Page 16 of House of Pain
The Guardian huffed a laugh, leaning the back of his head against the tiled wall, seemingly not bothered by being cornered.
“A Guardian?” he asked, arching a brow. “I’m no Guardian.”
“You’re theexactcopy of the Guardian we summoned,” Jolene said.
“Well, to be fair, we haven’t checked the—” Andro began, but Val shut him up by lifting her palm.
“Who are you then if you’renotthe Guardian we summoned?” Val asked.
That damn dimple appeared as he smiled. “I’m the demon summoned to serve at your will.”
Rogue lifted one arm, tugging the crimson school jacket up to reveal three black lines wrapped around his forearm.The lines that indicated the bondage between a witch and a demon from Hel they summoned to do their bidding.
“Shit” was all Alecto could muster.
Alecto’s heart leaped in her chest as the door to the bathrooms opened. Two girls stopped in the doorway the moment they took in the view of them cornering Rogue.
“What the fuck are you staring at?” Andro scoffed, coming to stand in front of them.
Val pushed past Andro, getting into their faces.“Go. Get the fuck out of here,” she barked. “If I catch you staring like that at either of us on campus, I’m going to rip your eyeballs out and make a necklace of them.”
The girls whirled on their heels and hurried outside without another word or a glance.
Alecto bit down on her lip to stifle a laugh.
“What the fuck, Val?” To Alecto’s surprise, Blaze was the first to snap at their leader, his eyes blazing. “Ademon? Seriously? What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I didn’t do shit,” Val said, turning towards them. “We used the spell that specifically calls for aGuardian. Even I’m not crazy enough to summon afuckingdemon.”
“Yet here I am,” the demon drawled, his eyes sparkling with amusement.
Alecto had never met a demon before. They were dangerous and deadly, so witches kept their distance. Demons were supposed to rip witches’ hearts out when summoned or trap their souls and drag them to Hel.
Rogue didn’t look like any of the monsters in their textbooks. Neither did he look particularly vicious or interested in their souls.
In fact, he appeared to be somewhere in between light amusement and casual boredom. Which, of course, unsettled Alecto greatly.
“How the fuck did this happen?” Andro hissed. “And how the fuck is he bound to us?” He turned to Rogue, eyeing him carefully. “Are you really bound to us?”
“Yes, the binding is real,” the demon said with a heavy sigh. “I’m bound to the witches who summoned me to serve them by blood until I’m released from my service.”
“Blood!” Jolene shrieked, pointing a finger at Val. “I bet it happened because you used blood magic to empower the spell.”
“Bitch, don’t point your finger at me,” Val sneered. “And that’s not true. There is no way using blood magic summons—”
“How the fuck do you know?” Alecto interrupted, spreading her arms. “We haven’t had an introduction in blood magic. Only the fourth years have the lectures. So we could have triggered something without even knowing.”
“Orsomeone from the other Houses could have done that for us,” Blaze suggested, his finger tracing the line of his sharp jaw as he eyed Alecto.“There were a lot of students at our party that night.”
“What?” Alecto snapped at him. “Even the fourth years from the House of Dragons wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull something like this. Calling a demon for a Game is a risk.”
“Wouldn’t they now?” Blaze challenged, arching a brow.
“Well, it doesn’t matter now,” Val interrupted, walking over to sit on the corner of one sink. She fished out a pouch from her pocket and started to roll a new blunt. “What matters right now is that we have an actual demon in our possession. A demon who’s willing to do our bidding for us.”
Alecto’s stomach turned at the pure wickedness of Val’s smile.
“You can’t be seriously entertaining this, Val,” Jolene said.
