by Amber Lynn
“I am not and I don’t plan on becoming pregnant in the next millennium. You will find, as you get to know our group of people better, that the men in my life, who are not guards, really want to have children. As far as Alex goes, he is stuck waiting for me to give in. Ben is just going to have to find another incubator.”
“That makes more sense. You didn't just turn a stray human into a vampire. You did it because it was the only way you could think of saving his life. Not something you would have done just a couple of months ago, now is that?”
Have I mentioned how much I like to avoid hanging out with Demon Boy? He is way too smart for his own good. I could probably give him any three obscure clues about anything and he would figure it out. Not only that, but he would also be able to tell me the history of whatever object I was thinking about.
“We really need to make up a list of topics I am willing to discuss with you. I think from the moment we met, none of the conversations we have had would make it on that list. Let's just stick to ways you can help me find my mate.”
“You can stop here, wolfy. It isn't too much of a walk and I think Buttercup needs some air. It will help calm her before we go in. If the mess of demons that are usually present pick up on all the emotions she has swirling around, we may be in trouble.”
“You are getting more tense than usual. Is everything okay?” Alex asks as he pulls over. “I know you are under a lot of stress to get Sebastian back, but I don't want you to burn yourself out. Once we get whatever information we can from this place, I want us to go home and get a little sleep.”
We can try that out, but I don't know that sleep is in my future. I hop out of the car and let Will out. I have only met Ben officially as far as demons go, so I can imagine this experience is going to be eye opening.
“Lead the way,” I command when our group is all back together.
Chapter 9
The ice cold hand of death
“Okay, as you follow, I am going to go over a few ground rules. First, don't stare at anyone or anything for too long. Chances are not all of you will be able to tell if something is actually a someone in here and you really don't want to offend anyone. Things tend to get nasty if you do. Second, it is best if you all stay pretty close to me. Everyone in here will know who I am and just being with me will hopefully halt any of their questioning.
“Last, but not least, if you see anyone looking at Buttercup even just a tad bit funny, get her out of there immediately. She should be all wolfy, and is as far as I can tell, but someone may be able to delve deeper and figure out what we are hiding. If that happens she has to be protected,” Ben instructs.
I sincerely hope he is going overboard with that last part. Even if someone is able to tell I am a freak, I don't know why they would all of a sudden attack me. I thought the generally agreed upon idea was that most people would want to figure out a way to control the uniqueness in me. I know that is why my dad claims to be making sure I keep hidden from my mom.
“Don't worry. No one is getting to Princess. We have been through the drills before,” Jonas says and I feel everyone close up rank around me.
Why do they have to take the demon seriously? Even Clyde moves up to brush my leg as he walks. I have found that it is easier to just ignore them than making a big fuss about their protectiveness. It is just a waste of breath on my part. I still hope they realize that all the extra protection is just silly. I took care of myself long before I met any of them.
Ben leads us into the cemetery and I instantly feel chills run through my body when we cross the threshold. Dang ghouls. I feel them come alive every time I enter. Stupid demons just have to have the entrance to their stupid bar in the middle of a stupid cemetery.
“Buttercup, were you expecting visitors? They usually don't come out for me.”
“Lucky you. I stay out of cemeteries because of them.” I try to keep my eyes focused forward. Maybe if I don't acknowledge them, they will leave me alone.
“What is that thing?” Will asks and I know better, but I still turn to look.
A female ghoul is standing just to the left of our group. Her eyeball lacking holes seem to be focused right in on me. It could just be that I am paranoid. She might be seeing something totally different than the group of us walking through her grave yard. With my luck, I doubt it.
“I count ten,” Marcus says and I am not happy to hear that high of a number. I think I have run into two at the most in a single visit. It has been a while since my last visit, so maybe ganging up on visitors is their new thing. In the past, they have tried to get all touchy with me and hate is too weak of a word for how it makes me feel.
“Does anyone in the group know what ghouls are?” Ben asks. I am sure he knows, so this is probably just a chance for him to impart his wisdom to the uneducated around us. Since I have had the displeasure of running into the weird beings, I have done research already and I do know what they are.
“They look kind of like what I envision a zombie to look like,” Jake replies. “They don't eat brains or anything, do they?”
“No. They do not eat brains, Jake, and if they did, I don't think you would have too much to worry about,” I reply. “I have done a bit of reading on them and have found the books lie about some key parts. They are remnants of formerly living persons who had a problem with crossing over when they died. Not to be confused with ghosts, who do cross over, but come back with important missions.”
Ben stops walking for a second and turns around. Dude, don't stop with this many ghouls around us. That is just asking for trouble. I am forced to stop and my mood darkens as I glare at him.
“Just what have you found to be a lie in what you have read?” My glare isn’t affecting him and he is looking at me like he is trying to figure out what makes the world spin. I am pretty sure those secrets cannot be found on my face.
I glance around and see a male ghoul try to come closer. I get another chill just from the thought of his touch. It feels like a cold, wet dish towel up against my skin and I would really like to avoid it. It takes days for me to usually get rid of the feeling. A cold hand print always seems to linger.
“The no touching part. Now, please get a move on it.” I push past him heading in the direction we were walking, but I am met face-to-face with a ghoul. Shit.
I stand looking into the hollowed out holes that used to house perfectly good eyeballs. The rest of the body looks basically humanoid. It is glowing just a bit, which is a little odd. Before they have always been a nice shade of alabaster, but they never had the weird light around them.
The woman reaches out and touches my shoulder. At least it isn't skin-on-skin contact. I still feel the chill from the touch, but it isn't quite as bad as it has been before. I sense all of my guards tense at the contact, but no one makes a move to interfere. I don't blame them. The ghoul won't hurt me, I don’t think, and it is really creepy looking.
I close my eyes, not wanting to continue staring into the sightless eyes. Once they are closed, I start seeing flashes of scenes that I haven't witnessed before. This is new and I don’t think I like it.
I see a woman in what I can only describe as a Victorian looking dress. I don't know anything about olden day fashion, but Victorian is what I would classify it as. She is round with child and working to prepare a meal in the kitchen. For as fancy as she is dressed, I would have thought she had some servants to take care of that task. I think that is how things worked back then.
A man walks into the room and sneaks up behind her. She screams and giggles, turning around to face him. It looks like they have a conversation, but I cannot hear that part of it. The scene quickly changes to one of a little girl running to catch up to the woman. The woman picks her up and twirls her around. They look so happy together.
Another sight appears and it is the three of them altogether playing in a snowstorm. The dad and girl are teaming up to throw snowballs at the mom. The joy of the situation is a little overwhelming. I seem to be pic
king up outside emotions that I hope the ghoul is giving off because they are unnatural to me.
The next thing I see is not happiness and my emotions do a flip flop into darkness. I see the man from the previous visions covered in blood. It looks like someone slit his throat. He is lying across a bed and another man is closing in on the woman who is hiding in a corner. The little girl, now maybe in her mid-teens, walks in the room and appears to start screaming. The man looks at her and a smile I never want to see appears on his face. The woman screams something that looks like run and the little girl takes off.
The man focuses back in on the woman. He gives her a long, forced kiss on the lips before he stabs her in the stomach. I see her try to fight even harder to get away from him, but he continues stabbing her in different locations. It doesn't take long for her to go limp and he tosses her to the ground.
He turns to the door, probably hopeful to find the girl back. She isn't there and I really hope she found a good hiding place or ran to get the cops. The man walks past my viewing position and I see that last hope may have been in vain. A nice shiny sheriff badge catches my eye.
“I have always hoped that he didn't find her. He was a very bad man,” a voice says back in the present and I snap my eyes open. The ghoul that was touching me is no longer very ghouly. She is the woman from the vision and has her eyes and everything. “I was hoping I could stay behind and protect her, but something went wrong. I ended up here and I couldn't leave.”
No one in my group is saying a word. I think I have swallowed my tongue because I too am speechless. The ghouls have touched me before, but I have never had an outcome like this one. I usually just get an overwhelming feeling of disappointment when my encounters are done.
“I am able to see now that Katherine ended up getting away and lived a very long life with a man she loved. It is finally time that I join her and my husband. Thank you so much for sharing your gift with me and forgiving me for wanting to remain behind.”
I have no idea what the woman is talking about and I don't think I will get a chance to ask because she is getting awfully transparent with a quickness. That seems about normal. I find I have questions and the person that is possibly capable of answering them just disappears.
“May your life be as full of love as mine was,” she says and is gone.
“That was either the weirdest or coolest thing I have ever seen,” Will says interrupting the silence that the moment seemed to need. I will have to ask later what they saw during the weird event.
“We better get a move on it. I really hope no one witnessed that little display. If someone did, we might be screwed,” Ben says and rushes to grab my arm and get everyone moving.
“Do you have any idea what just happened?” I ask sure that he is the only one in the group that has a clue.
“Sure. You are growing up. Weird stuff like that is going to be a common occurrence in your life from now on. I would just prefer it not happen on the sidewalk leading up to Firebreath's, at least not while we are hoping to get information from the people inside the building.”
“I hate to break it to you, but I have been grown-up for a while now. I know when I activated my genes weird abilities started happening, but that experience cannot be explained away by one of those abilities.”
“We should probably discuss it later, Nyx,” Alex says hurrying to reach my side and extract me from the demon. “Too many ears could be listening in.”
He is right, but I don't see how they can expect me to just let what happened slide. It looked to me like I somehow helped a woman find some kind of peace to cross over to whatever was awaiting her in the afterlife. That isn't something that happens every day and I am going to go out on a limb and claim that it doesn't happen to normal people ever.
There have been a few times over the past months that I wish I could go back to believing I was just a human. This one has jumped to the top of that list of times. Ben indicated more things like this might start happening and I am not looking forward to any of them.
“You guys should probably brace yourself for what you are about to experience. Do what I do,” Ben says and then waves his hand so what looks to be a portal of some kind opens in the ground in front of a headstone. He quickly hops into it and we take a second to look around at each other prior to us doing the same.
Alex has a firm grip on my hand as we start falling into the hole that keeps getting hotter as we go. The temperature is a bit worrisome. The feeling of needing to upchuck isn't any better. Right before I hit the ground, I decide this was a really big mistake. When I shake my head free of the cobwebs and focus on my surroundings, I am certain of that decision.
Chapter 10
Live nude girls
“Welcome to Hell, Buttercup,” a voice that sure sounds like Ben says. The problem with that thought is that the seven foot tall goat/human/hawk looking thing before me looks nothing like Ben. The goat parts seem to be limited to his legs, the torso and arms look humanoid, and he has the face of a hawk. So creepy. I call things creepy a lot, but this really does take the cake.
“First things first, you said Hell. Please tell me you are joking,” I say as I continue to try to figure out what exactly the being in front of me is. Squinting and tilting my head a little doesn’t help.
“Where do you expect a club for demons to hang out in to be located? We are lucky that there was a portal to it as close as the one we entered.” Watching his beak move as he talks to top things off is really bizarre.
“Don't you think you should have mentioned that before?” Alex asks and I can tell he is pissed. I am not quite to that level of madness, but an excursion to Hell was not on my calendar. “I am pretty sure a trip to Hell is a little bit hazardous to anyone's health.”
“She will be fine, wolfy. We already fixed her up, remember?” Ben says and moves to take my hand. I move my hand back and stare at him.
“In a totally humanoid form you would be still pushing it with that move. As you stand now, don't be getting too close,” I grip Alex's hand tighter since he has refused to let go and I am thankful for that.
“Darn. Forgot about that little detail. Glamours aren't allowed in the bar. A lot of demons move through here and we like to know who we are talking to. If a glamour is good enough, some of the weaker demons can be confused. There have also been cases where demons have pretended to be other demons and the cleanup from those messes took at least a week.”
“I vote for hurrying this thing along. It is unnaturally warm and I would prefer to get back topside as soon as possible,” Jonas offers and I concur. I had always hoped to pick up some SPF 1000 before taking a trip down under.
“We shouldn't be more than an hour. The heat won't kill any of you and if you ask me, they seem to have the air conditioning turned on. Oh, and I did try to talk Nyx into coming down with just wolfy, so you guys have her to blame for any discomfort.”
Yeah, yeah, it is always my fault. Maybe if he mentioned where we were really going, we could have spared some of the guys the trip. Then again, bringing backup into Hell is probably a good idea.
“Can you please lead on? The scenery is a little boring at this point.” Looking around we are in some kind of chamber that if I had to guess, looks like the inside of a volcano. That may just be the fact that it feels like we are inside of a volcano talking, but I don't think my assumption is that far off.
“We are already at our location. I put us in a little bubble when we arrived because I knew you would probably have something to say and I didn't want any prying ears to listen in. Am I safe to assume there will be no talk revealing Buttercup's secrets from now on?”
“Let's get this over with,” I say and try to brace myself for the sights I am about to see.
“I think it is nice down here, Mommy. Do you think we can come back after you find the stinky vampire?” Clyde asks and I am forced to roll my eyes. I shake my head not wanting to reply because I don't want to see Clyde pout. I know he can read my mind
so he knows my answer, but if I don't actively respond it makes it better somehow.
Ben pokes his finger at something I don't think the rest of us can see. The second he is done, the boring volcanic looking walls disappear and red lights are flashing in my face.
A giant sign that says Firebreath's is flashing above a wide and tall doorway. I am guessing it has to be that large for some of the weird creatures that want a peek inside. Another sign flashes below the club's name that indicates live nude girls are working tonight and whippings happen every thirty minutes.
Oh joyous day. I am surprised I have made it through my day so far without seeing live nude girls.
I look over at Alex, who is looking back at me with a smile on his face. The smile isn't because he is excited about seeing naked chicks. His smile is at witnessing whatever shock is about to come over my face when I see the naked chicks and anything else we come across after we walk through the doors.
I don't imagine whatever is back there is any more shocking than the things I have witnessed at Sins. I have been there when it wasn't Beginner's Night and I have seen the whips and chains and icicle dildos. I have seen a lot worse than those things, but those instances are the only ones I will let my mind officially recall. The time I walked in on 'Who's Your Daddy' Night is still trying to be washed from my mind.
Crap. Just as Ben goes to open the door I look over at Will and see that someone was smart enough to put one of the charms Hilda gave me to protect against succubi on him. Good. He is going to learn the really dark parts of the paranorm world soon enough. I don't want him stuck in one of their thralls just yet, and since he seemed like a horny little human, I doubt his libido is going to cool down anytime soon now that he is a vampire.
Looking back through the open doors, the scene before me isn't all that shocking. The bar has a couple of humanoid looking girls dancing on it without clothes. The only reason I am kind of certain they are female is because of their knockers, at least I am guessing that is what those things are. They aren't round like I am used to seeing. They are kind of weird tube-like things that curve like bananas. I hope the theory of demon women not having offspring is true because a baby would have a great deal of problems trying to suckle on those things.