A Taste of Crimson by E M Knight

Author:E M Knight [Knight, E M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Haven Publishing, Limited.
Published: 2019-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Logan

The Demon Realm

I walk half a step behind Cierra in the darkness, the glow from a small blue ball of magic in front of her only illuminating a few feet of space around us.

My vampire eyes cannot pierce the darkness of this place. How much that troubles me cannot be described in words. What is this black substance that my vision cannot penetrate? I feel boxed in by it, I feel anxious, I feel trapped…

I dare not show a single ounce of that discomfort on my face.

I thirst badly for blood. Time in this realm is taking its toll on me. Nothing would be better now than a swig of The Ancient’s nourishing, precious, life-giving blood…

I stop short. I won’t be getting any more of his blood, I think sourly.

Going back to regular human blood, or even the blood from my vampires, would be like going from caviar to SPAM.

But so be it. I’ve feasted enough times. I knew the day would come when the well runs dry.

I just could not imagine it at a worse moment.

“Stop!” Cierra hisses. I freeze. “Do you feel that?” she asks me.

I strain my senses. All I feel is that omnipresent oppression, the strange, otherworldly pressure, being exerted all around me.

“I feel nothing,” I tell her.

She sniffs in clear disdain. “And they say vampires have enhanced senses,” she mutters. “How inaccurately quaint.”

“What do you feel?” I challenge.

“Demons,” she answers immediately. “Dozens upon dozens of demons, ready to be bartered for.”

“What?” I say. “You promised an army—”

“Peace, King. You will have your army.” She glances over her shoulder at me. “You couldn’t have been naive enough to think it would come for free?”

“Just get on with it,” I growl.

“Very well,” she sighs. “Follow me.”

We walk for another twenty minutes. Every step I take forward increases the oppression I feel. It’s like going deeper and deeper under the sea and feeling the amplified forces of pressure.

Cierra slows her walk and comes to a gradual stop. “Ah,” she announces. “We are here.”

“Here?” I growl. “Where is here?”

I still cannot see a thing in the dark.

Cierra waves her walking staff in front of her. The small ball of light floats forward and hooks itself to a spot on the ceiling. She mutters a single word, and suddenly the light from the ball explodes outward, amplified a thousand times, and shines on everything around us.

I stare at the scene before me in amazement.

We are at the top of a ridge that leads down into a massive pit, almost like a crater. There are large cages positioned in precise order along the floor. Each of them holds some variety of demon.

No two are alike. There are ones that look like reptiles, like mammals, like insects. There are some that look like underwater creatures but with arms and legs attached, almost as if by accident. All are horrendously ugly. All are immediately repulsive.

And all, to the one, are heavily sedated.

They all lie in their cages and do not stir. Occasionally, I see a tail or eyelid flicker here and there.

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