by Rena Marks
“I don’t want your protection, Ace. I want your love. I want you to love me as much as I love you.”
Whether he tugged or not didn’t matter. Somehow she ended up in his arms. A false sense of security engulfed her senses like she was forever safe. But this time she knew differently.
“You’re finally all mine and now I have to leave you,” he whispered. “I do love you.”
“I love you back, Ace.”
“Be good, Holly. I want you to be happy. If some other demon makes you happy, go for it.”
She pulled away from him, appalled. “No one can replace you…” He covered her lips with his fingers.
“Keep an open mind. Luciefyiore’s a vicious place. I want you safe, and if you have to pretend to love someone else for protection, so be it.”
But she knew she could never be able to. And she knew what else she had to do.
“I want you to know I love you. I’ll always love you. But I can’t be here and watch them drag you away to be de-horned. I have to leave now.”
She could swear he looked disappointed before he wiped his face clean and nodded. “I wouldn’t want you to watch. Go now.”
She leaned toward him, pressing her lips to his, horribly guilty for having to disappoint him. They stayed locked together for long seconds before she pulled away, because she needed every last second before his sentencing.
She left his room, but instead of heading back to the main conference room where Jere and Natalya waited, she fled down the back steps.
“There is something I can do, my love,” she whispered to the silence of the stairwell.
Because all around her, the wave of lust wasn’t finished. She had sped the wave in the room she and Ace occupied.
No one would be able to intercept her when Ace realized she’d been gone and no one was responding to him.
That was when Ace understood. The rest of the castle was caught in her wave of lust and Holly had planned it that way.
She’d escaped the castle with no one to watch.
* * * * *
Outside it was nighttime in Luciefyiore. But Holly was determined. Not even the changing of scenery was going to deter her from her plan.
She would try to find the area where Ace had first brought her into Luciefyiore. She didn’t know exactly where she entered, being out cold at the time, but surely she could find the general vicinity. It was a deeply wooded area, which meant west. Away from town.
She hurried down the walkpath, ignoring the trees that followed behind her like swaying, clumsy creatures. How long ago it seemed when a walking tree had startled her so. And when Ace had thought she was crazy. But the fear wasn’t present now. Of course, there wasn’t as much dark as normal. The sky seemed strangely lit for nighttime. She could clearly see the ground.
Soon she should reach the fork in the path, one of which led to town and the other to Ace’s house. The third option should lead her to the woods.
The full moon shone like it was lit from inside, a hundred-watt bulb turned on when on good days it was only a sixty. It burned so brightly there was a rim of light that encircled it. Clouds raced across it, swaying like blobs of black ink.
She stopped to stare at it.
That was how she’d do it. How she’d save Ace. The full moon. Somehow.
That was the connection. The moon to the crazies. The crazies to the demon lord. He had enough power to keep Ace safe.
She moved off the path and into the wandering trees.
How to contact? How does it work? Should she concentrate? Should she…
“Where are you, child?”
The voice carried lightly, a tingling whisper in the wind. Enishka’s voice, as placating and modulated now as it was when he spoke to the Fairy Queen. Apparently he pretended to be a docile benefactor in order to manipulate.
A shiver ran through her. The insane were the highest danger, with their lack of morals and consequences. Holly gave herself some inner encouragement. Don’t let him know what you want. Let him assume he’s in control.
Holly whispered back, as if she didn’t care whether or not he heard. “I’m going home. To Earth, where I belong. I just have to find the portal to where it is.”
That ought to satisfy him, make him believe she was an idiot female who would leave herself defenseless and at his mercy.
“Easy enough to find, if you know where to look. Or you can come visit me, here…on the moon.”
“What for?”
“Just a little conversation. You’re not happy in Luciefyiore. Yet you cannot find your way to Earth by yourself. We can strike a deal. Your choice, sweet one.”
“How do I get to you?”
“Let the insane one have you. Just walk through the gate.”
What gate? She looked around and saw a shimmery spot wavering about waist-height.
Where had the gate come from? She was sure it wasn’t there a minute ago. It had to be a portal. Next to it stood the man, the insane one he spoke of, standing right before her as she’d been mesmerized by the glow of the moon. A lunatic, his straitjacket hanging from his body. He grinned at her evilly.
Fear made her clench her fists. Hell no.
“Don’t fight him,” the voice warned. “Go with him. It’s your choice. No one can make it for you.”
But whatever was left of the lunatic’s soul was foul. The acrid stench hit her nostrils before he could get close enough to touch her. She spun on one heel, determined to flee, but caught her breath.
There were more. Many more.
Her feet were frozen in place before their icy fingers reached out, clasping her around the arms.
Now she was scared. She screamed as loud as she could, but still they clutched, grabbing and pinching painfully.
Terror gripped her heart and still she screamed, then watched the eyes of one crazy widen frantically as he looked around at the other psychos as if to see if anyone else was in pain. She continued to yell, one long, high-pitched wail, barely aware of the psycho’s eyeballs bulging.
In slow motion they burst, bloody clots of stringy material exploding onto everyone around him.
It was the last thing she remembered…other than being pulled into the gate of the portal.
Chapter Eight
Repeated Violations
This was like the last time she woke up on the moon. Dressed in clothing that wasn’t hers and knocked unconscious on the rock-and-dust-embedded surface.
But instead of a black lace wedding gown, she wore the opposite. White, a thin gauzy material that formed a loose-fitting dress wrapped entirely around her.
The lunatics were still there. They chanted, perfectly synced, thirteen of them marching a blind circle around her.
Each one missing his eyeballs.
Their eyes were bloody holes in their faces, strings of clotted tissue hanging down over gaunt cheekbones.
Her stomach clenched, threatening to unload the contents within it. No one seemed to notice the injuries as they went about their business.
Suddenly a lunatic missed a step and went down. The circle continued, a heavy foot landing on his neck, crunching bone as the others continued to march over the fallen man.
Tiny little running demons skittered across, pulling the body out of the path of the marching circle. The small demons were human shaped but had rough, scaly skin, remarkably like lizards. They ran on all fours instead of standing upright on their legs.
And Enishka looked different, as if he had changed shape. Even so, he was one ugly demon. His head was too small for his body and egg shaped, the pointy end on top. The base of his skull had rolls of fat, like a package of hot dogs. His face was the same, round and fat, with a small hole of a mouth and flat, thin lips shaped into a perpetual smirk. His jowls hung heavy, making the top of his head look even more small and pointed.
But the bottom of his body was skeletal, with a huge, protruding potbelly. His feet were elongated, as if he wore flippers, or swim fins. But it was the toes tha
t were twice the length of the foot, together the two were at least half the length of his legs.
His smirk widened into a grin when he saw she’d awakened.
“My lovely. It’s your wedding night. Ooh la la.”
Enishka raised his arms, striking up wind. The white gauze of her gown whipped back and forth, slapping her legs.
Holly was frozen, paralyzed in her stasis.
She couldn’t move. Every muscle was heavy, uncontrolled as if her brain was disconnected from the nerves.
Enishka howled, the sound whipping through the air in piercing shrieks. “She’s contaminated! Deflowered! Who has done this? She was mine, dammit, mine!”
A lizard demon ran across, running up Enishka’s foot, up his leg, alongside his bony body until it perched on his shoulder to whisper loudly in his ear.
“She married the demon, remember? Your possession? You own his soul from long ago?” The lizard’s voice was high pitched, as screeching as fingernails on a chalkboard.
Enishka nodded thoughtfully, as if he’d forgotten.
“Holly, my dolly. Come to me.” His voice mimicked the lizard’s, the pitch high like a teenaged girl.
Her feet weren’t her own to control. They moved according to his whims, propelling her forward. Dread dropped her stomach. Still she walked, like a puppet controlled by his string.
When she neared, the eye facing her widened and the side of his tiny hole of a mouth opened in glee. “I have something to show you!”
He suddenly bent at the waist, flinging the tiny demon from his shoulder. Rummaging under his stone “throne”, he came up with a small velvet chest.
He opened the lid, and a glow filled the air. A glow the color of sea foam…like that of Ace’s horns.
Enishka slammed the chest shut, giggling heartily. “It’s a soul!” he laughed. “Mine, mine, all mine! I have you to thank, stupid girl. But he can never get it back, because it was wrenched from him. Great pain and suffering, I tell you. I almost admire him for it.”
It took her several seconds to get up the nerve to talk to him. “Why do you keep it if he can never get it back?”
Enishka tilted his head, staring at her for long minutes. He tunneled off into space, losing track of time, before he snapped back to the present. “He can never reabsorb his soul, but someone else might steal it from me. And it hurts, hurts sooo, to touch a soul. Burns like a thousand deaths by being dipped in acid.” He eyed the lizardy demon still at his feet where he’d been flung earlier.
The demon warily began to back away.
Too late.
Enishka stomped out, smashing the lizard to smithereens. Small bits of goo exploded everywhere from beneath his abnormally long, bony foot.
“Tricky bastards,” Enishka muttered. “Thieves! Robbers! Steeeealers!”
Suddenly he turned, his movements jerky. “Must hide it! Must hide my prized possession! Someone will steal…someone will steal…”
The insane demon continued to mutter, placing the box back under his chair. While he was down on the ground, he began to claw at the rock. “Bury it, bury it,” he chanted.
He’d forgotten about her.
Cautiously Holly stepped backward, her movements steady and slow and balanced, as if she walked a tightrope. Quietly she slid from his line of vision, where he continued to dig and chatter.
Every now and then he’d suddenly yell out, screaming that the bastards dared to steal. Then, that the bitches dared to violate him. Him. The highest ranking being in the demon realm. They’d rearranged his face and he couldn’t even focus his lasers any longer.
“The Punisher.The Huntress. Hated each other. I made sure. How dare they pair up against me? One was my wife, damn her to hell! One was runner up…”
Keara and Natalya. He spoke of Keara and Natalya, Holly thought wearily.
“Oh, ow! I broke a nail!” He screeched at the top of his lungs. “But…who needs a wifey? I don’t. I have a Holly. She doesn’t need to marry me, ’cause she married Ace. And Ace is mine. So now…what’s his is mine and what’s hers is mine and what’s mine is mine. I can sleep with the woman and make lots of demonic babies! Yes, yes I can. It’s legal, ’cause she belongs to me as surely as she said I do to him. Just gotta get her to pucker up the power… Hee heee heeee.”
That was the wacko’s plan? To sleep with her and continue breeding? No way. There was no possible way her power could be triggered by kissing that disgusting freak.
Holly had tried to wander from his camp. But the razor-sharp teeth of the lizard demons had snapped at her feet whenever she got too far away.
She rested her head on a rock pillow, as far from the idiot as she dared. The bellows became wearying to her now, whereas once they might have scared her. The lizards had wandered off and were now feasting on the human who had been crushed in the circle stampede.
“Woman! I want you here,” called out the Demon Lord.
“So?” Holly kept neutral.
His voice turned still. Seconds passed. “You love your Earth so much you feel human instead of demon. You completely ignore your demon genes, or you would be more respectful toward me. You would understand I’m the supreme being of all demons.”
“I am not demon.”
“On the contrary, love. You even married one. The unconscious green-horned guy? Remember him?”
“If I were a demon, why would a married woman breed with someone other than her husband?”
“Your customs are no longer along the human lines. They are the demon ways. If your husband cannot impregnate you—which yours can’t, by the way, with that whole long-distance relationship thing of living on two different realms—then you are allowed to breed elsewhere. Why, your marriage hasn’t even been consummated, because tonight is your wedding night! Of course, it must be your choice. That’s the way of the world in Luciefyiore. The female gets to choose. The male just takes her other choices from her.”
“You knew Ace would be banished to Earth for marrying! You tricked me! And I will never make the choice to breed with someone other than my husband.”
There was silence while Enishka clicked his clawed toes. Picking up a bundle of straws shaped like a broom, he began to brush away the sand on his feet to clean them. But the sand mixed with the blood from the squashed lizard made a gelatinous mud. Still he brushed at it as if spots were disappearing.
Finally he stopped. Holding up the broom, he fingered it thoughtfully.
“Do you know what they did to the witches on your precious Earth? They tested them. To see if they were human. They dipped your head in water until you either confessed to practicing the witchcraft they accused you of, or you drowned, proving your humanity in the end.” He laughed uproariously. “Funniest thing was…the witch hunters were actually on to something. It wasn’t real witches they sought, but a little unforeseen problem with the demon eggs I’d hidden in your realm. Those demons in your dimension had too much strength and extra senses—powers that the humans did not. They thought them witches and killed them off.”
“Then there are no more demons on Earth?”
“Not full-blooded. But many of those demons spawned before they died, impregnating human females. That is where you came from, my child.”
“But I wasn’t hatched! I was born.”
Enishka looked bored as he studied his clawed nails. “Maybe. But you ripped your mother’s uterus from her womb, did you not?” He clapped his hands together, the nails clacking noisily. “Bravo! True demon spawn you are! How many humans can do that?”
Holly felt sick. Her mother never had any other children.
“I’m not demon.”
“Denial gets you nowhere. But see, you have a remarkable power. A power I can obtain should you become the mother of my children. Now that you’re a married woman, breeding with the demon lord is not out of the question.”
“Forget it.”
“Ahh, but my dear. Should you want the alternative? The earthling custom of witchcraft testin
g?”
A shiver ran down her spine, but instinct told her to stay mute. To not rile him.
“Then you give me no choice.”
Enishka stood, clawed feet clinking on the rock ground. The small, lizardlike demons rushed awkwardly, their skeletal legs twice the length of their bodies. They scuttled over the surface of the moon at warp speed to reach her, appearing at her side almost instantly.
She opened her mouth on a startled scream, but their slimy fingers were already reaching for her wrists and ankles, lifting her, raising her to scant inches from the ground to race along horizontally to a shallow well of water in the center of Enishka’s platform.
Her scream let loose, long and loud and fearful.
“Motherfu—” Enishka shrieked in pain, slapping his head with his palms.
The wail was silenced when her head was plunged into the water.
“Keep her immersssed,” Enishka hissed. He pulled his hands from his ears, glancing angrily at the blood spattered on his palms. He wiped his palms across his abdomen and slowly waited.
One by one, the demonic creatures holding on to Holly began to look his direction, waiting for his instruction to lift her.
The seconds ticked.
Lizard necks began to twist back and forth, panicking at the lack of command, knowing something had to happen before the fragile human died.
The bubbles that had been breaking the surface of the water began to slow.
The lizards were twitching frantically, glancing alternately at each other and the dark master.
Surely they would all be punished for killing a human.
Taking an annoyed sigh, Enishka flicked his pointer finger upward, signaling her head to be raised.
When the lizards released her, she inhaled an enormous gob of air and immediately choked and coughed water from her lungs. The demons standing around the pool flinched at the gagging noises.
When her breathing began to normalize finally, Enishka gave the signal again.
She was re-dunked.
Time seemed to stop along with the lack of sound as she was submerged in the water. Almost as if she immediately entered another reality. Her hair floated in the pool around her, weightless and silky. But there, in the bottom of the well, when she lost her breath again…she began to see.
