Demon Games [4] (6 page)

The demon standing behind Trey reached down and dragged him to his feet, cruelly digging its long black talons into the flesh of his arms. The world still spun, and Trey closed his eyes, swallowing the saliva that came unbidden into his mouth and battling against the urge to throw up again. The creature pushed the boy towards its companion and the two of them took pleasure in shoving Trey between them, laughing raucously each time he stumbled, his feet going in different directions as he struggled to stay upright. When he finally lost his footing, he fell sprawling to the ground again, where his face was reunited with the pool of vomit. The demons cackled, and the one with the skull shaped like a medieval morning star stepped forward and placed its foot on the side of Trey’s head, pressing down viciously and forcing the boy’s face further down into the fetid filth.

Trey was vaguely aware that he needed to transform into his werewolf state and get away. But his brain was not functioning properly; it was too addled to do anything but try and halt the tumbling disorientation he was experiencing. He groaned as the demon ground its foot into his cheekbone.

The voice was clear and loud, cutting across the screeching laughter of the demons. ‘That’s enough,’ it said. ‘Let him up.’

There was something about the voice that struck a chord with Trey, but he was unable to work out what it was.

The laughter died away, but the foot stayed firmly planted where it was.

‘Stay out of this,’ the Shadow Demon hissed. ‘This is none of your business. He’s ours.’

‘Actually he’s mine. Now let him up.’

Trey could feel the spinning world begin to slow down. His equilibrium began slowly to return, and he took a deep breath, grimacing at the stink that filled his nostrils. He composed himself, thankful for the respite that he had been afforded by the arrival of the newcomer.

‘And what are you going to do, hmmm?’ snarled the creature with its foot on him. ‘You fancy your chances, do you? Two against one?’

Trey let out the breath he’d been holding and opened one eye, thankful that the world had finally stopped its helter-skelter antics.

The werewolf’s transformation took the demon by surprise. It shouted out in astonishment as the head beneath its foot suddenly and dramatically changed in size. The demon stepped back, its eyes widening as it watched the huge seven-foot werewolf leap to its feet. The lycanthrope shot out a great clawed hand, which encircled the demon’s throat in a vice-like grip, the nether-creature managing a strangled, ‘Glerph!’ as its feet left the floor.

Out of the corner of his eye Trey saw the Shadow Demon move off at incredible speed. He turned his head to see it charging a small creature, no bigger than a child, and was surprised to see the diminutive nether-creature standing its ground, planting its feet and eyeing the onrushing attacker calmly. Trey knew that it was Dreck.

In this world Dreck was small and chubby. Short legs and a pot belly, together with a moon-face, made Trey think of Buddha sculptures he’d seen in oriental gift shops. The large round eyes set in the front of Dreck’s face never wavered as the much larger Shadow Demon crossed the ground towards him. But something was happening to Dreck: he appeared to be holding his breath, concentrating hard and straining, the veins at his temples bulging with the effort. Trey was reminded of a boy at his old school who would do something similar – hold his breath and strain until his face was a livid shade of purple. And sure enough Dreck’s skin was also changing colour; from the dull pumice grey that Trey had first seen, it was turning red – a deep fiery red that made the creature seem to glow.

Shadow Demons move with incredible speed. They are feared throughout the Netherworld as ruthless killers, and very few nether-creatures would choose to go up against one in single combat. This one was almost upon Dreck when the smaller demon opened his mouth and spat a glowing white sphere, about the size of a tennis ball, in its direction. The fireball hit the Shadow Demon and spread across its body like liquid fire. The Shadow Demon screamed as it beat at the conflagration, but only succeeded in spreading the flames until it was a living thing of fire. It fell to the floor, still shrieking and thrashing around, the flames not spreading out to the surrounding ground but remaining on its body.

Eventually the demon’s howls ceased and it lay still.

Dreck walked towards Trey, his skin slowly turning back to a less alarming, dull grey colour. Trey watched the demon approach, unable to believe what he had just witnessed – it had been David and Goliath stuff, and he was filled with a new respect for his guide.

Dreck looked up at Trey and nodded, glancing across at the other demon as he did so. Realizing that he still held his own adversary up in the air by its throat, Trey turned to look at the creature, slowly lowering his arm and releasing his grip.

The demon fell to its knees, clutching at its throat with two hands and sucking in great gulps of air.

The lycanthrope that was Trey Laporte looked around him. In his werewolf form, his senses were far more acute than when he was a human, and he usually relished the wonderful synaesthesia that came with a Change: experiencing smells as layers of colours and shapes that overlaid his wolf vision and built up an incredible picture in his mind’s eye. But the stink of the Netherworld was too much for his heightened olfactory senses. It was a deathly, rotting, putrescent stench that lay upon him like a great black cloud, and he shook his head, fighting the need to gag again. He wondered if his reaction to the smells of this realm would ever abate. If it didn’t, he doubted he would be able to function here.

‘Are you OK?’ Dreck asked.

Trey looked down at his guide, nodding his thanks. He concentrated on a spell that he’d been taught by his sorcerer friend Charles Henstall, forming the ancient words in his head and clearing his mind of everything else except a mental picture of Dreck. When he felt an unpleasant dropping sensation deep within him he knew that the connection had been made.

‘
That was very impressive
,’ Trey said, projecting the words directly into his guide’s head. ‘
Thanks for coming along when you did. I don Ï know what happened back there.’

‘Don’t mention it. Although it was touch and go for a minute. I wasn’t sure that I would be ready in time for that Shadow Demon. They really are very quick.’

‘
What are you?’

‘I’m a level-one incendiary Tok djinn.’ He looked at Trey expectantly. After a moment, he shook his head, clearly not getting the reaction that he was expecting. ‘A Fire Imp?’ He sighed, as if he was in the company of a simpleton. ‘We’re very rare, you know.’

There was a cough behind them, and they turned to see the spiky-headed demon getting gingerly to its feet. It held its hands out in front of it and looked at them imploringly.

‘Please, do not kill me,’ Spike said.

‘Not kill you? Like you were not going to kill my friend here?’ Dreck asked.

The demon mumbled something under its breath and looked at the floor.

‘Speak up!’ Dreck demanded in a loud voice.

‘We were not going to kill him. Our orders are to take all humans back to Molok. Alive.’

‘Oh, I see.’ The Fire Imp shook his head. ‘You were “just obeying orders”.’ He spat on the ground. ‘And what do you suppose Molok would do with the human, hmm? By delivering him to Molok, you were effectively condemning him to death . . . or worse.’

Spike stayed silent.

‘You owe my friend here your life,’ Dreck said, stepping up to the creature and poking it in the stomach. ‘So give it up.’ He stared at the demon, an unfriendly look on his face. ‘Come on – we haven’t got all day.’

‘
What on earth are you asking for?
’ Trey said.

‘His name,’ Dreck said, without turning away from the demon that towered over his tiny frame. ‘His real demon name. He owes you his life. If you have his name, he is forever in your debt and can never harm you.’ He eyed the demon coldly. After a moment he shrugged his shoulders and held his breath, hunching down with the effort as his skin began to change colour once more.

‘All right, all right!’ the demon shouted. It stared at Trey, its lip rising up on one side in a sneer that revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth. It leaned forward so that its mouth was close to the werewolf’s ear and whispered barely audibly, ‘My name is Graglor-An-Shashlok and I owe you a life.’ It stepped back again, its shoulders slumped in a gesture of utter defeat.

‘
How do I know he hasn’t just made that up?
’ Trey said, looking at Dreck.

‘He can’t. If he did he’d be double-doomed. And he, like every other nether-creature, knows it.’ He waved a hand in the air dismissively, ‘It’s all complicated Netherworld stuff; don’t worry your furry head about it.’ He turned and looked at the defeated demon again.

‘We’re going this way,’ he said with a gesture of his thumb over his shoulder. ‘That means
that you
–’ he poked the demon again – ‘are going
that
way.’ He nodded in the opposite direction.

‘That way. Right.’

‘And if we see you again during our travels in this realm, we will assume that you have broken your promise of fealty to my friend here and invoke the first covenant of the Netherworld. We will call upon Helzog and have him collect you. Either that, or my werewolf friend here will simply rip that ugly, spiky head of yours off its shoulders.’

And with that, Dreck turned his back on the demon and walked off.

Trey fell in behind the Fire Imp. Great, he thought to himself. Just what I need as a guide: a demon with a Napoleon complex.

After gathering up the ruined mess of Trey’s clothes, they walked away from the hell-hole, back in the direction that the Fire Imp had first come from. After a short distance Dreck stopped, bending down to retrieve a canvas sack that he’d clearly left there earlier. Fishing around inside the large bag, the demon emerged holding a set of new clothes.

‘I need you to change back into your human form and get dressed,’ the Fire Imp said, tossing the clothing at the werewolf.

The lycanthrope looked down at the garments, raising his head again to stare at the demon.

‘
Are you mad? You want me to change back into my human form? Here? In the Netherworld? You heard what Tom said. He specifically
— ’

‘I know what the human said,’ Dreck said in a loud voice.

Trey didn’t like the way that the Fire Imp had referred to Tom, and it must have shown in his face or body language because Dreck quickly held his hands out. When he spoke again his tone was more deferential. ‘With all due respect, Tom is not your guide here in the Netherworld; I am.’

The lycanthrope remained silent, waiting.

Dreck puffed out his cheeks and regarded the huge beast towering over him. ‘You are unique, Trey. There isn’t another werewolf– a bimorph – like you either here or in the human world. And there’s only one of these in existence,’ he went on, reaching up and pointing to the amulet hanging from the heavy chain around the great beast’s neck. ‘Everyone and everything in the Netherworld knows who wears it. You’re the kid who bit Caliban’s hand off. You’re the kid that walked into Leroth and stole Mynor’s Globe from under the vampire’s nose, right after you’d fought and killed his sorceress, Gwendolin. You’re the kid who, rightly or wrongly –’ the demon held his hands up in front of him – ‘Caliban believes is the biggest threat to whatever sick plans for world domination he might have. There’s a bounty on your head, Trey, and just about every nether– creature we might encounter will be happy to cash you in.’

If that’s the case, then surely I’m safer like this? Better able to defend myself?’

‘Quite the opposite. You’re a walking advertisement of your presence here. You might as well have a neon sign on your head that reads: “Trey Laporte: Caliban’s nemesis. Come and get me.” But if you’re a human, I stand a chance of getting us both to where we need to be. Especially as we are currently inside Molok’s fiefdom.’

‘
How’s that?’

‘Molok’s a collector. Everyone knows about his predilection for human specimens. If I can pass you off as Molok’s latest acquisition that I have been entrusted to deliver, I think we could avoid any tragedies. Molok is one of the Netherworld’s most powerful commanders, and I’m betting on our being able to use that power and authority to our advantage.’

A low growl came from the werewolf as Trey considered this. The Fire Imp looked down at his feet for a moment, and when he looked back up again the werewolf was gone – replaced by the naked figure of a teenage boy who turned his back and quickly pulled on the underwear and jeans that Dreck had given him.

‘I don’t like this.’ Trey pulled the T-shirt over his head. ‘Everything you just said makes sense, but I’m scared out of my wits being in this place like
this
.’ He pointed down at himself. ‘Who knows what might be eyeing us up for supper right now!’ He crouched to retrieve the torn trousers he’d worn coming here, which the Fire Imp had dropped on the ground, and fished around inside one of the pockets. He pulled out the mobile phone and was about to activate the radar function that Tom had demonstrated to him when Dreck reached up and snatched it out of his hand.

‘This is of absolutely no use,’ Dreck said in an offhand way. He shook his head and tutted loudly. ‘Nothing electrical can work in the Netherworld. In fact, very few mechanical things at all work here. This phone is knackered now. It won’t even work back in the human realm any more.’

‘Wait!’ Trey shouted, realizing what his guide was about to do, but already too late to stop him. He watched in horror as the Fire Imp shook his head and tossed the device over his shoulder. It twisted and turned as it sailed through the air in a high arc, before landing on a stony patch of ground, where the hard plastic covering shattered into numerous pieces.

‘No!’ Trey ran over to where it had landed, and his heart sank at the sight of the smashed screen and various broken pieces strewn about. It was ruined.

‘Get another one when you get back,’ Dreck said, turning his back on the teenager and rummaging in the bag again.