Hell's Gift (12 page)

I had hoped I wouldn’t run into Murry, but wasn’t it convenient for him that I was all tied up the first time we did run into each other? I was positive he would also assume I was a spy from Heaven. This was not going to end in my favor, I thought.

I noticed then that Abigail had left the bed and was halfway to the door. I clamped the hilt with my teeth and spoke around it, “Please…”

She stopped and turned to look at me.

I swallowed hard. As cruel as she had been to me I knew there was some truth to what Malcolm had told me, even as much as I wanted to deny it. I hated to stoop to begging, but what other choice did I have? I let the dagger fall from my mouth to my lap. “I will talk to you. Just please don’t open that door unless you untie me first. I at least deserve to be able to defend myself against him.”

She gave a short, amused laugh. “You make friends fast here, don’t you, boy?”

“Abigail? Are you not alone?” Murry asked.

I glanced nervously to the door, then back to her. “He’s no friend of mine, but it wasn’t here that I met him.” She raised an eyebrow, then took another step backward, toward the door. I panicked. “Wait! I will tell you everything I know. Just get rid of him.”

The handle of the brass doorknob jiggled slightly. “Abigail?”

She glanced back to the door, ready to take another step in the direction of my doom.

“Abbi, please…” I said, and the room spun around us.

Chapter 15

Everything moved in slow motion. The hood fell away from her battered face and her familiar eyes looked up to meet my own. I knew her, I thought. How did I know her? Her name had never been Abigail to me.

She was always Abbi.

She had always been…my Abbi.

I took in a shaky breath as it all came charging in, biting and harrowing, nipping and chaffing, trying to get into the deepest, darkest, hidden part of my head hardware. The rush was excruciatingly painful, but I now knew who she was.

Kiss her.

A fast slide show of memories flooded through my mind, and I could tell by her tear-filled green eyes that she was experiencing the same thing.

“No,” she begged in a whisper, and her breath hitched as the sob threatened to choke her. “Don’t watch it, Rhyan,” she said, but even if I had wanted to turn the images off, I didn’t think it would have been possible.

Her innocent smile.

A tender kiss.

Love.

My hands on her body as she gave me everything on our wedding night.

The happiness and joy we felt when we found out she was carrying our first young.

The grief in her eyes I saw from spirit form as she was told my life had been taken.

I had watched her for days, too worried to leave her alone. She had been growing weak, not drinking enough, not eating at all. She had needed me and I had failed her. I tried to communicate with her, to tell her that I would always be with her. I wouldn’t leave her ever again.

I watched the memory like it was a bad nightmare. I couldn’t not see it. I closed my eyes and it was there. I opened my eyes and she stood, frozen, her feet planted to the hard stone beneath her, fat tears falling over her cheeks. But the memory was still playing in my mind like a home movie.

“No!” I shouted, and realized my own tear ducts had betrayed me. I fought with my bindings. I needed to get to her. Make sure she was real and whole and alive. The movie continued to play, but I already knew what was to happen. The guardians had erased every bit of her from my memory for my own sanity, but now it was back. Malcolm had found a way to give me an ability, and it was the wrong damn one! I couldn’t take this. I couldn’t watch this again.

“No!” I shouted at the girl standing before me and to the girl in my memory.
Abbi ran her finger over the blade of the dagger, checking its sharpness.
“Why? We could have been together.
She palmed the leather hilt in her right hand, then stared at the blade like it was her only way out of misery.
How could you have done that to our chi…”
Abbi turned the blade downward and placed her left hand over her right.
I started choking, then gagging as I watched the mental video come to an end.
In one swift move she drove the blade through her heart.
I looked at my lap where the dagger still lay. It was the same dagger she’d used to stab through my heart earlier, and it was also the same dagger she’d used to stab through her own, ending her life as well as our child’s. Bile rose up from my stomach and I leaned to the side just in time for the vomit to hit the floor instead of the blood-stained knife. Not that I really cared where it landed.

I had to get out of there. I had to get away from her until I could clear my head.

“Abigail! Let me in or I will break into your chambers. Answer me so I will know you’re all right, dammit! Who is in there with you?” The knob tried to turn unsuccessfully again.

I took a deep breath, glanced at the door, and then looked back to her. If he got in I was sure to lose another life, then Malcolm would call me back to Heaven long enough for me to beat the shit out of him for putting me through this torture.

“Let him in, Abbi,” I said through a clenched jaw as I glared at her. “Let him take my life so that I don’t have to look at you feeling sorry for yourself right now.”

She brought a shaky hand up to her mouth, then rushed to me. I turned my face away, disgusted, as she knelt by my side. “Rhyan. Oh, Rhyan, I couldn’t remember until now. I hate myself. I’m so sorry. I just couldn’t go on—”

“Abigail, open the fucking door!”

“Just go away, Murry. I’m fine!” She touched my arm and I jumped. She pulled her hand back, then I could feel tugging on the ropes that bound my arms behind me.

When my hands were free I bent to hurriedly release my left ankle. I didn’t object when she went to work untying the other one from the leg of the chair.

Our heads jerked up when there was a loud bang on the door as if someone was trying to kick it in. “You cannot order me anymore. I am no longer your sex puppet. I am your equal now, according to Lucifer.” I could hear faint sniffing sounds coming from the door. “Rhyan…” he said curiously, “…is that you, old friend?”

Abbi went back to work with the knots and so did I. “He knows you’re in here. How do you know each other?”

I grunted. I didn’t want to talk about Kendra to Abbi. It was too complicated. “Maybe I’ll tell you over crumpets and tea sometime.”

The loud bang sounded again.

She finished with her ropes and my leg was free, but the bindings I was looking at were too complex. I didn’t even recognize the intertwining cluster of tangled knots, but it hadn’t been in my job description to be a master at it. If I got back to Heaven I would definitely take a class.

She grabbed the dagger and sliced quickly through the threads.

“You’ve got to get out of here. I don’t know why you’re here or how you healed so fast or even how you managed to acquire…” she motioned with her hand at my clothes, “…those, but—”

I stood and took her by the shoulders. I knew what she looked like under those bruises, and I was going to make whoever had done that to her body regret they ever existed. I would make them pay. No matter what she’d done, I still loved her.

Kiss her.

I wanted to obey the voice in my mind. Her eyes looked up to me with such passion and concern. The emotions and feelings I’d had for this woman were all back, fresh and new, but now wasn’t the time. Murry would eventually get that door open and there was no time for her and me to have a reunion. I would need more than a few minutes to make up for the three centuries lost between us.

I ran my fingers lightly over her taut, puffy skin. “I can’t leave without you—”

“But you have to, Rhyan. You can’t even imagine the things they will do to you if they find out where you came from. And it sounds like Murry may already know. He will—”

I all but jumped out of my skin at the thought of Murry doing anything to her, then realized the demon was at her door; he probably already had. “Did he do this to you?” I growled. It would have pleased me to rip that demon apart with my bare hands, but I was lacking in my abilities, and I couldn’t even protect myself from him, much less Abbi. I needed power. I had to get back to Malcolm.

She let her head fall, then shook it slightly. “No, and it’s none of your concern who did. Let it go.” She looked up at me with finality in her gaze.

She wasn’t going to budge on this, and there was honestly nothing I could do about it. I made a promise to myself to find out who’d hurt her when I was able to take care of business.

“Get out of here, Rhyan.”

“No, Abbi, you don’t understand. I physically can’t leave without you. I got into some…trouble.” The door rattled on its hinges again, and I could tell it wouldn’t be long before Murry blessed us with his appearance. “Some friends are trying to help us, but they can only do so much,” I said, and then wondered if Josselyn was still on board with the ‘Rescue Rhyan Mission’. I didn’t want to lose her as a friend.

Her eyes grew wide in surprise, then blinked a few times in disbelief. “You are not suggesting I go with you. I can’t go to Heaven, Rhyan. Some sins just aren’t forgiven. I can’t very well expect God to forgive me for doing something I cannot even forgive myself for.”

Hot tears stung my eyes. I hadn’t come this far for her to just say no. There had to be a way around this or Malcolm wouldn’t have gotten himself in so deep. That also made me wonder if there was something special in it for the angel. We weren’t exactly the best of friends. “You have to forgive yourself, Abbi—”

“Why?” she tested, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. “You can’t even forgive me, so why should I?” she said, and I averted my eyes from hers. I wanted to forgive her, but I wasn’t sure that it was possible. “I deserve my fate. I was too weak. I loved you too much, and our child not enough. I saw no other way. I couldn’t go on and raise our child by myself, seeing you in his or her eyes every day. I would’ve gone mad. There was only darkness. I knew Hell couldn’t be any worse than the one I was already living in without you. I made my decision and there was no turning back. There is still no turning back. This is my destiny, Rhyan.”

Her response hit me like a ton of bricks. Had I not said the same thing to Josselyn when referring to Kendra?

The loud bang sounded again, this time knocking one of the metal hinges to the floor.

I knew if Murry got in and killed me that Malcolm would pull me to him. That’s what I wanted, so I could hopefully grab some firepower, but I knew the bruises on Abbi’s body were probably only mild compared to how they would look the next time I saw her. She was right, they would torture me when they found out why I was here, but I could only imagine the things they would do to her when they found out who I was. “Can you hide us until I can protect you?”

She dropped her gaze again, and I caught her chin with the palms of my hands, giving her no choice but to look at me. I searched her eyes and wondered how it was even possible that the guardians could have blocked the memories of her from my mind. “I won’t leave you, Abbi. I will find a way out of here and you will be going with me. Find a place to hide us until I can—”

A blast of power hit the door and it fell to the stone floor. Abbi jumped in front of me in a protective stance.
Oh, hell no!
I grunted, then grabbed her arm, jerking her behind me. If Murry wanted her, he was going to have to go through me first. I assumed that wouldn’t take long, but I had to at least try to defend my wife.

Murry stepped into the room, his hands casually hanging empty at his side. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat that had just sent Alice in the wrong direction to find the white rabbit. “Wow,” he said, and raised his brow, his eyes glistening with controlled anger or happiness; I couldn’t tell which, but neither was going to be good for me, I feared. “Isn’t this an unexpected surprise? And won’t Lucifer be happy to know his whore is harboring an angel in her chambers?”

My nostrils flared as I stiffened. Abbi touched my arm and I relaxed a little. I knew better than to move. I was sure he thought I still had my powers and that was what was keeping him at bay. I knew he wasn’t stupid enough to take on both of us if he thought I could still take him on by myself.

“Get us out of here,” I whispered to Abbi.

“There is nowhere in Hell Lucifer can’t find me.”

“You are the grim-freaking-reaper. Take us out of Hell!” I growled.

I watched as Murry’s brow furrowed in confusion. He was only seconds away from figuring out I wasn’t at all what I used to be.

“I can’t,” she whimpered, “Lucifer has my soul and can pull me to him wherever I go. I’m not safe anywhere.”

I sucked air in through my nose, then found her hand with mine and squeezed gently. “Would I be guessing right by assuming Lucifer was the one who gave you those bruises?”

“Am I missing something?” Murry inquired.

“It’s not like you’ve been around for the last three centuries to take care of my sexual needs,” she whispered so only I could hear.

I turned sharply to look at her. “Like that was my fault?”

She sighed. “He doesn’t exactly give me a choice.”

I looked back to Murry just in time to see his brow pop up.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I sense a little familiarity between the two of you.”

Whatever had happened between Abbi and Murry was in the past. I knew she hadn’t even remembered me until a few moments ago, so being jealous of anyone she’d been sexually active with in the past three hundred years would just be stupid on my part. As much as I hated to admit that, I still wanted to kill him for touching her. “She’s my
wife
.” I put heavy emphasis on the last word. I didn’t want it going unnoticed. And I didn’t need for him to assume that he could drop in for a night cap with her anytime soon, or at all.

Murry stared at me. I could tell he was trying to hide the shock, but there was still a lot seeping through in his trembling hand and nervous eyes. Good, I had him off balance.