Reaper Society

Chapter 24: Power Trip

All hell breaks loose as we run for the warehouse. Asher keeps the stragglers from catching up to us from behind, switching seamlessly to his more demonic-form to fight them off while simultaneously keeping up with us. I itch to draw my knives and help him, but every time I reach for one or both of the hilts, he literally growls at me and flashes his too-long, too-sharp canines at me.

I stop trying and just focus on keeping up and watching over the five witches in front of me. My legs are burning something fierce by the time we reach the warehouse, and I'm too relieved to think or focus on much as I slump against one of the walls. I can feel the runes, coating my legs from knee to ankle, burning with their own, pulsing heat...so I don't immediately realize that it's not the runes that are giving off heat.

"This is insanity," One of the witches terrified words make me look up at them, then follow their eyes over to the massive thing in the center of the warehouse.

If darkness could glow, the Hellgate's doing it.

Easily visible in the dim lighting, the fifteen-foot thing barely fits inside the building, acting like both a black hole and supernova at once. It's sucking in all light from the few weak streams that manage to puncture the gloom, but also seems to breathe in such a way that it's perfectly visible. Visible and solid.

I cringe into the wall, my eyes widening at the sight of the too-real and literal Gate to Hell before us. Asher's at my side before I can try to leave the warehouse and take my chances fighting through the masses of monsters outside.

"Are we going to have to change your name from Puppy-Chow to Frady-Cat?" He mutter in my ear, too low for anyone else to hear as they converse around us. It take a second for me to process his words.

"Only if we can change your name from Ash-hole to Demon-hole." I snap at him, not at all impressed with my own words, but at least I was able to get them out at all. Asher's reddish-brown eyes are glowing in the darkness of the room, the pupils dilated and irises ringing in a brighter, almost orange tint. He's way too distracting right now, the allure of his body is almost palpable.

I feel the back of one of his hands brush mine, the little zing of energy that shoots up my arm leaves me feeling more relaxed than I was a second ago, but I still pull my hand away from him and scowl. His devilish smirk is all the reply either of us gets as Mari's clear voice breaks through the tension.

"Everyone, please gather around the Gate," Mari calls to us as she directs vials out of her bag and into the air. Where they stay suspended... I stare for a beat too long before I snap out of it.

Work now, questions later.

I grab Asher's hand and drag him over to the right alignment before he can say anything to the Death witch.

The sooner we finish up here, the sooner I can get back to Reaper HQ and binge on salty snacks. It's really the only thought that helps settle my raw nerves as I wait for my cue to start carving runes. The Hellgate was scary as fuck from across the room. This close, I'm ready to shit myself. Nights of horrible dreams flicker through my mind, only adding gasoline to the fireball of fear in the pit of my stomach.

Something in me starts humming with the emotion, hot and fierce. The thing settles like a weighted blanket around me, soaking into each and every one of my cells as the Death Witch gives us our cues to start drawing runes with our knives. I'm not sure what I expected would happen. Maybe I assumed we'd be cutting holes through the fabric of reality like we do when we use our knives to make portals. That's not what happens.

As I start carving into the air, it doesn't slice through time and space, lines of gold begin to trace after the blade. Even the runes etched on the metal surface of the borrowed blades glow an iridescent gold. It's a warming light, soothing and oddly familiar, it cools the building heat in me, taming it. When I finish the first symbol, it floats away from me, up and into the mass of darkness and blue Magic above the Gate.

I vaguely hear the witches chanting and Mari giving direction every so often, but I don't listen. I let my hands work, carving in the way I'd memorized each symbol. The same ten runes fly up in order as I keep going, focusing only on my part and not what's going on around me. That's how I miss the change in the atmosphere around the circle of our group.

I look up to see something leering at me from the other side of the freshly created bars of Shadow over the entrance to the Hellgate. Pitch black eyes glitter as they drill holes into me from above. I grit my teeth, my hands faltering before they power through my fear. That hum of energy prickles along my skin as I continue, dropping my eyes as a cold sweat breaks out across my back.

I can still feel the eyes of the giant demon watching me. It's like it sees me. Eyes only on me. A string of curses fly from my mouth in a jumbled mess as I try to keep up the pace I've set for myself. But no matter how much I try, I can't seem to shake the feeling that the demon is trying to get to me. There's a bone-rattling groaning sound from the Gate...and I can hear the sounds of screams rising from beyond the bars.

The hairs on the back of my neck rise, goosebumps fluttering to life over my skin.

My pulse is pounding in my head in time with my movements, the need to seal the Gate rising in me. Something in the back of my head starts to ache, the weird heat in my runes is scorching through the rest of my body in waves of energy that's completely different from that coming off the Gate. I'm too focused, once again, and am thrown off as the blue light from above flashes a bright red.

The air around us starts to vibrate. Individual ropes start beating in time with my movements and everything around me blurs.

"Enough!" Mari's voice calls, breaking me out of the frantic pace of my carvings.

My knees give under me, my hands dropping the knives, as I brace myself against the ground. The air is oppressively thick, pressing into me from all sides and stealing my breath. Something's wrong.

There's a ear-shattering clang from the Gate, and I look up in time to see some of the bars starting to warp. A long crack flying up one side of a pillar. The ground around me starts to shake, bucking as if something's shaking the world like a snow globe.

Someone's screaming, their voices only just heard as the demon on the other side of the bars opens wide, black jaws in a terrifying grin as it stares down at me. Triumph and malice in it's cruel, empty eyes. I'm completely paralyzed under it's watchful gaze, I can't break whatever spell it's cast over me.

Strong arms wrap around me from behind, hauling me into a body. Tingles shock through me in waves, blocking out all sensation around me and expelling the frozen feeling from my body. I gasp for breath, my whole body trembling as the demon slams repeatedly into the bars, glaring at my mentor behind me. Asher snarls back, his grip around me tightening protectively.

We both jump as a limb tears through the ground in front of us. A too-pale, dirt-coated limb that scrambles for purchase on the crumbly ground. I stare in horror as a human face follows next, eyes unseeing and coated in a white-film I've only ever seen on the dead. Asher jerks me away from the corpse as it spills out of the earth, and another limb erupts from beside it.

A rotten scent bursts through the air, almost making me gag and I shy deeper into Asher's side. Someone screams again, and this time, the world goes hazy.

Pressure builds against my skin, compressing me so tightly I begin to see stars. Suddenly, the yelling stops and there's a booming crack that pulses from the other side of the arch. The feel of Magic bursts to life with it and has me flying back. My skull cracks against something solid, and the world goes dark.