Demon Bound: The Camelot Archive - Book One, R Nicole [top romance novels .TXT] 📗

every conceivable scenario. I could fight, use Light, strategise, withstand pain…but sitting in a classroom talking about hypothetical situations was not the same as lying on the floor of a greater demon’s lair. Reality was a harsh wake-up call.

“I was wondering if we’d ever get to see you again.”

I bristled at the abrasive voice and slammed my hands over my ears.

“You will look at me when I speak to you,” it commanded.

I rolled over, the sound grating in my brain. A man stood over me—tall, ordinary-looking, yet menacing—but I knew he wasn’t human. His toothy smile gave him away for one. Rows upon rows of pointy fangs filled the gaping hole that was his mouth, his true form showing through the glamours which hid the Darkness lurking in his perverted meat suit.

It was a Balan, one of the greater demons. It meant I was in huge shite, and that I had zero hope of escape without knowing his true name. I had no power over him without it, but I still had power over myself. It wasn’t much considering my repressed self-loathing over my past.

I only hoped I could hold on but I wasn’t sure I could even do that.

“The last survivor of Human Convergence.” He looked down at me, his lips curling in distaste. “I would like to say you were special, but you weren’t. There was no conspiracy. No secret parentage. No otherworldly abilities. You were just a stupid little girl who was in the wrong place at the right time. Any Natural would do. The dumber, the better.”

I wasn’t the only survivor. There had been others—Jackson and his wife, Esme—so I was hardly alone. Though, I had been the only one to almost succumb to the mutation before it was halted.

“I’m dumb?” I hissed. “I resent that. I’ll have you know that I graduated at the top of my class.”

His clawed hand wrapped around my throat and he lifted me off the ground. “Arrogance will be your downfall.”

“As will be your rotting meat suit, arsehole.”

The Balan growled, his teeth flashing in the torchlight, and I cried out as he poured Darkness into my mind. The intrusion was abrasive, the unfamiliar power tore deep without my Light to stop it.

Reality fell away.

Then…

* * *

The sound of water dripping roused me.

I was in the female locker room at the Academy. Laughter echoed off the white tiles and I turned. Kayla, the perfect blonde princess stood in front of the basins, preening herself in the mirror. She was flanked by Trisha and Maisy, her two little hangers-on.

My tormentor and her apprentices. These people defined my adolescence. My personality was bruised and ill-formed because of what they’d put me through.

I stood there, frozen like a lump of dirty black coal. Humiliation and self-loathing poured out of me and I as I took a step backwards, all three girls turned to stare at me.

“Madeleine, there you are,” Kayla declared, her eyes complete darkness. “We were wondering when we could get you alone.”

“Yeah, Madeleine,” Trisha echoed, “we have something important to tell you.”

They advanced, forcing me back against the wall. My palms flattened against the tiles and my heart began to beat wildly in my chest.

Kayla lifted her palm and smiled as a flicker of Light played against her skin. “This won’t hurt…much.”

Before I could react, she slapped me across the face, her power searing my skin. I cried out as pain burned my cheek. Trisha and Maisy began to laugh, egging Kayla on.

She slapped me again, this time on the other cheek.

“You think you can make it as a Natural?” Kayla cried as she tormented me. “A pathetic weirdo like you? You’re asking to be possessed, you know that? It was your fault, Madeleine. You let the Dark into the Academy. You killed us all.”

Her hand collided with my face, the force of the blow pushing me to the side. Gasping, I stumbled against the row of basins. I caught my reflection and began to shake as I saw the red welts disappear on my face. My Light would heal me, dissolving all the evidence.

No one could help me. Who’d believe the queen bee of the Academy was capable of physical and psychological abuse? No one.

I felt sick and as I stared at myself, reality began to ripple. It hadn’t happened like this, but it was close enough.

My gaze met Kayla’s in the mirror and she smirked.

“Why don’t you just end it,” she purred. “No one will miss you, Madeleine. No one at all.”

“This isn’t real!” I shouted with all my strength. The mirror cracked and I turned to face my demon, pushing her back against the wall. “You’re not real!”

The Balan roared his frustration and shook me as the cave came back into focus.

“Did you think you could just dangle me over your creepy blood graffiti, and I’d crack under the insults of a teenage girl?” I mocked. “You will have to try harder than that, moron.”

The demon growled and let go of my neck, shoving me to the floor. I landed hard, the rock colliding with my knees. Nothing happened for a moment, then pain shot through my legs, taking my breath away.

“Do you want my little ball of mutant Darkness?” I mocked. “Do you want to hold it and comb its hair and tell it you love it?”

The Balan roared at me and his boot slammed into my stomach. I held onto my cry of pain, curling in on myself.

“You kick like a girl!” I said. “Like a human, teenage girl with an Instagram addiction!”

Okay, so taunting a greater demon wasn’t the best approach, but it was kind of fun…until I lost consciousness.

The festering meat bag was probably right. My arrogance was going to be my downfall.

* * *

I didn’t know how long I swam in blackness.

My eyes cracked open and the cave came back into focus little by little with each gritty blink. The putrid stench of my own filth mixed with the walk-in closet of