Page 104 of Endless Terrors
My eyes widened. I tilted my head back more, and more.
The demon’s skin looked like stretched rawhide. It had a massive belly that hung over bowed legs, and beneath the gut, I could see its splintered, black toenails. The creature’s face was like someone had punched it, right in the center, and the hole just never refilled. Holy fuck, this thing was big. Another tremor of terror shot through me, but it was short-lived. I was acting on instinct and adrenaline. I darted forward, sword raised.
I hadn’t counted on its speed. Despite its incredible size, the demon moved in a blur. It clubbed me before I could make a single cut. I stood there, stunned, and it took all my strength to remain upright. I heard the sword clatter to the stones. While I battled the threat of unconsciousness, the behemoth shuffled to the side.
The horde parted again, making way for a single demon approaching the stone slab.
She had thorns all over her head and skin the color of a desert sunset. The server from the party, I thought. I recognized those silver eyes. She wore a band over her breasts and a long skirt, both made of the same coarse material. Our gazes met for an instant before she lifted her hand … and blew.
Something gritty and glittering hit me in the face. I blinked rapidly, still swaying.
Then the ground rushed up to meet me.
My vision went in and out of focus. It was the same feeling I’d gotten when one of the cherubim had smashed an egg-like thing against my head, back when they’d come for me at the hospital. The same stench, too. If I hadn’t been so dazed, I would’ve gagged.
I couldn’t fight as the demons surged forward and took hold of me. Claws and talons clamped down on every part of my body. Then I was in the air, being carried toward the circle of pillars, where I’d intended to go all along. As we went beneath the arches, torches flared to life in every direction. Horror burrowed in my stomach, even in my drugged state. There were so many demons here that it felt like a living sea of flame, hideous faces, and gleaming fangs.
I was still frozen with helpless terror when the demons began to lower me. As my body tipped, I glanced down. I caught a glimpse of candles and crystals. Someone had built a raised platform out of stones.
They were putting me on an altar, I realized with a dim rush of horror.
A scream lodged in my throat. I tried to look toward the elevator, but even as I did, I knew it was futile. No one was coming to my rescue. The noise from the party would’ve drowned out all the commotion we’d made. Lucifer thought I was safe with his guards. If I was going to survive, I needed to overcome this mental fog and fight for myself.
The spike-covered female appeared at the edge of my vision. Her voice was papery, as if she didn’t use it very often. “No use in fighting. That was the ground scales of a salas demon,” she said.
It took me a couple extra beats to speak. “Eat shit.”
In response, the demon lifted a spellbook in her hands, and a jolt went through me. That’s why I hadn’t been killed yet—someone wanted me alive for whatever spell was about to happen. Desperation blazed through me. I decided to take a gamble. “You’re w-working for S-Samael, aren’t you?”
“You foul his name with your tongue,” the demon said coldly, all but confirming it. She began to chant, the words guttural and complex. My head lolled as I tried to escape again. My eyes filled with black sky and winged statues, and a hazy frown pulled at my mouth.
Did that gargoyle just … move?
I stared upward, hardly aware of the demons around me now. I was too entranced by the ones above me, unfurling their wings. Cracking their necks.
Then they opened their eyes.
My reaction was halfway between awe and terror. They were eerie creatures, their skin covered in what looked like a layer of cracked, black stone, their eyes flaring neon-red. Like mine. The demons who’d just raised their weapons to kill me went still, their gazes slowly going upward. If my life hadn’t been on the line, I might’ve laughed.
The gargoyles descended upon us with supernatural speed. The screaming began an instant later.
Watching the monsters battle each other, I was abruptly reminded how brutal this world was. Death was always a moment away.
I had to get off this rooftop.
The thorn demon was long gone, so there was no one to stop me as I dragged myself off the altar, light-headed and wheezing. It felt like my lungs had closed. You don’t need to breathe, it’s all in your head, I chanted slowly, silently. A demon went screaming over my head, thrown by a gargoyle’s meaty arms, and it crashed into a pillar so hard that stone and dirt fell over me like dust. I waited for a beat, terrified that the demon would get up. It didn’t move.
Definitely had to get off this rooftop.
I used my last scrap of strength to rise to my knees, and somehow I moved forward. In every direction, black ichor sprayed and the air trembled with roars. The ground was littered with body parts. For a moment I saw double of everything, then I squeezed my eyes shut and kept crawling, kept dragging, and the world righted itself.
Just as I reached the line of pillars, a clawed hand seized my ankle.
A scream exploded in my mind. I couldn’t release it, though, and no one noticed as the demon pulled me toward the edge of the tower. Another one joined it. They wanted me alive, that much was obvious, but for how much longer? Was I meant to be a sacrifice or a subject? Either way, I couldn’t let this happen. I couldn’t let them take me. I tried to cling to the flagstones, the ledge, anything I could get my hands on as they dragged me away. I raised my gaze and saw one of the gargoyles put down another demon, snapping its jaw open with a single jerk. “Help me,” I tried to say.
But the hallucinations had started.
I could hear Lilith’s voice, those dulcet tones coming from far away. Fortuna Sworn. Oh, the souls talk about you. Such passion.
