First Demonic Dragon

“You have no taste. You disgust me. I would separate your head from your neck if I thought you were worth the meager effort that it would take.”

Courtney’s crush, Aj, didn’t blink as he stared down Abaddon fearlessly. “I won’t apologize for being a purist. The nineties and eighties were the golden ages of music. R&B especially.”

“Don’t talk to me about golden ages, boy. I was old and grey when they were crawling out of their diapers.”

Aj and Zheng looked their father-in-law up and down.

“…Okay, maybe not grey.” Abaddon held up his hands in surrender. “The red’s kind of my whole thing, you know.”

Zheng and Aj glanced at each other before shrugging. The old dragon did indeed look good.

But the young human suddenly shook his head hard as if to remind himself not to swoon. “Nah, that’s not the point! You gotta think about ‘I Forgot to Be Your Lover’ by William Bell. What compares to that?!”

“‘Need U Bad’ by Jazmine Sullivan.” Abaddon answered nearly instantly.

“…What about ‘I’d Rather Be With You’ by Bootsy Collins??”

“That’s seventies music, boy.” Abaddon reminded.

“I know that, but it’s old school, so I’m using it in my argument!” Aj insisted.

Abaddon rolled his eyes and allowed the change to the rules. “Then I raise you ‘Life of the Party’ by Charlie Wilson.”

Aj bit his lip as he faltered. Leaving Abaddon to sip his morning coffee in smug satisfaction.

But the young man was soon to find a counter that the dragon couldn’t possibly defend against.

“‘Human Nature’ by Michael Jackson!” He declared.

Abaddon choked and ended up with dark roast up his nostrils. “T-That’s unfair, you bastard!”

Aj leaned back in his chair, feeling victorious. “Losers tend to feel life is unfair pretty often.”

Abaddon clenched his fists and inadvertently ended up crushing his coffee mug. Zheng just fabricated him another one and kept quiet.

“That man was a once-in-a-lifetime superstar that is in no shape or form easily re-created! He and anything in his catalog should be off limits!”

Aj shrugged smugly. “He has some records released in the 2000s. You can use those if you want.”

“Bah!” Abaddon scoffed. “‘A Place with No Name’ and ‘Blue Gangsta’ lose against ‘Remember the Time’ easily. You’d trap me into a fool’s wager.”

Aj rubbed his hands as he prepared to claim his prize for winning. The last of Tatiana’s muffins was sitting on a plate in the middle of the table.

“Then don’t mind if I do-“

“Hold on a minute, Biggie-Smalls, we ain’t done here.” Abaddon grabbed his wrist. “Michael was one of the greatest, but you can’t use his existence as a stop-gap to dismiss any music made past 2000.”

“Why not?” Aj looked genuinely perplexed.

“Because you’re missing out?”

“Pft. On wha-“

“Labrinth, Teddy Swims, Giveon, Miguel, Kelly Rowland, Hozier, Musiq Soulchild, SZA-“

“I have only heard of like half of these people.” Aj admitted.

Abaddon slammed his fist on the table and cackled. “HA! How can you claim your opinion is valid if you’re arguing from a position of limited knowledge??”

Aj only realized his mistake far too late. “I-I.. Wh..”

He turned towards Zheng with begging eyes. “B-Bro, help me out here…”

Zheng barely even opened his eyes. “You have been defeated by opening your own mouth, human. Accept the consequences that have come with your loss.”

Abaddon grinned with an expression that was extra punchable.

Aj was left with no choice but to watch his budding girlfriend’s father wolf down his prize.

He was pretty sure the dragons could hear the sound of his heart breaking inside of his chest.

“You could’ve jumped in at any time, y’know?” Aj said. “I would’ve preferred you eat it over him at least.”

Zheng shrugged his shoulders. “I wouldn’t have been much help. I don’t like human American music.”

“”…””

Abaddon and Aj slowly turned to face Zheng with their expressions frozen from shock.

“”…What the fuck did you just say..?””

“…”

Zheng was an assassin with several million years of experience in contending with high-intensity situations.

As a result, he knew exactly how to rectify this before it got out of hand.

*Poof!*

Zheng suddenly vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Abaddon and Aj glanced a few feet away to where Nubia was seated on the kitchen counter with her wife, Adeline, and Courtney.

Abaddon: “…You have to get a divorce.”

Aj: “I would say that it’s downright mandatory if I’m honest…”

Nubia seemed not to pay them any mind as she filed her nails.

“I said my vows for better or worse, Dad. No point in me trying to give up this far in.”

Adeline nodded along as if this particular topic had made them consider a separation.

“Is whatever all of this is over now?” Courtney asked as she gestured to AJ and her father. “Mom made more muffins in the amount of time you guys have been arguing.”

Everyone glanced into the kitchen where Tatiana, Valerie, and Audrina were watching Bekka double-fist two muffins.

She was seemingly quite content as she received ample stomach rubs to ease her digestion.

Though it wasn’t very likely she would have many issues with that anyway, so they were probably just rubbing her for the sake of the smile on her face.

Valerie finally looked up. “Oh, are they done already? I thought it would take longer.”

“Please don’t wish that on me, Ma…” Courtney looked like she could have cried.

Valerie sauntered over to her husband and wiped around his mouth with a napkin. “You have quite the elitist attitude when it comes to music.”

Abaddon nodded and folded his arms. “It’s not elitism, I just know what I’m talking about.”

Aj grumbled to himself as he pushed around a piece of bacon.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Abaddon smiled dangerously.

The human just turned his head to the side and whistled.

“That’s what I…” Abaddon’s brow crinkled involuntarily before he resumed some normalcy. “Thought.”

Valerie tilted her head. “What was that? Are you okay?”

“Yes. Fine.” Abaddon responded just a hair too fast and put too much force into his nod.

Valerie almost immediately called bullshit. “You just received a prayer, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Did you just lie to me about receiving said prayer?”

“Maybe.”

Valerie honestly might’ve punched her husband if she didn’t love his pretty face so much.

“What’s the big deal?” Courtney asked as she came to steal from her father’s plate. “Don’t you and Dad get like millions of prayers in a day?”

“That depends on a lot of factors…” Valerie folded her arms as she stared at her husband.

The amount of prayers Abaddon receives at any given moment is usually dependent upon holidays, wartime, and or the birth of a child.

Dragons, especially Nevi’im, are an independent species and usually overlook divine intervention and prayer.

Though they have reverence for gods, they don’t really spend much of their lives waiting on them to fulfill their desires. There is nothing in Tehom’s religion that says that they must pray to him either.

If anything, most people who pray to him are young people and the very old who may be in isolated periods of their lives and seeking comfort.

They really only pray to him over the birth of a child so that their life may be fruitful.

The spirit population of Tehom, however, is almost the polar opposite.

Like humans, they will pray to Abaddon for anything that they cannot easily get their hands on.

His guilty pleasure is throwing them a couple of bones from time to time, but making it look like pure coincidence.

Since every spirit over the legal age was at the Nature Day festival (the Tehom version of Freaknik), Valerie was pretty certain that her husband wasn’t receiving genuine prayers right about now.

Even if they were saying ‘Oh god’, he was no doubt the very farthest thing from their minds.

Audrina, Tatiana, and a chewing Bekka all came over to stare at their husband.

Faced with their combined staredown, he had no choice but to concede.

“I might be… getting some prayers from earth.” Abaddon scratched his cheek.

The girls instantly understood why he hadn’t been answering.

“Mmf?” (Monsters?) Beka asked with a mouth full of muffin.

“Humans.” Abaddon answered grimly.

They understood even more now.

“…I thought humans didn’t know you existed?” Aj asked suddenly.

“Most do not.” Abaddon sighed.

“We learned about this in mythology class, babe.” Courtney reminded. “You take the class too, right?”

Aj blinked slowly.

Courtney recognized the look instantly. “…Weren’t paying attention, huh?”

“T-The professor’s voice makes me really sleepy.” Aj dropped his gaze.

Courtney just shook her head at him pitifully.

Briefly, she went on to explain how Abaddon spent time on earth a few thousand years ago.

He ruled a part of Africa, had a large tribe underneath him, and the bulk of that tribe were taken with him when he left to become the modern-day nevi’im.

However, a very small number of them chose to stay behind on Earth for one reason or another.

After hearing everything, Aj’s eyes sparkled with fascination. “So you have your own secret society..?”

Abaddon shook his head. “Not quite. Most of my followers are regular working-class people you could find anywhere.”

Aj nodded, but it was clear he was a little bit less impressed than before. “So, why don’t you want to listen to their prayers? Those are the type of folk who usually need them the most.”

Abaddon nodded as he slicked back his hair.

“And I am inclined to agree with you, but… I’m afraid that it isn’t that simple. My hands are tied by powers above me.”

Aj looked around and before pointing upwards. “…You mean the big man?” He whispered.

Abaddon sighed as he stared at the coffee mug in his grasp.

“Yep… the big man.”

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