Page 24 of Hell Bound

There was something there. A message I was supposed to understand, but the language was foreign to me.

I wanted to go to him, to demand that he give me answers as repayment for his part in bringing me to this strange place.

Not a chance. I wouldn’t chase a demon—wolf?—who clearly wanted nothing to do with me. He had every opportunity to break through the throng and come speak to me.

Instead, I watched him continue to prowl while I was completely alone in the middle of a crowd.

With a lift of my chin, I broke away from his stare and returned to my search. A beautiful demoness walked by alone, drink in hand, and I seized the opportunity.

“Miss? Hi, I’m Lil—” I came up short.

How was I supposed to introduce myself? They knew me as Lilith, apparently, but I’d only ever been Liliana.

I doubted presenting myself that way would endear me to them, though. I was supposed to be their queen, right? I needed to act like it to get what I needed.

“What’s your name?” I may not know what to call myself, but I at least needed to know what to call her.

Rather than answer, her eyes darted to the dais while she took a sip of her vivid green drink. With a small shake of her head, she rushed off to melt away in the crowd.

What the hell? Why wouldn’t they answer me?

Determined—and more than a little pissed now—I found another demon straggler and marched over with far more confidence than my outfit should have allowed.

“You, what is your name?”

The demon looked mostly human, except for the strange red glow that emanated from his eyes.

Those red eyes widened with fear at my snapped demand, and I almost felt bad. I hadn’t meant to scare him.

Still, it couldn’t be helped. I needed answers, and someone was damn sure going to give them to me.

Hmm, maybe Iama queen.

“Answer me!” Heads turned and his frantic gaze grew wider still.

The room hadn’t gone silent, but it was notably quieter and the volume was dropping more and more as demons realized something was happening.

The red-eyed demon moved his hands up and down near his waist, the universal symbol for ‘quiet the fuck down’.

He couldn’t do that, right? As a queen, I was above being told to shut up.

At least, I thought I was. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on, and that was why I needed him to give me something.Anything.

“Please, my Queen, I can’t—” The words hadn’t fully left his lips when those same lips were flying across the room.

Along with his head.

What the actual fuck? Am I just a magnet for beheadings? Two within twenty-four hours has to be above average, right?

“Our first victim of the evening!” Asmodeus’s gleeful voice rang out in the quiet that had fallen. The act of violence had stolen every other sound from the air, and all I could hear was my blood rushing in my ears. “Who’d like to go next?”

I couldn’t even process the speed at which he must have moved to cross the room so fast. That paled in contrast to sheer horror thrumming through me.

“Why did you do that?” It came out a rasp, my vocal cords frozen in shock.

“He knew the rules, my darling Lilith. You forced him to break them, and this is the result. Would you like to damn anyone else? I’d like to finish the decapitating portion of the evening as quickly as possible so we can move along.”

I had no words. Instead I put every ounce of hatred I felt for the disgustingly beautiful demon before me into my glare.

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