Page 42 of Demon with Benefits (Hell Bent #3)

SKULL BUSTER

I RIS WOKE SOMETIME LATER TO A SUDDEN REALIZATION.

As her awareness sharpened, however, the epiphany slipped behind a fog of disorientation. Whatever it was had been important enough to snap her to wakefulness, but throbbing pain in her head made it difficult to recall.

The room was dark, no light shining through the window high on the wall. But it had been equally dark when Valefor had chucked her in here, so it was impossible to tell how much time had passed.

The other time she’d been to Hell, Iris had been mostly underground, crawling through tunnels. Did Hell have day and night like Earth? Was there a sun that rose and set, or was it always the same?

Her ribs ached from where Valefor had kicked her. The puncture wounds from his claws on her throat stung. Her head throbbed, and when she gingerly touched her temple where she’d hit the wall, dried blood flaked off.

Judging by how woozy and disoriented she felt, she had a concussion. She racked her brain for medical advice on what to do, but she couldn’t remember anything. It was hard to even think about trying to remember anything.

Ironic, kinda. The concussion she needed medical tips for made it so she couldn’t remember any medical tips. Bloody hell, even I think I sound nuts.

What had been the realization that had woken her so urgently? She chased that aha moment through her convoluted thoughts, trying to recover the moment of clarity.

An image of Meph’s demon form flashed through her mind, and, amazingly, she rediscovered it a moment later.

It was about him. She’d been having a nightmare, reliving the awful vision he’d forced on her of Lily and Suyin and everyone she’d ever cared about telling her she was weak and a failure. Their voices still reverberated around her skull even now, after she’d woken, making her skin crawl.

But then she’d gotten to the part where Meph told her she wasn’t good enough for him and that he’d lied about his feelings for her. And then she remembered how the vision had stopped. Valefor had commanded him to leave her, and he had, but she realized something now that she hadn’t before:

Meph had stopped the vision before Valefor interfered.

That was significant.

. . . Why was it again? And where was Meph?

Oh, yeah, he was somewhere in this dingy castle. Focus, Iris. She blinked, concentrated on her breathing, and tried to gather her thoughts again.

It was significant because it meant Meph had chosen to stop feeding from her. Valefor had told her that Meph would feed until she was dead, but he hadn’t. He had stopped on his own.

In the vision, he’d told her that she wasn’t worthy of him, that he didn’t really have feelings for her. Or... he’d tried to. It was like he’d short-circuited his own illusion. Like he couldn’t make human Meph tell her he didn’t care about her...

Because the monster was still him .

Of course it was, but the realization still struck her. The monster wasn’t just a soulless beast that would drain her dry in a second. He wasn’t completely cold and unfeeling. The Meph she knew was still in there somewhere.

Through the brain fog and nausea, a plan gradually formed in her mind.

It was a stupidly simple and laughably risky plan that would potentially result in her death, but it was the best she could come up with.

She could either believe in it or succumb to hopelessness, and she wasn’t doing that while she still had breath left in her body.

She just needed to get out of this damn room first.

Determined, she glanced down at her bound hands and feet. Step one: Free limbs. To her relief, it appeared she was tied with regular rope instead of any magically reinforced binding. With time and perseverance, she could loosen the knots.

The years of gymnastics she’d done as a kid had left her with a natural flexibility, and she was grateful for it now.

Folding at the waist, she used her bound hands to grasp one side of the knot at her feet, and then she used her teeth to free the other.

Between her biting on one side and pulling on the other, the knot eventually came undone.

Strengthened by her success, she pulled the rope off her legs, sighing with relief as the blood flowed back to her feet. This small victory made her blood race.

She could do this. She could get free.

Lifting her bound hands to her mouth, she started working the knots there with her teeth again. This time, it took far longer without the aid of her hands. By the end, her teeth were aching, but eventually, those knots came loose too.

She ripped the ropes off roughly, heart pounding with excitement, and then climbed to her feet.

Standing, her vision blackened in the corners, and she had to lean against the wall to breathe through the nausea. Vertigo. Wasn’t that a symptom of a concussion?

Whatever. There wasn’t time to worry about it. She had to get out of this room.

Blinking hard, she forced her eyes to focus and took in her surroundings.

The window was high up, but with some risky maneuvering, she was pretty sure she could climb to it. In better condition, she wouldn’t have hesitated, but right now was a different story.

Valefor’s threats about Lily rang in her head, making her gut clench, but she had to believe Lily would be okay.

Mist was always glued to her side, and half the time, they were staying with Belial and the others.

There was no way Valefor would risk trying to grab her from under their noses.

At least, he wouldn’t be able to right away.

Hopefully, Iris would be able to get free and warn her in time.

Iris had to believe that because she knew if she stayed here, she was screwed. As he’d said, Valefor had only vowed not to kill her, and death was not the worst thing that could happen to a person.

Reining in her attention, she continued to survey her prison. The door was thick and appeared to be made of some type of wood.

Did they even have wood in Hell? Were there Hell forests that were logged for construction like on Earth? What kinds of plants grew here? Had the demons damaged their environment? Was there such a thing as underworld climate change?

For fuck’s sake, focus. She crossed the room in three steps and tried the door. First step was always to try the door. Only an idiot would spend days digging an escape hole without first checking that the door hadn’t been left unlocked by mistake.

Unfortunately, it was firmly shut, and worse, there was no handle or latch of any kind on the inside. Either this room was an empty storage closet, or it was a common place for Valefor’s prisoners. Likely the latter, considering the setting. Not great for her chances of escape.

The window, then. She turned and craned her head up. The window was small, but her hips were fairly slim, and she thought she might be able to squeeze through.

A sudden memory of crawling through the tunnels in Paimon’s lair with Lily struck her, and she was hit with such a strong pang of longing for her sister that the emotion choked her. Her eyes filled with tears, and she gasped for air.

“Oh, fuck, help me,” she whispered, not quite sure who she was speaking to. “I need help. I’m so fucked. Please , help me.”

The despair rose higher, and she longed to give into it. She wanted to just drop to the floor and cry herself into oblivion until someone came and saved her.

But no one was coming.

No one knew where she was except Meph, and he wasn’t going to help her. Lily couldn’t save her. Meph’s brothers weren’t coming either. Iris was on her own, and dissolving into a sobbing ball of misery wasn’t going to help in any way. It was up to her to save herself.

So she took a deep breath and swallowed her emotions.

It was a skill she’d developed over a decade of ignoring her grief. She would close her eyes, inhale, exhale, and then swallow hard, and when she opened her eyes again, the emotion would be gone.

It wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with sadness, but it was a useful skill for moments like this. When her eyes opened again, the hopelessness was gone, and there was only focus.

Okay, so there was also nausea, dizziness, brain fog, pain, and intense fatigue. But at least she wasn’t crying on top of all that shit.

Iris surveyed the window with renewed determination and then started to climb.

As she stuck her toes into the cracks in the stone, she gave thanks that when Valefor had grabbed her, she’d been wearing her slippers.

The supple leather soles gripped the stone and aided her balance as she climbed up the wall.

She wasn’t a rock climber by any means, but she had good balance.

When they were kids, Lily had done piano and sewing lessons, and Iris had done taekwondo and gymnastics. They’d always been different, even then. They’d always envied each other too. Iris had wished she was more artistic; Lily had wished she was athletic.

God, they were stupid. Lily was perfect, and Iris... She needed to learn to embrace her strengths. What was the point of living life wishing for something you would never have?

Being who she was gave her the will to make it to the top of the wall, even with her head throbbing as it was. Her fingers grasped the ledge on the bottom of the window, and she moved her feet up to a higher toehold.

Still not high enough to see, she reached one hand forward until she could grasp the other side of the ledge outside. Yes. There was no glass to block the frame. She placed her other hand beside her first, positioned her feet, and then pulled herself high enough to see over the edge.

And her heart sank.

Bars. There were bars over the window. And worse, she wasn’t in a basement as she’d hoped. She was high up, high enough that all she saw was a dull red sky. It wasn’t bright, but it wasn’t dark either, and there appeared to be no sign of a sun or moon or any sort of stellar activity.