Void Domain, Book 03 полностью

Not enough, Eva thought. She stabbed herself again, pulling her own blood into orbit. I should have drained Arachne dry.

There were still five vials of blood in her satchel, but those were emergency only.

“We injured it,” Wayne said. “It shouldn’t–”

The human circulatory system to Eva’s side twisted. It moved similar to Arachne when she changed forms. Every vein expanded outwards until a fleshy balloon replaced what had been Wayne. The balloon rippled into a car sized monster.

A monster with three mouths.

Another few flecks of blood in the air incinerated as fire engulfed its hands.

Just an illusion, Eva thought as it turned to her. She hardened several spheres of her own blood into a spear. Not wanting to hurt Wayne, Eva lightly jabbed the creature with the spear.

The spear stuck a quarter-inch into its stomach. No passing right through the illusion. No shimmering away into Wayne.

The three mouths opened and roared.

Its flaming fist slammed down into Eva’s shield.

Hard.

Eva dropped the last free orb of Arachne’s blood into her shield. She doubted its ability to hold up to two more hits. Especially when combined with its roar. The part of her spear that left her shield completely disintegrated at the noise.

Acting fast, Eva shouted out, “I hope you aren’t there Wayne Lurcher!”

She clasped her hands together with the wire ball between them. Both claws vanished beneath the surface.

Two of her blood claws appeared on either side of the demon.

And crushed inwards.

Eva kept a small hole in her hands where Wayne had been standing, just in case.

The demon was far larger than Wayne. Plenty to tear, rend, and destroy.

One claw gripped and twisted.

Veins twisted and tore as its body split in two.

Like pulling apart a sandwich cookie to get at the creme filling, the demon came apart.

Its viscous blood dribbled out of its halves.

The entire thing shimmered away.

Wayne lay face down in its place. Part of his face and chest were burnt, but he was otherwise not twisted and pulled apart.

I knew it, Eva thought with a small amount of relief. She didn’t have time to check on Wayne. The real demon shimmered into being on the opposite side of her.

Its fist connected with Eva’s shield just as she spun the remains of her spear.

With a hard thrust, it stuck into one of the demon’s gaping maws.

Eva wasted no time in clapping her hands.

The spear exploded into oblivion, taking a large chunk of the demon with it.

Not enough.

It roared once more, shaking away the last of Eva’s shield.

Two of her vials popped open and the blood within launched at each of the remaining mouths.

Eva clapped her hands. Two massive holes appeared within the demon.

It slumped to the ground, honey-like blood soaking into the ground.

She let out a soft sigh. What an annoying enemy, Eva thought as she turned towards Wayne.

“Ah, what a mess.” The rumbling feminine voice echoed over the lawn. “And you failed to kill either of them.”

The tentacled demon kicked a head out over the yard.

It rolled to a stop at Eva’s feet.

Eight eyes stared up at her with a mouth frozen in a painful grimace.

The demon let out a long, hard laugh.

It laughed and laughed until Eva couldn’t help herself.

A stream of giggles erupted from her mouth. The carnivean stopped mid-laugh and stared. Eva didn’t care. She wasn’t done yet.

Eva continued laughing as she gripped her dagger. With a final laugh, Eva jammed it into her stomach.

She had to fight to suppress the wince. Her arms had built up a sort of tolerance to the constant cuts over the years. Not so with her stomach. But it was a much larger pool of blood–blood she’d need.

As much blood as Eva could pull without becoming debilitating formed a solid ring around her. She opened the remaining three vials of Arachne’s blood and set the spheres orbiting her head.

With a hard kick of her demonic legs, Eva sent Arachne’s head flying. She gave her widest, most maniacal grin to the carnivean with a cocked head.

As if she would die without a smile on her face.

No. Arachne was fine. Winning even. The amount of tentacles still attached to the carnivean’s head was rapidly dwindling. Arachne’s hand might be held on by nothing more than tendons, but the rest of her injuries looked minor at best.

The carnivean certainly did not look half as cocky as its illusion.

This was another trick by the jezebeth.

It failed to understand the range of Eva’s sight. Or perhaps failed to erase Arachne and the real carnivean due to their fight. Whatever the case, it failed.

Eva was willing to bet her shield was even still up. Otherwise she’d likely be dead by now. No. It was distracting her. Using up her blood. Possibly while fighting Wayne for real.

Now, how to find it.

She knew of several wide area blood rituals. Something she wished she had committed to memory. Even if she had, Wayne was likely in the area.