Damned and Desirable (Eternally Yours Book 2) (7 page)

When his smug smile widened, my internal temperature soared. Guess he didn’t give a shit.

“The elevators are reserved for ghosting assignments, but I suppose I can make an exception.”

My heart leapt into my throat. Had he just given me permission to leave? Wait a minute. Had he just told me to use the elevator? I thought elevators only took us up and down different levels of Purgatory and to Earth, not across the same dimension. The common room elevator was much like the elevator in Delta’s common room. We’d used it to travel to level one, otherwise known as Earth, for our hauntings, and then back up to our house on level thirteen.

I narrowed my eyes. “The elevator can take me to Delta House?”

“Not
that
elevator,” he chuckled, “but I have one in my chamber. How else do you think I manage thirteen ghosting units?”

Oh, that made sense. I hadn’t realized Purgatory had those kinds of elevators. Usually, when I wanted to get around level thirteen, I had to take a taxi or walk. Shadow’s elevator must have been a rare luxury. Then again, Alpha House had an extensive wine room and a grand piano.

I quirked a brow at my boss, wondering why he was being so nice, and hoping it had nothing to do with my Double Ds. They’d gotten me all kinds of unwanted attention from bosses back on Earth, but I’d always had the notion Shadow didn’t have a thing for girls, or boys for that matter. From first impression, my boss had struck me as the kind of man who was only attracted to himself. “And you’ll let me use your elevator to get Jack?”

“You’re not authorized to use it. I’ll have to go with you.”

“Thanks.” I offered him my warmest smile.

Weird, how his features were suddenly unreadable. No sign of arrogance or annoyance. It was as if his face was a blank slate, his eyes, two lifeless, hollow wells.

His mouth cracked, just a little, like a ripple in a smooth pool of water. “My pleasure.”

A shiver stole up my spine as he placed a hand on the small of my back and led me toward his room. I did my best to shake off the sudden feeling of panic that wedged in my chest like a lead ball as my numb legs led me forward. My mom had always told me to trust my gut, and right now it was telling me to run, but Shadow was my boss. I shouldn’t have any reason to fear him, right?

Shadow’s room was even more elegant than I’d imagined. The walls were covered in rich, burgundy velvet drapes and the place smelled of deep, dark incense. His bed, if you could call it that, was a hole in the center of the room. I knew there was a mattress buried beneath the embroidered cushions and heavy quilts, but all I could think of was quicksand. If I had a bed like that, I’d never get out of it. From somewhere behind the drapes, I heard the faint sound of a harp. The place was like something out of Arabian Nights or maybe Cleopatra’s den.

A few nights ago, Aedan had told me Shadow was a Thirteener, a permanent resident of Purgatory. Like Aedan, Shadow had chosen to remain here rather than ascend to paradise. Now I knew why. He’d created his own paradise, plus he got to kick demon ass for a living. Now all he needed to make his afterlife complete was to get laid, but what did I know. Maybe he snuck a private concubine in through his secret elevator. Although I seriously doubted it. The guy had a stick wedged so far up his ass, he was practically choking on it.

I stood to the side, that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach threatening to loosen its way down my bowels as Shadow pulled back one of the drapes on the wall. Sure enough, there was an elevator with a gleaming brass door. It couldn’t have been much bigger than a phone booth. I knew it would be a tight fit for the both of us. When the door slid open, revealing a dimly lit chamber, he grabbed my elbow, ushering me forward. I had the overwhelming urge to turn and run.

The space was so tight, I didn’t see what button he pressed, but when I felt a lurch and that queasy feeling like my gut had moved into my ribcage, I could have sworn we were moving down, not to the side. Shouldn’t we be moving to the side since we were traveling on the same level? I reminded myself that afterlife elevators took souls to different dimensions. We weren’t going up or down, anyway. That brought me little comfort, especially since this elevator was so dark, I could barely make out my hand in front of my face.

“So you take this elevator often?” I asked, feeling the need to fill our cramped space with something other than the sound of my pounding heart.

“Rarely,” he said, and then didn’t offer further explanation.

Weird how he’d gone so cold. Not that Shadow wasn’t normally aloof, but the guy beside me was like a tower of ice. And the further we descended, the harder it was for me to see. I tried my best to steady my breathing, my chest tightening with fear, when I realized there was no way Jack was fitting inside this elevator with us. Surely Shadow would have known there would be no room for my dog. Why would he take me in this elevator? Was he expecting me to jog back?

I sucked in a breath when the elevator dinged and Shadow ushered me off, not with a hand on my back but with a hard shove. I nearly tripped over my own feet as I stumbled out.

“Hey, watch it!” I cried.

Something crunched beneath my shoes, and I almost fainted from fright when I looked down and saw the hollowed eyes of a skull staring back at me. Bones! I was standing on human bones! I spun a quick circle, more crunching beneath my feet as the wind whooshed from my lungs. This was not freaking Delta House! This was a cave littered with human remains.

I looked up at Shadow. “Where the hell am I?”

He folded his hands in front of him and smiled. “We have to catch one more elevator, and then we’ll be there.”

Eyeing him warily I took a step back as I held out my hands, feeling the ball of energy radiate from my chest into my fingertips. I was on level one, Earth. I knew this because I could materialize my wind, and I couldn’t access that power in Purgatory. I also knew that level one wasn’t safe for ghosters unless we traveled in groups because demons haunted there, too, searching for souls to take to Hell.

Ice-cold shards of fear caused my breath to come in shallow gasps. I’d have to use my powers against my boss. I had no idea who he was pretending to be, but I knew without a doubt he was batting for the wrong team.

He took a step forward, lifting a hand. “Come, Ashley.”

That’s when I saw it, a flash of red beneath his hooded gaze.
Demon!
my conscience warned me.
Fight!

“No!” I boomed before blasting him with all my might. The whites of his eyes bulged as he flew into the shadows. I barely registered the sound of his body crashing into a pile of bones, and then I turned and ran back toward the elevator.

Chest heaving, I hit the button for level thirteen, but the damn door wouldn’t shut. I screamed at the elevator and hit the button to close it, but the door still wouldn’t budge.

A rolling wave of nausea washed over me when a shadow filled the doorway, turning the elevator so black, I couldn’t even see to think. It was as if it had not only darkened my sight, but my mind, too. I spun in a circle as my head swirled in confusion. I had no idea which way was out or where I was.

“How did I know you’d be a problem?” Shadow’s low, dark voice was a sibilant hiss in my ear. “Good thing you’re not as smart as you are powerful.”

I screamed, and then my world went dark.

Crap, my head hurt! I cracked open one eye and then the other, a wave of nausea rolling over me when I saw the ground passing by in a darkened blur. Where the hell was I and why was my world turned upside-down? I struggled to rise, but

something was pressing on my backside. I tried to kick, but my legs were bound together.

“Keep steady,” a low rumble warned. I recognized that voice. My boss, Shadow.

Wait a minute! Shadow!

I shrieked at the memory of Shadow’s attack.

I was draped over his back, and he was taking me somewhere. But where? Sweat rolled down my neck and dampened my hair. Wherever we were, it was more hot and humid than my vagina had been after a week-long Florida spring break screw session with Chet from Louisiana State. I’d met him by the cabana pool that first night after drinking a copious amount of rum. He hadn’t been very tall, but what he lacked in height, he made up for in sex drive. Plus, he’d said all the right things, like how we could make a long distance relationship work, yada yada yada. It wasn’t until after my sorority sisters and I piled into our compact rental car that I noticed the itch. The itch had turned into an all-out burn by the time we caught our red-eye flight back to Seattle. Next day I found myself in the campus GYN’s office, flames practically shooting out of my crotch as I moaned and squirmed on the table. After a heavy duty prescription and several angry text messages to Chet, the burn finally subsided. But I’d never forget that awful feeling. That was how my entire body felt now, as if I was being suffocated in a giant, flaming vagina.

Level two had been hot and humid, but not this bad. This kind of heat made my skin itch as if I’d spent too many hours in the sun. And that’s when it hit me.

Holy fuck, I’m in Hell!

“Let me go!” I screamed as I pounded his back with my fists. I tried to spread my fingers as I summoned my wind, but something was restricting my hands. I squinted, trying to get a clear view of my hands, and saw they were bound and tied up in a sack.

When Shadow abruptly stopped, I had this crazy notion he’d actually listened to my command. That he’d turn around and bring me back to the safety of level thirteen.

But then I froze when I heard the distinct sound of boots marching up to us. “You’re back. That wasn’t long.” The man’s voice sounded scratchy, gruff, as if he’d just finished an evening meal of charcoal and sandpaper.

“Only fifty years,” came Shadow’s casual reply. “Take me to my master. I have a present for him.”

Present? As in me? Master? Like a demon or (shudder) Satan?

Shadow must have been one evil dude. I only wondered how a demon had been in Purgatory all this time without getting caught. I thought our elevators had some kind of sensors to prevent intruders from ascending.

The boots shuffled much too close to me, and I jerked when two glowing eyes peered up at me from beneath a face shrouded in matted brown hair. He looked like a demon Sasquatch.

The creature scratched the top of his head, pieces of scalp floating to his furry shoulders, before he pointed up at me with a knotted stub, or maybe it was a partial finger. “What is it?”

I could almost envision Shadow’s devious smile as his answer ripped through my chest like a meat cleaver. “A fallen angel.”

Galveston Texas

September 8, 1900

Aedan O’Connor

I woke to the sounds of howling winds rattling the shutters on my window, like a phantom spirit arisen from the dead, searching to steal lost souls.

The storm was worsening. Though many a Galvestonian had said the hurricane would never reach our shallow shores, I feared a tempest was indeed on the horizon.

I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, wincing at the pain in my back. These hard cots were hardly made for sleeping.

I’d moved into a boarding house the night before, sharing a room with three other dockworkers. We’d been packed in like sardines, and I couldn’t sleep a wink, not just because of my roommates’ rumbling snores, but because of the heaviness in my heart, settling like a stone as I tried to make sense of my life.