Hi everyone,
This is an extremely short chapter, but on the plus side there is a sex scene. As short as it may be. We're starting to get into the meat of the story so stay tuned!
Best
-Rosi
***
Escape.
The thought pokes and prods at me every second of every hour of every uncountable day here. There's a clock racing against me I can't see, it's hands spinning with nauseating speed. I can't anticipate the second, minute, and hour it would ultimately land on. Even worse I fear what that time will bring: my death or everyone's.
"You're scratching again," Asmody murmurs from the chaise across me.
The demon's become my shadow, appearing at my door one day with a sardonic smile and directive from Luci to "help me" with anything I need.
Get out!
My fingers spasm against my wrist where they'd been trying to dig a hole to my veins. Where others have eye ticks or throat clearings, my nervous habits lend to self harm. "Asmody?" I force my fingers to the arms of my plush chair, clutching, the only betrayal of my emotions in an otherwise lax appearance. "How are demons..." I search for the right word.
Destroyed?
His lips twitch. "Created?"
Rookie mistake. One that could have seen me in much worse condition than in a wingback chair reading Hell's history with an amused demon.
Jaw locked, I feel my nail break and imbed itself into the chair's cushioning. The bath seems so long ago, too long without any action. No search party sent to find the portal, no more interrogations. The anti-clamaticness of the situation is driving me crazy. Guilt suffocating me, because I
do
care what happened. I refuse to be the drowning sailor trying to take everyone with me.
"Are you created?" The concept of demons is another thing that's been plaguing me. If demons aren't tied to religion, do they evolve like human? Crawl from some primordial soup with unfathomable power and hunger and settle here? Or are they an experiment gone wrong and shunned? Gone
right
and locked up waiting for someone to push the proverbial big red button and release them?
"Perhaps we were turned."
"Like vampires?"
"As in an incurable virus," he corrects, laying the book he'd been reading on the arm of the chaise and focusing his gaze on me. "That is what some think. Others believe we are aliens from another planet or system. Similar to humans, we have theories supported by evidence."
"What kind of evidence?"
"Bones primarily. Some creatures very similar to humans but with mutations, some creatures vastly different from what we are now. More recently in our evolution, however, demons experience reproduction through en-ha."
"En-ha?"
"It's short for energy-hatching." Asmody lifts a brow. "Why are you so interested in demons now, Laverna?"
I recoil, forcing my spine into the back of the arm chair. If I ask a question of a demon and they supply the answer there's no issue, no trap to fall in. But if it is reversed...?
Destroyed or created. Didn't matter. This trap sprung before I'd even opened my mouth.
My fingers twitch against the arm, nails scratching the velvet even as I try to keep my face impassive. I can still feel Luci's fingers at my throat, her bones grinding into mine, nails cutting into my flesh.
"No reason."
His smile holds death and something else, something worse. "Laverna," he says softly and everything in me clenches.
There's nothing soft in Asmody. If sin has a poster child it's this demon.
Fluid as water through a stream, Asmody rises and takes two steps to tower over me, wings extending to the walls and curling around me to rest at the back of my chair.
A cocoon.
"You smell delicious."
Hope flutters in my chest. Luci's never told me what scent clings to me and I have a feeling it's more for her benefit than mine, as if I could use that knowledge against her.
"What do I smell like?"
He leans down, inhaling, fangs on my throat.
It's the first time he's touched me since he carried me to Hell. In fact, Asmody's only the second person to touch me here. For other demons I'm off the menu: I'm the exclusive meal of Luci.
"If you're not going to kill me move," I grit, angry at myself. Even if it was a thought, I still had it. Still contemplated for a moment that I was food, a meal, something to have and dispose of easily with no remorse or consequence. Less than human.
"Not everything is life and death, Laverna." His fangs glide across my neck, bleeding me. A tongue snakes out and licks a line of fire across the cut.
I remain still, trying to project deer-in-the-headlights while mentally channeling a snake-ready-to-bite. Seconds are marked by inhales and exhales.
"Energy-Hatching is when a new demon is created by being forcibly moved through the six energy channels and emerging from their maker's crown," Asmody whispers against my neck. "Unlike humans, Demons are made through energy, either the host's or another demon the host consumes."
