Tarous, стр. 26

“Only one,” I quietly replied with my head down.

The Butler glared again. I knew it was my duty to find someone to marry so I could continue the Rask family line. There were no more of my kind, I now had to find a wife of a different species. Despite everything I loved my family dearly and wanted to do whatever I could for the family. The Butler did not need to yell at me, that one glare was enough to make me sit up straight.

George Dreg suddenly appeared at the table, having been able to track me by smell. Unfortunately for George his ability to be at the wrong place at the wrong time was legendary.

I laid my head down on the table and pretended to be asleep just to annoy George. I even began to fake snore to really mess with him.

“Get up or I will kill you and your family and…” The boy named George paused as he saw the Butler staring at him with glowing red eyes. There were stories of people that had crossed the Butler and all of them had ended up dying in horrible and mysterious ways. Of course they were just stories, at least that’s what George kept trying to tell himself.

“I mean…uh….please fight me…” said George as he cast his eyes toward the Butler and then to the floor, avoiding the Butler’s gaze. He began to tremble as he looked down at the floor.

He didn’t want to die, he wanted to live. He just wanted to make his family look good and no one ever saw Edward Rask fight so he assumed he was weak. He had hired a mercenary group of werewolves to fight the humans. George just wanted to embarrass the Rask family a little to make his family look good. As the Butler continued to stare at him he started to tremble even more violently.

I gave a loud fake snore as his response.

My snore caused George to snap out of his daze and stop trembling.

“Now see here…” George looked up and noticed the Butler was still staring at him. This caused him to stop speaking mid-sentence. George began to noticeably sweat. The trembling returned.

“I think the young Dreg is lost, we should help him find his way home,” said one of my body guards, both of whom had suddenly appeared behind George. They each grabbed one of George’s arms and lifted him up off the ground and kindly escorted him to the far side of the room. His feet dangled above the ground as they carried him off.

“Loser,” I mumbled between two fake snores.

My fake sleep eventually turned into a real sleep. My bodyguards watched over me the entire time and not far away the Butler also kept an eye on me. The fact that I could sleep in a room full of so many powerful monsters sent a rather strong message to everyone, though unintentionally. The message was a strong “I’m not afraid of you.”

At some point a maid came and took Tarous back to my room to wait out the rest of the ball. The younger of the two body guards kept flexing his biceps and admiring his own arms in a nearby mirror. He enjoyed looking like a small mountain of muscle. The older and larger of the two bodyguards shook me gently awake.

“The guests are leaving, it’s time for you to fulfill your duty.”

I rubbed my eyes and while still half-awake I stood and followed my bodyguards to the door. My father was already there saying goodbye to his guests. I stood by my father’s side and began to say my goodbyes to all of the guests as they left the party.

A large black skinned demon with thick black horns stood in front of me. Easily over nine feet tall, his black skin pulled taut over his thick bulging muscles. Red cable-like veins covered the black skinned hand that he extended towards me. His claws were long and black, and they had blood caked under them.

“Goodnight, young Rask,” said the hulky demon, his voice deep and loud. It was a voice that carried, but was calming at the same time. His demon hand was bigger than my entire head. The area around him smelled of smoke and sulfur.

I stuck out my hand and shook the demons hand.

“Goodnight Uncle Haz, travel safely.”

Haz was a close friend of my father. Haz was so close to the family that I had always called him Uncle Haz.

Haz looked rather sophisticated with his brown blazer and dress pants. He moved with a grace that wasn’t reflected in his size. The glasses on his face were black rimmed and his brown shoes were clean, giving him the faint impression of being a scholar. Haz was one of the few demons that performed magic openly. He ranked high in the demon courts. Despite his ferocious appearance, he had a rather incredible intellect.

He bowed slightly, being careful not to let his glasses fall off his face. He then patted me on the head and ruffled my hair. His hand was large enough to crush my skull with a single squeeze. He removed a solid black book from his right coat pocket that had a golden pentagram etched on the front. The book’s pages were yellow with age, a few page corners had been slightly burnt. He began to read several strange words out loud and a circle of light appeared around him along with several strange runes that wrapped around the outside of the circle. A black hole opened up underneath his feet with a loud grumbling noise and he dropped into it. The hole disappeared, but the smell of sulfur remained.

The lingering smell of sulfur didn’t bother me at all. At least Haz had a hand to shake, unlike some of the other guests. I had previously had to discreetly wipe the slime off my hand after one particular green blob had shook my hand with its…something.

The next guest had black