Chapter 30.3

The horrid sound continued to circle, growing closer while continually making less and less sense. Vee’s first thought was that two creatures had somehow found them, and were working together to take them out, but that made no sense. Nothing lived in Purgatory, there shouldn’t be anything here to hunt them!

Another rumbling screech refocused Vee to the matter at hand. For this noise to be two creatures, they would have to be working in perfect tandem, which wasn’t impossible. The second option was that this might be a single creature, one with two dramatically different sets of vocal cords. Fear flooded Vee’s system, and she whispered a small prayer to ask her to magic to empower her. She was ready for a fight if need be.

“Vee, let’s get out of here!” Amara hissed.

“Agreed. Run!” Vee broke out into a sprint, hoping to make it outside Lysander Hall as soon as possible. If there was going to be a fight, she wanted it to be in the open if possible. With enough haste, however, they might be able to make it back home and avoid combat altogether.

Vee’s hopes were dashed immediately. She’d barely taken her first steps when something massive phased through the wall in front of her. A horrible, ghastly creature landed on the floor, standing at least as tall as an elephant. At first glance, Vee thought it was some kind of vulture or wyvern, but one that was anything but alive; whatever this beast had once been, only its skeleton now remained. It had a long, craning neck that held aloft a thick bird-like skull. Razor sharp claws sat at the end of lengthy arms, which also held the remains of large wings. A skeletal tail protruded from the beast’s body, twitching and snaking along the floor, and the creature pointed its head towards the two girls.

Its entire body seemed to be covered in large strips of ghostly, wet cloth. Patches hung off its neck, slid in between its ribs, and half-heartedly stretched between its wing bones. Pieces of it fell to the floor, landing with a sickening splat before falling yet again, this time through the ground itself. Vee looked at a piece that fell in front of her, and realized it wasn’t wet fabric that clung to this creature, it was skin.

The beast opened its deathly maw and roared at them. The same noise they’d heard earlier, both a terrifying rumble and a high-pitched wail, forced them to cover their ears as they tried to block out the noise. With a quick step forward, the creature raised an arm and tried to swipe at Vee, the closer of the two girls.

Vee, still partially disoriented from its roar, couldn’t muster the strength to move out of the way. A massive claw raced towards her, and just before it struck, Amara leapt forward to intercept the attack. The demon had summoned her chitinous gauntlets again and used her entire body to force the creature’s hand to the floor. Her wings spread, then pushed down to catapult her into the air, and she used the momentum to throw a punch at the creature’s skull.

“Vee, get off your ass and run! We need to get back to your place!” Amara yelled.

With the extra time bought by Amara’s attack, Vee was able to shake her head and regain her focus.

Vee took a deep breath, centered herself, and summoned her sword. Attacking the beast would be tough, as she needed to avoid the reckless attacks of two terrifying creatures, but at least she was familiar with Amara’s fighting style. Vee ran forward, ducking under Amara’s wings, and slashed at one of the creature’s front legs. She felt her blade sink into the beast’s thick bones, and it responded by trying to back away from her.

As the beast stepped back, Amara tried to force their advantage. She jumped forward, continuing to target its legs to keep it from regaining its balance. Seeing this, Vee mirrored the action and kept attacking the other side, throwing her entire body behind her sword.

The hallway proved to be too small for their joint attack to work, and Vee was knocked off balance by one of Amara’s wings. The creature had responded quickly to Amara’s attack, snapping at the demon with its mouth, and she fell backwards into Vee. Both girls were thankfully able to recover quickly, but it was obvious they would be at a disadvantage fighting in this hallway, especially as the creature was able to phase through walls.

With a grunt of frustration, Amara leapt forward again, this time appearing to tackle the creature’s body. Hoping that Amara wouldn’t be forced back, Vee tried to jump for the creature’s neck to prevent it from snapping at Amara again. Her attack landed between two of the creature’s vertebrae, preventing it from responding to Amara’s attack, and Vee smirked as her blade seemed to cause it pain. It screeched out once again, its voice no longer as fearsome, and tried to swipe Vee away from its face.

Unfortunately, the creature’s claw hit its mark. Its massive claw struck Vee’s side, knocking her away. She gasped with pain as she slammed into the wall, her head spinning from the impact.

In the few seconds it took to recover, Vee was vaguely aware of Amara continuing to force the creature back, though for some reason she was only using her fists. Where was her firepower? Vee knew she was more than capable of summoning hellfire and explosions to her heart’s content, yet she seemed to be holding back.

Eventually, though, Amara was able to clear a path. The creature had been pushed farther down the hall, and the girls now had access to the stairwell.

“Vee! Now!” Amara yelled again.

With a quick nod, Vee ran as fast as she could through the doorway. She felt the strange, vaguely porous material of the door phase through her, and then landed in the stairwell. She ran halfway up, then paused, looking back to see if Amara was keeping pace. It took a second, and Vee heard another roar of frustration from the creature, but Amara appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

The girls looked at each other briefly before breaking out into a sprint. They made it to the ground floor of Lysander Hall quickly, and it only took a few more seconds to leave the building entirely. Vee paused for a moment, braving a look behind her, and saw glimpses of the creature as it began to phase through the walls of the building.

Amara ran past Vee, who did everything she could to keep pace with the demon. They ran as fast as they could, the sounds of the creature continually reminding them that they couldn’t afford to slow down. They vaulted over railings, through bushes, and around trees as they raced towards Vee’s apartment, and in a matter of minutes, they had arrived. Vee scrambled to get her keys out, and soon they were slamming the door behind them.

Both girls fell to the floor, panting and gasping from the frantic sprint. Vee turned to lay on her back, staring at the ceiling as her chest heaved up and down. It took several minutes, but soon her adrenaline started to fade, and the fear left her system. Her body began to grow sore from when the creature threw her against a wall, and she groaned in frustration.

“Fucking hell, Vee. What was that?” Amara asked.

“No idea. As far as I know, there shouldn’t be anything but restless human spirits here.” Vee slowly rose to her feet, then walked to the fridge. She grabbed the container of holy water and took a long drink, thankfully she didn’t need to save any for Amara. When she finished, she pulled her jacket off and held the water to her side, hoping the cold would help with the pain.

“Well, we got away, that’s what matters. It didn’t look like your sword had any significant effect on it, so it’s likely not a demon.” Amara pulled up a chair and sat down, leaning against the counter before continuing. “I didn’t see an aura on it, either, so I’ve got nothing useful to add.”

They both fell silent for several moments, and Vee took the chance to sit down at the counter as well. Her thoughts returned to the fight, and questions appeared that she needed answers to. “Amara, why did it seem like you were holding back?”

Amara glared at Vee, clearly not expecting the question. “What?”

“Fighting that thing, you did nothing but throw punches. I saw you fight Mr. Wellington, and I’ve fought you myself, I know what you’re capable of. Where were the explosions? The hellfire? You could have torn that thing apart!”

“Seriously? I get us out of there safely, and your first instinct is to criticize me?”

“I’m not trying to criticize you! I just don’t understand your abilities!”

Amara’s pointed her tail at Vee accusingly. “For your information, Vee, my powers are on a timer. If I blow my load now, then I’m helpless until we get out of here.”

“Mine are too, Amara! This place is the embodiment of entropy, it’s only a matter of time before I start fading, but I still pulled out my sword and did everything I could back there!”

“And how do you restore your strength, Vee? Please, enlighten me!”

Vee paused, slightly confused by Amara’s question. “The same way as everyone else: food, drink, rest. Why?”

“That’s exactly my point! You’ve got this little pocket of the real world, and it has everything you need to rest and recuperate! I don’t have that privilege, Vee, I’m a succubus. If I’m not having sex regularly, then all the food and water in the world means nothing to me.”

“Seriously? I thought sex was just for like, recovering from injuries or something.” Vee paused, still unsure exactly what Amara meant. “Can’t you just, y’know… go take care of it yourself?”

Amara groaned in frustration. “No, I can’t! I need to feed on other people’s arousal and pleasure, or I start to waste away. Food loses its flavor, I stop sleeping, and I grow weaker and weaker with each passing moment. So, unless you have some secret demon fetish you’ve been hiding from me, I’m outta luck! The longest I’ve ever gone without sex is a week, and that was spent just lazily walking around campus. If I keep running for my life and fighting monsters? There’s no way to know how long I have left.”

“What happens if you go too long without sex?” Vee asked after a short pause. Her voice was quiet, as if she feared the answer.

“Fuck if I know. Maybe I’ll die, maybe I’ll go feral. There’s only one way to find out, and I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The girls fell silent again. Vee already knew they were on a timer, but she’d been under the assumption they had at least a few weeks. Her apartment had food, drink, warmth, everything a normal person would need to survive. Now, according to Amara, they had maybe a week before they entered uncharted, demonic territory.

There was only one way to keep Amara fed, and it clearly wasn’t an option.

What was Amara even feeding on? She said she needed to feed on arousal, not souls. The Church said demons needed to eat souls to survive, but hadn’t Amara been feeding on Nick and Tessa for nearly two months now? To Vee’s knowledge, both of them seemed completely unchanged despite Amara’s constant feeding.

Vee shook her head; she clearly wasn’t thinking straight. She’d just fought a horrifying monstrosity, and had her head bashed against a wall. She just needed a good meal, a full night’s sleep, and in the morning, things would make more sense.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Vee said. “I’m doing my best, but there’s so much I don’t know about you.”

“Yeah, and you’ve been so eager to learn more, haven’t you?” Amara rolled her eyes, huffing in frustration before standing up from the counter. She walked to the living room, jumping onto the couch before turning away from Vee.

The conversation clearly over, Vee decided to quickly make herself some food and retire to her bedroom. She spent the rest of the day stewing in frustration, unsure what to do about Amara. It was undeniably good fortune that they’d been stranded here together, rather than either being on their own, but Amara seemed determined to lash out at Vee every chance she got.

Vee paused, having just pieced something together.

The entire evening, and part of the night, was spent trying to figure out Amara’s conflicting actions. Vee wrapped herself tight in her blankets, even adding more to try and stay as warm as possible. Despite her wards keeping most of the effects of Purgatory at bay, small hints of cold still managed to creep into the apartment.

Safe in her room, separated from both Purgatory and Amara, Vee did her best to stay warm through the night. The wards around her room were the strongest, which meant she had the warmest room all to herself. This also meant that she wasn’t monitoring the protective magic surrounding the rest of the apartment. She slept peacefully through the night, completely unaware that the wards in the living room were starting to fade.