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ChapterOne
Magic pulsatedthrough the metal restraints locked around my wrists, rubbing over my scars while a trickle of sweat leaked down my nape. As often as the demons fastened the cuffs on me, I never got used to them. A sliver of panic always made my heart beat faster. Memories of being locked in Rena’s closet, the walls closing in and the ceiling lowering every second, tried to drown me.
Breathe, damn it.
“Take these off.” I held my hands up, shaking the metal cuffs as the demon in a white lab coat approached me with a needle.
He arched one eyebrow, creasing his forehead. “I will absolutely not remove them. Last time you punched my assistant and broke her nose.” The blinding fluorescent lights running in rows across the ceiling shined on his bald head and illuminated his vivid blue eyes. The contrast of dark skin, gleaming white teeth, and radiant irises made for an appealing combination.
He'd be attractive if he didn’t have a giant stick up his ass.
I scoffed. “She’s a demon. Estella probably healed in ten minutes.”
“Not the point, Ms. Teague.” Denton set the needle on the silver tray on my left. “You’re extremely uncooperative, so certain measures must be taken to ensure your captivity.”
Captivity. My top lip lifted at the word. Denton said it with the slightest inflection possible, utterly impartial to my feelings. I was nothing more than a lab rat.
The glaring white walls and floors—scrubbed so clean you could eat off them—the spotless steel counters and cabinets, the collection of beakers, jars, and tubes filled with various liquids, and the astringent hint of disinfectant in the air would suggest that I was exactly that, a lab rat.
“And what about these?” I shook my feet that dangled off the reclined black leather chair, rattling the shackles. “Did you really need Nik to put restraints around my legs?”
Denton tilted his head and sighed. “After multiple attempted escapes? Yes, they’re absolutely necessary.”
I’d been stuck in this lab for weeks, tossed into a bare cell with nothing more than a tiny cot, a toilet, and a shower. After that prick demon shifter sold me to High Demon Lord Ruin Bacchus, he brought me to his home in Savannah and locked me in a bedroom. I hadn’t seen Ruin since. Apparently, he didn’t find methatintriguing. He’d left me to his alchemists in the lab.
Instead of scientists, nightworlders referred to them as alchemists because they used scienceandmagic. Logan said he was an alchemist, which made sense since I’d woken up in a lab under his house in Vlehull.
A pang cut through my chest at the thought of the high demon’s betrayal. He’d known Fane’s intentions all along and never warned me.
“Please try to remain still this time.” Denton, Ruin’s head alchemist, brushed my long, pinkish-red hair behind my shoulder to unveil my neck, his fingers skimming the swirling tattoo. A sharp electric jolt shot out, and he yanked his hand away, cursing.
“You should probably stay away from that side of my neck, Dr. Frankenstein.”
He shook his fingers. “Perhaps you’re right.” Denton shuffled to my other side and tucked my hair away.
The high demon’s black slacks and button-down shirt beneath his pristine lab coat didn’t mask his perfect physique. If he loosened a few buttons and got a couple of drinks at Wrath & Ruin next door, droves of men and women would drool after him. He could have his pick.
But Denton was all work and no play. That was probably why Ruin left him in charge.
“Don’t move,” Denton ordered as he lifted the needle to the other side of my neck.
I winced as he sank it in to draw blood. “I don’t see how takinganotherblood sample will help get the Infernal Sol out of me.”
My time in the lab had been spent undergoing several spells from powerful witches that never ended well. For the witches. Demons had tried to pry the amulet out of me without much luck either. Now, Denton resorted to taking more blood and tissue samples. He swabbed the inside of my cheek a dozen damn times one day. The thirteenth cotton swab that he stuck into my mouth, I bit off and spat at him.
“We have to venture down many avenues to find a solution.” He pulled the needle out and then capped the tube full of crimson liquid. “Instead of being uncooperative, you should do everything possible to help. The sooner we separate the Infernal Sol from you, the sooner you can leave.”
A laugh burst out of my mouth, reverberating through the lab. “You really expect me to believe that once this thing is out, provided that I lived through the process, Lord Ruin will just let me go?”
I wasn’t a naïve idiot. The demon lord had no intentions of releasing me. I’d be a liability because I knew he had the amulet, and my death would ensure his secret stayed hidden.
“Of course he’ll let you go.” Shadows darkened Denton’s eyes to navy, and he quickly glanced away.
“Don’t bullshit me.” I reached up and wiped away the droplet of blood on my neck before he could press a bandage to it. “You nightworlders are all just selfish assholes with nothing better to do than ruin my life.”
My insult didn’t faze the alchemist, and he stuck a label on the blood-filled tube. “Might I remind you, Ms. Teague, that you are, in fact, a nightworlder.”
“That’s still up for debate.” Two full moons—one a few days ago—had passed, and I hadn’t shifted.
