Insatiable (Inferno Games #3)

3. A Blast From The Past

3

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

JULIETTE

“ F inally!” I breathe out as I slide into one of the booths in the restaurant. I know Ro needs to talk about the pregnancy, but I won’t be able to hear a word she says until I eat some of whatever that delicious smell is. I look around for a waiter but none appear like they usually do. My stomach growls impatiently. “I swear to God... or Satan, that if they don’t appear with breakfast soon, I’m going to start eating this table.” Just then, Orlin shuffles past with a clapboard, saying SINNERS—ALL OF YOU on it. How he got into this circle is beyond me. I know I wasn’t sleeping with him, so how he was getting such high points in the challenges in Lust is a mystery.

“I’m sure they’ll be here in a few minutes,” Ro snaps.

I hold my hand out to her. “Sorry. I know we should talk. It’s just this smell is driving me to distraction. It smells like the bacon is so close it’s being cooked right under the table.” I duck down to check, but of course there’s nothing but Ro’s and my legs.

“I don’t smell anything but donuts. It’s making me sick, to be honest.”

She does look a bit pale, but then again, Ro always has. Just then, Quinn slips into the booth seat next to her.

“I thought you’d be catching up with Dade. Some morning rumpy-pumpy.” I raise my eyebrows and flash her a grin. “He was super hot with his wings out like that.”

She rolls her eyes. “I literally saw him last night... and I said I’d come up to his room later. I wanted to be here for Ro.”

Ro gives her a small smile.

“Do me a favor and tell me if you can smell bacon. Ro can’t smell it.”

Quinn lifts her shoulders. “I’ve been smelling grilled cheese sandwiches with chilli sauce all morning.” She huffs and gives a sad smile. “I used to eat them with Jenny all the time. They were our go to snack. I couldn’t afford much else. Maybe this place smells different to the individual. It wouldn’t surprise me. We all know how much you like bacon and what I can smell reminds me so much of Jenny that it can’t be a coincidence. What about you, Ro? What do you smell?

Ro's cheeks flush a deep shade of pink. "It's nothing… Just some donuts," she mutters, avoiding my gaze. A story lies behind that, one I'll have to pry from her later.

"Well, they'd better have more than just donuts on the menu. Where is our waiter? Ah, there's George." I wave him over with a flick of my hand. Cerby follows, all its jowls wobbling. I recoil at the sight of it, but don’t want to put George out, so I rearrange my features into a winning smile. Quinn, on the other hand, pulls one of its disgusting heads into a hug. It slobbers all over her, but she doesn’t seem to mind. At least it isn’t eating her, which is a plus.

"Ladies, are you enjoying your stay so far?"

"Not exactly, George," I pout. "Where are the waitstaff? You can't tantalize a girl with all these mouth-watering scents and not bring her the goods!"

"Tell me, what do you smell?" He looks positively delighted. "No, don't tell me. For you, New York cheesecake. Hot dogs for the lovely Quinn, and..." he pauses as his eyes land on Ro. "Goulash?"

I roll my eyes. "Not quite. We were hoping for breakfast - piles of bacon, eggs, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms, has browns - maybe some pancakes on the side. And some mimosas to wash it down."

"Not for me!" Ro interrupts. "Just plain orange juice is fine."

Damn it, how could I forget?

George interlaces his fingers over his protruding belly.

"I hate to disappoint you ladies, but we don't serve food here."

My mouth falls open in disbelief and the very definition of Hell unfolds around me. No food? "Excuse me?"

He shrugs nonchalantly. “We can't very well call ourselves Hell and give everyone what they want. This is Hell after all.” He chuckles as though this is a joke. It has to be a joke. He gestures around the room. “In life, many of these people were gluttons who ate themselves to death."

I take a closer look at the other inhabitants in the canteen and finally notice that George is the only one with any meat on his bones. Everyone else is painfully thin, their ribcages visible beneath their clothes.

“They’re practically walking skeletons!” I exclaim, my mind racing. “You’re telling me there’s no food in Gluttony?”

George pats his belly with a smug grin. “We demons don’t follow the same rules as you humans. We have access to food in our quarters two floors below us, but unfortunately for you, the elevators won’t take you there.”

“But if we don’t eat, we’ll die!” I wail, my panic rising uncontrollably. “I’ll die!”

George’s laughter booms through the room, making me clench my fists and struggle to keep from lunging at him—and his insufferable dog. “My dear, you’re already dead.” He pauses, noticing the rage in my eyes. “Well, technically speaking. Don’t worry. Not eating won’t harm you in the long run. Think of it as the easiest diet you’ll ever go on.”

I open my mouth to protest, but snap it shut in disbelief. This can’t be real. “What about her?” I point frantically at Ro, who looks ashen and terrified. “She’s pregnant! You can’t just let a pregnant woman starve!”

George’s laughter fills the room again, echoing with cruel amusement. “Oh, you can’t kid a kidder, my dear. There’s no such thing as pregnancy in Hell.”

I stand up, or at least try to, straining to get closer to his face. “She’s pregnant, and she needs to eat. Ask Anthura if you don’t believe me, but get us some fucking food!”

For the first time, George’s face turns into an expression of something other than joy.

“I shall ask Anthura, but that won’t change my mind. If by some unknown chance, your friend here is pregnant, the baby will be undead, just like the rest of you. Which means it can’t die. It will survive without food, just as you all will. I suggest if you don’t like the way we run things here in Gluttony, you put your energy toward doing your best in the games.”

My anger boils over as he turns and walks away, taking his slobbering monstrosity with him. I slump back to the bench and bury my head in my arms, trying to contain my frustration. Food was the only thing keeping me sane in this hellhole. Every day, the thought of breakfast was what motivated me to get out of bed. But now, with George's threat looming over us, even that comfort is taken away.

"Nooooo!" I cry out in despair.

"It won't be that bad," Quinn says reassuringly, placing a gentle hand on my shaking arm. It’s still wet with helldog slobber.

"We'll all survive," Ro adds, her face drained of color as she takes my other hand. "You heard George."

"Yes, I did hear George," I reply bitterly. "I heard him tell us that he's going to starve us. In Lust they made us have more sex than we wanted. Surely it should be the same here, but with food?” I think of other ways I can get something in my mouth. Only one way springs to mind. “I wonder if spunk tastes different in this level?” I ask hopefully.

Ro dashes up, her hand covering her mouth. She mutters something about vomit, then rushes away, almost knocking Quinn over in her haste to escape.

Fuck. “Should I go and hold her hair back or fetch water or something?”

Quinn shakes her head, her glare fixed on something behind me. I follow her stare to see Felix, who is sitting in the main hall looking like he's having a slanging match with Anthura. "I'm sure she'd rather be alone right now, but when she gets back from the bathroom, we'll focus on her more. Just look at what she's dealing with."

My eyes narrow at Felix and a surge of anger boils within me. "At least he has Anthura to occupy him," I mutter bitterly. "Hopefully that asshole will be too preoccupied with her to bother Ro this Circle."

"I was planning to speak to Dade," Quinn interjects calmly. "He'll make sure Felix stays away."

I let out a frustrated sigh. "I guess having a giant winged hotty for a bodyguard can't hurt." Suddenly, an idea strikes me and I sit up straight in my chair, excitement coursing through me. "Dade can access the lower level!"

Quinn gives me a suspicious look. "You heard George. Demons lurk down there. It's dangerous."

I narrow my eyes."You don't know dangerous until you've seen me go without food for more than a few hours," I snap, my stomach growling in agreement. "I'll take on whatever hell monsters are down there and then some."

"If it hadn’t been for Hades, I’d have died down there yesterday. I did die… kinda."

I want to be a supportive friend and ask what happened down there, but my stomach thinks my throat’s been cut and I can’t concentrate. I look at her pleadingly.

Quinn rolls her eyes and lets out a long breath. "Fine, I'll see if we can find some food. But I doubt Dade will let you go down with him."

I’m about to reach across the table to hug Quinn when I see a familiar figure heading our way. My stomach drops, instinct kicking in before I even process the thought—I duck under the table. Too late.

“Juliette?” Tomas’s voice cuts through the room, and my heart sinks. I force myself to look up from under the table, offering him a weak, sarcastic smile. “Hi, Tomas. Fancy meeting you here. Guess when I told you to go to Hell, you took me a little too literally.”

Quinn raises an eyebrow at me, curiosity gleaming in her eyes, but I can’t meet her gaze. All my focus is on Tomas, the man who shattered me a lifetime ago.

“Do you know what brought me here?” His voice is thick with regret, but I don’t care.

“Herpes? One of your countless whores?” I snap, thinking of the bimbo sitting next to him in the atrium. The hunger gnawing at my insides fuels my anger, making it harder to hold back. Not that I care. /he deserves my venom.

He flinches but doesn’t back down. “I entered the games, hoping I’d find you. I saw your name come up on my portal months ago. When you moved from Purgatory to Lust, I spent weeks searching for you, but you must’ve been in a different tower. That’s when I knew you’d entered the Inferno Games.”

Anger twists in my gut, a much-needed distraction from the relentless hunger. If rage alone could carry me through this circle, I’d be unstoppable. Anything to get away from this man.

“And the last time I saw you, I told you to never darken my door again,” I say, my voice cold. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before signing up for the games.”

A thought strikes me, and suspicion creeps into my voice. “How did you even get in? Only people from Purgatory are allowed to enter. You can pass through the circles, but you can’t enter from them.”

Tomas shuffles his feet, and for a split second, I’m dragged back to the moment he confessed to cheating on me. Was it the first time? The second? The tenth? Who knows? He had the same guilty shuffle then, like he wasn’t already planning to do it again.

“We had people from Purgatory in our tower. I asked Hades if I could enter the games, and he let me.” He shrugs like Hades hands out entry passes as if it's nothing. “He let Tate in too.”

I remember the gorgeous blonde woman he was sitting next to on the couch and pull my face into a grimace. “Hooker wasn’t she? I see you keep similar company down here as you did up there.”

Tomas spreads his arms, trying to defend himself. “That’s not fair! I barely know Tate!”

Quinn finally breaks her silence, her confusion palpable. “Someone want to clue me in? I take it you two know each other?”

I exhale slowly, knowing there’s no point in hiding it anymore. “Tomas, meet my good friend, Quinn. Quinn, meet Tomas, the two-timing, lowlife, cheating scumbag of a man who also happens to be my ex-husband.”

Quinn’s eyes widen, her mouth falling open in shock.

“Not ex,” Tomas interjects, holding up his hand to show the ring I gave him eons ago, still sitting on his finger. “We’re still married. Look.”

For a moment, I almost feel sorry for the na?ve bride I once was, the girl who thought love could fix anything. But that sadness gave way to resentment long ago—at least when it came to Tomas.

“I might not have filed for divorce in life, Tomas, but as you recall, our wedding vows said til death do us part and seeing as we are both dead, I think that trumps divorce papers. Our marriage was over the second your penis fell into another woman’s vagina. And as for my wedding ring, I took it off years ago.”

The asshole actually has the nerve to look sad. “I shouldn’t have done that to you. You were the love of my life, the mother of my kids, the?—”

“Sun to your moon?” I cut him off, rolling my eyes. “Yeah, I’ve heard it all before. Every time you cheated on me, in fact. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the lack of food and your bullshit—which I had hoped death would free me from—are driving me insane. I’m going to my room.”

I sidle past him, but not before spinning on my heels and jabbing a finger in his face. “And don’t even think about following me!”