Page 5 of Hellish Witch (Playing with Demons #3)

Chapter 4

I led Shanlir towards the kitchen, weaving us through the crowd.

A drunken male tripped over the large rug in the centre of the room and almost impaled me on his branching antlers as we passed.

His drink splashed out of his cup and straight over the white dress hugging Shanlir’s lithe frame. She gaped down at the dark stain before a strained laugh bubbled up her throat.

I hissed at the clumsy demon, a hybrid who’d joined a few years back after leaving the shadow-walker kingdom neighbouring ours. The dancers swallowed him before I could shake an apology out of the idiot.

“It’s all right.” Shanlir grabbed my wrist, giving it a quick squeeze right over the tooth-marks left by the hellcat a few days ago.

The bite had faded, but in the right light, I could still see a faint glimmer of red in a circle of points.

Shanlir pulled me through an ornate wooden archway and into the kitchen. Like the living room, it was packed as we edged inside.

As one of the bigger cabins in our village, the place was a regular for parties, and the drinks setup was always the same. A huge clay punch bowl dominated the wooden island in the middle, a fun red liquid sloshing inside with various fruits floating in the mix.

Instead of taking us closer, Shanlir tugged me around the edge to the corridor on the far side. The music faded slightly in the narrow space, and I let out a relieved breath. Dulled senses must be a blessing, because my ears only held a slight ache from the past hour dancing in front of the band.

She pouted down at her ruined outfit as we walked past closed doors to the staircase half-hidden at the end. “I’ve got a spare dress in Mikhail’s room. I’ll be right back.”

I nodded, leaning against the wall. “I’ll wait for you here.”

There was no chance I’d follow her up to the bedroom of the guy she was on-and-off dating. If he was in there, she’d be on him like a succubus in heat.

I might feed on desire, but I had no interest in their lust fest.

She hurried up the wooden staircase, her frilled tail swishing gracefully behind her like it floated on an invisible current.

The second she disappeared, I let my head tip back into the wall, staring at the exposed beams above.

The door beside me swung open. Before I could react, a hand clamped my arm and yanked. I fell into the room with a startled yelp.

Three familiar demons towered over me, fang-filled grins stretched wide.

My stomach sank at the colourful glitter sparking in their pure-black eyes.

A hungry pain demon was a dangerous one.

Three was a blood-soaked nightmare.

“Get off me,” I snarled, jerking my arm from a vicious hold.

Vanita, the silver-haired leader of the violent trio, dug her claws in, leaving deep red furrows as I freed myself. I refused to even wince, blocking out the pain to deny her whatever energy I could.

They’d pulled me into a bathroom, the grey-tiled walls and floor reminding me a little too much of the concrete prison I’d been held in.

“Well, well, well…,” she drawled, raising her silver claws to the artificial light as her friends, Murag and Jessa, snickered beside her. “If it isn’t our resident human .” She licked my blood from her metallic claw tip, black forked tongue writhing like a dying slug.

Cut her open and spill out her soft, squishy organs.

The monster in my head snarled at me, batting imaginary claws to emphasise its point.

“What do you skinny wraiths want?” I sneered. The slender demons began circling me, matching layered dresses swishing around their legs, and I turned to keep them in sight. “If it’s about a foursome, I’m not into grave-fresh.”

Especially with what it meant. Their chalky complexions and the prominent veins pulsing around glittering black eyes were a side effect of indulging on unwilling pain. Most of their breed was careful not to feed on it too much for how it altered their appearance.

These living corpses blamed the temporary look on a quirk of being hybrids, but I knew better.

Which unlucky soul had they already hurt tonight?

“Even a whore witch like you couldn’t summon us for that,” Jessa huffed, flipping her straight raven hair over a bony shoulder. Her thick tail rose high over it, and she slid her stinger from the pale arrowhead, liquid sparkling from the sharp tip like a diamond.

Menace rolled off each of the fine-boned monsters.

They may look skeletal, but as a half-mage, I still couldn’t compete physically. Over the years, it had been one of their favourite things to remind me of, their subtle taunts and “accidental” blows always carefully orchestrated for whenever they caught me alone.

Rex had trained me to fight the moment he’d taken me in, though, and I’d been crafting poisons to lace my knives with for almost as long.

I hadn’t been an easy meal in years.

“I’m telling you now, you don’t want to fuck with me tonight.” I met Vanita’s bottomless-pit eyes, holding steady.

Don’t warn your prey. Just make them bleed.

I desperately pretended I wasn’t being scolded by the voice in my head.

“Aww, little witchy witch spends some time with her own kind topside, and now what? You think you can take on three demons?” Vanita chuckled. “I think someone needs to be shown their place.”

Pain exploded through my back, screaming down my spine. I stumbled forward with the hit, right into Vanita’s waiting claws.

Silver agony pierced my upper chest. She dug deep, curled her fingertips around my collarbones, and slammed me to my knees. I choked back the scream they craved, frantically blocking out the pain radiating through my chest and hammering at my mind. Hot liquid ran down my front, streaming between my cleavage to soak my dress.

The blood. The pain.

My captivity came rushing back, until I was nothing but a battered demoness in a cell, trying not to bleed out on a filthy concrete floor.

Reach up and snap her wrists! Slit her arteries and wear her blood.

My hands lifted with the encouragement of the voice. I grabbed the thin wrists holding me, giving them a sharp jerk, but they didn’t budge. The tug under my flesh only brought fresh agony, and with it dark memories took hold, freezing me in place.

It felt like a basilisk wrapped my chest, crushing my lungs until I could hardly breathe.

“Pathetic.” Vanita smirked down at where I held her. “Delicious.”

Pain pulsed through my front and back. The demon’s eyes sparkled brighter as she fed with sick delight. My own darkness writhed beneath my flesh, slithering from the cage I tried to bury it in, dividing my attention at the worst possible time.

The stinger in my back wrenched out, and I couldn’t hold back the whimper as bloodthirsty need expanded inside me.

Some of my training finally kicked in, and my hand dropped to the poisoned blade strapped to my thigh through the slit in my dress.

Heated ropes lashed my wrists, locking my arms out wide before I could even graze the handle. I hissed, uselessly struggling to free myself from Murag’s tails tightening around my wrists like shackles.

Jessa stepped into view beside Vanita, wide eyes just as bright. She reached up, running the bone spikes jutting from her knuckles along my cheek. “Poor little witchy. It hurts, doesn’t it?”

A gleeful cackle spilled from her chapped lips as she wound her tail around my throat, tightening her noose.

“We can make it all go away,” Murag whispered behind me, her third tail edging into my peripheral vision, the spike-covered ball on the end flinging drops of my blood. “An abomination like you never deserved to live in the first place.”

Her words dug into scabbed wounds buried deep inside me. My aunts had told me something similar all my life. Every day until I’d fled.

I hadn’t survived so much torment to succumb to a few peckish bullies.

“Sh-Shut…u-up,” I croaked, the air barely able to slip past my crushed throat. “Y-You’re so b-boring.”

“Insolent witch,” Murag hissed at my back, fisting my hair with a vicious tug. “The entire kingdom celebrated when we found out you’d been taken.”

Vanita yanked my collarbones, and my vision whited out. Bile gushed up my throat. I swallowed the bitter acid, trying not to choke on it with my head cruelly tipped back.

Reality blinked back into view with a worrying redness edging my vision like blood. It haloed the three pale faces leering down at me. Burning whips of power lashed my insides, like my broken magic tried to carve its way to freedom.

I groaned, clenching my jaw to stop it becoming a scream. My claws pierced my palms, but the roaring pain through my upper chest drowned the sensation.

“Should have stayed gone.” Jessa punched her spiked knuckles into my ribs. Her tail at my neck and Vanita’s cruel grip braced me to the point I barely moved, even though I felt like I’d been stomped by a unicorn.

Vanita grinned, a sinister slash of fangs as white as her bloodless lips. “We’ll just have to correct your mistake.”

Now! Tear them apart. Bathe in their blood. Feast on their liver while they watch.

The visceral image churned my stomach.

“H-Hate liver,” I chuckled, the sound gurgling and wet.

Too late, I realised I’d spoken aloud.

They shared a look, and Vanita’s smirk grew cruel. “So you’ve finally given in to madness?” She tapped her bloodied claw against her chin, dotting my bright blood on her chalky skin. “I can’t tell if it’s going to be more fun now or less.”

The darkness writhed harder. It felt like my veins were trying to force their way out from beneath my skin. The sensation was nauseating, but what it meant was worse.

“S-Scurry back to your gra-aves…,” I rasped. “Before you r-regret it.”

Pain leached more than just my thoughts, the drain on my energy like someone piling weights on my limbs. I willed my eyes to flutter back open, to keep tugging on the tails binding me on my knees.

“Hold the filthy human’s mouth open. I’m going to defang her for real.”

I couldn’t tell who’d said it. More blood spilled across my vision, but it was the agony radiating through my torso that stole my attention.

And in my distraction, hungry and dark, the monster slipped from its leash.