Devdan Manor (9 page)

Damn.

He created a staff. He pushed it into the ground. His body stopped. Crouching, he shot up as the fox demon covered him. Cyl threw the staff forward. The fox jumped back.

Cyl power erupted from the floor, covering every space in the room. Cyl spun around. The wall still protected his family. His power devoured the fox. It cheered. The roar was deafening. His power cleared the floor. It hovered over him. The fox was gone.

Cyl leaned on the staff far more than he would’ve liked. His vision kept blurring. He couldn’t relax. The female was still there.

She walked forward. The fox appeared from behind her. Red stained its shining fur. Its mouth hung open. His power had damaged it. Not enough to stop it. What was this monster?

The mark on the female’s neck glowed brighter. Her golden eyes turned all red.

Ryse’s voice filled the room. She chanted a different language. She had spoken that language before. Cyl never asked what the words meant.

The female’s eyes widened. The mark didn’t glow as bright. Her eyes returned to normal. She rolled back her sleeve. The braided tattoo was gone. It disappeared from the fox’s front leg.

She pointed to the door. “At the end of the hall.”

She vanished. The fox followed.

Were they gone? He felt his wall drop. His power returned to his body. Those two must have retreated. Why? She said she was supposed to kill them.

Supposed to?

What monster was powerful enough to command her?

Cyl’s energy drained through his feet. His knees hit the ground.

Nuall wrapped her arms around his head. She’d never done that before. She didn’t like hugs.

“You were brilliant and stupid. Don’t ever do that again. We are not weak. We can help.”

“What…happened?”

Why did it take so much effort to talk?

“That demon is a prisoner here.” Ryse said. “Not like the others. A strong spell binds her.” She sat on the floor. “I used most of my power and was only able to break one part of the spell.”

“No demon would ever use something like that.” Uryl handed him a bottle of water. “If we want to control someone, we would do it so thoroughly that the demon loses all senses of self. That spell on the female only controlled her body and power.” He passed water bottles around. “Drink it all. No need to ration now. The house doesn’t plan on letting us stay here much longer.”

Nuall released Cyl. “Only humans use that type of spell. Are you saying this house is a human prison for demons?” she asked.

“I can’t be sure. I’ve never heard of humans doing something like this. I know demons are not the only non-humans beings in the worlds. As far as we know, an infinite number of worlds exist. The only ones that interact regularly are the demon and human worlds. Why would another species bother with us?” Uryl frowned. “I don’t like this.”

“She told us where we need to go,” Nuall stood. “It could be a trick, but we’ve nothing else to go on.”

Uryl shook his head. “We need to rest for a while. Ryse and Cyl can’t move.”

Cyl had been commanding his body to get off the floor. It hadn’t been listening.

“We have a problem.” Uryl sat beside him. “Ryse and Cyl used so much power to receive such small results. They can’t do it on their own. I don’t know how much help we can be.”

“We aren’t weak. We can help Cyl fight and give Ryse some of our power.”

Uryl winced in annoyance. “Power transfer is disgusting.”

Nuall shrugged. “Better than being stuck in here.”

Ozais cleared his throat. “I thought power transfer was impossible.”

“It used to be. Years ago, demons discovered that the transfer is possible between demons who are blood or so close that they see each other as family. It’s possible. It just…” Nuall shivered. “It feels like your body is being violated.”

Uryl put a snack bar under Cyl’s nose. He recoiled. He knew that wrapper. It looked and tasted like solid excrement.

“I know it’s awful. We need it. I was saving them. I don’t have that many. Don’t waste it.”

“You have too many,” Cyl mumbled

“Eat it. Since Ryse can’t draw her circles, we can’t sit here long enough for your power to heal.”

Cyl grabbed the bar between his thumb and first finger. Why did he feel like he was neck deep in toxic waters?

This bar restores a demon’s power once it drops below a certain level. The disgusting taste was to discourage demons from letting their power get that low. Not the best business strategy. Since this bar has been in the stores for almost five years, someone must’ve been getting wealthy from it.

The house was quiet. This was worse than the screaming. This hallway didn’t match the rest of the mansion. The previous owners had stripped the hallway of any personality. The walls were plain white. The floor, simple wood. Cyl tapped his heal against it. It sounded like wood. It didn’t have the lines and grooves of normal wood floors. It was a smooth unimpressive surface. Unlike other areas in the house, the hallway had no decorations or furniture. The light fixtures had a plain gold case and a common egg shaped shade.

The long hall held an unnecessary number of rooms. The doors were all open. The rooms were like prison cells—only large enough to fit one human-sized demon, not comfortably.

Cyl’s nerves couldn’t handle this. His body tightened as they approached each open door. His blood surged. His power roared, ready to shoot out and attack. Every time, he expected some abomination to be waiting for them. The rooms were always empty. Uryl said they shouldn’t use shields until they have to. They needed to reserve their power.

Cyl agreed. He still felt naked.

Where had the demons gone? Could they be walking into a room full of demons waiting to torture their bodies and minds?

A hand smacked the back of his head.

“If you stay tense like that, you’ll be useless when we need you,” Nuall said.

Like he could do anything about that. How was he supposed to calm down?

The end of the hall approached. Their senses had returned. As Ozais said, they were weak. Cyl could feel the Ozais, Uryl, Ryse and Nuall’s presence. He couldn’t tell if anything was in the room. It smelled empty.

“I can’t believe you scared them,” Ozais said shaking his head.

“What?” Cyl asked.

“There are no demons in this hallway. They’re weary of you now. I sense them far away. They’re probably thinking of a better way of destroying you.”

“Fantastic,” Nuall grumbled.

“You should be proud. Hundreds of demons have come through those doors. None of them affected the house the way you did.”

“I’ll gloat once I find whoever made this place and stuff their legs down their throats.”

Cyl couldn’t mirror Nuall’s anger. He didn’t care about revenge. He wanted to leave. He wanted to get everyone out.

They reached the end of the hall. The rooms on either side were empty.

“I don’t sense anything,” Ozais said.

“You wouldn’t. I don’t want to split up,” Uryl said. “We’ll search that one” he pointed his thumb to the right. “Then search the other side.”

The room was as bare as the hall. The markings covered the walls. The room had no furniture. This place had never been lived in.

Maybe that female lied to them. Why? He could understand her leading them to a demon filled trap. What was the point in sending them to an empty room? There had to be something here.

The only spells his power enjoyed performing were ones that broke through other spells. The results were unpredictable. He didn’t enjoy using his power this way.

They proved he was best suited to fight this house. Could there be some hidden door or room here they couldn’t sense?’

Cyl spread his legs shoulder-length apart. He pressed the tips of his fingers together and closed his eyes.

“Bow down before my power and reveal yourself.”

He power cheered. It liked giving orders. It like feeling superior. It snaked out of his body. It stopped at the wall opposite him.

Cyl opened his eyes. The markings shifted to form the shape of a door. The wall opened to darkness.

His power returned to his body.

He couldn’t see through the darkness.

Uryl held a small light at the entrance. Wide stone stairs spiraled down past the light’s reach.

“How could we not know this was here?” Ozais said shaking his head.

Uryl stepped through the door. “The house is good at hiding.”

They descended.

“That’s what bothers me,” Nuall said. “There aren’t even stories of this place. No rumors about a house that eats demons. I’ve been trying to think of any myths that match this place. I can’t come up with anything.”

Uryl nodded. “I agree. It is strange. How can a house like this hide itself so thoroughly for so many years? Demons go missing often enough. I can understand why no one would suspect something nefarious behind the disappearances. How is it that no one has even seen or sensed this place whenever it appeared to capture something?”

“Maybe this place doesn’t exist in our world,” Cyl said remembering that black void outside that prevented them from simply destroying this mansion.

Everyone stopped and turned to him.

“But, it has to appear in our world to capture demons,” Nuall said.

Cyl shrugged. “Does it?”

“That is a good question.” Uryl continued walking. Everyone followed.

An object moved in Uryl’s light. It retreated to the darkness.

“Uryl stop,” Cyl ordered. “Step back”

His brother actually followed his commend.

Uryl’s light fell on a red hand with reptile scales. The jerking fingers didn’t disturb the rest of the hand or the portion of the arm sticking out of the wall. The finger moved like spider legs. They were longer than they needed to be- like the demon had spent its life getting its fingers pulled until they stretched to painful lengths. The thin appendages wanted to crawl across the floor. The dead arm wouldn’t let it.

Nuall flinched and jumped to the right.

A brown skin arm stuck out of the wall. The fingers reached for her.

Nuall gasped. She lifted her hand. It were black. The texture like dried meat. It was spreading. She hit the ground on one knee.

Uryl swept Ryse into his arms.

“Run. Don’t let them touch you.”

Cyl ducked under Nuall’s good arm, threw it around his neck and ran. Nuall tried. The strange poison seemed to be eating her power. Her legs wouldn’t stay under her.

Hands emerged from the walls. They dropped from the ceiling like hanging bodies. Cyl had to remember to dodge for two people. He couldn’t sense the demons behind the hands. He couldn’t sense them before they showed themselves. He tried finding a pattern in the fingers’ appearances. He couldn’t. Sometimes they were at his feet. Other times, high enough to touch his head.

Ozais was adequate at dodging. But, he hadn’t used his body in centuries. He fell away from a hand. One emerged at his ear. He crawled forward. His hand slipped. He rolled down the steps. Ozais threw out his arm. He stopped himself before he rolled through Uryl and Ryse. It had been just in time. He had been a breath away from running into five reaching fingers.

Cyl was slower. He didn’t like being slower. He had to protect Nuall. How could he keep them both from being poisoned? He never practiced evading attacks while carrying a limp body. Nuall’s dead weight kept throwing him to the left. Her struggling legs made him off balance. She was too tall and too heavy to carry on his back.

The hands stretched farther from the wall. Some blocked their path. Cyl duck low. Nuall’s weight pulled him face down. He pulled them upright. Fingers were so close he could feel them. He backed away.

Nuall’s body dragged him in the opposite direction. He had almost shoved her into a hand.

His leg wouldn’t move. Fingers gripped it. Cyl called his blade and slashed it at the wrist. He didn’t want to use his power for this.

He ran. Why didn’t he feel poisoned? He didn’t feel weak?

Nuall groaned.

Uryl’s light had stopped. The end was near. He recalled his blade and rushed forward. Almost there.