April 30th 2016 Club Demonica, New York City, 9:00 PM EDT

"You're going to charge me?" I said with a laugh. "Alright, fair enough. What do you want? I could probably slip you free of the binding you're under, but it would take me years. The ritual I used to free Raven damaged that particular ability. I can't sever threads anymore, so I'll have to slowly work the bindings loose."

Whistler raised an eyebrow. "Interesting, but no. You aren't listening. I didn't say you'd have to PAY. I said you'd have to EARN it."

"I…don't understand the difference." I couldn't see what the hell he was going on about. Paying for something WAS earning it. You gave people something of value and they gave you a result, it was the literal basis of all transactions.

He snorted. "I know you don't, kid. But our girl knows what I mean." He shot Raven a proud smile, and my demoness nodded.

"Whistler is one of the most selfless beings I've ever met." She elaborated. "It's one of the reasons I was willing to befriend him. Feeling his emotions with empathy is…strange. The closest person I've felt is probably Ingrid, if that helps you understand."

I grimaced. It did. Ingrid was…unbalanced. Selfless to the point of literal self destruction. She was also incredibly loyal, which made her useful to me still, but her selflessness wasn't her best quality. Knowing this incredibly powerful balance demon suffered from the same mental illness wasn't reassuring.

"So…earn it." I said, getting the idea. "You want me to, what? Undertake a trial. Pass a test? I just offered to free you from eternal slavery, that doesn't buy me some good will?"

"You can't BUY my good will, kid. That's the whole point." Said the demon with a sad chuckle. "But I'm not going to try to make you do something heroic. That whole 'it only counts if you do it for yourself' schtick would be impossible for you. I'll accept selfish motivations. I just want you to help someone. Find a person suffering in a way they can't escape from and help them. No slow pitches either, make sure the threat against them is in your weight class."

I cursed. I'd been hoping to go free someone from drug addiction or something. It would be easy with my karmic magic.

"Ok…and then what? You'll follow me around and decide if I'm worthy? Only tell me where to find Lilith after I pass your test?" Because if he could just decide I didn't do well enough, I might put in a bunch of effort and then just not measure up. Who knew what standard a lunatic like this would use.

He looked at Raven for a long time. "I won't treat in bad faith with one of my kids. If you follow through you'll get your information. Besides, Lilith is a brat, and I've heard more than enough to know what kind of fate awaits her when she falls into your hands. Getting piledrived into the pavement by a baby dragon sounds like just the payback for all the trouble she's caused."

I could have argued that, but it seemed pointless. I just shrugged. "I have a grudge against her, but if she helps me get my dad back we'll be mostly square." I winked at Raven. "As you can tell, goth bombshells are sort of my type. Besides, I think Rae would enjoy dominating a primordial vampire."

My demoness was a switch without a doubt, and wrecking a blood sucking dommy mommy was definitely something that caught her interest.

Whistler grimaced."TMI kid, what the two of you do to the blood slut together is between you. I don't need to hear about Raven's sex life."

It made me think better of him that he so clearly treated her like his actual kid. Raven had mentioned that she liked him, but it was clear Whistler cared deeply about all his 'kids'. I could relate to taking ownership of your own people.

Before I could respond to the comment though I felt a slight chill in the air settle over us all. "Well lookie here boys." Drawled an obnoxious voice behind me. "If it isn't the little princess herself. I'm surprised to see you in here. Word around the pit is you slipped your leash and daddy isn't watching out for you anymore."

I raised an eyebrow, curious who would be stupid enough to pick a fight with Raven. Sure she wasn't able to use her powers fully before, but my demoness was still a B-ranker.

The tall golden haired man with razor sharp teeth that loomed over us had half a dozen demons of various shapes and sizes behind him. Looking around I realized that the club had mostly emptied out at this point, the rest of the demonkin bailing rather than get involved in whatever this was.

"Agramere." Said Whistler flatly. "Exactly what do you think you're doing?" The balance demon's voice was flat and cold as he stared up at the other man, his eyes beginning to glow an unearthly blue.

"Shut it old man." Sneered the blonde. "Everyone knows you've missed a step. Just sit there and nurse your drink like the waste of space you are. We're here to collect on a bounty. Rumor down in hell is Trigon the Terrible's little succubitch ran away from home. Daddy wants his portable door back something fierce, and he isn't too picky in what condition."

I glanced past him, appraising all the demons. Powerful fucking demons. B rankers, the lot of them. Jesus, where did they find them all? Was hell really this much more powerful than Olympus? Apparently they DID confirm how strong Raven was before coming here. I appraised the leader.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Agramere- B ranked demon lord. Son and heir of Agramon, demon prince of fear, Agramere is the spawn of a dangerous pit fiend and a prince of hell. Specializing in the enhancement of other demons, Agramere possesses the ability to grant power to lesser fiends for a period of time in exchange for the lives of the innocent.]

Ah. Demon steroids. I appraised the others, and sure enough, these were all C rankers that had been suped up with ritual sacrifice. Most of them were going to die from the effect, but apparently for a twenty four hour duration they'd be about as strong as real demon lords. That was annoying.

"Turn around." I said cooly. "And walk the fuck out of here. Your roid rage demon fodder isn't going to save you from the consequences of what you just said. That's MY woman you're leering at. So unless you fancy being picked out of my teeth, you ought to run away." I let my eyes blaze gold, my draconic nature unfurling in the air around me, my presence beating down on them like the glare of a ferocious sun.

None of these assholes was even close to a match for me, but there were a dozen of them, and I was pretty sure they could bury me in bodies for a bit while they attacked Raven. My girl wasn't hamstrung by her link to Trigon anymore, and could take care of herself, but if Whistler got killed, she'd tear herself up about it, plus he couldn't answer my godsdamned questions. For the sake of expedience I'd offer these fucks an out I was pretty sure they'd never take.

"Oh, is this the little slut's new pet?" He sneered. "I-" He didn't manage to finish, as I had already crossed the several feet between us and backhanded his smug ass.

"No monologuing, bitch boy." I sneered. "Got your answer loud and clear." The two nearest enhanced pit fiends roared in fury and charged me head on. I grinned. "Guard Whistler!" I bellowed back to Raven, and dipped low, getting my shoulder under one of the fiends and flipping him over my back as I blurred at the one behind him.

The second charging demon slammed into the flailing first one as I hit the unsuspecting third, my branching horns already out as I smashed them into the tall red monster's squashed face. The tips of my horns speared through its eyes, dragging a scream of pain from it as I picked the thing up and hurled it into a pair of its friends.

I felt an impact on my back as the second of the attackers slammed into me, having apparently trampled his falling buddy to reach me. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs, and I bared my teeth at him, already fully shifted to my hybrid form as a tried to tear out his throat with my fangs.

A pair of distracted demons, urged by a screaming Agremere loomed over us and tried to stomp cloven hooves on my scaled body, but before they could a wave of blue flames slammed into them, knocking them off their feet.

I turned in shock to see a towering giant armored figure standing in front of a shocked Raven. It's head was a shadowed humanoid face obscured by perpetually burning blue flame, and its massive horns scraped the ceiling. "I asked you." Rumbled Whistler. "What you thought you were doing?"

Appraising him again, I blinked in shock. Whistler was…a B ranker now? I'd just confirmed he was C rank like two minutes ago. Seeing my look of surprise he grinned. "What's the matter kid? Never seen a balance demon in a lather?" He rolled his neck, horns scraping the ceiling as he did. "What's that human phrase? I'm not as good as I once was, but I'm as good once as I ever was."

I grimaced. "Minus fifty points for making a country music reference." I said bluntly. Realizing the demon above me was distracted, I punched it in the stomach and them slammed my hors through the roof of its open mouth, jerking my head to the side and ripping right through its brain and skull.

The other demons noticed me killing their comrade and came at me again, but with Whistler in the fight, Raven was off her leash. My B ranked beauty had no reason to hold back without her father waiting to use her as a door. She snarled, a series of red eyes opening above her own gorgeous violet ones, and a wave of darklight swallowed the floor of the club like an ocean.

All the demons began to slowly sink, forced to wriggle to try to break free. Whistler and I were fine, and we both pounced on the nearest group of thugs, tearing into them with horn, fang and claw.

I roared in triumph as I grabbed a pair of demonic arms and ripped one of them in half with my bare hands. My eyes flickered as I opened them to the threads of Karma, realizing that when one of these assholes decided to attack me, their threads changed to reflect it, and since we were IN battle right now, they were easy to identify.

The next few minutes were a blur of blood, rage, and violence as my group of three demolished all of the mooks, turning on Agramere. Before I could kill him though, Whistler held up a clawed blue hand. "Wait, kid. Let me have him."

I raised an eyebrow. "You starting a bitch collection?"

He chuckled. "Nah. I plan to make an example of him. The rest of them too." He jerked his head to the side. Go do your trial. Trust me. Trigon might have leaked word he wants Raven back, but he isn't the type to pay. I'll make sure every demon in hell knows what happens when someone takes a contract on one of my kids."

Looking around, I decided these assholes weren't a threat anyway, Agramere was a support type, and hadn't done much in the fight. His minions were dead, Whistler should be fine to handle him even if whatever enhancement he was using ended. With a shrug, I glanced over at Raven. "Well, you heard the man, guess we need to go…" I shuddered."Do some good." I was never going to live this down.

April 30th 2016 Al's House of Secrets, New York City, 10:00 PM EDT

"So, you sure this is going to work?" Raven said as we followed the lead I'd made for us. "Your new magic is kind of odd, and you just got it recently, right? How do you know a spell that can do this already?"

I shook my head. "Not a spell. How to explain this? Ok, every interaction between two people sews karma. It doesn't have to be a direct interaction either. You form a karmic tie when you read about someone in the newspaper."

"Then wouldn't there be too many to count?" She said in confusion. "I'm familiar with the basic concept of karma, but that's an extremely broad criteria, it would mean I had so many karmic ties trying to find one would be meaningless."

"It would." I agreed. "Except for a few things. Karmic ties vary in several ways, and I can sort of filter my vision by choosing where to look, relatively speaking. I'm looking at the most recent ties, and ties to more powerful entities are more…substantial. Because they're stronger they have a larger effect on the world and the people related to them, even just in passing."

She nodded. "I understand. So you had me scan for large concentrations of negative emotions, thereby sewing karma with everyone I picked up, and now you're following the most noticeable of the karmic ties to form, using it to lead us to someone who is powerful."

"Maybe." I shrugged. "Or they're being suppressed by someone powerful. Like I said, karma is weird. We might be following the tie to the person who is hurting whoever it is, having caught the link obliquely when we became involved. Either way, we should be careful going into this situation, just in case."

The tie this time was…weird. I still wasn't completely sure how to read all the details from karmic ties, not the deeper ones, but I could see that this person was…a huge asshole. I didn't much go in for good or evil, but this guy was definitely a psychopath. Full on malicious sadist nutjob, to the point where I suspected the Joker would have a similar feel.

That said, he wasn't exactly powerful, more power adjacent? Karmic reading was pretty similar to viewing aura in some ways I was pretty sure, but more personal. I needed to get a better handle on how to parse the details.

As we walked past the weird abandoned magic shop and toward the house across the street though, I started noticing that the threads in this area were seriously warped. Not just the ones connecting to me, whoever was here had been here for a while, and he'd soaked the whole area in hate and ridiculously black magic. It was like walking into the karmic equivalent of a toxic waste dump. There was full strength murder crazy coming off every fucking rock here in waves.

Raven had noticed it too, she'd gotten tense as hell and look vaguely ill. "This is a terrible place. People have suffered here. Lots of people, I've seen literal insane asylums where people were tortured to death that didn't stink of this much malice. I can sense one signature much more strongly than the others. I think they're still here. Tied to this place. I think this is who we're here to help."

That actually wasn't so bad. I didn't want to turn into some goody goody saving cats from trees, but killing someone nuts enough to live in this hellhole was just good business. This was way too close to Brightedge for my comfort, and I wasn't leaving something strong enough to form a tie that dense with hobbies like these alive so close to my girls.

One of the main benefits of my karmic eye made itself known though, as the tie we'd been following shifted in something larger and more relevant. Not just dense, but thickening into a clear and present danger. I grabbed Raven as she stepped toward the house, pulling her back as a rod slash of light carved up the ground where she'd been standing.

"Its reflexes are impressive." Sneered a lazy voice from the shadows to one side of us. I hadn't realized anyone was there, and as the person stepped out, I gave him a quick appraisal. Which didn't tell me much, because this guy was like…H-rank. Despite that his attack had struck me as a genuine threat.

It took me a second to figure out WHY, but once I did, I grimaced. "Shit. Magic sword. Nasty one too. Thing is even stronger than Balmung. REALLY stringent use conditions though. Still, it's not actually making him stronger, he's still a normal person if you take away the boost."

[Appraisal function activated. Sword of Beowulf- B rank. A mystical sword of conceptual monster slaying, once wielded by the greatest warrior of an age against the Mother of All Monsters and her spawn. Quenched in the hearts blood of a monstrous matriarch, this sword offers immense power to those it deems worthy.]

What the hell was the standard for worthiness? Because this guy was pure batshit, that was clear at a glance. Billy 'Harm' Hayes, martial arts genius and basically peak human, killed his little sister personally to 'purify' himself from emotion.

I suspected even the old, sociopathic me would have hated this asshole. The current me…he'd harmed something that was his. Destroyed his own property and betrayed someone who loved him to do it. He disgusted me on multiple levels. And he dressed REALLY stupid. Come on? Open trench coat, no shirt? What a poser. Sure, I was wearing something similar, but I was dressed for a fucking demon nightclub, this asshole was just beating around his house.

Also. "Did you just call me fucking 'it'?" I said incredulously. "Becuase…I mean…fuck you too? That's rude as shit. I don't even know you, Fabio. I am not an IT, I'm an actual fucking dragon. What are you? A former gymnastics prodigy with a magic pig sticker?"

Nodding to Raven, I jerked my chin toward the house. We were on a mission, and it wasn't to bitch slap this long haired little weirdo. I could distract him well enough. Magic sword or not, he was still only human.

"It seeks to denigrate Harm." He sneered. "A mere beast, measuring itself against Harm's legendary strength."

"Ok, first of all." I said in annoyance. "Legendary to fucking WHO? I've never heard of you. Second of all, stop talking about yourself in the third person. You sound fucking ridiculous. That sword has terrible taste if you're what it considers worthy."

With a snarl, he flashed forward, and I rolled my eyes and sidestepped. He was being enhanced by the sword, but his physical body was AT BEST on par with mine. He also didn't have much actual combat experience with a blade I was assuming, because I'd fought actual swordsmen, and he was mostly just swinging that thing around like a sharp metal club.

My karmic eye was open though, and I easily sidestepped the attack. Harm (which was a stupid name) swung several more times, and I easily dodged every attack. His snarl became wild as he gradually sped up to the point where I wouldn't have been able to outpace him if I hadn't been able to read his moves.

I saw the sneaky look in his eye appear as he cut his eyes to the side towards where Raven had just headed, and the thread connecting us shifted slightly. With a curse I blurred forward, slamming into him and linebacking the little bastard sideways as he let off another energy slash toward my demoness.

The motion of the blade continued, and I didn't have time to knock him out of the way and dodge at the same time. My arm came up to tank the slash, and I snarled in pain as the red energy carved through my flesh and bit deep into the bone.

Cursing, I tried to flood my arm with energy, karmic ties were made of life force and fate energy, and due to my origins as a Primal Spark dragon, I still had access to most of the useful tricks I'd had before. Despite that though, when the energy hit my arm, it fizzled out, sizzling off the dense red aura the blade left in my body.

"You little fucker!" I snapped, tearing off my sleeve and knotting it around the wound to stem the blood flow. Monster slaying. The sword's nature was to kill unnatural creatures. Creatures like me. Plus the energy density was almost A rank, and my own power didn't seem to be enough to get rid of it quickly.

I could erode it over time, but it was going to be annoying. My left hand, the one that wasn't injured, lashed out, shifting into my hybrid form as my claws raked at the asshole's throat. Harm blurred backwards, bringing up his sword, and there were sparks as my claws smashed into the metal and bounced off.

The psycho grinned at me haughtily. "It seeks to outdo Harm. None can surpass Harm's greatness. The beast will be butchered, as all beasts eventually are. Look, its blood waters Harm's lawn even as we speak."

Cracking my neck, I glared at him. "Alright. No more of this shit." I inhaled deeply and then let forth a massive torrent of golden energy. Not the Primal Spark, but a stream of powerful fate and life oriented energy from the beginning of the world. I absolutely wasn't fucking around with this asshole anymore.

Sadly, while Harm himself should have been ashed by the damned breath, his stupid fucking sword was NOT. His arm blurred as the blade came up to bisect the breath attack, which branched off to either side and tore a pair of huge holes in the abandoned magic shop across the streets, effectively consuming both sides of the building in a colossal wave of light and damage. Oops. At least it was empty.

"Enough." Said Raven from behind me. I turned to see her standing next to a much smaller but equally hooded figure in white. She glared at Harm. "How dare you? How dare you use that blade, how dare you consider yourself worthy, consider yourself pure after what you've done?"

He grinned. "Harm IS pure. Pure evil. Harm has offered his heart to darkness, and severed the filth of mortal attachments." His eyes fixed on the white hooded girl. "You attempts at subterfuge are laughable. Harm let go his love for his sister when he laid her to rest."

"Wait…" I said slowly. "It's a fucking PLACEBO?" Everyone looked at me. "That's some Egyptian feather scale bullshit. You're worthy because you THINK you're worthy? Because I don't believe that pure evil bullshit at all. Purity is obviously a state of mind thing. You killed your own sister so you could use Dumbo's magic feather."

That got a reaction. Specifically, one I'd expected. Doubt. "That's not true. Harm sacrificed Greta, his most precious thing, to become pure. The sword can see into Harm's heart, it knows that nothing but wickedness remains."

"Oh you're a total shitbag." I agreed. "No redeeming qualities at all. But that doesn't make you powerful. Being a sociopath doesn't magically grant you superhuman abilities, trust me, I'm very familiar with the concept. That sword isn't judging shit except how guilty you feel. Which should be a lot, because you straight up murdered your last remaining relative for no reason. You could have just meditated or some shit."

"That's…you're wrong." He stammered, slipping out of his third person bullshit. "I…I mean Harm." His eyes widened, realizing that his 'purity' was vanishing. Which made sense, since I was pretty sure he'd used some kind of weird PTSD induced self hypnosis to brainwash himself into thinking he was some kind of perfect evil warrior.

The sword in his hand began to spark with red electricity, and his eyes widened. "No!" He yelled. "Stop! I'm worthy. I swear I'm worthy. You can't!" Sadly for him, it could, and the electricity increased, forcing him to drop the sword. The tattoos that indicated its power was boosting him vanished, and he looked up at us with dread. I smiled back, showing him lots of teeth as I walked over and picked up the sword. A hundred million points(and some nasty red electricity) funneled into me as I shoved it in my pouch. Now to finish the mission.

April 30th 2016 Al's House of Secrets, New York City, 11:00 PM EDT

Despite being back up to two hundred plus million points after getting the sword, my job was unfortunately not finished. Beating the shit out of scumbags was great, but I was supposed to help this girl to get the info I needed.

"Alright." I said after knocking out discount fabio to shut him up. "So. Small blonde girl. We're supposed to be helping you. What's your deal?How are we supposed to help with…this?" I waved at her. I'd already appraised her, and the G ranked ghost girl had been sticking around to see her brother brought to justice. Which he had been. Basically.

She gave me a serious, soulful look. "Secret." She said sadly. I waited, but she didn't feel the need to elaborate.

I sighed. "See, that's not helpful." I glanced at Raven. "You reading anything off her? Because I'm pretty sure that's the only word she knows. Having an empath here is a good shortcut, so…what exactly does she need?"

My demoness looked absolutely heartbroken (which considering her resting bitch face was closer to slightly sad). "She simply feels pain. Her brother was her most beloved family member, and his betrayal is a wound that can't be mended. Despite us discovering his misdeeds we can't undo what he's done. It's too late for a second chance."

I froze. "That…might not be true." I was going to be retrieving my old man from the underworld. If I got him back I would need to actually restore him to life. I'd need to learn how to bind spirits into bodies. So why not do both at once. Help the girl and work the kinks out of the resurrection process. I suspected the experimental aspects of it might be frowned upon by Raven and Whistler but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

Raven looked at me suspiciously, but I wasn't really feeling guilty or anything about this. She was already dead, what was I going to do, kill her twice? There was nothing but upside to trying this. I turned to the blonde. "Hey, kid. Your body buried near here?"

"Secret." She said unhelpfully, but she also gestured for us to follow and turned to lead us into the yard behind the house. I had Raven carry hair boy in a cocoon of darklight because I didn't want him to wake up and try to escape.

When we got to the back yard, she led us down a small path to a little patch of grass behind a shed. There was a plank of wood hammered into the ground, and on it was carved. 'Greta Hayes. Beloved sister.' I grimaced. What a dick. Killing his own sister was shitty enough, but he had to put her in the motel six of shallow graves?

"Rae, do me a favor. Dig her up for me. I have a plan." It was pretty brilliant too. This would definitely fix her problem.

She gave me a flat look, but then rolled her eyes, even as they flared with darklight. The dirt shifted slightly as a very desiccated corpse wriggled its way up from the earth, coming to a rest on top of the now disturbed grave. I looked closely, and sure enough, I could see the threads connecting the body to the spirit, and the ones connecting both to Harm.

"That'll work." I said with a grin. "Go ahead and set fabio next to her. Don't let him loose, just line him up beside the body." Once we had that done, I reached into the pouch, and with a hiss of pain I dragged out the sword, letting it thump point down into the dirt between the two prone siblings.

As I did so, I paid close attention to the interactions between them. The karmic threads wove through the bodies, the spirit, and the sword. The bindings between all three were pretty deep, though the sword mostly had its hooks into the Harm. Despite it releasing him when he came 'unworthy' its energy was still leaching out of him. Not a ton, but enough.

Despite having all the ingredients, this particular bit of karmic magic was going to be tough to pull off. I wouldn't have been able to do it if I wasn't looking at an example. I knelt down, studying the link between the sword and Harm.

it was one directional, the energy draining away in a binding that bypassed the swords requirements to return its power. You didn't need to be worthy for the sword to take it back, so none of the protections showed themselves. With a grin, I stood up, walking over to the girls body and reached for one of her karmic ties.

The thread binding her to her brother I looped back around itself, then hooked it through the tangential thread she had linking her to the sword through him. I strung the thread through the aura of the blade the same way Harms was currently strung, but backwards. As the energy poured into the sword from Harm, bypassing the blade's defenses, it also poured OUT of the sword and into Greta.

Life energy flooded the body, healing and restoring it to the perfect state. Of course, the body was still EMPTY but even as we watched, it started to unrot itself. Skin smoothing, muscle knitting, hair growing, resetting itself to a pre death state. The last thing to vanish was a stab wound through the heart I assumed was the deathblow.

Timing wise it was ideal, because as I watched the sword started to spark. Weirdly it was only shocking Harm, probably because Greta might actually BE pure of heart, or maybe because she was an ambulatory pile of meat. Regardless of the reason, I disconnected them both from the blade, storing it away, before I got to the tricky part.

Healing her with chip backdoor exploits to a magic sword was one thing, but the next part was going to be tough. I was going to raise the dead. Granted, not a very STRONG dead. I was binding a basically human level soul into its own perfectly healed body, but still, it was going to be a tricky process.

"Raw." I grunted as I studied the nearby connections. The karmic links between body and soul were complicated as hell, but weirdly a lot of them didn't break after death as much as sort of fade? "Can you lay her soul into her body with your powers? Connect them the way your soul self is connected to you? Just temporarily."

I'd been planning to just study the soul body connection and mimic it to put the soul back in, but the weaving of ties between flesh and spirit might as well have been greek to me. Still I recognized the way Raven's darklight connected to her body as similar enough. If she could overlay Greta's soul I could mimic that using the faded threads. Sort of like laying an outline for me to trace as a shortcut.

There was so damn much for me to learn about karmic magic. This was an extremely premature attempt at something this complicated. If it wasn't for the presence of Harm, the sword, her own link to her existing body, and Raven's abilities, there's no way I'd be able to pull this off.

For my dad's resurrection I needed to use a merged item. Freehanding this shit so early into my karmic research had been a stupid decision.

Raven's eyes glowed and I saw Greta light up the same way. Her soul was dragged forward, overlaying itself on her flesh perfectly. The darklight acted as a temporary binder, just like I'd expected. This was basically necromancy, though more active than that, but it give me an easy model to use for my spellwork.

Finding the connecting points of body and soul was easy at least. I could see them on pretty much everyone.I'd done a bit of research, and apparently karmic ties interfaced with a system of energy where the soul and body were connected through points on the body called 'meridians'.

Normally, connecting a soul to a body was complicated, since the spirit and flash both had meridians, and if the didn't line up it would produce dissonance. Luckily since this was Greta's original body, her meridians were perfectly overlapped, and with Raven holding her soul in place with magic I was easily able to thread those faded connecting threads through the meridians and connect them together.

Without any of the existing factors I couldn't have managed. The original body, once healed by the sword, lined up perfectly, and the magic held her still so I could stitch. If any factors had been missing Greta would have come back all kinds of fucked up. I was so glad I hadn't tried this for the first time on my dad.

As I connected the last meridian, I supercharged my hand with that golden life energy and slammed it down on her heart in a fist, driving the energy through her. It blew away the necromancy, solidified the fading threads and reconnected the body and soul through the meridians, jump starting her heart and flooding life back into her body.

She gasped, sitting blot upright, eyes flying wide, and I slumped back, panting with effort. I looked her over with my karmic eye. She looked fine. Body and soul aligned, karmic links in place, meridians threaded properly. She was, to all appearances, a perfectly healthy living teenage girl.

Rae draped her cloak over the blonde to cover her up, not the needed to, this situation was the opposite of sexy. Even I have limits to when I'll leer, besides she was too young for me. Greta, who was having her body flooded with literal years of memories of being a ghost haunting her psychotic brother, started to sob, and my demoness put her arms around the girl, pulling her close.

I let her do the comforting, it wasn't my scene, I just let myself recover. Working with B ranked energy from the sword, resurrecting the dead, and trying to break down the fucking poison in my arm so I could heal, all of these things had drained the shit out of me. Still, we'd done it. She was ok, and alive.

That seemed like being 'helped' to me. If Whistler had any intention of acting in good faith he would accept this result.

"Why do you seem surprised that worked?" Raven asked suspiciously. She was still holding the crying former ghost, with Harm bound up on the ground nearby and staring at his sister in terrified guilt. He'd woken up a bit ago, but he was still bound by Raven's darklight restraints and couldn't move.

I shrugged. "Just surprised it worked so quickly. I was expecting it to be harder." Which was technically true, and I focused on that feeling. Deciding to distract her, I turned to Greta. "Hey there casper, how are you feeling? Or is that a secret?" She glared at me, her finger coming up to flip me off, and I chuckled. "Atta girl. Now come on, you're coming with us."

Raven nodded. "I think we should hand her over to Whistler. She feels…different. I think some of my magic got mixed in there during the revival. He'll know how to help her best." Left unsaid was that Greta was like, fifteen, and bringing her home would be wildly irresponsible. Even I had limits.

We stopped at a mental hospital, checking the drained and traumatized Harm in after telling them he was an attempted murderer. He was actually a SUCCESSFUL murderer, but sadly we'd brought back the only victim we could definitely attribute to him, so attempted would have to do for now.

When we arrived back at the club, Whistler was sitting the now undamaged building, in his regular seat, sipping a beer. We walked Greta right up to him and plonked her down in the booth. "Congratulations." I said with a smile. "It's a girl. Now cough up that info." This little detour had been amusing, but time was wasting. I needed to find a vampire so I could go get my dad.

May 1st 2016 Eternal Night Tattoo Parlor, New York 6:00 PM EDT

"Are we sure Whistler wasn't just fucking with us?" I asked for the third time as we stood outside the tattoo parlor he'd directed us to. After we'd dropped off Greta, he'd wasted no time giving us the lead he had, but it was already starting to get early and we wanted to make sure our timing held, so we got a room and slept in. Then we fucked around for a while until it was time to come by.

Raven sighed. "Yes. I can feel the presences below us. The parlor is simply a cover. This is a vampire club, and according to Whistler she's been holding court here regularly. You saw what he was like when he gets serious. He's an extremely old and crafty being, and he's developed many friends in that time."

"Maybe he should develop better taste in clothes." I said dryly. "That stupid porkpie hat makes him look like a bad loan shark."

"Are there good loan sharks?" She asked in amusement, arching an eyebrow.

I shrugged. "If there are, they definitely don't dress like that. Speaking of dressing, you sure it's ok to wear these club clothes a second day in a row?" I normally didn't mind that kind of thing, but these leather pants did NOT breathe.

She frowned, looking down at herself. "You don't like my outfit anymore?" Despite the mostly deadpan expression, she arched her back a bit, shoving those big goth titties out for me inspection as she gazed up at me innocently through her eyelashes. Despite being so stoic, my goth had some demon in her, and she knew how to use that ridonculous body.

I reached out and smacked a partially exposed cheek lightly. "Don't tease, or I'll hike your dress up and fuck you in that alley over there." Her lips quirked up in a slight smirk, and I rolled my eyes. Sadly(or happily judging by the view) she turned and headed into the tattoo parlor and I followed her in.

Pushing the door open, the first thing I noticed was the heat, smoke, and the smell. Human bodies, sex, drugs, and a light tang of blood. Despite all that, the actual parlor didn't seem to have any of those things.

The cramped, dark space was covered in artwork hung on the walls and displayed on the tables. It all gave off a lambent glow in the black light. People sat in the chairs in various states of undress. One guy was getting a dark phoenix on his back, and a woman had her face down and ass in the air as another girl with a lip piercing inked a spider web across a bare cheek.

Before we could do much, a girl appeared. Pigtails and black and white makeup. "How can I help you?" She asked in a bored tone. "We're appointment only, so I can't get you a chair unless you're on the list."

I blinked, letting my draconic eyes come to the forefront. "Really? That's a shame, we heard this was the place to be." I rested a hand on Raven's waist and yanked her against me, and my goth flexed her inner demon a bit, eyes glowing red. "You sure you can't…fit us in? You seem like a girl who can handle a little cramming. After all, the party never ends when the night goes on forever." That last bit was a code Whistler had given us, though I cringed at having to use it. Fucking vampires.

She licked her lips hungrily, eyes running over us. I wasn't surprised. We looked like walking sex, and this little cutie was vamp bait. Big bad monsters with great bodies in tight clothes was her dream come true. She'd probably be jilling off in the bathroom within five minutes of us entering the club.

"O-of course." She stammered, eyes wide with lust and excitement. "Please. Follow me." She turned and flounced away, her skirt bouncing up to reveal a tight, bare ass. Not much junk in the trunk, but the smooth tight cheeks had their own charm.

Sadly I wasn't here to fuck vamp groupies in a tattoo chair, as fun as that sounded. I saw Raven glancing down at the bare ass on display and smirked. Succubus is as succubus does. Shame we couldn't take the time to share her. Though speaking of sharing, I really should swing Rae by Superbabes and share her with goth tits the size queen. Two Ravens are better than one, it's twice the fun.

The vamp groupie (whose name was Valerie, though according to her appraisal chose to refer to herself as Sunset) led us across the room toward a coffin leaned against the wall. She pulled open the door, revealing a small alcove that led to a set of stairs descending into a loud, dark basement level.

Once the coffin was opened the smell of sex and drugs got stronger, as did the scent of blood. My draconic senses ALSO let me smell how wet the masochistic juice box escorting us was getting, but she didn't head down, just stepping back and lowering her head submissively. Giving her a quick pat on the ass (because she'd been waving it at me and it would have been rude not to cop a feel) I thanked her and dragged Raven down the steps.

When we got down there it got harder to see. Smoke, flashing lights of multiple colors, dark, and loud music. Luckily I could see the threads of karma, and being so close to Lilith, my link to her was MUCH stronger than it had been.

I pulled Rae with me into a back corner, where the vampire queen was holding court. I appraised her, but was relieved to see that even recovered she was still B rank. She was as strong as a god, but not a king of gods. She saw us approaching and smirked at us. "Well, well, if it isn't my wayward puppy? You finally confident enough to come avenge your daddy?"

As she spoke her hands ran over the body of the bombshell in her lap. Long red hair, tight red corset over fat tits, midriff bared, long legs wrapped in red leather. She was grinding her ass into Lilith's lap as the older vampire drew lazy circles on her toned stomach.

"You putting on that show for me?" I asked lazily. "Because A plus for effort. It's a very pretty picture. But if I was here to kill you, it wouldn't stop me."

She flashed me a fang filled grin. "What? My snack?" She reached up and slapped one corseted tit, dragging a moan from the redhead. "She's all for me. I don't need to show off for nobodies. This little slut just likes to show off for her mommy. Don't you Looker?" The redhead mewled, nodding rapturously.

"Snack is right." I said with a laugh. "Though I'd eat that girl as a whole damn meal. Somehow I doubt that's what you're talking about. In any case, I'm not here to fight. I want to talk. I need your help with something."

Lilith raised a brow, then unceremoniously dumped the redhead out of her lap. "Wrist." She demanded of the girl. My appraisal told me her name was Emily Briggs, and apparently she was actually a vampire. And a supermodel. She presented her arm meekly to the elder vamp, who nodded at me to continue. "Elaborate." Then she bit down and began to drink.

Looker, as Lilith had called the redhead moaned and went stiff, hips rolling in the ear as she came in her red leather pants. I ignored the spectacle. "You owe me." I reached down to wind my hand in the karmic thread that bound us and started to twist. This was a strong debt, easy to leverage.

Her hand snapped to the line as if she could see it and she pulled back from the arm of the younger vampire. "Fuck. Karma." She shoved her arm away. "Go clean yourself up." She said in a bored tone. "Then strip that ass and wait in my room. I'm feeding from the thigh tonight."

The redhead gave a shuddering breath. "Yes mommy." She moaned, slipping out of the booth and crawling under the table.

"You turned her?" I asked, despite knowing the answer. I'd seen it in the appraisal, but it seemed polite to ask.

She gave a hum of affirmation. "Saw her in a magazine. Shame she can't be photographed anymore. She was sweet so I decided to keep her. Very enthusiastic and she doesn't chatter. I hate talky food. Now, when exactly did you pick up karmic magic? I don't remember that from last time. Or all this power either."

I shrugged. "Man's gotta have secrets. Keep all those sexy vampire girls on the hook. Why don't you just think of it as an air of mystery and we can refocus on that favor you owe me."

"You know the biggest flaw in karmic debts?" The vampire queen said conversationally. "Without someone to leverage the debt the karma doesn't do shit. What's to stop me from killing you right now and washing my hands of the whole thing?"

"Well for one, that'd be boring. You don't strike me as the kind of girl who likes to be boring." I said with a smirk. "For another I brought a friend. Between the two of us you wouldn't stand a chance."

She purred as she looked at Raven. "Shame, I'd love to be between the two of you. Hello poppet. I don't know who you are, but you smell DIVINE. You want to give mommy a little taste? I can smell the demon blood. Succubi taste so rich and sweet. Like whore candy." She bit her lip. "Give me the candy whore and I'll do whatever you want."

Rolling my eyes, I yanked Raven into my lap. "She's mine, and I'm not GIVING her to anyone. I MIGHT let you taste her if she's up for it. But you'll help us anyway. The brutal hatefuck sandwich will just be icing on the cake."

"You DO know how to talk to a lady." She giggled, fluttering her lashes at me. "What do you want?"

"I want you to go to hell." I said solemnly. "And preferably take us with you. I'm going to go get my dad back from the underworld, and I need a guide. You've been there a few times from what I know."

Her playful expression dropped. "That's…a very poor decision. The underworld is not a place to play. If you go in, you might very well never come out again. I'm not too concerned about escaping, but you're unlikely to leave without a problem. Why would I do this for you? Debt aside, it would probably be better for you if I said no."

Shaking my head, I didn't bother to entertain her little hypothetical. "You're taking us. After you're done, or at least after we've entered the underworld, we'll have some fun with you. I won't force Rae to feed you, but if she doesn't I will. You ever had elder dragon blood? Because if it's as good as our brandy you're in for a treat."

I could have probably just bullied her into it, but she was strong enough that it seemed like a poor choice. Besides, I always preferred the carrot to the stick, even with all the power I'd accrued it was still easier.

She stared at me for a bit, then sighed. "Fine, but if I'm going to be going into that hellhole I'll need some time to gather a few things and prepare." She paused, smiling at Raven. "You sure you don't want to pay up front, candy? My little carrot cake and I are going to have some fun tonight. You could play with us."

My demoness just raised an eyebrow blandly and the vampire queen slid out of the booth. "Very well, I'll go start preparing the things I need. I recommend you look into supplies as well. Food and drink don't exist in the underworld, if either of you indulge. We can meet back here tomorrow." And with that, she was gone. I sighed, I couldn't tell if that had gone really well or if I should be worried it had been too easy. Guess time would tell.

May 2nd 2016 Stull, Kansas 6:00 PM EDT

Preparations were definitely in order for a trip to hell. I went on a spending and merging spree in New York for the rest of that night, Raven escorting me to her favorite brokers. I gained some points for buys, but blew much more than I got in return, and by the time I was finished, I evened out at about two hundred million points even.

The next day, we got a message from Lilith with directions, and that was how Raven and I found ourselves driving several hours into rural Kansas, to the weird little backwater town of Stull.

The directions she left us led to an old abandoned church next to a run down cemetery In the center of the graveyard stood a massive twisted hanging tree, and under the tree's twist black boughs sat Lilith.

The sun had already begun to set, and the whole cemetery was cast in shadow by the remains of the church. The vampire queen sat in a black and white beeth chair, drinking a suspiciously dark red bloody mary. As she saw us approach, she reached up to push down the large black framed sunglasses she was wearing, slurping her drink a bit.

"So that's why you sent us ahead." I laughed. "You had another way to get here. Although… I'm not entirely certain why any of us are HERE specifically. This place is a run down shithole, I thought we were headed for the underworld." I looked around. "I mean, from a certain perspective this is definitely hell, but like…only metaphorically."

She chuckled darkly. "You're far more right than you know. Tell me, have you ever heard of the old ways?"

I actually had. "Yeah, I read about them in one of the books in Zee's library. They're natural portals right? Weak spots in the dimensions that allow passage to other worlds." I glanced around. "Are you saying there's a naturally occurring portal to hell in fucking Kansas?"

"There is." She said with an amused smirk. "Though it predates this town. Old ways don't really function in a predictable manner. They're just worn spots in the fabric of reality. They also have a unique advantage. They can allow access to extremely distant locations without necessitating a large power expenditure. As a place in the Sphere of the Gods, hell is extremely difficult to open a stable portal into."

"The sphere of the gods?" I asked in confusion. "That's a place? I mean, I've been to Mount Olympus so I guess I've been there? But I didn't realize there was that big of a problem reaching there. Why can the Greeks open a portal if we can't?"

She shook her head. "I don't believe they did. They're probably using their own old way. Most of the pantheons have located at least one." That made some sense actually. Maybe they arranged for the Parthenon to be built there. It was an interesting thing to consider.

"So, this old way." I asked, looking around. "Where exactly is it?" The Greeks had their giant staircase into the sky, it would be hard to hide something similar to that in such a remote place.

Sighing in annoyance, she drained her glass and then stood up lazily. I admit, it was a sexy sight, watching her body undulate as she rose to her feet. She wasn't wearing her sexy loincloth outfit sadly, this time she was dressed in what looked like biker leathers, the pants of which were practically painted across her generous ass.

Her eyebrow rose challengingly when she saw me staring. "Oh, looks like you're interested in a little action. You going to share your candy with me little dragon? I'd let you have your fill for a sip from those thick, muscular thighs of hers. Plus it appeals to me on a personal level. A beast, a vampire, and a demonspawn fucking in a ruined church? That must be a new record in terms of sacrilege."

"I'd love to." I said with amusement. "But we should probably be on our way. If it makes you feel any better I'll take my frustrations with the wait out on that sweet ass of yours when we stop. As for Raven, she said she isn't against letting you taste, but you'll need to put something else in your mouth for a while first." I winked at her as I flicked my eyes down at my dick.

Raven HAD said something like that. She knew I was planning to claim Lilith, so letting her have a sip wouldn't hurt. Feeding her such rare prey would help me subdue the vampire queen, and that in turn would mean more points to upgrade the girls.

She licked her lips as she stared at Raven hungrily. "I'll show you both how good my mouth is if it gets me a taste of that sweet goth ass." She shuddered. "There's something so enchanting about these modern goths. I suspect I've developed a preference. So elegant and permissive, they're the perfect snacks."

I nodded. "Sexy goth girls are definitely top tier." Goth was justice. I liked all kinds of women, but something about a busty goth really got my motor running. The thought really made me want a piece of my own Goth. I'd make sure Lilith and I both played with Raven plenty when we made our first stop.

Sadly, that was then and this was now. We followed Lilith's leather clad ass through the cemetery for a while, staying in the shadows to avoid the last slivers of sunlight, and finally came to a large, hulking mausoleum. Lilith snapped the chain off it, then pulled open the iron gate.

We followed her into the squat stone building, and I was amused to see the walls lined with skulls and empty candle sconces. Lilith ignored all of it, leading me to the back where a massive squatting demon statue loomed menacingly over the rest of the crypt.

"Well, that's…creepy." I said lightly as I stared up at the slavering statue. It wasn't scary or anything obviously, just weird and kind of gross. Beady eyes, close packed fangs. The whole thing was just unsettling to me. Like someone had gone out of their way to make the ugliest possible statue.

The eyes lit up red. "Well you're no beauty queen yourself, mate." Sneered the gargoyle in a cockney accent. Its face began to twist and warp as it shifted from stone grey to a deep dark green.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Palkus- C ranked demon. The guardian of the Sacrilege Steps, a warrior demon charged with the safekeeping of Hell's most stable old way.]

"First of all." I said in irritation. "I'm fucking gorgeous." I reached over and yanked Raven against me. "You think an ugly guy can pull a prime piece of ass like this?" I smacked a cheek. "Look at these cheeks. This is all mine. Second of all, you look like the dog shit someone scraped off their shoe before entering a house."

I admit, it was a bit of an overreaction, but with the bounty and that other asshole, I wanted to make it clear to all these demonic fucks that Raven was MINE. Half demon or not, she belonged to me body and soul, and I would fucking CRUSH anyone who tried to touch her.

From what I could tell, A rank would be the equivalent of the kings of gods, which would be the princes of Hell. There were only nine of those, so my odds of running into one weren't great anyway, and even if I did, there were three of us at the peak of B rank, and I was sure we could pull something off.

The gargoyle snorted at me, but to my surprise seemed more amused than pissed off. I guessed demons understood marking their territory. Raven herself was flushed and avoiding eye contact after the public display, a fact that had our vampire companion eyeing her like a slab of prime rib.

"Anyway, Mistress Lilith, you are, of course, welcome to return to the Houses of Pain." He said with a low bow that scraped his horns across the ceiling above us. "How low do you intend to descend?"

I expected her to look to me, but apparently she had a good idea where we were heading to pickup my dad, at least in a general sense. "We're heading for Murmur. Fourth circle shouldn't be too deep."

"Of course." He said obsequiously. "Most of the great lords are currently holding court in the ninth circle. The city of Avarice is still packed with lesser devils and even a few truly powerful fiends, however, so be cautious, my lady."

She nodded. "Understood. Please stand aside so we might mount the Stair." With another nod, The gargoyle climbed up along the walls to hang above the doorway, withdrawing his wings to reveal a gap that lead out onto a large open platform.

Stepping out onto the platform, I stared down the length of the stairs. The steps were black basalt stone, carved with disturbing images and pictographs. Each step was inlaid with the bones of human beings, and over the side I could see an endless drop.

The abyss was lit randomly with red orange fire flickering inside crimson clouds that swirled in the depths, intermittently lighting the way. From below us rose a heated, fetid wind, replete with the scent of sulfur and rotting flesh, and the screams of the damned echoed eerily off the stone of the Sacrilege Stair, like the buzzing of horrible suffering flies.

Lilith grimaced. "So gauche. None of the demon architects have an ounce of subtlety or taste. Oh, a stairway to hell? Make it out of black stone and bones and have it smell like sulfur. When I was Lucifer's mistress we expected real creativity from our subjects. None of this templated garbage."

I raised a brow at that. "So the Lucifer thing was literal? You actually fucked the devil? What was that like?"

Her annoyed expression turned to a fond smile. "Lucy was a handsome rogue, and an excellent lover. We grew apart over time. Some people are meant to stay in your life forever, and some only make an appearance. Last I heard he retired and moved to Los Angeles. Opened up a nightclub or some such. Or so my contacts in the underworld claim. It certainly sounds like him."

"The devil…retired?" I asked in confusion. "How does that even work? Wasn't he banished to the pit by God?"

She shrugged. "Lucy only ever really played by his own rules. His assignment to perdition was as much his own choice as anyone else's. Apparently he decided he'd had enough. It's caused a terrible mess down here from what I've been told. Though the first of the fallen is the top contender to take the throne."

Great. Hell politics. Because irony just wasn't ironic enough before, we needed to up our game. "So what's this Murmur place by the way?" I asked as we started to slowly descend the steps.

To my surprise, Raven answered. "Murmur is the massive city of greed in the fourth circle. As cesspool of crime and horror. It's said you can find anything in Murmur, under the watchful eye of the demon prince Mammon, the city is a monument to avarice and indulgence. Mostly demons frequent it, but the greediest humans arrive in the fourth circle as well."

"Ah. Well, that makes sense." My dad certainly didn't get to where he was by being content with what he had. I'd asked Lilith to guide us, and if she thought the old man was in the demon greed city, that's where we'd check. I could use the threads of Karma to find him once we were close enough, but getting us to the general area was still ideal.

That said, it wasn't all wine and roses. Somehow I didn't think visiting the city of the demon prince whose name I'd been using was going to go smoothly. My luck just wasn't that good, I got the sinking feeling this little trip would be more complicated than I'd hoped.

As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent up to ten thousand words of advance content.