Nightfall (Nightfall Book 1)

There were certain things Arkemoz missed about Hell. A complete lack of water was one of them.

He sighed as he walked down the dark, empty street, trying to avoid the occasional puddles of dirty rainwater that had accumulated in the holes in the asphalt. It hadn’t taken him long to make a definitive opinion on water, despite being on Earth for only a few days—he didn’t like it one bit, and liked it even less when it fell from the sky.

He didn’t even know what town he was in at this point, and frankly, he didn’t care either. It wasn’t like whatever name the humans had given the place would mean anything to Arkemoz, and whenever he’d asked anyone about anything, they’d given him strange looks.

But that was probably fair. If a fellow demon had asked him about what must have been completely basic things, he would be confused also. But that was also the biggest issue he’d found with trying to live on Earth. He felt so alienated from everything here, and he had no idea who he could ask for some pointers on how to integrate into this new, strange society.

Since the demon who had agreed to meet with him and explain the basics had never shown up, Arkemoz had spent his time aimlessly wandering around, hoping that eventually, he would get lucky enough to run into another demon who he could ask about things. He knew a few demons were living on Earth, specifically on this continent, whatever it was called, but so far he’d not found any.

At least the humans seemed to treat him neutrally as long as he minded his own business and kept his horns and tail hidden, which was better than how he’d been treated in his home dimension.

But still, even though he wasn’t sure what he’d actually been expecting, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Suddenly distracted from his gloomy thoughts by movement in the corner of his eye, Arkemoz paused, looking over at the dark alley he was about to pass. He stared into the darkness, squinting for a moment, but since he couldn’t find anything odd, he just shook his head and continued walking.

Arkemoz liked the night. There was no such thing as a day and night cycle in any of the Hell dimensions, but the darkness here was very reminiscent of his former home, and it was comforting in a way. Although, for whatever reason, he couldn’t see as well in this dark as in Hell. He didn’t like that fact very much, but there was little he could do about it.

He came to a halt once more, but this time because of a sound. A sort of rustle that made him turn around. He frowned at the empty street and the surrounding buildings behind him, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. The dreary, old structures with peeling plastering somehow managed to look even less inviting in the brightness of the street lights.

Arkemoz set his jaw. Despite how strong he was, he felt a very intense urge to leave this place, and he didn’t see a reason why he shouldn’t listen to that instinct. He was about to leave, but before he could even turn around, he cried out as something sunk into his neck, sending sharp, burning pain through him. Strong arms grabbed at his shoulders in a bruising grip as the pain in his neck got even more intense, but that was when Arkemoz managed to get over his shock.

He gritted his teeth, using all his strength to swirl around and shove the person off him, immediately pulling his dagger out of his coat with one hand while putting the other over the wound on his neck. He hissed in pain, glaring at his attacker who turned out to be a woman. But she didn’t look human.

She was smiling at him with a manic look in her eyes, two long fangs sticking out of her mouth, making her grin look all the more unnerving. His black blood was all over her lips and chin, only adding to the disturbing picture.

“Oh, you are delicious, aren’t you?”

Arkemoz glared at her harder, raising his dagger. He didn’t know what creature she was, but he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. He’d read about some of the supernatural creatures that lived on Earth, and he was sure that some of them drank blood, but he couldn’t remember what they were called or how to kill them. But he was determined to try his best.

Seeing her lunge forward, Arkemoz immediately dodged, slashing her with the dagger but only managing to hit her arm. She jumped back, holding a hand over her fresh wound and grunting in pain. Arkemoz had no way of knowing if this was a normal reaction from a creature like this, or if the fact that the dagger could kill a demon had anything to do with this, but he was glad to see it at least could cause damage.

“You little bastard,” she said with an amused tone, grinning again. She almost seemed impressed that he was putting up a fight. Had she been expecting him to just let her drink his blood? If so, she clearly didn’t know much about demons.

Arkemoz watched her pull out a knife, its blade glinting in the artificial light of the nearby street lamp. He barely managed to get out of the way when charged at him at an impossible speed, trying to cut him. The woman didn’t give him even a second’s rest before attacking him again, their blades meeting with a loud clang.

She made another attempt at biting him, but before she could reach him, Arkemoz punched her in the stomach with all the force he could muster, distracting her just long enough to stab his dagger in her chest.

But to his disbelief, that didn’t kill her. She stumbled back, grimacing as she grabbed the hilt, pulling the dagger out with a sick, wet, crunching sound. And then she looked at Arkemoz again, grinning at him again while actively coughing up blood. She somehow managed to look even more unhinged now as she raised up both her knife and his dagger.

Arkemoz took a few steps back, raising his fists and his tail, hoping that its sharp tip could hurt the creature, too. He could still try to use blood magic, but the wound on his neck didn’t seem to be bleeding enough anymore, and doubted he would get enough time to use it anyway. And besides, he only knew a handful of defensive spells, and while those were useful, he couldn’t run away from this creature. He might have been stronger, but she was clearly faster.

“Are you done yet?” another female voice said from behind him, making Arkemoz flinch and look over his shoulder. Another woman was standing there, an older one. She didn’t have any fangs, but Arkemoz had a feeling she was the same creature as the one who had attacked him. She felt the same.

“Almost,” the first woman replied, coughing again. Arkemoz looked between them, not sure which would attack him first. He wished he could use this distraction to run away, but they would catch up quickly.

“That was a rhetorical question.”

Arkemoz looked around as more figures, having seemingly appeared out of nowhere, slowly surrounded him. This time, there were men also, and counting the two women, there were six of the creatures in total.

Arkemoz gritted his teeth, his fists clenched almost painfully. He knew he couldn’t win this, not even if he had the chance to use the little protective magic he knew, but that didn’t mean he was going to just give up and let them have his blood.

He twirled around as he heard one of them approach him from behind, slamming his fist in the man’s face with so much force that the crunch of a bone breaking followed. Seeing more of them get close, Arkemoz hit one with his elbow, and slashed another in the stomach with his tail as he turned around, punching a third one. But that was all he managed before they enveloped him. They grabbed his arms and tail, keeping Arkemoz still for long enough for one of the creatures to snap something metal onto his wrist.

Immediately, the demon felt himself weaken, and no matter how much he tried to fight back, he couldn’t pull his arms out of the creatures’ hold as they forced his hands in front of him. A second later, his other wrist was cuffed as well, chaining his hands together and leaving him practically defenseless.

He growled, ready to kick at the man and woman who were leering down at him despite being held back by the others. He didn’t get the chance to fight back as someone behind him delivered a swift blow to his temple, sending him to the ground, his face hitting the wet asphalt, and his hat flying off his head, revealing his horns.

Arkemoz coughed, his head spinning as he spat out some blood that had immediately started gathering in his mouth. His lip stung, as did his teeth, nose, and cheek. He must have cut up his skin on the asphalt when he’d fallen.

“You know the rules. No biting. You’ll each get your share after we get him to the base.”

Arkemoz winced as someone grabbed his horn and jerked his head up by it, weakly trying to pull away from the hold. Someone else proceeded to tie a piece of cloth over his eyes and around his head, leaving him completely blind and even less able to defend himself.

“Scarlet got to bite him,” someone complained as Arkemoz was dragged up to his feet, once again held by several pairs of hands. He shook his head, but of course that didn’t loosen the blindfold at all. He could tell how tightly it had been tied with how much the knot at the back of his head was pushing against it.

“And she wasn’t supposed to.”

Arkemoz tried to rip his arms out of the creatures’ hold, letting out an angry huff when they didn’t even budge. They didn’t even seem to be trying to keep him under control, which only made this all the more frustrating. His heart hammered in his chest as their grip turned painful.

In a last-ditch effort to get away, he tried to slash at them blindly with his tail, only to cry out when someone grabbed it and squeezed before he could strike. That hurt so much more than he’d been expecting. So much more than it should have.

“What...what do you want with me?” he asked, finally giving up the fight seeing as he could barely move now.

Some of them laughed at the question, making Arkemoz’s indignation burn all the more intense. “Don’t worry, little demon, you’ll find out soon.”