Limbo (Part Two)

Chapter Nine: A reminder of who's in charge

Chapter Nine: A reminder of who's in charge

Moroi's hand never let go of my wrist as he chanted under his breath. I knew what he was doing; after all, he only knew one way out of purgatory, and that meant demons.

After he finished with his chant, he turned to face me and wrapped a hand around my neck. I struggled against him at first, but when his talons dug in hard enough to draw blood I froze.

"You're going to keep your mouth shut, understand? Don't even think about anything that might set them off. Got it?"

"But I don't know what will set them off," I protested. "What if I think something bad on accident?"

He hissed and shoved me against the wall, hard. My skull hit the stone with a sharp crack and I winced.

"Just think about something nice, like ponies and rainbows," he snapped in reply.

I tried to pry his hand from my throat, but had little success. "But won't that be suspicious? I'm a vampire, for Pete's sake!"

Before he could answer, a low hiss drew our attention. The demon standing a few feet away from us was at least eight feet tall and was about as wide as a barn door. Its face was humanoid-looking, but the jet-black horns perched above his forehead were anything but. As I stared at it I realized that what I had mistaken for scales the last time was actually just flesh that had been burnt and was flaking off in black chunks. I had to force myself not to retch.

Moroi moved away from me and began speaking to the beast in a strange, guttural language. It seemed to be ignoring him, choosing instead to focus its attention on me. I could literally feel it rooting around in my head: picking things out, examining them, and then putting them back; like an old lady in a antique store.

I knew it was only a matter of time before the creature was able to find the memories of my plan to banish them from purgatory, so I decided to come clean and brought that thought to the front of my mind. At the very least it would incriminate Moroi as well and probably get him killed.

"You're not thinking about ponies and rainbows, are you?" he muttered to me under his breath.

I shook my head, but couldn't tear my eyes away from the stare of the demon.

"Well, whatever it is you're thinking about, stop before you get us both killed!"

"Too late now," I whispered back.

The demon retreated from my mind and roared in fury. It turned its attention to Moroi and I saw his eyes widen in fear. In an attempt to regain control over the situation, he began speaking to the demon again, his voice shaking and almost pleading. While they were both distracted, I picked up the journal from where Moroi had dropped it and stuck it behind my back.

I edged along the wall, trying to sneak out of the room without either of them noticing, but Moroi turned to me, his face a mask of rage.

"What did you do?" he shouted, and tried to lash out at me. His arm fell about an inch short of my face though, as the demon's massive hand wrapped around his neck and lifted him several feet into the air.

Out of spite I called up to him, "I thought you needed a reminder of who's in charge here."

The demon shook him like a rag doll, and I winced when I could hear Moroi's bones snapping in its iron grip. I didn't wait around for the beast to turn on me; as fast as I could I sprinted for the door and didn't look back.

I didn't stop running until I got to Roran's cave under the waterfall. Plunging through the water and into the cave at top speed, I didn't waste time looking to see if I was alone.  I had assumed, incorrectly, that the only creatures that knew about the cave were the goblins.