Eva shook her head. “I had a plane to catch. Maybe if you hadn’t hopped yourself up on potions, we could have had a more proper discussion.” She put her hands on her hips. “If you have any more
She turned and walked down the hall with Arachne hanging off her shoulder.
Devon frowned as he grabbed his equipment and followed. The girl was getting far too uppity. And far too excited about her treatments. She should be fearful or at least wary.
He supposed it was an improvement over the dead-inside little girl who started the experiments. It was too much in the opposite direction. And the way Arachne hung off her, she didn’t even react. Devon doubted it even entered her mind what Arachne was capable of doing. What she had done in the past.
And Arachne, fawning over the girl like a child over a stuffed animal. One of its fingers idly twirled a lock of the long black hair. That simple action disturbed Devon more than Eva’s reactions, or lack of reactions. Eva could be attributed to simple naivety or ignorance.
No. Arachne had something deeply wrong with it. If Devon didn’t know better, he might have mistaken it for some other magical creature. A scary looking fairy perhaps. Ever since Eva’s treatment got underway, the demon stuck to her side. It even called her ‘sister’ on occasion.
The group moved outside the tiny building. Several more buildings, much larger than the one they just exited, were arranged with connecting pathways. Dry, yellow grass filled the gaps between the buildings. A rough wall could be seen surrounding the entire place. The tiny cell block they had just been in combined with bars on every visible window let Devon know what kind of place he was in.
“How did you get the haunter on your side?”
Eva half turned with a bit of a wince. “There are fifty dead cows, buffalo, goats, horses, and sheep inside cell house two.”
“Forty-six,” Arachne corrected.
“Right. Ivonis left two sheep and two cows. It doesn’t smell very pleasant in there at the moment. We’re headed to the opposite end of the compound, so don’t worry about that.”
Devon didn’t like the sound of that. It was less morally reprehensible than five humans, he supposed, but if the animals had been stolen off a farm… fifty animals was a lot to lose no matter if they planned to eat or sell them. They might as well have just killed the farmer and his family. It’d be a quicker death than starving, in any case.
Eva brought the group to a stop outside a small gate set in a nicer looking wall.
“I’ll need a bit of your blood,” she said as she withdrew a dagger. She smiled. “Unless you want to experience my wards first hand.”
Devon held out his already injured arm without a word.
Eva frowned at the droplets of blood already dripping off his fingertips. “Arachne,” she said, “could you grab a few potions to handle these cuts?” She looked back to Devon and said, “I’ll still need to make a fresh cut with the dagger.”
Eva leaned close and drew a small orb of blood into the air. Devon grabbed her shoulder as soon as the demon had disappeared into the building titled ‘WOMENS WARD’.
“You trust that thing far too much,” Devon said. “It is not human and it is not your friend. Demons should be tools and nothing more.”
Eva blinked twice. “Do they teach you that in demonology school? I’ve found being polite and treating demons like people seems to work alright.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed, girl. And take seven years of experiments down the drain with you.”
“I’m so touched you are worried about my health, master. As for Arachne…” she trailed off for a moment, thinking. She shrugged. “I like her. She is surprisingly thoughtful at times, if a tad protective. Without her,” she waved a finger around the air, “none of this would be possible. She found this place, spent a month cleaning it up, and has generally been good help.”
Devon frowned and released Eva as the demon in question emerged from the building. It walked down the short path to the gate and handed Devon a light blue vial and a yellow vial.
Eva walked just inside the gate with the small orb of blood floating above her hand. She snapped her fingers and the blood marble vanished. “Alright,” she said, “you should be able to come in now. You’re not keyed into my room, so don’t try it.”
Despite grumbling at her use of the word ‘should,’ Devon walked through the gate. Nothing bad happened as he walked up the path to the single story building.
The main room had some nice looking chairs and tables shoved off to the side. In the center of the room, two old-fashioned looking barber chairs had been set up in the center of a partially drawn ritual circle.
