Pushing open the door at the bottom, I stepped out into chaos in the open third-floor party room. The sprinklers were pouring water, the red light that demons preferred was drowned by the white emergency floodlights. Demons were running around, shouting and generally acting like humans would when something weird happened and no one could make sense of it.
I sidled my way around the room, hugging the wall and trying not to draw attention to myself. My goal was the area where I’d found Ashvial the last time. But when I found his place, he wasn’t there. The huge couch where he entertained his human victims was empty.
There were two stairways leading to the second floor. I headed toward the one where I hadn’t previously destroyed the stairs. Painstakingly making my way around the room to the stairs leading down, I descended to the next level and checked his office. He wasn’t there either, but the dragon-headed woman statue was. Her eyes followed me.
I doubted he had Sarah on the main level where the bar and the dancefloor were, so I headed for the stairs to the basement.
At one point I stopped and scanned everything around me. I had the uncanny feeling that I was being watched, but the bright lights illuminated every cranny, and I couldn’t see anyone. The water from the sprinklers continued to drench everything. I wondered if there were drains in the basement.
I had never been down there and discovered the stairs came out into a room with hallways leading to my right and left, and a door directly in front of me. I opened that door and found myself in a large room with a number of different kinds of apparatus. Some I could identify, some I could guess their nature, and some were mysteries. Whips and other torture instruments hung on the walls. No Ashvial.
Backing out, I randomly took the hall to my right. It had doors on both sides set at about ten-foot intervals. The first door opened into a small room with a gurney-like bed and a rack on the wall. It had its own collection of whips and torture devices. The rest of the rooms were similar. The water in the hallway was ankle deep by the time I checked the last room and headed back.
As I passed the door into the large room, I heard a sound and stopped. Stepping into the room, I noticed there was another door at the rear, partially obscured from view by a large frame with handcuffs set high on its surface. I carefully crossed the room, and as I came closer to the door, I heard more sounds. Soft moaning, punctuated occasionally by sharp cries.
The door wasn’t locked. Taking a deep breath, I turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open.
Sarah Benning, in all her naked glory, with a pair of fluffy pink cuffs around her wrists, dangled from chains in the middle of the room. Her toes touched the floor, but I could tell that at least part of her weight was supported by the chain. Ashvial stood in front of her, his back to me, also nude. From the way the girl writhed, I could tell he was projecting some kind of emotion at her.
He held a long, slender switch, and occasionally he would flick it at her. Her nipples and other parts of her body were bright red from the abuse. He flicked her nipple, she cried out, and he sighed in pleasure. The girl was a projective empath, and obviously Ashvial was enjoying her emotions.
“Back away from the girl!” I shouted in my best authoritative cop voice.
He flicked the switch between her legs, then languidly turned around to face me. There was a glassy look in his eyes, just as there had been when he played with me.
“Ah, my little elf girl. Have you come to join us? Probably not. You prefer a different game, don’t you?”
“Back away.” I looked around, trying to see if there was a way to lower the girl, but there wasn’t a switch or anything. Just the chain running through a pulley set in the ceiling.
Without any warning, I found myself flying backward through the air. I crashed hard against one of the apparatus in the outer room and sprawled to the floor.
“You need to learn your place, little one,” Ashvial said as he stalked toward me. “You are not in charge.” He grinned, his teeth as frightening as his erection. “Sarah had delusions of being in charge, but she’s learned that there is far more pleasure in submission. Perhaps you need such a lesson.”
Crawling to my hands and knees, I scrambled away from him. I had dropped the laser rifle but still had my Raider holstered at my hip. Putting a rack between us, I drew my pistol. The rack lifted off the floor and flew across the room. I fired at his chest. The bullet hit the ceiling above his head. At that moment, I realized that I was totally screwed and turned to run. He helped me out, picking me up with his magik and slamming me through the door and into the stairwell in the hallway.
My head was spinning, and sharp pains jolted me in a dozen places, but I crawled forward, up the stairs, finding my feet and running as best I could away from him. When I reached the top of the stairs, I spun around and backed away. I managed to unzip one of the side flaps on my suit and reached in my pocket. Holding my father’s cube in my hand, I activated the electrical
