Page 53 of Claiming Demons

I could only pray he and Harmonia could get themselves out… though perhaps I could help… in another way.

RAMSEY

I groaned in the dark.

The crash and roar of more destruction echoed somewhere far above me.

It felt like the entire building had fallen on me, driving me, and the floors beneath me, down and down into darkness.

Every inch of me was in pain and the warmth on my face and leaking out of far too many parts of my body told me I was slowly bleeding out.

But… I was a daemon prince and wouldn’t die that easily. I was also the Lord of Strife and made to keep going even when conflict had beaten me down.

And in times like this, when the physical limits of my body couldn’t help me, my chaos would sustain me. It wouldn’t heal me, but it would help me keep going, help me survive, and help me get out from under the press of thousands of tons of concrete.

I groan-cried as my chaos surged around me. Slowly — since most of what lay on top of me were huge pieces of debris — things moved, and my chaos created an area around me, removing the crushing concrete.

That gave me a chance to crawl to my knees and assessed myself. One leg had been crushed, but with my supernatural toughness, it was mostly just a mass of bruises, perhaps a fracture? I could walk on it, but I’d be limping. The other leg was sore all over, but otherwise strong enough to support me.

There was also a wound on my side where a piece of rebar had stabbed into my abdomen. I tore up what remained of my jacket and tied it around me, staunching that wound. My arms were beaten and bruised but mostly well. My right arm had been crushed a bit more and probably wouldn’t be able to do anything too strenuous, and my head ached, pounding with a thousand sledgehammers. I’d removed the tons of concrete trying to crush my skull, but the effects of that pressure hadn’t fled.

Slowly, I moved, letting my chaos cut away the debris around me. Things shifted and fell and crashed in the hole I left behind me, but I tried to be careful. I’d seen Harmonia fall near me, and could only pray I was moving in her direction.

I found her in a mostly open pocket of debris, but she’d taken a beating and wasn’t quite as tough as I was. She was unconscious, blood covered her head and torso, and both of her legs were trapped, crushed.

“Fuck,” I whispered.

I tried to lift the concrete laying on her lower half, but my arms were near to useless. So, I urged it carefully away with a bit of my chaos, freeing her.

Harmonia groaned, which was good. It meant she was still alive.

I moved her carefully, picking her up in my weary arms. She, at least, I could carry.

“Ramsey,” she muttered through broken lips.

“I’m here, I’ll get us out.”

“I… used my harmony to try to still the collapse, but… ohhhhh… everything hurts.”

I nodded. “Don’t talk.”

She leaned against my chest, resting in my arms, as I continued to burrow through the debris with my chaos.

Then, finally, I managed to emerge into a dark hallway, perhaps a sub-basement of the hotel. There were no lights, but my celestial nature meant I could still make out the form of things, if only barely. Once there, and no longer needing my chaos — and fearful it might cause this still-standing area to collapse — I let it go.

But with my chaos went the last of my strength, and I staggered to one knee, setting Harmonia down carefully. I could hardly move, let alone carry her, and had to lean against the wall to catch my breath and regain some strength.

The trouble was, even if I managed to regain some strength, how in hell was I going to get out of here… and get Harmonia out with me?

“Ana,” I breathed, desperate. “I need you!” I needed her strength, her love, her determination, and her healing. “Ana,” I huffed again. “Please!”

Ramsey?

The simple sound of her voice within me caused me to break down and I wept tears of relief.

Ana? Yes. I’m here.

And Harmonia?