Star Eater
Chapter Forty-Three

As soon as the daemon grabbed them, Akuma knew they were in trouble. The sliding between worlds was more painful this time. Akuma thought that might be because last time he’d been dying. This time he felt every second of it, the plucking of his cells like strings, as the force of the journey tried to pull him apart. He was stronger now. It didn’t work but the pain ratcheting off Kai’s body was intense.

And then it was gone. They were there. In the other place, the place Akuma had only seen from very high above. Instinctively, he looked up. He had to. Above them the sky was covered with a thick layer of yellow clouds. He couldn’t see the stars or his family. The strained gasp emitted from Kai’s throat brought reality back. Kai was choking, dying.

Cole dashed away from them. Akuma dove over his boy, stretching his body to its limits, which was harder than normal because here in this plane of reality he was solid. The rules were different here. He couldn’t enter Kai. There was a part of him still inside his boy and around the star, and that piece, bending laws of physics and reality, remained insubstantial and vacuous. The majority of him that was outside of Kai had turned into a solid being. Like liquid shadow, he had weight and strength here. They were connected at the feet. Akuma couldn’t run, but he could stretch.

He caught an ankle and grinned. It was all he needed. He let his claws stretch into the skin, enjoyed the screams, and ignored the scrambling. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (F)indNƟvᴇl.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Here he was solid and stronger. Cole might be in his strongest form, but he was no match for the demon. Akuma hated daemons because they roamed in packs. One on one, however, they were no match for him. Akuma pulled the daemon back under him like a rag doll, seized his throat and squeezed.

“Take us back,” he demanded.

The daemon tried to shake his head and refuse. Akuma plunged his claws into his stomach and loosened his grip on his throat enough to let Cole scream.

“Take us back now,” Akuma said.

Cole shook his head again. Kai was dying. His heart fluttered weakly in his chest. The star pulsed in response, ready to burst into a shockwave that would blow a hole in both worlds.

I’m going to die, Kai thought. I’m going to die on another fucking planet.

No, you’re not, Akuma roared and broke both of Cole’s arms. The daemon screamed again.

“Did you know in this world, I can sink inside of you?” Akuma asked. It was a lie—a lie Kai would tell. Akuma didn’t know much about humans or human nature, but he had sat on the sidelines of Kai’s extensive lying career and picked up one or two things. He put his hands back into the stomach wounds and spread his cold out. Pure, animalistic panic flitted across Cole’s face wiping away all rational thought. He lost control of his bowels. And then, miraculously, he blinked them back to Earth.

The instant they were back, Akuma flitted inside of Kai. He sunk the boy in a pillow of darkness and held him carefully.

Kai’s body reeled, gulping air, desperately trying to clear the sulfur out of his lungs. Akuma felt burning in all the soft tissue that had come into contact with the atmosphere and immediately applied a cooling to all the hurt parts. He left the lungs alone. The cold wouldn't make them better and he needed Kai’s body just a little bit longer.

Akuma rolled onto his feet and took in the scene. Smoke billowed from the front of the house where the explosion had taken place. He smelled flames and smoke and somewhere, distantly, Link. Daemons lay or stood all around. Most had transformed—an entire clan of them: savage, angry, and bloodthirsty. This is why he’d told Kai to run. Daemons always traveled in packs. They were so like their akuma cousins in that sense.

In the center of the circle sat Ava, weeping. She was bleeding from cuts all over her face and arms. Bleeding too much. Below her, on the ground and unmoving, Mason lay in a huge pool of blood spread around him. There was life there still, but only just.

Behind them, Joseph was fully transformed and laughing wildly, his hand raised almost in prayer towards his niece and nephew. The demon felt a shiver of fear run through him. This was bad. Kai’s body didn't have a lot left in it and Ava and Mason didn't have much time. There was no getting all of them through the crowd of daemons out the smoking gate beyond. If he ran now, he might be able to get Kai to safety. He might just have enough energy to make it out of the compound.

Akuma glanced at the inferno that had been the front gate, and the hole that exposed the way out. He thought he heard an engine running. Link probably. Link who’d faced his biggest fear to get them to safety. But they couldn't make it now. They’d never make it to the gate. And if Akuma ran by himself, Ava and Mason would be slaughtered. But if he stayed, Kai would be slaughtered. The star would—Akuma jerked with the realization.

It was psychotic, but then so was stealing this little star and fleeing to a place where he wasn’t supposed to survive. It had been insane for him to slide between dimensions and fall to Earth in the first place, half believing in rumors of a way to live inside the creatures there. He had escaped death many times in his long life. If this was his day, Akuma made peace with it.

I’m sorry, Kai, the demon said.

“You should have joined us, Akuma,” Joseph said. “You should be on our side. Now, I’m going to kill them in front of you.”

Joseph raised his hand and Akuma heard Ava moan. The cuts, the minor cuts that should be only drops of blood, were gushing and her nose bled like a faucet.

“If you don’t stop, I’ll kill us all,” Akuma said.

Joseph sneered. Ava called out Mason's name, crying. Akuma hated seeing her cry as much as Kai.

“All I have to do is take the star out of this boy,” he said. “We’ll all die. Your entire clan will be destroyed.”

Joseph narrowed his eyes, his hand lowering an inch. Akuma put one clawed hand to Kai’s chest and grinned.

“That’s why you haven’t tried to drain me, isn’t it?” he asked.

Something in Joseph’s eyes twitched.

“You know I’m telling the truth. Shall I do it then?” Akuma asked. “Shall I end this?”

Joseph said nothing, but Akuma saw comprehension, and, what’s more, fear in his eyes. So he knew the threat was real. Akuma moved closer to Ava and Mason. They weren’t bleeding as badly now.

“You think you can blink out in time?” Akuma asked. “Shall we test it? This explosion will echo in the other world. The question is how fast can you fly?”

Joseph snarled. He hadn’t expected Akuma to know it would affect the Plains, but Akuma remembered. He remembered looking down and seeing it every now and then. He remembered seeing the daemons blink in and out. He remembered seeing the vastness of it, the strange collapsing, changing landscape. And he remembered the explosions that ripped through reality, bouncing like a ball from one dimension to the next. He could smell them, as all the other akuma could smell them. And he knew what they meant.

“You’re demented,” Joseph said, livid. His red face turned purple, filled with impotent rage.

“No,” Akuma said. “I am just not like you.”

Akuma stared Joseph down as the archdaemon considered his options. Distantly, they all heard the screech of tires. Joseph let out another roar of pure fury and suddenly transformed back into his human form. He barked at everyone in the courtyard to do the same. Akuma realized a second later why Joseph was human again, and retreated inward. Kai felt himself buoyed back into control of a body that was failing. He fell to his knees hard, bruising on top of bruises, and felt Ava wrap her arms around him.

A second later, the courtyard flooded with armed men screaming “FBI! Get down on the ground.”

I’m already there, Kai thought.

Sᴇarch the FindNovel.net website on G𝘰𝘰gle to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.