Page 73 of Bad Demon

“Yes, fucking Lucifer. Where the fuck is he, Rox?”

She blinked up at me; my lack of respect had thrown her. No one demanded to speak to Lucifer that way, and I’d never talked to her like that ever in my entire life, but right now, I was past control.

“He’s not here,” she said.

I spun and slammed my fist into the wall with a snarl, panting hard, trying and failing to keep it together. “Where the fuck is he, Roxy? I have to go back; he needs to send me back.”

“You need to back the fuck up,” Ursula said, her eyes flashing. “You’re pissed. Be pissed, but you don’t get to yell at Rox. Lucifer isn’t here, and he isn’t coming back for whatever this”—she waved her hand at me while I snarled and panted and fought not to shift again—“is about.”

Roman stepped forward. “His female—she’s in trouble. When Lucifer summoned us, they were in Oldwood Forest.”

Roxy frowned. “His female?”

I dragged in another breath before I fucking self-combusted. “My mate, Rox. When Lucifer summoned me, I left her alone in a demon-infested forest. She’s in danger.” The last sentence came out in a roar—a combination of terror and fury.

Her eyes widened. “Oh, no.”

“I need Lucifer,” I said again, shoving my fingers through my hair. Without him, I was fucked. Without him, I couldn’t go back to the precise moment he took me from her.

Ursula cursed. “He’s incommunicado. He’s journeying, checking on the rest of his lords after Faron’s disappearance. It was a last-minute thing. He took Maddox and Gus, which is why he summoned you that way.”

He usually gave us more warning if he planned to summon us back or gave us time to get here on our own. Hell was vast, he could be gone for fucking weeks.

“Go,” Rox said. “Go to her.”

“I’ll explain everything to Lucifer when he returns. Go find your female,” Ursula added.

“I’ll text Loth, let him know what happened,” Fender said, pulling out his phone.

I spun and sprinted away, back through the caves.

Fern could already be dead. She could already be fucking dead by now.

ChapterEighteen

FERN

Gasping,I clawed at the concrete floor.

“You need to be punished, Estelle. You know you do. You were very bad, weren’t you?” Grady’s boot was on my rib, pressing down. “Weren’t you?”

Hissing, I nodded.

“Say it.”

“Fuck you,” I snarled and coughed uncontrollably. My throat was raw, my mouth full of my own blood.

The Chemist had decided to let Grady loose on me to teach me a lesson. He didn’t like getting his hands dirty, not in this way. Didn’t like to be the one to dish out the punishments. He did enjoy the aftermath though. He liked to repair the damage done so he could tear me apart all over againfor medical research.

This had been going on for four days. Grady beat me, and then The Chemist would come in and take pleasure in playing the depraved, psycho doctor.

My mind was fracturing. I could feel myself slipping away.

As soon as Grady had carried me through that door and the smell hit me, a switch flicked. It was like I’d never left, and besides the burned down wing of the building, nothing had changed.

After all the work I’d done to put the shattered pieces of my mind back together, they were falling away, one by one. I felt myself reverting back to that wild thing. The feral little girl The Chemist had to get Grady to tie down before he came into my room.

Grady dropped to one knee and gripped my jaw, his fingers digging in hard. When he leaned in close, I tried to swing, then realized my shoulder was dislocated, so I couldn’t do shit. I spat in his face, and he punched the side of my head with a curse.

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