Snippet #2287266

Lira was discarded shortly after Drake left the ragtag group, propped up in a door frame so James could find his carcass later. He left his jacket draped over the dead body’s shoulders as well, as it was too bloody to continue wearing, thanks to James. The boy really should learn to not bleed everywhere, but what could a daemon do? He rested the delicate fingers of one hand against his forehead, trying to manage his headache, which was worsening his mood by the moment. He should sleep it off, but that was boring, and there was too much interest to be had in the current going-ons. Hassen had the two new humans, the ones who’d replaced Mister Dominic and Miss Allease, even though she wasn’t dead yet. He needed one to replace Lira as well. He’d scared the living water out of Miss Linnet. Which left one he did not know the whereabouts of. Miss Elizabeth. She was probably hiding; perhaps she’d tucked herself into a room and barricaded the door or some such thing. Well, that was no fun. He’d have to send someone to search for her later. Perhaps he could go find a replacement now. Tormenting humans usually made him feel better, maybe he needed a new one to play with, since all the others had either hidden, or were with the servants. And he couldn’t verily bother Miss Linnet for a while, she was in a fragile state, and it wouldn’t be very fun to shatter her again until she’d made some progress healing. Or died. Whichever came first.

After changing into more appropriate attire, Drake wandered out of manor. He had the only key to the outside world, and he trusted no one else to defend it. James possessed one to the inner gardens, but there was more fencing around them, so even if someone stole his key they’d only become trapped outside. And James only had that key because he seemed so bent on burying the dead, some human tomfoolery. But as long as he did something useful with the bodies, it didn’t bother Drake much. The roses would certainly benefit from a few rotting corpses under the soil.

He’d kept tabs on a young man for a short while now, and now seemed the perfect time to take him, stir things up a bit. Mister Saber probably wouldn’t appreciate the competition, right now he was trapped in a castle full or women. And Hassen. But he needed a motivator to hurry things up. Well he didn’t need it, but he didn’t want the humans living for very long in his manor, because there was a chance they could try to rebel, and Drake rather loathed trying to deal with the stupid creatures when they were trying to attack him. Perhaps he could find a way to store souls for safe keeping instead of gorging himself all the time. Just in case they had to flee again, he’d have sustenance for the journey, instead of having to talk to the reaper again, because that old blighter wasn’t very good company. Gave him chills up his spine, that creature did. One of the few other entities in the world that knew of his special condition, and just where to find his soul. Of course, because it was his job, and he wouldn’t act on it, since he was a separate entity from the upper and lower realms. So Drake was safe from him, for the most part. He was still exceedingly creepy though.

It wasn’t too long after that Drake had his prize and an extra passenger as well. It was nearly the middle of the day, so he had to be careful, but he hadn’t wanted to use drugs on them, then it would take them much too long to wake up, so he’d just given both of them a good wallop over the skull in the end. Disregarding the fact that he’d needed to purchase more food for the humans, he was due to run out in less than a week, he lugged the two of them back home. The boy and his servant. Usually he would have left the woman, but she’d seemed so eager to come! Attacked him and everything. And it was rather fun to have the butlers around, even if this was a female one.

Not wanting to be disturbed by the other humans, he dumped the two in the front receiving room, which none of the humans had wandered into of yet. It was a cozy looking place, perhaps the most well decorated in the manor. Perhaps it was a good thing no one had made it here yet. He really didn’t want to go replacing any of these things. It would be quite a shame. Especially the upholstery. Many of the chairs were quite old, and all of them had been swiped from the same house, after the former occupants had died. He slumped the two of them onto a loveseat and then crossed the room to settle himself in his armchair, resting his chin on his knuckles and waiting for the two to wake up. His headache was starting to abate, or perhaps he was forgetting about it under the light of much more interesting things. The foul mood still lingered though, despite the dissolving of the pain in his skull. Oh, he did hope the humans would hurry up and wake up already. He hadn't hit them that hard, had he?