Demon Games [4] by Steve Feasey Page B

don’t like this.’ Trey pulled the T-shirt over his head. ‘Everything you just said makes sense, but I’m scared out of my wits being in this place like this .’ He pointed down at himself. ‘Who knows what might be eyeing us up for supper right now!’ He crouched to retrieve the torn trousers he’d worn coming here, which the Fire Imp had dropped on the ground, and fished around inside one of the pockets. He pulled out the mobile phone and was about to activate the radar function that Tom had demonstrated to him when Dreck reached up and snatched it out of his hand.
    ‘This is of absolutely no use,’ Dreck said in an offhand way. He shook his head and tutted loudly. ‘Nothing electrical can work in the Netherworld. In fact, very few mechanical things at all work here. This phone is knackered now. It won’t even work back in the human realm any more.’
    ‘Wait!’ Trey shouted, realizing what his guide was about to do, but already too late to stop him. He watched in horror as the Fire Imp shook his head and tossed the device over his shoulder. It twisted and turned as it sailed through the air in a high arc, before landing on a stony patch of ground, where the hard plastic covering shattered into numerous pieces.
    ‘No!’ Trey ran over to where it had landed, and his heart sank at the sight of the smashed screen and various broken pieces strewn about. It was ruined.
    ‘Get another one when you get back,’ Dreck said, turning his back on the teenager and rummaging in the bag again.
    Trey swore, kicking at the ground with his bare foot, and hurting his toe in the process. ‘You complete and utter dickhead!’ he shouted at the Fire Imp. ‘Do you know what you’ve just done? Do you?’ He pointed down at the broken pieces. ‘That wasn’t just a mobile phone!’
    Dreck carried on delving in the bag, not even bothering to look up at the ranting boy. ‘Oh, I know they’ve got all sorts of gizmos and applications on them these days, but like I said, you can buy another one when you get back.’
    Trey was so angry he was unable to speak. He turned his back on the nether-creature, clenching and unclenching his fists and issuing a great long string of curses and swear words that even Tom would have been proud of.
    ‘Aha!’ Dreck said, and threw a pair of canvas trainers in the boy’s direction. ‘I forgot to bring socks,’ the Fire Imp said with a shrug of his shoulders, ‘but I remembered these.’
    Trey turned to look and saw that the Fire Imp was holding out a pair of large, cumbersome-looking handcuffs. ‘You need to put these on too.’
    Trey’s mouth was hanging open. He stared at the metal restraints dangling from one of the demon’s claws and shook his head in disbelief. ‘As if all this –’ he gestured around him – ‘wasn’t unreal enough. You smash my phone up, tell me I have to stroll around the place as a human, like some meal on legs, and to top it off you want me to wear those?’ He pointed at the handcuffs turning in the air in front of the demon’s face. ‘No way.’
    ‘They’re more for show than anything else. If you did have to transform into your lyco form, they wouldn’t be able to hold you.’
    Trey frowned as he looked at the demon. ‘I can see you,’ he said in a small voice. He walked over to stand by the Fire Imp.
    ‘Hmm?’
    ‘When I’m in my human form I can’t see nether-creatures – just the human mantle they wear.’
    ‘That’s in the human realm. Here in the Netherworld I don’t have to wear that ridiculous carapace. You can see me for what I am, whether through human or lycanthrope eyes.’ The demon nodded at the handcuffs again. ‘You really do need to put these on.’
    Trey puffed out his cheeks and was about to say something else, but stopped himself. Instead he shrugged his shoulders resignedly and slipped the manacles over his wrists. He stared at Dreck. ‘You’re sure this will work?’
    ‘No. But right now I don’t think we have any