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

in the world until she’d met Jackson and Wilder. Through all the darkness, she’d grown up to become Arondight, one half of the Twin Flames that saved the world. If she could overcome a lifetime of suffering, then so could I.

Camelot was in danger because of me and Elijah. Now I had to get over myself and fix it.

“You’re still linked to the Balan?” I asked.

“Yes.” Elijah smirked, pleased he’d goaded me into action. Looked as if his demon was showing again.

“Then we sever his hold over you.”

“I’m not sure how. I was attempting to use his shackle so I could find you, so I didn’t bother trying to remove it. Now it seems like an annoyance more than anything.”

“Does he know where you are?”

Elijah shrugged and leaned against the splintered wall. Luckily, we hadn’t paid a security deposit on the room because we so weren’t getting it back. “Maybe. It’s hard to tell. Demons can be so duplicitous.”

Choosing to ignore his demonic smart arsery, I said, “The Dark could already be at Camelot. If the Balan is there, we take him out. Death is the easiest way to sever the connection.”

“And how do you suppose we kill a greater demon? They’re impossible to end, you know.”

“Wilder’s there,” I said, my heartbeat speeding up. “He can kill the Balan. Excalibur has the power.”

He grunted and rolled his eyes, his opinion of Excalibur clear. “Or there’s the chance that you can.”

It was my turn to pout. “I don’t know what I can do yet.”

“Like I said—”

“Open my mind,” I drawled as I stood.

“You can nullify Light, why not the Dark?” His grin widened as his demonic side caught a whiff of imminent chaos. “You can nullify him right out of existence.”

I shook my head and shrugged into my jacket. “Whatever. We need to go back to Camelot. If we’re lucky, we can warn them the Dark is planning to attack before it’s too late.”

“I would call it more of an infiltration.”

“Elijah.”

“So, you want to go back and get ourselves recaptured after we spent all that time escaping?”

I grunted and pulled on my boots. “I’m not arguing about this with you.”

He looked me over and wiggled his fingers at me. “You know, when I said take advantage, I meant take advantage.”

“Seriously?”

Laughing, he opened the door. “Shall we go kill some demons? Chaos is my forte, after all.”

18

A full moon had risen over Camelot, casting the entire landscape with a crystallised sheen.

On any other night, I would have thought the iridescent light was beautiful, but when Elijah and I wanted to sneak in the side entrance, it made for terrible cover.

“The sun may as well be out,” I muttered as we lingered amongst the ancient stone blocks on the hillside.

“Can’t help nature,” was Elijah’s not-at-all-helpful reply.

Ahead, I could see the entrance to the Natural’s base camp just beyond the outer wall. It lay in shadow, the lack of movement alarming.

“Can you sense anything?” I asked, squinting at the horizon where Camelot was even darker.

“Nothing.”

“The barrier is gone,” I murmured. “There’s—”

“Nothing,” he quipped. “Just like I said.”

Deciding there was nothing we could do by watching further, I ducked out from behind the stone block and made my way towards the camp. We’d find answers there.

It was ironic that I was back after sneaking in and out more times than I could count. Not to mention my grand escape. If I came across a Natural, I’d have to play my cards right or I’d end right back where I had started.

As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry. Base camp was dark.

The generators powering the lights and equipment in the infirmary and laboratory tents were silent. Without power, the whole place had fallen into shadows, but that wasn’t the only thing out of place. The deeper Elijah and I ventured, the clearer it became that no one was here.

The mess tent had become a ghost town, the stovetops cold and the bain-marie had cooled to icicles. Weirdest of all were the still-full pots on the ovens and the plates of half eaten food on the tables. The barracks and common areas had fared little better. Even the bonfire had simmered to barely-there coals.

It was as if everyone had dropped what they were doing and walked out. There weren’t even any tracks, not that I could find any amongst the churned up, muddy ground.

We stood in the centre of camp at a complete loss. How did one hundred Naturals disappear without a trace?

“There’s no one here,” I said, my heartbeat speeding up. “They’re all gone.” I glanced at Elijah. “The Naturals would never abandon Camelot. Not even under assault.”

“Don’t look at me,” he said. “They’re your people.” Well, that was debatable.

“If the Dark has them, then they’ll be in Camelot.” I pointed up to the shadowy parapets of the castle. “Base camp is useless when what they want is up there.”

I moved through the sea of canvas, making a beeline for Thompson’s command tent.

“Where are you going?” Elijah asked, trotting after me. “The city’s the other way.”

“I need to find something first.”

I pushed past the flap and looked around the mess of trunks, papers, and racks of miscellaneous weaponry. Thompson really wasn’t one for organisation.

Elijah snorted. “Looks like the place was ransacked.”

“I don’t think so. It always looks like this.”

I began to open and close crates, picking up a cold iron dagger to slip into my boot.

He curled his lip and began to poke around the papers on the central table. “How do you people survive?”

I ignored him and picked up a belt, strapping it around my waist. It had pockets and loops for just about everything a Natural warrior would need. All I was missing was my arondight blade.

I glanced at Elijah, but he seemed more interested in the maps and intel stuck to Thompson’s whiteboard.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He looked over his shoulder. “Don’t worry. Like any respectable military man would post top-secret patrol routes where anyone could see them.” He