“Your neck is probably still broken, but you’re safe here. Welcome to Hell,” Eva said with a smile.
—
Bringing Nel back had been something of a sordid affair. While Eva had grown quite used to traveling between the mortal realm and Hell, she had not often brought a person with her. Humans could exit through Ylva’s domain without drawing ire from the Keeper, so they did without hesitation. It was easier for everyone that way.
While bringing Nel back, Eva had just about dropped her in the middle of transit. She had no idea what would have happened had she done so. Nothing good, most likely.
Aside from that little mishap, everything went well. Eva had warned Nel that there might be some discomfort. Frankly, she had been expecting Nel to wind up like Sister Cross. Flayed or crispy, possibly both. But neither had happened.
Which made sense. Eva never suffered any ill effects while using her beacon to return to Earth. Only while teleporting from one point on Earth to another.
It made her wonder if she was doing something wrong. It wasn’t something that she talked about with others, aside from Arachne. And Arachne either couldn’t or wouldn’t teleport on her own, so she wasn’t much of an authority on the matter.
Regardless, returning to her domain had been somewhat awkward as well. Normally, she passed through Ylva’s domain to get to her own. Lacking that, Eva was left with trying to banish herself. She had done so immediately after losing her eyes to Sawyer when he had first captured her. That had been entirely an accident. The intended goal had been to teleport herself away.
Replicating that had turned out to be something of a chore. She had kept teleporting instead of banishing herself.
But, she had eventually got it figured out. Having no particular destination in mind helped a great deal.
“Alright,” Eva said as she rested against the edge of Serena’s bed. “It’s daylight back out in the real world. I could have put up blankets over the windows in the gate room, but I figured that you probably shouldn’t be moving much just yet anyway.”
Serena just stared at the ceiling. Her eyes blinked a few times, but she didn’t try to speak.
Which was probably for the best. Moving too much might disrupt her healing.
“So, we’ve got about twelve hours. You just focus on healing. I don’t know if you can speed it up or not, but try anyway. I’d much rather have you whole and hearty when it is time to go.”
Again, Serena didn’t respond.
Hopefully there wasn’t something else wrong with her. Brain damage or something. Could vampires get brain damage? Their brains weren’t any more alive than the rest of them.
“I would stay with you, but there are a few things that I want to check out while I’m here in Hell. Don’t worry about anything, you’re perfectly safe here.”
Pushing herself off the bed, Eva walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her.
Prax wouldn’t enter outside of an emergency. Eva had already spoken with him. If he did try something, Eva would ensure that Juliana knew not to summon him.
It was a good thing that he was here. If he wasn’t, Eva wouldn’t be able to leave. There had been no enigmas since all the humans got out of her domain, according to Prax. If humans, or residents of the mortal plane, were the things that drew enigmas to Hell, then Serena or herself could have plenty showing up in a short amount of time.
Since he was here, Eva was free to do a little exploring. She had no real reason to do so, it was purely to satisfy her own curiosity.
Walking off into the waters at the edge of her domain, Eva had just one thing in mind.
Catherine, the lesser succubus.
What must her domain look like?
No sense speculating. She was about to find out.
Submerging her head beneath the water, Eva concentrated on Catherine. It didn’t take long before she felt the familiar pull as she was whisked through Hell towards Catherine’s domain.
The water around Eva vanished, replaced by air. The fall wasn’t very long. She quickly found herself sinking into something soft and cushy.
Looking around, Eva found pillows. Tons of pillows atop a large bed. Not quite as large as the one in Ylva’s domain, but relatively close.
Ylva’s bed had a minimalistic look to it. The impressive part of it was the size, not the colors and patterns.
Picking up one of the pillows, Eva gave it a light squeeze. It was actually somewhat rough. Definitely not a modern pillow. The rectangular shape, lacy trim, and floral patterns were somewhat tacky. Maybe something from a century or two ago?
Not what Eva would have expected from the well-dressed and tech-minded succubus that she knew. Then again, if she hadn’t been summoned in a century, maybe it made sense. When her current contract was over and done with, perhaps she would come back and update everything to be a bit more modern.
Rolling off the bed, Eva got to her feet and looked around the area as a whole.
She was standing atop some sort of raised tower. Tower might be too tall of a word, but there was a decently sized staircase leading down to the main area. Another staircase led off below the main area, adjacent to where the tower’s staircase ended. The steps dipped below the surface of black colored water.
A large red windmill towered over a smaller rectangular building. To the side was a metal elephant, at least twice as large as a regular elephant. Probably more. It looked like there was some sort of room inside. There were definitely windows looking out the front and sides.
The actual main building appeared to be made from brick and stone. There wasn’t any paint, though the red bricks matched the red-painted windmill.
Nothing really matched the iron elephant.
Walking down the steps, Eva wasn’t sure what to think. It was definitely a place. She couldn’t quite wrap her head around the windmill or elephant and why they were here. They didn’t exactly scream succubus. Then again, neither had Prax’s castle.
Placing her hand on the handle of the door, Eva paused. Did she really want to go in?
Well, yeah, I do.
But, would Catherine appreciate it? Probably not. Who knew what kind of stuff she had hidden inside that she wouldn’t want other people to see.
If she liked Catherine any less than she did, Eva would have damned the consequences and gone in. Instead, she removed her hand from the door without opening it. Taking a few steps backwards, Eva just looked over the buildings once again.
Eva turned away with a shake of her head. “I don’t get it.”
Maybe that was the point. There wasn’t anything to get. The decor was just something that Catherine liked. Or maybe something from Earth during one of the times when she had been summoned that she fancied.
Walking down the steps towards the waters, Eva considered her next destination.
Lucy was a demon that had never once been summoned before. While Catherine’s windmill and elephant could have been heavily influenced by things that she had seen while summoned, Lucy’s domain shouldn’t have anything like that. It would be completely uninfluenced by anything in the mortal realm.
With how excitable the demon was about everything on Earth, Eva wasn’t expecting all that much. Perhaps a flat featureless plane or the simple island with a tree that Eva’s domain had started out as.
Dipping her head beneath the water, Eva waited for the gripping sensation to pull her off to Lucy’s domain.
Almost immediately, she found herself falling through the air. The fall was already taking much longer than it had in Catherine’s domain. It took a little bit of effort to avoid panicking. If there was nothing soft beneath her, she would be in for a hard landing.
Worse, everything was dark. She couldn’t see anything. For all Eva knew, there was nothing to land on, hard or soft. She would just be falling forever.
Turns out that her fears were unfounded. Almost as soon as she considered trying to blink to some kind of ground even without being able to see, something caught her.