The Scumbags Guide to Enslaving Demon's

The hotel lobby had become a courtroom.

The collector had stolen Malrec’s face when Austin Veyron arrived.

Black chains draped from the ceiling in practiced rows. They wrapped around pillars and the overturned reception desk and the warded glass case containing Malrec’s severed core. They had not touched anyone inside. That was worse. They hung down from every surface like a threat that knew it didn’t have to constrict just yet.

Elena leaned against the overturned desk with her rifle across her lap. Seven dominated the center of the lobby, white light dripping from the tear in his chest where the first maker’s designation had been removed. Rin paced along the balcony railing behind him, tails flicking. Sarielle and Maelis guarded the stairwell alongside six volunteers from the apartment blocks next door.

They weren’t kneeling.

Not one of them waited for Austin Veyron to instruct them on what to do next.

The actual Malrec sat near the bar with his wrists restrained by plain steel cuffs. His nose was bleeding, and his expression was infuriatingly pleased considering he was a hostage. Beside the glass case stood another Malrec, identical in coat and wear except for one hand pressed flat against the warded glass.

The duplicate turned his face to look at Austin Veyron and smiled.

”You’re home, finally,” he said.

Austin Veyron could feel every Freehold root under the tile floor. They trembled silently underneath, stretched thin but alive.

The collector’s chains had breached the Grand Meridian without snapping so much as a single boundary seal because it hadn’t come here as an invasion. It hadn’t come in as enemies at all.

It had come because it had been allowed to.

As something claimed.

A line item in a ledger.

Something the rest of the city pretended was already acceptable.

”You bastard,” Austin whispered under his breath. ”Which one of you is real?”

”It depends on who you ask.” The duplicate tilted his head curiously. ”I am the Malrec who owes you nothing.”

The other Malrec laughed through cracked lips.

”No. That would be neither of us.”

One of the chains whipped through the air toward the glass case. Elena shot it first. Her bullet hit the chain link point and detonated into green flame. The duplicate pulled his hand back reflexively but the ward sizzled with a wet tearing noise.

[Chain-core integrity: 84%.]

Austin Veyron stepped into the lobby.

The hunger within him promised easy answers.

Break the core free of its case. Eat through the collector’s chain-link. Claim every hotel defense mechanism as your own and force every single person within the building into one nice neat network you could control.

Efficiency.

Safety.

A cage with Austin Veyron holding the key.

He shoved the hunger away.

”Listen up.” He addressed the group of volunteers assembled. ”Pick what you want to shoot first. Don’t let it make you kill each other.” He kept his voice low and steady. ”Got it?”

The collector cocked its stolen head at him.

”This is what you call leadership?”

”No.” Austin shook his head. ”This is begging.”

The lobby erupted into chaos.

Rin sprung from the railing, swinging through the duplicate’s body. She clawed into a thin black chain dangling from its spine and hitched herself up on it, ripping the connection loose. Underneath Malrec’s skin, the collector resembled another ash-colored demon with silver hooks webbed beneath its flesh.

”Not Malrec.” Rin called behind her. ”Collector ledger skin.”

Seven needed no invitation at all. He grabbed hold of a descending chain-link with both hands and ripped sideways. The lobby pillar shattered cleanly where he tore free, the collector body pulling on its chain again attempting to drag it into Malrec’s core case.

Sarielle sliced it down first.

Thin silver light flared across the cut chain. The demon screamed in surprise and the fake Malrec’s face split cleanly down the middle.

”You bastard-”born,” it snarled through cracked teeth. ”Your bloodline will be purged before sunrise.”

”Write slow.” Sarielle cocked her blade at its throat. ”Hard to track once I go loose.”

Every volunteer opened fire simultaneously.

Their numbers wouldn’t be enough to outright kill the collector’s ash-body but there were enough of them to overwhelm it long enough to drag it away from the case. Maelis unloaded ember in quick bursts carving through the black trails until there was nothing left but hotel hallways. Elena coordinated their attack while reloading her rifle.

”Left wing! Groundskeeper hiding under two roof supports!” She yelled. ”Seven, you got right!”

The advantage was in numbers.

More people than any one collector trying to control everything.

Individual lives fighting as a single unit so they could stay alive.

Even the collector understood that much.

It stopped struggling against the volunteers and focused entirely on Austin.

”You see what your precious ideology costs you?” The collector sneered. They paused to lick blood off their split lip. ”They question. They disagree. They make alliances against you. Tell them to fight for themselves, for this building and every life inside of it will grow stronger.”

Its chain fragment pulsated softly inside the glass case.

Austin allowed himself a single moment to consider it.

Imagine every single Freehold root tunneling themselves into someone else’s spine.

Every sword and pistol listening when he gave them command.

Never having to experience another stupid death because he could justify keeping them alive however he saw fit.

Austin thought of Elena’s face as her debt-wraith choked her into unconsciousness.

He thought of Seven refusing to acknowledge his designation.

Thought of Sarielle begging him never to make decisions on her behalf and lying to herself about why.

He activated Root-Graft along his arm and punched through the lobby floor.

The roots burst free of the ground surrounding Malrec’s core case not as chains but as barriers.

”I’d rather lose with people around me,” Austin said, ”then win handcuffed to this building.”

The collector screamed.

Its voice echoed from every black chain suspended above their heads. Links whipped back and forth gouging gashes into the lobby floor. One hooked Sept around the collarbone only for Rin to clamp down over it with her teeth. Elena dove behind cover next to a decorative statue.

Austin charged straight through.

He ripped the hook free of Sept’s shoulder before tearing the demon’s throat open with his bare hands.

Its body was weightless against his grip.

Made hard to hold onto considering Austin’s own strength.

Its eyes were black holes.

”You can’t possibly hope to take me on alone.” It spat.

”A legion.” Austin replied, squeezing tighter. ”Your ranks will abandon you as soon as you let them walk out that door.” He paused for effect. ”They have already begun dismantling your bonds, babe. Surrender us and they will return.”

Austin crushed it into the ground.

”You think they will?”

Its expression contorted into something dangerously broken. So depressed Austin felt himself considering mercy.

He bit down until the skin around its jugular rippled loose.

The collector whimpered.

Physically weaker. Now mentally broken. Impossible to hold back by strength alone.

”I wish you luck in finding others like us.” It rasped.

It dove for the damaged service corridor passageway before Austin could move.

Malrec dove from his chair at the exact same moment.

Austin didn’t realize until it was far too late.

Malrec’s wrist was free.

He scrambled past the barricade of roots Austin conjured moments before him and bit down on the warded case’s emergency extraction lever with his teeth. Cracked the glass free with an arc of hidden metal filigree concealed in his coat cuff.

Green tendrils spilled across the floor.

Elena screamed his name.

Malrec yanked the chain-fragment core free of the collector body it carelessly exposed when it dove. Greed warped his features so badly Austin thought his face might collapse in on itself.

”You don’ understand.” Malrec gasped. ”She count all of us now.”

The rest of the collector slid up Malrec’s wrist like it too belonged to him.

Together they tore another section of core free from its containment.

[Chain-core integrity: 61%.]

[Hostile fragment detached.]

The detached fragment was fist sized and covered in writhing symbols. Twin shades of green and black muscles flexing across its surface.

Malrec stared at it like it owed him money.

The collector laughed through clenched teeth.

Malrec’s eyes turned black.

Its ash-covered form melted through the service corridor and inside the hotel proper with Malrec’s stolen fragment fused deep inside its ribcage.

Malrec’s chair was empty.

The lobby didn’t quite fall silent after that.

Seven stalked toward the lengthening corridor behind Malrec’s office.

”Hostile collector fragment has breached Freehold boundaries.”

Rin pushed herself off of the ground, flecks of blood smeared across her lips.

”It went inside the hotel.”

”No.” Maelis pressed ember damage to a choke point on the lobby floor. ”It burrowed through its walls. The fragment is using Malrec’s life force to move. Drilling down every active contract he ever signed.”

Austin stared blindly at the dark shape moving around the service door.

The collector hadn’t retreated.

Not exactly.

It had simply chosen to stay close enough to reach the Freehold. Where it couldn’t simply be cut out.

Behind him, Elena lowered her rifle expectantly.

”What now, chief?”

Austin might have ordered for them to lockdown every exit. Shackled every citizen into their homes. Tear apart this entire building until it was impossible for anyone else to hide inside of it.

Instead he nodded at the group of volunteers still clustered near the front desk.

”If you work here,” Austin began, ”and you want out. Leave while you still can. Everyone who wants to stay-”

”We form hunting parties.” Elena finished his sentence without missing a beat. ”No one clears an area alone. Or without backup.”

The volunteers sized each other up.

And then Kaela, still visibly bloodied from her trip to the hospital volunteered herself.

”I’m staying.”

Rin licked her lips. Said nothing at all but the message was still received loud and clear.

But Sarielle stepped forward. ”We already belonged to this monster. Best if I can pay the hospitality back.”

Seven inclined his head, expression completely void of feeling.

”Voluntary redeployment confirmed.”

And suddenly the crowd of volunteers made their decisions known.

The Freehold roots quaked beneath Austin Veyron’s boots.

A lone figure clad entirely in Malrec’s voice began to hum from somewhere at the far side of the service corridor.