Dancing with Demons

Ch. 17: The Slaughter

When Luz woke up, she was on the couch, with a blanket over her.

"Luz!" King yelled, rushing over and hugging her, "I was worried about you!"

Luz hissed from this lingering pain before slowly hugging King back.

"King? How did I get back here?" Luz asked.

"Hooty and I brought you in, you... didn't look good." King said.

"Just me? What a-" Luz gasped as her memory came back to her and she stood up! "EDA! Lilith took her!"

Luz fell to her knees and hissed in pain as her skin was still burning and she was in pain.

"Don't push yourself, Luz. Your injures haven't healed yet." Hooty said, stretching over to Luz.

"We did the best we can to fix you ourselves but we ran out of healing salve." King said to her.

Luz growled.

"What's wrong with me! I'm a demon, the strongest demon, just behind the Devil himself, and I can't even take out some dumb bitch with dyed hair!?"

'It was fucking holy water! She threw it at us! Where the fuck did she even get holy water?!' Devil side screamed, furious from both the pain and from being beaten by a cheap trick!

'I don't know, but all I do know is that I can't save Eda when they have the only thing that fucking hurts me!' Luz thought, 'I'm pathetic.'

'Hush your mouth, me! You are not pathetic, we were just caught by surprise. Now that we know they have holy water, we can plan for it.' Angel side said.

'But if they have Holy Water, what if they have crosses and other things that can hurt me?'

'Well, Eda has a weapons room, maybe there's armor in there.' Angel side said.

"Luz? You okay?" King asked as he and Hooty gazed at her.

"I'm far from Okay." Luz said, "They have my book, Eda has the portal, with out those... I can't get home. If I can't get home, then I can't get my dad to come and help us!"

"But we can still fight, right? Even without your book, you're still the strongest demon we know." King said to her.

Luz just looked down.

"I can't... they have the one thing that can hurt me... I'm a liability." Luz said, "I failed to help Eda, I failed to heal her... I really am the anti-Christ, I just ruin everything."

"Bullshit!"

Luz looked at King in shock, when did he learn to... okay that might be her fault.

"You've done nothing but help since you got here!" King said, "You helped when Eda became the Owl Beast during the rainstorm, you saved those Blight kids when they got taken on the Knee, you..."

King walked over and hugged her.

"You don't see me as some pet." King said, "You're not some evil being... you're family, and so is Eda."

"The same goes for me. I don't care if you hurt me when I annoyed you or if you just did it for fun, to me that just showed you thought enough about me to keep doing it. To me, that makes you my family too." Hooty said, stretching around Luz and King to hug them.

Luz smiled and stood up.

"Come on King... I'm hungry... for whatever is in place of Lilith's heart." Luz said.

In the Emperor's Castle, Belos was looking at the book. He tried to open it... it zapped him and remained closed.

"AAAAAH!" Belos screamed in pain, smoking from the rejection as he held his chest. "Confounded book. This protection spell is more powerful than I anticipated. I will find a way to open it."