Damned and Desirable (Eternally Yours Book 2) (22 page)

“Oh, dearest,” she cooed, trailing a hand down my face to my collarbone. “There is no right or wrong in Hell. When pleasure is presented to you, you seize it with both hands.” She grabbed my tits, squeezing until I screamed. “Your breasts are like two honey pots.” She rolled my nipples between her fingers. “So full and sweet.”

“Please don’t,” I begged, turning my face to the side as she nibbled my ear with sharp teeth.

“Why?” She eased up the pressure on my breasts, massaging them with firm, yet gentle strokes. “Don’t you like a woman touching you?” she breathed into my ear.

“Because unlike you,” I growled, “I’m not a cheater.”

I knew it was coming, but still I wasn’t prepared for the force of Kate’s slap, the sting of it burning my cheek like it had been lit on fire.

“I do what I must to survive,” she hissed like a spitting cobra.

When her snake loosened its hold even more, I jerked free, nearly falling on my ass as I stumbled backward. “You do whatever you want to do. You are a spoiled, selfish bitch who stops at nothing to get what she wants.”

Now would be good time to shut up, Ash,
I said to myself. Okay, little fun fact about me. Whenever I got pissed, my mouth started spewing like a geyser, which usually ended up getting me in a whole lot of trouble. As her porcelain complexion turned a bright shade of red, I had the feeling I was about to discover the real meaning of pain.

Balling her hands by her sides, she stormed up to me. “You’re right, and right now, I want to see you suffer.”

Aedan

I cast a furtive gaze to my travel companions. Jack’s heads lolled to the sides, and he hobbled on three legs after severely burning a paw on a flaming geyser. Sarge was exhausted from hauling the Piranha Demon’s body through treacherous terrain. And I was nothing more than a pile of tired bones with a scythe.

We’d been forced to dispose of three pestering demons in the Valley of Fire. The Piranha Demon had called them nettles, and though he assured me they were created by our subconscious, remnants of bad relationships we’d left back on Earth, it was still hard for me to kill a woman. In the end, I had been left with no choice. Katherine had dogged my heels through the flaming pyres, reminding me what a worthless husband I’d been. I’d finally ended her incessant nagging by slicing off her pretty head and tossing it into the lava. Sarge had done the same with a soldier who haunted him and some skinny fisherman who hounded the Piranha.

Jack’s nettle had caught me off guard. I recognized her as Ash’s mom, and she said not a word as she followed Jack, weeping into a tissue. Nobody wanted to kill Ash’s mom, so we allowed her to follow us, a decision I came to regret. Her mournful wails were like a knife twisting inside my heart. Poor Jack had not stopped whimpering since she found us. I finally had to end all our misery and chop off her head. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but in the end I knew it was the right choice. If I’d waited until we’d found Ash, she might not have let me.

Having escaped the Valley of Fire, lucky to have all of our limbs intact, we made our way through a forest of sorts, a copse of stones as tall as men with macabre, demonic faces etched into their smooth surfaces. The night was black as pitch, save for the light cast by the lakes of lava behind us and three pinpricks of flame just beyond the stones.

“Almost there, Masters. Almost there.” The demon’s head bobbed, suspended by his stringy hair in Jack’s teeth.

The fish-faced-freak’s high-pitched whine grated on my last nerve. I was tired, sore, hungry, and damned thirsty, growing ever sicker of listening to that hideous ball of teeth ramble on. “If you are leading us to trouble,” I growled, “so help me God….”

“God can’t help you here, Masters, and I do lead you to trouble.” His laughter reminded me of a squealing pig at slaughter. “All Hell is trouble.”

“You know what I mean. If I discover you’re tricking us, I’ll find a bubbling pool of lava and toss your head in, but I’ll leave your body here. Try getting it back after that.”

Sarge added an “amen” to my threat, and Jack confirmed it with a snarl.

The demon’s fishy eyes bulged. “I’m not tricking you, Master. See the tip of that pyramid beyond those stones?”

I cast my gaze upward, nearly stumbling when my eyes beheld the towering peak. “I see it. God Almighty, I had no idea such a monolith existed in Hell.”

“That is where you will find your dragon brother. I swear it.”

I let out a slow breath before trudging forward. The demon had given his word, which meant exactly nothing. The only way to discover what was beneath that pyramid was to go inside.

I stilled when a horn sounded in the distance, a low, deep wail as powerful as a blaring cargo ship siren. They knew we were coming. Hopefully, whatever awaited us beyond that fortress wasn’t more powerful than a three-legged dog and some road-weary hunters, or we were all damned for good.

Ash

Note to self. Torture sucks. Torture sucks big fat demon balls.

Katherine’s whip across my back sent me tumbling to my knees. Little fun fact about me: I might have had a big mouth and a bad attitude, but I was no fighter. Damn. I should have listened to my mom and stayed in Tae Kwan Do, though I didn’t know if my weak ninja skills would have done any good. It was kind of hard to defend myself while I was writhing in pain from the venom that shot up my limbs. Her snake had bitten my collarbone, the poison coursing through my veins at an alarming rate. The pain was more intense than any I’d ever known, like fibromyalgia times infinity.

I lay immobile on the floor, my face pressed against the warm stone as my drool pooled around me. I grunted when I felt her foot on my back, and then cried out when I felt her full weight on me. She might have looked like a petite demon, but what she lacked in size, she made up for in weight. She walked up my spine, which was still tender from the gash caused by my new wings. Was she going to break my spine and leave me paralyzed, or was she going to kill me and cast me to the second dimension of hell? At this point, the second dimension was looking like paradise compared to my captivity.

“Leave her be!”

Callum clenched the bars with whitened knuckles, pressing his wan face against the iron as steam poured from his nose.

How had he managed to stand? I could tell by the way his limbs shook he was not well.

“Oh, Callum,” I whimpered, though I knew he couldn’t hear me, “please lie down.”

When he reached a hand through the bars, I saw tears streaming down his snout. “Torture me instead,” he pleaded.

She jumped off me, walking toward him with a slutty swagger. “What do you think I’ve been doing?”

His nostrils flared. “Katherine, don’t do this.”

“Very well, then,” she said with a girlish giggle. “If you insist.”

She slipped out of her robe, exposing her bare ass to me as she pressed against the cage. That snake of hers was writhing down her back, its serpentine tongue darting across her skin. Gross.

Luckily, her slut session was cut short after she began coughing on Callum’s smoke. She stepped back, fanning her face. “I would force you to make love to me in exchange for leniency, but I can tell by the way you tremble, you’d be a useless lover.”

Her snake lashed out at him, wrapping his neck in a noose. His face reddened as he fought against the serpent.

I had no idea where I found the energy to get up, but I pumped my wings hard until I was standing on shaky legs. Despite the pain which coursed through me like liquid concrete, I lifted my heavy arms, channeling balls of energy into my palms.

She still had her back to me, her laughter echoing off the cave walls as she squeezed the life out of Callum.

I had one chance to strike, and then I knew she’d be upon me.

“Miftress, stop,” the giant’s booming voice echoed behind me.

He stomped past me in a few heavy strides, shaking the ground beneath my feet and causing me to tumble to the floor.

Releasing Callum, she spun around with a snarl, not even intimidated by the hulking giant bearing down on her. “Did I tell you to come out of your corner? How dare you disobey my orders!”

She threw open the cage door and pointed. “Get the bitch, and you can sit inside with them.”

Then she walked up to me and sneered before spitting on my neck. When the anti-venom trickled down my collarbone and pooled around my wound, I squeezed my eyes shut and involuntarily arched my back as liquid ice seized my veins. Dear God it hurt, but at the same time, the rush was amazing, like demon heroin. I was still held captive by the antidote when Garf hoisted me into his arms and carried me inside the cell. He nearly knocked the wind out of me when he laid me on a straw pallet before placing Callum next to me.

“Thank you, Garf,” I barely rasped the words, but he’d already escaped to a pallet in the corner, flattening the straw beneath him like a flat iron on a pancake.

Thankfully, I heard the bitch storm out of the cave, the hiss of her snake fading as her footsteps echoed down the chamber.

Despite the fact that every inch of my body ached as if I had the flu, I lifted my head and snuggled against Callum’s chest. I laid my hand on his heart, relieved to feel the rise and fall of his chest.

“Please don’t die,” I begged on a sob, and then an idea struck me. I wiped some of Katherine’s saliva off my neck and rubbed it across Callum’s wound. I had no idea if snake anti-venom would work on a scorpion sting, but it was worth a shot.

“Ash,” he mumbled.

“I’m here, Callum.” I stroked his forehead before tucking a strand of thick, dark hair behind his ear. Weird how his skin and eyes had morphed into dragon form, but he retained his bushy hair, just like Aedan’s.

“I’ve been thinking about your nettle,” he said on a wheeze. “Something she said to you earlier. Did my brother really call you Mar in bed?”

Of all the things to think about when you’re writhing in pain. “Yes.”

“That fool,” he chuckled. “He’ll regret it for all eternity.”

I leaned up on my elbow, placing a finger to his lips as I looked down into his molten eyes. “Please don’t speak. I know it hurts you.”

He smiled, not one of joy but the kind that masked a deep sorrow. “It’s only pain, Ash. I’ve been dealing with it for over a hundred years.” He reached up, tapping my nose. “For the record, you’re a far better woman than Mar ever was.”

My face warmed. “Thanks. You’re not so bad yourself.” I stroked his temple until I heard the deep and even breathing of his slumber. When I was certain I wouldn’t wake him, I leaned up and kissed his scaly cheek. He wasn’t all bad, that dragon friend of mine. Considering my current fate, I was lucky I had a friend at all.

Hell’s First Dimension

October 2, 1905

Katherine O’Connor

“You’re letting him go? Why?” I flew out of bed as my master dressed. I had pleasured him long into the night and this was how he rewarded me? By releasing the bane of my existence?

“Because I’ve grown tired of torturing him,” he said with a sigh as he buttoned his trousers.

But this was not to be! Didn’t he care that I took satisfaction in tormenting Callum as well? A few more years and I was sure his resistance would crack. “But he has not signed the blood oath.”