4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Beleth

‘ Y ou're torturing her!'

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath in an attempt to hold back the frustrated scream rising in my throat. When was he going to shut up about this already? I just tied her up and gagged her! She wasn't missing body parts, she wasn't subjected to any kind of pain—unless being kept silent was considered one—and I hadn't even touched her, even though she was basically naked and stinking of lust like a bitch in heat. Damn witches always did, even when they glared daggers at your back.

If anything, I was being considerate here. Not to mention, I was protecting her from dangers she wasn't even aware of. She should be thanking me on her knees, not trying to stab me with anything that could be used as a weapon. Did they think I was enjoying playing babysitter?

‘Untie her already! She looks in pain and she has barely moved for days!' Cyrus whined.

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I counted to ten. Some days I wished I could gag him, too.

‘No fucking way,' I replied. ‘ We need to go through the trial again today and I don't want to come back only to have her attack us while we're vulnerable. The last time we were so weak, she actually made us bleed!' I could sense him preparing for another protest, so I snarled in warning. ‘She stays tied up until she learns to behave and that's final!'

Cyrus groaned. Sharing a goddamn body with him had never bothered me before, even though he was often exasperating, but the last five days had really been a test of my patience. In fact, I was running so low on it, I was afraid I might do something worse to her just to shut him up.

‘You are too mean,' Cyrus murmured. ‘She looks so miserable! This isn't her fault. If anything, it's mine.'

‘I don't care. Just fucking shut up.' He let out another sigh, the heaviness in our chest growing until it was hard to breathe. ‘Why do you care about her comfort so much? You don't really know her. Not to mention, you have seen what she has done, and what she could still do.' I waited for his answer, but unsurprisingly, he kept quiet. ‘She massacred thousands. And not all of them went to Hell.'

There was a long pause in my head and for a while, I thought he'd get tired of the subject. That suited me just fine because I needed to focus on drawing more of her power before we went through the trials again. I had almost made it without wasting the entirety of my strength before, but it was still not enough. Hopefully, this time…

‘She reminds me of us,' Cyrus said quietly, and I could almost feel his touch against my consciousness. It was a strange thing, sharing a mind with another soul. Well, technically I was created from the essence of his soul, so it wasn't ‘another'. Time and need had made me strong, made me irreplaceable, made me needed, and now it was he who could not exist without me. Still, feeling each other's thoughts and desires, sharing control over this vessel, and being in each other's presence day and night was… exhausting sometimes. Like now.

‘What the fuck was that supposed to mean?' I snapped.

Before he could reply, a loud thud came from behind me. I wiped the frown from my face, tilting the chair back until I could look at the woman half-sitting, half-lying in the corner. A few muffled sounds escaped her gag, but she kept stomping her foot and screaming into the cloth until a vein popped over her forehead.

I considered returning to the book I was pretending to read, but Cyrus cleared his throat in our head so I got up before he started whining again. She looked so weak and pathetic right now that I almost felt bad enough to untie her. When she attacked me before, the fierceness in her expression and the confidence of her strikes had thrown me off. Witches rarely resorted to brute strength with all of their spells and hexes, but watching her fight for her life had been exhilarating. For a second there, I almost admired her. Almost.

"Yes?" I said with a mocking smile. Her eyes narrowed and a few more muffled sounds came from behind the rag.

‘Don't be mean. She clearly can't speak like that,' Cyrus scolded me. ‘She can't do anything if she is tied up, right? Remove the gag and unbind her legs so she can sit more comfortably.' I studied her long, pale limbs and the edge of the man's shirt that barely covered anything. ‘She won't attack us again, even if she could. She is smarter than that.'

‘I'm not so sure about that,' I scoffed even as I motioned for my shadows to release her. With the power holding the rag in her mouth gone, she spat the dirty cloth out, moving her jaw while her eyes continued to drill a hole through me. I expected her to start shouting the moment she was able, which would have given me a good reason to shut her up again, but all she did was lick her lips and adjust herself on the floor.

"May I… have water?" she croaked, her tone surprisingly devoid of defiance.

‘See? Now be nice to her! It's better to get along! Easier too. ' Cyrus chirped, his enthusiasm making my stomach twist unpleasantly. I strode back to the table to pour her some, waiting for her to nag or taunt me, but she kept quiet. Once I was lifting the glass for her to drink, for a split second, I considered taking off her shackles—long enough for Cyrus's approval and joy to make our body tremble with excitement—but I couldn't get rid of the feeling that she was up to something again. Her sudden compliance was unnerving, and I absolutely refused to believe she just accepted her situation.

She parted her lips in anticipation, gulping the liquid even as a few drops spilled down her chin and landed on her dirty shirt, making it stick to her skin. With her arms bent behind her back and most of the buttons torn, her ‘clothes' left very little to the imagination. Yet, she didn't so much as blink when she pulled back for breath and held my gaze.

She wasn't exactly my type, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore all that shameless display of soft, ripe flesh. Especially when my own body, no doubt Cyrus' doing, was reacting so willingly to the view.

The moment I felt my cock hardening in my pants, I turned away from her, but I must have jostled the glass because she choked on the water and spit it all over her legs. Her face was red and angry when I looked at her, but again, she said nothing.

"Idiot," I murmured, getting back to my feet. My steps on the stone floor were the only sound for a moment, but judging by how intensely she was staring at my back, she was probably going to start talking soon.

‘She hasn't said a word for days!' Cyrus defended her while I placed the glass on the table a bit harder than I should have. It shattered in my hand, sending shards flying all over the floor.

I pulled my chair, fully intent on ignoring her, when she finally spoke.

"May I have some food? I need to eat if you wish to keep me alive." Her voice was flat, the words lifeless and mechanical, so I had a hard time deciding if this was some kind of ploy or if she had truly lost her desire to struggle. I was betting on the former.

I leaned my hands on the table, staring at the takeout box waiting beside my plate. Hell wasn't exactly famous for its kitchen, no matter what the humans believed, and I wasn't particularly inclined to cook. So the last time we went to the world of the living… Cyrus forced me to buy some for her too.

‘Go on,' he urged me like I was some child who was too shy to go play with the other kids. I snarled in frustration, grabbing the carton and striding back to her. Her calm, guarded eyes followed my every movement, reminding me of a cat watching its prey. It unnerved me and pissed me off so much, I almost turned around and left the room. Cyrus's insistent nudging finally led me to her side.

We stared at each other for a long moment and I was just bending over to leave the box by her feet when it hit me. Her hands were still tied up. She couldn't eat like this. Fuck.

"Who is the idiot now?" she asked, and when I looked back at her, she was fighting a smile. "I don't mind being fed like a princess. That should humble you a little."

"Do you want to starve?"

She just shrugged at the threat, like it didn't matter to her at all. "Starvation can kill a human, you know. I thought you didn't want me dead?" She cocked her head to the side, staring intently at the tiny white container before meeting my gaze again. "Come on, I promise I'll be a good girl if you remove these. Aaaand you can keep your image of a big, bad demon. Everyone wins, right? "

My hand shot out before I could stop myself, and I squeezed her throat until her lips parted in a desperate search for air. Her eyes remained passive, but her smile widened.

"You seem… on edge." She struggled to get the words out but didn't give up. "Are you hungry? I can feed you… too." My fingers tightened on the side of her throat and her eyes fluttered closed, her expression turning almost ecstatic. "I'd offer you something else… to eat…" she rasped, opening her legs in invitation. "Interested?"

I yanked my hand back, glaring at her as she chuckled.

"You'd fuck everything that moves, won't you? Even someone who holds you against your will?" I scoffed, pushing her head down so I could reach the binds behind her. "I suppose that's your thing." I unhitched the chain connecting her manacles to her collar, then removed the one between her wrists so she could move them in front of her. She wasn't getting her magic back, but there was no way in Hell, or anywhere else for that matter, that I was feeding her. "What's your grand plan now? Seduce me and make me a slave to the power of your pussy?"

"It has happened before," she smirked while she rubbed her wrists. Still holding my gaze, she reached out, and I was ready to grab her hand before she could touch me, but she just picked up the takeout box and set it down on her lap.

"You have no power here, witch," I sneered, getting to my feet while she popped the top open and peeked inside. She made a small sound of approval as she dug her fork into the food. I waited for her to contradict me, but she seemed more interested in the takeout than what I was saying. That only fueled my frustration. "So keep your mouth shut, your legs closed, and your ass on that floor, and we might just both get what we want."

"Yes, sir," she murmured, voice dripping with sarcasm. When I glared at her, she busied herself with the noodles, but her smile suggested she had no intention of doing any of those things.

‘Happy now?' I snarled, and the flutter in my stupid stomach told me Cyrus was more than content.

‘We really are alike,' he said after a few minutes of blissful silence. The witch hadn't said anything either, making quiet, distracting moans while she enjoyed her food.

‘I'm nothing like her. Shut up already, or I'll gag her again and it will be your fault.' I groaned .

Cyrus sighed, adding in a small voice, ‘We were both good people who fell into darkness and had to learn how to protect themselves. But while we embraced suffering and never looked back, she kept searching for another way.' I watched her lick the sauce from her lips with a delighted expression when Cyrus chuckled and I could feel his smile in every word. "And eventually, she found it.'

I rolled my eyes.

‘It gives me hope,' Cyrus continued. ‘That maybe… it's not too late for us to escape this darkness too.'

I cast one last look at the woman in the corner, noting she had finished eating, and buttoned her shirt to cover at least her breasts. Her eyes found mine the moment my gaze fell on her, and she raised an eyebrow in question.

Gritting my teeth in frustration, I stomped toward the door.

"Don't do anything stupid again ," I warned her. I didn't bother waiting for her reply as I activated the protective ward around the place. Leaving the only safe haven in Hell behind, I stepped onto the black, putrid ground, walking between ruins and corpses of things both dead and alive without seeing any of them.

‘You are wrong,' I said as I let my shadows slither out of my body, preparing myself to enter the challenge that I had failed one thousand, five hundred, and thirty-two times before. ‘It's too late for us. We are the darkness now.'