12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

Rayven

My senses bled back into focus as I slowly regained consciousness. I’d blacked out once Belial’s brothers had caught up to me, but I had no idea how long I’d been out of it. It could have been minutes. It could have been hours.

An unnatural cold prickled over my skin, slowly leeching down to my bones and making my marrow ache. I forced my eyes open with a groan, and as my vision focused, an unsettling feeling pulled under my gut.

I didn’t recognize the sharp stalactites stretching down from the dark ceiling. They looked like weapons threatening to fall and skewer me.

The dank smell of dust and decay shoved its way into my lungs, the cold air making my chest seize. I blinked a few times, listening for any movement in the nerve-rattling silence, not keen to let anyone know I was awake.

I swallowed hard. My throat was dry.

Where the fuck am I?

The question repeated over and over in my head, even though I was afraid I already knew the answer. The jagged, unfinished walls didn’t belong to Belial’s castle. Neither did the icy air, nor the putrid stink of decay.

This must have been a lower level of Hell.

A numbness spread through my insides as the demon lords’ plot came slamming back into my mind. They wanted to kidnap me and hold me prisoner until Belial resumed his duties. Did they really expect that he’d just get back to work when he discovered I was missing?

By kidnapping me, they weren’t removing a distraction. They were provoking a monster.

Belial… At the thought of my demon lover, an invisible fist squeezed my heart, making my whole chest ache. He was probably still searching, tearing his castle apart to find me.

My hand flew to my throat, a tiny gasp escaping my lips when I found it bare. His collar was gone, and while I’d always imagined the relief of its absence, I felt naked without it. My physical tether to him, the constant reminder of his ownership, was gone.

What would he do when he discovered I was missing?

He definitely wasn’t going to go along with his brothers’ plan of making him judge every soul in Limbo before giving me back. That would take forever.

I sprang up onto my elbows, head swimming a little, and instantly regretted it.

The bed I was in looked like something straight out of a murder scene, with crimson stains smeared over the ratty old sheets.

It was fucking disgusting, having so much blood everywhere, but whoever called this bed theirs was into it, if the white substance crusting the blood stains was anything to go by. My stomach heaved, and I quickly scrambled off the mattress to the floor before I could add a vomit-colored puddle to the mix.

More blood continued on the floor, on the walls— fuck , there was even some on the ceiling. Dismembered torsos—and their various appendages—were tucked into corners and mounted on the walls.

It was a serial killer’s wet dream.

I would have thrown up again if my stomach wasn’t empty.

There weren’t words to describe the terror that flooded my system as I scanned the rest of the room.

Whoever called this place home was truly evil.

Aside from the bed, there were other pieces of furniture, or what I thought was furniture at first glance. A few steps closer instantly had me backpedaling when I realized they were all torture devices, blood-stained and well-worn.

A shiver danced up my spine.

On the opposite wall, a shredded piece of black fabric was tossed over what looked like a standing mirror, and next to it was a closed door. A flicker of relief pierced the dread flooding my system, and I ran for it before I could work out anything resembling a real escape plan. I just had to get out of this filthy, sin-soaked room.

Then, I’d figure out a way to get back to Belial.

I might have been a prisoner in Limbo, but it was nothing compared to the utter despair of this place. Hell, it had almost started to feel like home.

I ripped open the door, ready to run, and found my path blocked by a towering figure.

A scream froze in my throat when I found myself pinned under the glare of six narrowed eyes. My attention flitted between all of them before settling on the pair in the middle, dark and gleaming with malice.

“Going somewhere?” Asmodeus chuckled, and I backpedaled, tripping over the skirt of my dress and landing on my ass. I cried out as my tailbone smacked the stone floor.

I didn’t miss the way the bulge tenting his loincloth twitched at my scream.

“You can’t leave yet. The fun hasn’t even started.” The demon entered the room, closing the door behind him. The click of the handle latching shut had a lump swelling in my throat.

I guess this really was Hell, because I couldn’t think of a worse fate than being locked in this place with a creature like Asmodeus. It seemed his type of lust extended from mere physical attraction and sex to full-on bloodlust.

“I’m leaving,” I said, sounding much braver than I felt as I staggered back to my feet. “Get out of my way.”

He laughed again, this time louder, the noise echoing off the barren walls. “I thought you would have gotten the picture by now, you pathetic bitch. You’re meant to serve the demon lords, and for the time being, I’m your new Lord and Master.”

He took a step toward me as he undid the leather strap of his loincloth and tossed it to the side, leaving him completely naked.

If the three mismatched heads and the creepy, goat-like legs tipped with hooves weren’t enough to put me off, the thick, wrinkly dick hanging between his meaty thighs sure was.

“Like what you see?” He smirked at me like he was proud.

I wrinkled my nose. “Not really. Your brother’s is, like, twice as big.”

This wasn’t the time or place to run my mouth, but I couldn’t help it. There was no “switch” to turn off my bratty attitude, which was exactly what had gotten me into trouble with Belial in the first place. Well, beyond the whole robbing his ex-pet’s grave thing.

Even though I knew I was tits-deep in shit with Asmodeus, I couldn’t help firing off the first smart-ass retort that came to mind.

The demon moved so fast, there was no time to react before he back-handed me across the face, hard enough to send me flying onto the bed.

Skull ringing and my cheek stinging, I blinked away the stars dancing across my field of vision in time to see the demon lord charging at me.

I tried to scramble away, but his huge, sausage-like fingers caught my ankle and dragged me back across the soiled linens. “Get back here, you bitch.”

Using every iota of strength, I thrashed as hard as I could, but it was no use. He was three times my size, easily. It was like a fly trying to take out a gorilla.

He crawled on top of me, his guttural laugh scraping over my skin like sandpaper and his noxious breath filling my nostrils, making my head swim.

“Get the fuck off me!” I screeched, nails slashing at his eyes—any of them. He kept laughing as he gripped my wrists in one hand and pinned them over my head while his other reached for the hem of my dress.

No. No. No.

This couldn’t be happening.

Another scream tore from my throat. Asmodeus wasn’t laughing anymore. His eyes flashed with anger, and his bull head breathed a cloud of smoke in my face while the middle head growled at me to shut up.

“Stay still, or I’ll move you from the bed to The Rack.”

I wasn’t sure what “The Rack” was, but I ventured a guess that it was one of the grisly torture benches decorating Asmodeus’ bedroom.

When his hand brushed my upper thigh, I bucked, and my knee came up—slamming right into his balls.

He stiffened, and his grip on my wrists loosened just enough to pry a hand free and bury my fingernails into the eyes of his center head.

The howl of pain he released pierced my ears, the pain of it dulling the second smack he gave to my other cheek.

“Asmodeus.” The voice that echoed through the room shattered through my senses and rattled me down to my bones. I had no idea where it came from, but it was there, clear as day. That deep baritone haunted my dreams and soothed me in my darkest nightmares. “Do you know what you’ve done? What you’ve stolen from me?”

From the dread knotting my insides rose a glimmer of hope as Belial’s voice filled Asmodeus’ room. How was he speaking to the Lord of Lechery all the way from Limbo?

“Belial! Help—” Asmodeus clamped his clammy palm over my mouth, silencing me. He glared at the mirror. The mirror!

I craned my head as far as the demon’s grip on me would allow, and my attention landed on the mirror next to the door covered by the sheet.

Maybe it was some kind of communication system the lords of the nine realms used to communicate with one another.

“I know exactly what I’ve stolen from you, brother. I’ve rehomed your mortal pet. I’d like to see for myself how good her warm pussy must be to distract you from duties for three fucking centuries.”

“It’s my queen you’ve kidnapped, you three-headed fuck smear. I’m going to take immense pleasure in tearing off your pus-filled heads one by one and sticking them on a pike. It will make a pretty little scepter for my new queen.”

Belial’s threat seemed to make Asmodeus falter for a moment, but he recovered a beat later, throwing his heads back with a mirthless laugh. “If there’s anything of your queen left once I’ve had my fun with her.”

A gust of wind carried through the room, coming from the mirror and blowing the sheet covering the glass to the ground.

The Lord of Bones’ reflection filled up the reflective surface. He looked imposing in his heavy cloak that revealed his muscular chest heaving with every breath he took. The fire filling his eye sockets leapt high, like gas being poured over an open flame, as he clutched my broken collar in his fist, holding it tight to his heart. “Rayven, if you can hear me—”

With a roar, my captor reached for a severed hand on the nightstand and hurled it across the room. It slammed into the mirror hard enough to shatter the glass, and Belial’s reflection flickered. I screamed against Asmodeus’ sweaty hand as the image faded, replaced by a fractured image of his bedroom.

My view of the mirror blurred as fat tears filled my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Crying would only heighten the sickening satisfaction Asmodeus was getting out of this.

“On your fucking knees, bitch. Kneel before your new lord.”

His hand left my mouth, only to knot in my hair. He wrenched me off the bed and shoved me to the floor. My knees scraped against the rough stone, sprinkled with shards of bone and other pieces of god knew what. Keeping one hand rooted in my hair, he took his other and fisted his cock, giving it a pump before pushing it toward my face. “Open that whore mouth. Bite me, and I’ll slit your throat.”

There was no time for me to scream. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway. I needed a plan…

Belial knew I was here, but I didn’t know how long it would take for him to come and get me.

I couldn’t just sit around like a damsel in distress, waiting for her knight. Not when I was stuck in a castle with the knight’s rape-y brother.

Asmodeus filled my mouth with a thrust of his hips.

In my periphery, all three of his heads fell back on his broad shoulders, groaning his delight. “Fuck me. If your other holes feel half as good as your mouth, no wonder Belial has his dick in a knot over you. You make for one hell of a cock sleeve.”

Disgust wound through my body, and if I had anything left in my stomach, I probably would have vomited on his cock. Too bad—the fucker deserved it.

Though, knowing him, he might enjoy knowing how sickening I found all this. Because that’s all this was; A fucked up kind of torture, which, by the look of things, was the Lord of Lust’s specialty.

His fingers curled tighter into my hair, claws scraping my scalp as he jerked me against him, sinking his member deep into my throat.

One of his heads snickered at the way I gagged, barely able to breathe around the invasion.

“Look at me,” he demanded.

My eyes lifted to meet his. His lips bowed at the hateful shadows roiling behind them. “Suck me , little queen. ”

The mocking in his voice had liquid fire tearing through my veins.

He tasted like rancid flesh, and if I lived through this, I was scared I’d never be able to wash his taste from my mouth.

He’d warned me not to bite him…but if I died, what would become of my soul? It would probably still be here, trapped with him until Belial came. And Belial would come for me, whether I was dead or not.

So, what was there to lose?

Before I could talk myself out of it, I bit down on the appendage—hard.

Asmodeus let out a roar loud enough to shake the nine realms, but I didn’t let up. I bit down again and again. Thick, viscous blood bloomed over my taste buds, washing away the taste of old cum and sweaty flesh.

He tried to scramble away from me, but it was too late. The final bite severed his flesh completely, and I felt it come loose in my mouth.

I spit out the chunk of severed meat along with a mouthful of blood. It streamed down my chin, dripping down my chest and peppering the floor at my knees.

My wide eyes pinged up to see the demon lord stumbling, falling backward onto his bed, pure shock etched into each of his sheet-white faces. He clutched the jagged bits of skin between his legs where his cock had been a second ago.

And just like that, I felt my power return. Even now, on my knees, covered in blood with a shriveled dick before me. Hell, especially now.

I rose to my feet, my lips slowly stretching into a manic grin. “And when Belial gets here, he’s going to remove your other heads. Isn’t it cute, the way we coordinate like that?”