Well, not every demon. Visiting Willie didn’t seem like a good way to pass the time, however. Prax died a while back, he might have returned from Void’s pit of Hell, but Eva didn’t really care to see the cambion again.
There had to be a way out.
Though first, she needed to get mobile.
Being in her domain, she should be able to conjure up something. She had built the entire alternate women’s ward, after all. But what to conjure up? A set of crutches clattered to the ground to her side. Without hands to grab them, she wouldn’t be able to use them even if she had the balance of a succubus. She couldn’t even reach the doorknob let alone turn it without hands.
Destroying the door, or the entire women’s ward would be possible. That would just leave her on a sandy beach and while she could roll into the waters of Hell and visit another domain, she had already decided that that probably wouldn’t be the best of ideas. Especially not while missing limbs and unable to defend herself. Sure, winding up in trouble might increase her control over her blood based on what happened in tense situations in the past. At the same time, she might wind up torn apart at the hands of another demon.
A dozen bloodstones dropped out of mid-air at Eva’s next request, rolling across the floor. One rolled right up to her arm. Despite the bad feeling about it, Eva ground the stub of her arm against the ground until it started bleeding. Dripping the black blood over the bloodstone, Eva waited for just a moment before sighing.
It wasn’t working. She felt no control over her blood beyond what little there was from being in her veins. And that was rapidly dissipating now that the blood had left her body.
The lack of control was probably because the bloodstones were simply constructed from her memories and not from the heart of a living being. Even if she conjured up a body, she doubted that creating a bloodstone from it would work as it would be a construct and not a real living person.
Really, she was the only living being that she had ready access to.
A sardonic smile crossed her face. Of course, her body was the only one she had access to. Her heart beat in her chest, ready to go.
And she had a modicum of blood under her control within her own veins. Likely not even anything demonic, but rather from the ritual she had performed before even coming to Brakket that allowed her to heal from the small cuts that were so prevalent in blood magic. She probably could have controlled the blood within her veins years ago, she had just never had a reason to do so.
Now? She did. She needed to get back on her feet. She needed to be able to move around. Perhaps more importantly, she needed something she could use as an active weapon.
Everything seemed calm at the moment. Seemed being the key word. She had not forgotten the enigmas that had once run rampant around her domain. Void had mentioned that he had been cleaning up after the invasion, but it had sounded like a work still in progress. If there were things outside her room, destroying the building or leaving could be dangerous. She was not invulnerable within her own domain. This was where an enigma had bitten off her leg, after all.
Eva took a deep breath. Not willing to waste any more time thinking—just in case an enigma barged into her room—she started to act. Blood, under her direction, etched itself into the surface of her heart. A perfect etching of circles and sigils. The most detailed version of bloodstone creation that she knew how to create. Normally, she drew it on the back of her hand and pressed her hand to the chest of whoever she was turning into a bloodstone. If she could, she pressed her hand directly against their still beating heart. With the sigil directly etched into the heart, something she had never tried before, she was expecting a high quality stone.
Hopefully. She had a slight comfort in knowing that Void would reconstitute her body should she screw everything up. Not the best reassurance, but a reassurance nonetheless.
With another deep breath, she flooded the shallow etchings with magic.
The pain came instantly and without remorse. Eva cried out, screeching at the top of her lungs. If anything was in her domain and hadn’t known that she was there, it did now. Though Eva didn’t spare a moment of her thought to consider that terrible prospect. She didn’t have a moment of thought to spare. Not a single coherent thought formed.
Her heart crunched down, tearing itself apart from the veins and arteries that connected it to the rest of her body. It twisted. The flesh of her heart chaotically folded in on itself, hardening as it shrank down. The rough walls of her heart smoothed out, becoming as glass.
Despite her heart being completely disconnected from her body, the pain in her chest didn’t stop. A burning fire welled up within her. At the same time, she started to see spots in front of her eyes. Her arms, even though they were half gone, felt as heavy as lead.
Eva failed to maintain her half-sitting position. The muscles in her back just wouldn’t respond.
As she slumped down to the floor, a single coherent thought made it through the jumbled mess that had become her stream of consciousness.
She needed to circulate her blood.
The moment the thought crossed her mind, her blood started pumping again. A second later, she gasped in a deep breath of air.
Her heart didn’t pump. She had no heart. Just a gemstone the size of a marble. And it… worked. Blood flowed around the stone, filling her veins and carrying that vital essence of life around her body. She didn’t know why she had started to see spots so soon. Being ninety-nine percent demon, she barely slept, ate, or did other human things. Breathing was something of an automatic reaction, so she hadn’t really stopped doing so, but had thought that she could go without oxygen for some time.
Obviously not something she was about to test.
For what seemed like an hour, Eva lay on the floor in a puddle of her own sweat that she hadn’t realized she had even shed. That entire time, the pain slowly lessened and lessened until she could stand to actually think for a few moments about how foolish her solution had been.
Maybe it wouldn’t have been so foolish had she already had an implanted bloodstone. Something that she could have kept her blood flowing with while her heart underwent its transformation. Of course, had she already had a bloodstone in her chest, she wouldn’t have needed to make one in the first place.
By the time Eva felt well enough to actually move, her body was sticky and somewhat unpleasant smelling.
But it had worked.
It had worked.
Her blood was flowing rapidly through her body, all according to her direction. Much like when the hunter had stabbed her in the chest. She didn’t need a heart. She had blood magic. And maybe a little demonic constitution helping out as well. A normal human might have a bit more trouble recovering from that pain or even standing up again.
Speaking of standing… Eva glanced down to her sweat covered arms. One was already injured, lightly leaking a little blood from it. She stretched the blood out, forming it into a hand shape. A mass of liquid hand. Glancing to her other arm, she watched as thin needles of blood burst from the smooth skin, wrapping around the stub until it too formed a hand.
She repeated the action with both of her legs, pouring blood from her stumps.
Which almost had her passing out again. Eva quickly sucked the blood back into her body as she considered a second, albeit smaller problem.