The stench of sulfur stung Jake's eyes and nose. He coughed, trying to force air back into his lungs, only to find that it was thick had hard to breathe, full of ash and smoke. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw that he was once again in that Hellish landscape of his dreams. Only this time it wasn't a dream.

Jake carefully got to his feet, groaning softly. His entire body ached, and he still felt very dizzy, his fur becoming damp with sweat from the heat of the volcanic realm. He looked around, expecting to see Star, but there was no sign of her. Jake could feel his heart racing as he realized that something had gone very wrong. Instead of bringing Star back from Malfeas, somehow the spell had instead reversed, and brought him to the very demonic plane where her soul was trapped!

The athletic tom suddenly turned at hearing a sound coming from his right. It was like the baying of hounds, only the sounds were far deeper and more vicious than any dog. He gasped at seeing a pack of half a dozen massive red-furred demon hounds, their eyes, nostrils, and the insides of their mouths glowing with hellfire, and a ridge of sharp black spines down their backs. And worse, the hellhounds were heading straight for him.

Jake knew that they had to have seen him in that barren plain, and knew that he had no chance against the monsters, so he did the only other thing he could. He turned and ran. His lungs burned in the hot ash-filled air, but he knew that if he didn't push himself as hard and fast as he could, the beasts would catch him and likely rip him to pieces. Ahead though he could see what he had first thought to be just another low-hanging cloud of smoke, but now realized was in fact a thick tangled forest of black leafless trees. He could only pray that he could reach the forest before the hounds closed the distance.

Jake finally managed to make it to the trees, about 10 yards ahead of the hellhounds, the forest rising up like a wall of brambles and grabbing branches out of the black rock. As he struggled through the thick dead trees, they seemed to be trying to stop him, grabbing at his arms and body and tripping his legs. The hounds didn't give up their pursuit though, charging through the trees after him.

Jake's foot caught on a raised tree root and he tripped, landing hard in a bed of briar vines. The hounds leapt at him, but then stopped short only a few feet away, snarling and pacing, some of them even whining with their tails more tucked. Not sure what had happened, and somewhat afraid as to what the hounds were looking at past him, he turned his head around and gasped in shock to see Star standing there over him, glaring at the hounds with a red glow in her eyes.

Her form was now fully corporeal, not ghostlike as it had been in his dreams, and there were no wounds at all on her lean kat-form body. She still wore the same red and gold silks that she had had on in the temple, though her form seemed even leaner and more toned, her face more beautiful, though it was a hard chilling beauty, and there was a darkness in her bearing. Star glared coldly at the hounds, then shouted at them in a firm commanding voice. "Leave this place! This is not your domain! Be gone!"

The beasts snarled, then turned to slink off back the way they can came. Once they had gone beyond sight, Star reached a hand out to help Jake up. At first he was unsure, remembering seeing Star's transformation into a demon and feeling a chill at the change in her now, but then he slowly took her hand, noticing that her skin was now very warm to the touch. "What... what happened?"

Star shook her head. "I don't know. Somehow, instead of pulling me back into the physical world, it instead pulled both of us here."

"And where exactly is 'here'?"

"Malfeas."

She then turned and started to walks off deeper into the dark forest. Jake sighed and shook his head, his suspicions now confirmed. Star lead him about an hour deeper, the hard ground slowly giving way to black muck and quicksand as the forest turned to swamp. The red glow from the smoke clouds above began to fade even darker, though Jake wasn't sure if it meant that night had come, or if the black trees above them were growing so thick that they blocked out most of the light, though likely it was a combination of both.

At length they finally came to an old cabin hidden deep in the swamp. It was in severe disrepair, with vines crawling up the wall, several places in the singled roof that had fallen through from the weight of dead leaves and moss, and the boards rotten and barely able to hold their weight, creaking loudly with each step.

"Where are we?"

"We should be safe here for now. I've been staying here these past few months since being trapped in this realm."

The door was rotted off, barely hanging on it's rusted hinges. Star pulled it closed as best she could then placed a heavy iron bar over it since there was no lock. The inside of the cabin was only a single room, with an old iron coal stove, and a bed against the back wall opposite the door, covered in strange furs and pelts instead of the molded moth-eaten blankets.

As soon as she had secured the door, the she-kat immediately turned around and threw her arms around Jake's shoulders, kissing him deeply. His eyes went wide in surprise at first, but then he returned it, murring softly as he wrapped his own arms around her, pulling her closely against him. Star pressed her warm body against his, continuing to kiss him passionately. He was more used to her being very dominant and aggressive, but certainly didn't complain. It wasn't long before their limited clothing was off and they were both on the bed together. His body ached for hers, and right now nothing mattered to him but being with the she-kat that he loved.

.

Star slowly opened her eyes, looking weakly around her at the small stone room. The room was bare except for the rusted and blood-stained chains hanging from the center of the ceiling. Star hung from these chains, her wrists bruised from supporting her weight against the iron shackles for so long. She was in her werewolf form, though with the same red coloration and horns that had been altered to her when she accepted her demon blood within the temple.

The heavy oak door opened, letting in the dim flicker of torch light, which was then immediately blocked by a large dark shape. The demon lord entered, grinning darkly at her "Well my daughter, it seems that your mortal lover has decided to come for you."

"What?"

He grinned darkly and gestured to the wall in front of her beside the door. As he did so, a red mist suddenly appeared out of nowhere, swirling about in an oval shape, and an image slowly formed within it. Star gasped at what she saw.

Jake was laying on a bed of furs and hides, with what appeared to be her in her kat form on top of him. The cinnamon tom groaned in pleasure as the shape-changed demon gently and passionately rode him, but then she leaned down and bit him on the neck. Jake gasped at first from the pain, but then the ecstasy of it flowed through him, the male tilting his head back and moaned loudly. Star snarled and fought hard against the chains. The demon lord chuckled darkly at her reaction.

"My succubus will drain him of his life energy, until he is nothing more than the another of the soulless ghouls who serve me. Perhaps I might even have him serve you, my dear, should you choose to cooperate."

"Leave him alone, monster!"

"He may have tasted your blood, but he is still only a mortal. He is not even a werewolf. Left alone, he would simply age and die. Only a short few years of pleasure before you must move on. This way, you can keep him for all eternity."

"No!"

Star snarled viciously, her eyes glowing red as she continued to struggle hard against the chains, her wrists becoming even further cut and bruised from her efforts. The demon merely shrugged. "Suit yourself. I can easily find other uses for him."

With that, he then turned and left. As he did so, the image within the swirling mist faded then vanished into nothing with a final wave of his hand before the heavy door again slammed closed. Star howled out in rage and hatred as she continued her attempts to break free, but the chains were thick and too strong even for her. Eventually she succumbed to exhaustion, hanging there limply as she began to softly cry.