Chapter One #3
“Enough fighting,” I said in a calmer voice.
I fixed on Ronin. “You want to know why Lucifer brought me here, but you already know. It was so I could be both the target and the scapegoat for his little plan. Wasn’t I the one lashed to that stake, Belphe?
Wasn’t I the human mortal woman desperately hiding herself while everyone was looking for a witch?
“If any part of his plan went wrong, I would get the blame, and no one would know that Lucifer and his accomplice were the ones murdering and sacrificing students in the one place in all of hell that’s supposed to be neutral.
“Even now, he’s playing it smart by sending someone powerless, disposable, and highly motivated on this mission,” I told him.
“If I die, I can just be replaced. If I find it, I can’t use it against him.
If I think about double-crossing him, I’ll slap that thought upside the head because he has my sister.
And if I go blabbing, I won’t get any sympathy,” I snapped, glaring at him.
“Because getting out of hell is what everyone in hell wants, so why wouldn’t that just bring more people to his side?
“You’re asking why me?” I laughed. “Who else but me, Belphe? If it was you, who would you trust? A snake, a demon, or a weak and pretty little thing?”
He hummed again, raising one delicate, perfect brow. “Very well. I concede to your reasoning.” He grinned. “Even pretty things have their uses.”
I swallowed hard. He bought it? Thank goodness. The last thing I’m telling anyone in this place is that I’m a witch. Being burned at the stake once was one too many times for me.
“So I’ll help you.”
I blinked. “What?”
“I’ll help you,” Ronin repeated. “Help from me when you ask and when you want it. It’s yours.”
“I— Thank you,” I burst out. “That means so much—”
“And all you have to do,” he finished, “is accept the sub bond.”
In a blink, I was flying.
Tristan roared up, tossing me and sending me bouncing across the sheets and into the pillows. He pulled the muzzle off so hard, it ripped out his hair and left gashes on his cheeks.
“Tristan!”
“Get out, Belphe.” I’d never heard that tone in Tristan’s voice before. It scared the cry back down my throat. “Or they’ll be scraping you off the fucking walls.”
If I expected a fight, I didn’t get one.
Laughing, Ronin turned on his heels and strode off. “Call me when you change your mind.” He snapped his fingers and a phone poofed out of thin air and plopped on my lap. “I’ll be waiting.”
Tristan turned on me as soon as the door shut. I squeaked when he squeezed my shoulders.
“Charlie, listen to me,” he hissed, his huge eyes swallowing me. “No matter what happens. No matter what he says. Don’t ever—ever—agree to a sub bond.”
“What’s a sub bond?” I flicked to the bloodstained muzzle on the sheets. “Why did you freak out like that?”
“Because a sub bond is the most disgusting, vile piece of dark magic those dead shits have ever come up with. A demon’s compulsion spell can be broken with a strong will, but a sub bond can’t.
You’ll be the sub, he’ll be the master—and the bond will make you do whatever the master tells you.
Even if what he tells you is to murder your sister and jump off a cliff. ”
I choked, eyes bugging. “Oh my gods, you—you mean it’s magic to turn someone into your slave!?”
Golden eyes captured me. “They changed it to sub to make it sound better than it is, but yes, Charlie. That’s exactly what the magic does.”
I could’ve puked right there on the sheets. What kind of psychopath was he? How could Belphe stand there with a smirk on his lips as he casually suggested something so horrible?
“Don’t worry,” I croaked out. “I can absolutely promise you that I will never take him up on that offer.”
Tristan’s phone went off. Releasing me, he fished it out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, and frowned. “What the hell...?” He pulled back—scowl deepening as he read something that wasn’t making him happy.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. “Those pack jerks aren’t messing with you again are—?”
Tristan bolted upright, his nose hitting the air.
Launching off the bed, he rammed into the door just as the thud of a body hitting it resounded from the other side.
“They know!” Tristan bellowed, his muscles straining and legs shifting as he threw his full strength into keeping the door shut. “Charlie, they all know!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“They all know what?!” Snatching up his phone, I read the message trending on DeadDrop—collecting hundreds of comments in the time it took for my jaw to drop.
That warty, green-faced, three-toothed demon who calls themselves Charlie isn’t a demon at all. She’s a young, beautiful human woman—and she’s very much alive.
Attached to the message was the recording Radu made of my confession all those weeks ago. In my own voice, I confirmed I was human, and broke the glamour for all who heard it.
I listened to the final word just as the hissing started, standing my neck hairs on end. Vampires. Outside my door were a horde of vampires, and they wanted in.
I knew what they wanted to do to me. I knew I had no chance of outrunning them if they came into this room, but still... the mob outside the door didn’t strike as much fear in my heart as the username of the original poster.
Coming4U