Page 81 of Hell Bound

Are you okay?Deasley’s earnest voice came, but Jovran overrode him.

Stupid! Selfish! We’ll all pay if you disobey!His teeth snapped inches from my face, and I growled in warning, but Jovran wasn’t backing down.He gave specific orders, Commander.Wesuffer if you fail.

The hair along Pypentha’s spine stood straight up in a crest.His family disappeared while we were… distracted. No sign of them or how they left.

Good.I got to my feet, shaking myself and sending dust flying.The king said nothing of the family. Let them run.

Jovran’s disbelieving growls filled the air.How could you be this short-sighted, Lucifer?

I rounded on him, seeing a phantom face in my mind.

Travan had gone to his death with utter peace. He had known what waited for him when he turned down Asmodeus’s offer.

Because, Jovran…I let my lips peel back, exposing my sharp fangs. Let him know that if he turned on me, I wouldn’t hesitate to bury them in his heart.Thalen had the balls to stand against him. That’s all any of us can do now.

* * *

I paid for my mercy.

I paid for it, but I didn’t let a sound pass my lips as Asmodeus took out his fury on my bruised flesh with whips and knives.

Blessedly, my pack remained untouched, and Thalen’s secrets had been absorbed into the earth as they spilled out alongside his blue blood.

Deasley caught me when I stumbled in the door to the pack quarters. Within seconds, his hands were slick with blood.

“Commander…”

I waved him off, though that movement felt like every bone in my arm was breaking again, and collapsed in bed.

When I woke up, the bruises remained, but the worst of the pain was gone.

It was fully night again. A day had passed, and I hadn’t seen Lilith since that moment in her room, when she’d begged me to leave.

But I still wanted her. Needed her.

Needed to know this was all worth something.

I showered, erasing as much of the evidence of my assignment as possible, and slipped a Pop-Tart into my shirt before making the climb to her balcony. It took me longer than usual, my muscles still aching as they knit together.

I wanted the warmth of her arms. My wolf yearned for the comfort of her touch.

I slipped over the rail, crouching outside the window and checking for any servants.

Lilith sat alone, curled up on her bed with her back against the headboard. She stared listlessly across the room, arms wrapped around her knees and hugging them to her chest.

I tapped on the window before I eased the balcony door open, slipping inside the room.

“Lilith.” My voice was hoarse.

When she met my gaze, nothing was right. All the fire she’d carried inside her since returning… it was gone. She was a shell, waiting for the next strike and wondering if she’d survive it.

She wasmyLilith again.

My wolf and I both roared in internal protest.

It was wrong to see her so defeated, now that I knew she’d learned to stand up for herself. I couldn’t let her revert to that fractured demoness ever again.

I stepped closer. “Did he hurt you? Starve you?” Had Asmodeus subjected her to more humiliation while I was away, then unconscious?

---