Sex God Saga

Sex God Saga 11

Everyone Loves a Good Exorcism

SUNDAY:

Theo had found the Ivory Heaven entrance all by himself and spent a few hours getting mentored by Coralline.

The shaman woman had studied painting under a muse of art who'd apparently been superhumanly capable but also incredibly demanding of her students.

Theo's attempts at sketching Ascelin had gone okay, but the important part was that he now carried premade Atlas glyphs – not yet V-charged but imbued with meaning. They were mostly repellents.

After a bowl of ramen at Elmwood Square, Coralline had to go but she left Theo with little protectors, Daisy and Marigold – wisps in corresponding flowers.

Theo stored them with Blinky in the breast pocket of his tan linen jacket he wore over a white shirt – both gifts from his shopping trip with Paris.

That golden prince texted him right then, with a hundred dollars attached to `spend on yourself'. Theo had taken a picture yesterday after his shower, of himself bending over with his back to the mirror. He sent it now, happily feeling like a slut. He also sent the picture to Fulin, just to see what kind of reaction he'd get.

With some of that slut-allowance, he got himself a cup of sweet, creamy coffee at a bakery – his first since the demon incident at work.

He didn't want to sit down as he drank because the Watcher was glaring at him through pigeons if he stood still.

Mako texted him.

Theo had expected as much. He'd half expected the Forgedancer to knock at his door in the morning, wanting more sex but that hadn't happened.

Except... This was work related, if you could call it that.

The sex video Aaron had filmed had stayed gone but Greyson White, Hierarch of Agrippa's Convent, had requested it for Theo's file. They were kindly asking Theo and Mako for consent. Apparently they were considering new angles to figure out his `condition'.

When Theo put his phone back into his pocket, he realized he had taken a turn into a delivery alley. Back entrances to different shops were on either side, the end was loosely separated from the main square by a mesh fence and a trash container across it.

Was he... a little tipsy? Oh no.

Theo turned around, to the bend he'd just taken and-

There was a guy. White, bald, strong, unnaturally green eyes, unnaturally pulsing veins.

Theo pulled his phone out again. He'd drawn a repellent barrier glyph on the back in the form of an intricate mandala with interlocking rings. "S-stand back. By the strength I invest in this sigil, you shall-"

He felt pressure against the V he was pumping into the seal. The man rushed in, tackling Theo with a much stronger grip than the twink would wiggle out of.

"Feed me," the man growled, now with a faint green glow as a halo around his head.

Speech? It wasn't a demon taking shape through a roaming vessel like a muse stepping from a painting – this was a hostile possession. Which meant Theo should not hurt or kill the human host, not that he'd known how to.

The phone dropped and the possessed hunk pushed Theo around while pulling the shaman's pants down.

Theo fiddled with his chest pocket while his briefs got torn to bits.

The demon was more visible to his summoning sense. Green, spectral cat ears, or maybe fox ears or something, poked from the bald head.

Theo got Marigold free. Pointless - the wisp inhabited not the flower but the sunlight falling upon it and the alley was in shadow. He kept digging. "Blinky, some help?"

A firefly pushed Daisy into his hand while leaving the jacket pocket. In that moment, the jacket was torn off Theo and he got pushed into worn brick wall.

His bag was by his side, maybe if he could reach...

Blinky zipped across the hunk's face, sparking. The possession recoiled, a sunburn drawn across his face.

Theo slipped down and upturned his bag. There were seals doodled on the water bottle. He hardly had enough V to do something if the first time hadn't worked. No, he needed his wallet. There! Now if...

He was ripped backward by his collar. The shirt tore but Theo was pulled into the demon's grasp again.

"Fucking. Feed. Me."

The hunk's own clothes disintegrated into strips, moving on him like tendrils. One end of each strip flew freely, the other end collected at his back. Like a dozen cloth tails.

The many-tailed cat-hunk-thing pushed Theo into a wall. Cloth wrapped around his wrists and pulled them into the small of his back. Other strips wrapped around his thighs and pulled them apart.

Theo's toes were close enough to his wallet to spread the cards filled with rings and arrowed.

The shaman dropped Daisy and fed his remaining V into the wisp. "Get in there. Follow the glyphs." He watched the flicker sink into the card and slip away. The instruction should have told the little Outsider to find a shaman and bring them here, but Theo couldn't see whose name had been the card Daisy had picked.

The hunk's hands gripped Theo's neck and cut his airflow.

"Give me power."

Theo pushed his ass out and the grip loosened enough to let him stay alive.

A dick entered. This was a real human dick, driven by possession, instead of the magically assembled rods demonic Outsiders had fucked him with so far.

Theo tried to hold back but the grip tightened again until he let his ability flow free and let his ass get pounded with abandon.

Fino had said a possession of Theo couldn't last too long but what about an already possessed human? There wasn't really a limit, so they'd be here until someone found him.

That could take all day.

"Found them!" An unfamiliar voice, young, male, monotone. "Tarnation."

"By his grace!" A female voice, very young. "Demonic perversion. Christ protect us."

Oh shit. Redeemers.

"Careful, Liturgy," the first voice said. "The victim might be a pervert himself. He seems to enjoy the unclean acts."

"I will try to avert my eyes, oh great god," the female one said. "Where in the heck is Sacred?"

The demon pulled Theo away from the wall by the neck, the shaman's shoes scraping on rough asphalt as he was dragged, his thighs kept apart and his wrists still at his back.

With his erection leaking precum, Theo was getting fucked at the second generation Redeemers like a meat shield.

He'd read the dossier on the Smith family.

Liturgy was a mere 17. A petite girl in drab clothing who'd been fit for any church pew. She was a trapper' having been granted a power like a walking seal when her family had made the pact'.

Her brother Eucharist was 22 but looked younger with a narrow frame and a light brunet emo fringe on his plain face. He was a chaser' and probably as fast as the crazy cat lady Theo had escaped less than two weeks ago. He was also a slayer', which made him inherently dangerous.

Eucharist closed in with a sharpened cross held like a knife. Black brass knuckles were on both his hands.

"D-don't," Theo said. "Don't hurt him. He's possessed. He's probably innocent."

"Oh lord," Liturgy said. "If he knows these things he must be a witch." She came slowly closer with her eyes covered so she wouldn't see Theo's dick.

Eucharist smiled. "That makes it easier. A demon and a witch. By the savior, you're getting what you deserve, witch pervert."

"Can you exorcise him?" Theo asked.

The fuck intensified. Many-tail-kitten-hunk groaned and kept lifting the bottom off the ground with his trusts. He was going to squeeze as much out of Theo as possible and then leave.

"I think he'll abandoned the host," Theo said. "Deal with the demon but don't hurt the guy. Aren't you going to get in trouble with..." Who were they working for exactly? "With the guys upstairs if you hurt people?"

Eucharist closed the distance supernaturally fast and spat in Theo's face. "What do you know of people, witch?! We protect the world from things like you fricked up pervert."

"Eucharist!" his sister yelled. "Dear lord."

"What?"

"That was almost a bad word."

"I only said frick."

"Stop that. It's almost bad."

The demon used the moment of confusion and tossed Theo at the male Redeemer.

They fell over each other.

The hunk collapsed, his clothes ripped in many spots but still intact enough to hang on his body. A Veneer came crashing against Theo like a huge blanket from on high.

Eucharist screeched and wiggled, his sharpened cross clanking away. "P-pervert, pervert! To heck with you, fricking witch."

Liturgy hurried to her brother's side, holding out a hand to shield Theo's crotch from her view. "By the holy power of heaven, I bid you bound and banished."

"I'm a human," Theo said and pushed himself away. "Go for the demon, idiots."

Now reduced to a large, greenish cat, the demon hopped past the trio, many tails bouncing behind it.

Theo started slipping into his pants and shoveling his possessions into his bag at the same time, struggling in panic.

Eucharist looked back and forth between the cat and the collapsed hunk. "Liturgy, tie up the man."

"He's just a guy!" Theo said and finally slipped into his pants. The tipsiness was leaving but he still jittered from fear and sex. "Catch the cat, asshole."

Liturgy splashed holy water down the alley. "Demon, by the power of Jesus, I command thee..." She started a chant in Latin, so fast she was basically rapping.

It worked. Her inherent power yanked the spectral cat back as if a leash had been pulled.

Eucharist was upon the rolling animal in an instant and ripped into it with his fists. The demon was brass-knuckle punched to bits.

Okay, it was time for Theo to think about his own survival. If they killed the hunk he wasn't going to be able to stop that.

He slipped into his jacket. The shirt was a goner. With his bag in hand he ran for the end of the alley where the container formed a sight barrier but also a convenient way to get over the fence.

Marigold. The little flower was still on the asphalt and Theo picked it up, just in case.

He climbed onto the big trash can only to see another Redeemer ascending the fence on the other side.

Sacred was 26 and the cousin of the two idiot kids. He was Chinese, adopted as a baby. He had a stocky build, glaring through small, narrow eyes. His military fanboy attire' was just shy of full-fledged combat gear. He was a ranger' so he had something like long-range summoning.

"Do not hurt the dude," Theo yelled. "Veil went up and he's probably just some guy. Your folks know what a Veil is, right?"

Sacred said nothing, just kept ascending the fence at the same time as Theo climbed over the top from the other side.

"Plus, your cousins are idiots."

"Dear lord," Sacred mumbled as he dropped elegantly over the fence.

Theo let himself fall off the other side, landed harder than expected and fell on his ass.

There were people here, scattered and sparse and mostly tourists but there were people mildly paying attention.

"Don't let him escape," Eucharist yelled and jumped onto the garbage container with a superhuman leap.

"By his grace," Sacred said through his teeth, "Don't jump like that where people can see you. Learn from last time."

"He's a witch," Eucharist said and hopped onto the fence. "And a pervert. Let's kill him to heck."

Theo was still holding onto Marigold. And he was back in sunlight. The wisp wrapped itself around the slightly tattered flower.

He directed the wisp at Eucharist and it was as if the flower were a mirror shining light into the young man's eyes – but vastly stronger.

Blinded, Eucharist pushed himself back, bumping Sacred off the trash can.

Theo was out of trick. He'd have liked to stay and say some choice words, maybe just to rattle Liturgy, but it was smarter to run. He did his best to blend into the crowd.

His phone rang somewhere in his bag among the other stuff he'd quickly shoved in.

"Keith!"

"What happened," the Asian shaman asked on the line. "There was a wisp popping a vision of your face into my brain."

"I had a run-in with the second gen Redeemers. Just got away. They were going to kill me. There was a possessed guy, they might kill that one."

"They almost never kill people," Keith said. "Uh, are you safe now? What are you?"

"Elmwood. Heading back to the Ivory."

"A demon that close to a sanctuary? I'll warn the orders. Man, he had to be waiting for you. What did he do?"

"Take a fucking guess."

"Okay, so everybody wants a piece of you. I'll be there soon. Go to the old bookstore."

"Wait, you're coming for me?"

"Yeah. Can't leave you alone, bro."

###

Theo was so thrilled to be holding onto Keith's abs again that he didn't even ask where they were going.

Keith stopped his bike under a row of ash trees across from Harpersfield city hall. The Concordia state motto "Discipline, Courage, Faith" was written on a stele right where they parked.

"We need to wait for Kenya," Keith said and fixed his hair to perfection. His earrings were a little chain on the left and a hollow diamond on the right. "She can't use vehicles outside of emergencies. Part of her deal with Aura. She's gotta walk when feasible."

"Like Mel asks you to drag girls into bed?"

Keith laughed. "I'd call you jealous if I didn't know you got your brain banged out at Neon Sin while I only went home with a couple of phone numbers. But yeah, kinda. Melisandre and I are pretty detached. Kenya, meanwhile, is more entwined with her ascetic fae. A partial possession even."

"What's her designation, mister Duskwright?"

Keith laughed again, which helped Theo move past the demonic assault and near murder faster than anything else. "Voidmaven. But with her it's hard to say if she loves or hates it. She's not super expressive."

"Also part of the ascetic package?"

Keith shrugged. "Dunno. And speak of the devil, or goddess. The Voidmaven herself."

Kenya Linwood looked like she was headed to a mediation retreat. White clothing that could have been called a robe, her frizzy hair short and uncomplicated, no adornments.

"Duskwright Keith, I see you brought backup."

"Theo got into trouble. We put team alpha on the case. Can he come?"

"I don't see why not. Follow me."

"Where are we going?" Theo asked.

"Breaking into a morgue," Kenya said, matter of fact. "Talking to a dead soul before it's gone."

"Oh. Uh, okay."

###

Theo's notes:

A corpse can act as a vessel and so can a mind, combine those and you got necromancy - extremely controversial. It's like a spectral vessel taking on the shape of the departing soul.

"Some people are touchy about calling it a soul. Ghost, remembrance, spark. Nothing's totally safe." -Keith

"Maybe just don't bring it up." -Cor

Many shamans have tried to bind their dead loved ones somehow but it's not stable longterm as the corpse rots. Best you can get is a brief possession to let a muse take on some memories. Some death-themed Outsiders prey on souls specifically.

Many dead don't produce souls, especially ones who died peacefully, expectantly or after long illness.

"Saw a sprite of murder gobbling up a soul once. Kinda makes you think... something." -Cor

###

Kenya took the front, holding a strip of paper ready. The edges were decorated by symbols like a bored middle schooler might doodle.

Theo could see a wisp inhibiting the sheet.

"Is this a police station?" the blond asked.

"No," Kenya answered without looking at him. "Connected to one. Look confident."

Theo only wore his linen jacket which was clearly not meant to be worn without anything underneath. His pants were a little scuffed if he looked close.

The interior was sparse. The front desk was more fitting for a bunker than a public building, with a clerk in a light uniform behind bulletproof glass.

"How can I help?" he asked.

Kenya slipped the paper through the glass slit. "I need to see Mister Higgins."

The clerk frowned at the paper, then waved her through. The door buzzed open.

"Who's Higgins?" Theo whispered to Keith.

"Probably a guy who works here. Dunno. Shush."

"Sorry."

Theo put his hands in his pockets. The building was bright, sterile and cold.

Kenya found a door she'd apparently been looking for and entered without knocking. Keith took position in front of it as she closed it behind her.

Theo stood next to the Duskwright. "What's she... A-am I allowed to speak?"

Keith chuckled for a split second, spraying a bit of spittle. "Yeah, dummy." He spun his keychain around a finger, which should have made noise but didn't.

"Keeping Biscuit ready?"

"Yap. Gotta distract anyone who wants in there. If possibly by making them think of something more entertaining to do, but any sprite can do basic Baseliner distraction."

"I miss Blinky," Theo said.

"Ah, your first binding. Yeah, sucks. But he stayed longer than most. My first wisp I picked out of a spider web. Called her Webster. Creative I know. Liked to eat the stickiness of my sticky notes which was a bit irritating. She just left the next day. Wisps come and go."

Theo hummed. "At least he saved my ass."

Keith looked bewildered. "I thought you ended up getting fucked. No?"

Theo felt an annoying jolt of horniness. "Metaphorically. Burned the possessed dude's face so I got the message to you off. The guy's probably going to feel like his face was out in the sun all day."

"Hm, you'd be in trouble already if you'd broken Veneer, so it can't be that bad."

###

Theo's notes:

There are a few Outsiders that appear as globally distributed consciousnesses, which would be greater than a god if taken together.

The Watcher only likes to observe people and areas of interest to the Mysterium but never acts.

The Shrouded are the big ones to watch out for. If a Knowing person breaks the Veneer of Normalcy, they will be there to fix the gap and inflict punishment.

If I were to tell somebody about the Mysterium and they are fine with it they become Knowing, too. If they reject me, don't want to believe in magic or go crazy over it, the Shrouded show up and make sure I regret saying anything.

"When Horkos says `fix things' he means they make enough of a mess nobody realizes there was magic here." -Keith

"You want to know why I barely use magic? Had a run-in with the Shrouded once. Vomiting all day, the worst sleep paralysis for a week. I could go on. And I wasn't even the target." -Cor

"I took a huge risk letting you in. If you hadn't confessed your crush on me I'd probably have delayed and made somebody else deal with it. Ah sorry, was Cor supposed to know?" -Keith

There are other such entities, like the Pactmaker, the Ferriman, the Scribe... It's best never to meet any of them.

###

"But I'm pretty sure he deserved it," Keith added. "If a rapey muse managed to possess a Baseliner he was probably a natural conduit for it, so... maybe not the nicest guy."

"Thanks. That helps."

Keith hummed, staring at the linoleum floor.

Kenya burst from the room. "I saw the file I needed. This way."

The men followed her into the basement. It was even colder here. Theo shivered.

The morgue was behind a heavy metal door. The conjurer woman punched a code into the lock.

"I know this is a bit late," Theo started, "but can I ask what we're doing?"

"Trying to solve a mystery the police can't," Kenya said. "In a small, secret community we need to handle things whichever way we can."

"That sounds like... I mean with that you could..."

Kenya looked at him with a perfectly neutral expression that felt threatening regardless as the door screeched open. "You're thinking about the abuse of power possible. A good head on your shoulders there. Luckily we have tools beyond the average secret society."

"For now," Keith said, "trust the Voidmaven."

Kenya gave him the smallest nod and walked into the morgue where square doors along a wall hide corpses. Theo was glad he got to stay by the door with Keith.

"What tools, Duskwright?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, Slutmancer."

"I'm n-not... I'd like a different epithet."

Keith laughed and Theo felt himself smile in response.

"We summon muses," Keith said. "Fae of impartiality, Archon of judgement, a protector Dryad and her righteous pixies. Over in Washington, they got a god of justice permanently hanging out for the big cases."

"That makes me feel better, actually," Theo said and shivered hard.

"Cold?"

The blond nodded. "Even more with the morgue air blowing at my back."

A metal cover opened inside the room and something rolled out of it. Theo did not look behind himself.

Keith put his arm around Theo's shoulders and the not-Slutmancer found it difficult to breathe. Keith's scent was subtle and foresty and Theo wanted to inhale it until his lungs exploded but also didn't want to give himself away.

He warmed up – only a bit but all at once which made it unmistakable.

"Oh," Theo said. "Thanks?"

"It was Coco. I was going to give you my jacket but that's so... romantic?"

Something about Keith using a wisp of affection weakened Theo's knees.

"Can I pay you back?" Theo asked. "How does Coco recharge?"

"I mean... you can," Keith looked away and repeatedly failed to suppress a smirk. "She likes when I get hugs and, like, headpats and-"

"Headpats?"

"I should have just given you my fucking jacket, goddamn."

Kenya spoke in the room behind them and Theo instinctively looked. She was speaking at something in her hands, standing beside a body thankfully still covered by a white sheet.

"You know," Keith said, "If you'd had more power you could have probably beaten that demon. It was only a bobcat, right? The really beefy demons all got beaten up by team alpha at this point, so the ones left are the clever, sneaky ones. The ones that dazzle you subtly so they can fuck you in a side alley."

"Right, I gotta get stronger."

Keith nodded. "Not to put the blame for demon rape on you. But you know, be prepared."

"Thanks."

"It's basically an invasion that started a week before I discovered you. We still don't know why there's suddenly so many demons showing up. If the Watcher was gawking at you that whole week, you may have something to do with it, even."

"So I do get the blame after all, huh?"

Keith chuckled. "You are some kind of Sexweaver."

"I like that a tiny bit better than Slutmancer."

"Oh shit, company. Mel, honey, you're on."

Two men approached. A white office worker looking type with a lanyard and an old, black guy in a lab coat with a clip board.

Theo was suddenly a little confused. Not about anything in particular – he just felt a sense of not quite knowing. He turned back and had trouble spotting the huge, obvious doorway he could have sworn was right there.

Keith looked stunning with a confident smile as he stepped into the way of the two employees. He only waved them into a room at the side of the corridor.

They took an abrupt turn and walked in, only acknowledging the shaman's presence with a nod. The lab guy stared at his clipboard like he saw it for the first time, narrowly not running into the doorframe.

"Spooky," Theo whispered.

"And not sustainable," Keith said. "Let's hope Madam Voidmaven is wrapping up before they remember what they came for."

They turned to see Kenya close the door to the body's resting place, now able to see the morgue again without the haze and lack of focus Melisandre had put on the entrance.

"Let's go," the woman said. "I asked the good doctor as much as I could. He didn't know the people who killed him but they were shamans."

Keith sucked in air through his teeth. "Building a beacon for a murder muse?"

"There were five of them so they were organized enough to have some kind of plan. Maybe champions forming a murder cult."

"We didn't need more problems."

"Let the-," Kenya started and paused. "I keep forgetting you are a grownup now, Mister Nguyen. But we'll handle it together. Now go. We need to be out of here."

"Aren't there going to be traces?" Theo asked. "Video camera? People who've seen our faces?"

Kenya steepled her fingers as she pulled ahead. "You will find Aura is incredibly thorough at cleaning."