Curse of Shadows and Light (26 page)

“
Eenie meenie miney moe… catch a human by the toe… poke and stab her ‘til you blow… teeny, weenie, hiney, ho!”

His fat finger lands on Corrine, and his grin broadens. The other demon stands behind him holding a long silver sword with strange markings on it. It’s an unusual metal, and reminds me of Lucky’s favorite dagger— the one specially designed to kill other demons and demions. Only this one is much, much bigger.

Oh, God… Are they our executioners?

“
Today’s your lucky day, lasses. Both of you. We can’t actually
kill
you until the others have arrived, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun!” He laughs, and the hairs on my neck stand up.

“
What do you want?” I demand, trying to make my voice sound unafraid and strong and failing miserably.

“
Don’t worry, sweetheart. You’ll get your turn next. But for now you can just watch. From over there—” He flicks his wrist and sends me flying back against the wall, where I crash with a violent thud before sliding to the floor in a heap. “We need room to operate.”

I feel like every bone in my body is broken again. I lie crumpled on the floor, trying to recover the wind that’s been knocked out of me. The other demon starts laughing. “Yeah… especially if she puts up a fight. I love it when they do that. Let’s keep her unbound while we play. Watch her try and get away!”

The room is spinning, and I blink several times to clear my head. Corrine curls up as much as she can, but the stocky demon reaches out and grabs her wrist.

“
No!” I scream. Despite my injuries, I get up and lunge toward them. The taller demon holds up his large palm toward me, and suddenly I’m unable to move… stuck, as if the air has turned to glue.

They both laugh again. Corrine is sitting in the corner with her back pressed to the wall, sobbing. The tall one pulls her to her feet before viciously ripping off her dress.

“
No!” I scream again. Only this time no sound comes out. I struggle to move forward, but I can’t. It’s like trying to move through frozen molasses.

The demon throws Corrine’s dress to the side, then rips off her bra. Screaming, she twists away and starts punching him as hard as she can.

They both just laugh with delight.

“
Keep it coming… please. It’s more fun this way,” the tall demon says. Then he rips off her underwear, leaving her totally exposed.

I choke on my own terrified screams as she frantically tries to kick, punch, and claw at everything within reach. And I am powerless to help her.

“
I haven’t got all day to waste with this one,” the tall demon says to his partner. “We still need to get to the other. Hold her hands above her head and pin her against the wall.”

The other one grunts and sets his sword down, then grabs Corrine’s wrists. She screams and kicks at him, and he whacks her with a wicked backhand across the cheek, splitting her lip and spattering blood against the wall. Her screams become sobs and whimpers.

Furious, I exert every ounce of my energy and strength trying to get to her. But whatever is holding me is much more powerful than I am.

But then the horrifying scene takes an unimaginable turn for the worse. The taller demon unhooks his chainmail, and I can see his naked body underneath. I gasp.

Oh God… he really
will
kill her!

Corrine looks down and screams with renewed terror, twisting and turning while they laugh in her face.

“
Don’t worry, missy,” the shorter one says. He licks the side of her face with his long tongue. “If you lose too much blood or your innies get too mangled, I can do a quick fix and have you ready to go again in no time!”

Then he calls to me over his shoulder, “Can you see okay? Wouldn’t want you to miss the show. I’m sure you’ll want to see what’s in store for you!”

He turns back to Corrine and pins her tight, while his cohort starts running his hands over her body. He roughly grabs her breasts, then he moves his hand down between her legs.

Suddenly, I’m consumed by a fiery anger unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, and every cell in my body is exploding with unprecedented hate and rage. My skin grows so hot, I expect to see flames at any second. Somehow, the invisible glue holding me hostage begins to melt away.

I fly across the room so fast my feet don’t even seem to touch the ground. In a flash, the sword is in my hand, and as the demon holding Corrine turns to look at me, I slice through the air with all my might. His head falls to the floor, and the rest of his body turns to ash.

In one fluid motion I spin around and plunge the sword through the larger demon’s chest. Stunned, he staggers a few steps backwards before falling to his knees. I pull the blade back ready to swing it like a baseball bat at his head when I hear, “No! Wait!”

Corrine’s eyes are wide with fury. She reaches out and grabs the sword from my hand, and with a determined glare she aims and takes a powerful swing.

“
Asshole!” she screams, as the demon’s head falls to the ground. Then she kicks the decapitated skulls away and turns to me.

For a moment we stand there in shock. She drops the sword, and we both collapse to the ground, trembling and crying.

“
Are you all right… did he hurt you?” I ask, trying to catch my breath.

She shakes her head and wipes the blood from her face. “No… I’m okay. I’m okay. Are you hurt at all?”

“
No, no… I’m okay.”

But we just killed two enemy demons in their own home. I know that both of us are as far from ‘okay’ as we can possibly be.

Corrine reaches for the tattered remains of her dress. I piece it back together the best I can, and fasten it with a knot around her neck. Fortunately it didn’t rip all the way, so even though the sides are still partially open, at least she’s mostly covered. Better than nothing.

The surge of adrenaline, or whatever it was, has considerably weakened my body, and I’m exhausted. I can’t believe I just killed a living creature. A horrible monster, to be sure— one that wanted to rape my friend to death. And I have zero regrets. But just the idea that I, Liora, exerted my will and domination over another creature so much bigger and stronger than me—it’s practically incomprehensible. I know Lucky has killed plenty of demons in her day, but not me. I’ve never killed
anything
. But in reality, it didn’t even seem like I was the one doing it. Yes, I wanted to destroy them, but it was almost like some strange force had taken over and turned my thoughts into action. All of a sudden, my will seemed to manifest itself into a power I’ve never felt before. Ever.

What’s happening to me? First warming up in the snow when I was freezing to death. Then bringing Corrine back to life. And now this. Is Lucky somehow breaking through to me? Or is it something else? Could it be what Anastasia said, that being pregnant with the demon twins might possibly have some side-effects? Is that what’s happening? Instead of morning sickness and food cravings, do I have the gift of necromancy and the sword-fighting skills of a supernatural ninja?

I glance at Corrine. She’s obviously traumatized, but holding up okay… at least on the outside. Her hands are trembling, and her eyes reflect the horror she’s just been through. But all things considered, she’s keeping it together surprisingly well.

All we can do now is sit and wait. At one point I get up to see if I can find the door the demons came through, but I don’t see anything. Just solid earth. Maybe it can only be opened from the outside.

The decapitated heads stare at us, almost mockingly. I wonder why they haven’t turned to ash the way the bodies did. For some reason I can’t bring myself to get up and move them, so I just close my eyes and let the minutes and hours pass. Sometimes Corrine and I make small talk. But mostly we just sit in silence.

Finally, I feel my time drawing to an end. Now, more than ever before, I truly doubt I’ll wake up in the morning.

“
I have to go soon,” I whisper to Corrine. “Stay strong. You and Lucky will get out of this somehow. I just know it.”

She’s quiet for several long moments, and I know she can hear the false confidence in my voice. “What do you think will happen to us?” she finally whispers.

I take a deep breath and shake my head as the first fiery tingles come over me. “I honestly have no idea.”

She takes my hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. Side-by-side, we sit against the wall and await our fate.

Chapter 26. Lucky

I open my eyes and see Corrine staring at me. Her face looks like it had met the front side of a speeding bus. I glance around and moan.

“
Sweet hell, what
now
?!” It’s dark and smelly here, and I can feel the overwhelming stench of evil in the air. Obviously we’ve left the snow prison, and I know already this new place is worse… much worse.

“
Do you want the long version, or do you want the short version?”

I sigh. I’m too exhausted to feel annoyed. “The short version.”

“
Some horrible demons took us to a new prison. We’re underground somewhere, and I think they’re waiting for you to arrive before they come back to kill us.”

Great. So demons beat the Light-angels for the honor of killing me. Yay?

“
What the hell is that?” I point to the corner.

Corrine bites her lip and glances away. “Liora flew through the air and chopped off his head. And then I did that one over there.” She motions to the other wall. “They were trying to rape me.”

Slowly, I turn and look at her. “Okay. Maybe I need the long version.”

She shrugs and plays with her hair. “It all happened so fast. They had me pinned… Liora was sort of stuck in stasis over there, like she couldn’t really move. Then just when things were about to get
really
bad, all of a sudden she’s over here and has the guy’s sword and his head is flying off. Then she nailed the other guy, but I finished him off.”

“
Are you really trying to tell me that you guys killed two Belith demons by yourselves?” I ask, as I recognize the tell-tale oversized features and yellow eyes.

She shrugs again. “I don’t know what kind of demons they are, but yeah, we killed them. At least, I really hope so. That one over there keeps staring at me…”

I glance back at the dismembered head in the corner, and gather a ball of fire in my hand to disintegrate the loathsome sight. But I’m almost completely sapped of strength, and the fire quickly dies away. I haven’t replenished in days, and whatever Liora did took a real toll on us.

Belith demons. Of all the demons to be captured by, it had to be the Belith—by far the darkest, most hostile, evil, violent-for-the-sake-of-violence demons around. Their tribe is notorious for stirring up trouble, causing mayhem, and constantly pushing the Legionare’s limits. With Thiberoux and the Legionare in such a state of flux, if the Belith are running unchecked, then we’re in a world of trouble.

“
They really are bad, aren’t they?” Corrine whispers.

I look at her. “Who?”

She nods toward the corner. “These demons. I mean, it didn’t seem real before. The only demons I knew were you and Kieron, and then Vincent and Demetri. And you guys are all so cool, so, well,
good
… it made me forget that demons can be like this.”

I give her a scathing look. “You think I’m good? How hard were you hit?”

“
I don’t think you’re bad… evil.”

“
That just depends on your perception. Trust me, to many people I’m the worst, most evil thing they’ll ever know.” I fondly recall implementing my powers as a Justice Demon, torturing humans who’d broken Natural Law to punish them for their crimes. A job I loved with my whole heart. Nothing comes close. I’ve missed being able to do it lately, and I hope I can get back to it someday soon.

Corrine rests her chin on her hands. “Yeah, but Liora explained it to me—you only punish and torture people who’ve committed horrible crimes and were getting away with it, like murderers and child molesters and rapists and stuff.”