The Demon Behind Me

by Christopher Nelson

  Every demon enjoys flinging hellfire around. We took turns blasting through the surface crust, then thick ice lying beneath. After a few minutes of effort, it seemed like half the ice we vaporized was just freezing and snowing back down into the hole. Boomy came up with a slightly different angle of attack, having some fling concentrated hellfire down into a smaller area while the rest heated up a larger area. The concentration of heat dissipated quickly, but it was enough to keep the center of the hole above freezing long enough to continue the dig. I sent one of our troops to let the other Houses know of our idea.

  The digging took longer than anticipated, closer to an hour than just the few minutes we had anticipated. By the time we hit the structure of the base, most of my troops were tired. Boomy was down in the bottom of the hole while a couple other demons worked on widening the shaft. I was too tired to ask him what he was doing. Behind me, Tink and Becky had commandeered a couple of tablets for whatever minimal entertainment they offered. They’d had to renew the warmth spell twice now and Tink was not happy about it.

  “It’s concrete,” Boomy announced, flying up out of the ice shaft. The shaft was around eight feet in diameter, which would allow two demons to drop through at a time if they were all right with their personal space being violated.

  “Concrete, great. Means what for us?”

  “It’s probably a few feet thick and reinforced with a steel mesh. This is a lot of weight, you know.” He gestured at the surrounding ice. “Concrete and steel don’t do a thing against hellfire, we can carve through it in a minute, tops. My concern is the structural integrity of the room below. If the ceiling collapses, well, that’s a problem.”

  I flicked hellfire to life and tossed it up into the air for the other Houses to see. Almost at the same time, a ball of green fire rose in the distance. One of the other Houses had made it to the structure too. “Hey, Tink,” I called. “Can you tell if anything’s going off in the base?”

  “Haven’t sensed any major magic shifts.”

  I turned back to the hole. “Boomy, how big a hole do you think we can make without risking a collapse? Remember, we need to leave through this hole too. The bigger it is, the faster we can all get out.”

  He walked around the ice shaft. “It really depends, Marquis, honest. I don’t know what the internal bracing is like, and I don’t know where we’re breaking through. I’d rather be cautious. We can expand it from the inside once I get a better look.”

  The third spark of hellfire lit up the sky from another direction. “Third signal,” I said. “Should we all stand on the concrete and jump?”

  “Let the engineer do the work,” Boomy said. “Come on, boys, let’s get this sanded away.” I watched his team of demons use hellfire to melt and etch away at the concrete, revealing layers and mesh running throughout. Boomy directed the effort carefully.

  “Something happened,” Tink said. “Just felt magic shift down there. Major circuit broke.”

  “No more time, Boomy. Get us through, now!”

  “Here goes! Everyone hit this spot and hope it doesn’t collapse the whole place!” He conjured up a ball of hellfire as large as my head and dropped it down the shaft. Flashes of green fire lashed out almost before he could scamper out of the way. The concrete bubbled and glowed under the assault, then visibly sagged. Boomy and his crew dropped more hellfire in places around the initial hole and within seconds, the sagging concrete at the bottom of our ice shaft fell. I could feel the vibrations of its impact below.

  Tink and Becky ran to the edge of the shaft as pair after pair of demons dropped through. I pointed at Boomy, got his attention, and pointed at Becky. He nodded. While he carried her down, I flung a ball of hellfire into the sky to signal Caleb. Once we were the last ones on the surface, I grabbed Tink and jumped down through the shaft.

  I landed on something warm and immediately sidestepped. The ceiling chunk had shattered upon hitting the floor and the resulting debris had scythed through a couple of surprised mages. If I had judged our entrance correctly, we had dropped into the middle of the main guardroom standing between the holding block and the rest of the facility. There were three levels behind and below, and the bottom level only had a single entrance and exit. If the bottom wasn’t where they were holding Azriphel, I couldn’t guess where else he’d be.

  “The main alarms aren’t going off yet,” Tink said. “Help me get this circle set up, now!”

  While the Asmodeus demons set up a perimeter and divided into teams, I helped her draw a sloppy circle with only a single rune on it. The circle was unbounded, radiating the spell outward in all directions, as strong as possible. I added ichor to the circuit as she stepped into the circle. “Good enough?”

  “More!”

  I heard a scream and shouting from outside. “Contact, hurry up!”

  “Ready!” I jerked my hand back as she knelt and closed the circuit around her. The magic flare was enough to knock me on my ass and catch the attention of every demon in the room. I wouldn’t have been surprised if every mage in the facility felt it.

  When she hit the rune, I was sure every single mage felt it. I felt it reverberate through my bones and my vision blurred for a few seconds. Becky grunted and reeled backwards, falling into Boomy’s arms. I didn’t know what the spell was supposed to do, but if it had staggered me, I didn’t want to know how true mages felt.

  Tink stepped out of the circle and our mixed blood actually caught fire as the circuit broke. “That’s new,” I said as I got back to my feet.

  “I just shattered every single circuit within a couple hundred feet,” she said. “Maybe further. Whoever’s down at the bottom would have felt the spell, but they’re never going to hear an alarm go off. The magic circuits are out for good.”

  “And so are the electronics,” I said as the remaining lights above cut out and dim red emergency lights cut in. Darkness didn’t bother me as long as I kept my demonic form. Tink and Becky would handle it with magic. “Boomy, you’re in charge here. Have our strike teams hit every block and cell. Bring any of our people back here and keep them safe. If they’re an angel, wait for Caleb to get here to talk them down before you let them out. I doubt they’ll have human prisoners, but if they do?” I paused. “Zip them. We’ll get them out and decide what to do with them later.”

  “Got it. You’re heading to the bottom?”

  “I thought the Duke would appreciate familiar faces coming to his rescue. See you shortly.”

  “Wait, Bright!” Becky had her gun in hand. “What should I be doing?”

  “Stick with Boomy,” I said. “You’re a good shot and you know a little about explosives, don’t you?”

  “What makes you think I know about explosives?” I could see her grin in the low light. “I work in construction, not destruction.”

  “Part of the construction business is demolition. We’re going to get along just fine, girl.” Boomy tossed me a salute as Tink and I ran for the exit to the holding block. Outside, the halls were pandemonium, and not the type I appreciated. Unlike the base in Tehran, these mages were ready for a throw down. Tink’s massive spell had barely bought us any breathing room. We dashed down the main hallway to a more open area, two stories of cells open to a central concrete courtyard, similar to human prisons. The emergency lights bathed the whole area in scarlet shadows. I grabbed her and jumped down to the bottom, hitting with a crack.

  Before I could straighten up, Tink threw her weight into me, knocking me backwards. We rolled away from each other as a spell sliced through the air between us. I tossed hellfire blindly as I rolled. With no idea where the attacker was, I hoped for pure luck.

  Another crack hit the floor, followed by a growl. Some Asmodeus demons had followed me down and I stopped rolling just in time to see one of them get half of his face shredded by magic. Undaunted, he charged the offending mage with hellfire flickering between his claws. There wasn’t enough time for another spell, only enough time t
o scream.

  “You hurt, demon?” Tink shouted.

  “Only my pride.” I ran to her, keeping an eye out for any other mages. The guards were putting up a good fight by the sounds of it, but they were vastly outnumbered and they wouldn’t be getting reinforcements. “You ready to go down?”

  “Yeah. Where’s the stairs?”

  “Right here.” I pointed at the floor and drew a circle with a claw, feeding it with ichor. She stepped into the circle as I finished it. “Always wanted to make an entrance like this.”

  “I’m going to laugh if we drop right on Assholeriphel’s head.”

  “Me too, and then I’m going to cry.”

  “Wuss.”

  I stuck my tongue out at her and ignited the ichor into a circle of hellfire, feeding and guiding it with my will. She put her arms around me and held on. When the hellfire finally fizzled out, we remained standing in a burned out circle in the middle of the floor. I looked down and sighed. “I’m not asking for too much here, am I? Just for once, I’d like to be able to make a really dramatic entrance.”

  Tink stomped her foot and we fell.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I managed to arrest our drop before we could splatter against the ground and embarrass ourselves. I had wanted to float down to the ground, to the shock and awe of any surviving onlookers. Instead, I popped my wings out just in time to keep us from hitting the ground. It would still have been impressive, except when I stumbled after the next step I took.

  I kicked the offending piece of rubble away and sighed. “So much for my dramatic entrance.”

  “I quite enjoyed it.” I turned around to see an expanse of clear glass separating me from a nightmarish horror, black and misshapen features casting equally misshapen shadows. Just like the main holding block above, only red emergency lights illuminated the room. The dim, bloody light did nothing for my nerves. I jumped back and nearly fell on my ass as the figure stepped up to the barrier and put a misshapen hand up against it. “There’s so little entertainment here. I suppose this is another psychological study. What does the imprisoned demon do when he anticipates rescue? Nothing. So sorry to disappoint you.”

  “Duke Azriphel,” I said. I could barely recognize him. One eye and a chunk of his skull no longer existed. His hands were twisted and broken, fingers curving off in unnatural directions. Scars crisscrossed his sunken chest and thin legs. I had wanted to greet him with a pithy remark, but none of my preparation applied any longer. This was worse than I had ever imagined. “Your Grace. What did they do to you?”

  He waved a hand around. “Oh, you know, torture, interrogation, invasive studies. You do know, of course. I will not give you anything more. I have nothing left to tell you. Though, please accept my compliments for such an elaborate scenario.”

  I stepped closer to the glass, holding back my revulsion. This wasn’t the enemy from our past. This was a victim. “Don’t you recognize me?”

  “This isn’t the first time you’ve visited me, halfblood.” He licked his lips. “You’re one of their favorites.”

  “What about me?” Light flared from a rune on the floor and Tink stomped up to the glass. “How about me, asshole? You remember me. I know you do.”

  His eye tracked down to her. “Of course I remember you, girl. You’ve been here often enough too. You have indeed piqued whatever curiosity I have left. Very well, I’ll play along. I suppose you’ve earned it for this novelty. What do you want to see? How I beg my enemies to rescue me?”

  “Actually, we’re not your enemies anymore, and we’re here to rescue you,” I said. “Tink, if you’ll do the honors?”

  She pulled out her knife. Azriphel’s eye widened. “I hate doing this,” she said. “Just for the record, you deserve every bit of whatever they did to you. Asshole.”

  Before either of us could respond, she slammed the knife into the glass. Instead of shattering, the knife glanced off. “It isn’t glass,” he said softly, his eye tracking her movements. “It’s diamond, or near enough. You’re not illusions, are you? Your knife. I recall it, or one just like it. It drew my blood. It is something they never copied.”

  “I wish it had drawn more.”

  Azriphel stepped back from the barrier and I saw him take a deep breath. Some level of vitality seemed to come back to him. “I don’t know how to open or close it,” he said. “Whenever they take me out, it’s under heavy guard and they screen the caster so I have no chance to observe.”

  I looked to Tink. “Magic, yeah?”

  “No shit, Sherlock. What made you think mages would use magic?” She scratched at the diamond with the tip of her knife and shook her head. “Not even a mark. This is grandmaster class material. I bet Kane himself made it.”

  “Kane.” Azriphel’s voice was thoughtful. “I often heard the name, but I don’t believe he ever paid me a visit. Is he someone of importance?”

  I ignored his question. “Can you break it?” I asked.

  “Probably.” She was already drawing a rune in blood on the diamond. “I’ll let you know in a minute.”

  I heard screams and shouts from above. “What happened to the guards down here?”

  “What guards?” Azriphel smiled, revealing missing teeth. “Solitary confinement. All the comforts of Purgatory and none of the annoyances. They would only come to me to demand answers, torture me for amusement, or use me as a graphic example for students. I tell you, halfblood, it is very comfortable to break down and lose your mind. I still don’t completely believe you’re real.”

  “I have the same problem sometimes.” I looked up as light flickered from the hole above us. “Hurry up, Tink. I think we’re about to have company.”

  “You can’t hurry this up unless you want a lot of diamond shards flying in every direction and killing all three of us. There are some crazy contingency enchantments running here. Yes, it would kill you too, asshole, don’t look so amused.”

  “It’s less amusement than relief, dear girl. I would welcome death, even if it was at your hands.”

  “It’d make my day so much better, believe me.” Tink kept scrawling.

  I only looked away from the hole for one second. In that second, she dropped through the hole and smashed both Tink and myself into the diamond wall with magic of incredible force. Her spell kept my back pinned in place against the wall while she straightened up and brushed herself off. “Hello again, sweetheart,” she said.

  “You really got the drop on us this time, Hikari. Good job,” I said while I forced my ichor out of my system and into dormancy. “But I have to say, you’ve looked better.”

  She wore a hospital gown, one arm in a loose sling. The red light didn’t do her any favors. “Broken arm and a number of cracked ribs. Doctors said I was lucky. Caleb doesn’t pull his punches.”

  “You were lucky he didn’t use his sword. Well, maybe. I’d rather see you put out of your misery and mine too.”

  I heard and felt a thump against the diamond wall, followed by a grunt of pain. “Any time you insult me, I’ll hurt her,” Hikari said. “In fact, I’ll hurt her at any excuse you give me. Am I clear?”

  “I understand.” I glanced over at Tink. Her face was pressed against the barrier, but I could see her eyes open and furious. Her lips parted slightly and she stuck the tip of her tongue out at me. I turned my attention back to Hikari. “So, have you learned your lesson about gloating? Caleb is around, you know.”

  “He won’t be an issue.” Her voice was cold. “I’ll be done here soon.”

  “Mind telling me what you’re doing?”

  “I do mind, actually.” She stepped up to the glass and started scrawling a rune on it.

  “She is preparing the failsafe,” Azriphel said. “As I was warned so many times, the magic binding the barrier together can be dispelled abruptly, causing a rather explosive effect. They also told me they could trigger the failsafe remotely. But, she is attempting to trigger it manually, implying
the remote ability is not available. Perhaps I’m not dreaming.”

  “I’d tell you to shut up, but you’ll be dead shortly as well.” Hikari didn’t pause in the drawing of her rune. “I suppose we did get enough out of you, though. Your usefulness is finally at an end.”

  “A shame. I was looking forward to the rest of the escape attempt.”

  “Why did you come to free him, Zay?” Hikari paused and gestured with her chin toward Tink. “Killing him was all she lived for.”

  “There’s been a bit of a priority shift,” I said.

  “Oh?”

  “If we rescue him, we can restore House Lucifer, which means we’ll finally be able to break a deadlock in the High Council.”

  Hikari turned to face me fully. Closer up, I could see bruises across her face, and I doubted they were from Caleb’s shield slam. He’d only hit her in the chest. “Why are you telling me this?”

  I shrugged as best I could against her magic hold. “If you kill all three of us, it’s a moot point. If we kill you, it doesn’t matter what I tell you. Besides, the longer I keep your attention, the more time Tink has to finish the spell she’s been working on.”

  Hikari’s eyes went wide and she turned just as the force holding me against the wall vanished. I couldn’t see well past Hikari, but I heard the scuffle of footsteps and a soft thud. As I pushed away from the wall, ready to fight, I saw the hilt of Tink’s knife protruding from Hikari’s stomach. It was sort of an odd sight to see it buried in someone else’s body as opposed to mine. “Does that hurt? I hope it does,” Tink said, wiping blood from her mouth. “Because it fucking hurts to bite your tongue hard enough to draw blood, you know.”

  “I didn’t know you could draw a rune with your tongue.”

  “Neither did I, but when it’s time to learn or die, I learn.” She reached out and slapped Hikari’s good hand away as it curled toward the knife. “No, you’re not pulling it out, bitch.”