“A little of this, a little of that.” She lifted the scarlet boxfrom before, tapping her nails on its sides absently. “Thisbeing orphan corpses, andthatbeing imps. They’re actually very well-behaved.”
Dressed in tattered clothing with patches of wild hair and smudges on their faces, he could see now the odd ear and tail had come from imps, creatures also ruled by noxscura that he should never have taught Delphine how to summon. They hadn’t moved since looking up at the two of them, though it was difficult to tell exactly what they were looking at without pupils.
“I’m sure being completely under your will makes them very pliable.”
“Actually, I messed them up a little, and they have freedom of mind, hence the playpen.” Delphine opened the box, and Damien grunted—lucky, little bastards. She plucked the leech from inside and dangled it over the pit. “But they’re very responsive to treats.”
The reanimated children reacted then, eyes and mouths widening. Chapped lips pulled back to reveal impish fangs in two twisted rows as the lot crowded under where Delphine brandished the offering. Fat with blood and still wriggling, the leech was released, and there was a frenzy. The bodies dove into one another, the slimy parasite disappearing into the shadowed bottom of the pit as blurt spurt upward. The mania ceased, and the silvery eyes turned up again, a few of the Abyssal children now donning smears of blood—Damien’s blood—across their grave-dirt-smudged faces like a nest of malnourished vulture chicks.
Not much turned Damien’s stomach, but bile rose in his throat. He took a step back, pushing against the arcana and shaking his head.
Delphine sauntered back to him and fit her arm around one of his, caught securely at his back still. As she leaned her head on his shoulder, the noxscura stiffened around him so that hecouldn’t move away. “Aren’t they precious?”
Of course, she saw no irony in what she’d done. She had been just like them as a child, an experiment, treated worse than an animal. She’d killed those involved in her subjugation, a thing he’d admired her for, yet here she was, perpetuating more of the same and looking utterly enraptured by it. “What will you do with them?” he asked bleakly.
“Whatever I want. Sometimes they do tricks for me. Watch.” She peeled another leech off his bicep, the snap of its jaws from his flesh making him wince, and then wiggled it over the pit. “Who loves mommy the most, hmm?”
There were hungry growls from below as they reached, clambering atop one another. Some tried to dig into the stone walls of the pit for leverage, but the best only a few could do was manage to stand atop a pile of the others until the ones on the bottom shucked them off. A slightly bigger one put the two advantages together, calloused and stubby fingers clawing highest.
“Oh, is it you? Yes, of course it is, my little monster.” She dropped the leech right onto its face, and it fell, blinded, as another pounced. The frenzy was shorter this time, and the blood left on the two could have been their own along with the leech’s. “The rest of you,” Delphine said so sharply it even made Damien snap to attention, “try harder next time.”
With a coldness he knew intimately, Delphine swept away from the pit, arm still linked around his. He glanced back, and when they were far enough from the trench, it was like the creatures weren’t even there. “Do you plan on letting them out?”
“Why would I do that?” She laughed lightly.
They were constantly at her feet trapped in that crescent-shaped pit, so it was a silly question, he supposed, but still. “They’re your children,” he said hesitantly. “They need…tending to.”
“I just fed them, Damien, what more could they need? Are you suggesting I…Itouchthem?” She shivered. “No, they’ll spoil. They’re fine right where they are for now.”
“They may decide otherwise on their own,” he cautioned, not wanting to be around when they did.
“Oh, no, I don’t think so. When they get close to the edge, I just remind the ones on the bottom that when the ones on the top make it out, they’ll leave them behind, and then their whole plan implodes. It’s quite a bit of fun to watch them get into fights with their tiny fists and pointy teeth. Their mangled parts mostly grow back in a week or so, but I would like it to be faster which is where their father comes in. Enough of your blood should help them heal quicker, and then, of course, they’ll finally have some of you in them too, and I bet that makes them more manageable for me.”
She’d brought him to a couch that was positioned in the middle of the temple, a few other chairs there too encircling a fire that crackled warmly. There was a snap, the pressure on his wrists released, and the noxscura pushed him forward. Hands free but body weak, he fell onto the sofa with a huff.
“It will probably take quite a bit more than that,” she said, gesturing to the leeches still covering him. He went to pick one off, fingers feeble, but she slapped his hand away from it. “We’ll have to do some trials to see how much is needed, but I bet you’ve learned all sorts of fun spells that can help our babies.”
Damien groaned. Even with his arms free, he’d never felt so weak.
“Give it time, darling: they grow on you. Soon they’ll be reliant on your blood to survive, and once you’re regularly feeding them, the bond will come naturally.”
Her figure standing before him was hazy in the shadowed sunlight, and his vision swam. Even when he created the talisman he hadn’t felt as sapped as this. If she enthralled himagain, he wasn’t sure he would be able to break out of it at all.
“Won’t it just be wonderful when we’re a complete family?”
If he had the strength, he could have vomited at just the thought, but Damien had few options. He wasn’t sure if he were smiling, but he was at least managing not to grimace. “Y-yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes, that would be…wonderful.” He swallowed back the choleric taste in his mouth.
She took a step closer to him, her form still fuzzy. “And you can see how this helps you, my dear?”
Damien’s head moved in a way that might have been a nod. “And how hard you’ve worked. You must be exhausted.”
Delphine pressed a knee into the couch, leaning over him. “I really am,” she said, voice low and throaty.
“Let me help you now.” He feebly lifted a hand to her thigh.
