What Following Brings (26 page)

“
What was that for?
”
he asked.

“
Oh, come on, Yuri,
”
Eden said, digging in her pocket for holy water.
“
You and I both know you aren
'
t you right now. Where
'
s Asag? Is he in here, waiting and watching?
”

There was silence. Could Asag have known she had the picture? She gripped it tighter.

“
Come out, you coward,
”
she said.
“
I
'
m a puny human soul, remember? You don
'
t wish to face me?
I didn
'
t realize how weak demons were
.
”

Once again, there was silence. Then there was the sound of footsteps on the ground and a woman wound around the corner
from the opposing room
. It was the same woman from before, the one
who
had attacked Yuri and had the
dark eyes. Black matted hair hung in her face
and she wore a sneer.

“
Y-you
,
”
Eden said.

“
Me,
”
the woman said.

The woman
grinned at her, and Eden put two and two together. Asag had stood with this woman when
Eden
had found her way out of the other world, which meant
the two of them had formed an alliance
. If Asag worked together with a human, then that meant she had to have been a demon.

“
I command you to be silent
in the name of Jesus Christ,
”
Eden
said, then waited.

The woman didn
'
t even so much as flinch at the words Jesus Christ.
Eden
stole a frightened look at Yuri, who stood behind the woman with the same blank stare.

“
Okay, fine,
”
she said.
“
Take a look at this.
”

She brought up the picture and showed it to the woman before her. The woman threw back her head and let out a high, cold laugh.

“
Did
you think
you could beat a demon
so
easily?
”
the woman asked, walking around her.
“
Did you think Asag wouldn
'
t know what you and your boyfriend
were
going to do? He
'
s been watching you. He even—
”
The woman stepped back and caressed Yuri
'
s face
“
—saw the two of you kiss. How romantic. I would love to get rid of him once and for all, but alas, I
'
ve got something greater
to do
.
”

“
Get your hands off of him,
”
Eden
said.

The
woman kept running her hand over Yuri
'
s face, touching his skin. He did not flinch under her touch, but
Eden
did. The smell of
the woman
was terrible, like iron, and even the idea of him being touched by her…

“
Stop playing around, Yanmei,
”
another voice
said, hissing
. Asag. She did not know where it came from.
“
Get the girl and get rid of the mirrors.
”

At that moment,
Eden
glanced
down at the shard of glass on the floor and saw Asag
,
back in his prison
,
on his throne. He
appeared
as ugly as ever with his bulging eyeballs and his long, crusty tongue, but Eden saw something else for the first time. Fear. She could tell by the way he had his many fists clenched and the way his foot tapped the ground nervously
.
Her plan had worked. Asag was terrified of her, of her picture and of God
'
s name, but he had found a way out of it.
Yanmei
was not a demon. Eden was not sure what she was. Maybe she was just a truly evil soul, one
who
deserved hell, unlike the troubled others she had met.

“
You made a deal with the Devil,
”
she said,
“
and he gave you powers, didn
'
t he?
”

Yanmei
'
s
smile evaporated.

“
You were evil in life,
”
she said,
“
and Satan gave you strong abilities like his spawn to reward you for being so evil. But you are not a demon, and when Asag and Satan are done with you, they will not show you mercy. Demons are greedy. They do not share power.
”

“
I do not need their power,
”
Yanmei said,
and then
her grin twisted.
“
I have never wanted power.
”

“
Then what do you want?
”
she asked.

“
To see the faces of men twist as I hurt them and frighten their families.
”
Yanmei shut her eyes and shuddered in ecstasy, and Eden felt intense disgust. Then Yanmei faste
ne
d her eyes on Eden and
she gave a lopsided grin
.
“
Normally I
only kill men
, but for you, I
'
ll make the
exception
.
”

With an ear-splitting screech, Yanmei held her arms up in the air and then Eden gasped as she saw her aura extend toward her. It was red, the color of blood, which
Eden
had never seen before on a soul. Maybe Yanmei was so evil it had changed her. Though she felt intense fear, she lurched across the
room and tackled Yan
mei at the waist. The two of them rolled onto the ground, and Eden lost her grip on her picture and the pane. In the glass shard two feet to her right, she could see Asag had his face pressed against the shard now.

“
Yuri, help me capture her,
”
Yanmei said, as she struggled beneath her. Her red aura extended to Yuri and touched his own, mingling with it.

Yuri did
not move. His forehead twitched
and
Eden
saw his soul glow as he fought her off. She
gazed
at Yanmei.
She raised
her fist, punched h
er in the face, and watched her mouth contort in anger
. I can
'
t believe I
'
m doing this, but the only way to finish this is to steal her energy.
She shut her eyes and focused on Yanmei
'
s pulsing body. A foul, disgusting flavor filled her mouth, like rotten
eggs. Her eyes shot open and she saw her hands glowed red for a moment
. They burned
as if they were on fire. She screamed,
trying
to dust the red off her hands because it made her soul
sear
, and Yanmei grabbed her and flipped her onto her back.

Yanmei got in close, so close she could smell
the
same
iron-like
scent
once more.
Grabbing her wrists, Yanmei pinned her to the ground and she got an even stronger whiff of her smell.
Disgusting
. No,
she thought, squirming.
I am not going to lose this fight.
As Yanme
i continued to pin her, she glanced
across the floor
and
gazed
at Yuri.

“
Fine,
”
Yanmei said.
“
You won
'
t hurt your girlfriend. Get the picture and destroy it, then.
”

“
No, Yuri,
don
'
t
,
”
Eden said.

Once again, he appeared to be struggling. He gripped his head and groaned. Yanmei scowled at her.

“
No man has been able to fight off the abilities Satan gave to me,
”
Yanmei said.
“
What kind of powers have you been given, you little witch?
”

“
It
'
s the most powerful thing in the universe, Yanmei. A trillion times mor
e powerful than anything you or your
‘
demons
'
can give you,
”
Eden said.
“
It
'
s called
love
.
”

A cruel smile crossed Yanmei
'
s face as she chuckled again.
Eden
drew up her knee
and
attempted to shove Yanmei backward, but
the woman dodged her blow and
weaved
around her knee. Leaping over to Eden,
Yanmei drew back her hand and hit
Eden
in the face, and though she could not bleed, the smell of iron was so great
the close contact
was like tasting blood. She yelped as Yanmei hit her across the face again and again, and her energy left her soul in great white mists.

“
Do not go too far,
”
Asag
said,
his voice so loud even from a mirror portal it caused the shack they were in to shake.
“
I still
need to bring the girl to our l
ord.
”

But Yanmei hit
Eden
again, laughing excitedly with every blow.
Her hits
stung and filled her face with fire. She drew her hands up to protect herself, but that did little good. Just as Eden thought it was over, that she was about to go right back up to the other world
,
except this time to th
e
great river, the growling stopped and Yanmei was ripped off of her. He
r eyes shot open
;
she saw Yuri had hauled Yanmei away from her and threw her to the ground. He picked up the shard of glass on the ground, drew it above him, and slammed it
into her stomach
. Yanmei began to scream and writhe and steam
black
steam, and then a discus of light appeared above her as she was sucked upward, into the river where she belonged.

“
Yuri,
”
Eden said, staggering to her feet and then rushing over to him as he dropped the shard
.
“
Yuri, are you okay?
”

“
I am so sorry,
”
Yuri whispered
as she tugged at his sleeve, desperate for his attention.

“
It
'
s okay,
”
Eden said, hugging him.
“
It
'
s not your fault.
”

“
She came out of the shard of glass,
”
he said.
“
One second I
was
myself
and the next…
”

When Eden
thought
of the shard of glass, she thought,
Asag.
She stepped away from Yuri and glanced down at the shard. Asag didn
'
t appear to be in it anymore, but she knew he would follow them and just wait for another opportunity to strike if sh
e did not teach him a lesson now.
She needed for him to be scared of her, so that when he thought of her, he would no longer dare follow.

And she did not want to stop and wait to recover. She had to do this now. There were more evil people in the world, more than she had realized. Before her time in purgatory, she had not even believed people as evil as Yanmei and Donovan
, Satan
'
s human right hand man,
existed, but now she knew they did. True evil did exist, and Asag would
try to pull of his stunt
again and maybe succeed. But she would not let him. Or at least, not without a fight.