“It’s Nigellus,” my companion called, the sound echoing through the cavern. “I have a guest with me. We’ll be out in a few moments.”
“Understood,” came a male voice in return. “Greetings, Nigellus.”
“Before we go, I need to see if I can get back through the gate,” I said quickly.
“Yes, you do,” Nigellus agreed, turning his light onto the section of cave wall. “There’s no particular trick to it. Just try to push through.”
I bit my lip and reached a hand out. When my fingertips met the wall, it was like pressing them into putty rather than stone. I pushed harder, and my hand disappeared into the wall, but every inch of progress required exponentially more effort on my part. Once my wrist disappeared, I couldn’t press any deeper, and it felt as though I’d become trapped in the stone. Panicking, I yanked my arm backward as hard as I could and stumbled a couple of steps when my hand popped free.
“Shit!” I gasped, cradling my wrist even though I wasn’t actually hurt. My heart pounded as adrenaline zinged through my bloodstream.
Nigellus frowned, the expression looking properly demonic in the odd lighting from his phone.
“How interesting,” he said. “It appears your demon blood is almost strong enough to allow passage, but not quite. I must say, I’ve never seen that happen before.”
I was still fighting down panic, but I forced myself to think logically.
“I can’t be stuck here permanently, Nigellus,” I said, hoping my voice sounded less freaked out than I felt. “I didn’t want to talk about it in front of Rans since it’s obviously a sensitive subject for him, but I need to discuss options with you. Specifically, a demon-bond so I can get out of here if I need to.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, I daresay trying to breach that conversational topic with Ransley would not have gone well. You must understand that for him, it’s cultural. Vampires and demons may have been allies for millennia, but vampires have always resisted bonding with demons in the strongest possible terms.”
“Why?” I couldn’t help asking. “I mean, I understand about the human views on selling your soul to the devil, but I assume that was influenced at least partly by Fae propaganda.”
Nigellus huffed in dark amusement. “You would be correct. For the vampires, it was mostly a matter of pride. Demons are the more powerful of the two species—so I gather the idea of the vampires binding themselves to us made their association feel less like an alliance to them, and more like servitude. Ridiculous, of course, since the transfer of power along the bond can move in both directions.”
I was gradually calming down, mostly thanks to the matter-of-fact nature of the discussion. I still wasn’t sure how wise it was to give Nigellus my complete trust, but I couldn’t deny that from our first meeting, I’d felt a strange sort of kinship with him.
“That may be,” I said, “but the demon is the only one with the power of life and death in the relationship.”
Nigellus eyed me speculatively. “Such a bond is an exercise in trust, to be sure. As you have cause to know already.”
He was talking about the life-bond with Rans, of course. From what I’d been told, it was the same thing as a demon-bond, magically speaking. Without one of the parties being immortal, however, it ended up being a death sentence for both in the end.
“The life-bond was less an exercise in trust, and more an exercise in Rans being a stubborn asshole with a death wish,” I grumbled. “I still don’t understand why on earth he did it.”
Nigellus leaned against a protruding rock and regarded me curiously. “He did it because he’s in love with you. That seems fairly obvious even to someone as jaded as a demon.” He tilted his head. “Though to be fair, he is also a stubborn asshole with a death wish.”
My mouth opened, but no words came out. Nigellus could have slammed me face-first into the rock he was leaning against, and it would have hurt less than his casual declaration that Rans loved me.
“I... no,” I managed. “That’s not—”
“Hmph. Mortals,” he murmured, so low I could barely hear.
I tried again. “You don’t understand. It’s not like that. He’s a good man. A really good man. But Rans is seven hundred years old. And I’m a twenty-six-year-old human waitress with attachment issues and a track record of getting dumped by every man I date. He helped me out, yes, but he also wasted no time in teaching me how to feed from other people’s animus, rather than his. And then he sent me here. Alone.”
Nigellus gave me a polite smile. “No doubt you’re right. But perhaps we should return to the subject at hand. It’s true I could bind you if need be. I don’t believe it will be necessary, however. You clearly have almost enough power to return through the barrier, even now. I suspect that once you’ve spent a bit of time in our realm, you will be able to accomplish the task on your own.”
My brow furrowed. “So... you think I’ll absorb more demon-essence just from being here in Hell?”
“I’m reasonably confident, yes. Feed here, rest here, and it seems likely that more of your demon heritage will come to the fore. That solution would be preferable from your standpoint, since for one thing, I would still need to be physically present to transport you through the barrier using a soul-bond.”
It was true that being able to breach the barrier by myself would give me more freedom to come and go. And I supposed it made sense that I would absorb the atmosphere of the place over time—just as humans like my father absorbed the essence of Fae magic while living in Dhuinne.
My father. He was the reason I was here, and I was standing around blathering to Nigellus about soul-bonds, and about a relationship with a vampire
