Cemetery Summons Ch. 21

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"So what's she like, Volna? Is she as nice as Kan?"

"Or as domineering?"

"Hey guys," one voice chimed in. "The real question is: does she love Anthony?"

"Yeah, that."

Anthony groaned, a finger running up the bare skin of his spine. Answering all these questions about himself and Volna and everyone else was tiring. It would have been a tad easier if there hadn't been three dozen naked Amazons lying about the maroon floor in different poses that might have gotten her on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Hell, just walking down the street would have gotten her into the magazine in seconds. Anthony thought on her question though. Volna sure acted like she just wanted to use him, but he didn't know for sure.

"I don't think so, but then again, I didn't think Kan loved me for the longest time either. I'll just wait and see if she does or doesn't. Worst comes to worst, she has a battle royal with Kan to see who gets me...or share me."

That was a fate he wanted to avoid.

"Bingo! That's a yes!"

"But do pray tell, do you love her too?"

"Hey," Anthony warned. "I don't even know if she loves me yet or not. Don't jump on me and ask...fuck. Why am I even getting defensive? You can already tell anyway. Fuck it, why do I even bother?" Anthony sat back, only to realize that the back of his head was buried between Anathane's thighs.

"Just remember that Jack is the only man allowed down there. Even you are banned from entry," she said cheerily.

"A thinly-veiled threat I assume?" Anthony said aloud while he folded his hands across his stomach.

Anathane shook her head. "I could never threaten you. You mean too much to Jack. However, if Jack wanted me to do that, then it would be up to Kan."

"And not me?" Anthony's brow knitted.

"Oh, of course not. Kan owns your soul. But vice versa, if I was told to kill Kan, I would need your approval, because you own her soul. You see what I mean?" Her smile was less than assuring, though probably genuine in nature.

"I'm so glad to know that the lives of those around you mean so much to you. I fear for your enemies," he spat sardonically. Anathane tut-tutted and shook her head like she was admonishing a child.

"Your lives mean everything to me. But Jack means everything more to me, if that makes sense. I love you like I love every other close friend of mine. But I love Jack on a higher level than a human can feel. You see? I will do anything Jack asks me to if he truly means it. I would make an attempt to do battle with God even, if Jack so wished." She paused for a moment. "Doing that, by the way, would be more suicide than jumping out of a space shuttle naked, while it's in orbit."

"I see..." Anthony tried to put together a mental image of Anathane challenging someone to a fight and then losing. It was harder than picturing someone jumping out of a space ship and plummeting to Earth.

"And now that you see, I believe that it's time to..." Her voice faded as Anthony's head began to pound. His eyes began to throb like they were going to pop, and he doubled over in pain. "What's wrong?!"

"Someone's!-" His eyes went wide. "Someone is prying at the eye! Anathane, we have to hurry!" Anthony curled into a tight ball and felt this head burning. His Gorgon's Eye began to sear his flesh, and he smelled the burning meat that was his skin. Fire burned in his brain and he cried out in pain.

"Anthony, please, hold onto the heart. Which one is being tampered with?" Anathane grabbed his fingers and squeezed tightly. The warlock focused all of his mental capabilities toward searching for the fast beat that thrummed in his head. That was the cause of his pain. The heartbeat was mind-shattering. How could it be so fast?!

"It's...Ela...no, wait, yes, no! Who! K...Kan! Kan, hold on! Stop! You're killing me! Stop!" he roared, covering his eyes with his hands. Nothing alleviated the pain. He writhed on the ground while Anathane sat beside him, unable to do a thing about it.

"Anthony, please hold out," she begged, pressing his hand between hers.

"Help me then!" he yelled.

"I can heal wounds, yes, but I cannot stop the pain. These are psychic wounds, not physical ones. I'm so sorry, but this is something you must do on your own." She kissed his forehead and the burning eye became a cool sensation. "This is all I can do."

"Kan, resist. Resist. Resist! Damn you, resist it! Fight! I love you! Fight it back! Show me you love me! I love you! Don't let me down! Show me! Love me! Kan! Fight it!"

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Whatever was going on inside her head, Volna knew it wasn't good. Anathane had been trying to drag Anthony's soul to the fore for far too long. Everyone watched with mixtures of anxiousness and anxiety while the demon searched her own multitude of selves for the one that wasn't hers.

Volna bit her lip and curled her toes. What was going on? Hadn't she said that everything was okay? Where was Anthony? What was going on inside her head? Volna didn't want to think that this was the end of her relationship with Anthony. There was so much more she could get from him!

"Damn it, what's taking him so long?" she growled.

"Him?" questioned Jack, the incubus.

Volna glared. "Of course, him. What else could it be? He's going to owe me extra for making me worried like this," she snapped.

"Worried implies you caring for him," Ekana chided. "You have feelings for the warlock, or are you just putting on a nice little show because you want to?"

"Can it. You want Jack, so says that sore ass of yours," Volna snarled in return. At this, Ekana raked her nails across the aforementioned wounds, reopening them in full. She raised her head and moaned like she was back on the table with Jack.

"Of course I do. He makes one helluva dom when he's pushed into it. And the after-fuck, that was really something of a whirl too." She opened her mouth wide and licked her plush lips with a long tongue sensually. Volna was disgusted, and jealous.

The object of Ekana's desire was no more than six feet away. Anthony, however, was refusing to leave Anathane's mind. He was probably scared that she was going to demand more from him, even though his body was lying countless miles away in the void realm between Rings. Why wouldn't he just come out?

Volna wasn't going to hurt him, or even try to milk him! She couldn't! She just wanted to see him again, to hear him! She wanted to know he was safe with Anathane and see that he was going to be fine. It wasn't much for her to ask. Why would he hide?

Did...did he hate her? Had she pushed him too far last time? Maybe four times in a row was too much for him? All the times she had forced him to do her bidding...oh Gods! Why had she done that? Why couldn't she have controlled her own greed and made sure that he was comfortable? If he hadn't been pushed so hard by her, then maybe she would be talking to him right now instead of worrying about him.

Volna wanted to hit herself. As much as she wanted to deny it, this was her fault. Anthony didn't want to even see her. She felt sick to her stomach. And there wasn't a damned thing she could do about it but wait.

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Kan dug her claws into the warlock's head and wiggled her fingers about. His face went from a look of surprise to one of complete anguish and torment. His eyes filled with blood and he choked on his own words.

"Like that, doncha? Silly boy. I don't care if you are Dalaria's best and brightest; you're nothing compared to Anthony."

With that said, she clawed at his brain and ripped out chunks of squishy pink meat. His body fell to the floor in a heap and began spilling blood all over the floor. She snorted, and then prodded the man's open skull with her foot. What was left of his brain felt warm and pleasant against her flesh.

She giggled.

And then her stomach lurched. What if that had been Anthony? She pushed the thought out of her mind and reassured herself that he was safe. For the thousandth time, she remembered that the feeling inside her head was from something he had done. Speaking of that...

She smashed the icon meant to drag his spell away from her body and tendrils of green light flashed about like and octopus' tentacles. They latched onto the warlock's body and started devouring it.

"Yoohoo! We have a man down. Anybody up to the task of getting his body?" she called mockingly, waiting with anticipation for the guards to come get their friend. Footsteps put her on edge. She had to work fast or everything she had done up to this point was lost. She might never get another chance like this ever again, so she wasn't going to fuck up. If not for her sake, then for Anthony's.

The guards stopped at the doorway and one of them fumbled with his keys. Kan waited next to the barred doorway and let a soft growl come up her throat. Once the door was open, she launched herself toward the guard entering her cell. Her fingers stabbed his throat and sent him spinning across the stone floor in a flash.

The other two guards made to draw their weapons, but Kan was already swinging through the open doorway with a hand raised high to strike. She tore through one guard's chainmail hauberk and blood spilled from the side of his neck. The second, she gouged his eyes out and slammed a knee into his groin.

Wordlessly, she reached up beneath his breastplate and tore away at his soft belly. Muscle and flesh parted before her diamond-sharp claws and very soon, there was a steaming pile of entrails coating the floor at Kan's feet. She let out a satisfied sigh and turned back to her cell. There lay the first guard, drowning in a pool of his blood and the warlock's. Kan spat at the ridiculous notion that she would be put under by something so ordinary as a warlock's curse.

She was fucking a warlock.

There was no way in heaven or hell that one was going to bind her to anything. Well, unless Anthony wanted it so. Oh, he was so naughty! However, she could save such thoughts for later. Now, she just needed to focus on surviving to get to Anthony. Then she could have all the sex in the world with him, and then some.

Kan looked around for another foe, but found not a single one was to be had. Luckily, they had thought her to be weak from exhaustion, but nothing of the like would occur for years. She was so wired on Anthony's cum that she could last longer than anyone else in this prison could. Perhaps Dalaria even if she had been given a few more weeks with her lover.

Kan darted back into her room and snatched the keys from the bleeding guard's belt. Then, she went to the adjacent cell and peered inside. Almost immediately, she found a large hand wrapped around her blue throat.

The hand was almost as white as a sheet of paper, and stitched heavily, as if it had been sewn together like Frankenstein's parts had been. Kan put her hands up as the pressure on her throat began to wax with the amount of time she was silent.

"You're not a guard," the hand's owner stated in a deep, melodious tone.

"No, I'm not. I'm trying to let you out before any more guards show up," explained Kan as she waited for the hand to let go. Slowly, its grip loosened.

"I'm...sorry. I am not used to demons showing compassion for one such as I." The hand retracted back into the darkness of its owner's cell. Oddly enough, the door for this cell was just a set of iron bars, much like a human's jail. Kan's had been locked with seals and runes and a solid metal door. Her burnt hand was proof of that.

Just touching the damned door had seared her flesh.

Kan looked into the cell, but it was in total darkness. The only things she could see were the prisoner's bright white eyes. Not like Jack's, but something of a dim glow with a purplish tint. Kan was hesitant to open the cell door for this prisoner.

"And what will you do, once I free you that is?" Kan inquired.

The arm came through the cell bars again. "Find the one who did this to me and drink blood from her skull, as is what I have dreamt of for a millennia," the prisoner replied calmly. Kan warily unlocked the door and opened it. She stepped back to let the prisoner out.

The stitched arm reached out first, followed by a thick shoulder, and then a man in a severely torn, hooded brown robe. His face was shadowed rather well, conveniently well actually. Something or another was hiding his face behind a shroud of blackness, but Kan didn't inquire. Instead, she was much more interested in his enormous build and the massive angel wings flanking him.

The giant extended a hand clasped at the wrist with a thick cuff and chain. "I thank you mortal, for my freedom. But I did expect you sooner." Kan reluctantly shook his hand and gave a wan smile. His milky white skin looked like leather, and felt as much too.

"Mortal as every other demon here," Kan muttered as their hands parted and she went to free the others. The giant lumbered quietly after her, making only a gentle sliding noise as he walked. Kan turned her head to see that he was in fact , not walking, but floating a few inches off the ground. And the slight brushing sound was that of his wings dragging across the blood-slicked floor.

Kan opened up the next cell and out popped eight or so imps that scurried off down a hallway with mad giggles. Kan released all the other prisoners nearby and handed one of the more sane ones the keys before leaving the cellblock. She noticed that the large angel-looking fellow with the stitched arm was following her.

"Is there something troubling you?" he asked concernedly.

"Why are you following me?"

"I wish to accompany you. You seem to know where your destination is," replied the giant.

Kan chuckled. "Yeah, out is where I want to be. But I don't know where the fuck I am."

"Then I will assist you in escaping this place. You came to my aid when I so desired, so I shall come to yours. Lead and I shall follow." He waited silently while Kan decided on which direction they were going to go once they reached the next hallway.

"Well, I guess you make some sense there. What's your name, anyway?" Kan looked left and then right, and found not a single soul. She shrugged and made the left turn at a whim.

"I am Tirol, fallen angel of the Lord God, loyal servant of the Lord Lucifer."

"What a mouthful," the demon muttered back. "I'm Kan by the way. And my lover's name is Anthony. I'll be letting him know how much I miss him when I see his ass again. Might even just get me a few seconds in heaven while I'm back there too."

"I see. I wish you luck in your endeavor."

"Well thanks, Tirol. You know, stirring up more trouble for Dalaria around here would help me, and I guess, help you get what we want. Do you think we should find another few dozen prisoners to let loose? Besides, I have a few friends here I would like to see out here with me. Unfortunately though, they won't be giving you any rewards beyond their verbal thanks. They all belong to one man," Kan said.

"I understand. But I do not desire any thanks. Before my fall from grace, I was an Angel of Aid. It was my duty to help those in need of assistance. Thus, I shall help you, mortal."

Kan growled softly. "I'm not mortal."

"To me, you are mortal. I could call you child if you desire that."

"Mortal's fine." Kan strode down a few more hallways until she reached a huge, domed room with a large statue in the center. The walls shone gold against the light of several braziers set on the walls and a massive chandelier above. Hundreds of candles burned on the chandelier and wax occasionally dripped down into the dark water below.

Around the statue was a pool, and several large dog-like beasts sleeping near what appeared to be their master. He appeared to be a large, heavy-set man with a torture mask and a large jagged club in one hand. He wore a glove covered in sharp metal fragments on the other. He was naked, save for a tattered smock around his waist.

Scattered about the floor were corpses and bones of all kinds. Apparently, this was some kind of doghouse and these were its owners. Kan backed around the corner again and turned to face Tirol. He looked down with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Something wrong, mortal?"

"Fuck, hellbores. I knew something was wrong when they weren't called in on us. Fuck. I might be able to pull something out of my ass to save myself, but you're totally fucked. There's no way those fucking dogs'll leave you alone once they get your scent."

"Ah, hellbores. Is their master nearby? Or have they taken root here on their own?"

"No, that fat bastard is right next to 'em. What're you thinking of doing?"

Tirol's teeth appeared in a wide, lupine grin. "Kill the master and I will handle the hellbores." Kan groaned and readied herself for the coming fight. Fuck it all. She didn't want to do any of this. Was having to fight her way through this whole prison worth it?

"Anthony..." To see the look on his face when she found him, that was more than enough encouragement. That moment was going to make her cream like she'd been holding back for thirty years.

Emboldened, she strolled casually out into the open and whistled for the hellbores' attention. All nine pairs of ears perked up and a number of growls arose. The master rose to his feet and yelled something incoherent. The hellbores growled menacingly, but stayed put. Another yell, and then the master gave them the attack command. The hellbores rushed toward Kan.

Before they could get anywhere near her, however, Tirol stomped his way into the room and howled like an animal. The dogs gave pause, but with words of encouragement from their master, they continued to leap and bound toward the demon and her new angelic comrade. He spread his wings and braced for impact. Kan rushed toward the pack's master in the middle of the room, bypassing all but one hellbore altogether.

When the canine demon leapt, Kan rammed four claws into the back of its throat and tore a length of its spine out the back of its beck. With a yelp, the hellbore flopped to the ground with Kan's arm stuck up to the shoulder in its mouth.

Now, however, Kan was stuck. The hellbore's body was too heavy to move from the floor in any quick manner. (because it was nearly the size of a bull) Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but Kan had the master running at her with his cruelly notched club in hand.

He swung at her midsection, but Kan twisted away from the hellbore's corpse and the sharp club thudded against the stone floor inches away from her back. She swept her wing across the master's face, which hurt her more than it did him because of his mask. Still, it disoriented him enough to allow her a clean kick with her heel, right in the side of his knee.

"Fucking die already!" she roared. The master stepped back and raised the club again. Kan rolled back over onto her back and clapped her feet around his hand as he tried to swing. It took him a moment to realize what had happened, and then he punched one of her feet with the opposite hand. Kan yelled her frustration at him and lashed out with the end of her wing.

Luckily, after an initial hit on his meal mask, the strike skittered into his eye and impaled the gooey orb. The master lurched, but didn't think much of it as he punched her foot again to get his club hand free. She let go and kicked his club hand instead.

The weapon went flying and Kan focused the majority of her attention on getting her arm free now. She arched her back as a punch from the shrapnel glove came down. It took skin from her back. Kan winced at the pain, but managed to free her arm in time to get away from the next blow aimed for her head.

She got to her feet and glanced over at Tirol for a moment. A hellbore came flying in her direction with no head. Kan barely had time to duck before the demon's body soared over her and smashed into the master's side with loud cracks of bone being splintered like wood. Kan finished the master with a stomp, crushing his skull.