Page 86 of Infernal

I crossed my arms and watched as her eyelids began to flutter to life. It took about a minute for her to fully regain consciousness, and when she finally did, her eyes doubled in size as she realized she was hog-tied and shit out of luck.

I knelt down before her and pulled the bandana from her mouth.

“Where am I? Where are my sister?” Her eyes were wide with alarm and brimming with terror.

“They’re dead,” I lied, needing her to feel nice and scared and hopeless.

Her expression quickly morphed from one of fear to one of panicked disbelief. “That’s impossible…you’re lying,” she said as a strangled sob escaped her throat.

“Are you sure about that?” I asked and then scratched my nose so that she could see the blood on my hands. “They looked pretty dead when I left them.”

Her eyes widened into saucers, tears quickly filling them.

“And not to be cliché or anything,” I said and leaned down over her. “But you’re about to join them unless you start talking.” I grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and yanked her up so that she was sitting on her knees, her hands still tied behind her back and anchored to her feet, making her body arch backwards unnaturally.

It looked painful, to be honest, but I didn’t give the tiniest of fucks.

With my fist still tangled in her shirt, I jerked her forward to me, close enough that I could smell her soured breath. With my free hand, I reached into my holster and pulled out a knife. Her eyes flared with fear as they met the blade.

“I’m giving you one chance to answer this question,” I started, my voice eerily calm, “and then I start cutting.”

She swallowed thickly but didn’t move other than that.

“How do I get Lucifer out of Trace’s body?”

Arianna’s mouth opened and then closed, as though struggling to find the right answer. That, or she was just trying to come up with a good enough lie.

A second late, she exhaled roughly and said, “You can’t.”

“Wrong answer.” I brought the knife up to her shoulder, pressed it down against her flesh and then dragged it halfway down her arm.

An earsplitting scream tore from her lungs as thick red liquid blossomed from the wound and slowly oozed down her arm. Her scream turned into sobs as I brought the knife up to her neck, pressing the edge down against a spot just below her ear.

“What do you think, Dominic? Should I give her another chance?” I asked him without taking my eyes off her.

He chuckled and said, “Nah.”

“That means no,” I told her and then leaned in a little closer to whisper in her ear. “Between you and me, I probably would’ve given you another chance.”

“I’m telling you the truth!” she said, her voice warped with fear and frustration.

“You better hope you’re not,” I said and twisted the blade clockwise, just a bit, nicking her skin and drawing a droplet of blood from her neck. “You hungry, Dominic?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Only for you, love,” he answered, his voice a slice of fresh honey comb in my ears.

Her narrowed eyes turned to ice as she glowered at me. “You can cut me up all you want, feed me to your little vampire for all I care, it’s still not going to save your boyfriend,” she said proudly and then hawked a big glob of spit at my face. “We made sure of that.”

Gnashing my teeth, I wiped the spit from cheek with the back of my arm and then slammed my elbow into the bridge of her nose. The crunching sound of bone breaking echoed in the cavern as another scream ripped out of her.

“Unbelievable,” I said, still feeling her nasty spit on my face. “You see what I get for being nice?”

“How many times do I have to tell you, angel? Nice guys always finish last.”

I leaned in closer to Arianna, my eyes narrowed like a heat-seeking missile. “Do that again and I’ll cut your lips off your face,” I warned. And I meant it too.

Her strangled cries of pain and suffering turned into a maniacal laugh that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “I’m going to enjoy watching Him eradicate your kind, you Hollier-than-thou do-gooders. You think you’re so much better than us. Well, you’re not!” she said, turning her head to the side to spit the blood from her mouth. “You shed just as much blood as we do, yet you think you’re free of sin. Your hypocrisy makes me sick!”

“Tell it to someone who cares,” I said and jerked her forward again. “That’s not my war. The only thing I give a damn about is getting your demon-Master out of my boyfriend’s body!”

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