Caged by Damnation (Caged #2)(33)

"How about Sly, Stoic, or Coil?" For some reason, names that began with the letter S were standing out in my mind, but I knew too many people with S names. Still, nothing else was coming to mind.

Ivy cocked her head to the side, looking away into a place that couldn't be seen with true eyes. "Stoic is interesting, but she doesn't look like a Stoic. Coil doesn't seem right for an animal. How about Nyx?"

Nyx had a ring to it that seemed right. "I like that." I smiled. "Hello, Nyx." I whispered against the rounded ears of my new friend and felt her petite tail twitch as she dreamt. "I love her. Thank you."

Ivy cleared her throat, her voice suddenly hoarse, and I wondered if she had grown attached to Nyx. "You still need my name. It's Poison."

I woke Nyx up with my uncontrollable fit of laughter. It was so perfect that Ivy would have a Hellhound name like Poison. Honestly, if someone had asked me to guess Ivy's true name, I probably would have said something like Venom or Poison. It was completely ironic, but fitting.

Poison Ivy's voice was dry of emotion as she murmured, "I'm glad you find my name so amusing."

"It's-just-too-perfect!" I had to pause for breath between each word, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten the sentence out. When my laughter quieted, Poison Ivy showed me out of her room, reminded me that I still needed to visit Kali, and steered me in the direction of the redhead’s domain.

Before heading to my next appointment, I brought Nyx to the atrium. She was reluctant to leave my arms, grabbing my wrist in her attempt to stay with me. Truthfully, I wanted to stay with her, but I didn't know what else the day held for me and I didn't want to bring her somewhere that might frighten her.





CHAPTER 8





Savannah's Journal


My life was a filter for disgusting filth of the worst sort. It was inevitable that each bit would be contained to my world, because apparently, I had also been born with a magnet on the other side of my filter. Horrible events were drawn to me, yet I survived them.


It would be easy to give in; to let the corruption seep through until I was an empty shell, capable of only evil. It happened to others, but I had always been too prideful to give up. It was in my nature to fight, ignore the strife, and continue plundering through until I could find a single safe haven. I was beginning to think I would never know the intimacy of safety and it terrified me.





SAVANNAH


When I woke up, the clock hanging from the wall beside the entrance of my room said it was 2 a.m. Maye was snoring, giving the occasional impression of Tourette's as her body twitched in her sleep. Slipping my feet over the side of the bed, I gently eased myself to the floor and tiptoed over to the coat rack to grab a robe to cover the hospital gown.


I couldn't bear the thought of Izzy being trapped in a room. She would have no control, she’d be at another's mercy. The situation hit too close to home, which was why I couldn't continue to sleep off my injuries as Maye had suggested. I needed to find her and make sure she was all right. They said that she had tried to keep them from me, which, in a sense, was her protecting me, right? If she were protecting me, then she must have trusted me on some level.


The hallway outside my room was unusually quiet. I was surprised that the lights were dimmed. I couldn't find a single trace of another person. My room was situated in the exact middle of the hall, intersecting the beginning of another. I chose to walk straight down the new hallway.


My head throbbed and I wondered if they had done as good of healing as I’d initially thought. A wave of dizziness shadowed my vision and I fell against the wall, barely catching myself against the cold plaster. I remained close to the wall, bracing myself until the episode passed.


The corridor was lined with the occasional door, a few open, but most were closed. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of unique quality to the building. It did not seem to live up to its name.


Then the lights began blinking out, one by one, vaguely like a scene one of a horror film. The hallway ended with a paneled mirror and the lights evaporated entirely. My heartbeat sped up, my breathing became labored. Suddenly, my head no longer throbbed, but exploded into lightning shards of pain that ceased the moment the lights brightened once more. I opened my eyes, afraid of what I would see next, but nothing happened until I looked in the mirror.


Asmodeus stood behind me, his wings spread the entire width of the hallway, his veins lying in contrast to his sallow skin. Tears of blood slid down his cheeks to pool in the corners of his mouth and drip down from his chin. His eyes were unblinking as they held mine in the mirror. I debated turning to face him. The longer I remained immobile, the more confident he seemed to become. His lips quirked at the corners and his eyes darkened.


The lights blinked out once more, erasing the blood from his face and revealing an alternate version of him, one I had never seen. He was as I pictured him before his fall from grace. His wings were less black, more ebony, with hints of a vibrant blue, the shade of a lagoon before a storm. His eyes glistened like electric currents trapped within blue sapphires. They were no longer hidden behind locks of hair, as his hair had been cropped short on the sides and back. His crown was covered in unruly waves, a soft temptation my fingers begged to touch. An inner light lent a bronze gleam to his complexion.