Devil's Punch

receipts at some point but now were just shreds, dry pellets that looked like droppings, and a few stray articles of clothing.

From the last one, I pulled out a whip. I knew it didn’t belong to Shannon, but something like that could come in handy. Okay, so maybe I just wanted to tease Chance with it later. The situation was all kinds of fucked up, but if I didn’t keep my sense of humor, I’d fall into a black hole of despair and never save Shan.

Greydusk turned from the closet, shaking his head. “Nothing.”

The rest of the rooms went likewise, until we came to the last room on the left. Chance had been quiet up until this point, massaging his arm and maintaining a brooding silence. Greydusk opened the door and a host of spiders poured out. Only they weren’t normal, household spiders. Which would’ve been bad enough.

No, these were the size of small dogs, like, say, the one cowering in my handbag, and they had long, excessively hairy legs, and the purple wizened faces of human babies that had been dead for four or five days. They chattered as they rushed us. I sprang back with a stifled scream and slashed at the ones surging at my feet.

Chance growled the command word and ice crackled around the dark leather of his gloves. He pounded them with lightning strikes and the guts spattered all over my boots. When Greydusk attacked, it was cleaner, as these animals could be drained.

I impaled one with my athame, and the light burned it up from within. It was horrifying yet fascinating to watch; the flesh cooked and shriveled. I danced away from the fangs as the dark, dried flesh dropped off my obsidian blade. The demon fighting beside me was slow in his absorption, and after taking one that way, it lifted its large foot and went with a more direct approach. I slid back to get out of the way.

As I moved, I stumbled over something. Shit. That one sank its fangs deep into my boot, far enough to pierce the leather, and the tooth grazed my ankle. It stung more than the slight wound merited, which told me I was in trouble. How much so remained to be seen.

In short order, Chance and Greydusk eradicated the infestation. Meanwhile, my ankle swelled and felt like it was on fire.

“Hey,” I said. “How bad is it if you get bitten?”

Greydusk and Chance must not have heard me, as they’d started searching. Since the room was clear, I limped inside to see if there was anything noteworthy. My expectations weren’t high by that point, but there was nothing lost by being thorough. Pain lanced through my left calf with every step. The boot felt like it might be cutting off my circulation.

Hang in there. For Shannon. How dangerous can those things be?

My eyesight sparkled. Dark streaks, as if I were peering through a filthy window. Worried, I leaned up against the wall and left the rummaging to Chance and Greydusk. They were fast but careful, leaving no inch of the room unexplored, as we’d done eleven times before. I had little hope it would be different this time.

Until Greydusk opened the closet door—and what I saw took my focus off the bite. Through wavering vision, I recognized it at once: a black backpack with colorful, feminine skulls. Shannon had been here. They’d held her in this room. Oh, gods and goddesses, with those spiders? Was she even alive any longer? The way I felt, she might not be, if they’d bitten her. Even worse, maybe she’d been kept in the closet, in the dark, listening to those hideous things scuttle with the endless and permanent threat that someone could come—for no reason at all—and open the door.

“It’s hers,” I said. “Grab it.”

I tried to take a step toward the pack, toward that link to Shannon, because I could read something in there, maybe get a clue. Find her. Save her.

But the stupid words the Noit had babbled echoed in my head instead: Binder, binder, never find ’er. She’s gone, gone, for a song, into the heart of where it’s dark, and nevermore, forevermore.

My leg buckled. I hit the dirty floor with it twisted beneath me, and I couldn’t see. I heard Chance’s voice cast in worried tones, and Greydusk’s calmer reply, and then it all went away, as if through the water gate, and I became a thing spun in so many directions that I lost all cohesion, and went sailing into nothing at all.

I’m Not Quite Dead Yet

Pain.

Darkness.

Someone’s hurting me.

My throat was too tight and dry to scream, but I heard it in my head. Echoes of voices chattered above me. Noise, not words. One of them was familiar. I wanted to reach for him. I couldn’t. A fire blazed in my leg, eating into my muscles and bones. It stretched up from ankle to thigh, nibbling toward my hip, and my face felt parched and swollen. My eyes wouldn’t open.

“Will she be all right?”

“I don’t know.”

More nothing.

The pain lessened after the poking and jabbing. I sighed in relief as cool hands stroked my cheeks. Whimpering, I turned.

“Does she know I’m here?”

“Hard to say. I’d guess yes, though.”

I know, I tried to say, through lips as solid as wax. I know you, demon prince with the tiger’s eyes.

Slow fade.

The next time I came back to my head, I could move it. A few seconds later, I unsealed my eyelids and blinked against the low light. Chance was asleep beside me, and I had no idea where we were. My dirty clothes were piled on the floor beside us, along with my wrecked boots. The room was small but neat, serviceable rather than ostentatious. Our bed had been built into the wall—or rather, it was a stone ledge with a mattress on it. Cunning design, I thought, and cozy with Chance spooned up against me. I touched his arm where it rested across my waist and his eyes snapped open instantly. He’d always been a light sleeper.

“Corine,” he rasped.

I turned into his arms, and even that small motion made me dizzy. “What happened?” It was all a blur, and then before he could answer, it came rushing back. The former demon brothel, the spiders with dead baby faces, Shannon’s backpack. “How long was I out?”

“After Greydusk administered the antidote, almost a full day.”

“And how long did it take him to find it?”

“Eight hours.”

So it had been over twenty-four hours, in demon time, since we found her pack. Damn it. My injury had cost us a day we might not have to spare. Angry with myself, I strangled a curse.

Gathering my resolve, I tried to sit up and failed. Still too weak. “How long will it take me to recover?”

“Do you not understand you almost died?” His features were tight with exhaustion and worry.

“I get it,” I said. “I also know that Shannon may not have much time left.”

If she has any at all.

“Corine,” he said. “I know you love her. But I don’t. You’re the one I care about, and it kills me to see you go down this road.” He stroked a hand through my tangled hair. “You’re ready to sacrifice anything for her.”

“Yeah. But I’d do it for you too.” That shut him up, as I’d known it would. “Where are we?”

“Greydusk’s place.”

“Wow, he took us home with him?” Talk about going above and beyond the call of duty. Suddenly, it didn’t feel right to think of the Imaron as “it” as if he wasn’t a person. “Sybella must be furious.”

Chance shrugged. “I haven’t been out of this room.”

“I’m sorry I scared you,” I said quietly.