CHAPTER NINE

I laid awake the whole night. I kept asking myself why. Why am I being targeted? Why am I being visited by Asmodeus and now his family? Why did Ares say my blood was getting spilled? Why is this happening to me?

Should I tell Tyler? No. That's a horrible idea. He'd make sure I was cut from the core immediately. But what if he could help me make sense of this mess? No, telling him would definitely make this whole situation worse.

I lay in bed until the sunlight began to light up my room. I decided I may as well get up since I doubt I'm going to fall asleep. Throwing on sweatpants, I shuffled to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. While the coffee was brewing, I grabbed my laptop and note supplies and set everything up at the kitchen table. I poured my coffee and had just sat down at the table when Tyler slammed the balcony door open and stormed inside, along with Colt and Kai.

"We need to leave. Now!" Tyler yelled at me, rushing to his room to grab a few things he needed.

I began to feel panicked. "What? Why? Why do-" I was cut off by a violent earthquake. No, it wasn't an earthquake. I peered out the window next to me and felt my heart begin to race at the sight. Five of those smaller demons were standing outside and seemed to be looking in my direction.

I quickly ducked away from the window and ran to my room. I threw on my black robe and the rest of my usual work attire, grabbed my weapons and a few extra items, and met back up with the guys by the balcony door.

"Let's go, I'll explain on the way." Tyler said as he leapt out the balcony to a rooftop where the rest of the team stood. Colt and Kai left next and I followed behind. We all began running and, not long after, the demons gave chase.

I sped up to be beside Tyler. "What the hell?" Was all I managed to say.

"I think you can figure it out. These things don't come out during the day, yet we saw dozens roaming around. It seems like they're frantically searching for something and, lo and behold, they're searching for you. I'm pretty sure you can figure out the rest."

So demons are all looking for me? Asmodeus and Ares were right. Fuck.

I made the mistake of glancing backwards since I discovered that more demons had joined the chase. There were some smaller ones and some bigger ones, but they all looked equally eager and bloodthirsty. I turned back around and focused only on getting away when several demon screeches were heard, and then their thundering footsteps had disappeared. I stopped and turned around while the rest of the team continued on a bit farther until they noticed.

"Nyx! What are you doing? Let's-" Tyler stopped as he too noticed that all the demons had be slaughtered with the figures of two women stood in front of them. They were of equal height and both had short hair; however, one had blonde hair while the other had red coloured hair. As they turned around, I noticed they both had the same coloured eyes as Asmodeus. They wore matching armour. The one with the blonde hair held machetes while the one with the red hair held a bow.

They both looked at me for a moment before the blonde on spoke, "Oh my goodness! She's so cute and small!" Her eyes lit up and she began bouncing on the spot as if she just spotted a puppy. She then nudged the other woman, "You hold too much pride to admit that she's cute though. You're too full of yourself."

Then the blonde woman disappeared and reappeared only inches from my face. It felt as if she towered over me, although she was likely to be average height. Everyone seems tall to me as I only reach to be five feet tall.

She grabbed my face and began squishing it, "Oh you're so cute! I could just eat you up!" Her words sounded innocent and cheerful, but for a moment an evil emotion crossed her eyes. She then gasped and drew away from me, "I didn't introduce myself, how rude! My name is Adephagia and that's my sister Hubris! I doubt he's mentioned us before, but Asmodeus is our little brother! He seems to like to visit you quite a bit." She winked at the last bit.

More of his siblings? Geez. But why were they here?

"We're here because we sensed a lot of activity from demons over this way, and sure enough it led us to you." Hubris spoke with a flat tone as she walked over to where Adephagia and I were standing.

Then, Tyler appeared in front of me, separating me from the two women. "Nyx, get out of here! They're too dangerous for you to handle!" Tyler shouted back at me as Colt attempted to throw me over his shoulder to take me away.

"Hey!" I shouted angrily as Colt ran back to the rest of the team, but was interrupted by Adephagia appearing in front of him. Colt quickly came to halt.

I watched as Tyler still stood in front of Hubris with his sword ready. I swivelled my head to look at Adephagia. She smiled innocently, "What makes you think you can just leave with her? We came here for a reason, you know."

I watched as the rest of the team, standing together a fair distance behind Adephagia, prepared to arm themselves. Shit. This isn't good.

The air started to feel heavier and, looking around, I noticed several demons had appeared. They all looked so ugly and revolting. My heart rate sped up.

"Colt, you need to put me down. You can't fight while holding me and we need all the fighting power we can get." I said to Colt in a worried tone. He nodded and set me on my feet. Then, as if she had been waiting for this chance, Adephagia took a long whip from off her belt and hit Colt with it. He flew backwards and landed on the ground, seemingly unconscious. With this, the rest of the team attempted to attack her but they all ended up the the same condition. I heard the clink of swords from behind be briefly before watching Tyler fly by me and hit a tree. He seemed dazed and unable to stand, let alone fight.

The whole time I just stood there completely frozen. There were more and more demons appearing, and these two women were strong. Adephagia mentioned that they had a reason for being here, but what was that? To kill me?

I watched as Hubris pointed her arm up to the sky. "We came to see if you truly live up to your name, Red Demon. I personally do not think you can." She shouted. Before I could reply, she brought her arm down and pointed to me. At that signal, the demons surrounding us charged in my direction all at once. Drawing my sword, I prepared myself to fight.

I sliced up the first few and my fear disappeared. It was replaced with excitement. My movements became quicker as I became more excited and enjoyed watching the demons blood spatter and feeling their flesh rip open from my sword. I enjoyed their pained screams as they died.

A few of them managed to scratch me or hit me, but I barely felt any pain, my body was too overwhelmed with endorphins. I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear. I liked this. I felt alive.

After some time, the attacks slowed then stopped as the number of living demons present died down then disappeared. I stood amongst the battlefield with bodies scattered everywhere and managed to catch my breath. The smile never left my face, and I began to laugh. It grew louder and more insane.

"That's it? That's what you came for? To watch me kill?" I calmed myself from my laughter, still keeping the smile on my face, and looked toward the two women. Adephagia looked impressed while Hubris showed no emotion.

"Yes, actually! And it looks like I was correct, you really are something!" Adephagia said, sounding quite pleased and excited.

"Hmm, look at the mess you made." A deep voice hummed from behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, still in a heightened state and wanting to shed more blood, I saw Ares. I didn't respond, only considered what the best way to kill him would be. His eyes shone with interest and excitement.

"What the hell is going on? Are you three trying to hog the creature for yourselves?" A sly voice piped up from a few feet away as a slender man hopped over toward the two sisters. He had shoulder-length golden locks and wore a long, silky, golden coat that reached the ground.

"I see no one invited me to the party." Another man joined the other one. He was tall and well built. His hair was short and appeared to be a light blue. He wore a t-shirt and cargo pants, both black, and had a few necklaces around his neck.

"Of course we didn't invite you, no one wants you here." Hubris shrugged as she looked at the man, who just rolled his eyes.

I began planning for a way to grab Tyler and get out of this situation when Asmodeus appeared, along with another man who looked similar to him but had dark circles under his eyes and appeared uninterested.

"What the hell?" Was all Asmodeus said, addressing his siblings and the others who had arrived. He then turned to me. By this point, my excitement and joy had left me and I had realized I was in a dangerous situation. "Princess, I see you've managed to attract the rest of my siblings to you. The man in the gold is my older brother Midas, the man with the blue hair is my older brother Livius, and he," Asmodeus pointed to the man that arrived with him, "Is my older brother Almos."

"Was this your doing?" He asked, looking around at the massacre surrounding us. I hesitantly nodded and he sighed. "You fucks better clean this up." He shouted at his siblings. Some of them began to whine and bicker, others rolled their eyes and began picking up bodies.

I took this opportunity to run over to Tyler who was sitting up against the tree. All the colour was drained from his face. "Are you okay?" I asked as I approached.

He began to look fearful as I approached. "Y-you killed all of those demons." He said this more to himself. His eyes widened more as I felt a breeze go by and I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and Asmodeus stood there. I noticed that it looked as if the massacre had never occurred and all of his siblings were gone.

"You're not safe with these humans. My siblings will come for you again." He said in a serious tone.

"Why? Why are demons coming after me? Why are you always bothering me? Don't you want the same as they do?" I spat at him. I was more scared than angry but I wasn't about to show it. "I'm not leaving my brother."

"If you really loved him then you would, otherwise he's going to get killed." Asmodeus's voice became deeper and more commanding, and his gaze became more intense.

I stared back at him for a moment then looked to Tyler. He looked fragile and had several scrapes all over his body along with some bruises forming. He was very pale and looked terrified. He didn't take his eyes off of Asmodeus, even when I spoke to him, "Tyler, what should I do."

So response. He just sat, not blinking and staring at Asmodeus. "Tyler!" I shouted in an attempt to get his attention.

He slowly turned his head and made eye contact with me and gulped, "You should go with him. The Seven Sins are the strongest of all demons. I never thought I would see them, let alone fight one. Do not deny them. You won't win." He began shaking near the end of his speech and a few tears began rolling down his cheeks.

"What do you mean 'the Seven Sins'?" I asked, and Tyler looked towards Asmodeus with an exhausted and pleading look.

"I will tell you if you come with me." Asmodeus spoke from behind me. Tyler looked back to me and gave a reassuring nod.

I walked closer to him and dropped to me knees to hug him, feeling tears begin to fall down my cheeks as well. "I love you." I whispered.

"I love you, too. Be safe."

I stood up and wiped my tears away as I approached Asmodeus. "Okay. I'll go with you."

He nodded, "Good."

With that, he took my hand and I left everything I had ever known and my only family member behind.