Demon Bound: The Camelot Archive - Book One R Nicole (open ebook .txt) 📖

husks. As I lay there, I wondered if this was how it was going to end—with me lying on the floor of a rusted cage, my cheek pressed into the gravel, with out of control body odour. Glamorous.

I blinked again. A pair of combat boots stood on the other side of the bars, the torchlight flickering off the shiny toes. The rest of the leather was worn—their owner hadn’t cared to rub a little polish into them. The laces were undone, one end trailing into a dirty puddle.

“Wakey wakey, pretty Natural.”

Something poked my side. I jerked away, my back hitting the bars.

Light played off a sharp, angled jaw, and as my gaze rose, so did my internal alarm. Cold, piercing eyes stared at me, a glint of amusement doing nothing to warm them. He ran his hand over his shaved head and grunted like he wasn’t surprised by my reaction but was disappointed in it anyway.

It was the demon-hybrid from Adrenaline.

He leaned against the bars and peered at me. “You’re a whole bag of trouble, aren’t you?”

“Why can you hold my arondight blade?” I rasped.

He shook his head, perplexed. “Of all the things you could’ve asked me, that’s what you want to know?”

“Why?” I demanded.

“I’m not going to tell you,” he replied. “Ask something a little smarter.”

“Why me?”

His lips quirked. “Now we’re getting somewhere, but if we’re being truthful, you already know why.”

Nauseated, I curled in on myself. The residual demonic mutation…

“You’re a hard nut to crack, pretty Natural,” he told me. “That bastard will drill into your mind until you break and when you do…” He drew his finger along his neck. “But I don’t have to tell you, do I?”

What was their game plan? Was it to break me, reprogram my mutation to flare again, then send me back to Camelot as a glorified suicide bomber? Or was it to be a spy? They’d been evicted rather abruptly—perhaps they had left something important behind.

“What’s at Camelot?” I asked, my voice wavering. “What do you want?”

The man’s eyes flashed silver and he grinned, reminding me what he was. Despite his handsome and extremely human face, I couldn’t forget his true nature.

“Well?” I prodded.

“I can get you out of here, but you have to make a deal with me first.”

I narrowed my eyes. Making a deal with a demon was bad news, but I was out of options. No Light and no arondight blade meant no escape. I couldn’t crack the lock on this rusty bucket, and even if I did, I wasn’t getting five metres without collapsing.

“What do you want?” I hissed.

He knelt and wrapped his hands around the bars. I watched him closely as his cocky demonic expression melted away and took on a human vulnerability.

“No tricks,” I snapped.

“No tricks,” he echoed. “Listen carefully. The moment you leave this cage, they will know and it’s over for the both of us. But not if you do as I say…”

I wanted to trust him, but every bone in my body—the bones that’d been trained to fight his kind since I was a child—screamed at me to run in the other direction. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because you might be able to help me.”

Help him? I frowned, the motion causing my head to throb. Help him with what?

I swallowed hard. “How do I get past them?”

He reached through the bars. “You need to take my hand and trust me.”

I stared at his outstretched fingers.

“I can help you, but only if I take you under my protection,” he urged. “Link with me and you’ll see.”

“Link with you?” My mouth fell open. “I can’t… I—”

“I know you can feel it,” he said, his voice low. “It’s the only thing keeping you alive…and it’s the only thing that will set you free.”

“I don’t believe you.” My demon mutation was going to save my life? This was a trick. A manipulation. “Get out of my head.”

“This is real,” the man hissed, “and we need to go now.”

I closed my eyes. The risk was too great, but I didn’t have any other choice. If I stayed here, the greater demon would dismantle my mind piece by piece and drive me mad, before a long agonising death. If I went with the man—the hybrid—I had a chance to escape back to Camelot.

Opening my eyes, I lifted my hand. It was the lesser of two shitty options. My fingertips brushed against his and I felt power flare into my body through his touch. I lurched forwards, pulled by an unseen force and his hand wrapped around my wrist.

He pulled me to my feet and I passed through the bars, the metal shimmering as if it’d been an illusion all along. Gasping, I fell against the man’s chest. His arms circled around me, holding me upright as my knees trembled.

I couldn’t remember how long had it been since someone had held me like this?

“I’ve got you,” the man murmured. “Stay close, pretty Natural, and don’t let go.”

What had I done? Had I unknowingly sold him my soul? Confusion began to take over—I didn’t even know what he wanted from me. I pushed against him, dislodging his grasp, and fell against the bars, which had become solid once more.

Movement at the cave entrance drew my gaze and I froze as a demon slunk through the jagged opening. Its slimy black arms flopped back and forth, and its claws scratched the limestone underfoot as it approached. It took one look at me and bared its pointed teeth.

“What the hell is going on here?” Its voice was surprisingly human, but the sound grated against my mind like sandpaper.

The man turned as I clapped my hands over my ears.

The demon seemed furious, but I couldn’t tell through the pounding. “When he finds out—”

The man moved fast, lunging towards the demon and fisting his hand into the creature’s straggly hair. With one fluid motion, he slammed its head into the wall, the crack of splintering bone echoed off stone.

“He’s not going to find