Page 112 of Spit

Katalina ignored the threat. “Lexi Boudaire is a cambion.” She declared. “Camio doesn’t know; he only wanted her because she would lure you to him. Legion couldn't resist the call to be her savior.”

“And you?” Legion asked, his voice colder than ice.

Katalina’s lip ticked into a cruel smirk. “I just wanted Alexis Boudaire to die. Her mother stole my coven’s chance to finally have a child of Beezlebub amongst our ranks. Anne-Marie* Boudaire ran to the arms of the Beaux Bridge coven, and we couldn’t do anything lest we start a witch-war. It was luck that I found her. I was just meant to let Camio know when to strike, but instead, I was able to get revenge for my coven. I paid off some guys in the human sector to inject her with Devil’s silver, but they were useless. I had to go big. Camio has her locked up with your precious facets. She’ll be torn apart—”

Katalina Dubois stopped speaking when her head thumped onto the floor. She blinked once before the light went out of her eyes, and her body slumped like a puppet with its strings up—without a head on its shoulders.

Legion reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief. He cleaned his fingers of blood before dropping the soiled fabric to the floor in the pool of blood oozing from Katalina’s head.

“You didn’t ask where they were being kept,” Arlo said dryly.

“She wouldn’t have told us,” Legion said as he turned on his heel.

“What now?”

Legion glanced back at the dead body hanging from the wall and cursed. “We ask the witches if they are willing to scry—the ones that do not sympathize with Katalina and her actions, and then we wait.”

“We wait?” Arlo echoed in disbelief. “Did you know Lexi was at least part demon?” Arlo demanded as he felt his skin ripple with anger.

Legion pinched the bridge of his nose. “I suspected. After all, it would explain why the same bond that keeps the seven together has also started to attach to her.”

Chapter Twenty

My shadow disappeared again as more vapor was pumped into our cell.

Mars was unable to shift into a humanoid form. Too weak from the amount of Devil’s silver in the air. It lingered on our skin like slick grease. It burned with every breath. My fingernails had turned blue.

Through the physical pain came Gluttony. Hunger and arousal.

My nipples were so hard they were painful. I kept squirming, feeling the wetness between my thighs. I clung to my hunger like a cliff's edge.

Above all, I felt with absolute certainty that if I stayed in the cell, I would die.

My skin was peppered with blueish-grey spots. It burned and itched. “You’re feeling it too, huh?” I wheezed as I stroked the length of Mars’s back, feeling the ridges of his armored spine. I didn’t know how long it would take for the stewards to find us; after all, they had been looking for weeks already. I could only hope they knew Camio better than I did and could work out exactly where we were.

I thought back to the view from his office, but I didn’t know much about the Red City. The city center would look out onto the different sections, showing the colored street lights that marked which sin the neighborhood belonged to—but I hadn’t seen any of those lights.

I didn’t know if we were in the Happy Cow building or had been moved elsewhere. Maybe we were in the human sector. The most frustrating thing was that I couldn’t tell Sev about Happy Cow. Silenced by magic.

I glanced down at Mars; his caramel eyes met mine. “I don’t know how long I can take this,” I told him.

Hang...on...ju...a...little...longer...

I blinked, rubbing my ear. My brain rang like someone had stuck a tuning fork against my skull. Was I hearing things? I took my head away, and the ringing went silent. I placed my hand on his flank, and I felt another presence join me in my mind.

The elevator let out a whirring sound from the shaft, signaling that someone was coming. I sat up but couldn’t do much else. I tried to take a breath, but I spluttered and coughed. Mars shot me a look filled with concern, but he didn’t move off my legs.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I hoped it wasn’t Camio. I didn’t have the energy to listen to him complain and monologue about his evil plan to kill the person who saved his life after a bad decision a couple of thousand years ago.

The elevators swished open, revealing a lifeless body in a wheelchair, his head hanging limp and his copper hair falling in his face. Behind him stood Dr. Wise, the sadistic AH delighted in explaining how the feeder worked. He had given me skeevy vibes then, and I didn’t like the look he was showing now.

The doctor pushed Quinn down the ramp and parked him in the corner of the cell. The demon didn’t move so much as a muscle. Dr. Wise turned to Mars, whose hackles raised and his teeth bared as he stared down at the doctor.

“I wouldn’t try anything if I were you.” Dr. Wise chuckled, pulling something from the back of the wheelchair. It was a long pole with a leather strap at the end. The portly man took his time attaching the strap to his wrist, staring at Mars the whole time. Dr. Wise swung the pole before pressing a button that ignited the end.

A cattle prod.

Mars went stiff.

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