by Logan Jacobs
I continued to sprint and pumped my arms faster to urge me forward, but even though my speed was twice what a mortal could manage, it didn’t matter. I had the beasts of the Hellscape after me, and they were just as fast. Every time I dodged a tree, ducked between a ragged home, or diverged from my path, the hounds were right there behind me. I was only getting deeper into the maze of the Shadow Quarters, and I had to think of another way to go.
That was when it hit me. If I couldn’t go forward, then I had to go up.
A low branch came up on my left, and as soon as I was able to, I grabbed it with both hands and swung myself up onto it. I was still at the perfect height for both the hounds and the huntress to snatch me, so I reached for the branch above my head and continued to climb.
Then I put all of my strength into my feet and lunged for the opposite tree. There was a roof of a raggedy house below me, but I made it safely across, and the hounds snarled as they began to force their weight against the trunk of the tree with the hopes to bring it to the ground.
But I was already one step ahead of them and the fucking tamer they came with.
The distance between this tree and the next was only a short step, and no roofs were below me this time.
I held one hand against the wood and felt my hell power vibrate as it rippled up my spine and down my arm. The tips of my fingers tingled as the current surged. The bark began to crack beneath my grasp, but I knew if I held on until the last possible second, I would gather the momentum I needed for what I was about to do.
Then the wood splintered, a deafening crack broke through the tree, and I lunged to the opposite branch before the entire thing went crashing down.
Wooden shrapnel pierced some of the hounds between the eyes and all over their foaming snouts. It wasn’t enough to kill them, but it was enough to throw them off my scent.
I leapt down from the tree and threw an earth-breaking punch to the ground. I watched in delight as the leaves and soil rippled from the aftershock, and the way the ground rolled almost reminded me of the sea on a stormy day, and how the waves crashed together and demolished everything in sight.
The Hellhounds stumbled and snarled in confusion, and the demon huntress was knocked to her knees from the force.
I took advantage of the distraction and made a run for it.
I weaved throughout the shoddy buildings and ducked under every gnarled branch in my way. I didn’t know where I was going, but I followed the beams of moonlight that broke through the canopy above. It sent a pale glow through the Shadow Quarters, and I was so distracted trying to maneuver my escape in the dappled surroundings that I didn’t realize how close I was getting to the edge of this quarter of the city.
Then I smelled the more saintly scents wafting from straight up ahead, and I quickly slowed my steps to a halt.
I couldn’t let this huntress herd me straight into the arms of the Church.
“Is that all you’ve got?” the Infernal Huntress leered from behind me. Her smoky voice sounded like the chirp of a heathen bird with an added decibel.
I snorted and turned around to face the woman. Her hounds were nowhere to be seen, so I assumed she sent them back to the Hellscape after I’d incapacitated their senses. It wasn’t like that bothered me, though. The huntress was less of a threat without her pack of mutts at her side.
“Lost your pups?” I asked with a shit-eating grin, and her eyes flared.
“The Lord Captains won’t be happy when they hear about the fight you put up,” the demon seethed.
“A fight?” I snickered. “You call that a fight?”
If she called that a fight, I was interested to see how she’d react to what I had up my sleeve.
Then the woman suddenly cooled her temper, slipped off her black cape, and allowed it to pool at her feet. This only made it easier to admire the way her pair of black leather boots clung to her long pale legs, and she even untied her silver-blue hair from the plaits and brushed out the curls with the tips of her slender fingers.
I knew she was intentionally trying to distract me with her delicious form. Most demon women were known to behave this way, but I didn’t particularly mind the ruse at the moment.
This Infernal Huntress provided a hell of a view.
The wild mess of her silver-blue hair complemented her sharply-defined facial features well, and I couldn’t help but notice the perfectly symmetrical curves of her body. Her pale bed of cleavage looked like the softest thing I’d seen in eons, and she was the perfect combination of painfully gorgeous, yet obviously lethal.
She even had a carelessness about her that made me want to defeat her all the more, and she locked her fingers together and then stretched her arms out in front of her until a satisfying crack came from the bones in her fingers.
“Don’t worry, I don’t necessarily have to kill you,” the huntress purred.
“Oh, no?” I asked as I eyed her skin-tight red corset. “What did you have in mind, then?”
“My orders are to bring your body back to the LC,” she confirmed with a wicked grin. “Alive or dead. But after seeing that handsome face of yours, I’d prefer alive.”
For a moment, I thought I recognized her smoky voice, but I was so used to the voices of demons around me that she could have been anyone. Her human form would resemble her demon one to some degree, but this still didn’t help. Beautiful and deadly females were prowling all over the Hellscape, and I was never allowed to touch a damn one of them outside of combat.
“Then I’m sorry, but the Lord Captains will be waiting a long time for either of us to return.” I grinned right back.
The demon woman stared directly at me, and her pink eyes narrowed at the threat. She raised her hands once again, but this time she didn’t have the Hellhounds to command. She curled her fingers gently, almost like the talons on a bird of prey, and then suddenly, a set of silver claws broke from the tips of her nail beds.
One side of her lips twisted into a smirk, and then a demon roar filled the air around us as she charged straight at me.
I dodged the claws she swung at my face and threw a punch into her stomach. The power ricocheted throughout her body, and she stumbled back to regain her balance.
In the short few seconds she was distracted, I grabbed the branch above my head and ripped it straight from the tree. I wished I had the glaive or the flail I’d purchased earlier, but I worked with what I had.
The woman recovered from the blow to the stomach and attempted another swipe of her claws. I whipped the branch around to try and break the hand right off her wrist, but she caught the wood with her spare hand. Then the two of us fought over the stupid piece of wood, and I dodged her claws while she dodged my punches.
After nearly a minute of this, a ferocious snarl rolled from behind her teeth, and her bright pink eyes appeared to darken from the exasperation that pulsed through her body.
Then I swiftly kicked her in the shins, and her knees buckled as she dropped to the ground. Her hand slipped from the branch, and with it back in my control again, I took a few steps back and held the tip of the branch poised to strike her skull.
I didn’t necessarily want to kill this demon, but I’d do what I had to if she stood in the way of my freedom, and I could tell by her face that she knew it.
The huntress kept eye contact with me as she slowly stood to her full height again. She took one step forward as I took one step back, and I saw the excitement and the hunger in her eyes. She was clearly relishing the chance to test her skills on a challenging opponent, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see what she had in her.
“Let’s see what you’ve got, runaway,” the Infernal Huntress taunted with a cocky grin. “You must have known you wouldn’t get far.”
“Oh, I can run a lot more, and I plan to,” I coolly replied.
The demon’s pink eyes flared at the challenge, and I could tell she was still pissed off I didn’t fall to her hounds. All these tamers were the same about their mu
tts.
“You’ll never run again when I’m finished with you,” she responded in a smokey snarl. “This time, your handsome face won’t save you.”
The huntress held her hands to the sky with her fingers silhouetted by the moonlight, and the long, silver claws protruding from the tips started to drip with a glistening black substance.
Infernal Venom. I should have guessed with a voice like hers.
I felt the energy of my own hell power pulsing through my hands as I prepared to fight, but she made the first move.
The demon woman flew at me with a speed I hadn’t experienced in a long time, and I threw myself to the left to dodge her venom claws. Her movements defied the tight corset dress she had on as she flipped in the air to snatch at my neck, and as I ducked and rolled, I noticed she moved with the fluidity of a well-trained minion.
The huntress’ beauty was absolute, yet terrifying to behold, and my blood heated as she came after me with everything she had in her.
I was still a fraction faster than her, and as she lunged at me again, I punched the nearest tree and rolled away. The wood cracked on impact, and the tree fell toward her, but she evaded it at the last moment.
Then the trunk and gnarled limbs shattered across the ground, and I heard some muffled scolding from the residents of this street. None of them came out to tell us off to our faces, though, so I guessed it was just another rough night in the Shadow Quarters for the beings on this side of town.
“That’s a nice trick,” the demon woman muttered as she paced a circle around the debris.
“Nice nails,” I replied.
“Thanks!” she hissed. “Bring that pretty face over here, and I’ll give you a closer look.”
As I turned around from behind the next tree, she faced me and suddenly slashed violently at my throat. My instincts kicked in just in time, and I was able to dodge every wild swing she threw at me in rapid succession. I ducked and wove as a confetti of tree bark flew through the air from the strikes of her dripping claws, but then I punched the ground beneath her, and she was taken off her feet.
I strolled forward with a heated cast in my violet eyes, but before I could reach down and drag her to her feet, I heard a gasp nearby.
I whipped my gaze toward the end of the street, and right beyond the bounds of the Shadow Quarters, a carriage had pulled to a stop.
This one wasn’t gilded, but it did have an aged man inside who wore soft white robes and a cap I recognized the cut of. It was a deacon of the Church, and while he gaped from the window of his carriage, his driver looked like he’d seen a ghost.
Or more specifically, two fucking demons battling it out in the Port of Rengfri.
The Infernal Huntress leapt back to her feet to come after me, and her demon growl echoed around us just before I caught her throat in a vise grip to silence her. Then I threw her clear across the street, dove after her, and narrowly dodged her incoming claws.
“Run!” I growled as I ducked into the shadows.
“Not that easy to shake me,” she hissed and clamored to her feet.
“No, seriously, run,” I ordered. “That deacon’s got his eyes on us.”
The demon woman threw her head back and laughed, but I wasn’t wasting another second. I punched her straight in the chest, caught her on her fall, and dragged her with me back down the shadowy road. She snarled and tried to slash at me with her claws the whole time, but I gritted my teeth against the burning of her venom in my skin.
I could only withstand it long enough to get her around the corner, and then I summoned all my strength and threw her down the block as a last-ditch effort to keep her from the deacon’s gaze.
I wasn’t even surprised when the huntress landed on her feet, and she sprinted headlong at me for another round.
“Shit,” I growled.
I took another swing to try and throw her off, but this time, she expected it.
The demon woman flipped over my head as I swung and missed. Then she darted around, and as I tried to track her path, a sharp pain shot through my leg as she slid in and caught me with the heel of her black leather boot.
I grimaced as her wicked laugh pierced the air, but I didn’t mind the sound. It only made my senses tingle near the back of my neck in a very enjoyable way, and I chuckled a bit before I took another swing at her knee. Then I brought her down on top of me, wrapped my legs around her midsection, and rolled us both over to give me the high ground as I mounted her.
“We’ve only just started, runaway,” the huntress growled with a devious smile. “This feels too soon, no?”
“Don’t tempt me, huntress,” I growled back. “I’ve been watching your kind stalk around me for eons, and my patience has been short lately.”
I pinned her arms back with all my strength, and I could see the venom oozing from the tips of her silver claws as she struggled back. The infernal current pulsing through my arms was keeping her subdued, though, and she weakened her grip as she quickly tired out.
Then the devious woman snapped her teeth within an inch of my lips, and as I jolted back, she slipped through my grasp. I shot to my feet to find her swaying on her high-heeled boots, and I could tell she was still feeling the effects of the current in her nerves.
“Are we done?” I asked.
Instead of answering, the huntress kicked me in the midriff and slashed at me with her silver claws, but I swiftly wound up one last punch that hit her square in the ribs, and the force knocked us both off our feet.
I hit the ground with a shattering shock to my spine. I was exhausted and twitching from the aftermath of the blow I’d delivered, and the huntress panted heavily beside me and struggled to catch her breath. I turned my head and saw her jolting from the aftermath of the strike, and her pink eyes could hardly stay open.
“Call it a draw?” I wheezed.
“Never,” she croaked between pained breaths, and I couldn’t help chuckling at her stubborn drive.
“You can’t even stand,” I snorted.
“Give me a minute,” she whimpered.
“Tell you what,” I sighed. “You can get me next time. Clench your jaw and breathe through your nose. The shockwave will wear off faster that way.”
The Infernal Huntress let out a low growl at my words, but I glanced over again and saw her taking my advice. What surprised me more than this was how quickly the tactic worked, and in under a minute, she seemed almost unfazed by the attack.
I narrowed my eyes.
This woman was stronger than just any huntress a Lord Captain would send out with hounds, and it made me wonder if maybe she wasn’t just a mutt tamer after all. Perhaps the Lord Captain sent another Squadron Commander to come up and do his dirty work. This would explain why I struggled to defeat her, but also why she struggled to defeat me.
The Hellscape had a hierarchy that we all had to follow. The Dark King stood at the top, of course, with hundreds of Lord Admirals, Lord Generals, Lord Captains, and then the Squadron Commanders and the lower ranking minions below them, in that order. The Hellscape was so vast, with so many voids to maintain, it was impossible to keep all the ranking minions straight if you weren’t the Dark King himself.
“Are you a Squadron Commander?” I asked as I got up off the ground.
“I thought you would have known that already.” The demon woman grinned up at me as she managed to sit upright again. “That son of a bitch could have at least warned me.”
The gold shackle around her upper arm glistened in the moonlight, and the emblem of the Dark King looked as though it was mocking me by being clamped to such a beautiful opponent. But I had to hand it to the huntress, not many minions would badmouth a Lord Captain with the shackle around their arm.
If any of the LC’s were paying attention, they’d have heard every word this huntress said since the moment she portaled to the surface world.
“Warned you of what?” I asked.
“That I was here to retrieve you,” she laughed humorlessly. “Had
I known it was ‘the Atticus’ I was after, I would have told him to pick someone else.”
“You have heard of me?”
“Everyone has heard of you,” she sighed. “And let me tell you, if word of your escape gets to the Dark King, he’ll be furious.”
I tried my best to hide the smug expression on my face, but it wasn’t easy when she’d made me appear so impressive. It still didn’t mean that I could trust her, but I’d take a compliment from a beautiful demon if it was offered.
“What exactly were you told by your Lord Captain?” I questioned.
“Just that one of our own hadn’t returned, and I had to do the honors of retrieving him.” The huntress shrugged.
“That’s it?” I snorted, and the demon woman nodded.
It surprised me she wasn’t told the severity of the mission because Squadron Commanders were usually given a fair amount of the details whenever they had to go anywhere. This made me wonder if there was a reason behind the lack of names and places, but then I furrowed my brow.
“Wait, how do you know I am Atticus?” I asked. “You said they didn’t tell you who you were after, but you have said you have heard of me, and I didn’t give you my name.”
The huntress let out another wicked chuckle and rested back on her hands, and I felt the same tingling sensation on the back of my neck at the sound.
“We met once before,” she said. “You don’t remember me?”
“Hmmm…” I frowned.
I had achieved a lot in my existence, and it wasn’t like I could recall all of the missions I had been on in that time. Then the demon woman said one word, and it brought a flood of memories back to me.
“Rannicor,” the huntress murmured.
That one name, one city, changed everything in that moment.
Perhaps I could recall some things after all, but this had been centuries ago. Maybe longer.
Still, I had visions of the Hellhounds as they made light work of the mortals. This same demon woman and I worked well as a team to rid Rannicor of the evil that encompassed it. The mortals tried to take us down, but their feeble weapons were nothing compared to the powers we held, as well as the strength and the hell weapons we had at hand. Afterward, we were drenched in blood, siphoning bodies together, and chuckling over our heated success. Minutes later, we were sent back to our voids, so it was no surprise I hadn’t seen her since then.