Damned and Desirable (Eternally Yours Book 2) (18 page)

I scanned the empty cave for any sign of her. The fire in the pit had died down, the sconces on the walls were barely flickering, and the stone floors were bare. There was nothing else other than a wooden stool and a table. Then Jack drew my attention to a pile of ash by the cage door.

Sarge rattled the demon’s head against the bars before nodding toward the fire pit in the heart of the cavern. “Can I burn him now?”

“No, please!” the demon cried. “Shadow was here with her, and so was Beast.”

I bent over, setting my scythe to glow as I tapped it on the floor, illuminating the pile. Bits of fur were mixed in with the debris, as well as a horned blade. I motioned for Sarge to bring the head. “Beast?” I asked him.

His eyes widened. “That’s Beast’s fur.”

“What happened to him?”

The demon frowned. “Looks like he was burned up.”

Obviously. “How?”

“I dunno. Not many demons have fire strong enough.”

Ahhh, but I knew of one demon whose breath was as hot as Hell’s flaming embers.

Heat infused my skull as I realized who may have taken her. If he’d seduced her, so help me God, all the flames of Hell would not keep me from exacting my revenge. “What about dragon demons?”

“Oh, yeah.” His eyes bugged, and he nodded emphatically. “Those demons have powerful fire.”

I stood, squaring my shoulders while clenching my scythe in a death grip. “Do you know where the red dragon named Callum lives?”

“Yeah, I know. I can show you.”

I spun around at Jack’s low growl. A headless body stumbled into the cavern, arms extended as it rubbed its hands up and down the walls.

The demon’s eyes bulged, and he squealed. “My body!”

“Don’t let it near his head,” I said to Sarge.

“I’m on it.” Sarge tossed the head to Jack and then wrestled the body to the ground. I handed him some rope from my satchel, and he bound the body’s hands and feet before throwing it over his shoulders as if it were a sack of potatoes.

I centered my gaze on the pouting demon head as it hung by its matted hair from Jack’s dripping fangs. “Take me to the red dragon, and you can have your body.”

And I will have my revenge.

I have saved his worthless head too many times to count, and for what? So he could betray me again! This time I will spare my backstabbing brother no mercy.

Ash

“No! No! No!”

Callum’s screams woke me from a fitful sleep. I jolted upright, rubbing my eyes as I squinted in his direction. Even through the dim light, I could see his arms and legs flailing as his body tossed from side to side.

“I will not touch you. I will not!” he hollered.

I climbed out of bed, slipping on my underwear and jeans before padding across the warm stone floor. Kneeling beside him, I carefully shook his shoulder. “Callum, wake up.”

His eyes shot open. “Get your hands off me, woman.” He swatted my arm away with a menacing growl. “I will not betray my brother again!”

Oh, boy. Didn’t I feel like a ten-pound bucket of shit for my behavior earlier. My inability to keep my inner-slut under control had led to Callum’s nightmare. I licked my parched lips and made a vow right then and there to never drink another drop of hormone water again, no matter how hot and dry this stink hole made my mouth.

“Callum, it’s okay. I’m not trying to have sex with you. Please wake up,” I pleaded.

His eyes glazed over, his jaw dropping in a dazed expression. “Mar? Is that you?”

Mar? Really?
He had to have been dreaming. “It’s me, Ash.” I squeezed his hand and flashed my best sisterly smile.

A single tear slid down his cheek as his lower lip quivered. “She made me betray my brother. What do I do?”

Holy heck, my heart was breaking. Was this Callum’s penance every night? To dream again and again he was betraying Aedan? If I had been in his shoes, I would have gone insane after the first few nights, let alone over a hundred years. I squeezed his hand harder, hoping the pressure would force him to wake up. “Callum, you’re dreaming.”

“This is no dream. This is a nightmare. God has forsaken me,” he cried as he tossed from side to side, twisting the furs off his body and exposing the raw wound from earlier that night.

I looked at the swollen flesh around the laceration and at the puss oozing out of it. Crap. It was infected. Big time. I didn’t know if he had enough Devil’s whiskey to treat that wound.

I grabbed the jug off the floor and uncorked the top.

“Callum, hold still,” I pleaded before carefully pouring it on the cut.

He responded with a shout that rattled my eardrums. I leaned back as he blew out a raging inferno, singeing the hairs on my arms and causing me to break out in a sweat.

“I’m sorry,” I said as I leaned over him and examined the wound. More ooze bubbled from it as it puckered like a puss-filled volcano. Gross. “I think it’s infected.”

“No, no.” He closed his eyes and fell back against the furs with a deflated sigh. “Poison.”

“Poison?” Who would poison him? There was no telling how many enemies Callum had made in Hell. “Who did this?”

“I did,” a low, dark voice hissed.

I spun around, fluttering to my feet. Shadow was standing behind us, along with several other demons, some of whom I recognized as part of Callum’s pack. So much for loyalty. No wonder I hadn’t heard an alarm.

But there was one demon in particular who stood out among the rest. He had to have been seven feet tall with ebony skin, a broad, muscular chest, strong jaw, and glowing orange eyes that reminded me of a hungry tiger. He would have been handsome if he hadn’t looked so creepy. He also had six (yes, six) arms growing out of his sides, and a long rusty chain hanging down his neck. At the end of that chain was a shining silver key.

“Scorpius, the Gatekeeper,” Callum had called him, and this must be the key to my freedom.

But the most imposing thing about this demon was his black skeletal tail, curling above his head and nearly scraping the ceiling of the cavern. It reminded me of a lobster appendage with a sharp point, only I didn’t think he’d taste as good, even with a little warm butter. He looked like a badass, venomous scorpion who had crossed paths with Satan himself.

His tail rattled like a snake’s as he strode forward with a confident swagger, the other demons falling in behind him, bowing their heads. “Your lover was a fool to fight my blood slave.” He spoke with a thick Jamaican accent, motioning toward Shadow, who looked back at his master with a triumphant gleam in his eyes. “A blade infected with my venom usually kills its victim within minutes, but Dragon has a thick skin and a hard head.”

He approached, looking down at Callum as his full lips pulled back in a wide smile, revealing a face full of dagger-like teeth. “Still, I’m surprised he’s lasted this long.” His tone was much too jovial, reminding me of that television guy telling me to “Come to Jamaica, mon,” but somehow I got the feeling a vacation with this demon wouldn’t “feel all right.”

Keeping a wary gaze on his tail, I fluttered back as fear twisted a knot in my gut. “What’s going to happen to him?”

“He’ll die a second death, and a third, and a fourth.” He pointed a long finger toward the ground. “Scorpion demon blood stays with its victims for several dimensions.”

I clenched my hands together as energy raced through my veins. I felt the magic balling up in my palms like twin fire explosions ready to knock the demon to the ground. “Bastard,” I cried.

He leaned toward me, his gigantic tail rattling between us, venom dripping off the tip. “What was that?” he asked with a challenging gleam in his animalistic gaze.

My confidence waned as the power drained from my hands. I tilted my chin, matching the wicked gleam in his eyes with a glare of my own, trying my best to ignore the poisonous blade that rattled in my face. “You heard me.”

I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he scared me, even though on a scale of one to ten, his creep factor was an explosive shit-your-pants-eleven.

His tail bobbed in front of me, coming within inches of my shoulder and nearly scraping my nose. “You’ll have to play nice if you want me to give him the anti-venom.”

“There’s an anti-venom?” I rasped. My voice sounded small and scared. I’m sure the demon took satisfaction in my crumbling courage.

His low, ominous chuckle snaked across my senses as he crossed all six arms in front of him. “Of course.”

“Where?” It sounded as if someone else was talking for me, and I was just one, scared-shitless girl inside the shell of a woman who used to be mouthy and brave.

He turned to Callum, who was now lying prone on the floor, his face as pale as a sheet. I gasped when I saw the lifelessness in his vacant eyes. Had he already died a second death? Was he somewhere in the bowels of level two?

I cringed as Scorpius hocked up a loogie, a long trail of spit dangling from his lip as it stretched toward Callum before dropping in a puddle on his infected flesh. My eyes widened as the spit crackled and popped, much like the cereal only not as appetizing.

“That ought to be enough to hold him… for now.” When he turned back to me, cupping my face in one of his leathery palms, an icy chill raced across my spine. “I will give him more later, but only if my little fallen angel agrees to play nice.” His warning was a sibilant hiss that crawled beneath my skin.

I tried to push him away, but he wrapped all of his arms around me, grabbing the back of my neck and pulling me toward his massive chest. I swore I could feel venom from his touch infecting me. I didn’t think a dozen scalding showers would be enough to erase his taint from my skin.

The nausea that threatened to overwhelm me was worse than the time my first blind date took me to an Amway meeting and tried to cop a feel during a boring lecture about skin care products. Actually, sitting through a dozen Amway meetings sounded good right about then. I cast my gaze toward Heaven and prayed God would somehow take pity on his fallen angel and bring me anywhere but here.

“Please, let me go,” I begged.

“I will never let you go, woman. You are mine for all eternity.”

His forever? Never to see Aedan or Jack? What about my family? Someone please wake me from this nightmare.

My vision spun as he squeezed my neck harder. My legs gave way beneath me before my world went dark.

Hell’s First Dimension

September 21, 1900

Katherine O’Connor

What would a solitary angel have to fear walking among giants? Nothing, lest they discover my ruse. For I was indeed no angel, but a blood-slave to the most ruthless demon in all Hell, sent by my master to deceive the Nephilim, walk among them as an emissary from God. If I succeeded, my master would reward me greatly. If I failed, I shuddered to think of the punishment. My bones still ached from the poison he’d injected into me, a reminder of the brutality he was capable of inflicting.

I fought to push back the rising tide of fear that bubbled in my throat. My master had sent with me a demon escort through the Valley of Fire, but once we’d reached the Stones of Souls, they’d abandoned me to my fate. Now I was all alone, an “angel” with a halo of blonde hair flowing from the hood of my white cloak.

I trod lightly through the desolate cemetery of forsaken souls, demons who had dared approach the giant’s gate turned to stone by giant magic. Markings of their grotesque forms and faces were imprinted on the granite’s smooth surface. What would it be like to be trapped inside such a tomb for all eternity? I shuddered at the thought. Even my master’s brutal punishments would be a welcome reprieve to eternal monotony. Just beyond the stones, the great pyramid rose like a mountain from beneath Hell’s desolation, its tip hovering against an inky black sky, illuminated only by flaming pyres that marked the corners of the structure.

A horn sounded in the distance, a deep wail too powerful to be that of an ordinary demon. The giants had to have seen me coming. Were they preparing to mount an attack or celebrating the return of their savior? I needed to convince them I was a fallen angel, Mother of Nephilim predestined to free them from their oppressors. I only hoped they would fall for my ruse, and that they would not ask me to remove the hood of my cloak.