Twisted Ginni by Nicola Rose
Ginni
Zipping across empty space, I flitted from invisible nothingness to a panther, a horse, a bird, and back again. The demons chasing me growled in frustration with each shift I made, my laughter taunting them on the wind.
I could hold my physical form on the spiritual plane just fine, but taking advantage of my shape-shifting abilities and switching out, tumbling from one beast to the next, sure was fun. If only to rile my pursuers further, stuck only with two options themselves — human or spirit.
They hedged their bets and picked both. One of the demons paraded as a human, all towering hulk of muscle and height, built like a Minotaur. The other was in true demon form, chasing me down as a plume of black smoke wisping through the sky — a space that glowed orange without sun. It was neither Heaven nor Hell, but a place between. It wasn’t much, but my little space in the spirit realm was home. Real home, not one of the many that I was drawn into back on Earth. Those were more like prisons. Their homes that I was forced into.
Talking of which — a faint electric current rippled under my skin, drawing my attention elsewhere, across the veil, to the other side…
Smoke coiled around my hoof as I materialized into a horse. It yanked me back, wrapping tendrils all over me in a hideous, invasive swarm.
Dropping all physical form, I resumed my own natural smoky state and slipped away in a blue-gray blur. I didn’t get far before the black smoke permeated every part of me in a sickening way, forcing me to switch back to something tangible. Right where the demon man was waiting.
I became a lion, tearing at him with teeth and claws. Blood poured from gashes across his body. Shifting to a snake, I struck him repeatedly, injecting venom into his shins. Then I was a rabbit, ready to—
A fucking rabbit?Seriously—
The human threw a hexed chain around my neck, one that forced me back to human and prevented further shifting. As I unwillingly left the stupid bunny body and became woman, he fastened the metal links, leaning in close to run his tongue over my ear.
“Feisty little fuck, aren’t you?” he whispered, panting from exertion, or excitement. Probably both.
I stomped my heel onto his toes, spun around, and cracked my forehead against his nose. It gushed blood in a satisfying stream. He simply smiled, wiping it away, ignoring the fresh injury along with the rapidly healing gashes and snake bites.
Then his eyes widened. “Hell’s teeth, what’s up with your face?”
Rude.
“My face?” I laughed. “What’s up with yours?” A well-aimed kick had him spitting out a tooth, lip instantly swelling up. “Ew. Hell’s teeth, you’re looking ugly as fuck!”
His fists balled at his sides, but he held back from landing them on me. “I’d love to play with you for longer, djinn, but there’s a wanted list as long as my arm today. If I don’t convict at least eight, then Lucifer’s going to get cranky. Such a shame. Are you this dramatic when you’re being fucked, too?”
“Only when there’s a worthy cock involved. I highly doubt yours measures up.” My hands went to my hips, a vision of nonchalance, but inside my mind was screaming, begging me to fight, to run, this can’t be the end.
The black smoke settled and the other demon morphed into a man. I was torn between the blackness of his gaze pinning me to the spot and the buzzing energy from across the veil pulling at my core, gently urging me in a different direction.
I’d nearly died many times back on Earth. Sometimes it really sucked. Like the time my master’s wife caught him fucking me from behind and the bitch slit my throat with the most surprising and ferocious attack I’d ever known, leaving me thinking for a moment that I was going to die whilst impaled on some old fuck’s cock. Or the time I’d thought it would be fun to take a walk through Central Park as a cute little mouse until a kid kicked a football and it landed right on my fuzzy head—
Demon One got a little handsy with my boobs, pulling me back to the moment. Demon Two assessed the situation, clearly trying to work out if I was worth the punishment of canceling the rest of their workday in favor of a play date.
If it wasn’t for the hexed chain, I could have given them a real game. But alas, they seemed to have stolen all the power in the situation. If only the shuddering energy from across the veil would increase — I could feel it, the pull to Earth, and I’d never wanted to be called so badly. Not even a hexed chain could withstand the pull from a summoning. I might even be able to touch it and yank it away if that binding energy grew powerful enough? What was taking them so long? Ugh, I bet it’s some amateur, stumbling over a bunch of mispronounced words because they’ve never even seen a real spell before let alone performed one.
“We can spare a little time, right?” Demon Two mumbled, grabby fingers sliding into the waistband of my hotpants.
Sheesh.None of my near-death experiences sucked quite as much as this one — being hunted by demons hell-bent on fucking me and then sending me to purgatory for my crimes, just because of Daddy Lucifer and his wanted list.
Hypocritical shits. Incubi, legions, familiars, spectra… hell, just about every demon out there was not only allowed to kill humans but encouraged to do so! But, oh no, not us. A sweet, obedient little djinn killed a master and she’d gone rogue, she must be punished. Exiled to purgatory for eternity. No coming back.
A bit extreme if you asked me.
No. No. No.
I wasn’t ready for this.
My spine blazed with the pull from whichever douche-nozzle was summoning me — compulsory laws yanking me one way, demon enchantments fixing me another.
Come on.
“Voco. Et vocavi vox.” Distant voices called to me, binding themselves to my very essence.
Taking hold of the rising electricity coursing through me, a moment of all-consuming power, I grabbed the chain from around my neck and yanked free with a smirk, chucking it aside. “Not today, boys!”
“Shit!” The biggest demon braced for a fight. “Ginni Aadhya, I sentence you to—”
I didn’t hear the rest of his words because the world went black and I materialized in a poof of smoke, right into… the shittiest of shitty summoning rooms.