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Determee’s laughter continued to swirl around me. Flames shot from different angles on the barrier making it hard for me to focus on his location. I growled with my ears pinned back tiring of this game. The hackles on my back had risen as I anticipated the barrier to break at any time. I was pacing back and forth unable to attack him myself until the barrier between us was shattered.
“You were a fool to seek me out personally but I do thank you for making it easier to locate you. Perhaps before you use a Golem witch’s service you should research and know that their kind has worshipped my own for hundreds of years,” he continued to laugh. “Catch you and bring back the others, looks like this will be rather easy for me.”
I had millions of questions for him but I could ask them when I had him chained and gasping for his life. He’d made the mistake to attack me and try to end my life in my dreams. I wasn’t able to conjure any of my demons and lacked the strength to match him evenly there. Now, it was game on.
The three children were still suspended in the air, a wind drifting through them that I couldn’t feel myself. I crept closer to them waiting as every bashful force of fire hit the barrier close to its rupture. If he was after the children then it was likely he would kill them to release the Volv inside. Like the one who had possessed Alice and now the girl with plaited hair. It would only continue jumping from host to host. But only death would allow it to do so. If that was part of their goal then I had to prevent that from happening.
I couldn’t see the barrier but I could feel it chipping away weakly. The vibrations left from the force told me the time was close. It was about to break. I still tried to track where Determee’ physically was himself. I would give chase and kill him when I found him instead of fighting through his circle of flames. The fire my hellhound form could handle. The power of his wind however might be a problem.
The sound of glass breaking shattered after another flame busted against it, this time pushing through the barrier and reaching out for me. I lunged for the flames drifting between them with little hesitation. If anything, my hellhound loved rolling around in fire and would never fear it. I tunneled through the flames using them to hide in.
Suddenly the air was sucked out of my lungs and I couldn’t breathe. I choked and my feet dragged against the ground and fire that was no longer beneath them. I was being levitated in the air. I still couldn’t see him but his laughter circled me. I was unable to gasp for breath as I continued to choke. I changed into my water demon. She wasn’t equipped for being outside of the water but one thing that left ears bleeding on land was her siren. Being breathless on land wasn’t as sufferable as I shifted and gills split underneath my ears, ribs, and legs. She could never breathe on land prior to that. I opened my mouth and released my siren that was like a high pitched canon straight to the ears. I dropped to the ground and changed instantly back into my hellhound sniffing out the blood I could now smell trickling from his ears.
His disorientation would last only for so long. I ran through the trees with the speed of a high-class demon. The hellhound was fast. I smelled him in the treetops, his whimper coming to an end as the bleeding began to stop. I changed back to my water demon and as I looked up and released my siren, flames shot at me. I took the blow to my left arm, moving slightly so I could still isolate the scream into his direction. I didn’t dare look down at my arm. He held steady in the tree, began bleeding and becoming disorientated.
I shifted into my cat demon making sure not to let her tail jingle. I dove my claws deep into the tree, climbing up on it in two jumps. As I rolled around it, I shifted into my succubus form smiling as I stood over him. The force of his wind and fire came towards me at once. I pierced him with my tail ejecting my poison into him as I grabbed him and shielded myself from the flames and wind. I dropped towards the ground taking him with me. I shifted into my hellhound grabbing him by the throat and using him as a shield against his own artful flames and wind. The fire I was protected by but the wind sliced around me, no matter how tightly I curled into him.
I was captured in a vortex of wind. I had to release him and escape before it sliced me apart. I let go of him and jumped through the wind. Deep cuts tore across my body as I rolled out. I scraped back on the back of my heels and shifted into my cat demon. I watched him with interest as he scampered on the ground.
“Turns out not even the great Determee’ can survive my succubus’s poison,” I purred watching the black shadowed figure gasp on the ground. His body took the shape of a man but was charcoaled, cracks of flowing flames licked outside of him. He began choking out blood into the ground as I kept my distance. I wanted to be smug and walk over but watching him die alone was more satisfying.
“St-“ He began to stutter. “Stu-”
“What? I can’t hear you.” I said raising a paw to my ear.
“Stupid is what he is trying to say,” a voice came from behind me. I whipped around not having even felt their presence. The three children stood in front of me. The smiles were as corrupt as what they themselves were now. Black veins threaded their face and their eyes spoke lengths of evil.
Determee’ began bellowing out in laughter behind me. I angled myself so I could be at the point of our positioning like a triangle. Determee’ stood up dusting himself off. The coaled smile smoldered out flames.
“Poison, really? My body does not grow the same flesh as most demons. Tricks like that won’t work on me,” he said with an irritated laugh.
“Vivian, we will take you to our Master now,” the girl with plaited hair said. It was the same Volv that had possessed Alice’s body in Aztec prison. I could feel darkness circle me, as if a few more Volv were surrounding me but those who were not yet attached to hosts. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. My cat demon’s sixth sense enabled me to feel them but I knew I was outnumbered and before Loclan had trapped them and teleported them, I myself had been pinned with their attack once before.
I hissed as they circled me. “I can take her back, I don’t need your help,” Determee’ said to the others.
“She is for our Master, not you,” the girl seethed in a different language but one I could translate.
“Neither will be necessary,” Haymen’s voice startled us all as his darkness swirled around me as a barrier and he stood beside me. He looked down at me proudly and directed his gaze to Determee’ with a smile. Behind the three children Gabe swooped down with wide wings, standing tall behind him.
“Haymen,” Determee’ seemed to entertain. “Old friend, it’s been a while.” Determee’ didn’t fear Haymen as he should but I could sense he was looking at plausible places of escape despite his eyes never leaving Haymen’s.
“I see that you’re besotted by my Guardian,” Haymen said to both Determee’ and the children. “Your Master is a fool for trying to steal what is mine.” Haymens darkness pushed back the other Volv who had no physical form. I felt Haymen’s darkness swirl around me and kiss my skin swimmingly so that they couldn’t break through his barricade. I knew it would protect me from their imposing possession.
I looked over at Gabe who watched between me and the children, his wings glowing bright as darkness swirled around him trying to break in. A spear was in his hand, one that hadn’t been there before. Perhaps Angel Boy had the gift of teleportation. Despite flying in I didn’t think of it as coincidence that he came here with the exact timing as Haymen.
“Change into your hellhound for me Vi, I wish to see your beauty again,” Haymen said to me as if the others were no longer present. I nodded and shifted as he asked. He smiled and began rubbing his hand through my fur. The ruffle and touch electrified against my skin. And there it was I realized the adamant loyalty and expectation for me to only be his pet. He smiled as I looked up at him, as if knowing it all clicked into place. I was exactly that. His. Master and pet. He was here to protect his hound.
“Our King will end you once and for all, Haymen,” the girl seethed through bleeding gums as she spat. “Kill them!”
All four of them lunged. Haymen gravitated towards Determee’. Flames swept against his tendrils of darkness.
“You will be placed under arrest and questioning,” Gabe announced as his wings glowed. The shadows became restless as his light ate away at their darkness. The girl was focused and lunged for me. I met her mid-air to counter her attack. Before we could make eye contact her eyes went wide and she dropped floppily to the ground. As soon as her feet made contact with the ground her head slid off her shoulders and blood splattered. I growled at the disgust as it sprayed over me. The two behind them that Gabe had been trying to capture also died, their heads sliding off their shoulders as well.
I looked over to Haymen who had killed them so quickly and already had Determee’ pinned against a tree. His swirls of darkness appetizing on him as he screamed. I couldn’t see what was being done to him but the darkness that ate him alive could only be that from Haymen who would wipe out kingdoms in days.
“I said alive!” Gabe shouted. Haymen was only amused as he stepped towards Determee’ focused. “You know that they will just keep capturing new hosts!”
“You are going to tell me everything before I kill you Determee’,” Haymen said ignoring both Gabe and me. “Good job my darling, Vi,” he clicked his fingers and the swirl concealed both him and Determee’ as they vanished. Gabe seemed to vanish after them. One second later I was teleported with a nauseous black swirl into my room.
I looked around catching my bearings. I was back in my room. My tattoos glowed blue as I looked around in the dark room. Blood was splattered all over my clothes and face. I began tearing them off as I headed for the shower. What just happened? Everything happened so quickly and I wasn’t happy about not killing any of them myself. I needed to shower. Haymen wouldn’t tell me anything about his capture or torture of Determee’ which only pissed me off more. I wanted to be able to interrogate him myself. Especially considering a lot more seemed to be a part of the picture then what others were leading on. Especially Haymen.
We were his race, his Guardians that were not meant to question and yet the irritation of always being the hunted when I was created as the hunter overwhelmed me. I lathered my hair with shampoo thinking as to why Gabe and Haymen were there almost at the same time. Haymen had no difficulty with beheading them. Within seconds I hadn’t even felt the presence of his darkness. An image came back to me and clearly seemed to come into the forefront of my mind. Alice from the Atzec prison has been killed in a similar manner. Directly behind me before that demon that was being guarded entered me. I still couldn’t feel it stir within me but I definitely felt it merge with me that night. But Alice had died in the exact same manner.
Slowly things began to click together. Haymen was eager for me to go to that prison. I didn’t gather any helpful information from Alice but I did obtain something that day, that much I was certain. I wasn’t sure what but I was certain that something else resided in me now. I pressed my hand to my stomach as if I could feel the swell of the demon within me. But it stayed silent not even the faint bickering of something that shouldn’t reside within me.
Despite the ordeal with Gabe following me around and using Angel Kiss on me–Haymen hasn’t yet killed him. Law, treaty, moral, a higher war angel–none of that meant anything to Haymen if he wanted someone dead he would assure that they were dead.
Even my memory of my death and contracts–there was something I had that Haymen wanted and protected and for some reason he was involving outsiders to play. He was watching my steps and playing me as a puppet that much I always knew since our contractual agreement. But I couldn’t help but realize he was brewing and leading this all into something.
I felt someone creep into my room. I fell silent as I listened to them come closer. I washed the last of the shampoo out my hair. The presence was being sneaky and so instead of turning my shower off and offering that person a very painful lesson as to not enter my room, I crept along the white tiles and pushed my back to the wall, waiting beside the door.
The figure seemed to mimic me on the other side. It felt familiar, but I could recognize that something about it had changed. Something seemed off.
“Shit,” I said before jumping out of the way but not in time as a steel blade smashed through the tiles and sliced my arm. I skidded back towards the shower in the middle as Alexa walked in. Her eyes had no pupils and were now black. Veins were protruding from her face and arms as she smiled at me with a doll like presence. Both her arms had shifted to blades. Alexa had been compromised.
“Those who decide to host in a child’s body were always going to die quickly,” the echo of a woman’s cracked voice said pushing through Alexa’s voice box. This Volv was different to those I had met.
“Who are you?” I asked with irritation changing into my succubus form.
“You may call me Gardanor and I am the bringer of your death,” she said with a smile and lunged for me.
I dodged as she swept her arms back and forth, one cut from her steel like blades would scatter my guts to the floor. Water poured over me from the showerhead as I dodged her second blade. I changed into my water demon. The water glittering like specks of air over my gills. I speared my retractable titan nails at her. The escalation of their length split my own fingernails and my hands went bloody and wet.
She dodged my attack coming down on me with her own blades again. I let them graze close to me, grabbing her shoulder with my retracted claws and running against the tiled wall, twisting her behind her back and flinging her across the room. She busted through the tiling and was plunged into the river outside. I lunged outside diving after her in the water.
Her tattoos glowed bright under the surface of the water but this was my domain and I knew that she had no demon that could counter mine in water. I splintered my nails towards her again harpooning her through the stomach. Like a fish on my hook she thrashed around as a pillow of black blood surrounded her.
A disorientation stirred in my mind as I thrashed back and forth. An electrical current streamed up my nails and coursed through my veins. I was shaking and unable to get closer as the current only grew harsher. I could hardly think as my body thrashed back and forth in the water. I released her waiting for a few seconds for the conductor to stop. Damn technology demon.
She darted for the surface of the water. When my limbs could move of my own accord again, I began slowly following her, disoriented but focused. My body just couldn’t keep up. Blood trailed her as she broke through the surface and pulled herself up onto the docks.
Like the hunter I was it didn’t take me long to give chase. The sky was clouded and left us in the dark. Although some passersby pointed at us in aww and celebration. She still held her stomach that was spilling through her hands and smiled. Before I could jump to stop her, she had already begun her killing spree on the humans. Screams echoed throughout the wharf as people quickly realized the fun of our presence was misrepresented.
I shifted into my hellhound and gave chase as she shifted into the only demon that could outrun my hellhound. I ran through the city with my heart pounding through my body. Despite her wound she was outrunning me. Bodies were left in her wake as the green small demon with speed flashed across them, shoving people and splattering them against the buildings. Humans were so weak and she only left a trail behind her.
She was no longer attempting to challenge me, that wound obviously having been just as severe as I had aimed for. She was running for security. And shortly after she received it. I trailed back and forth after losing her scent in the underground sewer. Oddly enough unlike the others who surrounded me in numbers she had confronted me on her own.
I continued walking through the sewerage discovering more bodies than what should be down here. It smelled of demon blood and vomit. The city of Shabeah was definitely increasing in demon acts against the treaty and killing of humans. After an hour of trying to find her again I relinquished my keen nose and climbed back onto the outskirts. I shifted into my cat demon choosing to stick to the rooftops as I ventured back home. Already the bodies that were massacred had numerous scenes on them.
Human police. Media. Haymen’s cleaners. I looked into the distance at one of the wide screens that had recorded footage of myself in hellhound form running after the green demon that killed numerous passersby in her way. Children, men, women–no victim was excluded.
I had only been talking to Alexa, well what remained of Alexa hours before. The Volv that possessed her must have only recently taken over her body and it was rather bold that she decided to attack me prior to even understanding the demons she was contracted to or their abilities.
I hissed in agitation of the footage that had been taken but was charmed by the beauty of my hellhound which begrudged with red eyes. My coat was beautifully black and decorated with scarring and on top of my head, which was something I hadn’t noticed before seemed to be a crown which grew from the skull.
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. I had seen paintings of such a magnificent hellhound before. And she was not just any; that hellhound had been mother and alpha to an elite pack. Now that was something I had to look into. There was no denial nor was there confirmation from the hellhound within me. And I wondered who else might recognize the beast for who it truly was and what I had contracted with. I continued my walk on home disregarding the human bodies and squad teams that layered the streets. Someone else would clean it up. They always did. What interested me more, was learning that the heritage of my demons seemed to be either rare or queens in their own right.
