To Hell and Back Again Ch. 06

Beauty was gone again by the time Logan woke. It was still early morning, judging by the weak rays of light spilling through the ceiling crack. She can't have been gone for long. The weight of her body could still be seen where she had been lying on the moss.

Hunting, he assumed. Or just avoiding me.

On the other side of the now cold, dead fire, Karen still lay in uneasy sleep. Seeing her lying there, naked and dirty, on the cave floor reminded Logan of his first night in Hell. It made his back hurt to remember, and he resolved to do whatever he could for her. What that might be was, as of yet, unknown. They were all in uncharted territory now.

It had been his idea to intervene on her behalf against the beast he had affectionately named "Dead Red," and Logan had no regrets about doing so. Being a demon had been strike one against the big bastard. Sexually assaulting a woman half his size were strikes two and three, as far as Logan was concerned. Dead Red had deserved no mercy. None had been given.

Despite their intervention, Karen had not escaped the encounter unscathed. Demons, he now knew, possessed a potent aphrodisiac venom. Somehow, sexual stimulus and human orgasm were a part of their feeding cycle, which went a long way toward explaining Beauty's single-minded obsession with milking him like a dairy cow.

Unfortunately for Karen, saving her from Dead Red had broken that cycle, revealing unexpected and sinister side effects of the venom. A mere touch by the demon's tongue had been enough to send the woman into an endless, insatiable, sexual frenzy. Saving her from one horror had only resulted in exposing her to another. Out of the frying pan and into the hellfire.

Leaving her behind wasn't even a choice he had been willing to consider. Doing that would have been the equivalent of hanging a sign around her neck that said, "Helpless and horny. Please ravish me." No, the only choice had been to carry her back to their secret shelter.

And, oh boy, what an interesting journey back that had been! Trying to carry a naked, attractive, sex-crazed woman over his shoulder had not been easy. It would not have been possible at all if not for Beauty's rather unorthodox solution of feeding on her just enough to render the woman unconscious. Even then, her hands and lips had wandered over his body in a most distracting manner as they traveled across the blasted and dangerous hellscape.

Getting Karen to shelter had not helped her condition. Once poisoned, it seemed only orgasm could purge the venom out. Yet, her efforts to relieve her body's burning need had failed. The only thing that could help her was to complete the cycle, and that required the participation of a demon.

Beauty had, once again, offered an unusual solution, and then only for Logan's sake. She had not been fond of the idea. Why would she be? Sex without feeding went against the demon's every instinct. Only because Beauty had fed on him mere moments before, had she been able to do it at all. He had seen the conflict on her lovely face after the deed was done. The urge to feed had nearly been too much for her.

Still, it had worked. Karen had finally gotten some relief from the unending lust that seemed to afflict all the damned souls in Hell. She had recovered enough to calm down and remember her name and random memories of her life before damnation. Sadly, she remained suspicious of Beauty's efforts on her behalf and was still terrified of the demon girl, but who could blame her for that? This was Hell, and demons brought only pain and suffering to human souls like Karen.

That was a part of the eco-system of this nightmare realm he was just beginning to understand. Much like Earth, there were patterns and logic to how this place worked. Twisted logic, to be sure, but it was there. Unique flora and fauna existed. So too did something resembling civilization where demons ruled, and human souls were a commodity for trade, use, or consumption.

Until now. Until Logan.

Less than a month ago, the Faerie Queen Maeve had exiled him to Hell for failing to release her from the obligation he had unknowingly earned by freeing her from an icy prison. Since his untimely arrival, Logan had interrupted the natural cycle of events, not just once, but many times.

First, he had allied with a gorgeous, and ever hungry, Succubus demon. Were he and Beauty now more than just allies? Was he more to her than just a source of nourishment? He wanted to believe that was the case, but who knew? How did one judge the motivations of a demon?

Second, the hunted had become the hunter. Logan could not bring himself to let others suffer at demonic hands if he could do something about it. As a trained and seasoned soldier, he felt obligated to fight back. Of course, that wasn't the only reason. The demons also carried loot and useful items that Logan desperately needed to survive. Helping others was just the icing on the cake.

The third event was Karen. With Beauty's reluctant assistance, he had rescued a damned soul and helped her "awaken," for lack of a better description. What that yet meant was anyone's guess.

The final oddity, though it could be considered the first and arguably the most important one, was Logan himself. He was, to the best of his ability to understand such things, not dead. Somehow, that seemed like an important clue.

Available evidence seemed to support the idea that only the dead and the damned should be in Hell. Granted, Logan had only encountered three souls so far, but even with so few, some things were starting to become clear. Damned souls tended towards a gaunt and haunted appearance. The stronger they became, the more "real" they appeared. By contrast, growing weaker, such as being drained by a demon, reduced them to little more than a weightless wisp to be carried off on the ever-present Hellwind. Yet, according to Karen, even then, they could not "die," not again, and would eventually regain enough strength to resume a more "normal" appearance and start the whole nightmare all over again in what passed for the endless nightmare cycle of existence in Hell.

They did not remember who they were or why they were in Hell, but they did feel the constant weight of the guilt and remorse of their choices in life that led them to this terrible fate. By all accounts, human souls existed here only to suffer for their sins and the debased pleasure of demons. Furthermore, from what Karen had explained last night, damned souls like her suffered from neither hunger nor thirst but did suffer from unceasing sexual lust. Like every damned thing else in Hell, apparently.

That part still made no sense to him. Why was everything in hell pre-occupied with sex? Even the local insects were armed with an aphrodisiac poison! It all sounded more like the erotic fan fiction he used to read on-line than it did as a means of divine punishment. Where were the pitchforks and hellfire?

Even by the shaky logic of religious thinking, it was madness.

The idea that his mother's God, the white man's God, could allow such a place to exist had kept him awake most of the night. It burned still in his gut. He looked up at the ceiling of the cavern. "God, if you do exist, then you are one sick son-of-bitch."

Karen squeaked, jumped where she lay, and slowly rolled over to face him.

"Sorry." He grimaced. "Did I wake you?"

"No." Karen shook her head, then sat up and tucked a loose strand of black hair behind her ear. "I was awake. Just trying to... remember." Her eyes were wide and troubled as she gazed at him in the ruddy light. "You say that word so easily."

"What? God?" He watched her flinch, then reluctantly nod. "It's not a magic word, Karen. It isn't even a real name. According to Jewish tradition, it's actually..."

"Don't say it!" She cried.

He held up a hand in a peace gesture. "Alright, I won't, but there is nothing to be frightened of. You could say it too, you know. Words only have power over you if you let them."

"We can not." Karen shook her head, sending her bangs fall around her face like a curtain.

"Why not?"

"Because... we are the damned. We are not worthy."

"Not worthy?" Logan struggled to keep his voice calm and conversational. "Says who?"

"It just is." She muttered at the ground.

"We are going to have to work on that." Logan sighed. "But one step at a time. How are you feeling?"

"Better, I think," Karen replied. "Stronger."

"Wonderful, Karen." He grinned. "That's excellent news."

Her face softened. It was almost a smile. "Thank you." She tucked her hair back again. "For everything."

"You are very welcome, but I cannot take much credit. Beauty did far more than I did."

Karen nodded. "So you said but... I don't understand it."

"Honestly?" Logan shrugged. "I don't know that I understand it either. There is a lot that I don't get about this place, at least not yet. For now, let it be enough that she is my friend, and that makes her your friend too. Can you do that?"

Karen hesitated, then nodded. "I think so."

They heard movement at the entrance to the cavern. Beauty emerged out of the shadow with their spear in hand and nothing else. She did not look happy about it and pointed up at the ceiling, making a wide circle with her finger. "Flyer."

"Really?" Logan scratched thoughtfully at his chin scruff. "We can't have that. If he discovers our location..."

"She." Beauty corrected.

Logan nodded, then gave Karen an appraising look. "You said it was impossible to fight back against the Masters. I can show you that isn't true. Especially if you are willing to help."

She blinked at him and frowned. "I don't know anything about fighting."

"That's OK." Logan bared his teeth in a feral grin. "How are you at playing wounded bird?"

*****

The succubus stretched her wings out to feel hot wind tickling over the delicate membranes. She soared and swooped on the shifting currents in lazy spirals. A long, sinuous tail trailed behind. From up here, the broken landscape could hide little from her raptor's gaze.

Movement on the ground caught her eye. She banked hard but saw only a small, furry animal scampering into cover and gave it no further thought. Hunger demanded a different sort of prey.

She soared and glided, climbed toward the boiling clouds, and turned into the moaning wind, but always her attention was below. The demon scanned rock and dirt, hill and valley, with a hunter's patience. Suddenly, off to her right, there was a flash of white against the rust-colored ground. She looked, and a slow smile of anticipation crawled across her lovely face.

A human female was moving awkwardly through broken rocks. Only a short distance away, a younger demon, white-haired, lavender skinned and wingless, was in pursuit. The human was limping and moving slow. The young Succubus was being overconfident, playing with her food, and letting the chase continue for the sake of amusement. That mistake would earn her an empty belly this day.

The demon turned into the high currents of air and positioned herself behind them both where neither hunter nor prey would see her coming until it was far too late. Her gaze narrowed against the driving, dust-choked wind. Her wings pulled in close as she dived.

The ground hurtled up at her. She leveled out on spreading wings. The startled face of the lavender Succubus flashed by. The flying hunter reached out to seize the human soul by her dark hair, already anticipating the rich taste of fear and lust.

Something moved out of cover just ahead of her prey. Another human stepped out from behind a tall rock. A male, armed with a spear! The demon beat the air frantically with her wings to gain altitude, to escape and counter-attack. The spear hurtled through the air.

Agony bloomed like a poison flower through the delicate membrane of one wing. The shaft tangled into her wing, sent her spinning down, falling. The ground rushed up-

*****

Logan heard the impact as the demon tumbled across the dirt and the snap of bone as one wing twisted and broke against an outcropping of rock. The Succubus roared in agony. He moved to close and finish the job but not fast enough.

Despite being hampered by a broken wing, the demon bound to her bird-like, clawed feet. From the twin scabbards at her hips appeared a wickedly sharp, curved knife in each hand. She knew how to hold them and she knew how to stand. A long tail coiled behind her like an angry python. Pain and fury twisted lovely features into something savage. Oily, black smoke seeped from half a dozen wounds as the Succubus settled onto the balls of her feet, low and ready.

He stopped his charge just short of melee range. The two combatants began to circle, each weighing and measuring the other. Logan suspected that he had the advantage of height, reach, and probably greater strength. Judging by the demon's moves, he suspected she was far quicker and knew how to fight with a blade.

That was bad news. Knife fighting was a brutal business under the best of circumstances, which this was not. Anyone with training or experience understood one simple, ugly truth about short blades. Everyone bleeds in a knife fight.

"Worm! Maggot! You dare attack me?" She snarled as Logan began to circle, dagger in his right hand, short sword in his left. "You will suffer a thousand deaths for this! The winds will carry your screams for eternity."

"That was almost poetic." He quipped.

Logan kept circling, forcing the Succubus to drag her broken wing and turn with him. Her wounds put time on his side. It allowed him the opportunity to better assess his opponent.

She was, he had to admit, a magnificent example of savage, female perfection. This Succubus was tall and lean, where Beauty was slightly shorter and more generously curved. Her skin tone was a light gray, almost silver. Ink black hair spilled across her shoulders. Cupid bow lips, a pert nose, and large, purple eyes would have looked angelic if not for the curling ram's horns in her forehead, the savage snarl on her lips and the promise of murder in her violet glare.

She wore the first true example of armor Logan had yet seen. A one-piece corset of banded black leather shielded her breasts, belly, and groin. Leather greaves and vambraces protected her lower arms and legs.

The Succubus moved with blinding speed, hoping to catch him off guard. Twin knives cut at him high and low. Blades rang together. Logan side-stepped, blocked, and jumped away.

"You are strong. Too strong." The Succubus hissed. "What are you?"

Logan shrugged. "At the moment, I would have to say... a distraction."

Understanding dawned on her pretty face too late. Logan watched Beauty rise out of the rocks behind the other Succubus without a sound, a large rock gripped in one hand. The rock crashed down on the back of her skull. Lovely purple eyes fluttered and closed as she fell to the dirt.

It was over. A quick check revealed the demon was not dead. Logan pulled leather strips, re-purposed from the cat-o-nine-tails, out of a belt pouch, and bound the lethal Succubus at her hands and feet.

Beauty took the opportunity to strip the demon naked and claim the armor for herself. Logan piled up everything that might be of value. By the time they had finished looting, the captive had started to rouse. Logan walked over and gently kicked her clawed foot. Her purple eyes opened.

Once again, Logan found himself staring into the eyes of a beautiful, very naked, female demon lying hogtied on the ground and staring back defiantly. Even by current standards, this was becoming a strange habit. At least this time there was no ambiguity. Unlike his first encounter with Beauty, there was an air of gleeful violence around this particular Succubus. Her lovely face was animated with, and twisted by, thoughts of the pain that she would inflict on them all, given half a chance. Even now, bound and helpless as she was, the demon seemed more aroused and amused than afraid.

"This doesn't have to go hard for you," Logan said. "I just need some questions answered."

The succubus offered a slow, sultry smile and thrust her breasts out toward him. "I like it hard."

Okay, I walked into that one. Logan squatted down beside her and rested his elbows on his knees. He smiled back at her. It was not a sultry smile. His was an expression of winter's ice; cold, sharp, and dangerous.

"That's adorable, but I don't think you understand your situation. So let me clarify a few things. One, I'm not going to fuck you. I have no interest in fucking you. I get to sleep with her." Logan pointed a thumb at Beauty. "And she's twice the woman, or demon, that you are."

The coy expression vanished from her face. The succubus glared and scowled at them both. Beauty only smirked back at her, unruffled and unconcerned, and made a show of trying on the captured demons armor.

He drew his dagger and began tapping it thoughtfully against her silver thigh. "Point number two, I just watched you try to ambush, assault, and feed on my friend, so don't expect any sympathy. I don't like to see my friends hurt. It puts me in something of a murderous mood."

Logan paused to let that sink in. The Succubus was staring at the knife in his hand. After a long heavy moment of silence, she looked up into his eyes. Logan let her see the rage boiling in his thoughts. He was still smiling. She was not.

"So, here's the deal. You're going to give me one of two things. You are either going to answer my very reasonable questions or..." Logan held up the dagger in front of her eyes. "I am going to skin you for meat and leather. Have you ever skinned an animal? It isn't difficult."

Logan pointed at various areas of her body with the tip of the knife as he spoke. "You just have to roll the carcass onto its back. Then you cut off the genitals or udder. Next, you split the hide from tail to throat. The next part is kind of tricky." He laid the flat of the blade against her belly. "You want to get the blade under the skin and peel it back without cutting into the body cavity."

Karen muffled a sound of disgust with a hand over her mouth and walked away. Beauty listened with her usual calm attentiveness, testing the edge of the two newly acquired curved knives with her thumb. The captive demon's armor fit her fairly well. Logan had to make a conscious effort not to stare at the way her larger bust spilled cleavage over the leather top.

He began to tap the blade lightly against the bone between the prisoner's breasts. "Now, the sternum can be a bit tricky. You have to split it open, and then..." Logan shrugged. "Well, why ruin the surprise."

Logan gave her a hard, merciless look. "Still want to play games?"

Judging by the expression on her face, the brutal truth of her situation was finally beginning to sink in. Her eyes went wide. Her lip began to tremble. Tears began to spill from the corners of her lovely, purple eyes.

"Please don't hurt me." She began to sob. "I'll do whatever you..."

Quick as a snake, Beauty reached out and slapped her across one cheek. In an instant, the captive snarled and howled at her. "Little, baby, demon bitch! I will claw your tits off! I will..."

The demon stopped abruptly, but it was too late. The attempted manipulation of playing the helpless, crying female act had failed. She scowled at the ground and made several anatomically impossible suggestions for all three of her captors.

Beauty arched an eyebrow at Logan. He received the worldless message, loud and clear. Don't fall for that bullshit.

Logan winked at her, then returned to glaring at the captive Succubus. He flipped the dagger into the air, catching it by the handle. "Decision time. What's it going to be?"

The Succubus seemed to deflate. She hung her head and muttered. "Ask your questions."