Page 81 of Demons in My Bed
I growled. “Fine. Get me out of here.”
Jasper took my hand and led me over to a wardrobe. He went ahead and opened it himself, since apparently as long as he was touching me, he was able to touch other objects too. I glanced inside, curious about what he could possibly want to bring with us from a closet in a sex room.
“Alright, in you go,” he said, holding his arm out for me to walk past.
I shot him a skeptical look. “What now?”
“This wardrobe has a false back—that’s the way out of here.” He looked really proud of himself for having such inside information.
“You fucking with me? If this is like some Narnia bullshit and you’re pranking me, you should just—”
He pressed his index finger to my lips. “Shh.” I froze, hearing the creaking of floorboards. Too close. “Get in the damn wardrobe!”
I hopped inside, immediately starting to believe him when he pulled the doors shut behind us using handles attached to the insides of the doors. “There’s a little switch right around… here!” With a soft click, the back of the wardrobe swung open, revealing a staircase.
“Holy shit,” I said in awe as we stepped through. “That was by far the closest to Narnia I ever got.”
Jasper laughed and started walking down the steps. It looked like any other stairwell in an industrial building, except there were no windows. Instead, there were the backs of paintings, as well as sections of see-through glass—which I assumed were one-way mirrors—and wooden boards, which were likely the back of a piece of furniture.
There were access points to this escape route from every floor. Multiple escapes, even. Since they could fly and jump like spider monkeys, the escape points were all over the walls. Some fifteen feet above the stairs. Luckily, the one we’d used was only two feet above the landing.
“How often does this get used?” I whispered to Jasper, stealing glances upward and preparing for one of the guys to appear perched like a gargoyle.
“Often enough that you should probably speed up.”
“Great,” I muttered, picking up the pace. “How many floors until we reach the bottom?”
Jasper was quiet for a moment, and since he was in front of me, I couldn’t see his face. “Depends on where you’re wanting to go. Do you want to leave? If that’s the case, there’s a door coming up that we can sneak through which will bring us out on the first floor.”
“What’s the first floor? Is that Haunt?”
“It is, but it’s closed for the night since it’s fight night. Should be a ghost town right now.” He turned back and lifted his eyebrows, laughing at his own joke. I couldn’t help the little huff of amusement that I let slip.
I had to think. Did I really want to leave? If I did, how easy would it be for me to get back in? What if me leaving pissed them off to the point that they decided I wasn’t worth the hassle? On the other hand, they’d tied me up against my will in a fucking sex closet and left me there. After I’d begged them not to. All arrows were pointing tofuck them.
“First floor would be great. I need to get out of here and think. I can’t do that here with them taking over my brain. Is that a demon power? Mind control or like, I don’t know, the ability to make people unable to resist their sexual prowess? I like sex. I love sex… but I’ve had more sex in the last week than I’ve had in the last six months, no contest. And let’s be real,” I panted, starting to get winded as we continued down the stairs. “I was fucking these guys at really inappropriate times, and oh my gods, Jasper. The things we were doing to each other…” He stopped so abruptly that I slammed into his back. “Ow, what the hell?”
“You want to talk about sex with the man who has been dead for an unknown amount of time and just regained his ability to touch?” Turning to face me, his hazel eyes bored into mine, and I shook my head.
“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I just haven’t had anyone to talk to about all of these feelings! I can’t even call my best friend right now. Who knows when I’ll be able to talk to or see him…” I wandered behind Jasper as we started descending again, feeling kind of shitty about my situation. Pity party for one.
We came to a stop in front of a glass panel. “Here we are. This is the voyeur room in the club.”
I eyed the one-way glass and rolled my eyes. “Classy. I bet Monocle likes to stand out here and beat his thing.” Jasper let go of my hand with a gasp.
“Excuse me?” a deep voice demanded, and I slowly spun around until my eyes landed on a very scowly Rhodes who appeared to have been stepping out of an opening about halfway down the next flight of stairs when he either heard or saw me. Just perfect timing. “What the hell are you doing in here?”
“Oh, well, I was doing some exploring. I found this little hole in the wall, so I let my curiosity get the best of me and here I am.”
Rhodes looked like hell. The bruising on his face was fading, but he clearly hadn’t showered yet because there was dried blood on his face and neck. I tried to school my features into a mask of innocence, but that got harder and harder to do as the big guy stalked up the stairs toward me.
“You just don’t know how to tell the truth, do you, Palmer? Every time you open that pretty, little mouth, it’s to spew more lies and bullshit, isn’t it?” He cocked his head to the side and stared down at me. Jasper was standing halfway up the stairs, a pinched expression on his face.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Rhodes. You’ve had it out for me from the very first moment we saw each other. Honestly, I think you’re jealous.” There was something about this demon that made it impossible for me to hold my tongue. That might’ve made me a shitty spy, but I was beyond the point of caring or being able to fix it.
“I have questions and you’re gonna fuckin’ answer them right here, right now. And if you lie to me, little girl? I will make sure it’s the last lie you ever speak, do you understand me?”
I stepped closer to him, bumping him with my chest. “How about this for a truth? Fuck. You.”
