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

my fault I’d been possessed and mutated as a teenager. I’d been a victim and ever since, my own people had shamed me for something out of my control, despite fighting tooth and nail to uphold Natural values and fight against the lingering Dark.

Rhys smirked as our gazes met. I barely knew the guy from a lump of coal, but he seemed to think he knew all about me.

“Throw her back!” he shouted to the others. “Throw her back!”

I fisted my hands into the front of his T-shirt and shoved him up against the wall. “Say that again.”

“Madeline,” Maisy hissed, tugging at my sleeve.

“Yeah, Madeleine,” Rhys said with a sarcastic lit in his voice, “you don’t want to get thrown out of Camelot. This is your last chance, isn’t it?”

“How can you sleep at night knowing how much of a worthless piece of shite you are?” I asked, gritting my teeth. “Does it make you feel better about your meaningless life to hate on others? You don’t know the first thing about me.”

“Like I said…” He leaned closer, his lips curving in a malicious grin. “Once a demon, always a demon.”

A spark of uncontrollable anger burst to life inside me and I raised my fist and hit Rhys square in the nose. The sound of cracking bone was loud enough that the other Naturals gasped in shock, but it barely registered in my brain.

The mutation gurgled and spluttered its approval as blood began to pour from Rhys’ nose.

“Say it again!” I shouted, but he didn’t reply. “Not such a big man now, are you?”

He let out a strangled cry and lunged at me, slamming his shoulder into my chest. I stumbled backwards, ducking as his fist flew at my face.

“Beating up in a girl. You’re such a big man,” I taunted him, smashing my shoulder into his ribs.

He hit the wall and caught my ankle with his boot. The blow sent me to my knees, then I was on my back rolling through the dirt as he landed on top of me.

We were a mess of fists and rage…and no one stopped us.

“Enough!” Like a spectre in the night, Thompson appeared out of nowhere and pulled me off Rhys. “What’s the meaning of this?”

I scrambled to my feet and wiped the back of my hand across my mouth. “Just teaching a prejudiced arsehole a lesson.”

Rhys was on his feet in an instant. “You broke my nose!” He lunged at me, despite our commanding officer standing between us.

Thompson growled and shoved him backwards. “Stand down,” he barked.

“You’re nothing but a pathetic bully,” I growled at my tormentor.

“Greenbriar,” Thompson snapped. He clicked his fingers at another Natural. “Take Rhys to the supply tent and await my arrival.”

Rhys shoved off the hand that reached for him. “Sir—”

“That’s an order.” I’d never seen Thompson so mad as he turned to face me. “And you will come with me.”

I hissed as he grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the bonfire, the entire base camp staring in stunned silence.

Thompson’s grasp hissed against my skin, the mutation sparking like it had the night the demons had captured me on patrol. I had to get a grip.

It wasn’t long before Thompson shoved me into a tent at the opposite side of the camp—far away from the supply tent where Rhys had been taken.

I tensed as I felt Thompson’s Light slam closed around me. They weren’t the bars of the cage under Ben Nevis, but they may as well have been. All that was missing was the meat closet.

“You better not be putting that trash in here with me,” I drawled, turning on my heel. The limits of the tent were my boundary and breaking through the barrier was near impossible.

“You drew blood in an unprovoked attack.” Thompson shook his head, his disappointment clear. “What were you thinking?”

“It was entirely provoked.” I glared at him. “I think the words he used were, ‘Throw her back’.” Thompson frowned at me, so I added, “Into the rift. That’s where demon scum come from, you know.”

“When someone baits you, you don’t react,” he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. “We’re trying to help you, Madeleine, but you’re not making it easy.”

“You try to rise above when someone’s trying to incite a lynch mob against you.”

His lips thinned and he sighed. “Light help me.”

I knew it was the mutation bleeding into my emotions, but I was far too angry to push it back into its box.

“Sleep it off,” Thompson said after a moment. “We’ll discuss this in the morning when everyone has calmed down.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Good luck with that.”

“It’s you who’ll need luck.” With one last glare, he strode from the tent, leaving me to stew in the fight’s aftermath.

Cursing, I looked around, only to find a stainless-steel table and a few empty crates from the science division stacked against one side. It was going to be a long, cold night alone with the threat of being thrown out of Camelot in the morning, but that was the point.

They had thrown me in jail.

12

Madeline.

I sat bolt upright, almost hitting my head on the stainless-steel table. Confused, I rubbed my eyes.

I was still in the tent, locked in by Thompson’s Light. It was dark outside, the party long over, but something had woken me.

It was another echo. I laid down on the hard ground with a sigh. Sleeping in a draughty tent full of trash—without a mattress or pillow—wasn’t how I pictured my last hours at Camelot, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

I had to stand up for myself, right? Having a mutation push my emotions over the edge wasn’t useful in the grand scheme of things, but I couldn’t let Rhys get away with that kind of behaviour, either.

Oh, what the hell did it matter? I’d drawn blood one too many times and when the sun rose, they’d take my arondight blade and I would be exiled.

My eyes drooped as I lulled back into a restless sleep. Hope