Sensing trouble behind me, I rolled as a large bolder slammed to the ground, splintering where my head had been a second ago.
I flipped to my feet, using the momentum to draw my cold iron dagger. I backed away, brandishing the blade as three demons advanced on my position.
Black eyes stared at me as claws dragged across the trail. My heart hammered in my chest as my mind raced over my options. Trent had his hands full up on the ridge, so I was on my own.
Bile rose in the back of my throat, but I wasn’t sure if it was the ‘imminent death’ thing or the ‘I might still be a demon’ thing.
All three demons lunged at the same time and I swiped my dagger, cold iron colliding with flesh. It wasn’t enough. Without my sword, I had no way of vanquishing their putrid arses. All I could do was hold my ground and pray to the Light.
I was shoved into a pair of slimy black arms. Pushing a pulse of Light into the demon, it screeched and let me go. I stabbed my dagger backwards, ramming it into the side of one of the others.
Damn, it was hard to tell these things apart—they all looked exactly the same.
I ducked under a swinging set of claws and gasped as I was struck in the lower back. The blow to my spine sent me reeling and I collapsed, losing my grip on the dagger.
A demon kicked me on the shoulder, and I was down for the count.
Staring up at the creatures, I began to regret a lot of things. Being an arsehole to pretty much everyone. Not following orders. Being an arrogant bitch. Thinking I was better than everyone else. Believing I was invincible. Basically, I was a big fat disappointment to two thousand years of Natural history.
Clawed arms held me down and I thrashed as the third demon looked at me. Its slimy black skin shimmered in the moonlight, and when it opened its mouth, the stench of sulphur made me gag.
“We will take it,” it hissed as its claws wrapped around my head. “It is ours.”
The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was the creature’s grotesque face as it lowered towards mine.
5
I woke some time later.
It was difficult to tell how long I’d been unconscious, but I found myself in almost complete darkness. I was lying on a damp rocky floor and the air was heavy with moisture. I shivered as cold seeped into my limbs.
Pushing to my elbows, I grimaced as my head throbbed. I reached for my Light…but it wasn’t there. I searched within myself and came back empty-handed.
No, no, no…
Where the hell was I? Wherever those demons had taken me, they had a way to cut me off from my power. This was bad.
As my eyes adjusted, I began to make out shapes in the shimmer of torchlight that filtered in from somewhere beyond. The first thing I noticed were the bars. I fumbled in the low light, my hands scrambling over another bar and another, before scraping against stone. I went back the other direction with the same results.
I was in a cage deep underground. The thing about dark places buried underneath millions of tones of dirt? No one could hear you scream. Trust demons to lurk in a shite heap like this.
I curled my hands around the bars and shook them. The metal rattled but didn’t budge.
Sinking back onto my arse, I grimaced when my side began to ache, joining my temples. I was beginning to understand just how much I’d been taking my Light for granted.
Small, loose stones littered the floor, and water trickled down fissures in the wall. The drip as droplets hit rocks echoed through the blackness. It was cold and the smell of damp and rot filled my nose.
I moved my gaze past the bars and gasped as I spotted an outline of a human form lurking in the shadows. Not sensing any Darkness, I scooted towards the bars and leaned against the rusty metal.
“Hey,” I hissed, realising a man was propped up against the wall. “Hey. Trent, is that you?”
He didn’t move. Reaching out, my fingers brushed against his arm and I recoiled. He was clammy to the touch and rigid…like a corpse. Beyond him, the shape of more bodies emerged from the gloom.
I gagged and huddled against the far corner of the cage. They were dead—just empty husks waiting for hosts.
It was a stockpile of faces hanging in a morbid wardrobe. So, what did that make me? A pet guinea pig?
It could only mean one thing…a greater demon lurked somewhere close. My situation had gone from bad to worse in t-minus one second.
Gathering my courage, I crawled back to the bars and prodded at the corpse. His head lolled to the side and I managed to make out his features. It wasn’t Trent. I couldn’t be certain about the others, but greater demons didn’t possess bodies that already had souls. Not usually.
A small shred of hope began to surface. If Trent wasn’t among them, maybe he’d escaped and warned the others at Camelot.
I settled back against the wall and rubbed my side. My ribs didn’t seem to be broken, but they sure felt like it. My head felt cracked and my temples throbbed, but there was nothing I could do to soothe the ache. My Light was dampened and whatever Darkness had flared inside me was gone.
Darkness.
We were all cured when Scarlett and Wilder had killed Mordred—the mutated Natural Human Convergence was synthesised from. My Light had returned and the Dark… A piece of demon mutation must lie dormant inside me. It was the only explanation and knowing I wasn’t entirely Natural made me want to hurl.
Movement made my heart leap and I pressed back into the corner as the bars scraped back. Two inky black demons slunk into my prison and bore down on me.
I kicked out to fend them off, but they just cackled in amusement as they grabbed my arms and dragged me across the gravel floor.
Once I was clear of the cage, I searched for my Light, but it was still out of reach. What the hell had they done to me? I thrashed, but all I managed to do was tire myself out.
By the time they hauled me into a cavern deeper in the cave system, I’d figured out resistance was futile. Without my Light, I was as feeble as a human, and my injuries stung like hell.
Finally, they threw me onto the ground, my cheek slamming against cold limestone.
My eyes widened as I realised who my appointment was with. A sigil had been carved into the floor in front of me and the indentations rippled with blood. I knew whatever was going to happen wasn’t going to be pretty. My fingers scraped against the rock as I tried to calm myself.
I’d been trained for every conceivable scenario. I could fight, use Light, strategise, withstand pain…but sitting in a classroom talking about hypothetical situations was not the same as lying on the floor of a greater demon’s lair. Reality was a harsh wake-up call.
“I was wondering if we’d ever get to see you again.”
I bristled at the abrasive voice and slammed my hands over my ears.
“You will look at me when I speak to you,” it commanded.
I rolled over, the sound grating in my brain. A man stood over me—tall, ordinary-looking, yet menacing—but I knew he wasn’t human. His toothy smile gave him away for one. Rows upon rows of pointy fangs filled the gaping hole that was his mouth, his true form showing through the glamours which hid the Darkness lurking in his perverted meat suit.
It was a Balan, one of the greater demons. It meant I was in huge shite, and that I had zero hope of escape without knowing his true name. I had no power over him without it, but I still had power over myself. It wasn’t much considering my repressed self-loathing over my past.
I only hoped I could hold on but I wasn’t sure I could even do that.
“The last survivor of Human Convergence.” He looked down at me, his lips curling in distaste. “I would like to say you were special, but you weren’t. There was no conspiracy. No secret parentage. No otherworldly abilities. You were just a stupid little girl who was in the wrong place at the right time. Any Natural would do. The dumber, the better.”
I wasn’t the only survivor. There had been others—Jackson and his wife, Esme—so I was hardly alone. Thou
gh, I had been the only one to almost succumb to the mutation before it was halted.
“I’m dumb?” I hissed. “I resent that. I’ll have you know that I graduated at the top of my class.”
His clawed hand wrapped around my throat and he lifted me off the ground. “Arrogance will be your downfall.”
“As will be your rotting meat suit, arsehole.”
The Balan growled, his teeth flashing in the torchlight, and I cried out as he poured Darkness into my mind. The intrusion was abrasive, the unfamiliar power tore deep without my Light to stop it.
Reality fell away.
Then…
* * *
The sound of water dripping roused me.
I was in the female locker room at the Academy. Laughter echoed off the white tiles and I turned. Kayla, the perfect blonde princess stood in front of the basins, preening herself in the mirror. She was flanked by Trisha and Maisy, her two little hangers-on.
My tormentor and her apprentices. These people defined my adolescence. My personality was bruised and ill-formed because of what they’d put me through.
I stood there, frozen like a lump of dirty black coal. Humiliation and self-loathing poured out of me and I as I took a step backwards, all three girls turned to stare at me.
“Madeleine, there you are,” Kayla declared, her eyes complete darkness. “We were wondering when we could get you alone.”
“Yeah, Madeleine,” Trisha echoed, “we have something important to tell you.”
They advanced, forcing me back against the wall. My palms flattened against the tiles and my heart began to beat wildly in my chest.
Kayla lifted her palm and smiled as a flicker of Light played against her skin. “This won’t hurt…much.”
Before I could react, she slapped me across the face, her power searing my skin. I cried out as pain burned my cheek. Trisha and Maisy began to laugh, egging Kayla on.
She slapped me again, this time on the other cheek.
“You think you can make it as a Natural?” Kayla cried as she tormented me. “A pathetic weirdo like you? You’re asking to be possessed, you know that? It was your fault, Madeleine. You let the Dark into the Academy. You killed us all.”
Her hand collided with my face, the force of the blow pushing me to the side. Gasping, I stumbled against the row of basins. I caught my reflection and began to shake as I saw the red welts disappear on my face. My Light would heal me, dissolving all the evidence.
No one could help me. Who’d believe the queen bee of the Academy was capable of physical and psychological abuse? No one.
I felt sick and as I stared at myself, reality began to ripple. It hadn’t happened like this, but it was close enough.
My gaze met Kayla’s in the mirror and she smirked.
“Why don’t you just end it,” she purred. “No one will miss you, Madeleine. No one at all.”
“This isn’t real!” I shouted with all my strength. The mirror cracked and I turned to face my demon, pushing her back against the wall. “You’re not real!”
The Balan roared his frustration and shook me as the cave came back into focus.
“Did you think you could just dangle me over your creepy blood graffiti, and I’d crack under the insults of a teenage girl?” I mocked. “You will have to try harder than that, moron.”
The demon growled and let go of my neck, shoving me to the floor. I landed hard, the rock colliding with my knees. Nothing happened for a moment, then pain shot through my legs, taking my breath away.
“Do you want my little ball of mutant Darkness?” I mocked. “Do you want to hold it and comb its hair and tell it you love it?”
The Balan roared at me and his boot slammed into my stomach. I held onto my cry of pain, curling in on myself.
“You kick like a girl!” I said. “Like a human, teenage girl with an Instagram addiction!”
Okay, so taunting a greater demon wasn’t the best approach, but it was kind of fun…until I lost consciousness.
The festering meat bag was probably right. My arrogance was going to be my downfall.
* * *
I didn’t know how long I swam in blackness.
My eyes cracked open and the cave came back into focus little by little with each gritty blink. The putrid stench of my own filth mixed with the walk-in closet of husks. As I lay there, I wondered if this was how it was going to end—with me lying on the floor of a rusted cage, my cheek pressed into the gravel, with out of control body odour. Glamorous.
I blinked again. A pair of combat boots stood on the other side of the bars, the torchlight flickering off the shiny toes. The rest of the leather was worn—their owner hadn’t cared to rub a little polish into them. The laces were undone, one end trailing into a dirty puddle.
“Wakey wakey, pretty Natural.”
Something poked my side. I jerked away, my back hitting the bars.
Light played off a sharp, angled jaw, and as my gaze rose, so did my internal alarm. Cold, piercing eyes stared at me, a glint of amusement doing nothing to warm them. He ran his hand over his shaved head and grunted like he wasn’t surprised by my reaction but was disappointed in it anyway.
It was the demon-hybrid from Adrenaline.
He leaned against the bars and peered at me. “You’re a whole bag of trouble, aren’t you?”
“Why can you hold my arondight blade?” I rasped.
He shook his head, perplexed. “Of all the things you could’ve asked me, that’s what you want to know?”
“Why?” I demanded.
“I’m not going to tell you,” he replied. “Ask something a little smarter.”
“Why me?”
His lips quirked. “Now we’re getting somewhere, but if we’re being truthful, you already know why.”
Nauseated, I curled in on myself. The residual demonic mutation…
“You’re a hard nut to crack, pretty Natural,” he told me. “That bastard will drill into your mind until you break and when you do…” He drew his finger along his neck. “But I don’t have to tell you, do I?”
What was their game plan? Was it to break me, reprogram my mutation to flare again, then send me back to Camelot as a glorified suicide bomber? Or was it to be a spy? They’d been evicted rather abruptly—perhaps they had left something important behind.
“What’s at Camelot?” I asked, my voice wavering. “What do you want?”
The man’s eyes flashed silver and he grinned, reminding me what he was. Despite his handsome and extremely human face, I couldn’t forget his true nature.
“Well?” I prodded.
“I can get you out of here, but you have to make a deal with me first.”
I narrowed my eyes. Making a deal with a demon was bad news, but I was out of options. No Light and no arondight blade meant no escape. I couldn’t crack the lock on this rusty bucket, and even if I did, I wasn’t getting five metres without collapsing.
“What do you want?” I hissed.
He knelt and wrapped his hands around the bars. I watched him closely as his cocky demonic expression melted away and took on a human vulnerability.
“No tricks,” I snapped.
“No tricks,” he echoed. “Listen carefully. The moment you leave this cage, they will know and it’s over for the both of us. But not if you do as I say…”
I wanted to trust him, but every bone in my body—the bones that’d been trained to fight his kind since I was a child—screamed at me to run in the other direction. “Why are you helping me?”
“Because you might be able to help me.”
Help him? I frowned, the motion causing my head to throb. Help him with what?
I swallowed hard. “How do I get past them?”
He reached through the bars. “You need to take my hand and trust me.”
I stared at his outstretched fingers.
“I can help you, but only if I take you under my protection,” he urged. “Link with me and you’ll see.”
“Link with
you?” My mouth fell open. “I can’t… I—”
“I know you can feel it,” he said, his voice low. “It’s the only thing keeping you alive…and it’s the only thing that will set you free.”
“I don’t believe you.” My demon mutation was going to save my life? This was a trick. A manipulation. “Get out of my head.”
“This is real,” the man hissed, “and we need to go now.”
I closed my eyes. The risk was too great, but I didn’t have any other choice. If I stayed here, the greater demon would dismantle my mind piece by piece and drive me mad, before a long agonising death. If I went with the man—the hybrid—I had a chance to escape back to Camelot.
Opening my eyes, I lifted my hand. It was the lesser of two shitty options. My fingertips brushed against his and I felt power flare into my body through his touch. I lurched forwards, pulled by an unseen force and his hand wrapped around my wrist.
He pulled me to my feet and I passed through the bars, the metal shimmering as if it’d been an illusion all along. Gasping, I fell against the man’s chest. His arms circled around me, holding me upright as my knees trembled.
I couldn’t remember how long had it been since someone had held me like this?
“I’ve got you,” the man murmured. “Stay close, pretty Natural, and don’t let go.”
What had I done? Had I unknowingly sold him my soul? Confusion began to take over—I didn’t even know what he wanted from me. I pushed against him, dislodging his grasp, and fell against the bars, which had become solid once more.
Movement at the cave entrance drew my gaze and I froze as a demon slunk through the jagged opening. Its slimy black arms flopped back and forth, and its claws scratched the limestone underfoot as it approached. It took one look at me and bared its pointed teeth.
“What the hell is going on here?” Its voice was surprisingly human, but the sound grated against my mind like sandpaper.
The man turned as I clapped my hands over my ears.
Demon Bound: The Camelot Archive - Book One Page 4