Page 10 of Monsters' Touch

“I don’t know what you said to him, Lil, but whatever it was, lunch is on me. I should have never let him come along.”

I nod, pulling back, releasing my grip on our host’s consciousness until we are disconnected. I still sense the world through her, but Lily is now fully in control.

I stay, listening as Lily strings together rather convincing half-truths to explain her actions.

Once I’m certain our host is well and in the care of her friend, I take my leave.

The bridge plane is a most uncomfortable experience. While in our host, I have access to her physical sensations, her body. But the formlessness of thebetweenis so disorienting, so off-putting that, ofttimes, I find it difficult to concentrate on reintegration. Something my dorm mates refuse to allow me to forget.

The worst only happened once, where I failed completely at entering my body and spent three weeks in the infirmary being lorded over by the healers.

No one knows why putting essence into a waiting body can go so wrong.

Or why, if one isn’t careful, one might end up with horns on their ass.

But I have no desire to do so again, so I pour every bit of mental fortitude into reintegration.

It starts with stinging prickles as I cross the gate, then every muscle buzzes and twitches, before finally, I am myself again. In my body.

I open my eyes and suck in a sharp gasp as three pairs of eyes bore into me from above.

They aren’t supposed to be here.

“Well?” Rhygel glares at me, hand upturned and waiting. “Where are they?”

I resist the urge to stand, to tower over him.

Only lesser demons allow their equals to dominate or roll them. But in order to work together to achieve our goal, we’ve made concessions. Rhygel is methodical and level-headed, unlike the rest of us, which makes him best suited to lead. But that doesn’t remove the urge to assert myself whenever he tries to roll me.

“Where are what?” I ask through gritted teeth, barely containing the growl I’d enjoy loosing on him. I sit there, muscles tense and coiled and ready to spring up but gripping the thin wooden arms of the dormitory chair, claws extended, biting into the grain to keep me in place.

“The souls you collected while Earth-side.” He glares at me, fury rising. “I assume that’s why you left your body without telling us, to gain advantage in the trial. That must be it, for there can be no other reason you would put yourself at risk in such a foolish way.”

I cannot keep my lip from curling as I let out a low growl.

Rhygel has every right to admonish me. I intentionally defied a direct order and deserve whatever he doles out.

But my nature refuses to take it lying down. Refuses to submit even when I know I fairly earned it.

And that is why so few demons work through the trials together.

Balancing tempers and egos and dominance is hard work, sometimes more difficult than trial itself.

I glare right back at Rhygel’s furious face.

“What new host have you taken, Typhon?” Malphas asks over Rhygel’s shoulder. He isn’t nearly as angered as Rhygel, but I scent the disapproval coming off him in waves.

“It might not be such a bad thing,” offers the ever-amiable Barbas. “Let’s hear him out before we pass judgment.”

I cast a gaze to my peacemaking brother. His attempts to maintain our tenuous homeostasis are admirable but also strange and unbecoming of a demon.

He is always the first to back down from a fight of wills. First to attempt to repair trust when broken.

He’s good at those things.

I…

Am not.

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