nobody's safe

Eligos snapped again in the direction of the demon masquerading as his brother and backed away to watch its odd reaction. His recognition of its trickery must have done something to it, because it fell wheezing and acting strangely, gabbling out disjointed words as though desperate to keep him enthralled, but Eligos was wise to its tricks now. He stepped forward to wrap his jaws around the now-still creature's throat, intending to end its trickery permanently, but a sudden wave of vertigo made him feel as though he'd slipped sideways from his body before snapping back into himself again, feeling his teeth touching Dantalian's throat...

He jerked away with a cry of horror. He'd seen fresh death before. He knew what it looked like, what it smelled like. Abraxas save his soul, had he murdered his own niece in the grip of his madness? He tasted blood in his mouth. Oh, Fallen, no. Eligos cast his mind frantically through the foggy, half-blind memories of the last few moments with all its blank spots like moth eaten cloth. Was the blood from her throat, or had he bitten her before? Had he killed her? Had she been alive when his teeth reached her throat? Had they reached her throat?

Panic blinded him where moments ago rage had, and his limbs shook like a palsy. He could not bring himself to look, to confirm his worst fear. He couldn't... he couldn't... but he couldn't run either. Couldn't leave her there. Pyrrhic would kill him for what he had done... may have done? and that was right, that was Pyrrhic's right and it was what he'd deserved. Failure, failure and murderer and a betrayer to everything the Abraxas meant. Cloaked in despair and self loathing he closed his teeth gently over the scruff of her neck and carried her, pup like, the weight dragging at his neck and at his heart with every step he took as he set forth to take Danta home for the last time.

-exit sad sack-