Red Blooded

by Amanda Carlson

  The cuff that held my ankle had obviously risen up from the floor prior to the trays, but I’d missed it because of the piglets’ shrieking. I counted ten sets of manacles total and they’d all been engaged. My ankle had just been in an unlucky spot. We must have triggered something to start the dinner process. The demons must get wild when they eat.

  If not, I didn’t really want to know why they had restraints under all the seats.

  I wrapped my hands around the strange material gripping my ankle and tried to pry it open. It was smooth and slick just like everything around here and I couldn’t get a good grip on it. The metal, or whatever, was unforgiving. It made sense it had to be super strong if it was meant to hold a struggling demon, but that wasn’t helpful to me.

  Fur sprouted along my forearms as I increased my effort. The squealing above me didn’t make it any easier to concentrate. Send us more adrenaline. My wolf obliged and my muscles tightened like granite beneath my skin. I think it’s coming loose. I felt it give. With a pop, the thing cracked, but it wasn’t enough to open it completely. The piglet squeals reached a fever pitch above me. Something was happening.

  I glanced upward just in time to see the netting give way.

  Ducking quickly, I covered my head with my arms as roughly two hundred scaly rat-piglets were dumped onto my head. Crap! They bounced all over me, squealing and oinking—if you could call it oinking. It sounded more like hissing. Swat them back, we don’t know if they’re venomous. As they fell, the railings along the outside of the gazebo morphed together like something out of a sci-fi flick, solidifying the enclosure so the tasty demon treats didn’t escape.

  I slapped the piggies off me as fast as I could. My ankle was still stuck, so I couldn’t do much more. But the luckiest part of being covered in scaly demon piglets was that they didn’t seem interested in me. After their initial fall, most of them had scurried under the benches as fast as they could. They wanted to escape their fate as much as I did.

  Join the club, little piglets from Hell.

  They aren’t biting us, but don’t look into their beady little eyes. Let’s just focus on freeing this thing from my ankle. I went to work on it again. Once we get this off, we’re going to set these demon pigs free. They can serve as a distraction while we find our way back to the portal door we came through from the trash heap.

  I glanced up at the sky. The sun was setting too quickly for my liking. As the sky eased into darkness, the purple hue turned into a magenta twilight and misty clouds began to fill in above me. There were no stars that I could detect, which made it seem like we were in a huge horror-filled gymnasium and not actually outside.

  The shackle wouldn’t budge any farther no matter how much strength I used. I leaned over to examine it. It was completely melded together. There was no discernable seam. It looked like it was one housing, and it probably contained some magical demon essence I knew nothing about.

  I stopped working and searched for something that might be able to help me, like a release button of some kind. After the demons had eaten their fill, they had to be able to get free of the manacles. Look for a lever. When the demons are done feasting they should be able to turn the horror show off so they can go back to doing their regular business. Whatever that was. Where did one go after group ravaging?

  I didn’t want to know.

  I really didn’t.

  Everything in the gazebo was whistle-clean, except for the floor. There wasn’t a crack in sight and I didn’t see any buttons or levers. My wolf barked. Her muzzle nodded upward. I followed her direction. On one of the pillars, toward the ceiling, I spotted a small button built into the structure. Unfortunately, it was attached to what appeared to be a speaker box.

  We can’t risk hailing anyone. I instantly pictured a demon receptionist with a beehive hairdo and pointy glasses trying to understand our issue on the other end. We can’t use that. Look again. There has to be some kind of unlock button. I bet there’s something that will get rid of the piglets too, in case they don’t eat all of them or have an emergency during dinner. Who knew, maybe the demons went into a rage as they ate? I glanced up and studied the mesh that had held the creatures. There had to be a trigger for that.

  Then I saw it.

  Two grooves, barely identifiable, right by the connection point of the roof and the mesh. That looks like something. They have to get these piglets in here somehow. I bet there’s an elevator or another door in the floor, and I bet that switch opens it up.

  Finding the piglet button was helpful, but that still left the problem of the shackle attached to my ankle.

  If I couldn’t get it off, I couldn’t engage the switch to see what happened because I couldn’t reach it. The piglets scurried back and forth, giving me a wide berth, squeaking like mad. I’m sure they were confused as to why I wasn’t tearing them to shreds with thirsty abandon.

  I refocused my energy on my ankle. “Get out of my way,” I muttered as I swatted one of them away. A few of them were becoming a bit too curious. As I worked, my hand accidentally struck the underside of the bench. Did you feel that? I quickly rolled onto my back and stretched myself under the bench across from me. Sure enough, each seat had its own release button. It was seamlessly made and almost undetectable, integrated into the material, just like everything else around here.

  I slid out, trying not to cringe too much about my choice to roll around in the muck again, and ran my hand under the bench closest to my ankle. I felt the shallow depression and jabbed my finger in it.

  Nothing happened.

  I pressed it over and over like an irritated salesman ringing a doorbell. Dammit, why isn’t this working? I finally stopped and all at once the shackle popped off.

  Victory at last. I whipped my leg out and stood as quickly as I could. The rails had stayed closed and the piglets continued to alternately cower and zip around the small space. The first order of business was to set them free.

  I punted one away from my foot and strode to the entrance, which was now solid from the waist down like the rest of the gazebo, and brought one foot up and rammed it into the material. Hard. It splintered, but in a funny way, like a crack in a block of ice.

  One more kick and a big chunk flew out. It was a hole big enough for the little beasts, so I was satisfied. I turned, thinking they’d all be lined up behind me waiting to scurry to freedom.

  Not one of them moved.

  “Shoo!” I yelled. “Get out of here.” I backed out of the way so they could run. When they didn’t react, I bent over and waved my arms, trying to spark them into action. “Go free and be my diversion! While the demons worry about you, I’m going to make myself scarce.”

  A few of them waddled up to the opening and sniffed, but none of them ventured out.

  It appeared they were smarter than they looked.

  I had to give them some credit. I didn’t want to go out there either. But before I could toss them out one by one, a tremor shook the ground, followed by a loud hum. It sounded like a hundred elevators had engaged at once. I glanced around me, somewhat surprised. The sun had set and I hadn’t noticed. I’d been too busy trying to free myself from the manacle.

  The humming sound whirled for about ten seconds. The piglets began to squeal like never before. Their cries held an anguish I was beginning to feel myself as I watched all the doors across the all the buildings slide open at once.

  5

  I was frozen into place as I watched hundreds of demons emerge from the newly opened doors. They filed out into the square in orderly rows. They were all dressed alike in the same outfit, a dark-colored jumpsuit with what appeared to be zippers up the sides. They could’ve been strips of metal, but I couldn’t see the small details because the twilight made it too hard.

  Every demon exiting the buildings had very precise features. Human, but too sculpted. No flaws, hair perfectly slicked back, skin shiny. They clearly mimicked their leader in their appearance. It was surprising they weren’t in their more repti
lian forms. The Prince of Hell had been glamoured on my plane, so here, on their home turf, I’d expected to see the demons in their truest forms. It seemed like a lot of work to be glamoured all the time. But there was no mistaking it, they’d all been ordered to look the same—exactly like the Prince himself.

  It was super strange and more than a little unsettling.

  My wolf snarled, snapping me out of my stupor. I dropped to the floor of the gazebo. We were out of time. None of them had spotted me, as far as I knew, which was a miracle. But then, they hadn’t been expecting an intruder. Having a fugitive in their midst had likely never happened before. But they would scent me soon enough. I was covered in rancid piglet juice, so that helped. It was weird to be thankful for putrid blood and guts, but at this moment I was. I also smelled, at least partially, like a demon. I hadn’t triggered any of their alarms yet, so it was safe to assume whatever magic had mixed with mine was keeping me cloaked for the time being.

  Before I could decide if I should flip the lever in the ceiling, clear liquid started pouring over me from small sprinklers that had just emerged from strategic points around the gazebo. A beat later small drain valves slid open in the floor. As the strange wetness coated me, a voice came over a loudspeaker in a language that was clearly Demonish, followed by English, likely for the imps: “Cleaning commencing. Please wait in an orderly line.”

  The liquid flowing over me, however, wasn’t water.

  It was thicker and slimier—like water mixed with gelatin. The bits and blood attached to my body coagulated and slid right down the drains, cleanly and efficiently. We have to escape before the cleaning is over. This has given us a few minutes grace period, but we have to move. The piglets scurried around squealing and slipping in the liquid gel as they struggled to find some traction.

  I shimmied on my belly, batting them away from me, and made my way over to the TV trays. The hatch was just big enough for my body to squeeze through. It would’ve been nice to know what was down there ahead of time, but it had to be better than what was up here. Right? I didn’t have to worry about convincing myself for long, because there was no way I could take on a legion of demons myself. It was exactly like what I’d told Tyler and Danny when we’d scaled the mountain to Selene’s lair. An army of anything could defeat even the strongest supernatural.

  The plastic trays had to have been stacked by something, so that meant a workroom or assembly line below. That equaled places to hide until daylight. The demons had come up in elevators, so their habitat had to be underground. Going below was my only option now that the horde was here for their evening meal.

  I grabbed a handful of trays and lifted them out, trying to slide them as quietly as I could under the benches. Instead they shot like Frisbees around the slippery mess and the piglets hissed at the intrusion. I ignored them. Luckily the clatter was covered up by the still-running sprinklers in all the gazebos. The cleaning process was loud, and all the other piglets had started shrieking like never before, knowing dinnertime was upon them.

  The trays were piled shoulder-deep in the hole. Once I reached the end of the line, I could see they’d been stacked on a hydraulic lift of some kind. I grabbed the last few off and tossed them to the side right as a red light on the bottom started to blink and a low noise issued from the lift. This thing is going down to refill. Let’s go.

  The trapdoor started to close on its own. I dropped my knees in, ducking low, barely making it before the hole sealed up from the top. As the lift started moving downward, I realized a good portion of my hair had caught in the seam. “Ow!” I cried, as I reached up to rip the ends away before it was torn completely out of my head. There was no time to lament the loss. I was away from the legion of hungry jumpsuited demons, so that was well worth the cost of some hair—hair that would regenerate within moments.

  I crouched on the lift, making myself as small as I could. But I wasn’t achieving inconspicuousness, because I was dripping wet. Thick, pudgy water droplets lazily rolled off me and plunked somewhere below. If anyone was down there, they would be alerted to something strange by the unexpected shower from above. But I had to admit, it was a relief to be wet and not bloody. Not only had the liquid bathed me, it had also somehow eaten away any blood and guts that had been left behind.

  I was squeaky clean.

  The lift began to slow. The ride hadn’t been a long one. We take the element of surprise. Before it came to a full stop, I dropped into a small dimly lit room filled with equipment and cages and cages of squealing piglets. I did a full scan, staying low in my fighting stance.

  There were no demons in sight.

  At my arrival the chatter of the little beasties increased. The lift came to a complete stop, engaging with a long, motionless conveyor belt that went between the walls, likely linking the gazebos together. I crouched next to it and ran through a row of supplies parallel to the conveyor. The room was stacked full of trays and strange-looking implements. The cages lined the back wall. I stopped, peeking my head above a low shelving unit. This room was about the size of a modest living room. The conveyor belt ran the entire length and disappeared through a cutout in the wall.

  All at once the thing whirled to life.

  I stood slowly, examining it as it started to move. It was more streamlined than anything I’d seen, sleek with lots of shiny metal. Most of the noise it made was drowned out by the continued squealing of the piglets.

  Time to make my exit.

  There was only one door. As I rushed over to it, I realized it had no handle. Voices echoed from out in the hallway and I ducked behind it three seconds before it opened. From the gap, I could see two demons enter the room, both of them in jumpsuits. They were speaking Demonish and didn’t glance behind them.

  They both stopped in front of the lift I’d come down on and started chattering in earnest. The door they’d just entered was closing and I wrapped a single finger around it to keep it in place.

  I needed a distraction. The beasties were still making a racket, but I needed more than that if I was going to make a clean getaway. I didn’t have any spells on me and I couldn’t shoot any magic. I could try to throw power into a verbal command, but that would defeat the purpose of being stealthy.

  Instead, I plucked a can of something off the shelving unit next to me. It was heavy and that made me happy. We have to make this count. I didn’t have a lot of space to prime my arm, but I was a supernatural, after all. My wolf flooded me with adrenaline as I hurled the can straight at the biggest cage I could see across the room, aiming for the locking mechanism.

  The can exploded on impact, sending the contents, which were pea green, splattering everywhere, and popping the door to the cage neatly open.

  A beat later everything in the room erupted into total chaos.

  I blew out a relieved breath as the beasties began to flood out of their trashed cage as quickly as possible, crawling over one another in an effort to get free. And to turn things even more in my favor, several piglets dropped from the ceiling above onto the lift. It seemed the ones from the gazebo had found a way out, or the floor had opened up—either way, they were raining down from above.

  Each of the demons sprang into action. One went for the cage and one jumped onto the lift to try to contain the masses as they started bouncing like plump treats onto the conveyor belt.

  I used my advantage and ducked around the door and zipped out of the room.

  There were no demons lingering in the hallway. These lucky breaks are going to stop very soon, I told my wolf. We need to find a place to lie low until we can figure out where we are. The hallway ran both ways. I chose left. We need to make our way to the big building. I’m fairly sure we take a left, and then another left, but I’m not sure. Do you have a better sense of where we are right now? My wolf barked and flashed a perfect picture in my mind of the view from the roof, marking our current location on the map. You are so very handy. I love that about you.

  Once we were out of the this parti
cular hallway, we would need to keep left in order to arrive at what I hoped was the main building in She’ol. I raced by a bunch of closed doors. I could hear piglets chirping and hissing behind every one of them. The assembly line was in full swing, I could hear the conveyor belts going. There’s a door at the end that looks promising. It’s bigger than the other ones. Let’s go.

  This one thankfully had a handle.

  It was a detailed knob with what looked like a devil head carved into it. I put a single finger on the handle, testing for power or spells. It was clear. I palmed it and turned. It opened with no resistance, and to be as cautious as I could be, I put an ear to the space and scented the air. I heard nothing. I was certain I would run into something eventually, but my hope was that most of the demons who didn’t run the food service shift were up top for suppertime. It seemed like everything was regimented here, so it was a good bet they had all gone to dinner.

  I snuck around the corner, and into a very strange land.

  Well, this is… unexpected. Or maybe the neat gazebos and innocuous buildings were unexpected and this is what we should’ve expected all along? My wolf growled, her ears twitching. The sulfur smell was so strong I had to cover my nose and mouth with my hand. On closer inspection, I could see sulfur water seeping out of the walls. No wonder.

  We had just entered the true bowels of Hell.

  No more buildings and seemingly normal structures. This was what the real Underworld looked like.

  This tunnel was much larger. I was guessing it had to be one of their main arteries. It was wider, likely to accommodate more traffic, but I also knew it was a primary thoroughfare because it seemed almost alive. Dark red porous rock jutted out all around me. It was hot and humid and the walls were bumpy and coarse, with tons of wide holes resembling coral. Fluid leaked everywhere. There were smells I’ve never scented before—all of them ghastly. I moved forward cautiously, stepping over a huge channel that ran down the middle of the tunnel to catch all the runoff, and once on the other side, I started to jog.