I used it to my advantage. “Get out of my way!” I yelled, hauling another demon away from the doorway by the scruff of its neck, its jumpsuit tearing as I tossed it behind me with little effort.
Once the door was clear, I brought my leg up, but before I smashed it open, it swung from the inside and an startled demon met my furious gaze. I reached in and grabbed it, throwing it behind me as I made my way in.
“Tyler, oh my gods. No!” I shouted as I raced forward. My brother was strapped to an ugly-looking chair with several demons surrounding him, one of which was in the process of administering something that resembled a giant leech to his neck via some sort of nasty pliers. The black bug whipped back and forth as it headed closer to my brother.
With horror, as I moved farther into the room, I saw there were already several of those things secured to his face.
Tyler was straining, but awake. He was covered in his own blood.
I sprinted forward, swatting demons out of the way with my fists, taking the one with the nasty slug by the shoulders, my claws sinking in. I whipped it around, seething, “What are those?” I shook the demon. “Tell me what you’re doing to him!”
The demon was too stunned to answer so I raised my hand in front of its face, my claws sharp and pointy. “If you don’t spit it out in the next second, I will sever your jugular. And if you don’t have a jugular, I will rip your head off. Now tell me!” I shook it harder.
It stammered, “We… we are applying these to drain his strength.” This one’s English was better.
“What are those leeches doing to him? Specifically?”
“They—” it sputtered.
“Their damage is not lasting,” Lily finished as she grabbed my slug-toting pal and knocking it out in one punch.
She hit it below the belly button. I had to remember that.
The demon went down hard. She picked it up by the neck and walked it to the door, tossing it out and slamming the door behind it. She turned back to address me. “The leeches dampen your brother’s strength or he would be fighting. They have had to keep him very well contained because he is so strong. He will recover as soon as they are all removed.” She stopped and punched something into a code box on the wall. “They will be here with reinforcements very soon. These demons here are like doctors in your world. But the guards will have been alerted now to your location. This was not the best plan, you realize. Now we have no choice but to fight our way out.”
I ignored her and bent down in front of my bleeding brother. I grabbed one of the slugs stuck to his neck and pulled. “Tyler, can you hear me? I’m getting these off of you.” It finally came off, but I had to yank hard.
There was a loud sucking noise, followed by a current of blood. These things had either thinned his blood or inhibited his healing, or both. He should’ve been able to regenerate from the bite instantly, but it wasn’t closing yet.
Tyler grunted and smiled. “Jess, it’s so good to see you.” He reached out and touched my hand, which was positioned right next to his shackled wrist. He was weak, but once he brushed me, our connection sprang to life. Almost like someone had flipped an on switch. It was such a relief to feel him again. “You finally got here. I was beginning to think you weren’t gonna make it.” He closed his eyes.
“What do you mean finally?” I asked him after I’d removed a few more of the disgusting leeches. “It’s only been a few days.”
He shook his head as I reached for another one that was stuck under his shirt collar, and for the first time I noticed he was dressed in a jumpsuit like all the demons.
“No.” His breath hitched as I tugged it off. “It’s been over two months.”
“What?” I leaned back so I could meet his gaze. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I knew time worked differently here, but that was unsettling. If I’d waited another week would he have been gone almost a year? It was unthinkable.
“I’m not. It’s been a long-ass time,” he replied, trying to smile. “There’s a few more of those goddamn things under my shirt. They make me feel weird and they hurt like—ow.”
I took the wiggling thing in my fingers and dropped it into a jar Lily had just produced. The jar held the ones I’d gathered up and discarded on the cart next to my brother as well. As soon as I’d dropped it in, she screwed the lid on. “What?” My gaze was questioning. “Is it going to jump back out at us?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “In fact it will.”
My eyes widened. They were so sluglike, slow and lethargic in their movements. They didn’t look like they could morph into attack bugs.
“They’re drunk on his supernatural blood.” She nodded toward my brother. “But when it wears off, they will want more. These things”—she rattled the jar and they flopped around—“can jump ten feet, and they have fangs, which is mostly what caused your brother’s discomfort. They sucks power from a supernatural like a vampire bat feeds on blood.”
“Christ,” I muttered as I reached down the front of Tyler’s jumpsuit to get the last embedded bloodsucker.
“Who’s the blonde, mildly scary female?” my brother asked, nodding in Lily’s direction. “I haven’t seen any women so far. I was beginning to think they didn’t exist down here.”
Before I could answer him, the ground shook and there were several screams of terror on the other side of the door. Then a familiar voice echoed in my ears like a slimy oil slick.
“What is the matter with all of you fools?” it boomed. “You let them escape… twice. I will see your deaths for this. Now get them out of that room!”
The Prince of Hell had arrived.