Demon Games [4] Read Online Free PDF Page A

as they moved off.
    Lucien too left the scene, now even more wary of being spotted or recognized in this place. As he turned a bend in the alley, his destination came into sight. The building was at least twice the height of those around it, a tall black structure which rose up into the darkness overhead. It was derelict now, but Lucien knew that the creature he was due to meet there had chosen this particular meeting place for a reason: the building had a history, a history that was associated with Lucien and his kind. Making sure that his hood did not fall back and reveal his identity, Lucien looked up to scan the roof of the building. The vast metal sculpture still crowned the structure, although the glass panels that had once adorned the great metal orb looked to have long since gone, leaving a skeleton frame behind. At one time it had been lit from the inside and the light that shone out through the red-tinted glass would glow and fade, giving the whole globe a pulsating appearance, as if the building had its own living, beating heart atop it. It had been a place that dealt in nothing but misery and suffering, a place that traded in lives – human lives – selling them off at auction to the highest bidder, like cattle.
    That had been a very long time ago. The Netherworld had not always been as sparsely populated as it was now. At one time, before the Demon Wars had eradicated thousands of nether-creatures, the population had been much greater, and the demand for humans had been huge. Whether it was their blood, their flesh, their bones, or in some cases their souls that were coveted, the trade in human livestock had always gone on at some level within this realm, and at its height the building ahead had been at the hub of that industry.
    Lucien sighed and crossed the street, approaching the front of the building. The vast cast-iron gates that had once signalled the entrance to the auction rooms were now all but destroyed; one lay on its back just inside the doorway; the other, buckled and smashed, somehow still clung to its ancient hinges.
    Lucien stepped through the entrance and paused, taking in the large empty space. Some dog-sized thing in the shadows at the far side of the hall turned to regard him with silvery eyes, before disappearing into a hole in the floor. The place smelt of rot and decay and, from the evidence of the various piles of ashes and half-burned logs in the centre of the room, appeared to be the residence of at least one hapless nether-creature.
    This had been the auction room. None of the cages that had lined the walls remained, but it didn’t require a great leap of the imagination to realize how terrifying it must have been for the poor creatures brought here. Penned up behind bars, they had to endure the taunts and goading of the monsters that had come here to buy them. They could have had little doubt about their fate. Even the dead were sold off, albeit at a cheaper price – nothing went to waste here.
    Lucien walked across the room, his footsteps echoing off the walls, and stood at the bottom of the staircase. It had collapsed in the middle; a vast stretch of the metal skeleton lay in a jumbled mess on the floor, making it impossible to walk up to the landing just visible in the gloom overhead. The vampire ‘misted’, disappearing from where he stood and reappearing on the metal platform above, righting his balance a little when the whole structure groaned and shifted with the increase in weight. It was clear from the thick carpet of dust and grime on the gantry that nothing had been up here for some time, and Lucien was relieved to see that the next flight of stairs appeared to be intact. He began to climb, his footsteps noisy on the metal treads, despite his careful ascent.
    The door to the roof was locked. A rusty chain had been looped through two crude holes drilled into the door and the adjoining wall. Taking the thick chain and accompanying lock in his hand, Lucien hefted them to