Succubus Lord 7 Page 25

  A bunch of the pirates drew their guns and aimed them in my direction, ready to take down their new attacker.

  I summoned red Hellfire into my free hand and held it high for all of them to see.

  “My problem’s with Bart,” I announced. “Unless you want things to get messy, I suggest you all go back to your drinks.”

  They must have taken the hint, because I heard the sound of several guns being re-holstered in unison.

  “Y-you stabbed me in the fucking hand!” Bart whimpered, his normal pirate accent completely gone.

  “That’s right,” I confirmed as I twisted the blade in his flesh, “and that’s not the worst thing I’m gonna do if you don’t tell me where all of our weapons are.”

  “Th-they’re on the ship!” he pleaded. “Can you just take the blade out of my arm for two seconds?”

  “I could,” I admitted, “but I won’t.”

  I twisted the dagger again, and Bart let out another grunt of agony.

  “You’re sadistic,” he said, nearly in tears.

  “More sadistic than the guy who dresses up in stupid clothes and goes around robbing people?” I growled. “Wake up, asshole. You’re in Hell. There will always be retribution down here. Just be glad I’m not gunning for the First Circle, or you’d be number one on my shit list.”

  “Uh, Jacob?” Tris’ voice broke my concentration. “The ship is leaving!”

  I shot Black Bart one last venomous look, and then I yanked the dagger out of his hand. As he nursed his wound and whimpered like a kicked puppy, I turned around and dashed out the door of the tavern. The muddy ground squished under my armored boots as I ran to the pier with my friends close behind. We arrived, and I saw Bart’s ship was leaving without him.

  “It must be the rest of his crew,” Gula explained. “They must have seen what was going on and decided to split.”

  “Fucking pirates,” I hissed. “Always ready to cut and run.”

  “They’re not going anywhere,” Eligor stated as she stepped to the front of the group. “I’ve got this.”

  The blonde knight closed her eyes, dug her feet firmly into the ground, and then summoned lime-green Hellfire all around her body. She extended her arms out toward the sea, and two beams of the spell shot out into the water. Even in the light of the day, we could see the brilliant glow of the magic as it traveled underneath the waves at breakneck speed. Eligor’s Hellfire cut through the ocean like a shark honing in on its prey, and before we knew it, the spell had reached the boat.

  The water around the fleeing vessel lit up with the green fire. Slowly, but surely, the waves began to part. As the very ocean began to split, the ship started to go lower and lower until it was out of our view.

  “That should do it,” Eligor confirmed. “Now let’s go get these assholes.”

  Gula and Tris both summoned their wings, and then they zipped around, grabbed Charon and me, and lifted us into the sky. The two succubi and the knight flew toward the ship, and Eligor held her spell the entire time.

  Once we were in position over the fallen vessel, I could see the blonde knight’s work in all its glory.

  Black Bart’s ship was sitting there, stranded on the ocean floor. A vortex of water swirled around it mockingly, but the ship itself was completely landlocked.

  The five of us floated down to the top of the boat and landed on the deck with a gentle thud.

  There were a handful of pirates on the deck, but they all had their hands up in surrender. Between Black Bart’s screams and the feat Eligor had just pulled off, they surely knew we weren’t in the mood to fuck around.

  Gula released me from her grasp, and I sauntered forward, toward a pirate who was holding the Unhallowed Sword in his hands. As he trembled in fear, I snatched the weapon out of his possession and sheathed it back in its rightful place. I turned around to address my friends, and I let a sly grin spread up my face.

  “How many of you guys have heard of walking the plank?” I asked coyly.

  Chapter 15

  Before any of us could even make a move on the remaining pirates, they dropped their weapons, turned around, and scurried over to the side of the ship. Without halting their stride, they hoisted themselves over the edge and leapt into the swirling water around them.

  I couldn’t really blame them. The Shades knew that they weren’t able to drown, but they had no idea what kind of horrific shit this team of Hellfire magic users was gonna do to them. Honestly, we were just going to throw them overboard, anyways, so this saved us the trouble.

  Without warning, the door of the captain’s quarters swung open, and a man with a bandana over his head dashed out in a panic.

  “Snarls? Jam?” he called out for his long-gone crew. “What in the blazes is going on out h--”

  Before he could finish his sentence, Tris’ foot shot out and kicked him square in the chest. The pirate let out a grunt of surprise as his body was tossed into the air, and then he screamed as he flew back into the swirling vortex of water around us.

  “This. Is. Sparta!” Tris cackled.

  The rest of us looked at the Sister of Sloth curiously, but she only shrugged.

  “Was that really necessary?” Eligor asked.

  “What?” she asked. “I was just channeling my inner Todd.”

  “He’d be proud,” I laughed and looked around the ship. “Do you think that’s all of them?”

  “Black Bart wouldn’t have had a large crew,” Charon explained. “It should come as no surprise to you that most pirates don’t end up in the First Circle. Usually, they go straight to the Fourth, the Circle of Greed.”

  “Alright, then,” I confirmed. “Eligor, bring us back up to the surface. Tris and Gula? You guys go do one final sweep of the ship.”

  “Sure thing, captain,” Tris joked and gave me a salute.

  The two succubi summoned forth their weapons and cautiously walked over to the stairs that led below-deck. They crept downward, into the bowels of the ship, and I turned back to Eligor and Charon.

  “Actually, Jacob,” Eligor sighed, “I was hoping you could help me get this thing back up.”

  I waited for a sarcastic comment from the peanut gallery, some sort of erection joke or snide comment about ‘teamwork making the dream work.’ But nothing came.

  It was kinda weird not having Todd around.

  “I don’t know if I can lift this whole thing,” I admitted.

  “You don’t have to raise it all the way,” the knight explained. “Just enough so I can get some water underneath of it. Surely you have the stamina to get it up for a few seconds, right?”

  I shot the knight a coy look. Even for a ‘proper’ woman like Eligor, there was no way her phrasing was unintentional.

  “I can get it up for waaay more than a few seconds,” I reassured the blonde woman. “Trust me on that one.”

  “Then show me,” Eligor challenged with a smirk.

  I closed my eyes and started to think about what had just happened with us. How Black Bart had gotten us drunk, only to rob us blind and flee. I thought about how, if we hadn’t had Charon or Eligor around, the bastard probably would have gotten away with it. He would have run off with my sword, and we would have spent lord knows how long trying to track him down. In the meantime, he would have robbed dozens more innocent people.

  Black Bart was a disgusting individual, and just picturing his nasty face rocked me to my very core.

  Green Hellfire sprouted from my hands, and I could hear it sizzle as it spread across the deck of the ship. I felt the weight of the vessel in my hands, but I simply grunted and began to raise them up into the air.

  As I made the motion, the ancient wood of the ship creaked and groaned. I nearly fell down to my knees when I had the entire thing in a deadlift, but I was able to recover and keep myself upright. I could feel the veins in my neck popping out as I struggled to keep the massive ship afloat, and I was starting to worry that I was going to pop a blood vessel or tear a muscle or something f
rom the strain.

  “Holy fuck … ” Eligor gasped. “I never thought--”

  “A little help here, please!” I demanded. “You can marvel later.”

  “Oh, right,” the knight said with surprise. “On it.”

  Even though my eyes were still closed, I could hear the sound of the crashing waves as they flowed underneath the ship. Suddenly, the weight lifted off my shoulders and the boat began to rock back and forth on top of the water. I released my emerald spell and instantly collapsed to the ground. Then I opened my eyes to see Eligor standing tall with both of her hands extended toward the raging waves around us.

  The knight spun in a circle as the sides of the watery funnel glowed bright with her magic, broke off in small chunks of liquid, and then fell down underneath the ship. As the briny water underneath us continued to rise, so did our vessel. Soon, we were back at the surface of the ocean, level with the horizon.

  “That … that was pretty damn impressive, Eligor,” I noted through a series of pants.

  “You weren’t to shabby yourself,” the knight said matter-of-factly as she helped me back to my feet. “I counted that you kept it up for nearly a minute. That’s a new record for me.”

  “Well, we can’t leave it at that,” I shot back coyly. “That’s a record I look forward to breaking.”

  “Maybe when we have more time,” Eligor shrugged, “but for now, we need to head back to the Fourth Circle. Destiny awaits.”

  “And Todd,” I reminded her. “We can’t forget that little guy.”

  “Can’t we?” Eligor said through a grin. “Our future adventures would certainly be a lot easier.”

  “Hey now,” I reminded her sternly, “Todd’s a valuable asset to our team. I don’t see anyone else transforming or turning invisible, do you? Plus, he’s got more occult knowledge than even you or most of the succubi. Plus he’s my best friend.”

  “I’m kidding, Jacob,” the knight said with a raised eyebrow. “I wasn’t seriously suggesting leaving Todd behind. He’s kind of grown on me.”

  “Good,” I retorted and turned to Charon. “How much longer do you think we have before we need to be at the meeting place?”

  “We’ve actually made decent time,” the ferryman admitted. “At this point of the day, I would just be leaving the Third Circle. If we hurry, we can still catch your friend before he runs into any trouble.”

  “The ship’s all clear, Jacob,” Gula announced as she and Tris returned to the deck. “Not a single Shade on board.”

  “Excellent,” I nodded. “Now, how do we drive this thing? Do we just use the wheel, or--”

  Before I could finish my sentence, Charon lifted his glowing hands into the air. The Hellfire sails flickered and twisted upon their masts, and then they whipped around so they were sideways. Instantly, the ship began to turn to the right, until we were pointed in the right direction. Then, the sails returned to the forward position, and we were off.

  “Black Bart may have made numerous changes to the ship,” Charon explained with a laugh, “but it’s still my ship. Sit back and enjoy the ride. I’ll take you to where we need to go.”

  We sailed at an unusually fast pace for about thirty minutes, until we finally came upon a portion of land where the ocean flowed up and turned into a river that cut through the brimstone of the First Circle.

  “Welcome to the Demonic Estuary,” Charon explained. “Normally, this is how you go from one Circle to the next.”

  “You drive a boat up into the regular ‘ol river, and that’s it?” I said in disbelief. “We went swimming in the River of Souls to get through the gates.”

  “For all your powers and cunning, I forget you’re still mortal,” Charon mused as he shook his head. “Look around you, Jacob. Every single body of water in Hell is part of the River of Souls. It’s the main form of transportation around this dimension. You just have to have the right magic.”

  “Your coin,” I said slowly.

  “My coin, my staff, my ship,” Charon responded with a shrug. “It really doesn’t matter. It just has to be something that’s been endowed with my magic.”

  “Are we going to fit?” Tris pondered aloud as we approached the estuary. “We’re kinda carrying a wide load here.”

  The second we touched the mouth of the river, the ground around it began to rumble and groan. Both shores began to retract, and the river was widened until it was large enough for the boat to pass by without issue. There was a slight bump as we entered the river, and then our ride became smooth as can be.

  We journeyed up the river for a mile or two, and then I heard Gula let out a gasp of horror.

  “Guys, I think we’re headed toward a waterfall!” the redheaded succubus screamed.

  “Of course we are,” Charon scoffed. “How else do you think we get to a deeper layer?”

  The two succubi, Eligor, and I all ran over and grabbed on to the nearest solid object on the deck, but Charon simply stood there with his hands on his hips.

  “Everybody hold on!” I exclaimed as I clung to a neg just off to my left.

  The next thing I knew, our ship went over the edge. Charon’s joyous bellows filled the air as the vessel’s nose tipped downward, and my heart jumped up into my throat. Then, we plummeted down into the abyss as we screamed in terror.

  Wind. Howling winds that threatened to blow down even the sturdiest of structures. That’s the next thing I remembered.

  When I finally stopped screaming and opened my eyes, I saw we were now peacefully floating along a river in the Second Circle. We were down at the bottom of a massive ravine, and the shore was covered with the mangled bodies of Shades who had fallen for the Circle’s trap.

  When we were last here, I’d discovered you hallucinate your innermost desires, and then are forced to chase them for all eternity. Usually, this led to severe and gruesome injuries, but the cruel irony was Shades couldn’t die. Instead, they would injure themselves, get back up, and then continue to chase their wildest dreams in agony.

  It was sick and twisted, but I guess that was Hell for you.

  “I’ve found the best way to avoid temptation in the Second Circle is to just close your eyes as you’re traveling through,” Charon advised. “The wind is actually really peaceful that way.”

  We continued through the Second Circle for another twenty minutes, and then we came to another waterfall. This time, Gula was the only one to scream as we went over the edge.

  We arrived at the Third Circle, and I was suddenly reminded how much of a shit hole the whole place was. The sleety air made goosebumps rise on my skin, and I couldn’t help but shiver as we passed through.

  “Wow,” Charon observed as we floated past Vermis’ old dwelling. “You really did a number on this place, didn’t you?”

  “That’s the power of bronze Hellfire for you,” Gula noted with a shrug.

  “Bronze Hellfire?” Charon’s voice became darkly curious. “I’ve never met anyone who had those abilities before. And I’ve met every demon known to man.”

  “It’s weird, I know,” I admitted, “but it’s what I’ve got, and it’s helped us out a hell of a lot of times.”

  Thankfully, the river in the Third Circle was the shortest of them all. We were only in the slushy wasteland for a total of fifteen minutes, and then we hit the final drop. The world went black, and then the next thing I remember, I heard chirping bats.

  We were back in the Fourth Circle.

  Our ship was floating on a large lake in the middle of a mountainous valley. Off in the distance, down one of the offshoots of the lake, sat a large stone tower. At the shoreline underneath the tower, there was a small dinghy that glowed with purple Hellfire.

  Todd, still disguised as Charon, was sitting indian-style on the beach, and he hopped up and waved his staff excitedly when he saw us.

  “How did he get here before us?” Charon gasped. “We should have beaten him by at least an hour.”

  We sailed up next to the spot where Todd w
as standing, and then Charon halted our momentum. The five of us exited the boat so we could greet our friend.

  “What took ya so long?” the imp chuckled as he turned back into his normal self. “I’ve been waiting here for nearly two hours.”

  Charon took a step back, and his normally-expressionless face contorted in shock.

  “T-two hours?” he uttered. “How is that possible?”

  “I dunno,” Todd admitted with a shrug. “For some reason, the Shades just wanted to scramble away as soon as I pulled ‘em out of the water. I tried to talk to them, give ‘em a little pep talk, and then send them on their way, but they weren’t having it.”

  “A pep talk, or a pep song?” I asked curiously. “I remember all the times you tried to pump me up with your wonderful singing.”

  “Well, I mean … I started rapping Lose Yourself word-for-word,” Todd explained, “but I don’t see how that would be relevant here at all.”

  “Fascinating,” Charon observed. “You cut my route time in half just by being annoying. I might have to start trying that.”

  Todd gave a miniature bow. “You’re welcome, ZZ Top,” he chuckled. “At least you can finally take your staff back. I don’t know how you wield that thing all the time. It’s like if my schlong got injected with steroids. Only a lot less veiny. And not quite as smooth. And-”

  “Thank you, Todd,” Charon interrupted before the imp could continue bragging about his dick. “Your help has been much appreciated. As has yours, Jacob Ralston and friends. Thanks to you, I have my precious ship back after all these years.”

  “Don’t mention it,” I said with a nod. “You’re the one we need to thank. Without your help, we never would have found Black Bart and reclaimed our weapons.”

  “The pleasure is all mine,” the man in the purple robe admitted. “I’m supposed to be a force of neutrality in these parts, but I must say … I hope you do end up taking over the Fourth Circle. I’d much rather deal with you than Azazel.”

  “Actually,” I asked curiously. “Could you do us one more favor before we part ways?”

  “Of course, my friend,” the bearded man nodded. “As long as I am not directly interfering with your affairs, I will do whatever I can to help.”