Blood Magik: A Cold Day in Hell (Book One)

Chapter 3: ...Wolves Are Sure to Follow

She put her palm to the barrier, experiencing its texture. It was rough and cold, bulky and obtrusive, just like it appeared. It just had this feel to it – like an obnoxious bouncer at a bar who wouldn't allow you to pass simply to fulfill his role as an obtuse and overgrown barricade.

She ran her fingers over the perfectly flat concrete, longing for an imperfection – a nick, a crack or a bump – then conveniently came across a split in its surface, then a chip not far from that, appearing on cue. She traced a finger over the crack and fondled the small hole next to it, bewitched by its simplicity. She didn't know why, but she wasn't comfortable with testimony of her own eyes, somehow uncertain of the truths they swore by...

If she could see what her instincts were warning her of she'd be staring helplessly at a demonic beast with a man's head dripping from its claws and a butchered corpse at its feet. Outside the illusion of the wall and quiet alley, she unknowingly stood in the center of a pool of human insides that lay soaking into the cracks of the asphalt that bit at her heels—

Tessura towered boldly in front of her outstretched hand which hovered only inches from the demon's yellow fangs. Its carnivorous nature wanted to feed on the girl's flesh and drink of her soul, and it sneered angrily at her presence... But there was something else there, beyond its understanding, forcibly holding it at bay.

She smelled Alex's hand, snorting and huffing like an animal would to identify something as edible, and slightly cocked her demon head in a subtle awareness of what hid beneath the surface. Her cunning eyes pierced the cloth curtaining the girl's figure and a circular shape formed close to her heart. Tessura focused on the object hanging from her neck and, as it became clearer to her, her eyes felt its sting – a reckoning taking roots in the corneas of her infernal stare.

The beast snapped her head back and let loose a roar that should've been heard for blocks, but by wielding the strength of her nether telepathy, she didn't allow her prey to regard the sound. But the protective strength of the amulet Alex wore dampened the demon's influence. With her hand still lost in the illusion of the wall, she abruptly felt the hot breath of the beast's injured howl.

The smell of it coaxed a surprised gag from her throat and she veered her head. Her palm jerked back as a chill ran through her body with the remnants of its breath still numbing her fingers. She shuffled away with a sudden urge to not press her luck and turned toward the street...but again felt that ominous nothingness behind her that'd sparked her curiosity to start...

Her inquiring mind briefly stuttered her retreat – until she had a second notion that warned her not to tread. It was a feeling bound by natural instinct that man and animal shared alike for the mutual benefit of staying alive.

Tessura watched the young woman walk away unscathed, and her malicious fascination distracted her from her time-pressed undertakings. Her overseer beckoned – the night sky itself obeying that will – and the air over her head tore open a fresh wound that bled shards of mysticism from several yards above.

She examined the anomaly unafraid, hair frizzed around her ears and snout while a static buzz bounced off the walls.

Snarling at the fissure in the sky, she protested its intrusion as it yawned open an electric maw and devoured the headless corpse from her feet into a nebulous mass. Tessura watched her victim atomize into streaky tones of flesh and meat then get whisked away inside the voltaic mouth that hounded her before it blinked into nothing. It was a very meticulous extraction of any, and very likely all material evidence. Nothing and no one would ever know of Tessura's demonic dealings...unless, of course, they were unfortunate enough to be involuntarily involved.