“What are those leeches doing to him? Specifically?”

“They—” it sputtered.

“Their damage is not lasting,” Lily finished as she grabbed my slug-toting pal and knocking it out in one punch.

She hit it below the belly button. I had to remember that.

The demon went down hard. She picked it up by the neck and walked it to the door, tossing it out and slamming the door behind it. She turned back to address me. “The leeches dampen your brother’s strength or he would be fighting. They have had to keep him very well contained because he is so strong. He will recover as soon as they are all removed.” She stopped and punched something into a code box on the wall. “They will be here with reinforcements very soon. These demons here are like doctors in your world. But the guards will have been alerted now to your location. This was not the best plan, you realize. Now we have no choice but to fight our way out.”

I ignored her and bent down in front of my bleeding brother. I grabbed one of the slugs stuck to his neck and pulled. “Tyler, can you hear me? I’m getting these off of you.” It finally came off, but I had to yank hard.

There was a loud sucking noise, followed by a current of blood. These things had either thinned his blood or inhibited his healing, or both. He should’ve been able to regenerate from the bite instantly, but it wasn’t closing yet.

Tyler grunted and smiled. “Jess, it’s so good to see you.” He reached out and touched my hand, which was positioned right next to his shackled wrist. He was weak, but once he brushed me, our connection sprang to life. Almost like someone had flipped an on switch. It was such a relief to feel him again. “You finally got here. I was beginning to think you weren’t gonna make it.” He closed his eyes.

“What do you mean finally?” I asked him after I’d removed a few more of the disgusting leeches. “It’s only been a few days.”

He shook his head as I reached for another one that was stuck under his shirt collar, and for the first time I noticed he was dressed in a jumpsuit like all the demons.

“No.” His breath hitched as I tugged it off. “It’s been over two months.”

“What?” I leaned back so I could meet his gaze. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I knew time worked differently here, but that was unsettling. If I’d waited another week would he have been gone almost a year? It was unthinkable.

“I’m not. It’s been a long-ass time,” he replied, trying to smile. “There’s a few more of those goddamn things under my shirt. They make me feel weird and they hurt like—ow.”

I took the wiggling thing in my fingers and dropped it into a jar Lily had just produced. The jar held the ones I’d gathered up and discarded on the cart next to my brother as well. As soon as I’d dropped it in, she screwed the lid on. “What?” My gaze was questioning. “Is it going to jump back out at us?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “In fact it will.”

My eyes widened. They were so sluglike, slow and lethargic in their movements. They didn’t look like they could morph into attack bugs.

“They’re drunk on his supernatural blood.” She nodded toward my brother. “But when it wears off, they will want more. These things”—she rattled the jar and they flopped around—“can jump ten feet, and they have fangs, which is mostly what caused your brother’s discomfort. They sucks power from a supernatural like a vampire bat feeds on blood.”

“Christ,” I muttered as I reached down the front of Tyler’s jumpsuit to get the last embedded bloodsucker.

“Who’s the blonde, mildly scary female?” my brother asked, nodding in Lily’s direction. “I haven’t seen any women so far. I was beginning to think they didn’t exist down here.”

Before I could answer him, the ground shook and there were several screams of terror on the other side of the door. Then a familiar voice echoed in my ears like a slimy oil slick.

“What is the matter with all of you fools?” it boomed. “You let them escape… twice. I will see your deaths for this. Now get them out of that room!”

The Prince of Hell had arrived.

And he was pissed.

“Tyler, meet Lily,” I said. “She’s the Prince of Hell’s concubine… and possibly our only ticket out of this crappy inferno.”

10

“How do we get my brother out of these cuffs?” I asked Lily. “And how are we going to get by the Prince of Hell when he’s right outside the door?”

Lily hit a button on the wall and Tyler’s restraints popped open. “It will be difficult to get by him, but not impossible.”

Once Tyler was loose, he staggered to stand. He was a big wolf, blond and brawny, with broad shoulders and sky-blue eyes—the only trait we share. I was happy to see his were clearing and his strength was returning.

I placed my hands around his waist to steady him. “Give it a minute,” I urged. “The demoness said those vampire slugs sucked your power dry. It’s going to take a second to regenerate. How long were they on you?”

He ran a hand over his face.

I let him go and tossed him a rag off a nearby cart so he could mop the blood off his facet. “They put the ones on my chest a while ago, but they added more today,” he answered. “I honestly didn’t think you were going to show. It was hard not to lose hope. Every single day here is like a day void of any joy. This place is fucking miserable.”

“Me showing up was never in question. I’d been training for about five days, trying to get ready for what to expect down here, but I ended up triggering the circle too soon. But there really isn’t a way to prepare for this and it’s lucky I came when I did,” I said. “Did they do anything else to you?”

“No, not much,” he answered, “which surprised me. But these guys are total pussies. They can’t fight worth a damn and every time I growled or flashed my teeth, they scurried out of the room. But they did take blood, hair, and tissue samples ad nauseam, however. I’ve been picked over like a lab rat.”

“The reason they feared you is because those who were tending you were only one step away from imp,” Lily said, somewhat impatiently. “True demons do not work, nor do they do menial labor. Powerful demons live on a different level of this city and rarely venture here. This place is like… what do you call it?” She snapped her fingers. “Ah, yes… a labor camp of sorts.”