Crimson Claws & Fangs ch.26

       For several weeks Alquad had searched the various towns and villages of the Italian country side. A week into his investigation he came across a most un-expected meeting, Mike King, a man thought dead had turned up alive, and turned out to be the monster he was searching for. Over his various meetings with the man he was able to uncover that Mike had been cursed by the monster Rhuen, to become a vicious demon by night and an immortal man by day. However Alquad has his own suspicions, especially after Mike explained that it was Litmet who had indeed sent him to Italy, but he has been unable to uncover why. Alquad has been in constant communication with the Council of the Order, neither he nor they trust that Mike is being completely legit with them. Alquad’s orders are to gain Mike’s trust. This night the final orders have come, this night when Mike turns from immortal to demon they plan to put him out of his misery

 

     After meeting in a bar Alquad has promised Mike they had a safe house ready for him now where they could contain his demon side. For the last few hours they had been driving with Mike constantly looking to the dropping sun in worry. Inside the safe house Mike is lead to a secluded room in which stands seven other members of the Order, the Elite Guard.

 

    Mike looks around recognizing them, “I am honored the Elite Guard are standing by, however it is getting dark, I don’t know what the demon will do. You may want to leave the room.”

 

    The men don’t even make eye contact with him, instead taking out their crosses and start chanting. Mike doesn’t have time to ask them what they are doing as the sun sets and his transformation begins. A circle of light appears around Mike, the Elite Guard are performing a high level exorcism. The light holds back Mike’s transformation at first, making slower and more painful than normal. This is only slowing it down. As Mike’s wings spring forth from his back a dark aura appears around him paralyzing him. The light on the floor is engulfed by a shadow slithering like a snake across the floor. A great wind encircles the room. A large shadow appears above Mike, the form of a woman with the head of a cat and the wings of a bat seen in blackness with out detail and so large it appears to be beyond the perimeters of the room somehow.

 

    The voice of Litmet speaks from the shadowy form, “Fools, this monster is not a Christian vampire, unless you have Shintoist prayer scrolls you will only enrage the beast. It may only feed on the blood of the wicked, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t rip you apart. Its time here has ended, it has learned all it needed to know from here. Now I will put it somewhere where it can learn some control over its self.”

 

    The shadow vanishes only to be replaced by black and blue fires emanating from a portal that warps the nearby wall. From this portal walks the skeleton of a horse, with bones blackened and blue flames in place of flesh, its eyes are darkness with burning points inside them like miniature vortexes into Hell. The flames shot forth from the portal blocking off the Elite Guard and Alquad from Mike and the fiery horse. The flames encircle Mike and the Horse swallowing them both and pulling back into the portal, vanishing, leaving the Order Members standing alone in the dark room.

 

    Mike finds himself in a dark cave, standing before a large stone well against the back of the cave. The fiery horse stands behind blocking off the path that likely leads to an exit. The now demon form Mike lunges at the horse, only to find himself entangles my mystical blue flames fired forth from the demonic beast’s mouth and body. The beast drops him into well, plummeting into the darkness and loosing consciousness.

 

    When Mike awakens he finds himself human, well almost. He feels different than he ever did before. All around him is grass, a few trees, and rolling rills and crystal clear rivers and ponds like a park. He looks at the sky and sees only some distant glowing haze and closer normal clouds, nearly as bright as the sun, yet somehow the light looks like its coming from these distant haze clouds rather than any sun behind them. The air feels warm, tropical even. He walks to a nearby pond looking at his reflection in the pure water. He looks odd, his hair is red, and his ears are pointed. Otherwise the face looking back at him is him; his cloths tattered from his earlier transformation.

 

    In the water he sees a very strange sight, a naked Japanese woman swimming through the water, except that she appears to have sting ray like fins extending from her arms. This strange creature with out any hesitation swims over to Mike and sits in the shallows, the long stiff skin that forms the fin like structures softening and retracting back into her arms, merging back with her arms like they were never there.

 

     She notices his surprised expression and says in a sweet voice, “What you never seen a Wa-Lily before?”.

 

    Mike looks up to see the haze turning to a twilight level he screams, “Run Lady!” Mike shivers, but sees that the light never gets any darker. He looks down at his hands to see they are now grey with long fingernails but not claws. He doesn’t feel any larger, and his mind is still fully his own. He can feel his teeth have gotten sharper but not overly so.  He looks into the water and see that his reflection is not the gargoyle like creature he normally becomes, in fact its not much different from the form he awoke as, save for grey skin, some exaggerated things like his nails and teeth, and his pupils are now cat like slits.

 

    The woman looks at him with a curious expression and says, “So you’re a Toori-Ma huh? Well you’re a little strange” she giggles as she speaks. She jumps back into the deeper water, the skin on her arms, and now her legs as well, extending out to form those same paddle or stingray like fins as before, keeping her legs together, swimming with a glittering pale silhouette looking to Mike like an angel flying.

 

   He looks at the sky thinking, “I only partially transformed.”

 

   The woman swims back a little facing him and says,  “Oh by the way  I haven’t seen you before are you new here?.”

 

   “Uh, yeah.” Answers Mike

 

 “Well welcome to the neighborhood then, see you around” she waves and swims down into the water going deeper than Mike can see across the pond.

 

   Mike looks around stepping away from the pond thinking, “Okay, where the hell am I?”