Page 96 of Demon with Benefits
All the while, Meph watched with complete detachment. He didn’t move. He didn’t so much as twitch.
Valefor dragged her out of the chamber and down a long hall, leaving Meph behind. He didn’t give Iris a chance to stand on her own—not that she could do much with her ankles tied. She screamed again as he dragged her away, calling for Meph even though she knew better than to hope he’d come for her.
“Quiet, witch!” Valefor hissed. “Or I’ll tear out your tongue and force you to consume it.”
That shut her up. She had no doubt he’d do it.
“Remember, I vowed to let you live, not more. Defy me, and I’ll make you beg for a death you won’t receive.”
Valefor kicked open the door to another random chamber. He tossed Iris into an empty room with nothing but a tiny window high in the stone wall.
Valefor stared at her, crumpled on the floor. “You call for him when he would kill you in a second if I allowed it. That beast is not the same as the pathetic human form you care for.”
She didn’t reply because she knew he was right. The hopelessness of her situation seeped into her bones, and she couldn’t even drum up the will to make an antagonistic remark. She just stared at him, waiting for him to tell her what he planned to do with her.
“He knows nothing but unending hunger,” Valefor said. “I keep this entire floor empty of my servants because he would devour any that crossed his path in seconds. Do you know what would have happened if I hadn’t stopped him feeding?”
Valefor’s smile was cold. “He would have kept going until he’d sucked every drop of life from your bones, leaving nothing but a withered husk behind. His way of feeding may not mean permanent death to a demon, but it would certainly mean so for you—a mere human. He’d drop your mummified corpse and go in search of his next meal without a second thought. I’ve seen it happen, witch, more times than I can count. You’re nothing to him but a paltry snack.”
As that horrifying image sank in, Valefor stepped closer and bent down, gripping Iris’s chin and yanking her face up to meet her gaze. He was in human form, but there was nothing human about the dark hatred in his eyes.
Tears swam in her own eyes from the pain, but she blinked through them and met his stare. She remembered her conviction from when she’d faced off with an angry Belial.The last thing I will do is show a demon even a glimpse of fear.
Still, it was hard. If she saw Belial now, she would hug him with relief. That was how different these circumstances were.
“If you so much as think of escaping,” Valefor said, “I will make you regret it. And it won’t just be you who suffers. Remember, I know where your twin sister is. I will bring her here, hang her by her ankles, and eat her flesh while she’s alive and screaming. I’ll start with her fingers and finish with her brains so she can survive as long as possible.”
When he smiled, it stretched too wide, and his blunt human teeth suddenly grew into points. His canines sharpened on each side, upper and lower jaw, framing his lengthening face. His nose flattened and then widened into two hideous, flared nostrils that were vaguely horselike. His pupils bled out and filled the rest of his eyes with black. Horns coiled up and up from the sides of his head.
It was terrifying, but Iris had already faced her worst nightmare today. This? This was nothing.
She gathered up a wad of saliva and spat it in his face.
His roar of fury echoed off the walls, and he slapped her so hard, she went flying. Her head cracked against the wall hard enough that even she heard it, and when she hit the ground, her body bounced in a way bodies should not.
She heard the sound of the door slamming and a bolt being slid into place.
The hopelessness fell over her like a shroud, and the next thing she knew was darkness.
18
SKULL BUSTER
IRIS WOKE SOMETIME LATER TO A SUDDEN REALIZATION.
As her awareness sharpened, however, the epiphany slipped behind a fog of disorientation. Whatever it was had been important enough to snap her to wakefulness, but throbbing pain in her head made it difficult to recall.
The room was dark, no light shining through the window high on the wall. But it had been equally dark when Valefor had chucked her in here, so it was impossible to tell how much time had passed.
The other time she’d been to Hell, Iris had been mostly underground, crawling through tunnels. Did Hell have day and night like Earth? Was there a sun that rose and set, or was it always the same?
Her ribs ached from where Valefor had kicked her. The puncture wounds from his claws on her throat stung. Her head throbbed, and when she gingerly touched her temple where she’d hit the wall, dried blood flaked off.
Judging by how woozy and disoriented she felt, she had a concussion. She racked her brain for medical advice on what to do, but she couldn’t remember anything. It was hard to even think about trying to remember anything.
Ironic, kinda. The concussion she needed medical tips for made it so she couldn’t remember any medical tips.Bloody hell, even I think I sound nuts.
What had been the realization that had woken her so urgently? She chased that aha moment through her convoluted thoughts, trying to recover the moment of clarity.
