by Kim Faulks
The Lorn Demon smiled in the corner of my eye and lifted her hand, fingers curled, beckoning me closer.
“Jesus,” I whispered.
“Cosy, isn’t it?” Rival snarled, his voice thick with fear and determination. “Now keep walking and don’t fucking stop.”
Screams slipped through the cracks of the walls. Just the wind…just the wind…just the fucking wind…
Give me a Night Hag. Hell, give me a fucking Seelie to fight. Anything but this.
“You wanna touch me, lover?” The Lorn Demon whispered in my ear.
I tried not to turn my head, tried not to look as she opened the front of her blouse. Pale skin shone in the dark, the swell of her breasts made my breath catch.
I stepped…and stepped again while my heart clenched.
“You gonna just leave me here?”
Step…step…don’t look, don’t turn your head.
“I like it when they fuck me,” she murmured. “I like it when they all fuck me. But I miss you the most, Redemption. I miss you the most. I’m so lonely down here. I’m so goddamn lonely.”
“You’re not real,” I growled. “You’re not fucking real.
The Hellhound turned and glared over his shoulder. “Who the fuck you talking to?”
I glanced at the Lorn Demon, who just smiled at me and ran her finger over her breasts. Dark nipples tightened as her finger circled and then slipped lower, finding the front of her jeans. “I want you inside me, Redemption. I want you all the way inside me.”
My fucking cock twitched, my heart hammered. I tried to tear my gaze away, but I was seized as her fingers slipped underneath the denim and moved down to where the elastic of her panties would be…and then lower.
“Faster,” I growled, and scurried faster, barreling into the back of the Hellhound. “I said fucking faster.”
Rival stumbled forward, and reached out to grasp the sides of the wall. The hiss of searing flesh filled my ears before he jerked his hand away. “What the fuck! Sonovabitch!”
“Looks like I’m going to have to pleasure myself,” the Lorn Demon murmured.
But there was no fucking way I was watching, even if that was all I dreamed of for the last goddamn ten years. That wasn’t Lorn. That wasn’t anything like Lorn.
And as Rival caught his stumble, the floor leveled out once more. I sucked in a hard breath as the Hellhound glanced into the dark. “There should be flames burning.”
He lifted his torch. “There should be the blue flames of Hell burning down here.”
But there was only the crackle of fire…here, hidden in the dark, there was that hiss—that snap of a flame. Rival lifted the burning yellow flames of his torch and took a step closer to the wall.
Torchlight glistened, lashing the stony walls like it always had.
But this was no blue flame of the lower levels of Hell.
This was pure midnight.
Silver lined the edges of hungry tongues.
Rival lifted his hand, fingers dancing near the flame. But there wasn’t the whimper of pain as the tip of his finger passed though. There wasn’t even a snarl from the Hellhound’s lips.
Black caressed the tip of his finger, and as he pulled his hand away, the midnight taint raced toward his hand.
“What the fuck?” Rival snarled and wrenched his gaze to mine.
He stilled, eyes widening as he stared at me. “Ah….Redemption…”
The words hit me cold. He never called me by my name…ever. “Yeah?”
“I think,” the Hellhound licked his lips, unable to tear his gaze from mine. “I think you need to talk fast, brother. Get what you need and we’re out of here….like fucking now!”
He glanced toward the cell that we’d just left. Absolon was quiet now…too quiet. Where were the smarmy catcalls? Where was the smug fucking tone? There was just darkness.
Just infernal darkness.
It’d been…what? Ten minutes since we left him…fifteen at the most. “Absolon,” I took a step toward the cell bars. “Don’t tell me you’re broken already?”
Rival stumbled forward, and shoved his torch toward my hand. “Move it, or I’m leaving without you.”
Through the flickering yellow light, I caught the black ruin spreading out like veins across his forearm. It was eating him…right here as we spoke. “Absolon…I need a way to get to a portal. Whatever problems you and I have, then we need to work it out between us.” I turned toward the cell and held the dancing flames against the bars. “It’s not Lorn’s burden to bear. It’s mine, so I’m asking you…no, I’m begging you. Tell me where the portal to the Unseelie world is, and I’ll speak to Lucifer and ask for leniency.”
There was a shuffle. There was a moan.
The thing that turned toward me wasn’t Absolon…not anymore.
It was blackened and hairless. Its eyes ran bloody tears down crusted, sooty cheeks. Something fell from its mouth as its lips parted. The tiny white thing hit the cell floor with a click. I stared at it…a tooth, it was a goddamn tooth. “Portal?”
The thing that was once an Unseelie Prince hissed. “A portal? A pickle, or a pear…or pain…yes, yes that’s what you want. Pain…pain…pain. Pain for Lorn. Pain for Lucifer. Pain for Redemption. There’ll be no coming back for you. Not you. Not Redemption. The Queen always gets what she wants. Do you know what she wants, warrior?”
Broken mind. Broken body.
“Do you?” The blistered thing took a step closer, reaching out with charred fingers. Hunks of skin fell from the bone. “Do you know what she wants?”
I took a step backwards.
He wasn’t laughing anymore now. His eyes were filled with panic and rage. He speared crumbling fingers through the bars and gripped with the bone. “Do you know what she wants?”
“I’m out of here,” Rival snarled and took a step backwards.
I lunged toward him, hurried by the echoes of the Prince’s words. “Do you? Do you know what she wants!”
Yellow flames shone against blackened flesh as the Hellhound ran. He slipped, and dropped to the ground. Flesh shimmered and was swallowed by midnight fur. He never broke stride, never slowed at all.
Awkward, galloping strides on hands and feet smoothed out as he shifted and paws took their place. Blue flames glinted in dark eyes as the Hellhound lifted his head and howled his rage.
The piercing sound carried along the tunnel as we scurried up the incline. He kept pace with me as we ran for dear life as we moved higher…higher…higher.
“Lover?” The Lorn Demon called behind me. “Where you goin’?”
I fucking ran, ran until the booming of my heart drowned out everything else. Ran like the lowest level of Hell was waiting for me.
Ran like Lucifer had finally found the truth.
The truth of why Lorn was held captive.
And why the Unseelie Prince hated me above all others.
My footing slipped on something slick. I stumbled forward as Rival lunged, hitting my hand, pushing me upright. I clenched as I glanced behind me at the mass of white feathers on the ground.
Rival let out a snarl and surged ahead, hurry now…
My thighs screamed, my lungs were on fire. Still I drove my boots into the ground and kept on climbing, until finally murky darkness replaced the pitch black.
Rival lunged, punching through the last few steps until we exited the lower levels of Hell and stood at the base of the pit.
“Rival! Redemption!” I lifted my head to Gabriel standing high above.
Rocks scattered as the Hellhound lunged, there was no waiting now…no matching my pace. I climbed, climbed until my knees gave way, and I hit the pit’s razored, rocky ground with a thud.
I crawled then, tucked my head down low and scurried forward…like the fucking vermin I was.
Do you know what she wants? The words resounded inside my head as air buffeted my face as a hand reached out to rescue me.
I lifted my head to the Archangel and finally answered. �
��Yes.”
“Come on, then,” Gabriel murmured. “Let me help you.”
He didn’t understand, didn’t hear the screams of the Prince inside my head. I reached up and grasped the offering, knowing I deserved far less.
“You okay?” Gabriel crouched to look into my eyes.
I sucked in a breath, my mind scrambling for a way to make this right. I had to make this right. “Yeah…yeah, I’m good.”
Feathers ruffled as he turned and took a step, slowly climbing the spiral walkway of the pit. I caught bald patches in the soft down where he’d lost a part of himself in that dark, terrifying tunnel into Hell.
Rival had shifted back into his human form by the time we reached them. I stared at his hand, the black taint now almost gone. He stared at his fingers and then lifted his head as I neared. “Remind me to never…ever, let you talk me into something again.”
“Did you find it?” Titus shoved off the rock face where he’d waited. “Did you find another portal?”
I shook my head. There was no portal. Not to the Unseelie world, and if there was, I was the last person Absolon would tell.
“Is there any other way. Another realm…it’s the Seelie realm that shares the astral plane, isn’t it?” The cop jumped the last step and glanced from the others to me. “Well? Isn’t it? Maybe there’s somewhere we can…”
“Not sure if you know this, mortal,” Rival snarled, “but the Unseelie and the Seelie have been at war for the best part of a thousand years.”
Titus ignored the bite in the Hellhound’s tone and kept going. “So, you’re saying there’s no actual way to get from one to the other?”
I flinched at the thought. “Well, there is…but like Rival said, the Seelie and the Unseelie despise each other. I’d be killed on sight.’
“Not if you wear a disguise,” Rival snarled. White fangs glistened with the sinister curl of his lips.
My gut clenched as I shook my head. They all turned, every single one of them…even the goddamn Archangel.
“Well?” Rival growled.
I swallowed hard, but even as I tried to keep the image in the back of my mind, I knew it was useless. I met the sonofabitch’s gaze. “This is payback, isn’t it?”
One dark, bushy brow rose. “What? Whatever do you mean?”
He didn’t need to fucking answer.
I’d always known it’d come back to bite me in the end.
This was payback for the yellow fucking pants.
“It could work, right?” The cop stared at me.
“It’ll take a goddamn miracle, but, yeah, it could work,” and for the first time since I came to the mortal realm, I thought about the enemy I’d been sworn to kill. The Warriors of the Blessed—the Seelie court.
I lifted my gaze to the rage-filled sky that swirled overhead. We’d come to Hell to find a way to Lorn, no matter how brutal that road might be.
If there was a chance I could get to her, if there was a chance I could save her—then I needed to try.
Really? A voice whispered inside. Would you try everything? There is another way…I shuddered with the words…
The ultimate way…
“Brother?” The Archangel murmured. “Are you okay?”
I swallowed hard and forced a smile. “Yeah, fine.”
There was a second where his blue eyes darkened to gray. The Archangel didn’t believe me, still he nodded and took a step backwards. “The Seelie world, how do we get there?”
I sucked in a breath and summoned every ounce of strength I had left. I’d need it…I’d need that and more. “This is fucking ridiculous.”
“If you have another idea, then we’re all ears,” Rival snarled. “If not…then get with the goddamn program.”
“Where?” Titus urged.
I looked around to the howling wind and the crimson swirling sky. “Well, not here, that’s for sure. Somewhere bright, and lots of goddamn attention. Those bastards love to be seen in public.”
“Luminous,” Titus muttered and met my gaze. “That’s the brightest damn place in the city. I’ve heard a lot of the guys talk about it being taken over by supes, but never really witnessed it firsthand.”
“Sounds like the place,” Rival growled and lifted a hand. “Let’s do this.”
The Hellhound’s power swallowed me. The wind smacked into my face as the ground moved under my feet. Red skies above faded. I held on…clutching to the hope that I could somehow find a way through the Seelie realm to the place I’d once called home.
“Hold on!” Rival roared as the wind howled and the pit shifted.
Except it wasn’t the wind I heard anymore. I doubted I’d ever hear the sound again.
All I heard were screams.
Screams from Absolon.
Screams from me.
Chapter Five
Lorn
There was no daylight in the Unseelie world. I cracked open my eyes, searching for the faint rays of the morning sun through the sheer curtains of my apartment, and for this perfect moment as I was trapped between slumber and being awake, I dreamed of home.
Dreamed there was a tangle of arms and legs in the bed around me.
Dreamed there were the savage snores from Gabriel, and the guttural grunts from Rival.
Dreamed I was safe, and loved. I let the feeling swallow me, let it flow all the way through my mind, until a sound broke through the illusion.
Slide…thump. Slidddeee….thump.
Sliiiiddddeeee…thump.
I cracked open my eyes to the murky gloom and held my breath.
Sllliiidddeee…thump.
My heart boomed, sending a shudder through my chest. The cold satin sheet draped over my head, for a moment I struggled to piece it all together.
Titus…driving to save him.
The fire.
The hag…
The Queen…my breath caught. The Queen and the Unseelie world. I was a prisoner sleeping in the consort’s room...and in his bed.
I shifted my feet, my boots scraped against the bedclothes, leaving the outline of warmth behind. Cold moved in, stealing the warmth from the sheets and my body.
Sssslllliiiiddddeeee….thump. The sound closer, so close it made the bed tremble. I yanked the sheets from over my head and stared into the dark. The outline of a male towered over the bed.
“I-I…” the male growled and then stumbled.
He hit the mattress with a thud, bouncing the pillows and me. I scurried, kicking free of the mess of sheets and blankets and knelt in the middle of the bed. It was Boroch, the Unseelie Queen’s consort and leader of her guard.
“I just need to sleep,” he snarled and threw one massive hand onto the bed and tried to haul himself higher.
He could barely move, barely stand on his own damn feet. An ache flared through my chest as I lifted my head to the doorway of her room. “What the hell did she do to you?”
“My Queen…” he whimpered. “My…everything.”
I shoved from the bed, and rounded the foot, moving up beside him. Even from there I could see the welts and the cuts across his back. “Your everything, huh?”
I moved closer as he clawed for a hold on the bed. There was no way he was getting up there, not without some help. Don’t touch him, a voice echoed inside my head. You think he’d do the same for you? Think he’d lift one goddamn finger to show you any kind of mercy?
No. He wouldn’t.
But I wasn’t him.
“I’m going to touch you,” I murmured, then glanced over my shoulder to the doorway into the Queen’s room and turned back. “I’m just going to grab your arm and try to lift you, okay?”
There was a shift in the darkness, one small nod of his head. I stepped closer and crouched.
I was used to big guys. Orcs, shifters, even a smartass Hellhound, an Archangel and a…Jesus, I didn’t even know what to call Titus, or two had me pushing myself to the physical limit.
I was no bodybuilder…but I was no couch potato, either. I gri
pped his arm, bent my knees. “On the count of three, ready? One…two…three…”
I heaved until my back strained and my jaw clenched. The bastard weighed a damn ton, still he shoved with his feet and punched the mattress, driving his body higher and on top of the bed.
His head hit near the pillow, one foot still on the floor. I stepped closer, grasped his ankle, and lifted. My eyes were adjusting, a little too fast. The guard was naked, his face buried into the same pillow I’d laid my head on only seconds before.
His shoulders were massive, tapering to a V at the small of his back. Silver scar lines cut in a criss-cross pattern under the darker…fresher wounds. He was a mess…a sickening mess.
The scars look just like Redemption’s back.
I stiffened with the thought. My breath trapped, heart clenched tight. I couldn’t lift my head. Couldn’t find that massive doorway in the dark. Not Redemption, no. He hadn’t been that kind of guard. He was just one of the others. One of the ones she used in battle…but never in bed.
Hard snores echoed from Boroch, exhaustion had claimed him within a heartbeat. I reached out, fingers trembling in the dark to hover over the scars on his back. Redemption hadn’t been like this. Not the Redemption I knew.
He’d never let himself be used.
Never let himself be beaten.
Not by his Queen or by anyone.
Acid rose in the back of my throat. I clenched my fist, drawing my fingers away from Boroch’s skin. No, not Redemption. The words were a door slammed on the terror inside my head. I stepped backwards, staring at the male draped over one side of the bed.
Redemption despised her.
And she hated Redemption.
Redemption the deserter. Redemption the betrayer.
That’s what they called him.
Not lover, not like I had. The word conjured the memories. Heated passion, savage lust. My body tightened, heat flowed. Even after all these years, my heart quickened. I loved him, and wanted him.
He came after me, protected me when I needed it the most. He raced against the other hunters and found me as I claimed the second kill of the cult called the Nine. The same bastards Absolon protected and funded.