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Lines of Shadow: Sequel to Somewhere Between	By : AceMaxwell Category: G through L > Hellboy Views: 4117 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Hellboy or any related character and make no money off this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Prophecies
- 2-Reunion
- 3-Artifact
- 4-Inferno
- 5-Flightless
- 6-Valhalla
- 7-Fate
- 8-Broken
- 9-Seduction
- 10-Unleashed
- 11-Traitor
- 12-Overrun
- 13-Vows
- 14-Escape
- 15-War
- 16-Humanity
- 17-Ragnarok
- 18-Judgment
- 11
- 12
- 13
Y'all couldn't honestly think that I'd actually kill off John? There would be no more smut!

- John

The sky is black. I manage a few slow blinks, but it stays black. There's a slight glow to the clouds. At first, I think it's coming from the ground, illuminating the clouds in a red hue, but the light is coming from within. There's fire rolling and curling just beneath the surface of the smoke. Here and there, it drips through like magma and falls to the ground.

I rotate my head slightly, hissing as pain slams through me. It's hard to breathe. I swallow and slide my tongue around in my mouth. It tastes like I had copper BBs for breakfast. Why is there blood in my mouth? I must've bitten my lip or something.

Other sensations come to me slowly. There's something hard jabbing into my shoulder blades and the back of my knees. That's really only a secondary pain when compared to the ache in my chest. It feels like someone hit me in the sternum with a sledgehammer. I might have a cracked rib, but I can't gather enough strength to sit up and check.

I roll my head the other way, with a less intense jolt of pain. The Virgin Mary is staring down at me. It's not THE Virgin Mary, it's just a statue, but what the hell? Where am I? My brow furrows as I try to scrape up any memory I can. I was standing on the bridge with Odin…

I lift my arm, which is as heavy as a fifty-pound barbell, and wipe at the dark trails running down the statue's face. The tip of my finger comes back red. It's blood. I've heard of signs like this but I've never actually encountered it in all my years of work. I know HB has. When great evil approaches a town or city, often it's preceded by holy statues crying. Only when the evil is very dark do they cry blood.

When I turn to survey the rest of my surroundings, a yelp rips out of my throat. There are several corpses huddled around me. One looks as though he's been floating in a river for days. His skin is bloated and sagging off the bone, making his face longer than it should be. The eyes are sunken too deeply in its head for me to see. The other is the complete opposite. As tall and thin as a hickory branch, he towers over his waterlogged friend. His skin is stretched tight over his sharp-edged features as though he'd been slow dried like jerky. His lips are pulled back, exposing all of his teeth in a very morbid smile.

They lean over me, grinning and staring. I try to get up, but a tidal wave of agony crashes through me. I'm in no shape to fight. I don't think I can even stand. The memory of a sword driving through my ribcage bursts into my thoughts. Anung un Rama's horrified expression sticks in the forefront of my mind, especially how his expression became Hellboy's expression. He's still in there. I can still save him.

I slide one leg off the statue's arm and tumble to the ground. My shout of pain brings the corpses closer. The tall, skinny one clacks his teeth over and over, his cloudy eyes locked on me. I know HB said that zombies weren't real outside of voodoo, but I'm pretty convinced these two mean to eat me.

"Shoo! Go on, get away from him!" Anubis's shouts startle both of the corpses into looking over their shoulders.

He comes at them the way someone might come at a raccoon they found in their garbage can. He swings his hands and approaches slowly. To my shock, they actually shuffle off. The thin one continues to clack his teeth as he walks away. I can still hear the sharp clicking even after he's rounded a corner and disappeared from sight.

Anubis snorts and kneels down to my level, muttering, "Death gods are such vultures."

"Death gods?" I ask, my eyes going to the side street the strange pair disappeared down.

"Yes. They tend to hover around the dead and dying."

"I'm dying?"

Anubis laughs, pushing Red's coat aside so he can look at my chest, "No, you were already dead. I found your soul easily enough, but your body was a pain in the ass to hunt down."

That doesn't scare me as much as it probably should. I've already been dead once before, so it's not like it's a new concept. When you're around such powerful gods and goddesses, I guess any number of them can bring you back from the dead. I wonder if there's any kind of limit on how many times you can be brought back. Wait… didn't Michael have to make me a new body so my old one wouldn't rot around me?

"Um… how are we going to keep my body from decomposing? I was already dead, so doesn't that mean that-"

"If I can get you to a healer, the wounds can be repaired. You're only going to rot if your body's taken too much damage to be fixed, which it hasn't," he cuts down my panicked idea before it can even form properly in my head. "I'm going to patch you back together for now so we can get out of here, but it's not going to last long."

I inhale sharply as he pushes my skin together over the hole in my chest. The skin at the edge breaks apart into thin ribbons. I watch, mesmerized, as the pieces weave together. They tighten painfully and Anubis pulls his hands away. It looks exactly how he described it, a patch job. Blood still seeps from between the narrow threads of flesh. It seems like I could split it open with my fingernail.

"There are plenty of healers back in camp, but we're going to have to get some help crossing the river. With the shape you're in, I don't think you'll be able to use a mirror to get back," he grunts and hauls me to my feet.

I grip the statue's arm to stay standing. My legs feel stable enough, so I let go after a moment. I may be in pain, but my strength is coming back quickly.

"Come on, let's go."

"No."

Anubis quirks his head slightly, his eyebrows merging with his confusion. "What do you mean 'no'? We've got to get you to a healer."

My resolve is already set. I won't leave this city without Hellboy. Anubis won't understand that, but I don't expect him to. "I'm going after Hellboy," I tell him, trying not to leave any room for argument. Apparently, I'm not very good at that.

"That's a fool's errand, a suicide mission. You can't possibly expect to just march through the contents of hell to go get your boyfriend. You'll never make it."

I look down, my gaze catching on the black footprints leading in and out of the garden. I've been buying shoes for Red long enough to know his tread. He was the one who brought me here. His feet must've burned the ground. I glance back at the statue, realizing why she was crying blood. It was him. I was certain before that I'd be able to bring him back, but these signs are very bad.

Not tearing my eyes off of Mary, I say softly, "I'm not asking you to come with me."

Anubis's sigh holds a lot of weight. "No, but you could really use my help and somebody has to keep that patch in place. If you go on your own, you'll bleed out before you get to him."

A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. I'm glad he said that. I wasn't sure I'd make it on my own and I have no idea where to find Hellboy. New York is a very big place. "How will we find him?"

"I suspect he'll be wherever the highest concentration of demons are. He's their master, so they flock to him."

That's better than what I had in mind. My plan ended at 'wander aimlessly shouting Red's name'. His idea seems both more helpful, and more terrifying. I could barely fend off the demons that got inside Lucifer's castle, I'm pretty sure we're going to encounter a few more than that.

I walk to the edge of the courtyard and look down the street, trying to figure out where I am. Everything looks vaguely familiar, so I know I've been here before. I turn around and crane my neck to look up at the church instead. I recognize the rosy granite building instantly, "Trinity Church."

"You know the place?"

"Yeah, Red and I knew a priest here who would supply us with holy water. It was one of the few public places where we were welcome. We used to come here at night and sit in the upper deck of pews while Brother Manchester prepared our gear." I remember the visits well. The priest was one of the few people I've ever met that didn't look at Red as a demon; he greeted him as a friend. "He died about ten years ago, we haven't been back since."

"He wanted to bring you to a place you'd shared," Anubis guesses with a shrug.

"Maybe," I whisper.

Standing at the edge of the churchyard, I suddenly feel very exposed. Demons pop up from behind cars, underneath sewer grating, and between buildings. Their hungry eyes fix on me as if I'm the only thing left to eat in the entire city. I backpedal quickly towards the church. In the brief glance I got, I probably counted twenty demons or more. If we're in the thinly populated area, how are we going to make it to Hellboy?

An idea comes to me as Anubis throws a large piece of cobblestone at the demon pacing the edge of the church grounds. The rock hits the sharp-toothed creature in the forehead, sending it scampering with a pained howl.

"Can you disguise us like you did in Cairo, but make us look like them?"

His mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Finally, he says, "I think so… I've never tried something like that before."

I try not to be startled when he's suddenly a hulking figure with twisted features and massive teeth and claws, but I jump anyway. Assuming I have a similar form to him, he made us look like the larger breed of demon. It's a good idea. Even in Hell, the little imps that are populating the streets now fled out of the way as the bigger demons showed up. Hopefully it'll keep us out of too much trouble.

I start for the street and Anubis grabs my arm. "Whatever you do, don't pull out your wings. I won't be able to disguise them very well and demons love angel wings. They'll be on you in a second if they see them," he warns in a low voice.

All I can do is nod as a tremor of fear slides through me. My hyperactive imagination feeds me images of what that would be like, images I can't push out of my head so easily.

"Good. Let's head north. We're practically at the tip of the island, so I doubt we'll find anything towards the river."

I point towards the east side of the church, "We should take Broadway. It's a bigger street and we'll have a better view."

Little did I know that having a better view was definitely not what I want. As we walked out onto Broadway, we could see the extent of what Hell had done to this city. Overturned cars littered the large thoroughfare, fires burning in several of them. There's blood painted on almost every conceivable surface, but there are no bodies, only smears where the bodies were dragged. Windows are broken on every floor of the buildings near us. Inside, I can see countless demons wreaking havoc. They're throwing things, and each other, around the rooms and out the windows.

We make our way slowly, partly so we don't draw attention to ourselves, partly because we have to pick through so much debris. I step over a femur picked clean of flesh and stifle a groan. Some of the imps give us strange looks as we pass, but none of them confront us. Most are just too busy tearing things apart to give us any attention.

Anubis occasionally stops to kick something over or throw things and I try to follow the example, but any real exertion sends pain rushing through my chest. When I help him tip over a food cart, my wound start seeping again. All the demons close to us stick their noses into the air and start sniffing. Anubis lets out a nervous growl.

"Keep moving," he whispers, nudging me.

An imp with long, spindly limbs like a spider leaps up onto the upturned food cart. Its nostrils flare, taking in the scent of my wound. I freeze, but Anubis is quick with a solution. He roars in the thing's face and shoves the cart, scaring it into retreating behind a burning cab. The others go back to what they were doing.

Anubis hisses at me, "Go."

We walk for blocks; I can't really be sure how many. The only thing I know for certain is that we're going in the right direction. With every street we pass, there are more and more creatures sliding in and out of the buildings, fighting over leftovers in the street, and hanging from the signs and lampposts. Thing is, the deeper we go into the city, the bigger the demons get.

A trio of giants, like the one I fought in Lucifer's bedroom, glare at us as we go by. The biggest of the group gets off of the overturned bus he was using as a bench, landing with a thud that I feel in my feet. His skin is so dark red that it's almost a purple and the two sets of horns he has curl back over his head. His Clydesdale-sized hooves click loudly on the cement as he approaches us.

"He knows," I scarcely breathe. I doubt Anubis heard me.

The demon picks up a length of light post from the ground, hefting the six-foot piece of metal as if it was a baseball bat. This one is much brighter than the one I fought before; I can see it in his eyes. He knows we're not what we seem and he's going to kill us both.

The armor snaps around me, even though I can't see it through Anubis's disguise. The sword slides out across my palm and the other two demons get up with deep growls. Anubis tenses and pushes me back gently. He knows I'm not in any shape for this.

Just as the purple demon raises the pole to smash us, a human scream pieces the air. It's a woman's scream. Every head turns towards the sound. She comes scrambling out of a basement, her knees bloody and her clothes torn. Her dark auburn hair falls in her face as she whips around to look back at the basement door. Dozens of imps charge up the stairs after her, some of them scrambling up the walls to get around the crush of bodies stuck in the narrow space.

I run towards her, but Anubis locks his arms underneath mine. "We have to help her!"

"You expose yourself to them and you'll find the same fate. We press on," Anubis rationalizes it in a strained whisper.

I watch, horrified, as the woman falls to her hands and knees. Before she can get up, the little demons are on her. The first one to jump on her back digs its pointed teeth into her shoulder, ripping off a large chunk of flesh. Her screams get sharper, louder as she flails underneath the hoard. They fall on her like a pack of wolves. In a heartbeat, her screams stop.

The big demons move quickly to the mound of imps, roaring and punting them away. Most of them scatter as they reach the body, others rip off limbs to carry off as prizes before the behemoth's can stop them. My stomach churns as I see what's left of her. Her face is still mostly whole, her eyes gleaming wetly as they stare, but the rest of her is red pulp and exposed bone.

I turn away and yank out of Anubis's hold as the bigger demons start eating the remains. We move in silence after that. Mentally, I rage at Anubis for letting that woman die even though I know he just saved my life. He seems just as shaken as I am by watching those things reduce a human being to bone in a few seconds. Every few steps, he casts a glance back at the feasting giants, clenching and unclenching his fists.

We continue up Broadway, stopping at each intersection to judge which direction has the most demons. When we get to the split at city hall, we switch over to Centre Street. The monstrosities are so numerous now that it's like walking through New York before Hell invaded. There are just as many bodies to fight through. The crowd actually helps, there are so many of them that we don't stick out at all. It's not hard to judge where we're going now, the masses of demons are all moving north with a purpose. All we have to do is follow.

The crowd is so thick by the time we get to the edge of Foley Square that I reach out and grab Anubis's wrist so we don't get separated. If I lose him, I'll never be able to figure out which one of these creatures is my ally.

The famous black marble fountain at the center of Foley Square is crawling with imps. Just beyond it, Thomas Payne Park is nothing but scorched skeletons of trees. I make my way through the masses slowly, dragging Anubis behind me. Climbing onto the edge of the fountain is going to be the only way to get a good look at the area. The smell of the water nearly makes me gag. It has the stale odor of piss and bad meat. I'm thankful my sense of smell isn't better than it is.

Anubis supports my back as I climb onto the slippery stone. A grayish imp slams into me and leaps off the fountain into the crowd, cackling loudly. I stumble a little, but Anubis holds me up. Every building in the area is crawling with demons, but only the courthouse has a group so thick that you can't see the stairs. There are even creatures gripping the thick columns with their claws, holding on like bugs or lizards. Getting inside is going to be difficult.

Carefully sliding down from my perch, I lean in and tell Anubis where we're headed. He nods. Pressing through this crowd is like trying to get around a sold out concert. The press and crush of bodies is nearly impossible to navigate. I snake through whatever gaps I can find. Thankfully, the demons don't seem to notice that our skin doesn't feel the same way it looks. My armor leaves scrapes and cuts on the demons I slide against, but they're so wrapped up in howling "Anung un Rama" in an endless mantra that they either don't notice or don't care.

I glance back every now and again to make sure Anubis is still behind me. He falls back a little, but manages to keep up with me. I swear it takes us longer to get up the courthouse steps than it did for us to walk the fifteen or sixteen blocks to get here. Sometimes, we're brought to a complete standstill until the crowd shifts slightly and we can squeeze forward.

We finally break through into the massive entryway. Even if I'd been in this courthouse before, I wouldn't recognize it now. Hundreds of thousands of bones have been fixed to the walls, covering the windows and all of the original decorations. Most of them still have bits of flesh and muscle clinging to them so the scent of decomposition is overwhelming. It's a mass grave made into a room.

A fearful whimper slips out of me. I've never encountered something so grotesque, so primal. Powerful demons are scattered across the room, feasting on corpses and… playing… with a handful of broken people that are still alive. Bile rises into my throat at the scene. The people getting fucked don't even have the strength to scream or fight. Some of them might even be dead.

I shudder and rip my gaze away from them, to the center of the room. Taking up the middle of the room is a massive throne made of stone debris, and bodies, and blood, and bone. A row of skulls grin from the top edge, arranged neatly from smallest, to biggest, and back again. Slumped in the seat is Anung un Rama. His tail is whipping agitatedly back and forth across the edge of the throne. He's livid.

Every demon that approaches the throne gets swatted with the Right Hand of Doom or roared at as they're tossed across the room. When he's not taking his wrath out on his hoard, Anung un Rama has his right elbow propped on the armrest, his head leaning heavily on his fist. The fireball perched between his horns is glowing fiercely, echoing his mood.

"I have to talk to him," I whisper against Anubis's ear.

Even with as quiet as I'm trying to be, a long, spiky demon with a mouth as long as a crocodile looks up from the body he's ripping apart. It hisses, swallowing the man's lower half.

"We're both going to get eaten if we let our images down here."

"Then what did we come all this way for?" I snarl. "You don't have to let yours drop, just do mine."

I separate from him and wind my way through the menagerie of demons. Most of them are looking at me now, even though Anubis hasn't let my image fall yet. The floor crunches and gives under my feet, but I don't look down. When I first came in, I realized that the floor was probably buried a foot deep in bones and I really don't want to look at them any closer than that.

As I enter the empty ring around Anung un Rama's throne, his yellow eyes fix on me and his lip curls. I know the moment when my disguise is gone because a frenzied cry goes up in the room behind me and Anung un Rama's face instantly lights up. I can hear the demons scrambling toward me, but I don't turn, don't tear my gaze away from his. I trust that he'll protect me.

Anung un Rama surges to his feet, directing a bellow at the hoard. They only quiet a little, so he yanks me back and slams his stone hand into the floor hard enough to send fragments of bone and tile flying into the air. The demons still. The room is so quiet that I can hear their saliva dripping on the floor.

When he's satisfied that they're under control, Anung un Rama turns to me, "To make a journey so treacherous, surely you've come to stand with me."

His flesh hand brushes softly over my cheek. Despite myself, I lean into the touch with a pained moan. I want to give up this fight. I want to take my place beside him. I want to be his, but I can't. I've never felt so conflicted before. I put my hand over his, squeezing his fingers desperately.

"Please, Red, I need you to come back to me. I know you're in there."

Anung un Rama's entire disposition changes. His lip curls up in a snarl, his body going rigid as he yanks his hand out of my grasp. His furious yell makes me fall back a step, "He is gone! I am your mate now! You will either accept that or die."

I breathe out slowly, trying to control my nerves. Before I can think of anything to say, he continues.

"Now, do you stand with me, or with them?"

When he points down at the bones littering the floor, at the remnants of people, my mind settles. The decision is easy after that and I'm certain that Hellboy would agree with me. "I stand with them. As long as I'm alive, I will be standing between you and all the innocent people you've decided to destroy. You'll have to kill me to get to them."

A low rumble starts deep in Anung un Rama's chest. It builds to a growl and then to a roar that he lets out in my face. His flesh hand lashes to the back of my head, picking me up by my hair. I cry out at the treatment and grab for his wrist. Pain races around my skull, making my eyes water. I clench them shut. When I open them again, Anung un Rama has regained his calm. He studies me with cold, calculating eyes that hold no hint of the affection I found in them before.

"That's too bad," he croons, lifting me up so he can look directly at my face. My feet kick the air uselessly. He pulls me close, his mouth closing on my jaw in a kiss before he murmurs, "Killing you will be such a waste of flesh. Especially flesh I'm so fond of fucking."

His words sting. Tear slip down my face as I realize that Hellboy is truly lost. I can only hope he won't wake up ever again. I don't think he could face what he's done. Anung un Rama's tongue slides over my ear. It's so hot it almost burns my skin.

"I could just keep you, but you'd never be as much fun as when you wanted me back. I don't enjoy fucking something I have to hold down."

Sobs wrack my body as I start crying freely. My heart is breaking for him, for me. One last idea comes to me. It's a long shot, but I have to try. I make my gaze meet his again, my voice thin and cracked as I offer, "T-then pull your army back into hell and I'll go with you."

He narrows his eyes, his head lifting slightly as he considers it.

I try my best to sweeten the deal, "If you… if you do that, you can have me as much as you want. I won't fight you… I'll… I'll participate if it makes you happy."

I can't manage more than that. Another sob breaks through my proposal and I continue to weep. I know I'll never survive Hell. He'll protect me… my body will live, but my spirit will be broken. I try to think of all the people I'm saving, but it doesn't help. My world is fracturing at the seams and falling down around my ears.

The hand tangled in my hair loosens slightly and the pain fades. He sets me on my feet. I don't have to look at him to know that he's accepted my offer. I keep my eyes trained on the ground, covering my face with both hands. I feel like I need to throw up. My chest aches. In the back of my mind, I hope that Anubis can get out of here safely. He can tell the others that the fight is over.

I stop mid-sob as Anung un Rama falls to his knees in front of me. My eyes snap open and I slide my hands out of the way. Hellboy is looking up at me, his face twisted with grief. For a second, I swear I'm imagining things, and then he pulls me to him. He winds both arms tight around my waist, burying his face in my stomach. His horns rub painfully against the wound in my chest, but I don't care.

I barely dare to whisper, "Red?"

His answer is muffled by my skin, "I'm so sorry, John… God! I'm so sorry."

Relief makes me weak. I crumple in his hold, wrapping my arms around his neck as I fall into his lap. Now, I cry from joy, my tears smearing onto his face as I lay messy, uncoordinated kisses across his cheeks and forehead. He just continues to clutch me. I'm fairly certain he's crying too, his tears far hotter than mine. I bury my face in his shoulder and we sob together. I know he's not wracked by the same emotion I am. He cries for the people he's killed, for the city he's destroyed, for me…

"I really hate to interrupt this lovely Hallmark moment, but we're all going to die unless you can figure out a way to get your demons back under control," Anubis says right next to us. His images, both of them, have faded and he's in his two-legged jackal form. His tail is tucked tight against his body in the way you see dogs do when they're scared.

I sit up to find that the demons have forgotten their meals and their fuck toys and are slowly approaching the throne. My arms tighten instinctually around Red, my fingers digging into his skin. He turns and I know instantly that he doesn't know how to reign them back in. I can see it in the way his face contorts from concerned into the hard lines of seriousness as he goes into battle mode.

Hellboy lifts me as he stands, his stone hand sliding down to support my ass. I want to argue that I don't need to be carried around like a ragdoll, but my throat is much to dry to form words. Instead, I just hold on.

"You could've stayed disguised," I mention to Anubis, curious as to why he'd put himself out in the open like this.

He shrugs, his slick, black fur rippling with the motion, "I figure I've stood back and watched enough people die today."

Hellboy draws Lucifer's sword from its holder on the throne, growling, "Come on!"

They lunge in waves, sprinting across the litter of bones with screeches that will haunt my nightmares if we live. My eyes widen as they get close, my gaze stuck on the hundreds of yellow teeth headed for us.

"Close your eyes," I shout to both of them.

Gripping Hellboy's neck, I reach down into my depths to drag up my power. It comes forward in a blast that levels the first few rows of demons, but there are so many more behind them. The emptiness that flows in where my power was nearly floors me. A wave of dizziness forces me to rest my head on HB's shoulder.

Then they're on us. Red is very limited while he's carrying me. He cuts down a few demons with the sword, keeping his back to the throne. I'm barely conscious after that little display though and I know he won't let me go.

Anubis sticks his clawed hands through an imp's ribcage, throwing the dead body at demon that leaps at Red and me from the ceiling. They both fly off into the masses, disappearing. Anubis growls as one of the demons bites into his thigh. Blood gushes from the wound. There's so much of it that I'm surprised he stays on his feet.

Red gets slashed in the shoulder and I manage to shove my sword through the imp that did it. I wish he'd put me down and protect himself. This knight in shining armor thing is going to get him killed.

"Red, let me go," I shout over the screeches of the attacking hoard. I know he heard me, but he doesn't even acknowledge it. Stubborn bastard.

We're not going to last another five minutes. The hoard on the steps outside is pouring through the courthouse doors. There's so many of them that they block what little light there is outside. They replace the bone wall with a wall of living, breathing, screaming demon flesh.

And then, things get worse. One of the hidden windows crashes into the room as a group of armored angels comes hurdling in. They're led by an angel so dark that I feel as though my breath is sucked from my lungs as I look at him. The scythe he wields tells me everything I need to know.

- TBC

We're getting close to the end now. I have a few more chapters to go.
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Lines of Shadow: Sequel to Somewhere Between