“Do your worst, you shrimpy motherfuckers! I’ll curse your dicks to fall off in each other’s arses! I’ll rip your balls off and stuff ’em in yer eye sockets!”
“I’ll tear out your throat and eat it for breakfast!” the gargoyle shot back.
“Mistress wants ’em alive,” another supplied helpfully.
“I know that! But she never said they had to be intact.” He gripped Iris’s chin, jerking her face forward. “I’m going to make you regret your—”
He never got the chance to finish his threat. A whistle of sound accompanied the appearance of a red line at his neck, and his face froze in an expression of surprise.
A moment later, his head toppled from his shoulders into Iris’s lap.
She screamed and lurched back. Lily screamed too. The other gargoyles spun around to face the new threat as a looming figure stepped out of the shadows. A long, thin sword with blood coating the blade reflected the torchlight.
Lily caught a brief glimpse of white hair and deathly pale skin before chaos erupted.
That narrow blade whistled again, cutting into the crowd of gargoyles. Blood, gore, and body parts flew in every direction.
Iris threw herself into Lily, knocking them both down and out of the path of carnage. Despite their terror and revulsion, this was their best chance to escape. Together, they started to crawl away amidst the sounds of tearing flesh and shrieks of agony. With their hands tied, they were forced to wiggle like awkward worms as they attempted to stay below the sword’s path.
Lily swallowed her scream as blood sprayed onto her cheek. A severed arm flew past her ear, and she nearly puked when it landed with a squelch beside her head.
Suddenly, silence fell.
The smart thing to do would have been to get up and start running like hell, but she didn’t do that. Maybe it was the shock, or maybe it was curiosity. Whatever the case, she sat up and turned around.
The newcomer wiped his blade with a rag before sheathing it with a practiced movement. The tunnel around him was littered with severed limbs. The carnage was so complete, it was impossible to tell which belonged where, appearing only as a hodgepodge of body parts tossed in a careless pile.
If she stared too long at that, she’d likely succumb to the urge to vomit. But thankfully, her attention was drawn to their unlikely rescuer.
The demon’s waist-length white hair was twisted into a long braid. The color wasn’t like an elderly human’s white, but rather, as luminous as freshly fallen snow. From his temples, black horns swept proudly along his skull and curved upward to regal points above his head. His skin was a milky gray that reminded her of a corpse, and his bloodshot eyes were a glassy silver-blue with only the tiniest prick of pupil in the center. They were so surrounded by shadows, it almost looked like dark eye makeup.
He used the rag to wipe the blood from his claws next, which were the same black as his horns and… tail. Unlike Mist’s, his was topped with a sharp barbed spike like a scorpion. He didn’t have wings, but she supposed he could have simply disappeared them to aid movement in the cramped tunnel. He was easily as tall as Mist and had to stoop to keep the tops of his horns from scraping the rocks above.
He tucked the rag into his coat pocket and then glanced at Lily as if just noticing her.
“You’re the mortals, then?” He looked unimpressed. His eyes flicked to Iris and then back to Lily. “You’re glowing, but she’s not. Interesting.”
Iris climbed to her feet. “Who are you?”
“Your new best friend. Come.” He flicked his claws and started past them down the tunnel. When they didn’t immediately follow, he looked back with so much exasperation it was almost comical.
“What do you want?” Iris demanded.
He scoffed as if that was the dumbest thing she could have asked. “It’s embarrassing Belial wasted a favor on you.”
“Belial?” Lily cut in. “Did he send you?”
His head cocked in a similar way to Mist, except his impressive horns and zombie-like complexion made him look even more alien. “Do you always ask stupid questions? Yes, Belial bargained one favor for me to extract two living mortals and Mishetsumephtai from Paimon’s lair.”
“But—”
“The longer we wait, the less blood the Hunter has. Shall we?”
“Y-yes, let’s go.” Lily scrambled to her feet. If Belial had been here right now, she would have hugged him, no matter how threatening he was.
She started to hurry down the tunnel after their pale rescuer, but Iris said, “Wait,” and they turned back.
“Why should I believe you? I don’t trust demons, and I don’t even know who you are.”
