by Diem, J. C.
Shaking with rage, Valac tore the blade free and tossed it to his soldier. The lackey fumbled and almost dropped it. “Watch her and advise me when she heals again,” he ordered.
This time, I didn’t have the strength to stand and fell to the floor the moment he released me. Blood seeped from the wounds that covered my face. It leaked out of my mouth because I couldn’t even swallow it down. I didn’t allow myself to fall unconscious this time. Faintly, I could hear voices inside my head pleading to let them fix me.
Everyone left until only two of the soldiers stayed behind to watch me. “What will we do if she does not heal this time?” one of them whispered.
“What choice will we have?” the other replied. “We will have to inform our master.” His tone was profoundly unhappy. Their prince would no doubt take his anger out on them both if I died. He wouldn’t be able to kill them, but he could wound them badly enough that they would be sent back to the first realm. They would become lowly servants and they would have to work their way back up to being soldiers again.
Air wheezed through my broken nose and blood continued to drip from my mouth onto the black flagstones. A sticky pool of it formed beneath my cheek that was pressed against the floor. It was just as black as the volcanic rock that I was lying on.
Eventually, the bleeding began to stop. “I think she is going to make it,” the first soldier said in relief. “We should report this to Prince Valac.”
“I wonder why she is healing so slowly this time?” the second lackey said as he hastened after the other one.
“I do not know and I do not care,” the first soldier said grimly. “I am just glad we have good news to report to our master.”
They left the room and my eyes fluttered shut. Unconsciousness called, but I resisted the lure to fall into the embrace of darkness. I wasn’t sure how much time had passed before I heard the key turn in the lock. My lids struggled open and I blinked at the image before me. A small group of imps had gathered in front of my cell. They looked around fearfully, searching for danger.
“Quickly,” the imp who had unlocked the door whispered as he moved to unlock my shackles. “Grab her and follow me.” His voice was hauntingly similar to Sam’s. He was the same imp who had held my hand earlier.
Swarming forward, his friends picked me up. They were only about the same height and size of an average human, but they were far stronger than they looked. Their leader waited for them to carry me out of the cell before he closed the door and locked it again. He took the lead and headed for the door that was directly across from my cell. Using a different key, he unlocked it and waited for us to pass through before shutting and locking the door again.
Remaining in a state of semi-consciousness, I saw empty cells on both sides of the passageway. We came to an intersection and turned right. I quickly became lost as they rapidly scurried through the labyrinth of hallways. We stopped at what looked like a blank wall and the lead imp pressed a stone to reveal a hidden door.
They carried me into a tunnel made of dirt rather than stone. The imps took me through a series of passageways that I could barely fit through with my new size. We eventually came to another wall made of black stone. A press of another rock had a second hidden door swinging open. The imps carried me through deserted, cobbled streets to a house before placing me gently on the floor. Fabric was wadded up and put beneath my head to act as a cushion. It was scratchy and was probably made of the same sackcloth that they wore.
The leader of the imps crouched beside me and took my hand. “You must live, Hellscourge,” he told me. “You are our only hope at finding redemption.”
Too wounded to reply, I just lay there, hoping I would succumb to my injuries. If I lived, then I’d have to face my loneliness and despair.
₪₪₪
Chapter Twenty-One
A short while later, I heard the prince roar in fury. It echoed through the city to the lower tier where the imps had taken me. I assumed that he’d just discovered that I was missing and that he wasn’t happy about it. The imps flinched in fear when the baying of hellhounds began moments later. They’d been called from the nowhere lands and had been sent out to find me.
Several packs of hellhounds spread out to search the city, howling and barking in joy of the hunt. I listened to their progress as they made their way from the palace down through the lower tiers. We were in the equivalent of what passed for slums in hell. The house where I’d been taken to was small and shabby and had only a few items of furniture. There was nowhere for me to hide and there was no point running from the hounds anyway. The imps weren’t fast enough to outrun them, especially if they were burdened with my bulk.
Drawn by the danger, my hounds materialized inside the already crowded room. Baring their teeth, the beasts growled in warning. Mistakenly thinking I was about to be torn apart, the imps threw themselves on me protectively. “It’s okay,” I croaked painfully. “They’re mine.” It was the first time I’d spoken since I’d been rescued.
“What do you mean?” the lead imp asked timidly.
“They became bound to me after I killed their Prince,” I explained. It hurt to talk and I fell silent again as the imps exchanged glances.
My hounds took up sentry duty near the doors and windows as their rivals drew closer. My alpha began to growl and his hackles rose when a scratching noise came at the door. It stopped and the hellhound outside leaped up to look in through the window near the door. Spying me lying on the floor, its ears went back and it whined. It looked directly at my alpha and they seemed to share a silent communication. Instead of baying in triumph and drawing the demons to my hideout, the hound dropped to the ground and silently slunk away.
“What just happened?” one of the other imps asked in confusion. “Why did it not raise the alarm?”
“I do not know,” the leader responded in a disturbed tone. “It should have reported in to the Prince that it had located its target.”
Sensing that the danger was over for the time being, my hounds settled down on the floor. My alpha lay with his chin resting on my palm. Every now and then, his scarlet eyes shifted to my face.
The search continued for a while then one of the hounds let out a howl. It sounded like it was outside the city. The noise faded as it drew the other dogs after it. Shouts and footsteps sounded as demons followed in their wake.
“The hellhounds are drawing the demons away,” one of the imps said in wonder. “Why would they do that?”
“It is almost as though their loyalty has switched to Hellscourge,” their leader replied. They all watched me, waiting for an explanation.
“I had a dream that I was in the nowhere lands,” I said between pained breaths. My throat was still torn and it hurt to talk. “It was bleak and horrible, so I made a few changes.”
The lead imp frowned in puzzlement. “What do you mean? What changes did you make?”
“I created lights to push back the darkness. I added grass and soil for the hellbeasts to run through. I gave them creatures to hunt for sport and food.”
“How is that possible?” he asked. “The nowhere lands exists between dimensions. How were you able to influence it in a dream?”
“I’m Hellscourge.” It was the only explanation I could give them.
“The hounds are grateful to you,” one of the female imps said. “That is why they did not betray your presence. You took the time to ease their suffering and that is why their loyalty has shifted.”
My alpha gave a small woof of agreement and licked my palm. “He agrees with you,” I said and stroked his chin. “I thought it was all just in my imagination, but I guess it was real after all.”
“You must be the most powerful demon who has ever existed,” the female said in awe.
I gave a croak of laughter then grimaced in pain. “I’m weak without my own essence. I have to borrow the power of the souls that I’ve ingested to do anything magical.”
“Where is your essence?” she asked. “Can
you get it back?”
I shook my head and a tear of sorrow crept out of my eye. “The person who took it won’t tell me where it is. He thinks I’ll become a monster if I get it back.” My words sounded as bitter as I felt.
“Why would he think that?”
“Because I’m a Nephilim.”
She gave me a startled look. “You are the product of a demon having sexual relations with a harvested angel?” she queried. I wasn’t surprised that they knew about the experiment. They were adept at hiding in the shadows and listening in on what should have been private conversations. “If that is true, you are not like the others of your kind,” she added.
“Zachariah is a monster and you are nothing like him,” another added darkly. “The princeling enjoys inflicting pain on the weak and helpless.”
“He’s been here before?” I asked.
“Many times,” their leader replied. “He began visiting this realm a year ago. He would turn up every few months and stay for a few days as he began to transform into his true form.”
He’d probably travelled to the underworld during school vacations. He’d told me his father dragged him away to business meetings. I now knew better. He’d come here to learn how to use his demonic magic. The story he’d told me about visiting his cousins hadn’t been a complete lie. There were other Nephilim and it appeared that he knew some of them. I’d been the first hybrid to be created by the demons, but I clearly hadn’t been the last.
I had a lot of time to think as I lay there and slowly began to heal. Clearly, Fate wasn’t going to let me die as I’d hoped. She’d made sure the imps rescued me and even the prince’s hounds hadn’t turned me in. I still had a job to do even if I no longer had the will to accomplish it.
The gates to hell hadn’t broken open yet, so my mission wasn’t over. I was going to have to kill the final two princes then track their master down. Once I ended his life, maybe then I’d finally be allowed to die.
My hounds whined, as though they sensed where my thoughts were heading. Voices called to me inside my head, but I shut them out. I was so tired of having to shoulder the burden that had been thrust upon me. I longed to give it to someone else, but that wasn’t possible. Apparently, I was the only one who could save the world. Too weary to cry, I merely lay there as my wounds slowly closed.
It took several days before my injuries were completely gone. It would have taken far longer if the prince had been able to penetrate my armor and wreak havoc on my body as well. My hounds visited me periodically, but they didn’t stay for long once it became clear that I was on the mend.
Unable to put it off any longer, I climbed to my feet. My horns scraped on the low ceiling and I had to hunch over slightly. The imps stood as well. Compared to my gigantic size, they were tiny and fragile. They’d stayed with me the entire time, just like my hounds had. “Thank you for helping me,” I said. “I hate to ask, but can someone sneak me inside the palace again? I have a Prince to kill.”
“I will show you the way,” the lead imp said bravely.
“Do you know if there are any imps in the palace?” I asked. He nodded and I turned to his friends. “You’d better spread the word and tell them to leave. The palace is going to become a very dangerous place to be inside shortly.”
“Give us an hour,” one of the females said. “We will tell our brethren to evacuate from the building.”
They scurried out of the house, leaving me with their leader and my hounds. “What’s your name?” I asked my guide.
He looked startled that I’d asked then frowned as he searched through his memories. “I have been here for a very long time,” he said mournfully. “I cannot remember what I was called before I was taken by my master.”
That saddened me and I couldn’t keep thinking of him as just the leader of the imps. “I’m going to call you Max.”
A pleased smile transformed his face from hideous to merely ugly. “Max? I like it.”
Just having a name again had given him back some of the dignity that he’d lost long ago. He stood straighter and his narrow shoulders became squared. His sense of time was far better than mine and he eventually spoke. “It is time, Hellscourge. I will show you the way back to the palace now.”
“I want to make one stop before we head to the throne room,” I said and smiled grimly at his curious expression. I was pretty sure my mind hadn’t been playing tricks on me when I’d been carried inside the dungeon in the magical cage. If what I’d seen was real, then I hoped the idea that I’d come up with wouldn’t backfire on me horribly.
₪₪₪
Chapter Twenty-Two
Before leaving the house, I pulled my hood up to cover my hair. I couldn’t do anything to disguise my bulk, but I hunched over to try to make myself look smaller. Max checked that the way was clear then led me through deserted streets back to the hidden door. He pressed a stone that was slightly raised and the door swung open. I hurried inside and he entered after me. He pressed another stone to make the door close behind us.
It was lightless in the tunnel, but our night vision quickly kicked in. I hadn’t told Max my plan. He’d run screaming if he knew what I intended to do. I’d told Valac that I would kill every demon in the palace if I had to and I meant it. To do that, I would need some help.
Right on cue, my hounds appeared again. They didn’t need to use doors like we did. They could slip between locations using the nowhere lands. My alpha ranged ahead, following our scent from a few days ago, as well as the footprints we’d left in the dirt.
When we finally reached the door that led to the cells, we waited for my alpha to check for danger. He returned after a few minutes. His tongue lolled out of his mouth to indicate that the way was clear. I gave him a pat and he leaned against my leg. He’d become quite affectionate, for a hellbeast. The rest of the pack sent him envious stares. With a mental sigh, I gave them all a pat so they didn’t feel left out.
Far larger than normal dogs, they vaguely resembled Rottweilers. Their coats were an unnatural shade of inky black and they almost seemed to be made of shadow. Their eyes were crimson and they had far too many teeth. They were far from cute, yet they were the closest things I’d ever had to pets and I’d grown to care about them.
Max waited patiently for me to appease the hounds then pressed the stone to open the hidden door. We emerged onto the black flagstones that would lead us to the main area of the dungeon. We crept along the labyrinth of hallways until we reached the locked door that barred our way.
“Where did you get the keys from?” I spoke in a whisper just in case some guards had arrived after my hound finished scouting the place.
“I stole them from Prince Valac,” Max replied.
My mouth dropped open at his audacity and bravery. “How the hell did you manage to take it from him without him noticing?”
He grinned and his teeth were very white against his dark face. “I was a thief before I was taken to hell. I have honed my skills during my time here.” He reached inside his loincloth where he must have added a pocket. He drew out an item and handed it over. It was my crimson bracelet.
“You little sneak!” I said in admiration and slid it back over my wrist. It was almost completely covered in the strange symbols now. Only a small space remained and I still didn’t know what the images were. He must have used some sort of magic to remove it without my knowledge. Now that it wasn’t hidden beneath my armor, the bright red stone stood out starkly against the black metal.
“I was not going to keep it,” he assured me. “I merely wanted to demonstrate that I am not completely useless.”
“I know you’re not. Sam felt the same way and he was far from it.” I swallowed down the sorrow that tried to overwhelm me.
“I know I will never replace your friend,” Max said softly. “Just know that we imps are behind you. We believe in you and we will do everything we can to help you take down the remaining leaders of the nine realms.”
“You’ve already hel
ped me a lot. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”
He ducked his head shyly then unlocked the door and pushed it open. He moved aside to let me enter first. My dagger was back in New York and I’d have to find another weapon to use. Until then, I had a mad plan that might help whittle down my enemies.
Max headed for the door that would lead us to the palace, but I shook my head. “There’s a prisoner I want to see before we go any further.” I turned to the door that I’d been carried through while I’d been encased in Zach’s magical cage. Max unlocked the door and I took the lead.
Halfway along the hallway, I stopped at one of the cells and peered through the bars at the creature that was held inside. Max sucked in a breath and backed away until he hit the cell behind us. My glimpse of multiple spindly legs hadn’t just been my imagination. They supported a huge, bulky body that was protected by a thick black shell.
“That is a crab beetle,” Max said in a terrified whisper.
The creature’s many eyes shifted to the imp then came back to me. Both of its large claws had been chained to the ceiling above its head. The floor of the cell was made of dirt. I could see the splatter marks where it had spat acid. It couldn’t swivel its head back to use acid to break the chains. About eight feet long and five feet wide, it was smaller than the beetle I’d conjured up in the arena. I had a feeling it was a juvenile, or possibly a female.
Staring at the crab beetle, I hoped it was as intelligent as Morax had told me. “Do you understand me?” I asked.
Twin mandibles beside its mouth twitched and all eight of its eyes were riveted on me. Several of its legs moved restlessly.
“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” I said. “I’m going to kill the demons who captured us both and I need your help.”
The beetle’s mandibles moved again and it clicked its claws eagerly. It let out a quiet squeal of anticipation.
