Late May air in Florida felt sticky and viscous. Like wading through soup.

It was almost nauseating to breathe in.

Air up in Montana was dry. Even in the middle of winter with snow covering the ground, the air remained dry.

Eva’s first breath after teleporting in had felt almost like she was drowning. Even after spending a few days wandering the streets, her skin still felt far too moist. Like she was in constant need of a shower. She had this constant sheen coating her like sweat. Even on top of her hands and legs, parts of her that didn’t sweat in the slightest.

It was the same as always. No evil slime monster lurked the streets of Florida, spreading its foul excretions around the place. No mad wizard had shown up in her absence to turn the air to soup. Eva had simply become too used to living in the far more arid climate.

While she might have just gotten used to it and was biased in the northern climate’s favor at the moment, Eva decided that she liked Montana better. At least as far as the air was concerned. If only the snow and cold could go away, it would be perfect.

Thoughts about the weather and odd hygiene problems aside, Eva was quite displeased with how her miniature vacation was coming along.

She had considered a stop at the old veterinarian’s office to say hello, but decided not to in the end. Eva walked around Brakket Academy entirely without shame or fear. The thought of walking into Doctor Thompson’s office without any gloves or blindfold just rubbed her the wrong way. Entering with them on was just as bad except in the opposite direction. She had passed by just to check that they were still in business and left without entering.

Without anyone else that she cared to visit in the area, Eva had plenty of time to focus on her primary reason for stopping by Florida.

Frankly, she wished it wasn’t taking so long.

“What is wrong with people?” Eva shouted out to the empty street.

The emptiness was part of the problem, but only part. It never used to be this difficult to get some gangbangers to follow her into back alleys. Or even to find them already engaged in mugging someone else–or worse.

“Am I too old now? Is that it?”

She was wearing her gloves and blindfold again as she didn’t care to scare off any potential scum of society with bright red eyes and claws. Maybe it wasn’t that she was too old. No one wore pants, gloves, long sleeves, and a blindfold this time of year in Florida. Maybe she looked too much like a cripple. Did rapists and thieves have standards against the disabled?

Maybe the seedier parts of town had changed locales after a few years. Police crackdowns or better squats opening up had forced some people to move in the past.

Clenching her fists in frustration, Eva decided to swing past a nearby trailer park. One of the worst upkept areas in town that she could think of that she hadn’t already wandered past.

By the time she made it to the park, she had managed to calm down. At least enough to play the part of the scared little girl.

“Scooby!” Eva called out, keeping her voice just timid enough. “Here boy, come back.”

Her old hospital held plenty of abandoned equipment. Things like tools, medical equipment, and items to assist the disabled. Wheelchairs and walkers, for instance.

After two days of no luck, Eva had decided to add a walking cane to her routine. It was too strange to see a blind girl walking around–even timidly–without bumping into at least a few things. Tapping the walking cane around the ground in front of her should throw at least some suspicion off.

Eva pursed her lips together for a weak whistle.

Making noise was important too. Not so much noise that it frightened off any would be assailants, but enough to draw their attention in the first place. In the past, she had often acted as though she had lost her parents. Being blind gave her a different though no less valid excuse.

“Scooby, where are you?”

Two humans sitting out on lawn chairs were laughing at her. Not so loudly that they were obvious about it, but Eva could see their motions as clear as day.

Sadly, neither got up to follow. They were far too absorbed with whatever they were smoking. She couldn’t actually see anything other than the motions. Eva was once again relying on her sense of blood to navigate, but even if she had been blind for real, the smell was unmistakable.

With a heavy heart, Eva finished her patrol of the trailer park.

Not a single person following me, she thought with a sigh.

Catching sight of a few circulatory systems behind her, Eva slowed her walk. Not much, but enough that it wouldn’t be difficult to catch up to her.

She might have jumped to conclusions just a moment too soon.

Eva recognized the two smokers from the trailer park, led on by a third that she hadn’t seen as she walked by. All three were the burly, muscular sorts.

Not a problem for Eva, she had faced far scarier opponents even before school had started.

“Hey hey, where you going girl?”

“Finally,” Eva hissed under her breath. Drawing her hands up to her chest and hunching over slightly to make herself look smaller, Eva turned around and prepared to channel Shalise. “M-my dog ran away. I c-can’t find him and now I don’t know how to get home.”

She would have tried some tears, but doubted that it would be very effective with the blindfold in the way.

“Your dog, huh?” He glanced back at the other two. “Don’t worry, my boys will help you find him.”

Eva tried to keep the frown off her face. So far, she had twelve separate people honestly try to help her find her dog. Twelve people who had steered her away from dark alleys and had been nothing but kind while she led them on a wild goose chase.

In the end, she had led them to a subdivision before ‘recognizing’ the area and running off towards her ‘home,’ thanking them for their help as she ran.

“Of course,” the lead guy said, “we are going to need a little payment first, you know?”

One of the guys behind him let out a short burst of a laugh as he leered at her.

Eva almost sighed in relief. She had her suspicions before, but that almost confirmed that they weren’t going to be the altruistic sort.

Rather than sigh, Eva tensed up. “W-what kind of payment?”

“Payment,” he said with a laugh. “I know a place where we can talk about it, why don’t you follow me for a bit, huh?”

“B-but my dog,” Eva said, turning slightly away from the group. Last chance, she thought.

“Yo, one of my buddies just called me up,” one of the smokers said. “He saw one of them seein’ eye dogs down the street. Said he’d pack it up and bring it with him.”

The guy in the lead shot his ‘boy’ a look. A sort of ‘what the hell kind of fifteen year old would believe that load of garbage, when were you supposed to have time to call, what if she runs off now?’ kind of look.

At least, that’s what Eva assumed the look said. She was thinking much the same thing. Or did she look younger? She was trying to make herself look as small and nonthreatening as possible. Maybe they thought she was only ten.

“You found Scooby?” Eva said, perking her voice up a few notches from the frightened child it had been a moment earlier.

The smoker just shrugged at the leader. “Sure thing, my buddy said its name tag said Scooby right there on it.”

The leader pressed a thumb to his forehead and shook his head slightly. “See? Everything is fine girl.” He clapped a hand on Eva’s shoulder. “Come on, we can take you to your dog.”

With only a modicum of resistance, Eva allowed the men to lead her away.

Contrary to her expectations, the men were not leading her back towards the trailer park. Eva decided that not going back was probably for the best after a moment of thought.

The walls in the trailer park were probably not the most sound proof things around.

After a short walk up the street, they pulled her into a van driven by a fourth thug. Roughly. Eva actually let out a short yelp as one of the thugs picked her up under her armpits. Whoever had her made no effort to avoid knocking her knees against the van’s floor as he shoved her inside.

Had she still had her old knees, she might have torn off his face then and there. As it was, she barely felt the impact against her chitin-covered legs. Eva was even willing to ignore just where his hands had maneuvered themselves to.

It was one of the last things that he would feel.

“W-where are we going?” Eva asked, keeping up the timid act.

She had half a mind to end them all right where they were, but curiosity was getting the better of her. Just where were they going?

Also, the van was already in motion. They had peeled off with squealing tires before the door shut. Eva couldn’t see the speedometer–it was behind a pane of plastic that her cloud of blood couldn’t penetrate–but she had the distinct impression that the thugs were not following the speed limit.

While she could probably find a way to survive a medium-high speed crash, she wasn’t so certain about the thugs. Unfortunately, she needed them alive.

“Don’t you worry girl. We’re just going to the warehouse your dog is at.”

Warehouse? That sounded promising. Less neighbors around to call the police.

Settling back in her seat, Eva put on a small smile. “O-okay. Thanks for going out of your way. You guys are really nice.”

“Hey hey, you hear that? We’re nice guys,” the leader said with a laugh.

The journey didn’t take long. Maybe ten minutes at most. There was a bit of winding around. At one point, Eva was certain that they made four right turns in a row. Maybe they were trying to lose anyone that might be following?

Eva didn’t care all that much. By the time they arrived, Eva was just glad that the leader had to take his wandering hands off her shoulders for a few minutes.

Sure enough, he hadn’t been lying when he had said that their destination was a warehouse. She had been expecting something smaller. A long-term storage unit the size of a decent bedroom at the most. This warehouse was clearly intended for shipping containers.

Though it didn’t look like it had seen much use in the recent years. Using her blood to feel the place out, Eva counted at least seven broken windows and a catwalk on the inside that had collapsed. The doors made horrid screeching noises as the thugs pushed them open. She was willing to bet that the walls were coated in a thick layer of graffiti as well.

There were three more people inside the building. Two on the ground floor on the other side of the main doors and one upstairs, sleeping. No one else as far as her range could stretch.

As the burly thug behind her closed the doors, Eva flicked off the caps on a few vials of blood under her jacket.

Her own blood. She wasn’t about to waste her precious few vials of Arachne’s blood on mere mortals.

“Scooby?” Eva called out as a tendril of blood snaked down her leg and out the bottom of her pants. It split off into three parts and each portion headed off towards all the doors that she had noticed.

Her call was met with raucous laughter from the gathered thugs.

Eva didn’t care. Even as she was surrounded and one of the thugs started spewing some nonsense about how she had been tricked, Eva didn’t pay attention. She was focused on sabotaging the doors.

With the doors all but impossible to open without breaking them down and the only windows up high to prevent theft, no one would be escaping any time soon.

Dropping her arms to her side and straightening her back, Eva cricked her neck back and forth.

Only the leader seemed to notice her change in posture. His heart rate hitched and he put a single foot backwards.

“Hey hey, she look nervous to you guys?”

“Trapped here with us? Oh, she’ll be nervous quick,” one of the others said.

That last guy stepped forward, winding up a punch. He was behind her, aiming at the small of her back.

The only thing Eva could think was, what a coward. Attacking a blind girl, half his size, from behind?

Eva stepped out of the way, catching his missed swing with her own hands.

She started squeezing.

For all his size, muscles, and apparent toughness, the thug started screaming like a newborn baby long before Eva heard the satisfying snap of bone.

Before letting him go, Eva yanked his arm towards her. She lacked the upper body strength to properly fist-fight, but he was already off balance.

And her legs were far from lacking in strength.

Her knee connected with his sternum with another crack as several ribs broke.

Eva imagined it felt somewhat like being struck square in the chest with hydraulically powered brass knuckles. Or brass kneepads, as the case was.

The thug collapsed to a moaning heap on the floor as Eva turned back to the rest of the group.

If the leader had been slightly nervous before, all of them were moderately nervous now.

Sighing, Eva peeled off her blindfold, making sure to keep her eyes firmly shut. She stretched out her claws after tossing both her gloves on the ground.

All the thugs’ heartbeats skyrocketed.

“Wait,” Eva said, holding her hand up in front of her. She brought her hand to her chin, rubbing it a few times in apparent thought. “How does it go again? Something-something, you’re trapped here with me.”

She opened her eyes as she spoke the last word, staring the leader dead in the face.

His eyes rolled back into his head as he tottered and fell to the floor.

No reason not to have a little fun, Eva thought with a grin that Arachne would be proud of.

“Shit,” one of the other thugs cried out. “It’s one of them! Wake up Eddy.”

Eva’s smile faltered. One of them?

She shrugged it off. Plenty of time for interrogations later.

Two of the thugs immediately moved in to attack with a third grabbing a bar from the collapsed walkway. The only other thug on his feet turned and sprinted away.

Not to any of the doors, but to a staircase that hadn’t collapsed on the opposite end of the room.

Eva frowned in confusion for just a moment. He might run and jump through one of the higher up windows, but he hadn’t even tried the door before heading upstairs. Eva’s frown deepened as she realized her mistake.

She had been too focused on the thugs in front of her. He was heading up to the other person, the one that was sleeping in what had probably once been an office. She did a quick double-check of the area to ensure she wouldn’t have any additional surprises.

Letting him go, Eva ignited her hands and focused on the remaining three. Six was already far more than she had expected to be getting. And if he came back with the seventh, then all the better for her.

The man with the bar swung it like a baseball bat.

Eva caught it in her left hand with a wince. Her hands and wrists might be strong enough not to shatter from the force, but the jolt it sent up her arm and into her back was nothing to scoff at. Had the angle been slightly different, she might have had to fight with a dislocated shoulder.

As it was, she simply closed her fingers around the pole with a grin. “Mine now.”

The flames in her left hand ramped up. Not hot enough to melt the steel beam, but hot enough that the thug could definitely feel it in his hands only a few inches away.

At the same time, she gathered up a ball of flames in her right hand and spread it towards the other two thugs in a long stream. More to keep them at a distance until she was ready for them than to actually harm them, but she wasn’t being too careful.

One guy’s shirt caught a trail of the flames.

If he ended up slightly crispy… Well, he only needed to survive just long enough.

Wrenching the bar out of the thug’s weakened grip, Eva took it in her own two-handed grip and brought it down on the guy’s knee with as much force as she could muster.

He went down to the ground screaming with his knee bent the wrong direction.

The guy she had caught in her flames was on the ground, rolling back and forth in a mad effort to put out the flames.

After causing the remaining fire to flare, Eva continued on past him. The final guy had run off towards the door during her beat down of bar-man. He was repeatedly slamming his shoulder into the door.

Shame the doors opened inwards.

Eva marched towards him at a glacial pace, making her footsteps as loud as possible on the concrete floor.

“No, please!” He pressed himself against the door, raising his arms in front of him for some minute amount of protection.

Eva paused just a step away from him. “You want mercy,” she growled out.

She lifted the bar overhead and brought it down on his outstretched arm. The snapping noise barely audible under his screams was not the bar breaking.

“I’ll show you the same mercy you were going to show a little blind girl who had lost her dog.”

Eva raised the bar again, preparing for a second strike.

Something cold and hard penetrated through her side. Right where Lynn Cross had taken a chunk of her hip.

It had healed, but perhaps not as well as it should have. Though thinner at her hips than her legs, the carapace should still have stopped most everything that hit her.

Letting out a cry–frustration more than anything–Eva used one of her vials of blood to form up a shield around herself.

Just in time for two loud cracks to ring out through the warehouse.

Two flattened bullets hit the ground just outside of her shield.

With a feral growl, Eva tore the icicle out of her side, unsheathed her dagger, and plunged it back into the hole. Eva shored up the damage as best as she was able as she turned to face her attackers.

The thug that had run off stood on the second floor walkway with a small revolver in his hands.

The man standing at his side held a small metal stick.

A wand.

Another bullet and four more icicles hit Eva’s shield in the time it had taken her to turn and glance up to the walkway.

The moment her eyes met those of the mage, he took a few steps backwards. Eva might have smiled at that had she not been fighting through the pain of having a hole in her side again.

After a few more impacts from both men, her shield had started to crack. They were far from the tier of attacks employed by the Elysium Order, but she was using her own blood.

Eva fired off an oversized fireball towards the two along with an orb of blood.

The blood homed in on the gun. The moment it hit, Eva clapped her hands to obliterate most of the gun.

Parts of the thug’s hand as well, but Eva couldn’t bring herself to care.

Both men dove off to opposite sides to avoid the oncoming flames. The fireball wasn’t intended so much as an attack as way to obscure the mage’s vision. Eva charged in straight after it, leaping off the bottom floor.

With Arachne’s legs, reaching the walkway was no issue.

Eva tore through her fireball, emerging on the other side to land on top of the diving mage.

One hand crushed his wrist while the other snapped his silver wand in two.

Digging her claws into him, Eva hefted him up and over the railing.

She would rather have them all on the ground floor.

Unfortunately, despite the relatively low height of the walkway, she had thrown him over head first. Eva watched with a frown as his body stilled, neck bent at an angle necks were not supposed to bend at.

The mage had been fairly small, a skinny guy without the muscle that the rest of the thugs had. The thug was the exact opposite. Possibly the largest person in the room. He was a pain to deal with. Especially with the struggling.

Eva had to break his nose and crush his hand that hadn’t gotten blown off just to get him to stop resisting.

Taking more care with the handless guy, Eva pushed him over feet first, dangling him by the shoulders to help lessen the height. He landed in a heap.

Jumping back down to the ground floor, she snapped the thug’s leg before he could move.

Eva surveyed the damage. Most everyone was moaning or screaming in pain. The guy with several broken ribs and a crushed wrist had actually managed to get back to his feet.

Eva shoved him to the ground and crushed a leg with a well placed stomp.

Her flames had died out on the man she had hit earlier. Despite being one of the least injured of the bunch, he wasn’t moving. He was lying still. Very still. Had she not been able to see his heartbeat and other minor movements, she might have thought he had died.

Pretending to be unconscious? Cute.

She left him be for the moment as she counted up the thugs.

Broken ribs, destroyed knee, fire guy, broken-arm-by-the-door guy, dead mage, handless guy.

Six including the mage.

Someone was missing.

“Oh leader,” Eva called out. “Where have you run off to?”

Given the fact that he had passed out right at the start of the fight, she had been expecting the least amount of trouble from him. Maybe the noise of the gun going off had woken him. Whatever the case, he couldn’t be allowed to escape.

Eva walked left. She walked right.

All, including her call, for show. For fun.

The leader had slipped away during her fight and had hidden himself behind the collapsed section of the walkway.

Eva tossed a few rocks in one direction while she tiptoed around the heap in the other. For a moment, she actually considered creating a blood-clone of herself to make the effect all the better, but that would have taken far too much effort.

Not to mention the disorienting effects that she still hadn’t overcome.

Instead, she just kept quiet as she sneaked up behind him.

“Guess who?” Eva said as she clasped her hands over the leader’s eyes.

He immediately started struggling and shouting.

“Struggle more and you might not have any eyes,” Eva said, voice hard. “Not a fun experience. Trust me. I know. How about you answer my questions instead, hmm? Doesn’t that sound far more pleasant?”

“W-what do you want?” he squealed.

“I want to kill a few pedophiles and rapists.” His heart-rate jumped through the roof. “But for the moment, I’m content to find out just what a mage was doing hanging out with a bunch of low-lives.”

That calmed him back down. Slightly.

“Eddy? Shit–he helps us get into places. Helps fight rivals. That sort of shit.”

There had to be better magic-needing jobs than working for a small-time gang. It didn’t even sound like he led the gang. Eva had been calling this guy the leader just because he had been at the head of the group, but for all she knew, he was the leader.

“And what did they mean by ‘it’s one of them’ earlier?”

He didn’t immediately respond. Eva scratched one of her fingers across his forehead.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” he screamed out. “Some people showed up a few months ago, investigating or some shit. Big guy in armor and a smaller woman. Talked to just about everyone in town, police, gangs, everyone. Wanted to know about all kinds of strange shit. Especially anyone that might have colored eyes–demons they called them. If it weren’t for Eddy, we would have laughed in their faces. He talked to them, not me. Ask him!”

“I see,” Eva said with a hum. Asking him wasn’t going to be possible at the moment. But the information wasn’t totally worthless. Someone looking for demons. Neither she nor Devon had been in the area for two years. Less depending on exactly how many months ago this was.

Were there other demons in the area that had drawn attention to themselves? Or someone following an old trail?

“Well,” Eva said, “can you think of anything else that might interest me?”

“Please, just let me go.”

“Aww, I’d love to.” Eva loosened her grip ever so slightly. “But then you might go kidnap some other poor girl. No. Best to take preventive measures.

“Besides, I still haven’t got what I originally came here for.”

Irene stood outside, enjoying the bright sun beating down on her skin. Brakket Academy just didn’t get enough sun. Doubly so given that the last two months had purple streaks in the sky. They were disturbing and unnatural.

Most of her time had been spent inside as much as possible.

As if that would save her from anything.

Shaking her head, Irene put thoughts of Brakket Academy out of her mind. She was back home in New York and a safe distance away from everything troubling.

Probably. Demons were involved. It was hard to tell if any distance was safe.

Irene slapped her cheeks. “Stop worrying,” she mumbled to herself.

It wasn’t like she was going back anytime soon. Normally, her parents wanted her and her sister out of the house and back at Brakket in time for the summer seminars. This summer would be different. The summer seminars were optional after all.

She would be keeping far away until the very day that school started.

“So, you going to tell me now?”

Pushing her sunglasses up to the top of her head, Irene glanced over at her sister. She had a feeling that she knew where this conversation was about to head. Even still, she decided to play dumb.

“Tell you what?”

“Oh come off it. There are no teachers around, no Jordan, no Eva, no Arachne, not even any parents.” At Irene’s questioning look, Shelby shrugged. “They went out to dinner together. It’s just us. No one else is home. So spill. What was all that?”

Irene let out a long, exhausted sigh. Her dear sister could make herself quite the annoyance when she wanted to. It was bad enough that waving her away to Eva, someone who could answer questions, hadn’t worked. Eva barely spoke to anyone since that night.

“I told you,” Irene said, “I can’t tell you. Literally cannot. Ask me again when we’re eighteen.”

The contract wouldn’t hold her tongue after that.

“That’s two and a half years away. Two whole years!”

“I know.”

“You have to give me something.”

“Look, if Eva won’t tell you, ask Catherine.”

“The substitute?”

“If she asks you to agree to anything, I would recommend against it.”

“What would she ask me?”

Irene just fell silent with a shake of her head. Saying anything more might be treading dangerous waters.

Shelby let out a sigh of her own. She walked around the porch to stand right in front of Irene. Without a word of warning, she pushed herself into the chair.

Irene had to scoot herself to the side to make room. Once Shelby finally stopped her squirming, Irene gave her sister a glare.

“You’re not going to disappear, are you?”

“What?” Irene said, blinking away her glare. “Of course not. What do you mean by that?”

“Well, Juliana disappeared. So did Shalise. Max as well.”

“Max has been hanging out with Drew,” Irene said, not even trying to hide her disgust. “Juliana’s mother got hurt. She went back home.”

“And Shalise?”

Irene didn’t have a good answer for that one. Eva had said that she was fine. Where and with who had been left out of the explanation. “She disappeared after Halloween, but she came back. I’m sure she’ll be around again.”

“As long as you don’t go anywhere,” Shelby said with a sigh. “I don’t know what I’d do. Or what I’d tell mom and dad.”

Irene flicked her sunglasses back over her eyes. “Me neither.”

— — —

Eva closed the door of the warehouse, again solidifying blood inside the locking mechanism and keyholes.

Not her blood. Eva had dutifully reclaimed every stray droplet of her own blood. She had used some of the thugs’ blood to reseal the doors and windows.

It wasn’t impervious. Anyone dedicated enough would break it with little effort. The solid blood was more to keep any passers-by from stumbling across something that would scar them for life.

Part of her was hoping that there were more members of that little gang and that they would be the ones to take a hammer to the door. Maybe it would scare them straight.

Eva frowned outside the building. Unless they thought it was the actions of a rival gang. That could very well start some kind of gang war.

She glanced back to the door. There needed to be… something.

An idea popped into her head. A terrible, horrible, no good idea. But Eva decided to go with it anyway.

Six crooks thought they had smarts

And kidnapped a girl for her parts

The girl fought back

Six crooks she did sack

And claimed every one of their hearts

Looking over what she had just scrawled in blood on the door, Eva’s already deep frown deepened further.

“That’s terrible.”

It identified the assailant as a girl. Hopefully that would keep any gang wars from springing up. That was where the good points ended. The fourth line could be misinterpreted to make it seem lewd. Worst of all, the rhythm was off.

She had half a mind just to erase the entire thing.

But it wasn’t that bad. At least the rhymes worked. It got the message across for any other thugs that might see it. She wasn’t afraid of being identified to any gang members. She planned to be back at Brakket before long anyway, far out of either the police or the gang’s jurisdictions. Eva knew the truth about the fourth line and didn’t much care if anyone actually misinterpreted it.

Not to mention the time it took to come up with. If she got rid of it now, she’d have wasted a good half hour of retooling the words and figuring out just what to say.

It probably said something about her that the rhythm bothered her most.

That and the last line wasn’t entirely accurate.

They’d find a seventh body in there, but she hadn’t touched the mage after he broke his neck. Bloodstones couldn’t be made from the deceased after all. Whoever found him could come up with their own conclusions about the reasons for that.

She had, however, stolen his wand and burned a handful of books that were up in the room he had been sleeping inside of. The books weren’t anything special. Eva was relatively certain that Brakket’s library held copies of them all.

As far as she could tell, he was entirely self-trained.

Eva built up magic and teleported across the city to her abandoned hospital. After stumbling out of the hospital’s gate room and taking a long drink from a water bottle, Eva sat down at her desk.

There she lined up four fresh bloodstones.

The first three had been done by the book. With the proper sigil inscribed in blood on the back of her hand, Eva pressed her hand against the still beating hearts of the thugs before channeling her magic.

After those three, Eva had decided to experiment.

She had altered the sigil slightly in an attempt to puzzle out just what each little line did.

The first alteration had produced a bloodstone slightly smaller than the average. Despite that, it felt just as heavy as the others, if not heavier. Eva lacked any sort of precision scales at the moment.

She would just have to wait and see how it held up in the long run. It lacked the pure sheen and crystal clear transparency that those she had recovered from the museum possessed. Because of that, Eva doubted that it would last forever.

In fact, she assumed that it would be the first to show signs of decay.

The bloodstone she had made out of the necromancer had been larger than normal and had lasted longer than an average bloodstone as well. Unfortunately, she didn’t know what she had done to get that result–Eva hadn’t been thinking all that clearly at the time. Having recently undergone torture at Sawyer’s hands would do that to anyone.

Her fifth and sixth attempts at experimentation didn’t turn out so well.

As an attempt to produce a larger bloodstone, she had tried altering the same line she had altered to produce the fourth except in the opposite direction.

The heart had been consumed but the bloodstone had crumbled away to dust as soon as she tried to pick it up.

Resetting the sigil back to default, Eva had then tried to alter the parts that she thought affected the bloodstone’s power.

Big mistake.

There wasn’t a heart left. Neither was there most of a ribcage or other internal organs. The carapace on her hand had actually cracked from the force of the explosion. Had she had her original hand, she would probably be needing a new one at the moment.

Still, four bloodstones wasn’t a bad amount. She had only been expecting two at most. Stumbling across a gang had been a stroke of luck.

She had half a mind to extend her vacation. The leader had mentioned other gangs. Finding them would mean more bloodstones and more experimentation.

And really, what was at Brakket that required her attention?

Not a lot these days.

Despite the brief panic over the sky, the school year had finished out as per normal. Eva had even received decent marks on her pyrokinesis exam. The month of more mundane schooling had passed by in a flash–and something of a daze as well.

It had been… melancholic. Even hanging out with Irene and company had felt far more somber than it should have.

No Shalise, no Juliana, and no Arachne. A few other students had been pulled out by their parents. Brakket just felt empty.

There had been an announcement stating that the sky was part of a long-term magical experiment and that it presented no immediate danger. Not entirely inaccurate, but Eva had a feeling that she wouldn’t be seeing all of her classmates at the start of the next year despite Martina Turner’s machinations.

Aside from the fact that there was nothing going on at Brakket while there was still another reason to remain in Florida.

The leader had mentioned that someone had been around looking for demons.

One of Devon’s old contacts? Or someone searching with more hostile intentions?

Well, Eva thought as she spun one of the marbles around on her desk, the former doesn’t necessarily discount the latter.

Eva had met someone who Devon knew before he had found her. Just once. It hadn’t turned out well for anyone involved.

Though, one might say that Devon had come out better. At least he was still breathing.

Eva would have considered contacting Devon about it, but he had been livid last time they spoke. Though she couldn’t say that she was guiltless of shouting once or twice during their discussion. She wasn’t feeling particularly up to arguing with him again.

Had he come with them along with one of his dominated demons, Arachne would probably still be around.

Pausing in her fiddling with the bloodstones, Eva reached up to her collar. She had once again taken to wearing Arachne’s beacon around. The little black orb filled with intricate spider webs. Whenever Arachne was ready to return, Eva would be ready and waiting.

It might cause problems if she came back in the middle of school, or something similar, but Eva couldn’t muster up the effort to care at the moment. And when Arachne came back, for she would without a doubt, Eva doubted that she would care then.

But that could still be a long way off. More immediate problems revolved around Devon and whoever was looking for him. He wouldn’t be in the mood to entertain questions though. Especially not about his past acquaintances. Shortly after hearing of Arachne’s demise, he had locked himself inside his room with explicit instructions not to be disturbed while he puzzled out what changes needed to be made to her treatment.

The entire ritual had to be altered to accommodate a different demon.

Neither of them were holding out much hope that Arachne would be back in time. There were only a few weeks left before the maximum length of time that she could go without treatment. The one saving grace, according to Devon, was that Arachne’s death had happened soon enough after her previous treatment that it allowed him enough time to work.

There were plenty of other demons around Brakket–Ylva, Catherine, Zagan, the security guards, and the carnivean Devon had summoned after learning of Arachne’s demise–at least one of whom would probably be willing to donate some blood.

It put a sick feeling in the pit of Eva’s stomach to use one of them, but there wasn’t much she could do. If she refused the treatment without Arachne then she ran the very real possibility of permanently damaging herself.

The only other reason to return to Brakket at the moment would be to coordinate with Nel against Sawyer.

A big reason to be sure, but one that Eva was hesitant about acting on.

Eva had spoken with Nel before she had gone on her vacation. Sawyer had been holding position in eastern Idaho, a land of empty wilderness, though not quite to the extent of Montana. He was almost a full day out from Brakket Academy. What, exactly, he had been doing there for the past month or so, Nel couldn’t say. She had been unable to regain exact sight of the necromancer and was estimating his position based off the disturbance caused by his hiding.

The thought of confronting Sawyer actually sent a chill down Eva’s spine. She wasn’t sure if it was from apprehension or excitement. The occasional daydreams she had over the past year or so made her think it was excitement. Imagining wiping that smile off his face, ruining all of his plans, and finally killing him… it was enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

The apprehension came from the fact that he had been in one spot for a good amount of time. For all Eva knew, Sawyer currently lived under an ancient graveyard. Charging in to attack him would end up worse than the cave Devon had found in her first year at Brakket.

Eva was quite certain that they wouldn’t have come out of that quite so unscathed had Juliana not been there with them. And Devon had still lost his arm in that incident. This time, Arachne wouldn’t be around to distract half of the skeletons.

On the other hand, if Sawyer came to attack Brakket, he would be out of his home base and Eva would have all of the professors and security personnel to help.

But Eva was starting to lose hope that he was going to move in the near future.

Scooping up the bloodstones, Eva came to a decision.

There were a number of rituals she wanted to perform before confronting Sawyer. Some beneficial to her, some detrimental to Sawyer. Having a few spare bloodstones would be for the best as well.

Thinking on it now, Eva was almost disgusted that she had experimented with a few of the bloodstones. She should have just done it all by the book and walked away with a full six bloodstones.

There were other gangs in this corner of Florida. Other potential bloodstones.

They wouldn’t be as hard to find as that first gang. Eva hadn’t walked away entirely empty-handed. She was almost a thousand dollars richer and had a small stash of drugs that she couldn’t even begin to properly identify. Some were plant-like, others were powder. They would probably just rot inside her home–Eva hadn’t a clue what she would do with them.

The most important thing that she had looted from the gang’s warehouse was a small diary kept by the leader. Eva still wasn’t certain if her leader was the leader, but it was probably a moot point now.

Diary would be stretching the word as well. It was more of a notebook detailing a few people who owed money and a few people who the gang didn’t seem to like much. Rivals.

And it contained a few addresses.

Starting points.

Eva stood from her desk, ready to head out to one nearby that looked mildly promising.

—

“Jack,” Eva said, raising her voice slightly louder than the previous time.

The man didn’t move from his face down position on a sweat-soaked bed.

Feeling mildly frustrated at how heavy his sleep was, Eva slammed a fist into the wall.

That did the trick.

Jack–as he was called in the little notebook–jumped a few feet in the air. With almost practiced motions, his hand snapped under his pillow and pulled out a pistol. He swung it around until it was pointing right between Eva’s eyes.

There was a moment of hesitation as he took in Eva’s appearance before he fired.

Three bullets slid harmlessly off Eva’s shield.

“Tsk tsk. That’s not very nice.”

He fired again.

Eva didn’t bother to suppress a roll of her eyes. “If it didn’t work the first three times, what makes you think it will work the next–”

Another series of ear-splitting cracks echoed through the tiny room. It was somewhat irritating that she actually had to feed some additional blood into her shield to keep it from failing under the continued fire. Arachne’s blood would have been able to hold up to attacks of that caliber with barely any blood lost, but Eva wasn’t willing to waste the precious few vials that she still had.

Not on some random drug dealer.

Sawyer might be worthy of them.

Thankfully, the cracks shifted to a series of impotent clicks before she totally lost her sense of hearing.

He immediately started reaching down the side of his bed. As soon as he pulled out a spare magazine for his pistol, Eva canceled her shield and moved up next to him.

“That is more than enough of that.” She gripped his gun—hand and all—and squeezed.

The gun was fairly solid even under the pressure of her claws. There were creaks. The barrel bent inwards. Yet it still looked like a gun. Not too surprising given that it was designed to handle miniature explosions going off inside.

His hand was not designed to stand up to even a fraction of that kind of pressure.

“You’ve made several people very angry by pushing your drugs in the wrong sections of town, Jack. And you are not doing yourself any favors with me,” Eva said over his cry of pain. “I want information and you’re going to give it to me.”

He grit his teeth as he looked up with hate-filled eyes. “What do you want, bitch?”

Eva ignored the slight.

For now.

“First, do you know anything about an armored man and a woman passing through town a few months back?”

He shifted away, eyes glancing down to her hands before returning to her eyes.

Eva gave his hand another light squeeze. “Don’t move. The air is foul enough without your movements stirring up the stench on your bed.”

“Fuc–”

Eva’s other hand darted up to his face. Her claws dug into his cheeks. “You will answer my questions and say nothing else. I’ve other people I can ask. It would be a mistake to think that I need you alive.”

There wasn’t much of a visible response to that. Perhaps some more sweat, but that might not have been all that unusual given his current, soaked state. But the heart was much harder to disguise.

“I know them,” he said. “Demon hunters, they called themselves.”

Eva felt a slight chill go down her spine.

Maybe she would be skipping out on acquiring more bloodstones. As busy as he might be, there was no way that Devon wouldn’t want to hear about demon hunters around their old city.

“Didn’t see them myself.”

Eva blinked away her thoughts. “But you know them?”

“Some of the others talked about them. One moment they’d ask Barney in the middle of his route. The next they’d be talking to a school teacher. Eventually, they asked Channel Seven.”

“And they got on the local news,” Eva said.

Jack nodded a confirmation.

Her first reaction was that they should have done that in the first place. Get the word out there. Unless they were afraid that the demon would flee. It wasn’t something that Eva could imagine Arachne doing, but other demons might be more cowardly. Or smarter.

They had probably realized that their targets weren’t in the area any longer and ended up deciding to put the word out in an attempt to gather more information.

Some demon or diabolist might have passed through town since Eva had started school, but she doubted it. As Zagan had mentioned a long time ago, diabolists were rare. Maybe not so rare that one could walk the entire continent without encountering one, but rare enough that one wouldn’t be likely to find two unaffiliated diabolists in the same area.

Brakket was something of an oddity in that regard. However, Brakket was a school. Eva was willing to give it a pass on the assumption that schools attracted all kinds of strange sorts. Sawyer and the Elysium Order backed up that assumption.

But if the demon hunters had reason to believe there were demons in the area, then they had been after Eva and Devon.

No, she would definitely be skipping out on the rest of bloodstones. Devon needed to know soon and she didn’t want to stick around on her own. If Arachne were around, perhaps things would be different. As it was, fleeing immediately was the best choice.

“You’re going to kill me, aren’t you?”

Narrowing her eyes, Eva looked back at Jack. He sounded resigned. Not a glimmer of hope in his voice. That lack of hope was apparent in his posture as well. He was still in bed, slumped over and staring at the floor.

What to do with him?

“Perhaps,” Eva said, watching as he slumped further. “Perhaps not.”

Pulling out the notebook she had borrowed from the recently deceased leader, Eva looked over Jack’s entry.

There was nothing listed apart from him dealing drugs on the wrong side of town, invading the ‘turf’ of the gang that Eva had essentially dismantled. Of course, she doubted that they would list anything about him being a known sex offender or other degenerate tendencies. Almost all entries in the notebook were about people who owed the gang money in some manner or other.

“Tell me, Jack, have you ever kidnapped anyone?”

His eyes snapped up to meet hers, mouth open to answer. As soon as he made eye contact, he flinched away.

“Answer truthfully. I’ll know if you’re lying.”

Maybe, Eva thought. She could watch his heart rate, but it was erratic enough at the moment that it was doubtful that she could tell a lie from a truth. Jack didn’t know that, however.

“No,” he said, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. “Never.”

“Murder maybe?”

“No!”

“Really?” Eva asked, glancing over to the gun he had tried to kill her with. “No rival drug dealers? No former customers that might have failed to pay you?”

“Look,” he said, meeting her eyes again. This time he managed to hold his gaze. “I sell drugs. Kids mostly, in high school. Dropouts. Some older clients. But I never killed anyone man, you gotta believe me!”

Eva hummed, tapping her finger on top of the book. After a moment of thought, she snapped it shut and tossed it to him.

“I’ll be back. When? Who knows. Maybe in a week, maybe in five years. What I want from you is to find me a list of people who no one will care about. To be clear, I don’t mean homeless people with no families. I’m talking about gangs, murderers, rapists, and pedophiles especially.”

“Wha–Why?”

“I’m sure that within the next few days, you’ll hear about seven deceased people all missing their hearts. Yet, I need more. I had to spend far too long hunting down those scum. Next time I need hearts, I want to come here and get a nice neat list from you.” Eva tapped the book with one of her sharp fingers. “Maybe that will help, maybe not. You might be able to make money off it, I don’t care. Though I’d keep it a secret as it is tied to the dead.

“Change your name, move away, blah-blah-blah, I’ll hunt you down and take your heart. Do your job well and there might be rewards.”

Hunting him down might be annoying. In fact, if he ran, Eva doubted that she would bother. But, as with her claim that she could pick out his lies, it was all about the image she gave off. Right now, Eva was going for scary.

Eva had no idea what those rewards would be, but she was sure that she could come up with something. Even if it was just a cheap enchanted object from one of the stores around Brakket. For a mundane person, a safe that could turn invisible would probably be amazing.

But not something she had to worry about now.

Eva built up her magic and teleported away.

Disappearing without waiting for a response should add to the mystique of her presence as well as lock him into agreement.

Besides, she had wasted enough time on him. She had to make a quick pit stop at her hospital.

Then, back to Brakket.

Eva stepped out of the women’s ward gate room to find a corpse lying on her couch.

Somewhat unusual. Not exactly what Eva had been hoping to find immediately after teleporting home. Especially because she was still feeling somewhat wobbly and wanted the couch to herself.

Slumping into one of the chairs, Eva sent a glare in the corpse’s direction.

The corpse didn’t even look up from her book.

“Curls today? Your hair was straight at the cathedral.”

The vampire sat up on the couch, resting the book–one of Eva’s blood magic books–on her lap. “What? A vampire isn’t allowed to style their hair?” she huffed. “For your information, my hair is naturally curly. I straightened it for Wayne.”

Eva opened her mouth to retort, but changed tracks. She really didn’t care about Serena’s hair preference or her preference for middle-aged men.

“I thought you were afraid of this place.”

“This place? Nope, nope, nope.” Serena shook her head side-to-side, sending her blond hair bouncing around her face. “When Wayne told me that you had a miniature Death God roaming around, I decided to keep my distance.”

Eva blinked. It took her a minute to relate ‘miniature Death God’ to Ylva. Hel was the death god, not Ylva. And, being a giant, Ylva was anything but miniature. Most of the time.

“But you’re here now.”

“Mini Death God isn’t here now, is she?”

“Why are you here?”

“It smells nice here. You smell nice.” A flash of hunger appeared in the vampire’s eyes.

Eva immediately tensed and shut her own eyes. She didn’t think the vampire would attack. Better safe than sorry.

After seeing her fight in tandem with Wayne against a handful of nuns, Eva wasn’t entirely sure that she could take her on if needed. She could try to remove her blood from the ward system, but Eva didn’t know if that would stop the vampire.

Her wards worked on blood and the vampire’s wasn’t moving.

Closing her eyes at least kept the vampire out of her head.

As if sensing her tension, Serena let out a soft giggle before flopping back over on the couch.

“Besides. Wayne is looking for me and I needed a place to hide.”

“I was under the impression that you were enamored with him. Or something similar. Wouldn’t him looking for you be a good thing?”

“He’s fun to tease,” she said with a wistful sigh. “But apparently I have had too much fun in the last month all on my own. I told him but he wouldn’t hear a word. Sis will be fine without me. She’s a big girl and can take care of herself.”

Eva had no idea who Serena was talking about. Neither did she ask. The small talk with the vampire was enough to occupy the time it took for the post-teleportation wobbles to wear off.

“Well, feel free to hide out here, I guess. Just don’t go into my room.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Eva wasn’t sure if she should believe that.

“I’m off to the shower,” Eva said, standing. “I don’t mind you reading my books, but put them back when you’re finished.”

“Yes mother,” Serena said, waving an arm back and forth.

Eva had the distinct impression that she would be picking books off the floor later on.

But that could wait. Shower first.

Her shower at the hospital in Florida was almost identical to the one in the women’s ward. She had used the same rune configuration to conjure and heat water. There were no real settings on it. As soon as she rotated the shower heads to line up the runes, everything turned on. Moving it too far turned it back off again.

And yet, the women’s ward shower was much hotter. Much more comfortable. Whatever mistake she had made in the heating rune had been for the best.

In short, Eva had missed her home during her short vacation. It didn’t compare to the bath in Ylva’s domain, but it was a comfortable second.

The sun had been high in the sky when Eva left Florida. Not noon, sometime after. Possibly as late as four o’clock, though there was a bit of time difference between Florida and Montana. She couldn’t actually see the sun from inside the women’s ward. Her overhead lighting was on and working fine, but someone had taken the trouble to hang up a set of blankets over the windows.

Three guesses as to who, Eva thought with a roll of her eyes.

By the time that Eva felt she had enough and twisted the shower head to the off position, the clock on the wall read five o’clock.

“Do you always walk around naked?”

Eva didn’t hesitate in a single step as she walked through the common room towards her bedroom. “Usually,” she said, pushing her door open. She left it open for the purpose of conversation as she fished a clean skirt and shirt out of her dresser. “Habit of living on my own since I was six years old, I guess.”

“Young,” was the vampire’s only response.

“Circumstances conspired. After my mom died… well, I wasn’t going to stay with Edgar. I had already run away twice before then and third time’s the charm. It helped that I had met Arachne and had started learning magic before then.”

“Liberating isn’t it?” Serena called out as Eva tugged her shirt around her waist. “No parents to tell you when to go to bed or what food you should eat.”

“Or to wear clothes around the house?”

Serena laughed. A cold, mirthless laugh.

It set Eva’s hair on end.

“That as well.”

“It wasn’t much different from living at home,” Eva said. She shut the door to her room and retook her seat in the common room. “My mother worked evenings and nights and my father only acknowledged me when it suited him. Usually in the form of beatings while drunk.”

Her stormy eyes met Eva’s for a brief moment before she turned her gaze to the ceiling.

“I didn’t want to leave my home. I loved my parents and my sister dearly. Still don’t know why my sire murdered them, but that was around the time I had to move out. I spent a year with him–there was nowhere else to go–as he taught me about the ‘night life’ and how to feed, etcetera.

“And then he left. Abandoned me when he got bored or maybe died at the hands of another vampire. Don’t know and don’t much care anymore–that was sixty-something years ago. But left alone in a city with two large clans of vampires and several independent strains? Scary stuff. Different strains tend to not get along with each other.”

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Eva said during a pause in the vampire’s speech, “but a sixty year old vampire has got to have a lot of life to their story.” She hadn’t really asked for her life’s story either.

Serena looked back with narrowed eyes. “A vampire with a lot of life in their story. You’re a funny woman, Eva.”

I wasn’t trying to be, Eva didn’t say.

“But there’s a point to this. Listen to your elders.” Serena narrowed her eyes again, this time to thin slits. “And I’m only sixteen, I’ll have you know.”

“Right.”

“Skipping over half my existence… I’d say that I’ve enjoyed the last decade and a half. The difference between now and before? Wayne, Zoe, and Sarah.”

She rubbed a hand through her curly hair with a small growl. “What I’m trying to say is that while our situations might be different, I probably have a good idea how it is to be without friend or family. If you want someone to talk to, I’ll be around. At least until Wayne drags me back home.”

Eva stared at the vampire.

It was hard to imagine that the being before her was sixty years old. The way she was acting had Eva almost believing her claim of sixteen despite knowing better. She shifted her knees and wrung her hands. Serena didn’t have a blush on her cheeks, but that was more because she didn’t have working blood circulation than anything.

A cynical part of Eva’s mind was screaming out that it was an act. That the vampire had been put up to it by Zoe. Or worse, she wanted something.

Blood, probably.

Still, Eva couldn’t help but to laugh. It started low and quiet. Just a snicker, really. It quickly grew into a full-blown laugh.

The vampire’s face as Eva laughed only added more fuel to the flames.

“You could have just said ‘no thanks,’ jerk,” she said with a pout.

“It isn’t that,” Eva said as she got her breathing under control.

How long has it been since the last time I laughed a real, true laugh? Too long. Far too long.

Eva wiped a tear from her eye. “It was just hard to reconcile how you act with how old you are.”

“Old? I just said that I’m sixteen.”

“I might take you up on your offer sometime,” Eva said, ignoring the outburst from the suddenly angry vampire. “But I do have friends. Aside from Juliana and Shalise, even.”

“Zoe likes me, right?” Holding out her claws, Eva ticked off names on each finger. “There’s Irene.” A second finger ticked off. She took in a breath as she considered more. “Kind of Shelby and kind of Jordan. We don’t actually talk all that much. And they’re all gone for part of the summer break.”

If not for good. Eva knew that Irene and Shelby’s parents were somewhat strapped for cash. Brakket’s scholarship program was what allowed the two to attend school. But their parents would probably choose no school over sending their daughters back into danger.

Jordan’s father had a huge hand in the diablery class, so he might be back. If the class was still around. Eva wasn’t certain that the class was going to continue in the next year. No one was supposed to be summoning demons. They could work on shackles, but that was about it.

The good mood from her laughter was slowly leaking out. “Devon, maybe? I don’t know that we’re friends per se. Ylva? Probably not. Probably not Nel either. Catherine doesn’t hate me. I think.”

Eva frowned as she scratched the back of her head. She still had only two fingers ticked off. There had to be others.

“Quality over quantity,” Serena said with a sage nod.

“Yeah.” Eva stood abruptly. “I needed to talk to Devon upon getting back. Thanks for talking. I do feel better, somewhat.”

One hand waved Eva away while the other reopened her book.

Eva left her behind, wandering towards Devon’s cell house with her thoughts on the subject of friends.

She had left Juliana and Shalise out, but those two were her friends. Regardless of what their parents thought. Eva would never let her father dictate her friendships, but not everyone had her luxury. Shalise, less than Juliana.

Eva made a mental note to check in with Nel about Shalise. The last time that Eva had her check, Shalise and Lynn Cross had been hiding out somewhere in Switzerland with Shalise looking somewhat displeased with the situation. According to Nel, she interacted with Lynn, but only for regular living necessities. There was no small talk and neither did she remain in the same room with the other.

By the time that Eva reached Devon’s building, her mood had soured considerably.

Shalise had only spoken of her home life on one or two rare occasions. She came from a group home for wards of the state.

Had Lynn even mentioned to whoever needed to know that Shalise was going to be living abroad?

The more she thought about it, the more it sounded like kidnapping.

Eva pounded her fist into Devon’s door to let out a little frustration at the situation.

She should have objected more when Lynn had first told Shalise to say goodbye.

Eva had to knock another three times, each knock coming with more force than the last, before Devon finally opened his door.

For just a moment, they stared at each other.

“You’re back,” he said.

“I am.”

“Get out. I’m busy.”

Eva moved her foot forward, catching the heavy iron door on her chitinous toes.

“Too busy to hear about some demon hunters?”

Devon sucked in a breath. His tentacle shot out and grasped Eva by her shirt. Eva couldn’t help but to let out a small yelp as he pulled her into the room, slamming the door behind them.

“Did someone follow you back?”

Eva would have slapped him away, but he had already released her. His ring-foci hand was pointing to the windows to shore up some wards while his tentacle reset all five-hundred latches on the door.

“If you’d calm down for a moment and let me talk,” she said as she smoothed out her shirt.

Devon was extremely lucky that his tentacle wasn’t of the slimy type.

“It was about two months ago. A taller man in armor and a female companion were on the local news down in Florida. They claimed to be demon hunters. By the time I got there, they had already gone. I figured you should know since it is a safe bet that they were looking for us.”

“Your place wasn’t ransacked?”

“Looked untouched. Can’t say the same for yours. Though that looked more like the city had decided to finally demolish the old train station. Something new was under construction when I stopped by. Hope you didn’t have anything important in there.”

He scratched at his beard with his tentacle, shaking his head. “No. Everything is here.” His words came out more as a mumble than an actual response to Eva. “I wonder…”

“Wonder wha–”

“Hold still.” Devon’s hand snapped up to eye level. The rings on his fingers emitted a faint glow as he waved them in Eva’s direction.

A chill ran down her spine. Like someone had dropped an ice-cube down the back of her shirt.

Eva ignored it as well as she was able to. When Devon said to stand still and started casting unknown spells on her, she wasn’t about to budge. Even if nothing bad happened from moving–such as suddenly exploding into a million meaty chunks–Devon was probably doing something important. He’d be annoyed if he had to start over.

As the process went on, several flashes of light lit up around his fingers. Most were dark violet hues, but one or two were a lighter blue color.

After five minutes of mimicking a statue, Devon finally dropped his arm to his side. Eva shook her arms slightly just to get some movement in them. Glancing around the room, she caught sight of something interesting. Eva moved to lean against the edge of his desk as Devon fiddled with his rings.

His notebook was lying open on the top. Designs for her treatment ritual were out for the world to see. More importantly, they were out for her to see.

The circles were wrong. Or different, at least. She had long since memorized the circle for use by herself and Arachne. The biggest difference were the large circles equidistant apart around the center. Judging by the markers for people, there were supposed to be four people–herself in the very center and three demons–involved in this version.

A stark change from her old version; Arachne and Eva were both between the center and the edge with Devon initiating the ritual from the center position.

Before she could ask any questions about the new design, Devon spoke up.

“Not really my specialty, but I can’t detect any spells on you that might be used for tracking.”

“That’s good,” Eva said. “Right?”

Devon just hummed in response. “You didn’t bring anything back with you?”

Eva shook her head. “A pouch of bloodstones. The clothes I wore back were the ones I left in. Despite being smaller, I used some old clothes I had left behind between when I arrived and when I left.”

“The bloodstones–”

“Freshly made. They were in my sight or in my pockets from the moment I made them to when I dropped them off at my room.”

“And you didn’t trip any alarms?”

Eva shrugged. She had no idea. There had been no overt beeping or wailing, so any alarms would have been silent notifications to whoever set them. “If I did, no one showed up to murder me.”

“Too busy to respond?” Devon mused to himself. He let out a small sigh. “Or just inexperienced or plain bad at their job. Either way, probably best for both of us to avoid the entirety of Florida for a while.”

“Not worried about them tracking us down up here?”

He let out a clipped laugh. “We were in Florida for ten years, some of that before Arachne and I found you. They still showed up two years late. We probably have some time left.”

“If you’re sure,” Eva started.

She decided to let it drop. Devon had been a diabolist longer than she had been alive. He had to have plenty of experience in evading demon hunters.

Instead, Eva tapped the notebook containing her treatment circle.

After a pointed look from Eva, Devon frowned. “Still a work in progress. Since you’ve barged in here–”

“You dragged me in here,” Eva said, crossing her arms.

“Since you’re already interrupting my work, I may as well explain now rather than later. You’re going to need three donating demons.”

“I gathered as much. Why?”

“Stabilization. With Arachne, there were no variables. You and her. One and one. Changing the demon, especially so late into your treatment, could bring thousands of unknowns into play. If we select the carnivean and only the carnivean, what if it is missing things that the ritual was drawing from Arachne?”

“Something bad, I assume.”

He scoffed. “To put it mildly. So we add a second demon. If the carnivean is a point seven-five to Arachne’s one, a second demon could help fill in the blanks. A third, even better. I would prefer five or seven, but we would probably have to summon at least a few demons. Given the situation with Hell, I would rather make do with what we have on hand.”

“Alright. I can see how that would make sense.” Barely. Eva wasn’t a diabolist and even further from a demonologist than Devon claimed to be. She might be able to puzzle out several functions of the ritual circle, but she’d have no idea where to begin in creating one from scratch or even how modify the existing ones without killing herself.

“Using your number analogy,” Eva said, “what happens if a demon is greater than one? Or Arachne was less than one? Wouldn’t two fractional demons add up to more than one anyway?”

He waved his tentacle, dismissing the concern. “It is just an analogy. But it shouldn’t matter. The ritual should take what you need. Anything extra should either be ignored or integrated without issue. However, once we perform this round of treatment, you will not be able to go back to Arachne alone. Even if it shows up the very next day.”

That felt like a mild punch to her stomach. “She could be one of the three, right?”

Devon nodded. “No reason she couldn’t.”

That was a relief. Partially. Arachne would be upset either way.

“Alright. And just who are these demons going to be?”

Devon actually smiled. “Well now, that’s going to be your job isn’t it? Go convince some of the demons around town to lend their aid.”

“Me?”

Devon ignored her. He moved around the desk and pulled a second notebook from the drawer. After flipping through a few pages, he started speaking again.

“The carnivean can be one. She had already agreed to the two-year contract, it would be pointless not to use her. Unless you really want a different third and convince that third. But I’m hoping that the fact that you have her eyes will aid in compatibility.

“The hel would be another good option. She’s powerful, which can’t hurt. Not sure how her pact with Death will affect things, but that is a minor issue at worst.”

Eva nodded at that. She had already considered Ylva back before she knew that they would need three demons.

A thought struck her as Devon flipped a few more pages through his book. An insane, suicidal thought.

“You said that powerful is good, right? What about–”

“No.”

“But–”

“I came plenty close to brushing shoulders with the pillar back in your domain, thank you very much.”

Eva pouted for a moment, just a moment, before a cruel smile crossed her lips. “The great demonologist. Scared.” She shook her head in mock sorrow. “Who would have thought that he would pass up the opportunity to experiment with and research a legitimate devil.”

Devon narrowed his eyes. “I don’t need your cheek, girl.”

“It isn’t like he doesn’t know. He doesn’t call me ’embryonic’ because I’m a teenager. Since you’re not dead, he obviously doesn’t care.”

“Exactly. He doesn’t care. Let’s not give him a reason to start.”

“It can’t hurt to ask.”

Devon brought his tentacle to his forehead and started rubbing it raw. “If you wind up enslaved, killed, disappeared, changed, or otherwise unable to undergo treatment in one week, I will find out where you are and murder you. Again, if necessary.”

Eva beamed at him. “See? You do care. Still going to ask though. It isn’t like he is going to say yes.”

“We decline your request.”

Eva blinked, not quite sure what to say. Her hands moved from the floor where she knelt to rub back and forth in front of her chest.

That had not been the response that she had expected or wanted.

“Rest assured, We do not decline out of malice.”

Eva looked up at Ylva.

The apartment adjacent to Zoe’s was a far cry from the splendor of Ylva’s domain. Everything was entirely mundane. The kitchen appliances were beige colored and looked like they belonged in the eighties. Black and white checkered linoleum covered the floor in half the apartment while shag carpet made up the rest.

Something that Eva had noticed inside of Ylva’s domain was that any messes that were made ended up disappearing in a short time. That seemed to have carried over to the apartment as well. Everything within was spotless.

Outside of Ylva’s room, the building wasn’t exactly a five-star dwelling. Inside, it looked as if someone had taken a fine bristled toothbrush over every inch of everything. The kitchen sparkled, the floor shined, the curtains looked brand new, and there wasn’t a hint of dust in the air.

Though clean, Ylva hadn’t acquired any new furniture for the place.

Ylva’s chair had clearly not been designed with someone of her stature in mind. It was too small by half. Ylva must have done something to it, or it would have snapped under her weight. Not to say that Ylva was overweight, it was just that she had a few feet on the average human. While not in her skeleton form, she had a good amount of meat on her bones as well.

Eva hadn’t gone into the bedroom, but she was willing to bet that the bed would be small even for a human. The apartment complex was just cheap like that.

It took a moment before she remembered that Ylva probably didn’t sleep much anyway.

All in all, Ylva stood out from her surroundings like the proverbial elephant in the room.

Despite the oddity and awkwardness that should be there, Ylva still managed to maintain her regal elegance. She did not, however, manage to retain the slouch that she so often posed in upon the throne in her domain. Her back was straight, poised as if she had an artist creating a portrait akin to those of middle-age royalty.

And yet, as Eva waited another few minutes, Ylva did not pour that elegance into words explaining her decision.

“I understand,” Eva said with a shallow nod of her head.

Ylva was supposed to have been the easy sell. The one who already knew what the treatment was from her times observing. One that knew Eva well enough and the one who Eva had the best rapport with.

That one had just declined.

Standing from her kneeling position, Eva clenched her fist.

Being disheartened was not only beneath Eva, but it was far too early. There were plenty of other demons around town and Ylva had merely been the first. The ritual wouldn’t be ready for an entire week. Plenty of time left. Eva intended to finish the search today in any case.

“I’ll let you get back to your…” Eva frowned. What exactly did Ylva do all day? The television had been on when she had first knocked on the door. The walls were thin enough that she had been able to hear it clearly. But only Nel had been in the room with the television. Ylva had been back in the bedroom standing statue still.

They had traded places after Eva knocked.

“To your day,” Eva concluded. A lame response. At least it was neutral and did not make assumptions.

Ylva stood. Her head avoided scraping the ceiling by mere centimeters. Her back wasn’t as straight as it had been while sitting. Perhaps that was why she sat straight; crouching around the place had put a kink in her back that was only relieved by sitting properly.

How uncomfortable must her miniature form be for her to not be using it here? Though it looked like a child, Eva couldn’t imagine the height impairment could possibly be worse than constantly scraping the top of her head against the ceiling. She definitely had to duck to make it through the doorways.

“Good fortune in your task,” Ylva said with a slight nod of her head. After a brief look over Eva, she strode off towards the bedroom where Nel had hidden herself.

Eva stood, watching. Just long enough to ensure that yes, Ylva did indeed duck to pass through the doorways in her apartment. A small part of her had insisted that the doors would stretch around Ylva to allow her passage. Not because of magic or her being a demon, simply because Ylva was that commanding.

Having been dismissed, Eva took her leave from the apartment.

She had made it five steps down the hall before a pitter-patter of footsteps came after her.

Eva turned to find Nel rushing up to her, anger plain to see on her face.

“Did I forget something?”

“Damn right you forgot something.” She thrust her fists to her hips. A glove covered her withered hand up to her elbow where her robe’s sleeve took over. “You didn’t even bother to give me an excuse this time.”

“Devon wants to perform my treatment in a week’s time. I’ll be ready after that.”

“Right,” she said, pouring a month’s worth of frustration into the single word. “Like you would be ready after your finals. Or after school ended. Or after you got back from your vacation.” Nel shook her head. “What’s next? After summer vacation? After next year? After you graduate? After the world ends?”

Eva crossed her arms and glared at the augur. “Are you finished?”

“I would prefer to have our revenge before it ceases to matter.”

With a light sigh, Eva closed her eyes. She could understand where Nel was coming from. They had both been through the same thing, after all.

“This is somewhat important. Potentially to my continued existence. If you cannot wait a week, perhaps try convincing Ylva to help you again? Or do it yourself.”

Nel continued her glare for a moment before allowing her hands to drop to her sides. “‘A servant of Ourself should be able to handle a solitary necromancer on her own,'” she said, mimicking Ylva’s slightly deeper voice.

“On your own?” Eva glanced down at herself. “That has changed definitions since the last time I read a dictionary.”

“I’m showing initiative in recruiting you. She meant without her help, not without help at all,” Nel said with confidence. That confidence shattered as Eva raised an eyebrow. “Probably. Look, you want this as much as I do, so why are you arguing? Was I mistaken? Have you–” Her good hand gripped her bad arm. “Have you forgotten what it was like under his knife?”

“I have not,” Eva said through grit teeth. “And that is why I am being cautious. We don’t have Arachne. Ylva won’t help. I could probably convince Zoe–”

Eva cut herself off with a glance over Nel’s shoulders. Zoe wasn’t at home at the moment—ostensibly to find more students for Brakket, though she had told Eva before leaving that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to bring anyone here—so talking loudly wouldn’t have mattered much. She didn’t want to tempt fate by shouting for the world to hear.

She had never felt guilty before. Not once in her life. Yet standing in the apartment building with four bloodstones clinking together in her pocket, she couldn’t help but imagine the disappointed look on Zoe’s face if she found out. Even the thought of explaining what scum they had been wasn’t enough to get the mental image out of her head.

“Look. One week. As soon as my treatment is finished. I don’t care if a full-scale demon invasion happened. I would ignore it to get to Sawyer.”

Nel crossed her arms, partially cradling the withered husk. She glared for a full minute before sighing. “I will hold you to that.”

Eva combed her hair back, running the sharp tips of her fingers across her scalp. Hair out of her face, she let out a long sigh. “He’s still in Idaho?”

“The large gap in my sight is. I’ve been unable to find him using his hand, so I assume so.”

“Good. Go keep an eye on him. If he moves, let me know sooner rather than later. Otherwise, one week.”

Turning on her heel, Eva left Nel behind before the augur could come up with any more reasons to speak.

She had a task set to for the day. Nel did not figure in on that task.

The moment that she arrived outside the apartment complex, Eva paused in her steps.

Ylva had been easy to find. She lived adjacent to Zoe. Eva had been to both of their apartments in the past.

School was out for the summer. Seminars hadn’t even started up yet. If she walked into the reception area, would Catherine be behind the secretary’s desk? Would Lucy and Daru be patrolling the hallways?

Or would they be at home? Did they even have homes?

Demons were supposed to be able to sense one another. Even keeping still and concentrating, Eva couldn’t feel much of anything. There was a vague sense of something powerful–Zagan perhaps–but not enough to pick a direction and start walking.

Eva gave a small shudder.

Despite her words to Devon, the thought of actually meeting with Zagan did not appeal to her. She wanted to. Zagan was a powerful demon and having him in the ritual would be nice, even if Eva wouldn’t get all that much out of it according to Devon.

At the same time, he wasn’t the nicest guy around. Case in point, he tore out her arms the first time he had met with Eva. He had put them back, but that was just because he had terrible mood swings. Or something.

It was hard to predict how he would react to being asked to join the treatment.

A light clearing of a throat startled Eva out of her thoughts.

“Excuse me. You’re blocking the road.”

“Sorry,” Eva said as she stepped to one side. She hadn’t moved from the doorway of the apartment complex. “Just a little lost in thought–”

A pair of hands clamped down on Eva’s shoulders as she found herself suddenly staring into the green eyes of a woman from about half a centimeter away. Or eye, rather. The woman had a solid black eye patch covering her right eye.

Eva tried to pull back, but the hands around her shoulders kept her from moving much other than her head.

The eye behind the patch had blood flowing through it. It turned left and right in tandem with the left eye. Having never seen a blind person that still had their eyes, Eva couldn’t say if that was normal or not. As far as she could tell through her sense of blood, the eye was working just as well as the uncovered one.

“Interesting eyes.”

Eva would have jumped had the woman’s hands not been holding onto her. One word came out as coarse as gravel while the other was almost melodious.

Her hands disappeared from Eva’s shoulders and reappeared around her wrist. She just about pulled Eva’s arm out of the socket as she yanked the hands towards her sole eye for a better look.

“I thought these were gloves from behind, but they’re not gloves at all!” Her finger traced over the curl of chitin where the carapace melded with skin. She dropped Eva’s arm as abruptly as she had grabbed hold of it. “And your legs!”

Eva took a step back before the insane woman could wrench her feet out from under her.

Luckily, the woman did not pursue.

“I say,” she said, her voice taking on a light melody–almost a mocking sing-song. “You’re a fascinating one. What manner of creature are you?”

“A human,” Eva said through grit teeth. It was her standard response. One that she hadn’t had to use in a while. Everyone in school and most of the people in town were aware of her appearance.

“Well, isn’t that the most bold-faced lie that I have ever heard.”

Eva shook her head before she started on the other standard response. “Not a lie at all. I was born a human. In my first year, a necromancer had a ghost possess me, kidnapped me, tortured me, cut off my arms and legs with a chainsaw, gouged out my eyes with a rusty spoon, and then fitted me with replacements.” She clacked her fingertips together for emphasis.

“A necromancer? Truly?” Again, her hands just about teleported around Eva’s arm as she pulled it up to her face. “There are no stitches. This flesh isn’t rotting or in any kind of stasis.” One hand knocked against the hard carapace. “It isn’t flesh at all!” She took a deep breath through her nose. “And you don’t smell like a necromancer either.”

“I do bathe,” Eva said as she tore her hand out of the woman’s grip, not even caring that she gave the woman a few minor cuts on the way. Maybe the woman would catch the hint.

Or… apparently not.

Humming a short tune, she stared down at the small amount of blood pooling in her hand with a wide smile on her face. A small circular ring adorned her finger, becoming slightly stained with blood as it dripped between her fingers.

Normally, Eva would have dismissed a ring as being a ring. Or perhaps a focus. Nothing too strange around a magical school.

But the circular face on this ring was inscribed. Dots and lines embellished the edge. There was an inner circle with more symbols and a sort of keyhole shape in the center.

A signet ring with a ritual circle inscribed on top was certainly out of the ordinary. What’s more, it was so small. The smallest ritual circle that Eva knew about was the one for her bloodstones. That fit on the back of her hand. Unless it was a mere reminder so that this woman could draw out a larger circle, it was likely intended to be dipped in ink and pressed to a sheet of paper.

But what could such a tiny circle be for?

“Interesting weather we’re having,” she said without a glance at the sky.

Eva blinked, torn from her thoughts by the woman’s light voice. “An experiment by Brakket Academy.” Eva kept her eyes off the purple streaks in the sky as well. The woman was a whole lot more alarming than anything the sky could have been. “The announcement said that it isn’t supposed to be harmful, though they don’t know when it will go away.”

“An experiment? No extra details?”

Eva shrugged. “You would have to ask someone else. I’m just a second-year student.”

“I’ll see about finding someone,” she said. After patting Eva on the head with her unmarred hand, the woman slipped around Eva and went back inside the building she had just exited.

Eva watched her go with narrowed eyes. Even after she left Eva’s field of vision, she still kept track of the woman through her blood sight until the woman went out of range at the fourth floor.

Obviously, the woman was up to no good. Too curious. Too undisturbed by Eva’s hands. Most of all, she had been entirely too happy about everything, even after having her hand cut.

Happy people were never up to anything good. Simple experience had taught her that.

Eva lingered around the entrance for a few minutes. Ylva probably already knew–she was Ylva, after all–but a quick warning that she may be living under someone dangerous wouldn’t take long.

With a sigh, she decided to warn Ylva. She still stuck around for another minute longer—Eva didn’t want the other woman to think that she was being followed—and headed back into the apartment building.

As she ascended to the third floor, the woman came into view again. She and a taller man were in a room together. He stood still in one corner of the room while the woman spoke in an animated fashion with repeated gestures towards her hand.

Eva once again wished that she knew how to blood-lip read.

— — —

Sitting at the kitchen table, Clement stared down at his bowl of dry cereal.

A rumble of his stomach threatened to deafen any who heard it. Looking at the food just made him more hungry. It wouldn’t be hard to eat the cereal dry. He was aware that people did all the time, as a snack or as a meal.

But that wasn’t his way of things. Cereal required milk, protein powder, and a light sprinkle of sugar. Milk helped his bones, protein helped his muscles, and sugar helped his mind. A perfectly complete breakfast.

Gertrude was taking far too long. And yet, she had only just left. Not enough time had passed for her to make it to the store and back. A paradox for the ages.

Gripping his helmet in his gauntleted hand, Clement slammed it over his head.

If Gertrude couldn’t be back yet, that meant that someone else was at the door.

They hadn’t even knocked.

Clement was on his feet, drawing his curved sword before the door handle turned even a quarter of the way. By the time the handle had finished turning, Clement had crossed the room. He hefted his sword in both hands and brought it down without hesitation the moment the door opened.

Anyone intruding on their room without so much as the courtesy of a knock was either an enemy or rude to the point of deserving death.

The door slammed shut. The massive sword caught on the wood of the wall, sending splinters and debris exploding outwards.

Before he had a chance to dislodge his sword, the door swung wide open.

A flash of red slipped in and made it under his guard before he could react.

Clement pulled his hands back, just in time to avoid an elbow coming down onto his wrist.

Despite only avoiding the elbow an instant before, there was already one hand on the back of his helmet and another gripping his wrist.

He didn’t have the time to react before his faceplate smashed into the wall, breaking through drywall and a wooden beam. His arm bent backwards, saved from breaking thanks only to the rigid limitations of his armor.

A pressure on his ankle culminated in his feet being kicked out from under him.

Clement’s helmet dragged through the wall under the pull of gravity. Drywall ground to dust. Enchantments on his helmet kept his breathing clear, but did nothing to help his occluded vision.

He placed his free hand against the wall and shoved.

His red-haired assailant released his arm and simply sidestepped as his massive bulk flew through the room.

Landing on his feet, Clement pulled himself to his full height. He unlatched his face plate to get a view of the room.

The sight caused a prompt frown to settle on his face.

“We’re going to have to pay for that.”

His sword hung embedded in the wall parallel to the floor. Its emerald encrusted hilt stuck out, pointing towards him. The less said about the hole his helmet had made, the better.

Gertrude’s sole green eye danced with mirth. “Hmm. Don’t care. A little sloppy aren’t we?”

Clement shrugged. There wasn’t much else he could do. He had never once beaten Gertrude in a spar. “Back already?” he asked after a moment.

“I just had the strangest encounter,” Gertrude said, spinning in a wide circle. Droplets of blood flew from one hand, speckling a still-intact wall with tiny red spots.

Clement glanced back to the kitchen and his bowl of cereal. It was far enough away to avoid the blood and most of the drywall dust in the air. Most.

It would probably be fine.

Still, his frown deepened as he glanced back to Gertrude.

“You didn’t get the milk.”

“I just had the strangest encounter,” she repeated in that voice. Mirth in her eye faded off as she glared at him.

Clement just sighed. He allowed the bulk of his armor to sink into the apartment’s couch.

The couch groaned out protests against the weight.

Clement never much liked protesters.

“Alright,” he said, “tell me about your encounter.”

“There was a little girl blocking the doorway–rude,” her snarl turned thoughtful. “And a fire hazard. Anyway, cleared my throat. She turned around, giving me a glimpse of her eyes. Black sclera, red iris, slit pupil. Sound familiar?”

“A demon? What happened to research first?”

“Well, I didn’t know she would be there,” Gertrude said as she skipped across the room. With a hop, she landed right on Clement’s lap. “But her hands and legs were made out of some hard exoskeleton. The hands were particularly sharp.” She waved her cut hand around as she wiggled around on his greaves.

Probably not the most comfortable thing. His armor was not as soft as the couch. Gertrude didn’t show any signs of discomfort. She simply angled herself to the side and stretched herself out with her head and feet on either armrest.

Throughout it all, the couch protested more.

It would have to go.

“But here’s the thing,” she said. “The girl said that she was human.”

“A lie. Incomplete disguise or natural form. Bad at hiding herself or unable to?”

“Neither. I believe her.”

Clement glanced down at Gertrude with his perpetual frown deepening further. “You believe her,” he said when she failed to elaborate.

“Her hands had obvious graft points. I couldn’t see graft points for her legs or eyes, but I’m sure they existed. She claimed to have been experimented on by a necromancer. Given her age, she probably mistook some diabolist.”

“The Elysium Sister did mention that they had originally come here to exterminate a necromancer.”

Gertrude waved her bloody hand around. “Details.”

“So? Course of action?”

“Eradication, of course.”

“Simple as that? No pity for an experimented upon human?”

Gertrude let out a melodious laugh. “Pity? And here I thought we knew each other after twenty years.”

Clement shrugged. There wasn’t much else he wanted to do. If she desired eradication, she would have it. He would dive head first into Hell if Gertrude asked.

“Besides,” Gertrude continued, “she reeked of demons. Even taking into account the limb grafts, she shouldn’t smell like that. That’s aside from the fact that she had probably been here to talk with that hel downstairs. Can’t let someone like that go.”

Opening his mouth to comment on the hel, Clement was interrupted by a loud rumbling.

Gertrude shot him a glare. “Fine,” she said as she threw herself off his lap, “I’ll go get your stupid milk. You better appreciate me.”

“Always,” he whispered to himself after she had disappeared out the apartment door.

Clement remained sitting for another minute before he decided that he needed to clean up. With his sword half out in the hall, it wouldn’t be easy to use should an actual enemy attack.

Before he did, he stopped by the target notebook on the table.

He quickly scribbled out a new entry immediately under the hel. There weren’t a lot of details other than grafted limbs, but Gertrude could help add more later.

Author’s Note: Minor note in comments for Patreon and PayPal supporters. And everyone else I guess, if you want to look.

Finding Catherine wasn’t half as hard as Eva had imagined it would be.

Really, quite the opposite.

It was as simple as walking into the Brakket Academy main building and heading for the secretary’s desk in the reception area. Catherine sat at her usual desk, absolutely absorbed in whatever was on her computer monitor.

Eva had no idea why she had expected anything different. It was doubtful that she had a home outside of her secretary desk.

A few minutes of standing around, waiting for Catherine to finish whatever she was doing and Eva had still not received even the slightest acknowledgment that she existed. Catherine had a set of headphones on, ones that covered her entire ears and had an attached microphone to one side, but her eyes should still have worked.

“Their whole team is dead! Get on the point!”

Eva froze at Catherine’s sudden outburst.

“Do I have to do everything myself?” Catherine let out a low growl. “Pathetic humans,” she hissed under her breath.

Eva kept frozen until the growl died off. The scowl on the succubus turned to a grin radiating pure evil in the blink of an eye.

That almost scared her more than the shouting. Still, Eva had a task. To accomplish that task, she needed to get Catherine’s attention for ten minutes.

Waving her hands a few times elicited no response from Catherine.

With a sigh, Eva blinked from her side of the desk to Catherine’s side, placing her just over the demon’s shoulder.

The screen was a flurry of lights and colors. Caricatures of people ran around the screen, most of whom were targeted and killed by Catherine with pinpoint accuracy. The images moved so fast that Eva barely had time to process what was happening.

It was giving her a mild headache. She had no idea how Catherine could keep up with it all.

Eva reached out and slid one side of Catherine’s headphones back behind her ear. Carefully, of course. She didn’t want to startle Catherine into attacking.

Turns out, her worries were misplaced. Catherine was far too focused on the game.

Eva didn’t get it. But then, she had never used computers outside of classwork–both at her old mundane school and here at Brakket. She would much rather be reading through musty tomes than whatever it was that Catherine was doing.

“Winning?” She knew enough about games to know that winning was a thing.

“If you would cease your distractions,” Catherine said without taking her eyes off the screen. “I am utterly annihilating these pathetic mortal brats.”

“Children? Surely there are more engaging targets.”

“Mortals are all children to me.”

“Fair enough.” Eva leaned forward with narrowed eyes. There were words scrolling along the left side of the monitor. “What is an ‘aimbot?'”

“When mortals find that they cannot beat me, they constantly accuse me of cheating. It almost got me banned one time, until the company personally monitored my playing and determined that I was not using any sort of hacks or programs.”

Eva pulled back from the screen with a shake of her head. If she continued asking questions, she had a feeling that the conversation would quickly head in a direction that she could not follow. She hadn’t come in to discuss games, after all.

Unfortunately, she did not want to irritate Catherine. With Ylva having already declined her request, Eva didn’t want Catherine to deny it out of pure spite.

So, she sat back and waited. There was a countdown timer at the top of the screen. Eva assumed that the game would end then, freeing Catherine up for a quick chat.

She could wait five minutes.

Thirty seconds later, a golden ‘VICTORY’ flashed across the screen.

Catherine removed her headset with a satisfied sigh and turned to face Eva. “Mortals have come up with some amusing things in the past century or so,” she said with a wistful smile.

That was good news. If she had been in a bad mood, Eva had thought that she might just come back later. Good mood Catherine meant more agreeable Catherine.

Hopefully.

Eva took a deep breath before she spoke. “I need help. Or a favor? Yeah. A favor. And I’ll return the favor, of course.”

“Sounds like work,” Catherine said as she reached for her headset.

Reaching out, Eva grabbed on to Catherine’s arm. “You haven’t even heard what it is yet! Just hear me out. Please.”

Catherine stared for a minute before sighing. The sigh came out far less blissful and far more exasperated than her last one. “What is it?”

“I need someone to sit in on my treatment. You really only have to sit there for a few minutes and donate a little blood. Plus some magic stuff that I don’t really understand. There will be two other demons there in your position, you’ll be the third. But no work at all. It’s just sitting in a chair for a ritual, maybe a few minutes of lethargy, then you can be back to your computer.”

Catherine’s eyes lost their disguise and flared bright red. “You want to take things from me,” she said, her voice cold as ice. “You’re the one who told me to grow powerful. That was just so you might take it from me later?”

Eva’s eyes went wide. Was that why Ylva had declined? No, it couldn’t be. Ylva had seen the ritual. She knew what it entailed. Arachne was not lessened after every ritual. Devon had definitely used the word ‘copy.’

“No! Copy, not take, you’re still fully intact. Minus some blood, but that shouldn’t matter with a demon’s constitution and regeneration speed.

“Arachne used to be my partner for my treatment. I’m sure you’ve heard, but she…” Eva’s voice dropped a few notches in intensity and volume. “She died. Lightning bolt to the face. There wasn’t much face left.”

That at least got Catherine smiling again.

Eva couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It didn’t make Eva smile.

“I wouldn’t have asked you had she not died. I didn’t plan this or anything. You’re free to grow in power as much as you want and keep it too.” Though, I’m not sure how playing games advances that particular goal.

There must be something that Eva had missed about video games.

“No work,” Catherine said to herself. “I’ll be sitting there and nothing will be lost.”

“Yes. And I’ll owe you a favor.”

“Three.”

Eva opened her mouth. Her first instinct was to glare and state ‘two favors,’ but she was somewhat desperate. With a resigned nod, Eva said, “I can do that.”

“Very well. I’ll do it.”

“Thank you,” Eva said. “I appreciate it. It will be on this coming Saturday. I’ll let you know exactly when after I figure it out.”

“Works for me,” Catherine said with a shrug. She rubbed her hands together with a smile. “Now, for my first favor, I want you to–”

Her smile dropped off her face as she let out a thoughtful hum. “I was going to have you do a tall stack of paperwork that was supposed to be done a month ago. But being owed favors is like having power over you. I wouldn’t want to waste it on frivolous tasks.” She looked up at Eva with a conspiratorial glint in her eye. “Besides, Martina hasn’t yelled at me about the paperwork more than once. Probably not important anyway.

“And you’re not bound by the limitations of my contract.” Her gaze shifted towards the door leading into Martina Turner’s office. “Yes. I think I will hold on to your services until I have something that I want that I cannot get for myself.”

Eva frowned. Something that Catherine was restricted from doing? It couldn’t be any good. “What are the details of your contract?”

“Not telling you,” Catherine snapped. “You’ll find some way around doing what I ask.”

“I wouldn’t do that. Believe it or not, I’m being honest at the moment. I need help and I’m willing to pay for it.”

Maybe I should go offer Ylva a few favors.

“Nope. Not falling for it. You’ll find out when the time comes.” She reached forward, taking her headset in her hands. “If there’s nothing else, you know the way out.” Catherine started to place the headphones on her ears, but paused with them just in front of her face.

“In fact. I’ll use up one of my favors right now. Don’t tell Martina about our arrangement. Or anyone else for that matter. As far as everyone is concerned, I’m helping you with your treatment out of the goodness of my heart.”

Eva scoffed, but she still nodded. “I can do that. No one will hear of it from me.”

“Good.” Catherine slammed the headset on her head. In a flash, her hands were back on the keyboard and mouse.

Once again absorbed in her own little world.

Eva sighed as she walked out of the office. While happy she had secured a second demon for the treatment, she had wanted to ask where Daru and Lucy were. Maybe Zagan too.

Though, owing Catherine favors was one thing. If Zagan asked for the same, she would probably just walk away.

Given the fact that Catherine was in her usual spot, the security guards were probably in the guard room. Or patrolling around the school. Zagan would be harder to pin down, but he might be around as well. If Eva couldn’t find anyone, she could always come back and ask Catherine.

Ten steps down the hallway and Eva already knew she was going to be meeting with one demon. She caught sight of his circulatory system long before she heard his heavy footsteps.

“Intelligent decisions?” Zagan gave a light sniffle. “Our little succubus is all grown up. Brings a tear to my eye.”

Eva turned to face Zagan with a frown. “There is no way that you heard our conversation. Martina Turner’s office was empty. No one else was around. I know, I can see through walls.”

“Alright. I wasn’t there and I didn’t hear,” there was a golden glint in his eye as his silver voice spilled out obviously false words. “Of course, if I wasn’t there and didn’t hear, you might find it difficult to convince me to help with your little problem.”

“You’re willing to help.” Eva’s voice was flat. She crossed her arms and glared, feeling more irritated by his smile as the seconds ticked by.

Zagan mimicked her pose. With his arms crossed, he leaned back, resting against thin air like it was a solid wall. And yet, he didn’t confirm or deny Eva’s statement.

It wasn’t that she would be ungrateful if he was offering to help. Zagan was beyond powerful. Devon didn’t think it would matter much, but he hadn’t ever done this particular ritual before. He was designing it from scratch specifically for her. If there was even a chance that she could give herself a fraction of Zagan’s power…

Well, it would probably help with Sawyer, if nothing else.

The problem was that no one in this world–or in Hell–did anything for free. Everyone wanted something. Zagan would be no different.

Not even two minutes ago, Eva had considered skipping over Zagan no matter what. But with the possibility dangling right in front of her, could she really resist?

At the very least, she could hear him out.

“What do you want?”

“What do I want? A better question would be, what could you possibly do for me that I couldn’t do for myself?”

Eva narrowed her eyes. She had a feeling that she knew what he was talking about. A different answer came to mind after a moment more thought.

“I taught that diablery class in your place. Without me, you would have had to do it all yourself.”

Zagan stared for a moment before bursting out in raucous laughter. “That you did,” he said, slapping Eva on her shoulder.

Eva winced, but ignored the pain. If he was actually trying to hurt her, she would be writhing and screaming on the ground.

“You told me that teaching that class wasn’t worth getting Shalise out of Hell. Is it worth sitting around for a few minutes every few months?”

“It just might be,” he said, still chuckling.

Eva couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. “So you’ll help out?”

“Saturday? I suppose I can clear my schedule.”

Devon is going to be pissed when he sees who shows up, Eva thought with a barely restrained giggle. And I don’t even care.

Zagan didn’t even ask for a favor. Not unless she counted the diablery class.

Eva didn’t.

It had been tedious, but relatively simple all things considered.

“Do me a favor,” he said.

Eva drew in a deep breath through her nose. She had thought too soon. What manner of horror was his favor going to involve?

“Bring along Lucy.”

And she let that breath back out again.

That wasn’t so bad.

“If you don’t mind my asking, why?”

“An experiment of my own. If I am right–” he gave a dark chuckle, “and I always am–I’d like for there to be four demons at your little birthday party.”

“Experiment?” Eva blinked in confusion. “Wait, no… Birthday?”

“My little embryonic one, do you not consider your treatments to be birthdays? Every one that passes brings you more strength, more power, and a step closer to a true rebirth.”

“Not really.” Eva frowned. It made sense. Kind of. “Wouldn’t the day I complete the treatment be more like a birthday than every single treatment? The day that I cease being an ’embryo’ to use your word.”

It was Zagan’s turn to frown.

They just stood for a moment, staring at each other with frowns on their faces.

“I like my interpretation better.”

“I suppose it doesn’t really matter,” Eva said with a shrug. “I barely celebrate my actual birthday now. I couldn’t imagine doing so at your age.”

Something about Zagan’s words sent her mind in a strange direction. “Do you still celebrate your birthdays? Or wait, were you even born? I was a little preoccupied at the time, but I distinctly recall you saying that you did not have a mother back in my domain.”

“That is true.” He shifted his lean against the air behind him and cracked his neck to one side with a few loud pops. “I suppose there is no harm in telling you.

“I am a Pillar of Hell. One of the seventy-two created by Void from nothing.”

Eva’s face twisted in confusion. “Aren’t most demons created by–”

Two fingers shot out and pinched her lips shut. “From and nothing are the key words there. And don’t interrupt me.”

He released Eva’s lips.

She nodded.

“After the seventy-two, demons were created from a sort of template. Every demon is based on one of us in some form or other. None as unique. None as powerful. None as handsome,” he said, stroking his chin.

When he winked, Eva just rolled her eyes.

“Others were born. Not all demons can get pregnant. Not all demons can sire children. Those that can will have demonic children. Too similar to their parents to be called unique. Often less powerful than their parents as well.

“So no. The answer to your question is that I was not born. I was created.”

“Alright,” Eva said with a nod as she digested the information. “But what about me? Arachne and Hel too?”

“Arachne?” He shrugged. “Lackluster. I am not impressed. The mages behind her transformation were amateurs in the most pathetic sense of the word. Hel may have been able to make something of herself. Death got his claws into her before she became a demon, unfortunately. If she truly can be considered a demon; she resides in Hell and even has her own domain, but there is just something off about her in comparison to the rest of us. You’ve noticed that with your friend, yeah?”

Eva frowned. She hadn’t really. Though, now that he mentioned it, Ylva had always been in a league of her own. More akin to Zagan than any other demon that she had met.

Zagan’s grin split across his face. “You, my dear embryonic one, have us all very excited. We expect great things of you. You weren’t born a demon. You’re not created from a template. Not even created by Void himself. What will become of you?”

“Does Arachne not count as a template?” Eva asked, latching on to the one thing he said that didn’t carry mind bending implications. “She’s been my partner in the treatment since the start. Wouldn’t such a ‘lackluster’ demon create a lackluster demon?”

“I would need to see the exact method of your ‘treatment’ to know for certain. However,” he took a deep breath before smiling at her. “You don’t smell like Arachne. I believe that she has given you a foundation. Your actions, desires, thoughts, and feelings will shape you into what you will become.”

“Let me get this straight,” Eva said after a moment. “I’m going to become a demon no matter what. So this treatment is unnecessary?”

“A building will topple without the proper foundation, yeah?”

“Then it is important.”

“Vitally so.”

Eva let out a long sigh. Their discussion felt heavy. Enough to physically exhaust her. She shot a brief glare at Zagan.

I wish I had an invisible wall to lean against.

But she didn’t.

Pressing her forehead against the relatively cool window worked well enough. Being summer time, it was hot outside. Eva liked the heat. The humidity in Florida had bothered her, but the heat had not.

The cold of the window served to shock Eva, in a manner of speaking. A quick jolt to clear her thoughts.

Zagan moved up to the window alongside Eva, staring out into the woods of the Infinite Courtyard. He didn’t speak.

Eva didn’t say anything either.

They just stood, staring outside in a peaceful silence.

It was strange. She hadn’t expected to meet with Zagan. At least not so soon. Neither had she expected him to agree to help her essentially without any kind of payment.

Least of all, she hadn’t even imagined herself having a cordial conversation with him. Yet they had a conversation. An informative conversation. One that didn’t even have veiled threats or him shoving off his responsibilities onto her.

He wasn’t even causing problems. At least, not at this particular moment. He hadn’t caused problems for a short while as well.

It was almost too good to be true.

The other shoe had to drop at some point.

A shiver ran up Eva’s spine. Or maybe it already had.

His earlier words ran through Eva’s mind. You have us all very excited.

Who was ‘us all’? The other pillars?

Did she have seventy-two of the most powerful beings in existence keeping an eye on her? They were excited about her. Worse, they had expectations of her.

You’re destined for far greater things than a puppet of the puppet-master. The words of Void, the Power. Words that she had assumed were out of boredom. Void spoke with her friends and other demons, so there was nothing strange about it.

At least, that was what she had thought. Now…

Forget the seventy-two. She had a legitimate Power following her actions. What did He expect of her?

Eva didn’t even realize that she had been hyperventilating until Zagan placed a hand on her shoulder. She glanced up to meet his golden eyes, wondering just what words of advice he would offer.

“If your actions will determine what sort of demon you will become, I wonder just what inaction will mean.”

With that, he smiled and walked away.

Eva stumbled as his hand left her shoulder. She watched him wander down the empty hallway with static in her thoughts.

Only after he had gone, only after she had stood still for several minutes did Eva blink.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

The moment the words left her mouth, an idea came to mind. She couldn’t be sure that it was what Zagan was talking about, but it fit as well as anything.

Eva balled her fists. “Sawyer,” she hissed through gritted teeth.

With a thought, Eva teleported to the women’s ward. She had work to do. Preparations to make.

The minute she woke up from her treatment, Sawyer would wish that he had never heard of Brakket Academy.

Juliana Laura Rivas flipped through the news.

It had been months and there was still no sign that anything was amiss around Brakket City.

The purple streaks in the sky had attracted a good amount of attention for the first month. Brakket was fairly isolated from much of the mundane world, but not so much that the sky would go unnoticed. Even had satellites not been able to pick up the anomaly, people in neighboring cities could look out the window and see the sky. It was simply too huge of an effect to contain.

Conspiracy theorists had come out of the woodwork to appear on talk shows. No one could agree on any one cause. Mundane experts were baffled. Some tried to claim that the purple streaks in the sky were caused by light refracting in certain ways in the area. One guy with extremely messy hair appeared numerous times to claim that aliens were behind everything.

Once it had been found out that Brakket Academy was supposedly one of those ‘magical’ academies, people started to get nervous.

Everyone had been expecting a repeat of the Lansing incident. Some catastrophe of city-leveling proportions. Cameras were trained on the city—from a safe distance—day in and day out.

Somehow, one news station had managed to get Dean Turner to do an interview.

“The state of the sky is the result of a failed experiment. The intended effect was to shade the entire sky for a set distance, filtering certain wavelengths. Uses proposed for the intended effect was to use it in certain parts of the world to control light level to crops, helping to feed millions. It could remove harmful radiation. A more controlled version could be used to color the sky for a celebration, taken down the next day.

“Obviously, things went wrong. The streaks of purple are not harmful. We do not currently know if the sky will return to normal on its own, but we are researching ways to remove the effect.”

Roughly the same announcement that Zoe had said was given to the people of Brakket City.

The interviewer had asked a number of other questions. Most dealing with Brakket Academy itself and the use of magic. Dean Turner had dodged some of the questions while others had been answered.

If Juliana didn’t know better, she might have believed the dean.

But she didn’t need to believe it. She just needed Erich and her dad to believe it.

That interview had started up the debate on whether or not magic actually existed or if everything was a cover up for government conspiracies. Even a decade and a half after Lansing, some people still doubted the actual mages conjuring matter from nothing on live television.

After a month of nothing notable happening around Brakket, the media started to get bored. Less and less of the city was shown. News anchors briefly mentioned that nothing had changed before talking about a plane crash on the other side of the world with a gleam in their eye.

“Now they don’t even show Brakket at all. Obviously nothing bad has happened.”

“We’ve had this discussion before, Juli. You’re not going back.”

Juliana flicked the television off with a huff.

“Mom said I could.”

“Your mother–” Juliana’s father cut himself off with a sigh. He pulled off his glasses with one hand and pressed his thumb and middle finger to his eyes. Bringing his fingers together, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Your mother is a reckless woman. I love her for it, but she often thinks that others can be as reckless as she is.”

“You aren’t as strong as Genoa. You cannot survive what she can survive.”

Juliana’s head whipped to her other side to stare at her brother. “You think I don’t know that? If I was as strong as she is, mom wouldn’t be in the hospital.”

“Juliana–”

“And stop agreeing with each other,” Juliana said, looking between the two men. “It’s weird. You’re supposed to be fighting or arguing. Ignoring each other at the very least.”

Resetting his glasses on his nose, her father looked down at her. “Your brother and I have had our… disagreements in the past. Especially regarding your mother. That doesn’t stop the both of us from caring about you. We want you to be safe.”

Juliana rubbed the black band around her finger. Her thumb idled around the skull pattern engraved into the heavy-yet-light metal. The body heat coming off her finger should have kept it at least lukewarm, yet it felt icy to the touch of her thumb.

The only things–demons, at least–that it hadn’t protected her against were the imps in the prison and Zagan himself. Technically Willie, though she had attacked him first, making that one more of her fault than anything.

“I’ll be safe enough,” she said as she stood.

Erich stood the moment she did.

“Will you calm down?” Juliana half-shouted. “I’m just going to my room. I don’t need you babysitting me everywhere I go. Don’t you have a career to get back to?”

“The bank has given me extended leave for a family emergency.”

“Yeah? Well, emergency over. Go back to work,” Juliana said as she stormed out of the room.

In her first year of school, Juliana had been somewhat sad that the school wanted students there for most of the summer. It had taken her away from her parents and thrust her into a world of unfamiliar people.

Now? Juliana wished that the magical world had decent truant officers. Someone to show up and tell her father and brother that she had to be at school. It didn’t even matter that the school seminars hadn’t started up yet.

Anything to get a little breathing room from her family.

Juliana hadn’t been lying earlier. She had fully intended to head upstairs and lock herself in her room for a few hours.

A sound in the kitchen put that plan on hold.

Her mother was at the hospital. Her father and brother were in the living room. No one else should be home.

And yet, there was a sound in the kitchen.

Heart beating faster, Juliana channeled magic through her ring foci. Metal plates coating most of her skin turned from solid to liquid. It flowed over her, providing armor to her hands and head. A long blade stretched out from either wrist until they broke off from the main armor to act more like regular swords.

Thoroughly ready, Juliana pressed open the swinging door to the kitchen.

And promptly froze.

The familiar smell of sulfur permeated the room. It was all coming from one man. Dressed in a dark suit, a barrel-chested man with short black hair was rummaging through the refrigerator.

“No Hellfire,” he said with a click of his tongue. With an overly exaggerated sigh, he turned to stare at Juliana with golden eyes.

“P-Professor Zagan,” Juliana squeaked.

This was bad. Or good? Probably bad.

What can I surprise him with? Zagan liked to be surprised. If she wanted to survive whatever he had come for, she needed to think of something so unexpected that Zagan wouldn’t see it coming.

Juliana bit her lip.

Her mind was completely blank.

A pair of footsteps behind signaled the arrival of both Erich and her father. They must have heard her squeak.

Both had foci in hands, aiming at the devil.

Juliana’s hands shot out, grabbing both of their arms and yanking them downwards. She let her helmet melt away back to her chest–it wouldn’t help against Zagan anyway.

“Don’t! That’s my professor.”

There was no chance any of them would survive if he attacked. Juliana had watched first hand what Zagan had done to Willie. And that had been inside of Willie’s domain as well.

Her father glared. “What is he doing here,” he spat.

Juliana grimaced. Of course her father would recognize Zagan. There was no chance that he hadn’t looked at a photograph or even seen in person the one who had dropped her into Hell.

“I’ve come to inquire about this,” Zagan said, holding up a folded piece of paper between two fingers. His golden eyes turned from Juliana to her father. “Withdrawing your daughter from Brakket Academy?”

“She’s not going back,” he said with finality. “Juli has already been accepted at–”

“I don’t care.” Zagan waved his hand. The air in the room froze for a split second, cutting off all sound. “I merely came to ascertain whether or not this was legitimate and then claim what we had promised each other.” With that, he turned to regard Juliana.

Juliana blinked. She blinked again. On the third blink, her cheeks burst into flames as she realized just what he was saying.

His contract stipulated that he could not ‘lay hands’ upon students. Likely only Brakket Academy students and not whatever school-castle her father had condemned her to.

She hadn’t even considered that while her father had been making arrangements. Between her mother’s recovery, destroying diablery books with Ylva, news about Brakket City, and dodging her brother’s overbearing protection, she had barely spared a thought for Zagan and their ‘promise.’

Her father started to speak. “What are you–”

“The withdrawal notice was a mistake!” Juliana was in a panic. Their agreement was private. Not to mention embarrassing. Something that she absolutely very definitely did not want her father and brother hearing about.

If her father asked, Zagan would blurt it out. He didn’t care in the slightest about her embarrassment.

“That was never supposed to be mailed,” Juliana continued. “I’ll be back at Brakket as soon as school starts.”

“Juli–”

“Say one word,” she interrupted her father, “and I will run away. I will disappear and you won’t see me again for a long time.”

“Tha–”

“One word and I’m gone! I’m serious about this, dad. No arguments.”

Her father’s mouth shut with a loud click.

Zagan turned between Juliana and her father, eying them. After a moment of silence, fire engulfed the piece of paper in his hand. Not even ashes remained to be scattered about.

“A mistake. I see. Disappointing in a manner, but not so much in others.”

Juliana sighed. Everything would be fine. For now.

“I’d love to stay and catch up on the last few months. I unfortunately have a previous appointment at noon today and cannot linger. Besides, you seem to have something to discuss in my absence.”

Before the words could properly register, Zagan vanished from the kitchen with a flare of flames.

Coughing twice at the sudden burst of the scent of sulfur, Juliana stumbled backwards. A firm hand settled on her shoulder.

Juliana turned.

Her father was angry. His lips were pressed into a line so thin that it was almost as if he had no lips at all. His face was flushed red with rage. Even the tips of his ears had turned colors.

“Juliana Laura Rivas,” he said in a calm voice that was a complete betrayal of how angry he appeared. “I would like an explanation.”

— — —

Bright blue sky hung overhead. The warm summer sun beat down on the prison, undisturbed by the violet streaks that were only faintly visible in the daylight. A light breeze from the north kept things from hitting a blistering temperature.

The most important thing was the lack of rain clouds in the sky. That would have delayed everything.

The revised version of Eva’s treatment ritual circle was gigantic. She hadn’t quite got the proper sense of scale from Devon’s tiny notebook.

As with most prisons, the abandoned facility that Eva had claimed as her home had an exercise yard. This particular one had a court for the inmates to play basketball.

The circle stretched beyond the width of the court, though it fit inside the length.

Devon had used his green flames to melt away the chain-link fences, getting them out of the way. Four days ago, he had come out and poured fresh cement, widening the platform on either end. As he worked on that, Eva had to take a trowel and fill in all of the cracks around the court that had formed over the years of disuse.

Everything needed to be nice and smooth.

After leaving the fresh cement to set for two days, he and Eva had come out and inscribed the ritual circle into the cement. He had vehemently refused to allow her to form the circle using blood.

Worried about magical contamination, he insisted on doing everything by hand.

Backbreaking work.

Eva hadn’t complained even once. The ritual was too important. If the only expert in the world said not to do it with magic, she would not use magic.

They had barely finished by nightfall on Friday.

This morning, they had both wandered around the circle several times to compare every little line to those inside Devon’s notebook. A few marks had to be corrected. No major mistakes that would require redrawing the entire circle.

Everything was ready.

And yet, despite everything being well, Devon looked like he was going to be sick.

Eva had a feeling that it didn’t have a thing to do with the ritual circle or their preparations.

It had slipped her mind when she had initially asked them to come, but Eva had remembered late the night before. She ran around Brakket Academy and drained a few vials of blood from each of the demons. Without that, they ran the risk of exploding for wandering around the wrong sections of the prison.

Zagan might have been able to survive. In fact, there was no ‘might’ about it. Eva held no doubts that her wards wouldn’t give him the slightest pause. The others wouldn’t be so fortunate.

Technically, she only needed about a half-vial from each demon. Three vials each was a bit much, but they didn’t need to know that. Anything she didn’t use in her ward would simply go towards a good cause. That of ending Sawyer’s existence.

Lucy hadn’t offered any resistance at all. Eva thought that she might be able to ask for more blood and the demon would give it up with a giggle. Or a gurgle. Lucy was… a bit strange.

Apart from a comment on how much blood she was taking, Zagan hadn’t protested either. That had come as a bit of a shock. Originally, Eva hadn’t intended to take more than she needed from him.

Whether his blood was better or worse than the other demons’ blood would take some testing. Testing that Eva wasn’t certain she wanted to attempt. If his blood was better, wasting it on testing would be a grievous misuse. Though she had taken extra, it wasn’t a whole lot. Saving it for a little party might be the best choice.

Catherine had protested the most. Something about having already given blood for Eva’s wards.

Eva had no idea what she was talking about. Catherine wound up donating an extra vial as protest tax.

Combined with the carnivean, that made three demons and a devil.

Three undominated demons and one devil that probably couldn’t be dominated all stood around the basketball court. Not to mention the vampire that had wandered over wanting to know what all the fuss was about.

Serena had bundled up in enough winter coats to make it so she couldn’t quite put her arms down. Her face had a scarf bundled around it and two sets of ski goggles placed on top of each other. And then she still had an umbrella aimed towards the sun.

Perhaps Devon wasn’t so worried about her. It wouldn’t be difficult to ruin her clothes with even a weak fireball and that would have her exposed to the sun.

But with the amount of demons around…

Really, it was surprising that Devon only looked sick. Eva had half expected him to run off screaming once Zagan showed up. Even with the almost too cold breeze, Devon had sweat dripping from his brow as he finished up a few last-minute preparations.

“Is this going to start anytime soon? I do have things that I would rather be doing.”

So Catherine said. The tone of her voice dripped with annoyance.

Eva had been watching her. All the demons, really, but Catherine was notable because of her occasional comments.

She had arrived with her cellphone in hand, tapping away as usual. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the ritual circle from the moment she first spotted it. Her cellphone was still in her hand, but her fingers didn’t move.

Catherine was old. Eva had no idea how old. Presumably, Catherine had been born. If not, as Zagan had said, she would have been created from a template. No matter what, Catherine wasn’t the sort of person that Eva could see celebrating her birthday. It was highly likely that Catherine had no idea how old she was.

But she was old. With age and experience came knowledge. Perhaps some knowledge about ritual circles. During the few times she had taken over Zoe’s class, Catherine had focused extensively on rituals.

Eva almost wanted to ask just what it was that had caught her interest so completely.

If it was anyone but Catherine, she might have asked. There wasn’t a doubt in Eva’s mind that Catherine would only give a scathing or annoyed comment in response. That was just who she was. She wouldn’t be Catherine if she gave a proper response.

Eva couldn’t ask the other demons either. Lucy had never once been summoned prior to Martina. It was doubtful that she had ever learned anything about rituals. She wouldn’t have any insight in the matter.

Rather, she just looked excited to see something outside of Brakket Academy. Her head spun around—almost literally—as she took in the sights of the prison. Eva could tell that she wanted nothing more than to go around and explore.

The only reason she hadn’t run off was because Zagan had ordered her to be still.

Eva had considered striking up a conversation with Zagan. There was almost no chance that he didn’t have thoughts on the ritual or, at the very least, something interesting to say. And they had just had a decent conversation a week ago.

Unfortunately, Zagan’s irritation with Lucy was palpable. After taking a single glance at the circle, he had leaned against the air with his eyes shut. The only times he had moved were to snap at Lucy for her moving or making too much noise.

If he was in a bad mood, Eva didn’t want to say anything to disturb him further.

Qrycx stood away from everyone else. She didn’t speak. She didn’t mingle. All she did was glare.

More than once, Eva had caught sight of that glare aimed in her direction. Even though the carnivean’s eyes had grown back, she still looked about ready to lunge forward and take Eva’s.

“Almost ready,” Devon said, wiping his sweat on his sleeve.

Catherine slipped her phone into her pocket as she shifted to a more ready position. “Finally.”

Devon glanced up from his notebook. His eyes met with Eva’s for a bare instant before turning back to his work.

In that instant, it was like a whole conversation had passed.

‘Why must you torture me so, girl?’

‘Catherine would have been here regardless of Zagan’s presence.’

‘Don’t even start me on that. I thought you were joking when you said you were going to ask him.’

‘Well, I got my sense of humor from you.’

‘I don’t have a sense of humor.’

‘Exactly.’

At least, that’s how Eva figured it would have happened. Lacking in the ability to project and receive thoughts, she really had no idea as to what he was thinking.

He was, however, undoubtedly pissed. Mostly at her for bringing along Zagan.

“Alright,” he barked out, “Eva, strip and get in the center circle. Whatever three demons are doing this, strip and get in the outer circles.”

“Lucy will be staying here,” Eva said as she pulled her shirt over her head. She still wasn’t sure why Zagan had asked her to bring along Lucy. At first, she had worried that he would try swapping places with her at the last minute.

That wasn’t looking so likely anymore.

Zagan, dressed in a sharp suit complete with a tie, undressed the very second that Devon had ordered it. He hadn’t moved a muscle. Still slouched against an invisible wall, one moment he had clothes on while the next they were neatly folded on the ground.

He had zero compunction about standing around completely naked in front of the group.

Standing a short distance away from the group of demons, Serena pulled down her scarf just long enough to give a loud wolf-whistle that Zagan returned with a smile and a wave.

Eva just shook her head as she stepped out of her skirt.

Catherine and Qrycx had to undress in a far more mundane fashion.

Really, Zagan was just a cheater. When a succubus lacked a magical method of ridding themselves of their clothes, something was just wrong with the world.

Though Catherine had arrived prepared. All she had on was a bathrobe, which she threw off without trouble. She probably would have arrived naked had she not needed a pocket to carry her cellphone in.

Catherine also received a whistle from a certain vampire.

Devon looked at her once with a scoff and a sneer before turning back to the circle.

“No chairs?” Eva asked as she stepped into the center. “Or tubes and needles to hook us up together?”

“We only added the chairs after ensuring that the old circle was stable. No chances here. If something goes wrong…” he pressed a tentacle to his forehead. “You’ll be kneeling. All of you,” he said to the demons as they made their way to their positions. “Sit with your backs to Eva.”

It was strange… No. It was unnerving to watch Zagan kneel down without protest. Eva had expected the Great King of Hell to ignore Devon and pull up an invisible chair. Or whatever else he felt like doing.

Apparently, he felt like following orders.

Catherine was the one who looked most disgusted by being told to sit on the ground. Still, after a glance at Zagan, she complied without a verbal complaint.

“As for the transfusion, it won’t be necessary. The ritual circle will take care of that.”

“Fair enough,” Eva said as she knelt down.

Since she had received Arachne’s limbs, Eva had often considered them to be useful. More often than not, in fact. Her legs were stronger and tougher than the old human ones she had previously possessed. Maybe that would have changed after becoming a demon, but there wasn’t a way to know for sure at this point in time.

Whatever happened in the future would happen. At the moment, Eva was just glad that she could kneel on the hardened carapace instead of her old fleshy skin.

“So, what next boss-man?”

If the glare that Devon had shot Eva earlier was along the lines of being pissed, the glare he sent at Serena was absolutely apoplectic.

Serena actually took a half step backwards.

“Next,” Devon ground out. He turned back to Eva and the three demons, glancing between each of them. “You all remain as still as possible. The demons might feel some tingling and discomfort. Eva… just try not to die.”

“That’s reassuring.”

Devon didn’t bother responding to that.

Which didn’t make Eva feel any better. How was she supposed to try not to die? Obviously, she didn’t want to die. It wasn’t like she could hold on to the edge of a cliff or dodge a bullet.

Eva shook her head. Worrying about it would just lead to stress and anxiety.

“You,” Devon shouted, pointing towards Lucy. His arm swing around to point at Serena. “And you. No matter what you hear or see, you are not to cross onto the ritual circle. In fact, take ten steps away and do not move.”

That was even less reassuring. Just what were they going to hear and see?

Turning back to the demons, Devon took a deep breath. “Everyone ready?”

“Get on with it already!”

Eva had to agree with Catherine. The longer Devon delayed, the more nervous she got. This treatment was nothing like the sessions with Arachne. That had been a little unconsciousness and a little lethargy afterwards.

This sounded like it was going to be painful.

There was a sigh from Devon and Eva was proven very right.

Eva’s hands had been resting on her knees. When the ritual started, the hydraulic pressure in her hands failed. Lacking any resistance, the strong muscles in her hands clamped down.

The only reason she hadn’t crushed her knees was because they were made of demonic chitin. The strength of her knees was just enough to resist the strength of her hands.

Gritting her teeth, Eva watched with wide eyes.

As the lines of the ritual circle lit up around the demons, something started peeling off and pulling out of the back of their necks.

Smoke poured out of their necks to pool in one great cloud above Eva.

A pitch black cloud.

It took Eva’s panicked mind a moment to realize that it was blood.

While Zagan didn’t seem to notice at all, Catherine moved her hand back to idly scratch at her neck. She wasn’t hurried or panicking. It was as if whatever she felt was no more notable than a mosquito bite. The blood just flowed around her fingers, not sticking to them in the slightest.

Eva couldn’t see the carnivean’s reaction–she didn’t have the mental power to spare on looking through her blood sight.

The dark cloud of demon blood gathered overhead made its way closer and closer to Eva.

Thin spools–two miniature tornadoes–pulled downwards from the cloud. They reached Eva’s wrists and started burrowing.

Up until now, Eva had managed to keep the pain under wraps. Though she grit her teeth and couldn’t control the clenching of her hands, she hadn’t made a sound.

That ended the moment the blood entered her wrists.

Eva arched her back, opening her mouth wide to scream out at the sky. The blood tore through her body. It didn’t care that there was meat and, after leaving her arms, bone in the way.

Organs? Shove them aside. Can’t shove them? Go straight through them.

She could feel it coursing through her. Despite feeling like it was penetrating straight through her organs, she could also feel it wrapping around them, embracing them, infusing them.

From the tips of her toes to the deepest recesses of her brain, her body felt as if it were on fire and drowning at the same time. Flayed to shreds. Worse even than the effects of her method of teleporting.

Her screams died to rasps as her throat gave up.

The dark cloud overhead was steadily shrinking. The demons were no longer contributing to its growth.

The last droplets came down and disappeared into her wrists. Her pain hit a crescendo and everything stopped.

Eva slumped forward. She could barely process what was happening. The runic circle was still glowing with magical energy and she could still feel that energy swirling around inside of her.

Trying to sit as still as she could even with her ragged breathing, Eva waited. She waited and she hoped that the worst of it was over with.

Twelve eternities passed before the light of the ritual circle was finally snuffed out. It had been near noon when they had started, but when the light died, the sunlight had gone dark.

Only the pale moonlight lit up the ritual circle.

Like a puppet with her strings cut, Eva slumped forward. Her arms could muster no resistance to stop her head from smacking into the concrete.

Eva’s hazy mind caught sight of the blazing red eyes of Catherine’s demon form staring down at her.

Everything went dark.

A wall of cold water slammed into Eva’s face.

Her eyes snapped open. The icy liquid ran down her neck and chest, sending all kinds of shivers through her body.

Cold did not agree with her.

Coughing and sputtering, she tried to reach out with her awareness and get some sense of what was going on.

She was in the women’s ward on her couch. A somewhat soggy couch that had just had ice water dumped all over it.

There would definitely be shouting about that later on.

Devon stood over her with a rusted iron bucket in hand. As Eva blinked up at him, he tossed it off to the side. The loud clatters it made had Eva wincing until it rolled to a stop. He stared down at her with a disapproving frown on his face.

What the frown was for, Eva couldn’t guess. She was far too distracted.

In the distance, Eva could feel a group of demons. Zagan, Catherine, Lucy, and even the carnivean. At first, she thought that she was sensing their blood. With a start, she realized that she was feeling them. The carnivean and Lucy were both stringy, though with enough distinction to tell them apart. Catherine was a ball of chilled emotions.

And Zagan… The only word that came to mind was power. It bordered on overshadowing the rest.

All of them were nearby. Perhaps just barely out of range of her sense of blood.

“You’ve slept for long enough,” Devon said. Without a word of warning, he leaned down and used the fingers of his normal hand to pry open one of Eva’s eyes. His tentacle was coiled around a small pen light that he moved side to side and up and down.

Eva followed the pen light with her eyes. Had she not, Devon would have barked out orders for her to do so. Groggy though she was, she had sat through enough post-treatment examinations to have her reactions being almost second nature.

As soon as he finished with her eyes, he moved on to pinching her cheeks and pulling at her ears.

She just let him perform his examination without protest. Post-treatment examinations were always invasive checkups.

After a moment of more prodding around her face, Devon paused to jot a few notes down in his notebook.

As he did so, Eva took a few moments to focus on herself. One of his questions would eventually be about how she felt and if she had noticed any changes. He always got irritated if she had to think about the answer for too long.

“Open your mouth.”

Eva complied. Opening her mouth turned to a yawn part way through. The yawn wanted to end with her jaw closing, but Eva suppressed the instinct so as to avoid biting off Devon’s fingers.

Though, it almost looked like someone had tried already. Devon’s hand was dotted in cuts and scrapes. Thin lines of blood had leaked out and scabbed over already.

Seeing her looking at his hand, Devon grunted. “You were less cooperative while unconscious.”

Eva meant to ask how long she was unconscious, but the words came out as nothing more than unintelligible mumbles. Devon still hadn’t removed his fingers from her mouth.

Said fingers ran over her teeth, prodded the insides of her cheeks, and even yanked on her tongue.

She smacked his hand away at that last action. “What did you do that for?”

“Your tongue is elongated,” he said almost absentmindedly as he wrote in his notebook. “I’ll get a measurement later.”

Eva rolled her eyes. He said that after just about every treatment. She had never noticed much of a difference and his measurements were usually fractions of a centimeter. That could have just been from natural growth or how relaxed her tongue was at the moment of measurement. Still, Eva stuck out her tongue just to test, feeling it pass over surprisingly sharp teeth on its way out of her mouth.

She blinked at what she saw.

Her tongue was darker in color. No longer the healthy pinkish red, but almost black. Maybe more of a gray color. Previously, she might have been able to touch the underside of her nose with her tongue. Now, it took no effort to get it up and around the peak of her nose.

“We should talk about your use of the word ‘elongated’ and how much it never applied until today,” Eva said.

Devon just harrumphed. He folded his notebook under his arm while he used both his tentacle and hand to run down Eva’s side, counting her ribs under his breath. Once satisfied, he opened his notebook again and jotted something down.

“How do you feel?”

“Like I had a bucket of ice water poured all over me and haven’t been given a towel to wipe it up.”

“Interesting,” he said, making another note. “The water was just normal water from your rune system. No ice added. It had actually been sitting out for about fifteen minutes. Should have been closer to the ambient temperature.”

Eva glared at him. “Are you going to give me a towel or not?”

He tapped the tip of his pen against his notebook three times.

As if he actually has to think about it.

Eventually, he decided. With a resigned sigh, he headed back into the women’s ward shower room. A moment later, he reappeared with a fluffy purple towel.

Which he threw at her.

It smacked her right in the face.

Eva let out a small growl as she started drying herself off. “Apart from that, pins and needles.” She paused her efforts with the towel and held a hand in front of her face. “I can’t seem to stop shaking.”

“Likely left over from the pain rather than any side effect of the treatment itself,” Devon mumbled, noting something in his notebook anyway.

That made sense well enough. “There was a lot more pain than I had expected. It was intense. Drastically different from the treatments with Arachne.”

“I anticipated that.”

“You could have warned me.”

“That would have just caused unnecessary apprehension. Anything else?”

“I can feel the other demons. Before, I might have been able to sense Zagan if I was concentrating. Never could tell about the others though. Now it is like they’re broadcasting themselves to me. Each one is distinct and clear, though Zagan still towers over the rest.”

“Really?” Devon’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead a good inch. “With the somewhat drastic changes to your body–”

Eva glanced down at herself, double-checking that she still looked like a human on the outside. She did. And, through her sense of blood, she decided that she was mostly human internally as well. Although, most humanoid demons tended to look indistinguishable from humans even on the inside. Had she not already memorized their circulatory systems, Eva wouldn’t be able to tell Zagan and Catherine apart from anyone else while they were in their human form.

Lucy was a bit different, being a mass of tentacles compressed into a humanoid form.

Blinking, Eva realized that Devon was still talking.

“–jump started or skipped over part of the process. I doubt you’re fully demon yet, but this may have accelerated things. I’ll need a more in-depth examination to be certain.” Devon hummed for a moment, tapping a finger on the edge of his notebook. “What about farther away? Can you sense the hel? Or any other demons at your school?”

Eva closed her eyes in concentration. Leaning in and listening, metaphorically, she found nothing more than the four demons around her prison.

“Nope,” Eva said. “Maybe Zagan is overpowering anyone who is too far away. Or I just can’t feel them from this far away. Once I get back to the city, I’ll feel around a bit and let you know.”

Devon marked a few things down with a nod. “Speaking of the demons. You need to go get rid of them. They won’t leave.”

“Won’t leave? How long has it been since the end of the ritual.”

“Two hours. And the succubus keeps trying to corner me. You can tell it that I am not interested.” He blinked before shaking his head. “In fact, use harsher words than that. Much harsher words.” He snapped his notebook shut and regarded her with a glare. “And that devil hasn’t moved at all. Get rid of them then come back and see me. We’ll get those measurements.”

He wandered off towards the kitchen, muttering something to himself that Eva couldn’t quite catch.

Rather than jump up to go confront the gaggle of demons outside, Eva just sat back on the couch.

She didn’t want to move.

Pins and needles poked all through her body with any kind of movement. She had been keeping a straight face in front of Devon, but her face had taken on an unpleasant grimace now that he had gone. It wasn’t that bad of a pain. Cutting herself for blood hurt worse. Having her eyes removed had hurt far worse.

But it was constant and everywhere. That was more than enough to make it annoying.

Hopefully it would die out after a few minutes. If it continued for any length of time, she might just go insane.

Apart from the pins and needles, Eva didn’t feel all that bad. Her treatments with Arachne usually left her feeling lethargic for most of the day. If she even woke up before the next day. Now it had been a mere two hours, according to Devon, and she felt full of energy.

Of course, the ritual itself had lasted a lot longer. They had started not long after noon and it was now dark outside the window. Maybe just a short time after dusk, maybe it was almost morning. Eva couldn’t see the clock from where she lay and getting up just to check sounded painful.

But she couldn’t just lie around all night. Especially not with all the demons sitting around.

Zagan did whatever he wanted. The fact that he had decided to stick around wasn’t any more surprising than finding out he had disappeared immediately after would have been.

Catherine, on the other hand, didn’t make sense. The succubus hadn’t even wanted to come. Eva had expected her to be the first one gone. She had games to get back to, or whatever else the succubus did.

And what had Devon said? She was trying to corner him? Eva couldn’t help but make a face at the thought.

Stalking Devon shocked Eva more than anything else. Succubi sure had strange tastes. Weren’t they supposed to be extraordinarily vain creatures?

Devon was not handsome by anyone’s definition of the word. His beard was scraggly and unkempt at the best of times, as was his hair. With his nose looking like it had been broken a few too many times, wrinkles lining his face, and small scars around where the wrinkles weren’t, Devon couldn’t attract an ogre, let alone a succubus.

At least, that was what Eva had assumed before hearing that. Maybe Catherine saw something beneath his rugged exterior. Some inner beauty. His charming personality, perhaps?

The thought had Eva bursting out in laughter—laughter that rapidly turned to groans as the ache of her body flared.

Regardless of what Devon and Zagan said about the ritual, Eva hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t pick up any strange traits from having Catherine as a donor.

Though, she had to admit that she wouldn’t mind having the succubus’ body and natural grace.

With a sigh, Eva swung her legs over the edge of the couch while trying to ignore the needles poking her body. It was actually somewhat like having a limb fall asleep.

Something that hadn’t happened to her since she got Arachne’s limbs.

Pushing herself up to her feet, Eva took one step.

She immediately stumbled into the table, hopped twice to get away from it without crashing onto it, bumped into a chair, and promptly fell to the ground.

Eva didn’t move from her spot on the rug in the middle of the common room. So much for a succubus’ grace, she thought with a sardonic smile.

After several minutes of just resting against the floor, the ache in her body died down enough that she was willing to try again. Eva climbed to her feet and managed to remain steady all the way to the door.

The pain was dying down. Slowly. A good nap would probably have it gone entirely by the time she awoke.

She felt far too awake to even think about taking a nap.

Walking around agitated the feeling of needles under her skin. At the same time, every step seemed to lessen the feeling. By the time she reached the ritual circle at the basketball court, Eva could barely feel any discomfort at all. Although she still felt shaky.

Eva took one glance around the basketball court and shivered. An eerie feeling overcame her as she spotted Zagan.

The devil was meditating. Or, he had his eyes closed and his hands resting in his lap. An apparently meditating Zagan was one of the strangest things that Eva had seen in a long time. Worse, he was still naked; he apparently hadn’t bothered to put on his clothes again.

Neither had the carnivean. She had an unwavering glare fixed on Zagan. If looks could kill…

Well, Zagan would probably survive.

Catherine—now in her full demon form, wings, tail, and all—hadn’t bothered to gather up her clothes either, but Eva had somewhat expected that. The succubus didn’t like clothes at the best of times and had even less shame than Eva. She was pacing around in the grass to the side of the cement and had been at pacing for a while if the shallow trench was any indication.

Glancing down at herself, Eva realized that she was still naked as well. The only ones with any clothes on were Serena and Lucy, though Serena had doffed her heavy winter clothing now that night had fallen.

The two clothed people were talking to each other at the far end of the court, too quiet to be heard.

It didn’t really matter. None of the demons would care about nudity. Devon didn’t care. Eva doubted that he actually saw people as people, let alone women as women or men as men. To say nothing of how he felt about actual demons.

Serena had whistled at both Zagan and Catherine, but she probably didn’t really care either, being dead and all. If she did, oh well.

Eva was curious about what Serena and Lucy were talking about. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to go find out.

The moment Catherine noticed Eva’s presence, the succubus flapped her wings twice. That carried her just high enough over the ground for her to glide over and swoop down in front of Eva.

“I want to use another favor,” she said before her feet had even settled on the ground. “Make that man listen to me.”

Eva thought back to her thoughts on Devon and frowned. “Are you sure you want to waste a whole favor on Devon? He isn’t that good-looking. Surely you have higher standards than him.”

Catherine blinked. Her eye twitched as she shot Eva a glare. “Make him put me in the center of that circle.”

“You,” Eva started after a moment of silence. “I don’t… I mean, you’re already a demon.”

“Every few months, you would show up stronger than you were the day before. I knew something unnatural was going on, but I couldn’t figure out what.”

Somehow, Eva doubted that Catherine had tried very hard to figure it out. She hadn’t even asked. Though Eva was trying to keep her treatment a secret from most mortals, she would probably have told Catherine. Maybe. It was a prospect that had been more likely over the last semester, after Eva had a chance to get to know the succubus better during the diablery class.

“When I first met you, you were barely a blip on my mini-map. Now…” The succubus took in a deep breath. “I want in on it. I finally know what was being done to you and I want it.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with it,” Eva started. A slight glint over Catherine’s shoulder caught her attention.

Zagan, still in his meditative pose, had opened his eyes. His gaze met with Eva’s for just a moment. The corners of his lips curled upwards just a hair.

He knew. Somehow, some way, he knew what Catherine would ask. And he planned for it.

Eva broke her staring contest with the devil to glance at Lucy. She had wondered—had assumed that he had asked to bring Lucy along in case he decided to skip out. But no. Now Eva could see it. Lucy was here to be a third demon for Catherine. Zagan and Qrycx being the first and second. It was why he was still hanging around and likely why Qrycx was glaring at him. He must have ordered the carnivean to stay.

Obviously, Qrycx hadn’t wanted to die again so she had complied.

He knew, Eva thought again as she turned her eyes back to Zagan. Whether through some demonic ability or just through reading her personality, he had expected her to ask about being involved in the ritual.

And he had called it an experiment.

Frowning, Eva again met with Catherine’s eyes. Having recalled that last little tidbit, she was actually worried about Catherine. Being involved in something that Zagan called an experiment couldn’t be good for her health.

“Will it even work for you though?” Eva asked, mostly as a way to delay as she continued to think. “It was meant to turn me into a demon, not turn a demon into a stronger demon.”

“It will take modification, but that shouldn’t take long. I understand ritual circles, a former master ensured I had a background in basic mortal magics. While I could modify it myself, double checking with the creator will help remove any unforeseen problems that I might miss on my own.”

Eva raked her claws through her hair, sweeping it all back behind her head. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to ask him. About talking about it, at least.” She fixed Catherine with a glare. “Be careful, be sure if and when you actually do the ritual.”

“Didn’t know you cared,” Catherine said with a frown.

“I do.”

Catherine snorted. She turned half-away, staring at the ritual circle with unblinking eyes.

Zagan had again closed his eyes and resumed his meditation.

Lucy and Serena looked like they wanted to come over and talk. At least, Serena looked like she wanted to come talk. Lucy was staring at the starry night sky with a wide grin on her mouth. A too-wide grin.

If any student at Brakket Academy still thought that she was even partially human, it would be a miracle.

Eva gave Serena a sorry smile—one that said that they could talk later.

“I do care about you,” Eva said. “As far as all the people I know go, you’re one of the more agreeable to speak with. And with Arachne… with that incident, I’d rather not needlessly lose any more friends.” The last word came out almost as a whisper as she remembered her conversation with Serena the other day.

“Friends?” Catherine gave a small snort.

But she didn’t deny it, Eva thought with a smile. That was another friendship finger that she could tick off. Her smile faltered just a hair as her thought process continued onwards. Unless the snort was her denying it.

Catherine turned back, eying Eva up and down. “Just go get the diabolist.”

“Demonologist,” Eva corrected. “He’ll get mad if you call him otherwise.”

“Whatever.” Catherine dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. “Hurry up. We’re on a time limit. I want this done before Zagan decides to leave.”

Eva shrugged, but didn’t argue. Zagan probably wouldn’t go anywhere since he was the one who wanted the experiment to go ahead.

But, Zagan was a fickle creature. Eva complied with Catherine’s request.

“Devon,” Eva called out as she entered the women’s ward.

“In here, girl,” came a voice from the kitchen. It sounded as if his mouth was half full of food.

Sure enough, Eva walked in to find Devon shoveling a bowl of ramen down his throat.

He held up a set of calipers in his tentacle and waved her over with them, not bothering to actually verbalize anything as he slurped up another noodle.

“The demons aren’t gone just yet,” Eva said. That actually got him to glare at her. Before he could empty his mouth and start berating her–or worse, not empty his mouth and start berating her–Eva said, “but I think you should talk to Catherine first.”

His narrowed eyes blinked wide open. A moment later, he leaned back in the chair and looked up with a long groan at the ceiling. “The harsh words… it liked them, didn’t it?”

“Not really. Probably. Actually, she wants to be part of an experiment.”

Devon shifted, looking back at her. “What sort of experiment? I am not interested in most things that a succubus would consider experimental.”

“Catherine wants to be in the center of the treatment circle.”

His fingers tapped against the table, beating out an irregular rhythm. He stared. The gears turning in his head was almost audible. Slowly, Devon’s gaze shifted to his notebook.

“It wouldn’t work,” he eventually said. “The succubus wouldn’t gain anything. Not unless…”

Devon trailed off. Ramen forgotten, he picked up his notebook and started flipping through the pages.

“She says that she knows a few modifications that would need to be made. And, the reason why all the demons are still here is to run this second experiment. I think she wants to do it tonight. Like, now. Or as soon as the modifications to the circle can be done.”

Eva had been hoping that telling him why the demons were around might help entice him further.

She should have known better.

Devon’s eyes narrowed. “The pillar wants to do it,” he said with a flat voice. “It wouldn’t stay here otherwise.” He snapped his notebook shut with a loud clack. “Forget it. I’m not playing into a bunch of demons’ hands. And definitely not the devil’s.”

Really should have known better, Eva thought. But still, this was Catherine’s request. Zagan might have known about it, but he hadn’t forced Catherine to suggest it as far as Eva could tell. Not only was she using up a favor in asking to get him to come, but she was a friend.

Tentatively.

Could she just leave it with him declining? Catherine wanted to use up a whole favor on this, so probably not.

“Ah,” Eva said. “That’s a shame.” She turned towards the kitchen exit. “I suppose I’ll just go tell Catherine and especially Zagan that you don’t want a thing to do with them. I’m sure that Zagan will be only mildly disappointed that he wasted his time by waiting around.”

Eva started walking away. Slowly. All while counting down in her head.

The second she hit zero, Devon spoke.

“Eva.”

Eva stopped, glancing back with a vapid smile on her face.

He did not sound happy.

“I know what you’re doing.”

“I know you know. That doesn’t change the fact that I wouldn’t want to anger Zagan. And that’s taking into consideration that he wouldn’t kill me on a whim for the simple fact that he is interested in finding out what lies at the end of my treatment.”

Eva turned, facing the door again. “Besides, what do you want me to do? Sit around so they end up waiting even longer? Zagan might just be more angry at that. Glad to know that you’ve got such confidence in your abilities though.”

Devon didn’t move. Not to speak. Not to get up. So, Eva left.

By the time she reached the wall around the women’s ward, Devon was scrambling after her.

It had taken about an hour for Catherine and Devon to discuss the changes to the circle. Considering that it had taken almost an entire month for Devon to design the latest version of Eva’s treatment circle, that was essentially lightning fast.

Either Catherine was really a genius at understanding how rituals worked and how to change them, there hadn’t been all that many changes to be made, or Devon just cared so little for Catherine’s safety that he wasn’t too interested in checking, double checking, and ensuring that everything was protocoligorically correct.

Eva was leaning towards that last point if it wasn’t all three. Which was actually somewhat flattering for her. It was nice to know that Devon cared. Even if all that care was just for her as a test subject and not as a person, friend, or anything similar. But she really didn’t expect any of that anyway.

After sketching out a preliminary circle in Devon’s notebook, they had started on the larger circle. Something they had been working on for about another hour. One would think that it would go faster with the two of them erasing and redrawing everything, but no. Not really. They kept getting in each other’s way, going over sections that had already been done, bickering, and all sorts of other nonsense.

Frankly, it was amazing that they had managed to sketch out the changes in the first place.

Though, perhaps not quite as amazing as the lack of fireballs while working on changing the circle itself.

Eva was staying far away from it all. She had sat in and watched during the notebook phase. It had taken all of her willpower to not fall asleep. She should have been paying attention and she should have been learning.

Devon’s ritual circles were so beyond her own abilities that she couldn’t understand a thing about them. He and Catherine had been speaking another language as far as Eva was concerned. Zoe might have enjoyed it, but she was off collecting new prospective students for Brakket Academy.

Whether or not she actually came back with any remained to be seen. Eva was well aware that she had several misgivings about how Brakket was being run.

But, that wasn’t too relevant to what was going on at the moment.

Eva stood back at the edge of the converted basketball court while Devon and Catherine argued over some line or other on the circle.

She still didn’t know what Catherine hoped to gain from the experiment. Well, that wasn’t true. Power was likely the answer. But in what form? Some abstract ‘blip’ on a map?

Zagan’s motivations were actually clear for once. Based on his conversation with Eva when she had asked him to participate, Eva could guess that he wanted to see some new variation of a demon. Even if it was still based on Catherine’s ‘template’ or whatever.

“So,” said a voice to Eva’s side, “that seemed pretty intense.”

“Not something I’ll look forward to in three months.”

“Three months?” Serena just about jumped out of her boots. “You have to do it again?”

Eva turned to glance at the vampire. Now that she mentions it… “Actually, I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask Devon about any changes to the schedule. Until now, however, I’ve been doing a similar thing every three months since I was nine-ish years old.”

“Nine?” Serena trembled a little.

It looked fake. Like an actor on the stage of a play. But it was entirely possible that she couldn’t emote properly, being a vampire. Maybe she was exaggerating her motions in a forced attempt to emulate the living–a way to put regular people more at ease. Eva really didn’t know enough about vampires to say one way or the other.

“I don’t think I could have done something like that when I was nine.”

Eva laughed. “Oh it was far worse back then.”

“Worse! How?”

“All that blood in the air? It had to be transfered through needles in the old version of the ritual. You don’t even want to know how much of a baby I was about having a needle stuck in me.”

There was no way she was about to tell Serena that the old ritual had been essentially painless. If the vampire wanted to think that she had always been a tough kid, who was she to correct her?

“But,” Serena said with a ponderous expression, “you’re a blood mage. You have to cut yourself daily.”

“Yeah, there might be some connection there. Maybe I picked up those blood magic books because of the needles.”

It was entirely possible. Eva hadn’t thought of that before.

“But,” Eva said, “speaking of blood.” She pulled the tee-shirt she had changed into up to her nose and gave a few light sniffs. Nothing smelt especially unusual. But that was why she was bout to ask Serena for her opinion. “When we first met, you said that I had a good smell. At the same time, you didn’t seem so fond of Arachne’s blood. How about now?”

Serena glanced at her with a quirked eyebrow. Her lips peeled back into a smirk, revealing her sharp fangs. The storm clouds in the back of her eyes lit up.

I should not have asked, Eva thought as she averted her eyes. It was just an idle curiosity. She didn’t need to know the answer. Now she had gone and made Serena shift from a sixteen year old girl to a hungry vampire.

It took a great deal of effort not to pull back as Serena leaned closer and drew in a deep breath.

How long has it been since she last fed? Eva thought with a sudden start. The vampire had been lounging about the prison for at least the last week. There weren’t people around here. No one to turn into midnight snacks.

The profound yearn for blood emanating from Serena died off. She slumped away from Eva to stare off towards the ritual circle.

Eva just about sighed in relief. Not that she was worried. She was strong. Her hands and legs made it so that she was never unarmed, plus she could light herself on fire. Vampires didn’t like fire. Even if she couldn’t fight off the vampire had Serena decided to clamp down on her neck, Devon and all the demons would have been able to put her down.

Well, Devon would have stepped in to help his precious research subject. Lucy probably would have done something as well. Zagan? Doubtful. If Eva guessed correctly, he would have considered such a thing a mere failure in her being–not worthy of becoming a demon or something along those lines.

Catherine might have helped out. But she might not have. It was hard to say. A friend would have helped out, but Eva could very well have been too hasty in naming Catherine a friend. She hoped not, but the possibility was there.

“No good?” Eva asked, trying not to let her relief come across as too obvious in her voice.

Serena glanced up with a tooth-filled grin. “Oh, no. You smell delicious. I was just thinking. Reflecting, really.” Her grin slid by the wayside as she turned back towards the ritual circle. “Not so long ago, there was a cloud of blood overhead. I am always hungry, but I didn’t feel anything about it. No desire to go slurp it all up or anything.”

“Because it was demon blood? Or something else?”

The vampire put a finger to her lip as she hummed out a thoughtful tune. “Don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “Could be a huge part of it. Perhaps it is like sugar?”

“I don’t… you’ve lost me.”

“Demon blood. It’s like sugar. With you, it’s like a sweet cake. Sugar with all kinds of other things mixed in. Them, however… well, you wouldn’t want to eat a spoonful of raw sugar, would you?”

“I suppose not.”

Her tongue traced the edges of her lips. “Buut,” she drew the word out, “it has made me hungry. Hungrier.”

“That’s a shame.” Eva kept her voice steady and as neutral as she could force it. “Perhaps you should go find someone willing to give you some blood.”

“Come on. It won’t even hurt. Just a little bit.”

“Sorry.” Eva pointed at herself. “Blood mage. I’ve become a bit protective of my blood lately.”

Serena let out a long groan. “So, what’s all this then?” Serena asked, changing the topic while waving her hand out towards the ritual circle. “You’re not doing it again, are you?”

“Not for me. Catherine wants a try.”

“It seemed unpleasant enough with you. Are demons usually masochistic?”

“Catherine being so wouldn’t surprise me. As I said, I’m not looking forward to additional treatment.”

As they watched, Devon placed his hands on his hips, leaned and cracked his back. “The circle is ready,” he said, not even looking towards the assembled demons.

“Well,” Serena said, “I think I’ve had enough screaming demons for one day. Unless you’re going to help satiate my hunger…” She trailed off with a glance at Eva.

“Sorry,” Eva said without meaning the word in the slightest.

“Then I think I’ll head off and seek a meal elsewhere. Need to get going and get back before daybreak.”

As Devon started organizing the demons into their proper spots, Serena stalked off with her hands behind her head. Eva only watched her go for a few moments before turning her attention to the yelling going on around the ritual circle.

“This was not part of our contract,” the carnivean said, hair-tentacles dancing in the air in rage. “Find someone else to be your pet. I’ve had enough of myself being drained away for one day.”

Devon looked about ready to toss a fireball at Qrycx. His hand was outstretched with the rings on his fingers lightly glowing in that sickly green he used for his fire.

Turns out, he needn’t have bothered.

A large hand clasped around her head, completely ignoring the tentacles as they lashed out to attack the invader of her space. The carnivean’s legs dangled beneath her as Zagan lifted her off the ground with the single hand. She was a good few feet off the ground—she was only about half as tall as Eva and yet Zagan had his arm almost parallel to the ground. He twisted his wrist once she made it to eye level, facing her towards him.

As soon as she saw who had a hold of her, Qrycx went still. Her tentacles dropped to her sides, not a single muscle in them even twitched. With her tentacles smoothed over her body, her tiny form looked even smaller.

“You will participate,” Zagan said with a smile. Qrycx’s stillness failed as she started shaking. “There might even be something in it for you.”

Qrycx actually stopped her trembling to glance up at Zagan. Or she tried to. Zagan released her. She fell the short height and landed on her feet. Without sparing a moment for hesitation, she moved out of the way as Zagan continued towards his position.

It still took her a moment to move to her spot. Her fists clenched and her teeth ground together. Yet she went with no verbal complaint.

Lucy was under no such reservations. Between the bounces in her steps and the occasional giggle, she actually looked excited to participate. Devon did have to fuss with her a bit to get her facing the proper direction–a task complicated by the fact that Lucy was an axopodia. How was she supposed to sit with her back to Catherine when she was just a bunch of tightly wound spaghetti noodles?

Somehow Devon figured it out. It took a lot of doing, but he had managed to rearrange Lucy’s tentacles. She still looked like a human, but a dark spot on her neck stood out.

Once everyone got to position, Catherine stepped into the center. She rotated once, eyes roving over the ritual circle for one final check. Satisfied, she knelt and gave Devon a short nod.

He replied with a scoff.

Kneeling down himself, Devon placed his hands at the edge of the circle and started channeling magic.

Eva watched with rapt attention. She had never actually seen someone else’s treatment before. The terminal child from the hospital was the only one who had received Devon’s treatment to her knowledge, and she had been simultaneously groggy from her own treatment and off helping Ylva clear enigmas out of her domain. She had only caught the tail end of it.

Of course, this wasn’t anything like her old treatments. And it really didn’t resemble what little she had seen of the hospital kid’s treatment.

Catherine sat, much like Eva had, as a cloud of blood gathered overhead. Streams of blood descended and entered her wrists. Catherine didn’t scream out. Apart from gritting her teeth and her tail stiffening, her body remained very still.

On the surface, at least. Beneath her skin, Catherine was definitely feeling something. Her heart rate spiked. Her organs–which were, for the most part, remarkably human-like–trembled as her breathing sped up.

Now that Eva wasn’t in agony, she could actually see what the blood was doing. The blood didn’t spear through organs, unlike what she had thought. It hit an organ and started to spread around it. Once an organ was fully enveloped, the blood sunk inside and became indistinguishable from Catherine’s preexisting blood. Then, the tendrils of blood would search around for more organs. All the while, the blood would diffuse throughout her muscles, veins, and other non-organ parts of her body.

Fascinating to watch for the first few minutes, but Eva quickly found herself growing bored. Her own treatment had lasted from noon to nightfall. She had no reason to believe that Catherine’s would go any faster. In case something strange happened, she still wanted to watch.

But first…

Eva went back to the women’s ward and grabbed a tome and a chair–Devon, Serena, and Lucy had not had a chair the entire time for some odd reason–and dragged them back to the basketball court.

The tome was her book on blood rituals. Eva had promised both herself and Nel that she would hunt down Sawyer after her treatment. She had no intention of breaking that promise. There was a particular ritual that she had come across in the past and wanted to refresh herself on before using it.

Settling into her chair, Eva kept the corner of her eye on Catherine and her ritual while she flipped through the pages of her tome.

— — —

Succubi were fools. Incubi as well. Every last one of them.

Obsessed beyond measure with the pleasures of the flesh and other such carnal desires.

And for what? What did sex get any of them?

Momentary pleasure that vanished as quickly as it came, a reputation—not a good one in Catherine’s opinion—and perhaps the largest subset of demons simply due to breeding practices. Though true succubi were far rarer than cambions, lesser succubi, and other such derivatives.

Their population couldn’t even be turned into any sort of real power. Succubi were almost hard-wired to hate and despise other succubi and incubi. They felt threatened by others of their kind. Envy and jealousy ran rampant through their veins.

In other words, nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Much as she couldn’t understand the end goal for what succubi were designed to do, neither could Catherine understand the why.

Why would she ever want to be in such close proximity to filthy and utterly disgusting mortals? Humans, elves, dwarves, mixed races, goblins, trolls, ogres, whatever else existed. All were nothing greater than dirt to Catherine. It would be akin to a human fornicating with a cockroach.

She was above them all.

That wasn’t to say that she hated humans. They could be interesting at times. A decent diversion from the monotony of existence. As long as they kept their distance and left her to do as she willed, Catherine was more apathetic than anything else.

Irene made for a good toy. Pushing her to things that made her uncomfortable brought around interesting reactions. Those she played games with were… stand-able to a mild degree. From a distance. She wouldn’t wish to meet with them in person. They would be just as disgusting as the rest of their filthy race.

By that logic, demons would be more on her level. She should enjoy the company of other demons.

Perhaps she would. It was hard to say, having never tried.

As it was, Catherine feared other demons. In Hell, she kept to herself. Much like most other demons, she visited no other domains and invited no others to hers. Catherine was not a strong demon. Even a pathetic wretch like Arachne would be able to slaughter her effortlessly.

Such was the station of a lesser succubus.

Being lesser succubus wasn’t all bad, however. It made living among mortals incredibly easy. Almost to an absurd degree. Between her body, her natural succubi grace, and maybe a tiny bit of power poured into some mind magic, getting what she wanted from humans wasn’t difficult at all.

At least, that was how it should be. Catherine didn’t often find herself wanting anything from mortals. When she did, she ran into people like Eva’s mentor. People who weren’t enamored with her and who could just blink away if she got too close. People who knew about succubi charms and could either defend themselves or shrug them off.

Given her lesser succubus status, Catherine was willing to bet that he hadn’t even noticed.

But again, having power over mortals was like having power over cockroaches. Not glamorous. Not elegant. Not worth it.

Blinking her eyes open, Catherine sighed. She should have known.

The women’s ward. Only once or twice had she visited in the past, occasions when she had needed Eva for something or other.

She had been feeling something soft at her back for some time now. All the time she had allowed her thoughts to run rampant, the couch had been cradling her. Idle thoughts that were, ultimately, as meaningless as sex. They brought her nothing that she hadn’t already known. She hadn’t made any philosophical discoveries. No sudden enlightenment to how she could gain power over her betters.

Staring up at the brick ceiling dotted with runework lighting of the women’s ward, Catherine had to wonder why she had even tried. Nothing felt different. No surge of power or notion that she could rule the world. If anything, she felt exhausted.

That could just be the aftereffects of the ritual. Maybe she would gain in strength over the next few days as she recovered.

Somehow, she doubted it. Throughout Eva’s ritual, she could feel the girl steadily growing stronger up until its completion. After that, the steady growth dropped off, but still continued for a while longer. Catherine hadn’t been able to pay attention during her own ritual, but it must have stopped at some point afterwards. She could feel Eva now and the girl had felt mostly the same since Catherine had regained consciousness.

Though, thinking about Eva just made Catherine more depressed.

One of her favors had been consumed just to perform a worthless ritual. All because Catherine’s succubi wiles were too weak to get one mortal to even give her the time of day.

Working up the effort to turn her head, Catherine found the girl in question seated in a chair with a book in hand.

Eva glanced up and smiled at her over the top of the book. “The sleeping beauty is finally awake. Didn’t even take a kiss.”

“Don’t you dare,” Catherine said, though the words came out hollow. She was too tired to put more effort into it. That and the action of turning her head caused all kinds of strange prickles in the back of her neck. Trying to lift her arm caused the same to happen there.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Eva said with a snort. “And don’t try to move. I was all kinds of shaky after waking up. Could barely even stand.”

Catherine didn’t speak. She turned her head back to the ceiling and stared.

“It failed,” Catherine said to herself. It wasn’t a question for Eva. Rather, it was a simple statement of a fact.

“I wouldn’t say that.”

Catherine would have started at the new voice, but she had already been aware of Zagan’s presence somewhere nearby. In order to see him, she would have had to tilt her head up and back.

She didn’t bother with that, but couldn’t help the eyebrow that was crawling up her forehead.

“It didn’t fail?”

Zagan gave a low chuckle. “I suppose that depends. Did you expect to come out of that ritual able to challenge me?”

Catherine didn’t respond, which only raised Zagan’s chuckle to a full boisterous laugh. He walked around the table to stand just to the side of Eva’s chair.

He was, thankfully, back in his suit. Catherine didn’t care one way or the other about people in the nude, but Zagan was more like an incubus than most incubi she had met over the course of her existence. Seeing him clothed was reassuring.

“Then yes, it failed. If you might lower your expectations a few notches, perhaps you might be able to see some success. Already, that little diabolist man–”

“Demonologist,” Eva interrupted.

Zagan glared, but didn’t admonish her. The glare was probably enough. Eva shrank down in her chair and stared at the floor.

“That man is running around with his notebook, recording every little idea his mind can dream up as they come to him. Foolish, yeah? But amusing for the time being.”

Catherine frowned. When he had said that the ritual didn’t fail, she was hoping for more a more selfish result. Even something as simple as her charms being more irresistible.

“Well that’s just great for him,” she eventually said.

Eva cleared her throat. When Zagan didn’t glare or behead her or anything similar, she sat up a little straighter and looked at Catherine. “Devon has actually requested your assistance. It was a begrudging request, but he did admit that you know your way around rituals. He might not have admitted it in such a straightforward manner and there might have been a lot more reluctance… I might be paraphrasing too.”

Eva trailed off, searching for the proper words.

Catherine shook her head. “Great. I am so excited to waste my time with that insufferable man. I’m sure I have nothing better to do with my time in this mortal realm.”

“He’s not that bad,” Eva said with crossed arms and a pointed stare.

“Catherine has the more accurate assessment of the man,” Zagan said, patting Eva on the head. She didn’t appear appreciate the gesture, but not enough to actually fight back against the devil.

Probably a smart move.

“However,” Zagan continued, “I caught a glimpse of his notebook. There are some rather fascinating things for you. This ritual didn’t work the way you wanted, but it was never intended to do that anyway. Your rush job altering it was clever, but ultimately a failure. A more specialized ritual, one designed from the ground up with you in mind…”

“You’re saying,” Catherine said slowly, trying not to get her hopes up, “that there might be something we could do that would put me on par with you?”

“With me?” Zagan laughed. He threw his head back and grabbed his stomach.

Catherine immediately regretted saying that. She should have been vague. Asked for more power in a general sense or something similar.

Zagan’s golden eyes looked down at her. She could feel herself being placed on scales, weighed and measured.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing such. I shall not set my expectations so high. Show me something new. Create yourself anew. Do so and I may grant you a boon of some sort. Fail and…” He shrugged. “Try not to fail.”

With an unrestrained shudder, Catherine nodded. She had just been given an order. An ultimatum. One does not reject such a thing when the source is a Great King of Hell. Not if they wanted to continue existing.

But, oddly enough, she didn’t mind so much. The thought of becoming more powerful was an enticing one. And then there was a boon from Zagan? She was too afraid to ask just what that was. Boons were generally not bad things though. Receiving one from him would be far greater than a thousand favors from one as lowly as Eva.

Whetting the insides of her lips with her tongue, Catherine smiled. “When can we start?”

Yes, this project is far more enticing than the usual desires of succubi.

“Going somewhere?”

Eva glanced up from her work to find Serena leaning against the doorway. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she had a slight frown on her face.

Turning away with a slight shrug, Eva continued packing everything that she thought she might need.

“Just a little road trip. Though how I’m actually going to take it is still up for debate.”

Eva tucked a potion satchel filled with poisons into the side pocket of her suitcase. They might not be any good at all, but no sense in leaving them behind. They didn’t weigh all that much and didn’t take all that much room. If she did need or want them, it was better to have them on hand.

Of course, when she applied that logic to everything that she owned, Eva found her suitcase rapidly running low on room. And that was after having removed several books that probably wouldn’t be needed.

“I don’t suppose you know how to drive?” Eva asked. “There’s a certain someone in Idaho that needs to die.”

“I do,” she started. “But that sounds like a long drive. Twelve hours or more? Unless this someone is right on the border. Traveling is hard for vampires. Too much sun and not enough protection inside a little vehicle.”

“Bundles of clothes don’t help? You were out watching my treatment a few days ago.”

“And I got sunburned doing so. Especially around my face.” She rubbed just under her eyes. “The goggles were the highest rated I could find and they still weren’t enough. Besides, you can teleport.”

“Not without a gate. Last time I tried without a gate at my destination, I wound up stuck in Hell.”

Eva zipped up the suitcase. Everything she could think of taking with her was inside. Blood, bloodstones, potions, poisons, a certain cursed dagger that she was hoping to reunite with its owner, the blood magic ritual book, a change of clothes including her blindfold and the dress that Arachne had made for her, Arachne’s necklace beacon—just in case she came back—and an assortment of enticements.

No one was supposed to be summoning demons at the moment, but if the going got tough, one or two probably wouldn’t hurt. Especially so far away from Brakket Academy.

Basila was coming along as well. Eva was somewhat disappointed that the stone basilisk hadn’t healed completely from its excursion into the Elysium Order’s cathedral. Appearance-wise, she was mostly fine. The fresh scales were far weaker than the blood-infused stone and one tooth was missing entirely. Everything else looked normal and Basila acted normal.

Given that it was a stone carving, she really should be happy that it had healed at all. A side effect of the ritual she had performed on it had tried to repair it without any actual living material to grow. That resulted in semi-soft blood filling in most of the spare areas. Eva might have been able to harden the blood more, but she was worried about affecting its movement and flexibility.

“Besides, I think Nel is coming along. My method of teleportation is not kind to those without certain demonic proclivities.” Lynn Cross had definitely not enjoyed it.

“Can she not drive?”

Eva shook her head. That had been one of the first things she had asked. To say that Nel was afraid of driving would be an understatement. Paranoid was the word that came to mind.

“Zoe and Wayne could teleport you both.”

“They could, but they might not be back until mid-to-late June. I’ve put this off long enough. Waiting for another month would just increase the chance that it never gets done.”

Serena shoved off the wall and skipped backwards as Eva walked out of the room with her suitcase in hand.

“I wonder if Catherine knows how to drive?”

“Even if she does, won’t she be too busy researching with the diabolist?”

Eva let out a long sigh. “Demonologist. And probably.”

Really, if it weren’t for Nel, she could probably get to Sawyer without too much trouble. Between running with Arachne’s legs and being able to blink around, she could probably make better time than a car if she pushed herself. Maybe. Probably not. Cars didn’t get exhausted.

“So, transportation for two,” Serena mused. “Do you need to get there in one day?”

“Not necessarily.” She was trying not to procrastinate more, but it had already been a month and a half since Nel found Sawyer. “One or two more days won’t matter much.”

“Then I could drive you. But we’ll be traveling for less than five hours a night.”

“This time a year, there’s a good eight hours of darkness.”

“True. But I would rather not take my chances. Four hours of driving and then we start looking for a motel of some sort to hide away in during the daylight. And then we’ll have to spend some time securing the windows and doors. Motel blinds are not known for their ability to keep away light.”

“I can cast a spell that will block out light,” Eva said. She cast said spell off at the far end of the common room to demonstrate.

The entire back half of the women’s ward darkened. An inky black soup filled the air, preventing either of them from seeing beyond the coffee table in the middle of the room.

Serena hummed at the wall of darkness as she walked up to it. She put one arm through the darkness, pulled the arm out and looked at it. After a moment, she stepped inside the shroud.

Eva could see her corpselike body through her blood sight as Serena tried to navigate around. It was almost amusing to watch the old vampire bump into the back of the couch. The loud yelp accompanying the bump did give cause for a few giggles before Eva let the spell dissipate.

“Well, that’s handy,” Serena said as she tried hard not to look like she had just run into the couch. She was draped over the top like she had intended to lean against it. “A bit darker than I’d like, but it could work. How long does it last?”

“Until I stop maintaining it.”

“And how long can you maintain it?”

“I,” Eva started. Then she paused and thought. “I’ve never tried for more than a minute or two. But it doesn’t cause much strain or concentration.”

“Handy in an emergency,” Serena amended her earlier evaluation. “I’d rather not rely on it. If you fell asleep or we came under attack, I could wind up a pile of ash.”

“I think I could maintain the spell for a full day. But it isn’t a big deal if you don’t want it.”

“Speaking of coming under attack, if anywhere we visit has vampires, they’ll likely be able to sniff me out. I hope you’re prepared.”

Eva shifted. That could complicate things. She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to confront vampires.

“Don’t worry,” Serena said. “We’ll be leaving not long after nightfall every night. With any luck, we’ll be gone before they have time to come looking for us. Besides,” Serena paused as she glanced down at her fingernails. She buffed them against her white dress. “I don’t like to brag, but I am quite powerful.

“Though, that raises another question. You said that you’re on a quest to kill someone. If I’m going to be a part of this, I’d like to know the details. Who is it? Should we expect attacks from your target in the middle of the day? Those kinds of things.”

Eva shrugged. It was no secret. “How do you feel about necromancers?”

—

Devon’s truck was not designed for three people. Eva still had no idea from where he had acquired it. She had a strong suspicion that it was stolen. A police officer pulling them over for outdated license plates had only reinforced that idea. Serena had mind-tricked him away. This was apparently not the truck that he was looking for.

But it got Eva thinking.

Couldn’t he have stolen a better truck?

The tiny pickup had its driver seat and its passenger seat just as any other vehicle. Cup holders and a storage compartment separated the two sides. Then, there was this tiny fold out chair just behind the passenger seat. It had no arm room and little leg room, the seatbelt was broken, and the padding was missing from half the seat.

Since Serena was in the driver’s seat, Eva had taken the passenger seat.

Poor Nel, Eva thought with a smile as she glanced over her shoulder.

The augur did not look happy. But really, it was either Nel or Eva and only one of them had demonic claws that the other was nervous around.

Still, Eva tried to be nice. She had slid her seat forwards to give the former nun some elbow room. It wasn’t much, but it kept Nel from having to keep her shoulders scrunched in.

It did not, however, stop Nel from glaring at Serena.

Given all of her time around demons, Eva had expected Nel to handle a vampire better. Old habits died hard. When they had first stopped outside of Nel’s apartment building, the augur had tried to cast a lightning bolt at Serena.

When she had missed, Nel moved on to fire.

Serena had weaved around that, punctured Nel’s shield with a hard hit from her elbow, and just about tore off Nel’s head before Eva managed to intervene.

The resulting conversation had not been pleasant, but Nel had finally decided that Sawyer was the greater of two evils.

Aside from the glaring and the lack of space, Nel looked a little green around the gills. Even after taking some medicine. Eva had to wonder if she got carsick normally or if it was because of how Serena drove.

She was leaning towards the latter. On the highway, it wasn’t so bad. It was mostly a straight line or long banking curves. The speed might have frightened Eva had she not been able to simply blink away. When they passed through cities for fuel or food, things started to get a bit more… hectic.

Frankly, it was amazing that they had only been pulled over the one time.

“Next exit has lodging,” Serena said, pointing towards an information sign at the side of the highway.

Eva glanced down at the clock. “We’re stopping then?”

“We are,” Serena said. The tone of her voice invited no arguments.

They had been traveling for just over four hours. She still thought that they could go at least six hours before coming close to dawn, but she wasn’t about to say anything. Serena had been kind enough to offer her services as a driver, it would be rude to insist on driving more than she was comfortable with.

Not to mention, neither of them were very familiar with the area. Both Montana and Idaho were more wilderness than city, even along the main highways. If they wound up missing a motel, it was entirely possible that they wouldn’t pass another for several hours. Eva didn’t want to rely on her darkness spell any more than Serena wanted to if only because it would be exceedingly dull to sit around all day long inside the blacked-out vehicle.

Most motels were just off the side of the highway. This one was no different. As such, it didn’t take long to reach.

A bright neon sign handily informed them that not only did the motel have vacancies, but it was also open twenty-four hours. Which was excellent news. Serena had been concerned that they might have to break into one if they couldn’t find an open motel at the late times of the night that they were traveling at.

Leaving Nel behind in the truck, Eva and Serena walked up to the reception counter. The bell on the door startled awake a pimply faced young man at the counter. He had a bright red mark running across his forehead from the edge of a computer keyboard.

“Welcome to–” His voice caught in his throat with a loud hiccup as he caught sight of Eva. Scrambling backwards, the guy tipped over his chair and fell to the floor.

It didn’t take Eva long to figure out the reason for the reaction. “I should have brought my blindfold,” she hissed under her breath. Walking around Brakket wasn’t a big deal. Out here, that was definitely not the case.

“We’re not here to hurt you,” Eva said, louder. “We just want a room. We’ll be gone tomorrow at dusk.”

Two wide eyes peeked up over the edge of the counter. As far as Eva could tell, he hadn’t even noticed Serena.

Not until she stepped forwards with a kind smile. “Hey there,” she said in a sweet tone of voice that definitely did not fit her. “How much for a single room until tomorrow night for three people?”

His eyes swiveled over to meet with Serena’s. Immediately, he started to calm down. She was probably up to more mind control things.

Eva didn’t bother asking. Whatever worked.

“Eight–” His voice cracked. “Eighty-four dollars.”

Serena glanced over towards Eva. “Eighty-four, he says.”

“I can–” Eva paused. Her words turned to a sigh.

Eva had money. Anti-scrying packets, though she hadn’t made any in a while—Juliana had been the main driving force behind their continued business—had provided her with a decent income for her first year and a half at Brakket Academy. All that money was back at Brakket.

“I knew I was forgetting something.”

Serena rolled her eyes. “I’ll pay.”

Meeting with the clerk’s eyes, she reached back behind her dress and pulled out…

Nothing.

She didn’t even have pockets on the back of her dress.

From the thin air held in her hands, she started miming as if she were counting out dollar bills. Eventually, she held out her hand and offered absolutely nothing to the clerk.

He accepted and started counting it out as well.

“There’s an extra ten here,” he said as he reached the end. One of his hands held up some more empty air.

“For you,” Serena said with a sickeningly sweet smile. “For putting up with us. Also, because we value our privacy and would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone we were here.”

His eyes shifted towards Eva for just a moment. “I can do that,” he squeaked out in his cracking voice. The one hand drifted to his back pocket, slipping nothing into it. He put the rest of the nothing into the cash register.

Reaching under the counter, he pulled out a very real key. “One-oh-eight,” he said as he held it out to Serena.

“Thank you my dear.” She took the key and turned. Her smile vanished before her back was fully facing him. “Come on,” she said to Eva. “Let’s get Nel and get the blankets set up around the windows.”

Eva waited until they were back out at the truck before whispering to Serena. “Won’t they notice that the register is short by almost a hundred dollars?”

“You didn’t notice?” Serena asked with an eyebrow raised. “He forgot to actually record our stay. When they go to empty the register, the amount contained within should be the same as whatever it is supposed to be had we not been here. Unless someone has been embezzling.”

“Let’s hope that they don’t come knocking at the door in the middle of the day.”

Serena frowned, but shrugged after a moment. “If they do, I’ll hide out in the bathroom. They probably won’t have windows in there. You can scare them off.”

“Oh. Joy.”

“You’re the one who didn’t bring money,” Serena said as she pulled a roll of duct tape and a large bag of thick blankets from the back of the truck.

Inside the truck, Nel looked to be struggling with escaping. It seemed that she couldn’t find the lever to push the seat forwards and allow her exit.

Serena noticed, deepening her frown as she watched Nel. “I’ll try to stay awake, but I might sleep through part of the day. Don’t leave me alone with her. I’d rather you didn’t leave the room at all, but if you have to, wrap me up in some blankets and dump me in the bathroom. Just take Nel with you.”

Eva blinked. She hadn’t been planning on leaving at all. She still had research to do. Even if she needed a break from that, there was probably a television.

Except, while she could go without food for a time, Nel would probably be starving by nightfall.

“We might leave for food at some point in the day. I’ll be sure she goes with me.”

“Thank you.”

—

“We’re stopping again?” Nel asked as the group pulled into another side-of-the-road motel. “But we’re almost there.”

Eva glanced over her shoulder at the augur. She had been fairly quiet over the course of their three-day journey. She never spoke to Serena and really only spoke to Eva while the vampire was asleep. Nel herself only slept while in the truck. Since they only drove for a handful of hours a night, she was looking awfully tired.

Bags lined her eyes and her lids drooped as she looked out the truck window.

Maybe Eva would do her a favor and slip a sleeping potion into her drink tonight. She could understand nervousness and paranoia given who they were after, but there was a point at which it just became reckless and damaging to everyone else.

“Still have some preparations. If we want Serena with us, it would be better to start off on a fresh night, rather than one half gone. Unless you want to go and fight Sawyer on your own with no help.”

Nel fell silent, glancing down at her feet.

“I’ll get us a room,” Serena said as she cut off the engine and hopped out of the truck.

Ever since that first night, Eva had kept herself hidden from as many people as possible. Serena could pass herself off as a human much better than Eva could. Vampires did so all the time. With Eva’s distinctive appearance, no one wanted any rumors about her to spread around and potentially reach Sawyer’s ears.

“How long will these preparations take?”

“Potentially all day tomorrow. I’ve got one ritual in particular that I want to try as soon as we get the room set up. A few things depend on the success of that ritual.”

“What will it do?”

“I’d rather not get your hopes up. If it works, you’ll see. If it doesn’t, no hopes dashed.”

Frowning, Nel gave a slight nod of her head.

Neither of them spoke until Serena returned. There was a small trickle of red dripping down her chin that did not go unnoticed by Nel.

Nel’s face turned colors as she pointed at the vampire’s lips. “You didn’t!”

“It was just a quick snack,” Serena said with a shrug as she licked the blood from her mouth. “He won’t even feel anemic when he wakes up. More importantly,” she held up a key.

“Don’t worry about it,” Eva cut in before Nel could make a scene. “Let’s just get everything set up. Unless you want to spend even longer outside of Ylva’s presence.”

That silenced Nel faster than anything else. It was something that Eva had picked up on over the past few days. Nel had a problem with Serena, that much was clear. But she had a bigger problem being away from Ylva. The hel represented safety and protection for her, or something like that.

Argument over, they quickly carted everything they needed into their room. Nel and Serena actually managed to work together in duct taping thick blankets over the windows. Eva shoved one of the beds out of the way and got to work.

The ritual circle didn’t need to be all that large, thankfully. Her room would work just fine. Performing it out in the middle of the parking lot would reveal herself to all spectators or passers-by that were around and create more chances that Sawyer would hear of their proximity to his location.

After finishing with the windows, Nel covered up the smoke detectors and set up a miniature altar. As soon as she was done, she lit up some frankincense.

Frankincense, Eva thought with absolute revulsion. She tried to ignore it, but ugh.

Ever since she had first met the augur, Nel had always had the scent of frankincense clinging to her person and clothes. Eva had never spent enough time in her presence to become so thoroughly disgusted with the scent. She really had no idea how the augur could stand it. Three days of being stuck in a stuffy car and tiny motel rooms with Nel almost had Eva in a murderous rage.

As soon as she finished up with Sawyer, Eva vowed to research and invent time magics that would allow her to go back and slaughter whoever it was that invented frankincense.

It was made worse in that it didn’t help. Nel couldn’t see Sawyer. All that pungent scent of pine and lemon did was tell them that Sawyer hadn’t moved much since the day before.

Serena never seemed to mind, but Eva wouldn’t be surprised to find out that all of her senses were dulled unless blood was involved.

For that specific reason, Eva was not using blood to quickly draw out her ritual circle. She made do with regular chalk. It was dusty and got everywhere–including inside the joints on her hands–but she didn’t want to torment the poor vampire with the scent of her blood.

“Alright,” Eva said as she brushed the dust off her hands. “I think I’m done.” She did a quick double-check of the circle. During the previous days at motels, there had been a lot of spare time. Enough for her to memorize the ritual circle in full. Still, double checking cost nothing but a few extra moments and had the potential to save her from fatal mistakes.

Satisfied that her memory had served her well, Eva placed one of the thugs’ bloodstones in a small circle at the far end of the larger circle. The vial of Sawyer’s blood, she emptied into a glass bowl in the center of the circle.

She stripped her clothes off and sat down at the edge of the circle, just inside the ring.

With the others gathered around outside the circle, Eva started channeling her magic.

The bloodstone disintegrated almost instantly. Powder flew through the air and landed in the bowl of blood. It stirred and mixed together on its own. Once dissolved, the blood lurched from the bowl in a small ball and flew directly towards Eva’s face.

She didn’t dodge. And she tried not to wince as the blood seeped into the corners of her eyes.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Eva said as her vision split in two. There was a cold chill on her skin that she didn’t actually feel along with a light drizzle of rain.

Obviously, it wasn’t raining inside of their motel room. It might have been a cheap place, but it wasn’t that run down. Even if it was, Eva wouldn’t have drawn out a ritual circle beneath a leaky pipe.

Serena stepped forwards. “Did something go wrong?”

“No,” Eva shook her head. That action just made her stomach churn. She shut her eyes and lay back against the floor. “I just see and feel everything that Sawyer sees and feels.”

“You can see Sawyer?” Nel just about shouted. “With a ritual that simple? Then what have I been–”

“It will only last forty-eight hours. I figured that it would be more useful now rather than back at Brakket where it would run out and the information would be too out of date by the time we got here.” Eva smiled as she watched Sawyer’s actions. He didn’t even know. Or, if he did, he made no indication of it. “I can’t tell where he is either, though I’ll be able to find landmarks and figure out just what he has defending him.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to fight though. It’s too disorienting. We’ll have to wait until it wears off.”

Serena hummed for a moment. “Forty-eight hours? I’ll have to ask for an extension on our stay.” Through her blood sight, Eva caught Serena licking her lips.

“That’s fine.”

Nel crossed her arms and huffed. Eva could almost understand her frustration. Scrying was supposed to be her specialty, after all.

“Well? What is he doing?”

“Digging up a graveyard.” Eva watched through his eyes for a moment longer before correcting her statement. “I guess that he isn’t digging it up. He’s watching an army of skeletons dig it up.”

“An-an army?” Nel squeaked out.

Eva shrugged. They would be annoying, but she wasn’t going to consider the skeletons that big of a threat.

“More importantly, he has two enigmas at his side. Both looking incredibly docile.”

It only took six hours for Eva to regret ever performing the ritual.

By twelve hours, she was certain that she would be sick multiple times before the ritual wore off.

The doubled vision and senses, she could handle. Sitting in one spot with her eyes shut went leagues in preventing her from feeling ill. Anything that reduced her sensory inputs to only Sawyer helped exponentially.

No. Her regrets didn’t have anything to do with the ritual itself.

Rather, her regrets stemmed from ever thinking that peeking in on Sawyer’s deprived mind would be a good idea.

It wasn’t.

It definitely wasn’t.

Watching him dig up a graveyard wasn’t so bad. That had consisted of him standing around and watching a bunch of skeletons. The skeletons shoveled out dirt. Eventually, one would hit a casket and wave him over.

That was around where things started to go bad. Cracking open caskets was not something that Eva would recommend to anyone. With all of Sawyer’s senses, Eva could smell the body contained within.

The smell.

She didn’t know where to begin in describing it. Horrible. Vile. Disgusting. No word she could think of had the proper impact.

Eva had barely managed to keep her lunch down. She was no stranger to gruesome things. Blood, violence, killing people even. None of it really bothered her all that much. She had become used to it.

But everything that she was used to was fresh. No time for rot to set in. Bodies she killed didn’t often fester inside a tiny box with no clean airflow. At least not while she was around.

She had actually started to regret leaving the bodies of those thugs lying around their warehouse. She actually hoped that the police had either found them immediately or wouldn’t until a hundred years after their bones had been picked clean by scavengers. Finding them anywhere in between would not be pleasant.

Sawyer hadn’t even wrinkled his nose at the stench. He reached in without hesitation and gripped the body’s chin. The leathery skin had holes in it, especially around the cheeks and eyes. He turned the head one way, then the other. A bit of cracking sound had accompanied the motions, but Eva couldn’t tell what it was. He was the expert, not her.

He plunged a bare finger into the eye socket. After wiggling it around for a moment, he withdrew, wiping the gunk on his finger on the cloth inside the casket. Closing the lid, he had checked the date on the tombstone before writing ‘three months’ on the lid with a marker.

“To the warehouse,” he had ordered.

Four skeletons had picked up the casket, one at each corner, and marched away.

In Eva’s opinion, caskets looked heavy. She had never lifted one, so she couldn’t say for certain, but that was just what she guessed by the size. How four skeletons could pick up a casket without their arms falling out of their sockets could only be explained through the use of magic.

That had been Eva’s experience with only the first of the caskets. He had stuck around, digging up tens of the things. Every one got an inspection like the first. Some smelled worse, other smelled better–or Eva was just getting used to the smell. One in particular had been damaged at some point. The casket hadn’t been sealed properly or it had broken open. Maggots infested the inside.

Sawyer hadn’t so much as flinched when reaching into the casket. He hadn’t taken any notice of the things as they crawled over his hands. Only when he removed his hand did he glance down at the maggots. A pale light washed over his skin.

The maggots dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Some of the bodies followed the first to the warehouse. Some went to ‘the field.’ A number of them got thrown back into their graves. Ones fresher than a year tended to go towards the warehouse. Older ones went to the field. Damaged corpses, those with missing arms or bashed in skulls for example, made up the bulk of those that were returned to their grave.

He never replaced them with any respect. He merely waved his hand and the skeletons shoved the caskets back into the pit, sometimes without even closing the lid.

Of course, Eva’s ritual had proved useful despite the obvious downsides.

When Sawyer had finally left the graveyard, Serena and Nel had been able to figure out exactly where he was and where his warehouse was based on Eva’s descriptions of the surroundings. There were three graveyards within the gap in Nel’s augur vision. Sawyer had probably picked the location specifically because of the close proximity to so many corpses.

She had managed to sketch out some crude blueprints of his warehouse as well. Every skeleton, zombie, ghost, or enigma that she saw, she noted down beside the sketch. Knowing that there were twelve enigmas patrolling the outside along with skeletons could save their lives.

“His hand,” Eva said softly. She didn’t want to speak too loud. Sawyer couldn’t hear her, but she could hear herself and that was bad enough. “I didn’t notice in the darkness of the cemetery, but it is discolored. There are stitches holding it to his wrist.”

Perhaps because it wasn’t a sense that Eva was leeching from Sawyer, watching her companions through her blood sight didn’t cause any extra sickness. She was free to watch Nel nod her head without any backlash.

“That makes sense. The girl was amputating his hand at one point. I didn’t see him reattach it, but given the state of the girl, I doubt attaching a new one would be beyond his abilities.”

Eva nodded, but did not respond. Unlike her blood sight, hearing Nel’s voice did cause some ‘double-hearing’ induced nausea. Instead, she just sat back and watched through Sawyer’s eyes as he went about his base of operations. She made notations where necessary. Anything that looked important or dangerous got marked on her blueprints.

She didn’t want Sawyer to get away, but he was the slippery sort. Destroying absolutely everything would be a suitable consolation prize. Especially if they then went to his Nevada home, either chasing after him or to destroy everything there.

“Hold on,” Eva said. “He’s leaving his warehouse.”

Sawyer hadn’t bothered to lock the doors on his way out. With all the skeletal guards and enigmas patrolling around, he probably didn’t need to. They would be more than able to handle just about any intruder. Especially ones that just happened to stumble across his hideout. Mundane police wouldn’t stand a chance.

Mage-knights of Genoa’s caliber or a group of Elysium Order nuns could probably get in. Neither of them would likely be stopped by a single locked door for very long.

“Where’s he going?”

Eva shrugged. “I see what he sees, not think what he thinks.” And wasn’t that a good thing. Peeking into Sawyer’s thoughts might give them insight into just what he was doing, but Eva doubted that she would remain all that sane. Serena and Nel would probably have had to restrain her.

“He’s headed towards his car.” A nice car. Eva didn’t know enough about cars to tell just what make and model it was, but it was nicer than Devon’s truck. She wouldn’t have expected a necromancer to drive around in a sleek sports car, yet there he was.

As he drove along the twisted roads, Eva called out his direction and any side streets that he passed by. Nel could write down any landmarks while Serena marked it down on their map.

“I think he’s headed towards the field he mentioned,” Eva said. “He’s pulling over to the side of the road and I can’t see anything around but wilderness. No buildings or lights. Not even a side road.”

His discolored hand twitched a little as Sawyer reached for the car keys. With his good hand, he clamped down on his wrist for just a moment before removing the keys from the ignition. In the same motion that dropped the keys into his pocket, he retrieved a syringe full of fluorescent green liquid.

Eva jerked back with a wince as he plunged it into his arm. The needle itself wasn’t the problem. A blood mage had to cut themselves far worse than the tiny pinprick.

The problem was the liquid. It burned. His pain came through their link loud and clear. And yet, he didn’t actually wince or anything to indicate that he felt the pain. Either he was much better at disguising the feeling than she was or he had a way to ignore it that didn’t prevent the pain from going to her.

“Are you okay?”

Eva started at Serena’s voice. She hadn’t even noticed the vampire placing a hand on her shoulder. “Fine,” she said without opening her eyes. “Just note down that Sawyer has problems with his hand. Twitches and loss of control. He takes some kind of injected potion for it that is not pleasant.”

Sawyer was moving again. Walking this time. There was a trodden trail through the sagebrush and dirt, so he had probably been this way a few times.

He crested the top of a small hill and looked down below.

“I don’t like the look of this.”

Skeletons meandered about in the shallow valley. Caskets and coffins were arranged into circular rings. Three in the innermost ring, five in the next, eight after that. The ring after that looked like it had room for thirteen, but four were missing. There was enough room for one or maybe two more rings of caskets after that, but neither had anything in them aside from meandering skeletons.

“It’s a ritual of some sort. Or Sawyer is just obsessive about how he arranges his bodies. I don’t have a clue as to what it could be for, however.”

“What kind of ritual?” Nel asked. “I’m no archivist, but I have been trained to recognize most common necromantic activities.”

“Rings of bodies. Three, five, eight, and so on. All centered around something in the middle. He didn’t look directly at it, so I’m not sure what it was.”

Studying through the necromancy books she had stolen might have been a good idea—even just bringing them along so that they could look things up. There was no guarantee that this particular ritual would be in any of the books that she had, but they would have been better than nothing.

Nel hummed in thought for a few moments. Eventually, she shook her head. “I would normally describe the more complicated things I see to an archivist to figure out what they are. Sorry.”

Eva just waved her off, though she kept that in mind for later. Maybe they could contact someone in the Elysium Order and ask. It wouldn’t be hard to claim that they were mage-knights on a job. Probably.

After surveying the ritual site for a few minutes, Sawyer walked down into the valley. He didn’t stop at any of the caskets. Neither did he stop at the center. He continued onwards until he had reached the top of the hill on the opposite side of valley.

Eva quickly counted up the caskets there were all lined up in a row. Twenty. Enough to finish the thirteen-ring, but not enough for even half of the first empty ring.

That was a relief. Whatever the ritual was for, it couldn’t be anything good. Eva decided to make the field a priority regardless of how anything else turned out.

She recognized a few of the caskets from the graveyard earlier. The rest might have come from the same place, but it was dark and she really hadn’t been paying all that much attention to the individual caskets.

He walked up to the first casket in the line and placed his hands on the lid.

Eva braced herself, preparing for the worst.

Once again, a stench belched forth from the casket that sent Eva’s head spinning. She had been hoping that she had gotten used to it, or that the casket might have aired out a little thanks to having been opened not long before.

That wasn’t the case. The fresh air in the interim just made the scent hit her tenfold as hard.

As Sawyer pulled out a set of tools, Eva stepped straight to her feet behind Serena and Nel. She rushed into the bathroom and proceeded to empty her stomach into the toilet.

— — —

Nel watched with narrowed eyes as the vampire took off after Eva.

Keeping the notebook in hand in case Eva had more for her to write down, Nel followed the two. She couldn’t let the vampire be alone with Eva while the girl was in such a vulnerable state. It wasn’t so much a matter of if but when the creature would stab them in the back.

Though, as Nel watched the vampire pat Eva on the back, she had to admit that the situation was disconcerting. Every vampire that she had ever met had been a bloodthirsty monster bent on killing as many of her sisters in the Elysium Order as they could before they got put down.

One acting… civilized just didn’t mesh with what she knew to be true.

She knew that they could act civilized. Sometimes, at least. If every vampire was in a constant state of madness, they wouldn’t be half as hard to find.

“I’m fine,” Eva said, shrugging the vampire off her back. She wasn’t too steady on her feet as she made her way to the sink and started washing out her mouth. “It’s just the smell. I don’t know how he can just ignore it.”

“Do you want to lie down for a few minutes?”

Eva gave a slow nod of her head. “I don’t think he’s going to be doing anything interesting for the next while. He’s performing surgery on the corpses. Currently, he’s removing the stomach–or what’s left of it–of one of the bodies.”

The vampire slung one of Eva’s arms over her shoulder and helped her over to the bed. “Sounds like you’re in for a long night.”

“Maybe Nel would be willing to light up some frankincense?”

Nel blinked at being addressed. “I thought you hated it.”

“I do,” Eva said. Her eyes were closed, but Nel could still feel some imaginary glare. “But if it overpowers the scent of rotting and bloated humans, I think I’ll take it.”

With a shrug of her shoulders, Nel went to her bag and started rummaging through. Frankincense had been one of the things she had brought plenty of. Keeping some lit for a while would hardly dent her stores.

It didn’t take her long to pull out the burner and a few pellets of frankincense. With her gemstone focus, Nel sparked the burner and stoked the flame. She carried it into the main room to help Eva sooner rather than later.

Soon enough, the wooden scent of frankincense filled the small room.

Nel gave a slight start as she realized that she had forgotten something. She grabbed the roll of duct tape and slapped a few strips over the smoke detector in the room.

That could have been bad, she thought with a sigh. She was relatively certain that incense wasn’t allowed in motel rooms. There were no smoking signs all over the building. Incense was quite similar to smoking, at least as far as fire-causing embers and staining smell everywhere went.

“Alright,” Nel said, “I’ve–”

A heavy knock at their door interrupted her. Though she had to wonder if it was actually a knock or not. It sounded more like someone took a sledge-hammer and used that as a door knocker.

Nel gripped her focus in her hand. No one had ever disturbed them at the other motels. Now they were extremely close to Sawyer and someone knocks?

She took a quick glimpse of the other side of the door.

As soon as she saw the motel logo on the man’s shirt, she let out a long breath. “It’s just the manager right? He works for the motel, at least.” Serena had taken care of the paying, so she hadn’t actually seen any employees. “He must have been walking by and smelled the frankincense.”

“Or he broke through my geas and realized that we didn’t actually pay him anything,” Serena said as she walked out of the bathroom, though she looked just as wary as Nel felt.

“It’s a human,” Eva said, still looking sick and leaning over the sink. “That’s all I can really tell you. I’ll stay hidden back here.”

There was another heavier knock against the door. If the guy knocked any harder, the door might come off its hinges.

“Best not to keep him waiting,” Eva said.

Serena stepped towards the door. “I’ll handle it. I’ll see if I can’t make him think that the frankincense is just his imagination.”

While Serena moved, Nel shuffled her feet. The chalk-drawn ritual circle was between the room’s two beds with part of it underneath one bed that had been shoved aside while it was being used. Most of it was out of sight from the door, but some poked out. She tried to disguise as much of it as she could before the manager saw. As long as he didn’t enter the room, it should be fine.

“Is something the matter?” Serena asked in a too-sweet voice as she opened the door. Her smile was just a bit too unnerving for Nel’s tastes. She had mastered the art of giving wide, polite smiles without revealing her fangs.

The manager didn’t respond right away. First, he glanced around the room. His eyes found Nel’s without delay. There was hardly any reaction before he dropped his gaze to the gemstone in her hand and again to the chalk dust around her feet.

Nel’s grip on her focus tightened. He knew.

But he still didn’t say anything. He wrinkled his nose slightly as he sniffed at the air before he turned back to Serena.

“My master wishes to meet with you and your two thralls. Immediately.”

All of the false humor vanished from Serena’s face as her smile turned to a grimace. “And your master is?”

“Lord Kuvon will accept no argument in the matter. Fetch your thralls and come with me.”

“There are only two hours until sunrise,” Serena said without so much as a glance towards the clock.

“Then I suggest that you make haste.” The manager took a step away from the door, back into the open air of the parking lot. He clasped his hands behind his back as he stared up at the night sky.

Serena turned back into the room with her grimace having shifted into pure anger.

Eva stepped out of the bathroom with her eyes still closed. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is,” she said, apparently having heard the conversation.

“I used my geas on the thrall of another vampire,” Serena said through grit teeth. “And then I drank from him. This vampire is going to want a tribute for that offense.” Her eyes widened as she looked towards Eva. “He’s going to smell you. He’ll want a… taste. At the very least.”

Eva’s eyes opened. Just a thin slit of red peeking out from under her eyelids. She mouthed three very clear words. ‘I’ll kill him.’

“You’re in no shape to fight; that might not be an option. We’ll see. But we can’t ignore this. If we do, we’ll likely see a gang of thralls breaking in here. In the middle of the day.”

Eva grit her teeth. “Let me get my blood,” she said, turning towards her suitcase.

Nel hadn’t moved since she realized just what was going on. The hand gripping her focus was shaking. Her other hand was slowly stroking the black skull that hung from her choker. The symbol of Lady Ylva’s ownership of her.

It was a comforting motion, even though she knew that there would be no help coming from that front. Lady Ylva had asked her to handle the Sawyer situation. She wouldn’t be sending reinforcements.

Both Eva and Serena had completely disregarded Nel as any kind of possible help. Not really a wrong decision.

Nel was an information gatherer, not a fighter.

But she could use the magic of the Elysium Order. At the very least, she could unleash a wide blast of flame and give an opportunity for Eva to do something.

Vampires were the Elysium Order’s specialty, after all.

If Eva had been regretting the ritual before, she was now thinking that it just might be the death of her.

Sawyer was still dissecting corpses around the ritual ring. By the looks of things, he would be at it for a while.

Which gave Eva plenty of time to focus on the events around her, despite the queasy feeling it gave her.

As they moved, first to a van and then from the van to a small smoke-filled bar, Eva held on to Nel. Both for support and because she had decided to wear her blindfold. While she could have clouded the area with blood as she had back while lacking eyes, such a thing didn’t seem all that wise when heading into a den of vampires.

Using Nel for support helped lessen the nausea from her shared senses. Slightly. The less she had to think about her own surroundings and movements, the better.

Her blindfold also helped with that as well, though the nausea wasn’t the reason she had worn it. With her eyes as distinctive as they were, they would draw more attention to her than gloves and a blindfold. That was the last thing that she wanted while barely able to move on her own.

The bar that they had been brought to was only about fifteen minutes away from the motel. So long as their meeting with this ‘Lord Kuvon’ lasted less than an hour, they should have plenty of time to get back before things became dangerous for Serena.

Unfortunately, Eva wasn’t sure how likely that would be. Two vampires moved to block the door behind them the moment they entered the bar. One stood behind the counter, cleaning out glasses—or so she assumed by the motions. Another three were scattered around the room at various tables.

Apart from the vampires, the room was filled with humans. At least, they looked like humans from their blood. Thralls was the more likely answer.

Her blood sight, being the only sense that didn’t aggravate her nausea, got abused to its fullest potential. She scanned and memorized every single person present, just in case they met them outside. It could be vitally important to keep track of who were the slaves of these vampires.

Eva considered telling Serena just how many vampires were around. However, they probably had super hearing or some other way to detect her words. Besides that, Serena should know. She was a vampire herself. Surely she had a way to detect her fellow undead.

At Eva’s side, Nel was shaking worse than a leaf on a particularly blustery day. It was almost enough to make her want to throw the girl off and just walk on her own. Even with the nausea, it couldn’t be much worse.

The thrall led them up to a table in the back of the room. A short distance away, Serena waved at them to stop moving while she continued up to the table.

“Lord Kuvon, I presume,” Serena greeted with a slight bow. “Serena, at your service.”

Four sat at the table, only one being a vampire. The rest hung off him like slaves. Of all the vampires in the room, this one wasn’t the largest or strongest looking. Neither was he the weakest. By comparing his body type with regular humans, Eva doubted that he appeared as anything more than an average person.

There was no illusion about who was in command. The bartender and the vampires at the other tables all had their eyes glued on him. Only the two guards at the door kept their heads facing forwards.

The vampire did not respond right away. He brought one hand to his mouth and proceeded to take a deep breath. He let it out, filling the air with fresh cigarette smoke.

“So you’re the Blacksky that thought she could make a feast out of one of my servants.”

“With all due respect, you failed to properly mark him. It is almost as if you wished for passers-by to fall into your little trap.”

One of the vampires, the one at the table farthest from them, narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Someone that fell to the same trap? Or someone who didn’t like his leader being called a failure.

Potentially dangerous either way.

Kuvon’s eyes drifted away from Serena to search over both Eva and Nel. He looked back to her with a slight chuckle.

“I would call you a hypocrite, but I can see why you wouldn’t want your pathetic attendants associated with you. It’s a miracle that they can stand up on their own.”

Eva ignored the scattered chuckles around the room. None of them mattered. Her focus was on the vampires and their reactions. Any sign of threat from them and Eva would act.

She had several vials of demon and her own blood hidden beneath her jacket. Enough to target everyone in the room. She didn’t want to use it. It was supposed to be for Sawyer. But if they stepped up their hostility, she could find a different method for dealing with Sawyer.

Nel didn’t seem to ignore their chuckles quite as well as Eva. Her shakes doubled over while her grip on Eva’s arm tightened. She looked around the room, trying to find out where attacks might come from while avoiding eye contact with anyone.

“Then again,” he sniffed the air. “The delectable scent. I can almost taste it. No wonder she cannot stand on her own.”

“I prefer my servants able to think for themselves,” Serena said with a slight sneer towards his thralls. “Slaves to my blood might be loyal without question, but they make for such poor company.”

The good humor at Eva’s less than ideal condition vanished. Cold glares were directed at Serena from all corners of the room.

Which made sense. Most of the patrons in the bar were likely thralls.

But again, they really didn’t matter. Barely better than regular humans—and probably not mages at that—the only thing they had going for them was numbers.

The vampires had varying reactions. The one farthest away cracked a smile, but the bartender looked about ready to shatter the glass that he was cleaning.

Kuvon, however, burst out into a laugh. “I’ve thought the same on many occasions.” His laughter pattered off as he narrowed his eyes. “Worthless though they are, I cannot allow your actions against my watcher to go unanswered. It would make me look weak in front of my friends here.” He put on a smile once again. “I’m sure that you understand.”

“Of course,” Serena said. Her voice came out somewhat strained, but Eva couldn’t detect a hint of it through her blood sight. Possibly because the unmoving blood within her body was playing tricks on Eva’s mind. “I am perfectly willing to pay an equivalence of what I took.”

Kuvon leaned forward, completely ignoring the thrall hanging off his shoulder being knocked away. Clasping his hands together, he looked over Serena. “Just what did you have in mind?”

Turning slightly, Serena nodded at Eva.

Eva brushed Nel’s hand off her arm so that she could reach inside her jacket. She withdrew a single vial. Her own blackish blood.

Using her blood magic to help carry it through the air to her target, Eva flung it at the vampire leader.

She was somewhat nervous to leave her own blood away from herself. Doubly so given what she had done with Sawyer’s blood. Unfortunately, they really didn’t want to fight off a whole den of vampires. Not with Nel present and not with Eva ill.

Placations must be made. For now at least. If her and Serena’s plan worked out, the vampires might be working for them in the near future. A den of vampires at their side couldn’t hurt their chances against Sawyer.

Kuvon caught the vial out of the air. He opened his hand and looked over the vial.

“Blood,” Serena offered. “The coloration–”

“What is this insult? Do you wish for death or are you merely an idiot?”

The vampires around the room, including the guards at the door, all readied themselves. The ones seated swung their legs over to one side, preparing to stand. The bartender ceased his obsessive cleaning of his glass.

Nel’s head whipped around to stare at all of them as she shrunk in closer to Eva. Eva didn’t move. She didn’t need to in order to see. And she wasn’t worried.

They had expected that.

“I’m sorry?” Serena said. “You’re going to have to elaborate on your meaning.”

“Cold blood? You stole directly from my watcher’s veins. This–”

“Perhaps, my Lord Kuvon, you might unseal the vial before making your decision. This blood is far from ordinary and its source is not readily available.”

Kuvon gave her the evil eye before turning his gaze to the vial in his hands once again. With slow yet deliberate movements, he flicked the top off with his thumb.

The reaction was almost instant. Every vampire in the room took a deep breath at the same time. They all leaned forwards, trying to get closer to the source.

Eva had to fight to keep her smile off her face. Instead, she continued to face forward with the same neutral expression that she had worn for the entire meeting.

Kuvon’s tongue traced across his lips. His eye contact with the vial remained unbroken. “I thought that I had smelled something sweet.” His eyes flicked up to meet with Eva’s blindfold before they dropped back to the vial. “So it was this.”

That was something of a relief. They had been hoping that the vampire wouldn’t assume the blood to be her blood. If they did make the connection, Serena had been worried that they might fight in an attempt to capture her as some kind of blood doll.

So long as they didn’t believe her to be the source, Serena had a cover story ready. Any scent of the blood on Eva would just be assumed to be from contact with the vials.

Without even asking if it was poisoned, he put the edge of the vial to his lips and tilted the entire thing back. Eva used her control over the blood to ensure that every last drop made it into his mouth. Anything left over could potentially be used against her. Something that Eva was not willing to allow.

He pulled the vial away from his lips with a long sigh. “Where did you come across such a treat?”

“I’m originally from Michigan. We have a dragon preserve near my home.”

“This is not dragon blood.”

“No. It is the blood of a crossbreed. Difficult and dangerous to get. Normally. Thankfully, I struck up something of a friendship with one particular crossbreed. Whenever I’m in the area, I pick up a few vials.”

“You have more?” he asked as he flipped the vial over between his fingers. His eyes were switching between Serena, Eva, and the vial with every flip.

Serena turned back towards Eva. Eva gave her a curt nod.

“Enough for you to have another and a single vial to all of your vampires. Your permission willing, of course.”

All the vampires perked up at being included in the deal. All except for Lord Kuvon, of course. He likely wanted the vials all to himself. With the offer made to his den, he couldn’t deny it without breeding resentment among the vampires.

His narrowed eyes flicked to the bartender before sweeping across the room.

After a moment, he smiled. He spread his arms wide and let out a few quick laughs. “A most generous offer,” he said. “I believe it will serve as a suitable restitution for your offense.”

Again, Serena turned and nodded in Eva’s direction.

Eva pulled six vials out of her jacket. Technically, they had enough for nine vampires. Plus all the demon blood she had, though none of them would want that according to Serena. Eva tossed the vials around the room, hitting each vampire with perfect accuracy.

Some uncapped it the moment it was in their hands and immediately downed it. Others were more wary. The bartender examined it. Holding the vial in his hands, sniffing it, tasting just a drop at first. The man farthest from Kuvon seemed to savor it, swishing a small portion around in his mouth before finally swallowing it.

Kuvon himself placed the vial inside a pocket of his jacket. “I think I’ll savor this one on my own at a later time,” he said, patting the pocket.

Eva wanted to protest. The longer he went without drinking it, the higher chance it would fall into someone’s hands that she did not want to have it.

Not that she wanted him to have it.

Of course, maybe that wouldn’t even stop anyone. She could still see the blood resting in the vampires’ stomachs. It was plain to see, separate and distinct from the unmoving, nonliving blood that made up the rest of the vampires’ bodies.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t say a word. Not without making herself suspicious.

Besides, the ball was in her court now. Even if the vampires didn’t realize it.

“I’d recommend drinking it soon, Lord Kuvon,” Serena said, coming to Eva’s rescue without even realizing it. “My servant’s body heat won’t keep it warm for long once away from her body.”

“A good point,” he said, removing it from his pocket.

For a moment, Eva thought that he might actually drink it.

Instead, he wrapped one hand around the waist of one of his thralls. She gave a light squawk of surprise as he tugged at her shirt line and dropped the vial inside.

“Lose it or break it,” he said to her, “and I’ll tear your throat out.”

With a rough shove for someone who didn’t want the vial broken, he knocked her back behind his chair.

“Though,” he said as his attention returned to Serena, “you bring up an interesting topic. Your servant with the blindfold, she isn’t blind.”

Serena looked back for just a moment before shrugging. “A necromancer tore out her eyes. She has since developed other methods of interacting with the world around her.”

At Serena’s words, one of the vampires shifted. The one farthest from Kuvon. Eva narrowed her eyes behind her blindfold, wondering just what had caused that reaction.

“Necromancers. Bad business getting involved with them.” Kuvon leaned back in his chair, holding out his hands as if grasping a basketball. “They never seem to understand subtlety. Always drawing undead hunters to wherever they go. The cursed Elysium Order and bounty hunters. So many bounty hunters.”

Once again, Nel moved closer to Eva and grabbed hold of her arm. She held on tight, as if letting go would lead to the vampires finding out about her Elysium origins.

Eva paid her no mind. All of her attentions were focused on the vampire on the other side of the room.

“I am glad we agree on that matter,” Serena said. She waved a hand towards Eva. “Unfortunately, our business here involves necromancers. One in particular is only a few miles away from your town. We are currently hunting the one who took my attendant’s eyes.”

“A necromancer?” Kuvon leaned forward again, slamming his fist to the table. “Here? Preposterous. I would know of such things.”

While Serena tried to placate the self-styled lord with opinions that perhaps Sawyer just hadn’t come to town yet, Eva tuned them out.

The vampire she was keeping an eye on had stood up and moved towards the bathroom.

Did vampires even use the bathroom? Eva thought as she watched.

He didn’t appear to be heading towards a stall. Rather, he removed something from his pocket. A phone, based on the size, shape, and him tapping at it.

Sawyer had his hands arm-deep inside the chest cavity of a corpse. The third body of the evening, to be specific. He paused slightly as something vibrated within his pocket.

Eva wasted no time. She clapped her hands together.

The blood contained within the vampire’s stomach detonated, obliterating a good portion of his torso with it. Her blood was weaker than demon blood, but an entire vialful set inside the vampire was more than enough to split him in two.

It wasn’t a stake to the heart, nor was it chopping off his head. As Eva watched everything half-way up his lungs fall to the ground, she was fairly certain that it wouldn’t matter. At least, he wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

Sawyer didn’t answer the phone call. His arms were still deep in the chest, pushing some organs around and removing others. Soon enough, the vibration in his pocket ceased.

He would likely call back once he had finished, but it was too late. His minion wouldn’t be around to tell him a thing. That might set off a few suspicious flags, but it was preferable to him being told that Eva was hunting him.

Eva’s clap did not go unnoticed. Nel jumped a few feet in the air while both she and Serena started looking around the room, wondering just who had exploded. Before they had left the motel, Eva had told them just what her clapping would mean.

“What is this interruption?” An angry gaze turned towards Serena. “Can you not control your own servants?”

He was about to say something more, but a wave of shock rolled through every vampire still in the room. They all jumped to their feet, alert and wary.

It must be the smell of his freshly spilled blood, Eva thought. Unliving though the blood was, it was still blood to her sixth sense. It probably still counted as blood to their sixth sense as well.

Dropping pretense, Eva stepped towards Kuvon. Nel still hung off her arm–if she were pressed any closer, she would fuse with Eva’s skin.

She ignored it and tried to look as dignified as she could with a grown woman pressed into her.

“Are you aware that one of your vampires just attempted to contact our target?”

“What are you talking about, servant?” His eyes narrowed in a glare. “Have you no respect for your betters?” His head snapped to one of the door guards behind Eva. “Wedge,” he said with a snap of his fingers, “find out what that smell is.”

“No need,” Eva said. “It is the smell of one of your vampires, dead in the bathroom.”

Serena moved next to Eva, placing a hand on her shoulder. “There may be more vampires in this coven,” she whispered, her cold lips so close that they brushed against Eva’s ear, “ones not present that are lacking your blood. Be careful, we do not need more enemies.”

“Treachery,” Kuvon snarled, looking around the room. “Lucas? Where is Lucas–”

He kicked the table in front of him.

Serena had to grab hold of both Eva and Nel to jerk them out of the way.

It was a good thing she had done so. With how nauseous Eva felt, there was no way she would have done anything on her own. The heavy wooden table would have crashed straight into her.

The bartender pulled something out from beneath the counter. Judging by the clicking sound and how he was holding it, it was a shotgun. The guard who had not been ordered to search around walked up behind the group while the other seated vampire moved up as well.

Some of the thralls joined their masters in encircling Eva, Serena, and Nel. The rest fell back to give them more room to fight.

“Lucas is dead, boss!” the absent guard said. “Torn in two!”

Kuvon gnashed his teeth. “What did you shits do?” he growled out.

“We met you out of courtesy, Lord Kuvon,” Serena said, keeping her voice neutral. “If you are allied with our enemy, you are our enemy.”

“No one here would dare–”

“Your deceased vampire,” Eva cut in. “He dared. He slipped away to call his real master and inform him of our presence. Sawyer did not answer, but I imagine it won’t be long before he tries to call back.

“Why else would a vampire be in the bathroom, alone and with a cellphone lying near his corpse?”

She hoped that she was right in that vampires did not use bathrooms. It would help cast more suspicion on the dead vampire.

Not that she really cared. All the posturing and hidden politics during their meeting tonight was tedious. If they wound up helping out against Sawyer, that would be excellent. Yet, she would not shed a tear if she clapped her hands together and obliterated the lot of them.

Serena was alright on her own, but if she never had to interact with a group of vampires again, it would be too soon.

“You killed him. How? You didn’t–” His eyes widened mid sentence. “The blood. You’ve done something to the blood.”

Eva shook her head. “The blood is perfectly normal. For its source, anyway. It will not harm you… so long as you do not betray us.”

“Betray you?” he shouted. “You are the ones who have betrayed us! Violating the sanctity of the dwelling you were invited into?”

Serena winced. Perhaps some sort of unwritten rules for vampires. It was probably a big deal, but then, Eva wasn’t a vampire.

Maybe it was time to reveal that fact.

Pulling off her gloves, Eva stretched her fingers out before removing her blindfold.

Lord Kuvon was a great deal less impressive now that she could see him with her actual eyes. Between his wrinkled face, a scraggly beard that Devon would be jealous of, a denim jacket with torn off sleeves, and jeans underneath a set of motorcycle chaps, he really wasn’t deserving of his title. She had been expecting something along the lines of a suit and tie.

With a slight sigh, Eva just shook her head. Seeing with her own eyes had started the double-vision up again. She tried to keep the nausea from showing on her face as she spoke.

“I am no vampire. Your rules are beneath me. My only concern is the necromancer.”

“You’re a demon.”

Eva smiled, licking her lips with her tongue. It was another inhuman part of her. She might as well show it off for the intimidation factor.

Kuvon glowered, but his fists were no longer clenched in fury. The vampires around him didn’t look quite so sure of how to act. The bartender still held his shotgun, pointing it at them. Both guards glanced at each other after the second walked up. The extra vampire just shifted, one foot moving backwards but still looking ready to fight at a single word from Kuvon.

“Here is my question to you, the one that will determine who leaves here alive. Were you lying earlier, when you said that necromancers were ‘bad business’?”

“I was not,” he said in a slow, calm voice.

“Excellent. We can all be friends.”

“You killed Lucas,” he said, fists clenched again.

“I did. And I will kill anyone else who attempts to warn my mark of our presence. This necromancer is slippery enough without extra help.” Eva narrowed her eyes, glancing between Kuvon, the bartender, and the other vampire. She didn’t bother turning around for the guards. “Believe me, I will know the moment he is warned.

“That said,” Eva smiled again, “if anyone wants to help attack the necromancer, we do have more stores of that blood as payment.”

“I can’t believe scum like that tasted your blood before me,” Serena sulked once they were back in their room.

“I can’t believe that we’re working with those monsters,” Nel said, gripping her hands into fists. “They should be exterminated, not bartered with.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I would very much resent being exterminated.”

Eva moved past the bickering idiots and slumped straight into one of the beds. At this point, she wasn’t sure if she would care about them murdering each other.

Her head was hammering, Sawyer’s actions were just as nauseating as they had been earlier, and now she had Nel and Serena talking far too loudly. Casting a darkness spell around Serena to get her safely back into the room had taken its toll. All she wanted to do was to sleep for the next thirty-six or so hours. Then, the ritual would have worn off.

They would have to move fast once it ended if they didn’t want all the knowledge she had learned to become useless.

Sawyer had worked through about half of the bodies. The light from sunrise was not making their appearance any better. Though she could actually stomach their appearance. It was still the smell that got to her the most.

If only Sawyer would go around and open the caskets before he got to them. Something to let them air out.

At no point in moving between caskets had Sawyer pulled out his cellphone. Perhaps because the sun had risen and most vampires slept through the day. Or maybe he knew that his minion had perished. Eva really didn’t care what he thought so long as he didn’t flee.

On the plus side of everything that had happened with the vampires, Eva now had a cellphone. At least until the phone company didn’t get payments from the dead vampire. Maybe she’d be lucky and he would have some bank account set up to automatically make payments.

What, exactly, she would do if and when Sawyer called, Eva still didn’t know. She would likely just ignore it. Maybe with a text message about how she shouldn’t be contacted for a few days because of whatever reasons.

If she saw an opportunity to taunt him with it that wouldn’t cause him to run, she would probably take it. Maybe a text message right as she launched a surprise attack.

“They can’t be trusted,” Nel said, hands on her hips. “They’ll stab us in the back the moment they see the chance.”

Eva had her face buried in the pillow, but she still used her blood sight to track everything around her. She trusted Nel and Serena to an extent and didn’t think that either would attack her. Like Nel, she didn’t believe in the vampires to half the same extent.

The tenants in the neighboring rooms were still asleep. No one was outside and she couldn’t see all the way to the manager’s office. She wished that they were in a room closer to the vampire’s thralls, but she’d just have to make do.

Eva half expected a bunch of thralls to show up around noon to break in the windows. She would have to keep an eye on her blood sight and watch for anything suspicious outside.

“They made a fuss over Lucas for two reasons. Reason the first,” Serena held up a finger as she spoke, “one of their number had just exploded. They were scared. The other reason is that Kuvon couldn’t appear weak in front of his den. They would have eaten him alive if he had shown weakness. Literally, probably.”

“So what, since we’ve assuaged their worries they’ll just fall in line?”

“Nooo,” Serena said, drawing out the word with a shake of her head. “They’ll fall in line because Eva promised them a whole case of her blood.”

Eva just groaned. “Don’t remind me,” she mumbled into her pillow.

“It might not have been the wisest thing to do,” Serena said with a sage nod.

“I didn’t want to fight. Even if I could have clapped my hands and killed all the vampires, I don’t know that I would have held up against the thralls. And there were a good number of them. With me useless and Nel,” Eva paused, turning her head to the side just enough to stare at the augur with one eye. “Well, you would have had to deal with them on your own.”

Nel just huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. Though, Eva didn’t count that as a disagreement.

“And then there were the extra vampires you mentioned. The ones that might not be there.”

“Those were August strain vampires,” Serena said. “They tend to like large groups. Six just feels small. Even for a town this size.”

“How many more would you expect?”

“Four to six. Ten to twelve in total. Minus the one called Lucas, obviously.”

“So we would have only killed off half of them. Probably wouldn’t have been able to trick the other half into drinking blood either.”

“They would have realized something was suspicious if we offered them a few vials.”

“There you have it,” Eva said to Nel. “Unless you’ve got a better idea, having them as our allies is much better than fighting both them and Sawyer. Doubly so because our fighting would probably draw Sawyer’s attention prematurely.”

Still with her arms over her chest, Nel huffed again. “We should call the Elysium Order. Even if they’ve suspended operations, they can’t ignore an infestation of vampires and a necromancer.”

“Yeah, I’m sure they’d be thrilled as can be to receive a call from you, me, and another vampire,” Eva said with a wan grin. It was half covered up by the pillow, but she was fairly certain that the augur got her meaning if her averted gaze was any indication. “Besides, this is our revenge. I want Sawyer’s blood to rain down around me. Not to watch from afar while some nuns fumble their way into letting him escape again.”

Nel narrowed her eyes, but didn’t respond.

Eva just burrowed her head back into her pillow. She really didn’t care what the augur thought at the moment. Her head was hammering. As Sawyer cracked open another casket, it was all she could do to keep from rushing to the bathroom again.

The side of her bed sank in under Serena’s weight as the vampire sat down. “I know you’re not feeling well,” she said in a gentle voice, “but it would be better for you to drain your blood for the vampires now. So you can rebuild your strength before we go meet them again.”

Eva groaned. Serena was right, but that didn’t mean that she had to like it. “You just want a taste.”

“Maybe,” she said with a light chuckle. “But I suppose I can save it for the vampires given our limited supply.”

Grasping around behind her back, Eva’s fingers curled around the hilt of her dagger. She brought it around and jammed it into her shoulder. The pooling blood left the surface of her skin and hovered in the air over her back.

“Just set out the empty vials we got back,” Eva said, ignoring Serena licking her lips. “I’ll take care of the rest. And, if it isn’t too much trouble, I’d appreciate quiet for a while. If anything happens with Sawyer, I’ll let you guys know.”

—

Around noon, Sawyer finally finished with his gruesome task. In the process, he gave Eva some hope that he wouldn’t do anything particularly terrible for the remainder of the time she had to spend with him.

Her hopes were quickly dashed.

Sawyer closed the lid of the last casket and proceeded to direct the skeletons around. They carried off the caskets to fill in the ritual circle rings.

Not every slot got a casket placed into it. Sawyer skipped over a few of them.

That was cause for some concern. Eva didn’t know if they would be filled in later with more appropriate corpses or if they were intentionally left blank. If it was the latter, Sawyer would need less corpses. He would be finished sooner. Regardless of what the ritual did, Eva did not want to see what would happen if she let him finish it.

But for the moment, he was taking a break. After heading back to his warehouse, Sawyer decided to get something to eat. It was somewhat shocking to see this horrible, terrible person slip a bowl of macaroni into a microwave and then proceed to eat it while looking over a tome. Eva couldn’t read whatever language the tome had been written in; undoubtedly, it was a necromantic text on some fiendish activity that he intended to unleash on the world. But the situation itself was just so normal–something that Eva could see herself doing–that it was almost surreal.

At least until she realized that he hadn’t washed his hands since having them elbow deep in several corpses. The same pale light that had killed the maggots earlier briefly lit up his arms before he had started to eat. That might have killed off bacteria and such, but it didn’t help all the grime coating him.

Eva almost vomited again at the thought of pieces of dead bodies falling into his meal. Little chunks of skin, stomachs, or intestines.

Haemomancy was not a clean art. Between her own blood and others’ blood, it was just the opposite. Eva was hardened against most feelings related to blood. That didn’t mean that she sat around drinking it all day like some sort of vampire.

She might occasionally get coated in blood. She might occasionally go elbow deep into someone’s body. They were typically far fresher bodies than Sawyer’s corpses, but it was a similar ordeal. But Eva at least washed her hands or showered before eating.

Eva immediately regretted thinking such thoughts as soon as they had crossed her mind.

Sawyer finished with his meal, dumped the bowl in the sink, and proceeded into the shower as if he had read her mind.

Of all the things that Eva didn’t need to see in her life, Sawyer showering ranked among the highest.

Though, on second thought, him showering was far more preferable to him cracking open more caskets and releasing the noxious fumes contained within. At least he was getting clean.

Why he even bothered, Eva couldn’t say. As soon as he finished toweling himself off and dressing, Sawyer walked into a larger side room of the warehouse.

Rows of caskets were lined up inside. Several were open, others were closed. Dirt covered the floor where it had come loose from the caskets. A large skylight overhead let in the early morning light. Not that the light was needed. A number of heavy-duty floodlights were hanging from the second floor, all illuminating the room to the point of leaving almost no shadows.

Skeletons shambled about the area alongside a number of zombies. Some carried things, buckets for the most part. Others looked like guards, all equipped with various medieval weaponry. Except for a handful that appeared to have guns bolted onto their hands.

There was a small group of skeletons accompanied by a handful of enigmas and even a few zombies.

Sawyer paid them no mind, even despite the zombies’ proximity to him. They didn’t even notice him. He might as well have been invisible to everything in the room.

His focus was on a younger girl who stood over one of the open caskets. Des, the blended girl who looked like some kind of Frankenstein’s monster, held a long knife in her hand. She was shearing off the flesh of a corpse’s arm as if she were peeling a fruit.

The scraps of flesh were dropped into a bucket carried by one of the skeletons.

Sawyer walked up to the young girl, ruffling her hair. “And how are we this fine morning?”

Des looked up to him and just gave a slight, jerky nod of her head. Her lips were still sealed together with stitches.

When she was last able to spy on them, Nel had mentioned a heart transplant involving the girl and an enigma. Eva had to wonder if that actually got completed or not. Externally, there was no sign of it. Eva wasn’t sure what sign there would be, but she had expected bright purple veins at the very least.

Thinking about that got Eva considering another topic. Her tongue was dark in coloration after her latest treatment. Her skin was the same as it always had been despite her blood being pitch black. Eva had to wonder just what color her heart was. And the rest of her organs. Devon had never cut her open to check after any treatments and Eva couldn’t exactly say that she wanted him to do so, but it might be interesting to find out.

Something to discuss with Devon when she got back home.

“You’ve made it through less than half of them,” Sawyer said, glancing around the room. His eyes stopped for a moment on each open casket before moving on to the next. “Better than yesterday, I suppose.”

After giving Des two pats on the head, he moved over to the wall. A number of tools had been hung up on a rack. Some, shiny new metal. Others looked like rusted implements from a horror movie.

A few tools were set out that Eva recognized. Unfortunately. The small silver cigar cutter-like device hung from a thin metal rod. Not far from it was the flexible knife that he had used to remove her original eyes.

Lying in her bed, Eva clenched her fists and ground her teeth together. They were good reminders of just why she was out in the middle of relatively rural Idaho, stalking a necromancer.

He ignored all of them. Instead, he walked up to a large tool chest and opened a few of the drawers. It took him a moment of searching, but he finally found what he was looking for. Sawyer pulled out a large silvery knife. One almost identical to the one held by Des. He pulled a few other things from the rack, a saw, a hammer, and a large spoon.

With the tools in his hands, Sawyer walked over to one of the unopened caskets. He cracked it open, much to Eva’s despair, and proceeded to remove flesh from the bones.

From what Eva had seen of Des, the girl was an amateur. Her knife hacked where Sawyer’s glided. Her strips of flesh were jagged and chunky where Sawyer’s were smooth and long. Eva could feel the lack of resistance as his knife cleanly severed muscles, ligaments, flesh, and everything else.

The way he moved and cut was so elegant that Eva almost forgot that he was slicing up a corpse.

Once finished with the limbs, Sawyer moved on to the torso. He used his knife to remove any excess flesh on the outside of the ribcage. Using the large spoon-like tool, he scraped out the entirety of the insides in a single go. It was sharp at the edges to cut any meat from the bones that might be still attached, but small enough to fit into a wide variety of chest cavities.

All of the mostly decayed organs got dumped into a bucket carried by the skeletons. Eva couldn’t see where the skeletons were taking the flesh, but she couldn’t help but wonder just what the purpose of all this was.

If he wanted to remove everything from the bones, surely the older corpses that he had sent to the ritual field were better for the task. They had all been in a far more advanced state of decay. More decay meant less flesh to remove. Unless, of course, the ritual required corpses of a certain age.

It was hard to say without knowing much about necromancy. Part of her hoped that he would go and review his plan with Des, or read a tome that Eva could understand that detailed everything he was intending to do.

Eva doubted that it would be that easy.

Though Des had a head start on the corpse she had been working on, Sawyer finished well in advance.

Mostly.

He finished scalping the skull. From looking at the skeletal remains, Eva had assumed he was finished. That was until he had grabbed hold of the saw.

Sawyer took the tool to the base of the skull and started removing the back of the skull, right near where the spinal cord connected to the brain. When he finally got it open, he looked inside.

There wasn’t much of a brain left. A lot of black goop that Eva wouldn’t have wanted to touch. Not much else.

Sawyer stuck his bare hand inside without a care and proceeded to scrape out the insides into one of the bucket skeletons’ buckets. Once the inside was mostly clear, he carried it over towards the tool rack.

Just to the side of the tools was a large brick structure that came up to Sawyer’s waist. Eva could feel the heat coming off it through her link to Sawyer.

He put on a heavy glove, gripped a rod that was sticking out the top, and pulled it back.

The head of the rod was an intricate design of weaved iron. And it was glowing red hot. A branding iron.

What’s more, Eva recognized the design. As Sawyer shoved the hot end of the iron into the hole in the skull, Eva realized just what he was doing.

It was one of the things that she had come across while skimming through the necromancy tomes that she had stolen.

Sawyer was making skeletons. The animated kind of skeletons. Ones that would wander around, doing his bidding and being nuisances to everyone else.

More skeletons. Between the field, the graveyard, and his warehouse, he already had so many skeletons.

Then, Eva remembered the crypt. The one that she, Arachne, Devon, and Juliana had all entered. The one that had been packed full of the monsters. There had been so many in the cave that, weak though skeletons were, Eva’s group had nearly been overwhelmed anyway. And then there was that giant mass of skeletons that Arachne had fought.

Eva considered the idea that Sawyer had some sort of compulsion to make skeletons. Although, the skeletons at the crypt probably hadn’t required so much effort to make. He would have just had to run around branding skulls. They would have been far less fleshy than most of the corpses he had dug up for this batch.

As Sawyer withdrew the branding iron from the skull and replaced it into the kiln, Eva could feel magic being channeled. The still hot sigil glowed slightly before fading.

The bones in the jaw creaked. A faint glow in the back of the skull’s eyes lit up.

Sawyer turned the skull over, inspecting it. Looking towards the casket, he watched as the rest of the skeleton tried to sit up.

After a satisfied nod, Sawyer reached over to the tool rack and pulled a scouring pad from a small bag. He shoved it between the teeth of the skull and chucked the skull back to the casket.

The skeleton’s body managed to catch it, but fell back down at the force.

“Clean yourself off,” Sawyer shouted at it. “Then fall in line with the others.”

It wasted no time in following his directions. Using the pad, it started scrubbing off bits of flesh that had been left behind by Sawyer.

Walking back to the casket himself, Sawyer picked up his discarded tools and moved on to another body.

Sawyer paused before opening the lid. He glanced towards Des, shaking his head sadly.

“Carry on without me for a time, honey. I’ll be back shortly.”

The girl looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes. With her lips sealed, she couldn’t speak.

Sawyer apparently got the message anyway.

“Don’t worry,” he said as he walked towards the door leading back into the livable section of the warehouse. “Just something that I forgot to take care of. It won’t take long.”

Her stitched lips turned downwards in a frown, but she nodded anyway.

As soon as Sawyer left the room, he pulled out a small cellphone from his pocket. Not a smart phone, but an older-style flip phone. One covered in grime and dirt. With all the brain goop on his fingers, it wasn’t getting any cleaner.

The contacts list held only two numbers in it and no names. He scrolled through to the second before Eva could even try to memorize either.

Eva tensed. A moment later, she felt a vibration. One that was on her side of their link, right at her hip.

Remaining unmoving, Eva waited.

The vibration continued for far too long. Sawyer leaned against the wall and started tapping a finger against it. The taps grew more and more impatient with every unanswered ring.

Finally, the rings ceased. On Sawyer’s side of things, she heard the phone connect to a voice mail system. As soon as it finished, Sawyer began to speak.

“I am aware that your kind dislike the middle of the day, but I do not appreciate being made to wait. Do return my call before something unfortunate has to happen. Next time, leave a message. That’s what it’s there for.”

Eva rolled her eyes. He doesn’t like people making him wait? Sawyer had ignored the initial call and then forgot about it for half the day.

With a displeased shake of his head, Sawyer dropped the phone back into his pocket.

Eva watched him return to making skeletons for a moment longer. When he didn’t do anything suspicious, Eva pushed herself out of bed.

She had until nightfall to discuss with the others just what they should do. Not responding at all would be too suspicious, but they needed to keep him in the dark for one more day. At least. Two, ideally.

Eva’s ritual would run out halfway through tomorrow night. While they could try assaulting him with the remainder of the darkness, Serena and any vampires that showed up to help might have to leave early to avoid the sun. If they managed to keep his suspicions low, they would have a full night to work with.

Either way, Eva was starting to get excited about just what she wanted to do to Sawyer. Maybe she would take the little cigar cutter off the rack and put it to use.

Clement walked down the streets towards Brakket Academy.

Naked.

Well, not quite naked. He had jeans and a tee-shirt.

But he felt naked.

Without his armor, anything could kill him. A random bus that had its brake line cut, a brick falling from a high building, even tripping over his own shoelaces could send him to the ground and snap his neck.

Clement glanced down at his tennis shoes. They were still tied in neat little knots.

Too many things could end his usefulness to Gertrude without him being able to do a thing.

Most of all, demons would find him easy prey without his armor. Being a mundane human, Clement had no way to defend himself from the more supernatural threats that lurked in the shadows. He couldn’t cast a fireball to save his life. No teleportation would help him, nor any other miraculous interventions.

He did keep an enchanted dagger at his side. That might help against lesser threats, but not against anything greater. His dagger had been made by Gertrude and it was a marvelous work, even if he didn’t understand the magic behind it. However, it couldn’t hold a candle to his sword. A sword that had been designed centuries ago specifically for the purpose of slaying demons.

Demons were their current targets.

Clement hated this plan.

Walking alone in the chilly morning air, Clement felt more naked than ever. The academy building was the nest of the demons. And he was walking towards it.

But armor was too conspicuous. People took note of a massive hulk wandering down the street looking like a renaissance fair reject. They took far less note of a lanky man with a depressed air about him. Even in a city as small as Brakket.

Worse than people taking notice, armor made demons wary. It really didn’t matter normally when Clement charged at a demon, swinging his sword. They could be wary all they wanted to be. A slash through their chest ended their wariness before they could do much about it.

Brakket City was different from normal. Demons were everywhere. If the demons saw him wandering around in his armor, they would definitely think that something was up. Whether they would attack as a group or flee didn’t matter, neither would end well for him.

Though, all the demons in Brakket City would be more wary after tonight.

At least, all the demons remaining.

Clement just had to believe that he would still be around to see their wariness.

And he did believe. Gertrude was watching him. She wouldn’t let him down.

Pausing with his hand on the door to Brakket Academy, Clement took a deep breath.

He pushed the door open and walked inside.

The offices for the dean and other non-teaching staff were just off to the side of the main lobby. One of the demons around Brakket City, the succubus, constantly sat at the receptionist’s desk. They had spent time watching everyone, learning patterns and plotting out possible ambushes.

That desk was where both he and Gertrude expected the succubus to be this morning.

But the desk was empty.

The only other place where the succubus could be found was a small home near the academy.

That home had been empty as well, he had checked there first.

Clement froze in indecision. Something had already gone wrong. They had watched for weeks and had the succubus’ routine down to the hour. What had changed? Why was it different now?

Did they know?

A chill ran down his spine. He spun, hand going to the dagger at his side.

“Hello, did you need something?”

Clement just about collapsed in relief. He had felt certain that the pillar was the one behind him.

The voice came from a normal teacher. A woman wearing her hair in a ribbon. The ends of the ribbon stretched upwards, giving it the appearance of bunny ears. If he remembered their notes correctly, it was the warding teacher. Chelsea Lepus.

They had already dismissed her as not being related to any of the diabolical events aside from her employment with Brakket Academy. Damning, but not so much that she was a priority target.

He glanced around once before responding. “I don’t suppose you know what happened to the secretary.”

“Actually,” she said slowly, tapping her foot against the ground as she thought. “I don’t think I’ve seen her for a few days. Strange, now that you mention it.”

“A few days?” They had focused on other targets for the last week or so. The succubus’ routine was so regular that neither he nor Gertrude could have imagined that something would have changed. “She didn’t mention taking any vacations?”

“Oh hoh, not to me,” Chelsea said with a bright smile. “Catherine doesn’t talk much. I’ll have to ask the dean when she gets in. Was there something I might be able to help you with?”

“I think it will be sufficient for me to return at a later date. Thank you anyway.”

With their target gone, Clement had no intention of sticking around. He turned and left, trying not to betray any unnecessary haste in his movements. None of their plans had accounted for her absence. He needed to get back to Gertrude and find out what had happened.

He definitely did not want to stick around while there was a pillar wandering the school grounds.

Not without his armor.

— — —

Eva snapped to a sitting position in her bed, pushing the nausea to the back of her mind.

“Sawyer knows,” she said.

Nel jumped to her feet. “W-what do you mean?”

The augur’s heartbeat had been constantly elevated during their little road trip. Every time she glanced in Serena’s direction, it jumped a bit more before settling back down. If Eva hadn’t known better, she might have guessed that the augur had feelings for the vampire.

Feelings other than fear, that was.

The moment the words left her mouth, Nel’s heart went into overdrive. She ran to the door and peeked out the peephole as if Sawyer was right outside at this very moment.

A groan came out from under the covers of the other bed.

Serena could keep herself awake through the day without much trouble. Younger vampires apparently had issues with that. At a half century old, Serena was hardly young. However, with all of the fighting that would be likely be happening in the next few days, she had elected to get some beauty sleep.

And she obviously needed it.

Serena pushed the covers off her with another groan, looking like the risen dead that she was. Her eyes were half lidded and there was a certain stiffness in her movements. With her hair unkempt in a halo around her head, she sat up and groggily glanced around the room. A stark contrast to her normally chipper and well-groomed appearance.

Eva, however, was barely paying attention. She was focused on Sawyer and his reading of the text message that they had sent. “He took one look at the message and realized that something was wrong.”

Eva jumped out of bed and ran to her backpack, fighting off the sensory nausea. She had to get everything ready. All of the demon blood and bloodstones, Basila and an engorgement potion, a certain cursed dagger, and her blood that she was going to use to bribe the vampires with. She would have to skip over one ritual that she had wanted to perform on herself.

The movements were making her sick. Sawyer’s agitated state didn’t help much either.

“They must have had some sort of pass phrase that we didn’t include.”

“Calm down,” Serena said slowly, her words transforming into a long yawn partway through. “He doesn’t know that it is you, does he?”

Eva paused her frantic movements, thinking about and watching what Sawyer was up to.

Sawyer had spent the remainder of the day making skeletons with Des. An hour after nightfall, he headed back to the graveyard and started looking through corpses, just as he had the night before. He spent some time sorting through a number of caskets and sending them either to the warehouse or the field. Once finished, he had gone to the field himself.

After he had his hands elbow deep inside the second casket of the night, Eva had sent off her text message.

A simple note about how ‘the boss’ was having him do a few tasks and the vampire might be out of contact for a time.

As Eva had hoped, Sawyer didn’t check his phone immediately. As before, he had forgotten about it until noon. Or maybe he had been deliberately not responding. Either way, he hadn’t looked at the message for several hours.

That was when everything had gone awry.

His eyes had roamed over the words. With an unnatural calm, Sawyer turned off the phone and slipped it into his pocket. He moved back into the room where Des was still slaving away with the skeletons.

“Des,” he had said, “if you would be so kind, we need to prepare for guests.”

The girl had looked up and raised the stitches that made up her right eyebrow.

“No, no,” Sawyer had said with a chuckle. “I imagine these guests are not the sort we want to set tea out for. Set all skeletons on alert and ensure that they are armed. I shall see if I can’t do something more about what may be occurring.”

Focusing herself on her surroundings as Sawyer wandered off, Eva shook her head.

“Sawyer doesn’t know that it is me. He just thinks that something is going to be attacking.”

Serena gave a light hum as she brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Is he fleeing?”

“No,” Eva said with a shake of her head. “He’s preparing defenses.”

“Then we still have time,” she said with another yawn.

Why vampires needed to yawn, Eva couldn’t quite understand.

But, at the end of her yawn, Serena pulled the covers of her bed up over her head, leaving only a few strands of curly blond hair peeking out at the top.

Eva stared for a moment at the unmoving lump beneath the blankets before shaking her head. Serena was right. There was no need to run into things right away. Sawyer had obviously invested a great deal of time into setting up his ritual. He wouldn’t just abandon it without a fight.

And there definitely would be a fight now.

Sawyer was pacing through his warehouse. Somewhere along the way, he had gained four enigmas and four skeletons at his back. One room that he passed through had a summoning circle set up inside.

Oddly enough, there were no shackles anywhere to be seen. It was a wonder that he was still alive.

Then again, perhaps he had found a way to specifically target the enigmas. Eva hadn’t seen any demons wandering around. Not even the demon hybrids that he had used to attack the academy. However he had managed to tame the enigmas, it probably worked instantly. Similar to Devon dominating demons. He would have no need of protection between himself and his summonings.

Unfortunately for Eva’s curiosity, he didn’t actually stop to summon more enigmas. He went outside the warehouse and into a smaller building that might have been offices at one point in time. It was dark inside; the windows had all been boarded up. The sunlight coming in from the door didn’t reach very far beyond the entryway.

Walking through the corridors made from cubicles, Sawyer eventually came to a small room deep inside. There were no windows at all, not even boarded up ones. Maybe a custodial closet of some sort.

Pulling on a string that led to an overhead lamp, incandescent light from a fading bulb washed the small room in an orange glow.

“Hello Amelia,” he said.

Eva just stared. Not that she could do much else, at least on Sawyer’s end of her senses. But Sawyer was definitely doing something stare-worthy at the moment.

‘Amelia’ was a corpse. And Sawyer was talking to it.

Its jaw hung wide open. With its lips rotted away to reveal the teeth, it looked like it was screaming in horror. Gaping holes and the back of a skull were all that remained of its eyes. Its skin was tight and gaunt around its bones. Both hands were frozen, clawed across its chest as if she had died while eating something upsetting. Its bony legs were pressed together, crossing right at the ankles. Rope had been strung around the ankles to suspend the entire corpse upside down in the small room.

Oddly enough, there was no smell. Not like the other corpses. Eva was mostly certain that she hadn’t just grown used to it.

The decay was different as well. All of the skin was a tan color with a leathery texture–she could tell when Sawyer reached forward to brush against the thing’s arm. Its stomach and chest were so sunken in that there couldn’t be anything left inside.

Which probably helped the smell, now that Eva thought about it.

“My dear Amelia. I might be having guests soon. Unwanted guests. Vampires, most likely. I don’t suppose that you might be able to do anything about them?”

The rictus gape of horror didn’t move in the slightest. No sound came forth. No motion was made on the part of the corpse.

It was somewhat surprising. Sawyer, being a necromancer with walking skeletons handling his laundry out in the other room, could easily make something like this move.

“No, no. The Elysium Order has quit. They decided that operating in North America is just too costly these days.”

Sawyer moved into the room and took a seat on a small stool. It was the perfect height so that when he sat, his head was level with the corpse’s upside-down face. They could stare at each other without having to crane their necks. Which was good for them. ‘Amelia’ might find turning its neck to be a little difficult given the fragile-looking state of its body.

That state didn’t stop Sawyer from nodding his head as if he were agreeing with something the corpse had said.

“It could be bounty hunters. But I doubt it. It is far more likely that my pet vampire was found out and now the rest of the coven is upset.”

Sawyer started to shake his head. “No. Just vampires. But do let them get a ways in before you do anything. We wouldn’t want any to escape, would we? Besides, their bodies may prove useful to me.”

With two pats against the corpse’s cheek, Sawyer said, “thank you, my dear.”

Eva started to get a bad feeling as he leaned forwards.

Her bad feeling was temporarily placed on hold as Sawyer jerked back.

“I come talk to you all the time,” he said, affronted at whatever he imagined the corpse had said. “It’s pure coincidence that I need your help every time we talk.”

“She’s doing well, as you well know,” Sawyer said after a brief pause. “I might expect a bit much of her from time to time.”

Sawyer was always insane. Eva knew that. Normal people didn’t unleash zombies on unsuspecting townsfolk or turn little girls into monsters. But this was taking it to a whole new level.

“No, the stitches aren’t necessary. She ruined one of my plans for petty revenge. It’s been a few months, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to give her another chance.”

He sighed, shaking his head back and forth. “Des’ abilities continue to improve, albeit slowly. Too slowly. I almost wonder if some of the modifications damaged her. She acts younger than she should. Her infantilism was possibly the main reason why she tried attacking–”

Taken aback, he paused for just a moment. “What? Never. I’m not blaming her for my–No! Don’t you worry. Our little honey will be better at this than me one of these days.”

Again, Sawyer patted the corpse on the shoulder. Given that ‘Amelia’ was upside down, it was somewhat awkward. He managed all the same. “No, but I do need to get going. People to kill and all that. You just keep a watch out for those vampires.”

The bad feeling that Eva had felt earlier resurfaced in full force as Sawyer leaned in again.

Sure enough, Sawyer’s lips pressed against the corpse’s teeth. His tongue traced the backs of the teeth and a good portion of the inside of its mouth.

Sawyer was kissing a corpse. Passionately at that.

Eva felt like screaming.

So she did.

“Nel! Is frankincense edible?”

The augur, who had still been staring out of the room’s peephole, jumped at Eva’s outburst. “W-What?”

“I need something, anything, that might help get the taste of corpses out of my mouth.”

“Wha–”

“This ritual is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. And I did it to myself. I’d rather have my eyes torn out again and again and again and again than spend another minute in Sawyer’s life. I swear, I’m going to burn the entire book just to spare anyone else this horror.”

Serena had woken up again, still looking like death warmed over. Both she and Nel were staring at Eva.

“Your necromancer is eating bodies?”

“Kissing,” Eva snapped. “He’s kissing a corpse! A husk of a mummy!”

The two continued staring.

“Affectionately,” Eva added before slamming her face back into the pillow.

“Well,” Serena said, “it ends tonight, right? Only about twelve hours to go.”

Eva just snorted. As if that would make everything better. All she knew was that Sawyer was going to pay for putting her through two days in his life.

Nel shifted, her fingers touching as she spoke in a soft tone of voice. “How does him finding out that we’re attacking lead to him kissing corpses?”

“He doesn’t know that we are the ones attacking. He thinks it is the vampires. And he thought that this corpse that he’s kissing could help defend against them.” Eva shook her head. “He’s crazier than I thought. The mummy didn’t even respond to him. It was just a hanging corpse. A really dead one.”

“H-hanging?” Nel squeaked out. “H-hanging how?”

“By a rope around its feet, head down,” Eva mumbled into her pillow as she watched through her blood sight. Nel was scared. That much was clear. She was trembling. Eva was almost worried that she was having a seizure.

“What is it, Nel? You know something. Quit shaking and spit it out.”

“A haugbui. Norse origins. It cannot move but it will defend the place it calls a tomb. Violently. W-we can’t fight it. If we get near, it will kill us.”

Eva sat up to stare at the trembling woman with her own eyes. “It can’t move but it will kill us? How?”

“I don’t know. I’m an augur. I just watch. You can always tell when a haugbui is in the area. A sister’s head will just fall from her shoulders. Or all their limbs will fall off. Or their stomachs will fail to hold in their insides. People just die around them.”

“Cutting attacks then? I wonder–”

“No. Armor doesn’t stop it. Nothing stops it.”

Eva crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at the augur. “The Elysium Order must have plans and guidelines on how to deal with them.”

“Annihilation. They can’t defend too large of an area, so sisters will typically form a circle around the haugbui. Then, fire. Lots of fire. Everything within turns to ash including the haugbui.”

“Doesn’t really sound like an option for us.”

“It isn’t,” Nel said. She reached for a water bottle and tried to take a drink. Her hands were shaking enough that she ended up spilling part of it down her front. “We need to call in help.”

“There’s no one to call in.” Eva sighed, lying back down on her bed.

At least Sawyer wasn’t in the same room as that mummy anymore. He had wandered off. Shoring up defenses with orders for the skeletons and enigmas that patrolled the warehouse. Eva paid attention to them as they could help. But if that mummy was as dangerous as Nel’s shivers, none of them would be going anywhere near the skeletons and enigmas.

“You said that these things have a small area that they affect? How small?”

“I don’t know. A hundred feet?”

Eva sat up. Smile on her face. “Then it is simple. We don’t go to the warehouse. At all. We target the field and the ritual. Preferably while Sawyer is there.”

“We won’t know once your ritual runs out.”

“No,” Eva agreed. “But he has gone to the graveyard and then the field every night. He might take a break just in case the vampires attack, but I doubt it. That might delay his ritual.”

“What if he has another one? They’re hard to make, but he has one. He clearly knows how to make them.”

“I doubt it. This one feels personal. Like, an old lover or something.”

“Just send the vampires in first,” Serena said with a groan. “If they fall to pieces, who cares. Now try not to wake me again unless you want to do this all without my help,” she said as she flopped back down underneath her covers.

Eva looked to Nel and gave the augur a half-hearted shrug.

“Sacrificing vampires? Works for me,” the augur said. Her voice was a few notches chillier than normal. “As long as I get to stay here.”

As she returned to peeping out the peephole, Eva followed Serena’s example and covered herself back up.

If Sawyer did have another of those mummies, she desperately hoped that he wouldn’t be quite so affectionate with them.

Less than twelve hours left, she thought as she immersed herself back into his world.

The field wasn’t any different in person. Not that Eva had expected it to be. Her ritual gave her a perfect picture of exactly what Sawyer saw and felt. She had already known how the place would look, feel, and smell. Looking at it with her own eyes didn’t matter in the slightest.

In fact, she was actually feeling better than any time that she had visited through Sawyer’s eyes.

The ritual was fading away. In an hour, maybe two, it would have run its course, leaving Eva all by her self. She could still see Sawyer at the moment, but the sounds were slightly muffled and the colors were muted.

If there was one thing that was different about the real field versus seeing it from Sawyer, it was having Nel and Serena at her side as they looked down at the valley filled with caskets and coffins.

Serena was imitating Catherine at the moment. Her cellphone was out and she was tapping away. Coordinating with the vampires was a full-time job, apparently. Six of them were dotted around the field, keeping themselves out of sight of the many skeletons and enigmas. Two more were just behind Eva.

The ‘Lord’ Kuvon had decided not to grace them with his illustrious presence for the night, sending a portion of his minions instead.

Frankly, Eva wasn’t expecting much from any of them. Sawyer was expecting vampires to attack. Aside from the Elysium Order, Sawyer being prepared to fight vampires would probably be the worst thing that could happen to them.

Eva really didn’t care what happened to any vampire that wasn’t named Serena. In fact, if Sawyer killed them all, she wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep over it. That would leave Kuvon and maybe two other vampires that also hadn’t joined in their little escapade. It wouldn’t be difficult to reclaim her blood from them.

And Eva was less than enthused about gifting them a case filled with vials of her blood.

Besides, killing off the vampires would make Nel happy.

At the moment, Nel looked like she could use all the happiness that she could get her hands on.

The summer air was warm, even in the dead of night. Eva wouldn’t have been able to tell that just from looking at Nel. Or from feeling her as she grasped on to Eva’s arm.

It was strange to think that she had been holding back on the trembling. Eva could barely see straight with how much the vibrations traveling up her arm wound up shaking her around. Every single slight noise in the wilderness around them was received with a jump from Nel followed by the girl whipping her head around to find out just what was attacking them.

Nothing. Nothing attacked them.

“Calm down,” Eva said, patting the augur’s non-withered arm. “The vampires are staring.”

“I’m not supposed to be out in the field,” she hissed back. “I can’t fight!”

“Would you rather be back at the hotel? All by yourself? The hotel that the vampires run?”

“Yes! No! I don’t know.” She looked around twice, trying not to be obvious about staring at the vampires. Eva would have to say that she failed, but at least they were being polite about it. Her hysterical voice dropped to a whisper as she leaned her trembling body closer to Eva.

“What am I doing here? I can’t use my magic. All the vampires will know what I am. Even if I had all the frankincense in the world, I can’t catch a glimpse of anything. We’re right in the middle of the dead zone from that stupid little girl.”

“Use your magic if you need to,” Eva said, her voice even quieter than Nel’s. “All the vampires here drank the blood. If they try to bother you, I’ll deal with them.” A little louder, Eva said, “I think you’ll want to be here anyway. Up close and personal, front row seats to Sawyer’s demise.”

Turning to face Serena and the two vampires—she hadn’t bothered to learn their names—Eva clapped her hands together.

Serena started, glancing at the two vampires as if they were about to explode. With good reason. However, Eva hadn’t been channeling any magic into exploding the blood in their stomachs. Not at the moment anyway.

“Sawyer is still in his warehouse,” Eva said. “I don’t think he plans on leaving tonight. Let us see if we can’t change his plans. We’re here to make noise. I refuse to believe that he has no alarms set up to warn him that his precious ritual circle is being destroyed.”

Igniting her hand, Eva gathered up flames into a tight ball. Not quite to the point of the explosive blasts that she used to explode enigmas or blow open the door in her domain. It would need to survive a trip through the air.

Tossing the fireball with all her might, Eva aimed for one of the caskets in the center ring of the ritual circle. With a gleeful smile, she watched as it sailed down into the field.

It missed.

The fireball fell short of the casket by a good distance. Because of the way the caskets were arranged, it didn’t even hit one of the ones in the next ring out. Some grass and brush caught fire between two caskets, but the foliage wasn’t dry enough to spread quickly. Maybe with time, it would spread and engulf the caskets.

Eva didn’t have time.

The skeletons meandering about in the field took note of the fire. Worse, they took note of the direction the fireball had come from.

Eva threw another fireball, this one actually managing to hit one of the closer caskets. Unfortunately, it was a newer casket. One made out of metal of some kind. The flames splashed off, igniting some of the surrounding brush but doing no damage to the casket or the body sealed inside.

Using some of her own blood—demon blood was still being reserved for when Sawyer arrived and she really needed it—Eva created a shield around herself and Nel. Just in time to catch a few arrows that were arching through the air.

Nel let out a short shriek as the arrows pinged against the shield, drawing more attention and more arrows.

Even though the shield was powered with her blood, the arrows weren’t doing enough damage to worry Eva. She could last a good half hour at the current rate before needing to refill the shield’s reserves.

Of course, that would leave her stuck in one spot. Being immobilized would probably not be a good thing once Sawyer showed up.

“Nel,” Eva said as the vampires ran off towards the ritual circle. Their job was to take out the enigmas. And skeletons, if they came across them. The enigmas could burrow and they needed to be taken down before the field became a mine field of monsters. “How well can you aim your lightning?”

“What happened to use it if you need to?”

“I could get us out of this, either with blood or through waiting for the vampires to kill the skeletons. I’d rather be proactive.” Eva raised one of her long claws, pointing at a skeleton that had his bow drawn and aimed towards them. “If I open up a hole, can you hit that one?”

“But the vampires…”

Eva rolled her eyes. “Nel, if you want me to, I’ll explode all of the vampires right now. Except for Serena. Of course, then it will be just us against Sawyer and whatever undead he brings, but I’m sure we can take them.”

Pausing for a moment, Eva took her eyes off the ritual circle to look over Nel. “We’re not friends,” Eva said. “I don’t think so, anyway. But if it is between you and them, I’ll pick you. Mostly because I know you better. Nothing to do with Ylva or how useful you are. In fact, it is definitely not because of how useful you are. You’re absolutely useless if you can’t hit that skeleton.”

Balling her good hand into a fist, Nel glared at Eva. “Fine,” she shouted. “I’ll do it. If those vampires kill me… or the skeletons–”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eva waved a hand, “I promise to feel bad for a few minutes. Now get ready, as soon as the next arrow hits, I’m dropping the shield for a second or two.”

Nel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, they were burning with white light. With her arm outstretched, she waited.

Eva dropped her shield.

A thunderous crack in the air accompanied a blinding flash of light. With her sudden lack of vision, Eva immediately brought up her shield. She didn’t want to risk either one of them getting hit by an arrow because she couldn’t see them coming.

As Eva blinked away the spots in her eyes and the ringing in her ears faded, she looked down at the ritual field.

The vampires had taken notice, but none of them were actually approaching. After they got through their momentary stupor, they continued tearing through the enigmas on the field. Given just how bright and loud it was, it would have been a surprise had they not noticed.

Brush and grass had blackened and charred around where the skeleton had stood. The skeleton itself was still there, though it was no longer standing. The pile of bones sat in the center of the scorch marks, unmoving.

“Excellent,” Eva said. “Though perhaps tone it down for the next one? Your magic eats other magic, so I don’t think you need to put quite so much power behind it.”

“I was nervous,” Nel said. Her voice was weak. She stumbled forward slightly. There was no fire in her eyes as she grabbed hold of Eva for support.

“Are you alright?”

“I tend to get overwhelmed with information when I connect. I’ll shake it off in a moment. In the mean time, I think I know what all the corpses are for.”

Eva raised an eyebrow as she waited for Nel to get steady on her feet again.

“He’s trying to make a Death Stick.”

“You’re going to have to elaborate.”

“It’s a…” Nel winced, rubbing at her forehead with her good hand. “It’s said to call down Death himself to strike down a single living being. That’s not true, but it does kill something. Then it binds their soul to the stick, though the Death Stick doesn’t have to be a literal stick. It can be anything.

“The body continues to be animated and controlled by the bound soul—which is under the control of the necromancer. Essentially, it creates a lich. But one under control of someone else. And, unless he makes the Death Stick out of gold, it will wear away after a few weeks and crumble to dust. The soul will be released and the body killed for good.”

Nel shook her head. Pulling away from Eva, she stood on her own just at the edge of their shield. “Something is wrong though,” she said as she looked down at the field. “You can make a Death Stick with nine corpses. There are far too many bodies down here.”

Eva shrugged her shoulders. “All the more reason to destroy this place. I don’t even know what you would use such a thing for.”

“Typically, gaining access to a mage’s personal vault. Or other things that can only be acquired by one specific person. Mind control is almost impossible with thaumaturgy. Most non-thaumaturgical methods can and will be checked for at any respectable bank.”

Waving Nel off before she could continue further, Eva pointed at two skeletons that were still launching arrows in their direction.

“Do you think you can take care of both of them at once?”

“Maybe with a little less flash this time as well.”

Nel nodded as a small amount of blood rushed to her ears and cheeks.

“On three,” Eva said.

Once she began her countdown, Nel prepared herself. Fire again burst from her eyes. She held out both hands this time, her good one and the whithered arm covered in a glove. Each pointed at a different skeleton.

“Three,” Eva said as she brought down the shield.

Two bolts of crackling white light speared off into the distance. The moment they connected with the skeletons, the skeletons dropped into unmoving heaps of bones.

Catching Nel before she could fall over, Eva helped her keep on her feet.

“We need to move. I can fire bomb these coffins, but I need to get closer if I want to do any real damage.”

“Bomb them? That’s desecrating the dead.”

“I think Sawyer is way ahead of us on that front,” Eva said as she dragged Nel down the hill towards the caskets.

Around them, vampires were still darting in and out of the place. They seemed to be having more trouble with the enigmas than Eva had expected. Given her experiences fighting them inside her domain, Eva had been hoping that they would tear through them and move on to the skeletons in a few minutes. She hadn’t heard any of the whining and explosion noises that they made. The vampires were keeping them too busy for that at least, thankfully.

Sawyer might have done something to make them stronger. Or, perhaps, they had grown stronger on their own. None of the enigmas that Eva encountered had ever survived for as long as these had. For given values of survival; the creatures couldn’t technically die.

Stopping at the nearest coffin, Eva prepared to destroy the entire thing. She considered opening the lid and setting fire to the contents. That should be more than enough to destroy the corpse.

Experiencing everything that Sawyer had for the past two days was more than enough for Eva to never wish to open a casket again.

After compressing flames into an explosive marble, Eva tossed it at the casket. She reactivated her shield the moment the marble left her hands.

The ball of bright yellow flames touched the side of the casket, shattering the thin layer of stability that Eva had formed as a shell. Noise and a bright flash quickly followed. Neither were as bright as the initial lightning bolt that Nel had cast, but they were enough to momentarily blind Eva.

Shrapnel and body parts went flying through the air. Because the explosion had occurred between the casket and Eva, most parts were directed away from her position.

One large chunk of the metal casket had other ideas. It crashed into Eva’s shield at high speeds, draining almost every last drop of her blood. The remaining bits of bone and steel that hit finished off the shield. The protective bubble around Eva and Nel dropped away.

With a groan, Eva unsheathed her dagger and jammed it into her arm. She drained almost twice the amount of blood. Not enough for her to feel anemic, but she wouldn’t be able to keep up a permanent shield without lethargy creeping up on her.

“I wish Arachne were here,” Eva sighed. And not just because of the powers of her blood. That was useful, but Arachne made for far better company than Nel. It had been nearly two months since Arachne died and Eva was still not used to the lack of her presence.

Aside from that, Arachne’s largest form could easily have trodden over caskets, enigmas, and skeletons alike.

Pushing the thoughts of her lost friend out of her mind for the moment, Eva conjured up another three exploding fireballs. Each one went to a different casket around her.

Again, Eva put up her shield. Again, debris hit it. Nothing quite so hard as the first casket, but a good chunk of her shield’s blood still drained away.

Eva was about to continue. There were a lot of caskets that needed exploding and only so many hours of darkness remaining.

But she paused. Through her gradually dimming connection to Sawyer, she saw something.

Sawyer bolted upright from being hunched over a soon-to-be animated skeleton. He turned his head from one side of the room to the other, slowly looking over every little thing. From all of his tools, the empty caskets piled up at the far end of the room, the unarmed skeletons waiting in a corner for their bows and arrows, all the way to Des and her nearly finished skeleton.

For just a moment, Eva thought that he might just be imagining things. Or at least, she thought that he thought that he was just imagining things.

The whole point of blowing up the ritual site was to draw him out. Well, and to stop the ritual. Him thinking it was his imagination couldn’t be allowed.

Moving forward a few steps, Eva found herself in range of another few caskets. Explosions at each of them had Sawyer dropping his tools.

“The field,” he hissed. Sawyer ran up to a tool shelf and pulled off a small whistle that looked as if it had been carved from bone. “Des, honey, meet me at the field with as many skeletons as you can gather that can fight. We have a vampire infestation.”

Placing the whistle against his lips, Sawyer gave a sharp blow. Eva couldn’t hear anything through his ears. The same was not true for the enigmas in the room. The second he blew the whistle, they perked up and ran over to him, stopping just at his feet.

They followed at his heels, nipping at each other with their vacuous maws and intertwining their tentacles.

Apart from the occasional glance back, Sawyer ignored them. As soon as he got outside, he blew the whistle again.

Nothing happened.

Sawyer didn’t seem too worried by the lack of any action. He walked right past his sports car, stopping at a larger truck around the backside of the warehouse. The truck was hooked up to a long metal trailer with plenty of holes in the sides for air.

Eva heard it before she saw it. The scampering of footsteps as enigmas charged towards him. Three, five, ten… there had to be at least thirty.

It didn’t take long to herd them into the back of the trailer. Either they were well-trained or Sawyer had more control over them than a simple whistle would imply.

They didn’t all fit. Each enigma was roughly the size of a large dog. A few of them might have been able to pass as smaller horses. Very tentacly horses. With wide mouths and sharp teeth. The larger enigmas climbed over and on top of the smaller ones. They all bit at each other, but not enough to do damage, sadly.

Once Sawyer had kicked the last enigma aboard, he closed the back of the trailer and went around to the driver’s seat of the truck.

The field wasn’t far from the warehouse. A fifteen minute drive at most. And Sawyer would be in a hurry.

“Serena!” Eva shouted out, hoping that the vampire could hear her above all the droning thunder of the enigmas around the field.

She dropped out of mid-air in front of Eva just a second or two after shouting.

“Little busy at the moment,” Serena said, baring her fangs in Eva’s direction.

Nel started shaking at the look, again, but Eva paid her no mind.

She was glad to see that Serena had listened to her request of not drinking the enigmas’ blood. Her fangs were shiny white and not stained purple. Eva still hadn’t seen any proof of corrupting effects, but who was she to doubt Ylva’s words on the matter. She didn’t know if the other vampires had listened, but really, she didn’t care.

“You’re about to be a whole lot busier,” Eva said. “Sawyer noticed. He’s on his way with about thirty more enigmas.”

“Thirty! There were only ten here and we are barely dealing with them. What are we supposed to do about thirty?”

“He has a whistle that he’s using to control them. Inside his shirt pocket on the left side,” Eva said, patting her chest in the spot. “Get it and we might not have to deal with them.”

“If I’m that close to him, I might as well tear out his heart while I’m at it.”

Eva slumped slightly. “I won’t say you can’t, but that wouldn’t get rid of the enigmas. Besides, I’d rather he lives. I’d hate to resort to necromancy just to torture him.”

Nel hissed at Eva’s side, but again, Eva ignored her.

“Alright,” Serena said, “I’ll let the other vampires know that we have incoming enemies.”

“Great. I’m going to explode as many of these coffins as I can before he arrives.”

Serena jumped away into the night with barely a nod of acknowledgment.

Eva turned to face Nel with a frown. “Walking with you is slowing me down. We need to move fast if we want to make any progress before Sawyer arrives.”

“What?” Nel shrieked. “B-but, you can’t leave me alone. You promised.”

“I know,” Eva said. She was mostly certain that she hadn’t actually promised anything, but she didn’t intend to leave Nel behind anyway. Ducking to the ground, Eva faced away from Nel. “Climb onto my back.”

“What.” This time, her voice was flat.

“No time to argue. Climb on and shoot lighting at anything that moves. And try not to fall off.”

“I can’t–”

“No time to argue,” Eva repeated slowly. “My legs are strong enough to carry you, just hold on tight.”

Her legs were definitely strong enough, but Eva was more concerned about her back. Nel wasn’t overweight or even all that large. If anything, she was malnourished. Eva didn’t think that she had been eating much since the start of their trip. Still, carrying around a human body for any length of time wasn’t easy. She had learned that much from carrying Irene’s unconscious body around when Sawyer had attacked Brakket the second time. And Irene was smaller than Nel.

“Hurry,” Eva said as Nel continued to hesitate.

That seemed to snap her out of it.

Nel climbed on, wrapping her legs around Eva’s waist and gripping Eva’s shoulder with her good hand. Her withered hand was far too weak to keep any real hold of Eva.

Eva had to place one of her hands around Nel’s bottom to stabilize them both enough to move.

With her free hand, Eva lit up another few fireballs.

“Alright, lightning at anything that moves,” Eva said as she took off in a run. “Well, aside from the vampires,” she added.

Sawyer stood at the crest of a hill that overlooked the ritual site. He turned his head one way then the other, taking in the destruction down below.

His actions gave Eva a nice overview of everything as well.

Much of the field was on fire in some capacity or other. Eva hadn’t managed to explode every casket, but a good chunk of them were nothing more than craters. Most of the skeletons and enigmas on the field were dead, thanks to the efforts of the vampires and Nel.

It was a strange sensation to feel Sawyer’s shoulders slump ever so slightly. Several nights worth of work had just gone to waste with her ten minute romp through the field. Likely more than just several nights. Even if Eva was beaten back, Sawyer wouldn’t be able to recover.

If it were just the work he had put into preparing the bodies, it wouldn’t be all that bad. But with the graveyards mostly dug up already, there might not be enough suitable corpses remaining. He might have to move to an entirely new location and set up everything all over again. Starting from scratch on a project this big couldn’t be fun.

Sawyer’s eyes narrowed to thin slits as he caught sight of one of the vampires dashing across the field. His hand went to his whistle.

But he paused. The whistle was on his lips, but he didn’t breathe out.

The vampire’s motion had carried his vision right to Eva and Nel.

Eva had to admit that the two of them looked absurd. Nel clung to Eva’s back while she hunched over to carry the weight. Lightning shot from a withered arm. Immediately after, Nel wobbled around as the lights in her eyes died off.

Absurd, but not to the point where it was all that humorous.

Yet Sawyer’s lips drew his already wide smile back even further.

Every time she had seen Sawyer, he had been smiling. Even when things weren’t going his way. Something was constantly amusing him.

Eva would have suspected drugs, but she had watched his actions from a front row seat over the last few days. She would have noticed something had it actually been drugs.

“Sawyer is here,” Eva said, turning to the necromancer and giving a little wave.

Through her sense of blood, she could see Nel take notice. Eva’s wave had pointed him out to her.

Her lips drew back into a snarl. Without a word of warning, she raised both of her arms.

Eva had to use both of her hands to keep Nel from falling off her back.

Twin bolts of white lightning fired off from Nel’s fingertips. They were of the same blindingly overcharged caliber that her initial bolts of the evening had been.

The only reason that Eva could still see with the lightning right in front of her face was because of her connection with Sawyer.

Though she couldn’t see from that end of things for very long. Grass and dirt filled her vision. Sawyer dropped to the ground the moment he saw Nel raise her arms. Eva could feel the heat over his back as the lightning careened on to the sky.

He rolled over on his back and brought the whistle around to his lips.

Again, no sound came out when he blew into the opening.

A wave of enigmas charged around him and into the field.

Still blinking away the spots in her eyes and shaking the thunder from her ears, Eva had to rely on her blood sight.

One of the vampires was in the way of the enigmas between Sawyer and Eva. Eva couldn’t tell if he had been blinded by the lightning or not, but he didn’t manage to get very far away once he realized what was happening. Tentacles lashed around his legs and arms from several different enigmas.

The different enigmas pulled in different directions. There was a moment of strain in the vampire’s limbs before they started snapping off.

A few of the enigmas pounced on the vampire, tearing him to even smaller pieces with their sharp teeth.

He didn’t scream for very long.

Most of the enigmas were still charging into the field.

Eva didn’t waste any time. Even while partially blind, she could still act.

The demon blood contained within the vials strapped to her body forced its way out of the vials. Two vials of Zagan’s blood stayed intact, just in case she needed them later on.

As it was, she was going to be stretching her blood reserves rather thin. Thirty enigmas were a lot. Even with Nel and the remaining vampires to assist and distract, dispatching them wasn’t going to be easy.

And then there was Sawyer to worry about. He climbed back to his feet, brushing the dirt off his button up shirt as he went. For the moment, he seemed content to merely watch.

Rings of blood flew out from Eva. She wrapped them around the four nearest enigmas’ necks and promptly clapped her hands. Technically, beheading the beasts didn’t kill them. It still put them down long enough to take them out of the current fight.

Eva didn’t have time to throw out more rings. Another wave of enigmas charged over their fallen brethren towards Eva.

A stream of fire from Nel’s fingertips consumed one and kept the others at bay long enough for Eva to form a shield around the two of them.

Just in time for an enigma’s wide mouth to try gnawing on the shield. Eva sent a smaller marble of blood down its throat and clapped her hands again.

Eva started to form up more rings when she noticed something odd.

Enigmas, despite their oddities with death, acted like any other creature for the most part. They had brains, hearts, blood, and other organs. Eva was concerned mostly with their blood and hearts, as that was what she could see best. Normally, their hearts pumped and their blood flowed.

But not those of the enigmas that had consumed the vampire. There were only three of them, but they weren’t moving at all. Their tentacles were still, their mouths did not open or close, their hearts didn’t beat, and their blood didn’t move.

Though still, they weren’t idle. The blood inside the affected enigmas’ veins was turning stale. Old.

Like the blood within vampire veins.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Eva said, more to herself than to Nel. One of the vampires had landed on top of one of the unmoving enigmas and had started to tear it apart.

That seemed to be the trigger needed to get them moving. The vampire jumped away just in time to avoid getting caught by a tentacle.

The vampiric enigmas jumped after him.

A startled noise from Nel brought Eva back from watching the rest of the battle. She quickly sent a few small marbles down the throats of three enigmas that had approached her shield, dispatching all of them.

None of the other vampires in the field had been caught, thanks to small mercies, but they really were not that effective at taking out the enigmas. Nel’s fire did a much better job, probably because of its magic eating aspects and the fact that the enigmas were definitely magical beings.

Eva hoped that none of them wound up caught. She didn’t know what the enigmas had done, exactly, but something told her that they would be tougher, better regenerators, and possibly contagious. With any luck, they wouldn’t like the sun all that much. Maybe the sun could even kill them permanently.

Unfortunately, Eva had no time to test.

“We’re going to be moving up towards Sawyer,” Eva said.

Nel was back to gripping Eva’s shoulders for support, but she nodded an acknowledgment.

After dispatching one more enigma with a ring of blood around its neck, Eva shut down her shield and started running. She built up a fireball and tossed it towards the vampiric enigmas as she ran.

Vampires didn’t like fire, so why should vampiric enigmas?

That was the theory anyway. Eva didn’t stop to observe the results of her handiwork. She ran straight for the hill that Sawyer was once again standing on top of.

At the base of the hill, she stopped.

Something strange was going on. Her vision and sense of blood were not matching up with what Sawyer saw.

To Eva, the enigmas were fighting with the vampires down on the field. Or, they were being distracted by the vampires. After watching one of their number get quartered and eaten alive, they were being a little hesitant in engaging directly.

Standing atop the hill, Sawyer calmly watched as three of the enigmas turned. They started snarling at him. After a brief moment, they started running. Two of them brushed past Eva on either side of her.

Looking in person, the nearest enigma was some distance away, snapping at the heels of a vampire that jumped over it.

Eva could feel a headache forming again. Just when her nausea had started to dissipate as well. Something was going on and it was messing with Sawyer’s head. Her head by extension.

She had a feeling that she knew what it was, but she couldn’t actually see Serena anywhere around.

The three enigmas in Sawyer’s vision charged up the hill, running straight up to the necromancer.

He stood by as unconcerned as he could be even as the enigmas started circling around him. They growled and occasionally sent out the whistling thunder inside of his head. Sawyer flinched every time, but was otherwise entirely too calm for the situation.

Still, he was distracted.

Eva couldn’t waste the opportunity.

Gathering up one of the vials of Zagan’s blood, she formed it into a large ring and sent it whizzing up the hill towards Sawyer. With Nel still on her back, she ran up after it.

At the same time, one of the enigmas lashed its tentacles around Sawyer’s leg. Eva could feel it squeezing and constricting. The pain just about sent her stumbling in her run.

Sawyer just looked down, his grin widening.

Something was definitely wrong.

Just before Eva’s blood ring could make it to Sawyer, his hand darted out to his side. It gripped something that wasn’t there in his sight. Eva could feel his hands squeezing tight around something fleshy.

In her blood sight, Eva just about started to panic.

The ring of blood flew straight towards his outstretched arm.

Eva just about dropped Nel in an attempt to clap her hands together.

She stopped just in the nick of time.

Sawyer swung his arm around. Eva’s blood splattered across an invisible woman in his hands.

The illusion in Sawyer’s vision died off and Serena shimmered into being, clutching and grasping at her throat, clawing away at Sawyer’s skin.

He didn’t seem to care as blood started dripping from his hand. His smile just grew wider.

“Serena is in trouble,” Eva hissed as she doubled her efforts in getting up the hill.

As she ran, she tried to salvage as much blood as she could from Serena. A lot of it had soaked into her clothing, becoming unusable. That which Eva could scrape up, she gathered just on the back of Serena’s neck. Normally, such a thing would have ruined the blood. It would have gotten mixed up with sweat and grime. Being a vampire, Serena didn’t sweat. Her body was dead.

With Sawyer holding her facing him, it was the perfect spot to hide the blood without him noticing.

“I say, you two are quite the sight,” Sawyer said, turning a grin in Eva’s direction.

Eva glared. She didn’t speak. She didn’t need to.

Nel gave a slight squeak as Eva unclasped her hands from the augur’s bottom. She almost fell to the ground as Eva dropped her, but managed to remain on her feet with a little help.

“Is this one with you?” Sawyer asked as he turned back to face Serena. “She’s a much rarer strain than those riffraff,” he swept his stitched hand towards the valley below. “Almost a shame what I have to do.”

Muscles and blood within Sawyer’s arm started moving. He was squeezing Serena’s throat.

Wasting no more time, the blood from behind Serena’s neck moved around, coating the back of Sawyer’s hand. Given that his hand was throttling Serena’s neck, the blood didn’t have far to move. He didn’t have a chance to pull away before most of the blood got onto him.

When he did release Serena and pull away, it was far too late.

Eva clapped her hands together.

Sawyer shouted out a clipped cry as the blood flashed white and obliterated everything that it was touching.

Namely, his hand.

Eva took care not to harm Serena. The vampire collapsed to the ground, unmoving despite Eva’s efforts. Her neck was bent at an angle that it shouldn’t be.

Vampires died if they were decapitated. Eva wasn’t sure about broken necks. Hopefully Serena would be able to regenerate from it. The vampire had actually grown on Eva since their attack on the Elysium Order’s cathedral.

But there was no time to worry about that now. Sawyer was looking at his hand–or the empty spot where it had been–as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened. Eva only managed to coat his fingers and part of the back of his hand, but his entire arm was missing up to his elbow.

The power of Zagan’s blood. Probably.

Eva charged forward, planting her shoulder right into Sawyer’s stomach. As he fell to the ground, Eva stepped forwards. She planted one foot on his chest and the other foot on the arm that still had a hand.

While Eva didn’t consider herself to be that heavy, she did not spare Sawyer anything. Her sharp toes pressed down on his chest with all the force that she could muster.

For a moment, she wished that she still had Nel on her back.

“You’re not getting away this time, Sawyer. Nel and I want to have a little fun with you.”

He smiled–as always–and laughed. “I can’t wait. Unfortunately, I don’t think that is in the cards for me tonight.”

This time, it was Eva’s turn to laugh. “You think that Des and a handful of skeletons will save you? Or that haugbui that you’ve got locked up in your warehouse?” Eva shook her head. “Think again.”

“How did you–”

Eva pressed down on his chest, digging the claws that made up her toes through his shirt and skin. Blood welled up and stained his shirt.

Drawing her knife from its sheath, Eva stabbed it into her arm. The amount of blood she pulled out was perhaps more than she should have, but she needed it for the next stage of her plan. She wanted to have everything ready before Des showed up with the skeletons.

Shaping her blood into a large circle, Eva hesitated. Sawyer was entirely too calm. Casting around her blood sight, Eva couldn’t find anything that might immediately threaten her.

Though pausing did remind her of something.

Bending over, Eva clawed one hand as she reached out for his pocket. Her hand grasped his whistle, cloth from his shirt, and even some skin. Even in her slowly fading senses from Sawyer, it hurt. Eva had intended for it to hurt.

Sawyer didn’t flinch in the slightest. He had to have some way of shutting off his sense of pain that didn’t protect Eva. There was no other way that he could just sit there smiling.

“Nel, keep an eye out for a bunch of skeletons while I work on this.”

“M-me?” she asked, whipping her head up from glaring at Sawyer.

Eva rolled her eyes. At least act a little confident in front of Sawyer. “Yes, you. They’ll be with Des, so maybe we’ll be able to recover your eyes.”

Slowly, Nel nodded. “Alright. I’d like that.”

Given that the eyes were implanted within Des, it might not be a good idea to put them back into Nel. They had been in the hands of a necromancer for far too long. There could be all kinds of traps and safeguards to keep Nel from reclaiming them.

But Eva didn’t need to comment on that to Nel at the moment. The augur desperately needed a boost to her confidence. Saying such things would have the opposite effect.

Turning her attention back to Sawyer and the ring of her blood in the air, Eva put on a grin of her own. She fingered the small black orb that hung from her neck–Arachne’s beacon. It was a depressing shame that Arachne couldn’t be here to watch her victory over Sawyer.

“Do you know what this is?” she asked as details started to form within the circle.

“A summoning circle,” Sawyer said with a half chuckle. “What horror are you going to call forth to exact your revenge? Oh, I can’t wait to find out!”

“Sawyer, I am appalled,” Eva said with a shake of her head. “You should really study up on your diablery. Or get your eyes checked.” He was entirely too excited about everything. Normally, such a thing would have worried Eva. She must be missing something.

But the circle was complete. It wouldn’t matter in a few seconds.

Eva started channeling magic into the circle as it hung in mid-air right next to Sawyer’s prone form.

A black void opened up where the blood had been.

“This,” she said, stepping off Sawyer, “is a transference circle.”

Before her words could entirely sink in, Eva dug one of her feet between Sawyer’s back and the ground.

Using the powerful legs that she had been given by Arachne, Eva kicked out.

Sawyer’s body lifted off the ground just a hair–it really didn’t need to go so high, Eva had made the bottom of the circle almost scraping the ground. All she needed to do was to get him inside.

She halfway succeeded. Her foot must have been too far off-center.

Sawyer’s legs and lower waist disappeared into the void, but he managed to flip over onto his stomach. Grasping at the brush and well-entrenched weeds on the ground, he managed to stop himself from falling inside entirely. His head tilted upwards, glaring at Eva as she smirked down at him.

He no longer had a smile on his face.

Eva knelt in front of him and started prying his fingers loose, one by one. He only had one hand, so it wasn’t like he had all that much to hold onto.

“You know,” Eva said as she accidentally broke one of his fingers, “connecting the mortal realm to Hell is supposed to be off limits for a time. I just wanted you to know how special you are to have an exception made just for you.”

Snapping his pinky finger clean off, Eva stood again.

He was slowly being dragged into the portal.

Too slowly.

Eva placed her foot right on his forehead.

“This isn’t over,” he said, all humor and amusement gone from his voice.

“Of course it isn’t. Welcome to Hell.”

Eva gave his forehead just a light tap, sending him tumbling into the darkness.

With a head-splitting smile on her face, Eva pocketed the pinky finger. His blood had come in handy before. Perhaps this would as well. No sense in tossing it, in any case.

Eva blinked as she realized something. There was no connection between her and Sawyer anymore. The moment he had disappeared through the portal, she couldn’t sense him anymore.

Which was something of a shame. Eva had been hoping to get a picture of her domain when he landed.

Oh well, she thought. Sawyer might get torn apart without his whistle, if there are enigmas down there. It would be a definite shame. Eva wanted to torture him. A lot. But if he died to enigmas, she supposed that would have to suffice. Maybe one of his necromancy books would have a guide on how to ensure that he had eternal torment.

Something to worry about later.

She was just about to close the portal when Nel shouted.

“Eva! We have a problem!”

“What is it?” Eva asked, even as she turned to seek out the problem for herself.

It didn’t take long to notice something amiss.

One of the vampires down on the ritual field was in pieces. As if someone had taken a razor-sharp cleaver from his shoulder to his waist and then severed one of his legs.

As she stared, another of the vampires just started to fall apart. An arm followed a leg. It ended with the top half of his head just sliding off the rest of his body.

“It’s the haugbui,” Nel shrieked.

“I thought you said that they couldn’t be moved.”

“I said that it cannot move. Someone moved it!”

“Des,” Eva hissed as another vampire fell to pieces. Apparently, the girl had decided that skeletons wouldn’t be enough. Or Sawyer had somehow communicated with her, telling her to bring it along.

That might explain his unwarranted confidence. He was expecting Des to show up with the haugbui. Eva didn’t know how strong the things were. Based on how it was just slicing apart the vampires without even being visible, it might have been able to slice apart even a stronger demon. Perhaps why Sawyer ‘couldn’t wait’ to see what Eva summoned.

“It’s going after the vampires because that’s what Sawyer told it to do earlier,” Eva said, glancing towards Serena. Her body was still intact, though she was still unmoving with her neck crooked. “But that probably won’t last very long at this rate. Into the portal.”

Nel’s head whipped around, eyes wide. “What? We can’t–Sawyer just–”

“It leads to my domain. Just pretend that this was intentional. Act confident.” Eva knelt down, scooping up Serena into her arms while trying to keep her head from twisting into a worse position. “Unless you want to stay and try fighting off that haugbui.”

Nel shook her head. She stepped up to the portal.

And hesitated.

Eva didn’t have this kind of time. Another vampire was being shredded behind them.

Raising a leg, Eva kicked Nel into the portal. Her sudden scream was cut off as soon as her head vanished into the darkness.

Eva jumped in without hesitation, Serena in her arms.

Eva landed within her domain with far more grace than Nel. Given that jostling Serena might kill her if she wasn’t dead already, that was probably a good thing.

The first thing that Eva noticed was the lack of any ill feelings. Every time she had shown up while Shalise had been residing inside, Eva had felt sick. The same enigma sickness that she felt around the field. It was entirely absent.

There were no tracks in the sand that might have belonged to enigmas either. They had burrowed beneath the sand before, but Eva had still felt their presence.

Eva was quite confident in declaring her domain free of enigmas. And after she had been all prepared to use Sawyer’s whistle too. At least she wouldn’t have to touch her lips to that thing.

Why it was free of enigmas was another matter entirely. She had cleared all the carcasses out after freeing Shalise from Prax. But it had been months since then. Eva had expected there to be at least some buildup.

Prax was around somewhere. Eva could feel him as clearly as she had been able to feel Zagan and the other demons during her treatment. Maybe the lack of enigmas was all his doing. Honestly, Eva hadn’t expected him to stick around for very long. Though with that doll snooping around his domain, Eva couldn’t really blame him.

Surely the doll was gone by now? Maybe he just liked the humbleness of Eva’s abode.

Shaking her head, Eva moved towards the alternate women’s ward building. Sawyer was around somewhere. She could feel him as well, though it wasn’t quite the same sense as that of Prax. If she had to guess, it was her domain providing her with information about an enemy.

Eva paused as she realized that Nel wasn’t following. Turning back, she found the augur just staring at the pitch black sky.

“They’re not going to follow us, are they?”

“As soon as I left the mortal plane, channeling magic to power the transference circle was interrupted. If that wasn’t enough, all the blood making up the portal would have fallen to the ground without me there to hold it up.”

“And she can’t make another circle?”

“If she knows how to,” Eva said with a shrug. “But she would have to know how to target my domain specifically. Otherwise she’ll wind up who-knows-where.”

Accepting that response, Nel took her eyes off the sky and looked towards the alternate women’s ward.

Eva did not miss the frown on her face as she took in the sight.

“So, this is Hell, huh?”

“You lived inside of Ylva’s domain for more than a year. You’ve been in Hell before.”

“That… it was different. I didn’t even know that it was literal Hell for the first several months. After that, it was just strange to think about,” Nel said with a shrug. “Besides, I was expecting something a little more grandiose. I didn’t realize just how attached you were to that prison.”

“I wouldn’t say that I am,” Eva said slowly. “I just needed something for Shalise to live in and this was the first thing that popped into my head.”

“Instead of a regular house or an apartment?”

Eva just shrugged. She had never really lived in either one. The closest that she came to living in a regular dwelling was the Brakket Academy dormitories. With the women’s ward fresher in her mind than anything else, it was a natural and almost subconscious choice.

Something more grandiose, as Nel had put it, would be nice. Her first thoughts on that went towards Prax’s castle. It didn’t fit Prax and Eva didn’t think that it would fit her, but it was along the right ideas.

Eva had to wonder just what Catherine’s domain looked like. Would she have a large castle as well? Eva couldn’t really imagine that for her. Maybe just a small room with a computer inside.

What about Lucy? Or Zagan?

All of them were in the mortal plane at the moment. Before she left, maybe she would go see their domains. It should be relatively safe with them absent. Zagan’s domain especially, now that she had thought of it. Surely that would be a sight to see.

Their domains might give her ideas on her own domain.

It was a thing that Eva decided that she would work on when she found some spare time. Perhaps it would start out as a few doodles in a notebook. Maybe some research into buildings and architecture on Earth. Her domain should be something more impressive and imposing that would intimidate any guests who saw it.

Guests like Sawyer.

A few steps closer to her domain and Eva started smiling. She had found Sawyer. He was present in her blood sight up ahead, just outside of the main women’s ward building.

“Come, Nel. Let’s get Serena into a bed and then have some fun.”

“Fun?”

Eva glanced over her shoulder with a grin. “Are you forgetting that I sent Sawyer through first?”

Nel’s eyes widened. She started looking around like Sawyer might jump out of nowhere and attack her.

“Don’t worry,” Eva said with a laugh. “I know exactly where he is. He won’t hurt us.”

Although Nel didn’t look entirely convinced, she gave a slow nod and followed after Eva.

When she reached the courtyard before the women’s ward, Eva spotted several trap doors in the open state. Prax was standing over one of the ones closest to the entrance, glaring into the wide-open pit.

Moving up next to him, Eva looked down inside.

Sawyer sat in the pit. He grasped at one of his legs. A long metal spike had punctured straight through from just above his ankle to his knee. His other foot had a hole in it, but he had managed to pull it off the bloody spike. Looking up to Eva as she leaned over the edge, he smiled. It didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Nimble bastard,” Prax grumbled. “Jumped over three traps before I came out. I guess I was enough to startle him into the pit.”

“Slippery as well,” Eva said. “But there is no escape this time, Sawyer. As I said before, welcome to Hell. It might not live up to the biblical tales, but I will try my best.”

With that, Eva continued on towards the women’s ward. Sawyer wouldn’t be going anywhere. Even if he managed to climb out of the hole, there was nowhere to go. He could try for the waters, but Eva doubted that he knew enough about Hell to know what the waters were. If he had, he would have run to them first and avoided her women’s ward like the plague.

If he accidentally stumbled into the waters anyway, it probably wouldn’t do him much good. The first time that she had gone anywhere, she had accidentally gone to the abattoir. In retrospect, that was probably one of the better choices. Winding up in a domain like Willie’s could have been far more unpleasant.

So, if Sawyer wanted to take his chances, Eva would wish him luck. It wouldn’t be as satisfying as torturing him herself, but other demons probably had much more experience than she did.

Eva’s focus was on Serena for the moment.

It was worrying. She still hadn’t moved the slightest bit. Eva didn’t know a thing about vampires, but this couldn’t be healthy. For all she knew, she was carrying around a corpse.

A real corpse.

Carrying Serena into her room, Eva set the vampire down on her bed. She tried to straighten her neck as much as possible in the hopes that vampire healing would work its magic. Beyond that, she had no idea what to do.

“Unless…”

Eva glanced around. Nel and Prax were both still outside, keeping an eye on Sawyer.

Alone with Serena, Eva pried open her jaw to expose her sharp fangs.

Eva’s forearms would be the easiest part of her to use, but they were covered in hard carapace up to her elbows. She tried for a moment to get her upper arms into Serena’s mouth. After a few minutes of awkwardly changing position, she gave up on that.

Eva leaned over the vampire and rested her neck inside the wide open maw. She half expected Serena to jump up and bite down of her own accord, but the vampire was still unmoving.

With a shake of her head, Eva pulled away. “What am I doing?” she mumbled to herself. “Am I a blood mage or not?”

Pulling out her dagger, Eva sliced a cut on her upper arm.

Blood started trickling down into the vampire’s mouth after a little manipulation on Eva’s part.

To create the transference circle, Eva had shed a good deal of her blood. Now she was giving up more. It probably wouldn’t be a problem. She would be a little light-headed from the anemia, but she wasn’t expecting any sort of fight in the near future. Even with Sawyer around.

The blood just pooled in the back of Serena’s mouth. She had wanted the vampire to swallow it herself, but that wasn’t looking like it was going to happen. Eva sent it all down Serena’s throat to her stomach.

Blood safely inside Serena’s stomach, Eva stepped away from the body. It still wasn’t moving, but hopefully it would just take time.

Eva was feeling somewhat guilty over not letting the vampire drink her blood before. If she was dead, she would never get to enjoy it.

But there was nothing more that she could do at the moment.

Pushing the guilt and worry from her mind, Eva put on a smile as she stepped back outside the women’s ward.

Nel, contrary to Eva’s expectations, did not appear wary of Prax in the slightest. She stood at his side with a hateful gaze locked on Sawyer. So focused was her gaze that Eva wondered if the augur had even realized that Prax was a giant, red-skinned, horned demon with muscles capable of snapping her in two if he decided he didn’t like her.

On the other hand, Prax had clearly taken notice of Nel. He was leering at her with a fanged grin just as one might expect from the spawn of a succubus.

Actually, it might have been more of a curious stare than anything nefarious. His demonic features removed a lot of the innocence from his looks. As far as Eva knew, cambions had none of the proclivities that succubi possessed. Shalise had never mentioned him being anything less than a gentleman, anyway.

That was if the rumors about succubi were true in the first place. Catherine sure didn’t fit in with the popular depiction. Sexy and easily able to draw attention, definitely. Anything beyond that still remained to be seen.

Shaking her head, Eva cleared her throat. Only Prax looked up, but that was fine. Eva waved him over.

“While I do appreciate you capturing him, I hope that you wouldn’t do that to everyone that shows up here. Some might be friends.”

“I could tell that he was not your ‘friend,'” Prax said with a sneer. “Your domain was hostile to him. So I was as well.” His sneer twisted into a grin, punctuated with a short chuckle.

“Really? Huh.” That was good to know. Of course, unless her domain had been the one to activate the trap doors, it probably hadn’t done anything aside from informing Prax. Maybe something could be set up in the event that she had future prisoners.

Prax’s deep bass voice interrupted her thoughts. She made a mental note to ask him about domain defenses later.

“I want out of here.”

“You’re free to leave,” Eva said with a shrug, intentionally misunderstanding the demon. “Were the enigmas too much for you?”

“They have not been around since you all left.”

Eva blinked in confusion. Prior to rescuing Shalise, they had been showing up with alarming regularity. Now they were just gone?

Unless it had been Shalise and Lynn that had been attracting them. In which case…

Eva’s head snapped to the side as a crack of thunder shattered the silence.

Nel, standing over the pit, had her withered arm outstretched. The glove that normally covered the arm was lying on the ground. A small trail of steam was coming off her fingertips.

Running over, Eva was glad to note that Sawyer’s heart was still beating. His right arm, the same one that had his still existing hand, had ruptured. The scarring to his blood vessels looked distinctly familiar. Eva had seen enough injuries caused by nun lightning to recognize what had happened.

Injured, but he wasn’t dead yet. Though, with the amount of blood around him, that was slightly surprising.

“Nel–”

“He deserved it.”

“I’ve no doubt about that,” Eva said, looking down at the lightning burn marks on his arm. “Why don’t we get him out of there and take him inside.”

Glancing down in the pit herself, Eva frowned. “But first,” she said as she reached behind her back. Curling her fingers around the hilt of her dagger, Eva knelt over the pit containing a certain unhappy necromancer. She dug it deep into his shoulder with all the force that she could muster.

Sawyer didn’t make a noise. In fact, he started smiling as he glanced down at the dagger.

The smile was slightly unnerving, but Eva ignored it. The more of his blood flowed over her dagger, the more he was under her control. Eva left the dagger in his chest as she stood back up. It was too late for him to grab it and use it against her. He would be dead faster than the vampire that had tried to call him.

Some of the blood that she had control of moved down to his leg and foot, blocking off circulation. Messy and it would potentially ruin the limb for all future use. Eva didn’t really care. The spike from his ankle to his knee had actually punctured through some major blood vessels. The spike itself was keeping his blood in, but that wouldn’t be the case once he got out of the pit. She only needed him alive long enough.

Eva looked up towards Prax. “Mind helping me get him out of there? No need to be careful. I’ll keep him from bleeding to death.”

Prax’s lip curled. Not quite a smile, nor a sneer. It was just him baring his teeth. With a clipped grunt, he reached into the pit and grasped Sawyer’s unstabbed shoulder. His claws dug into Sawyer’s flesh and even his bone as Prax used a single hand to yank the necromancer out of the few foot hole.

Sawyer still hadn’t made any noise.

Though it had been fading, Eva was extremely grateful that kicking Sawyer into Hell had broken the effects of her blood ritual. Sawyer looked to be in a sorry state, covered in blood and with several holes in his body. Eva had no desire to feel even a second of that sorry state.

Besides, being able to feel his pain would only ruin what she had planned for next.

Taking over for Prax, Eva dug her own claws into Sawyer’s arms and started dragging him into the women’s ward. His legs were trailing limp along the ground and he made no effort to fight against her.

And he was smiling.

Eva hated the feeling that she was missing something. The idea that he still had some card up his sleeve was preposterous. They were in Hell, Eva’s own domain. He was missing one hand, his legs were unusable, she had control over most of the blood in his body, and he had three enemies here. One of whom was a full-blooded demon.

For just a moment, Eva thought Sawyer might have convinced Prax of something in the brief time between his and Eva’s arrivals. Prax had just barely expressed a desire to leave Hell, unless Eva grossly misunderstood him. Maybe Sawyer had promised to summon him.

But then why would Prax have told her that he wanted to leave? Whatever the case, she would try to mollify him if he brought it up again. Zoe could probably summon him. Or Nel could be persuaded.

Technically, they weren’t supposed to be summoning demons. But Eva had already broken that rule. What was one more summon?

Her thoughts reassured Eva. Whatever Sawyer thought that he was planning, it wasn’t going to work.

Lacking any kind of real torture chamber in her little home, Eva just threw Sawyer right into one of the seats in her common room. She pulled her dagger out of his shoulder and sheathed it.

Enough of his blood was under her control that leaving it in wouldn’t do much more.

She did make sure to plug up the wound with hardened blood. The shoulder had many major blood vessels. He could bleed out in minutes.

Minutes would be far too fast for him. Eva wanted him to suffer.

“Comfortable,” Sawyer quipped as he settled into the chair.

“I do apologize for not being able to meet your standards in my accommodations. I hope you won’t mind.”

“It leaves something to be desired.”

“Well, I’m afraid I must disappoint further.” Eva reached out, taking hold over his ring finger and bent it straight backwards.

Sawyer didn’t appear to notice despite the sickening snap. The hand was stitched to him. It was entirely possible that he had absolutely no feeling in it, but Eva had been hoping for some sort of reaction.

Ignoring it for the moment, Eva just flashed a small grin. “All those fancy tools you had for me… I don’t have anything similar here.”

“A shame, to be sure.”

“Nonsense!” Eva dug her claws into his middle finger and crushed her hand into a fist. Not only could she hear the snapping of his bones, but also the blood and flesh that leaked out and ran over her smooth carapace. “This way is far more intimate.

“But I can’t have all the fun,” Eva said as she wiped the finger pulp off on the side of the chair. She turned around to find Nel actually shying away while eying the smear of blood on the chair. “Nel? He has a finger and a thumb left.”

The augur blanched, taking a step back.

Eva rolled her eyes. Given that she had just fired lightning at him while he was helpless and likely hadn’t provoked her, her shying away from a little harmless torture was somewhat disappointing.

Though, Eva wasn’t feeling the torture herself.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

This was to be her revenge. She finally had Sawyer helpless. Thinking back to when he had her strapped to a chair barely got Eva fired up.

Part of it was because of his smile. His failure to cry out in pain as she crushed his finger didn’t help matters. Eva wanted to hear his screams, but that wasn’t happening. The other part of it might be her mindset. It just wasn’t satisfying. Serena had her worried and being watched by the obviously squeamish Nel had her spirits dampened somewhat.

Maybe she didn’t have the inclinations to be a proper torturer.

Prax was standing back a short distance, watching with obvious disapproval on his face.

Probably thinking about how much better he could be as the torturer.

Steeling herself, Eva turned back to Sawyer with a glare. Even if she wasn’t feeling it, that was no excuse to let him off easy.

“I guess it’s just me and you right now.”

“I’d be disappointed if you handed me off to others.”

Eva gripped his hand as a whole and crushed the entire thing all at once. “You took my fingers, my toes, and my eyes. I really don’t care about your toes and your hands are mutilated enough.”

“My eyes then,” Sawyer said with a smile.

Lip curling in distaste, Eva shook her head. “Eventually.”

There was something else that she wanted to take from Sawyer more than his eyes.

Lifting up her hand, Eva moved the sharp tips of her claws towards his face no faster than particularly viscous honey flowing down a slight decline. She was hoping that the apprehension of not knowing where she was targeting would make Sawyer squirm at least a little. Unfortunately, that was a failure.

Sawyer kept his eyes locked onto Eva’s eyes, seemingly taking no notice of her hand.

An inch away from his face, Eva shot her hand forwards. Her claws found their way into his mouth. Pinching his teeth between her fingers, Eva squeezed.

Teeth were hard. That was essentially their entire purpose. For a scum of a necromancer who wound up eating dead flesh that fell into his food, Sawyer’s teeth were actually well cared for. Perhaps that was why he smiled so often; he wanted to show off all the hard work he put into his teeth.

Unfortunately for poor Sawyer, Eva’s fingers were stronger.

Shards of calcium exploded between her fingers.

The top row of Sawyer’s front teeth was just stubs and his gums.

Twisting her hand around, Eva dug her claws into the bottom of his jaw. She broke off the teeth from partway through his gums. His stumps of flesh started to fill his mouth with blood.

Eva pulled her hand out of his mouth and smiled.

“Your incessant grin looks so much better now.”

Sawyer twisted his head to one side and spat, expelling as many of the shards as he could.

When he looked back, Eva couldn’t actually tell whether or not he was trying to smile.

It was a definite improvement.

“Now that we’ve got that out of the way, what next? Nel, Prax,” Eva turned her head over her shoulder, “any ideas?”

The red demon’s scowl twisted into a grin. “If you are going for pure mutilation, there is a spot on any man which cannot be topped.”

Eva narrowed her eyes. Of course the cambion’s mind would head in that direction. Obviously she had been wrong about him being dissimilar to succubi. She did not want to touch Sawyer anywhere around there.

Although, Eva thought as she turned back to Sawyer, maybe it isn’t such a bad idea.

Sawyer’s eyes were wide. Even with his mutilated mouth, he didn’t appear to be smiling in the slightest. It was probably the first thing that actually caused a spike in his heart rate as well.

If it was the one thing that could get him to lose his cool, who was Eva to pass it up?

But she still wasn’t going to fondle him or anything resembling such an act.

Thankfully, her hands weren’t her only inhumanely strong limbs.

Lifting up a foot, Eva brought it down right on top of Sawyer’s groin. Sawyer drew in a sharp gasp as Eva crushed everything all the way to his hip bones. Grinding her foot in, Eva was almost disgusted by how his organs compressed and ruptured beneath her foot.

Blood and viscera dripped off the edges of the chair. Eva was holding most of it in, but some of the blood was outside of her control. His intestines and stomach and spleen and whatever other organs were falling out of the suddenly opened cavity were just a bit too heavy for her to contain. Not that she cared all that much about keeping it in. As long as she kept his blood circulating through any ruptures, he’d live for now.

And that’s really all Eva needed.

Sawyer started coughing. Blood and spittle flew from his mouth as his coughs shifted in tone.

Eva grit her teeth.

Sawyer was laughing.

“‘oo should haff killed me when ‘oo had the chance,” he mumbled out through his broken teeth.

“Wha–”

Eva didn’t have a chance to question what he meant.

Sawyer’s heart seized up. His eyes rolled back up in his head the moment it did so.

Using her blood magic and her control over his blood, Eva tried to force his circulation. Carrying his blood through his lungs and the empty air itself in an attempt to oxygenate it enough to keep his brain alive.

Despite her efforts, Sawyer slumped over in the chair, arms and head all falling limp as he moved.

“No,” Eva hissed.

She clenched her fists even as she stepped forward. With as much haste as she could, Eva clasped her hands on either side of his face and shoved her thumbs into his eyes. The twin orbs burst beneath the pressure of her claws, spilling blood and clear liquid all over her carapace.

Her fingers dug into his skull, burrowing through the bone until she reached his brain.

“You should have waited before killing him,” Prax said. “Let him feel the pain and humiliation a little longer.”

Eva pulled her fingers out of Sawyer’s skull, flinging blood and brain matter to the floor. “It was all too late,” she hissed. “He died before he even felt his eyes explode.”

“Died? You must have damaged the wrong spot.”

Eva shook her head. “I hit nothing. He knew he was going to die. He killed himself, taking the satisfaction away.” Turning around, Eva was about to ask Nel if she had any ideas on what happened.

The augur was lying on the ground, eyes closed.

“She passed out around the time your foot passed through his body,” Prax said with a deep grunt.

Eva just stared.

In a way, it was something of a relief. Her torturing Sawyer just hadn’t felt right. With him dead, she could rest easy. At least on the necromancy front. Des was still around, but she was just a little girl. If she carried that mummified corpse around with her constantly, she could be problematic. Between Eva, Nel, Ylva, and Zoe, they should be able to find a way to neutralize it.

For the time being, Eva just shook her head again. Leaving Nel on the floor, Eva walked off towards the shower room.

She was feeling somewhat drained. Getting the remains of Sawyer off her seemed like a good way to start feeling rejuvenated again.

Through a thin slit in a heavy metal door, Eva watched as Sawyer’s body turned to ash in a high intensity fire. Bright orange light bathed over everything around, even though the only exit for the light was the small slit that Eva watched through.

Copying the women’s ward a second time had given Eva plenty of space to create a makeshift kiln. Every scrap of Sawyer’s body was inside except for the finger that Eva had kept. Even the shards of teeth that he had spat out onto the floor.

There were still bloodstains on the floor of the alternate women’s ward, but those would be easy to take care of with some focused fire.

Eva was not willing to take the chance that he had left any surprises for anyone that might kill him. Whether that be coming back as a lich or simply some delayed zombification, it didn’t matter. Eva would be raising the intensity of her flames until not even dust remained.

The heat started with his hair. His skin blistered over, turning charcoal black. Or, just to charcoal. The muscles, soft organs, and other tissues were next. They charred over and were vaporized in the flames. The remaining skeleton started calcifying, becoming brittle and crumbling in on itself. Using a long rod, Eva shoved the remains around. Chunks of bone were still too large. Pushing everything together allowed her to focus the heat in a condensed spot.

And what a heat it was.

Though she considered herself to be quite resistant to the heat, even Eva had her limits. She stood behind one of the metal doors from the alternate women’s ward to help shield her from the heat. It was still leaking through, heating the metal before it radiated out to her, but it was enough of a buffer for the moment.

Outside of her domain, she was mostly sure that she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish such a feat. Though she was much better at her fire magic than she had been even six months ago, this kind of heat was still beyond her. The only way she was able to accomplish it now was thanks to the help of her domain. She wanted the body to burn so burn it would.

Nel stood a short distance behind Eva, well away from the metal door. She was not quite so attuned to the heat. Even the relatively low heat coming off the metal door was a bit much for her.

Since waking up from her little fainting episode, she had calmed down a good deal. Her heart was beating at a regular pace. Eva could almost feel the relief that was emanating from her smile.

Almost.

Sawyer’s passing had gone by too easily. He had been too calm. Too happy.

Like he had intended to die just then.

Eva kept expecting to keel over dead from some disease that he had released from his body specifically for screwing her over. Maybe a poison gas stored in one of his teeth that she had broken or something.

She was hoping that incinerating him would nullify whatever traps he had.

But it had been too easy. Where was his ghost to come possess her? He had to have something. Unless her domain had nullified any threat he might have posed.

Gritting her teeth, Eva put a burst of magic into her flames and turned the remains of his bones to dust.

After holding the flames for a few moments, Eva sagged back away from the door, feeling somewhat exhausted from the burst of magic. She turned to face Nel with a small sigh.

“Your white flames have undead killing properties, right?”

“They’re specialized for vampires, zombies, and liches. Other fleshy things as well.”

“Want to throw a burst of it in the room? There’s nothing left, but I’d rather be sure.”

Nel took a step forward, but stopped with a wince as soon as Eva moved to the side. “It’s really hot,” she said as she backed up a few steps.

“Well, that was the idea.” Eva continued to fuel the flames for a moment more before she ceased channeling her magic. With their source of fuel cut off, the flames died almost instantly.

The heat remained, still radiating off the door.

Eva took a minute to imagine the room as some kind of refrigerator in an attempt to get her domain to cool it faster. Of course, it didn’t work. Her domain only followed her wants when she didn’t actually intend for them to happen.

Though it did build the second alternate women’s ward building, so that was nice of it.

It would be nicer if she could figure out how it worked.

For the time being, Eva just stepped away from the room. “It will be a few minutes,” she said. Nel’s fire probably wouldn’t matter anyway. There was nothing left in the room.

Nel nodded slowly before backing away to the windows. “How are we getting out of this place?”

“When I first came here, Arachne was able to carry me out when she returned with her beacon. I have a beacon at the real women’s ward, so there’s no problem in getting you out.”

The real problem was that a good portion her things were still in the motel in Idaho. Including one of her few books on blood magic.

If Zoe had returned during Eva’s trip, she might be able to teleport to the motel and collect the things. The vampires would probably not be too happy about half their number dying to the haugbui. They might try to collect her things. If they actually destroyed her things, Eva might have a new target to exact vengeance upon. She didn’t have enough blood magic books to lose the one.

Even if it was the one with that horrible sensory sharing spell.

Of course, Des might have brought the haugbui into town as some sort of revenge against the vampires if she was unaware of Eva’s actions. That would depend on there being some sort of communication between Sawyer and Des. If she did go on a crusade against the vampires, it would be nice for Eva. Des wouldn’t know about her hotel room or any of the items within. Unfortunately, returning while the haugbui was still around town could be suicide.

Nel would be able to scry out the place and see. Or not, if Des was still around, but at least they would know one way or the other.

Something to consider once they got back and found out for certain just what was going on. In the meantime, Nel had been saying something that Eva hadn’t been paying attention to in the slightest.

She was standing with her hands clasped in front of her stomach and her face waiting expectantly for an answer.

Eva had no idea what to tell her. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“When are we leaving?”

“As soon as you finish burning the body. I’ll take you back. You’ll need to accept a beacon from me so that I can come back and grab Serena.”

That was another concern. The vampire was still unconscious. On a more positive note, Eva believed that she was not actually dead. The blood within Serena’s stomach had started to move about her body. When she had checked before incinerating Sawyer, there had been no visible signs of healing, but hopefully that would come after a short time.

Nel apparently didn’t hear a word past the first sentence. She stepped around Eva, wincing lightly at the heat still coming off the door. Even still, she walked right up to it with her eyes aglow. Holding her hand a short distance from the slit in the door, she begun to unleash a wave of fire.

Eva took a step back and watched as the room filled with the flames of the Elysium Order.

After Nel pulled her hand away from the door, white fire belched forth from the slit for another few moments before it died off. It was a nice sight to see. Nel had passed out during the torture session, but she looked satisfied with the outcome.

Her hands were down at her side, resting lightly by her hips. The smile on her face was small and content.

Eva decided to smile as well. There was no reason not to aside from that bad feeling about Sawyer. It was probably just a bit of paranoia.

After all, there was nothing left of Sawyer’s body but a finger. Even if he was still alive and wound up possessing his finger–or whatever–Eva really didn’t have anything to fear. What could a finger possibly do to her.

And if he did come back, his finger and the blood contained within could very well be another weapon against him. As much as she had hated it, being able to spy on him had come in quite handy.

“That’s that. Can we go now?”

Eva opened her mouth to respond, but a deeper voice interrupted.

“Not yet.”

Prax stood in the doorway, his entire bulk blocking the way.

Eva eyed him with crossed arms. He didn’t look like he was about to attack, but she only knew of him from Shalise. They had hardly spoken more than twice. Once right after he had been ejected from Shalise and again just before torturing Sawyer. His temperaments, goals, motivations, and everything else were complete unknowns to her.

“You wanted out of here? I assume that you mean to Earth.”

With a short grunt of affirmation, Prax gave a glacial nod of his head. “That is correct.”

“You do realize that Zagan is out there, right? Last time I checked, he was not all that enthused with you. Something about locking you up himself? Or killing you. I can’t remember.”

She had been a bit preoccupied with Genoa at the time.

“I was locked in a cell, chained to a wall for centuries. Being able to walk around is a mild improvement.” Veins bulged in his arms as his fists tightened. “I am still trapped in this… this Hell.”

“You’re free right now. You don’t have to stay here. I’m sure the doll has left your domain by now. Otherwise, you can go anywhere. If Zagan drags you back to your cell, that won’t be the case any longer.”

Prax narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You do not understand. Nothing here is free.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly through his nose. “I’ll take my chances with Zagan.”

“Alright,” Eva said with a shrug. “I don’t care if you’re here, locked up, or outside. Tell Nel how to summon you.”

“What?” The augur started at being addressed. “Me? But I–”

“There was a girl in the prison with Shalise,” Prax said. “She called herself your friend.”

“Juliana?”

“She promised to summon and contract with me.”

“I haven’t seen her in a few months,” Eva said with a frown. “With the injuries her mother sustained, she took off the last half of school and went to be with her family. If she was supposed to do something, I don’t know a thing about it.”

And I doubt that her family would be pleased to hear about such a promise.

“But if you tell Nel how to summon you, I’m sure we could find someone willing to do it if Juliana can’t be reached.”

There was a low grumble from the back of Prax’s throat, but after a moment, he nodded.

“I’ll check up on Serena in the meantime.”

Rather than wait for Prax to move out of the way, Eva just blinked straight past him to appear in the sand between the kiln building and the women’s ward. Behind her, Nel’s heart rate spiked as Prax moved closer to her. Eva waited just a moment to ensure that Prax wasn’t going to attack the augur. As soon as they started talking, Eva blinked the rest of the way to the women’s ward.

Arriving in her room, Eva found Serena to be in mostly the same position as she had left the vampire in.

Mostly.

She had left the vampire’s arms at her sides. Now, one arm was up and across her stomach. While it was possible that Prax had moved her arm while Sawyer was being incinerated, Eva couldn’t come up with a good reason why he would do such a thing. So, Serena must have moved it herself.

“Are you still alive?” Eva asked as she walked up to the side of the bed.

While remaining otherwise still, the vampire’s eyes snapped open. Muscles in her back tensed for just a moment before relaxing as if she were trying to sit up.

That was something of a relief. At least she wasn’t dead.

“Your neck is probably still broken, but you’re safe here. Welcome to Hell,” Eva said with a smile.

—

Bringing Nel back had been something of a sordid affair. While Eva had grown quite used to traveling between the mortal realm and Hell, she had not often brought a person with her. Humans could exit through Ylva’s domain without drawing ire from the Keeper, so they did without hesitation. It was easier for everyone that way.

While bringing Nel back, Eva had just about dropped her in the middle of transit. She had no idea what would have happened had she done so. Nothing good, most likely.

Aside from that little mishap, everything went well. Eva had warned Nel that there might be some discomfort. Frankly, she had been expecting Nel to wind up like Sister Cross. Flayed or crispy, possibly both. But neither had happened.

Which made sense. Eva never suffered any ill effects while using her beacon to return to Earth. Only while teleporting from one point on Earth to another.

It made her wonder if she was doing something wrong. It wasn’t something that she talked about with others, aside from Arachne. And Arachne either couldn’t or wouldn’t teleport on her own, so she wasn’t much of an authority on the matter.

Regardless, returning to her domain had been somewhat awkward as well. Normally, she passed through Ylva’s domain to get to her own. Lacking that, Eva was left with trying to banish herself. She had done so immediately after losing her eyes to Sawyer when he had first captured her. That had been entirely an accident. The intended goal had been to teleport herself away.

Replicating that had turned out to be something of a chore. She had kept teleporting instead of banishing herself.

But, she had eventually got it figured out. Having no particular destination in mind helped a great deal.

“Alright,” Eva said as she rested against the edge of Serena’s bed. “It’s daylight back out in the real world. I could have put up blankets over the windows in the gate room, but I figured that you probably shouldn’t be moving much just yet anyway.”

Serena just stared at the ceiling. Her eyes blinked a few times, but she didn’t try to speak.

Which was probably for the best. Moving too much might disrupt her healing.

“So, we’ve got about twelve hours. You just focus on healing. I don’t know if you can speed it up or not, but try anyway. I’d much rather have you whole and hearty when it is time to go.”

Again, Serena didn’t respond.

Hopefully there wasn’t something else wrong with her. Brain damage or something. Could vampires get brain damage? Their brains weren’t any more alive than the rest of them.

“I would stay with you, but there are a few things that I want to check out while I’m here in Hell. Don’t worry about anything, you’re perfectly safe here.”

Pushing herself off the bed, Eva walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Prax wouldn’t enter outside of an emergency. Eva had already spoken with him. If he did try something, Eva would ensure that Juliana knew not to summon him.

It was a good thing that he was here. If he wasn’t, Eva wouldn’t be able to leave. There had been no enigmas since all the humans got out of her domain, according to Prax. If humans, or residents of the mortal plane, were the things that drew enigmas to Hell, then Serena or herself could have plenty showing up in a short amount of time.

Since he was here, Eva was free to do a little exploring. She had no real reason to do so, it was purely to satisfy her own curiosity.

Walking off into the waters at the edge of her domain, Eva had just one thing in mind.

Catherine, the lesser succubus.

What must her domain look like?

No sense speculating. She was about to find out.

Submerging her head beneath the water, Eva concentrated on Catherine. It didn’t take long before she felt the familiar pull as she was whisked through Hell towards Catherine’s domain.

The water around Eva vanished, replaced by air. The fall wasn’t very long. She quickly found herself sinking into something soft and cushy.

Looking around, Eva found pillows. Tons of pillows atop a large bed. Not quite as large as the one in Ylva’s domain, but relatively close.

Ylva’s bed had a minimalistic look to it. The impressive part of it was the size, not the colors and patterns.

Picking up one of the pillows, Eva gave it a light squeeze. It was actually somewhat rough. Definitely not a modern pillow. The rectangular shape, lacy trim, and floral patterns were somewhat tacky. Maybe something from a century or two ago?

Not what Eva would have expected from the well-dressed and tech-minded succubus that she knew. Then again, if she hadn’t been summoned in a century, maybe it made sense. When her current contract was over and done with, perhaps she would come back and update everything to be a bit more modern.

Rolling off the bed, Eva got to her feet and looked around the area as a whole.

She was standing atop some sort of raised tower. Tower might be too tall of a word, but there was a decently sized staircase leading down to the main area. Another staircase led off below the main area, adjacent to where the tower’s staircase ended. The steps dipped below the surface of black colored water.

A large red windmill towered over a smaller rectangular building. To the side was a metal elephant, at least twice as large as a regular elephant. Probably more. It looked like there was some sort of room inside. There were definitely windows looking out the front and sides.

The actual main building appeared to be made from brick and stone. There wasn’t any paint, though the red bricks matched the red-painted windmill.

Nothing really matched the iron elephant.

Walking down the steps, Eva wasn’t sure what to think. It was definitely a place. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around the windmill or elephant and why they were here. They didn’t exactly scream succubus. Then again, neither had Prax’s castle.

Placing her hand on the handle of the door, Eva paused. Did she really want to go in?

Well, yeah, I do.

But, would Catherine appreciate it? Probably not. Who knew what kind of stuff she had hidden inside that she wouldn’t want other people to see.

If she liked Catherine any less than she did, Eva would have damned the consequences and gone in. Instead, she removed her hand from the door without opening it. Taking a few steps backwards, Eva just looked over the buildings once again.

Eva turned away with a shake of her head. “I don’t get it.”

Maybe that was the point. There wasn’t anything to get. The decor was just something that Catherine liked. Or maybe something from Earth during one of the times when she had been summoned that she fancied.

Walking down the steps towards the waters, Eva considered her next destination.

Lucy was a demon that had never once been summoned before. While Catherine’s windmill and elephant could have been heavily influenced by things that she had seen while summoned, Lucy’s domain shouldn’t have anything like that. It would be completely uninfluenced by anything in the mortal realm.

With how excitable the demon was about everything on Earth, Eva wasn’t expecting all that much. Perhaps a flat featureless plane or the simple island with a tree that Eva’s domain had started out as.

Dipping her head beneath the water, Eva waited for the gripping sensation to pull her off to Lucy’s domain.

Almost immediately, she found herself falling through the air. The fall was already taking much longer than it had in Catherine’s domain. It took a little bit of effort to avoid panicking. If there was nothing soft beneath her, she would be in for a hard landing.

Worse, everything was dark. She couldn’t see anything. For all Eva knew, there was nothing to land on, hard or soft. She would just be falling forever.

Turns out that her fears were unfounded. Almost as soon as she considered trying to blink to some kind of ground even without being able to see, something caught her.

It wasn’t that she landed on something.

Something literally caught her out of the sky, moving downwards just enough to dampen her speed before bringing her to a stop.

Eva let out a slight sigh of relief before feeling whatever it was that had caught her move slightly. It didn’t just move all at once. Thousands of things moved against her back. It was as if she were lying on a bed of snakes.

Or tentacles.

The latter made much more sense.

Except she couldn’t see any blood inside the things. Though her body didn’t resemble a human beyond the superficial, Lucy still had blood that Eva could perceive. This thing didn’t.

Scrambling to her feet, Eva tried to move. Something–tentacles–caught on her foot. With a slight yelp, she started tipping forwards.

Only to be caught again. Something slithered around her waist before latching out to her arms.

Eva wasn’t about to stick around to find out what would happen next. Her arms and her legs burst into flames. The tentacles holding onto her quickly retreated save for the one around her waist. Clawing at it resolved that situation.

Thankfully, the glow from her fire illuminated the area. She could actually see what was around her.

The writhing and squirming tentacles surrounding her were not what she wanted to see. Long and thick tubes of flesh curled around the ground, far thicker than any one of Lucy’s tentacles. At least there were no eyes or mouths. They were all coated in some sheen that glistened against the light.

Looking down, Eva found some of clear ooze around her shirt where the tentacle had grabbed hold. She couldn’t risk any sort of toxicity seeping in through her skin. With her hands still on fire, Eva carefully burned off most of her shirt. It took a bit of care to not get any of the gunk on her skin, but eventually she managed. She had nothing on from the chest down.

Both of her hands and her legs were clean of any ooze. The fire coating her carapace was enough to burn it off.

There was a small bubble of space around her that was clear of any tentacles, but they swirled around her as if looking for any weakness in the light.

As the light danced across the moving worms on the ground, Eva’s breathing started to pick up. Light moved one way while the tentacles moved another. It blurred together to create a nauseating illusion of motion despite Eva’s feet being firmly planted on the solid ground.

The all-encompassing darkness beyond the small ring of light weighed down on her. Even flaring the brightness didn’t serve to penetrate the darkness any further.

Absolute silence did not help matters. Eva could hear nothing but her own heart beating and her increasingly ragged breath. Though the ground had a foot-thick layer of tentacles squirming across it, they made not even the slightest sound.

This was a terrible idea.

Taking a deep breath, Eva stepped forwards.

The tentacles in front of her retreated further back.

That was good. As long as they kept their distance, everything would be just fine.

Eva reared back and threw a few balls of fire. Each one exploded into a bright flare high above the ground level, providing some extra light all around.

Three out of four directions, there was nothing but tentacles on the ground.

Off in the distance, there was some kind of structure. Eva could just barely see some light from her flares glinting off it. It was crooked and twisted. Probably not a building. Maybe some kind of natural formation. At least, as natural as one could get down in Hell.

Her first thought was to head towards it.

Looking around at the mass of tentacles writhing along the floor, Eva decided that she had lost all of her curiosity towards this place. If she really wanted to know, she would come back with Lucy as a guide.

Water so still that it could have been mistaken for a sheet of glass encompassed most of the direction opposite from the structure. That looked to be the safer direction, so Eva started walking.

Slowly.

Trying to pretend that she didn’t see the larger shadows that moved around at the edge of her ring of fire.

One of those shadows came just a little too close.

A flesh-colored mass roughly the size and shape of a human was in Eva’s sight for less than a second before it retreated back to the shadows. Goosebumps spread across her skin as she tried to make sense of what she saw. She took a subconscious step away from the thing.

Its pale flesh was dotted with thousands of holes. Tiny black circles that Eva’s light failed to illuminate. They were clustered together. Some in large groups, others scattered across the surface like stars in the nights sky. There was no organization, or order or rhyme or reason. They were just there.

As the thing retreated, it turned ever so slightly. As if a person was looking over their head.

Yet there were no eyes. No mouth. Just more of the tiny holes clustered together without any real pattern.

That second was all Eva needed to know that she never wanted to return again, with or without Lucy’s guidance.

With an unnatural panic, Eva gathered fireballs into her hands. She started throwing them at the ground between herself and the water. As the tentacles ahead of her began retreating from the bursts of flames, Eva started running.

She didn’t stop until she dove into the water head first.

There was a slight pulling sensation in the pit of her stomach before she found herself gently gliding down to the sandy beach within her domain.

She had been intending to visit Zagan’s domain. It would probably be more like Ylva’s or Catherine’s domains, but Eva really wasn’t about to take the chance. Maybe some day, but for the moment, she was just relieved to be landing back in someplace familiar.

Eva didn’t move. She stood on the sand, taking deep breaths that she let out slowly.

It took her a few moments to realize that there was still a sickly sensation in her stomach, but it wasn’t from Lucy’s domain.

It was the same sensation as what she felt from enigmas.

With one last deep breath, Eva started towards the women’s ward. She took care in keeping watch for anything that might have burrowed beneath her.

Nothing jumped out at her.

Several of the trap doors were opened wide, each had at least one enigma inside. Eva counted up a mere four before she reached the doors.

Prax was standing just inside, saying something about how everything was more peaceful before she had showed up. Eva shook her head and waved him off without fully comprehending whatever it was that he was saying.

Sinking down into a chair in her common room, Eva spent a moment just shuddering.

It took most of the rest of the day for Eva to finally shake herself out of her stupor. After having a few minutes to calm down, Lucy’s domain probably hadn’t been the worst thing ever. It was close, but not the worst.

The tentacles weren’t even that bad. Eva could stand tentacles. That monster covered in holes on the other hand…

Another shudder wracked Eva’s body at the thought. Whatever it was, Eva wouldn’t mind never seeing it again.

At the moment, Eva was assuming both the tentacles and the monster–if they were even separate entities–to be a part of Lucy’s domain. Some constructs that she had created. Perhaps out of a desire for company, she had created a companion that was like her self and another that was the inverse of herself.

But if they weren’t created by Lucy… if they were attackers or invaders, then Lucy should probably be made aware of their presence. It could be a new type of enigma. Or even another demon. Whatever the case was, Eva hoped that Lucy wouldn’t be too upset with the brief tour of her domain that she had taken.

As unnerving as the domain had been, Lucy was still a genuinely decent demon to interact with. Sure, she was a bit strange, but who among Eva’s acquaintances wasn’t at least a little abnormal.

“I think I’m alright now.”

Eva turned her head from the window of her alternate women’s ward. Watching the sand and the dark sea had been a calming sort of meditation. But now, duty called.

One of those strange acquaintances stood in the doorway to the bedroom, rubbing the back of her neck. Eva couldn’t rank exactly how strange; Serena was either a highly ranked oddity or a fairly normal person with a few eccentricities. The fact that Eva couldn’t decide probably meant that she deserved a higher ranking than Eva was giving her credit for.

More important than some arbitrary rank of strangeness was the notion that perhaps they were more than simple acquaintances now. They had just gone on a long road trip and fought together. The fighting part had actually happened twice now.

A quick crack echoed through the air, interrupting Eva’s line of thought.

Serena had her head twisted to one side. One hand was on the back of her head while the other gripped her chin. As Eva watched, she twisted her head to the other side, releasing another sharp crack. Rolling her head from side to side, the vampire gave a short nod.

“Much better.”

“I’m glad to see you on your feet again. You had me worried for a while.”

Hands dropping to her hips, Serena put on a grin that wouldn’t be out of place on a child that had just learned that they were off to The Happiest Place On Earth.

Eva had never actually been to any amusement parks despite living most of her life only a stone’s throw away from two of the largest ones. She had, however, attended public schooling. Other classmates would often talk about their recent or upcoming vacations. As such, she had plenty of experience in recognizing that particular look.

“Aww,” Serena cooed. “I’m so happy that you were worrying for me.”

Ignoring the blood that she both saw and felt as it rushed to her cheeks, Eva just put on a small smile of her own. “Careful. Things work differently down here. Your inflated ego might just literally make your head balloon up.”

The vampire gave a light snort of laughter as she walked up to the window. All that was outside was sand, water, and the empty black sky.

“So this is Hell, huh? A lot less fire and brimstone than I had pictured.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of areas full of brimstone. As for fire, well, you missed Sawyer’s body being incinerated. It was quite the spectacular show.”

“If it is all the same to you, I’d prefer not being around too much fire.”

“Fair enough,” Eva said as she took a good look at Serena.

Despite her neck having been crooked not long ago, she couldn’t see anything wrong either externally or internally. Well, nothing wrong aside from the fact that Serena was dead to her sense of blood. Interestingly enough, Eva couldn’t sense any blood within her stomach. Given that the other vampires who had partaken in the drinking of her blood had still had some remaining even a few days later, it was something to note. Perhaps consuming the blood had assisted in her healing.

Rather than wallow in ignorance, Eva shook her head and decided to just ask.

“You’re fully healed then?”

“Mostly,” Serena said as she cricked her neck back and forth, eliciting two sharp snaps at either extreme. “I can’t say that having my neck broken like that is one of my more pleasant experiences as a vampire.”

“I imagine not. You did recover fast. Was that thanks to my blood?”

The vampire gave a slow nod as she licked the edges of her lips. “Blood always accelerates healing. I wasn’t really in a state to tell if your blood made healing faster or slower than normal. And,” she licked her lips again, “I wasn’t even in a lucid enough state to enjoy it.”

Serena reached one hand behind her neck and started rubbing. “I don’t think I’m quite healed all the way. I’m sure a little more blood would get that taken care of in the blink of an eye.”

Eva fixed the vampire with a mild glare. Her tone indicated a jest, but her eyes had a hungry glint in them.

“Maybe another time,” Eva said slowly. “Between feeding you and the blood I shed for the transference circle, I’m about a pint away from real lethargy and headaches.”

Serena stuck out her lips in a pout. The hunger behind her puppy-dog eyes really betrayed the effect.

Eva ignored the vampire. She gave a quick glance towards a watch that she had borrowed. It should be plenty dark out at the real women’s ward building.

“If you’re ready, we can head back to the real world.”

“So soon?” Serena turned from Eva to look back out the window. “Nothing to explore around Hell?”

It took a force of will to suppress a light shudder. “Not much, I’m afraid. You can see a full half of my domain from where we stand. The other half isn’t all that different. Visiting other demons’ domains is not a good idea.”

“What about the other demon? The big red one?”

“Prax?” Eva shrugged. “You could talk to him I guess, but he might be up on Earth soon enough. He’d be available for talking then, I’d imagine.”

Serena’s smile and general happy demeanor took a downward turn partway through Eva’s explanation. “Wayne will probably be quite upset with me for going on our little vacation. He’s left me be for the past while, but this will probably change that. I’ll have to go back home once he finds me.”

“What,” Eva started with a frown, “he locks you up or something?”

“I’m free to do whatever I want.” Serena’s voice was firm. “He doesn’t like things that could draw attention to his sister. I’ll comply with his demands, even if I’d rather do something else. Wayne, Zoe, and Sarah helped me out of more than a few sticky situations in the past decade or so. It’s the least I can do to repay them.”

Eva crossed her arms as she shifted her weight to one foot. The other foot started tapping lightly on the ground as her frown deepened.

That wasn’t fair. She had just started to like Serena. Now Wayne was going to drag her off?

Eva’s foot ceased tapping as a thought occurred to her. “How about if I give you something to draw out inside your house that will let me teleport to you? Then we could at least see each other once in a while. It can be attuned to me specifically, so no one else will be able to use it.”

If she had a gate room in her house, Eva could teleport there quite easily. With her new cellphone that she had liberated from the traitorous vampire, they could probably keep in touch at the very least.

“Maybe,” she said with a solemn nod of her head. “I’ll have to clear it with Wayne. It is his house.”

That ruined Eva’s bettering mood. Wayne did not particularly like her, she could tell. “Maybe speaking about it with Zoe first would be for the best?”

“She would be in a better position to convince him than I am.” Serena shifted, smiling again. “In the mean time, mind if I speak with this Prax guy? It is a rare occasion that I get to meet such fascinating creatures and I didn’t get much conversation in with the demons at your little party the other day.”

Eva shrugged. With a second glance at her watch, she said, “I’m sure you can spend a while talking. There are a good few hours before daybreak.”

“Splendid!” Serena said, already half out the door.

Eva hadn’t mentioned where Prax was, but it wouldn’t surprise her to find that a vampire could sniff him out.

In the mean time, it gave Eva the opportunity to clean up those enigma carcasses.

Hopefully, she and Serena would be gone before any more showed up. Without either of them here, things would go back to how they were with only Prax around.

—

“You stole my truck.”

Eva had just finished setting Serena down on the ground when Devon charged into the room.

His face lined in a scowl did not give him a happy look. He took two menacing steps forward, sending Eva backwards an equal number of steps.

“And you didn’t bring it back.”

“There’s a very good reason for all of that,” Eva said, holding up her hands in front of her. “And I have to go back for it anyway.”

Though she wished she could leave it behind. When she had considered the idea of having Zoe teleport her out to the motel to pick up the things that she had left behind, Eva had not even considered the truck. It would be so much easier if she could teleport out and teleport back. If Serena didn’t come along, they would be able to drive back during the daytime. That would probably cut the travel time down to a day and a half at the very most, depending on how many stops they made.

Convincing Zoe to teleport Eva out there was one thing. It would take a half hour at most to gather the book and other things that had been left. Zoe wouldn’t have needed to stay. Eva could teleport herself back without assistance.

Convincing her to teleport out there and then return by car might be a good deal more difficult.

But that was a concern for at least a half hour from now.

Eva had an angry Devon to placate before then.

“You stole it in the first place, didn’t you?”

“That’s beside the point,” he snapped. “How am I supposed to cart things around without my truck?”

“Get a new one then. It can’t be that hard to steal another truck. Look how easy it was to steal yours.”

Behind Eva, Serena pressed a hand to her mouth as she started shaking in silent humor. The silent part did not last long, but Devon didn’t even move as the soft giggles filled the air.

Eva ignored the vampire. Serena was probably making herself invisible to his senses or some other thing that Eva wished she could do.

“And, it was for a good cause.”

“I am not a charity.”

“Sawyer is dead.”

There was a pause. Devon pulled back from his slightly threatening stance to stand straight up. For almost a full minute, he stared. His dark eyes bored into hers.

“I don’t even know who that is.”

Eva let out a long sigh, ignoring the vampire’s outburst of giggles. “He’s the necromancer. You know, the one that stabbed me in the back, cut off my fingers, and gouged out my eyes?”

Realization dawned across Devon’s lightly scarred face. “Ah. He had a name?”

“I can say with absolute certainty that I’ve told you before.”

Devon waved his tentacle off to one side. “Lots of people tell me lots of names. I can’t be bothered to remember them all.”

“Sawyer was kind of important.”

“To you.”

Eva glared. Sawyer had been a personal target for a number of reasons, but that didn’t mean that everyone else didn’t also benefit from his death. He wouldn’t attack Brakket Academy again, Devon wouldn’t have to worry about her getting a cursed dagger in her back, Nel was safe, and, most of all, he was no longer doing anything with enigmas. She might have gone to Hell a few times, but that was nothing compared to the number of enigmas that Sawyer had.

If Devon and Ylva’s theories were correct, that could only be a good thing.

But Eva didn’t give voice to her thoughts. Were she speaking to Zoe or Wayne, she would have. They might have listened and changed their opinion. She knew Devon too well. He wouldn’t care much about any of her reasonings. Brakket and Nel could burn for all he cared, Eva wouldn’t have to worry about being attacked if she didn’t stick her neck out, and… well, he might be concerned about Hell. At the moment, Eva couldn’t say whether he cared more about that or his truck.

With a exasperated sigh, Eva shook her head. “I don’t suppose you know if Zoe is back from her trip? She can help recover your truck.” Eva paused, waiting for an answer. A thought occurred to her before Devon could respond. “Zoe is a professor at Brakket Academy. She’s got brown hair down to the bottom of her chin, wears a suit most of the time, and spends a lot of time here–”

“I know who she is,” Devon snapped.

“Good! Is she back yet?”

“How should I know? I’m not her minder.” He turned away, sinking his hands—rather, his hand and his tentacle—into the pockets of his long coat. Eva followed him out into the common room with Serena at her back. “Though, someone was skulking about the place yesterday.”

“Who?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t go check. Someone you know. Unless your wards in this place have failed again.”

“They haven’t.” Eva could say that with certainty. Based on her own blood, the wards in the prison were essentially an extension of herself. She could feel them wrapping around her and everything else around.

So, perhaps Zoe had shown up. Who else would have visited her? Catherine, Ylva, Zagan, and everyone else that Eva could think up would have known that she was off on a road trip. Except Wayne.

He wouldn’t have been looking for Eva. Serena would have been his target.

But if they were back, that was good news. She would have to have Nel find Zoe.

When she had dropped Nel off at the gate within her new dormitory room at Brakket Academy, she had asked the augur to see if she could find out where Des was. Whether that meant actually being able to see her or merely a dark spot, Eva really didn’t care. Asking her to find Zoe had slipped her mind.

Going to Nel would cut down on a lot of intermediary nonsense. Then she could be off to grab Devon’s stupid truck and the rest of her things. Getting it out of the way would be for the best.

“Bring my damn truck back or I swear…” He trailed off with a sorry shake of his head. “Just bring it back. It’s a pain to move things around by hand.”

“What are you moving around?”

“Chalk, mostly. I’ve been going through a lot of it lately. Buying in bulk is much easier than small boxes of sticks.”

“For ritual circles?” Eva asked. Receiving a clipped nod in response, she let out a short hum. “Still working with Catherine?”

Devon narrowed his eyes. “Haven’t seen it in a day or so. Something going on at the city. But the succubus has the occasional decent idea and knows its way around a ritual circle.”

“Better be careful. That could almost be interpreted as praise for a demon.”

Harrumphing, Devon stormed up to the door. “Just get my truck back.”

Eva did not follow him as he left the women’s ward. Rather, she went back to her room and placed the cursed dagger on top of her dresser. It was far too dangerous to just carry around anywhere she went. If the stone-like sheath ever failed, it would be far too easy to get accidentally cursed by its blade.

As she placed it on top of her dresser, she let out a short sigh of disappointment.

She hadn’t even had the chance to use it on Sawyer. After torturing him, that was how she had wanted to end his life. A certain cruel irony. He had stolen even that from her.

“So,” Serena said from the doorway. She couldn’t actually step into the room as it ran off separate wards that only Eva and Arachne were keyed into. “What do you suppose is going on back at the city? That demon seemed far too excited about the rituals to skip researching them for anything small.”

Eva raised an eyebrow as she slung off her backpack. There were still a few vials of demon blood left, including one from Zagan. That was a nice positive. It was always good to have a supply of quality blood.

With the load off her back, Eva focused on Serena’s question. “Nothing good, I bet.” Far from it, in fact. Hopefully it wouldn’t be another mass attack. “This is Brakket City after all. At least whatever is causing the disturbance isn’t Sawyer. Probably.”

“Probably?”

“He died too easily. There has to be some last minute middle finger to the face. Maybe he set up some plague or zombie apocalypse to go off in Brakket in the event of his death.”

“You seem… calm about that prospect.”

“Brakket has been attacked once or twice before. With all the demons running around, I’d be surprised if whatever situation that had cropped up wasn’t already resolved. Aside from that, I did drop Nel off at Brakket and didn’t see any fires outside the dormitory window. It can’t be that bad.

“Still, I suppose that I should go check it out.”

“You can’t leave me behind,” Serena said with a half pout. Her tone lost its playfulness and became far more serious. “If something has happened and Wayne is in trouble, I should be at his side right away.”

Eva turned to glance outside, but the thick blankets covering the windows of the common room impeded her efforts. She still knew roughly what time it was. Her watch worked fine whether the windows were covered or not.

“It will be daylight soon.” Her and Prax’s conversation had occupied much of the night.

“I am aware, but I still can’t do nothing. If the sun does rise, I will be able to find some closet to hide away in.”

“If you’re sure.” Eva couldn’t claim to have spent too much effort in saving Serena from the haugbui, but it would still be somewhat depressing if she just went and accidentally burned to death in the sunlight after all they had been through.

“Do you have a quick way of moving about? I was planning on teleporting to the gate in my dorm room. I’d offer you a ride, but the last human I brought with me looked like they had fallen into an industrial grade paper shredder. You aren’t human, but I still don’t know how pleasant it would be.”

“That human lived, right?”

Hesitating ever so slightly, Eva nodded her head. “Yes.”

“I’ll be fine. Besides,” she paused for just a moment to lick her lips, “if I do wind up severely injured…”

“Then I’ll throw you in some closet while I take a look around,” Eva said with a false smile. Deliberately injuring herself just to get some blood was less than endearing. She probably would give Serena blood if it came down to it, but she wouldn’t have to like it.

“So meaan.”

“Yep. Now come here, hold on tight, and don’t let go.”

Serena came up to Eva and wrapped her arms around in a tight hug. Slightly shorter than Eva, her head was nuzzled right beneath Eva’s chin. She drew in a deep breath through her nose.

For a moment, Eva worried that she might bite down. She didn’t, but it was still somewhat creepy.

Gathering her magic, Eva teleported.

The familiar screams and meat grinding filled Eva’s head. She waited with clenched teeth, preparing for and expecting the incineration of her non-chitinous flesh. It and the fact that she needed an exit gate were really the only two downsides to her method of teleportation.

So long as she had a gate, it was far superior to Zoe and Wayne’s teleportation.

As the teleportation continued, Eva realized that something was off. There was pain. Not much, but it was there. Rather than her flesh burning off until there was nothing left but bones, boils formed on her skin. They spread, charring the skin until it flaked off like ash. Muscles were exposed without the skin.

The effect didn’t go much deeper than that. It tried, but the pain just slid off her muscles.

It also afforded her a good view of her muscles. Much like her tongue, they had darkened considerably since the last time that she had teleported. Not quite to the same black void that her blood was at, but a very definite dark gray.

Until she had teleported with Lynn Cross, Eva had thought that all the pain and effects that she experienced during teleportations were mere illusions. When she emerged from the teleportation, she was always undamaged.

After seeing Lynn’s flayed body, she had altered that theory. What she was seeing was most likely real. Were she to slice off strips of her skin in the real world, she imagined that she would find the same sight.

As long as her body continued to function, Eva didn’t much care that the insides had changed colors. Devon might find it interesting. She made a mental note to tell him the next time she saw him.

Turning her attention to Serena, Eva found the vampire holding it together much better than Lynn had. Her skin was trying to fall apart and burn off, but with her teeth grit together hard enough to give worry for their integrity, Serena managed to overpower the damage through her vampiric healing.

It wouldn’t last forever. Small chunks of flesh flew off from her body to join with the fleshy walls of the teleportation tunnel around them. Every piece that managed to escape her body was ever so slightly larger than the previous one.

Lucky for Serena, she didn’t have to last forever. Not even half of forever.

Just as Eva was wondering what was taking the teleport so long compared to normal, the flesh walls and screams vanished. They both reappeared at the foot of Eva’s bed within her new dorm room.

Serena collapsed to her knees immediately. All the strength that she had been using to hold on to Eva vanished. The only reason that she wasn’t gasping for breath was because she was a vampire. She had as much need for oxygen as Eva had need for blood.

For drinking blood, that is.

Aside from small chunks of flesh missing from around her body, Serena looked mostly fine.

Looked.

There was definitely something wrong.

Her head turned upwards with a sharp snap. All of the barely concealed hunger that Eva had felt from the vampire ever since they had first met was on full display. Her lips pulled back to reveal sharp fangs hanging out of her wide open mouth.

“Whoa.”

Both Eva and Serena snapped their heads to look at the source of the voice on the opposite side of the room.

Juliana stood next to her bed, gaping open mouthed at the vampire.

Through her blood sight, Eva saw the vampire’s muscles tense.

She didn’t wait around to see what would happen. Swinging her arm down, Eva gripped the vampire by the throat. She threw her entire weight behind slamming the vampire down against the floor.

Closing her eyes to avoid any hypnotism or mind tricks, Eva pulled her dagger out of its sheath with the hand not around Serena’s throat and plunged it into her shoulder. Blood streamed straight through the vampire’s mouth and into her stomach. After about a pint of blood was inside the vampire, Eva cut off the flow and focused entirely on keeping Serena pinned to the ground.

If it looked even a little bit like she would break loose, Eva fully intended to break the vampire’s neck. She had survived it once, she could do so again.

Eva watched through her sense of blood as the vampire’s struggles died off. After a minute or two, she was lying still on the floor as her wounds healed up.

“Sorry,” the voice came out as a whisper. Barely audible even to Eva despite being only a few inches away.

Eyes still closed, Eva asked, “Can I let you go without you attacking anyone?”

“Yeah,” Serena said, not moving anything save her mouth. “I just–I don’t think it is a good idea to teleport with you on an empty stomach.”

“Fair enough.” Eva almost commented on how she had a bunch of blood just about twenty-four hours ago, but most of that had probably gone to healing her neck.

Slowly, she pulled away from the vampire. Eva’s eyes were still closed, just in case it was some kind of trick.

It didn’t seem to be.

The vampire was on the ground, arms and legs spread out as she stared up at the ceiling.

Eva moved a full step away and the vampire still hadn’t moved.

“Are you alright?”

“Give me a minute. I’ll be fine.” She let out a soft chuckle without otherwise moving. “I was hoping that your teleport wouldn’t leave me lying on the ground.” There was a slight pause before her voice dropped to a whisper again. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You didn’t hurt me or–” Eva glanced up to find Juliana fully encased in metal armor. The only holes were a few slits around her mouth and eyes. “I thought you were going to a school in Switzerland or something.”

“Scotland.” Her voice came muffled through her helmet. “Talking it over with my father and mother, we decided that Brakket would be the best choice. But…”

Juliana’s head tipped downwards to look at the fallen vampire.

“Juliana, meet Serena. Serena, Juliana.”

“Charmed,” Serena said without taking her gaze off the ceiling.

“Uh huh. Umm, what–”

“A vampire.”

Juliana took a step back. Her heart started beating beneath the thick armor coating her body.

“She’s normally pretty nice,” Eva said with a shrug.

“That’s… Um… Don’t let my mom find out.”

“Oh, is she up and about?”

That would be good news to hear. Eva genuinely liked Genoa and honestly wished that Arachne hadn’t done what she had.

“Wheelchair,” Juliana said softly. “She, my father, and my brother are all staying in a home out on the outskirts of the city. Bought it for dirt cheap I guess. They’re all living in separate rooms.” Shaking her head, Juliana looked back towards Serena. “She isn’t a student, is she?”

“Despite her looks, she’s old enough to be your grandmother. A little past school age.”

“I’m sixteen,” Serena said through grit teeth as she pushed herself to a sitting position. She gave a clipped glance towards Juliana before scooting backwards so that her back was resting against the drawers of Eva’s desk. “Friend of yours?”

Eva put on a proud smile. “Yep.” Turning her head towards Juliana, Eva said, “and she’ll never guess what we did over the past few days.”

“You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“No,” Eva said slowly, her smile slipping. “Well, I mean… I killed a vampire. And then was probably responsible for six more vampires dying. And then someone died who I wanted to murder. I don’t think that counts though.”

“You didn’t kill anyone around here though.”

Eva blinked. That was something of a strange question. “Should I have?”

“Two of Brakket’s security guards were killed. I thought that you might have gone after whoever did it.”

“Which two?” Eva asked with narrowed eyes.

Author’s Note: Minor note in the comments again, mostly for supporters. Thanks everyone for reading and stuff!

The young elf and the older man were both dead. Eva had never really talked to either of those security guards. Her interactions were strictly limited to Lucy and Daru, the two demonic members of Brakket’s security team.

Who were both missing, according to Juliana.

Eva closed her eyes and concentrated on feeling out for any demons around.

She quickly found Zagan. His power was just so overwhelming and radiant that missing him would have been impossible. From his power, Eva got a vague sense of direction. She couldn’t tell exactly how far he was, but it was in the direction of the main school building.

Ylva was somewhere in the opposite direction, inside the city. If Zagan were the sun, Ylva could be compared to the moon. A large body that was difficult to miss as long as it was around, but not quite so overwhelmingly radiant.

In comparison to them, Catherine would be more like a star. At least, so long as Eva wished to continue her celestial bodies analogy. It was there, but not all that prominent. So much so that it was almost a strain just to sense her.

The analogy broke down with the fact that there weren’t a million other demons to help cloud out Catherine’s existence. In fact, there were only three. None of which felt anything like Lucy. They could be Daru as Eva hadn’t interacted with him since her most recent treatment and didn’t know what he felt like to her senses.

All three of them and Catherine, were somewhere in the direction of the school building.

“Has Martina Turner been summoning demons?” Eva asked as she snapped open her eyes.

Martina hadn’t been part of the whole meeting where they agreed not to summon things anymore, so it was possible that she had gone ahead and done so. Wayne or Zoe should have mentioned something. Maybe they forgot with the whole cathedral thing. Or, more likely, Martina Turner just didn’t care about other people.

While waiting for Juliana to respond, Eva gave a quick glance towards their resident vampire.

Serena was still sitting on the floor with her back against Eva’s desk. Her gaze was fairly blank, but none of her muscles were tensed in the slightest. So long as she stayed like that and regained her sensibilities, Eva would be perfectly happy.

If Serena did go berserk again and couldn’t be neutralized without harming her, Eva would probably choose Juliana over Serena. Eva had grown fond of the vampire over their little vacation, but not that fond.

Juliana stood off to the side with her armor clamped firmly around her neck, though most of the rest of her head was uncovered. Eva did take the time to note that her hair was shorter by almost half compared to how it was when she had visited the other month ago. Her long blond hair now stopped somewhere just below her shoulders.

Shoulders that were currently lifting up and dropping in a mild shrug. “How should I know?”

“Well, you knew that the security guards were dead. With how I’ve been gone for the past week, I thought you might be a little more informed than I.”

“I literally got into town just an hour ago. The only reason I knew about that in the first place was because of notices posted around the town stating that an investigation was ongoing.” With an armored hand, she gestured back towards her bed where a suitcase lay open. “I haven’t even unpacked all the way.”

Eva glanced down at her watch. Her family was driving in at five in the morning? Unless one of them had recently come down with an acute case of vampirism, Eva couldn’t quite understand why they would travel overnight. Better yet, why not send Juliana on the Brakket school airliner.

More importantly, for the moment at least, daylight was fast approaching.

And Serena was still sitting on the floor.

“Help me hang up some of these blankets,” Eva said as she tore the covers off her bed.

“Hang up?”

“Sunlight and vampires don’t exactly agree with one another,” Eva said with a nod towards Serena.

Juliana’s eyes widened for just a moment before she moved up next to Eva. “Oh.” Her voice dropped to a whisper that Eva was certain could be heard with whatever enhanced hearing a vampire might possess. “What’s up with that anyway? A vampire?”

“Serena is a friend of Zoe and Wayne,” Eva said as she had Juliana hold up a corner of the blanket over one of the windows. “She was helping me kill Sawyer.”

Eyes wide, Juliana opened her mouth to say something. It snapped shut before she reconsidered. “Sounds like I missed out.”

Eva grinned. Juliana almost sounded disappointed, but she had a smile on. At least someone was happy about that.

Putting her mind to the task at hand, Eva decided how she wanted to hang the blankets. She didn’t have any duct tape with her, which is what they had used to hang up blankets all throughout their trip, but that wouldn’t be much of a problem. Pulling out her dagger again, she cut a thin slit along her upper arm. The blood flowed outwards, hardening into sharp nails.

It might be somewhat dangerous to leave her own crystallized blood around Serena. The vampire might try to eat it. Of course, she would wind up taking down the blankets and possibly exposing herself to the sunlight when that came around, so hopefully she could resist.

Without turning her head, Eva watched the vampire through her blood sight. She hadn’t so much as moved when Eva cut open her skin. There had to be a smell. Probably a good one at that, given how often Serena mentioned scent around Eva.

But her muscles were dead. Indistinguishable from an actual corpse.

Shaking her head, Eva used her blood magic to drive the nails into the wall near Juliana’s hands.

The act of shaking her head sent Eva wobbling slightly. She quickly caught herself, but the light-headed sensation stuck around.

She really needed another vacation. A real one this time.

But this was Brakket. No rest for anyone, wicked or not.

Really, she didn’t need Juliana’s help to hang the blankets. She could have held up the blankets at the same time as she used her magic to attach them. Having Juliana help her gave them an excuse to interact. It also kept Juliana from standing around awkwardly while Eva worked.

Though, with her suitcase only partially unpacked, she could have finished with that.

Oh well.

“You said that your family was staying in a house?” That might be a good reason why she hadn’t taken the Brakket Academy flight. It didn’t account for the hour at which they were traveling, but maybe with multiple people able to drive, they had just taken shifts.

Juliana gave a clipped nod as she held up the other corner of the blanket. “They wanted me to stay with them as well. I refused. My brother and father have only got more overbearing since Zagan showed up wondering why I wasn’t going to school anymore. I need a little space.”

“Doesn’t your mother need like… physical therapy or something?”

“She’ll be in bed, chairs, or her wheelchair for almost the entirety of the school year. Exercising is going to be very important. The doctors gave a list of things for her to do and how often to do them. They weren’t all that happy with her decision to come here. But… well, you know how headstrong she can be.”

“I doubt that someone who can throw down with Arachne would be stopped by a few doctors,” Eva said with a firm nod of her head. That nod gave way to a sorry sigh.

“Where is Arachne anyway?” Juliana asked as they moved over to the second window.

Eva did not miss the careful pace and neutral tone that she used. She looked off to the side, pointedly avoiding a glance in Eva’s direction.

During her visit earlier in the year, Eva had ensured that Juliana and Arachne would not cross paths. It just seemed to be a poor idea for the two of them to meet, given that Arachne was technically responsible for Genoa’s current condition.

Now, at least she wouldn’t have to worry about that.

“Arachne died. Her head exploded when nun lightning hit it.”

Juliana’s head snapped over to look at Eva with wide eyes. For a moment, she just stared. After that moment, she walked over to Eva and wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a loose hug.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. I’d say that I am fine. I’m not sure if that would be the truth or not. But it really doesn’t matter,” Eva added with a shake of her head. “I can’t just stop living because Arachne isn’t around. Besides, she’ll be back eventually.”

There was a short exhale from Juliana before she spoke. “How long?”

“No idea. Another month. Maybe a year. Ten? Fifty? I don’t know how a demon’s death truly works. The carnivean was back in a few months. So was the succubus that had her head crushed by Prax. The last time I asked Arachne about it, she told me that her previous death had been at least a few decades.”

“That’s… a long time.”

Eva half chuckled. “Yeah. You could say that.” Ducking out from Juliana’s hug, she tore the covers off Shalise’s bed. “Let’s get this other window covered before the sun comes up.”

While Juliana lifted up the blanket, Eva formed another four blood spikes.

They weren’t very large, but her headache was worsening. Between the transference circle, two feedings for Serena, and these spikes, it was starting to add up. Though it was now nearly five days ago, the blood she had packaged up for the vampires was probably adding to her anemia as well.

She doubled down on her thought to take a few days for a real vacation. A little rest and recuperation.

“What’s with us being in dorm three-one-seven? I thought they had split us up when I came back, but then I saw all your things lying around.”

“Ah, you missed all the excitement. Long story short, room three-thirteen got connected to my domain. The school gave us the room. However, with Shalise in another plane of existence and you officially dropping out of school—something I’m glad to see you got reversed—I was the sole owner of the room.

“That alone shouldn’t have been enough to allow me to link my domain. Not to mention the fact that I don’t know how to do that. Ylva thinks that it was the enigmas trying to push through into Earth that ended up making the connection. She showed me how to close it, but Martina felt that I should reside in a different room that had her name listed as an owner as well.”

“Sounds complicated.”

Eva gave a slight snort. “Yeah. Annoying as well.”

“Speaking about Shalise, how is she?”

“Presumably, she’s alright.”

“Presumably?”

“She’s not in Hell. Prax is out of her head.”

“Well,” Juliana said as the second nail pinned both upper corners of the blanket to the wall, “that’s good. I’m not seeing the presumably yet.”

“Lynn Cross kidnapped her and I have no idea where they are. They were camping out in some woods on the other side of the world, but they could have easily moved since then. I’ll ask Nel to check the next time I’m around. Which will probably be as soon as we’re done with this.”

As she spoke, Eva sent the last two nails into the bottom two corners. It probably didn’t need the bottom pinned to the wall, but she didn’t want to risk the ventilation kicking up the blanket and letting the sun in while Serena was unawares.

Speaking of, Eva thought as she turned from the windows.

Moving up to Serena, Eva knelt down at her side. The vampire’s stillness was unnatural at the best of times. At the moment, it was actually starting to creep Eva out.

“Hey,” Eva said as she placed a hand on Serena’s shoulder.

The vampire flinched back. It was slight, but enough for Eva to pull her hand back.

Even with the slight start, Eva pressed on. “Are you alright?”

“Fine.”

Eva frowned at the clipped answer. Obviously, she wasn’t fine. In fact, most times someone said that they were fine, it meant that they didn’t want to talk about whatever was bothering them. She had just about done the same to Juliana when asked about Arachne.

Still, Eva could respect not wanting to talk about certain things. Her sudden loss of control was probably something personal. A vampire thing that she just wanted to not think about.

That didn’t mean that she had to leave her entirely alone. “Can I get you anything?” Eva hesitated for just a moment before continuing. “I could probably spare some more blood if you needed.”

She didn’t really want to. Eva very much enjoyed her blood inside her own body and no one else’s. Unless, of course, she was about to explode said other person. She had no plans to do so to Serena at the moment.

Though, with her stomach already half full of Eva’s blood, she could put the vampire down if she went berserk again. Eva hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, but the possibility was there if it was needed.

If shedding another half-pint of blood could help prevent a rampage through the dorms and needing to obliterate the blood within the vampire’s body, Eva would gladly hand some over.

But Serena just shook her head. “No. I think I’ll sleep today away.” She looked up to Eva, the first real motion since she had propped herself up against the desk. With a sorry smile, she said, “I’m sorry that I won’t be able to accompany you.”

“That’s fine.” Eva put on a hopefully comforting smile as she stood up. “You’re free to stay here for the day. Use my bed, the one you’re leaning against, if you want.”

“Thanks. I think I will.”

So she said, but Serena glanced back to the floor, resuming her unmoving pose.

With a mental shrug, Eva turned to face Juliana. She didn’t have a chance to speak for Juliana opened her mouth.

“I’m coming with you,” Juliana said, trying as hard as she could to not look at Serena. “I can unpack later,” she said with a glance towards the open suitcase. “I want to know what’s going on as well. And I’m sure mom will want to find out sooner rather than later. Were it not for Zagan, I’m sure my father would have turned the car around the moment he saw the investigation notices.”

Eva nodded towards the door. “No sense wasting time then.”

Juliana didn’t need further urging. She pulled a light sweater out of her suitcase and slipped it on as she walked out of the room.

With one last look at Serena, Eva followed her out.

Hopefully nothing bad would come of leaving her alone in the dormitories.

Together, Juliana and Eva walked in silence. Given both the early hour and the fact that it was summer, not many other students were out and around the academy. They found no one on the stairs and, once they arrived outside, found no one wandering around the campus.

The silence lasted up until the two reached the sidewalks outside the dormitory.

“Vampire–” “So you–”

Both girls’ mouths snapped shut as they turned to each other.

After a moment of silence, Eva smiled and shook her head.

“You first.”

“Just to make sure that I heard you correctly, that vampire is friends with our professors?”

“Yeah. I don’t exactly know how that came about, but they’re familiar enough that Serena gave Zoe a hug and Zoe returned the hug.”

“Huh,” Juliana said with a frown. “Not really what I would have expected.”

“Like I said, she’s normally a lot nicer than you saw. Teleporting had some adverse effects, I guess.”

“I meant Zoe. Friends with a vampire? Not really something I’d picture given all of mother’s stories about vampires.”

Eva shrugged. Her only real experience with other vampires were those in Idaho. They had been half threatened into playing nice, so their behavior probably wasn’t all that typical. And, even before they had been threatened, they had been under the impression that Eva and Nel were some kind of servants owned by Serena.

“But you were saying that Zagan kept you from going to a different school? That seems nice of him.”

There was a sharp intake of breath from Eva’s side. After a quick stumble, all of Juliana’s blood fled from her body to concentrate around her face and ears. Her ripe tomato impression was going exceedingly well, but it was somewhat worrying.

“Are you alright?” Eva couldn’t help but to ask.

“Fine,” she said with a forced cough. “Just swallowed a bug down the wrong pipe.”

Eva frowned. Bugs had blood. Granted, they weren’t something that Eva normally paid attention to. With it pointed out, she tried looking and couldn’t see anything that might have gotten caught in her throat.

“If you’re sure…”

“Yeah. Zagan,” she paused to cough again. “When he helped out in Willie’s domain, we had a sort of agreement about me leaving the school. Or not leaving it.”

“An agreement with Zagan?”

That didn’t sound good. He hadn’t really done anything to do permanent harm to Eva. Though, after their conversation before her treatment, she now believed that to solely be because of her unique position as a ‘non-template’ demon. Juliana didn’t have any such insurance.

“It isn’t anything big,” Juliana said, face as red as before. “But it is a bit personal.”

Eva waited, but Juliana fell silent and did not continue. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to elaborate if she didn’t have to.

Taking a deep breath, Eva said, “I just–”

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

“That only makes me worry more. Zagan is a powerful demon who essentially wants for nothing. If he wants something from you, it’s all the scarier.”

“I know what he wants.”

Again, Eva waited to see if Juliana would explain.

She didn’t.

“So,” Juliana said after a few moments of awkward silence, “Sawyer’s dead?”

Though she had to frown at the obvious topic change, Eva nodded her head. “As far as I can tell. He was a necromancer, so I’ve been expecting all kinds of ways he could have cheated death. Nothing has popped up so far. Though, he only died last night. Maybe it will take a little longer.

“He also died in Hell. Are there reapers in Hell? Anyone to go around and collect his soul?” Eva mused, mostly to herself. Maybe he was floating around, plan foiled and trapped within her domain because he was on a whole other plane of existence from where he had probably planned on dying. “Then there was the fact that he died telling me that I should have killed him when I had the chance.”

“That’s not ominous.”

“Definitely not,” Eva said as she turned down a street a ways away from the Brakket Academy campus.

Living in a small city was actually kind of nice. Everything was in walking distance of everything else. Technically, most everything in Florida was within walking distance if she blinked around constantly. As long as she didn’t care about maintaining a low profile, getting seen wasn’t even an issue.

The apartment building that Ylva, Nel, and Zoe lived in was closer than most buildings to the academy. A few other teachers lived in it as well, the ones that didn’t own an actual house around Brakket.

As Eva stared up at it, she wondered just where Wayne lived. She had never had a reason to visit him at his home, but was fairly certain that he didn’t live in the apartment building. He probably had a home somewhere, but with the ability to freely teleport, he could live on the other side of the country if he really wanted to.

Whatever the case was with Wayne, Eva didn’t really care. It was just a momentary thought. She had no reason to visit him and didn’t want a reason to do so.

Taking the stairs up to the third floor, Eva found herself frowning.

The room up above that had previously held that overexcited woman was not empty. Neither the woman nor her companion were inside. Something else definitely was.

Something familiar.

Being nothing but densely packed tendrils, Lucy had something of an odd circulatory system no matter how she looked on the outside. Because of that, she was extraordinarily distinctive. Eva could pick her out of a crowd made up of demons and humans far easier than anyone else.

And there above Eva was Lucy.

Trying to reach out and detect her with her sense of demons failed entirely.

Some kind of ward?

That was the only explanation that Eva could come up with. Lucy was still alive. If only just. Her tentacles were moving ever so slightly. Perhaps she was drugged.

With how much blood was splattered around the room, it could be that she was just about dead.

Shaking her head, Eva started sprinting up the stairs, past the third floor.

She paused just long enough to turn to Juliana. “Room three-oh-four. Ylva should be inside with Nel and Zoe.” Eva could see all three of them through her sense of blood. “Let Ylva know that Lucy is upstairs in the room of that woman I warned her about. She’s injured.”

Without waiting to see if Juliana would do as she had asked, Eva continued her sprint upstairs.

Eva had already lost Arachne. She wasn’t such good friends with Lucy, but she didn’t want to lose her as well.

Reaching the door, Eva didn’t hesitate in jamming her dagger into her arm. Smearing a ring of blood around the deadbolt and handle, she stepped back. Even her blood should be strong enough to take out a wooden door.

Eva clapped her hands.

Her blood vanished with a flash of light.

Blinking away the spots in her eyes, she found the door to be entirely unharmed. Not even a scratch.

Undaunted, Eva lifted one leg into the air.

The door might be impervious to magical harm. Maybe mundane as well. The wall right around the handle had streaks of unpainted plaster filling in some gap. It clearly had been repaired recently. It likely wouldn’t have the same protections.

With all of her might, Eva kicked out her leg into the wall.

Shards of drywall, wood splinters, and dust filled the air as her foot went clean through the wall. Suppressing a cough, Eva jerked her foot back as fast as she could. Just in case something was on the other side.

Waving her hand to clear the dust from the air, Eva peeked through the hole.

Lucy was lying in the center of the room, unformed, within a set of glowing shackles. Tentacles had been removed from her main mass. Bits of Lucy were spread around, some in piles while others were scattered around the room. Furniture had been shoved aside to make room for all of the drawings on the floor.

“Hold on Lucy. I’m here,” Eva said as she reached through the hole she had made.

Fumbling around, she eventually managed to flick open the locks on the door. There was a chain set in place, but whatever enchantments had been placed on the door itself did not apply to it. At least, not all of it. With a grasp and a pull, the chain came off the wall.

She had expected the chain itself to break, but it was the latch attached to the wall that actually came apart.

Door unlocked, Eva swung it open.

Being able to see the room in full view did not make the sight any better. In fact, it was worse. Most of Lucy was not part of her anymore. As she stood at the threshold of the door, one of Lucy’s tendrils lifted in the air.

Lucy was obviously trying to fight it, but her fight wasn’t going so well. She either lacked the strength or whatever was lifting the tentacle was just too strong.

The tendril went taut. For just a moment, it held steady.

With a light popping noise, the tendril snapped off Lucy’s main body. It went flying, smacking against a wall where it slid down to the floor. Black blood splattered everywhere both around Lucy and against the wall.

This had to stop soon. Lucy couldn’t take much more of it.

Eva just about took a step into the room.

A faint glow at her feet held her up short.

There were more shackles carved into the entryway linoleum.

More than shackles.

Despite her associations, Eva was not a diabolist. She didn’t consider herself one and doubted that she knew enough to be considered anything other than an amateur. Still, she had something of an education from Devon. Whatever was on the floor, it would definitely do more than just trap demons. She couldn’t tell exactly what it would do, but it would be painful.

Gritting her teeth, Eva froze and watched as another of Lucy’s tentacles started lifting up into the air.

Juliana better get here soon.

Eva saw them arrive on her floor just as another of Lucy’s tendrils snapped off.

Zoe had her dagger out in her hand already while Juliana was in nearly full combat armor. Her face was clear, but she otherwise had a metal helmet covering her head. It looked as if she would be able to fill in the hole at the first sign of trouble.

They weren’t running with half as much speed as Eva thought they should be. Of course, one doesn’t simply rush Ylva. The rest of them had no excuse.

“I need you to destroy as much of the inside of the room as possible,” Eva said, shifting her gaze between Zoe, Nel, and Juliana. “And fast.”

In the short time that she had been left waiting for the others to arrive, Eva had shed more blood in an attempt to damage the shackles and other circles around Lucy. Whatever had been done to the door had also been done to the floor, rendering her efforts worthless for the most part. The ceiling hadn’t been protected. She had managed to destroy a few markings up there. Whatever was pulling Lucy apart had slowed, but not stopped.

Most of the circles and shackles were on the floor.

Nel would be the best person to help out. If her magic-eating lightning could remove whatever protections were on the floor, everything would be easier for everyone else. She didn’t even need to damage the floor herself, just enable Eva’s fireballs and Zoe’s lightning.

She was hoping that Juliana and Zoe would be able to overpower whatever damage resistance enchantments there were.

Unfortunately for Eva, and more so for Lucy, both women balked as soon as they caught sight of the room.

Zoe reared back as she covered her mouth with the back of one hand, gazing into the room with wide eyes. She recovered quickly enough and started lashing out with both lightning and razor wind. She gave no complaint nor asked what had happened as she set into her work.

Juliana did not fare half as well. She stumbled backwards, one hand clasped around her mouth and the other across her stomach. After a few dry heaves, she managed to hold down her lunch–or whatever was the last meal that she ate. Still, she didn’t immediately move to help. She stood to the side and breathed in a few gasps of air.

Opening her mouth, Eva just about berated Juliana for her weak stomach while Lucy needed help. The thought only lasted an instant before Eva turned away. Not in disgust. This would be one of those things that Juliana would berate herself over later. One of the things that had caused her to dabble her fingers in diablery in the first place.

Besides, Nel was far more deserving of Eva’s disappointment. The moment the augur looked into the room, her eyes rolled back into her head as she collapsed against Ylva. Really, with how she had acted during Sawyer’s torture, Eva didn’t know why she had expected anything else.

Berating an unconscious woman wouldn’t do any good.

Instead, Eva focused her irritation on her fireballs. Already feeling lethargic and annoyed from a thumping in her head, she had abandoned using more of her own blood. Passing out wouldn’t help Lucy at all.

Exploding fireballs worked well enough in place of her blood. In fact, they probably worked better. Maybe if she had Zagan’s blood with her, but that was back at the women’s ward. A casual visit to Ylva and Zoe shouldn’t have needed the blood. It was stupid and foolish, something that Eva wanted to blame on her anemia-induced headache.

The explosions were somewhat problematic. Though she had managed to destroy the floor containing the shackle right at the doorway, it had taken a lot of power behind the fireball. Enough that trying the same thing near Lucy would probably do a whole lot more harm to the already severely injured demon.

Eva was toying with the power near Lucy. So far, she hadn’t managed to scratch the floor. Before long, it might be better just to explode Lucy and hope that she could survive.

“Eva,” Zoe said. Her own lightning was having less effect than Eva’s fireballs. “The spot you just hit, on the count of three, hit it again with everything you’ve got.”

“I can do fairly large explosions,” Eva said.

“Probably not larger than Wayne’s.”

Eva shrugged and started building up a fireball.

“One.”

The same spot that she had hit previously was a larger scorch mark just at the edge of the main shackles holding Lucy in place. Whatever was peeling her apart could stick around as long as it wanted if she could get Lucy out of there. Unfortunately, scorch marks weren’t enough to break the shackles. They had been carved into the linoleum, not just drawn on with some chalk.

“Two.”

Eva started compressing the gathered flames. This would definitely be a larger one. It was just what Zoe had asked for.

Hopefully she knew what she was doing.

There were shimmers in the air around Lucy. Enough of them to make it almost hard to see through. Zoe’s dagger was out and pointed straight at the disturbance in the air.

And she was taking a long time in getting to three.

All the while, Eva continued streaming fire into the small marble. She didn’t want to lose control of it while it was in her hand, but Zoe had asked for her best.

“Three!”

As soon as Zoe spoke, the semi-translucent bubble of air around Lucy went completely opaque.

Eva didn’t question the effect. She tossed the unstable marble of fire.

It landed just to the left of the already existing scorch mark. The moment it hit, the fragile shell of stable flames broke, unleashing everything inside.

Though she normally enjoyed a bit of heat, this was a bit much. Eva took a step back, shielding her face with an open palm as the wave of heat and noise rushed over her. Even half covering her eyes didn’t help block out the light.

For a moment, she stood in the doorway, not quite able to tell what was going on. She could still see through her blood sight. Juliana was behind her and Zoe had stepped around the edge of the doorway to avoid most of the heat. Whatever Zoe had done had worked. At least, in as far as Lucy was not a pile of ash after that.

But she couldn’t see the important thing. Was the floor broken?

Blinking away the spots in her eyes, Eva shook her head in an attempt to clear the fading ringing from her mind. As soon as her senses were back to a more normal sate, she took a look in the room.

Or what was left of it.

The floor around whatever shield or bubble or whatever Zoe had done was practically nonexistent. Only half of the couch was left behind, the rest was on fire. And that wasn’t all that was on fire. The curtains over the windows were smoking and the walls had embers glowing along parts. Over the kitchen counter in the back of the room, the windows had been blown out.

Given that the windows faced the street, hopefully no one had been walking around out there.

With her real eyes and a bit of closer look through her blood sight, Eva could see that Lucy had not survived unscathed. The skin covering her tendrils closest to the explosion had darkened and cracked. There was a bit of singing going on even on the opposite side of her body.

Whatever had been peeling her apart must have been damaged in the explosion. All of her tentacles were lying on the floor, writhing somewhat, but not being pulled from her main mass.

The important part was that she had survived. With her lack of a central heart or even a central brain, Eva doubted that Lucy would suddenly disappear into a portal to Hell. She would be able to heal as long as she didn’t bleed out.

It probably wouldn’t come to that, but Eva could ensure that it wouldn’t with her dagger.

“Careful,” Zoe said as Eva took a step into the room. She put a hand on Eva’s shoulder, stopping her from moving in any farther.

“I am.”

And she honestly was. This room had been set up to be extremely unfriendly towards demons. Half the markings inside were nothing that she had seen before. She almost wished that she had had the presence of mind to take a picture of it with her shiny new cell phone for Devon. He would have been able to tell her what it was all for.

But she hadn’t. She had been worried for Lucy and had immediately jumped to act on that.

Gingerly walking into the room, Eva approached the wiggling mass of tentacles. She had already broken the shackles that were right in front of the door. The shackles holding Lucy were broken as well. Much of the floor was broken between them and Eva couldn’t see anything on the walls or ceiling that might be dangerous.

At least, nothing between her and Lucy. Moving around the room, she could see some drawings around the kitchen windows and the bedroom doorway.

Eva stayed well away from there as she approached.

“Hey Lucy, I’m here.” Eva spoke in a soft tone of voice, keeping as calm as possible. “It’s Eva. You remember me, right?”

Lucy could be absolutely vicious when pressed. She had heard from Irene just what had happened to the enigmas that had infested her room. Startling Lucy could be a quick way to get herself killed.

The pile of tentacles didn’t respond. It just continued squirming around itself. Eva hadn’t really expected otherwise. In order to speak, Lucy not only had to form a mouth, tongue, throat, lungs, and everything else required, but she also had to use her tentacles to do so. With how injured she was, Eva wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t hear from the woman for a long while.

It was reassuring that she wasn’t lashing out in an attempt to strangle Eva.

“I’m going to press the flat of my dagger against your body,” Eva said as she knelt down next to Lucy. “It will help stop your bleeding. Don’t worry. You’re safe right now.”

Eva waited just a moment before reaching her dagger out, slow and steady. For all she knew, Lucy wasn’t in a state to understand a single word that she had said. The moment she touched her blade to the tentacles, she might find herself without an arm.

But, nothing happened. The flat of her blade pressed against one of the more profusely bleeding spots just as she had said it would. Lucy wiggled, but didn’t try to reach out.

If anything, she drew back in on herself.

Ignoring the reaction, Eva concentrated on the blood. She didn’t do anything with it for a moment but press her dagger against Lucy. As it pumped through her body, Eva gathered more of it under her control. When blood reached the points where her tentacles had been pulled off, Eva hardened the blood.

It wouldn’t be comfortable. Plates of hardened blood, even without any sharp edges, would be inconvenient when walking around. Or crawling, or whatever Lucy did when she wasn’t shaped like a human. But it would keep her blood inside of her. That was the important part.

The blood at the tip of her dagger hardened as she pulled away. It was done. Lucy was still a blob, but she wasn’t a bleeding blob.

Standing up, Eva let out a sigh of relief. She had been worried. Real worry. Not some superficial concern like she had felt for Lynn Cross after just about killing her with a teleport. The only reason she had cared for and healed Lynn was because of Shalise.

It was a bit strange. Not something that she really would have expected of herself under the best of circumstances. And after tromping through her domain, Eva had been all but certain that she would have reacted with revulsion upon seeing Lucy outside of her human form.

With a shake of her head, Eva looked back to the rest of the group. Zoe and Ylva were both looking around the apartment, though Ylva’s eyes were glued on a certain half-a-hexagon on part of the undamaged floor. Nel was slumped against the door frame. Clad in full armor, Juliana stood over her. Two elongated bars of metal stuck out from her hands as she posed herself half-crouched and ready for anything.

Eva was at a lost about what to do now. Tracking down those people who had been living in the room was a good start, but perhaps not this very minute. Certainly, Lucy couldn’t stay here. She needed a safe place to rest and recuperate.

The women’s ward would work. Her blood wards might have been taken down by the Elysium Order in less than a half-hour, but they would keep plenty of people from just wandering in.

And that was a definite concern.

No one seemed to live on this floor. Perhaps the owners of this apartment room had rented out the entire place. Maybe they had done something worse. But there were people on the floors above and below.

Her explosion hadn’t been one of those silent kinds. People had definitely heard. Some of those in the closer rooms might have even felt it. A few people were already on their way downstairs.

But Eva wasn’t sure that she could just wander off with her. Lucy was contracted to Martina Turner. It might be some sort of faux pas to just run off with her.

Whatever happened, something needed to be done now.

“Zoe,” Eva said, “people are coming to investigate the noise.”

After snapping one last picture with her phone of a partially intact ritual circle, Zoe glanced back towards the door. “How many?”

“Uh, all of them?”

“Great. You don’t see the original occupants of this room anywhere?”

Eva shook her head. “Not anywhere in my range. Didn’t see them on the way up either.” Though she hadn’t exactly been paying attention then, she was fairly confident that she would have noticed someone familiar.

“It is probably safest for them to remain in their rooms.” She started towards the door, but paused. “So long as this place doesn’t burn down. Can you extinguish–”

A chilled wind blew through the apartment room. Nothing Eva or Zoe had done. It took Eva a moment to notice Ylva looking around the room.

The fires weren’t anything large. Small smoldering cloths or wood. Whatever was flammable that hadn’t been put out by the force of the blast. Though none of it was major, there was the possibility that it all could flare up and ignite something.

Not that it mattered. All the flames died instantly under Ylva’s gaze.

“Thanks,” Zoe said as she stepped out of the room to intercept the other tenants.

She went out, holding her hands up as she approached the nearest person. Not as if she were being held up by a gun—or a wand, as was more likely at Brakket—but in a calming manner, trying to assure everyone that everything was just fine. Perhaps not fine, but rather under control.

Whatever the case, Zoe could handle it.

Eva had more important things to focus on.

Namely, sitting down and taking a nap.

Now that the immediate danger and excitement was over with, Eva could feel herself becoming less steady on her feet. Between Sawyer, Serena, and now Lucy, Eva could barely extend her fingers. She simply couldn’t maintain the pressure needed to keep her palms open. Normally it wasn’t something she had to even think about doing.

Potions, being almost exclusively designed for humans, had been doing less and less for Eva over the past few years. Even still, taking a blood replenishing potion might not be a bad idea. She would have to take a good ten or so before it affected her even a fraction of what a human would need, but every little bit would help.

Of course, that was something of a personal matter. More pressing was the fact that there was an enemy about.

Someone had tried to kill Lucy. Not just kill, but torture her along the way.

Eva blinked as she sat down on the floor. Juliana had mentioned that both Lucy and Daru were missing. If Lucy was here, where was Daru?

Tuning her senses for the morail demon, Eva found nothing. He wasn’t in the building. Or if he was, he was hidden behind whatever suppression field had hidden Lucy. But she also couldn’t see him with her sense of blood, so he probably wasn’t around.

Taken away by the people who put Lucy into this situation? Fled? He may already be dead, back floating in the Void along with Arachne. If he wasn’t, maybe he had something left behind that Nel could use to track him down.

Glancing over, Eva found the augur slowly coming around. Thanks entirely to Juliana’s diligent efforts in waking her.

Likely a waste of time. She would take one look around the room and pass out again.

Or maybe not, Eva thought as she looked around the room herself. A good amount of Lucy’s torn tentacles had been vaporized by her explosion. The ones that hadn’t were gathered in the corners of the room. A far less gruesome sight than having them scattered everywhere.

Looking up, Eva noticed Ylva’s gaze. She had returned to the hexagonal marking on the floor.

“Thoughts?” Eva asked. She had no idea what the marking was. Her question was broad enough that it could also include thoughts on the former occupants. She had warned Ylva, or mentioned them at least, but obviously nothing had been done.

Ylva’s cold eyes turned up to Eva for just a moment. “Hunters,” she said as she looked back to the hexagon.

Eva brushed some of the lingering soot and debris away from the mark. The hexagon had a simple symbol contained within. Not any sort of magical sigils or runes, but a simple skull with feathered wings stretching out from behind it. “What is it?”

“A sign. A sign We have not borne witness to in centuries.”

“What does it do?”

“Do? Nothing.” Ylva’s head shook ever so slightly. “Not how it is now. Upon someone being released from their mortal restraints, it calls out an agent of Death. Nothing so high as a god of Death, but a mere servant such as Ourself. Used in ages long past to ensure that a loved one passed on properly, it has fallen out of use in recent centuries.”

“That’s…” Eva glanced back towards the entrance of the room. There had been shackles set up. Complicated ones. She had never seen anything quite like them, nor could she guess about their specific purpose. Nothing good, that was for certain. “You’re the nearest agent of death, aren’t you. This was a trap for you?”

“We came to the same conclusion.”

Eva looked back to Lucy. A thought crossed her mind and she almost reached out to pat the now still demon. She didn’t know whether or not Lucy would appreciate the contact. It might still be a bad idea to unnecessarily touch her.

“Would it have worked with Lucy? Demons don’t die like mortals do.”

“We are… unsure. We would not feel a demon’s passing under normal circumstances. Such a symbol would force the call no matter what died. The hunters believed that it would work that way, at least.”

Obviously, Eva couldn’t help but think. “So, you didn’t notice anything about them while we were gone?”

“Our observations were limited. They came and went at several points, never acting overly suspicious.”

“Well, they got Lucy in here somehow.”

“The woman carried in a larger case yesterday evening. We believed it to be mere luggage. Never once did we feel the presence of a nearby demon.”

“Neither did I, on my way here. I only found her because I can see through walls.”

“It is fortunate that you did.”

“So,” Eva said after a lull in the conversation, “how do we find them?”

If they knew about Ylva, they probably knew about Nel as well. She would look around for any part of them that might be used to track them. If they did know about Nel, Eva doubted that they would have left anything behind.

But they couldn’t be allowed to get away with this. She had learned her lesson from Sawyer. She was no good at long and drawn out torture sessions. A quick kill would get the same end result.

“We will be wary. Do not seek them. Anywhere they might live could be as trapped as this building. Charging into battle with a foe as prepared as this would end poorly.”

“Well that… that… that just rains on my parade!”

Clement pulled the binoculars away from his face to glance towards his partner. Gertrude was leaning half over the edge of the roof with the visor from his armor pressed against her eyes. Her mouth was twisted into a pout.

With a gentle hand, Clement pulled her back. She wouldn’t die from the fall. They were on top of some sort of dancing club for the students to waste time in, it was only a few stories high. The idea that she would even be injured was laughable. Still, he didn’t want to jump down after her. Neither did he care to wait around with their guest until she climbed back up.

Once sure that she wasn’t a stiff breeze away from falling, Clement brought his binoculars back up.

It wasn’t the best view. The roof of the club was a bit lower than the floor of their apartment. He could still see most of the room. Better yet, he could see the demons through the walls. Just faint outlines, enough to track them. A similar enchantment was on his visor, though of slightly higher quality.

Though there wasn’t much to see anymore with the naked eye. Before he had put his binoculars down to deal with Gertrude, the demon that they had captured had already been in the process of being carried out of the room. The only thing he could still see was their original target, the hel. She stood, gazing around the room with eyes as dead as a soulless corpse.

At first glance, she was a beautiful woman. Long hair, regal features, smooth skin. She had everything needed for a classical sort of beauty. But that all disappeared the longer he looked. The iced over lips, skin too smooth, dark veins barely visible underneath her skin, and her lifeless eyes. All of it added together to give the hel an unnerving quality.

Clement jumped back, jerking away from his binoculars.

She had stepped towards the window. In doing so, she had put most of her body into the early morning sunlight.

Watching her skin vanish as if a bucket of paint thinner had been dumped over a sheet of freshly painted glass was the worst. Clement had seen skeletons before. They didn’t bother him. But this hel… there was intelligence behind those empty sockets that just shouldn’t be.

With a shake of his head, he pressed the binoculars back to his eyes. This time, he angled towards a movement at a street-level door. Faint outlines were near the door.

The girl, the one who had been first on the scene and had broken the seals on the door, walked out of a side entrance. Her bright red eyes glanced around, but didn’t spot anything suspicious. With a wave of her hand, she gestured to her companion.

Some person wearing a poor imitation of his armor followed her out. Between the two of them, they had a bundle of blankets.

It didn’t take many guesses to figure out what was squirming around inside. It took even less guesses when a few tentacles slipped out into the air.

Clement reached back. His armored hand curled around the hilt of his sword.

“Shall we intercept?”

Gertrude hummed. Then she hawed. She hummed some more while running her fingers through her red hair.

With a frown, Clement released his sword. If she was pretending to think about it, the answer was no. Gertrude often came to quick, near instant decisions. Her current actions were just for her own amusement.

“Nope,” she said after a few more indecisive scratches of her head. “We could end the tentacle monster easily enough. Possibly the girl as well. We just don’t know enough about her at the moment to say for certain. Somehow, she learned of the tentacle demon’s presence and ruined everything. How?”

Clement did not respond. He had no insights to offer. Gertrude was the magic specialist. He couldn’t create even a small spark if his life depended on it. Luckily, with the armor that she had made for him, his life never depended on his magical abilities.

Merely his swordsmanship.

“Besides,” Gertrude said with a nod towards the apartment window, “the hel is still watching. Fun as it might be, we’ll get her attention and possibly attract every other demon in the area. I don’t think the girl is any kind of big shot, but there is a reason we tried to trap the Hel instead of fighting.”

“We could–” Clement cut himself off with a frown. The hel was powerful, true. Not so powerful that a well placed swing of an enchanted sword couldn’t lop her head right off. With both him and Gertrude, he doubted that she would have much of a chance.

If other demons joined in, even if only as distractions to him and Gertrude, that slight chance grew immensely. It was why they had gone with the trap plan in the first place.

And that was assuming that the devil stayed content to merely watch.

There was a tingle going up Clement’s spine. Some small shiver as if he were being watched. Glancing around, he couldn’t see anything that might be the source.

The hel and everyone else at the apartment building were too far away. It couldn’t be them. There was a reason that he was using binoculars. Of course, someone there might have enhanced vision. Peeking through his binoculars again, he couldn’t find anyone looking in his direction.

Every time he thought of the devil, he felt the hairs on his neck rise up.

It was that devil. It had to be. The only question was whether or not the devil was actually causing the sensation. It was entirely possible that everything was all in his head.

Gertrude never felt anything. He had asked. She was certain that whatever magic she was doing was enough to keep them off the devil’s radar. It worked for the rest of the demons. No one really noticed them while wandering around. So far, he hadn’t seen any sign that the devil actually was watching them. As far as he knew, it was working.

Glancing around, Clement still couldn’t shake that feeling of being watched.

Gertrude paid no mind to his unease. She spun around with a bright smile on her face before resting against the raised lip of the building’s roof. “Anyway, all is not lost. We’ll just have to modify our plan for the other one. It wouldn’t be good to face them all at once. Besides, with him around, we can try trapping the hel again.”

Clement turned to face their guest. He couldn’t see anything. Morail were annoying like that. There was no doubt that the demon was trapped within the shackles on the roof. They had been hastily constructed, but they were no less effective. Even better, they were suppressing his demonic aura. None of the other demons should be able to sense him.

Of course, that hadn’t helped with the girl. As Gertrude had said, she had found out somehow. She hadn’t been concerned going into the apartment complex. Clement could guess that there was some range limitation on whatever ability she had. If not, then this morail would already be known to them.

Since they weren’t under attack, no one knew.

“They’ll be wary if we try the same trick again, Gertrude.”

“Ha! They’ll be wary no matter what we do. Still, just need to draw them out to where we’ll have the advantage. Otherwise…” Gertrude trailed off, rubbing a finger over the ring on her hand. “Well, we might just have to straight up fight them. No tricks or traps. But that’s for later.”

“And where will we try again? Not the original location?”

Gertrude’s smile grew ever so slightly. “Pack him up,” she said with a nod towards the apparently empty set of shackles. “Tight. Compact. I doubt he’ll need limbs. Then meet me at that little gas station on the edge of town, right near the highway.”

With that said, she pushed back with the tips of her toes, falling over the edge of the roof backwards.

Clement didn’t bother with checking over the edge. She would be fine.

Instead, he gripped his sword, hefting if off its mount and readying it in front of him.

And he paused. Gertrude wanted his limbs off, but the rest of the demon should probably be intact. Somewhat of a difficult prospect while his target was invisible.

She had taken his visor as well.

With a frown, he brought the binoculars up to his eyes. It was dizzying to look at something so close, but he could see a thick outline around the demon through the lenses.

It would be hard to aim. One of his hands had to keep the binoculars pressed to his face.

Oh well, he thought as he started his advance, it might be a bit messier than otherwise.

— — —

Eva and Juliana set Lucy down on a bed in one of the Brakket Academy infirmary rooms. They hadn’t known what else to do with her. At least not before talking with Martina Turner.

Nurse Post stood to the side, watching with a frown on her face. “You know,” she said, “I remember a time when it would be seen as odd to walk into the infirmary with a bundle of tentacles. I don’t even know where to begin with treatment.”

“Well, if it makes you feel better, you probably won’t have to treat her. She’ll heal on her own over time.”

Nurse Post made a face. It was a bit hard to see behind her surgical mask and gauze covering one eye. The blood behind the coverings didn’t lie. Her lips were twisted into a grimace and her nose had wrinkled.

Eva wasn’t sure why she felt the need to don a surgical mask. Maybe she thought that she would be operating on Lucy.

Upon seeing her when first entering the nurse’s office, Eva actually had to do a double-take. Both Nurse Post and the woman who had likely kidnapped Lucy had eye patches. It was such an unusual trait that Eva’s eye had been drawn to it first while her mind jumped to conclusions.

Stupid conclusions. Nurse Post had much darker hair. The woman’s was red. Their facial structure was different. Nurse Post lacked that somewhat disturbing smile as well.

“She?” the nurse asked, face still wrinkled in a mixture of confusion and discomfort.

“Oh. Right.” Eva rested a hand on the bed near Lucy. “Meet Lucy. The security guard,” she added when Nurse Post failed to show any recognition. “This is what she looks like when not doing her poor impression of a human.”

Narrowing her eye ever so slightly, Nurse Post said, “that should surprise me. Somehow, it doesn’t.” She sighed as she shook her head. “She and the other specialist went missing. Shall I prepare to receive another wad of tentacles?”

“Oh no. Daru looks like a human for real. Lucy is something of a special case.” Eva paused for just a moment before continuing in a more somber tone of voice. “Also, we haven’t found him yet. I don’t even know if he is still… around.”

Something of a depressing silence fell over the group, only to be broken by Lucy knocking a tissue box off a table next to the bed.

Eva turned to find Lucy squirming a whole lot more than she had been just a moment ago.

Figuring that there was no harm in asking, Eva said, “I don’t suppose you know where Daru is?”

The thrashing tentacles stilled. Eva took that for a negative, but that was mostly a guess.

As Eva watched, Lucy started trying something. Her few remaining tentacles were winding around each other. Lips, or something vaguely resembling them, started to form as the tentacles tightened together. Unfortunately, as she tried to form a throat and some lungs, the lips started to come unwound.

Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t form enough of a face to speak while still having lungs to draw in air needed to create the sound of words.

So much of her body was missing that she couldn’t even put together half of a head to speak. It was amazing that she was still alive at all. Decentralized nervous and circulatory systems were awe inducing.

Eva grimaced at the sight. Absently, she noted Juliana glancing off to the side while trying to not look like she was disturbed. Nurse Post placed a hand over her masked mouth after gasping.

“Alright stop,” Eva said, placing her hands over Lucy. “You’re not helping. If you could write, that might work better.”

The tentacles ceased their formations of various organs, instead just flopping out onto the bed. Eva, once again, took that as a no.

“Just focus on getting better.” Turning back to Nurse Post, Eva said, “you should know that she was taken by demon hunters. They might not be so excited that she got away.”

“So you bring her to a school?”

Eva shrugged. “Summer time. School is out. Most students aren’t even back for the summer seminars yet. If they come back at all. Besides, I can feel Zagan nearby. I doubt that they’ll come here. Still, something to be aware of.”

“And if they do come back?”

“Hide. Let them take Lucy. She won’t die even if they kill her. You will.”

There was a bit of squirming from Lucy at Eva’s suggestion, but Eva paid it no mind. A thought entered her mind about whether or not her statement was true.

“I think, anyway,” Eva said. “The red eyes throw me off, are you a demon or are you not?”

Eva couldn’t sense anything from her. That didn’t necessarily mean anything. Zagan was nearby. Probably just down the hall in Martina Turner’s office. With him so close, Eva could barely feel Lucy and they were just about touching. Inexperienced in her ability to detect demons, it was entirely possible that one she hadn’t known about would slip through.

“I’m not a demon.”

“Then leave her to the hunters.”

If she caught wind of the hunters coming after Lucy again, Eva would jump in without hesitation. Asking the same of a school nurse was not really something that she could do. She was counting on the fact that Zagan was fairly intimidating when he wanted to be.

“Now,” Eva said, “I don’t supposed you know if Martina Turner is around?”

“Last I heard, she was in her office.”

With Zagan, Eva thought with a nod of her head. “Right.” She glanced back towards Juliana. “Coming along?”

“I–Yeah.”

As they headed out into the hallway, Juliana let out a long sigh.

“Figures,” she said, “I’m back and in less than half a day, big things are going on.”

“I imagine your little vacation wasn’t quite so eventful,” Eva said with a chuckle.

“Not really. Aside from Zagan showing up, about the only interesting thing was watching this town on the news.”

“About the sky?”

Juliana glanced around the empty hallway. “I know it isn’t some agricultural thing,” she said in a low voice. “What is it?”

Eva shrugged. Juliana had been there when Zagan had explained about the situation with Hell. Of course, her mother had a hole in her chest at the time, but Eva was fairly certain that she had heard enough to get the gist of it. As such, she didn’t feel a need to explain all that.

“Don’t know for sure. The idea that Wayne, Zoe, Devon, and Ylva came up with is that it is some form of attack on Void. It and the enigmas–” Eva cut herself off as a thought occurred to her. “The creatures that your dad came to inspect are the enigmas. I can’t remember if they had their name when you were here last. The idea is that they’re designed to weaken the barriers between the mortal realm and Void. Whether the sky is the cause or a side effect is still up for debate.”

“Sounds complicated.”

“I try not to worry about it.”

“That seems…. irresponsible.”

“It’s sort of like knowing that a meteor is careening towards the Earth. What am I really supposed to do about it? Devon and Zagan don’t seem particularly worried. Devon is a coward as well. If he isn’t running around like a chicken without a head, I don’t know why I would.

“I prefer to focus my energies on things that I can actually affect. Sawyer, for instance. These demon hunters for another.”

Juliana made a small humming noise. Not really one of agreement or derision, just of acknowledgment.

Inside the main office area, Eva paused with a frown on her face.

Catherine’s desk was empty.

She could sense her somewhere. That probably meant that the demon hunters didn’t have her. But she wasn’t nearby. At least, she wasn’t inside Martina Turner’s office. Zagan was. Now that Eva was closer, she could sense someone else inside as well. A demon that Eva found familiar, but couldn’t quite place. It was probably her imagination. She hadn’t run into very many demons since her latest treatment anyway.

With no one around to wave her into the dean’s office, Eva pushed open the door without hesitation.

“–can’t allow them to–”

Martina’s voice cut off as soon as the door opened. She turned away from Governor Anderson to glare at the interruption. As soon as she saw who it was, her face twisted. As if she couldn’t decide whether to soften her features or to glare harder.

For his part, Anderson merely turned to regard Eva with a raised eyebrow.

Zagan was leaning against the wall just to the side of the door. His golden eyes were already staring at Eva as she entered, obviously expecting her. He hadn’t needed to turn his head.

One of his hands was fiddling with the cufflinks on his other wrist. His hands dropped to his sides as he spotted who was behind Eva. His lips split to reveal teeth that a dentist would be hard pressed to find a flaw in.

But Eva paid him no mind. Zagan was a known demon. A devil and a scary one at that, but one that Eva could at least somewhat predict.

Her eyes were drawn over Martina’s shoulder.

The other demon that she had felt was standing there, staring at her.

Eva immediately realized her mistake.

She had seen this demon before.

“Prax?” Juliana said from behind Eva. “What are you doing here?”

The cambion huffed, crossing his beefy arms in front of his bare chest while glancing off to the side.

“What indeed,” Eva murmured with an aside glance towards Zagan.

The devil shrugged his shoulders. “I heard he got loose from his fleshy prison and wanted into the mortal realm. For a time, I considered torture and execution. Now I’ve decided to have him serve out his insult to me by taking over so many of my duties. Marvelous idea, yeah?”

“I only saw him just a few hours ago. He asked to get out of Hell then.”

Just how quickly had Prax been summoned up by Martina? She could understand if Zoe had let slip that Prax was out, but wanting to get out of Hell was another matter entirely. Eva could understand him being able to hear conversations while he wasn’t immediately present. Zoe could do the same through enhancing her hearing beyond human limits.

Even her enhancements didn’t reach Hell.

“Have you been spying on me?” Eva asked.

“Of course I have.”

Eva blinked, not expecting the blunt response.

“I told you before, I have a vested interest in you. A few simple enchantments on your person and…” he trailed off with another shrug and a nod towards Prax.

For just a moment, Eva had half a mind to protest. To demand the removal of whatever enchantments he had applied to her.

Those protests died off when she caught sight of his eyes.

He wasn’t glaring or anything, but Eva couldn’t help the shiver running up her spine.

Ignoring her discomfort, Zagan turned back to his original object of interest. “Juliana,” he said as he reached out a hand to ruffle her hair. “Welcome back.”

She just sat there and allowed him to mess up her blond hair. “Thanks.”

Her voice came out as a whisper as Zagan withdrew his hand.

Eva yearned to ask. Juliana’s earlier request to not talk about Zagan held her tongue. For now.

With a slight shake of her head, Eva turned to face Martina Turner.

“I rescued Lucy.”

“So I’ve heard,” she said, eyes flicking towards Zagan. “No sign of Daru?”

“None. Ylva is convinced that it was a trap for her. I’m inclined to agree.” Eva raised an eyebrow in Zagan’s direction. “Perhaps Daru is intended to be a trap for someone else?”

“A trap for me?” Zagan said with a chuckle. “I’d like to see that. Perhaps I’ll walk into it just to see what happens.”

“Well, I can’t imagine people fighting you in a fair fight. Even if you went as easy on them as you went on Sister Cross.”

“Dammit.” Martina slammed a fist on her desk. “I thought you were keeping these hunters off my back,” she said in a half shout.

“I told you that it wouldn’t last forever,” Anderson said, keeping his voice carefully controlled.

Picking up a large glass off the desk, she downed the dark brown contents in a single swig. A long and harsh sigh escaped her lips as she set the glass back on the desk. “Should have been longer than a handful of months. I expected a year at least. We’re not ready for hunters.”

Eva cleared her throat. Just a light cough before speaking. “You summoned Prax, right? I feel a few others too.”

“Replacements,” Martina said through grit teeth. “With Brakket’s security force decimated, I had to get more in a hurry.”

“There are three of them including Prax?”

“A second morail and a hellhound under his command.”

Eva nodded. The hellhound wouldn’t be sentient, but it made sense that she could sense it. Still, Martina had Catherine, Lucy, Daru, this new morail, a hellhound, and Zagan all contracted to her. The most she had seen Devon summon was three, and that had just been half a year ago or so. Before that, his highest was two at once.

She could only imagine what Devon would say about Martina. Her imagination filled in several uses of the words idiot, menace, and suicidal.

But, it wasn’t her problem. If Martina wanted to surround herself with demons, that was her choice.

Eva just hoped that she had a bag of popcorn nearby when Zagan decided that he didn’t want to take orders anymore.

“Anyway, I think Ylva is wanting to hunt down these hunters. I’m going to help her. Any resources that you could spare would be appreciated, I’m sure.”

Martina went silent for a moment. Her finger ran around the edge of her now empty glass. “Take Prax and Catherine. Zagan will stay at my side. Cereth and the hellhound will remain patrolling around Brakket Academy.”

Eva expected Zagan to stay with Martina. Unless she was far more altruistic than Eva knew her to be, Martina wouldn’t want her strongest asset away from her. Though he could probably kill the hunters in one shot, it would leave her far too vulnerable. The other morail, Cereth, would likely be a backup. Or, he would be sent in to die first while Zagan watched and laughed.

Maybe it was a good thing that Zagan wouldn’t be at her side.

Standing up, Martina placed the palms of her hands against the top of her desk, leaning over. “Get these bastards out of my town.”

“Eva,” Juliana called after the rushing girl, “wait up.”

The problem with armor, especially metal armor, was that it weighed a ton. Not a literal ton, but definitely more than a school backpack. Other students never carried even a fraction of the weight of Juliana’s armor during their entire tenure at Brakket Academy.

Being a physically fit person, it wasn’t a big deal most of the time. Her mother’s training had built up her muscles and a slow yet steady increase in the amount of metal she carried built them up as well. She lacked the bulging muscles that Prax had and even the finely sculpted body of Zagan, but they were demons. In terms of humans around Brakket, especially those her own age, Juliana felt confident that she was among the top tier in physical ability.

Heat could sometimes be a problem. Whether that be too little heat or too much heat. The weather at Brakket was cold more often than warm. Summers didn’t last quite as long as they did down south. Though she was an earth mage, Juliana had found the application of mild warming spells to be one of the most useful things she had learned. Time well spent. The same was true in reverse. A mild water-based cooling spell worked wonders in the summer. Even if her ability with water magic was a far cry from her ability with fire, which, in turn, was leagues away from her earth magic.

But it worked for what she used it for. Temperature control combined with a proper distribution of the weight around her body let Juliana barely notice her armor while standing or walking around. Short bursts of activity weren’t a big deal either.

Chasing after a girl with demonic legs was quite another matter entirely.

Thankfully, Eva stopped. The black-haired girl spun around on the sidewalk, sending said hair whirling around her.

“Sorry,” she said. “I was just eager to see if Ylva or Zoe found anything important.”

Juliana used the brief pause to breathe in a lungful or two of fresh air. Her helmet wasn’t formed up. It was hard enough to sprint as it was.

When she started moving again, Eva kept her pace down to a brisk walk.

For just a moment, Juliana continued her rest. When she started following again, she kept a few paces behind.

And she watched Eva’s backside, thinking back to what her parents had said.

“She’s a murderer,” her father had said. “She kills people to fuel her magic. You don’t get more despicable than a blood mage.”

He hadn’t said it to her. Juliana had been sitting outside of her parents’ room, listening in on their conversation. He had gone on to say something about how he should never have trusted her in the first place but had been too blinded by the prospect of examining demons and gargoyles and the like.

Juliana hadn’t focused on her father’s excuses. The bit about fueling her magic with people had stuck in her mind.

It really hadn’t been a surprising revelation. Juliana had never seen Eva kill someone. At least, not someone who wasn’t already dead. Eva had killed zombies and skeletons in her presence. Not much brain power was required to come to the conclusion that Eva was a far cry from being a saint.

Eva had outright admitted to killing one of the necromancers back in her first year. Juliana hadn’t thought much of it then. The necromancers had obviously been evil, killing them was a natural progression.

She probably had her mother’s stories to thank for ignoring any ramifications of that. Hunting down dangerous mages and capturing or killing them was a big part of the mage-knight job description.

Though she didn’t know the exact details behind how Eva’s blood magic worked, the idea that killing people was required revealed a great deal about a certain conversation they had held back in their first year.

Eva had refused to teach Juliana anything about her blood magic. Her abject refusal had probably been one of the main causes of Juliana stealing a diablery book after Eva went blind. Or at least, it had contributed to her feelings of inadequacy.

But now, if that had truly been the reason why Eva had refused, it might have actually raised Juliana’s opinion of the other girl.

Eva did bad things. That was something that Juliana knew. But she hadn’t sought to make Juliana like her. She had tried to wean Juliana off the idea.

Something Juliana had snubbed and gone on to screw up all on her own.

She supposed that she should be worried about the fact that Eva was a killer. But, it wasn’t like she had ever tried to kill anyone that Juliana knew. In fact, Eva tried to save people more often than not. The incident with Zagan and Sister Cross being a prime example.

And then there was her mother’s response to her father’s ranting.

“I’ve killed people as well. Devon assured me that she only used unscrupulous sorts of people.”

Of course, the conversation had then descended into arguments about his trustworthiness, diablery, influences on Juliana, each other, and all manner of topics that Juliana hadn’t bothered to stick around for.

The gist of it was that her mother was conflicted on the topic of Eva. She believed that Eva would push Juliana to work harder on her magic. Life was dangerous and Eva was hardly the most dangerous thing around. Better to be prepared for later than face all sorts of elements such as demons and blood mages when she was unprepared.

Her father and Erich were of the opinion that Eva should be avoided at all costs. Given her mother’s state of being mostly bedridden, they would have won out had it not been for Zagan.

That was a whole other can of worms.

But her brother and father weren’t around right now. She would do as she pleased.

Though, since Eva popped back into the dormitory room, she hadn’t done all that much to prove Erich and Carlos wrong. In fact, just the opposite.

Juliana was still a little queasy from seeing the inside of that apartment room. It was like thin intestines had been splattered around the entire place. Not necessarily the most pleasant of things to have come back to. And then there was that vampire.

A vampire that was apparently Zoe’s friend. That had been something of a surprise.

Juliana shook her head as they reentered the apartment building.

While all the excitement was a nice change of pace compared to sitting around and listening to her family argue over her, she wished that everyone could slow down. Just for a few minutes.

She had barely had the chance to talk to Eva, let alone Zoe and Ylva.

As Eva started skipping up the staircase, Juliana considered just taking the elevator. Stairs were another of those things that were easier without armor on. For as long as Juliana had known Eva, she had never once known the girl to take an elevator. Juliana always followed Eva up the staircase, so it wasn’t like she didn’t have the practice.

My vacation must have made me soft, Juliana thought as she placed her hand on the railing.

The climb wasn’t as bad as she had feared from the bottom floor. Though she had skipped up the first few steps, Eva slowed down after that, keeping pace with Juliana.

“So,” Eva said somewhere around the second floor, “taking any electives next year?”

“I guess so,” Juliana said after a moment. She really hadn’t thought about school much. Even though she was coming back to a school, class just felt like such a low priority compared to everything else. “We have to take at least two, right?”

Eva spun around, climbing the stairs backwards. “I think I’m going to take golemancy and warding. Maybe I’ll be able to apply what I learn towards some improvements to my blood wards. I’d consider adding on enchanting for its relation to warding. Unfortunately, I tend to find myself busy,” she said with a wave of her hand in the direction of the upstairs floors. “Maybe in my spare time.”

Mulling it over for a few minutes, Juliana tossed back and forth a few ideas. She wished that she had a list of all the electives, but it wasn’t like whatever she said to Eva was a binding agreement or anything. “Golemancy,” she said after a moment. “That sounds good. I think my parents were already planning on teaching me how to make the miniature creature golems one day. A background in golemancy can’t hurt.”

“My thoughts exactly. Minus the parents teaching me part. Given how useful Basila was, learning to make more would be handy.”

“Useful?”

“Oh, right. I haven’t talked to you since then,” Eva said, trailing off with a somewhat somber look crossing her features. That look disappeared after just a moment, replaced by a wide smile. “I kind of turned Basila into a monster. She was quite helpful in getting Shalise and Prax separated.”

“You… turned her into a monster?”

“Using blood magic and a growth potion that Wayne got for me.” Eva stretched her arms out as wide as they could go. “She got pretty big. But it is a bit of a long story,” she said as she dropped her arms to her sides. Her smile once again vanished. “Longer than this staircase anyway.”

“Right. I’ll hold you to telling me later then.”

“Can do.”

Eva passed right by the third floor. Zoe and Ylva must still be on the fourth.

“I think that I might take more of Professor Twillie’s classes. A few extra years of magical creatures might make my dad happy.”

Though, that was a big might. Juliana doubted that much of anything would make him happy at the moment. Nothing save for a sudden and inexplicable demise of Zagan and Eva combined with Juliana agreeing to ship off to Scotland.

Eva just hummed at Juliana’s choice in electives. There might have been a slight disapproval in the tone, but nothing too serious. Eva wasn’t the biggest fan of the magical creatures class.

At least it wasn’t history.

Though, that was a required class anyway through the fourth year.

As they climbed up to the next floor, Juliana heard shouting. She tensed before sprinting up the few steps to reach Eva–who was looking significantly less concerned than Juliana felt.

But she didn’t protest as they both sprinted up the final flight of stairs to the floor that had previously held Lucy.

Zoe stood in the hallway. Upon seeing her, the tension in Juliana’s muscles immediately drained away. She was just standing. Not fighting. She didn’t even have her dagger out.

She didn’t look particularly happy.

Juliana wouldn’t be either if there was a man half her height sticking a finger in her face while shouting at the top of his lungs.

Standing there, Juliana found herself stunned. Zoe never struck her as the type to just sit around while being verbally assaulted. Perhaps not the type to retaliate with lightning bolts—that would be more in the style of Juliana’s mother—but somewhere in between.

It took a moment to actually clue into the words that the man was saying. Judging by his repeated gestures towards the room and loud complaints about getting ‘black muck’ everywhere, he was the landlord. If the complaints weren’t enough, the threats about suing Zoe and the school for all they were worth sealed the deal.

Zoe just watched him with a blank expression. Perhaps she had already tried to interrupt or to calm him down. The only time she moved was to wipe a bit of spittle off her cheek.

That movement did bring her eyes off the landlord. She locked gazes with Juliana for just a moment, giving a rueful smile as she did so.

“You think this is funny?” the landlord shouted. An open palm swung out towards Zoe.

It struck skin with a loud smack.

But it didn’t hit Zoe’s cheek.

Ylva hadn’t been in the hallway before.

She was now. It wasn’t a teleport. Juliana had seen her move. It was less of a walk or run and more of a glide. The sudden drop in temperature with her appearance was plain to see on everyone’s breath.

The landlord’s wrist was caught in her firm grip just an inch away from Zoe’s face.

Black lines started spreading up his arm. He watched, face surprised but still angry. That surprise and anger bled away into fear as he started screaming.

“Ylva!”

Zoe’s hand was on Ylva’s arm almost as fast as Ylva had caught the landlord’s.

As soon as her fingers brushed against Ylva’s skin, a pair of cold, dead eyes turned towards Zoe.

Zoe’s back stiffened. She did not release Ylva’s arm. “Thank you,” she said. “But he doesn’t need to die.”

Ylva’s gaze slowly drifted back to the landlord. “This man attempted to harm one under Our protection. Moreover, his duties do not require the harming of others. His actions came unprovoked.”

“I know. But it was not an offense worth his life. Incarceration and fines for assault or battery would have been the standard procedure. However, if you let him go,” she said, turning to the landlord, “and he leaves us to our investigation, I’m sure we can all forget about what happened.”

Ylva stared for just a moment before releasing his arm.

The landlord fell to the ground. He scrambled away, using one arm and his legs to push away from Ylva. His other arm, the one that Ylva had touched, was slowly returning to its normal color. The black veins were receding.

“I’m sorry Mr. Murray. But we need to get back to work.” Zoe paused with a blink of her eyes. “Wait. Who was it that rented out that room?”

The landlord just stared. As if he couldn’t quite believe that he was being asked a question in such a calm manner after what had just happened. Being told that he doesn’t need to die, thereby implying that Ylva had intended to kill him, would be enough to shake anybody up.

At least, it would have shaken up Juliana. As it was, she could barely believe that Zoe hadn’t even asked if he was alright.

Maybe the situation was just that dire. Or maybe she didn’t want to offend Ylva.

Once the disbelief riddling his face passed, it looked for just a moment like he was about to start shouting again. That stopped the moment Ylva moved.

It wasn’t a big move. Just a light shift of her shoulders.

“Some woman and her boyfriend,” he said as fast as he could. “They destroyed the wall a week ago. I should have kicked them out after that, but they repaired it and promised to buy enough paint to give the entire hall a new coat. I swear, if I see them now–”

“You should find me,” Zoe interrupted. “Or a member of Brakket’s security team. Do you have their names?”

There was a slight pause as the landlord got back to his feet. “I got the names they registered with. Gertrude and Clementine, I think. No last names but they paid well so I didn’t ask.” He took a few steps backwards. “But I want you and your friend out of here by five o’clock. You hear me? Consider this your eviction notice.”

He didn’t wait for a response. The landlord backed up another three steps, turned, and started running.

The key word being ‘started.’

Both Eva and Juliana had stepped to the sides to allow him to pass by unhindered.

As soon as he caught sight of Eva, he jumped back again, this time towards Zoe and Ylva. He clutched one hand to his chest, taking a moment to breathe before edging past Eva. The moment he made it past, he flew down the stairs. Juliana could barely hear him mumbling about freaks on his way down.

If Eva heard him, she gave no indication. Her attention was solely focused on Zoe and Ylva.

“That was interesting,” Eva said as she walked up to the two women.

Zoe sighed. “He isn’t a bad man. But,” Zoe trailed off with a glance towards the room, “we did cause an explosion in his building.”

“If you need a place to live, there’s always room at the old prison.”

“Thanks Eva. I think I’ll try to remain around Brakket Academy. If anything happens,” again, she glanced off towards the destroyed room, “I’d hate to be too far to notice. The dormitory buildings are going to be empty enough that it shouldn’t be a problem to find a room inside.”

Eva’s shoulders dropped ever so slightly. “That’s probably for the best. With how empty the prison is these days, I’m going to be spending most of my time at the dormitory.”

After a quick, noncommittal hum from Zoe, she said, “Lucy?”

“With Nurse Post. I think she’ll heal. The important thing is to ensure that no one is around to hurt her anymore.

“Now,” Eva said, “did those hunters leave anything behind for Nel to track?”

“The room was devoid of personal affects. Not a single hair was found in the shower drain or on the pillows.”

“They knew of Us,” Ylva said. “They would have researched those that serve Us. Nel’s abilities have been taken into account.”

“Before we were… ah… interrupted by the landlord stopping by, we did find this in the bedroom.” Zoe held up a small rectangular sheet of paper.

Eva took it in her hand and Juliana read over her shoulder.

Hello! How are you doing today? Not too well, I’d guess, given the mess you had to wade through to reach this note.

In case this letter has been found by someone random, perhaps a first responder or another resident of the apartment building, please see it delivered to the secretary at Brakket Academy. She’ll know who to deliver it to.

Now that this letter is being read by the proper peoples, I’d just like to say that yes, that mess in the apartment room is one of your security guards. Well, half of the mess is. Oh. Right. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should probably ask whoever delivered this message to show you to the apartment room.

Don’t worry. I’ll wait.

Now that you’ve seen the room, I should point out that the scorch mark at the door was not from your security guard. Just some hel that, as far as we can tell, isn’t associated with everyone else. Don’t worry about it.

You might be looking around and wondering just where your other missing security guard is. I assure you that he is not among whatever remains are left behind.

He’s alive for the moment. Can’t say for how long, but I’m sure that if your devil hurries up, he might be able to save the bastard. He’ll be able to find the morail at a dainty little penitentiary just outside of town. It’s maybe half an hour away by car. I’m sure you all know the place. Sundown seems a fitting time to meet, no?

We’ll be waiting!

P.S. Don’t keep us waiting for too long. We mere mortals don’t have forever.

Juliana blinked with a glance over towards Eva. “I don’t suppose there’s another prison around Brakket?”

In response, Eva clenched her hand into a fist. Rather than crushing the paper, her claws pierced straight through it, tearing one side to shreds.

“Devon is still there. He needs to be warned. All my stuff…”

“Eva–”

Whatever Zoe was going to say, she didn’t quite make it. Eva disappeared, leaving a foul stench behind.

Zoe hissed out a small curse before she disappeared as well. Her vanishing was accompanied by a cold air that cleared out the stench of brimstone left behind by Eva.

Juliana stood in the hallway, feeling somewhat upset at having been left behind. Just because she hadn’t been around in forever didn’t mean that she couldn’t help out. In fact, it was probably best to have more humans while demon hunters were around. Humans wouldn’t get stuck inside shackles or other traps.

Though, maybe with how she had acted upon finding Lucy, Eva was right to have left her behind.

She had forgotten just how… intense things could be around Brakket. It wasn’t something that she had prepared for.

With a sigh, Juliana glanced away from the spot where Zoe had disappeared from.

And found that Ylva was staring straight at her.

Rubbing her thumb across the cold band on her finger, Juliana said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t get much of a chance to greet you properly earlier.”

“The circumstances were understandable,” Ylva said. “After securing Nel, We will be moving to join Eva and Zoe.”

“I don’t suppose that you might take me with you?”

There was a slight pause as Ylva looked over Juliana. A slight nod sent her platinum hair flowing around her shoulders. “That can be arranged.”

“Thank you,” Juliana said with a smile and a bow. Her father would have a fit.

At least nothing is on fire, Eva thought with a welling of relief deep inside.

In fact, better than nothing being on fire, nothing looked damaged at all. Everything in the women’s ward was just where she had left it. Outside, well, the prison was a fairly large place. Eva was mostly certain that everything was normal. Her blood wards gave her a view of the place in a manner reminiscent of her using clouds of blood to see and through that, she couldn’t see anything amiss.

Neither could she sense the presence of Daru anywhere. Nor any sign of him physically being here through her sense of blood. If this were a trap, she would have expected some trail of breadcrumbs to point her in the right direction.

Then again, it was barely past dawn. Dew coated the grass and the sun was too weak to give off much heat. The note had said to come at nightfall.

Which meant that she might have a few hours to set up traps before they showed up.

First thing was to prepare her secondary blood wards around the prison. They were wards that Eva had set up after the Elysium Order had attacked. The nuns had sat outside of her wards, taking them down while being a safe distance away. Eva’s secondary wards would lie dormant in a ring around the edges of her main ward, surrounding the prison. If someone walked up and tried to take down the main wards, the secondary wards would activate and hopefully ruin someone’s day.

It probably wouldn’t work against anyone who knew what they were doing. Someone would probably notice.

Hiding her wards better was one of the things that Eva was hoping to learn in next year’s schooling.

But, delaying attackers for a few extra minutes might make all the difference in the world.

Turning back into the women’s ward, Eva ran straight into Zoe. The professor immediately clasped her hands on Eva’s shoulders, freezing her movement.

“What were you thinking?”

“Devon needs to be warned,” Eva said. That was the second thing she needed to do. It would have been the first, but she didn’t want to run from the women’s ward all the way out to Devon’s building only to have to run back to the women’s ward.

“There could have been traps. Shackles in your gate room or even something as simple as a bomb.”

Eva opened her mouth to retort, but found she had no real response. The women’s ward, and the prison by extension, had always been safe. Well, almost always. Barring that one incident with the Elysium Order inquisitors. An incident that her secondary blood wards should mitigate in the future.

But she hadn’t even considered that someone could have taken down her wards in the two or so hours since she was last here, set up traps, and waited.

And if those traps had been intended for Zagan…

Eva shuddered. There likely wouldn’t have been anything left of her.

“Alright. I concede the point. But it is safe right now. My wards are still up and Devon is still around. Or, the carnivean is at least. I assume that he is with her.

“Actually, if you run and warn Devon, I’ll get a few traps of my own set up. We’ve got until, at the latest, nightfall. Best to use our time wisely.”

“What kind of traps?”

“Well, first, don’t walk outside the prison walls for any reason. Obviously, you can teleport back to Brakket if you need to, but the immediate area around the prison might cause bodily explosions.”

“That’s…” Zoe trailed off, rubbing her forehead. She pulled out her cellphone and started typing away. “I’m warning Wayne,” she said.

“What’s your number anyway?” Eva asked as she pulled out her own cellphone. “And Wayne’s. Do you have Catherine’s number as well?”

Catherine was supposed to have met her at the dormitories along with Prax. That was obviously not going to happen now. She needed to get word to them.

But she also needed to do the wards and other traps.

“You got a cellphone?”

“Sort of. I barely know how to work it.” Eva shoved the phone into Zoe’s hands. “Put in everyone’s phone numbers while you walk over to Devon’s building. Tell him that we might be hosting some demon hunter guests.”

Eva didn’t wait for any further protests, questions, or comments from Zoe. She all but ran back into her room.

The hovering orb of blood that both powered her wards and held the blood from everyone keyed in had grown quite large since she had first created it. Just about everyone that Eva knew had wound up keyed in at some point. Though they needed to donate only a small vial’s worth of blood, it all added up. A mixture of black and red, demon and human blood all swirled together.

Seeing the ward only reassured Eva that nothing untoward had happened either while she was hunting down Sawyer or during the few hours that she was gone rescuing Lucy. When people not keyed into the ward tried to walk around inside the area of effect, the orb would shrink. Not nearly so much as one of her shields, but enough to be noticeable.

And when she had finally gotten around to repairing the ward after the attack from the Elysium Order, there had been nothing left of the orb save for the blood used for keying people in.

Unfortunately, her secondary set of wards couldn’t be activated from her room. They were essentially small yet overlapping bubbles set up around the walls of the prison.

Turning to her window, one inside her room that hadn’t been obstructed by Serena, Eva blinked straight out to the nearest wall. It didn’t take long for her to open up the small box that held the blood ward.

While the main ward had started out around the size of a basketball and had grown to match a small beach ball, the secondary wards were much smaller. About the size of a tennis ball. They had much less area to cover, but there were a lot more of them.

The container was just a simple plastic storage box. While it would have been nice to have Ylva make some solid void metal cubes with intricate locking mechanisms, Ylva had already offered Eva so many favors for free. Even though the favors suited Ylva’s designs just as much as Eva’s, asking for more seemed to be in poor taste. And, while she had money, even just a mundane lockbox was out of price range for the number that she needed.

So plastic boxes it was. Eva had added a few runes to lock them down, but that was more to keep the elements out than people. If someone managed to get this close to them, they would either be exploding from the main wards or find the runes to be less of a deterrent than a plastic tarp.

Opening the box, Eva activated the ward. It wouldn’t actually cause death just yet, but it was ready to be fully turned on.

Unfortunately, that was only one of… a lot. Eva blinked straight to the next box after sealing the first and repeated the process.

She blinked to the next.

And the next.

And the next.

She only made it about halfway around before Devon stormed out. Zoe and the carnivean trailed just behind him, with Zoe wincing and rubbing her forehead. The reason for her headache quickly became apparent.

Just behind the carnivean was a certain familiar demon with waxy skin. The same one that he had summoned immediately before the Elysium Order had attacked.

Eva didn’t bother to stand and greet them. She finished activating the ward that she had been working on before turning to regard the newly summoned demon.

Through her sense of demons, she had felt it pop into existence–or the mortal realm–somewhere around a third of the way through the wards. However, as before, she couldn’t see any blood within the wax construct. Until she had looked at it with her eyes, all she had known was that a new demon had been summoned.

Whether or not it was the same one that he had summoned before, Eva couldn’t say. The demon was female in form, made of black wax with green flames for hair and glowing red eyes. It looked like the same one, but Eva didn’t know much about that species of demon. For all she knew, they all looked exactly the same.

It didn’t help that she only vaguely remembered the demon. Being skewered by Sawyer’s cursed blade had overshadowed pretty much every other event that day.

Eva turned her gaze away from the waxy demon’s glowing eyes. The intense pain coursing through her mind was something that she definitely did recall.

Nowhere in sight was the Lord of Slaves or the non-euclidean demon.

Something that didn’t fill Eva with confidence. These demon hunters thought that they could take on Zagan. A laughable prospect, but not something to take lightly anyway.

Arachne had been able to kill the carnivean without much trouble. The wax demon had a formidable ability, but it didn’t look like it could take much punishment.

Eva would be feeling much safer if Devon had gone all out.

It was a good thing that Zoe had shown up. Going around activating all the wards wasn’t a difficult task, but it was time consuming. If he was prepared earlier, all the better.

“Thought you said you weren’t followed, girl,” Devon called out as he neared, somehow managing to grumble under his breath and shout out over the short distance at the same time.

“Still don’t think I was,” Eva said. “They were here the very day I got back from Florida.” She gave a light nod towards the wax demon. “I thought that we weren’t supposed to be summoning things.”

“Either I’ll be alive and worry about the consequences later or I’ll be dead and not care much,” he said with a shrug.

Martina feels much the same way, Eva didn’t bother saying. It wouldn’t surprise her in the least if Devon didn’t even remember who Martina was.

Eva glanced back to the wax demon. It was obviously dominated. The way it moved was stiff and unnatural. In comparison, the carnivean had her hands deep in the pockets of a sweatshirt and was glancing off to one side with an impotent scowl on her face.

“You’re going to summon any other demons?”

“She,” he thumbed over his shoulder, “said nightfall. I’d rather not sit around with dominated demons for the whole day.”

“Nightfall is when they’re expecting to fight Zagan,” Zoe said, still rubbing her forehead. “They could show up at any time between.”

Devon’s already dark countenance took a turn for the worse. “He is coming here?”

“I don’t think he knows,” Eva said. Given how often he appeared out of nowhere knowing things, she quickly amended herself. “At least, I haven’t told him. And I don’t think that Zoe showed him the letter either.”

The letter that was a torn, crumpled mess back in the women’s ward.

Zoe, meeting Eva’s eyes, shook her head. “Unless Ylva or Juliana went to tell him.”

“That is a possibility. But if they didn’t, should we tell him? This was his trap after all. If he gets here early enough, he might be able to do something about it.”

Zoe glanced around the old sandstone buildings, looking over the wall of the prison and off into the distance towards the center of the complex. “Unless we’re already inside of a larger trap.”

Eva started, jumping slightly. Not so much at Zoe’s suspicion, though the idea that the trap had already been set was a worrying one, but at the loud scoff from Devon.

“If you’re thinking that there are some shackles around the prison, don’t. The strongest shackles will become worthless graffiti at the first mistake. Shackles large enough to ring in the prison would have many points of failure.”

“Not to mention the time setting up something so large would have taken,” Eva added. “Surely Devon, myself, the carnivean, or someone else would have noticed a few demon hunters running around outside.” Though she had been gone for a few days. Still, Devon wouldn’t have dropped the vigil quite so hard. “And no one has been inside the prison. My wards prove as much.”

Devon scoffed again, putting on a light sneer as he spoke. “Are these the same infallible wards that kept the nuns out?”

“They worked just fine until the nuns took them down. I would have noticed had someone taken them down again.” Glancing back to the plastic crate, Eva shook her head. “Speaking of, I need to get back to work.”

“Do we tell Zagan or not?”

“No,” Devon snapped. “He’s been here enough.”

“And he didn’t do a single thing against you,” Eva said. “I’d say tell him. But up to you I guess.”

Eva blinked away, straight to the next blood ward. She had no desire to get into yet another argument with Devon about Zagan. Especially not when half the prison was still unprotected from the secondary array.

After a few minutes of discussion between Zoe and Devon, Zoe teleported away. Probably to go find Zagan, though Ylva and Juliana were other possibilities.

Eva paid them no mind, watching Devon skulk back to his cell block as she rounded a corner. By the time she had finished traversing the perimeter of the prison, the sun had climbed the sky. Noon.

Still no sign of any demon hunters.

— — —

Martina Turner propped her elbows up on her desk and clasped her hands together just beneath her nose as she stared at the wall of her office.

She was not having a good day.

What else is new.

Most days weren’t good, these days. Tolerable was about the best that she could hope for. Days where nothing happened, where Governor Anderson held his tongue on any reports that he may have, where investigative journalists weren’t harping at her door about the sky—or worse, mundane journalists taking the sudden notoriety of Brakket City as an opportunity to question magic.

Those last ones were the worst. People should mind their own business. Especially the mundanes. It was getting to the point where she was thinking about sending Zagan to answer questions instead of Catherine.

Of course, it hadn’t helped that she had personally had to chase away some of the journalists over the past week.

Catherine, her familiar, had gone missing for several days. As Martina had later found out, the succubus had been off gallivanting with the self-proclaimed diabolist. And not gallivanting in the manner normally associated with succubi. Rather, she had been researching some ritual circle nonsense.

Martina did not consider herself a slave driver in any sense of the phrase. Both her familiar and her contracted demons were free to go about whatever it was that they got up to in their spare time, so long as they did as she asked when she asked. Having Catherine just up and disappear for most of a week had Martina pulling hair from her head in large clumps.

Not literally, but the stress was there.

Just when she had reeled in the wayward succubus, the current situation sprung up.

Two of her security team murdered. Two demons missing.

Worse, the murders had not been behind closed doors. Not when both bodies had been lying out in the courtyard between the dormitory buildings in the early morning hours, ready for any students still around to wake up and spot them. It was a great deal more difficult to cover up public killings.

Two demon hunter related killings.

The only bright spot in the whole mess was that the hunters were not applying scorched earth tactics. They hadn’t announced themselves in any manner, the school wasn’t in flames, and the citizens were largely unaware of the possible danger posed by the hunters. Typically, if a community was suspected of willingly or knowingly harboring demons, all involved would be killed. Though exact amounts of survivors often depended on the temperaments of the specific hunters.

Martina wasn’t sure what these particular hunters believed in, but she believed that a large portion of their passiveness—if kidnapping Lucy and Daru could count as passive—was because of Zagan. And the hel, to a lesser extent.

“Even the most insane demon hunters would be hesitant to engage in combat with them,” Martina said as a sort of conclusion to her speech. “So I’m sure that you can understand my disinclination towards sending Zagan away. Especially out of town, even if the old penitentiary isn’t all that far. Him being away could spell doom for the city as a whole.”

“To be perfectly honest,” Zoe said after a moment’s pause, “I don’t know the correct course of action. Given that Zagan was named in the letter, I felt it prudent to let him know.”

Martina did not miss the narrowed eyes and the clenched teeth on Zoe as she looked over Martina’s shoulder.

“As there is no evidence thus far of any traps at the prison, whatever these hunters had intended might be something that can be set up quickly. Something to be aware of regardless of whether or not they follow through with their original plan. Even that is in question given both Lucy’s survival and Ylva having avoided whatever trap had been intended for her.”

Pausing for a moment, Martina leaned back in her chair. She half expected Zagan to cut in with his own observations. Or, more likely, for him to run off without her explicit consent.

He did neither, seemingly content to remain standing just behind Martina.

“Perhaps there was never a trap,” Martina eventually said. “The letter could have simply been a means to draw Zagan away from town, giving these hunters free rein to wreak whatever havoc they wished.”

After a brief noncommittal hum from Zoe, she said, “I suppose that is possible. Either way, it is better to be safe than sorry. I will be returning to the prison to render whatever assistance I can.”

Martina nodded and waved the professor away. She had half a mind to insist on her staying around Brakket. Though they didn’t often agree on things—especially things related to demons—Martina had to admit that Zoe was a talented mage. However, what she could do that Zagan couldn’t was essentially nothing.

“Before you go,” Martina said as a thought hit her, “where is the hel?”

“The last I saw of her, she was still at the apartment building.” She paused after she spoke, turning her gaze to one side. Nodding to herself, Zoe glanced back towards Martina. “I’ll be finding her before heading back to the prison.”

“Very well.” Martina couldn’t do much about that, as much as she wanted to. Ylva wasn’t a demon under her control. “Stay safe.”

Zoe blinked, regarding Martina with an odd look in her eye before she finally nodded. “You as well,” she said as she stood.

Martina just rolled her eyes as Zoe walked out of the room. She couldn’t be quite sure what that last look had been, but it was almost as if Zoe had expected her to wish her death.

Obviously, Martina didn’t want Zoe to die. Finding a replacement theory professor would be a nightmare. Especially if she was more or less alright with demons. Something of this scale would be near impossible to cover up. Half of her staff would probably be resigning before next year started.

As such, if Zoe and her little group could clean up these demon hunters quietly and away from Brakket, all the better for Martina.

As soon as the door had firmly shut behind the professor, Martina kicked back in her chair, propping her feet up on top of her desk. She pulled a bottle of Hellfire from her desk drawer and didn’t even bother to pour it into a glass before drinking down half the bottle.

She slammed the bottle down on the desk. Breathing out a breath that felt like it was on fire, she glanced over her shoulder.

“What do you think?”

Zagan walked around her desk, seating himself in the chair that had just held Zoe.

“When you offered me excitement, I was focused on a single topic. That of the odd happenings in Hell. Never did I expect you to actually deliver on your promise.”

“I’m talking about the demon hunters.”

“I agree with your assessment. They were trying to get me out of the way. A distraction while they cleaned up the rest of the demons in town, most likely. Powerful though I am, I am limited to a single location at a time.

“Whatever their plan is to dispatch me does catch my interest. I look forward to their attempts.”

“Can you not simply deal with them now? Nip this problem in the bud before it gets worse?”

Zagan turned his eyes up, glaring at Martina. “You promised me excitement. Sending them on to Death before they are ready for me would be the opposite of excitement.”

Martina didn’t so much as feel the slightest discomfort under his gaze. She had spent enough time around him for any danger he might have posed to have worn off. His words were another story. She buried her head into her hands, rubbing her eyes.

“I was afraid that you would say that.”

Eva woke with a sheen of sweat coating her body. There was a twisting in her stomach, something she couldn’t quite explain. It wasn’t hunger. More like disgust or revulsion.

Something was wrong.

Throwing her blankets off, Eva took a look around her room in the women’s ward. Aside from the messy bed, everything was neatly organized. Her dresser held all of the various knickknacks that she had acquired over the past few years. None had been moved. Her room was just as she remembered leaving it the night before.

The windows were still barred and sealed. It was just barely getting dark out. Eva had decided to take a quick nap after having finished setting up her wards. With all the excitement, sleepless nights, and somewhat severe anemia in the recent days, she hadn’t wanted to fight demon hunters while in such a sorry state. She had intended to just take a short nap—she didn’t even sleep much these days anyway—but by the looks of things, she had somewhat overslept.

However, aside from the pale streaks of purple in the sky, nothing looked amiss outside of her room.

“So what is wrong?” she mumbled to herself as she threw on a shirt and a skirt.

Through the walls, Eva took note of her guests. Ylva, Catherine, and Prax were all out in the common room. None really appeared to be speaking to one another. Prax leaned against a far wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Ylva sat in a chair, reclining back with one arm on the armrest. She had her fingers curled underneath her chin, supporting her head as she stared off into the distance. Lying on the longer couch, Catherine fiddled with a cellphone.

Zoe and Juliana weren’t around at the moment. They must have gone back during Eva’s nap. Juliana’s father had given some strict instructions to Zoe regarding his daughter’s extracurricular activities. Something about a curfew.

She would have expected Zoe to return afterwards. Or send a message if she was in trouble.

A quick check of her cellphone showed no new messages.

As she was slowly becoming used to, Eva could sense all three of the demons in the other room. And more. The carnivean and the wax demon were somewhere around as well, though farther away. Along with all those demons was Zagan, though his presence was faint and in the vague direction of Brakket Academy.

But there was something else. Something disturbing.

Whatever it was, it had been the thing to wake her.

Pushing open the door to the common room, Eva looked around at the demons with her own eyes.

None of them turned to look at her.

“Do you feel it too?” she asked no one in particular.

“It’s Daru,” Catherine said in an exasperated tone of voice. She didn’t bother looking up from her cellphone.

Though, moving slightly closer and catching a glimpse over the succubus’ shoulder, Eva found herself surprised at the lack of a game on the screen. Rather, she was in some sort of drawing program, tracing out sigil-inscribed circles with her thumb.

Practicing? Or maybe continuing whatever she had been working on with Devon, Eva thought. Her own version of a treatment circle.

Eva shook her head. “Why does it feel like that? It’s… It’s… vile.”

“He’s in pain. Lots of pain,” Catherine said. “Active torture, I’d imagine. Enough to mess with his aura.”

“And we’re just sitting around?”

Catherine sighed as she set her phone on the couch cushion. She glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. “Martina might have asked me to help you out, but that doesn’t mean that I need to die for you. I rather like being around here. The mortal realm, that is.”

When Catherine failed to jump up and charge out to rescue Daru, Eva turned first to Ylva before moving on to Prax.

“It is a trap,” Prax said. “Your defenses give us the advantage over any who would attack us. Leaving their protections to rescue some morail would be foolish in the extreme.”

“So we’re just going to leave him to be tortured?”

As someone who had gone through torture herself, leaving someone else to such a fate did not sit right with her. Eva had recovered, true. Perhaps even becoming stronger than she had been before with the addition of Arachne’s limbs. But that didn’t mean that others would be the same.

“Eva,” Catherine said, sitting up on the couch. “What you fail to realize is that no one here cares about Daru. No one here cares about each other, except in how they will fare should we need to fight. So long as the others keep me from dying, they’re my best friends. The moment they become a liability to my continued existence…”

With a frown, Eva glanced towards Ylva, expecting at least the hel to deny having the same thoughts.

Ylva turned her head slightly, looking towards Prax. “The cambion’s assessment is correct. This is a trap. Wandering into it, blinded by revenge or some foolish heroism, would suit no one. The morail is not Our servant. His demise matters little.”

Eva closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

With how much she interacted with them on a daily basis, it was easy to forget that most of everyone who she knew was a demon. And not demons like Arachne.

Arachne cared. At least about her.

Maybe that was the problem. She had a skewed perspective because of Arachne. Eva was willing to grant that Arachne likely cared little for anyone else. The only reason why Arachne had helped anyone else was because of Eva asking her to.

“But I care,” Eva said, looking Catherine in the eye. “I care about Arachne. I want her back. She was–is my friend and my companion.” Eva’s hand drifted up to the beacon set around her neck.

“Along with that, I care about you. Ylva too,” Eva said, turning to face the hel. “And,” she started looking towards Prax before snapping her gaze back to Catherine. “Lucy too. If any of you were being tortured, I would jump in and try to save you.”

Silence greeted Eva’s proclamation.

No one moved. No one said a word.

At least, until Prax let out a loud snort.

That broke whatever spell held them still.

Catherine rolled her eyes and picked up her cellphone again while Ylva just looked up at Eva and stared.

“A foolish notion. Mortals lack the ability to permanently kill demons. Any sacrifice you make would be pointless in the end.”

“I might as well try,” Eva said, fiddling with Arachne’s beacon once again. “By that logic, there aren’t any downsides to trying. If none of us die when we’re killed…” Trailing off, Eva stared at Ylva. “Can I die? Permanently.”

The air chilled by a few degrees. Enough so that Eva’s breath condensed into faint puffs of fog as she breathed.

Eva took a step backwards as Ylva moved to her feet.

Though she wasn’t standing in any sunlight, her skin vanished. All that remained was the giant skeleton, stooping over slightly to fit under the relatively low ceiling of the women’s ward. Two tiny white pinpricks of light emanated from the depths of her empty eye sockets.

Eva tried to take another step back.

Ylva was too quick.

Her hand reached out, digging her bony fingers into Eva’s shoulder.

Ice flowed through Eva’s body.

Not just ice. Whatever it was, it was colder than ice. Turning her sense of blood in on herself, Eva could see her very veins freezing beneath her skin. It spread, starting at Ylva’s hand and spreading.

Down her arm.

Down her chest.

Up her neck.

Eva managed only a short scream before her throat froze over.

She was only barely conscious of Catherine staring at her with wide eyes. The succubus made no movements to intervene.

Neither did Prax. He hadn’t even shifted from his position against the far wall.

Those white pinpricks where Ylva’s eyes should be captured her, forcibly holding her gaze and what little attention she could muster.

Tendrils of ice reached up Eva’s neck.

The moment they touched her brain, everything went dark.

— — —

“No one is coming.”

What little there was of the demon had just been swallowed by Void. Bits and pieces of him had been left behind. Void only took the largest chunk of the demon that was still connected to either the brain or the heart, if either were still intact.

Gertrude snapped her tome shut.

“No one is coming,” she said again with a glance around the empty wilderness. “All that work. All for nothing.”

Clement followed her gaze.

They had set up just to the side of the main freeway that passed by Brakket City. Several demon traps had been set up. Slick icy patches created by Gertrude made up the proper rings and symbols for shackles. Some out in the fields around them to capture any that might come by. Even a few on the roads themselves.

Some demons liked to drive for whatever reason. Clement had never talked with one, but he imagined that they didn’t often drive if they ever wound up summoned again. The look on their faces when they drove over a set of icy shackles was one that made him extraordinarily grateful to Gertrude for enchanting his visor with magnification settings.

A demon’s car would find itself relatively unimpeded by the ice. The demon wasn’t so lucky. Even the strongest of demons would find themselves hard pressed to survive both impacting against the wall of shackles at above eighty miles an hour and the crumpling of their car around them when their body got in the way.

A perfect trap if ever there was one.

Except when demons didn’t show up.

“All this sneaking around and trapping,” Gertrude said. She put her fingers into her red hair, giving a light tug. Not hard enough to actually pull the hair out, just enough to try to relieve stress. “I can’t take it anymore. I want to fight. That girl ruined everything,” she said with a loud groan.

Clement placed his hand on his sword. “Are we taking the fight to them?”

“The city has less demons,” she said, not even paying attention to Clement. “Ahh, but it has the devil.”

“Will your enchantments work on him?”

“I suppose that depends entirely on how playful he’s feeling. I wouldn’t rely on anything but your sword. That should work on the Devil himself.”

Clement glanced down towards his boots, opening his mouth to ask.

Gertrude preempted his question. “No amount of speed will matter if he gets serious.”

“Then we must kill him before he gets serious.”

“A trickier task than simple words make it sound.”

“I can handle it.”

Bright white teeth appeared between Gertrude’s lips as their corners curled up high on her cheeks. “If you handle him,” she said with a hum, rubbing her chin. “That might work. You won’t get any support from me.”

Clement blinked. Possibly the most powerful foe they had ever faced and she wouldn’t be there? He suppressed the chill on his neck and gave Gertrude a nod. “If that is what you need of me. Shall we set up traps?”

“The first one might work for a few seconds. I wouldn’t expect anything to work twice.”

Tightening his fingers around his sword’s hilt, Clement took a deep breath. “A few seconds might be all I need.”

“Alright then,” she said, turning and stalking away from the mess of the demon. After taking one step, Gertrude paused. “There is one more thing.”

She tossed a small object towards Clement. With the enchantments on his visor and the rest of his armor, he hand no trouble spotting and catching it in the dim light.

A ring.

An old-fashioned signet ring. It was a dark metal, heavier than he expected though he had no trouble lifting it. Whether that was because of his armor’s enchantments or something Gertrude had done to the ring, he couldn’t say.

The signet part of the ring had heavy embossing. There were two main parts of the signet. The first, the outer circle, was full of dots and lines. Some lines were straight while others squiggled. None of the patterns made any sense to him.

The inner circle had a symbol that looked almost like an old-fashioned keyhole. There were a few excess lines around the keyhole along with the astrological symbols for Mars and Saturn.

“This is your ring,” he said, looking back to Gertrude. “Why give it to me? You aren’t planning on doing something foolish again, are you?”

“Me?” she said with a faux gasp, grasping at her chest as if she had just been struck. “Never!”

Gertrude took a deep breath, her countenance taking on a slightly more serious appearance.

“It’s called the Seal of Solomon,” she said. “Said to be able to seal any demon, including the seventy-two devils. Just press it into their skin and bam! One-way ticket to Hell.”

“Why me?”

“You offered to fight him,” Gertrude said with a shrug. “Besides, I don’t know if it will work. You know me,” she paused to crack her knuckles, “I prefer to drag these bastards back to Hell in pieces.”

With that said, she turned back to the van and started walking, leaving Clement staring at the ring.

And wondering just how he was supposed to wear it with his gauntlets in the way.

Perhaps a small chain around his neck would work.

Shaking his head, Clement glanced back towards where their demon guest had been sent back to Hell.

Leaving the mess behind could present a potential hazard to any innocents who came across it. Though morail blood wasn’t caustic or toxic, it was still demon blood. He would hate to have to hunt down anyone who came into contact with the substance. Likely some random person followed by either mundane police or Brakket Academy personnel.

If it was the latter, he wouldn’t feel too guilty about it.

But Gertrude had already slipped through the window of their van. Roars of the engine filled the air as she revved up the vehicle. Three sharp blasts of the horn signaled her impatience.

With a sigh, Clement followed her footsteps and left the mess of the demon behind. With any luck, the remains would be picked off by carrion feeders. A lot harder to hunt down, but significantly less important than hunting down sentient beings.

He pulled open the rear doors of the van and climbed inside, setting the weight of his armor down on one of the reinforced seats.

Gertrude slammed on the gas pedal, lurching the van forwards, before he even had a chance to shut the door.

As usual.

— — —

An empty void. Nothing existed anywhere. There were no landmarks, no scents, no lights. Nothing at all. Nothing but cold.

Eva couldn’t feel her fingers. She couldn’t feel her toes.

And yet, it was somehow familiar. Except for the cold.

The hallway that she had been trapped in after being stabbed by Sawyer. Or rather, the void that she had fallen into just before waking.

Eva had taken the entire thing to be a near death experience brought on by the cursed dagger. Some delusion that her mind had wrought as a way of coping with her imminent demise.

That she was experiencing it again did not fill her with happy feelings. The implications elicited almost the exact opposite; feelings of dread.

Ylva had killed her. Or, at least came close enough to throw her back into a comatose state. A state that, last time, Eva had required outside assistance to wake up from.

Though, last time, the emptiness had immediately preceded waking up. Perhaps she wouldn’t need to muck about with the hallway this time.

Of course, she had retained the ability to feel things last time. Eva distinctly recalled using her claws to cut herself as a test. No matter how much she tried to move, she couldn’t feel even the slightest movement of her own body.

And she was trying.

With nothing else to do, Eva continuously tried to flex her fingers. Back and forth, back and forth.

Slowly yet surely, the lack of any feeling gave way to a sort of tingling numbness. The sort of feeling that happened when a limb fell asleep. It was painful, but not overly so. Nothing quite compared to having her eyes pulled out. Or even the curse from the blade.

As the numbness worked its way up her arms, Eva started trying the same with her legs. Anything to get more feeling in her body.

After a moment or two of working over her fingers, Eva had a thought.

If Ylva had frozen her body, what was the best way to get rid of that ice?

The answer was obviously fire.

Eva ignited her arms and legs.

Warmth poured into her. She didn’t go further than her carapace–the flames would end up going too far and taking her from frozen to extra crispy. A few warming spells around her chest and stomach helped, though not to the same degree.

Still, Eva was quickly regaining her range of motion.

And her hearing.

A buzzing at her ears that slowly grew louder. Shouts, perhaps?

Cries to put it out.

What are they talking about? The fire?

Eva couldn’t put it out. Not before she was thawed.

Casting a heating spell right in the middle of her face seemed like a good idea. If she could hear, maybe she could thaw out her eyes.

Seemed was the key word.

As the heat melted away whatever ice had frozen her eyes shut, Eva’s eyes burned. It was not the tingling numbness in her limbs. It was shards of ice digging into her eyelids and the flesh of her eyes.

It was not melting fast enough.

Eva strained through it with clenched teeth. She pulled her eyelids open with as much might as she could gather.

Which wasn’t all that much. For as strong as her hands and legs might be–and even the parts of her that were human–eyelids were not very powerful muscles.

Thin strips of light widened until Eva could see again despite that lack of strength.

Eva found herself staring at the ceiling of the women’s ward common room.

Ylva and Catherine stood over her. Ylva looked as elegant as ever.

Catherine had changed into singed tatters of clothes for some odd reason.

And the couch was on fire.

Eva closed her eyes again and just sat on the cold hard floor. She still felt iced over just about everywhere. Lifting her arm, she cast a few more warming spells all over her body.

Whether or not there was actually ice, she couldn’t tell. At the very least, she didn’t feel like she was lying in a puddle.

After spending a few minutes warming herself, Eva opened her eyes again.

Catherine had skulked off to the side, but Ylva still stood over her.

Eva opened her mouth only to find her jaw stiff. As if she had been clenching her teeth for far too long. Opening and closing her mouth a few times to stretch out her weary muscles, Eva tried to speak again.

“You killed me.”

“Only for a moment.”

Eva blinked, not having expected Ylva to outright admit it. She tried to push herself up. A combination of pain in her back and stiffness in her shoulders and hips kept her from succeeding. Even moving her arms was a chore.

After a moment of failure, Eva let herself flop back down to the floor, lying flat on her back. Her lack of ability to sit up did not detract from the glare she leveled at Ylva.

“You killed me!”

Ylva stared. Her cold eyes looked down at Eva without a shred of regret, remorse, or even sympathy.

It was enough to send a chill up Eva’s still frozen spine.

This woman–this demon was someone who Eva had come to trust. She had slept within the demon’s domain, walked with her on the streets, talked with and sought advice from her on occasion.

Now Ylva looked down with alien eyes devoid of emotion as if she couldn’t understand why Eva might find it alarming that she had just been killed.

“Why?”

“To ascertain the answer to your question.”

Eva would have shaken her head had she the strength to do so. Instead, she settled with merely closing her eyes. This is my fault somehow, isn’t it. Rather than ask a question that Eva was fairly certain she knew the answer to, she just opened her eyes and said, “can we maybe talk about killing me before actually doing so next time? No, wait. Let’s just not kill me next time.”

“There was no danger,” Ylva said with a slight tilt of her head. “We have long suspected that your soul is too corrupt to be gathered by psychopomps and ferried to the Land of Death.”

“That…” Eva actually did shake her head this time. Forcing herself into a sitting position despite the creaking protests of her body, she leaned against the small table.

The couch was still on fire, as were her hands and legs. There wasn’t much left of her skirt either. Eva took a brief moment to channel her magic into the flames, controlling, dampening, and finally extinguishing them.

“What if you were wrong?” Eva turned to Ylva with a glare. “What if I had actually died?”

“There was no danger. Our initial purpose in placing Ourself near you was to investigate the status of your soul. We succeeded in Our task and were not wrong.” Ylva paused for a moment with a blink of her eyes. “Had your soul been uncorrupted, repelling a reaper is a simple matter for a short time. Time enough to restore your body and soul for one such as Ourself.”

Eva stared with her mouth half-open as she processed what Ylva had said. It took another minute for her to figure out anything to say. “There are so many things wrong with what you just said that I don’t even know where to start.”

“We were not wrong,” Ylva repeated.

Eva clamped a hand around her face to keep her from shouting out at Ylva. Offending the servant of Death who could kill with a touch and had done just that was not a good idea. Eva was self-aware enough to realize that.

The disgusting feeling was gone, Eva noted with a certain disconnect. Either Daru was dead or he was done being tortured. Eva was leaning towards the former. She couldn’t feel anything of him. While that had been true for most of the day, Eva doubted that he would have been kept alive for very long.

At least he was out of that pain and suffering.

Despite her speech earlier, Eva couldn’t say how much she cared.

The fact of the matter was that she barely knew Daru. He wasn’t a Catherine or Lucy and was certainly not an Arachne. He wasn’t all dead like Eva’s mortal friends would have been in the same situation. So maybe all the demons had been right.

Though Ylva hadn’t needed to kill her to get the point across. Probably. Maybe being killed had put things into perspective. It wasn’t a pleasant experience and not one she would be eager to try again. Especially not for someone she didn’t know.

A minute of calmly breathing and thinking had Eva feeling much better. Both in terms of the icy stiffness that permeated her body and in terms of dealing with Ylva.

She would be extraordinarily careful in her wording of simple questions in the future. Especially ones relating to dying.

But the question still remained.

“So I’m not going to see Death soon,” Eva started, trying to figure out exactly how she wanted to word her question. “But… neither am I floating in some void with–” With Arachne, she couldn’t help but think. She shook her head, banishing the thought from her mind. “No portal opened around me, right? Or did you stop that as well.”

“Void’s hold over your soul is unstable. He attempted to draw you in, but failed.”

“So… So what happ– Without killing me again, what happens if my head gets chopped off right now?”

“Your soul will stagnate, unable to inhabit your mortal form. Separate from your body, any with a passing knowledge in the subject will be able to collect it. We recommend not dying outside of Our presence or outside of Hell if you wish to continue with your existence as it is.”

Eva shuddered. Was that what the hallway had been? Her disembodied soul trapped until her body had been repaired enough to inhabit it again? Unable to die and yet unable to be claimed by Void. Would she be stuck permanently?

“I hate to interrupt,” Catherine said. “I just got a text from Martina. Apparently one of the demon hunters is marching up to Brakket Academy.” She let out a long and obviously fake sigh. “Prax and I are to return at once, I guess.”

“Is there a need?” Eva stood up, taking a moment to make sure she wasn’t too wobbly. “Zagan should be able to handle anything, right?”

That was the whole purpose behind him sticking with Martina Turner after all.

“I hope so. Fighting is not my thing.”

“Shall we–” Eva started, glancing towards Ylva. She actually flinched back when she met Ylva’s eyes.

“Nel, Zoe, and Juliana are all within the city. We will take steps to protect them.”

“Right.” Eva slapped her cheeks. Ylva isn’t bad, she reminded herself, she just doesn’t think like regular people. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“This is a surprise. After all that skulking about, you come out of the woodwork now?”

Clement stood unmoving. He could feel the sweat beading down his skin beneath his armor. The battle hadn’t even started yet.

Demons never really frightened him. They were arrogant beings, the kind of monsters who thought themselves so above humanity that nothing short of an army could beat them in combat. When faced against a medieval knight and a lithe girl, most tended to laugh. If given the chance to monologue, which most took, they would gloat about how quickly the battle would be over.

Usually Gertrude would be at his side. Ever the impatient sort, she tended to interrupt them. Whether that be using her water magic to ice over their eyeballs or simply activating a prepared trap, rarely did a demon finish his monologue.

Though, Gertrude wasn’t at his side this time.

Clement opened his mouth only to find his throat drier than a desert in a drought. Licking his lips, he gave a slight cough to clear his throat before speaking.

“You didn’t bring along the other demons?” Unless something had changed recently, there should still be two demons inside the school building. A morail and a hellhound. The rest were still out at the prison.

The devil drew himself up, broadening his shoulders as he straightened his back. “I could kill them with a stray thought. If you’re truly strong enough to challenge me, they wouldn’t last longer than a few seconds.”

Clement blinked. He had been expecting some arrogant oh, you think I need help to fight you? Instead, this devil’s words carried a tone of respect for Clement. They recognized his strength.

Which was not a good thing. He needed to deal with the devil before the devil took him seriously.

Something that had not looked likely from the start.

As Clement looked on the devil, he could find no trace of the man he had spied upon since he had arrived in Brakket. Gone was the flirt that propositioned everyone in town. Male or female. Clement had caught him sweet talking a horse at one point, though given Clement’s certainty that the devil knew he was being watched, that could have been a show specifically for the purpose of messing with him.

No, before Clement stood a devil.

He didn’t look like one, for sure. He looked like a professor. A rather well-off professor. His suit was well pressed without a spot of dust on it. His dark hair was well styled, not too short to look military, but not long enough to look childish. Magnetic and debonair, Clement almost found himself dismissing the idea that this man was anything but a man.

But then there were the devil’s eyes. Bright golden eyes that almost glowed in the surrounding darkness.

Truly a monster.

Regardless of the outcome, perhaps there would be songs sung about this battle. There certainly were plenty of witnesses.

Clement looked around. The two Brakket dormitory buildings stood on either side of him, one to his left and the other to the right. There was a brick campus between the two, not designed for vehicles.

Lights were on in several rooms. The lights made it easy to see the silhouettes of students that hadn’t gone home for the summer. A number of the rooms were dark but still held people—Clement could see as much through his visor’s enchantments.

Unfortunately, it was doubtful that any great bards would take up the task of his song. More likely, some kid would record the whole thing before posting it on the internet. People would argue about it, some claiming it was mere special effects while others would insist that the video was more evidence of magic.

Then it would be forgotten as the next big thing came around.

Shaking his head, Clement looked back towards his opponent. “If we fight like this,” he said with a nod up to the lit windows. “They’ll know who–what you are.”

The devil shrugged his shoulders. “You care. You hunt demons. Demons are your life, your very reason for existence. A big bad demon invading a town of innocent students, why, it might just be the most important fight of your life.” Lifting his arm, he gestured towards one of the buildings. “To them, today is Tuesday.”

Clement tapped a finger against the armor over his thigh as he thought. Gertrude had set up a few traps before leaving for her own mission. Unfortunately, they were all back in the city itself. None on the campus plaza.

Turning his back… was not an option. He was certain that he would be struck down the moment he tried. As cordial as their conversation had sounded, he had no illusions that it actually was.

Leading him back through town during the fight might prove impossible. Surely the devil would see through what he was doing. Or he would avoid going too far from the academy building.

Clement grit his teeth and clenched his fist. He would just have to do this the old-fashioned way.

“Ah, finally ready?” the devil asked.

Clement didn’t get a chance to respond.

The devil’s outfit burst into flames. They cleared away just as quickly as they had come, leaving him baring his muscles for all the students to see.

Great black wings sprouted from his back. Feathered, rather than the bat-like wings most demons possessed. From his waist down, he was covered in a leathery fur that ended in heavy hooves. Fire and smoke sprouted from where the hooves touched the ground. Horns curled off his head—one of them a crumpled horn—each looking more evil every time Clement’s eyes passed over them.

Reaching behind his back, Clement curled his fingers around the emerald-studded hilt of his sword. He drew it without flourish or elegance. Every movement he made was purely utilitarian.

The devil’s golden eyes went wide. For just a bare moment, his smile disappeared as his mouth twisted to the shape of a ring.

“A Persian sword. Not many would use such a thing these days, though I suppose that there is no weapon more fitting for fighting demons. Not the original Zomorrodnegār. If you’ll forgive me for acting out of turn…”

The devil snapped forward with a burst of flames at his back, crossing half the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

Clement raised his sword, both hands gripping the hilt to better defend against powerful attacks.

But the devil didn’t continue on. He stopped moving five feet away.

The flames didn’t stop with him. They curled around the devil’s body, continuing forwards and wrapping around Clement. There was a mild heat accompanying the flames. Nothing that would be dangerous.

He stood his ground. Something that was becoming increasingly difficult as the bricks under his boots became brittle and cracked away under the heat. But he couldn’t afford to move. This was a test of some sort. Through his visor’s enchantments, he could see that the devil hadn’t moved after launching the flames.

There was a sensation in Clement’s gut that if he moved, he would lose his head.

After a moment of the flames wrapping around him, they dispersed into mere embers.

The devil was hazy. Heat waves trailed up from the glowing red bricks, distorting everything around Clement. Even some parts of his armor had a faint red glow to them.

“Yes,” the devil said, “definitely not the original. The original would have eaten those flames.”

With a shrug of the devil’s shoulders, the plaza returned to normal. The heat haze vanished as the bricks lost their glow.

The bricks that had cracked beneath Clement’s feet stayed glowing and cracked. The tips of his armor retained their red-hot temperature as well.

Already bright gold, the devil’s eyes lit up with a maddened delirium as he burst into laughter. “Excellent,” he said. “Marvelous! What is your name?”

Clement hesitated. He was not a mage. Nor had he much training apart from what to expect from demons and any other entities that Gertrude thought he should know about. He had heard that names had power. Where he had heard it, he couldn’t say. Books, perhaps. Fiction.

Except it was so difficult to tell what was fiction and what was a mage writing about personal experiences under the guise of fiction.

Never before had a demon asked his name. He had never had cause to ask Gertrude about names.

Then again, he didn’t use his real name. ‘Clement’ was a moniker given to him by Gertrude.

“Come now,” the devil said as he tapped a foot against the brick plaza. “We don’t have all night. I’m sure I have to go hunt down your girlfriend before morning.”

“Clement,” he said through grit teeth. Readying his sword, he shifted forwards.

This devil couldn’t be allowed to chase after Gertrude.

“Clement huh? I’ll remember that. For at least a day. You may call me Zagan, Great King of Hell.”

Clement didn’t acknowledge the devil. He charged forwards using his toes to activate the enchantments in his boots, and slashed down at the devil.

Zagan was, predictably, not in the path of his blade by the time it passed through the air.

Rather than follow through with a second slash or chase after him, Clement pulled back and brought one arm up to his eyeline.

Zagan’s open hand caught the gauntlet’s wrist. He started to twist Clement’s arm, eliciting a light groan from the armor as the metal protested the movement.

Bringing his sword around with his free hand was enough to send Zagan hopping backwards a few steps. Clement tried to hit him with the closed fist of his released hand, but struck nothing but air.

Before marching up to Brakket Academy, Clement had removed the fingers of his armor on his left hand. On one of those fingers, he wore the ring that Gertrude had given him.

So long as Zagan didn’t notice it, all he had to do was slip in a punch while the devil was distracted by the sword. At least, as long as Gertrude was right in her assumption that it would work. Clement had never known her to be wrong about much of anything.

Though, given how he was avoiding it, Clement hoped that his sword would work just as well.

They entered into a vicious cycle of back and forth attacks. As the devil circled around him, all Clement had to do to get him to back off was step forward and slash with the sword. He kept his slashes short and moved as fast as he could to prevent any long openings that might give Zagan another opportunity to grapple.

Not once since the earlier flames had the devil tried to use magic. He had named the sword, which likely meant that he knew its properties. Magic wouldn’t work well against the sword’s wielder. It was still disconcerting just how quickly he had figured that out.

Neither did he have any weapons, though no demon ever did. They always preferred to use their own natural talents and abilities over any kind of artificial enhancement. Which was good for Clement. It meant that Zagan had to get in close to actually attack.

Twisting around another attempted grapple, Clement reversed his grip on his sword and thrust it back and around his side.

Curved swords weren’t made for thrusting, but they still had a point.

And he felt that point dig into the devil’s flesh.

Clement put space between them with the enchantments in his boots. Turning, he found Zagan staring down at his arm.

A long streak of black liquid ran from his elbow down to his wrist. Every few seconds, the blood would vanish. It vanished completely and thoroughly, leaving no streaks or markings on the skin. Even the droplets that fell to the bricks disappeared.

No matter how many times the blood vanished, the wound always remained.

Zagan chuckled, throwing back his head. “Yes, Clement. This is perfect. When the pale horse comes for you, you must remind me to thank dear Martina. You can do that for me, yeah?”

Clement didn’t respond. All of his focus went towards dashing forwards and striking at Zagan a second time.

— — —

For perhaps the first time since she had taken over her office, Martina Turner had drawn back the curtains and pulled up the blinds. She never knew who might try to peek into her office from the outside or what might be going on inside when they tried. It was generally safer to simply keep them shut.

She didn’t mind. Her eyes were well accustomed to the dim lamps that she kept around the room. Her desk light lit up papers enough to work on. Natural lighting was overrated by leagues.

But tonight was different. Zagan was out fighting.

Or dancing.

It was hard to tell. He was taking great pains to avoid a sword, resulting in him twisting and jumping all over the place. Every time he got close, the sword fighter found a way to make him back off.

Irritating, Martina thought with a glower. She tipped back a glass of her favored liquor, shaking her head as the drink warmed her blood. “Stop toying with him and kill him already,” she hissed out to no one in particular.

No one was around. Her newest morail was standing guard outside the room along with the hellhound. Zagan wouldn’t hear her from where he was. Even if he did hear her, he wouldn’t listen. His own amusement trumped everything else in his contract.

She was already regretting sending Catherine and the cambion off with Eva. Zagan should have been able to deal with any issues that arose. When she had sent her demons away, she hadn’t accounted for Zagan’s eccentricities.

Though, with the text she had sent, she had expected them back by now.

Unless they were dealing with the other demon hunter.

If that was the case, well, good luck to them.

Zagan took to the skies as Martina watched on. With a flap of his wings, he pulled a back flip. Four hooves cracked the ground as he landed in his full demon form. A fearsome winged bull with smoke streaming from his nostrils. He pawed the ground twice before charging.

His crumpled horn struck the armored hunter in the stomach. From her angle, Martina couldn’t tell whether or not it had pierced the armor, but it did some damage. The hunter paused, stunned for a moment.

A moment long enough for Zagan to twist his head and toss the knight.

The sword clipped Zagan on the shoulder as the knight sailed through the air. He crashed down through the wall of the Gillet dormitory building.

Martina blinked, staring at the dormitory’s crumbled walls for just a moment. “Ah. I forgot.”

Catherine was gone.

Martina moved away from the window back to her desk. Removing the phone from its cradle, she hit a few buttons to connect her to the public announcement systems in the two dormitories and the main school building.

“Attention all students and staff within the Brakket Academy campus,” Martina said into the phone. “There is currently a combative situation involving at least one intruder on campus. All students are to remain where they are so long as it appears safe in your location. Keep away from windows and walls that look out over the general plaza between the dormitories.”

Anything else? “The situation is well in hand. Do not interfere with any fighting. If you see anyone that does not appear to be a student or staff, avoid them.”

Martina placed the phone back down and moved back to the window. Luckily, school was out for the summer. Most teachers were gone. Most students were gone. New first years hadn’t even arrived yet. The only ones sticking around were those with no place else to go.

Of course, given how watched the city was since the sky issue, it wouldn’t surprise her to find out that some reporters were recording this somehow. Unfortunately, there was nothing that she could do about that at this point.

Martina was about to take another drink when she heard a loud cracking noise.

She turned towards the door just in time to see it split in two. Both halves flew across the room and turned to splinters as they hit the wall.

Silhouetted against the hallway light was a lithe woman, head tilted down so that her red hair hung down and obscured most of her face. Her hands up to her elbows were coated in black liquid. Viscous droplets hit the ground, staining it with each splash.

Behind the woman, two void portals swallowed up the remains of what could only be her guard demons.

The woman looked up, locking one green eye and one red eye with Martina’s eyes.

Martina took a casual sip of her drink as she looked over the woman. She held no obvious focus. No wand, no book, no gemstones. She had no rings on. Not a mage?

But she had just killed two demons. Granted, she may have ambushed them, but it looked like she had torn them apart with her bare hands. And with that eye…

“A half-demon? Or did you graft the eye?”

“Hellfire?” the woman said back. “You know that’s made by mortals who thought it would be a cool name? No relation to demons at all.”

Frowning, Martina brought the glass to her lips once again. Of course she knew that. She had become addicted to the taste long before she summoned her first demon.

And the hunter hadn’t answered her question.

“Here to talk?” Martina asked. That would be the best case scenario. Anything to delay until Zagan got off his ass and finished up with the armored hunter. Or even until Catherine returned. “Or here to fight?”

“Here to kill.”

“I see.”

The hunter dashed across the room without further preamble.

Martina dove to the side, dropping her glass as she moved. She forced her magic into the summoning circle in the center of the room, hidden beneath a large rug. There was no enticement set. She was opening the portal, a calling to any demon who might answer.

Frankly, she didn’t care what kind of demon she got. Though she was hoping for something marginally stronger than an imp. It was doubtful that such a pathetic being would even give the hunter pause.

There were no shackles around the circle either. A good thing in this case. So long as the demon went after the hunter and not her. Normally Zagan would be present. He was the best deterrent to any subterfuge, better than any set of shackles created by man, in any case.

The hunter jumped away from Martina, landing in the center of the circle. She clenched her fist and slammed it down into the floor.

Audible cracks ran through the floor.

Martina felt her magic backfire before she saw it. A sudden twist of her magic in a way that was not meant to be.

She cut off channeling her magic into the circle.

Too late.

The damaged circle rumbled before exploding outwards, filling the air with dust and debris.

Martina flew back, hitting her hip against the edge of her desk. Groaning out, she breathed in a cloud of dust. She descended into sputtering hacks and coughs. Pulling up the edge of her shirt to cover her mouth, Martina tried to breathe in a lungful of filtered air as she looked around for her opponent.

The cloud of dust obscured everything more than a foot away. There were shadows around.

One moved.

Martina used her rings to fire off a sickly green bolt of lightning.

“Summoning more demons? Tisk, tisk.”

She whipped her head around and immediately shot off another bolt into the corner of the room.

“I appreciate a fight as much as the next hunter, but I’d say that we have our work cut out for us with what is already around.”

A different corner, where the sound had come from, exploded from another lightning bolt. More dust and debris filled the air, sending Martina into a fresh set of coughs.

Her eyes burned. The shadow was moving around faster and faster, making Martina dizzy as she tried to follow it around her room.

“You kill me,” she coughed through her shirt, “and Zagan will be off his leash. You don’t know the destruction he will cause. He’ll kill everyone around. Innocent students, teachers, children.”

“Ah, I’m sure Clement will be broken-hearted to hear that. Unfortunately for you, you mistake me for someone who cares.”

Martina didn’t launch another lightning bolt. That tactic was obviously not working. She had to try something else.

Building up her magic, Martina tried for a teleport.

Only to collapse to her knees as she felt like she had run head first into a brick wall.

“Zagan,” she shouted, “help me–”

A cold hand pressed around her mouth, cutting her off.

“Calling for help? Is that all you can do? That is why you will die. One less summoner around will make our job much easier.”

Martina gripped the hand. The arm led somewhere behind her, but she couldn’t take the chance of missing again.

With the hand still around her mouth, Martina cast a sickly green lightning bolt straight at the arm.

Her body was wracked with pain, convulsing as the lightning tore through own flesh.

Still, she kept it going. More lightning, more and more. It was tearing through the hunter’s body just as much as it was hers.

Steam pouring off her body, Martina collapsed to the ground as her mind went blank.

Eva snapped into being on the gate she had made within her new dormitory room. She wasn’t even that wobbly from the teleport. Still, she took a moment to steady herself before moving around.

In that moment, she glanced around. Both with her eyes and her less mundane senses.

She immediately froze.

The very first thing that she noticed was Zagan. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel him. His overwhelming presence occluded everything else. Whatever had happened, he wasn’t trying to hide in the slightest.

It was terrifying and awe inspiring at the same time. Her heart hammered in her chest, screaming at her to run despite her mind claiming that Zagan was an ally.

Eva held her ground. It was all she could do to stand still. Digging her feet into the ground, Eva focused on calming down. Deep breaths helped, but only marginally.

No other presence, not even that of Ylva’s, could be felt through Zagan’s blanket of power. Prax and Catherine had both left the prison before Eva and she couldn’t sense either of them.

Hopefully that was just Zagan overpowering them and not something worse.

Prax and Catherine should at least be nearby. Ylva would be off with Zoe and Juliana. Given that the dorm room was empty of everyone else, Eva was assuming that they were out at the apartment building. Maybe even helping Zoe pack, unaware of the event out here until Ylva arrived. Though, Juliana might be wherever her parents were staying. Even bedridden or wheelchair bound, Eva had a hard time believing that Genoa would miss what was happening at the moment.

In fact, she would be surprised if regular mortals couldn’t feel Zagan.

Eva couldn’t see anything out the window. It looked out the back of the building, away from Zagan’s presence and the main Brakket Academy building, so that wasn’t all that surprising.

What she did notice were the purple lines in the sky. Since they had first appeared, they had been somewhat dim. Faint and barely visible in the daylight while simply there after nightfall. Now they were bright and almost glowing.

Whether that was because of Zagan or because Martina had summoned so many demons was a question better left to Devon.

Of course, he hadn’t come with her.

Eva had left after everyone else because she had taken the time to warn Devon.

Even discounting the issue that he couldn’t teleport alongside her without winding up as ground meat, Devon wanted nothing to do with demon hunters. He was perfectly content to watch Brakket City burn so long as he was left alone. He had even tried to stop Eva from coming.

Something Eva would hear nothing of.

She had friends here. Friends that might need help.

Zagan could hold his own. Whatever he was doing, Eva was sure that he would come out successful. Juliana and Zoe should both be away from the school and with Ylva. Eva considered running after them, hunkering down while Zagan solved all the problems.

But Catherine was still around. Despite all of her complaining about Martina and her words earlier in the evening about lacking loyalty to others, Catherine had still come here with the intention of keeping Martina safe.

And Eva was still somewhat fond of the succubus.

So Eva would help.

Rather than run from her room, Eva opened her window and dropped straight to the ground. Three stories was a long fall, but Arachne’s legs helped to absorb much of the impact. She ran around the side of the building.

And froze.

The walkway between the dormitory buildings was a torn up mess. Potholes everywhere, bricks lying about, and part of the Gillet’s front had been caved in.

An armored man stood against a winged bull. His armor was battered everywhere and even broken in several spots. He held out a sword. One that might have been beautiful with its emerald-encrusted hilt almost glowing in the evening darkness and graceful curve of the blade. But as Eva stared, she felt wary. Revulsion even. Whatever that sword was, she did not want it anywhere near her.

Zagan was looking worse for the wear. His leathery hide was covered in shallow cuts. A few were deeper, one on his muscular shoulder actually showed bone. The wound cleaned itself of blood every few seconds, making the depth clear to see.

Though, for all the wounds on Zagan, the knight might be in a worse state. Not only had he taken his fair share of the beating and had his own wounds of equal severity, but his armor was doing something to his body. Every time he moved, there was a flash. It was almost as if he was teleporting, but he obviously wasn’t. His armor carried him at speeds that human bodies weren’t meant to accelerate to and stop from so quickly.

Eva could see it in his blood.

One moment and everything was normal. The next had his blood and organs pressed up against the back of his body, only for them to lurch forwards when he stopped.

How he was still alive was anyone’s guess. Magic, probably. But it was affecting him. The visible pauses after each flash step as his body put itself back into place were evidence of that. His pausing lasted mere instants, but those instants were long enough for Zagan to capitalize on.

Zagan charged in an odd direction at the same instant that the knight flash stepped. The odd direction became far less odd as the knight appeared right in front of Zagan.

Scraping one of his horns along the ground, Zagan flicked his head upwards, catching the knight right between the legs. The knight went flying, flailing his arms and legs wildly in the air.

Zagan gave chase with a flap of his wings. His flaming hooves hit the knight in the back, crashing both of them down into the bricks.

The ground shattered after a brief moment of silence, leaving concentric circles of cracked brick and earth around the two monsters.

Eva turned away. It was hard. Zagan’s fighting was definitely worthy of watching. But he didn’t need her help. As she had thought, Zagan could handle himself.

What might need her help was at the main school building. A window near the front office area had broken, roughly in the area of Martina’s office. Dust and smoke billowed out.

If Martina was in, that would be where Catherine would have gone. There was no guarantee. Martina could have fled. Or worse, she might have been killed.

Eva didn’t have a better plan at the moment. She took off at a run, leaving the dormitory buildings and the battle behind.

The main school building wasn’t far. At a run and with a few interspersed blinks, Eva reached the broken window almost instantly.

Four circulatory systems were inside the room. Two lying on the ground and two standing upright.

The two upright were Prax and Catherine. Even if Eva hadn’t already memorized their individual blood vessel fingerprint, Prax’s bulk was unmatched by any other and Catherine had wings and a tail at the moment.

The woman who had accosted Eva in the apartment building was one of the circulatory systems on the ground. Martina was the other.

Eva’s ‘eyes’ were immediately drawn to the woman’s heart. It was beating erratically. A beat followed by a too-long pause. Three rapid beats. Another pause. To make matters more complicated, Eva couldn’t be sure that she was even breathing. Though, given the dust in the air, that might not be a bad thing.

Catherine was standing over her, fidgeting a little as if she didn’t know what to do.

Neither did Eva, but there was someone who did know.

“Martina needs to be taken to the nurse,” Eva said as she climbed over the broken glass of the window. The glass on the ground and sill wasn’t strong enough to cut her carapace. She just had to be careful where the rest of her body was. “She’s having a heart attack.”

She wasn’t really, not so long as Eva understood what a heart attack actually was, but time was of the essence and longer explanations would eat that time up.

“Catherine,” Eva said when the succubus made no motion to carry away the dean.

“I know.” There was a short sigh. Catherine’s arms slipped under Martina’s back and legs before hefting her up. “She had better appreciate me,” she said as she dashed from the room.

The nurse’s office was just down the hallway. So long as she was in at the moment, she would hopefully be able to do something. Given the late hour, Eva doubted that she would be in. Still, Catherine was the secretary. She probably knew where the nurse lived and could just head straight there.

Eva couldn’t say that she liked Martina, but she didn’t hate her enough to want her to die. In fact, she really didn’t hate her at all. Martina could be annoying on occasion, but Eva found herself more indifferent than anything.

And if she did die, there would be a lot of contracted demons running around without a contractor. At the moment, Zagan was a bit too tied up to rein them in. If he even cared enough to do so. Prax might be the only one that he focused on because of Prax’s slights toward him.

Eva would hopefully be able to convince Lucy to play nice with people, but the hellhound, morail, and Daru?

Well, Daru was likely dead.

And then there was Catherine. She wasn’t a contracted demon, but rather a familiar. Still, if Martina died, Catherine’s bonds would be broken.

“What about this one?” Prax said in a menacing growl, breaking Eva out of her thoughts.

Eva turned to the other woman—presumably a demon hunter—and found herself frowning.

Her heart rate was normal. Her blood flowed properly. There was a slight burn on one hand, but it didn’t extend deep enough below her skin to damage any real blood vessels.

And two of her fingers were tapping against the ground. Steady, rhythmic taps.

“Kill her,” Eva said, uncorking her vial of Zagan’s blood. “Quickly.”

Prax didn’t hesitate. He lifted his foot, preparing to crush the hunter’s head.

The hunter was faster. She rolled into his still planted foot.

Normally, Eva wouldn’t have expected much. Prax had bulk. Weight. Mass. The hunter, almost smaller than Eva, couldn’t be expected to move such a thing.

But she did. Whether because Prax was already unbalanced from having his other foot raised or some luck on the hunter’s part, Prax fell. His head smashed into the remains of Martina’s desk, sending splinters and papers flying around.

The hunter made it to her feet before Prax’s head hit the ground. A faint glow emanated from one of her rings. The air in front of her fingers filled with a faint white mist.

A globule of Zagan’s blood fell from the air where it had been zooming towards the hunter. It hit the floor as a ball of ice, shattering into pieces.

Beyond that, she didn’t pay any attention to Eva.

Prax was trying to get standing once again, but the hunter slipped one of her feet in the crook of his ankle and pulled. She managed to move his entire body, causing his arms to slip out from underneath him.

She jumped onto his back, knees on either side of his ribcage. One hand gripped one of Prax’s horns. The other took hold of his chin. With a flick of her arms, an audible snap echoed through the office.

Just in time for her to freeze another two globs of blood that Eva had attempted to hit her with while her back was turned. Each shattered on either side of the portal that was swallowing up Prax’s body.

The hunter got to her feet, brushing her hands off as if Prax had been covered in dust.

Though, given the blood on her hands, Eva doubted that the action was all that effective. It was merely an intimidation tactic.

Eva would be lying if she said that she wasn’t a little intimidated at the moment.

She may have taken Prax mostly by surprise, but Eva was getting serious ‘Genoa’ vibes off this hunter. Eva doubted that she would be able to take on an injured Genoa, let alone one able to walk under her own power.

The best course of action might be to simply flee back to Zagan. He would surely be able to do something.

Unless the presence of the hunter distracted him enough for the knight to get a critical hit in.

And even if Eva fled, there was no guarantee that the hunter would follow. She might chase after Catherine.

Catherine was right. She wouldn’t die. She’d be back eventually.

But she wasn’t the only one there. Martina would be with her. And maybe the nurse.

Eva might have found it amusing that she was more worried for the nurse than Martina had the hunter not decided to charge straight at her.

Blinking past the hunter to the opposite side of the room, she ignited her hands. Blood was obviously not working on this person. Granted, she had only tried twice and neither of those attempts had been her giant blood-claw. That took time, unfortunately.

Time that I really don’t have, Eva thought as she tossed a small fireball at her opponent. She didn’t have time build it up more. She didn’t have the time to stand and watch the explosion.

The hunter twisted around the fireball as an icicle flew towards Eva.

Blinking again, Eva found herself just outside of the office, looking in through the broken window.

The fireball hit the ground, erupting with little more than a snap. Like a small firework going off.

For a moment, the two just stared.

Eva didn’t remain idle while staring. She built up a fireball in each hand, both larger than the earlier one. With slightly more distance between them, Eva actually had the time to do so.

“What are you? You’re not a demon.”

Eva opened her mouth to deny that claim. Except, perhaps she wasn’t a demon just yet. A few more treatments.

In the mean time…

“An abomination.”

The hunter blinked, confusion radiating from her eyes. The confusion gave way to about three other expressions, all competing for dominance. Anger, disgust, and maybe a little excitement. She then blinked again.

“Oh,” she said. “Ohhh, you’re the person that nun was talking about. I have to admit, I wasn’t paying much attention. She was kind of annoying. No. Really, really annoying. She kept going on and on about… well, you. I suppose.”

Waving her hand, the hunter opened her mouth to continue rambling. “Doesn’t really matter–”

As the hunter waved her hand, Eva caught a light glow on her rings.

Without hesitation, Eva blinked.

She snapped into being back inside the office, just to the side of the hunter.

Eva dropped both of her firebombs as a boulder made of ice crashed down into the window right where she had been standing.

Window blocked off, Eva blinked to a corner of the room and uncorked a vial of blood. Her own blood, all of Zagan’s blood was lying frozen on the floor. She formed up a blood shield around herself. All in the time it took for the two firebombs to fall to the floor.

Heat and flames filled the room. Strong enough that Eva could feel a small portion of it through her shield. Much of the already wrecked room turned to cinders. What wasn’t burnable was crushed under the pressure of the two bombs’ shock waves.

Eva’s shield was included in that second category. Demon blood would have been able to stand up to the explosions. Only using her own blood, the shield cracked and shattered after only a few moments of staying up.

Luckily, most of the power in the explosions had already been used up by the time the fractured shield collapsed. All that was left was the fire and the heat.

Neither really bothered Eva.

Except, there was more left behind. One thing stood out.

A pillar of ice, stretching from the ground to the ceiling.

Eva didn’t need her blood sight to tell that the hunter was still alive within.

Uncorking every vial of blood that she had left, Eva formed it all into a massive ball made up of thin rings. The rings all circled around each other, gathering to form a frame of blood wires. Spell set, she plunged both hands into the ball.

Two car-sized hands of blood, mirrors of Eva’s claws, appeared in the room in front of her. Eva pushed her hands farther into the rings of blood. The larger versions of her hands moved together, one of them scraping into a wall and tearing it apart as it continued forwards.

The palms of her blood-hands hit the ice pillar. Eva gripped it and squeezed.

Cracks formed in the ice, starting as small fractures before growing into larger and thicker crevasses.

The hunter was actually panicking now. Her accelerated heart rate and more frantic movements within the pillar were unusually satisfying.

At least, it was until her blood claws started to freeze. They were huge, several hundred times the size of the small globs of Zagan’s blood that the hunter had frozen earlier. But locked around the pillar of ice, slowly crushing it, ice started to form on the palms of the hands.

Eva redoubled her efforts, pressing her hands together as hard as she could, forcing more and more magic into the ball of blood to keep the hands under her control for as long as possible.

The top half of the pillar broke off, collapsing into one of the hands. Eva pulled her real hand out of the ball as if she had been stung. The blood forming the hand fell to the ground, forming a large pool of inert liquid.

Glancing down, Eva found small amounts of frost shining white against the normally black carapace of her hand.

Eva grit her teeth and focused on her remaining hand, crushing the top of the already damaged pillar where it was more brittle.

With the hand still freezing over, it was fighting against time.

And Eva didn’t feel like she was winning.

Pulling her hand away from the pillar, Eva lifted it up and over the broken top. Curling the hand into a fist, she slammed it back down.

The hand fell apart, shards of blood and ice scattered everywhere. Most of it went into the pillar of ice through a hole at the top from where the upper part had broken off.

The shards rained down on the inside, each as sharp as knives, cutting into the hunter.

Unfortunately, that was all they were. Tiny knives. Inflicting nothing more than superficial wounds on the woman inside her makeshift shield.

A moment of silence passed. Eva started building up more compressed flames. Dropping them into the top might be her best option.

Rather than tossing the fledgling fireballs, Eva found herself extinguishing them as she dove to the side.

The pillar exploded outwards. Not in shards, but heavy chunks each at least the size of a large brick.

On the ground and curled into a ball, Eva clasped her hands over her head. Just in time to feel a brick of ice hit the chitin on her arm. It sent a hairline fracture up the carapace, but nothing more.

Eva remained on the ground for a moment after the last brick had struck the wall. Just in case.

A moment too long.

The hunter jumped on top of her. Bleeding from hundreds of tiny cuts, the woman clasped a hand around Eva’s throat. Her other hand grasped towards Eva’s face.

Seeing where the woman was aiming all too clearly, Eva used both of her hands to keep her open hand away. Eva could do without a little air for a short time. She had lost her eyes once already and that was beyond enough for her.

Having been curled up, Eva’s legs were crunched up against her chest.

Between her body and the hunter.

Eva found herself grinning despite the vice-like grip on her neck. She kicked with both legs, sending the woman flying across the room with her letting out a short scream.

Flipping back to her feet, Eva rubbed her throat as the hunter got to her feet.

And she found her fingers running over her bare neck.

Thoughts of the hunter gone, Eva turned her attention to the floor around her. Searching, eyes roaming over everything.

“Looking for this?”

Eva’s eyes snapped to the hunter.

One hand was held up in front of her. From it, a thin black band dangled, swaying slightly in the air. A small black sphere hung off the band.

Arachne’s beacon.

“Give that back!”

“Hmm,” she hummed, tapping a finger to her chin. “You know? I don’t think I will.” She dropped the band, not taking her eyes off Eva as it bounced lightly against the floor. Moving the tip of her shoe over the beacon, the hunter grinned. Her voice took on a sing-song tune as she spoke. “I wonder what would happen if it were destroyed.”

“I said. Give. That. Back.”

“I–”

The hunter cut herself off. She blinked, taking her eyes off Eva and giving a glance around the room.

Eva took a step forward.

The hunter took her foot off the beacon. She had to in order for her to take a step backwards. She didn’t make it very far. When Eva had kicked her, she had slammed into a wall and hadn’t moved far from it. Far enough for a single step.

As Eva took another step forward, the hunter’s face twisted into a snarl.

She lifted up her foot and brought her heel down on the beacon.

As if in slow motion, Eva watched as the orb cracked and shattered to dust. A spiderweb of cracks started from her heel and spread out over the surface. The webs contained within exploded outwards, latching onto the hunter’s foot.

Eva saw red.

— — —

_{It is time.}

_{It is time.}

Arachne growled as awareness returned to her. Her face ached. It was as if it were on fire. Given that she had used her head as a shield for Eva, the pain wasn’t too unexpected.

Lifting an arm, Arachne ran her needle-like claws down the smooth chitin that made up her face. Her fingers nimbly moved between her eyes, not scratching a single one.

A simple action, but it brought back memories. After being cast down to Hell, her body had been corrupted by the jealousy and envy of false gods. Her mind hadn’t been touched. Left unmolested, Arachne had found herself in a whole new body. One with all sorts of nuances that she hadn’t been used to.

The simple action of rubbing her forehead could have wound up with her gouging out an eye. Her natural regeneration made accidentally puncturing an eye much less of an issue than it otherwise would have been, but it still hurt. The first time, she hadn’t even known that she would regenerate like she did. With eight eyes, her vision was somewhat different from humans. It was like being suddenly colorblind even though she could still see.

Needless to say, she had panicked a little. Well, a lot. She had already been panicking over the fact that she was a monster, imprisoned within a desolate island in the middle of a pitch black ocean, and was hearing voices inside her head. The color blindness and pain had just been the icing on the cake.

Not to mention the fact that rubbing her forehead didn’t really do much for her. Her carapace wasn’t like human skin. She got very little feeling out of touching anything. What feeling she did get was more of a sensation of pressure. She couldn’t feel. Petting a cat did nothing for her.

Most of that was in the past. She had centuries to come to terms with herself, centuries to grow used to her new state of being. That wasn’t to say that Arachne didn’t find herself wishing things were different. Being able to hug Eva as a more than a mechanical gesture and to feel her hair through her fingers were sore points with Arachne.

At the same time, she wished that her carapace was harder. Stronger. Had it been better, she might not have died when struck by that lightning bolt.

As it was, she had merely been restored. Her face felt the same as it always did. In one piece, which was nice. Arachne had come out half formed before. Just recently, the carnivean had been missing her eyes and head tentacles.

Clenching her fists, Arachne slammed them into each other. Is it ‘just recently’ still?

There was no way of telling the passage of time within Hell. At least, not within her domain. Other demons might have ways, she wouldn’t know. Arachne refused to slave herself to her peers just to learn a few secrets of being a demon. Well, for the most part. Her current agreement with Void notwithstanding.

But the last events that she could remember in the mortal realm had to have happened somewhat recently. She didn’t feel like a half-century had passed. Void had promised her return in a relatively short amount of time, but that could mean a week or a decade.

If too much time had passed, she would be considering their agreement null and void, consequences be damned.

Swinging her legs—all eight of them—out of the nest of webs that made up her bed, Arachne stalked through the halls of her cavernous domain. She had wasted enough time lying around.

Most of her domain had been designed with her in mind. No one else would be able to climb around the holes in the walls. Any guests or intruders would be relegated to the front entryway. Unless they could fly. Or were as good at climbing craggy walls as Arachne was. Even if that were the case, the tunnels between rooms twisted and wound around like a giant maze. It was entirely possible to leave a room from three separate tunnels only to loop around and reenter the room without passing through any others.

Though it was something of a moot point. Never once had someone invaded her domain. Arachne had never had a visitor stop by. Not unless she counted Eva after her kidnapping. Even if she did count that, Arachne had carried Eva around during her visit.

Arachne charged into the gate room.

And found herself scowling.

The gate room was inert. No glowing patterns in the walls or floors. No feeling of a pathway to the mortal realm.

“You bring me back,” she shouted to the walls, “and my beacon is destroyed? It’s time? Time for what? Me to sit around doing nothing?”

Arachne swung out an arm, cutting five large gouges into a stone pillar.

Seething, Arachne turned from the gate room, ready to rush to Eva’s domain. She likely wouldn’t be around at the moment, but perhaps she still made regular visits. Even if she didn’t, Arachne could leave a message before returning to her domain to await a summoning.

Eva couldn’t summon Arachne herself, not without violating the tenets of Hell. Devon would. All she needed to do was get a message to him.

But, in turning from the room, a shimmer in the air caught her eye. A faint purple haze back in the far corner of the gate room.

The haze grew solid, forming a thick line in the air.

Arachne’s fingers twitched as she watched it spread apart. She spread her legs, steadying her stance and readying for combat.

The first thing that came to her mind was the creatures that Eva called enigmas. Monstrous little beings—by Eva’s description—that had been attacking Hell. The second thing was the purple streaks in the sky that had appeared just before the ill-fated venture to the nuns’ church. Purple streaks that were supposedly related to the enigmas.

Between the violet lines, a deep darkness formed. Staring into it brought back the same uncomfortable sensations as when she had been dead. A hole into pure nothingness, so empty that putting words to it couldn’t be done.

Arachne took a step back, waiting for some creature to emerge forth and attack.

_{Not even I will violate my laws. However, a few back doors have been left open by my attacker.}

Arachne didn’t budge. Her instincts were shouting at her to flee. Her thoughts screamed at her to run from this anomaly before she wound up dead once again, further delaying her reunion with Eva.

It was obviously a portal of some sort. Reminiscent of the portals Void used to drag deceased demons back home. It wasn’t dragging Arachne into it and nothing was coming from it.

It just sat there, inviting someone to wander inside.

Arachne took a step forward.

If this was a trick, there would be hell to pay. Mortal, demon, or even Power, she would tear them to shreds.

Another step had her right in front of the portal. She was too large to fit through in her largest form. With a thought, she started shrinking. The bulbous abdomen sticking out of her melted into her torso. Her legs pulled up, recessing into her body one by one until only two legs were left.

Reaching an arm out, Arachne let the tips of her fingers scrape against the surface of the hole in space. She half expected something—magical force or a creature—to grasp her fingers and drag her into it, but nothing happened.

Nothing but a sensation of not being able to feel her fingers. As if they suddenly ceased to exist.

Pulling her hand out, Arachne found her fingers to be whole and intact. Wiggling them, she made sure that she could feel them again.

Everything seemed fine. She clawed through the stone walls of her domain, checking to ensure that the strength and toughness of her fingers hadn’t been ruined by exposure to the portal.

Stone crumbled into chunks and dust while her fingers came away with just as much sheen as they had started with.

Moving back just a bit, Arachne took a deep breath and charged at the portal.

There was a brief sensation of nothingness, as if she were back in the depths of Void again, before she could feel the wind rushing past her body.

Violet filled her vision. That only lasted a few seconds.

She was falling.

Soon enough, the all encompassing violet distanced itself from her, becoming nothing more than purple streaks in a starry sky.

The tendrils making up her hair whipped around in the roaring air. Her flailing arms failed to find any purchase.

Twisting her body, Arachne oriented herself towards the Earth.

And it was the Earth. There could be no doubt about that. Not only could Arachne not see an end to the ground, but she could see a few distinctly familiar sights.

Brakket Academy, the city that shares its name, the forest and the lake.

She was back.

And Eva…

Eva had to be somewhere. The dormitory or the school itself. Perhaps at the prison.

If not, someone would know where she was. The professors or Devon, if he was still skulking about the prison.

But first, she had to survive this fall. While she might be able to hit the ground and walk away without much issue, Arachne wasn’t willing to take any chances. She had never fallen from such a height that she had time to think about how she wanted to land before, that alone had her a little nervous.

Though, if Void wanted her to fulfill her end of their agreement, dropping her off in the middle of the sky only to have her fall to her death didn’t seem like a good way to go about sending her to the mortal realm. Of course, that assumed that a Power who had never been to Earth wasn’t completely out of touch with quite literally everything.

Best to take matters into her own claws.

Twisting in the air again, Arachne shrank. Her body collapsed in on itself until she was little more than legs sticking out from a hand-sized body.

Regular spiders survived falls from great heights all the time. And, while it was true that Arachne’s spider form was a great deal larger than most spiders, she could help slow her fall by rapidly spinning thread between her legs.

A task that was easier said than done.

With the wind, her threads whipped around and went everywhere. Just ringing it around her legs was a chore. Once she got it going, the air resistance built up. Had she not been a demon with exceptionally strong webbing, the threads would have snapped long before she had it woven.

Woven implied a certain finesse that was lacking in her final result. The threads wrapped around her legs were patchwork quilts, full of holes and stitches.

Arachne couldn’t bring herself to care at the moment. Not only was weaving while falling a challenge, she had to rush.

The ground was rapidly approaching.

Flexing her legs allowed her to glide—almost. Enough that she could control her direction.

Spotting and feeling a certain winged bull down below, Arachne angled herself towards the roof of the dormitory building.

Arachne landed without the slightest hint of grace. She struck the building at speed. Failing to remain upright, Arachne tumbled. End over end, she skidded across the roof. She had come in at far too shallow of an angle. The gravel on the rooftop scattered, some exploding outwards while some dug into her carapace—a feat that was only possible thanks to the speed that she hit the roof at.

Burrowing her legs into the building itself, Arachne managed to come to a stop.

For a full minute, Arachne didn’t move. Her entire body ached. Granted, her body wasn’t that large at the moment. Still, she was fairly certain that one of her legs had twisted the wrong way while the carapace on another had shattered.

But she was back.

Unfurling to her full height, Arachne charged towards the edge of the building.

Zagan, in his full demon form, fought against a man. A mere human, presumably. He certainly didn’t fight like a demon. Too much dodging, too much maneuvering.

And, of course, the sword.

Just looking at the emerald sword gave Arachne a bad feeling. It could be likened to the sensation she got from being near Zagan. That disgusting sensation of far too much power.

Both of them together had Arachne shuddering.

Something was obviously going on, but Eva wasn’t down there. She had to be nearby. If Eva had managed to keep herself uninvolved in whatever was happening, Arachne would eat her own legs.

Charging off towards a thin plume of smoke at the school building, Arachne leaped from the roof, crossing almost the entire distance in a single bound.

She promptly froze as she came to the wall of the school. A certain window looked as if a bomb had gone off inside. A bomb filled with ice.

A person-sized lump of ice was blocking part of the window, but more had shattered outwards, scattering across the lawn. Smoke billowed from the hole.

Much of the smoke was coming off the faintly smoldering remains of a desk. Or the pieces of a desk, at least. Much of the room looked as if a small bomb had gone off inside. In particular, the wall around the doorway wasn’t much of a wall anymore. The ceiling light in the room had snapped at one end and was dangling in the middle of the room by its power cord. Sparks jumped from the cable every time it swung against the metal brace that had once held the light.

More alarming than the state of the room were the walls themselves. Beads of black blood sweat from the walls. Each droplet dripped down, joining with other droplets to pool along the edges of the room. The pools were drawn into thin streams leading towards the middle of the room.

Eva stood amidst a whirlwind of blood. She had her void metal dagger clenched in one hand as she glared with burning eyes at a woman on the opposite side of the room—just to the side of the window.

The woman had a small patch of ice around her feet. Any liquid blood that dared to venture too close wound up frozen solid.

Arachne had no idea who the woman was. She had never seen the woman before. Or, if she had, she couldn’t remember. The woman wasn’t Genoa and she wasn’t the professor at the very least.

It was clear that she was an enemy of Eva.

Her Eva was in danger.

What more motivation did Arachne need?

Leaping over the half destroyed wall that might have been a window at one point, Arachne sprouted extra legs from her back.

Swinging three legs and a hand, Arachne raked her razor sharp limbs through the air.

The woman ducked and rolled, freezing the blood around the floor and walls as she moved.

“Another one? How many of you must I kill before you stay dead!”

Neither Arachne nor Eva responded. Arachne was far too focused on watching the woman’s every move.

Whether she had heard Arachne or had picked up on some tell from Eva, her dodge wasn’t unexpected. Eva would have killed someone weaker without issue. Her blood magic was strong enough to defeat most foes.

Therefore, this person was somewhat exceptional.

But still a mortal.

A mortal that wasn’t dressed like the nuns. Unless she had decided to attack out of uniform, that meant that Arachne wouldn’t need to worry about their horrible lightning.

Arachne didn’t pause for a moment. Pushing off the wall with her legs, she lunged forward.

Her hand caught the woman right in the stomach.

Arachne snatched her hand back in shock and pain. The tips of her fingers had crumpled, her carapace cracked.

The woman had a tee-shirt on. Nothing fancy. Simple cotton. And yet, Arachne’s fingers slammed into it as if they had struck a brick wall—something harder than a brick wall. Her claws could tear apart solid stone if she was trying. The only evidence that she had even touched the woman were a few dark pinpricks on the shirt.

Grinning, the woman stepped forwards as Arachne stared at her fingers. She grabbed hold of Arachne’s hand, ducked under a set of swiping legs, and used one of those legs as a brace for Arachne’s arm. Giving only a slight push, the woman managed to shatter the chitin on both Arachne’s arm and the leg it had been braced against.

“Arachne!”

Eyes blazing brighter than before, Eva charged forwards. One hand brandished the dagger while her other lit up in flames.

The woman raised her guard, conjuring a set of icicles as she moved away from Arachne.

As Arachne went for the icicles, slashing them out of the air, Eva blinked behind the woman. Dagger already raised, she brought it down, aiming for the woman’s neck.

Just as she did when Arachne attacked, the woman had something of a sixth sense about the direction Eva was striking from. She moved to the side, ducking just enough to fit her head between two of Arachne’s limbs. A swipe of her legs knocked Arachne’s legs out from under her.

Arachne had to use her extra legs to grapple onto the wall, preventing her fall.

While Arachne was busy catching her balance, Eva’s dagger did not slip by without resistance. The tip of it scraped against the woman’s arm as she dodged, just enough to draw a thin red line from her hand halfway to her elbow.

Eva immediately blinked back to the other side of the room. She let out a short, satisfied hum as she clapped her hands together.

A bright flash filled Arachne’s vision.

Arachne jumped back, not wanting to be anywhere near someone who could break her arm with her bare hands while blind.

Her loss of vision lasted only a moment. She hadn’t even landed on the ground near Eva before things returned to normal.

Normal for her, at least. The woman wasn’t quite so lucky.

Red blood dripped through her fingers as she clutched at a ragged stump. Her hand and part of her arm was lying on the floor at her feet. Face set in a grimace, she glared out with one red eye and one green eye.

“You’ll pay,” she said as ice started to form over the stump, cutting off the flow of blood.

Under other circumstances, Arachne might have indulged in a little meaningless banter. She had done so with the carnivean during their first encounter.

But now… this woman is standing in the way of my reunion with Eva.

Grinding her teeth together, Arachne stole a glance to her side.

Eva appeared healthy for the most part. There was a darker mark around her neck, roughly in the shape of a hand. A few cuts and scrapes dotted her skin and the carapace of one of her hands was damaged. All in all, things could be worse.

With a light twitch of her head, Arachne was back to focusing on their current enemy.

She readied herself by spinning a few quick threads. Thin yet long ones.

Arachne charged forwards once again as Eva blinked around the room. In near perfect sync, they attacked.

As expected, the woman dodged Arachne’s limbs.

The thread trailing off her fingers and legs weren’t quite so easy to dodge. Swinging her arms quick enough, she managed to loop a section around the woman’s body. With a flick of her wrist, Arachne pulled the threads tight, tying off her movements as Eva came in with the dagger.

A ring of ice formed around her neck just in time to block Eva’s dagger.

Not having any of that, Arachne used one leg to lift up the woman’s shirt and another three to plunge into her spinal column.

Eva took matters into her own hands. She went above the woman’s neckline, digging and dragging the dagger through her red hair. Eva didn’t try to cut the bone of the skull, but she didn’t need to.

Blinking away, Eva stared for just a moment.

Arachne pulled her legs from the woman’s back, letting her slump down to the ground.

The moment she hit the ground, the woman vanished. Nothing but the faint scent of sulfur remained.

A clapping sound echoed through the room just as she vanished.

Looking up to Eva, Arachne tilted her head. “Did you get her?”

“I don’t know. If she comes back anytime soon, I’ll get her right away.”

“Good,” Arachne said. Shifting awkwardly, she flexed the spare legs from her back. “I doubt that she’ll be back soon. If she can ever walk again.”

Standing there, Arachne didn’t know what to say. Looking at Eva fresh out of a battle—sweating and panting with her hair thrown in disarray—Arachne found herself at a loss. Before dying at the hands of the nuns, they hadn’t been on the best of terms. Mostly due to the Genoa incident.

What to do? What to say? Such a treasure in front of her and yet…

The decision was taken out of Arachne’s claws.

Eva blinked over to her, wrapping both arms around Arachne’s body.

“I missed you.”

Arachne stretched one arm and several legs around Eva, forming a protective net as she returned the hug.

“I missed you too.”

Just before the bull slammed into him, it stepped on a bit of rubble. The rubble moved, causing its hoof to slip.

Clement’s fist, and the ring on his finger, went straight over the devil’s head.

Using the enchantments on his boots, Clement hopped back before the bulk of the bull could crash into him. He shook off the brief sensation of nausea—a sensation that had been getting worse as the fight went on—and took a moment to catch his breath. The devil being far enough away and still picking himself up off the ground gave Clement a brief moment to think.

Taking the hit and letting himself get bashed into by the devil might give him a chance to backhand the creature, but just the same, he might simply be crushed before having a chance to fight back.

If he got crushed without managing to tag the devil with the ring, the devil would be free to find Gertrude.

And Clement somehow doubted that he would be able to hit the devil.

Zagan had to know.

The first time that the devil had lost his footing and slipped right under Clement’s fist, he might have chalked it up to coincidence. The second time was a little strange, but perhaps this devil was just extraordinarily uncoordinated.

Ten times? The monster was toying with him.

Panting and sweating, Clement wasn’t sure how much more he had in him. Only about twenty minutes had passed. That didn’t sound like much, but considering most fights were determined in the first two minutes, twenty might as well have been forever.

Worse, his equipment was broken and shattered. Several of Gertrude’s enchantments had failed along with the armor, including ones that enhanced his endurance. The suit of armor no longer supported itself. All of its weight was up to Clement’s natural muscles to carry around. Taking that into account, it might be good that several chunks were missing.

His boots were still intact. Without the speed granted to him by his boots, he might as well have just chopped off his own head. They were pretty much the only things keeping him alive at this point.

It was only a small consolation to know that the devil before him wasn’t having a good day either.

Zagan had been taking pains to avoid the sword entirely as well as the ring. Not that long ago, he had been accepting of small cuts and even a handful of larger gouges if it meant being able to toss Clement around like a rag doll.

Clement hadn’t been able to land a hit in a good five minutes. In fact, the last time that he had been able to hit Zagan, he had sliced off one of the bull’s horns. Obviously, he had been aiming for Zagan’s head. The devil had dodged, just not as well as he should have.

Though, given that he had sent Clement crashing through a second floor window on one of the dormitory buildings at the same time, it had probably been worth it for the devil. Especially considering that that hit had been the final nail in the coffin for Clement’s breastplate.

Out of all the pieces of armor to lose, that was the one with the most enchantments. It offered him the most protection, the endurance boost, minor strength enhancements—his shoulders and upper arm guards gave him more strength. Or, it had offered all of that.

Glancing at the crumpled horn lying on the ground, Clement couldn’t help but wonder if the devil was frightened. His blade had skimmed right across the bull’s head. A few hairs had even scattered to the winds. Just a slight shift in angle would have taken the beast’s brain.

Both hands on his sword, Clement stood firm. The devil was circling him once again. He was looking for any opportunity to charge in. Any weakness in Clement’s defense.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Clement needed him close in order to fight back. Perhaps he would ask Gertrude to craft him an enchanted crossbow once everything was over. Or some magical sword that could release a long-range blade when some trigger was pulled. Just something to grant him a way to attack from at least a moderate distance.

Clement dropped his sword to one side. Putting his guard down had worked to draw in the bull before. This time, however, Clement fully intended to enjoy the mild reprieve from holding up his heavy sword constantly. With his armor damaged, his muscles were starting to feel the strain.

The bull moved again, though not as Clement had expected. It had only taken to the air thrice since their fight began. Great wings flapped, propelling it high up.

For a moment, Clement entertained the idea that it had finally broken off their engagement. While good for an extended reprieve, he still hadn’t seen any sign from Gertrude that she had accomplished her mission. He had to delay at least a few moments longer.

So Clement stood his ground, watching and waiting as the beast circled around overhead.

And, with his left hand, he started pulling off the ring. Punching or backhanding Zagan was obviously not working.

The bull’s wings folded flat against its back as it turned into a nosedive. Beneath the glowing gold eyes, smoke billowed out of its nostrils. Flames burned deep within its gullet. Some escaped from the sides of its mouth.

Clement didn’t move. He had been hoping that Zagan would charge again. This worked just as well. He held the ring in his hand, waiting.

Just a moment more, he thought, watching the bull fly towards him. Just a moment more…

With his thumb pressed against his middle finger, Clement flicked the ring up into the air.

At the same time, he activated the enchantments on his boots.

In a flash, he was at the window of one of the dormitories. A student on the other side of the glass let out a short shriek before running out of the room.

Clement couldn’t bring himself to care. He turned back to the plaza with weary eyes.

Zagan was back in his human form, coughing and sputtering with a hand clasped to his throat. Black bands shot out of the ground, wrapping around his wrists as a portal opened up beneath him.

Two golden eyes met Clement’s, burning with promised pain and death.

And then he was gone, dragged beneath the surface of Earth, back to Hell where the demon belonged.

Clement collapsed to his knees. He dug the tip of his sword into the ground, using it as a crutch to keep from falling flat on his face.

And he sat. He reached up to his forehead, wiping off a streak of blood that had dripped down into his eyes earlier.

It was over. For him at least.

He was in no shape to find Gertrude and help her. The largest threat had been dealt with. Gertrude could handle whatever was left.

Using his sword to push himself back to his feet, Clement headed back to their safe house. Not the apartment, but a regular house on the outskirts of town. A long walk, doubly so given Clement’s speed. To make it even more troublesome, he took back alleys.

The back alleys were where he and Gertrude had set up their traps for Zagan. They went unused for the fight, but they might still be useful. If anyone was following him, he hoped that would slow them down long enough for him to slip away.

He really didn’t want to use the enchantments on his boots anymore. Every time he used them, stopping was like running into a brick wall. It was worse without the enchantments of the rest of his armor.

But eventually he made it. Daylight was starting to peek over the horizon, but he made it. He took one last look around for any enemies; his visor, cracked and shattered as it was, wasn’t up to the usual task of highlighting any demons around. Still, he didn’t see anything suspicious.

With a weary sigh, Clement hopped the back fence, walked up to the door, and entered the house.

His breath hitched. His heart skipped a beat.

An icy cold gripped him, filling him with dread.

Gertrude was already home. Lying face down on the floor, she had her shirt off.

Three holes ran up her spine, starting at her lower back and ending towards the middle. All three had been frozen over, preventing her from bleeding out. But they were deep.

Zomorrodnegar, Clement’s sword, fell from his limp fingers to the ground with a soft clatter. Tearing the remnants of his helmet off his head and tossing it into a corner of the room, Clement charged forward before falling to his knees at Gertrude’s side. He reached out his hands…

and drew back immediately. Moving her could agitate her injuries. Even touching her might leave her worse off than before.

She was breathing. Her chest pressed against the hardwood floor with each shallow breath. Ice crystals came out of her mouth, only stopping as she breathed in.

The iced over holes in her back were the most obvious injury, but they were far from the only ones. Shifting his position slightly, Clement’s eyes were drawn to her arm. Or lack of arm. As with her back, ice covered nothing more than a stump just below her elbow.

Though, that wasn’t to say that her arm was completely missing. It was underneath her, fingers sticking out near her shoulder.

Her head had a similarly treated injury. A simple slit up the top of her scalp, visible through her red hair only thanks to the ice.

“Forget bleeding to death,” Clement hissed. “You’re going to freeze to death.”

Gertrude didn’t respond. Looking obviously unconscious, Clement hadn’t expected her to, but it was disheartening all the same.

Climbing to his feet, Clement ran to the bedroom. They had a supply of potions stashed away. Gertrude normally handled potion administration—Clement wasn’t a mage and, as such, he couldn’t brew potions. As such, he wasn’t the most knowledgeable.

They had labels. He would be fine.

Clement shook his head.

Gertrude would be fine.

— — —

“The walls have stopped bleeding.”

Eva hummed, not really paying attention. She was too busy enjoying the embrace with Arachne.

Being a spider-demon made entirely of hard chitin, she wasn’t all that comfortable to hug. Arachne was smooth, not covered in spikes or anything, but it was like hugging a marble statue.

Not that she had ever hugged a marble statue, but it was how she imagined it to be.

“It happened before,” Eva said without opening her eyes. “Blood came out of the walls while Juliana was around. I didn’t see it myself, but I don’t believe she would lie about that. And then again when you… died. I don’t remember it exactly, but I guess there was a lot more blood around me than there should have been.”

“That isn’t caused by your blood magic?”

“I don’t know what it would be. I haven’t performed any rituals that might make walls bleed around me. It has to be a demon thing.

“A portion of my domain got attached to the dormitory. Ylva thinks that it is because I had humans inside the domain while I was out here. Whatever is attacking Void latched onto both me and Shalise, creating a connection through our dorm. I don’t know if I believe that, but after she showed me how to disconnect domains from reality, it went away.” Eva shrugged. “It might have something to do with that.”

“Part of your domain manifests as blood through the walls?” Arachne tipped her voice at the end, skeptical.

“It’s just a theory,” Eva said quietly. “Devon and I haven’t been on the best of terms since you died, so I haven’t had much of a chance to ask him about it all.” Not to mention how busy she was.

“Enough of me. How?” Eva pulled away from Arachne. Not much, just enough to look her in the eyes. She kept her hands firmly around Arachne’s wrists, just to make sure that she was real and wouldn’t disappear. “How are you here? I saw your beacon crushed with my own eyes.”

Arachne smiled. Moving one arm out of Eva’s grip, she ran her claws gently through Eva’s hair.

Despite knowing just how sharp the tips of her fingers were, Arachne didn’t cut her in the slightest as her fingers ran over Eva’s scalp. It felt light and tingly. Almost as if something was crawling through her hair—not in a creepy sort of way, but rather a relaxing and calming feeling.

Perhaps more like a massage.

“I accepted a bargain. The proverbial deal with a devil.”

And just like that, a dark storm cloud moved over Eva’s good mood. “What do you mean by bargain? What do you have to do?”

“Not only did Void put me back together far sooner than I would have been able to, but he gave me transport out of Hell. I suppose… you might say that I must return the favor.”

“You must… I’ll assume you don’t mean anything related to healing Void,” Eva said, receiving a light nod of confirmation. “Which means you have to transport Void out of Hell?”

Arachne rolled her neck, nodding with not quite as wide of a smile on her face. “Essentially.”

“That’s… We’ve been trying to prevent that from…” Eva trailed off as she thought.

No one was actually trying to prevent anything. Both Martina Turner and Devon had summoned demons the first time they needed to. And that was despite Devon being the one to theorize about summoning demons and destabilizing Hell. Ylva had shut down her domain. That might have been one of the worst offenders, according to Devon.

And yet, that was all anyone had done.

No one was actually doing anything. The apocalypse was still approaching, just slower than before.

And now Arachne was supposed to help it along?

“Don’t worry. We’ll be fine. Void is bored.”

“Bored? Bored! He wants to start the apocalypse!”

“I’m sure that’s an exaggeration. Actually, if I understood everything he explained to me, this should be less destructive to the mortal realm.”

“Oh? And how do you figure that?”

“Zagan said that Void and all of Hell was going to be dragged into and merged with the mortal realm. We are only summoning the entity.”

“No Hell along with him?”

Arachne shook her head. “And if Void wanted to destroy the mortal realm, he could just unleash all of the demons on Earth as he did with me. We wouldn’t need much prompting to run wild.”

“That is not reassuring.” Eva fell silent with a sigh. “Besides, what about the entity that was attacking Void? It wanted Void in the mortal realm, isn’t this just playing into its hands? Things don’t usually attack unless they think they can win.”

“Void thinks he can win.”

Eva put her hands on her hips, glaring at Arachne.

What am I supposed to say to this?

If it was going to happen anyway, maybe it was for the best. Especially if Void was going to be coming over on his own terms, rather than be dragged over into a trap or whatever it was that the second Power had in mind. Not knowing much of anything about the other Power, Eva definitely wanted Void to win this entire engagement.

Especially given her own jump-started leap into demonhood.

Eva shook her head with a long sigh. “I just–”

A chill ran up Eva’s spine. She could feel the tension in Arachne’s arms as well.

Something was missing. Some warm, ever-present sensation of power.

She took a deep breath. “Zagan,” she said.

Arachne nodded her head. “I feel it too.”

“He died?”

“I don’t… think so.”

Eva kept a tight hold of Arachne’s arm. She wasn’t going to lose her again. “What happened then?”

“It feels more like he was banished. A subtle difference, but a difference nonetheless. Namely, he’ll merely go back to his domain and won’t be stuck in the Void. Though, I doubt Zagan would spend more than half a day putting himself back together if he had been killed.”

Which meant that Martina would just be summoning him back the moment that she was back on her feet.

Keeping Arachne’s arm in hand, Eva dragged her over towards the window.

Martina’s office window overlooked the plaza where Zagan had been fighting. Considering the damage done to both dormitory buildings and the ground, it was a good thing that the fight hadn’t gone anywhere else. The Gillet had several person-sized holes on it, especially towards the bottom. Not the structurally sound building that it had once been.

Eva doubted that she would be willing to stay overnight inside.

In comparison, the Rickenbacker was mostly undamaged. It had a few holes around it, but it looked superficial. A great number of hoof prints dotted the sides. Perhaps Zagan had run along the walls?

But there was no sign of the great winged bull anywhere. The knight who had been fighting against him was hobbling off in the distance, heading towards the city.

Arachne tried to hop over the edge of the window and chase after him. Eva stopped her with a vice-like grip on her shoulder.

“Zagan may have been toying with him, but that guy still beat him.”

“He is injured. Badly. Look at him move.”

“Arachne,” Eva said, grabbing both of the demon’s arms and yanking her around. Staring at her eye to eye, Eva waited for a moment, letting the tension drain out of Arachne. “I’m not losing you. Not again.”

Arachne stared for a minute more before dropping her shoulders. “He’ll come back,” she said.

“We can deal with him later. You, me, Ylva, Devon’s demons, Zagan—if Martina brings him back—and everyone else. We, as one, will fight him. The other hunter is injured at the very least, possibly dead.”

Taking her eyes off Arachne and looking back out over the plaza, Eva couldn’t spot the hunter anywhere. The plaza was too far from the school building for her blood sight to function. The city was even further.

More than that, people were starting to emerge from the dormitory buildings. Mostly the Gillet.

“Come on,” Eva said. “Let’s go look around before people trample over everything.”

Eva considered blinking straight over the windowsill. Not wanting to release Arachne, she decided to move on her own two feet.

But Arachne didn’t budge.

“There are people out there.”

Eva rolled her eyes. Arachne had been ready to run off after the hunter, but now she was getting cold feet?

“I think we’re long past the point of hiding from mortals,” Eva said. “I doubt that anyone at the dorms missed that fight.”

Tugging again, Eva got the shy demon moving.

As expected, people quickly took notice of their approach. Or rather, they took note of Arachne’s approach. Eva followed their eyes for a moment. None gave more than a glance in her direction.

Perhaps it was because of shock at witnessing the fight, but nobody really reacted much except to back away. A few people ran back into their dormitory buildings. A few others took one look at the state of the Gillet and decided to take their chances outside.

As the spectacle that was Arachne became less of a frightening sight—helped by the fact that she was walking calmly and not flying into a murderous rage—the people still outside began to turn their attention towards Eva. In some, she could see recognition light up. Others, especially the older students, just looked more confused.

She caught sight of a number of the students that she had taught with Catherine. One particular boy with grayish-white hair started to head in her direction before Eva waved him off.

Eva really didn’t consider herself friends with or even peers of any of those students. Whatever questions he had for her weren’t anything that Eva was interested in answering. Martina Turner would come out with some fabricated explanation for all the events of the night. Whatever she said probably wouldn’t answer any questions, but it was better than nothing.

“Just ignore everybody,” Eva said.

There were far more interesting things than the people anyway.

Reaching down, Eva picked up a flat piece of metal. It might have been a part of the hunter’s chest plate. Maybe an arm or leg piece.

Eva only held onto it for a second before dropping it.

The carapace on her hands had melted. She stared, watching as bits of chitin flaked off her hand as it cooled.

Arachne repeated the action, holding it for less time before she dropped it.

“Enchanted,” she said as she stared at her own hand. “Something against demons.”

“Troublesome. It still works while broken?”

“Maybe it isn’t enchanted. Something in the metal itself,” Arachne said, shrugging. “I’m not an expert in magic. Not even a novice.”

She paused, glancing around before leaning in a little closer. “Which is why Void said he would send someone else to help with that thing we were just discussing.”

Eva nodded slightly, but didn’t respond. Too many people around.

Instead, she carefully stepped over the bit of metal, watching out for any other shards of metal lying on the ground. Maybe Juliana would be interested in it. If Willie ever surfaced again, she might find it extremely useful.

Blinking, Eva pulled out her cellphone and shot off a quick text message to Zoe. She had no idea if they were even alright. She assumed that they were fine. Ylva should be with them. While not nearly so scary as Zagan, Ylva could hold her own.

But she needed someone over here, someone with authority. All the bits of metal were potentially dangerous to Eva and every other demon around. She didn’t want random students getting a hold of pieces of them.

Message sent, Eva glanced up from her cellphone.

And froze.

Lying right in the center of the plaza was an oddly shaped object.

A horn.

Walking up to it alongside Arachne, Eva bent down and picked it up.

Heavy, but not overly so. About the same as a bowling ball. It was curved just a little bit too much, giving it a crumpled look. The tips of it were dark black, though it grew almost white at the end that had been cut. Red blood lined a good portion of it as well.

The hunter’s blood.

“Perhaps Nel can use this,” Eva said, keeping hold of it.

A pair of circulatory systems appeared behind Eva, closer to the Rickenbacker dormitory building.

With a smile on her face, Eva turned to greet the new arrivals.

“Good news,” she said as she leaned just a little closer to her companion. “Arachne is back!”

Zoe pressed her lips together. Her eyes drifted over Arachne, narrowing just a hair. It took a moment, but she eventually smiled. A small smile. It didn’t quite reach her narrowed eyes, but it was still a smile.

Juliana, not so much.

The last time that Juliana had seen Arachne would have been just after watching her mother get skewered. Eva could understand her presence not bringing up the best of memories.

But even watching Juliana’s slight scowl couldn’t dampen Eva’s current mood. Zagan might have lost, but who cared? He was Zagan. She had Arachne back and that was all that mattered at the moment.

Except… Arachne took a small step forward. Not enough to pull away from Eva, but enough to say that she was acting on her own.

“I had a lot of time to think,” she started, speaking slowly. Her words lingered in the air for a few moments before she continued. “I apologize. For any harm I caused your mother.”

Eva smiled, a new sort of respect for Arachne welled up in her. When she had first proposed to Arachne that the spider-demon should apologize to Genoa, she had thought that she would be dragging Arachne in by the legs. That she apologized to Juliana on her own filled Eva with pride.

Juliana stared. Her scowl disappeared, but she didn’t smile.

An awkward silence between the group stretched on. Eva found herself shifting slightly, wondering if Arachne’s apology wasn’t being quite as well received by Juliana as Eva had found it. It had sounded sincere to her ears.

Eventually, Juliana sighed. “I don’t know why you’re apologizing to me.” A bitter tone carried her voice at a volume a fair bit lower than she normally spoke at. “None of it would have happened if it wasn’t for me.”

“That isn’t true,” Eva said. She kept her voice firm as she stared at Juliana. “Zagan was the one who dumped you into Hell. Maybe it would have happened had you done nothing, maybe not. But you did nothing wrong.”

“I could have turned and walked away from Willie before you even arrived! Willie sweet talked me into sticking around after he knew that people were coming after me! I shouldn’t have bought into it. There were a million things I could have–”

With a hand on her shoulder, Zoe cut Juliana off.

“We have a crowd,” Zoe said, voice quiet and with a soft smile for Juliana’s sake. “Perhaps this is a conversation best left for later.”

Juliana stopped outside the front door of a smaller home on the outskirts of the city.

The very outskirts. It was difficult to get farther away without technically being outside the city limits.

Houses out here were few and far between. Brakket City wasn’t much of a city to begin with, but out here, it was basically farmland. Abandoned farmland. Real rural area.

With the abysmally low price of houses and her family’s own wealth, it hadn’t been much of an issue to purchase one. Juliana’s father had insisted on buying a house as far away as possible. An idea that Juliana heavily endorsed. It gave her a convenient excuse to live in the dormitory building.

She was not walking across the city and back out every single day. Besides, it was probably more dangerous to do so. She would be open and vulnerable while walking.

It wasn’t a great house. One of the windows had been broken. The siding was in disarray even now. Ivy, vines, and all manner of foliage had taken over one side of the house, growing up the walls and even onto the roof. The lawn had been overgrown. Juliana had fixed that up herself with some carefully applied earth magic to churn the dirt, burying most of the weeds and grass.

Tiptoeing up to the front door, Juliana paused.

Her excursion out into the city was supposed to have been for only a few hours. Just enough to unpack in the dorm. Instead, she had spent the full day plus a good portion of the night out and around Brakket. And even a short amount of time out at Eva’s prison. A place where she was supposedly banned from going.

Well, it wasn’t much that she was ‘supposedly’ banned. She was banned.

Her father would definitely know how late she had been out. Hopefully he didn’t know about her little side trip.

Taking hold of the doorknob, Juliana twisted the handle as quietly as possible.

On the off-chance that everyone was asleep, she could claim to have returned an hour or two earlier.

That plan quickly fell by the wayside. Her father, her brother, and her mother were all sitting out in the living room.

She had expected at least one of them to be—the light was on, after all—but she had been hoping that they would have fallen asleep.

“Um, hello.”

Her father got to his feet. “Juliana Laura Rivas. Where have you been?” He took three steps forward before Juliana’s mother cleared her throat.

“Carlos, you promised to remain calm.”

Juliana watched as her father clenched his hands into fists, took a deep breath, let it out, and released his grip. He took a few steps back and sat back down.

“Now then,” Genoa said with a cold smile, “why don’t you tell us all about whatever happened tonight.”

Closing the door behind her, Juliana stepped into the room. She didn’t take a seat.

The faces of all three people were riddled with concern, worry, and maybe a hint of disappointment. Carlos had his lips pressed together as he often did while angry. Meanwhile, Erich sat in a small recliner. Unlike Juliana’s parents, his eyes were glued to the front window. He didn’t look at Juliana more than a brief glance as he fidgeted to one side.

“First,” Juliana said, “I’d just like to say that I was perfectly safe the entire time.”

“That–”

Genoa cleared her throat again before Carlos could speak. He turned to her with slightly narrowed eyes—though his coke bottle glasses magnified it enough that the glare was almost comical rather than menacing.

“That’s reassuring,” he eventually finished, voice flat.

“I was at Zoe’s apartment. With Zoe.” And Ylva, she didn’t bother adding. Mentioning that wouldn’t grant her any favors with her family. “Everything happened at Brakket Academy.”

“And just what was it that happened?”

“Well,” Juliana rubbed the back of her head, “a few demon hunters tried to murder just about everyone. They only halfway succeeded.”

Before anyone could ask what that meant, Juliana powered on. “Eva is fine. So is Catherine. The dean is… unconscious still. Last I heard anyway. They did get the entire security team.”

Lucy was still alive and in the mortal realm, but she wasn’t in a state to act as a security guard.

Juliana didn’t bother to mention Zagan. If her father found out that he was gone, he might send her off to another school. Zagan would be back. Of that, Juliana held no doubts. She did not particularly wish for him to return only to find her not at Brakket Academy.

“A few buildings got damaged, but no students or professors were harmed.”

“I suppose that is better than I had feared,” Genoa allowed with a tilt of her head. “And these demon hunters?”

“Got away?”

“You don’t sound very sure.”

“Well, Eva thinks that one of them is dead. The other got away for sure. But that isn’t the important thing.” Juliana held out an arm. All of the metal she had collected from the battlefield started to coalesce in the palm of her hand. It formed into a sphere.

A sphere of shiny silver metal.

With Eva’s help, she had confirmed that it retained its demon injuring property even after being melded and reshaped.

There hadn’t been enough lying around to completely cover her. And yet, she had shed most of the metal she had been wearing. The new metal was heavy.

Heavy enough that even the small sphere she was forming needed both hands to hold it steadily in front of her. Distributing it around her body—her shoulders, hips, and back especially—helped to lighten the apparent load while wandering around. However, after finding a safe place to store the metal, she would only carry a small amount with her. The rest would be the lighter copper, brass, and iron that made up her normal suit.

Until then, she would carry it with her everywhere.

That Eva trusted her enough to keep all of the metal even despite her track record of failure spoke wonders of the other girl’s opinion of Juliana. It was metal that could possibly kill Eva if she came into contact with it for too long. Juliana would not allow herself to let down Eva by mishandling it.

“I was wondering if you knew what this was. It hurts demons and looks silvery, but Ara–” Juliana let out a slight cough, clearing an imaginary blockage in her throat.

Unlike Zagan, she would have to bring up Arachne at some point in time. The spider wanted to meet with her mother after all. However, that could wait for a time. Maybe when Erich and her father weren’t around.

“Eva told me that normal silver doesn’t hurt her in the slightest.”

Tilting her head to one side, Genoa took her hands off her lap. Gripping the handles of her wheelchair, she rolled herself forward.

“It’s heavy,” Juliana said as her mother held out a hand.

“Please. I may have a hole in my chest and can barely walk, but I’ve been keeping up with my weights.”

So she said, and yet she held out her other hand to help hold the sphere.

With a sigh, Juliana leaned forward, keeping a careful grip on the metal until she was absolutely certain that her mother truly had control. Only then did she release it and step away.

“Incidentally, Juliana…” Genoa trailed off as she turned the orb over in her hands. Activating her own ferrokinesis, she molded it away into a sort of glove. “Incidentally, you shouldn’t be picking up strange bits of metal after a battle. Or strange bits of anything. You never know when something is cursed. This seems alright, so I will let it slide this one time.”

“As long as it isn’t toxic or anything,” Erich muttered from his seat across the room.

Genoa started to turn to him, opening her mouth as if to speak, but she paused.

The metal glove on her hand turned from a shiny silver to a dark black. So dark that the area around it almost felt darker in comparison.

“That’s odd. I was only trying to stretch it out a bit.” She turned the now black glove over, holding it up to the light.

Which did nothing to alleviate the darkness.

“This… seems familiar somehow, but I can’t quite place it.”

Juliana just stared with wide eyes. It looked familiar to her too. Eva’s dagger was made of a very similar material.

Some demon metal, Eva had called it.

But why did demon hunters have demon metal?

— — —

“Welcome to Brakket Academy. I am Alexander Anderson, the dean of this fair school.”

The new dean turned, waving a hand over the area. “As you can see, we’re undergoing a bit of a renovation.”

That’s an understatement, Catherine thought as she glanced back over her shoulder.

Construction crews were milling about. They were a fair distance away. The bus that had dropped off the new students did so with plenty of walking time to spare. Given that the driver came from a different city—Brakket City was far too small to have a landing strip for any sized aircraft—the mortal had probably taken one look at the sky and had decided to get out before anything happened.

The construction crews had taken a great deal of convincing. Getting them to stick around and actually do their jobs had been Catherine’s job, so she knew very well just how skittish mortals were about anything odd or unnatural. Money had won out in the end, as it usually did.

Eventually, they had gotten to work.

Some workers replaced the bricks of the plaza with fresh, unbroken bricks. Others were patching up the Gillet. No load bearing walls had been hit, most of the damage was to the windows and the immediate area around the windows.

It was supposed to have been completed before the new students arrived at the academy. Having to convince them to work in the first place combined with a sudden bout of torrential rain had delayed the repairs just long enough.

Catherine turned back to face the thirteen students. All the new students who were entering the academy this year. She didn’t particularly care about the academy, its wellbeing, or how many students it had, but she did find it surprising that so many mortals were willing to send their kin here. With all the bad publicity, including the fight and murders last week, Catherine had assumed that the school would be shut down.

Weren’t mortals supposed to care about each other? Catherine chuckled to herself.

A slight cough from Anderson froze her chuckle in her throat. He glared as she looked up to him. Shadows around the ground flickered ever so slightly in an unnatural manner.

Catherine shuddered as she burrowed her nose in her phone.

Anderson was almost as scary as Zagan on occasion. He knew how to use his shadow manipulation to alter his features just enough to make himself intimidating. The lines on his face would become more pronounced while his gaunt cheekbones appeared to recede even further. Of course, given that he had a haunter as a bound familiar, maybe it wasn’t so much that Anderson was scary.

It was getting to the point where Catherine was wishing that Martina would just wake up. Unfortunately, that seemed less and less likely with every passing day. Her body was still alive. Mostly unharmed, even. But after diagnosing exactly what she had done, the doctors keeping an eye on her believed that too much lightning had run through her brain. It had disrupted her neural blah-blah—Catherine hadn’t paid all that much attention.

The only reason she had been sticking around Brakket Academy was because Martina’s contract was still in force and holding her here, even if her mind was broken. If she didn’t wake up soon, Catherine might consider using her favor with Eva up on getting the girl to permanently solve her problem.

On a brighter note, a comatose Martina gave her freedom. She could do anything she wanted to without the lingering threat of punishment or banishment hanging over her head. Zagan wasn’t even around to keep her in line.

Most of her days had been spent with the diabolist. They were almost ready to run a new version of their ritual. Unfortunately, there weren’t all that many demons left around Brakket. Something that Zagan being gone actually hurt.

“You’re arriving at Brakket Academy at an interesting time,” Anderson said. “By a show of hands, how many of you have family members who are mages?”

Only two of the thirteen raised their hands.

“In that case, I’ll explain a few things. Our school isn’t in a good state. We’re in danger of shutting down before your school tenure ends. This year, we aim to change that. You are first year students, but you can still help.

“Thaumaturgy is not easy to learn. It is a long process. You have six years at this school and yet you will still be considered an amateur until you have completed several years of extracurricular study. Brakket will give you your foundations. It is up to you to build the house—so to speak.

“However, this year we are introducing a new program.” He waved a hand to his side.

Towards Catherine.

Blinking, Catherine looked up from her phone with narrowed eyes.

“Catherine is the secretary of the school. She has been for two years. She is also a demon.”

The two who had raised their hands didn’t react all that much. A slight widening of the eyes was all their reactions amounted to. They had probably been chosen because they wouldn’t have much reaction.

The others weren’t quite the same. Despite not being mages, even mundane mortals had heard of demons. They obviously hadn’t heard the best of opinions—probably for the best. More than one backed away, looking at her with wide eyes and smelling of fear.

Catherine rolled her eyes. Whatever game he was playing at was going to come back to bite him later on. Publicly announcing demons was just asking to get more demon hunters stopping by.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Catherine won’t hurt you. She does represent a certain shortcut. Thaumaturgy takes years to learn. Binding a demon to you, depending on the type and individual, can offer a wide variety of magic. You could leave a demon unbound, making it into a regular familiar or a mere contracted demon. We will be inviting guests who are interested in all three aspects.

“There is nothing to fear. You’ll go through a long lecture and learning portion. Taking on a bound demon will not be mandatory if, after going through the class, you decide that you don’t want to participate. Either way, you’ll still be expected to learn and practice proper thaumaturgy.”

One of the students asked a question.

Catherine didn’t bother paying attention. She cared little for the mortals or their somewhat justified fears about demons.

More concerning was Anderson’s claim of using bound demons. Particularly in relation to her. He had used her as an example.

Some demons liked to be physically bound within a mortal. It was typically the best way to avoid hunters as there would be little evidence of any demons. With no presence in the mortal realm, there wasn’t even any evidence to find.

But being bound was addictive. Or so Catherine had heard. Prax had appeared fine, but he had only been inside a mortal for a short time. Normal bound familiars tended to serve their masters for the duration of the mortal’s lifetime.

If Anderson forced her into a situation where she had to become a bound familiar, Catherine would tear out her own heart. She liked the current era of mortals. The distractions they had created to pass the time in their short lives worked just as well for demons. However, she wasn’t so enamored with it that she would be willing to give up her eternal freedom.

Sticking around for her work with the diabolist was far a more enticing argument. However, she wouldn’t be able to work on any of it if she were stuck in the head of some mortal brat.

Clapping his hands together, Anderson tore Catherine out of her own little world.

“Now,” he said to the gathered children. He let the silence hang for a moment, looking over them.

Catherine didn’t know what he was looking for. None of the children looked all that impressive. There were no ‘Evas’ in this year’s batch of students. Not even anyone remotely interesting.

But Anderson had a wide grin on his face. Not a malicious grin, but more of the kind mortals got when their moods were just so good that they couldn’t contain it.

“As I said, if you do choose to participate in the program, there will be ways you can help. Namely, a certain contest. It happens every year, but Brakket Academy hasn’t participated in the past decade because of low student population—normally only those in their fifth and sixth years of schooling participate—and…” He trailed off to give a pathetic shrug. “We are a little behind in our curriculum.

“With the support of our new allies,” he said with a gesture towards Catherine, “I think that population and ability will matter far less. People will see what Brakket Academy has to offer. The real trick will be convincing them of the truth that we’re all still human and still in control.

“But enough of that. I’m sure you’re all very eager to see where you’ll be staying. Follow me please.”

He turned and led the group back towards the Rickenbacker.

Catherine didn’t follow. She watched as the little mortals eyed her, giving her a wide berth as they walked around.

It was a strange sensation. Thirteen-year-olds were typically just entering puberty. Humans at such an age were often trying to get closer to her. Not farther away. The idea that merely being outed as a demon could ruin mortals’ impulses towards her was somewhat insulting.

Or depressing.

She really needed to finish the ritual with the diabolist.

As soon as the gaggle of children had disappeared into the doorway of the Rickenbacker to finish their orientation, Catherine turned on her sharp heels and stalked off into the town.

She had been planning on putting this off for a time. With what she had just heard from Anderson, Catherine had no intentions of being tied down. She needed to act now.

The clicking of her heels only stopped once she reached a deserted alleyway.

A minute buildup of magic had her pulled straight into the gate room of the women’s ward.

Eva was sitting in her common room with Arachne. Just sitting, not talking. Perhaps she had been talking and stopped once she noticed Catherine’s arrival. Doubtful, but possible.

Arachne sat upright in her most human form with her back to the couch. Eva rested her head on the spider-demon’s lap, keeping her eyes half-lidded as Arachne stroked her fingers through Eva’s hair.

Both of them had faint smiles on their faces.

Catherine rolled her eyes.

Neither of them bothered to acknowledge her.

“Eva,” Catherine said after a light clearing of her throat, “I need to use my last favor.”

“Are you sure?” The girl didn’t even look up. Her eyes stayed half closed as she nuzzled further into Arachne’s lap.

Not a very comfortable looking lap. Arachne was as far from comfortable as a demon could get without being covered in spines and thorns.

“I’m sure.”

“It could be the last favor that I owe you for a long time yet.”

“Maybe,” Catherine said with a toothy smile. “Maybe not.”

Finally, Eva opened her eyes. She tilted her head up, moving just enough off Arachne’s lap to get the other demon scowling at Catherine.

Catherine didn’t bother getting intimidated. There was a time where she might have worried. Not any longer. She knew Eva well enough. So long as Arachne’s detention in Hell hadn’t altered her too much, she knew that Arachne would heel to Eva.

“What do you mean?”

“Your next treatment. You’ll need more demons, no?” Catherine forced a yawn, glancing at her fingernails before rubbing them off on her shirt. It was an action she had seen a number of times while consuming human media. A sign of derision and contempt.

Where the gesture came from, or what its origins were, Catherine had no idea. For all she knew, it wasn’t even a real gesture. She had never actually seen a person do so outside of mortal entertainment media.

But Eva apparently got it anyway. The girl narrowed her eyes, raising one eyebrow as she did so.

“I don’t know that I can offer my services for free. Another few favors might give me a little more motivation to join in.”

Eva rolled her eyes. Pressing her head back into Arachne’s lap, she twisted around so that she was looking upwards instead of outwards. “Well, your favors have been innocuous enough. I’m sure I won’t mind.”

“I’m glad you see it that way,” Catherine said with a low chuckle. “I need you to kill Martina.”

Hello, thanks for reading.

Book eight will continue as scheduled. No intermissions or interludes. Tune in next time for 008.001.

As with last time, I’d just like to say thanks before anything else. So thanks to all my supporters on Patreon and PayPal. I really do appreciate your support. And thanks to everybody else for reading my story!

There are a couple things about this book—and the series in general—to talk about this time around.

First and foremost, villains. Way way back in Book 001 when I first started writing, I decided that I really liked Sawyer. The name, personality, and other things. He was supposed to have died instead of the other necromancer, but he managed to squeeze through.

Unfortunately, while an unrepentant monster, he wasn’t a very good villain to Eva. He didn’t really care about Eva specifically. His goals and plans were entirely background thoughts in my mind that never made it to the text. The ones that did weren’t even about Eva.

In one of his first appearances, he specifically stated that his goal was to get his hands on Nel (or any other augur) and only came into conflict with Eva tangentially.

Then Eva was mostly dead all day during Nel’s rescue.

I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this.

They just had no chemistry together.

So for now, word of the author is that he is dead. If I ever decide to make a sequel to Void Domain, maybe he and Des can come back as primary antagonists now that Eva had really ticked them off.

Which leads me into another topic. A few chapters ago, I responded to a comment asking how many books were left in the series with the answer of two more books.

That’s probably going to be true. Not set in stone or anything. Each book takes somewhere around three to four months to write. It doesn’t feel that long, but it is a huge amount of time. Time enough for things to change.

But I think we’re coming up on the ending I initially had planned. Not quite how I planned to get there, but the end all the same.

While I probably could continue writing forever, delaying the ending indefinitely with all manner of events beforehand, I don’t think I’d want to. There are other things I want to try, other worlds to explore, things I’ve done wrong in Void Domain and can’t easily fix, things I’ve done right that I want to use and improve upon.

Don’t know what the reaction to that will be, but as I said, its still a long way off from now.

Now for some side notes:

Again, thank you to everyone who has donated through either Patreon or PayPal.

As a reminder, I’ve posted a few chapters of a series that might be in the future for me on Patreon. While I do supremely appreciate the monetary support, I will probably be moving those over to a WordPress site available to all as soon as I finish the next chapter. First because it didn’t seem to act as a very big incentive to donate, given that it was only one chapter a month. And second because I would like some more varied feedback well in advance of any commencement on such a project.

So look for links in the comments on one of the upcoming chapters. Or maybe I’ll just make a mini author’s note on the chapter itself.

I’d like again to point out that a good amount of referrals to this story come from Top Web Fiction. As such, I would appreciate any extra votes in my direction. It is a quick click once a week and helps a lot.

On to the trivia section!

• Eva, during her treatment this book, somewhat lost control of her hands. They squeezed down and would have crushed her knees had her knees not been Arachne brand prosthetic.

•• In case you don’t know how spiders work, they don’t have muscles like you or… you. Human muscles push and pull. A spider only has the pulling muscles. Their heart pumps blood out to their legs, pushing them out in the same way hydraulic machinery works. Which is why spider legs curl into a little ball when a spider dies. Eva suffered a similar issue during that scene.

••• Note: The above is completely simplified. However, this trivia entry is long enough without going and copy-pasting wikipedia articles.

• In the chapter where Eva approached her to join her treatment, Catherine was playing Overwatch. She plays pistol only devil skin Mercy. Seeing Genjis die in front of her while spamming “I need healing” gives her a sick sort of pleasure.

•• Sometimes she switches to Mei.

Reading recommendation:

Again, different from normal. However, this reading recommendation is not quite as depressing as the previous one.

Early December, I came across a web comic. I found it thanks to a certain female monster themed subreddit and have fallen absolutely in love with it.

Kill Six Billion Demons

I really shouldn’t have to say anything more. No synopsis or anything. If you’re reading Void Domain all the way to book eight, you’ll probably enjoy it.

But I guess I will anyway.

Allison gets a key shoved into her forehead that lets her travel through the multiverse. There she meets stone angels, mask wearing demons, and gods. Adventures ensue.

(I am the best at summaries)

I’ll be perfectly honest. The art style actually turned me way off when I first started. But it grew on me. There is so much detail thrown in to every page. So many little things to look at. I have no idea how much time goes into each page, but its a lot.

The first few chapters are fairly world-buildy and info-dumpy. I doubt I remember half of what was said. However, it seems like the kind of thing where I’ll reread it in five years and be like “ooohhhh, that’s what that meant.”

When I first found it early in December, I thought that it updated maybe once a month. However, it updated the very next day. Then the next week. And the week after. Aside from Christmas week, it has updated every Friday. I don’t know if this is a special time of year or if I was sorely mistaken on its update schedule, but I do hope people find it interesting.

Since that was kind of a weird recommendation, I’ll recommend something else as well.

Another web comic!

Crawling City

A story about a young girl named Aria and her friend/pet Gug. It is more slice of lifey than KSBD, featuring them going about their everyday life.

But if you aren’t hooked from the first page, I’ve no words. The art style alone should grab you. It updates every Monday.

—

Book Seven Stats:

Chapters: 29

Wordcount: 115,309 (according to WordPress’ built in word counter)

POV counts (max of one count per chapter):

Eva: 25

Clement: 6

Juliana: 3

Catherine: 2

Martina: 2

Irene: 1

Nel: 1

Arachne: 1

That’s all, thanks for reading book seven. I hope you enjoy book eight.