Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

As Sorin sliced the knife coated in Devil's Nightshade across my chest, my neck tattoo tingled moments before a feral growl spilled into the room.

My eyelids closed as Fane's presence washed over me, undetectable by the other three in the room. "I really don't want you to see this."

"Too fucking bad," the demon shifter snarled. "Why is Venna allowing that asshole to torture you?"

Sorin glanced over his shoulder at Venna. "Anything goes, right?"

She absentmindedly smoothed a wrinkle in her formfitting black satin blouse that showed off her cleavage. "Do whatever you like, short of killing her. If you can get her to tell you what Ruin is planning, that's a plus. Simply breaking her is fine too."

My stomach sank as Sorin returned to me with a sadistic glint brightening his blue irises. He ran the tip of the knife over my throat without breaking the skin. "Tell me what you know about Ruin's little lab experiments and why he wanted the Infernal Sol you so conveniently have inside you."

Why would Venna trust this demon, a prisoner in Heldrok, with that information?

"I have no idea," I forced out. My mouth, along with the rest of me, felt frozen.

Sorin's head lowered, his lips brushing my ear. "Let's try a different tactic, shall we? I can't get that naked body of yours out of my head. I've been dreaming about breaking you a hundred different ways, even worse than what I did to that raven."

Bile shot up my throat at his threat.

Fane's roar erupted through the room, and he tried to grab Sorin's throat, but his hands simply passed through the demon. "I'll fucking kill you, Sorin!"

I struggled against the binds as the high demon plucked off the buttons on the top half of my jumpsuit and then used the knife to tear the bottom half off. That look in his eyes, one I'd seen many times, made it perfectly clear what he intended to do.

The room spun as icy fear hemorrhaged through my veins. "Fuck you, Sorin." I yanked on the binds, cursing the symbol on my arm that kept my strength muted. This monster had a sick habit of destroying everything in his crosshairs, and I'd become one of his conquests.

"Leave, Fane!" I yelled in his head loud enough to make him wince. "I don't want you to see this."

His lips curled back, showing his sharpening teeth. "You're out of your fucking mind if you think I'm leaving."

"There's nothing you can do. It'll make this worse."

Fane watching would only make me crumble faster .

Sorin slapped me, drawing blood from my lip. "You have a mouth on you, Tate. We're going to fix that."

As he strolled to the end of the table and slowly removed my boots, Fane laid his hands on my shoulders, and a wave of energy rushed through me.

"Use the Infernal Sol," he demanded.

Tremors rolled over my rigid form. "What if I go crazy? What if it takes complete control?" My mental voice shook as Sorin ripped my jumpsuit off, leaving me in the dingy underwear and gray tank top.

Fane curved over me, pouring so much energy into me his form flickered. "I'd rather you be as dark as you've ever been and rip his fears out before he harms you. I'll bring you back no matter what." As he faded, his stare pierced mine as if trying to reach the demon amulet himself. "Just try, fiera mika."

The energy that Fane gave me buzzed through my veins, waking up my senses and sharpening them almost painfully. The yellow light hanging above became blinding, and the horrific scents mixing with Sorin's desire made me gag. His touch skimming up my leg felt like sandpaper.

"This will be quite an entertaining afternoon." His laughter pelted my skull. "Since you like to fight, it'll probably drag well into the night."

My jaw clenched as I searched deep inside for the Infernal Sol. I didn't hide my panic from it, letting the terror rip my insides apart and blast through every nook and cranny.

Sorin sliced the knife through my tank top and ripped the thin material off, revealing the threadbare bra. He licked his lips. "I can't wait to taste your fear."

Finally, that wicked power answered my cries for help, erupting inside of me so fast my back arched off the table, and a scream burst from my mouth. Sorin spoke to Venna, but I couldn't hear over the waves of power rushing through me.

Like dynamite had been set off, the dam splintered into a million pieces, unleashing the Infernal Sol within me. The tattoo below my ribs glowed red.

Sorin ran his hands over it. "What's happening to her?"

As the power settled inside, a laugh that was not my own broke free. "Did someone say something about tasting fear?" I licked my lips. "That's my favorite thing on the menu."

Sorin returned to me, his hand hovering over my chest, moments from ripping my bra off. "What does that mean?"

"Come closer and find out."

The Infernal Sol was most definitely in the driver's seat now, but I didn't mind taking shotgun. In fact, anticipation twisted around me as I waited for the amulet to lash out at Sorin like it had done to Furic.

Using the energy Fane gave me, I gathered my strength and ripped my right arm out of the metal binds. My fist slammed into Sorin's face, forcing him to stumble away from the table.

As he froze in shock, I ripped the chains off my other wrist and ankles and hopped from the table. Mykel stepped toward me, but Venna gripped his shoulder to stop him.

Why wouldn't the demon princess want to intervene?

Didn't really matter.

My focus zeroed in on Sorin as he lunged, his teeth elongating and talons growing. When he crashed into me, we collided into the wall, but I felt no pain. All I felt was the urge to pluck out his fears.

He growled as his eyes blackened. "I don't know how you got out of that, but I?— "

I shoved my palm against his temple and ripped through his mind to find all the delicious terror he tried to hide.

Silly demon. He couldn't hide that from me.

Memories flashed across my vision, and I halted on one of Sorin running from a large sub-demon with a scorpion tail and pincers.

"Oh, a vargos demon." I tsked. "Nasty little things."

Sorin shuffled back, dispersing the images of him being chased through a forest in the Underworld. "How did you do that?"

I rubbed the Infernal Sol tattoo. "I have more power than you can imagine, demon. Now it's my turn for some entertainment."

In one snap, I manifested a vargos demon for him, and his screams were music to my ears. He scrambled back and fell on his ass as the hallucination converged on him.

"Get it away from me!" Sorin crawled on his hands and knees, his arrogance zapped away and replaced by terror. "It'll kill me."

My laugh bounced through the torture room, cold and cruel. "The venom from his tail will put you through immense pain until you finally die. And then he'll eat your corpse piece by piece."

Before this moment, I'd never heard of a vargos sub-demon, but when the Infernal Sol had control, I seemed to know things I wouldn't usually.

Sorin hit the wall as the vargos's tail curved over and stung him. Even though he hadn't really been stung, the fear vision made him believe it. He shrieked as horrible pain erupted within him.

I chuckled and danced around the filthy room, inhaling the fear from Sorin like a drug. It pumped endorphins and energy through my veins, feeding the ancient power deep inside. I didn't care that I was in my undergarments. "The lion thought he could prod and poke the little rabbit. But the rabbit turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing." My bare foot brushed over Sorin as he convulsed on the ground, slobbering and crying. And he was no lion at all. Just a scared house cat with a loud roar.

"Why are you letting her do this?" The dux demon asked the royal as they leaned in a corner.

She smiled, her lips painted blood red. "The Infernal Sol is now in control. Not Tate."

My dancing halted in front of her, and I tilted my head, studying her. "You put me in this place." She was also the one who had upset my beast by threatening his mother.

My beast.

The urge to find him flooded my body with warmth. I should go to him. He'd be happy to see me.

But the royal demon moved to block my path. No matter. I could visit him without this physical form.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked. Venna, that was her name.

I coiled a lock of hair around my finger. "I know many things you don't."

Venna arched an eyebrow. "I'm well aware."

Her dog stepped forward. "Should I bring out the magical binds for her, Princess Venna?"

I wiggled my fingers at him. "You'll have to get close to cuff me, and I'd love to see what kind of fears hide in that giant head of yours, dux demon."

Some of the color drained from his face, and he looked at Venna for direction—because he clearly couldn't think for himself.

"That won't be necessary, Mykel." She regarded me with curiosity as she walked toward the left, grabbing a knife from the wall. "How would you like to torture prisoners for me?"

Tricky trickster in a viper's skin. The royal demon wants the answers from within. She's a princess with a poisonous tongue and wishes to eat my soul and my beast's, but she'll get none.

For shit's sake, even my thoughts were a chaotic mess.

"I don't work for anyone, demon." I snatched the bottle of Madness from the counter and flicked it, creating a ping. "I torment on my own terms." They gasped as I downed a gulp of the toxin.

My laughter echoed against the stone and steel walls. "This is weak compared to the magic inside of me. It tastes like hopes and nightmares."

Not even Madness Elixir could penetrate the hold this dark power had on me.

Princess Venna toyed with the knife. "Think of how much fun you'll have. You can torture for hours with these toys." She held her arms out wide at the instruments and chains hanging on the walls. "Or you can feed on their fears and satisfy that hunger."

My lips pursed as I considered my options. "It would be fun, but I don't like you. You called me a little girl last time, and I don't appreciate you underestimating my powers."

Venna's smile turned into a sneer. "I'm not taking no for an answer." She slammed the dagger into the table, piercing the metal. "I'll kill your precious monster, Fane."

A warning growl curled out of my mouth as rage infiltrated my system. "He'd eat your heart out, and then I'd feast on your eyeballs and suck your bone marrow."

"You paint a lovely picture, but it will never come to fruition." She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a familiar picture, slapping it on the table between us. "I will kill every last one of the Anders."

My beast was all I cared about—or that was how it should have been—but those faces each punched a hole in the swell of power wrapping me. Those wolves were special to Fane. They were his family.

That made them important.

Venna ran her sharp nail over the youngest one. "I'll start with the little boy first. Dylan ."

"Why would she care about them if the Infernal Sol is in control?" Mykel whispered, but I still heard him over Sorin's blubbering.

"Because Tate is protective of the Anders even in this state." Her broad smile nearly reached her ears. "Isn't that right?"

I slapped my hands on the table, talons bursting from my fingertips and ripping gouges in the metal. "Touch any of them, and you'll die. I swear it."

Her laugh made me want to rip her jaw apart. "I've got you cornered, so either take the job, or I'll make sure all four members of the Anders family are painfully slaughtered."

Red flashed in my vision, but I had no other moves. "Fine. I'll be your poisoned dagger."

I spun away from her and marched toward Sorin, surprised he hadn't pissed himself yet. He was close. As I snapped my fingers, the vargos vanished along with the high demon's pain.

He scrambled into a sitting position, staring up at me with bloodshot eyes. "W-What happened?"

"I could have kept that going for hours." I grabbed his chin and forced him to look at me. "Stay away from Maddie and me unless you'd like to end up with a swarm of vargos sub-demons chasing you. I can make that happen."

Sorin climbed to his feet, using the wall for support. Sweat drenched his sallow skin, making his damp jumpsuit stick to him. "What did you do to me?" He turned to Venna. "Why would you let her do that?"

"Get over it, Sorin. Be glad no one saw you rolling on the ground, crying like a newborn." Venna motioned toward the door. "Wait outside and tell no one what happened here."

Sorin glared in my direction as he headed for the door, but fear still throbbed around him.

"I don't understand why you would give her free rein to torture prisoners, Princess Venna," Mykel hissed under his breath. "She's supposed to be punished."

"This is punishment." Venna's gaze seared into mine. "After paying attention to Tate's Madness hallucinations, one thing is clear. She holds onto guilt and soaks it up like a sponge."

"Careful Venna. I might change my mind and let everyone else die while I save myself."

She ignored my threat and continued her conversation with Mykel. "Once Tate gains back her control from the Infernal Sol, her guilt for doing such terrible things to the inmates during torture sessions will haunt her for the rest of her life.