Chapter 15: The Demon Lord

A tall figure dressed in long, dapper robes as black as Rufus’s pendant appeared behind the kitten. Black mist trailed off the robes in curlicues. It looked exactly like what I saw near the tiny crack in the laboratory wall.

“Purrberus!” the figure called to the kitten. His voice rolled around the laboratory like peals of thunder, making the walls shiver. “I know you’re impatient, but we haven’t even been given back the pendant yet.”

The kitten swiveled all three heads in the direction of the robed figure and began purring so loud that dust and bits of grit rained down from the ceiling and pelted us.

“Where is it necromancer?” said the new intruder. I heard Rufus’s blood vials rattling all the way over in their case.

“Well burn my buns, look who it is!” screeched Ruddy in delight. “I knew sooner or later you’d come back to get me out of this dump, my old friend.”

Rufus seemed to recover from the shock of watching his ex-wife disappear down the jaws of the feline demon. He growled, stood up, and flicked the debris off his pajamas. They landed all over me.

“Where is Roanna?” Rufus shouted. “Give her back!”

“Rufus, who is that guy?” I stage-whispered.

Rufus shushed me and told me not to move from my spot. I saw a familiar reddish glow start to radiate up from his hands.

“But--”

“Never mind,” he hissed. “This doesn’t concern you.”

“Excuse me, but it concerns me very much.” I said. “Can’t you do something, like make us all invisible so we can hide in plain sight and plan how to fix this mess?”

“How long has it been, friend?” said Ruddy. “A couple of millennia goes by in the blink of an eye.” The misty-robed guy ignored him.

“Stay where you are and be silent or you’ll end up in the pit with Ruddy,” Rufus said to me. “You are beneath their notice and the least of everybody’s concerns right now.”

I was getting real sick of his attitude, of being forced to wait for him to send me home, of watching his pathetic attempts to control the craziness in his basement laboratory. And now his ex-wife was inside the belly of the monster kitten.

I didn’t like Roanna. It was embarrassing watching her treat Rufus like garbage, even though he was a jerk too. As long as she was in the demon kitten’s belly, I probably wasn’t getting home.

“Do you have selective hearing, necromancer?” said the figure. “I asked you a question.”

Rufus turned to him. “You will not be getting that pendant from me today, nor any other day.”

The robed figure loomed closer to us. He was gaunt, his face resembling an insect crossed with a human, with iridescent gray-green scales on his skin. His eyes, unblinking, dark and hollow. Addison would’ve called him diabolical.

Addison. He would freak out if he knew the predicament we were in right now. I would probably be grounded for life. Or maybe he would kick me out of the house for being too much trouble, if I ever got back home. The chicken pie started swimming around in my stomach.

I vowed not to throw up in the middle of all this. Rufus would lose it for sure. Instead I sighed with as much huffiness as I could dredge up.

“Actually, you are very much within my notice, Coralie," said the gaunt faced man.

Dread and horror crept over me. The chicken pie swam all the way up my throat and gushed out at Rufus’s feet. Some of it got on his pajamas.

Rufus did not react. Not for the first moment, at least, because at the same exact time he happened to be creating another red bubble around us. I threw up again as we floated up to eye level with the insect-faced man. The bubble popped and dumped us on the floor.

“Ewww, she puked all over you. That’s revolting,” Ruddy said.

Rufus shot a beam of crackly purple light towards Ruddy’s trapdoor. The light flew down into the pit and blew up into a fountain of fiery sparks and flames.

“It’ll take more than fancy finger lightning to get rid of me,” Ruddy laughed.

I turned away from all of them and retched again but there was nothing left. My head pounded. I was going to be stuck with these monsters in this evil, musty basement with puke breath forever. I wanted to die.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” said the gaunt faced man. “My name is Mister Gentry.”

Mister Gentry. The name gave me chills though it had no reason to. His laughter echoed around the laboratory and sent Rufus’s bookcases crashing to the floor.

Mister Gentry glided towards Rufus. His robes trailed curling black mist as they skimmed the floor. He was so tall he had to duck under some pipes hanging from the ceiling.

Yvette was still standing on the stone table, paws on her hips. She was a bit too far away and in the shadows for me to be sure but she looked disgusted.

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I had to get to the stone table. Before I could do anything, Mister Gentry hoisted Rufus into the air by his throat. Rufus gasped and kicked but he may as well have been a fly trying to escape a spider’s web.

“Listen to me, necromancer,” Mister Gentry said. “You will give me the pendant, or I will tell dear Purrberus she is free to start digesting Roanna.”

Mister Gentry dropped Rufus, who landed in a tangled heap. I saw what looked like terror on Rufus’s face but then realized was rage.

Rufus began muttering what sounded like a bunch of gibberish but I guess must have been defensive magic. A hum like an angry swarm of hornets rose up. Rippling, silver rays shot out from his hands and smashed into Mister Gentry. It made a sickening thud when it hit him.

“Get out of the way!” Rufus screamed at me.

But my legs didn’t want to work at that moment. All of a sudden they’d decided to feel like they were made of jelly.

Mister Gentry rushed past me and toppled backwards onto the bookcase Rufus had dragged on top of Ruddy’s trapdoor. It splintered to pieces.

The hum grew louder. The ray ensnared Mister Gentry’s legs like a lasso. The basement’s walls cracked as he fell to the floor.

“How dare you treat a demon lord like livestock!” Mister Gentry said. “Unbind me.”

“Give back Roanna and I’ll take off the leash,” said Rufus.

“Give me what was stolen and I’ll gladly release the harpy,” Mister Gentry growled. “And we will take our time killing you instead.”

Rufus told him to get bent. Mister Gentry flicked his legs and Rufus flew up like a runaway kite. I cringed as Rufus clanged into one of the pipes. He dropped straight to the ground and lay still. He had to have gotten his ass killed now for sure.

To my shock, he groaned. I supposed he must have broken every bone in his body. There had to be a limit to how much punishment his body could take, no matter how powerful he was.

Rufus groaned again but did not get up. The magic lay like a deadly silver rope across the floor.

I looked at Mister Gentry and found myself staring right into his cold eyes. A feeling of doom settled over me. He grinned and showed crowded rows of jagged yellow teeth. Rufus still lay there.

Try as I did, I couldn’t pull myself away from those weird, soulless eyes and the teeth. Fresh dread and horror came over me. Rufus was going to die, and Addison was probably going to die half a world away from me and then the rest of us would get killed one by one.

My heart was beating too fast. Black spots swam in my vision. A sharp pain snapped me out of it. Yvette had bitten through my sleeve and drawn blood.

She looked at me with as much concern as an opossum could show. “You okay? You look kind of awful.”

“You bit me,” I said stupidly. My mouth tasted sour and disgusting.

“Sorry,” she shrugged. “It was the only way to get your attention. Let’s get to the Chimbrelis while these boneheads duke it out.” She leaped on my shoulder.

Rufus grunted and staggered to his feet. “If you think I don’t have the brains to give myself protective magic, you’re more hopeless than I originally thought. And stay away from that Chimbrelis!”

He threw his body forward and another stream of ripply, silver magic flashed out from his outstretched hands. It wound itself around Mister Gentry’s arms and legs.

“Don’t hurt him, he’s kindred!” Ruddy cried.

“Necromancer scum!” Mister Gentry screamed. “Release me from your ill-gotten magic immediately and deal with me like a normal person.” He thrashed around like a flopping fish but still looked terrifying.

“Coralie, run!” Yvette said. “What are you waiting for?”

Rufus glared at me. “Don’t. Touch. It.” Sweat poured off him. His face was paler than ever. I doubted he could keep this up for too much longer.

“I want to go home, Rufus,” I said. He bared his teeth at me.

Purrberus’s paw whooshed by me in a giant blur and swatted Rufus into the wall. Rufus’s back crunched as he collided into the concrete. He swore to make a sailor blush. Fury seemed to be his only reaction to anything.

Ropes of silver rays streaked around Purrberus’s paw and sparked as they went. Purrberus spat blue flame into Rufus’s face. The flames whipped around him. Rufus barely flinched and looked angrier. Pressure grew inside my ears as the hum became more intense.

I ran.

 

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