Page 83 of Demons in My Bed
“What the fuck did you say?” I clenched my jaw. “Actually, no, never mind. I don’t care. Just tell me how you got out of that room without help. Do you have some kind of fire magic that burned through the binds?”
Palmer looked two seconds away from clawing my eyes out, but we both knew that for every hit she got, I’d get one right back. “Fine. You want a play-by-play? Those fucking monsters carried me into Ashland’s sex room—and by the way, if there’s ever been other women in that room, he will never fuck me in there. Honestly, that’s just sick; I can’t imagine letting him stick who knows what inside of me in a room his whores have been in.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. “You do know his actual dick has been inside other women before?”
Her eyes flared with rage. “I will smash your balls if you ever say something that disgusting in my presence again.”
“I’ll add delusional to your toxic personality traits. Continue with my play-by-play, please.”
“Right, so they were all pissy over me knowing how to fight, and then I woke up on the kitchen island with all of these injuries, so I healed myself. That really threw them over the edge, so they tied me to a St. Andrew’s cross. You would’ve thought I killed their family pet or some shit. I deserved congrats and butt pats for the way I demolished your ass in the ring, but no—”
“Wait a second. You healed yourself?”
She pulled up her shirt, revealing her smooth torso with no sign of bruising or cuts. “Yeah. It’s part of my affinity. I think the ghosts—”
“For fuck’s sake, enough about ghosts. Continue with this bullshit tale. I want to see how many more lies you can spew in the span of two minutes.”
“That’s when they left me up there. Said I needed to learn a lesson or some shit. I begged them not to leave, and Ido notfucking beg. Do I look like someone who begs, Rhodes?” She paused, smoothing down her shirt. “There’s this ghost—” I growled under my breath at her persistence. “Fine, this man, if that makes you feel better? He popped up and we started chatting, then he let me out and said he’d help me get out of that room. Now I’m here.”
“Right.” I pursed my lips together. “And where is this man now?”
“Behind you, near the door.” Palmer pointed to where she was staring earlier. All that greeted me was an empty staircase.
“There’s nobody there.”
She sighed dramatically. “I know that. I’m the one who sees ghosts, not you. I didn’t expect you to be able to see him, idiot.”
Alright, so Palmer was a little unstable. Considering who I lived with, instability didn’t tend to bother me, but paired with her addiction to lying… it wasn’t something I could ignore.
“Stop doing that!” she shouted, and then giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. “What? I already told him I can see you, why should I hide it anymore?”
“Are you serious right now?” How was this my current life situation? She wasn’t even paying attention to me anymore. Instead, she turned and started walking toward the door to the voyeur room, carrying on a one-sided conversation with herself. “Excuse me?” I grabbed her arm. “We’re not done talking.”
“Your rudeness literally knows no bounds. As you can see, I’m now having a different conversation. Just because Jasper is a ghost that doesn’t mean you get to disrespect him—”
It was as if someone had dumped water in my ears. Her mouth was still moving, but her words were lost to me. I must have misunderstood, misheard the name. I knew she was speaking, but I wasn’t hearing. It was like I’d been sucked into a riptide, my body being tossed back and forth beneath the waves. My heart was racing, and blackness danced at the edges of my vision.
I knew I should ask her to repeat what she said. I needed to know if my mind had just played a horrible trick on me, or if this witch was about to meet the real Rhodes. The one who lived deep inside, the one I locked beneath two-inch, thick, steel chains behind a ring of hellfire.
“Are you okay? You don’t look so good, Monocle. Maybe you should sit down?”
The whooshing sound gave way to a high-pitched ringing. “What did you say his name was?”
“Jasper.”
A roar exploded from my chest, and I squeezed my eyes shut, seeing those hazel fucking eyes. The ones that haunted me. My shirt shredded as the chains holding back the beast shattered and the demon within me took over, stretching his muscles. My body grew five inches taller and my wings snapped out, a twenty-foot span that ensured no prey could escape. My fingers shifted, growing into long, deadly claws that could slice through skin, sinew, and tendons like butter.
My vision went completely black, and I blinked. The blackness faded after a moment, leaving a red haze, and I realized I had the lying witch by the throat, pinned up against the wall. She was kicking and clawing at my arms, but I felt nothing.
Slowly, I slid her body up the wall, until her feet were barely touching the ground. The coppery scent of blood hit my nose, and my mouth watered. My claws must’ve done a little damage.
“Where the fuck did you hear that name?” I snarled, showing her my sharp teeth. Her eyes were bulging, and her face was getting darker, but I was only seeing in red. “Who sent you here? Fuckingtell me!”
I released her, and she crumpled to the stairs, sliding down to the landing. I prowled after her, eyeing her as she lay on the floor, coughing and sputtering. “He told me his name,” she choked out, sounding like a dying frog.
“How fucking dare you come here, into our gods damned house, into their beds? Do you think this is a fucking game?!” I was thankful we were surrounded by concrete, because the furniture would’ve been shaking with how loud I was being. There was no longer any logical thought. Just rage. Red-hot fucking rage.
I bellowed at the top of my lungs, all of the anger, pain, and hurt flying out of me after years of repressing those emotions. Breathing heavily, I looked down at the witch at my feet. Over my dead body would she use this to wreck my boys.
