Chapter 8

We had been running for some time, leading the demons ever farther from the camp, until Van finally felt we had gone far enough, and we slipped away into the dark. Then came the long slow slog retracing our steps back to, and then past, where we started. We finally reached the area that we had been told the demons had been seen, and now we were finding ever more traces of demon activity.

We crept along the fringes of the nest, Van keeping his human flashlight low enough we could see, but not bright enough to light up the tunnels as we tried to find our way in without bringing the wrath of hell down on our heads.

We stole a short rest in a small, disused, tunnel while we tried to figure out the right path to take.

There was an underground stream running down the tunnel to the left of us. What had Claire said about fire and water?

"We should go this way." I pointed towards the stream.

"Any particular reason?"

"Just a hunch. Something your grandmother said about water."

He gave me a hard stare. "I'll take a hunch at this point. If we don't find them soon..."

I put my hand on his arm. "We'll find them."

"I've never been down this far. I don't think any of my people have."

We followed the stream, and our surroundings began to change. The manmade tunnels were slowly morphing into actually caverns. In the place of brick and mortar, natural stone and above our heads, stalagmites

"How far down are we?" I asked.

"No idea."

Wherever we were going, others had been recently. The dark tunnels were now lit. Every twenty feet lit torches sprang from the wall.

My heart was pounding in my chest. Any minute we could be walking into a nest of demons. How many I had no clue. Hundreds, thousands? Whatever force we were facing was powerful enough to take down Van's tribe.

I was so lost in my own thoughts I didn't realize Van had stopped until I ran into him. There was something about the way he was standing so still that suddenly made my palms sweat.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

He put his finger on his lips and pointed ahead.

Across the cave large panels of red and black silk had been strung from one side of the cave to the other, forming a door that fluttered ever so gently.

Before I could blink the silk began to blow, as though a great wind suddenly entered the cave. Soft material parted and there stood a figure of a man. He had long blonde hair, and his body was thin. He was dressed entirely in black. It was the eyes that captured my attention—ice blue eyes, so pale as almost to be drained of color. I stared into his face and had a sudden shock of recognition. Those eyes, that face, they were from my dream. More like nightmares I have been having since I started training.

"It took you long enough to get here," he said. "Come, come, I've been waiting for you." He turned and walked away and then spun around to face us again. "It won't work. The bottle of holy water you have behind your back. You can splash me with it, but I'm not a demon."

"What kind of pay does an evil minion get now-a-days?" I was trying to make conversation to buy some time. I expected any moment Van to do his thing, but when I turned back, I realized Van had a strange expression on his face.

I didn't recognize her at first. Her raven hair hung free, curling down her bare shoulders. It was Kara, the Traveler girl from back at the camp. She was suddenly next to Van, but she looked so different now. There wasn't much to her dress and what there was hugged every curve. One arm was draped across Van's body. Her head was close to his, as though she was whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

It was Van's expression that stopped me cold. His eyes were not looking at me, but past me. There was a dreamy, ethereal quality to them.

"He can't hear you."

"What did you do to him?" I started forward, but cold fingers clamped down on my arm stopping me.

The stranger had somehow moved from one end of the tunnel to the other and now stood beside me. "He's been enchanted." The stranger smiled. "Think of it as something like a love spell. She's very good at it. One of the best I've seen."

I suddenly realized my arms were frozen. I couldn't move the hand I had begun to slide slowly down in search of my dagger.

"Come. You've had such a long journey. You must be famished."

I found myself following the stranger through the silk drapes and into a maze of people. Everywhere I looked people were laughing, eating, dancing and, I realized in shock, fucking.

The floors were covered with pillows and colorful bedding, and half clothed and naked people were strewn across them everywhere. It was one big orgy party.

The odd thing, everyone had a glazed look in their eyes. They seemed to concentrate on each other, but not one person looked in our direction as we moved across the room.

We passed a group gathered around a naked woman. A small woman stood in front of her and made slow deliberate passes with a handheld many tailed whip.

The women's skin turned pink with each lash, until the other woman smoothed the injury with a soft hand. Pain and pleasure combined in the looks of the struck woman and all the people watching.

Against the walls, huge couches hosted both those engaging in pleasure and those who were content to watch.

What was the saying, out of the frying pan and into the fire. I was smack into the flames at the moment, in some kind of evil den of debauchery.

I was desperate to get away, I needed to stay calm, more importantly I needed to sound calm and composed. There was no use letting the evil bastard know how unnerved I was. "Nice crowd. You could get a camera in here and sell this show on the internet. I bet you could make some decent coin."

Evil dude suddenly leaned in and took a long inhale. "I forgot how good your kind smells. I'm going to enjoy you."

I tried to push myself away, but I found my body was not following the orders my mind was shouting at it. Orders like get the hell out of here. Run, fight. Do something, anything besides follow his most evilness. But I was following him and no matter how much I struggled I couldn't seem to help myself. I just meekly went with him. He suddenly pushed back a billowing purple drape, and we entered another smaller chamber.

He said, "Sit" and I found myself moving across the room and lowering myself onto a large red cushion. Somehow, he had turned me into a damn stepford wife. There had been no mention of this type of crap in training.

"You're quite beautiful." He didn't move his lips, yet his voice was suddenly all around me, caressing my mind. His words sent shivers down my spine. Not of horror but something more primitive. I felt a heat begin to grow in my stomach.

"I never introduced myself. You can call me Krogen." He sat down at a table and reached for a bowl of grapes in the center. "You have done really well for yourself. Making it down here without getting killed. I'm impressed. Not bad for a human."

"How can you do it? How can you turn on your own species?" I asked, trying to keep the panic from my voice.

"Humanity hasn't been my species for a long time." He finished a grape then reached for a glass and slowly drank the contents. "I wanted power. Look around you. I have everything I could ever want."

"Like eternal damnation?"

"That's just a technicality."

"So, you don't care of your soul rots in hell."

He laughed. "Naïve and Beautiful. I may decide to keep you. It all depends how much you entertain me."

I changed my tact. "You could let me go. The first step on the path to redemption."

"You really are priceless. You realize I can't physically touch you. Too dangerous with all the blessed metal you have draped across your body. I guess I'll just have to find another way. Hmm, now what would be fun?" He poured himself more to drink and raised the glass to his lips. As he did, his other hand waved in the air, and I found myself suddenly sprawled out across the colorful silk pillows.

This time I couldn't keep the panic from my voice. "What ever twisted game you have in mind, you won't get away with it."

"I already have. If you are waiting for your knight in shining armor, I am afraid he is otherwise detained."

He lowered the glass and blew a kiss in my direction.

I threw my head back as small little shivers of pleasure ran across my skin.

A fire burst into life in my belly, consuming me from the inside out. It spread slowly over my entire body and in its wake nerve endings twitched, releasing waves of pleasure and pain.

"That's right. Give into the sensation," his voice whispered. His voice. It somehow carried across the room and caressed my skin. And I realized in horror I was still not in control of my own body.

Pain built then slowly receded, leaving only the tingling sensation of caressing flames. My skin felt flushed and tender, and the subtle friction of my clothes against my skin was almost too much to bear.

"Relax, surrender." All I could do was stare into those pale blue, almost white eyes.

I mentally struggled to regain control, but my struggle was in vain.

"Don't be afraid. It's what you desire most. I am not forcing you to do anything. I am merely allowing your own passions and desires to be released."

Get out of my head, you sick bastard, a part of my mind screamed, but another part wanted to cry out in pleasure as hot pure desire raced through me, over me, setting my skin on fire.

My eyes were now locked into his. I was beyond reason as pleasure and sensation took over my mind and body.

"That's right, surrender to the desire," his voice echoed in my head.

Van voice floated out of the shadows. "Get away from her!"

"Still alive?" Krogen walked over and picked up another grape from a bowl, examining it between his fingers. "I would have thought Kara would have devoured you by now."

"Let her go."

"I am just showing her how it could be between us." He was watching us both with half closed lids. A lazy smile crossed his face. "Looks like she's enjoying herself."

I tried to focus my thoughts on what was going on and for a moment my mind cleared.

The two men now stood on opposite sides of the room, like two old time cowboys preparing for a shoot out.

"I'm curious how did you break Kara's spell?" Krogen asked.

"You think a spell from my own kind could keep me enchanted forever?"

Krogen waved a hand in Van's direction. Van's body suddenly lurched forward, but then he stopped and righted himself.

Krogen's eyebrows raised. "Powerful. A chosen one?" He smiled. "How fun. I haven't killed one of your kind in a century. Unless..." He stopped and looked from Van to me. "You both could come over to our side. You could you know. Kara did. Imagine the two of you here, together. You have no idea what it's like to just let go. To give yourself over to something bigger. And what you get in return, it's beyond imagination."

Krogen's eyes bored into mine again and as they did my mind again filled only with desire.

Krogen smiled. "This one can be yours again, after I'm done with her."

Van face turned to a mask of rage, and his power flashed into the room. Shadows and illusions faded in the face of cleansing light, and the truth of Krogen's lair resolved harshly. The rich colors and textures which had surrounded me stuttered and failed, leaving the harsh angles and rough furnishings of the natural cave.

Krogen also seemed to fade in the unforgiving light. He was painfully thin, and gray skin surrounded his deep-set eyes. The eyes, however, had lost none of their power and the rage of an ancient evil being shone out from them.

Van advanced slowly, gathering light to himself as he came. Krogen stood, unmoving. Krogen seemed utterly unconcerned by the threat. Van came within ten feet of his opponent and with lightening speed he lunged forward, swinging an orb of pure light.

Suddenly Krogen's hand rose up and a flash of purple, orange fire flared to meet Van's light. Fire and light splashed in all directions and when the air cleared Krogen stood unharmed. Flames licked around Krogen casually raised hand and shadows licked at his legs like rising fog.

Van paused a moment in surprise and in that moment the shadows folded around Krogen, and he was gone.

A hand wreathed in purple flame shot out of nowhere, struck out, and Van stumbled back. A burn mark with blacked edges was visible on Van's shirt and where the skin was exposed it was pink and singed. Travelers were not the only ones who played in the shadows.

Van recovered and, with a determined look on his face, followed Krogen into shadow.

The fight was almost impossible to follow as bursts of light and fire cannonaded in the darkness, but if any of them struck to effect I couldn't tell. The drifting shadows would occasionally part, but it was never enough to tell if anyone was winning. Van and Krogen danced a deadly dance through shadow and light. And I lay unable to move or help.

Strange changes were coming and going throughout the room. Wisp of shadow drifted across grim corners of the cavern, and when it moved on the illusion of its opulence would return, only to slowly fade again. The room fazed between luxury and austerity so many times that it seemed reality itself was coming unhinged.

With a percussive smash, the shadows finally shattered to reveal Krogen stumbling back with one handheld to the smoking side of his head. The entire side of Krogen's face was a charred ruin. Krogen dropped his hand and launched himself at Van, both of his arms now an inferno from hand to shoulder.

Van spun under his attack and struck Krogen solidly in the gut. Krogen fell forward and his flames went out. I could hear his gapping breaths from where I still lay.

Van looked horrible. Another smoking hole was visible in the back of his shirt, and his right sleeve had burned completely off. His forearm was red to the elbow, and the hair was burned off almost to his shoulder. He struggled for breath as he made his hunched way over to me.

"Can you understand me?"

I nodded my head. I was barely following what he was saying. My body still hummed, and my mind still felt the grasping influence of Krogen's dark seduction.

Van walked over, bent down, and put his face inches next to mine. He placed his hand on my arm. His grip was tight. His face filled with concern. Suddenly his hands pushed under my body, and he scooped me into his arms. In one fluid motion he lifted me.

My head now rested against his shoulder. I closed my eyes and tried to clear the fog still weaving among my thoughts.

A sound brought my eyes wide open. A drape fluttered towards the back of the room and a woman walked in carrying a tray full of food. Her expression was one of shock as she took in Krogen's body, sprawled on the floor.

Van started towards her. The woman took a step back, offering no resistance as we moved past her and out of the room and into another lit tunnel.

Van moved determinedly down the tunnel, carrying me.

He moved quick and steady, twisting and turning down different tunnels and caverns as they appeared.

I lay helpless in his arms. I should have been concerned about the army of hell that was hunting us. Instead, all I could think about was the hum of sexual energy that still pounded in my ears and drummed across my body.

We stopped and Van lowered me against the rock wall.

"Van, I can't..." I moan escaped my lips.

Van face was suddenly only inches from mine. "Are you okay?"

"No, I need..." My lips crushed against his. My hands ran down his chest.

He tore himself away from me.

"Please..." I begged. I grabbed. I needed. I wanted. The want filled my mind pushing any other thoughts away.

The slap rocked the side of my face.

It took me a moment to realize where I was.
"What happened?"

Van pulled me into his body. His arms wrapped around me and my head rested again against his shoulder. "You were under some kind of mind control."

I looked around feeling dazed and confused.

"We have to keep moving. I have no idea where we are." His voice was soft, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes." I was for the first time in what seemed like hours I started to feel like myself. But something was tugging at the corner of my mind. I turned my head to the left. It was as though I could hear voices calling to me.

"What's wrong?" Van asked. His arms were around me again.

"Don't you hear it?"

He lifted his head and concentrated in the direction I was pointing. "I don't hear anything."

"You can't hear the screams?"

* * *

The bodies were stacked like cord wood in a circle. The site of them, familiar faces, limbs twisted at impossible angles and stacked one on top of the other, made me puke my guts out. They had been dead for a long while. What had I heard? The screams of their souls twisting and writhing, trapped in this damned place? I leaned against the wall, being sick for the third time, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you alright?" Van passed me his leather canteen.

"Fuck no." I took a sip and forced myself vertical. This time I averted my eyes. The last thing I needed to do was look into familiar faces again. Amongst the dead I had recognized both Harry and Jennings. Though I am not sure how. Their expressions were of terror; the pallor of their chalky skin and their eyes were beyond description. I knew those eyes would be haunting my dreams—vacant and void of all life. The worst part was their color. White. It was a peculiar effect of demon fire. It you got enough of it coursing through your body, enough to kill your ass, you were burned, fried from the inside out. And victims of this horrendous death, their eyes seemed to be scorched of all color. We called it dying the White Death. It was something every DK feared and only talked about late at night in hushed tones.

I forced the words out of my mouth, "How many bodies?"

"Too many," Van answered. Spitting in the direction of the bodies. He wasn't being disrespectful, I knew in his culture spitting was a way of warding off evil spirits. "We need to get out of here." He put his hand on my arm and started leading me towards the closest tunnel.

"Like hell I'm leaving!" I threw his arm off and headed back towards the bodies.

"We can't stay here."

"I am not leaving..." I couldn't get the words out. There were people I respected and, even some that I had come to call friends, lying only a few feet from me and I wasn't about to leave them to be used in some fucked up demon ceremony. But what could I do?

"Isn't there some Traveler thing you can do?" I asked, trying to keep from throwing up again.

"My people generally ignore the dead." His hand went to silver cross necklace hanging around my neck. "Your kind on the other hand. Isn't it always the catholic priest with holy water and a cross chasing after the vampires."

"Actually, any idiot with wooden stake, who's crazy enough to hang around in spooky castles, can kill vampires. Man, you are not up on your paranormal movie lore. It's the priest sprinkling holy water on young girls whose heads spin around while spewing vomit and floating two feet above their beds."

I thought for a moment, the only sure way to be sure to purify the demon influence from these poor souls was fire, but even if I could get a fire started there was nowhere for the smoke to go in this closed in cave, we would be dead in a matter of minutes.

I answered slowly, trying to keep my emotions in check as my eyes wandered again to my dead comrades, "I could try an exorcism. If it expels the demon influence their souls will be free to cross the river. I don't know if it will work, but I have to do something."

Van pulled me into his arms. "Whatever you are going to try, get on with it. There is no telling how long it will be before they catch up to us."

This was not the time to lose it. I had to keep it together and do whatever it took to help my brother in arms find their peace. I would not let the evil bastards torture my friends' souls for eternity. This time when I spoke my voice sounded strong and clear, "Alright, keep an eye out while I do this." Could I do this? I wasn't sure, but I was damned going to try.

Van moved a ways back down the tunnel while I began preparations. I carefully poured holy oil across both entrances to the cave. On each wall of the cave, I made a cross in oil, saying a silent prayer as I went. And then I made my way to the pile of bodies. With a determined set to my shoulders, I started to walk in a circle around them, sprinkling holy water on each body as I went.

And then everything went to shit.

Like a scene from hell, a huge man burst from the center of the pile, raining bodies in every direction. He roared out in pain and anger, his voice broken and harsh, as drops of holy water smoked on his white skin.

With A jolt I recognized Commander Olson. For one charged moment I thought he had survived the attack and had been just feigning death, waiting his opportunity to escape, but then I saw the gaping wounds in his chest. Broken edges of bone and tissue had turned the same ash white inside, obviously mortal wounds. A demon had taken possession of the Commander.

I yelled back down the tunnel for Van's help and, before the demon could find its balance, I did my best flying tackle. The Commander toppled to his back, and I struggled to hold him down. This maneuver would never have worked on the real Commander—he would have tossed me away and had a good laugh at my expense. But the demon, for all its strength, didn't seem to have full control over the body.

I struggled with the flailing corpse for what seemed an eternity, but it was only a few seconds before Van appeared. With Van's help I was able kneel on the creature's chest. It was time to begin the rite. Or a quick and dirty form of it. I made a cross on the demon's forehead and began the prayer.

"I command you, unclean spirit, whoever you are, along with all your minions now attacking this servant of God, by the mysteries of the incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, by the coming of our Lord for judgment, that you tell me by some sign your name, and the day and hour of your departure. I command you, moreover, to obey me to the letter, nor shall you be emboldened to harm in any way this creature of God, or the bystanders, or any of their possessions."

The demon writhed in pain, and a string of incomprehensible curses burst from its lips in a croaking voice. Even after I stopped talking, the volume of his epitaphs increased. The fight now for the Commander's body raged full bore.

Like a fever breaking, the struggle suddenly eased, and the voice went quiet. The Commander was deathly still and for a moment I thought that death had finally taken him, but then he began to speak again. This time the voice was different—like the Commander's own, but distant and without inflection. His eyes did not open, and his lips barely moved when he said, "Well done, Malone, you've hurt the demon enough for me take control. At least for a little while. There are things you need to know, and we may not have much time."
"How do we drive out the demon?" I demanded.

"You don't, not yet. When the demon goes, I'll be gone. Leave this cavern from the opposite tunnel you entered. About quarter mile down, a tunnel branches to the right, and you will be able to hear running water. Follow this tunnel, always turning toward the sound of water, until you reach the river. Follow it downstream until you find the bridge that crosses to the other side. Take the tunnel you find there, and you will soon come upon them."

"Leave now. Concentrate on the living and let God see to the dead. I must..."

Once again, the body began to writhe, and voice changed to a damaged croak. The demon was fighting his way back to the surface.

I restarted the ritual because there was nothing else to do. "We drive you from us, whoever you may be, unclean spirits, all satanic powers, all infernal invaders, all wicked legions, assemblies, and sects. In the Name and by the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ, may you be snatched away and driven from the Church of God and from the souls made to the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of the Divine Lamb. I cast you out, unclean spirit, along with every Satanic power of the enemy, every spectre from hell, and all your fell companions."

"This is taking to long." I could feel Van's impatience. "He told you what to do, let's do it."

"I'm not leaving him like this. Maybe he had more he can tell us." I ignored Van's look of disproval and continued this time with more force. "We drive you from us, whoever you may be, unclean spirits, all satanic powers, all infernal invaders, all wicked legions, assemblies and sects..."

"Screw this!" Van reached out and laid his hand on the Commander's head.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not sure, but maybe I can..." his voice trailed off as his eyes closed. The light around him was dim, but there and as I watched a burst of light shown through the Commander's colorless eyes. The Commander's body relaxed and then his body crumbled.

I could feel it. The demon was banished.

I sat for a moment stunned. Van had said he could do nothing, but he had managed to set the commander free when I had just been prolonging the Commander's pain.

I looked up to see Van moving from body to body, touching each with a flash of light. When he was done, the dread that had permeated the room was gone. The bodies were no longer prisons, just the empty shells of those who had passed on.

Van looked exhausted. I walked over and leaned my body against his. We both stood for a moment, side my side, not saying a word. And then Van moved forward towards the tunnel the Commander had told us to take.

I followed, walking away from this place and the huge amount of loss it contained.

My friends and comrades were dead, but Van was still alive and strong at my side, and there was still hope we could make it out of this alive.

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