Pain flared down my forearm, and I realized that was what woke me. I let out a moan as warm liquid trickled down my arm.
Blood.
That fucking hurt, and held inert like this, I couldn’t see what was happening. Just the excited, hungry looks of the demons as they stared at my limbs.
Another sharp pain sliced down my arm. I hissed in a breath, even as my fangs throbbed.
What’s happening to me?
I tried to move again. A set of claws clamped my head in place, but even with the tight grip, I managed to tilt it enough to catch a glimpse of my body.
My blood was everywhere. On my arms, dripping onto the altar I laid upon, collected in goblets and removed from sight.
As I watched, a demon slashed its claws down my pale flesh, reopening the wound that had only just stitched itself together. I screamed, more from shock than from pain. Another chalice appeared, and the demons used it to collect the liquid seeping out of me. I tried to catch my breath and control my panting, but you couldn’t put a leash on fear.
Lila’s face joined the others, her dark eyes glittering. “Regina Inferna, finally a goddess in the flesh.”
Even in the dim light I could see she was real. Alive.
“How?” I croaked, my throat parched. I watched her die after I’d delivered the deathblow. I saw her last breath leave her lips and heard the final beat of her heart.
Her lips curved into a satisfied smile. “Resurrection.”
Resurrection? That was actually a thing? Why had no one told me that—
I screamed as they began cutting into me again.
Lila reached out and dragged a finger down my cheek. “I know it hurts. I remember how it felt.” Her eyes grew distant, and her finger dug into my flesh.
My skin blossomed as the siren joined me. “Let me go,” I commanded, my voice much weaker than it ought to be.
Nothing happened. I hadn’t been expecting the siren to affect Lila or the demons, but I had hoped they’d listen to me because I was their queen. Especially the demons. In the past they’d listened to my commands. Sometimes. But when they didn’t, it was because …
Because someone of higher rank had ordered them otherwise. There was only one person who outranked me in hell.
The devil.
Andre
“Where is she?” Andre demanded, stalking through his house. He threw his dagger to the side. Best not have it with him when he confronted the girl. Not when he was like this.
His shirt was in bloody tatters. God, he wanted to run something through with a sword. Those beasts had grabbed Lila shortly after they’d seized his mate, whisking away the one person he’d really enjoy gutting.
“Where is my soulmate?” he bellowed. “Leanne!”
How had she not seen this? Why had she not warned him?
He stormed into the room she shared with Oliver. He found the two snuggled in bed, ear buds in their ears, a laptop between them. Both of their eyes were closed, and their heads leaned together.
“Leanne!”
She blinked her eyes, groggy. “Hmm?” She squinted through the darkness.
Andre came over to the side of her bed, grabbed her upper arms, and shook her. “Gabrielle. Where is she?”
That roused her. “With you?”
“Guess again,” he said, his hold tightening.
“Ow, okay, okay, give me a minute,” she said.
“We don’t have a minute.”
“Why do you people think I’m all knowing? Not even Nona knew everything.”
Next to her Oliver stretched, and a yawn shook his entire body. He perked up further at the sight of Andre. “What’s going on?”
A muscle in Andre’s cheek feathered. “Gabrielle’s been taken.”
“Again?” Oliver said. “This is obviously becoming a thing.”
When the girl’s eyes unfocused, he released her. She gazed at nothing for a long time. Long enough for the fairy to get dressed. She sucked in a sharp breath, and a shudder racked her body.
Dread flooded Andre’s system; it was becoming a familiar bedfellow.
Leanne closed her eyes.
“What’ve you seen?”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll see it for yourself soon enough.” Her eyes fluttered open, and it heartened Andre to see resolve in them. “We are going to rescue Gabrielle,” she said. “And we might be too late.”
Gabrielle
The devil ordered this. He ordered this.
The betrayal hurt worse than I thought it would. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but damn me, I was. I’d expected different because he was different.
At least I thought he was.
I was a stupid, stupid girl, and I got played worse than the rest of those fools that made deals with the devil.
“… We need your blood,” Lila was saying. I honed in on her as the demons continued to slice through my skin. “It has the power to build armies.”
The second awful insight of the evening hit me like a freight train.
They were using my blood to make more demons. Enough, perhaps, to take over the world.
My struggles renewed. “Let me go!”