Cadenza watched as Rain's figure disappeared into the blackness.

Stop staring, he's gone... I'm sure he hasn't looked at you this way once. His thoughts are somewhere else, like yours should be.

There was the sound of smashing cartilage and bone, like that of a nose, in the darkness ahead. A shrill voice cried out afterwards, shrieking in pain.

Tiffany's hand started to go colder in the gypsy's grasp.

Damn it, stay with me, menina...

Another smash in the dark, followed by a slam. Then the demon's voice, shaky and hoarse, came, "They... they feel my pain too, vampire. You're only torturing them more. Every strike, every hit... it goes to them just as badly."

She could hear a sound like a cackle start, but it soon faded to whimpering. You couldn't really laugh much with a crushed face. And that made her worry--just how badly was Tiffany and her mom feeling it?

Cadenza squeezed the girl's hand a little, trying to put some warmth back into her. Forgive me for letting myself get distracted a little before... that'll end here. I don't know if healing you two will heal him, so... I'm just going to hope that if I give you something and send you to another world, he won't be able to take energy from you. It'll be in an object, not in your bodies, so... it should work.

The woman removed the amulet from around her neck, feeling the exhaustion and lack of nutrition surge back like the weight of a ten-ton truck on her shoulders. She wrapped the chain around Tiffany's hand, placing the gem over the girl's heart, and then slung one of the girl's mother's arms around her as well.

"I'm going to be in trouble if you don't give that back," she whispered softly, "so you're going to have to promise to make it through this okay so you can return it, all right?"

A hand placed on shadows underneath the two dropped them slowly down, into the realm of shadows. Another cry from the darkness in the room told Cadenza that the demon could feel the girl and her mother slipping away--but still had enough of a bond with them that he could sense they were leaving.

Now, it's just a game of who can outlast who. And while me and the demon are both starving, Rain's just fine...

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