The vortex sucked us in like a vacuum an instant before the beast took a swipe at me with its horrendous claws, howling its outrage.
The last thing I saw as my head disappeared was a dozen demons rounding the corner, a look of shared horror on all their glamoured faces. I didn’t have time to figure out if they were horrified by seeing me or by seeing that we were entering the Sholls.
But it was too late to back out now.
Oh… my gods… I’m not sure we’re going to survive this. My wolf roared her displeasure right back at me, sending huge currents of adrenaline washing through our system to fortify us. I was in my full Lycan form, hands clutching Lily’s waist for life, but it felt like pieces of my body were being ripped apart.
Then, just as suddenly, it was over and I was on my back, panting.
The ride had been short, but extremely painful.
My eyes were firmly shut. I could already tell my mind and body were not on board for the Sholls. The air was thick and musty, and strange vibrations ran through me like physical sound waves, making my insides quiver and jump.
I knew I wasn’t going to like what I saw when I opened my eyes.
Beside me, Lily stood. Her breathing was labored. “Come, we must go. There are creatures that lurk here in the shadows. They are not demons. They are other and we cannot linger.”
I reluctantly opened my eyes.
I so wasn’t prepared.
My wolf howled, gnashing her teeth and snarling, urging us to go back the way we’d come—so much so that I fell backward as I tried to rise. The air wavered around us. The sky was a muted gray streaked with burnt orange. Things were off-kilter at haphazard angles.
We sat in the field behind the buildings.
I leaped up expecting the yellow grass to be wiggling beneath me. Instead here the ground was cracked and broken, emitting what smelled like toxic gas through the millions of holes the worm-like grass had occupied on the other plane.
Everything around me looked awful and menacing. “What is this place?” I whispered as I loped after Lily, who had already started to run. My body wobbled with every step as I tried to find my balance on this strange plane. My insides felt heavy and each time my leg hit the ground it felt like my insides were going to plummet to my feet.
“I told you, we are in the in between,” she answered.
“That doesn’t mean anything to me. How is an in between even possible?”
“There are vacant spaces on every plane—” Something large dropped from the top of one of the buildings. I couldn’t see what it was, because it was gone in the next instant.
But it hadn’t been a winged devil. That was way too big to be a devil bat, I told my wolf, as I crouched low, hands out in front of me.
Lily had stopped and braced herself against the wall, hands splayed, eyes alert.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“What was it?” I asked, panting in the thick air. The beast had evaporated into thin air. I glanced all around me, heightening my senses as much as I could. My body was still undulating on the inside. I put a tentative hand out in front of me and brushed the air back and forth. It moved like invisible smoke. It was barely detectable, but I could see it. It was freaky. “The air is actually moving. I think that’s what’s making my insides feel like—”
“Shh,” the demoness hissed.
“I’m pretty sure the smoke monster knows we’re here—” Something had me by the throat. It threw me up against the wall and I gasped, my head hitting the building behind me hard enough to draw blood. My hands scrabbled at my neck in the next instant, but there was nothing there to hold on to. I tried to take in a breath, but I couldn’t. Lily was suddenly in front of me, a look mixed with horror and irritation flowing across her striking features. Then her pupils elongated as she uttered some words in Demonish, her palms open and facing me. Something like static electricity shot out of her fingers and the creature I couldn’t see roared and let go.
I fell to my knees, gaping in the putrid wet air like a fish. I was so sick of having my airflow cut off. “What… was… that?”
“There is no time to explain. We must get to the other side of the square. Now.” She yanked me up by the arm and we began to run.
Up ahead I spotted the gazebos. On this plane they were bent and withered, appearing grotesque in the gray landscape. “Tell me what attacked me.” I panted as I ran, the thick air sticking in my throat. “And if you’re not around next time, how do I defend against it? It had no magic signature that I could sense. In fact, it felt like dead air was strangling me.” I couldn’t die if I passed out from lack of air, but I’d be vulnerable to an easy death once I was unconscious.
“We call them wyverns and you are correct when you say dead air. They are truly dead beings and they only exist on this plane.”
“You’re not talking about demon ghosts, are you? Please tell me that’s not what you’re saying.” If the demons had an equivalent of a vampire Screamer, this entire foray into the Sholls was hopeless. There was no way we could defeat a dozen demon Screamers.
“Not exactly,” she answered as we neared the main square and slowed to a jog. “When a demon dies a true death it enters into what we call the Unknown. The Sholls is known. If a demon comes here instead, they have become other after their death… changed. Many believe it’s not a true death, but a half death. Their serpentine side takes over, much as if you became a rabid wolf for all eternity.”