Red Blooded
Page 20

“Witches’ spells are useless here. They are only effective on us when we are on your plane, because our own magic is lessened there. There are a few demon varieties who will fall victim to a witch spell for a short time here in the Underworld, but overall, they do not affect us much.”
That wasn’t great news. “How many demon species are there, anyway? It’s tough to see any differences when you’re all glamoured to look the same.”
“We are in She’ol,” she answered as she turned down yet another tunnel. This one was still blue, but a lighter hue. As I inspected it more closely, it appeared to have small sapphires dotting the walls. “All the demons here are what we refer to as true demons. We have many kinds of demons in the Underworld: fire demons, water demons, horned demons, incubi, and succubi, to name a few, but they all live on different levels of Hell.”
“What’s the difference between a true demon and the rest?”
“True demons contain pure blood magic. They can glamour themselves and their blood is potent. Other demons have different abilities. A fire demon can produce fire, but cannot spell. An incubus can seduce, but cannot glamour. We have arrived.” The demoness stopped in front of a bland-looking wall. This particular chunk of rock was brown and dead-looking, unlike all the vibrant blue we’d just passed.
Multiple shouts in Demonish and fierce growls were closing in behind us. “They’re coming.”
Lily turned toward me. “Hold on to me, whatever happens. If you let go, you will be lost to the in between.”
My wolf snarled, clearly uneasy about this plan.
Lily aimed her already regenerated fingers at the wall and shouted something I didn’t understand. Immediately following there was a pulse of energy that almost sent me flying. The demoness reached out and grabbed my wrist, yanking me into the vortex right as a full-grown chupacabra turned the corner.
Holy crap! It was five times the size of the ones in the trash heap, eyes glowing, saliva dripping, teeth as long as swords.
The vortex sucked us in like a vacuum an instant before the beast took a swipe at me with its horrendous claws, howling its outrage.
The last thing I saw as my head disappeared was a dozen demons rounding the corner, a look of shared horror on all their glamoured faces. I didn’t have time to figure out if they were horrified by seeing me or by seeing that we were entering the Sholls.
But it was too late to back out now.
Oh… my gods… I’m not sure we’re going to survive this. My wolf roared her displeasure right back at me, sending huge currents of adrenaline washing through our system to fortify us. I was in my full Lycan form, hands clutching Lily’s waist for life, but it felt like pieces of my body were being ripped apart.
Then, just as suddenly, it was over and I was on my back, panting.
The ride had been short, but extremely painful.
My eyes were firmly shut. I could already tell my mind and body were not on board for the Sholls. The air was thick and musty, and strange vibrations ran through me like physical sound waves, making my insides quiver and jump.
I knew I wasn’t going to like what I saw when I opened my eyes.
Beside me, Lily stood. Her breathing was labored. “Come, we must go. There are creatures that lurk here in the shadows. They are not demons. They are other and we cannot linger.”
I reluctantly opened my eyes.
I so wasn’t prepared.
My wolf howled, gnashing her teeth and snarling, urging us to go back the way we’d come—so much so that I fell backward as I tried to rise. The air wavered around us. The sky was a muted gray streaked with burnt orange. Things were off-kilter at haphazard angles.
We sat in the field behind the buildings.
I leaped up expecting the yellow grass to be wiggling beneath me. Instead here the ground was cracked and broken, emitting what smelled like toxic gas through the millions of holes the worm-like grass had occupied on the other plane.
Everything around me looked awful and menacing. “What is this place?” I whispered as I loped after Lily, who had already started to run. My body wobbled with every step as I tried to find my balance on this strange plane. My insides felt heavy and each time my leg hit the ground it felt like my insides were going to plummet to my feet.
“I told you, we are in the in between,” she answered.
“That doesn’t mean anything to me. How is an in between even possible?”
“There are vacant spaces on every plane—” Something large dropped from the top of one of the buildings. I couldn’t see what it was, because it was gone in the next instant.
But it hadn’t been a winged devil. That was way too big to be a devil bat, I told my wolf, as I crouched low, hands out in front of me.
Lily had stopped and braced herself against the wall, hands splayed, eyes alert.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“What was it?” I asked, panting in the thick air. The beast had evaporated into thin air. I glanced all around me, heightening my senses as much as I could. My body was still undulating on the inside. I put a tentative hand out in front of me and brushed the air back and forth. It moved like invisible smoke. It was barely detectable, but I could see it. It was freaky. “The air is actually moving. I think that’s what’s making my insides feel like—”
“Shh,” the demoness hissed.
“I’m pretty sure the smoke monster knows we’re here—” Something had me by the throat. It threw me up against the wall and I gasped, my head hitting the building behind me hard enough to draw blood. My hands scrabbled at my neck in the next instant, but there was nothing there to hold on to. I tried to take in a breath, but I couldn’t. Lily was suddenly in front of me, a look mixed with horror and irritation flowing across her striking features. Then her pupils elongated as she uttered some words in Demonish, her palms open and facing me. Something like static electricity shot out of her fingers and the creature I couldn’t see roared and let go.
I fell to my knees, gaping in the putrid wet air like a fish. I was so sick of having my airflow cut off. “What… was… that?”
“There is no time to explain. We must get to the other side of the square. Now.” She yanked me up by the arm and we began to run.
Up ahead I spotted the gazebos. On this plane they were bent and withered, appearing grotesque in the gray landscape. “Tell me what attacked me.” I panted as I ran, the thick air sticking in my throat. “And if you’re not around next time, how do I defend against it? It had no magic signature that I could sense. In fact, it felt like dead air was strangling me.” I couldn’t die if I passed out from lack of air, but I’d be vulnerable to an easy death once I was unconscious.