Naz sat in the back, asleep. His head was at a weird angle, but he would be fine, if I could just get him out of the flames. I reached in, dragging him across the backseat. Why couldn’t I move him?
“Come on, Naz. I need you. Please,” I sobbed, as I pulled him from the wreckage. I overbalanced, pulling Naz down on top of me, cracking my head on the gravel. His body laid over mine, and my heart knew what my brain refused to contemplate.
“No, no, no, come on, wake up.” I shifted him off me, trying to do CPR. Where was everyone? “Help me!” There was no thumping of his heart, no steady rise and fall of his chest.
I felt a tug on my bond. Charlie. I crawled across the gravel, cutting up my hands and knees in my skirt, but I didn’t feel it.
Charlie was on the other side of the car, blood covering his face. “Rella,” he gasped, blood bubbling past his lips. I grabbed hold of his hand and pressed it to my cheek.
“I’m here, Charlie. We’re gonna be okay. All of us. We’re gonna be okay. I love you so much. We’re going to be okay.”
His body started convulsing as he coughed, the blood from his mouth spraying over my face. I turned him on his side, desperately trying to free his airway, but his body shook with wet gasping breaths until they stopped.
“Charlie? Stay with me. Don’t leave me.”
I laid my head on his chest, straining to feel the beat of his heart against my cheek. Silence.
Someone grabbed my shoulder and rolled me off of Charlie. Finally, help had arrived.
My brain failed to comprehend why I was looking at Pedro the Arms Dealer. What was he doing here?
He was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him over the high pitch ringing in my ears.
“What?” I shouted.
He leaned closer, until he was shouting directly into my ear. “I said, tell Naz no hard feelings. It’s just business.”
I felt the cold press of a gun barrel against my head. Then black.
Chapter twelve
The white light of the room threatened to blind me. I squinted, raising my hand to shade my face. Holy shit, was I in heaven?
“Hardly,” a familiar voice answered my unspoken question.
I turned and looked at Luc, Ace beside him. They looked pissed.
I blinked a few times, adjusting to the light. Where the fuck was I?
The bomb. The guys. Fucking Pedro.
“Figures she wouldn’t end up with soul amnesia. She’s been one foot in here since high school,” Ace murmured to Luc. She came over and hugged me, and that’s when it all sunk in like I was being doused in acid. I was dead. And in Hell. The kind with a capital H.
I looked around the room, with it’s snowy white marble. “This is kind of false advertising, don’t you think?”
Luc rolled his eyes. “You are in Hell now, Estrella. I am the Lord of Hell. Now would be the time to learn to be a little more respectful.”
Eesh. Probably sound life, er, afterlife advice. I searched the white halls. “Where’s Charlie? Where’s my guys?”
“My guys,” Luc corrected. “Charles Mulligan has made it just outside the doors of the palace.
Nazir’s soul was sorted to the first level, but I have sent someone to fetch him back.”
I turned to him now, closing the distance between us. “Luc, where’s Romanus and Rouen?” I didn’t like the stubborn set of his jaw. “Luc?”
“They had one job, Estrella. One. And they failed and now you are dead. I’m unsure you a fully grasping the seriousness of your situation. You are dead.”
“Luc…” I warned. “Where are they?”
He raised his chin. “I’m the Devil, I am true to my word. You don’t get to question me, child. I staked them in the demoness pit as promised.”
“No!” I shouted.
“Yes. They let you die!” He roared back. “You are my child and they let your mortal life end at twenty two. They needed to be punished.” His voice had gotten scarily low, which made all the little hairs on my arm raise.
I took a deep breath. “It wasn’t their fault. If it was anyone’s fault, it was mine. Please, Luc. I need them.”
He stared at me, his jaw set stubbornly in his scarily handsome face.
Ace, who’d been silent up until now, sighed heavily. “I have to go. They’ve just discovered your death.” Then she disappeared.
I didn’t have to ask who They were. My family. I’d never see them again.
Tears spilled from my eyes to run in a huge deluge down my cheeks until they were wetting my shirt. I scrambled around for my bond to Hope, but it was gone. I couldn’t imagine the pain she was feeling right now, and I couldn’t soothe her, couldn’t wrap her in my arms and protect her from this or any other hurt ever again.
I was suddenly pressed against a big chest, huge dark wings wrapping around me, as Luc hugged me.
The shock was enough to slow my tears. “It will be okay, Estrella, child of my Beloved.” I hadn’t forgotten he called me his child earlier. “I promise it won’t be so bad. You will be happy here at the palace with Ace and I. You will see your family again, I will make sure of it.”
He patted my back awkwardly, then released me. “Let us go get the Gargoille. It is pancake day, and the demonesses should still be gorging themselves in the palace kitchen, so your beasts should be unmolested.”
I just blinked “Pancake day?”
“Mmmhmmm. The only thing the demonesses like more than cock is pancakes.”
Luc lead me from the white room and down a hallway, the marble floors getting darker and darker until it was black. Once we stepped outside the palace doors, Luc clicked his fingers and we were somewhere else.
My eyes fell on Romanus and Rouen, their naked bodies staked to the ground spread eagle.
“Romanus! Rouen!” I ran from Luc’s side to Rouen who was closer. His eyes found mine, and they were a heartbreaking mixture of relief and guilt. I pulled at his bindings, until his arms were free. They came around my back, crushing me to his bare chest.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he repeated over and over against my ear. My tears started up again.
“It’s okay. Let’s get you out of here.” He sat up and worked the knots around his ankles while I went to work on Romanus.
I knelt beside him, but Rom refused to meet my gaze. “Leave,” he growled, shaking his wrists and making it almost impossible to untie the bindings.
“As if. Now sit still.”
He continued to struggle. “You need to go. Take Rouen. I failed you both. I deserve punishment. Damnation. Your mortal body is gone, because of me.”
I gripped his face, forcing him to meet my eyes. “Listen to me. This was not your fault. This was all Tenebre, and that fucker Pedro, and we are going to make sure they get their karmic punishment. But I need my Alpha. I need you to love me, and tell me it’ll be alright as long as we are together. I need you.”
His green and blue eyes stared at me, looking past my face and deep into my soul. He heaved out a breath that shook his whole body, and stopped struggling so I could untie his bindings. Rouen did his feet, his hand squeezing Romanus’ leg in silent support.
When they were free, all three of us stood before Luc, a united front.
The King of Hell, the Devil himself, heaved an exasperated sigh. “Even when you were a tiny infant, barely weeks old, I just knew you were going to be trouble, Estrella Jones.” He turned and left the demoness pit, and I averted my eyes from the other souls staked in the ground. I hadn’t noticed them before, my focus totally on my guys. People being punished was a sight I would have to get used to if I was going to live in Hell.
Luc snapped his fingers, and we were back in the palace. Charlie and Nazir stood talking to Gusion, the beautiful Prince of Hell.
I let go of Romanus and Rouen’s hands, tearing across the marble to throw myself into Naz’s arms. I reached out for Charlie and dragged him to me. I felt the press of the gargoyles to my back, and finally I could breath
e.
“You can get emotional later. Come. I’ll show you to your suite. I had it prepared twenty odd years ago for your parents, and look how that turned out?” Luc strode out of the great hall, walking up a winding set of dark marble stairs.
I stepped away from the guys, pausing on the first step. This was it. The first step to the remainder of my afterlife.
I looked around the palace, and then back at my guys.
There were definitely worse ways to spend eternity.
Author Note
I hope you enjoyed spending time with Rella and her guys. I know I have. This is the final instalment of Rella's spinoff series, but don't worry, I'm working on Hope's story right now.
Hope's story will begin by running concurrently to Rella's story, so Rella and the guys will pop up here and there throughout. However, it will eventually branch off and conclude the whole Redeemable saga.
As always, you can find me at all of these places below. Or you can send me a strippergram.
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/GraceMcGintyAuthor/
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Twitter: @McgintyGrace
Email: [email protected]
And now for the battlecry of all indie authors. If you liked this book, I'd love it if you left a review, or recommended it to a friend, or wrote the Amazon link on the wall of a bathroom stall.
Thank you so much for reading!
The Unrepentant- Part Three Page 10