The Scumbags Guide to Enslaving Demon's

”Malrec’ s hounds have reached the Meridian.”

Austin twisted to face the vault hatch, but Maelis grabbed his wrist.

Her fingers burned. Ember fire. They shouldn’nt have meant anything in the middle of a siege. But warmth spread up his arm and mixed with the black hunger beneath his ribs.

”Release your grip,” she said. ”I can burn the lord’ s tracking chains before they brand the hotel.”

”You helped me break my contract.”

”A shard of one.” Her eyes caught his, red- gold burning. ”The rest of my covenant is still buried beneath Malrec’ s authority. I can fight him. I cannot drag my full ember court into war against him while he owns the first syllable of my name.”

Elena moved next to him, crossbow poised. ”What’ s your price?”

Maelis kept her gaze on Austin. ”Freedom. Not a pact made under duress. Not some ghoulish deal keeping me here forever. A real choice to walk away after this fight.”

His chest tightened. Irritated.

He had saved her. Freed her from chains. Claimed a demon lord’ s vault for himself. Logically, he knew she was worth that irritation. Ember fire would scrub away contracts. Her knowledge would tear Malrec’ s hounds apart from within. Releasing her felt like giving an enemy a weapon.

The hunger suggested something darker.

Austin could claim the covenant for himself. Bind her completely to his will. Keep her locked beneath his power.

His jaw clenched.

”If I grant you that,” he said, ”you will betray the Bastion.”

”If I don’ t,” said Maelis evenly, ”I will eventually betray you anyway.” Her smile was bitter. ”You know cages well enough to understand that.”

The hinges of Seven’ s ruined armor clicked as he stepped between Maelis and the vault hatch. ”Master. Hostiles incoming.”

Claws sounded on steel above them. Beyond the boiler hall. Fast and too many.

Austin met the eyes of every adult around him. Elena, tired but ready. Rin, bright-eyed under the terms of a temporary hunt pact, vigilant at every escape route. Nyssara’ s red eyes, wide and frantic above her chains. And Maelis offering him power in exchange for something he didn’ t want to give.

”Deal.”

Her expression did not shift. ”Say it properly.”

Austin felt bile rise in his throat.

”I, Austin Veyron, hereby release Maelis of the Ember Covenant from all claims I hold against her by way of rescue, pact, debt, or force of arms. She owes nothing to me after this battle is done.”

The System beeped.

[Voluntary freedom covenant proposed.]

[Host relinquishes future claim over Ember Covenant authority.]

[ Confirm ?]

Austin hit confirm.

A line of ember fire curled up from Maelis’ s throat, wrapping around Austin’ s wrist. It did not bind or restrain him. Fire traced his skin, hot and light, then faded.

Maelis inhaled sharply, like she had been drowning for years.

Contract scars along her arms flared white.

”when,” she whispered, eyeing the hatch, ”we make him regret keeping me alive.”

The vault hatch exploded inward.

Three Malrec hounds fell into the boiler hall. Bigger than the Gore- Hounds Austin had slaughtered in the streets: furred hides like oil, armored shoulders, four red eyes on snapped heads, glowing green collars locked around their throats. Behind them staggered six skeletal men with bone masks, each carrying chain lances.

[Enemy force detected: Malrec Chain- Hounds and leash riders.]

[Threat estimate: Severe.]

[Suggested action: sever collars before kill to prevent authority backlash.]

The first hound hurled itself at Elena.

Austin intercepted it in the air.

He slammed his shoulder into its chest and rolled with the impact across the hatch frame and onto the floor of the boiler hall. Teeth ripped through his forearm where Bone-Plating gave way. Pain bloomed, but instinct did not panic him.

Austin prised its jaws apart with his hand.

Green collar glowing.

He could devour the contract. Claim the authority for himself. He could also do as Maelis had shown him. Burn the words before they became another lock in his flesh.

”Maelis!”

She raised one hand.

Flame split the space between them in a ribbon of red- white light.

It hit the collar, traced around the hound’ s throat, and incinerated the tiny script burned into the collar metal.

The hound screamed.

Its eyes shifted.

Red remained. Green blinked out.

Austin tossed it aside. Demon crashed to the ground hard enough to stagger and looked up from him to the riders on the catwalk above.

One raised his lance.

”Kill it before it corrupts!”

The hound spun back toward the riders and bit out the rider’ s throat.

Rin’ s laugh tinkled from somewhere above the melee. She appeared hovering on the catwalk directly above where Austin and the hound fought. ”I like her.”

The fox girl vanished as easily, leaving only blood scent and foxfire drifting down. Another rider screamed as Rin’ s claws opened his back from behind. Seven split a different rider apart from the stairs using the ruined half of his polearm like a meat- hook. Bone armor cracked around shattered ribs.

Austin charged the second chain hound.

Head- low. Austin side-stepped and yanked its collar with his other hand, smashing his knee into the beast’ s spine as it happened. Demon screamed again. Maelis’ flame burned after it, frying the command words into ash. When the hound saw its chance it turned, looking for Rin. Instead it attacked its masters.

”The mask-face spat at Austin.”

”Youngling.”

”Ignis” she spat back. ”Cur?”

The mask- face.

He ripped the rider from the catwalk, landing them both hard on the floor.

The rider swung a chain knife at Austin’ s eye. Bone gauntlet closed over the blade and snapped it in two.

”What does Malrec want?”

”Die.” The rider laughed through the mask. ”You have no place asking questions. Malrec wants the vault. The matriarch. The fox. The core. All of it belongs-”

Austin tore the mask away with his free hand and bit down hard on the rider’ s throat.

Demon went still.

Demon twitched.

Black blood coated his lips.

[Lesser leash- rider blood consumed.]

[Minor trait acquired: Chain Scent.]

[Humanity decreased by 0.1%.]

Austin pushed himself upright.

Fourth hound had the cornered Elena against the tree roots. Before Austin could reach them she checked its charge with a bolt through the collar. Hit hard enough to crack steel but not breach it. Maelis’ flame cleaned away the rest of its programming.

Demon paused.

Elena nudged the crossbow down by fractions of an inch. ”Go.” She said to the beast.

It turned and ran through the shattered vault hatch into the city.

There was a quiet moment where no one moved.

” You didn’ t need to bite him,” Maelis observed.

”He had intel in his blood.”

”Did he now?”

Austin wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Malrec’ s command fortress flooded his vision next to the rider’ s memories: cage wagons full of doomed prisoners. A military detail already sweeping through the burning streets.

Faces.

Mothers and children and men that Austin had seen praying at temples the same Aurelian worshipped years ago. Women chained and bleeding just like Nyssara.

Austin looked away.

”The hell you are.”

”Weapons.”

” We are doing.”

”What we’ re doing.”

”Aus-”

Malrec was sending cages down into the city.

Rin stiffened beside him, tails brushing his arm with fury. Nyssara blinked her chained hands over and over, frantic. Maelis flared hotter above her leash. Elena kept her crossbow trained on gaps in the destruction where more riders might pour through. Seven shifted his sword hand, ready for demons that might rush them.

Austin stared at where the city sprawled above him.

”We take them back,” he said louder than he intended.

His decisions snapped into place. Lives balanced in his mind already dying: which demons he could kill outright and which would serve him more bloodied and chained tomorrow when he had finished winning.

”Auxiliary cage wagon,” the System noted. ”Dispatched less than two hours ago.”

Adult demon women.

Marked for sale before Malrec could ever use them.