Page 150 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Underworld

Jugong makes an expression of distaste. “I do not understand the complex interrelationship and hierarchy of the legal system of the great court,” he grumbles. “If he is so valuable why not just send out someone from the investigations and intelligence office to track their informant down?”

I grimace sympathetically because, truth be told, my own understanding is very surface level. I thought the way things were done on Earth was complicated, but nothing had really prepared me for the intricate ins and outs within the great court that supervises the entirety of the land of the dead—theoretically anyway. I mean, they claim jurisdiction over the wilds but I’m still pretty skeptical that there is any true authority there considering how many damned have been eaten when sent out for various tasks. Then again, everything seems bigger and more convoluted here. Even the criminals that draw the attention of the reclamations office are not what I would have ever considered the usual sort of criminal.

I don’t comment, however, as I power up my weapon to its stun setting because it does seem a little unfair that this was handed off on us. The I&I merely point us in a direction without any real hands-on support. There is little I can do but pretend like he didn’t ask the question. Technically speaking, I am the one employed by the reclamations office, and while Jugong is my chosen partner, I am the one who must answer to them for anything that he does, or does not, do.

“Intelligence says that Nygohl was spotted here within Lithera city,” I reply instead.

“I don’t like it,” Jugong hisses, and he crouches, pressing his larger frame protectively into me as his large wings fan out threatening to slap around me in a protective barrier at a moment’s notice.

I push his wing aside impatiently and peer up at him again. He is no longer watching me—his favorite pastimes these days it seems—but to my surprise his head is swiveling warily as if there is some sort of bigger, meaner monster out there waiting to attack. “It is just another ghost city… a small one compared to many we’ve had to hunt through. What is there to be uneasy about?”

“We are close to the Lamentari Forest—the forest of sorrows,” he quietly replies. “It is not a good place. Not even the Gigong will hunt this far from our pits. It is a poisonous place, cursed with illusions and nightmares.”

“I thought the pits were places of nightmares,” I tease, but my humor is lost upon him as he shudders and crouches closer to me to where I feel like I’m wearing him like a second set of clothes. Now curious, I peer back at the cool wash of lanterns lighting the street below. Come to think of it, everything hasa very foggy appearance here as if encased in a milky mist, creating pockets of dense shadows. “Huh, I wonder if that has anything to do with why he is here?”

Jugong makes an unhappy sound in his throat but I stiffen as my eyes catch on an unnatural flicker of shadows below. That could be the illusion of the fog playing tricks on my eyes, but I don’t think so.

“There,” I whisper, bringing my destabilizer blaster up.

Jugong leaps powerfully above me with menacing silence as I take aim on the dark form collecting from the shadows as the wraith steps out into the open, and fire.

Nygohl spinsaway from the blast, scattering into darkness in the process before resolidifying a short distance away. His eyes are like blue fire when his head snaps up to look at me. Corpse pale with long midnight black hair whipping around him, he is shockingly beautiful with his dainty black horns.

Hmmm. He is not just a wraith it seems, but a minor demon hybrid. Interesting. A wraith by itself could be challenging as they are one of the primordial infernal spirits, but I had not expected this from his file. I make a mental note of this as I holster my blaster and drop from the rooftop to land in a crouch several feet away from him. As expected, the wraith’s eyesfollow me, and I can see the shadows begin to stretch and flow from him as he prepares to shield himself and slip away. Little does he realize that Jugong is circling above, drawing gradually closer as he waits for the right moment. He merely awaits my signal. Giwung are quick but not so quick that a wraith wouldn’t be onto them in time to dematerialize and escape if not properly distracted.

I offer Nygohl a smile as I pat my weapon blatantly. “Nygohl Vasheer. It is a pleasant surprise to discover that you are here, after all. I am sure you are aware of who I represent.”

A cold smile flickers on his face, and he shrugs casually in response. He doesn’t look entirely surprised but other than streaming thicker gusts of shadows around him, warping the visible edges of his body, he is making no move to attack or escape.

“I can imagine,” he whispers, his rasped words carrying with a rolling echo common to wraith speech patterns. Despite being partly from a minor demonic family group, it seems that his wraith nature is far more prominent. He begins to walk casually, giving me his profile as his glowing eyes continue to track me. “It seems that the inspection and intelligence office had a requisition specialist sent to clean up their mess.”

I frown at his words and take a cautious step closer, my fingers curling once more around the handgrip of my blaster. “Their mess?”

Nygohl’s eyes glitter with amusement, the corner of his mouth hitching in a cold, cynical smile. “The edges of the underworld ruled by the great court… and what is beyond? What authority truly wields the power of the dark places beyond the eyes of the infernal gods? And who better to penetrate it andgather information than one born of the primordial shadows themselves?”

He has a point. But it is not adding up. My eyes narrow on him as I edge closer, my every step slow and calculated and my weapon a solid and reassuring presence under my palm.

“If that is the case, then why would they send someone from reclamations to find you?” I challenge. “Why not call you in themselves to make your report?”

He smirks in response, and a dimple creases his right cheek in an entirely distracting way. “What if I say that I have seen things out there that shatter all that we know and exposes the lie that the great court has been keeping? That these carefully maintained lands open to the dead are pockets that they have managed to carve out and nothing more—and ever under threat of collapsing completely to that which dwell beyond its borders?”

My eyebrows raise skeptically. “Are you trying to frighten me?”

As expected, his smile widens in a dangerous grin, but he shakes his head. “I do not need to try to frighten you. Reality is far more frightening than any story that can be spun. The lords of the great court keep it all quiet as they maintain the tenuous balance of their kingdoms. Do you know how they accomplish it?”

I frown at him, my curiosity piqued despite myself. More than that, however, I hope that if I keep him talking that it will give me the opening that I need to launch my attack. “How?”

His icy chuckle flows over me, penetrating me to the marrow as he leans over me, his eyes glowing down at me like the embers of the first kindling of life in the abyss. His hand curls aroundmy arm, drawing me in. Finally. I signal abruptly with my other hand and above me Jugong’s wings fold, the darkness collecting and solidifying into a bullet as he drops from above. Unexpectedly, Nygohl’s gaze lifts, a knowing smile replacing his grin as he looks directly at the Giwung dropping directly toward him.

Laughter as chilling as ice blasts over me and suddenly his cold grip grows even icier in less than the space of a breath as he rapidly darkens and fades right into an enormously dense and dark smoky shadow with burning eyes. Those eyes pin me for a moment, and he rushes forward, his shadow form passing over and through me with a freezing intensity. Every part of me locks up in shock and I feel like I’m dying all over again. Distantly I hear Jugong’s roar, but he is obscured completely from my sight as my world is suddenly veiled in dark, rolling smoke for lack of a better word. I choke weakly. My entire body is numb as his shadows draw through me. What only has to be a moment feels like an eternity encompassed by the coldest of hellscapes. And then just as quickly he is gone, his icy darkness releasing me as his shadows fly away from me like thousands of ribbons.

Somehow, I’m able to slowly turn in place, my feet stumbling and my legs shaking from the effort. I can feel myself crumpling as my legs give out completely, but I’m spared contact with the hard street when I’m jerked up brutally into the air as Jugong’s massive arms snap around me and haul me up off the ground in pursuit.

In Jugong’s arms and his body heat surrounding the numbness recedes at a shocking speed, but it is almost immediately replaced with a hard blast of nausea that makes me want to hurl with every powerful downbeat of his wings. I wrap his forearm with my knuckles, silently begging him to adjust his grip as Istruggle desperately not to hurl, and finally grip his fuzzy hide between my finger and give it a hard pinch.

Funny thing about being dead—or the damned in this case, your spirit body still needs to be sustained with energy too, hence the buffets for the dead are not just for the pleasure of past enjoyments. I may not precisely have a biological stomach in the strictest sense, but I am pretty certain that the underworld’s version of cheap coffee and that brick of a pastry I ate while hunting is about ready to make itself reappear at any moment. Unfortunately, my stubborn sidekick is ignoring my cues and instead doubles down to shoot head to dart after our quarry heads for two tall towers rising abruptly from the cityscape.

Groaning miserably, I press my lips together as Jugong shifts his body weight unexpectedly, turning abruptly at a sharp angle to skim between the buildings in a dizzying fashion as the dark blur of the wraith’s shadow form streaks ahead and disappears from sight. Despite the urge to puke, I can’t keep my startled yelp to myself as I tuck my legs in and pray that he remembers to compensate accurately for my body dangling helplessly within his grip. I stare at the stonework of the towers worriedly but gradually squint against a strange build up of light pouring from them.

---