Taming Demons for Beginners (The Guild Codex: Demonized #1)(67)

Suddenly desperate to leave, I stammered, “I got my demon from a summoner. I don’t know anything about him or where he learned his demon names.”

“Who is he?” the GM asked again, leaning forward. “Tell me now, Page, and I can protect you.”

Protect me from what? Eyes wide, I shook my head mutely.

“I’m offering to help you, Page.”

“I don’t—”

An electronic chime sent my hand flying to my hip, but the sound had come from his cell. As he checked the message, I slipped my phone out of my pocket. Amalia hadn’t responded to my plea for contact.

“It’s a shame you won’t be more forthcoming, Page,” the GM grunted as he sat back. He tapped his phone on his desk. “You have to understand that building a powerful guild is expensive. When lucrative opportunities present themselves, I can’t pass them by. It’s simple business.”

I stared at him, confused.

“I’m sure you would’ve made a decent asset to the guild, but I’m afraid you aren’t worth that much as a contractor.”

My confusion deepened. “I’m sorry, what—”

He waved a hand, but his gesture didn’t make sense. I squinted uncertainly.

Behind me, a foot scuffed against the carpet. As I leaped from my chair, a hand seized my shoulder and something cold pressed against the back of my neck.

“Ori somno sepultus esto.”

Tingling magic swept over me, followed by suffocating numbness. My limbs collapsed. As I crumpled to the floor, my vision dimmed and my ears filled with buzzing.

A chair dragged across the carpet, then footsteps vibrated closer.

“I didn’t expect her to show,” the GM rumbled, his voice close yet impossibly distant. “Not after she killed Todd.”

“We warned you her demon is lethal. You shouldn’t have sent a lone contractor to take her.”

I knew that voice. Who … who was it …

“Well, at least I don’t have to pay him now,” the GM muttered. “I have two missing members to cover up instead of one. I expect a commensurate increase in my compensation.”

“It’s your fault your man died. We’re paying only for her.”

A harsh laugh. “I hope you know what you’re doing, kid. Once Red Rum pays you, they own you.”

The crackling noise overtook my ears. My head spun, awareness fading, then I was gone.





Chapter Twenty-Six





“You’re a traitorous coward, you know that?”

My head crackled and buzzed like a mistuned radio. I struggled toward consciousness, drowning in noise.

“I was already aware that you’re a putrid vat of slime,” the speaker continued, her acid voice echoing strangely, “but I didn’t realize you were also a self-important yak with no clue how pathetic you really are.”

I knew that angry female voice.

“You’re the one with no clue,” a man retorted.

I knew him as well. With a horrendous effort, I cracked my eyes open.

My vision blurred in and out, then steadied. I was sitting on a flimsy folding chair in a narrow, rectangular room with metal walls and no windows. I couldn’t see a door. The only light came from a battery-powered lantern on the floor beside Amalia, who sat on a chair a few feet away.

When I saw the white zip ties binding her wrists to the chair’s sides, I reflexively jerked my arms. Pain cut into my wrists. I was zip-tied to my chair too.

At my spasming movement, Amalia glanced at me. So did the second person: Travis. Stubble coated his jaw and the lantern light cast harsh shadows over his face, darkening the exhausted circles under his eyes. He regarded me for a moment, then turned back to Amalia.

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I only brought you here so you couldn’t tip off Robin that I’d found her. I’ll let you go once we’re done with—”

“No one is going to let me go, you brainless ballsack!” Amalia snapped. “Red Rum will kill me, kill Robin, and probably kill you too. I can’t believe you’re this stupid.”

“They won’t kill anyone. They just want her demon.”

I gasped and almost choked. My mouth was duct-taped shut. Terror burned across my nerves but it was so hard to focus. My mind was spinning and the hissing racket in my ears was deafening. I couldn’t hear myself think. I could barely form thoughts at all.

Amalia closed her eyes as though praying for patience. “Travis, Red Rum is the biggest, meanest, most murderous rogue guild on the west coast. Criminals like them don’t let loose ends like us walk away.”

“Dad can handle them. So can I.”

“Dad couldn’t handle them! He was terrified of them!”

Fighting for every second of clarity, I focused through the unnatural buzzing in my head, struggling to get a better hold on the conversation.

Amalia breathed harshly through her nose. “Untie us and we’ll run for it together—before it’s too late. I already explained that Robin’s demon is—”

“No.” Hands jammed in his pockets, he paced the length of the room, his footsteps echoing off the metal floor. “Dad won’t give me a demon name. He never will. I’m not his real son.” Bitterness hoarsened his voice. “This is my only chance.”