Accidental Summoning Ch. 04

"Turn and face me."

Randall did so, again with that same stuttering movement. The demon stared deadpan into Randall's eyes as she issued her final order to him.

"Cut your throat. Make sure you get deep enough to hit the arteries."

Moving like a jerky marionette, Randall did as instructed. Hamid could see Randall's blood pulse out over the knife blade as he shoved it hard into the left side of his neck.

A gasping groan sounded from Randall as he dragged the knife across and through his own throat. That groan turned into a whistling gurgle as the blade deep cut into his larynx, and then more blood poured out as he reached the artery on the right side of his neck.

Randall dropped the knife with a clatter, and stood with blood sheeting down his front for a few ghastly moments before collapsing into a tangled mess.

There was one quiet moment before the demon softly spoke once more. "This is the part where you two fuckwits freak out and run."

There was a whirlwind of screaming and flailing as Lonnie and Wilfred were released from their paralysis. In a few moments they'd scrambled out of sight. Hamid could hear their screams echoing from the stairwell behind him as he stared with renewed fear at the green-skinned creature. If he got the belt around his groin loose, he might be able to duck out of the ropes that bound his upper body...

His planning was interrupted as the demon daintily stepped around Randall's still-twitching corpse and approached him again. "Now," she said in that same soft voice. "I'm going to take that gag out of your mouth. And then we're going to have a quiet and civilized conversation, all right? There will be no screaming or crying or blubbering."

Hamid nodded, and she reached up and peeled off the duct tape in one quick yank. "Sorry, kid," she said after Hamid grunted in pain. "It hurts less that way. Trust me, I know from bitter experience."

The demon gently fished the rag out of Hamid's mouth. He took in a great lungful of air, and nearly started babbling in fear. But he controlled himself, closed his eyes, and took in and let out another deep breath. He wasn't quite as helpless as he seemed, and that was enough to keep his frazzled mind together.

"Okay," he said. "Thank you."

She smiled as her voice became more pleasant. "Good boy. You actually listen. Now, what's your name?"

"Hamid. Hamid Abedi."

She reached up and patted his cheek. Her slim hand was human in form but also much warmer than he expected. "You can call me Alichino. It's not my true name of course, but you'd destroy your throat if you tried to pronounce that. Are you injured?"

"Not really. My head is a little sore but that's probably from whatever stuff they drugged me with." Hamid decided it was time to test just how friendly this demon really was. He cleared his throat. "Um, Ms. Alichino, can you cut me loose now please?"

She gave him an apologetic shrug. "I could, but I won't."

Hamid sighed. "Then I'm really sorry for doing this, but I've gotta go."

The belt around Hamid's wrists was plenty loose by now. He slipped one hand out of it and slung his other arm around to throw the belt at the demon's face. As she ducked, his other hand dropped down and yanked at the belt around his groin. It loosened and fell off as he'd hoped and Hamid dropped himself straight down the pole. The ropes around his chest and head slipped up and off of him and he scrambled around the pole, got to his feet, and began running. There was a black and unlit stairwell leading up out of the basement,but right now it looked like the gates of heaven. His thick legs hammered as he sprinted for it...

"Stop running."

The voice of the demon reached into his ears and seemed to fill his legs with concrete. Hamid pitched forward onto his face and managed to get one hand up so that he didn't quite face-plant. Once he was down, that same paralysis seeped into the rest of his body and held him fast to the floor. He could see the stairwell just a few feet away, taunting him like a laughing mouth.

Alichino stepped into his view, in between him and the stairway. Now that he was this close to her feet he saw that they were not as human as he'd thought. Each foot had three thick toes each and almost looked like bird's feet without the talons.

He heard the demon give a hearty laugh. "Whoo-ee! You are lot quicker on your feet than I expected for someone your size. All right, ya silly goof, get up."

Hamid found he could now move again. He slowly got to his feet and looked over at Alichino. His heart hammered in his chest, and he half expected her to just tear into into his guts and begin feasting.

But she was smiling with evident delight, although Hamid blanched at the sight of her bared teeth. He could now see that her teeth were more properly called fangs.

Hamid tried to speak through a throat that was closing in fright. "I, I..."

"It's okay, I'm not mad. No harm no foul. Now let me check you over." Alichino touched his face and then arms with nimble fingers, her yellow eyes looking at his bare forearms in particular. "Good," she said. "No injuries from when you fell forward." She turned over Hamid's hands to look at his palms and stared in disgust at the oozing and bloody slash on his thumb. "Did they do that?"

Hamid's throat opened. "Yeah, they added my blood to the ink around the pentagram thing."

"Which does fuck-all." She shook her head. "Buncha idiot poser Satanists wasting my time. Now come with me." Alichino took Hamid's arm, turned him around, and walked him back towards the support pillar. His feet seemed to move of their own accord as they obeyed her command.

The demon spoke as they walked together. "You got those belts loose without me or them noticing. Not bad, kid. Not bad at all, especially for a rookie. You might make a good operative if I train you up some."

That made him feel a little better as she parked him back in front of the pillar, although he didn't really want to find out what was involved in being an 'operative' for a demon.

Alichino smiled. "Now, as I was going to explain before I was so rudely interrupted...nah, actually, let's test how smart you are. What is this place, my dear Hamid?"

He felt another spike of fear. Was this creature going to hurt him after all? He tamped down that fear and tried to figure out what she was driving at. He stood almost at attention in front of her as he looked around. "It's a...a basement? Randall mentioned something about this house being abandoned."

"Sorry, I was imprecise. What is this place now?"

He looked around again at the candles, the pentagram...and the crumpled body lying in a pool of its own blood. "It's a crime scene."

That earned him another pat on the cheek. "Very good. You're smart as well as light on your feet. There will be a lot of screaming and running about by the Fuckwit Twins, so somebody's going to investigate. I don't know how long it will take for the police to get here, but when they do come down here you need to be tied so well to that pillar that you couldn't possibly have done it yourself."

That made him feel a little better, but he did think of another option. "You know, I could just make myself scarce and pretend that I was never here."

"Nah, those two idiots will get caught by the police sooner or later and they'll squeal. I know the squealers when I see 'em. And your blood is all over the floor, so their testimony plus your DNA...yeah, the cops will know for sure that you were here."

Hamid gave a sigh as he realized the demon was a few steps ahead of him. A more bloodthirsty option rose in his mind. "Not...not that I'm saying you should have, but you could have killed them as well. Or made them kill themselves. But then, I guess you could also just kill me too-"

Her hand stroked his broad chest in a calming manner. "Relax, kid. You need to trust me. My way will work out better and with less of a body count. This is not my first rodeo. Now, are you going to let me tie you back up or do I have to get bossy?"

"No, go ahead. I...I trust you." Hamid didn't like the idea of being tied back against that damned pole, but it was better than having this creature command his body again. One experience of that was plenty for him. He picked up the ropes from the base of the pillar and stepped back against it as he settled the smaller rope around his forehead.

"So what's next?" he asked as he shrugged into the rope that went around his chest.

Alichino shrugged. "We tie you up and wait. I don't want to just vanish and leave you hanging, so to speak. I'm not sure how long the cops will take to get here."

Then she snapped her fingers. "Shit. Before I forget, let me get that damned notebook..." She strolled off and retrieved the small binder from the table, then flipped through it briefly as she returned. "Good, looks like it's all here." She snapped it closed and gave Hamid another very sharp-toothed grin that made him shiver slightly. "I'm gonna have to give ol' Des a ration of shit for not retrieving this earlier." she said, then gave a chuckle.

"Des...that's the 'Desdemona' you mentioned?"

"Yep. She's the one that Paul summoned by accident."

The true impact of what had happened here finally hit Hamid. He'd taken pride in being a rational person and not at all bound by religious thinking. Religious fanatics had driven his family from their home country, after all. But now he knew that the supposed 'real' world was nothing like the truth. "Randall wasn't just raving," he said in wonder. "Paul really was taken by demons."

"Well, he was kidnapped by 'a' demon, namely Desdemona," replied Alichino. "But it all worked out eventually, and they're now quite happy together. They do make a really cute couple." She gave another glance at the script around the pentagram. "Yep, looks like...this shithead's name was Randall? Randall tried to summon Desdemona, but phrased it as 'the demon who holds Paul Haskell's soul'."

Hamid's forehead wrinkled. "But why didn't Desdemona show up instead?"

"Well, she's off on an assignment for Father. The timeline that she's in is...well, let's call it a lot 'farther' away than my home in Abbadon. So the summons spell reached me first. You see, Paul and I..." Alichino trailed off and gave a dimpled smile. "Well, let's just say we're good friends. He's staying at my place while Des is away, so the spell must have decided 'eh, close enough' and yanked me here."

"Sort of like a cell phone network," mused Hamid. "The spell hunted around until it found the right ID."

Alichino shrugged. "If you say so. Is that your specialty, the human-tech stuff?"

"Yeah, most of what I'm studying is wireless and computer networks."

Alichino walked back into the pentagram, again detouring around Randall's now-stilled body. She bent over gracefully and set the notebook next to her own pamphlet. As she did so, Hamid's gaze was drawn to her slim but shapely ass, set just under her thick and prehensile tail. He could also make out her nether lips at the junction of her wire-muscled thighs, and thought he saw the merest hint of her rear pucker.

Hamid kept staring at the wonderful sight while his fear began to be mixed in with some good old-fashioned horniness. Before his mother had died, he'd promised her that he wouldn't screw around while at college. Actually, in his mother's usual blunt fashion, she'd made him promise to 'keep it in his damned pants'. Hamid had honored that promise, which wasn't always easy. But now he was being mooned by a naked demon, and his pecker didn't care one bit how dangerous she might be. He felt a little tent get pitched in his jeans and prayed that she wouldn't notice.

He started in surprise as Alichino's hand smacked one of her own asscheeks. She looked back at him from over her shoulder and wiggled her behind invitingly. "You like?" she asked with a lewd smile.

Hamid snatched his eyes back up and away from that lovely sight. "I'm really, really sorry, ma'am."

She straightened and turned around, then put a hand on her hip. Her tail began lashing again as if it had a mind of its own. "Oh, Hamid, you poor little thing. You've got me all wrong. I know we didn't meet under the best of circumstances." She waved at Randall's corpse as she spoke. "But I'm nice, really I am. And I'm never upset at getting ogled by a cute human such as yourself."

"Cute?"

She smiled, showing her fangs again as she sashayed back towards him. He could barely breathe as she stroked a small warm hand across one side of his thick neck. She knelt and picked up the larger belt and re-strapped it around his thighs. "Oh, yes. You're very cute. Cute eyes, cute hair, cute bod." She stood up, leaned forward, and shoved her nose up into the crook of his neck as she inhaled deeply. "And you have a wonderful smell."

This close, he could feel her substantial body heat and smell her as well. He was surprised at how pleasant her own scent was, a mixture of slightly spicy and floral notes. He gave a little laugh. "Well, I was aiming for dashing and handsome but I guess I'll take cute."

"I for sure would take you, cutie," replied Alichino with a playful growl. She pressed against him and sniffed at his neck again. He felt his breath catch as her groin made contact with his crotch. The wood that he'd gotten upon seeing her ass hadn't gone away yet.

Alichino froze as she felt his semi-boner, then gave a sly look up into his reddening face. "Why Hamid, you animal! Is this for me?" She pressed herself firmly into his center and ground against his still-growing hardness.

Hamid had made a promise to his dearly departed mother, but he was also young man tied to a post with a naked woman rubbing against his crotch. There really was only one answer he could give, and he hoped his mom would understand. "Um, yes it is. If you want it."

"Ooooohhh, yes. Momma certainly wants." Her yellow eyes gleamed with happy anticipation.

Hamid's brain was still trying to catch up with what the hell his mouth was doing. Had he just propositioned a demon? "But don't worry," he burst out, "I'll cook you dinner first!"

Alichino stared up at him with a shocked look on her face. Then she grinned inhumanly wide and burst out laughing.

"Sorry," he mumbled while she roared with mirth. "I don't know why I said that."

She immediately got herself under control and patted his shoulder. "No, no, that was wonderful. Very thoughtful and gallant of you. The offer just took me by surprise, is all." She snorted as if she'd start laughing again, but pressed her hand to her mouth. "Right. It's a date, cutie. You make me dinner and I'll fuck you silly. After this whole thing has blown over, of course."

That last statement set off another round of fear in Hamid's brain. "Oh, shit! What do I tell them? The police, I mean."

Alichino snuggled against his bound form momentarily, then knelt and picked up the other belt and moved behind him. "The truth. Tell 'em everything, don't leave out a single detail." She pulled his hands together behind the pillar and wrapped the belt around his wrists.

Hamid couldn't believe his ears. "What? No fucking way! If I tell them about you, they'll think I've gone nuts. Shit, maybe I am nuts. Unless you want to come to the station with me and make a statement."

Alichino finished binding his wrists and began checking his other bonds. "Heh, no I won't. Just trust me, okay? I have a good sense of people."

She moved around again in front of him. "And just as I know that the Fuckwit Twins are squealers, I also know that you can't lie for shit. Don't blush, that's actually a good thing. Ya see, the police will make you go through your story over and over. If you try to obfuscate or lie they will know. Just tell 'em what happened and let me take care of the rest."

Hamid was going to protest but then heard a distant call from upstairs.

"Is there anyone down there?"

Alichino put a finger over his lips while she whispered. "That's the cops. I can smell leather holsters and gun oil. I'm sorry to do this, but I gotta gag you again, okay? It'll look better."

He stared at her for a long moment, then nodded. She smiled warmly and retrieved the rag and tape. Alichino was a lot more gentle about putting the gag in than Lonnie had been. "I'll make this up to you later," she whispered in his ear. "Now I have a lot of running around to do. Don't worry, I'll be watching over you the whole time. See you around, my gallant little cutie."

The demon kissed his chin, then strode quietly back into the center of the pentagram and retrieved her books. She gave Hamid a wink and then vanished. But this time there wasn't the 'VWAP' that had heralded her initial appearance; now she just seemed to fade away into the stained concrete wall.

Hamid was alone in the basement, but not for long. He could already see the dancing lights from the cops' flashlights as they carefully walked down the creaking stairway behind him.

__________________________________________________________

In spite of the fact that his injuries totaled one slashed thumb and some minor chafing on his wrists, they wound up putting him in the hospital anyway 'for observation'. After the initial questioning by police, the hospital staff drew so much blood from Hamid that he half suspected the staff of being vampires. His attempts to call his family were shut down, although the doctors and police assured him that they'd been notified and were flying out that night.

There was a long and tedious night of further questioning and disbelieving stares. The other annoyance was lots of hospital staff coming into and out of his room. He was finally allowed to fall asleep in the early morning.

When Hamid woke there was a new person in his room, casually sitting in the room's only chair and reading a copy of The Economist. He was certainly a cop judging by the badge that peeked out from his belt. The man was powerfully built and dressed in a spotless and well-tailored pale gray suit that contrasted well with his shaved head and dark skin. His eyes were dark as well, and perched in front of his eyes was a pair of round wire-rimmed spectacles. Hamid could also see a pair of blue crystal cufflinks and a matching tie-pin. The policeman looked more like he was ready to take part in a fashion photo-shoot rather than to question somebody.

The man looked up as Hamid stirred. He shut his magazine and smiled at the bedridden young man, his teeth white and even against his dark face. "Hamid Abedi? I'm Detective Bruce Alberth." He stood and offered Hamid his hand, which Hamid dutifully shook.

Detective Alberth seated himself again and leaned back causally. "So. I would ask how you're feeling, but that would be a stupid question."

Hamid gave a ghost of a chuckle. "Yeah. I mean, I feel fine physically."

The detective nodded and set his magazine into a slim briefcase next to his chair. "And how about mentally? Are you seeing things? Like, for example, green demon-women coming out of the walls?"

Hamid shook his head.

"Good. It sounds like you had quite the eventful night." The detective pulled a small notepad and pen out of his lapel pocket and flipped the pad open in a neat little motion. "Care to tell me about it? Take your time."

Hamid kept himself from sighing as he went through the whole ridiculous-sounding story yet again. The night out with Randall, the drugged drink, waking and finding himself tied up in the basement...he told the man everything, including the appearance of the green demon and Randall's grisly demise.

Surprisingly, the detective didn't scoff or interrupt at any point, even when the tale became outlandish. His dark eyes twinkled behind his spectacles as Hamid finally wound down.