Chapter 12 #3
They had been beheaded and skinned—their flesh red and sinewy. The abdomen had been split open, and the internal organs had been scooped out. Gutted like a deer. She was grateful they had no heads so she didn’t have to stare into unseeing eyes.
Lumps of fatty tissue sat on the chest, yellow and gelatinous, marking them as undoubtedly female.
Elizabeth held a hand over her mouth and tried not to vomit.
Below the women who would never get a proper burial were two buckets, collecting their blood, their life force.
Food for demons.
The world seemed to shrink around her, the room suddenly too hot.
She whirled around, fleeing the room and putting her hand on the wall of the hallway to steady herself. Her breathing grew shallow and rapid, and she struggled to get in enough air.
She leaned against the wall, and the world slipped in and out as unconsciousness threatened to take her.
“Elizabeth? What are you doing down here?” Asmodeus strolled down the corridor, his wings flaring out behind him, a smile on his face.
“Come to visit me at last?” His grin widened, showing elongated canines. “Though, I must say, sweetheart, you look a bit peaked. Not exactly the flushed, satisfied glow I was expecting to see after the Master’s … attentions.” Asmodeus gave her a roguish wink.
Asmodeus took in her haunted expression and paled.
“Don't tell me you were poking around in there?” He jerked his thumb towards the room she had just been in.
He put his face in front of hers, which helped to dull the roaring in her ears.
“Elizabeth. Elizabeth.” Asmodeus gripped her shoulders. His eyes held hers like a tether to reality as she tried not to faint. “Elizabeth. You’re okay. Get a grip. You’re going into shock.”
Her eyes widened with fear. She didn’t want to be touched by any of them.
Monsters.
She frantically looked at his hands gripping her shoulders.
As if he read her mind, he said, “Yeah. I’ll let you go as soon as I’m sure you’re not going to topple like a toddler.”
She steadied herself and cleared her throat. “W-what? What was that?”
Her body trembled, her hands slick with cold sweat.
“You’re going to march to your room, and you’re going to drink some water. Okay?”
She nodded, feeling like a child.
“You’re looking for food?”
She nodded again.
“I’ll have a human-looking demon send something up.”
Her lungs stopped taking in air. She felt like a fool. The world faded in and out.
Asmodeus sighed impatiently and cautiously leaned her against the wall. “Wait here.” He opened a different door down the hall and barked out orders.
He returned and raised his brows at her.
“Do you want me to carry you, or will you walk yourself?” His tone carried disbelief.
She held her head high and stood defiantly, even though she still felt unsteady on her feet. Though Asmodeus was helping her, she needed to save her pride. “I will walk myself.”
“Okay,” he said, letting her.
Elizabeth put one foot in front of the other and somehow made it to her chambers.
“Go splash cold water on your face,” Asmodeus suggested, having followed her like he was unsure where she’d end up in her daze. “Better yet, take a bath and invite me to come watch. For protection purposes, obviously,” he said, grinning.
She glared.
However, his comment did help distract her from the roaring in her ears.
She left for the bathing chamber, where she splashed her face with water and took a moment to look in the mirror. The hollows under her eyes looked darker, and her skin looked pale.
When she came back, Asmodeus was snacking on a lamb bone and had two plates of lamb chops in front of him. One had vegetables, and the other did not.
Elizabeth closed her eyes against the images that pressed in on her mind.
“Hey, now. Don’t get all woozy on me again. You knew he was a demon. You knew we drink blood and eat flesh. You cannot be surprised. I assume he told you we drink human blood and hunt them?”
“Knowing and seeing are vastly different things,” she said, her words barely audible.
“Don’t worry, he won’t do that to you. He wouldn’t have bothered to set everything up and bring you here as his mistress if he planned to just kill you. He would have done it already, if that helps.” He gestured dismissively with his lamb bone. “But the demons in this house do need to eat.”
“I—”
“Thought he was good? He’s a fucking demon. What did you expect?”
She had known he was a demon. She had known he drank human blood … but ... but…
She couldn’t help thinking that if he was handsome and nice to her ... then, he must be good. Deep down. Mustn’t he? Why was he being so nice to her if this was how he treated mortals?
Her lower lip wobbled pitifully.
Asmodeus looked at her expression and rolled his eyes. “Are you going to start crying?” he asked, sounding aghast.
“No,” she said stubbornly.
“Good. I can’t stand women who cry.”
“That says something about maturity, I think.”
He glanced at her. “Mortal girl, I’m a demon. Immature is what I do best.”
She physically fought not to roll her eyes. She liked Asmodeus, for all he was a lech.
Turning from him, she sat heavily on her bed and stared off into space, unable to stop thinking about what she had just seen.
Elizabeth chewed her lip.
He had killed people. The truth of it was irrefutable.
How far could her moral compass stretch? Would she like the person she would become if she stayed here, for even a few months, turning a blind eye to the things that happened within these walls?
Her thoughts spiralled.
Asmodeus peered at her in concern. It was almost heartwarming, the concern evident on his face.
She took a moment to breathe deeply and restore her sense of calm.
“Thank you.” Thank you for helping me not go into shock, was what she refrained from saying.
He brandished a bone with a hunk of lamb on it. “Gave me a fright there. Thought I was going to have to explain to his magnificence why we lost ya.”
“Thank you for helping me,” she repeated.
“You can always thank me by flashing me one,” he said, waggling his eyebrows with exaggerated lechery.
She responded by throwing a pillow at his face.
Grinning, he raised his hands in surrender and left.
Elizabeth had known Caspian was a demon. She had just hoped her demon was somehow a good one. That he had a secret good side and wasn’t as awful as the stories said.
The fool she was.
They were monsters. Each and every one.