“It seems as though I no longer have a use for you my friend,” his torturer said. “However, I will be taking your communication device with me. Technology is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?”
Despite the pain and paralysis, Sergei’s anger began to overtake him and he instinctively tried to reach for the device. Much to his surprise his fingers twitched; the paralytic was wearing off. If he could only stall this demon a while longer, he might be able to do something useful. As though reading the direction of his thoughts, the demon shook a finger at him. “Ah ah ah…no, I don’t think so, my friend. I plan to finish with you before I take my leave.” Dropping the phone into his pocket, the demon looked Sergei over from head to foot, lingering on his legs. “We can’t have you trying to get away while I’m still working on you, can we?” Reaching down, he grasped Sergei’s right leg, wrenching it so hard his shin snapped loudly. Sergei screamed again, this time so loudly he was convinced he was close to destroying his voice box. He tasted blood. The demon reached back down and snapped his left leg. The pain was so intense Sergei silently prayed for death.
The torture went on and on. Minutes or hours, Sergei lost all track of time. The demon never punctured his major organs, and Sergei realized he was drawing out the torture, ensuring he wouldn’t bleed out and die prematurely. Flames still licked at him from inside his veins where the venom pumped through his system, killing him slowly from the inside out. Unable to open his swollen eyes, Sergei heard the demon approach yet again. He’d long since resigned himself to the fact that he would die soon. He hoped the time had finally come.
“I must return to the master with your communication device now. It has been fun playing with you, my friend. You have lasted longer than any other human I’ve met. Unfortunately, I will be killing you now.”
The demon leaned down and bit viciously into Sergei’s neck, tearing through his flesh. “You will die soon, my mortal friend. I will leave you to it.” With that, the demon disappeared, the echo of a chilling laugh all that remained.
Sergei shivered. Numbness and coldness were creeping in. He was dying, all he had to do was wait. His head lolled to the side. Cracking his eyes as wide as he could he saw the coffee table, and got an idea. Using what little strength remained, Sergei rolled himself off the couch, slamming down hard onto the floor. If he could just reach the pentagram, he could send out a warning before he died. He managed to slide himself slowly across the floor, leaving a trail of blood smeared behind him. He noticed an empty pack of cigarettes lying just under the lip of the coffee table. Sergei put the empty pack in the center of the pentagram, wiped his hand through the blood running from his neck and began drawing demonic summoning runes. Unable to speak the incantation, he prayed that the runes alone would be enough to summon the owner of the cigarette pack. Closing his eyes he pictured Baal, holding onto the image and reciting the spell over and over in his mind until the darkness closed in around him.
Chapter Eighteen
“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey. Get up you two, we’ve gotta go.” Katia rolled over in bed and groaned. Whoever that was, they were annoyingly perky. Sun streamed in through the blinds that had been thrown open. Luc was blinking and rubbing his eyes as he sat up from what looked like an extremely uncomfortable sleep on the chair. Amir stood at the foot of the bed tapping his finger on the face of his watch. “Come on! I got an emergency call to get you guys to The Advocate right away.”
Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Katia frowned. “The Advocate?”
“Demon bar,” Luc replied yawning. “What’s the emergency?”
“Something about your buddy, Sergei.” Amir replied.
“What happened?” Katia said, popping up from the bed and grabbing for her clothes.
“Not sure. Guess we’ll find out when we get there. I’ll give you guys five minutes. Meet you outside.” Amir backed out of the room, pulling the door closed with a click.
Four minutes later, they were all standing together outside as Amir opened a portal. Grasping his shoulders, Luc and Katia stepped into the dimensional rift. Katia was amazed that this no longer fazed her. What a difference a couple of days could make. As they moved through the fog, Katia kept shooting glances at Luc. It felt awkward. She would catch him looking at her from the corner of her eye, but, as
