by G. Bailey
“After you,” I say, waving my hand at the door. Connor runs into it first, then Nix and Trex.
“I’m going last,” Azi tells me, and I don’t bother arguing with him, running towards the portal and jumping in, feeling the fire burn all over me, and then I’m just falling.
Evie
I land with a roll when I fall out of the portal, and bump into someone, knocking myself onto my side. I sit up, seeing Connor on the floor, shaking his head as he gets up. Nix and Trex are slowly standing up, looking a bit dazed, but at least they didn’t break anything on the floor. I stand up quickly, loading my arrow into my bow and looking around while they aren’t focused. Travelling great distances in portals can make you feel a little drunk sometimes, and I’ve travelled so many it doesn’t bother me anymore. I doubt it will bother Azi, either, when he gets his ass down here. I look around, not seeing anyone or anything near us. It’s just snow, and the mountains behind us. I turn around when I hear a loud bang, to see Azi land, kneeling down, and he rises up with a grin.
“Where to next?” Connor asks, walking over to me. He wipes snow out of his hair as the others come over.
“See the mountains there,” I point to them as I speak. “They have the entrance to the next layer. It’s not going to be easy to get to them, but once we are inside it’s only demons we have to deal with,” I tell them, and they give me a confused look.
“The souls here are the worst of any souls. They are stuck here for their actions in their lives, and the demons usually feed off them until they fade away. They aren’t like souls on earth, who have to put a lot of energy into just moving a flower pot or something,” I explain.
“And the good souls? What happens to them? Are they here?” Nix asks.
“Truly good souls never come to hell. Souls that are neutral are taken to the second layer, and reborn,” Azi explains for me, and Nix nods, looking away sharply. What was that about?
“Let’s go, it’s going to take us at least seven hours on foot to reach the mountains. And that’s only if we don’t find any trouble,” I say, putting my bow back on my back and walking ahead. We walk in silence for about an hour, and I’m impressed how the Protectors keep up with me. They don’t complain about the climbing in the snow, or the fact the temperature is dropping every hour, making it freeze. The snow is beginning to freeze over and become hard to walk on. Nix catches up to me, while the others are closer together just behind us.
“Can I ask you something, love?” Nix asks, grabbing my arm when I nearly slip on some ice. I pull my arm away, meeting his light-green eyes that don’t seem to have a motive.
“I might answer, so you might as well ask,” I reply eventually.
“How old were you when you killed someone for the first time?” he asks.
“Why? Do you want to know how long I’ve been a monster for?” I snap out in reply, and he shakes his head, his black hair moving with him and getting some of the snow out of it.
“If killing as a child, when you had no choice, makes you a monster . . . well that makes me one, too,” he admits, making me pause for second, and look at him.
“How old were you?” I ask.
“Five. I killed my father,” he responds in a cold tone. I knew there was something dark about him, this kind of explains some things.
“Why?” I reply.
“For beating up and killing my mother. He was about to kill Trex, holding a dagger dripping with my mother’s blood to his throat. I picked up one of his daggers off the floor, where he had dropped it, and slammed it into his cold, dead heart,” he tells me the story like it isn’t something that happened to him. Like there is no emotion other than shock he can have for the story. That must be his way of coping, pretending that his past happened to someone else. I don’t blame him.
“You don’t seem to regret it,” I reply.
“I don’t,” he says firmly.
“You shouldn’t, and I am sorry,” I tell him honestly.
“I told you. Now, shouldn’t you tell me your story in return, love?” he asks. I want to ignore him, but something makes me speak instead.
“I was eight, older than you,” I start off.
“Who was it?” he asks.
“A Protector. I had left the demon compound, ignoring my friend’s advice, and thinking I knew better. Thinking I was safe . . . but I wasn’t. He was waiting for me,” I say, trying to forget the fear I felt when the Protector caught me, slammed me onto the floor, holding a dagger to my neck. I wasn’t a fighter back then, just a scared child.
“How did an eight-year-old beat an adult Protector?” he enquires.
“My friend was a witch, and a smart one. She was older than me, eighteen at the time I was attacked. She just got her power and followed me to make sure I was safe for the night. She used her gifts to hold the Protector down, and I killed him with the dagger he tried to kill me with,” I tell him, trying to keep any emotion out of my voice. She also suggested leaving my rune name on him as a way of scaring the other Protectors away. It became a thing I just did after a while.
“Where is your friend now?” Nix asks.
“She died,” I reply simply, still missing her with every single part of me, and I can’t even say her name now. It hurts too much. I stop dead in my tracks, hearing a slight sound, seconds before over twenty souls rush at us from all directions. We walked straight into a soul trap. The souls look almost see through, but any weapon with silver on it will kill them. Luckily all my weapons have silver, but this is a lot of them, and not enough of us.
“Weapons, now!” I shout, pulling my bow off and grabbing an arrow. Nix does the same, and we start firing instantly. I hit three souls before they get too close and whack the nearest one with the end of my bow when it runs for me. I grab a dagger out of my belt, slamming it into the soul of what looks like a burnt body as it runs at me. I turn around, just in time to see Trex slam his axe over the head of a soul.
“Shit, there are too many. It’s like they have gathered up to find us and trap us,” I mutter, grabbing the hand of the soul that grabs for me, and flipping it over my shoulder, slamming my dagger into it as it lands. I jump up, looking around, and seeing nothing but souls. More and more are running towards us, far more than the twenty we started with. Crap a doodle.
“Azi!” I shout at him, seeing him holding two souls in his hands, and he is burning them. He quickly kills them, looking over at me, and then to the army surrounding us.
“Alright,” he shouts. “Cover me!”
“Everyone cover Azi, and jump into the flame portal he makes!” I tell them, neglecting to mention that it hurts like hell to go through a demon portal. It will likely knock us all out, including Azi for holding it open so long. The guys do as I ask, and I pull another arrow out, shooting soul after soul as I back up. I get to Azi’s side just as he opens the fire portal, which looks just like a wall of flames. Connor gives me a wide-eyed look, and I don’t have time to look at the others as a soul runs at Nix, catching him off guard, and biting his arm. He swears, pulling the soul off of him, and I shoot the soul with an arrow. He holds his arm as he backs towards the portal and jumps in with a nod at me.
“Jump in Connor, Trex! Azi can’t hold it for long!” I say, knowing I’m close to leaving their asses here. Connor jumps in, and Trex kills two more souls with his axe before jumping.
“Now, Vi!” Azi says, sweat pouring down his forehead, and his red eyes blazing. I put my finger to my blue rune, calling my holy fire and make a wall of it in front of us, seeing the souls run towards the holy fire, and burning themselves. I turn around, and run into the portal, feeling like every part of me is burning before I land somewhere cold, then black out.
Evie
“Evie . . .” I hear my friend speak, her words filled with shock as I pull the dagger out of the chest of the Protector on the floor.
“He was waiting for me in here, he knew I would come to see you today and get food,” I say with a shaky voice, my hand drop
ping the dagger onto the floor as I realise what I’ve done. I’ve killed him.
“Don’t you dare feel guilty, not for this. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to protect you,” she says, coming over to me.
“Why do they keep coming for me? Why am I not safe anywhere? I thought this place was safe?” I ask. I was lucky to kill this one, and if I hadn’t been training with the old demon I found to help me, I wouldn’t have lived. I’m also lucky the Protector slipped on the spilt coke on the floor, dropping his dagger, and I could kill him before he could stand up.
“I thought the same, but it’s not. We will move to another place,” she states, holding her hands on her hips and staring at the dead Protector.
“I can just leave, you don’t have to move because of me. If I’m not here, they won’t come after you,” I say, trying not to look as upset as I feel.
“I’m not leaving an eight-year-old on the streets while she is hunted by monsters. Even a smart eight-year-old like you,” she says, tutting like she does when she isn’t happy.
“But you’re a witch, you can’t leave your people,” I say, and all the witches live in this demon underground. They own the section my friend lives in.
“I have no living family, and I’m a teacher, I can get a job anywhere,” she reminds me, and I nod, biting my lip. “The witches won’t miss me, don’t worry.”
“What should we do with him?” I ask, knowing we can’t just leave him here. My friend picks a drawing up off the side, the drawing of my rune name I drew earlier today when I was bored.
“We leave this, a warning for whoever is after you,” she says, leaning down and placing the drawing on his chest. “Now help me pack our stuff, and no more living on the streets for you. You can hide with me, and we will figure something out. I’m tired of letting you walk out that door for nights on end and waiting for you to come back, Evie.”
“You’re like the only real family I’ve ever had,” I say quietly.
“Not ‘like’, we are family,” she says, pulling me into her arms and kissing my forehead. “You won’t be alone ever again, Evie.”
“Vi, wake up,” Azi’s voice comes through a haze, and I blink my eyes open, seeing that my head is in his lap, and his hand is gently stroking my cheek. For a second, I forget what happened in the past, only seeing his handsome features, the red eyes that would scare most, but not me. They never scared me. I liked the darkness. The emotion I see in his eyes, but I’m not sure if it’s real, and I don’t know if I can look away. “Vi, I never meant to hurt you. It was always you for me, from the moment I met you here. Let me explain that night.”
“Azi,” I whisper gently, and the sound of a male groan snaps me out of whatever that was, and I jump off his lap, ignoring his annoyed glare. I can’t risk letting him close like that again, this is a job, that’s all. That was stupid, Evie. I pull myself to my feet, looking around at the small cave we are in; the snow just outside the entrance. By the looks of the trail of snow, Azi dragged us in here from outside. I look over to see Trex waking up, shaking his head, looking dazed. Where the hell are we?
“I’m going to get some wood, or anything we can use. I checked the cave while I waited for you to wake up, and it is safe. It’s night, and we aren’t going anywhere until morning,” he pauses. “We are at the bottom of the mountain to answer your unsaid question,” Azi says, pulling his cloak around him, and walking out of the cave without another word.
“What happened?” Connor mumbles, sitting up–his gold hair sticking up all over the place, and he has mud all over his cheek. He rubs his face, glancing at his friends and pulling his bag off his back, getting out a drink. Trex is still struggling to come around, rubbing his face with his hands. I try to hide my smile when he looks my way, but he sees it, anyway. I chuckle and look back at Connor.
“Demon portals aren’t made for anything other than demons. When our kind travels through, it knocks us out. It can kill humans if they travel too far in them,” I tell him as he drinks some water and shakes his head at me.
“You could have mentioned that before we went through the portal!” Trex snaps, going over to his brother, and shaking his shoulder. Nix groggily slaps Trex’s hand away as he wakes up, looking around the room and falling back with a dramatic tired groan.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Next time, I will leave you with the souls and let them eat you, you ungrateful asshole!” I snap right back at Trex, and his eyes burn with hate and anger as he stands up to walk over, but Connor slides in front of him.
“She is right, we didn’t have a choice and would be dead if Azi hadn’t opened the portal. Let’s make camp, rather than try to kill each other. We have enough dangers here that are trying to kill us. Remember why we are here, Trex,” Connor suggests, but Trex doesn’t take his angry eyes off me.
“Fine,” he finally says, turning around, and going over to his brother. At least the asshole listens to someone. I take my bag off, pulling out my blanket first and putting it on the ground. I lay my weapons next to it, keeping my daggers on my thighs just in case.
“He isn’t waking up,” I hear Trex say, and I look over to see him shaking Nix’s shoulder, and Connor kneeling down next to them. Shit, he got bit.
“He was bit by a soul on his arm,” I say, standing up, “Nix needs the poison sucked out, and the wound disinfected,” I tell them, and they both shoot their eyes to me.
“Sucked out?” Trex asks with a disgusted frown.
“Boys,” I roll my eyes at them and walk over, nudging Connor out of the way. I go to lift Nix’s arm, but Trex grabs my wrist stopping me. I look up, meeting his dark-green eyes. “Why can’t you use your white rune to heal him?”
“Runes don’t work on the dead, or anything they infect. I know this, I’m certain that he will die unless we get the poison out,” I tell him firmly. I’ve seen it happen so many times in the demon underground. People who went to hell for whatever reason, and escaped with bites, thinking they were free. This is the only way to save people, the only way I’ve seen work. I was lucky demons found me when I fell into the hell, and the souls didn’t get near me. Not that what the demons did was any better, I remember praying for death at times, and the souls could have given me that.
“I can help, I want to help him . . . so let me?” I ask him, as gently as I can make myself speak. He watches me for a second, before letting go.
“If my brother dies, I will hold you responsible,” he growls.
“I get it. I’m pretty sure this is the second time you have threatened to kill me, and yet, here I am. If I was going to betray you, I would have by now,” I tell him, looking down at Nix’s arm, and pulling the sleeve up. The bite isn’t too bad, but the poison from the dead soul is crawling through his veins near the bite, and I can see it spreading underneath the tattoos that cover his arm, right up to his wrist. The bite is in-between his blue and black runes on his arm. I turn it over, seeing his rune name written down the side of his arm, hidden in all the other tattoos.
“He wouldn’t want you to know his name,” Trex tells me.
“I can’t read runes, so I don’t know it,” I tell him, and he gives me a questioning look. I’m sure he has a million questions to ask, but he doesn’t say any of them. The room is deadly silent as I kneel down, getting ready.
“Can you do this? He is my brother; I can do this if you can’t,” Trex tells me firmly.
“I’ve done worse to save someone I like . . . plus, I’ve seen this done a few times. I know when to stop, and when to wash the poison out of my mouth when it starts burning,” I tell him, he doesn’t reply, but he seems to get the idea that I am trying to help his brother.
“Connor, go in my bag, and get the bottle of vodka out. We will need it,” I tell him, and he sharply nods, running over to my bag.
“If he wakes up, and tries to fight me off, you need to stop him. Understood?” I ask Trex, who nods, leaning closer and getting ready. “This will hurt.” I say to the unconscious Nix before covering my m
outh over the bite and sucking the poison out. I keep sucking and spitting out the poison, looking at his arm, seeing the veins turning back to normal slowly. It takes about twenty minutes before Nix wakes up with a start, his natural reaction was as I predicted it would be, and he tries to push me away. Trex holds him down, but seems to struggle a bit as his brother goes mad.
“Evie is helping you, relax,” Trex soothes him in a firm tone. Nix calms down a little before looking up at me with a grin.
“Sucking already? We haven’t even gone on a date yet, love,” he flirts even when he must be in a lot of pain. I pull my mouth away, spitting out the last of the poison.
“You’ll have to return the favour sometime,” I say, winking at him. Connor quickly hands me the bottle of vodka, and I drink some, washing my mouth out and spitting out the last of the poison. I quickly pour some on the cut, making Nix hiss but he doesn’t stop me.
“Consider it a promise,” Nix replies, his voice tired. Connor hands me a bandage, and I quickly wrap Nix’s arm, pushing him down when he tries to sit up.
“Rest, we have about six hours until the morning, and we can’t leave at night,” I explain to them, grabbing the bottle of vodka of the floor. Nix holds his good arm out for the bottle, and I hand it to him, watching him drink some before he hands it back to me. I drink some more before putting the lid back on.
“Azi is getting wood for a fire, and we will have to take turns on watch. That army of souls is not normal, they don’t travel together. I have a feeling whoever took your princesses has told the souls to kill us, and offered them something,” I state, and none of them say anything, but the way they exchange quick glances lets me know they are thinking the same thing. “Let’s hope it’s only souls they have after us. There are much worse things in hell to send to kill someone.” I walk to edge of the cave before they can reply to me, sliding a dagger out, and sitting, watching for Azi to come back, or anything dangerous in the snow. Whoever has the princesses, doesn’t want them found.