Book One: Time Of The Clan

chapter 9

The two friends quickly headed down to Mephisto's room, both wanting to get this over with a soon as possible. Once they reached the doors they knocked, once, twice, and then trice. The door opened, revealing a nicely lit room and a wide array of herbal remedies and potions. Many things were different, there were pieces of different animals, some bottles, labeled and unlabeled, there were also many painful looking devices. Atticus shivered as iliya pulled him into the room.
"Hello and welcome." Mephisto's body suddenly appeared next front of them, he shooed Atticus out of the doorway and onto the bed.
"Sit, sit. Now tell me, what can I do for you Atticus?" Mephisto asked, enunciating the boy's name.
Atticus looked mephisto up and down suspiciously. "I need my uh... my wrist fixed." Atticus felt his magic reveal the injury, letting the doctor inspect it.
"Now, that doesn't look good. No, it doesn't. But I can fix you up. For a price obviously." The man grinned.
Atticus looked at iliya but she clearly couldn't hear what was being said from the door.
"What. What's the price." Atticus demanded.
"Take this." He handed Atticus a compass. "This will allow us to communicate." Mephisto promised, knowing Atticus would be too naïve to ask or even inspect for ulterior motives.
"Okay. Fine. I'll take the compass, you heal me." Atticus agreed, not knowing the depth behind the words. Mephisto smiled, knowing the trick worked. Atticus took the compass and pocketed it, as soon as it was in the boy's hands, mephisto stood up to leave.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Atticus called to the man across the room.
"I can't possibly help you if I don't have the right ingredients." Mephisto explained to Atticus, almost as if he were a child.
"Oh." Atticus settled down after that. Mephisto soon returned and pressed his hand to Atticus's chest, motioning for him to lean back. Atticus laid down on the soft bed, letting the man guide him.
There was a warm feeling on the injured wrist, mephisto was rubbing a cool paste on it, it was made up of things Atticus knew nothing about. The bigger mans unoccupied hand made its way up Atticus's chest, almost feeling him up, Atticus was going to protest but he knew he couldn't, not until his wrist was healed, luckily it didn't take long, another five minutes of the trespassing hands and his wrist was fixed.
Atticus quickly pulled himself up and turned around, watching mephisto. Mephisto stood up.
"Your wrist is healed; give it a day of rest and you'll be back to normal" mephisto leaned in closer. "You will not tell iliya what happened, I can take everything from you, I advise you to listen to my warning."
Atticus stepped back slowly, he turned around and ran through the door. Iliya saw him running and followed, she quickly caught up to him and tugged on his arm.
"Atticus! Kiddo! What happened?" She asked worriedly.
"I just... there was... it was so bad." Was all Atticus could say as he hugged iliya.
"Hey...you don't have to tell me, but I do want to support you." She rubbed his back, grounding him.
His breathing slowed, slower and slower, until he reached a normal pace, he was still shaky, but he could think.
"I just... saw something really gross." Atticus told her. Iliya had a feeling he was lying but she didn't press on the matter.
"Well, we should head back, aamon is wanting you, he has stuff to accomplish given our meeting took much too long." Iliya laughed softly. She dragged Atticus away and into the common room, there they found aamon, Yumil, and killian all sitting together on a couch, they seemed to be arguing, Yumil getting angrier and angrier. Atticus walked up slowly behind aamon with iliya, the two leaders stood up, tension filling the room.
"Hello?" Atticus said quietly. The two leaders froze.
"Oh hello, queen Atticus." Killian said respectfully, immediately diverting his attention from Yumil to Atticus.
"Hello little one." Yumil said, angry at the interruption, but knowing better than to disrespect Atticus in front of his husband.
"Hello killian, Yumil." Atticus greeted the two of them. Aamon looked up at the boy behind him, he looked away and pat the spot beside him, motioning for the boy to come sit beside him. Atticus followed and sat in the soft chair, aamon pulled Atticus close so that their sides were now pressed together.
Atticus shuddered, already overwhelmed from the contact with mephisto earlier. He had to tell himself that it wasn't mephisto, that it was aamon, the aamon who wouldn't hurt him. Not now at least. He forced his body to lean into the touch, allowing comfort to flow through his body, even if it wasn't willing. Aamon rubbed his side in approval, despite his earlier frustration with the boy, he did appreciate his current submission. Aamon could see killian glaring at him, while yumil was just laughing. Killian had a strange...appreciation for Atticus, it seemed he had quickly become protective of the boy, possessive. He acted like a lover who had his partner stolen by another, when Atticus had been with aamon since the beginning, apart from his short time with Meredith at least. Killian took a seat next to Atticus, unusually close. Atticus shifted closer to aamon, wondering why all the leaders, apart from iliya, were acting so weird around him. Iliya disliked killian's behavior, he was normally a gentle man, very kind, very respectful, but right now he was acting horribly, it was bad for himself and Atticus.
Yumil suddenly spoke up, his voice sounding sharp.
"So, Atticus, what brings you here? What brings you here to us?" he asked, his gaze prying.
"Aamon had mentioned a day or so ago that we had a busy schedule, the meeting interrupted it and now I am trying to see if the plans are still in continuation." Atticus looked up at aamon as he said that.
"I assure you; I still have plans to introduce you to our community, I even gave our scraps to the lower ranking demons, just like you asked." Aamon squeezed Atticus's side, a warning. Atticus knew this was aamon's way of saying that Atticus should be thankful he even did anything at all for the boy.
Atticus did appreciate it, but he hated the reasons aamon chose to do it.
"Well, I think that is very responsible of you, my queen." Killian praised.
"Thank you?" Atticus was confused at the affection from the man, it was frustrating.
"We are likely not going to go shopping, but we will still introduce you to the people, we will prepare for a gathering today." Aamon told Atticus.
"A gathering! Oh, I can't wait. I would quite like to meet your people." Killian said, looking at Atticus, he was blatantly ignoring aamon. Aamon growled at killian, disliking the disrespect from a stranger in his own home.
Atticus stood up.
"Then I will get ready to be presented. I don't think I should look like this." Atticus looked at the hoodie and shorts. Iliya grinned.
"Yeah, I don't think aamon would appreciating all the low-ranking demons looking you up and down." She laughed.
Atticus stood up to leave the room, hopper following, the dragon was very quiet and behaved, it was surprising considering her normally spicy personality. She seemed to shy away from most of the leaders, another indication of her aversion towards them.
Atticus didn't mind though, it let him know who he could and couldn't trust, he believed the dragon was helping him, and he appreciated it.
He heard footsteps behind him in the echoing halls. He turned around to see who was following him, it was killian.
"What do you need killian? Atticus asked.
"I have a proposal for you." Killian said, out of breath.
"And what is it?" Atticus was skeptical.
"Run away with me. Let me take you to my kingdom. I want to show you wonders, far more than that bastard aamon could do." Killian promised, a hopeful look flourishing on his face. Atticus looked around nervously.
"I... I don't know. I will think about it killian. Would hopper be able to come with me?" Atticus asked.
"Of course she could. I will await your response young queen." Killian smiled.
"Hey. Wait." Atticus called.
"Yes?" Killian asked.
"Where did... where did Meredith go?" Atticus asked.
"Aamon did not want her here, he sent her away." Killian smiled. "She won't bother you here. Nor could she if you were with me." Killian laughed Atticus turned away, heading into his room, killian had stopped him right before he entered. Atticus walked to the dresser nice h got in, prepared to make an entrance to the demons of the west. Suddenly the door opened, aamon stepped inside and brushed of his coat.
Atticus welcomed aamon as he pulled out a change of clothes.
"No need to do that emerald." Aamon said.
"What?" Atticus said confused.
"You don't need to change; the gathering will be tomorrow." Aamon told Atticus.
"Oh. Okay then. May I ask why?" Atticus asked.
"I wanted to be with you of course." Aamon patted the space on the bed beside him. Atticus followed and sat beside aamon. Aamon suddenly pulled Atticus's closer, flipping him over aamon pinned Atticus to the bed. He quickly moved Atticus arms above his head.
"Your beautiful emerald." Aamon complimented.
"W-what! Aamon!" Atticus scolded. Attempting to get away.
"Shhhh. Don't struggle." Aamon cooed, right before he kissed Atticus, their lips molded together, Atticus pushed his lips together, denying aamon entrance. Aamon pulled away.
"Open. Now." He demanded.
"N-"Atticus's mouth was claimed, aamons tongue invading the smaller boy's lips. Atticus kicked at aamon as he felt a hand make its way up his shirt, Atticus thrashed about at the touch. Hopper tried to stop the man from hurting Atticus but aamon just used his mana to freeze her, stopping her from doing anything.
Aamon finally pulled away from Atticus. He looked at the boy's face, the tears and blush coating his face made aamon grin. He kissed up and down Atticus's chest, trying to taste as much of the boy as possible. Aamon reached down to unbuckle his pants and that's when Atticus took the chance.
Atticus kicked him off, finally pushing the man away. Atticus glared at aamon as he jumped to grab hopper.
"Why..." Atticus looked at aamon fearfully. "I don't understand..." Aamon laughed.
"Your just so pretty love...I just needed to have a taste of you." Aamons demon form began to show, Atticus was scared, he immediately turned tail and fled with hopper. He ran to the common room, he knew killian would be there. Once he got there, he pushed the doors open, seeing killian he sighed in relief.
"Killian!" He cried out.
"Atticus? What happened?" He hugged the smaller boy, he was shivering.
"Aamon he...he..." Atticus couldn't talk at the moment.
"If I go with you- "Atticus began- "would I still be able to talk with iliya?"
"of course, anything you want, Atticus." Killian promised. "In fact, I will tell her now." Killian summoned a little ice fox; it was a messenger made to talk long distance.
"What did you tell her?" Atticus asked.
"She knows we are leaving and that she is welcome to come visit, I suggested that she leave as well, for her own safety." Killian told Atticus. "You ready to leave?" He asked.
"Whenever you are." Atticus let a small smile slip; he was going to be safe.... for now.

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Word count:1998

Hello! I am aware I haven't done much of an authors note so far, but I really appreciate the support so far, I have up to chapter 13 written, but I post a chapter a week on either Thursdays or fridays. I hope you have a good rest of your day,

Atticus