Title: Legacy
Summary: There are some kids that are pressured into joining the family business early in life. Sometimes they are dragged into family meetings or brought along to see how the business works in hopes that one day they’ll pick up the mantle. Austin knew these pressures all too well however most kids didn’t have to deal with the knowledge that their family business involved the contracting and devouring of human souls. That was the unfortunate reality of being the son of one of the best contracting demons on the planet. Except Austin’s father has been gone for years now and demons are starting to expect Austin to fill in his father’s shoes. Annoying at best and insanely dangerous at worst, especially when Austin just wants to work as a pastry chef.
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Chapter One
The Life of Austin Arvaris
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Austin did his best to ignore the little bobbing sphere of light that had followed him down the busy early morning street. Traffic whizzed by and the air was perfumed with car exhaust, roasted coffee and the kind of cold lick that spoke of mornings soon greeted with blooms of frost crystals. Austin tucked his hands into his jacket’s pockets to protect them a little from the cool wind.
The orb bobbed along hopefully for another couple of minutes before finally giving up and disappearing behind a streetlamp. Austin tried not to feel guilty for having ignored the spirit but there was just no way to acknowledge one without attracting the attention of every spirit in the area. He really had no interest in being swarmed in the equivalent of a glowing cloud of madly twittering quelea.
Austin had left his mother to her very loud argument with their driver in favour of making his way to work. Austin was doing his best to save up enough money to move out of home. This reality was a little ridiculous considering his family had more money than most small third world countries but that was beside the point given that Austin wasn’t seeing a cent of it. Nor would he until he agreed to give up his ‘foolish’ ambition of becoming a pastry chef in favour of joining the family business.
If this notion wasn’t prehistoric enough, it came with the added bonus of involving everything from the undead to the demonic. Austin’s family were demons. At least his father’s side of the family was. Demons couldn’t usually reproduce with each other. Most species had to have offspring with a human and even then, the number of humans who could carry a demon’s baby to full term was small.
Austin had been brought up in a well-established family with a long successful history. His father, Rimmon Avaris was a well-recognised high-ranking demon. His species was rare and highly sort after due to their very unique set of skills. Rimmon was a contractor demon, one of only four currently on earth interacting with humans.
Or at least he was.
The man hadn’t been seen in about five years. Austin couldn’t really say he was devastated for the loss. Most of his memories of his father involved a lot of yelling and a crap ton of different hotel rooms as he was dragged everywhere from Singapore to Norway. His father had insisted on bringing Austin with him when he went on his trips to form a new contract.
Needless to say, there wasn’t many weekends playing catch or watching the football or doing anything that required Austin to be anything other than a receptacle for his father to point or bark at. This wasn’t entirely unusual for demons. Until Austin shed his humanity and took on the ‘proper role’ of a demon, he had seriously doubted that his father would ever think much of him.
Of course, Austin’s childhood had not exactly been what anyone could call ‘normal.’ It was decided early on to have Austin home-schooled. For the most part his education was somewhat standard. If his human friends were anything to go by, he actually had been better off in some regards. His mother had taught him how to write a resume, file his taxes and analyse selection criteria when applying for jobs.
His tutors had taught him Mandarin, French, German and Latin. And whilst he had never made a potato battery as a child or been shown how to do algebra or recite the entire periodic table, he had been shown how to dissect everything from a rabbit to a coal imp.
His history classes were also far different from anything he would have learnt in a mundane human school. They involved a lot more history into the demonic royal court for starters with a lot of emphasis on the magical manifestation of natural disasters, long bloody ghost wars and the rise and fall of the demonic families of the Under Dawn Court. All the basics really.
He stopped into his favourite coffee shop. The kind motherly looking blonde woman who worked the counter, Maranda, looked up as the overhead bell tinkled.
‘Austin! Your usual honey?’ She called over the heads of a couple retreating with their cups. Austin nodded gratefully.
‘Yes please, and a bagel too. I didn’t get breakfast this morning,’ he sighed as he fished out his wallet. She gave him a wry smile. Maranda was one of the few people Austin had confided in. Not about any of the demon stuff, of course, but she knew his dad wasn’t around and his relationship with his mother was practically non-existent.
Maranda had two teenage daughters herself and seemed to rather like bossing Austin about, fussing over his clothes and his hair. The black mess on his head was getting a bit much. He should probably get it cut at some stage.
‘How did your trip to the DMV go?’ she cooed. Austin groaned which had her cackling. Austin had passed his driving test last month and had gone to get his license made. It had taken a bloody long time. For years, his mother had insisted that Austin didn’t need to learn to drive, they had plenty of people to drive them around without ‘wasting his time on such things’. Austin, obviously, did not share these opinions but had dreaded walking up to the counter. He had told Maranda this on the day.
You see, Austin wasn’t his first name. No, it was his middle name. He used it because he wasn’t an idiot, nor did he want to be unmercifully made fun of for having a first name straight out of Stephen King novel written on the author’s most drunk weekend. He remembered the stunned expression on the woman’s face as she stared down at his freshly printed driver’s license. She looked up at him, her cherry red lips twitching.
‘My parents were huge Lord of the Ring fans,’ he had said wearily. She had broken into a sympathetic smile as she handed him the new card, obviously trying not to laugh. The man next to Austin had rudely leant across and read the name on the card. He had snorted loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the line.
Yes. Elessarion Austin Arvaris. Lovely. Has a sort of... ring to it.
That was one mercy of being home schooled is that he never went through the agony of having the class teacher take the role, pause at his name and then butcher it in front of an unknown group of potentially rabid hormonals assholes. His human mother had chosen his middle name, something his father had apparently taken great insult with. Fortunately, Austin’s mother was Italian, formidable, short and had an excellent throwing arm that worked even after a fourteen-hour labour.
‘Eventful, was it?’ Maranda asked, knocking him out of his thoughts.
‘Oh yeah. Loved it. Long lines, the stale smell of sweat, being laughed at by strangers. Would do it again in a heartbeat,’ he said jokingly. Maranda chortled as she peeled his bagel off the toasting press. He watched hungrily as melted cheese oozed down the sides.
‘Here’s your breakfast. Jordan will have your coffee done in a minute love,’ she said affectionately as she passed him the plate in exchange for a few notes and some change. Austin nodded gratefully and sat down at an empty booth to eat. He had left so early that he wasn’t due on shift for another forty-five minutes yet. He ate as he watched early morning shoppers appear on the street outside. It was a nice day. A little blustery with a sharp taste of autumn to come but full of sunlight.
Jordan, the barista who always worked the Mondays, brought his coffee over with a friendly nod and a wave. Austin had once wondered if Jordan was gay. He was difficult to read but always very kind and funny. Austin could admit to himself that he had a bit of a crush on him for a year or two until someone who turned out to be Jordan’s girlfriend had come in one morning to have breakfast with him. Austin couldn’t help but be a little disappointed.
Austin hadn’t been allowed to do many extracurricular activities. As a child, he had been sent everywhere with a bloody bodyguard. There was no soccer practice to make friends, no play dates with other children. His family didn’t want him fraternising with humans more than he had to. This meant, of course, that his love life from teenager into young adult was practically non-existent. He sighed quietly to himself as he stirred a teaspoon of sugar into his coffee. The most obvious solution would be to go out, see some place, maybe hit a club or two.
Unfortunately, this had its own set of complications.
Whilst Austin appeared like a perfectly ordinary human to most people, he still had the lingering scent of a demon. Public places could be a feeding ground for demons and whilst Austin was young and still under his father’s roof, he was a target. For those smart enough to recognise Austin for what he was, he could be kidnapped for ransom... or worse.
They could also just want him dead to take out possible competition. There were also plenty of human practitioners that would love a little demon pet to boss around and use for their person attack dog. Austin had heard many horror stories growing up of demons who became too complacent or just too arrogant and accidently stumbled into a summoning circle only to be trapped there.
If Austin moved away from his parent’s place, stopped engaging in the dark arts and took up the life of a mundane human then he would eventually lose that marker that was so visible to those who might want him dead. He could finally be free of his family. To do that, he needed money.
On that note, Austin drained the last of his coffee and stood up. He carried his plate and cup to the counter, thanked Maranda and Jordan and headed back out into the street the bakery he worked for.
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‘Lots of orders today Austin!’ His boss shouted from where he stood stacking boxes.
‘I’m on it,’ Austin called back as he slipped inside and headed for the back. Austin really loved his job. The bakery he worked for was very popular. It made the usual breads, buns and sweet treats but it also advertised specialty cakes. The cakes were made and decorated by hand every day. This was a job Austin shared with a young woman named Jess and a freckle-faced boy named Henry.
Austin had worked damn hard to get the job, starting out on the register, then helping with the orders and filling in occasionally for one of the other bakers. When Jo became too unreliable and stopped showing up for shifts, John let him go and hired Austin full time for the role.
‘This sounds revolting,’ Jess mumbled as she stared down at the orders slip. Austin padded over, fixing his apron in place.
‘A strawberry ice-cream cake with caramel topping, double fudge filling and sprinkled over with pecans… Sounds sickly,’ Austin agreed. Jess made a face, her small nose wrinkled.
’They want ‘to my honey bun’ written on top in orange icing,’ she pointed out. Austin’s lips twitched.
‘Have fun with that,’ he snickered. She flipped him off as he went over to his own stack of orders. His first cake of the day was a much simpler white chocolate cake with cream and strawberry jam filling with a request for strawberries on top. He prepared his worked station with the rhythm of a thousand shifts under his belt. He breathed in deeply. It was cold back here to keep the ice-cream from melting too quickly. It almost smelt heavenly.
His favourite orders were when the client gave them free creative reign for the decorations. So long as they didn’t spend to long on each cake, they could almost whatever they liked. He had fun putting together a rainbow unicorn cake for a little girl’s birthday party though he may have been a bit heavy handed with the sprinkles…
Jess was fun to work with. They had similar taste in music and had a good time trying to out do each other on the decorations. She often won when it came to intricate details. She had a very steady hand and was great at tiny pretty writing. Austin didn’t mind. They bantered back and forth until lunchtime where they took a break to stretch themselves out and rewarm themselves in the sun.
‘So, how’s everything at home?’ Jess asked as she dunked a potato fry in her sauce. Austin groaned.
‘Put it this way, my mother was screaming at the driver when I left this morning,’ he said, unpacking his sushi.
‘What about this time?’ Jess asked, always one for drama.
‘No idea. They swapped to Italian about three words in. I’m not even convinced they were speaking that by the end of it. It was more like incoherent bellowing,’ he said thoughtfully. Jess snorted.
‘Sounds like when my dad and uncle get together. Last time Uncle Ted came over they got into such a row that our neighbours called the cops,’ she replied with an amused expression on her face. Austin groaned.
“If only. I think even if someone did call the cops they would never step foot on the property and not just because of the attack dogs,′ he sighed. Jess snorted.
‘So… any luck of the love front?’ she cooed. Austin threw her a filthy look.
‘Seriously?’ he spluttered. She laughed.
‘Well why don’t you come out with us tomorrow night? Meet some people?’ Austin was sorely tempted. He hadn’t been able to get out and enjoy himself for years. That, and the idea of staying home was a little like torture. Certainly, nothing fun ever happened there.
‘I am trying to save my money,’ he argued half-heartedly.
‘Oh, come on. One drink won’t kill you and we can shout you a round. Besides, I really need a buffer between myself and Jacob. That man is such a gigantic tool,’ she pleaded, fluttering her eyes almost desperately. It was Austin’s turn to snort. He pointed his chopsticks at her.
‘Ah. At last, the real reason you want me to come,’ he said accusingly.
She pouted. ‘Can you blame me? Come on Austin, please?’
He hesitated. ‘Can I think about it and text you tonight?’
She sighed. ‘Fine,’ she grumbled.
Jess wasn’t quite as talkative when they got back to work. Austin felt a little guilty for blowing her off. He was annoyed with himself too. He wanted to go out, wanted to do something other then be at home or be at work.
By the time his shift was over, and the bakery was closing for the afternoon, the weather had turned rather nasty. An icy wind had picked up and the streetlights had all come on an hour early due to the stormy cloud cover creeping in. Austin shivered and pulled his coat on a little tighter around his neck as he stepped out onto the street.
‘See you tomorrow,’ John said. Jess and Austin waved him off.
‘Text me,’ Jess growled, her eyes narrowed on Austin’s face.
‘Yeah, I will,’ he promised. She huffed but turned away to her car. Austin hurried home; head bent against the wind. His ears were red and stinging with cold by the time he got to the estate.
‘Austin, where have you been?’ his mother barked the second their butler, Mr. Whitby had opened the front door for him.
’At work ma,” Austin sighed with the same resignation he felt every time he answered that question.
‘Work? When are you going to stop wasting your time with that ridiculous little shop?’ His mother’s irate Italian laced voice echoed from the staircase. She wasn’t even looking at him. She was sorting through the mail, her dark brows furrowing as she squinted at the writing on the front of the envelope. His mother really needed reading glasses but no one was really brave enough or stupid enough to mention this. He sighed and made his way over to her.
‘I enjoy working there, ma,’ he said, prising the letters from her manicured fingers. She snorted, tossing back a mane of black curls.
’It’s all very well and good to have a hobby dear, but you need to start taking life more seriously,” she said insistently. Austin stamped down on his temper. He didn’t want to start another row with her so soon after getting home.
‘What are we having for dinner?’ he asked instead, leading her gentlemanly down the stairs. She turned to Whitby with a raised eyebrow. The man gave a short bow and said;
‘Tonight, you will be having braised chicken with a goose liver pate alongside a blackcurrant and blackberry glaze served with a side of potato millefeuille.’ Austin fought down a groan. It’s not that he didn’t enjoy the food the cooks made. Really, most of it was excellent but sometimes he just wanted something simple.
He tried to imagine his mother’s reaction if he asked if they could just make some pork sausages with mashed potato and peas. She would probably have a heart attack. Or hit him. Or both.
Probably both.
‘We don’t have anything planned for tomorrow night, do we?’ he asked slowly.
His mother gave him a shrewd look. ‘No, why?’
He winced. It was ridiculous just how intimidate he was of this tiny woman. ‘I was invited out to dinner,’ he said without elaborating. His mother hummed.
‘Pretty girl is she?’ his mother asked.
‘She is,’ Austin said awkwardly, knowing full well that he wasn’t even slightly interested in Jess nor Jess in him.
‘Human?’ His mother said the word as though it were something unpleasant.
‘You’re human ma,’ Austin reminded her with a sigh. She tossed her hair back once again as he walked her into the dinning room that comfortably seated ten people. It always annoyed him that they used it despite it only ever being the two of them.
‘That’s not the point, dear. You can do better then some mundane human girl. Now if you would just let me introduce you to-’
‘Ma, the last time you introduced me to a girl, she tried to eat my left arm,’ Austin reminded her, shuddered as he recalled the imagine of a pretty brunette he had been talking to. They had been getting along reasonably well despite the obvious awkwardness of being set up on a date by one’s parents until she had politely announced that whilst he was quite lovely, she didn’t think he was breeding material.
Austin had been about to admit something similar (though less weirdly worded) when her jaw had cracked and her mouth had ripped open back to her earlobes, revealed two rows of shark like teeth that she attempted to use to take his arm off by the shoulder.
‘That girl had no manners. Never mind though, we can always try again,’ Austin’s mother said with a carefree wave of her hand. Whitby pulled her seat out for her and she sat gracefully. Ignoring protocol, Austin didn’t wait for Whitby and pulled out his own chair to sit down. His mother shot him a disapproving look.
‘The sooner we find a proper match for you the better,’ she decided. Nothing Austin said made the slightest difference. It never did. Talking to his mother was always like trying to communicate to a particularly rough brick wall. His feeling of frustration grew when as dinner was served, he was given a glass of red wine despite his three requests for water.
When his mother wasn’t looking, he pulled out his phone and texted Jess.
Austin: I’m coming.
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END
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