Sending you the image,Tora said.Sea serpent? But large, like the Loch Ness monster is reputed to be. Dinosaur-looking creature. Savage teeth.
Silke continued to move around Raik, forcing him to face her. The purple stripe going up his arm was reactive to her presence and that of the pale colors in the sword. Beneath Raik’s skin on his wrist and going up his forearm, something moved, raising the skin. As it slithered, climbing toward his shoulder, she saw a darker, mottled purple rise with alarming force, shoving up beneath the skin so it was outlined. A scaly head with horns and distinctive curved teeth trying to keep track of her, although it was inside Raik, protected by his human form.
Raik howled in pain, his face a mask of agony as the large head swiveled back and forth, the teeth slicing at muscle and bone.
This one is classic but in the sea. I had no idea it could insert itself into a human,Silke told Tora.It’s a little alarming. There is no record of a sea monster embedding itself into a human being.
That is worrisome,Tora agreed.Will you be able to get it out of Raik without killing him?
That thing has teeth and isn’t opposed to attacking Raik. I’ll getit out, but hopefully it doesn’t try to kill Raik while I’m forcing it out of its host.
Silke took a deep breath and let it out. She had a bad feeling about the sea monster. It seemed willing to sacrifice its host to get to her, rather than seeking to protect itself from her as most demons did. That meant that the demon would come out fighting. She worried it would chew its way through Raik’s muscle and skin.
Raik lumbered toward her awkwardly as she reached for the demon, treating it as if it were an actual sea creature she could connect with. She had to approach the serpent slowly, so it was unable to detect her as she invaded. The mind of the monster was chaotic, raging, in a frenzy of hatred directed specifically at her.
She stayed very quiet, trying to observe the demon’s memories so she could find its original orders. The frenzy to kill was directed at her only because she wielded the crystal sword. If Tora had the sword in her possession, the serpent would have fixated on her. That told Silke for all the spies sent to Nachtbloem, Lilith still wasn’t aware who the demon slayer was. Between Tora and Silke, they had managed to keep that information from getting to their relentless enemy. Lilith wanted the slayer dead before she struck at Nachtbloem.
That made sense since the slayer in Dellys had managed to completely shut down her generals and hellhounds. Lilith was learning from her mistakes. This time, she was determined that the slayer would be taken out of the equation before she launched her war. That strategy was in their favor. It gave Tora and Silke more time to prepare. It also, hopefully, would allow the Carpathian ancients, the ones they needed so desperately, to arrive and get to know everyone before Lilith sent her army to slay them all. They would need to be able to work smoothly with one another, trust one another and strategize. Silke had her misgivings, but she was intelligent enough to keep them to herself and wait to form judgment.
Silke matched her rhythm and energy to that of the sea monsterlurking beneath Raik’s skin. She had to do so delicately, keeping her touch light and energy low enough that the demon wouldn’t become aware of her as she flowed into its mind. This demon was powerful. Once she connected, she had to carefully sift through the creature’s memories to find out how Lilith had created the mutant and what orders she gave all the others lurking in the sea. Hopefully, she could find the actual number of sea creatures let loose in the sea on unsuspecting fishermen.
All the while she worked at very delicately merging with the monster, she had to avoid Raik’s attacks on her. She also needed to keep his attention solely on her. Tora had to be the one to keep Raik safe. She could fade into the background, preventing Raik and the sea demon from remembering she was in the room.
Do you feel the presence of evil?Silke asked Tora. She was sharing all information with her. If anything went wrong, the other slayers would need to know whatever she could find out about this demon as well as whether Lilith was looking at the slayer through the demon’s eyes. Although she was surrounded by evil while she was sifting through the demon’s memories, she didn’t feel as if Lilith was lurking.
Tora took her time, examining the demon through Silke. She was Carpathian, and just her presence, if detected, could tip off their enemies. Tora was ancient. She was extremely good at hiding herself from vampires and demons. She’d taught Silke so much. Her composure during every battle with the undead was shocking and something Silke aspired to.
Fighting a demon was always tricky. Very difficult. Fighting the undead was horrifying. Scary beyond imagining. Vampires did their best to get into one’s mind. They commanded victims to come to them and most did. They were the worst as far as Silke was concerned, although when Tora was forced to fight them when they came too close to the village, Silke always backed her. She had the scars to prove it.
I do not feel her presence, not like she is in him currently. More, it is his memories where the evil emanates from mainly. And him. There is no saving this creature,Tora added in warning.
Silke was aware the mutated demon was too far gone. That didn’t mean she couldn’t feel compassion for him. He had been mutated by Lilith and her army of mages and vampires dwelling in the underworld with her. She seemed to always be able to convince the worst of them to work for her, promising them she would free them if they pleased her. As far as Silke was aware, no one had ever been freed from Lilith’s service, but those in the underworld believed her empty promises. They were that desperate to escape their fate.
Lilith can enter and see through his eyes,Silke cautioned.She is notorious for leaving herself that door. When I draw him out, we’ll need a veil so he can’t send back to his maker what we look like. She may get a feel for us, but our scent, and hopefully our identities, will still be a mystery to her.
She kept Raik’s attention centered on her the entire time she studied the demon. At times she could take over a demon, draw him away from Lilith, but this one was beyond that. She would have to draw him out of Raik’s body. This one was savage and relentless, programmed to kill the wielder of the crystal sword. As she studied the demon’s memories to find the answers they needed, she still had to avoid Raik’s attacks. He was becoming more animalistic. Much more aggressive and vicious as the demon reacted to the lights of the sword.
Be ready, Tora,she cautioned.I’m going to draw him out. Raik will fight it. The demon very well could tear through his body to get free and come at me. If that happens, see to Raik first. Don’t let him die if there is a way to save him.
I’m ready,Tora confirmed.But know this, sisarke, if it is between you and Raik, I will save you every time, and it isn’t because you’re the demon slayer.
Silke allowed that declaration to warm her. She had Fenja, but Silke had been taking care of her adoptive mother since it becameapparent that she was the demon slayer. Somehow, over the years, there had been a reversal of roles. Silke became the teacher and Fenja listened to her, drawing on her vast knowledge of plants and shrubs to aid the villagers when they were ill.
Fenja’s eyesight had deteriorated over the years. Her arthritis had curled her fingers into claws. Tora had healed her several times, but the condition always returned quickly. She had already been a mature woman, far past childbearing years, when she had taken Silke, a newborn baby, home with her. Tora treated Silke as a sibling. She wasn’t the most demonstrative of women, but she always made Silke feel loved. That brief statement Tora had made gave Silke the knowledge that she mattered to at least one person other than Fenja.
Once more she shifted the crystal sword, making direct contact with Raik. At once the sea monster reacted, thrashing and biting, movingtowardthe piercing colors, not away.
Something is wrong,she whispered into Tora’s mind.Demons don’t race toward the energy of the sword. They run from it. Or try to hide. This demon is doing neither. It’s as though the sword is feeding the creature more energy.
Anything out of the usual and Silke knew she needed to be concerned. She shifted the pulsing lights to the ceiling and took a moment to be a calming influence in the mind of the sea serpent. It was nearly impossible to see beyond the creature’s need to kill. It felt to Silke as if the sea monster were in a frenzied thrall, hypnotized, under a spell to self-destruct if the end goal of killing her was met.
How had Lilith pulled it off that one of her demons would become stronger when faced with the crystal sword? Raik was far more aggressive, feeding off the frenzy of the demon directing him to try to kill Silke. He could no longer see her as a friend. She was the enemy that had to be destroyed for Raik to live.
Silke concentrated on delving deeper into the sea serpent’s memories. There had to be a clue. It was becoming more difficult to escape Raik’s wildly swinging punches with his hamlike fists as he growledand snarled at her. Each time she had to make an evasive maneuver, the chances of the serpent realizing she was examining its memories doubled.
She persisted, moving farther and farther back, sifting as quickly as possible through the sea serpent’s memories until she found the moment when Lilith and two mages brought the newly formed demon out of the trough where it had been conceived. There it was. The answer—and not a good one.
They conceived these serpents in vats surrounded by crystal lights. Somehow, they were able to construct a crystal sword, and they used the energy from the sword and the colors to enhance the power of the demon.
