by G. K. DeRosa
Darkblood Prison: Demon On A Dime
GK DeRosa
Copyright © 2020 Mystic Rose Press
All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, Mystic Rose Press.
Print ISBN: 9798672479477
Cover Designer: Sanja Gombar www.fantasybookcoverdesign.com
Published in 2020 by Mystic Rose Press
Palm Beach, Florida
www.gkderosa.com
Created with Vellum
To all my readers on this, my twenty-fifth book!
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Sneak Peek of Darkblood Prison: Demon Double-Agent
Also by GK DeRosa
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter One
Darkness coiled around my insides, weaving its way through each murky nook until it consumed every inch of me. The inky haze muddled my thoughts as I tried to search my mind for what happened in the past few hours. Nothing but a thick layer of sludge blanketed my memories.
I whipped my head from side to side, wild dark hair lashing across my face as I attempted to chase the cobwebs out. I lifted my hand to rub my eyes, and my wrists stung as metal cuffs dug into my flesh and sharpened my dull thoughts. Oh, right. I side-eyed the bulky uniformed guard to my right and his twin to my left. I stopped trying to get information out of them once we landed in Draeko, dragon territory. They were either mute or really good at ignoring me.
I glanced up at the ominous obsidian fortress perched atop the steep snow-covered crag, and a chill skirted up my spine. I was fairly certain it wasn’t from the frigid temps either. How the hell did I end up here?
My arms ached from being dragged by my dragon escorts up the endless rocky steps carved into the side of the mountain. I kicked and screamed but my captors’ hold only tightened the more I struggled. Their partially shifted talons dug into my skin the more I squirmed. Son of a witch!
These were definitely not run-of-the-mill human handcuffs. I could feel their magic leeching the power right out of me. No super strength or speed remained. On the bright side, I had zero urge to suck out their supernatural souls so that was a plus. Or maybe not, in this case.
I glanced over my shoulder at the thousands of steps below us and the sleek obsidian plates that lined the face of the mountain. There was no climbing those bad boys. The stone staircase was the only way off this towering peak. Why didn’t these bastards fly me up the whole way? Was this just the first form of torture I’d encounter?
We finally reached the top step, and I sucked in a sharp breath. My heart slammed against my ribs as I attempted to force oxygen into my lungs at this ridiculously high altitude.
“No dawdling. Keep moving, girl,” the meathead to my left muttered.
“Ah, he speaks!”
His reptilian eyes seared me with a narrowed glare before he jerked me forward. My eyes landed on the wrought iron gate and the chilling letters stamped across the top—Darkblood Prison.
I balked and staggered back, but two pairs of muscled arms stopped my backward trajectory. “Wait!” I squealed. “This has to be a mistake.”
Darkblood Prison was notorious in both the supernatural and human worlds. Only the worst and most powerful supe baddies ended up here. I may not have remembered what I’d done, but there was no way I deserved this. Right?
A pit the size of a boulder sank to the bottom of my stomach, and the darkness I’d felt earlier gripped my insides, long fingers curling around my heart and lungs, squeezing. What happened on my little jaunt into the Fae realm?
“There’s no mistake, demon.”
Panic surged through my veins, and my mind flickered back to my sixteenth birthday when my demon powers first emerged. Oh gods, no. Not again. It couldn’t be. “Come on, just tell me what I did. Please.”
The big guard grunted as he jabbed his finger at a biometric scanner at the gate. “Memory loss,” he snarled, “that’s not going to save your soul-sucking hide.” A robotic voice spat out the man’s name and approval code, but my brain was too jumbled to pick out the details. He and the other dragon hauled me through the entrance gate without further explanation as my brain repeated his words on a never-ending loop. Soul-sucking. Soul-sucking.
Shitzu.
We reached a massive metal door, and the guard pressed his thumb to the scanner once more. With a sharp keening sound, it grinded open, both sides of steel sliding into the rock wall. A wave of musty air rolled over me and tickled my nose. I reached for my face and cursed the cuffs once again when they dug into my flesh.
Guard number one jerked me forward, and the suffocating earthy smell closed in around us. They tugged me down the narrow tunnel, the flickering flames from the torches dancing across the obsidian rock walls.
My feet dragged over the dirt floor, each step harder than the last. My muscles felt like jelly after the never-ending climb and now this. A warm, comfy cell was starting to look pretty good right now. At least I could sleep.
A radio crackled and guard number two tapped the transponder hidden behind his shaggy hair. “Skarson here, go ahead.” The man’s sharp features twisted into a frown as whoever was on the other line spoke into his ear.
“What happened?” the other guard asked once his buddy terminated the communication.
Skarson speared me with a piercing glare, and ice froze my veins. “Vander’s dead.”
The other dragon muttered a curse, and his claws dug into my skin.
“Ow!” I squeaked. “Watch it.”
He spun me out of his partner’s grasp, and the hard rock wall slammed into my back. I sucked in a breath when all the air forced out of my lungs on impact. The massive dragon loomed over me as his lip curled into a snarl. “You just killed one of our own, little girl. You’re the one that needs to watch it.”
My throat tightened, a massive knot of emotion clogging my airway. “I couldn’t have,” I choked out.
“You killed an entire—”
“Marauder, enough!” Skarson’s hand wrapped around his partner’s arm, cutting the dragon off as he dragged him away. He whispered something to his buddy I couldn’t make out as I leaned against the cold wall and tried to slow the erratic thunder of my heart.
An icy sneer curled Marauder’s lips as he turned away from his friend and jerked me off the wall. “Let’s go, fresh meat. Your VIP cell awaits.”
We resumed the trudge down the narrow corridor as fear compounded in my belly. I was sure this was a mistake. Maybe I’d gotten drunk off the faery wine and made a sc
ene or pissed off the wrong noble Fae… but this?
This was all Ryx’s fault. If my ex-boyfriend-slash-sometimes-current-hookup hadn’t shown up at my house and ticked me off, I never would’ve gone off on a bender.
Had I really killed someone?
In my eighteen years, I’d only gotten close once. When my powers spontaneously emerged at sixteen, and I nearly sucked out the soul of Becky Freeman, Westman High’s queen B. I’d blacked out a second after and had no real memories of the entire horrifying event. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for the rest of my Calculus class. It was times like those when having a super powerful supe as a mom came in handy. Sometimes I wished I’d been born a witch like her, instead of inheriting my dad’s demon side. She and Dad did some damage control at my school, and no one was the wiser. It was shortly after that episode that I was shipped off to live with my grandma Emi in the Nether Lands—not the country, the realm just above the Underworld. I guess I was lucky I didn’t get sent off to live with my grandfather, Lucifer, in the actual Underworld. Not that I’d spent much time with the Prince of Hell, but he was my dad’s father.
By the time we reached the spiral stone staircase, I’d shuffled through at least a dozen worst case scenarios. Guilt ate at my insides. Was I actually capable of murder? If I’d really killed that guy like the guard said, I was totally screwed. My parents would never let me go back to the human world. Ever. Everything I’d worked so hard for over the past two years had been for nothing if I’d lost control in one night out.
Emi would be so disappointed, and my parents would murder me.
After climbing up two more levels, we reached another metal door and the guard, Skarson, repeated the entrance procedure. When the door slid open, the narrow passage gave way to a larger hallway, complete with modern neon lighting as opposed to the archaic torches from below.
Two more guards appeared, one holding an armful of manacles, iron chains trailing down to the floor. No. No. No! Panic surged through my insides, and I bucked and kicked as the guards tried to restrain me. “Please, no! I didn’t do this, I swear!”
The four dragons surrounded me, my screams and protests falling on deaf ears. As they dragged me further down the corridor, a shadow caught my attention from the corner of my eye. A man was running toward me, and I could have sworn he called out my name.
Before I could turn my head or respond, a sharp prick dug into my neck and darkness invaded my vision. I fought for another second or two before my mind drifted away to peaceful oblivion.
Chapter Two
Two Days Ago
“Again, Azara!” Mezlor’s voice cut through the haze, and I pushed myself off the ground. I ran at him this time and semi-surprised him with my signature roundhouse and one-two punch. “Better,” the demon growled as he ducked to avoid my blows.
My arms felt like spaghetti after two hours of training with the vazar demon. He recently added hand-to-hand combat to our training routine. Apparently, yoga wasn’t enough to quell my burgeoning soul-sucking urges.
“Hey, sweet girl,” my grandma, gods forbid she ever heard me call her that, Emi’s, saccharine tone dispelled the annoyance brewing in my gut. She sauntered down the porch steps carrying a tray showcasing a pitcher of her famous iced tea. Mezlor lowered his fighting stance and rushed over to grab the tray from her hands.
His attentiveness to Emi only solidified my notion that he had a thing for her. Too bad my g-ma never really got over gramps, the devil himself. Luci, as she called him, was the one who sent my new trainer from the Underworld. Like me and Emi, Mezlor was a demon with a propensity for soul-sucking and had managed to get his worst urges under control.
Mine had only been ramping up since I turned sixteen. After a frighteningly close call at my human high school two years ago, I’d been sent here to the Nether Lands to live with Emi and figure out how to control my powers.
“How’s it going, sugar?” she asked as I trudged over to the patio table. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of her sweet southern drawl. Unlike my dad and I, Emi had been born human and turned into a demon after she met Lucifer.
“It’s going…” I grumbled. Spending all day training with a cranky vazar demon wasn’t exactly how I’d planned on occupying my free time during summer vacation. But after two years of homeschooling, I couldn’t wait to attend a real university. Where, was yet to be determined—hence the grueling training. I wanted to return to the human world, but my parents wanted me to attend Darkhen Academy in Azar. It was where my mom had gone and where she met Dad. Growing up, it was all I heard about. My parents were still so in love it was kind of nauseating.
If I proved capable of controlling my powers, Dad said I could return to upstate New York where I was born. If not, I’d be lucky if I ended up at Darkhen. Because if I was anything like him, it wasn’t only human souls that were at risk from my voracious appetite.
“She’s improving,” Mezlor growled. He tossed back the tumbler of iced tea, the pointy green tusks protruding from his jaw tinkling against the glass.
“Of course, she is.” Emi squeezed my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile. “We all have trouble at first, but in time, we learn to manage even our darkest urges.” Her perfectly manicured nails danced over the lavender demon mark on my upper arm. I’d been born with it, just like my dad.
I hoped she was right. Sometimes it felt like the pit of darkness in my gut would swallow me whole. And other days, I felt almost human.
“Why don’t you do something fun tonight?”
I skewered her with an unspoken seriously? In my two years living here, I hadn’t made a single friend. Being homeschooled, living with your g-ma and having only half demon blood didn’t exactly make me popular in the neighborhood. Besides that, my presence here was supposed to be kept on the down low. According to my parents, being Lucifer’s granddaughter was kind of a big deal so I’d been living with Emi under the pretense of being her long lost cousin. It wasn’t too much of a stretch since my g-ma didn’t look a day over forty.
I ticked my head at my grumpy trainer. “With who? Mezlor?”
The demon grunted and scratched at his dark olive, rubbery skin.
She shook her head. “How about Mara’s son? He must be home from school by now.”
My ex-boyfriend, Ryx. Boyfriend might have been too generous of a term. His mom was Emi’s neighbor, and we’d hooked up a few times when he came home from NU, Nether Lands University. He wasn’t bad for a demon, but there wasn’t much between us besides extreme boredom and a modicum of attraction.
I didn’t exactly have a lot of experience with guys, but the two that I’d chosen hadn’t been the most quality specimens, human and demon alike.
“Yeah, maybe,” I finally muttered.
“Come on, Azara. You turned eighteen months ago, and you haven’t even gone out to celebrate.” My Emi really was the best g-ma out there. Eighteen was the legal drinking age in Azar, not that anyone really bothered checking anyway. Age was one of those more fluid constructs among the supernaturals.
“I could give Mara a call…” she continued.
“No!” I snapped more harshly than intended. Ryx and I hadn’t parted on good terms last he was here. He was trying to convince me to enroll in NU, and I basically told him I’d rather spend the rest of my days in the ashy pits of the Underworld. He hadn’t taken it well. “I’ll shoot him a message.” I motioned to my watch and pretended to dictate to the sleek device.
Emi tossed me a pleased smile. “Good. It’s about time you had some fun, Azara. This is your last summer of freedom. Wherever you end up, everything is going to change once you’re an adult.
She couldn’t have been more right.
“Come on, Murphy, just go already.” I tugged on the leash and the three-heads of the demon hound stared up at me. Head number one cocked to the side while the other two stuck out their black tongues at me.
Darkness settled over the quiet street, the stark gray buildings looming over Emi’s
cute little house. Being Lucifer’s ex-love did come with some perks. We had the nicest home in the neighborhood. Not that the small cottage would’ve been considered anything to look at it in the human world, but in the bleak Nether Lands it could’ve been a palace.
I walked Murphy further up the block as he sniffed at the dirt sidewalk. “Any day now, buddy.” A loud ding pulled my attention from Emi’s infuriating pet to my watch.
Ryx: Home for the weekend. You up for an outing? ;)
Craptabulous. Emi had totally gone behind my back and talked to her friend. Maybe I should just ignore him. I dismissed the message and shoved my hand in my pocket to continue my slow walk down the street.
Cursing the stupid canine, I turned the corner and barreled into a hard body. Shitzu! I jumped back as the familiar overbearing scent of citrus filled my nostrils. Ryx loomed over me, a few stray tendrils of auburn hair tumbling over his eyes.
“Well, isn’t this your lucky day? I was just on my way to see you.”
All three of Murphy’s heads growled, and I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep the laugh from slipping out. The crazy mutt never did like Ryx. “Lucky me,” I mumbled.
“Did you get my message?”
“Nope.”
He glanced at my watch which was all lit up with a missed notification symbol and frowned. Stupid traitorous watch. “Anyway, wanna do something tonight? There’s a new club downtown we could go check out.”
