• • The Wolf Pack
• January 13, 2024

The Wolf Pack (Chapter 33)

The Demons

THE DIRECTOR

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This is going to go down as one of the smartest ideas I’ve ever had, or one of the dumbest. I can say for sure that it’s one of the craziest though. It definitely feels like it since I’m walking into the wolf den so to speak, or demon den to be more accurate.

Walking down the aisle alone without the rest of the team is nerve-wracking. I know that everyone is waiting for their cue, but it doesn’t make it feel any better.

It doesn’t take too long to see what Burke was worried about either. The girl called Sarem is some kind of powerful sorceress or warlock, easily rivaling Tucana in the contest of being the most powerful magic user I’ve ever seen.

The girl has transformed into a beast more ethereal than physical, her cloak covering the ceiling, giving it a metallic color. It doesn’t matter from which angle you look at her, the space between as appears to change so she always feels bigger than the room, but then you look away and you can approach her fine.

She hears my footsteps meters away. Her head — the only thing still human — twitches to look at me. I don’t whip out my sword or my taser-gun, there’s no reason to bother when they’re not enough to bring her down. At least, she’s not stupid enough to assume superiority even when her mind isn’t her own. I hear her say the word, “Rakaas,” and she summons her swords from nothing.

I give the team the cue by reaching back and touching my sword, and from the shadows, four of them walk out. From between the containers, Ken, Tommy, and Marie come out, only Emily staying hidden.

They’re clearly nervous about the plan not working, with Tommy and Marie stealing glances at the sorceress above them. Some swords twitch to aim at them, which means they need to prove their allegiance fast.

I give them the second cue and draw my sword. Ken readies and aims his metal arm without hesitation, and Marie freezes over frighteningly quick. She might enjoy this next part a bit. Tommy hesitates, of course, he hesitates, he’s too much of a good kid not to, but eventually, he lights himself on fire and aims his hand towards me along with the others. The swords don’t change their trajectory yet, but hopefully, this next part will change that.

PYOH!
FLUME!

CRACKLE!

All three shoot at me at once, and while it hurts like hell, I can take it, the whole plan hinges on me being able to take it. Sarem needs to see, that despite all of her allies’ attacks and tricks, physical attacks won’t complete the order of killing the Hood.

I don’t know if her swords ever change direction, I’m too busy being knocked to the ground by Ken’s blast, being frozen to it by Marie’s stream of ice, and being blinded by Tommy’s roaring flames. Somehow, having been consumed by their combined attacks once already, my nerves have rather dulled. At least my tolerance for pain is something easy for me to get back, perks of having lost and gained it so many times.

Before long I feel swords plunge through me, and for this, I can’t restrain my silent gasp as I fall over onto the ground, face first.

I still feel the flames burning away my arm, and aiming for my head, which means two things. That Sarem has joined them and believes that they’re still mind-controlled, something she has clearly seen Emily not to be.

Tommy lets down first, and to make sure it seems like they’re still mind-controlled, Ken and Marie stop too. I told them to stop when it seemed like Sarem was about to kill me to not give themselves away.

Now it’s time for them to wait and watch Sarem.

With my sight no longer blinded, I look up around my side to see Sarem hanging upside down, watching me from above, watching my wounds close. Her eyes narrow, confused as to how I’m still alive, and leaving her orders unfulfilled. To assure her that I’m not dead, I bring my burning arm to my chest to push myself up, all the way to my knees. My body is too numb to attempt anything else.

 Sarem realizes what I need her to do, and from underneath her cloak comes this black claw that makes a come-hither gesture, saying her spell word again, “Rakaas.” She shows her telekinesis through the darkness wrapping around my body where my shoulders meet my torso and my legs meet my pelvis, lifting me off the ground towards her.

With the speed of a snail for climatic tension, I rise off the ground. I think I’m about to get what I want until those demon fingers snap…

Teh, teh, teh…

… and my limbs are separated from me.

The last time I felt the pain of my cells replicating to replace my bones, my head was lopped off. At that point my nervous system was shot and the pain was in random bursts of random length. Right now, it’s all the pain, all the time.

But it doesn’t give Sarem what she wants. She moves the limbs with her mind, inspecting the torn ends and seeing how they try to rebuild. With a wave of her hand, she seizes control along the exterior of my body, and I’m willing to bet that she’s realizing how I’m healing even from being pulled apart. Now she has to do what will let me snap her out of the Savaage’s control.

She summons me closer and I hope to god that she’s gonna do it. If not, let’s hope that Burke flies fast enough to grab me.

Sarem brings me so close that she rests her demon claw around my neck, not choking me but holding me still for another arm to appear from her cloak. On each finger of this one, a black light shines, and she decides to move it towards me. I don’t know whether to squirm or let her touch me.

There’s heat emitting from them, it could be that scary death ray that Ken mentioned, or it could be her trying to enter my mind. I have seconds to call out for Burke to come get me, but if I’m wrong and she’s going to enter my mind, I blow away our only chance.

“Ack,” I choke as the choice is taken from me, with her squeezing my throat and clutching my head. Her fingers pierce into my skull, but I don’t feel blood running down my face… I don’t feel the air that comes from a hole in my helmet, but I feel my head being pierced all the same…

This, this has to be… be it.

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!”

I hear myself screaming, squeezing my eyes shut as everything goes dark, and not like the lights went off in my helmet, but in my head. I don’t feel pain, I feel nothing but blackness, until a black light comes on.

I don’t know if we’re in my head or hers, but whichever it is, if I never come back here it would be too soon.

This black void is all around me, where I float in space with only my hands out in front of me. I notice immediately that I’m not wearing my Hood gear, but the wolf skins of my youth, my mortality, when I was a cavewoman who didn’t know she was immortal, when I was just the guardian of some stupid forest.

Before me is the source of the black light, with Sarem and her billowing cloak blocking it, letting light inch around her. This time she’s in her human form, her sari and pants, not her demon form. She floats so far away from me that I’d have to yell if I actually wanted to speak with her, but I only want my trump card to come, the reason for my soul being stuck on Earth.

He always comes when someone else tries to destroy my mind.

The black light goes out for a second, and then another appears to Sarem’s right, and I realize she has a demon of her own. She’s a vessel like I used to be.

Her demon hides in the shadows, its black gems for eyes are bigger than my whole body. There’s the sound of saliva dripping, followed by its mouth creeping open, revealing gnarly teeth that spread higher than its dimples. Its head seems to be on a long neck by how far down its body goes into the depths below, and how far its arms reach to my left and right. It’s like facing Atlas, if Atlas were completely malevolent.

Its long and pointed tongue wipes itself along its teeth. It thinks it’s going to eat me, but it sees the proof of its mistake before I do. Its smile shortens to a frown behind Sarem and then lets a loud snarl that feels like it should shake the very earth itself.

For that, the pit responds from behind me, Do not snarl at me, Leviathan, be green with your envy all you please, this one, and all of her brood are mine, as the rest of your lesser demon kin know.

Leviathan, the Demon King of Envy, of all the evil beings to have locked inside of her, Sarem is shackled with him…

I hear he’s a real rat bastard.

It’s too bad for her though, my demon’s bigger and badder.

The best thing is that Leviathan knows it. As the red pools in from behind me, taking up all the blackness, giving me a place to put my feet, the author of my immortality, and my pain, lays his claim.

I can harvest your bones for your brothers and sisters if you like, I’m sure they would enjoy the meal. Leviathan does not speak, he merely growls at the encroaching darkness as Sarem floats before him. No? If that is not what you want, then release her, all of this human realm is my domain, all of the mortal plain is the domain of higher beings, not you measly devil spawn.

If only I understood any of what my demon talks about, I might understand the world more than any genius egghead ever will, but I’d rather remain ignorant.

As the red creeps upon Leviathan, he cowers and snarls, with Sarem seemingly falling asleep in the red matter’s grasp.

My demon proves as cruel as ever as it overcomes the demon king, taunting him, Yes, Leviathan, struggle, cower, fester, there’s nothing you can do to stop this, now you will suffer. I watch Leviathan roar in pain as the red envelopes him and finishes enveloping my world.

The fight may be over, but my demon, the creature of the pit, is not.

You are quite right about that, Claire, he assures me, responding to my thoughts.

“I appreciate the assist there, but as always I prefer to keep our conversations short and non-existent,” I wave him off.

I spent decades figuring out how to remove him from my body and mind until I moved him to the pit. A short time compared to my life, but it was a lot at the time. Not having him respond to everything I do, is a blessing I’ve always cherished, even after so long.

You cherish being rid of me, but you do not cherish the immortality I bestowed to you.

“Why would I?” I shout at the red around me, the shapeless entity that he is cursed to be. That’s right asshole, I went there.

I hear him growl, before reminding me of a fact that I’ve done well to ignore. You have found your heir, your replacement as my vessel, you have found the one whose hand causes permanent harm, yet you neither kill him to maintain your safety nor beg him for the sweet release of death. Why?

“Nothing you would understand, you know how many I have lost, how many children I’ve buried. I’ve been alone so long that to have one of my own… I wanted to remember what it felt like before I died.”

Heh, haha, hahah, hahaha HAHAHAHA!

He laughs at me, but I don’t care.

Yes, you do, you and I both know that what you seek is a fairy tale. Not only because of who you are and what you’ve done but because you’ve borne an heir that can supersede you from your throne of reprehension and cruelty. You’ll never have what mortals have, because there is truly no one as cold and despicable as you.

“There is you,” and for that, he is silent but for a moment…

Heh, heh.

… before he chuckles.

I’ll let you go for now, Claire, but don’t forget, I only keep you alive because you’re the only one who can bring him to me. It is his destiny to house me, and I foresee us doing greater things together than you ever dreamed of achieving.

“Maybe, or maybe he’ll just lock you away like I did.”

He doesn’t respond to that, he just releases me.

And I can finally open my eyes.

Only to start falling.

I’m back in the laboratory, and in front of me floats Sarem, or at least she floats as the darkness flows back into her cloak. The second the laws of physics are somewhat normal again and she looks normal. Her prize?

She can fall along with me.

I’m caught before I hit the ground, and greeted by that smile I think my brood has become infatuated with. I can see why.

“Nice catch, Burke,” I compliment her.

“Heh, nothing to it,” she says as she floats me back down to the ground, “you are just a torso and a head you know.” That’s right, there’s that, the pain has numbed, or honestly… I think my mental trip is numbing everything.

“This should seem grosser than it is,” she adds. She’s not wrong.

Ken caught Sarem before she hit the ground, and by the way she now groans and clings to him, I get the feeling that my plan worked. Get her to use her telepathy on me, and let my demon knock her out of her own mind. Worked like a charm.

Marie and Tommy come to my side, holding my limbs away from them like the plague. It could compete for the grossest thing they’ve ever had to do. Marie is gagging as she asks, “Can we reattach them *ugh*?”

“Place them where they used to be, and don’t put them on the wrong ends, they won’t bind!” I tell them as Emily lays me flat and the others place my limbs against the skin they were separated from. I feel my tendons and blood try and tie themselves together, but it will take a while.

Ken in the meantime is helping Sarem to her feet, and as she holds a hand on his shoulder I don’t have any doubts that it worked. The girl still wears her hood over her head as she looks around and gathers her surroundings. She turns to see Ken smiling at her and the rest of us watching her too.

In a voice that’s pretty normal, if not cold, and with an Indian accent, she asks, “Who are these people, and where are we?”

Ken explains to her that, “They’re superhumans like us, kidnapped like we were for experiments, but this one,” pointing to me, “she broke us free, both from our minds and our prisons. These are the people I met when I was in the Timeless Palace. You remember me telling you about that, right?”

“Hmm,” she hums as she separates herself from Ken, and wraps her cloak around her shoulders, covering herself. Still not as inhuman-looking as before, but looking human is not something she seems to concern herself with.

She mutters, “I remember,” and she’s not all that happy about it.

Now that Emily gets to inspect her in her normal form, she’s not all that coy or nervous about it. She is openly checking Sarem over.

“Huh,” Emily goes as she stands to look Sarem in the eyes, “you’re not so scary now.”

“That can change,” Sarem is quick to answer, and that takes Emily aback for a moment, but the girl is even quicker to glare back.

I hope Emily isn’t getting any ideas. Dick-measuring contests over strength are something I would expect from the boys, but Emily has always been a bit more competitive when she’s not grappling with failure. It’s the Burke in her.

Ken presses his hands forward to try and calm the rising tension, telling them, “Hey, hey, we’re all on the same side, a bunch of kidnapped kids who were mind controlled under a building in, in, in… where are we?”

“Aegis City,” I answer for them.

“Thanks.”

He raises his eyebrows towards us, drawing a squint from Sarem.

“What?” she asks.

“Don’t you think you should thank her too? She did save you,” Ken points out. A thank you would be nice, considering I’m on the ground in need of time to reattach my limbs because of her.

“That’s her job,” she says, showing what kind of gem she is. Sarem seems like someone not to bring to Thanksgiving by her response, but after hearing herself and seeing the disappointed look on Ken’s face, she lets out this guilty sigh. “Then again, by letting this happen I didn’t do mine.”

Sarem raises her hand towards me from underneath her cloak, and black smoke oozes from under her fingertips before she chants, “Rakaas.”

The smoke washes over me in a wave, moving right around Burke who tries to get in the way. I feel a sharp pain where my limbs are trying to reattach themselves, and then I feel the pain of a cramp through said limbs.

To have a cramp through said limbs, they must be attached.

Like that, I bring my hands to my face, and the healing process is finished. Sarem did this and… “You fixed my clothes!”

My jacket is intact along with my pants after being destroyed by the constant onslaught.

Sarem lowers her head, going back into her cloak. Her face reveals nothing, so she has to explain, “Please accept this as my thanks, we’re even.”

Well, I wouldn’t say this is a fair trade but I’ll take it.

“Thanks.”

“Sarem,” Ken asks, drawing her attention again, “can you get us out of here?”

Burke remembers what I told her earlier, “The Hood is still here, we have to go help him.”

Marie freezes over her skin as she agrees, “Yeah, the Savaage is still here, and we don’t even know why they took us. They mind-controlled us but to do what?”

Marie’s fist tightens, trying to hide the growing frustration the more she has the chance to think and remember how she was captured. I saw the footage of how Shadow Mask captured her, their fight, and what he made her do. I’d be livid too.

“Yeah,” Tommy agrees, “asides from helping our friend we can’t just let these creeps get away with beating the shit out of us and trying to make us their slaves. I can’t imagine what that will do to our reputations.”

“This isn’t the time for jokes Tommy,” Marie told him.

“Hey, I’m upset, I’ll cover it up however I like.” That drew him a side-eye from her, but even her cold glances warmed a bit.

They all had reasons to be angry, and they should all get to be angry in their own way. They were attacked in places they thought were safe when they were among their families. Families who are still worried sick about them. There’s a lot that needs to be paid back to the Savaage, in full.

Having listened to their growing rage, Ken tells them, “Attila the Hun once said that it’s not enough to succeed, everyone else has to fail, preferably in front of their parents. To do so would cause them much rage. I get the feeling the Savaage subscribes to these notions.

“I think we should as well.”

That got a nasty grin from the room.

“He got that right,” Marie mutters, crossing her arms as she breaks into her usual scowl.

“You hear that quote while we were training?” Tommy asked, getting fired up, literally.

“No, on Pinterest, probably isn’t even true,” Ken admitted with a shrug, helping Tommy get out a much-needed chuckle.

Sarem makes it clear she’s not the vengeful type, or one to go looking for a fight. “Unsurprisingly, it’s personal for you, but not so for me. They wanted me for the same reasons others do, and I learned to get over that a long time ago. I just want to go home.”

Being kidnapped and used shouldn’t be something anyone is used to, a kid no less.

But Emily doesn’t get that from Sarem, all she hears is that someone with the ability to save someone is deciding not to. For Emily, having power has almost always meant that she should help people, so it blinds her to why Sarem is so hesitant. Why have power if you’re not going to use it?

It’s why she tries to ask, “How can you just stand by and do nothing? How do you not want to fly up to the top of this building and stomp on everyone who hurt you?”

“Experience,” Sarem answers, “experience tells me it’s not worth it.”

Emily is taken aback, but she shakes her head and tells Sarem, “Even if payback isn’t worth it, saving someone is, so I’m going to-”

“Well, that was expected,” the voice from earlier says over the intercom, interrupting Emily, “well, maybe not expected to happen so soon, but I can’t say I’m surprised that you’ve managed to break free. Saying that I’ve prepared to clean up the mess.”

Upon saying that last word, the walls explode.

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!

“Why did he warn us?!” Tommy calls.

“Ego,” Sarem answers.

The room shakes, and the walls blow up to collapse and let in dirt, and before long the ceiling starts to explode too, letting the crust of the earth flood in.

We all panic so to speak except for Emily and Sarem. Lucky them with the ability to shrug off being afraid.

“They’re going to bring the building down on top of us!” Tommy yells as he brings his hands over his head.

“No shit, Sherlock!” Marie yells at him.

Ken clutches Sarem’s shoulder, “Can you bring us all above ground?!”

Sarem turns her eyes towards him, giving him a long and silent look, making me think she may be cold enough to leave us here, but she nods her head.

With her recurring chant, “Rakaas,” she floats above the ground with her cloak becoming a more ghostly figure. This time she opens the flaps and reveals nothing but a dark space that shouldn’t exist. “Step inside if you want to live.” 

She instructs us, but only Ken steps in without hesitation. It’s understandable to not want to step foot into a space that can most accurately be described as an abyss. Marie and Tommy wait and watch as Ken steps into this empty room, seemingly walking through Sarem but not coming out the other side.

He waves to us all, telling us to, “Come on in!” but they need some pushing.

Sarem reminds them, “I will not wait forever to be crushed,” and the two slowly shuffled, taking their steps together. With their first step they see that nothing is going to happen to them, and with their second they see how dark and expansive the place is.

I turn around, defiant to make sure everyone is going before I do, but Emily is standing apart from us, her hands clenched to fists. I can see it in her eyes as she stares above us that she’s not coming. She turns her head to meet my eyes, and I know there’s no point to try and argue with her.

Espada tells me, “I’m going for him.”

“We’ll meet you up top, and we’ll fight this together.”

Espada nods her head in response as she flies up above the ground, and begins to spin like a drill. She digs her way right through the ceiling to start heading for the top, letting dirt pool into the basement through the hole she made.

“I will wait no longer,” Sarem gives me as a warning, really souring how much I will ever like her. I turn around as she closes her cloak and I dive through before she can cut off a toe.