The cold concrete pressed against Ava’s cheek as she stared up at the object hanging beside the Sang closest to her. Her eyes tracked the incessant drops of red blood that pooled beneath the brown, cocoon-looking sack housing the blonde. Ava could just barely see her face peeking out of the top of it, coated in a clear, slimy fluid. A second cocoon hung in the corner, that one holding the redhead.

For the last hour, or however long it had taken for the screaming to end, Ava studied their faces to see if they were still alive. Agony etched their expressions in the deep furrow of their brows and she wasn’t sure if that was a permanent mark of suffering, or temporary. They almost appeared to be sleeping, frozen in time.

A protrusion slid around inside the sack, indicating some kind of movement. It slithered beneath the shell of the cocoon, and for the first time in a while, the blonde let out a whimper. She sniveled and broke into a weakened sob, but never once opened her eyes, as if she couldn’t bear to face the reality.

Ava thought for sure she’d be next, after they’d finished with the two females, and particularly when the one Sang creature resumed its staring down at her. It never came, though.

A hissing sound interrupted her thoughts, and Ava tracked it toward a sprinkler-looking object above her, that rained smoke. Pushing up from the floor, she slid herself back into the corner of the room, watching the smoke descend, filling the room. She covered her nose and mouth inside her cupped hands, not daring to breathe. An overwhelming dizziness took over, and her eyes blinked heavily under the weight of whatever had penetrated her senses. The room spun, the cocoons shifting around her as if she were trapped inside a tornado. Faster and faster they spun, until her view shrank into a pinprick of light, and she could no longer hang on.

* * *

“I don’t get it.”

The sound of Oliver’s voice penetrated Ava’s mind like a scythe through a field of daisies. Whatever momentary reprieve she’d gotten from the nothingness gave way to the gray concrete walls of her old confinement, the same dull cell from before, and she glanced up toward where she’d once again been shackled to the wall.

Beside her, Oliver sat on the bed, chin resting on his knuckles as he stared away toward the opposite wall as if deep in thought. “I followed the Cartazmus. Word for word.” He shook his head and clutched either side of his skull. “It makes no sense. You were as pure a sacrifice as we could possibly get, and they rejected you.”

“Those females. What happened to them?” she asked.

With a dismissive wave of his hand, Oliver glanced back. “They’ll be discarded before you go back in, don’t worry. I just wanted to see if they would attempt to mate with them. They’re nothing but a control group.”

“Is that what … that’s what they …”

“Yes. That’s how they fuck. It’s quite fascinating. For weeks, they’ve merely poked at the females, probing them with their penises. But earlier, they began the mating ritual.”

“Those … cocoons.”

“In the Cartazmus, they’re apparently known as mating sacks. They spin them from their own bodies, just like a spider. It’s made of ingested materials that—”

Acids climbed Ava’s throat, and she slung her head to the side in time to shoot a torrent of vomit onto the floor.

Oliver’s chuckle grated her spine as he rubbed her thigh. “We’ll have that cleaned up, love. Probably the aftereffects of the gas.”

“You’re a sick fuck,” Ava rasped and spat the last strings of slime from her lips.

“What’s sick? Their mating is beautiful, if you think about it. Those cocoons? They’re filled with nutrients and a gelatinous fluid that bathes the female’s skin, softening it to help it expand for the pregnancy. Their penises break off inside the female, pumping semen into her until her eggs have effectively been fertilized.”

Another shot of bile flew from Ava’s lips, splashing onto the floor beside her.

“If you can imagine having a vibrator left inside of you for weeks,” he prattled on, ignoring her. “Then they grow another cock, and the cycle begins again.”

“I hope you burn in hellsfire.” Not that Ava had ever been particularly sensitive to another woman’s plight, but those females had essentially saved her from that very fate.

“Ava, you fail to see the importance in all of this, and that is unfortunate. This is a brand new species. One that could give humans the upper hand when the world goes to shit. Demons sit at the top of the food chain, and that doesn’t bode well, even for your kind. As a half-human, surely you can understand this.”

“You sacrifice me to a bunch of disgusting creatures, and you’re asking for my understanding? Go fuck yourself.”

“Science requires sacrifice. I’m not exactly thrilled that I have to turn you over to them. Believe me, I’d much prefer to keep you for myself. To have you as a pet. But pets never thrived under my care. Curiosity always got the best of me, and I suppose I can thank my father for that.” His body jerked with a half chuckle that only served to curl Ava’s lip. “I once received a puppy for Christmas, and by Easter the following year, I had him pinned to a board with his insides dissected. I grow bored of pets. Ultimately, it all comes down to science.”

Ava’s lips stretched with a smile. “And you failed. They rejected me. You fucking failed, you worthless piece of shit!”

Oliver’s eye twitched, his lips thinning as he stared down at her through the special glasses—the only barrier that kept him safe from her. “I suggest you keep your mouth shut.”

“Why? Afraid someone might hear what a failure you are?” From the conversation she’d spied on, between him and his father when they’d first taken her, and the many that followed with him alone, she had a sense that Oliver strived for his father’s approval. “Failure! Failure! Failure!”

His bottom lip trembled, as he drew in a deep breath. He pulled a phone from his hip, and the wicked grin that spread across his face set Ava’s nerves on edge as he placed the device to his ear. “She’s ready for phase two. Please come retrieve her.”

Ava tugged at the binds, wishing she could knock that smug grin right off his ugly face. “I hate you. I fucking hate you.”

“My brother was the handsome one, you know. Smart. Good looking. Charming as a snake.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “He ended up dating one of the daughters of a man who worked for my father. Beautiful blonde named Calla.”

The name shot bullets of agony straight to Ava’s heart, as it was Calla whom she betrayed.

“She ended up ravaged by the wolves, and my brother was so distraught. For years, he mourned her. And then he got curious. And his curiosity led him to a world he’d never dreamed of. A world of creatures that walked among us. A world he would’ve been blinded to, if not for her death.” He stroked a finger down her temple. “I want your death to open a whole new world for me, as well. I’m willing to sacrifice you. To suffer the misery of watching you endure a very painful delivery, and ultimately the consumption of your body as those things finish off what’s left of you. All in the name of discovery and the beautiful mystery that awaits me.”

Nausea roiled inside of Ava’s stomach at the visuals swimming through her head, and she didn’t bother to turn her face away when the vomit sprung from her mouth like a fountain, hitting Oliver in the face.

“Fuck!” He removed the glasses, and as if everything moved in slow motion, she waited a split second for him to open his eyes.

The moment he did, she caught his stare and held it, allowing her charms to wrap themselves around him. “Oliver. I want you to lock the door.”

Eyes wide and hypnotized, his face still coated in a glistening layer of bile, he nodded. Stiff as a statue, he rose up from the bed, strode across the room, and locked the door.

“Good boy. Now undo my binds.”

Like a robot, he shuffled back across the room and sat beside her on the bed. A pounding at the door didn’t even deter his vacant stare, but Ava’s nerves tensed as the beast peered through the window at her.

A click told her that he’d unlocked the first cuff, while the pounding at the door dented the frame into the distinct shape of the beast’s shoulder as he rammed the metal.

A second click set her other arm free.

“Now my neck.” To hasten the process, she shoved his hands to her throat and allowed him to unlock her collar.

“I want you to stand in front of that door and don’t move. Even if he pushes you. Stand. Your. Ground.”

Oliver stood from the bed and crossed the room to the door. The beast didn’t even seem to register his approach, but continued slamming into the steel panels until the hinges began to pop. She’d probably set Oliver up for the kind of blow to the spine that would cripple him, but what the fuck did she care?

Dashing across the room, Ava skidded to a halt and bent forward, patting her hand over the floor beneath the chair, in search of the key Oliver had dropped in there before attempting to sacrifice her to the Sang. Many supes simply carried a special kind of chalk to traverse worlds, but unless she was mistaken, the one Oliver had lost was a skeleton key that would turn any door into a portal to Obsidius.

Metal slipped beneath her fingertip, and she held it up in victory. Scrambling to her feet, Ava dashed across the floor to the door, and as she slid the tip into the lock, the metal entrance slammed into her, knocking Oliver to the floor. Kicked back a step, she tensed as the grip at her throat damn near squeezed the last bit of air from her.

“Don’t kill her!” Oliver shouted beside her, his fingers probing a gash that she could hardly make out in her periphery. “She’s going to pay in ways she can’t even imagine. Get her chained. Quickly!”

Stars floated in front of her eyes, as the room began to shrink. As the seconds of her fading consciousness ticked by, only one face came to mind.

Calix.

In vivid detail, she could see his bedroom in her mind’s eye, the silk sheets that drifted across her skin, the scent of him, the woodsy aroma with a hint of spice and tobacco, the soft plush mattress upon which he’d held her well into the afternoon, and the warmth of his breath against her nape as he’d slept peacefully beside her.

When she opened her eyes, all that she’d imagined surrounded her.

As she sat up in Calix’s bed, a beat of panic inside her chest brought tears to her eyes.

The beast had killed her, after all, and somehow she’d found her way to heaven. To the one place, the only place she could be safe from the horrors that had plagued her.

For once in her life, Ava finally felt peace.