by J A Hinchey
“Lucy.” Dacian was there, holding me in his arms, letting me cry against his chest until eventually, I cried myself out. And that was when it started. The anger. It boiled up, from the depths of my soul, bubbling through my veins, consuming me. Thunderclouds tinged with red gathered, red forks of lightning struck the Earth with angry booms. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.
“Lucy, calm down.” Dacian released me, backing away, palms out, a worried expression on his face.
“You’re either with me or against me.” The rage in my voice changed it. I sounded like a stranger and I didn’t care. I only cared about one thing. Levi. I’d move Heaven and Earth to get him back. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Chapter 19
Excerpt: Levi’s POV
The minute a smoking hot angel named Lucifer strolled into my shop I knew I was in trouble. Not in the sense I was going to have my ass dragged to Hell and suffer for all eternity trouble. This trouble was centered around my heart—and how it skipped a beat the moment I laid eyes on her, her long black hair swinging around her, not unlike a smoke-filled cloud, giving her an ethereal quality. And her aura. Man, her fucking aura did me in. Like her magic, it was tinged black and red and it was the most stunning thing—besides her—that I’d ever seen. The darkness around her wasn’t evil though, and I’d initially been surprised. After all, isn’t Satan the root of all evil? But her darkness was sexy and seductive and at the heart of it, filled with good intentions.
All my life I’d been on the edge, on the outer circle of everyone and everything, talking to the dead tended to ostracize you. I was labeled a fraud, accused of ripping people off, taking their money and passing on fake messages from the spirit world. The accusations stung, but I couldn’t blame anyone for thinking that way, because the truth is, the fake psychics are out there, spinning bullshit stories to part you from your hard-earned dollars. Only I’m not one of them. My grandmother had taught me everything I know, not only how to use my skills, but how to turn them into a fruitful business. Which I had. I made good money at what I did and had built a reputation for myself—an honorable one. The few girlfriends I’d had never stuck around for long, wanting my undivided attention constantly, which of course I couldn’t do. When the dead wanted to speak with you, they weren’t going to wait until you’d finished your date.
Until Lucy. Lucy understood the foibles of the dead. Of course being the devil gave her a distinct advantage in that department. And while I’d never given Heaven or Hell any real thought, of their existence or otherwise, her explanation of the way things were, made perfect sense. I knew there was a veil, that the dead crossed it. Once again it was only logical that there were other dimensions beyond that veil. She’d opened my eyes to so many possibilities, but what she didn’t know, which I did my best to keep from her, was that I knew. I knew the toll her job took on her. I could feel the sadness in her when she slept, tossing and turning at night, her dreams not giving her peace. She didn’t enjoy the torture. She wasn’t the sadistic bastard everyone thought she was. I snorted, hell, she wasn’t even the male everyone thought Lucifer was.
Lucy cared about others. She seemed to care more about others than she did herself, and that went against everything I thought I knew about Hell. She was different, unique, and I couldn’t help the pride that swelled inside me with that knowledge.
I felt her now, slipping away from me and every fiber in every cell of my body screamed in protest. I reached for her, hand extended even as I was propelled backward, jerked off my feet. It all happened so fast yet in slow motion at the same time. The rip in the veil where Zuska had slipped through initially, now reopened as he left…taking me with him.
The flash of surprise on Lucy’s face, that quickly turned to horror. Her screaming my name and reaching for me, our fingers missing by inches. Then she was gone. I was staring at nothing, dragged backward through a tunnel of wind pushing and buffeting me so I could barely catch a breath. When we finally stopped I was flung to the ground and I lay there, gasping, unable to fathom what had happened. I was in another realm, alone. All I could think of was that I needed to get back to Lucy.
“It surprises me you survived the vortex, human,” Zuska spoke, reminding me that I wasn’t exactly alone. He was responsible for my presence here, wherever here was.
“Oh?” My heart was still thundering in my chest, panic threatening to overwhelm me. I was at his mercy and that didn’t sit well with me.
“None have before you,” he admitted, and it became clear why he’d come to Earth. They’d tried stealing humans in the past and we’d perished during the journey. Leaving them no soul to eat. If you wanted to consume human souls, you had to travel to Earth to do it.
“I wonder if it’s anything to do with this?” I asked, holding up the glowing sword that was clenched in my right fist. While my eyes had been on Lucy as I’d been dragged backward, I’d seen Dacian toss me the sword from the corner of my vision, had felt my fingers automatically close around the handle as I’d been jerked back through the portal and I’d held on with a death grip the entire time. I lay with the sword held up, admiring the glow, wondering how it looked so heavy but felt incredibly light in my grasp.
“How did you get that?” Zuska took a step back, then another. I glanced at him. He was afraid. Of me? Or the sword? I figured it was the sword, but I was the one wielding it, so I let myself take some of the credit. Sufficiently orientated, I swung into a crouching position, eyes on Zuska.
“Send me back,” I demanded.
“Can’t.” Zuska shook his head, backing further away. Launching to my feet, I swung for him, the sword slicing through his shirt, leaving a thin line of blood across his abdomen. Just a scratch, but warning enough. “Send. Me. Back,” I repeated.
“I can’t,” he repeated, clenching his stomach. “I only get one trip, there and back. I’ve no more power.”
I squinted at him, trying to get a sense if what he said was the truth. “You said you were opening the portal, sending for your brethren. You have the power.”
“I said I was opening the portal, yes, but I wasn’t traveling through it. I was going to summon them.” Damn it. Keeping the sword trained on him I glanced around. This place was desolate, the landscape of rock as far as I could see. Overhead were dark clouds and the constant rumble of thunder—I got the feeling this wasn’t a storm rolling in, this was the normal atmosphere for this place. Wherever I was.
“Where are we?”
“My realm.”
“I know it’s your realm, asshole.” My anger moved up a notch. Anger at being taken, not only from my home, my world, but Lucy. Her face flashed in my mind again, the sheer terror on her face, the panic as she’d reached for me, the disbelief as the veil closed between us. I could feel her pain, echoing my own in my chest. Whatever our connection was, it was strong. I felt compelled to get back to her. I had to return. Failure was not an option.
“What is this realm called?” I asked again.
“You are in the Broken Forrest.” An expression flitted across his face, one I didn’t understand. Was it…glee? Even though I’d injured him with the sword the sorry son of a bitch seemed happy about it. “Why are you smiling?” Now his mouth had twisted into a full-blown smile.
“You spilled my blood.” His eyes dropped to where a single drop of blood had fallen onto the stone.
“And?”
“It has alerted my tribe to my return. And that I am hurt.”
“They’re coming?” I guessed, a feeling of dread settling on my shoulders.
“They are,” he agreed, nodding. There was nothing for it. I didn’t know how many were coming or what I was up against. The one truth I knew was that they would kill me. They fed on souls and I’d just presented myself as a very tasty meal. But the only one who knew I was here was standing in front of me. Survival was my only option. Praying for forgiveness I sprung forward, catching Zuska unaware, wiping the smirk from his face as I plunged the sword
through him.
He toppled backward, blood dribbling from his mouth, eyes open, unseeing. Drawing the sword out of his gut, I wiped the bloody blade on his clothing, then bent, checking for a pulse. Dead. I thought I’d be filled with remorse, but strangely enough, I felt empowered. Glancing around, I knew I needed to leave this place before more of his kind arrived. Over to the left was a mass of large rock formations, the only place to hide in this desolate place. I began to jog, hoping I was running away from what was coming and not toward it. And all the while, I thought of Lucy. How the fuck was I going to get back to her? My burning desire to stay alive had little to do with me, and all to do with her. She’d awoken in me something I thought I’d never feel and there was no way I was going to let anyone, soul stealer or not, take that away from me. No one.
THE END…for now
Want to find out what happens next for Lucy and Levi? Continue the story in book two, The Devil Inside!
Preview: The Devil Inside - Chapter One
“What do you mean, the sword is gone?”
I spun, pinning Dacian with a glare. My fury at losing Levi had settled into cold, hard determination. Already, I was planning to get Levi back using the glowing sword my brother Gabriel had turned against me—clearly, a weapon forged in Heaven that could do me harm.
A powerful weapon. One that could be used to force our way into another realm.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Dacian returned my glare, unconcerned to be on the receiving end of my burning gaze. “I threw it to Levi as the portal closed.”
“So he has it?”
“I saw him catch it,” Dacian confirmed.
Well, that was good. Levi had a weapon and a way to get back through the portal— assuming the sword worked for him. He was a human, after all. At the very least, he could use it to protect himself from Zuska, the soul stealer who’d dragged him through the portal into another dimension.
“Wait!” It suddenly hit me. “How did you have the sword? Last I saw, Gabriel had it.”
We’d been in the caverns beneath Shadow Falls. The giant orb Gabriel had hidden there was powerful enough to wipe the humans from the planet. When we’d combined our powers to stop the orb, the whole thing had exploded, and we’d somehow been transported to the cemetery, to the portal. Gabriel had not.
“I called for it.” Dacian shrugged, as if I’d know what that meant.
“I don’t have time for this bullshit, Dacian.” My patience was thin, my thoughts consumed by Levi. I prayed he’d survived the journey through the portal. Goodness only knows what awaited him on the other side.
Dacian blew out a breath and ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, fine. The sword is called the Sword of Angels. It’s Heaven’s ultimate weapon.”
“And my brothers have it,” I muttered. It figured. Two idiots wielding a powerful weapon, and all too happy to use it against their sister.
“They had it,” Dacian corrected me. “Now Levi has it.”
“But he’s human. Will it work for him?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly isn’t good enough, Dacian!” My yell made him jump, and he frowned at me. “Tell me everything you know about the Sword of Angels—or whatever you called it—everything!”
“I only know what it told me,” he began. “The first time I saw it was when the ghosts used it against you. Apparently, Gabriel was the one who gave them the sword. He wanted to banish you from Earth and send you back to Hell.”
I wasn’t surprised. I’d guessed one of my brothers was behind the zombie ghost attack.
“Only he never thought the sword would end up in my possession. Once it was…it was like a connection. I knew where it came from. I understood its powers. It was like a psychic link.”
“Is it because you’re a Seraph Angel?” I asked. “A protector?”
“I think so. When I saw Levi being pulled through the portal, I thought, ‘If only the sword were here’…and then it appeared in my hand. It was reflex to throw it to Levi.”
“I’m glad you did. Thank you.”
I turned away, pacing in front of the headstones. We no longer had the Sword of Angels at our disposal. I couldn’t open the portal with my magic; I’d tried and failed. We needed brute force. And I could think of only one place where such power existed.
“We need to go to Heaven,” I decided. “My brothers are responsible for this, and if we combine our powers, we should be able to get the portal open. Long enough for me to retrieve Levi, at any rate.”
“You think they will help you?” The surprise in Dacian’s voice was unmistakable.
“If they want the Sword of Angels back, they will.”
It had been a few millennia since I last stood in front of the Pearly Gates, and to say I was shocked was an understatement.
“What’s going on?” For as far as the eye could see, there were souls, all milling around waiting for the gates to open. “The gates are locked? Why?”
“They have been closed for some time.” Dacian’s voice was grim as he studied the bedraggled souls huddled on the steps.
“But all these souls…displaced.” I couldn’t hide my shock. Why would my father not allow them into Heaven? If they had sins to atone for, they would have been redirected to Hell, so they were in the right place, Heaven-bound.
“Heaven isn’t what you remember, Lucy. What Gabriel said, about Heaven dying? It’s true. There’s a sickness pervading our realm, and I suspect the gates are locked because Heaven no longer has the capacity to house new souls.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”
Dacian shrugged. “It’s not your concern. Hell is your jurisdiction, not Heaven.”
I felt the sting of irritation dance over my skin. Grabbing his arm I forced him to look at me. “This was my home. My father is here, my brothers…my family. Of course it’s my concern. You should have told me.”
“Perhaps. It was not my call to make. I’m just a Seraph Angel. I don’t make the decisions.”
“Fine. Let’s talk to the person who does. Can you get us past the gates?” While we’d been talking, I’d touched the gates, tried to open them, but they wouldn’t budge for me.
“I can. Take my hand.”
He held his palm out to me and I slipped my hand into his. A memory from eons ago flashed into my mind, of the first time Dacian held my hand, and the silly little skip of delight I’d felt. How things had changed.
In more ways than one, it seemed. Inside the gates, I glanced around and my breath caught in my throat. Heaven looked…dirty. The once white buildings were now a dull grey. Some of them were crumbling, and debris littered the streets. Broken-down vehicles had been left, abandoned, on the roads.
“Remind you of anything?” Dacian spoke softly behind me.
I nodded. “Yes. This is just like before Hell was created, before the evil souls were banished.”
“Exactly.”
“You think that’s what’s causing this? Has evil taken hold of Heaven again?”
I was puzzled how that could be. Originally, when God created Heaven and Earth, he hadn’t accounted for the fallout of the free will he’d gifted to humans. When their mortal time was up on Earth and their souls arrived in Heaven, the evil ones had tainted Heaven. As a consequence, God had created Hell and given me responsibility for it, an honor I gladly accepted.
“It could be that, or…” Dacian trailed off, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
“What?” I knew he was avoiding telling me, which meant it was bad.
“Maybe Heaven is like this because God is sick.”
I absorbed his words. God was immortal; we all were. But we had weaknesses. There had to be a balance, and as much as it pained me to admit it, maybe Dacian was right. That would explain why my brothers were getting away with such outrageous behavior. There was only one way to know for sure.
Find Dad and see for myself exactly what was going on.
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Inside
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My name is Del Devereux and I see dead people.
I’ve always believed in ghosts. I’ve been able to see and talk to them since I was a child, so when the spirit of Father Jack Sullivan told me someone was trying to open the gates of Hell, I listened.
Turns out the chewed on piece of stone I’d rescued from my dog Dukes jaws was, in fact, a shard from an ancient relic – a medallion. Broken into three pieces, they had to be reunited to form the key. And I had the last piece.
With a demon hot on my tail and willing to kill anyone or anything that got in his way, I was on the run, with Duke and my best friend Jase by my side. I thought we were in with a fighting chance when I discovered the shard was giving me special powers. And then it all went horribly wrong.
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Standalones:
#1 Returned
#2 Heart of Darkness
#3 Destiny’s Touch
#4 Blood Cursed
The Hell’s Gate Series…
#1 Straight to Hell
#2 The Devil Inside
#3 Hotter than Hell
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