Work Text:
Five figures in dark cloaks all circled around a hastily drawn pentagram. Incense, a diamond, a skull, and a few other items were nestled in parts of the circle around which the figures stood.
One of the figures had their hands spread out over the circle, black painted nails facing the floor as they spoke. Latin words spoken confidently filled the space, while the others remained quiet, only repeating words here or there.
"Now we summon thee!" The voice finished. An eerie quiet filled the space, everyone holding their breath for something to happen. The silence stretched on for minutes until one of the figures tugged their hood down to show braided black hair and a scowl.
"I told you this shit wouldn't work."
"Come on Riri, we had to try. Billy said his Step-mom -"
"Agatha is not my step-mom!"
"His step-dad showed us proof of it working." Kamala continued on as if Billy didn't speak up. "We had to at least try. We all agreed we would for Pete."
The mention of their brunette friend had everyone turn to look at him. Peter's eyes remained downcast upon the pentagram, with a faraway look in his eyes. Next to him, Kate tugged her own hood down to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Aunt May passed suddenly months ago, and since then, Peter has become obsessed with the occult to try to get her back. His friends had thought it to be a form of copping, but Agatha had caught wind and had been giving them means to try. One of which had worked to commune with Aunt May, motivating nearly all the friends to push for more. This ritual from Agatha had been promising, and Kate hated seeing the hope vanish more and more from Peter's eyes.
"We can try again if you want." Kate offered up with a gentle squeeze. "Or go upstairs, order mountains of pizza, and watch the Twilight movies."
Both Riri and Billy groaned hearing the T word. "I can't stand that pasty ass vampire bitch." "Please no."
A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. "Pizza is good." he paused for a second. "And Twilight. The two go together."
"Yeah!" Kamala cheered loud enough to drown out Riri and Billy's groans of protest. Kate laughed as she shucked her cloak off, tossing it on the floor of her basement. "You heard the man! My card is upstairs if someone wants to call. I'll clean this up while the rest of you set up the living room for our watch party."
As much as Kate loved her friends, she didn't trust them to help her clean this mess up. Her mother, thankfully, is gone for a week-long business trip. One she had tried getting Kate to come with as it would be 'good for her future'.
Yeah, right.
Shaking her head, she watched her friends dump their cloaks onto of hers and race up the stairs. Riri and Billy arguing over what toppings to get while Kamala excitedly spoke about her Twilight fanfiction to Peter.
A soft click signified the basement door closing, which had Kate letting out a breath. Putting the furniture back would be easy, but the blood-red pentagram glowed like a neon sign. If Kate even had a trace of it left, her mother would sniff it out.
"Alright Bishop, you got this." Clapping her hands together, she began with the cloaks, folding each one up to set it aside. Next, she grabbed the paper with the ritual written on it. Her eyes scanned over the paper, reading over the instructions left to them with a critical eye.
"Now why didn't you work?" she muttered to herself. A smudge glared at her from the bottom of the paper, making Kate squint at it. "What are you?"
Bringing the paper closer to her face, Kate tried to decipher the words. She made out a few letters in the mini message left behind. Just an r, l, and a d, but she couldn't piece it together. Clicking her tongue, Kate tore the paper away, hastily trying to put it on a nearby table as the edge sliced into her palm. "Shit."
Drops of blood dripped from her palm over the pentagram. The second the first dropped touch edges of the circle lit up, slowly filling in the circle of the star and each rune until the glowing intensified. Kate covered her eyes as a flash engulfed the room.
Sulfur filled her nose, making Kate peek through a gap between her fingers as smoke billowed from the pentagram, circling up and up until it hit the ceiling. 'Mom is going to kill me.' The smoke continued to circle, as if in a dance, until it burst outward, blasting Kate with a lungful of smoke.
Gagging, Kate turned away to save herself, missing the sight of two large wings snapping from the smoke pillar to disperse it.
"My my, what do we have here?" A honey-sweet voice purred once the smoke cleared.
Coughing, Kate whirled around to face the voice, only to be met with a gorgeous woman.
Well, gorgeous woman-esque figure.
Short-cropped blonde hair with two ash gray horns coming from the top of her head that twisted at the blood-red tips. Her eyes glowed a brilliant inhuman green with slits like a cat for pupils. Behind her were two large wings, black bones framed the papery, leather-looking skin that had slight tears in it.
Kate's eyes traveled from them to, as she now noticed, a barren body. Scars littered the blonde's body, from large jagged ones to smaller ones. Or so she noticed until Kate tore her eyes away from the other woman's bare chest. Oh god, did she see a flash of silver? Nope. Nope nope, she didn't need to think about that.
Forcing herself not to think about how this woman might be pierced, Kate looked along her arms, catching sight of what she knew as runes along her arms that led down to her hands. Fairly regular looking until Kate saw from the knuckle down, her fingers were the same ashen gray as the horns and elongated into sharp claws.
Gulping, Kate kept looking, skimming past the bare bottom of this woman, to see toned legs. Instead of feet, Kate saw the same ashen gray take hold from her calf down. From there, the legs curve backward at the ankle that ended in large, clawed paws.
"Get your fill there, Kate Bishop?" That smooth-accented voice spoke once more, making Kate tear her gaze back to those eyes. A smirk tugged at the lips, giving Kate a flash of fangs in the corner of her mouth. That had her heart racing, but not in fear. An implication Kate would not think about right now.
"How - how do you know my name?" she managed to get out without her voice wavering.
The stunning figure before her licked her lips. "You gave me a taste of who you were." she explained as those bright green eyes locked onto Kate's cut palm. "I know much about you. Your blood type is B-, you are twenty-four years old, a Pisces, you own a lab, you eat far too much pizza, and are very allergic to watermelon."
Hearing all that information tossed out to her as if this person knew her made Kate stare with her mouth agape. "Wha-what? I, I'm sorry, is this some sort of prank my friends set you up for?" Not wanting for an answer, Kate started looking around for any hidden cameras or a smoke machine. Anything to explain what the hell was going on.
A raspy amused chuckle met her ears. The sound sends a swooping sensation in her stomach. "No. This is no prank, Kate Bishop." Something warm touched her chin with enough force her tilt her head up. A tail, one Kate had not seen up until now, forced her to meet the blondes eyes. "You called me here."
Kate stared into the other's eyes until realization dawned on her. Looking from those cat like eyes, Kate stared at the ritual paper now half crinkled on the ground. Holy shit, it had been real. It worked! Following her gaze, the being before her eyes widened a fraction. "Who gave that to you?"
Her words were snapped out in a growl. The tail touching her chin coiled around Kate's neck with enough force to cut off her airway.
Only the feeling did not last long.
Just as soon as the tail tried choking her, a jolt of energy shot through both of them. Energy crawled from her neck to her palm, where the cut had been, burning into her skin. A hiss left the blonde's lips, tail circling around one of her legs as a mark glowed on her chest. The searing in Kate's palm lasted a mere second longer and vanished, along with the glowing in the blonde's chest.
Bringing her palm eye level, Kate saw a mark now lay directly in the middle. A small circle lay in her palm, the top had a long dash going through that cut off in the middle, and at the bottom, a line cut vertically across one section. "What the hell?"
"Yes," The other spoke, voice tight with disdain, "what the hell indeed."
Swallowing heavily, Kate risked a glance at the blonde. There, directly where the others' heart would be, stood a matching mark on her chest. "Congratulations Kate Bishop, you have successfully bound a demon as a pet."
The furry behind the gaze made Kate take a step back, but the being before her didn't move after her. Her tail lashed back and forth like an angry cat, eyes tracking Kate's every breath, but did not move. "I'm sorry, what?"
Whether it was her voice or the question, Kate saw the other's jaw tighten, fangs glinting as she bared her teeth. "A pet. You have bound me to you, Kate Bishop. Did you not read your instructions?"
"That's not what this was supposed to do!" Hastily, Kate scooped the paper up to read over everything. None of the words coming up read 'bound' just 'summon', of what she could read. A lot of the writing had become illegible.
Pressing the paper to her forehead, Kate let out a groan. She, like Riri, hadn't expected this to work."I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bind you, we, uh I, had no idea that this would even work." Peeking over the top of the paper, she met the other woman's eyes. The disdain was still there but Kate could see a flicker of something else in those eyes. Something she couldn't place.
Kate's eyes drifted down once more, forgetting the state of undress she was until her eyes snapped away. "Um!" stumbling back her foot caught one of the cloaks, nearly making her trip. Satching it up Kate shoved it towards the blonde. "Here."
"Why?"
"You're just really….naked." It took everything in her not to look down again.
The blond quirked a brow, amused. "I am. You humans are so silly with what you care about. Modesty. Bah." she waved a clawed hand.
Before Kate could try to persuade the demon into something, she heard footsteps approach the steps. Shit! Her friends! She couldn't tell them about this until she knew how this all worked. Kate refused to get Peter's hopes up again.
"You almost done down there Kate? You need help?" Riri's voice echoed down the stairs. Shoving the cloak at the blonde, she tried to usher her to the opposite end of the basement. Only the blonde didn't move. She hardly budged against Kate push.
"Yep! All good just uh - give me a second and I'll be back up okay?" her voice lowered to hiss, "please put that on and stay here. I'll be back fast." her eyes swept over the mess. "God, my mom is so going to kill me later."
Her tail lashed, but the blonde said nothing as she slipped the cloak on, managing to get it on, even with her wings. 'How does that work?'
With a shake of her head she cleared those thoughts, casting one last look at the demon before racing up the stairs.
It took longer than Kate had hoped to find an excuse to get rid of her friends. They had finished the first Twilight movie before she had broke the news that her mom would be coming back and that had gotten them to go. She felt guilty, but that was replaced by dread remembering she had left a demon unattended downstairs.
Grabbing what remained of the pizza and a drink, she headed back to the basement, expecting the worst.
Stepping off the last step, Kate saw no signs of the demon or any of the mess. The cloaks her and her friends wore were folded neatly on a table, the summoning circle gone, and the items they had used were piled together.
"About time, I thought you had forgotten about me." There, stretched out on the couch, was her demon. The cloak was still around her, but opened to barely cover anything up. In her hand was a book she was lazily flicking through.
Kate just blinked once, twice, before shaking her head. "No. Sorry, I brought you food. Do you even eat food? What do you eat? Wait, don't answer that." Kate kept her gaze on the blonde's face as she approached, placing the pizza and soda on the nearby coffee table.
Green eyes flicked towards the plate with little interest before going back to her book. "Oh my god is that my baby album?"
That got a toothy grin. "Yes Kate Bishop it is. You were a very cute baby, even when you had lots of boogers."
"Why do you keep calling me by my - never mind! Give me that!" Kate went to reach for it, but the album moved just out of reach. She scowled down at her but quickly jumped back realizing she was hovering over her open cloak. "Sooooo, what should I call you?"
"Whatever you wish."
"You don't have a name?" Calling her 'demon' didn't feel right.
"I do."
There was a long pause before Kate sighed. "Fine, don't tell me. Just call you Jane Doe until you do." Kate fiddled with her arrow necklace. "Thank you for cleaning that up, I wasn't expecting that."
The blonde shrugged. "You asked me to."
"What? No I didn't."
'Jane' sighed while snapping the photo album closed. "You very much implied it, and as I am bound to you, I do as you ask."
Guilt prickled under her skin. "Sorry." Kate apologized once more. "God this is crazy." Kate sat on the lip of the table with her head in her hands. "Is there a way to break this? No um, offense or anything but I don't want to parade around as a 'demon master', or whatever."
Silence met her once more until she heard the rustling of the couch as 'Jane' sat up. "I do not know." Kate peered through her hands to look at the demon. "The magic you used was old and powerful. Much older than I. Seeking out the one who gave you such ancient magic may give you answers." she suggested. Kate shot her a look. "I do not wish to be a pet either, Kate Bishop."
With a nod, Kate stood, clapping her hands together. "Okay! I don't think we'll have any luck seeing her today or tomorrow. Billy said his Step-mom was out of town for the weekend." and she would need to go when both Billy and Tommy were not home. "So we'll go on Monday." she decided. "Guess that means you'll be stuck with me, and I need to get home to Lucky." The thought of her dog made her smile before she narrowed her eyes at 'Jane'. "You don't eat dogs, do you?"
Her question was answered with a scoff. "No." as she stood, Kate realized she had a few inches on the demon. "We eat souls, but I do not eat the souls of animals." she said as if Kate had offended her.
"I don't know what demons eat! I've never met one before you, Jane Doe." Kate mimicked the way she said 'Kate Bishop' by drawing it out. Realizing the blonde still looked indecent, and had her non-human features Kate blushed. "If we're going to make it back to my apartment you will need to wear clothes. And a hat." she paused. "And maybe two cloaks to hide all that." she gestured vaguely to her wings and tail.
"So close-minded." 'Jane' sighed. Lifting her arms up, she stretched, forcing Kate to turn her head away to not stare at the muscles flexing before her. "Call me Yelena, Jane Doe is too boring, generic. Like Kate Bishop." she teased, a smirk tugging at her lips.
Snapping back to look at her Kate's scowled shifted to surprise seeing a normal human woman standing before her. Gone were horns, wings, and tail. Even her hands and feet looked normal. "Woah." The words came out before Kate could stop them. She looked good even like this.
The demon, Yelena, looked pleased. "Like what you see?"
"Yes. No. I mean." She cleared her throat, trying to center her thoughts. "Yes, because now we can walk around without people staring." she explained. "And now for clothes! Luckily, I still have some here. Come on." Yelena grumbled in protest but let Kate lead her upstairs for a change of clothes before heading to her apartment.
It hit her as they crossed into her old room, the implication of what this meant. How she would be responsible for this demon until they figured out this contract deal.
It should be that hard, right? How bad could it be to house a demon for two days?