“Genoa and Carlos are running themselves ragged,” Zoe said with a sigh. “I’m sure they would try just about anything up to and including summoning a demon.”
“She has the most powerful demon I’ve ever met with her. They shouldn’t worry too much.”
“That might be exactly why they worry. I–” A light beeping from Zoe’s pocket cut her off. She blinked twice, apparently trying to reach for her phone with her missing arm before remembering that she had put her phone in the opposite pocket. “Phones didn’t work in Ylva’s domain,” she said idly as she pulled the phone out.
“I don’t think this place is connected in the same way that Ylva’s domain was. Or even the bit of my domain that was in my dorm room. It was a remnant of killing an enigma, forced onto the world. Catherine was freaking out about it when she realized.”
“Doesn’t that make Hell and Void vulnerable?”
Eva shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t think Life is in any position to capitalize on it though.”
Humming a thoughtful hum for a moment, Zoe glanced down at her phone and read through a message. “It’s Wayne,” she said. “He still hasn’t been able to find Serena.”
“Serena is missing too?” Eva said with a frown, leaning forward. “I meant to thank her for intervening with Life’s tentacles. I know her suit got all torn up during the ritual. Hopefully she’s alright.”
“Me too. Despite how Wayne acts, I’m sure he’s concerned as well.”
“Nel can’t locate her either?”
Zoe blinked, tearing her eyes from her phone to look at Eva. “I don’t think Nel has anything of hers to focus on.”
“Ask. We took a road trip together. You know how paranoid Nel is. I’m willing to bet that she snatched a strand of hair that got stuck to the seat just in case she ever needed to use it.”
After taking a long sip of tea, Zoe nodded her head. “I’ll mention it to Wayne. Thank you for the tea,” she said, standing up. “There is still much work to be done, but I should be going. I’ll stop by tomorrow to check in on you. Is there anything you need that I should bring by?”
Eva stood as well. As she did, the tea set in front of them turned into a four-poster bed, an ornate marble bathtub filled with water, and a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. “I think I’ll be fine.”
“Then–”
“But, there is one thing I wouldn’t mind if you took with you.” Eva held out a hand, palm down with her fingers curled together. Despite holding her hand out towards Zoe’s only remaining hand, Zoe still started to reach forwards with her severed arm before catching herself. An unintelligible curse escaped her lips as she switched arms, pocketing her phone in the process.
“Can I actually take things you create out of your domain?”
“Not sure. We could try. But this is a bit different, more of a gift for myself than anything.” Eva opened her hand, letting a small black sphere drop onto Zoe’s palm. A red streak shone brightly on one side.
Zoe turned it around, staring at it for a moment before looking up to meet Eva’s eyes. “Your beacon?”
“I consumed my old one to get back after I died. Honestly, I don’t know if this will work. Things are,” she paused to glance around her domain, “a little strange. No harm in trying though. If you just carry it out of here, I can try escaping.”
Zoe rolled it between her fingers for a moment before clasping her hand around it. “I can do that. Might as well see.”
Eva watched, waiting, expecting something to happen as Zoe walked away and crossed the threshold of sand and asphalt. When nothing did, Zoe held up the beacon to show that she still had it before tossing it down the street. It rolled to a stop a short distance outside her domain’s boundaries.
Closing her eyes, Eva prepared to teleport to her beacon.
Chapter 037
Devon stalked around the prison courtyard, staring at the ritual circle drawn out where there had once been a basketball court. Eva’s treatment circle. Likely the very final one. He doubted that it was truly necessary. Taking a sample of her blood and examining it with a few spells, Devon had found nothing human about her. He couldn’t be sure if it had been her actions during the ritual—which he hadn’t seen with his own eyes—or if Void had interfered after pulling her down to Hell. Or perhaps it was merely some sort of metastasis. In the time since the last treatment, Eva’s body could have cannibalized itself in a benign or even beneficial manner. The whole reason for the delay had been because her body hadn’t been stable at the appointed time for her treatment.
However, this was his project. Though it had encountered a great number of bumps along the road, he intended to see it through.
If Eva didn’t require this final treatment, then it would harm her no more than Catherine had been harmed by her own experiments. Not that Devon was particularly concerned for Eva’s well-being.
Devon glanced to the side. A young boy sat in a wheelchair, arms and legs atrophied to the point where they were little more than skin stretched over his bones. Devon didn’t know exactly what was wrong with the boy. Some disease that kept his body from properly processing food and nutrients. He didn’t know the boy’s name. Frankly, he didn’t want to know. His biggest failure in Eva was becoming far too personable with her. Though he thought of her as a test subject, that had merely been a title he had attached to the person.
This boy was nothing but a test subject.
Truly, Devon didn’t know if he would survive. His health, despite his emaciation, was better than that of the other subject Devon had brought in not so long ago. Not by much. The treatment, especially the first treatment, was harsh. Eva had come though alright as a stroke of luck; hale and hearty, her only problem was that she had run away from home—police tended to worry more over healthy people than those already on Death’s doorstep. An easily remedied problem by simply ordering her to attend school and to not raise suspicion much.
So he already had a potential new subject lined up. Since tying up the mess with the Powers, summoning demons was once again possible. He was free to summon entirely new demons with no relation to or even knowledge of Eva. Or anyone around Brakket for that matter.
But first, Eva.
Devon scowled as he stared at the three– No– Four demons. Catherine knelt in one circle. For the other two slots, Devon hadn’t bothered with summoning any demons. The carnivean took one spot. The waxy ruax took the other, forced into its place by Devon’s domination. He didn’t want to use the ruax, and hadn’t used any dominated demon for any previous treatments, because of the concentration it took to keep it sitting still. Concentration he could be using to watch Eva.
There wasn’t all that much to watch. At the end of her previous treatment, Eva had the beginnings of horns poking out of her forehead, right around her hairline. Two bumps on her back that might have been the sprouting of wings had manifested as well. As of right now, several minutes into the ritual, neither had changed much at all. Her hair, short though it was, still covered what might be horns. Nothing had poked through yet. Her back was utterly smooth without even the hint of budding bat wings.
Again, Devon wasn’t sure whether that was the machinations of Powers, something with the ritual involving Powers, or even Eva herself. For all Devon knew, Eva had been capable of sprouting horns and wings for months and simply hadn’t noticed. Just as Catherine hid them from view while masquerading as a human, Eva could be keeping them suppressed.
Which all cycled back into his conclusion that Eva wouldn’t become a proper demon until she thought of herself as such completely and thoroughly. An idea Devon had considered was that she had nubs of horns simply because she thought that her treatments should have some alteration to her physical features. Her teeth and tongue were definitely inhuman, but they were different. Something easily hid simply by not opening her mouth.