Earth and Shadow (read desc)

The Blood Queen

"Welp, anyways, that's what books are. They are basically a whole new world of knowledge and adventure. Now let's go show you what a tv can-" he paused, and rubbed his head.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know, I just felt weird all of a sudden. I think it's almost gone now... But that was definitely odd. Hey blaise??"
"What?" She called from the other room.
"Can you come here for a moment?"
"What for?"
"My head feels weird."
Blaise grumbled and came.
"Let's see what the hecks going on with you.."
She touched his head and closed her eyes, her hands glowing a pale white colour. Scratch closed his eyes as well. Suddenly she hesitated and took her hand away.
"Where did Nightmare say he was going..?"
"I think it was to a area around a old hideout."
"Well... um..." Blaise mumbled, and I could tell something was seriously wrong.
"Wheres Nightmare? Is he ok?"
"Well, he's not at the hideout because he's not on the earth, so he's either under it or enchantments are blocking his connection with you, Scratch. The last place I'm able to track him is a few miles outside one of the gates to the underworld."
"What's he doing there?" Scratch asked.
"No clue. but I have a bad feeling he might have gotten mixed up with some demons or something."
"Let me guess, we have to go rescue the guy who can destroy an entire mountain with nothing but his will? He's so strong how can someone like that be-"
"I don't know."
I was listening quietly, but now I spoke, my curiosity getting the better of me.
"Why are you talking about demons, and underworlds?"
Blaise looked at me.
"Demons are another race native to these lands. Scratch came from their ranks. They are the opposite of angels, and most of them have evil magic."
Scratch cleared his throat, "Not entirely true, but go on."
"Their queen is the worst of them all. She is one of the most powerful beings in the land, and her goal is to gain anything magical and old. Like ancient weapons and artifacts. Nightmare has a weapon, and he's pretty magical and old, so it adds up."
"There's always a chance he could have gotten captured."
"Yeah exactly, but HOW did he get captured?? Now that I think about it, he kills anyone in his way, so how-"
"I have no clue," Scratch said, "But that doesn't mean its not a possibility. Listen the least we can do is check out the underworld and try to find him."
"Oh yeah, let's just WALTZ in there why don't we? Your a traitor and a night angel, I'm a angel, and he looks like a daunae. We'll be spotted and killed immediately. Not to mention that even if we HAD disguises our auras are so foreign it's obvious we're enemies."
Scratch glared at her.
"Fine then, maybe we don't use disguises. Can you track him in the underworld?"
"Probably, but we need to go there first, and I need to use you as a beacon, Scratch."
"Good, then I'll teleport us there and we can go. Want to come Rain?"
I shrugged, "Obviously."
"It's too risky, what if he gets hurt?"
"Then Nightmare can kill us. It doesn't matter though, he deserves to come along with us. Now let's stop arguing and let's go."
He held each of our hands and teleported to the underworld. I looked around and coughed a bit. The air smelled like smoke, burning against my throat. There was no sky, just a dark ceiling with red tapered points from the many spikes on the ceiling. Everything looked a deep red, dark and shaded. Occasionally there was a few flames that would pop into existence before vanishing. In the distance, however, I saw a large dark city. I wondered how anyone could survive down here in health.
I looked at Scratch. He looked completely fine, his white hair almost glowing in the dark light.
Blaise rubbed her throat slightly, not used to the harsh air, but Scratch was completely fine. He noticed me staring at him and raised a eyebrow, but didn't comment.
Blaise sighed, "Welp, let's get this over with and quick. I don't want anyone sensing my magic." She placed hands on either side of Scratch's head and closed her eyes, concentrating. Her hands glowed and stood out in the gloom.
I looked around, keeping a lookout and taking in my surroundings. When I looked back at Blaise, I saw someone sneaking uo behind her, raising a sword.
My eyes widened. I shouted, "BLAISE LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!!"
She whirled around and brought out her spear, just in time to deflect their sword. Scratch grabbed his sword and jumped in, slicing the demon from shoulder to hip. It stumbled back and coughed.
"Back off, or I'll kill you." Scratch warned.
The demon spat out some blood then started speaking in another language. Scratch shrugged and answered. Halfway through their conversation Blaise interrupted.
"What's he saying?"
"You really do NOT want to know. It's a load of bullcrap about angels." From his expression and tone, it was obvious that while he didn't agree wholeheartedly with the demon, he was still amused by it. Blaise growled.
"What!? They insulted my race!?"
This time the demon anwsered.
"Yeah you overgrown pigeon. Angels aren't supposed to be here y'know. I figured since I was in the neighborhood I'd take out the trash."
Blaise looked pissed. She pointed her spear at the demon, "Your going to pay for calling me a-"
"Easy Blaise easy, he's just trying to make you mad."
I was quiet throughout, watching closely.
"Yeah well it worked. Let me kill him! I'm going to shove my spear SO far up his ass.."
Scratch sighed and looked at the demon.
"Did a shady tall guy with strong magic come through here?"
"If I tell you will you spare me?"
"I'll try, but Blaise has her heart set on destroying you."
The demon sighed, giving up.
"Fine. He was dragged through here by a bunch of trained guards. The queen was with him."
Blaise looked surprised. Scratch looked down, thinking.
"Wait.. What do you mean the queen? She doesn't leave her castle."
"Eh, I saw what I saw. Any other questions asshole?"
Scratch ignored the insult, focusing intently.
"How did he get caught and not die?"
"Some form of enchantment by the looks of it. Light magic if you'll believe it. Can I go now?"
This demon was starting to piss me off. He acted so rude, and he already tried killing Blaise. I was about ready to destroy him.
"Nope! I have a question for you."
He sighed mockingly, "What is it faunae?"
"Where would he be, and I want a specific place." I glared at him, feeling my old anger bubble up to the surface. He shifted uncomfortable.
"I don't know. Probably in the castle in the dungeon. That's where all the captives usually go, the important ones anyways. He got dragged through here half a hour ago, so chances are he is probably already screwed. That is, if the queen is interested, which she seems to be."
"Do you know why she took him?" Scratch asked.
"Besides the fact he looks like one of those old stories, not sure. NOW can I go?"
I looked the demon dead in the eye.
"Your very annoying."
I made black roots come up from the ground, wrapping mercilessly around the demon. He struggled desperately but before he could escape a root poked up and stabbed him through the chest.
He gave one great gasp, coughed, then died. The roots went back into the ground.
"DANG-" Blaise and Scratch were staring at me, Blaise looked impressed. Scratch looked a bit uncomfortable. Ignoring their stares, I looked at Scratch.
"Where are we going now?"
"I would assume the castle, but that's too dangerous. It's in the heart of the kingdom, and the queen lives there. She can easily kill us."
"Too bad, I'm going anyway to save Nightmare. You can leave but I for one am going." I started walking away. As I expected, Blaise jumped in.
"No, I'm going with you. Nightmare would KILL me if you died."
"I think I'll be fine. I can't die, only get hurt."
"Then I guess your fine," Scratch reluctantly spoke, "But still, you can be captured and hurt so I'm coming too."
I sighed, "Fine, let's go."
We walked, cautious. We hid every time we saw a demon coming, and killed whoever attacked us. Finally we made it to the castle. It was huge, a giant black and red thing. It looked very intimidating, black spires raising to the ceiling. Scratch narrowed his eyes when he saw it, his face expressionless. From what Blaise had said he used to live here... But I felt like something else was going on.
Scratch motioned to us and we crept around the back of the castle. Guards walked around, but not one of them noticed us. Scratch raised his wings and flew over them quickly, only flapping his wings once. He landed outside of a window and silently he opened it. He motioned for us to follow.
Blaise picked me up from behind and carried me over to the window and dropped me down gently. Once we were all inside and the window was closed did we dare speak.
"What now?"
"We find the dungeons, which is in the catacombs under the castle, and we try and find Nightmare. Can you track him blaise?"
"Sort of."
"That's good enough." He lead the way, going around corners as if he knew the place like the back of his hand. I followed behind, suspicious. He lead us to the dungeon. It was dark, and damp. There were many twisting corridors, and if not for Scratch we would've gotten lost hours ago in the twisting maze.
"Don't get lost," he said, "Only those with the queens personal hand and guard know this place. And if your not careful you might run into them."
"Do you know how to get around here?" Blaise asked. Scratch paused for a second and looked away.
"Yeah..."
"Man, you must have been close to the queen."
"I don't want to talk about it. Come on!"
He moved through the corridor, pausing every minute or so to check for any unnatural sounds. Suddenly he stopped.
I heard heels pounding on the floor, the noise echoing throughout the catacombs. Scratch growled and turned back to us, then shoved us behind some barrels.
"Hide here."
"What about you??" Blaise looked worried.
"I'll manage. Stay still, I'll come back in a few minutes."
He looked around when suddenly a woman and a few guards came around the corner. She had long midnight black hair, and piercing red eyes. She looked beautiful, although powerful.
Scratch froze and she put up a hand, stopping her guards. They were only a few feet away from each other. She smiled, amused.
"Ah, I recognize you. I sent out a patrol a few months ago for you, night angel, but none found you. How ironic for you to show up in my dungeon."
"I'm not here to play games, your queenship. Besides I am fairly sure you have someone else on your mind."
With a chill I realized I was looking at the demon queen. She looked surprisingly young, in her 20's, but her voice was as cold as ice.
She smirked and tapped her lip with a nail.
"I may have. Now, tell me, what are you doing here?"
Blaise clenched her fists as she watched, tense.
"I-I'm just visiting an old friend."
"Oh come now, an old friend? There's no friends here, night angel. Now tell me why your here or I'll just, well, kill you."
Her voice sounded friendly and sly, mocking to say the least. She was... She was TOYING with him.
I brought out my spear, holding onto it tightly.
Something was about to go horribly wrong, I could sense it.