Page 31 of The Monster of Darkspell Comics

Pashar

“ F anny, I got you something from the Flaming Chopstick this time,” I say as I enter the shop, absently studying the bag in my hand.

“Dzik had The Good Char closed for some reason today. He’s been doing that a lot lately, so Anayolia wasn’t pleased when I told her that I’m going to shut down for a few days.

She understood the reason for it, though, so she just bitched about the inconvenience, and threatened to hang me by my entrails if I hurt you.

She was actually graciously accommodating for only going that far, but it is bad for anyone’s health to get between a rutting demon and his ma—" I trail off as I glance up only to find the shop surprisingly empty. “Fanny?”

I look around, my brow furrowing at the strange trace streams of fog dissipating in the shop. Dropping the bag on the counter, I search the shop, checking every aisle amid the racks and shelves.

“Fanny? Where are you?” I bellow. “Answer me.”

Nothing. It’s like she disappeared into the trailing wisps of fog.

And not just Fanny. My eyes land on the corner where Chewy has sat for months, rapidly growing into her current monstrous size.

The shelf is empty except for an empty pot with just traces of splattered dirt around it.

Impossible. Nothing could have simply picked up and stolen Chewy, that can only mean.

.. she left in the way of malcante and several other species of predatory plants.

The foggy day gave her the advantage of dissolving into it to travel.

I growl in frustration. She wouldn’t do that for no reason. Getting caught out in the direct heat of the desert would kill her. Unless... “Fanny,” I rasp.

She is following Fanny. Which can only mean that someone has stupidly stolen my mate.

My corethi twist beneath my illusion, hissing as they whip through the air, sending comic books fluttering to the floor around my feet.

Fury thuds through me like a drum, pounding like the break of thunder.

I can feel my hold on my illusion cracking, but I wrestle it back in place.

Any error now could delay me from finding my mate on time.

With a whip of my tail, I storm from my shop and head directly for Anayolia’s office.

It is about time the administrator does something for me besides inflicting me with ridiculous rules and regulations.

I move far quicker than I should, my shadow expanding far beyond the confines of my illusion.

Humans scurry out of my way like vermin, but I have little interest in whether or not I’m frightening them.

It actually does serve a purpose. It has Anayolia waiting for me with her office door open and a disapproving scowl on her face.

“Get in here,” she hisses, stepping back just far enough so that I can enter before slamming the door behind me. “Just what do you think you are doing, Pashar? What the hell happened to your honeymoon that you just harassed me for?”

I shake my head, barely able to find my words my volatile demonic energy expands and warps my immediate environment. Anayolia’s gaze shoots around the room, and she slams her hands against her desk, jerking my attention to her.

“Get ahold of yourself,” she snarls. “Do you want to be hauled back to the pit for judgement? I can arrange an expedited one-way ticket to haul your ass directly there if you bring any form of demonic chaos into my mall. I will bring the book down on you so hard that, if you are lucky, you will just be confined within the mists of the nightmare realm. But knowing the Master, you will probably end up working right beside Dzik for the rest of eternity, you pile of fetid excrement.”

“Fanny is gone,” I snarl as I turn to her, the threads of my illusion that I’ve just been barely clinging to, falling away.

The snarl falls from Anayolia’s face as she goes pale as she stumbles back. “W... what did you say?”

“My mate is gone,” I bellow as she drops into her chair.

“I... I don’t understand. I got your mating sanctioned weeks ago when I saw how good she was for you. The Master even agreed to it. He wouldn’t have sent anyone.”

That actually surprises me to hear. That explains why I wasn’t dragged into one of the upper demonic courts the moment I finished defiling my mate. I still can’t figure out how Dzik is getting away with it.

I shake my head. “Not him.”

Aside from her assurances, if it were the Master, he would have destroyed Chewy before allowing her to interfere.

I draw a deep breath as I try to regain some control of my sanity.

Anayolia was right. A nightmare demon falling straight into madness would be disastrous for everyone in the mall, if not the entire town.

I would most certainly be punished then.

“I need to see your security tapes,” I bite out. Show me anything over the last thirty minutes that happened around my shop. Someone took her, and I’m certain that I know who; I just need to confirm it.”

The demoness looks at me with a troubled expression, but she nods and picks up the phone. A few minutes later, an imp cleverly disguised as a human assistant, hands her a small tape that she immediately pops into a machine hooked into the TV.

I look at the TV regretfully. Fanny complained about the lack of a television and VCR in my dwelling.

I should have bought them for her. I hope I have time to give her everything she desires.

My morose thoughts flee when the picture on the screen stops and then begins to play at regular speed.

I see myself exiting my shop on film, but moments later another tall figure slips into view and enters.

The male’s features are distorted in the way those of vampires can be if they are wearing prescription vampiric sunblock since the film coating their skin can be caught on camera and in reflections.

Despite this, I recognize him. And it’s not David Sweeney.

“Him!” I growl, my corethi flaring widely around me with an instinctive drive to kill.

How had I not realized that he’s a vampire?

His questions to my mate replay in my mind.

He was trying to draw her out to meet him somewhere, that much is clear.

But was it for his own purposes, or was he put up to it by the male who has been sneaking around this town and stalking my mate?

My head whips to Anayolia as I try to control my rage.

“I need to know if he’s anywhere in the mall.”

Nodding briskly, she lifts a small, two-way radio to mouth and speaks into it, describing him down to the smallest detail.

“Do not apprehend,” she snaps. “If you see him, give me the exact coordinates of where he is located and wait. He is a vampire—perhaps young and newly turned—we need to get to him before he tries to do something stupid in a badly calculated attempt to save himself.”

Her eyes study me as she waits, and then the radio crackles to life. “Prowling the food court. Looks like he is trailing a small group of young women.”

I dip my head in acknowledge and don’t even bother to wait for permission as I slam out of the office. I wish more than anything I could just open my wings and fly. All I can do is race across the mall to the food court, fury pumping through me.

I catch sight of him before the security guard can point him out.

The male moves in to wave me down, but I raise a hand in silent warning so that he falls back as I stalk up behind the ridiculous vampire.

The females have surrounded him, their eyes fastened on him, caught in his glamor.

He sidles closer to the female on his left, and he leans to whisper in her ear right as my hand shoots to grab him around the back of the neck.

Predictably, he squawks in surprise like a strangling rooster, which is immediately followed by an outraged hiss when he realizes that he cannot twist out of my hold.

I glower as I tighten my grip and slowly turn him so that he can get a really good look at me.

Just briefly, I allow him to see past my illusion, and a look of horror fills his eyes.

“Oh god,” he chokes around my strangling hold.

I grin menacingly at him. “Not quite. I would like a word with you.”

With the briefest glance at the assembled females, I haul him directly out of the mall and into the sun. He cries out as the sun hits his eyes, but at least he’s not smoking or going up in flames thanks to the sunblock.

“Now that I have your attention,” I snarl, “where is my female?”

“I don’t know what you are talking abo—”

I grab the front of his shirt and tear it halfway down the middle so that the untreated skin is exposed. His howl of pain and fear is so satisfying, and I smile as I enjoy it briefly before gathering the material together again.

“Let’s try again. Where. Is. My. Mate.”

“A cavern out in the canyon. He... he has her,” he gasps, tears of pain flooding his eyes. “I didn’t want to do it, but it is the only way I could get the cure and I...”

I let out a sharp bark of laughter. “You fool; there is no cure. It is a curse that infects the entire species, not a disease. No matter what promises he made to you, I guarantee that what he gave you will only kill you. Probably horribly and very painfully.”

His head thrashes violently in denial as he tries, unsuccessfully, to escape me. “No, that’s not true. I sacrificed everything and everyone for it. So, I wouldn’t live like this anymore.”

I lean down and hiss in his ear. “Take me to him and I guarantee that I will end this miserable existence quickly and painlessly for you, which is a far better offer than the alternative.”

He nods with a feeble jerk of his head. “O... Okay.”

I lean in, my nostrils flaring as I stare into his eyes. “Now, tell me exactly how to get there.”

The roads the male describes are more or less meaningless to me but when I climb into the sky as I dangle a screaming vampire from my claws, it is almost satisfying, and the route becomes clearer by the moment as his flailing arms direct me in which way to go.

Although I have swept over this part of the desert before, the cavern is tucked away so far from the road that I don’t immediately see it.

Nor is it something I can just fly up to, so I land, hauling the vampire with me as my corethi whirl behind me as we approach the small pickup and trailer tucked within the canyon.

Not the sort to waste time on useless rituals of negotiation, I slam my taloned foot into the door, crumpling it inward so that I can easily yank it off its hinges and toss it aside.

David Sweeney leaps from his chair in surprise, and he lifts a weapon to point it at me.

I grin at the pistol in delight. Finally, he did something I absolutely will not be punished for.

That counts as a threat of physical harm and violence against me.

Like a shadow, I loom at the entrance, thrusting the vampire in front of me as we enter. It is only then that I see what has been occupying the human’s attention and what he is guarding himself from.

Chewy, in all her splendor, is unfurled at one side of the camper.

Between them, bullets have scarred the wood paneling in every place he had shot at and severed one of her vines.

Though they arere considerably shorter now, the vines flail around her, eagerly grasping for him to come within her range.

He does not tremble or beg as he stares at me.

There is a flinty look in his eye even as I note the beads of perspiration dotting his brow and upper lip.

I smile nastily at him, and my head turns as my eyes sweep over the room to land at last on my unconscious mate.

Anger hardens me, but my smile grows wider as I turn to him again.

I slowly, intentionally, raise my corethi around me as he watches, the vampire dangling in my hold.

Dark laughter rolls from me as they strike the vampire, envenomating him a dozen times over.

His body twitches and bloats within my grip until finally going rigid after just a couple of minutes.

A far too merciful death.

I drop the vampire to the floor and step further inside, my long tongue sliding over my lips. Let’s just see how this pitiful mortal tastes.