Cemetery Summons Ch. 15

"Nyx!" he roared at the top of his lungs. "Is this how you'd treat your daughter?!"

"So what if I tease my children a little? At least I'm there for them," the succubus teased. Jack's heart stopped.

"After my sixth birthday, I didn't have a mom, Nyx. I can't stand to see parents abuse their children, when the kids didn't do a damned thing wrong." Jack could feel his anger about to explode forth, and the smoke finally cleared for about thirty feet in every direction.

"They're my kids, J-"

"You're their mother!" Jack shouted, stalking toward the red blur on the floor some fifty feet ahead of him. "They deserve a damned parent! Not a torturer!" He stalked across the space between him and the red blur, and found that it was a woman lying on the floor in tattered rags, short red hair matted with blood. Jack balled his fists.

"This is Limarei, isn't it?"

"And if it is," purred Nyx's omnipotent voice.

"Limarei?"

"Ngh. J...Unicorn? Where, where are you?" the woman asked groggily.

"Right here Limarei," he answered, dropping to one knee next to her. The girl, now a busty redhead, dragged herself to her knees and put a hand to her head. She collapsed against him and started to cry softly, subduing her sobs so that they came out as short exhales and gasps.

"I hate brother. I hate him. He always tortures me like this. The Beast of Darkness will come soon. Take me please, help." Her voice was meek and scared. She trembled in her arms and looked around as if she were anticipating the arrival of the Beast of Darkness any second now. Jack took a deep breath to calm his nerves. What the fuck was going on?

"Limarei. What's the Beast of Darkness?"

"Brother sends it to find me when I get lost...and it's scary...and it chases me around. And I get so scared and I just wanna see Mama again! She protects me! Mama! Find me Mama!" she cried. Jack hugged her tight and looked about. The fog was closing in again, and the roiling ceiling of blackness was now beginning to drop snow. All about him, little flakes of snow were lazily dropping through the air.

"Limarei. Hush, calm down. I'll protect you from it. Hush now," he soothed, stroking the back of her head. She buried her face in his chest and he closed his wings around her. Limarei cuddled up into his lap and her thigh brushed up against his erection. She looked down and Jack's entire face turned bright red.

But she didn't say anything to him. She just rubbed it with her thigh and nuzzled his chest as a lover would. Jack felt a little guilty having her like this when his four lovers were either taken or under someone else's thumb. Limarei turned her face toward him and snowflakes hit her cheeks. But instead of melting, they smeared as she cried herself out.

Jack caught a flake on his finger and rubbed it around between his fingertips. He realized that it wasn't snow at all.

It was ash.

"Begin, begin, with silent din," came an ominous voice from just ahead. Jack peered into the greasy grey haze, but all he could see was the ash and fog that had gathered especially thick around him. As the voice faded, the black tendrils of the ceiling retreaded through the falling ashes and out of his sight.

"It's here," Limarei whispered fearfully. "It's coming to get me. Mama! Save me!"

"Be still and breathe, please. Just breathe for me," Jack begged as she began to shake violently. Her shaking got worse when she grabbed his hand and squeezed it as hard as she could. Wings ripped through her back and rivulets of blood erupted from her mouth. She threw her head back and the blood bubbled forth from her ruddy red lips.

Her eyes exploded into two balls of crimson fire and blood spilled forth from her eye sockets. Jack was so horrified that he couldn't even move. She spat blood into his eyes and gurgled on it as her shaking turned into a horrible seizure. She tore at Jack with long claws and kicked him and beat her way out of his arms and onto the floor.

There, she flopped around like a fish out of water. A pool of blood began to form beneath her and she smeared it into the thin blanket of ashes. Jack could only stare, as she lay there, body splayed out before him and helpless. The incubus glared angrily up at the smoke and ash above.

"Nyx! Help her!" he yelled. The succubus giggled as blood began to leak from her daughter's ears as well. Limarei sounded like she was choking as the blood pouring from her mouth waned.

"Why? This is so very entertaining. Wait until she begins to scream."

Jack wanted to cry, and a large lump started forming in his throat. What could he do? She was dying right before his eyes, and Nyx was just letting it happen. Jack ground his teeth together and fumed. What could he do?! She was dying!

"Help! Mama, help! No! Mama! Save me, please! Help, Mama! Please!" she screamed. She writhed around in the warm slush created by her blood mixing with the ashes. She was covered with the stuff, all over. She wept and screamed for help, but as far as Jack could see, nobody was coming to her rescue.

"On, on, to woman yon," came the voice from before, that belonged neither to Thanatos nor to Nyx. Jack shivered as he felt a presence looking down upon him from above. But all he could see was the impenetrable grey fog.

"No! Go away! Mama! Help! Please, Mama, please help me!" Limarei let out a terrible scream, so loud and full of fright that it shook Jack's very bones. He decided it was time to do something.

So Jack grabbed Limarei's wrists and pulled her upright. She scratched at him, but he pulled her in close and hugged her as tightly as he could. She tore at his bare back, screaming for help all the while. Jack pulled her short red hair and yanked her head back.

"Limarei! Listen to me! I'm here. Please wake up."

"I...Mama! Is that you?"

"No, Limarei. This is Jack. Wake up. Please."

"But I'm so scared! It's coming for me!" she screamed.

"Limarei, you're hallucinating. Wake up. I'm here." Jack said. He waited for a response, but Limarei just sat there, her claws dug into his back still. She was like a statue. And then her lips split into a grin and she pushed him down on the floor, which was more like a lake of her blood. She traced a line down the center of his forehead and let her finger rest between his eyes for a moment, licking her bloody lips seductively.

"I'm awake, Jack. Now it's time for you to wake up too."

"What?" was all Jack could say before she pushed her lips against his. The eerie voice spoke again. And this time, Jack couldn't see anything to save his life after the words faded into smoke and darkness.

"Wake, wake, from calming lake." Jack breathed deeply and felt a warmth envelop his entire body.

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Anthony shot straight up from where he lay and red light glared at him from above. Since red light was less vibrant than white light, he didn't have the urge to shy away or sneeze like he usually did. His heart was beating so fast that he could have just run a race for all he knew. His head hurt, burned really, on the surface.

And his thumb felt like he'd smashed it in a car door. But for the most part, he didn't have any apparent serious threats to his bodily stability. He got up and stretched his sore body.

For what seemed like such a normal and automatic gesture, it was excruciatingly painful. Anthony dropped to his knees and gasped in pain as muscles protested vehemently to being used. So, while he was tethered to the floor by his own frailty, he took note of his surroundings.

All around him were trees and shrubs colored black, or green and seemed black against the red light that shone down from wherever its source was. He didn't even know if it was a sun that was making the light. He wasn't on earth after all; he was supposed to be in hell. He ran his fingers through the grass beneath him, and found it surprisingly soft and comforting.

Anthony wondered briefly whether of not he was actually in hell, or if something had been screwed up in the process of Anathane's unholy work. The amateur warlock prayed that his fear was misplaced and that everything had gone correctly.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps and his entire body went rigid. He had to hide, fast. Even as pained and sore as he was, Anthony's fear of being found by someone who was not his friend, especially in hell, drove him into the nearest bush where he huddled up into a ball. As the footsteps drew nearer, Anthony heard labored breathing and scraping of metal against wood. Branches fell off a tree near his hiding place and some dashed out into the opening in the trees.

A woman burst through the trees, brandishing a long runesword in one hand and a ball of cloth in the other. She stood entirely naked, facing the center of the clearing where a body lay on its side, unmoving.

But she paid no attention to it as she looked about and brought the cloth to her nose. She breathed deeply and stuck her blade into the grassy earth at her feet. The woman spun around and stared right at Anthony with the sweetest smile on her face that he could ever have imagined. It was all he could do to keep from moving toward her.

"Found you~" she sang. As she started toward him, Anthony began to back away further into the brush. Apparently, she was offended, and grabbed with her tail, the long blade that she had previously stuck into the ground. A worried look took the place of her smile.

"Oh fuck! Oh Fuck! Oh fuck!" Anthony whispered as the woman slashed branches and bushes out of the way to reach him. He bit his thumb and managed a small rune on his left palm. The blade cut through the air so close to Anthony's face that he saw a bit of his own hair falling before his eyes.

"Why are you running?" asked the woman in the sweetest, most innocent voice he'd ever heard. He fought his inner desires to give up, and glared up at her.

"Because the last time I fought, I was almost killed. I'm a lot better at running away." Anthony let out a groan as something sharp pierced his shoulder. With horror, he traced the silver blade from her hand to his shoulder, where blood oozed slowly from his body. The woman smiled eerily and licked her plump, pink lips.

"Then run rabbit, run," she said.

Anthony found himself in an extremely bad position. Between a rock and a hard place was an understatement. And for all the sheer terror in his body, the fear of being stabbed was supreme at the moment. His stomach lurched as he realized he was going to die.

This was it.

This was his final hour. His final moments flashing before his eyes were all he'd ever see again. He was going to die here, in hell, with a sword through his chest. Sadly enough, Jack was still lying on the ground, lifeless. He wouldn't ever get to see his lovers again. Anthony thought of his own lover, Kan. He wished he could see her face one last time.

He cried. Silently, he cried for her. He couldn't imagine what was happening to her right now, or what she was thinking. He knew she wasn't the sad, scared type, but he couldn't help but feel that something horrible was being done to her and she was waiting for him to rescue her. He felt his salty tears streaming down his cheek and placed his hand on the blade rammed through his shoulder.

The pain didn't even matter. He knew that somewhere in the back of his mind that his consciousness was still there, setting off warning alarms that he was dying. He didn't care. If he was dying, then there was no way he'd stop it. Not like this.

Anthony felt so useless. Thinking about it for a moment, he realized that he was in way over his head. Jack wasn't, not by a longshot. Jack was immortal, some kind of demon-incubus now that he'd been completely removed from humanity.

He would be able to survive this, and probably wrench the blade from his flesh without much trouble at all. Anthony, himself, was unable to do anything but despair and wait for death. It seemed so common these days, that death was waiting for him, in the form of Kan's claws, a sword, an axe, what have you.

But for what it was worth...

He didn't feel sorry for himself.

No, he felt sorry for his friends and his lover. He was never going to help them, and they might actually fail. Not that it had been the brightest idea to go against hell and expect victory anyway. But it had seemed plausible at first. Really, who would expect such a small group, of perhaps three or four people trying to break prisoners free, in such a huge place as hell?

Anthony raised his left hand to the blade and touched it very gently with his fingertips. It pulsed, and then vibrated vigorously. The woman, who he now recognized as a succubus through her tail, wings, and lack of horns, retracted the weapon from his body and backed away slowly.

Anthony stood, then staggered forward as blood poured from the open wound. Slowly, he began to realize that he wasn't on the ground anymore. So he put up the pretense of being able to fight. Perhaps he was going to get cut to mincemeat? Who knew?

And then suddenly, he saw himself falling into her arms and being dragged across the grass. He couldn't feel anything, not the dainty hands beneath his arms, the tail around his stomach, or the grass beneath his feet. All he could feel was the slow, thunderous beat of his heart. He experienced a warm, and then icy feeling flood his shoulder, and cringed in pain as it spread all the way down his arm.

His consciousness slowly returned to him and Anthony was thoroughly surprised to see that he wasn't dead. Instead, he lay in a pool of blue water with only his head propped up against a rock at the surface. He blinked confusedly.

Wasn't he just about to die three seconds ago?

"That was close. I thought you were the wrong person for a moment," said the same, sweet voice from before. Anthony simply sighed. Whatever.

"What made you stab me then?"

"I didn't know you were you, Lighthouse."

"Lighthouse?" Anthony said more to himself than to her.

"Your head. You look like a lighthouse with that big eye shining on your head. It's actually kind of funny to look at." She giggled, but Anthony couldn't find anything funny about it. He had a Gorgon's Eye on his forehead, and it still hurt, even after the ritual circle was probably gone.

"Not so funny when you can barely hear their heartbeats," he murmured dourly.

"Barely? You expect a resounding hammer falling for every one, even when they are so far away? The fact that you can hear them at all, especially his..." She pointed to Jack. "Is nothing short of a sheer mastery of dark magic. But you've only just been introduced to our side of the world, correct?"

"Look, if you've got nothing important to say, then piss off," Anthony snapped at her.

"Oh, I'm so hurt! Look how deeply you wound me!" she said with feigned insult. She drove her blade all the way through her chest and then just left it there as she twirled around like a ballerina. Anthony didn't even care to say anything as he sulked in the cold water.

"Oh," she whined. "I didn't mean anything by that! It was just a joke, see?" She quickly pulled the blade from her body, completely clean and free of any gore whatsoever. After hearing no reply, she simply shrugged and plucked Anthony from the water with her tail.

"Put me down," growled Anthony.

"You're in no position to make demands, you know."

"Put. Me. Down."

"No," she retorted. "And just for that, I'm not going to let you fuck me."

"Does it look like I care?" Anthony questioned sardonically as she started to walk off in the direction she had come from originally. She started talking again, mostly to herself at first.

"Although if you beg me, I'll reconsi- What? You don't care about fucking this?" She spread her hands along her body and moaned as three fingers reached her wet arousal and a hand squeezed one of her breasts.

"I only want the woman I love. The only reason I'm here is because I need to find her."

At that, the demon frowned, but said nothing more. She simply took her hands away from her body and walked through the clear-cut swathe of destruction she had wreaked through the trees on her way here. Anthony, meanwhile, had things to worry about.

Like for one thing, the only article of clothing on his body that remained even the tiniest bit intact were his pants, and even they were being worn down by her rough, barbed tail. After a while of zero talking and a lot of banging his head against sharp, cut branches, the demon giggled and turned her head toward him. Anthony snorted and looked away as a wide, fanged grin began to appear on her face.

"By the way, my name is Atheria. It's very nice to finally meet a real human brave enough to come all the way down to hell for his lover. We don't get many of you these days."

"And why is that?" Anthony asked, taking the obvious bait.

"Oh, well, you know the whole thing about demons, right? Contracts here, contracts there. You humans are so fickle that you leave us no choice but to bind you to your agreements. But, that only happens on earth, your territory." She licked her lips.

"Does this have a point?" asked Anthony with a sigh.

"Of course. Well, here in hell, we don't need any contracts. We demons can't exactly take what we want from you, because you few are so rare. So difficult to find you it is, that the last human to venture down here for love was Greek. Pre-Roman Greek mind you. Pre-Macedonian Greek too. You do understand that this makes you rarer than diamonds?"

"And...?"

"Being so rare, I want to hoard you and flaunt you to everyone I see and keep you all to myself. But that would be selfish, and I'm not the selfish type anymore. So, I've come up with a fantastic solution as to what to do with you."

They suddenly shifted through reality and ended up in front of a doorway to a large, ornate stone building set beneath a canopy of vibrant black trees. The demon opened the double doors and tossed Anthony onto the hard, stone floor. He growled in complaint and picked himself up slowly.

"Begin, begin, with silent din," rang a voice from behind the woman. She backed away, still with lips split in a look of deceitful satisfaction, and waved goodbye. Then she slammed the doors shut and a large wooden beam swung down and locked them in place. Anthony turned to face the room, and his eyes went wide with wonder.

Before him lay dozens of naked succubi, splayed out on a very thin sheet of water that coated the floor like a wet rug. They stared at him, hungrily, like starved wolves ready to strike at him at the earliest sign of weakness. He couldn't put up any kind of front, because he knew it was useless.

But directly ahead of him, there was one who was different. Instead of pale skin like that of a porcelain doll, with alabaster breasts that jiggled like jello, or tanned skin that would have put any avid surfer to shame, she had cobalt skin. She stared at him knowingly, drinking in his presence as if she had intimate knowledge of him the others didn't. Even with the reddened light, their skin was vivid and clear.

"Kan..." Anthony murmured under his breath as he realized that between her legs, there pulsed a long, dripping erection. Now, Anthony was by no means gay, or homosexual, but he did recognize his lover when he saw her. This was Kan, and there was no mistaking it.

And just the very sight of her aroused him, through memories of all the time he'd spent with her over the past few weeks. He hesitated for a moment, suddenly realizing that this couldn't possibly be real. This must be some trick of his imagination, because she was being held somewhere, and her heartbeat was so very faint and far away.

"On, on, to woman yon..."

After a moment of staring and gawking at his lover, the voice had resurrected itself from the back of Anthony's mind. He didn't want to listen, knowing only disappointment would await him. This couldn't possibly be her. It wasn't like his Gorgon's Eye was lying to him. It couldn't do that, not even if he wanted it to, because it wasn't his.