The Truth Behind Those Eyes

Chapter Forty-Four

The two mute demons had been sent to collect her. Nikki understood that. It was where they were taking her she didn't know. They had been sent by Unus, their eyes brutally removed because they weren't deemed worthy enough to look upon her face.

Nikki had baulked as she had been shown the image of their gruesome torture but her two companions considered it a great honour. She shivered as she remembered the primitive way the procedure had been performed.

She had no idea how, but she knew they were still able to see. The area around their now empty sockets, pale and without any sign of the affliction they had undergone, was strangely hypnotic and she couldn't stop herself from staring.

The two demons had also taken a vow of silence and to break that vow would lead to their execution; their voices were considered too offensive for her ears but they were granted permission to communicate with her telepathically. The demon that had touched her had called himself Ezekius. He had cowered at the heat from her hand but now seemed eager to stay as close to Nikki as possible.

They showed how they had followed her through the forest, watching and ready to fight for her if needed. They told her of the army Latébris had set aside to protect her, one, which could be summoned in seconds. She couldn't explain it but the demons brought with them a strange sense of safety and she felt it important to trust them.

Rationally she knew this impulse was mad and yet she'd had no second doubts about following them. Some instinctual part of her trusted them and she believed that she really was safe with them.

They called her "My Sovereign" whenever she communicated with them and bowed constantly. She had nervously asked them to stop but it appeared that habit or fear wouldn't allow it.

As she grimaced at their subservience she had noticed them reacting to her every thought and emotion, sometimes with comfort and at others times with terror. Clearly they feared her and respected her but for the life of her she couldn't understand why.

Why. There was that little word again.

Ezekius informed her that Unus had been pleased she'd left Josh behind and that they had a message for her, one that Ezekius and his partner were not significant enough to deliver. That was where they were heading, to someone or something that had the authority to relay Unus' message.

When Nikki had taken their arms she had been asked to close her eyes.  They were taking her back to their world and they didn't want her "unduly distressed". She hadn't asked them to elaborate, choosing instead to do as they suggested. The writhing mass of agonised bodies she'd witnessed during her last visit played behind her lids as a warning every time she was tempted to peek.

She held tightly to her two escorts as they gently towed her along, all the while she pressed them for information. What did they know of her? What could they tell her about Josh?

They physically shuddered as she spoke Josh's name, the images pushed in to her head were ones of loathing and disgust. She felt them flinch as she frowned, her anger flaring instinctually. She didn't like the way they forced her to experience how they felt towards her Guardian.

Ex-Guardian, she mentally corrected herself.

That thought pleased them. They showed her images of Josh in various places with various people. As the pictures flowed she realised they were showing her Josh through the years. She watched him with a teenage girl, walking down the road, his eyes darting around nervously. Next she saw him run his hand down a car, tracing the contours of the bodywork with his fingers.

"Enough," she begged frightened that they may show her something she really didn't want to see. "What about Sam?"

A flash of burning rage, twice as strong as the loathing they had for Josh, shot into her system. They burned with abhorrence as they pushed their thoughts into her mind, the pictures blurring so quickly as they filtered through they caused her stomach to lurch.