Devil's Touch

Ch 10 - Rewarded

Don't kill me at the end of this one, okay?

Greg's POV:

"God dammit!" Greg shouted as he clutched at his side that Thorn had basically ripped open with his ever extending spikes. Synder wasn't kidding when she said that he would be put through a hellish training regimen. So far Thorn had been acting like he was sincerely trying to kill Greg, and it was all he could do to narrowly avoid getting impaled by the Lizards spikes and claws. But his luck had run it's course and Thorn had caught him that damned tail of his which may as well have been like a flesh bound flail that was hell bent on skewering Greg.

"You'd better have someone here that can help be with this," Greg snapped at the Devil as he tried to stop the bleeding with his hand and bits of his shirt. Already he could feel himself growing lightheaded at the sight of his blood flowing from his wound. "I'm going to bleed out at this rate."

Thorn walked across the stone slab that he and several more of his kind had assembled down here in the sewers of Seattle, he examined the wound and merely scoffed at it. Greg had nearly blacked out from the stench down here on more than one occasion, but he'd managed to stay awake for fear of one of the many Lizards taking advantage of his unconscious body the way that Thorn told him that they would. They'd been at this for a little over an hour and Greg's body felt like it was about to shut down on him whether or not he wanted to. He felt his arms begin to wobble under his own weight and seconds later Greg felt himself begin to slide down to the stone floor.

"Focus on the wound boy." Thorn said in a flat voice as he turned his body around and retracting his spikes and horns. "You may be mostly human but you have Devil blood in your veins, don't disappoint it. Focus entirely on the wound."

"How could I do anything else!?" Greg snapped at the Devil and winced at the sharp pain he felt in his side when he spoke. In a much softer voice he added, "It hurts-"

"Then block out the pain." Thorn said feeling no sympathy for Greg's pain which Greg responded to with a glare. "Forget the pain and focus solely on closing your wound. You're body will do the rest, just tell it to close the wound."

Greg shot Thorn another death glare that lasted for a good five seconds before his attention was brought to the sharp stinging pain in his side. Greg looked down at the blood that was still gushing from his side and he knew that he wasn't only losing a lot of blood, but also the only thing that kept those Lizards from violating him. It was just like Cerberus said, the more blood he lost, the less venomous his touch was. Desperate times, Greg silently told himself as he decided he'd take Thorn's advice.

He closed his eyes and tried to picture in his mind that his wound was magically closing itself without the help of any medical treatment. Oddly enough his side began to hurt slightly less. He doubted that it was healing itself like Thorn claimed it would, but the pain at the very least was becoming much more bearable. When he opened his eyes again he saw--much to his astonishment--that he was no longer leaking blood like a faucet and it felt almost as if he had healed. It made no sense to Greg, and he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a little freaked out by it. The wound hadn't fully sealed itself, more like it became a scab which was better than nothing Greg thought as he struggled to his feet. But not before he smeared his palms with the blood that had spilt onto the floor.

"Good you're coming to grasp that your own human blood is nothing but an obstacle on the path to strength." Greg was puzzled by Thorn's claim and then the Devil did something that he hadn't seen him do, nor thought he ever would. He smiled and tilted his head before the spikes began to break free from his flesh along his arms much like Sixx's blades had done. "Ready for your next lesson?"