Arkemoz's wounds still ached. It had been at least half an hour after the attack had happened, and he had yet to fully heal. He must have lost a lot of blood for it to take so long, but aside from it being an annoyance, it was fine. There was no one to fight now. There was only a lot of confusion, and frankly he was confused as well.

From what had happened, it had seemed like half of Aegis was fighting with itself, but in the end, it turned out it had only been around thirty people who had betrayed them. That would still be a lot, except apparently there had been around three hundred people in this base at the time. It had only seemed like a much bigger problem because they'd been unlucky and had been near Azralis' office at the time of the attack, it seemed.

But Arkemoz wouldn't let down his guard while they were stuck here. He couldn't. Even though the portal was closed and there was no immediate way to get back to Earth, it didn't mean that any of the people here wouldn't at the very least try to drink his blood again.

He watched everyone around him with suspicion, grateful that they had managed to get the lights working again. He had certainly not liked the red lights from before. They were all sitting in a large room with tables and chairs organized in a circle around a lectern, which was at the other side of the room in the middle. Clearly this was a room for sharing information with many people at once, which was what was currently happening. However, Arkemoz couldn't help but feel like they were wasting time.

They needed to get the portal working as soon as possible, and then they needed to try to track down Azralis. He had no idea how they would go about doing that, but he did know there were tracking spells they could possibly try. He wasn't sure they would be successful as for the most accurate results the blood of the person being tracked was needed. However, they had to try. They still didn't know what the angels were planning on doing but given the fact that they had allied themselves with blood-drinking vampires, it was definitely not good.

"It seems that the rogue members' bracelets were inactive," Black, who had been talking to all of them about the situation, said. The vampire looked very stressed, and for good reason. He also had a fading bruise on his cheek, suggesting that he'd fought, though he had yet to say anything about that. "We'll do a screening of all vampiric employees, to make sure that there aren't any more hiding among us."

There was some grumbling from the crowd, which Arkemoz thought was ridiculous, though if they shared James' opinion on Aegis, perhaps that was to be expected.

"But not at this moment. The most important thing currently is to reopen the portal and return to our own dimension." Black made it sound like a simple thing, but from the grimace he was wearing, Arkemoz was getting the feeling that this wasn't going to be as easy as expected. Arkemoz knew how to open a portal, but only from Hell to the mortal dimension and back. This could be completely different. But that thankfully didn't matter because Qironin, or perhaps one of the other warlocks he'd talked about, would know how to do this.

"So, rest assured, we are working on that. I'm sure it won't take long, so just sit tight for the moment. And that will be all for now, thank you."

Black immediately disappeared from the room after that, using his ability to move quickly to leave before Arkemoz fully realized it. Was that normal behavior for this person? Black certainly hadn't come across like this when Arkemoz had spoken to him first.

Muttering immediately filled the room as the people in it started to file out, though with the number of people present, it was a lot of noise, which Arkemoz didn't particularly like. Nor did he like the looks being given to him by the vampire who had been sitting in the row behind him. The woman immediately looked away when she saw Arkemoz glare at her, though.

At least here not that many people had gawked at him, though. Arkemoz assumed that must have been due to them knowing Azralis, and so demons wouldn't be that much of a novelty here.

Since they had been sitting at the end of the row, practically everyone had left by the time they could, but then James stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. Arkemoz turned around, looking up at the man quizzically. He looked far too worried about him. Sure, being bitten by four vampires at once and drained of a lot of blood hadn't been pleasant, but Arkemoz wasn't experiencing any issues that would last for long.

"You okay, Arkie?"

"Yes, of course."

The constant questioning—if not verbal then at least with looks and glances—was starting to make Arkemoz feel a bit uncertain. He certainly hoped James didn't think of him as a liability he needed to protect. He had killed as many vampires as James had, maybe more, so that would be ridiculous.

"Sorry that I keep asking," James said, scratching his neck. "Back then, you just looked.... Well, really not okay."

Arkemoz imagined that was true. He had certainly felt not okay. But once those damned bite marks closed up, he would be just fine.

"I'm better now."

Arkemoz felt more than a little stupid for actually saying that, but he was at a loss as to what to say instead. He didn't like how James looking at him with that worried frown was making him feel. Was that...guilt? For making James worry that he'd gotten attacked by vampires? This must have been the influence of his partial humanity because that was entirely illogical.

"Right." James cleared his throat. "Good."

James seemed to be avoiding Arkemoz's gaze now, which was very confusing. Was Arkemoz making him uncomfortable somehow? Was the vampire—

Arkemoz almost gasped as James pulled him close, his muscular arms gentle yet firm as they held him close to James' chest, making his nose press against his shoulder. Arkemoz blinked, still feeling too surprised by this to move before finally relaxing just a little.

This felt kind of nice. He didn't think anyone had hugged him before, so it was nice to experience it first-hand. Although Arkemoz was still confused about the reasoning as to why James had decided to do this now, he still decided to reciprocate and put his arms around the vampire, hoping that he'd done it right because he couldn't help but feel a bit awkward. He did his best to ignore the way his tail twisted in on itself.

He could hear Denise chuckle somewhere behind James, which made him think that he hadn't done this right, but how was he supposed to know? Earth was so confusing.

"Didn't know you were a hugger, Adley," she teased him, James pulling away from Arkemoz right after. Arkemoz missed the contact immediately, which was very strange, and very unhelpful. They couldn't just stand around hugging each other, which was why humans didn't do it all the time, he assumed.

"Oh, shut up," James muttered, blushing, though he was smiling a tiny bit. Arkemoz got that annoying urge to smile too. He resisted it for now, but he wasn't sure he would if he didn't catch himself. "I was just worried about the little guy."

Arkemoz huffed, folding his arms over his chest as his tail swung from side to side by itself. It almost immediately hit a chair, but Arkemoz didn't let the pain show on his face and continued doing it, now on purpose. He was pretty sure James had already picked up on what it meant.

Denise's grin widened. "You know, your accent really comes out when you're flustered."

Arkemoz wasn't sure he'd heard what Denise clearly had. Or perhaps he just didn't understand the concept of accents enough to recognize it. Either way he felt like they had better things to do, but he didn't say that out loud, mostly because they truly didn't. What could he personally do to help out? He certainly didn't know more magic than Qironin, which automatically made him unusable in this situation.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Before this thought process could continue though, Denise's phone rang. She put it up to her ear, a sudden, serious frown on her face. After a very short exchange she put the device down again, and back into her pocket. She looked directly at Arkemoz then, who already feared the worst.

"Apparently Qironin wants your help." Arkemoz blinked, completely shocked by this information. What could he possibly do? But if he could help, he wouldn't argue. Then Denise looked over at James. "And Black wants to have a word with you. Something about the vampire attack, I dunno. But we should probably go."

That Arkemoz could agree with. As he made his way out of the room, he briefly stopped when he heard a distant noise. It sounded like...the squeal of bending metal? Arkemoz looked around, not finding anything to justify hearing that sound. And so he ignored it as he left the room, only to realize that he actually had no idea where to go.

Thankfully, Denise seemed to at the very least suspect to know where to go as she took the lead. Perhaps the person on the phone had told her. Arkemoz tried not to look at any of the vampires they passed. Even if all they did was look surprised at his presence, he still didn't want to have to put up with that. The corridors were a bit less crowded this time, but the noise of people talking over each other was just the same kind of grating.

It turned out to be a short walk at least before they reached the entrance to a smaller, round room lined with metal shelves full of books and what seemed to be many magical ingredients, mostly in plastic bags but also in glass jars. And in the middle of it, there were four people arguing, one of them being Qironin. Arkemoz didn't remember seeing any of the other four people, but the two women and the man seemed very much against whatever Qironin had said.

They stopped when they noticed his arrival, but the unpleasant atmosphere stayed. They were standing around a large metal, circular table, books haphazardly thrown around it, one on the other, along with notebooks and papers strewn all over it. It was a wonder how they even managed to make sense of that.

"Ah, Arkemoz. Wonderful."

"No, not wonderful!" one of the women snapped, an older brunette woman. They were all wearing staggeringly different clothing. From what Arkemoz had seen, he was pretty sure the black cloak with jagged symbols on it this woman was wearing wasn't normal attire for this planet.

He tried not to feel offended by her dismissal of him, though he still scowled at her. The other woman, a younger, shorter one with dark skin grimaced at him in what he assumed was apology. She wasn't dressed oddly—in fact, she was dressed in an incredibly mundane manner with a t-shirt and jeans—though she had several colorful stripes in her dark hair. She also wore large, crystal earrings, and had an elaborate, dimly glowing necklace around her neck.

"Don't be rude, Cynthia," the other man muttered to the woman with the cloak. Despite wearing a suit and tie—a rather usual attire on this planet, it seemed—he was by far the one who stood out to Arkemoz the most because he had blue hair. He knew enough to know that wasn't natural for humans.

"Rude?" Cynthia hissed at him. "We're talking about blood magic here."

Arkemoz scowled once again, but this time in thought. Did they need knowledge about blood magic from him? He did know something about that, though he doubted he knew more than these warlocks did. He would try to help, of course, but he wasn't sure how much help he would be.

He looked over his shoulder when he felt someone tap it, which turned out to be Denise. James, who was standing next to her, looked surprisingly irritated, glaring at the warlocks.

"We'll see you in a bit, Ark," she told him before pushing James further down the corridor, despite his protests. Arkemoz sighed, walking into the room he had until now only been standing in front of, feeling more than a little awkward. He really didn't like how any of them were looking at him.

"What do you need me for?" He felt it was better to just be blunt in general, though not many people seemed to agree with that sentiment. It was one of the few things he missed about Hell—everyone was always very blunt there. Or at least, in his dimension that was the case. Arkemoz had never actually met any demon from another dimension, though he knew there were many species.

"We need your blood," Qironin replied, giving him a look of sympathy, most likely due to having been drained of a lot of blood just a while ago. Well, Arkemoz had asked for bluntness. He'd just not expected that much of it.

Arkemoz narrowed his eyes. "What for?"

"Qironin thinks your blood will be strong enough to open the portal again," the other woman replied, sighing. Clearly none of them liked this plan, even though the one named Cynthia was the only one openly angry over it.

"Which we don't need. We can open the portal without resorting to this," Cynthia argued, hitting the table with her hand. "We did it before."

"Not on a time limit like this," Qironin replied, leaning forward, his hands gripping the table. "That is exactly my point, which you keep trying to ignore."

"Blood magic corrupts! Especially when using demon blood."

"Yes, but only with frequent usage. And nothing else we have here is strong enough."

Arkemoz huffed, already feeling annoyed. He didn't like fighting, but this was even worse because it felt like they were arguing about whether to use him or not, and he liked none of that. But really, the thing that was currently on his mind most of all was what they had said about blood magic.

"Blood magic corrupts?"

All four of them looked at him, before exchanging a look with each other. Qironin proceeded to clear his throat and answer. "It doesn't corrupt demons. So, I'm not surprised you don't know about this."

Arkemoz frowned, not really sure what to make of this. And what exactly corrupt meant in this context.

"Yeah, it, um, causes insanity in those who use it," explained the woman whose name Arkemoz still had yet to learn, brushing her hand through her hair. "Usually the homicidal kind."

Oh. Was that why vampires were so affected by it? Arkemoz had never thought of that. But wait, Qironin had just used blood magic to open that door, hadn't he? Perhaps infrequent use of it wasn't quite as damaging?

Arkemoz didn't get the chance to ask about that, though, because then Cynthia and Qironin started arguing again.

The demon sighed. This was completely pointless, and by their own admission, the sooner the portal was reopened the better. "I can cast the spell for you if it's so dangerous."

They both shut up, though they immediately looked like they had already rejected the idea.

Cynthia's eyes softened. "You're not strong enough. None of us are. It has to be done in a group of experienced magic users."

So they truly did only need him to give them blood. Arkemoz didn't like how that made him feel, but it was irrational. What right did he have to get upset over them needing his blood, but not his help? "Very well. Take my blood, then."

Qironin smiled at him, while Cynthia glared at the table fiercely. She didn't say anything, but Arkemoz could practically hear her yelling anyway. He walked up to the table when Qironin waved him over, already having prepared a knife and a large bowl for the blood to drip in. Arkemoz gave the knife a glare, not at all liking the idea of it cutting him. But then again, Qironin could have used one of those needles with a tube and a plastic bag for this, and that would have been so much worse, given Arkemoz's experiences with that.

He offered one of his arms to Qironin without a word, gritting his teeth in pain as the man put the knife against his wrist and incredibly quickly and cleanly cut it. Arkemoz tried not to let how much it burned show on his face as he stood there, his blood flowing into the bowl and slowly filling it. He was actually starting to feel a little lightheaded by the time the wound had closed too much for the blood to continue flowing, but at least the bowl was now half full, and Qironin looked pleased with that.

Arkemoz hoped that was enough because he wasn't sure he would be able to manage much more than that.

"Wonderful. Thank you, Arkemoz."

Nodding at Qironin, Arkemoz backed off a bit as the warlocks started to once again discuss what they were doing. He headed for one of the chairs which were pushed against the shelves, sitting down at it none too gently. The legs of it made a scraping noise against the floor, which made him flinch, but no one else seemed to notice.

Arkemoz sighed, looking down at his slowly healing wrist. There was still blood escaping the wound, but there was barely any of it. Almost subconsciously he reached for the sides of his neck, wincing at the still healing wounds there. Then his eyes drifted to Qironin again, who was in what seemed to be a heated debate with the man with the cloak. The warlock had killed all of those vampires with barely any effort. Arkemoz was truly starting to think that if Qironin was a human—which wasn't necessarily the case, even though he felt like a human to him—he must have been much, much older than he appeared.

The warlock had talked about trapping angels, after all. Arkemoz didn't think even demons knew how to do that. He'd certainly never heard of anyone doing it, but then again, they had had very little reason to. Angels never spoke when interrogated, so trying to capture one was a dangerous waste of time.

He flinched as he heard that awful sound of metal bending again, but this time it seemed louder. It was still very distant but definitely less so than the first time. He shot a quick glance at the warlocks when he noticed they'd fallen silent and were now exchanging worried looks.

After the noise stopped, there was still a moment of silence before Qironin spoke in a cold, serious tone that Arkemoz hadn't heard him use before. "Either we use blood to reopen that portal, or we do it your way, don't manage it in time, and this dimension ceases to exist, destroying everything within it."

And that was when Arkemoz finally realized what that sound must have been—this base was on the verge of being ripped apart and destroyed by an unstable, shrinking dimension.

They were in so much bigger trouble than he'd thought. And he was sure things were about to become a whole lot worse.