Escape from Endeavor by Daniel A. Jones
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Mystique was surprised again when Daemon came to a sudden stop. She was able to land on her feet when he dropped her. She was about to say something when she realized he was shaking. Mystique could feel the change in Daemon and slowly backed away, careful not to get his attention. She didn’t know what had triggered his anger but for some reason he was on the edge of losing himself in a fit of rage.
Daemon could feel Angelica’s pain and fear through their connection and knew he was too far away to do anything about it. He could feel Mystique’s fear, too, as she backed away; it was faint but he could still feel it. The beast wanted to destroy and Daemon wanted nothing more than to give him a target but the target was too far away. If he let the beast take over now it would attack Mystique for lack of another target. Daemon had to stay in control no matter how much he wanted to give in.
It was at least twenty minutes before Daemon was finally in full control of the beast. Angelica was still in danger and whoever was hurting her wasn’t stopping. Daemon focused on his need to get to Angelica and pushed his anger aside. As fast as he had stopped he was moving again. He scooped up Mystique and channeled his furious energy into closing the distance between him and Angelica.
27
Shektee had finally made it to the edge of town when she felt the ancient’s anger. She’d been worried it was angry with her, but she quickly realized it was angry with someone else. She waited now for instructions as her panther form watched the humans go about their business.
It reminded her of the day the Rift opened and she’d entered this plane. The tearing of the veil hadn’t been violent where she’d been. She was manipulating a man having sex with a woman when it happened. The veil shimmered and all of the sudden she was on the other side, standing in the room with the couple. The woman had seen her first and screamed at the sight of her. The man had only looked at her and lusted for her. She’d killed the woman too quickly but had drunk the man’s soul—the first soul she’d ever truly eaten. She’d manipulated humans through the veil many times before and fed off their lust but she’d never been able to pass through it.
She’d gone in search of more humans to feast on and learned that hordes of other demons had passed through the veil. They were hunting and killing the humans as fast as they could find them. Some of the more powerful ones were killing their fellow demons. She’d been careful and avoided many places large numbers were gathered. She’d only attacked those she found hiding in secluded locations. She’d known nothing of human technology and had gotten herself trapped in that spaceship. She was not going to make that mistake again. In the future she would take her time and learn everything the person knew before she consumed their souls.
Shektee, go to him and assist him. NOW!
Shektee didn’t hesitate. She turned in Daemon’s direction and leaped into a run. She only made it five steps before she stumbled and fell as her mind exploded with images and her muscles twitched uncontrollably. She lay there, trying to make sense of the information that had streamed into her mind. She quickly realized that the ancient had taught her how to fly. It had trained not only her mind, but her muscles, too, so they would react properly.
She found a break in the trees large enough to take off, and shape-shifted into a raven. The bat form she’d tried earlier used an unfamiliar form of vision she didn’t care for. She launched herself into the air and was amazed at how easy it was to fly.
She flew up through the tree cover and wheeled around toward Daemon. As Shektee flew, she realized another thing the ancient had done: Using her abilities this far from the Rift was requiring more energy than normal; she’d been feeling very hungry and low on energy before, but now she felt full of energy. The ancient must have given her some of its energy when it was transferring the information on how to fly. She thought about why the ancient would do that while she flew. None of her kind would ever voluntarily give up any of their life energy. She remembered its statement about paying even lowly servants for their efforts, but that was incomprehensible.
You should always make sure the servant has the ability to complete the assigned task unless you wish it to fail. That, Shektee understood. She tried not to think of what she could be facing. Whatever it was, the ancient expected her to need to be at full strength to defeat it.
Shektee flew as straight a path as she could to Daemon’s location. He was moving, so she had to correct her course a few times. When she arrived she decided to circle a few times above the trees to see what was in the area. The trees were dense, with only a few places where she could drop through the canopy. She landed roughly twenty yards ahead of Daemon and shifted into her panther form.
She waited for him to run by and started running alongside him. He was carrying the girl for some reason and he was running pretty fast. Shektee was easily able to keep up with him. The girl saw her before Daemon did and pointed to her. Daemon looked at her for just a second and then looked back the way he was running. Shektee could tell by the look he’d given her that he was not concerned with her presence. If she tried to stop him, he’d kill her and be on his way. She wasn’t used to humans showing such disdain for her or her kind but she could feel the ancient’s presence within him. She dropped back and followed him from a safe distance. The girl watched her over his shoulder as they ran.