Beauty and the Beast (Demon Tales 1) (2 page)

The words ‘
Fuck you’
flew through her
angered mind. She bit her cheeks against the need to scream at him.
His taunting gaze told her that this was exactly what he wanted, so
she sucked in a breath and breathed through the useless emotions.
He shook her a little and laughed with his fist tight in her hair
and his filthy mouth too close to her face. Cally closed her eyes
briefly and spoke through her teeth while simultaneously riding the
rippling wave of revulsion as it licked all over her skin.

“I need to use the bathroom.” Shocked by the
venom in her tone, Cally wondered if she might have angered him.
Opening her eyes brought his nasty face into her line of sight,
confirming that she had—in fact—made him cross.

His nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed.
Cally held her breath. Forgotten were the dull aches from her
blood-starved limbs. Gone was the annoyance and rage that his
torture had brought on. Cally now just drowned in fear, a cold
heart-squeezing fear that brought tears to her eyes and abject
pleas to the forefront of her mind.

A long painful silence filled the room,
sucking out all the air and replacing it with thick unbreathable
tension. He released her hair, not before giving it a good hard
yank, and stood up muttering ‘Bloody humans’.

Cally watched him as he picked up his knife
and pocketed the leftover meat, his grubby hands stuffing the
blackened food into his dirty pockets. He tugged his trousers up,
his belly hanging over the already burdened material, making the
buttons strain. He looked out of shape, but Cally knew from
firsthand experience that he was anything but. The swift way he had
moved, the night that he had attacked and stolen her, had told her
that his weight hindered noting of the vile man’s speed. Her brain
gave a pulse in agreement as she remembered the sick crunching
noise her head had made when his bat-type weapon had thwacked her
from behind.

He bent down and took her arm, hauling her
up onto her feet. Blood instantly began to flood into her deadened
limbs, letting intense agony course through her veins. Tears burned
at her eyes as blood filled her legs, hips and feet. Feeling—where
feeling had been gone for some time—crawled over her skin like hot
spiders, burning all her nerves in their wake.

He bent down and sawed through the thin wire
on her wrists and ankles with his knife, the ties dropped to the
floor, allowing the air to sing at the open wounds. Cally whimpered
a little, regretting it as soon as she did because he gave a
chuckle.
Bastard!

Not giving her any time to steady herself
against the pain, he dragged her through the gap in the rocks and
into the corridor. A dull, milky light filled the damp area.
Shadows loomed from the darkened corners. Cally could feel her
heart thudding in her chest. Her legs wobbled as she staggered over
the moist, sloppy floor, scratching at the stone wall for purchase
whenever her legs went from under her.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” he snapped when she
fell to her knees. Cally gasped when his vice-tight hand gripped
her upper arm and yanked her unceremoniously back to her feet.

A wet coldness ran down her legs, and Cally
knew without looking that her knees had been opened on the stone
floor. Funny, she imagined that split knees would hurt more…
Thoughts of her childhood came into her mind. Sunny days and
laughter were not what her memories were made of, like any
princesses should be. No, Cally’s memories were built of cruelty
and hurt—the kind that could bring a grown woman to tears, the kind
that would make a grown woman run away, the kind of memories that
made split knees, numb limbs and torture by a gnome-like filthy
creature almost seem the better option.

Bitterness seeped into Cally’s resolve,
making her ignore her battered limbs and their brain-buzzing
attacks of pain. She was never going home, back to her mother, back
to her old life. She had to endure this, and find a way to escape
and run some more.

Oh, right. She would run again—because the
first time worked out so well for her.

Her hands went to her head, where she could
feel the slight protrusions of her mother’s dirty secret.
Determination filled her heart at the knowledge that her mother
could never touch her again. No matter how wretched her situation
was right at this very moment, at least her mother was nowhere
near.

Running was all that was left.

As they wound, through the maze of dark
corridors and ominous chasms Cally looked around with wide eyes as
they passed through a space filled with all manner of demons. More
light filled this particular area, the yellow glow giving more
illumination, allowing her to see into the dark corners. Sounds of
chatter and conversation filled her ears, making her head ache with
the sudden volume.

Aware of how she must look, Cally wondered
if anyone would take pity on her and her dishevelled appearance.
She had not seen a bath for the better part of a week, let alone
changed her clothes. She glanced down and saw her ripped jeans and
stained t-shirt, and knew that her hair must look like a
birds-nest. Surely someone would know she was in trouble and
help?

She looked around the full room and laughed
bitterly. Literally all of the demons were either naked in their
natural forms—with fur or snake skin—or dressed much like her.
Apparently, demons didn’t have much pride in appearance. Besides,
no one was paying any attention. No, a rescue was not imminent.

Her eyes settled for a moment on two large,
hairy demons who stood against the far wall. Their tall stature and
casual stance wasn’t what held her eye, it was the intense way in
which one of them was watching her, his brown-eyed stare, an
intimidating force that stole her breath. Easily over six feet, the
demon was a tall dignity in the room. He was covered in thick brown
fur that extended even into the neck-line of his shirt. His stare
was arresting and magnetic at the same time. The cold, dull
expression on his face belied the roiling emotions that Cally could
sense just from the intensity in his eyes. A strange shiver stroked
down her spine and it made her feel off-balance, as if the world
had tilted slightly, as if someone had just picked up the floor and
tipped it sideways, throwing her off-kilter.

She watched that demon for as long as she
could, eyes drawn as if by magic—until her captor dragged her
through an archway that led to another darkened room, snatching
those intriguing yet terrifying eyes from her view.

* * * *

Brigg watched Helki enter the Great Cave,
dragging a pretty but battered-looking human female in his wake. He
observed as the slight woman staggered along, pulled by the
irritated-looking vampire-pirate. Brigg had to admit he was
intrigued.

The noise in the musty room, filled with
demons from all realms, buzzed around his ears. Chatter of all
kinds roared in the cave, but Brigg couldn’t tear his eyes away
from the human female. Questions hummed in his mind. Why would she
be here? Why did Helki have his grubby mitts on her? Bringing his
thoughts back to himself, and why the fuck did he care?

He leaned against the wall, his brother Torc
to his side, and Brigg tried to ignore the cacophony of
conversation all around him. His sight trained on the petit
scruff-bag as she staggered behind Helki. A small fog of confusion
began to build in his mind, making him resist the urge just to
storm over and demand an answer from Helki as to why he held her
captive.

Brigg hated humans. Hated. Forever scarred
by the brutal race, changed for all of time by one such as she
walking with Helki, Brigg had long since learned that humans
spelled trouble. But even as he thought it, his heart gave a
breath-stopping rush of adrenaline when her gaze turned his
way.

Stunned by the cobalt blue in her eyes,
Brigg couldn’t breathe. Her face, although filthy, was a vision of
perfection. Slight features and ruby-red lips, framed by a wealth
of raven-black hair, gave her the look of innocence and sin all at
once. His cock throbbed, affected by the blue-eyed beauty.

He watched her, watching him, the urge to go
over to her stronger now that he had seen her face. She was staring
at him, as if she saw him—saw the man under the fur, which was
insane. Her lips parted on what looked like a gasp. Irritation
flashed through his mind when he realized that he wanted to hear
that gasp, to know what she sounded like. His attention narrowed to
her in such a way that Brigg felt shocked to his core.

Repulsion filled his chest for her kind,
making him stay rooted to the spot, as if teethred by an invisible
chain. The words
They did this to you
hissed through his
thoughts like an angered snake. He ground his teeth against the
painful words, biting back the certain anger that always climbed on
his back whenever he thought this way. Even so, when she
disappeared through the opening on the far side, Brigg
followed.

Pulled by an unseen force, he had to see
what Helki was doing with her. He told himself that it was merely
nosiness and boredom that made him follow—not the heart-stopping
sadness he had seen in her eyes, nor the way his own heart had
turned over at the thought of her.

No, he was Brigg—hater of the humans.

But still, even as he followed, pushing
through the eclectic crowd, Brigg had to admit that his pulse-rate
was rising at the prospect of seeing her closer.

The darkness of the new tunnel was a shock
to Cally’s eyes. Blinking fast brought no relief against the wall
of black. The last time her captive had taken her to the toilet
room with the deep holes in the floor, she had still been too
concussed from his bat to really take it in.

Feeling oddly affected by the hairy Demon
and his stare, Cally followed her captor for a few minutes without
really paying attention to the route. Light began to pour into the
tunnel, fed from a bright source up ahead. She recognized the room
in front as the very same ‘toilet’ he had brought her to
before.

With a nasty shove, her captor propelled her
into the noxious room. Pits scattered all over the floor made the
surface look like a black holey cheese. Slime and god-knows-what
else made the floor alternately slippery and sticky. She held her
breath against the odour and looked for a quiet corner to do her
business. He followed her closely, his leering stare never far from
her. Irritated by his presence, Cally reeled around and glared.

“Some privacy, please,” she hissed, the
sound echoing around the craggy room.

He laughed, throwing his head back. “Privacy
ain’t yours to have, darlin’.” Brown teeth flashed in Cally’s
vision, and her fist itched to knock those foul tushes from his
repugnant mouth, but that would involve actually touching him.

“Well, then I will wait all day.” Folding
her arms, Cally did her best to look and sound fearless—even though
she couldn’t ignore the fact that her voice shook and broke on the
last word. The demon shrugged and took her arm again, he dragged
her towards the door. Cally dug her heels into the ground and
shouted “Hey!”

He spun around and placed his face so close
to hers that Cally could feel the end of his nose touching hers.
His breath, a vile, thick mist of putrid stench, stank so badly
that it overrode even the funk that filled the toilet room.

“Listen to me, Princess,” he growled, “I
ain’t a nice man. I don’t like looking after people—especially
fucking humans.” His grip grew tighter, threatening to snap her
bone. Cally held her breath against the vomit-inspiring smell and
tried really hard not to cry. “So you won’t mess me around. Right?”
He shook her so hard that her head snapped back, pain blasted
through her arm where his grip increased. His body was so close,
that Cally could feel his every shape. Something hard pressed into
her soft abdomen and she instantly knew that it was his knife.
Halleluiah!

Slowly, so as not to let him know what she
was doing, Cally lifted her hand up to where she felt the hilt
pressed into her. He continued to growl nasty words into her face,
she no longer heard them. Her concentration was solely on getting
the knife. Her fingers found what they were searching for, and
slowly, she pulled it free from his trousers.

“Helki. So nice to see you.” A loud, cocky
voice boomed into the craggy cave. Helki turned his head and looked
behind Cally, without releasing her arm. Panic throbbed through her
when she realized that the knife could be seen. Hastily she tucked
the knife into her palm and hid it from view.

In the doorway stood the very same demon
that she had stared at in the large cave. His massive build blocked
the entrance, making the smaller room feel even smaller. Breath
slammed out of her chest when his arresting eyes fell upon her.
Heat climbed up her neck and Cally found herself backing up,
regardless of her captors grip on her arm.

“Brigg.” The vile man holding Cally let go
of her and turned fully to face the demon. Cally took the chance to
sink back further, her grip tightening on the hilt.

Shrewd, dark eyes watched her for a moment,
before they turned to her captor. Cally was stuck, this was not
good. She had stolen a knife with intent to use it against one
demon. Now that there were two, she wasn’t sure that she had the
guts—nor the power—to get both of them. But in another instant
Cally understood that her captor and the hairy demon were not
friends. An aggressive force filled the air, making Cally wonder
what was about to happen.

“What are you up to, Helki?” The hairy demon
asked. The name ‘Helki’ sat heavy on her thoughts as Cally
processed for the first time what the vile man was named. She also
understood that the hairy demon had spoken Helki’s name with
definite venom in his tone.