by Emma Shade
*****
“Swing with your body, not your arms, Mara!”
Coren barked instructions at me while we practiced swordsmanship on the roof of my apartment complex. The cool November air didn’t keep the sweat from dripping down my back as I attempted to engage him in combat once again.
I thought I had plenty of skill with my sword, but Coren made me feel inadequate. He feigned to the right and expertly blocked my practiced swordsmanship with his own. Thankfully we had chosen practice swords instead of our real ones because I’d be bleeding out on top of my own apartment building. My lungs heaved from exertion and I had a few new bruises to add to my collection.
He said, “You need to be faster and more agile than that.”
With a frustrated scream, I came at him again. Whack, whack. The wooden swords clacked against each other as he reflected each one of my strikes. He wasn’t even breaking a sweat, the bastard. His fake blade caught my thigh and I grunted in pain.
“If you’re going to be fighting higher demons, you need to learn how to move with your sword as though it were a part of your body,” he growled and came at me with a ferocity of blows with inhuman speed.
I deflected, rotated, and then cried out as he caught my ribcage with the wooden sword. I averted his next attempt, my arms shaking as I held my weapon up to block his own. My teeth gritted as I used all my strength to keep him from overpowering me.
“You give up, yet?” he asked, his mouth curved with a mocking smile.
“Never!” I yelled and then twisted on my toes to swing the blade into an arch.
This time, I caught Coren on his shoulder and he stumbled back. A mischievous smile lit his face. I’d say he was enjoying the sparring more than he should. Gesturing with his fingers, be beckoned me to attack again. I charged with a guttural scream, our swords smacking together with a click.
“If I had my real sword, you’d be in serious trouble.”
“If you say so.” His laughter fueled my rage.
We fought each other, and I felt more confident, but fatigue crept over my body. We practiced over and over again until I could barely catch my breath. When I tripped over my feet and fell on my ass, I collapsed in utter exhaustion.
Coren reached down to help pull me to my feet. “You’re a fighter, I’ll give you that. We still have a long way to go.”
“Where did you learn all this sword crap?”
“I learned a very long time ago and had an even longer time to train.”
I pursed my lips. “That’s not really the answer I was looking for.”
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Well, you don’t have to know everything about me.”
“And the same goes for you, too.”
With a chuckle, Coren opened the metal door that led us off the roof. He gestured for me to go first, locked the door behind him, and then we filed down the spiraling stairs until we reached the hallway.
Raven leaned against my door and straightened when she saw us. Her eyes raked over me as her nose wrinkled. “Training?”
“What gave it away? This?” I said as I held up the wooden sword. “Or maybe the sweaty, disgusting mess I’m in?”
“A little of both, but I’ve been waiting for you two. I have some intel.”
“Intel?” I questioned, my eyebrows lifting.
“Inside, not here,” she mumbled and waited on me to unlock my apartment.
My hands shook as I inserted the key and opened the door. Damn, my fingers and hands ached from our lesson. The apartment door shut behind us after everyone was inside. I desperately longed for a shower, but I turned and waited for Raven to fill us in.
“Apparently, Lucifer does want to see you fail, but not for the reasons you may think. I assumed he wanted your soul, but there’s more. My father and I can’t put our finger on. Do you know if there’s anything Satan may want?”
My mind instantly went to the shadowy figures I’d seen since I signed the contract, and how the last one looked at me. Did it know something I didn’t?
Being the stubborn and private person I was, I shook my head. The lie slipped out so easily. “No, I can’t think of anything.”
I didn’t know why I didn’t tell Raven. I should’ve told her everything. That was what friends were for, but I held back. I always held back when I shouldn’t, and I trusted Raven to keep me alive.
The room went quiet for a few minutes while I considered what could make Satan go to these lengths for a human. If he wanted souls, he had plenty to choose from. If I knew a way to stop him, I’d do it in a heartbeat. If the Devil got a hold of my soul, there was no telling what he’d do to me.
CHAPTER 15
Don’t chase your demons. Run from them.
Raven darted between buildings as I chased her.
Her inhuman speed was the stuff of legends, and she could sneak up behind you while you thought she was ahead of you. That was a reaper for you. Luckily, for me, her touch didn’t mean death, but for other humans, it sure did. Even knowing she’d never guide my soul across the veil of Heaven and Hell, she still scared the crap out of me from time to time. Like now.
She sprung up in front of me, ten feet tall and screeching like a ghoul. Her beautiful face was now a cracked white skull and behind the empty eye sockets shone red orbs. This was what people feared. This was the fabled Reaper in all its glory. That thing staring down at me with a terrifying face was my best friend.
I closed my eyes as she leaned down near my face. Her frigid breath flittered across my cheek, and as she spoke, I shivered.
“You should know better than fall for my tricks,” she stated with a deep voice that echoed. “You’d be dead already if it were anyone else.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t tell me you’d turn into that. You know it creeps me out, Raven.”
“And demons who morph into their true form don’t?”
“No, because they aren’t my best friend. You are.”
Raven muttered, “I’m sorry.”
Popping my eyes back open, I let out a sigh once I saw she’d returned to her normal appearance. “I know you and Coren are both preparing me for whatever’s coming. I shouldn’t have frozen whether it was you or not. It won’t happen again.”
“Good, because the Devil’s coming for you. He’ll send his little goons first and will send bigger, badder demons every time. If that doesn’t work, he’s going to try to drag you to Hell himself.” She blinked away tears. “I can’t lose you.”
I nodded. Although she had her second home in Hell, I had a feeling if my boss got his way, I’d never see her, her father, or Coren again. As a tear spilled down her cheek, I looked away. Emotions made you weak, right? Yet, here was one of the strongest women I knew falling apart because she was afraid of losing me.
My mother’s words reverberated through my mind. “Quit crying, you sniveling little girl. Emotions are a flaw of nature. They’ll only make you weak while the world tears you limb from limb. Don’t ever show anyone weakness, you hear me?”
If she had only known how those words, and others she’d spoken to me as a child, would serve me well as a demon hunter. Now, I had caused my friend’s tears. Not directly, no, but a reaper was crying for me.
“Do you want a, uh, hug or something?” I asked with my face warped in indecision.
“That would be nice,” she cried and then slung her arms around me.
I wrapped mine around her awkwardly and patted her back. As I finally relaxed, something sharp nailed my shoulder. I gasped in surprise at another one of Raven’s lessons. Had she poked me with one of her nails on accident? Did her scythe stab me?
Raven pulled back, her eyebrows knitted in concern. “Are you okay?”
I became woozy. My mind went fuzzy as I tried to concentrate on Raven in front of me but her figure blurred. I stumbled on unsteady feet.
“What is going on?” Raven questioned, her voice going in and out.
“My...m...my...sh...shoul...der.”
She spun me around
to inspect my back and I began to fall forward, but she caught me. My skin tingled as she yanked something from my skin.
“Son of a bitch!”
“What...” I attempted to speak, but my hazy mind wouldn’t work right.
Blinking to try to stay conscious, my vision started to tunnel. I barely felt the world splinter as she faded with me.
*****
Confusion thrummed through me when I woke on the dingy couch from my childhood.
The light from the blaring TV flickered throughout the room. The smell of stale cigarette smoke filtered through my nose. The sounds of a pot rattled in the kitchen. I sat up and rubbed a hand across my face, but the hand was too small to be mine. Squinting down at myself, I saw knobby, skinned-up knees and dirty bare feet. Pink, frilly shorts covered my thighs, and I was wearing my favorite yellow SpongeBob shirt.
I was six years old again. Holy shit.
“Mara! Get your ass in here!” my mother called out and I jumped in surprise.
I hadn’t heard her voice in ages, and hearing it now caused both anger and fear. That woman had changed my entire existence because of her selfishness. Removing myself from the couch, I headed into the kitchen to see her making dinner with a cigarette hanging from her mouth. The long ash hung precariously from the lit paper and I glanced down at the casserole she’d prepared, expecting to see ashes in it.
“Are you going to help me, girl, or are you going to just stand there like an invalid?”
For the first time in my entire life, I saw my mother through adult eyes. She wore dirty, ripped jeans and a halter-top that showed too much skin. Her body was skinny, sickly so, and her bloodshot eyes stared at me with hatred. Her pupils were too big to simply be drunk. My attention swung to the pill bottle sitting on the counter, and things clicked. This woman was not only an alcoholic, but addicted to pills, too. That still didn’t make up for all the bad she had done to me. I still hated her with every fiber of my being.
Cocking my hip out the best a six-year-old could, I lifted my eyebrow at her. My voice was childlike to my own ears. “Looks like you’re the worthless one, Mother. How many pills did you take today?”
Angry bloodshot eyes narrowed. “What did you say to me?”
“You can’t control me anymore. You’re nothing to me.”
Pain slashed across my chin as she slapped me, pitching my small body to the filthy kitchen floor. Looming over me, she took the opening to kick my stomach. I tried to stand through the hurt, but my young body wasn’t conditioned like my adult one. Still, my mind was still me and I knew better than to cower from her. That wasn’t who I was anymore.
“Is that the best you can do?” I gritted out.
She leaned down close to me, the cigarette still hanging from her lips. The smoke curled up her face and one of her eyes was squinted because of it. She removed the cigarette and let the ashes fall next to me. “Keep pushing me. I brought you into this world, and I’ll show you how much pain that’s caused me.”
“Fuck you,” I said and spit at her.
With one hand, she shoved me back down and held me there. She sat on me, pinning my arms with her knees. I bucked and kicked to no avail. After taking a big hit of her cigarette, she blew the smoke in my face as she lowered the smoking ember. I felt the heat from the lit cigarette a moment before she put it out on my cheek. I refused to cry out from the pain, so I bit my tongue so hard I tasted blood. I kept my eyes on hers the entire time. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as my skin extinguished her smoke.
My mother ground the cigarette against the raw skin, attempting to get a reaction out of me. I clenched my teeth to keep silent, swallowing back the blood from biting my tongue.
Pulling another smoke from behind her ear, she lit a second one. “Are you going to be a good girl, now? Or do I have to show you again what happens to bad girls?” My mother puffed the putrid smoke in my face.
“Hate to tell you, Mother, but I’m already a bad girl. And it’s all because of you.”
Another slap jerked my head to the side, but I glared up at her again. With a shake of her head, she took a drag to make sure it was nice and hot. This time my neck was used to put out the cigarette. A scream escaped as my neck burned. She threw the butt to the side and grinned.
The grin gave it away.
Her lips edged out too far, her cheeks wrinkling near her cheekbones. This wasn’t my mother. This was a demon. And I was trapped in some sort of hallucination with it. This hallucination sure felt real as the monstrosity posing as my mother began to inflict pain.
I waded through my memories of Raven’s teachings of demonology, but nothing came to mind. I hated myself for not paying attention.
“What are you?” I demanded.
“I’m your mother, you stupid little bitch,” it hissed.
“No, you’re not. Even though you’re just as sadistic, I know you’re demon scum. I demand you to give me your name.”
The beast lifted my head a little and then slammed it against the cracked tile. “Never.”
I grunted in pain. “So why create this vision? Why not let me be normal so I can fight fair?”
“Because, Mara, this is your reality in Hell.”
I laughed. “I doubt it, asshole. I’ll kill you first.”
If I guessed correctly, this demon had pulled my childhood memories with amazing accuracy. I looked around for some sort of weapon. There, under the fridge, was a long-forgotten, rusty steak knife.
“Kill me?” The beast lifted its head back as it cackled, which gave me enough of an advantage to pull an arm free. “You can’t kill me.”
My childlike fingers struggled for the knife, barely reaching the handle, but it was enough to move it close enough to grab.
“No,” I said as I lifted the knife, “but I can maim you.”
I lowered the blade and stabbed its eye. The being screeched and scrambled away, the knife moving with its eye. My mother’s body splintered apart, the skin shedding off like a snake. In her place stood a spiny demon with black speckles along its orange, scaly skin. With a wide mouth, the beast attempted to pull the knife out with its long, orange tongue, and then finally succeeded with a yank of square-shaped fingers.
Inimicus.
The name suddenly popped in my head. The sting on my shoulder made sense. This demon had a venomous, barbed weapon which caused realistic visions. So realistic that you could be trapped in them forever, or die from wounds afflicted in them. Shit.
“Come on, Raven,” I breathed and then lifted up my tiny, child feet to kick the demon while he was distracted.
The demon slid across the floor, slamming into the cheap, wooden cabinets with a thud. Letting out a horrendous screech, it slithered out its tongue like a snake and watched me with its one remaining blacked-out eye.
“Tsk, tsk. That’ll cost you. An eye for an eye, they say.”
The vision twisted into my apartment with such accuracy I wondered if the demon had transported me. The scaly beast stood next to me and let out a low chuckle.
“Welcome to Hell.”
As he disappeared with a swirl of smoke, I jumped in surprise. This didn’t look like Hell, this looked like home.
Coren walked through the front door and gasped. Dropping a bag he held, he darted forward and wrapped me in his arms. “God, Mara. You scared the daylights out of Raven and me. We couldn’t figure out how to wake you up.”
“Honestly, I’m not sure if I’m awake now.” I pulled away from his arms and shrugged. “You could be an illusion.”
Laughing, Coren shook his head. “I’m no illusion. Trust me.” He wrapped an arm over my shoulder and led me toward my bedroom. “You must be exhausted. Why don’t you sleep while I take care of you?”
I frowned, but I was tired after my ordeal with my fake mother. Why wasn’t Raven here? Suspicious, I nodded and let him open the door and help me into the bed. He kissed my forehead, which was so out of character I blinked in surprise.
I o
pened my mouth to tell whoever this was to fuck off, but Coren’s mouth crashed against mine and our teeth clashed. I yanked my head away from his mouth. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What you’ve always wanted me to do,” he replied, his focus on my face.
Without warning, his arms pinned mine against the bed and his legs maneuvered to keep me still. I fought. Hard. But his strength overpowered me. When I heard the telltale sign of a zipper and felt my pants rip with his fingers, my eyes widened. My shirt was torn next and our skin met, but his chest was too hot to be the real Coren. Fight-or-flight kicked in, and I wasn’t a flight type of person.
Because the demon had yet again given me a precise illusion, my sword sat on my nightstand. The blade gleamed in the light. Another weapon within easy reach.
“Why don’t you let me have an arm free so I can at least help you out?” I purred, my voice sweet an innocent.
Coren’s head tilted as he thought about it. Finally, he nodded and allowed my right arm free. I ran my hand through his hair as he leaned down to kiss my neck. I wanted to vomit at a demon touching me this way. My hand followed along his shoulder, then down his arm, and finally on my sword. The handle hummed as I wrapped my fingers around it, the blade begging for demon blood.
I grinned. “Do you know what I think?”
“What, baby?” He lifted his upper body from mine, just enough for a desperate attempt of freeing myself.
I grinned. “Go fuck yourself, asshole.”
With surprise on my side, I shoved him off me and swung the sword. The blade slid through his neck with a sickening crunch. Coren’s head rolled to the side.
My heart lurched, a surprising reaction that I’d contemplate later. Until the body transformed back into the Inimicus without a head, I stared at Coren’s body in a teary-eyed stupor.
When a bright light hit my eyes, I screamed. This time, I knew I was back when I woke inside Death’s apartment in the real Hell. I had killed an Inimicus demon in one of its fabled delusions. A feat, according to Raven in her past lessons, that was nearly impossible. Yep, I had just awesomed all over the damn place.
