Pawns Daughters of The Underworld Book 1

by Leighelle Stone

  I may have been deaf, but the roar of the void within me was loud and painfully clear. Clenching my eyes shut, I slapped my hands over my ears and tried to scream.

  Nothing but silence. No vibration of my vocal cords.

  Suddenly, the vibration of movement surrounding me stopped and a strong arm coiled around my body, lifting me slightly. Then, another made its way beneath my knees and lifted me the rest of the way. I curled my arms and legs in. Keeping my eyes shut, I rested my head against the broad chest that I was sure was Coal’s.

  Even if it were just a hair, a sense of relief trickled through me. Shortly, we would be outside and hopefully trying to figure out what the hell was wrong.

  Maybe I was drugged? Who knew how many people were planning to kill me.

  I had had quite a few drinks at this point. Perhaps I was just hallucinating?

  My whole body tingled like someone was jabbing a million little nails into my skin, head to toe. My arms and legs felt stiff, heavy as if drenched in molasses. Breath was hard to come by, and I was sure that was because of the fog machines mixing with panic-laced adrenaline coursing through me. Despite my lack of vision, my head was swirling, and uncomfortable tiredness was crowding my consciousness.

  Coal bobbed and weaved his way through the crowd. Faintly, I could feel the movement of his muscles beneath mine. His arms gripped me tightly, the only thing that was keeping my sanity from slipping off the edge. Finally, the music’s vibration stopped, and I was bombarded with cool, fresh air as Coal stepped out of the club. An even more intense tingle took over, and before I knew it he blinked us back to the apartment. Or I hoped it was.

  A few seconds later, my body came into contact with the couch’s cushions. Every bit of feeling seeped from my body. My head lolled to the side as I lost control of my limbs. The only thing I could do was breathe.

  Nothing but darkness surrounded me. I was in my very own void. One similar to what my chest felt like daily. Empty and alone. Never-ending blackness. Only this time, I couldn’t do anything to occupy my time otherwise. I was stuck. Never moving forward, never moving backward. Slowly, I took air into my lungs, wishing I could somehow wake myself back up. Say something to Coal to let him know what was going on.

  But I couldn’t.

  Hell, I didn’t even know what was going on.

  A way too unfamiliar feeling prickled at the backs of my eyes, almost painful in a way. A tightness lodged itself in my throat. I couldn’t even swallow it down. At this point, I wasn’t sure if my eyes were opened or closed. For all I knew, I was lying there on the couch like a weirdo with my eyes open, breathing through my mouth, not responding to a single thing.

  A twinkle jumped through the blackness. I tried to focus on it, will it to come back. I felt its pull, felt it calling out towards me. Was this death?

  Had someone caught on to Daddy’s call and was actually killing me?

  As if in shadow, I felt my body break down into millions of tiny little pieces as they were sucked out of my control and towards the small glittering part of space before me. As was the universe, I was ever-expanding. I was all over everything yet nowhere at all. I had done this to myself plenty of times but never had I been forced into the shadows. The thought of not being in control didn’t settle well with me, but it wasn’t so bad if this is what death felt like. It wasn’t great, but it didn’t hurt. The only thing that sucked balls was the pounding roar in my ears.

  Well, and the thought of not existing any longer.

  And not seeing Coal again.

  Fucking A, even in my death, my inner bitch was still carrying on. In a way, I was thankful for that. I wouldn’t have to worry another day about just how long I was going to be alone. Three thousand years was long enough. I could move on, whatever that meant.

  Man, hopefully, I wasn’t on my way to see Daddy.

  Hopefully, I could choose where I wanted to go. If I could, I would select Lucifer for sure.

  Finally, the roaring started to quiet, and the blackness faded into a murky gray color. I sighed. Was this it? Was I going to the gates?

  Ha. Ha. No way in hell was I going upstairs. I was probably well on my way to the fiery pits of Hell. Or at least a girl could hope. I was positive I was well on my way to see my father.

  My body started piecing itself back together. A long, hissing inhale drew my attention, and I felt something sharp and hard scrape against my cheek. Well, that was good, I could hear again. And feel. Still couldn’t move, though.

  The speck of glitter began to grow and grow until it took up my entire field of vision. I squinted against it when I realized that I was actually seeing it with my eyes and not my mind. The stench of … well, shit-flowers assaulted my nose. It was as if someone had dropped a deuce then sprayed clean summer air fresheners right before you walked in.

  It was disgusting.

  Vague figures took shape in my peripheral, but the light was still too blinding to make them out. I gave up on blinking and just settled for a half-opened high look. It was the only one that was comfortable.

  The air around me was hot. Musty. Thick. It only added to the disgustingness of the stench. Little beads of sweat formed over each pore, all over my skin, making my sequined dress weighted and sticky. It clung to my skin like a bathing suit fresh from the salty ocean. My mouth was dry, and I was sure that if I tried to talk, it would sound like I had smoked five packs a day for at least a century. I decided against it, taking Coal’s advice and trying not to play my cards too early.

  Coal. I thought. I wondered what he was doing. If he was still with my body. Would he mourn me? Or would he mourn his mate? My personality and her looks, perhaps? Naw, probably the other way around. Would there be a funeral? Would he try to get me back? Would he even remember me in twenty years?

  Not likely.

  I swallowed against the rock in my throat, sighing when it dissipated, but there was no denying the warmth sliding down my cheeks.

  Holy balls. Was I crying?

  No. It couldn’t be. I didn’t even know I was capable of that. I blinked again, and a fresh flow poured over my lower lids. My lashes felt sticky, funky, and unpleasant. Good thing I was already dead. Coal would never know the big bad wolf had cried over death.

  Maybe it was over losing Coal. I shrugged.

  Naw.

  “I can feel the swell in power,” a hissing voice dripping in evil said. I stilled, trying to find the direction that it came from, but it echoed all around me. I tried to zero in on the shadowy figures before me, but my eyes were still not cooperating fully, and the fog around me was so thick it only added to my poor eyesight.

  There were about ten characters. All different shapes and sizes. Literally. Some were as tall as Coal, if not taller, but long and lanky. Almost as if they would blow over in a slight breeze. Some were short and stocky. Others had four legs like a horse but the top half of what appeared to be human. I couldn’t precisely tell distinct features. They were all so fuzzy.

  I glanced down at myself. I was there, in my human form, only I wasn’t solid. I could see through myself like I was a ghost or spirit. Around my edges, my shadows hovered like a mist. I tried to draw them back in, but I had no control at all. They were drawn to the figures.

  A shorter, half-horse stepped towards me, and the stench was overwhelming. He was definitely more of the deuce before the flowers. I leaned my head back, trying to keep myself from the onslaught as he opened his mouth in a hiss. His head tilted down, then up until he would have been looking me straight in my eyes. I heard him sniff, then saw a hand fly through the air. Pleasure spread through me, and I had an immense urge to orgasm. I clenched my legs shut, feeling totally creeped out. Now was not the time to be getting my freak on. Especially not with a stinky half horse man thing.

  Another figure moved in to join the first, his hand sliding down the shape of my silhouette. He tugged on my shadows, sucking them in. Pain wracked through me, and I cried out, gasping for breath. This guy was not one of m
y favorites, even though he smelled like lilacs. The pull he took from me was so overwhelming I could barely stand when he finished.

  What kind of death was this? Torture to help make up for all the souls I sent to the Underside?

  Had the Brotherhood gotten to me? Coal said it wouldn’t be pleasant when they killed me, not like it was with him or the first guy who pulled from my shadows. With magic, anything was possible. But these creatures didn’t look anything like Coal, in build or stature. These things definitely didn’t live by a code of honor, or they would get me out of this weird state and fight me fairly.

  Like I ever fought fair.

  Another drag from behind had my stomach bubbling with nausea. I clutched an arm across my midsection, trying not to vomit. The smell of rotten eggs only added to the sensation.

  Wait a minute. Rotten eggs. I smelled this before.

  Demons. Holy shit, I was surrounded by demons. My stomach dropped to my butt, and my heart leaped into my throat. I glanced down at the ground––hay and dirt. Were we in a barn? All around me was covered in dust—no doubt from my shadows.

  These things were destroying me.

  Terror surged through me, and I waved my arms out, feeling for a barrier. My shadows poised and ready to strike, I tried to take a step forward. My forehead bounced off a shield I couldn’t see.

  I had to get out here before they killed me. If they could? Maybe it was just a trick.

  A cacophony of maniacal laughter spread through the room, wreaking havoc on my sensitive ears. Bastards.

  Desperate to get the hell away from them, I felt for the barrier. My hands went right through it like nothing was there, but my feet couldn't move. What the hell?

  I tried for another step, this time backward. My back slammed against the force field. I had about two square feet of space. Holy crap, holy crap. I breathed in deeply. I could do this. I could figure it out.

  How could they feed off my shadows if I wasn’t really here? Did that mean that my body was still in the apartment with Coal? Did they summon me like a demon? Was I a demon? I mean, aside from smelling like ass, we had the same characteristics. It was a possibility.

  If I was a demon, did I smell like flowers? Man, I sure hoped I did.

  More demons crowded in around me, each one taking a hit off my shadows, tearing me in every direction. My shadows were overwhelmed, jerking and yanking back away from them, but they couldn’t get far, and I couldn’t absorb them back into my body. They had a hold on me. Some hits were pleasant but still weakened me. Some burned like acid in my veins, while others sparked the fear of loneliness that crept into my brain space.

  A few millennia of darkness planted itself in my mind, taking root deep in my chest. All the times I’d spent wishing Daddy would spend time with me. The countless hours trying to impress him with my abilities, only to be turned away and forgotten. Toyed with. Pawned off on the daemons and Chronos. Hell, he was more of a father to me than my own dad.

  If only I had had a mother, like Hecate. If only Hecate had raised me. Scylla thought she had it bad, but we were on a level playing field. It may have taken Daddy three thousand years, but I knew what it was like to have him try to kill me. How much it hurt to know you weren’t wanted. I was tortured all my life in a very different way than physical pain. Mind games. I had a father there who made it so painstakingly obvious at all times that he didn’t want me.

  Jealousy raged like the tide in a hurricane. At least she had a mother who she so clearly valued, who loved her, shared stories with her, spent time with her. Nurtured her. All I got was thrown topside on my own to watch all the human families around me grow and prosper. See the love they shared for each other during the holidays like Thanksgiving.

  My chest ached at the thought of it all. I was going to die here in a room with a bunch of demons crying about how lonely I was.

  But you’re not lonely. You have Coal. Did she have any mates? My inner bitch was getting petty. Of course she had mates. Did she see her? She was gorgeous. But then again, she was three thousand years old as well, who couldn’t be known to the other worlds, so she had probably lost many mates. My heart ached for both of us. Fuck Daddy and the hurt he caused.

  I hoped she had had mates. I hoped she had a better life than I did. I wasn’t sure how long it had been since her mother had died, but I hoped she wasn’t lonely like I was.

  I shook my head in the act of physically throwing out the thoughts. I needed to get it together. I had two objectives. First, I had to get out of this cage. Second, I had to kill Daddy. Even if I couldn’t trust Scylla in the end, the least I could do was help her take him out. Whatever happened after that, I would deal with then.

  I had to get out of my head, or I wasn’t going to make it out of here alive.

  This was my game, and they were playing by my rules. Fear was how I killed people, not how I would die.

  I focused on the things around me—my senses. The things I could see, hear, smell, touch, and, unfortunately for me, taste. Shit-flowers did not taste very yummy. They were quite vomit-inducing.

  Forcing my eyes to focus through the fog, I could see the various demons. But beyond them was the faint glow of candles, and I could make out other shapes. More demons or people? My heart raced. I hoped the other shapes were people. People I could feed on.

  A demon pulled from my shadows again. They turned to dust and scattered all around me. Agony nipped at every nerve in my human body, and my shadows burned, cell by cell, as the demon took me in. More laughs followed as I fell to my knees. I fought against the sensations, locking them out. They weren’t paying me any favors––it was just pain after all.

  That shit did hurt, though.

  I aimed for control of my shadows once again. If I could get my hands out, maybe I could get a sliver through without them knowing. I couldn’t smell much more than their essence and earth, but if I could get a shadow out, maybe I could see if the other shapes were indeed humans and find an ounce of fear to latch on to. If they summoned the demons, that meant there had to be a bowl somewhere and that's what was keeping me in the barrier. That would be my out

  But I needed to feed to keep my strength up since they were taking so much from me. I could already feel the tiredness setting in, the blackness that wanted to take me. How could I keep them from knowing that I was feeding? I would have to move fast once I started because the person I was feeding from would alert them that something was happening.

  Suppose I could somehow drop the candles. We were in a barn full of hay that would surely go up in flames quickly. That would destroy the bowl, which had to be on the ceiling since I couldn’t see anything in the earth beneath me. Hopefully cause enough chaos that the demons would disappear—wishful thinking on my part.

  I was so out of my element, once again. Even if I could get myself free, what would stop them from coming after me again? They could just summon me right back. I needed to do some research on this demon nonsense if I made it out alive.

  I was a terrible supernatural being. No wonder my father didn’t want anything to do with me.

  Once the enticing idea of feeding had kicked in, my shadows worked to cooperate with me. They weren’t very strong because so much had been taken from them, but they were trying at least, and when half the time they had a mind of their own, I would take what I could get. I wished I could just shadow up and bounce on out, but that was way out of the question with being so weak. I tried not to let the doubts creep in that I was doing exactly what they wanted and walking straight into a trap. Why were my shadows able to get out of this one and not the last barricade? A different type of magic, perhaps? Did they overlook that little snippet of information?

  Whatever the case, I would use it to my advantage. After all, I could only get lucky so many times.

  “What is this? A demon orgy?” I mustered up all of the usual bravado I could. I wouldn’t let them know just how weak I was from their attack.

  “Oh, she speaks,” a gorgeous ten
or sounded.

  “If you wanted to get your rocks off, all you had to do was ask,” I grumbled.

  “We are going to get more than that out of you by the time we are finished.” His promise had my nerves on edge. I did not want to know what they had planned for me, and I wouldn’t be sticking around long enough to find out. I collected myself and sent out a feeler.

  “And exactly how long is that going to be?” I asked casually as the tiniest fragment of shadow slipped between hooves. A heavy foot side-stepped, and a tail swished. I froze, taking a second.

  “However long it takes,” he answered. If we were any place but here, I would love to see the body that that voice was attached to because, damn, it rumbled in all the right ways. What I didn’t do, however, was look up to see which one was talking. Instead, I remained curled up in a ball acting as if I was weaker than I really was. Which wasn’t far off, but once I made it to those humans, I would be fine. Then, it would be go time.

  I could only imagine the look on Coal’s face when he saw me being so ridiculous as to fold myself in the fetal position and leave myself so vulnerable to any attack. But then again, I was being attacked from every angle anyway. At least since I had started talking, they had stopped killing off my shadows as much.

  Score one for me. Maybe if all this ridiculous stuff kept happening to me, my planning and plotting skills would at least beef up, and I’d be sort of fit to rule the Underside. Maybe there was a plus side to all this nonsense.

  “And what is it, exactly?” I asked as my shadow snaked through the hay, dodging the little flashes of light as the demons moved around, causing shadows of candlelight to dance about.

  “He is going to be so pleased. We’ve captured the Shadow,” another boasted, his scratchy voice filled with hope. It wasn’t exactly an answer, but it did help move the conversation along, and my shadows. They dodged another set of some creepy-looking clawed human feet, then darted off into the far side of the barn where they found some old beat-up Nike’s attached to some yummy legs.