“A syringe?” Eva said as she moved into the fairly spartan room. There wasn’t much to it, just a bed, a desk, and a great deal of locks on the door. While it was tidy, it wasn’t necessarily clean. “That is ‘somewhere around’ here? How long has it been sitting around? Has it been used? Why do you even have a syringe?”
Devon paused his rummage through his desk. “You ask far too many questions, girl.”
“I think that I’d rather just cut myself with a regular knife and bleed into a vial.”
“Not an option. I want as little contamination as possible.”
“At least that means that the syringe is probably clean,” Eva mumbled.
Thankfully, Eva couldn’t sense any blood—dried or otherwise—on the glass or needle when Devon pulled the syringe from his desk. The glass looked clear and it even had a little plastic cap over the sharp point.
Eva held out her arm as Devon uncapped the needle and approached. With her main complaints apparently unfounded, she had no real excuse not to let him. Especially with how much he would grumble if she made a fuss about it all.
The blood entering the glass portion of the syringe was as black as Arachne’s. It was the first thing that Eva noticed. Even in the last few months, her blood had still had a faint red tinge to it. Just enough to signify her inferiority.
Now that tinge was entirely gone.
She needed to do some blood tests of her own. If her blood was fully demonic, she wouldn’t need to rely on bloodletting Arachne all the time. She was certain that Arachne would still offer to donate some, and Eva would accept if only to keep her own lethargy down, but being entirely made up of worthwhile reagents would help in plenty of situations where she might otherwise be in trouble.
“Catherine still wants to perform her ritual,” Eva said as Devon withdrew both the needle and the tentacle around her arm.
“After what happened with you? Foolish,” he said. However, after a moment, he shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose earlier is better. Doing so while the status quo hasn’t changed would keep any oddities from happening. And if whatever entity or Power interfered with your treatment expended energy doing so, she is less likely to have anomalies in her ritual.”
“I think that is the opposite of what she is hoping for,” Eva said. She paused for a moment as she considered his words. “Whatever entity or Power? You don’t think that it is Void?”
“Most likely, given the portal and the intention of the treatment. With all the oddities going on, I’ll hold off on ruling out anything for the moment.”
Devon set the syringe on his desk. “I’ll get back to that as soon as I initiate Catherine’s ritual.”
“So, I am going to be involved in this ritual?”
“You haven’t seen any other demons around, have you?”
“Actually, yes. The wax demon is somewhere around here right?”
“Off in solitary confinement with plenty of shackles around her cell. Not going to bring her out for the ritual. Keeping her dominated throughout would be tiring.”
Eva gave a slight nod of her head. Losing control of that one could be intensely painful at best. The headaches it delivered were not to be underestimated. “But I thought you might try one last time to summon a demon or two.”
“It is concerning that we haven’t been able to summon any demons, but not something that should interfere with the ritual. Catherine and I have taken your incomplete nature into account.” He paused in thought for a moment. “It is starting the ritual immediately?”
“As soon as she finishes the modifications to the circle.”
“I don’t know why you bothered to dress,” he said with a slight harrumph. Eyes drawing up to her forehead, he crossed his arms. “Any other changes aside from the obvious?”
Eva pulled off her shirt without hesitation. Turning to face her back towards Devon, she glanced over her shoulder. “Is there anything odd on my back?”
His hands reached out—or a hand and a tentacle—tracing a line from the small of her back up to her shoulder blades. “Is there any pain around here,” he said, moving his tentacle back down her spine.
Eva shook her head. “I feel you, but nothing hurts.”
As soon as she spoke, Devon’s fingers pinched a bit of skin, twisting slightly.
With a yelp, Eva turned, freeing herself from his assault as she swatted at his still outstretched hand. “What was that for?”
“Just ensuring that you do feel pain. Your back has bright red lines, starting from a single ‘trunk’ at your shoulders and branching out in periodic intervals down your back.”
Eva twisted, trying to see something for herself. There might have been something at her shoulders. Without a mirror, she wouldn’t able to see much. “Red lines? What are they?”
“No idea. Physical mutations weren’t unexpected. Your tongue and teeth…” He trailed off with a frown. “Open your mouth.”
Eva complied, wondering just what had caused his frown.
As he ran his finger over her teeth, Devon actually winced and pulled his hand back. Eva watched as a droplet of blood fell to the floor.
