Demon Marked

medieval torture chamber he imagined. Instead of cutting instruments, Iron Maidens, thumbscrews, there were simply two pairs of manacles, hanging from the ceiling by chains, ten feet apart.

A spear at his back urged him forward. But not a spear for Ash, he saw. The armored demons used their hands.

Why the difference? Kinder to a halfling? Something else?

They lifted her. A demon flapped his wings, tightened the manacles—thick steel or something similar. Not much different than the collar Nicholas had used around her neck that first night, he’d wager anything it was too strong for a demon to break. The demons holding her up let go. She fell, hung—her feet suspended above the floor.

God. “You all right?”

“Fine.”

No. No they weren’t. But they couldn’t fight yet. They had to wait. An opportunity had to come.

They lifted him next—and no, it wasn’t bad. This couldn’t strain a Guardian’s muscles, or a halfling’s. Then they turned him around, positioning him to face her, and he knew:

It would be worse than anything he’d imagined.

“The honeymoon suite,” the demon said again, and a short, curving knife appeared in his hand. The others filed out of the chamber, leaving only Lucifer and his subordinate. “Now and again, we’re fortunate enough to receive humans in the Pit who are a matched pair—who truly love each other. For those souls, the torture in the Pit is never as rewarding as it should be. They are able to put the pain away, to take their minds elsewhere. Except, of course, when the person they use to escape the pain is hanging right in front of them. The only sweeter sound than the scream of a human whose gut is being ripped open is the sound of his scream when we rip his loved one open.”

His gaze on Ash, Lucifer spoke.

The demon bowed and scraped before looking to Ash. “He cannot stand the sight of you. Change to your demon form.”

She almost obeyed. Nicholas saw it, the almost immediate acceptance. But Lucifer wasn’t her master; Madelyn had been.

“I don’t know how,” she said.

Not even a refusal. A lie. A clever lie. Because if they escaped this room, her demon form might allow them—her—to escape a little more easily than a human could.

And it was a test. Would Lucifer know?

If he did, what would he do?

“Halflings,” the demon said, and looked at Lucifer. He nodded.

Realizing he had to try, Nicholas said, “Will you consider a bargain that lets her go?”

The demon whipped his knife around, made a long, deep cut across Nicholas’s stomach. Oh, fuck. Painless, for an instant, and he only heard Ash’s scream, the rattle of her chains, felt the warm slide of blood. Then agony struck.

“Do not speak to him,” the demon hissed. “He will not answer. He will not foul his mouth with a human tongue for the likes of you, Guardian. Bad enough that you foul his tower by speaking it, by the spill of your blood.”

All right. Breathing shallowly, using the anguish tightening his muscles to still every other movement, Nicholas nodded. Best not to point out that Lucifer was the one who’d brought them here.

But Nicholas got that now, too. This was a room intended for humans. Just like Ash’s name, to bring them here was an insult. It said they were worthless, nothing, not even strong enough to escape a torture chamber made to hold humans.

And that was why they’d believed Ash. Halflings were stupid, incompetent. When she claimed not to have abilities, they took it as a confirmation of what they thought they already knew, compounded by their belief that a young halfling demon wouldn’t have the balls—or the skill—to lie to them. They only saw what they expected to see.

Just like Nicholas had, when he’d believed Ash’s every action was part of a plot to destroy him. God. The irony was a killer. But at least he understood it. He could use that knowledge . . . hopefully.

Lucifer spoke. The demon looked up at Nicholas, knife in hand. “Did Khavi ever tell you what your Gift would be?’

“No.” He’d have answered the same, even if she had.

The demon translated Lucifer’s words again. “Then we’ll find it.”

Khavi had said that. He will pull it from you.

She’d known this. She’d known. What did that mean? More than anything, Khavi wanted Michael out of the field. So what did it mean that she’d known this would happen—and that she’d hoped for his Gift to manifest itself?

A Gift that he’d never have had . . . except that she’d also left him with Madelyn. So was this some kind of fucked-up plan? Was this not about an exchange or a bargain with Lucifer at all, but using Nicholas’s Gift to free Michael? She couldn’t have warned him, told him what she was looking for—or even what his Gift would be?

And what the fuck did it mean that Lucifer would pull it from him?

Lucifer approached him now. Ash’s expression cracked, filled with horror. She pulled at her chains. Nicholas looked across the room, held her gaze. He’d make it through this. She’d make it through this.

He hoped his Gift would be the ability to tear demons apart with his mind.

Her eyes narrowed, her ferocity a bite through each word. “It’ll be something you can use to kill them.”

God, he loved her.

Pain ripped through his chest, as if his left pectoral had been shredded. He held Ash’s gaze, refused to look down—but he could feel, could feel what Lucifer was doing: carving symbols into him.

The demon said, “These will only encourage the Gift to come, to stay, to be easily controlled, of course. To actually manifest, we must produce trauma.” His mouth seemed to caress the word. “We must shock your body into thinking it will die, or shock you into saving someone else—”

Lucifer spoke sharply, cut him off. The demon fell to the floor, begging. Lucifer merely looked at him. The demon nodded, stabbed himself in the gut. Staggered to his feet.

“So,” he continued, and held up his knife. “I will create that trauma now.”

CHAPTER 20

She’d destroy them. With God as her witness, Ash would do everything in her power to see them dead.

She didn’t know the demon’s name but she would hunt him through the bowels of Hell, rip him apart with her teeth. And Lucifer, Lucifer . . . oh, death would not be enough. She would see him destroyed, beaten, crawling until he begged for mercy.

They had to be close to stopping. Nicholas couldn’t have much blood left, and if they drained it all, he would die. Lucifer still hadn’t gotten results. Just a few flares of Nicholas’s Gift, bursts of power that carried his emotions with them—pain, fear. So much fear, it sank into her mind, made her scream and scream.

Music to their ears, no doubt.

Finally, Lucifer stepped away. The demon cowered again—fearing that he’d be punished for the failure?—but the demon lord only turned to Ash. He towered over her even though she hung above the floor, forcing her to look up at him, allowing Lucifer to look down at her. Trembling, Ash stifled the impulse to stare defiantly into his eyes, as if to say she wasn’t afraid.

This wasn’t the time. She was afraid, and surviving—escaping with Nicholas—was