Devon marked a few things down with a nod. “Speaking of the demons. You need to go get rid of them. They won’t leave.”
“Won’t leave? How long has it been since the end of the ritual.”
“Two hours. And the succubus keeps trying to corner me. You can tell it that I am not interested.” He blinked before shaking his head. “In fact, use harsher words than that. Much harsher words.” He snapped his notebook shut and regarded her with a glare. “And that devil hasn’t moved at all. Get rid of them then come back and see me. We’ll get those measurements.”
He wandered off towards the kitchen, muttering something to himself that Eva couldn’t quite catch.
Rather than jump up to go confront the gaggle of demons outside, Eva just sat back on the couch.
She didn’t want to move.
Pins and needles poked all through her body with any kind of movement. She had been keeping a straight face in front of Devon, but her face had taken on an unpleasant grimace now that he had gone. It wasn’t that bad of a pain. Cutting herself for blood hurt worse. Having her eyes removed had hurt far worse.
But it was constant and everywhere. That was more than enough to make it annoying.
Hopefully it would die out after a few minutes. If it continued for any length of time, she might just go insane.
Apart from the pins and needles, Eva didn’t feel all that bad. Her treatments with Arachne usually left her feeling lethargic for most of the day. If she even woke up before the next day. Now it had been a mere two hours, according to Devon, and she felt full of energy.
Of course, the ritual itself had lasted a lot longer. They had started not long after noon and it was now dark outside the window. Maybe just a short time after dusk, maybe it was almost morning. Eva couldn’t see the clock from where she lay and getting up just to check sounded painful.
But she couldn’t just lie around all night. Especially not with all the demons sitting around.
Zagan did whatever he wanted. The fact that he had decided to stick around wasn’t any more surprising than finding out he had disappeared immediately after would have been.
Catherine, on the other hand, didn’t make sense. The succubus hadn’t even wanted to come. Eva had expected her to be the first one gone. She had games to get back to, or whatever else the succubus did.
Stalking Devon shocked Eva more than anything else. Succubi sure had strange tastes. Weren’t they supposed to be extraordinarily vain creatures?
Devon was not handsome by anyone’s definition of the word. His beard was scraggly and unkempt at the best of times, as was his hair. With his nose looking like it had been broken a few too many times, wrinkles lining his face, and small scars around where the wrinkles weren’t, Devon couldn’t attract an ogre, let alone a succubus.
At least, that was what Eva had assumed before hearing that. Maybe Catherine saw something beneath his rugged exterior. Some inner beauty. His charming personality, perhaps?
The thought had Eva bursting out in laughter—laughter that rapidly turned to groans as the ache of her body flared.
Regardless of what Devon and Zagan said about the ritual, Eva hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t pick up any strange traits from having Catherine as a donor.
Though, she had to admit that she wouldn’t mind having the succubus’ body and natural grace.
With a sigh, Eva swung her legs over the edge of the couch while trying to ignore the needles poking her body. It was actually somewhat like having a limb fall asleep.
Something that hadn’t happened to her since she got Arachne’s limbs.
Pushing herself up to her feet, Eva took one step.
She immediately stumbled into the table, hopped twice to get away from it without crashing onto it, bumped into a chair, and promptly fell to the ground.
Eva didn’t move from her spot on the rug in the middle of the common room.
After several minutes of just resting against the floor, the ache in her body died down enough that she was willing to try again. Eva climbed to her feet and managed to remain steady all the way to the door.
The pain was dying down. Slowly. A good nap would probably have it gone entirely by the time she awoke.
She felt far too awake to even think about taking a nap.
Walking around agitated the feeling of needles under her skin. At the same time, every step seemed to lessen the feeling. By the time she reached the ritual circle at the basketball court, Eva could barely feel any discomfort at all. Although she still felt shaky.
Eva took one glance around the basketball court and shivered. An eerie feeling overcame her as she spotted Zagan.
