Page 1 of Demon: Monsterverse
ONE
BRIDGET
My wrists stungas I struggled against the rope binding them behind my back. It didn’t matter how little I moved, every twitch sent agony through my limbs.
“You shouldn’t have done it, Bridget,” Liam croaked, the whites of his eyes red. He speared his fingers through his ginger hair and pulled on the strands.
“I didn’t mean to,” I said through gritted teeth for the millionth time, the pole I leaned against digging into my spine. My voice was hoarse from how many times I’d had to say it, but no one listened to me. “Please, Liam. You know me. I wouldn’t have killed her if it wasn’t self-defense.”
“I don’t believe you.” He shuddered, closing his eyes. “Leila wouldn’t have attacked you.”
Bullshit. She was bitter from any affection Liam showed me. His sister was power hungry and had spat her vitriol at me—with her conspiracies about how I held Liam back as she came at me with a knife. She’d said she wanted my death slow and painful, but she never expected me to fight back.
My thigh was cramping, and I wiggled my toes within my shoes to provide relief from the burn in my soles. As much as I begged Liam, he hadn’t loosened the bindings around my ankles. My sides heaved with my breaths, and I tugged at my wrists again.
We’d been sacrificing animals here for years, thinking it kept the monsters satiated and away from our village. There hadn’t been an attack since we arrived, so Liam and his father, Kenny, held onto the method with both hands. It wasn’t until a year ago that they began tying people up out here when they committedcrimes.
It was archaic, and I never agreed with it. I hadn’t expected the man I knew before shit went to hell would turn out so messed up in the head. Before the Rift, he used to be a simple, kind neighbor.
I’d known Liam since we were children. We grew up together and had gone through the atrocities of the Rift together, but it meant nothing. I couldn’t believe the boy whose eyes used to crinkle when he smiled at me now stared at me as if I were a stranger.
After everything I’d done for the community, they were throwing me away, and it was to the benefit of Liam, the village leader once his father passed. I thought there would be more between us after he fucked me.
Silly me.
Our romantic relationship, if you wanted to call it that, had existed since we were in our twenties—on and off. Then he started changing over the years as the community grew.
My lips trembled, but I pressed them together.
“I’m sorry,” he said, as if that would change anything. I fixed my gaze over his shoulder toward the barrier. Dead, dried-up branches littered the cracked dirt and led to dense fog that hid the divider between our world andtheirs.
Liam turned away, branches cracking under his steps as he backed down the incline. My pulse bounced with frantic pumps.
“Don’t go,” I begged as my eyes dampened. “Liam. Don’t leave me here.” He didn’t react to my plea as he shoved past foliage. This couldn’t be it. Once he disappeared, it meant my death. I didn’t want to die, not like this. Tears streamed down my cheeks and dripped off my chin. “Liam,” I screamed as he disappeared. A choked cry wrenched free, echoing around me. Birds cawed and wings fluttered, and the trees rustled from their movement.
I bowed my head forward, grimacing from the aching pressure from the rope. At least the long skirt of my dress protected my calves. I couldn’t have conjured this scenario from my wildest dreams. Leila never liked me, but I didn’t think she wanted to kill me.
The temperature dropped with the setting sun, and a chill lifted the hair on the back of my neck. Shadows, cast by the moonlight shining through the trees, stretched across the ground like fingers wrapping around my neck. The world went eerily quiet, as if it held its breath.
Shit. That was never good.
I shivered, then tugged at the binds keeping me attached to the pole. It was tall and made of metal, and regardless of how much I wiggled around, it wouldn’t budge. A small section of cracked asphalt lay beneath my feet, vines crawling out from the fissures, twistingand turning as they spread along the ground. The pole must have been part of whatever used to be here before the Rift had sliced the earth apart. Looking around me, I could only assume nature had reclaimedwhat was once here.
How long would it be before a monster found me?
I shuddered and kept shimmying, hoping the rope would give a little. Sweat beaded at my forehead, and all my moving around had chased away the ice slinking into my veins. A throb pulsed throughout my hands from the ropes. I could go for some pain pills right now, but those times no longer existed.
A loud crack echoed in my ears, and I froze, sucking in a breath as I waited.
Was that a shadow moving closer within the inkiness?
My mouth dried up.Shit.
Scales rippled and there was a blur of movement too quick for my eyes to track. I snapped my head to the side—nothing. My breathing turned erratic, and I scrambled to get closer to the pole even though metal dug into my spine. This was bullshit. I was being punished for defending myself. My nostrils burned and my eyes dampened, blurring my vision, so I could no longer see the freaky inky fog hiding the Rift.
A viselike grip wrapped around my ankle and yanked me so hard the rope dug into my skin and ruptured with a violent snap. A scream ripped from my throat, and my body swung in a pendulum as I was lifted by my leg. I scrambled to grab onto anything to stop my dizzying swing, and my fingers rasped against warm reptilian blades.
A rumble came from the creature holding me up as he shook me once, slowing my momentum. My hair fell into my face, and I sputtered to get strands out of my mouth. I dragged my gaze from the clawed feet, up the thick trunk-like legs and its broad body. Wings spanned behind it, arching and veiny, while the left one had slits ravaging the skin into sections. The monster stared at me from green eyes with thin pupils, and the whites of his eyes held a yellow hue. Holy shit. This thing was like a Komodo dragon on steroids and then some.
