Grand Master (Demons, #3)

by Simcoe, Marina

  “Go!” I ordered, desperate to release him from this torture. “Leave here.”

  Anguish distorted the flames of his features. “No.”

  Yet the circle that held him in place seemed to have disappeared, following my command.

  Uncontained, the flames of his mane unfurled, spreading to the walls. One tendril speared through the chest of a monk, breaking the circle as his body fell to the ground.

  Keller continued with his chants, though, maintaining the invisible barrier above the two of us and keeping Vadim away from me.

  My demon couldn’t save me, but I still had the power to set him free.

  “Go,” I whispered, watching Vadim’s face rise and thin into the gloomy darkness of the dungeon, the relief for him spreading through my limbs.

  “Stupid bitch!” The insult came with a sudden blow to the side of my face, filling my head with ringing pain. “That was a fucking stupid thing to do. Even for you.”

  Keller’s face, red and distorted with rage, hovered over me. His chilly composure had deserted him completely.

  “Do you think you’re in any way safe?” Another blow knocked my head to the side, completely disorienting me for a moment.

  “You think I need you, so I’ll think twice before killing you?” He raged on. “Just because you’ve been fucked by a Grand Master doesn’t make you indispensable. There are hundreds of fucking demons, growing complacent about keeping their names a secret. Sooner or later, I’ll find someone else.”

  Lost in rage, he didn’t seem to be that selective where he hit, his fists raining punches to my arms, chest, and ribs.

  I twisted away as far as the restraints would allow, trying to hide my face behind my shoulder.

  The monks had tightened their circle, gathering around us to watch in silence.

  “I swear I’ll kill you.” Keller grabbed a handful of my hair, yanking my head up. “But you don’t deserve a quick, clean death.”

  Panting, he rose to his feet. “Get her to the cabin. We’ll do it one more time when ata recovers.” He gestured at the elderly conjurer, who sat on the ground nearby. “No matter how it goes, she is all yours at the Gathering tomorrow night.”

  In an apparent attempt to collect himself, he smoothed his hair and straightened his robe.

  “See how being fucked by a demon compares to being raped by two dozen demon worshippers.” He shoved his boot in my ribs again, sharp pain shot through my side. “Who knows, you may like it. The whore that you are.”

  Chapter 36

  LISTENING TO THE WIND whistling through the holes in the walls of the hut, I huddled under a bunch of old blankets on the cot. A heater, powered by a generator outside, hummed softly in the corner. With the temperatures dipping for the night, Keller obviously intended for me to survive until the morning.

  Tomorrow was another story, though.

  One more summoning ritual was all that stood between me and certain death now.

  Worse than death.

  I remembered Keller’s threat about the Gathering. Despite the layers of clothing and blankets, I still felt the leering stares of the monks on my skin. Hugging my knees, I curled into a ball from cold and from the fear of what was to come.

  I had the power to release Vadim from a summoning. The trouble was that Keller remained immune under the protection of his own chants. Even if I ordered Vadim to raze that place to the ground, I doubted Keller would lose his composure long enough to let the barrier lapse. With his knife at my chest, I’d be as good as dead then.

  I shuddered under the heavy blankets, the meagre dinner of bread and water they’d given me roiled in my stomach.

  Recalling Vadim’s demonic essence, I thought about all that power rolling and churning under the dome, like a thunderstorm ready to erupt.

  ‘God won’t help him, but you can.’

  The power of my demon was at my disposal.

  I just had to find a way to use it against Keller somehow. And then maybe we both had a chance.

  “ONE MORE TIME, DEMON whore,” Brother Grigoriy hissed in my ear, dragging me down the stairs to the ceremony room late the next morning. “Father will not give you another chance.”

  “What’s in it for you?” I had no idea how all this little clan of crazies fitted with Keller’s plan of getting the Incubi back into submission.

  “Valefor, The Devil’s Soldier, will take us all into the Devil’s Army,” Brother Grigoriy haughtily explained. “We’ll be the chosen ones, ruling the world with the Devil himself when he comes.”

  “Alrighty then.”

  Crazies, indeed.

  A sharp female scream pierced the air, sending a shot of reactive panic through my chest.

  “Wait!” I heard Keller’s voice as we descended. “I want her to see this.”

  There were at least twice as many people here today—the monks stood by the walls, outside the circle formed by young women.

  Unlike the men, the women were hunched and cowering, shaking in their robes. Some cried softly, others stared blankly, with muddy tear-tracks on their cheeks.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, confused and worried by the change, but no one answered me.

  The conjurer started chanting as we entered.

  Keller stood inside the circle, next to the pentagram. In front of him, two monks held a naked female under her arms.

  Catching my eye, he raised his dagger over the naked girl.

  She screamed again and jerked to the side in a desperate attempt to escape, but the monks held her steady. Her screams turned to whimpers.

  “Stop this!” I lunged towards her, but the ones holding me tightened their grip, keeping me in place.

  The girl prayed rapidly in Russian as Keller suddenly thrust his dagger into her throat, slicing it open. Blood sprayed in an arc. The prayer bubbled in crimson foam from her lips. The monks took their hands off her, letting her drop to the floor.

  “No!” I screamed in horror. “You can’t . . .”

  “I can,” Keller bit out sharply. “I did. And I’ll do it again. As many times as necessary to get what I want. Think about this before you make another stupid decision. The price of your idiocy is human lives.”

  Unable to peel my gaze away from the girl’s body, I slumped in the monks’ hold, as if my own life was already seeping out of me, too.

  One of Keller’s minions moved hurriedly into the circle with a wide brush in his hand. Chanting something under his breath, he dipped the brush into the pooling blood under the poor woman’s body then spread a fresh layer over the lines of the pentagram.

  “Demons love human blood,” Keller murmured with satisfaction, stepping aside as two monks carried away the dead body.

  ‘Demons want none of this,’ rushed through my brain, my knees weak from the horror of it all.

  “Get her over here,” Keller commanded, and I was dragged to the centre of the pentagram, as my feet refused to move.

  “We’re all leaving here shortly. Changing locations,” Keller said, ripping my robe open. “If you don’t fulfil your purpose today, you won’t be coming with us.” The monks let go of my arms, and Keller shoved against my shoulders, pushing me to my knees. “If my men don’t end you during the Gathering tonight, I will.” He yanked the robe off me and tossed it aside. “Either way, you won’t get to see the morning, unless you do what I brought you here to do.” He kicked me in the side, knocking me to the ground, then stepped off the pentagram, folding his arms across his chest.

  A group of monks quickly spread me on the floor again, in the cooling blood of the murdered woman, and locked me in chains.

  My whole body shook, teeth chattering, from shock as much as from the cold.

  Keller knelt at my side again, the dagger in his hand.

  “Name me his master,” he ordered, steel in his voice and in his eyes on me. Then I felt the chilly prick of the blade against my chest again.

  The conjuror’s chanting grew louder. The light from the torches blurred and
thickened into a blood-coloured fog.

  My head swam, my vision went fuzzy, and my heart raced, pounding as if it was about to jump out of my chest.

  The thought of my passing out from stress ironically jolted me to my senses. I could not afford to lose consciousness right now.

  Breathing in and out against the dagger pressing into my sternum, I forced myself to focus, shoving aside the stench of warm blood and the horrific images of the murder in my mind.

  The circle was formed by women this time. Some were sobbing and whimpering, but all held hands firmly. Behind each female a monk stood, pressing a knife to her neck. After what we had all just witnessed, I was certain the girls were holding each other’s hands tight, terrified of having their throats slit, too.

  If I ordered Vadim to break the circle this time, he would have to kill a woman. My chest tightened in horror. For my demon to be free, an innocent would have to lose her life.

  Starting his own string of chants, Keller’s voice brought my attention to him.

  I swallowed hard and cleared my throat, gathering whatever was left of my strength. “All this . . .” I said, adding a hefty dose of sarcasm to my words, “for some cushy lifestyle for you.”

  He glared my way, but kept his composure, the chants flowing smoothly.

  The fiery entity already formed above us, roars crashing into the walls, as Vadim’s essence lashed at the two barriers, one formed by the circle of whimpering, terrified women, the other conjured by the man with the dagger at my chest.

  I remembered the way the lion creature lunged our way the moment Vadim sensed the break in the chants yesterday. Keller’s muttering of Latin words was what maintained the shield over us, protecting him from Vadim’s wrath. The care he took to keep the dagger in contact with my body at all times, hinted to me that this must be an essential part of the ritual, too.

  From the corner of my eye, I noticed the lion’s fiery eyes emerge from the blood-red cloud, flaming tendrils morphing into a face.

  “Look at all the work you’ve done,” I mocked my tormentor through my chattering teeth. “You have your own little cult going here and are about to get your very own demon, too. And all for what?”

  “Silence,” Keller bit out between the chants, digging the tip of the blade into my skin.

  “You went not only against the Incubi,” I continued, ignoring his order, “but against humanity as a whole, and you know it. You betrayed your own organization, and for what? For money. You have the morals of a common thief.”

  The demonic fire brightened from above, washing us with light and heat, but I was no longer watching the marvellous transformation.

  My eyes on Keller, I continued to taunt him. “You’re far from a spring chicken, you know. In a few years you’ll die, alone and forgotten. Your money useless, just like you are.”

  His eyelid ticked, still he didn’t break stride with the chants. However, I knew his composure was but a thin veneer. I learned the full extend of his volatile temper and lack of self-control yesterday when he beat me, as I lay there defenceless and unable to escape.

  “You’re worse than a parasite, deprived of morality and compassion.” I called on all the anger I felt for him and turned it into words, as sharp as his dagger. “You’re a coward, terrified of anyone stronger than you are. Sure it’s easy to terrorize defenceless women, but would you take on a man? How about a demon? You’ll never have the guts to kill me, because you’re afraid of him. Scared shitless, you’re a pathetic old man with a shrivelled dick and no heart.”

  I kept my gaze on Keller’s face, watching every small twitch in his expression. At the same time I sensed Vadim thrashing inside the restraints of the chants, ready to be unleashed.

  “Name me his master,” Keller gritted through his teeth, his face turning an angry shade of red. “Or I swear . . .” The tip of the dagger pierced through my skin, scraping against the chest bone with an agonizing shot of pain that only fuelled my anger.

  “I won’t,” I spat the words at him. “And you can’t force me—I’m stronger than you.”

  At that moment, I fully believed in that. Power coursed through me, uniting me with Vadim, feeding me his strength.

  “I am my demon’s Mistress. He is mine.” Holding Keller’s gaze, I put the full force of my conviction into my every word. “You’ll never have him. I won’t let you.”

  The remnants of his composure blown away like a sandcastle in hurricane, Keller’s whole body jerked, shaking with rage. The chants stopped abruptly.

  “I’ll end you, you bitch!” he yelled instead.

  I didn’t watch him raise the dagger, ready to stab me. As soon as I felt it lift off my chest, I slid my gaze above Keller’s shoulder, finding the burning eyes of the lion in the clouds of flames.

  “Kill him,” I ordered.

  An avalanche of fire and fury descended on Keller, the second the barrier over us must have collapsed.

  I closed my eyes, turning my face away from the shower of hot ash that rained on my skin. But there was no escaping Keller’s blood-curdling screams as my demon ripped him to shreds.

  The conjurer’s voice trembled with panic as he threw chants at the beast raging inside the circle. The walls shook from demonic roars.

  I opened my eyes again.

  The women screamed, shrinking away from the raging fire, breaking the ring of handholding in several places—the monks, too terrified themselves to do anything about the breach, retreated back, some started running for the stairs.

  “Kill them all,” I said to Vadim softly, all emotions drained from me. “Spare the women.”

  The lion leaped out of the rapidly deteriorating circle, attacking the men at the women’s backs. With claws and teeth of fire, he ripped the monks to pieces of charred flesh.

  In moments, the room filled with the stench of burned bodies and screams of utter terror from the crying women as they rushed the stairs to escape this nightmare.

  His back plastered to the wall, the conjurer kept chanting mechanically, an expression of pure horror frozen on his face.

  My glorious lion swept the room with his fiery gaze.

  The floor was littered with the smouldering remnants of the monks. All the women had run up the stairs, leaving no one but me, him, and the conjurer in this underground hell.

  Slowly, the lion approached the old man, and I realised why he had been spared until the end. The chants that he continued to spew in a desperate effort to protect himself were also what kept Vadim here, with me.

  The lion turned to me over his shoulder, the fire in his eyes wavered with an expression of sorrow.

  “Mistress . . .” the word formed in the rumbling noise vibrating through the room as he raised his paw to finish fulfilling my order. The long flames of his claws slashed clean through the bone and sinew of the human, severing the conjurer’s head off his shoulders.

  The chants stopped and the lion leaped through the air to me, but his shape dissolved, never reaching me on the floor. He was gone.

  The silence that followed was deafening, as I realised I was completely alone, with only the charred, torn corpses.

  I’d done this. Vadim might have been my weapon, but I was the one responsible for this massacre.

  My whole body shook, even my brain seemed to be vibrating with shock and adrenaline. I yanked against the restraints, the full horror of my situation filtering through to me.

  I was left naked and chained to the floor. “Hey!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping to attract the attention of anyone who might be outside. “Is anyone out there?”

  The dome teased me with the sight of the pale sky through the breach. But since it was way too high for the daylight to reach me down here, I doubted my voice would make it up that far either.

  “Help me, please!” I yelled as loud as I could, the chilly numbness of fear seeping through to my bones.

  The howl of the wind through the broken roof was my only answer.

  Chapter 37
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  SPREAD ON THE FLOOR, in the puddle of drying blood that crusted under my back and in my hair, I watched the uneven patch of sky above me darken as the hours passed.

  The heat from Vadim’s fiery rampage had eventually cooled from the stone floor and walls of the room, letting the cold of the approaching night seep into my naked body.

  With a hissing sound, the flames of the torches started going out one by one. And soon I was left surrounded by chilling darkness.

  I’d screamed for help for hours, until my throat hurt and my voice left me.

  Now the last vestiges of energy were leaving me, too. The cold around me had been stealing whatever body heat I still had, the stone of the floor aiding in this torture.

  I shivered, clinking the rusty chains, as scary thoughts churned in my brain.

  Immobilized by the restraints, I couldn’t even curl into a ball. It would be just a matter of time until the night chill fully descended through the breach in the ceiling. With the cold stone floor under my back, it wouldn’t take long for hypothermia to set in and eventually claim me.

  Even with the heater in my hut last night, I could tell the temperatures in this area had dipped close to zero. It seemed that Keller might be right after all—no matter what, I wouldn’t live long enough to see the next morning.

  Spurred by incessant, panicky fear, I rotated my wrist in the handcuffs for the millionth time in the past few hours. The skin had been rubbed raw by now, with no effect on the cold metal whatsoever.

  The women present at the ritual were the only ones who knew of my whereabouts. They appeared to be long gone, fleeing from this place as if the Devil himself had chased after them.

  Deep inside I understood. I couldn’t really blame them for running away, after whatever horrors they might have endured at the hands of Keller’s perverted monks and after what they’d witnessed in this room. On the surface, though, I couldn’t help feeling anger at them burn through me for leaving me here to die.