Page 19 of Hounded: Ashes to Ashes

She looked sad; a glimpse of her earlier kindness had returned. Or maybe it never left.

I’d told Sully that only bad people made deals with demons, but I didn’t truly believe that. I’d met too many lost, desperate souls to think they all deserved the punishment that came with the terms of a hellish deal. I’d been lost once, too.

Now, I was lost again. Trapped, and frightened, and so far from home.

Nero gazed wearily at the witch. “Would you let his fate determine yours?”

Elise paused, then shook her head. The jar’s hinged lid swung open. When she looked toward me, she made a pointed effort to avoid my eyes. “You may have to restrain him,” she told Nero.

The archdemon chuckled. “Gladly.”

He stepped forward, and I withdrew, wanting to scramble or scurry away with nowhere to go but back into the cramped closet. My arms flexed against the ties that bound me to no avail. With my legs straightening then folding in a flurried attempt at escape, I ended up on my back, cringing while my hound howled loudly enough to make my ears ring.

Nero didn’t grab me, but he did plant one foot on my sternum, then leaned in with enough crushing weight I thought my ribs would crack.

A whine eked out as I pressed my lips together, then bit into them until I tasted copper. I could beg, but I’d already tried that. And Nero knew I was a liar. I’d run out of ways to deceive him, and he’d proven unwilling to follow me any farther. The road ended here.

While my canines sunk into the fleshy sides of my lower lip, another thought occurred. It made my stomach twist to consider but, as Elise bent close and her eyes shimmered with sorrow, I realized it was the only actionable plan. Not even a plan; it was a stall tactic, but I would take that over surrender.

Relaxing my jaw, I opened my mouth enough to slip my tongue out as far out as it would go. It must have looked childish, but I didn’t bother to consider the puzzled expressions on Elise and Nero’s faces before I bit down.

Protest came as a wave of nauseating pain. My blunt human teeth weren’t enough to cut cleanly through, so I found myself digging in, reeling, and trying not to gag as hot blood flooded my mouth.

My hound lashed out, raging at the agony. Shadowy claws surged from my fingers, and my teeth sharpened, hardening off to points that severed the last bits of muscle anchoring my tongue.

I bucked under Nero’s shoe, spitting out the lump of skin along with a spray of inky black. It spritzed Elise’s face and the front of her dress, causing her to scream and tumble backward. Nero’s pantleg was next. The pair of pressed khakis that complimented his business professional attire were thoroughly soiled as I hacked and coughed at the fluid that seemed to spill endlessly from the stump of my tongue.

The archdemon bore down on me harder, yelling words I couldn’t decipher while my pulse pounded in my ears.

I was drowning.

Every gasp filled my lungs with fluid that didn’t belong there. My eyes were wet, too. I cried in pain and panic and writhed on the ground while Nero plunged his other foot into my side in a flurry of kicks.

Elise shrieked in the background; another sound added to a terrible cacophony. Nero’s human face flushed as red as his demon one while he roared, so determined to kick a hole in my chest that he lost his balance and had to step onto flat ground.

Sputtering, I rolled onto my side, and blood poured out of my mouth to puddle on the carpet.

I thought he’d keep beating me—maybe to death—but when his expression went stony and he crouched to pick something off the floor, it seemed he’d found a worse alternative.

The muzzle dangled from his fist, and he lunged toward me, grabbing me by the hair and holding my head while he fastened the thing across my face.

Blood kept flowing, but I couldn’t spit it out. It sat in my mouth, filling the void left by my missing tongue. Nero shook meagain, and the blood sloshed. I gagged, trying desperately not to puke and add to the fluid I would already have to swallow.

A few feet away, Elise huddled against the bed. She looked at me, and her head shook slowly as she asked, “Why would you…?”

“Because he’s stupid,” Nero sneered, then let me drop. “Dumb fucking animal.”

Pain came from everywhere, and I groaned. I wasn’t dying, but part of me wished I was.

The demon loomed over me as I curled into a miserable ball. “You think this will stop me?” He huffed a laugh. “It’ll grow back. In a few days, we’ll do this again. And again, if that’s what it takes.”

Buying time came at a hefty price, one I wasn’t sure I could afford with the onslaught of pain dragging me swiftly toward unconsciousness. I groaned again and resigned myself to gulp down the mouthful of blood that immediately soured my stomach. I was laying in it, too. My forehead rested on the wet spot on the carpet, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Couldn’t make myself move another inch while I gazed at Elise.

She was trembling, shaking her head, and her black-speckled face was the last thing I saw before my eyes slid shut.

Indy

Gettingthe tears was the easy part. Sully had no shortage of vials with cork stoppers, and I had plenty to cry about. With twenty-four hours between us and what I was struggling to believe would not be another rejection, Sully took the opportunity to get some rest. She suggested I do the same but, after an hour and a half rolling around in a nest of floor pillows, I remained maddeningly awake.

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