could only smell young women on the floor, wrinkling her nose at the thought that the girl had been too scared to request a co-ed dorm.
Tsk-tsk, little girl. What were you so afraid of, huh? The demon smirked as she entered the bathroom. Did you think those little boys would be dangerous?
Standing on the cold, sterile tile, she twitched her nose at the smell of bleach and fruity lotion-nausea was a new sensation. She observed the dingy fluorescent lighting. This bathroom held the only full-length mirror the demon was aware of, and after hundreds of years drifting in the Between space, she wanted to see her prize. The girl's body was decent but a little shorter than she had wished. At five foot four, she gazed upon her long, straight dark-brown hair, her fingers toying and curling the ends. Quickly, each strand separated and twirled, as though Medusa's snakes had possessed them, twisting and turning until her hair took on the curls of her ancestors. Brown and copper highlights wove through her hair, and the skin on her stomach and thighs bubbled slowly, like something was moving underneath.
The baby fat surrounding her abdominals shifted down toward her buttocks, allowing her muscles to shine through as her waist trimmed instantly. Her rear grew rounder, filling out like she'd had Brazilian butt-lift surgery. She cocked her head to the side, and her fingers snapped to increase the melanin in her skin tone, giving her a brown glow, as though she'd stepped off a beach in one of Gaughan's paintings.
As she relaxed the tension in her hand, numbness and cramping began to spread across the nerve pathways she'd used to pull her magic. Her vision swam as a wave of nausea hit, flashes of hot and cold causing her to break out in a clammy sweat along her hairline and lower back. Bracing herself against the wall, the demon forced her gaze to the square tiles on the floor as she tried to breathe slowly.
What the fuck.
The tingling sensation continued with the paling of her cheeks, leaving her no choice but to stay as still as possible. It took almost twenty minutes for her to get a steady breathing rhythm and her hands to stop trembling. As she pushed off the wall, hard as she tried, she could not piece together any memories of her former life beyond the knowledge that she served Death and crossed over into the mortal realm because of a deal she'd made with this familial bloodline long ago. Her strongest memories lay with the bargain that tied to the body she now wore, but the thousands of years of history before her summoning seemed beyond reach. What should have been a simple meditation exercise to look within her third eye, an essential chakra point in most Eastern philosophies, gave her a headache. The only image she conjured was a pair of green eyes with blue flecks.
Given that this girl had the standard dark-brown eyes, changing to green may be a little too much.
Lifting her left index finger, she slowly curled it up toward the cold lighting overhead. The irises in her eyes, following the faint use of the demonic pulse, gradually lightened, first from dark brown, to cherry red brown, to brown, then eventually to a cold, stormy gray, as though churning clouds were brewing. Now, depending on the tilt of her head, golden-amber flecks shone in various patterns, like the ancient stars of her people's navigation were cast in her pupils.
That's much better, she thought before grabbing the dull spearhead in her right hand, palm up. Now, we just need to keep you close by.
Even though the joints in her fingers and palms were aching, she pushed her pulsing veins down, staring at the old metal weapon and letting the vibrations of magic ooze through her hand like blood. The spell now shone dark red, like black ink pumped along her veins, each tendril pushing and pulling the spearhead down until it wrapped around her right ring finger as if a small dagger ring had been imprinted there her whole life.
Her heavy breathing was all that echoed on the cold tiles as she wiped away tiny droplets that spilled to the floor.
Wobbling in place as she stared back in the mirror, the demon had only two thoughts.
Why can't I remember? And why am I so hungry.
"General?"
She knew that voice-a sinister smile curled on the demon's face as she turned around to find the Master of Death staring back at her. He was, as always, dressed in one of his three-piece suits, this one a lovely, elegant gray, as dark as the storm clouds rolling in from across the sea. She could not believe he had waited until now to come see her.
"You're here!" she said, practically fainting into his gloved arms and sighing as he caught her.
She reached out and touched his face, but he pulled back, whisking her from the room instantly.
High above the stone foundations of the bell tower overlooking the UC Berkeley campus, two figures floated together under the cover of fog rolling in around the valley. Gray eyes surveyed the world before her, the chill of the night raising bumps on the flesh she was still adjusting to.
"How do you feel?" said the figure floating next to her, stretching a hand out with a glass of Dom Pérignon.
"It's.different," said the demon, looking over at her Master. "Not quite what I expected after all this time.I find myself at a loss for what to do about these unfortunate setbacks?"
"Oh?" Death said, raising his tone of voice.
She took a sip of her champagne and started coughing as the bitterness hit her tongue. Droplets and spray hit the cold air as her strange cackle started. She tried to keep it in, realizing the ridiculous scene she was making, but the sheer audacity of what she had accomplished seemed to hit her at that moment, pushing the giggles out of her.
Death looked at her with his eyebrow raised in confusion.
"Not"-the demon's laughter ensued-"sorry. It's just ludicrous that this is where I am. I'm reborn in the body of an eighteen-year-old. A harbinger of death"-her laughter continued-"and I can't remember anything beyond Lapu Lapu and the battle? I have tried the most basic of our.your magic, and I can't even handle a sip of champagne?! Oh, world.look out!" she said mockingly.
Once she could stifle her laughter and breathe normally, Death reached over and took her hand in his gloved one. For the first time in centuries, he'd been able to touch her, and he slowly helped her.
"I won't lie, General," Death said. "I am disappointed that you chose this road."
The demon's gray eyes widened, lips parting. "What? Why?"
"Honestly?" Death said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You are the only one of my generals who has ever tried, much less successfully crossed over to the mortal realm. The lesser soldiers and creations we use for my army I expect this kind of behavior from, but not one who has worn and represented my banner for more than a few thousand years! I don't know what this means, or why you went...
