“By somebody you mean a demon?”
“Yes. They are somebody, you know.”
“Well, I meant… demons have wives?”
“Well, yeah, except for sex demons, which I don’t know that they really exist. I’ve heard stories, but I’ve never actually seen one.” He looked back over his shoulder. “You thought all demons were single?”
“I guess I never had any reason to give it much thought. Until recently, I thought all demons were just mythic characters, maybe even asexual.”
He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her. “Really?”
Looking up at Brave she had to smile at the way he’d screwed up his face. “Yeah. Really.” She looked past him and then at the fading light on the horizon. “How much longer?”
He pointed. “You see where the edge of the cliff seems to disappear behind those trees?”
“Yes.”
“When we get closer, you’ll see that it doesn’t disappear. It bends back behind that stand of trees. The building that I’m hoping is still there should be sitting on the bluff overlooking the valley.”
“But if it’s a place demons use when they’re in the rain or the doghouse, how can we be safe there?”
“Doghouse?”
“A place where husbands go when they get kicked out.”
“Oh. As soon as we get to the trees, I’m going to leave you hidden and go check it out. I’ll make sure it’s safe and then come back for you.”
By the time they reached the trees, the light was all but gone. Brave tucked her behind a large tree trunk a few yards inside the tree line.
“Brave.” She grabbed at his arm and looked around nervously.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t leave me here long,” she whispered it like she didn’t want the trees to hear her say it.
He smiled and pushed her hair back from her face. “You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?”
“In a strange demon world where I have no idea what’s going to happen next? Yes. Yes, I am.”
Brave leaned in and she felt the warm breath from his chuckle on her cheek. “I won’t leave you, Lana. I’ll be right back. Be brave.”
Then he was gone.
CHAPTER 3
At first she was grateful to be sitting down, but after a while the muscle soreness was replaced with a growing awareness by her back that she was leaning against tree bark and a growing awareness that her ass was trying to conform to uneven ground covered with a variety of hard pointy objects like stones and twigs. When she shifted she found that relieving the pressure where indentations had been made in her flesh only made them hurt more as the skin tried to plump itself out and restore normalcy. All she succeeded in doing was adding a new wave of sensory protests to the stings and pricks that were already there. But that concern was replaced by one more compelling once the light disappeared altogether.
There were sounds nearby that she was certain had not been there before. Some were indistinguishable, barely audible swishes or clicks or tweets. She tried to be as still and quiet as possible, but the unknown, paired with darkness began to play with her mind. She imagined some of her worst fears, like snakes, for instance. She tried to regulate her breathing, but the more she thought about it, the more it sped up until she was almost panting.
When Brave’s hands gripped her arms to pull her up to a standing position, she yelled out. He gathered her close, putting strong arms around her and she clung to his body like a lifeline even though she was embarrassed about being so jumpy.
“Here,” Brave soothed as he rubbed his cheek affectionately against the top of her head. “I’m right here. I told you I wouldn’t leave you. Have a little faith in me.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“For what?”
“For yelling like a scared little girl.”
In the dense shadows Brave’s voice was low and sounded raspy. “We all get scared sometimes, Lana. You never have to be sorry for that.”
Her eyes closed. She let the comfort of his nearness seep in and began to relax. When he started to pull away, she had to force herself to turn loose and let him go.
He took hold of her hand. “Here. Hold on. Can you not see at all?”
“Apparently not as well as you. And you’re also really quiet when you want to be.”
“My friend, Perry, and I hunt together sometimes.”
“Hmmm.”
“What’s hmmm?”
“Well, I guess I don’t know much about demons, but I thought they all had names that were more ostentatious.”
Brave chuckled. “I guess they do, now that you mention it. His real name is Peregrination.”
“That’s quite a name. What does it mean?”
“Traveler, I think. We’re here.”
Lana could see a small light in the window of a ramshackle place that might loosely be called a cabin. Brave opened the door and she stepped inside. The light was too dim for her to see much, but she could tell that calling the place rustic would be overly flattering.
Brave moved toward a narrow cot, which appeared to be the only furniture useable for sleeping. He lifted the mattress and turned it over.
“There,” he said. “At least it won’t be dusty.” He looked at her and nodded toward the cot. “Sit down. I’ll see if there’s anything to eat.”
“Drink. I’m thirsty.”
“That I can do. Well water comes in over there. See? There’s a pump. Hold on.”
He strode to the contraption in the corner, grabbed the arm, swiveled it toward a half barrel and began to pump. When water spouted, she could have cried. She rushed toward the cup he was rinsing and had her hands outstretched when he filled it.
“Thank you.” She took it and gulped it down in seconds, then handed it back to him.
He smiled. “More?”
“Yes. But you first.”
He downed a cup even faster than she had, then filled it again for her. They continued taking turns until they were both satisfied.
Brave found another larger light that also seemed to operate on battery power.
“Let’s see if anybody left us anything to eat.”
Lana stepped toward the cupboard closest to her. “Here. Let me help you look.”
When she opened it, a five-foot snake fell onto the counter and she screamed bloody murder. Brave calmly walked over, grabbed the snake by the neck or, rather, behind its head, took it outside and let it go. When he returned, Lana was standing on top of the cot looking around with wild eyes.
He didn’t want to laugh. He tried not to laugh, but he lost the battle.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me, Brave. That snake was huge! And there could be more.”
“Let me guess. You’re afraid of snakes.”
“I’m terrified of snakes.”
“Well, in that case,” he was sounding patronizing, “I’m going to give the place a thorough going over, while you watch me, and make sure that was the only one.” She nodded enthusiastically. “And then you’ll come down from there and relax. Right?” She looked dubious. “Okay, then. One step at a time.”
Brave went through every nook and cranny, looked under things, lifted things and looked behind until she was satisfied that the cabin was snakeless.
“Good?”
She nodded. “Thank you. I’m starting to think I got lucky when the demons put me in a dungeon cell with you.”
Brave walked to where she stood on the cot, encircled her waist and lifted, letting her body slide down his until her feet touched the floor. “You’re so wrong, Lana. I’m the lucky one.”
She snorted. “You’re being generous. You’re brave and I’m high maintenance.”
“Worth it.”
His voice was low and his lips were close, but she didn’t think an escape was the right setting for a date. So she looked for a distraction.
Turning her head toward the row of cupboards, she said, “Did I see food in one of those?”
�
��Um, yeah.” He followed her line of sight. “It may not be a feast, but…”
“I’ll take it.”
So they ate tiny, smelly fishes from a tin and something that tasted like shortbread from a canister. Brave told her it was two more days to the port where he could get passage with magic tricks, but that it wasn’t all going to be easy like the day they’d just had.
“You call this easy?”
He chuckled. “Everything is relative. Right? I guess what I’m trying to say is that we need to sleep while we can.”
Lana looked at the cot made for one. “What’s your plan?”
“Well, first, I’m going to turn out the light. I think we’re safe, but it wouldn’t be in our best interest to advertise our position. You will lie down on your side. I will lie down behind you and keep you warm. In a little while, it will get cooler and we’ll both be glad we have each other.”
Lana thought about making a smart remark, but her mind had stuttered on the phrase “glad we have each other”. That’s what she had once thought about Stuart – that they had each other. She was so wrong.
That line of thinking came to an abrupt halt when Brave put out the light and carefully spooned with her, pressing his body into hers so that it would have been impossible not to notice the growing erection that prodded from behind. Not to mention Brave’s struggle to control the impulse to respond by moving his hips. Lana held perfectly still so as not to make an awkward situation worse with unintentional teasing, but she had her own struggle with controlling the natural response impulse of the interested female - to squirm a little.
Shortly the events claimed their toll. Her eyelids were refusing to stay open when she heard Brave’s breathing even out and felt the heaviness of the relaxed weight of his arm slung protectively over her body.
Sometime during the night she woke and realized that she was getting stiff from lying on one side too long without changing positions. She put her hand on Brave’s forearm and shook lightly while whispering, “Brave? Brave?”
“Hmmm.” His answer was as much a sleep growl as anything.
“I need to turn over.”
His arm lifted away and she had the impression that he was rubbing his hand over his face. “Alright. On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
They turned over in unison, since there wasn’t room for anything else. Lana’s body nestled into Brave’s back like it was made for that purpose. He reached behind him and felt around for her hand. When he found it, he brought her arm over his body and placed it on his chest, covered by his own. In seconds he was asleep again, leaving Lana to savor the feel of the warmth that Brave’s body radiated against her entire length from breast to knee.
She was sore and tired and still plagued by the smell of sulfur that had permeated their hair and clothes. But in defiance of all that makes sense, she felt happy, more at peace than she’d been in a very long time.
“Lana.” She felt herself being roused, but resisted, moaning a protest. “Lana. I hear something. We’ve got to go.”
After a second, Brave’s words penetrated. She came fully awake and sat up. “Where? What? Okay.” She pulled herself up hoping that all her body’s systems were checking in and on board with a rushed and anxious rising.
He was already at the door, still looking sleepy himself. “Come.” He motioned for her to move quicker.
The sky was pink, but the sun wasn’t yet up.
He led her away from the way they’d come. She heard the bark howling that they’d run from the day before.
“Is that the, um…?”
“Straithgard. Yes.”
They moved into deeper thicket, but within a few yards it gave way to a darker forest with a bare hard packed floor. The trees were so tall it was impossible to see the tops, only seemingly endless stretches of black smooth tree trunk. The starkness of it was eerie and foreboding and Lana’s intuition was screaming in protest of venturing further.
“Brave, I have a bad feeling about this place.”
He stopped and looked at her. “I know. I’m hoping the straithgard feel the same way.”
“What are they exactly? You said canines. Like dogs or wolves?”
“Yes. Bigger and their fangs are… more impressive, I think.”
After mulling that picture over in her mind, she decided she would rather face Maleficent’s Dark Wood. “Okay. Let’s go.”
The sounds of straithgard on the hunt became fainter the deeper they went, which meant that Brave’s strategy was sound. But the tension that lingered in the air came from reasoning that the straithgard wouldn’t refuse to enter unless there was a good reason.
Within ten minutes that reason presented itself. At first Lana thought she was seeing things. When presented with something impossible, the mind tries to make sense of it according to its understanding of the parameters of reality and the operations of physics. When nothing fits, there’s a delay in between perception, terror, and fight or flight.
She blinked a few times when it looked like a black blob of ooze separated itself from a tree trunk and began wiggle-flopping its way in her direction with squishing sounds. She grabbed onto Brave with a death grip, but couldn’t get her vocal chords to respond to the scream she wanted to release. If the thing had a face or any orifices at all, she couldn’t locate them, which was somehow worse than encountering a gaping maw of sharp teeth.
By the time Brave had turned to witness what she was seeing, there were more of them pouring out of tree trunks.
All her life Lana had read about people being so frightened that they were shaking all over, but she’d never experienced it before. She knew that, if she somehow managed to survive the predicament, she would never forget the discomfort of that feeling.
With his gift for being succinct when necessary, Brave simply said, “Run.”
He grabbed her hand and she did just that being helped along by the pull of his strength and greater speed. When it seemed their path was blocked, with no way out, he said, “Jump!”
Lana looked at the width and breadth of the thing that had dropped to ooze along the ground and knew she had no choice but to try to launch herself and fly over it. Just before she reached the thing she bent her knees and sprang aloft with all her might.
Brave had cleared it easily, looking like the male lead in the last act of Swan Lake. There was nothing graceful about Lana’s attempt, but she was close. So close. And for a moment she thought she might make it, but her right foot landed in a pile of goo with a loud squish. Worse, the thing she stepped on let out a sound like a marriage between an out of tune oboe and a squeak.
She wanted to stop and look at her boot, certain it would be covered with disgusting black slime, but that would have to wait for a more opportune time.
They ran until her heart felt like it would burst. But before that happened, they emerged from the Dark Wood onto a grassy bluff with rock face cliffs that dropped to the river valley below.
Leaning over with lungs dragging in air, Lana said between pants, “What were those horribly ugly black things?”
Brave gave a small shrug. “Horribly ugly black things? That’s as good a name as any.”
She glared. “So you don’t know. Just say you don’t know.”
“I do know. They’re horribly ugly black things.”
She rolled her eyes. “I have to pee.”
“But…”
She turned a look on Brave that caused him to close his mouth and hold up his hands in surrender.
“Turn around.”
“Oh come on. Seriously?” Something in her unwavering expression told him she was, indeed, serious. “Have it your way. I need to go, too.” He emphasized the word ‘go’ to make a point that he was endeavoring to use language that made her feel comfortable. “I’ll go over there.” He pointed a few yards away. “You go over there.” He pointed to a group of compact bushes that almost looked like a hedge.
“And don’t turn around until I say okay.”
“Don’t set anything on fire.”
“Oh funny! Very funny!”
Lana found a place that was as suitable as could be found under the circumstances and cursed Brave under her breath for his ability to pee without compromising his clothing and becoming utterly vulnerable.
She had a fantasy vision of a hot bath with whirlpool jets, shampoo, sheep’s wool soap between her toes and clean clothes laid out for her pleasure. She sighed and pulled up her tights, feeling both disgusting and miserable. She had the random thought that she would almost be willing to fall into cold water in exchange for a feeling of cleanliness of body and clothing.
“Okay. I’m done,” she said.
Brave was coming toward her. “Good, because we need to…”
There was no need to finish that sentence. They both heard the ugly-sounding baying of straithgard at the same time.
“Where to now?”
Brave stopped long enough to take a good look at Lana. She was a mess – unkempt, tired, dirty and a dozen other adjectives that would describe a condition no one wants to experience. She eyed him warily, wondering why he was looking at her so intently.
“Lana,” he said quietly. “You’re not only beautiful. You’re magnificent.”
After blinking twice, she looked down and rubbed her hands down the front of her rumpled, torn clothing. “Are you making fun of me, Brave?”
He looked surprised. “No.” He shook his head adamantly. “No. I’m just telling you what I see.”
His attention was diverted by the growl-howling, the sound of which was getting stronger.
“Are we out of moves?”
He looked at Lana and grinned. “Not nearly. Let’s go.”
Following Brave around the curve of the bluff and leaving the stand of trees further behind with every step, they were getting farther away from the horribly ugly black things, but the straithgard were getting closer.
She realized that Brave had brought them to a bend in the river that formed a narrow gorge. The distance between the two rock formations that formed the sides of the gorge was relatively close together, which meant that the water below was running very fast, fast enough to create a roar. The closer they got to it, the more difficult it was to hear anything else, which is never a good thing when you’re running for your life.
Prince of Demons 1-3, Box Set Page 14