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“You’re making me nervous,” she said.
Steele turned his head toward the window as an owl hooted in the distance. “The underworld is what we call the dimension that the demons originated from. In some ways, our shadow warrior longs for his home. We rarely tempt them with talk of their home.”
A ripple of darkness surrounded her before she got her own shadow under control. It was more than curious about the underworld and its origins.
“Are you talking about hell?” she asked.
“Not as you think of it. Their realm is not part of ours. It’s a parallel dimension that is only accessible through a portal. One that no longer exists.”
“Did anyone travel to the other dimension?” She couldn’t hide her shadow’s excitement. It bubbled from her skin with bursts of darkness and mist.
“A group of shadow warriors entered the demon dimension, but only one returned. He was so ravaged, he took weeks to recover, and ultimately, he left his clan. No one knows what became of him.”
Dannika missed being able to drink coffee. The dark roast smell helped calm her nerves and fear.
The demon soul inside her purred like a lost kitten returned to its mother. Had the shifters considered the long-term effects of keeping the demons from their home? Had they exchanged one problem for another?
“Tell me about the shadow warrior who returned from the demon dimension. Did he tell you about their home? What it was like?” Dannika asked.
Steele’s eyes narrowed on her. “Your demon is very excited about this topic. Be careful you don’t give him false hope. His home is here now.”
“What does that mean?”
“The portal is closed. The door that connects our world will never reopen. Make sure your demon soul understands that.”
Her shadow warrior growled and subsided, but the adversarial hiss echoing in her head made it clear the topic was far from over.
“Understood. Now tell me about their world.”
“Their world has neither night nor day. Three suns hide behind thick clouds and fog, leaving them in eternal dusk. Perhaps that’s a hell in itself, but we don’t know the reasons behind the evolution of their world.”
“Does direct sunlight hurt them?”
“I don’t know. You can trap a reaper in a light circle, and our historical records indicate the same was true of a demon, but nothing is said about natural sunlight.”
Dannika tapped her cheek. “Our sunlight and theirs might be different, anyway. What about their culture? Do they run in clans or have religious beliefs?”
Steele rubbed his chin. “We have an extensive library devoted to our past. The scrolls from that time are detailed. There are different classes of demons. They migrate in roaming clans and are protective of the few females they have. Demons fight to the death for mating rights, and only the strongest have their chance with a female.”
“Their chance?”
“Demon females are revered when they are young. With each breeding cycle, they mate with the winner of the fights. If the child is male, he leaves with his father. She only keeps her female children, training them to follow in her footsteps.”
Dannika grunted. “You make it sound like demon females are nothing more than glorified breeders.”
“They are. While they’re treated with respect and dignity in their childbearing years, when they age out, they become the property of the clan. They service the men who aren’t strong enough to procure a mate.”
She put her hand over her mouth. “That’s a horrible life.”
Steele nodded. “It is their culture. They’re more like animals than humans in their need to reproduce and fight. The hunting party saw no religious aspect to their beliefs.”
“And they are immortal?” she asked.
“By our standards, yes. They live thousands of years. The men die in battle and the women of exhaustion.”
Dannika frowned. “Exhaustion?”
“Once past her childbearing years, a female has many males to please. The shadow hunting party noted that a female died less than two years after being handed to the men of the clan.”
