The devil's Pact - S01 E413

Story 3 days ago

The devil's Pact - S01 E413

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 413

The remaining soldier outside the Stryker ran for City Hall as a horde of monstrous women poured down the street, no longer kept at bay by the turreted machine gun. The lone soldier did not get far before a leonine woman spat a quill at him; he convulsed and fell upon the steps of city hall.

“Run, chica!” Santillian yelled. He knelt down behind a pillar, pulled out a grenade and tossed it out the door. “We'll try and hold them off.”

The grenade detonated, killing several monsters, but more were pouring up the stairs. I turned and fled deeper into the building. I vaguely remembered that there was a fire escape out onto Cherry Street this way. Behind me, Brasher and Santillian's gunfire faltered and went silent. I raced down hallways, fear spurring me to run faster than I thought possible.

There was the fire escape! There was safety!

I sprinted down the hall and crashed through the red door, ignoring the alarm I set off. Cherry Street looked like a warzone. Three cars burned, set ablaze during the firefight, and a few, cratered holes littered the street. The soldiers guarding this street lay torn apart. There were no monsters. They all seemed to be around the corner, so I turned and ran down Cherry street away from the carnage.

I was going to escape!

A red-winged woman with a hawkish nose dropped before me. I tried to stop, but my momentum carried me into the monster. Her talon-like hands gripped my arm painfully and she eyed me up and down, her head moving with jerky, stilted motions, like a bird.

“Well, well, Mother will be pleased to see you, Jessica.”

The bird-monster dragged me back into city hall. More monsters roamed the hallways, breaking down office doors and dragging out the few women that were trying to keep the government running. As we walked past, the monsters growled, snarled, or leered at me. I shivered in fear, clutching my choker. What was going to happen to me?

“I will take her,” a man's voice said.

I blinked. Nate Kirkpatrick stood next to my former slut-sister Thamina. It was a punch to the stomach. I had relied on Nate. He had been my right-hand man in running the city. Why was Nate helping them? He was a man. I thought Lilith hated men?

“I caught her, I'll bring her to Mother,” the bird-woman protested, squeezing my arm painfully.

“Lilith's orders, Pazu!” Thamina snapped. There was a flinty look in the Arab woman's eyes.

“Yes, Priestess,” Pazu pouted, shoving me at Nate.

“What's going on, Nate?” I asked as he and Thamina led me to the stairs that led to the utility basement.

“I'm not Nate,” he answered. “I'm Ziki. You are going to help get my mother back.”

Your mother? He's one of Lilith's children? She could have male children? Then the import of his words struck me and hope blossomed. “We captured Lilith?”

“No, Fiona!” Thamina hissed. “Mark and Mary love you. They'll be more than willing to trade you for her.”

“But first we need some information,” Nate-Ziki smiled and I shuddered. “Then we'll trade you for mother.”

I swallowed my fear. They couldn't hurt me too much. They needed me if they were going to trade me for Fiona. I glanced askance at Thamina. “Why are you helping Lilith?”

“For Fiona,” she whispered, then glared at me. “It doesn't matter. I have chosen my side. You chose yours. Now we have to live with our decisions.”

They opened a door, and I was pushed into a storage room piled with folding tables and boxes; it smelled a little musty. Nate-Ziki threw me roughly to the floor as Thamina pulled out a thick, black marker from her pocket and proceeded to draw strange symbols on the wall while muttering under her breath. They were like the symbols in the Matmown.

“What are you doing?” I asked, falling back on my reporter training. Ask questions, get answers. “What are you drawing?”

“I'm masking this room from unwanted sight,” Thamina answered. “It won't stop a powerful entity from spying here, but it will keep out Mark's ghosts.”

“Is that how Lilith kept Master from finding her first lair?” I asked her.

“We thought it would, yet he seemed to find it anyways,” she complained. “How did he do that?”

“I can't tell you that,” I protested.

“Of course not.” She was working on the third wall, skillfully drawing the symbols with what smelled like a permanent marker, sharp and pungent, burning my nose.

“So what are you?” I asked Nate-Ziki. “You say you aren't Nate Kirkpatrick.”

“He's dead,” he answered. “I killed him.”

“And took his form?”

He nodded. “It was useful to get our people into the government.” He gave a small laugh, his fat belly jiggling beneath his sweater. “All wasted thanks to Mark.” He practically spat out Master's name, like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“I assume all the women you recommended for arrest were innocent?”

He grinned at me; I suppressed a stab of anger at the betrayal. How could I have been so stupid. I was so fixated on Lilith's hatred of men that I assumed any man could be trusted. Then it hit me. “You knew where all the soldiers were stationed in Seattle.”

“That's why I was born,” he shrugged. “To spy on Mother's enemies.”

“Strip,” Thamina commanded abruptly, as she finished drawing her symbols.

“Why?” I asked.

“We can't take the chance you have some enchanted item from Sam,” she answered. “Like the amulet you have around your neck.”

“Fine,” I sighed. I pulled off my bronze amulet, handed it to Thamina, then pulled off my transparent blouse and my short skirt, then I pealed off my stockings. “There.”

“Choker, too.”

My hands went protectively to my gold choker. “No.”

“We'll take it from you, Jessica,” Thamina sighed. “You'll get it back when we trade you for Fiona.” Her expression softened. “We can't take the chance that it's enchanted, okay. I'll take care of it. We were sisters once. Trust me, Jessica.”

I stared into Thamina's face and remembered the passion I once shared with the woman. “They still love you,” I said, reaching behind my neck to unclasp the choker. “Fiona, too. Ask for their forgiveness and come back to them. Remember all the fun we had. You're missed.”

Thamina shuddered. “I won't be their whore again!”

“Fine, but why side with Lilith? She's evil.”

“Lilith never stole my free will.”

“No, she's just unleashed a plague that's killing thousands and many more.”

“Men,” Thamina dismissed.

“Even the children? The infants?”

She flinched, then turned and fled the room with my clothes. I glanced at Nate-Ziki and realized he had stripped naked. He was a big, burly man, his fat stomach hanging over his groin and his cock just visible beneath the pouch.

“Are you going to rape me?” I asked.