“All of you! Find her and bring her back here! I want her alive!” Sakaer bellowed.
Rita held in her breath for a few more seconds. Her lungs screamed for air but she held on. When she was sure no one was inside she finally breathed out. She could not believe it actually worked. At least something from Lucinda had proved useful. She had only shared the knowledge while she had been drunk at a housewarming last year. Rita could only remember a few of the glyphs and even fewer what they were supposed to be for but they were her only hope of getting out of here. The idea and the memory came to her while she was in the bathroom.
Rita held onto the pieces of toilet paper close to her chest. The glyphs she had drawn on them whilst she was in the bathroom stared back at her. A little bit grody and weird since they were drawn in period blood but there had been nothing else. It was probably one of the only reasons the glyphs were even working.
She tore out a square she had drawn the intangible glyph on, thought of her intension and put it in the breast pocket of the shirt Archand had given her. She took a deep breath, approached the cell bars, said a silent prayer not to hit her face hard or scream and walked out.
Rita let out the breath she had been holding. 'Thank God.' she thought. Now for the others.
*******
“What do you mean he knows?!” Samuel roared. Carmilla just stood there looking at him like she had not just spelled the beginning of the end of his plans. “What did you do?” he asked, ready to rip of that new arm of hers or the other one.
“Absolutely nothing,” She answered sweetly, then bit out “Master.”
“All I am hearing is absolutely something.”
The thing with Carmilla was that more than two thousand years away from and without the oppression of her charm had given her a small immunity. A microscopic one that she had just exploited and had been exploiting. She had already sent six lovesick and foolish demons after the medallion already. Each one returned in pieces.
Samuel took the medallion from his pocket and pointed it in front of her. The moment he did, she knelt before him on both hands and knees, her face to the floor. He could feel her defiance and rage. “What did you do, Carmilla?”
“I sent MY underlings after Sakaer this morning.” she gritted out.
“What did you tell them to do?” he asked angrily, putting more conviction into the medallion.
“I told them to rile him up, kill him if they could.”
“But you knew they would not. They could not.”
“Yes.” she answered. He could sense the laughter in her tone.
“Why?”
“So he would be forced to perform the ritual within the day, earlier than he planned. To spite you for taking away my freedom.” she spat.
Fuck! The only reason she was alive or still on this side of the realm right now was because he needed her. He was starting to rethink his decision. Deeply. “You said your plan will make him perform the ritual than he planned, how did you know it would?” he asked.
“I have someone on the inside.” she answered begrudgingly. Still fighting the medallion and its power.
“Who is it?”
******
Hiding in the snow and at the same time advancing all while with the threat of demons level 2–7 rampant was not exactly the worst thing the squad but never for tis case. This was usually FSD's job but if NYDTA was called in then it must be bad.
“Come in Squad 5. Are you in position?”
“Squad 5 to control, we are in position. Awaiting orders.” The captain responded in a low voice.
“Good. Keep us posted.”
“Roger that.” she responded just before a scream echoed through the trees. “Aaaahhhhhhhhh!”
“Squad 5 to control. We got something in this sector 8. Possible subject and another Object approaching fast.”
“Proceed with caution.”
“Roger th–”
The captain did not get to finish her reply. Her head had been crushed by a giant gangly fist that had sprung out from the ground. And it proceeded to pound her body in childlike glee each smash followed by a demented laugh.
“Fire at will!”
Puny humans and their stupid toys. None could stand against his fists. The mistress would reward him greatly for this easy task. All he had to do was make sure the traitor, Sakaer, got his woman and then the mistress would be free.
“There you are turncoat!” came a shout.
The demon turned his head in a complete 180 to look in the direction of the accusation. He flinched at the sight before him and a whimper escaped his bloody maws. Archand and Terrance. ‘Oh no. Did they know?’ he thought to himself, many more thoughts and questions rapidly dancing in his head.
By the way they were charging for him, the answer was clear. He did not waste a second took off, jumping from tree to tree in a bid to escape. He never got far.
******
Rita heard the scream and did not look back. She kept running. The intangibility glyph would run out of power any minute now and so would the cloaking the other glyphs provided. She had six left but she had no idea what they were for and the last thing she wanted was to literally blow up while on an escape mission.
A bush scrapped against her knee and the bitter cold rushed against her skin and bit into her bare feet as they ran in the snow. That was it. The intangibility glyph had run out and no doubt, the others too. They were going to find her soon, if she did not find a way out of this forest. Fear made her run faster. She had no idea where she was going. If she was running to the edge of the forest or running in deeper.
She heard the roar of water and stopped in front of a river. Crossing it looked like the only way across but it was moving too fast. If she even attempted the crossing she would get swept away and drown. She had to find a way to–“Aaahhh!” A scream left her mouth before a hand came to silence her.
She felt a hard body behind hers and a gust of bloody breath against the right side of her head, followed a voice. “You have been very bad girl, haven't you my Lily.”
Sakaer. Rita screamed into his hand and struggled in his hold.
“You want to go in the water?” he asked manically. Rita shook her head in obvious frenzied refusal. “My thoughts exactly, let's go in.”
Rita screamed into his scaly hand and shook her head vigorously. The glyphs would be ruined and she did not know if his plans on not killing her had changed, bit it looked like they had. And she did not know how to swim. He stood to his full height, taking her with him and her feet off ground. It was pretty clear now that he was not in human form.
He walked to the banks and into the raging river and kept going till she was chest deep. The water's force was like a punch to the gut and of not for the arm around her was she would have already been swept away. A slithering feeling added to her terror and she thrashed around. The feeling only increased in persistence and wrapped around her body, holding her in place while he took away his arm.
He started chanting in words she did not understand or want to. She could feel the claws on his hand as he bent her head backwards, what her eyes met were four horns, iridescent purple eyes, skin the colour of decay and two mouths. One below his nose and the other was at the top of his forehead. A scream lodged in her throat, she could not get it out and she could not move either. It was more terrifying than when she could.
A deafening blast shot through the air and it was hard to know which way it came but Sakaer stayed completely frozen just as she was, lips stuck mid sentence, teeth bared, tongue reaching for her face.
“Damn it,” she heard someone curse, then the sound of something entering the water. “this one's fast.”
She felt an arm at her back and below her knees and Sakaer's tail loosening. “Ok, we will just get this off and we're good to go.” The voice was different this time. So there were two people.
When they were done unraveling Sakaer's tail from her, she was carried to the other side of the river. The opposite side of where she had come from.
They had not taken her probably seven steps away from the bank when Sakaer roared suddenly before she heard another blast, a wild splash and then nothing at all.
“Ok now, we are really safe.” The person holding her said, she remembered them calling for assistance but ten everything went dark.
*****
THREE DAYS LATER /13TH DECEMBER/
“How is she?” Samuel asked.
Gero sighed. “For the fiftieth time today, she is fine. The last three days have been really stressful and traumatic for her. I undid the incantations but it will take sometime for their influence to be undone. All she just needs right now is some time and some rest.” he finished. Seriously, with how the man was acting, how did everyone not know he had a thing for the lady?
Not even the more nosy assistants and apprentices had picked up on it. Which was a either a testament of the alpha's ability to keep things hidden or the most miraculous event to take place within the building itself. Then again, no one had picked up on the fact that he ran a nightclub or a correctional facility.
“Sakaer?” Samuel asked.
“Dead. And hopefully at the bottom of that deep trench.” Gero had been one of the two to get Rita out of the demon's clutches. If he and Faruk had arrived at that river half a second later, she would have been gone and so would have the Alpha standing in front of him.
“And the rest of the demons?”
“In a holding brig. A few got away though.” Gero knew he would not be happy about that one. He seemed lost in thought for a moment after that.
“Speaking of which, where is Carmilla?”
*****
It was almost hard to believe that Sakaer was gone. That this nightmare was over. Finally over. But her thoughts wandered to all tye people that could not make it out, all the people that died because of her and Sakaer's obsession with her. Almost hard to believe she was actually somewhere safe, just normally talking to someone.
“I am truly amazed at your resilience.” The woman mused.
“Depends on what you call resilience.” she replied. Eyes lingering on the shadows, wondering if he was there. Watching. Just waiting to take her away again.
“I mean getting away from Sakaer, that far even must have taken a lot.” It did. Even she just did not know how much.
“And forgiving the man that started all this. Just amazing.”
‘Forgiving the man who started all this?’
“What do you mean?” she asked, confusion written on her face.
The woman gave her a small smile. “You do not have to pretend with me dear.” She brought her chin to rest on the back of her hand. “I know all about the video. The way you two were going at it was really... I cannot explain. It got me craving and a little jealous.” she winked.
“I don't know what or who you are talking about but it is not me. And who would I be forgiving?” Rita inquired, more confused than before.
“Riiight. Anyway, whose idea was it to record? Yours or his?”
“I don't know who you are talking about, so please leave me alone.” This woman was crazy and she had enough crazy to last her a lifetime. Who was she anyway? “Thank you for coming to check up on me but I'd like you to leave now.”
The woman still did not move. That was it, she was getting out of here.
“It was probably why Sakaer thought it would be better to take you away.” That made her stop. The woman just continued on.
“He probably thought it would be best to get you away from him, for a demon he had some sense of wellbeing. I would not leave someone I liked to be close to someone who leaked their tape. Let alone their boss.”
Tape? Did she mean video? Just then Samuel appeared at the door. Rita did not catch the smile the woman wore on her face. “Speak of the devil.”