by J. E. Taylor
I had hurt whatever it was pretty badly from the scent of burnt flesh hanging on the air, but I didn’t know if it was a fatal blow or not.
I counted to ten to get my nerves settled, then continued crossing the open space to the sets of doors on the other side. I made it halfway across when four shadows surrounded me. I grabbed the knives and let the flames engulf them. I hoped the metal wouldn’t melt, but a flaming knife was much more intimidating than just a blade. The shadows paused, but then they charged forward.
I spun with my arms wide and let an arc of angel fire loose. The shadows burst into ash hanging on the air like a fog that choked me. I coughed and stumbled through what was left of the dead.
I reached for the door and was tackled. My injured shoulder hit the ground hard. Hard enough to rip a yelp out of me and send one of my knives bouncing over the hard ground. I tried to use the other one, but whatever had tackled me had its full weight crushing down on me. He knocked the knife away easily.
A fist landed a punch on my side, knocking the breath out of me. I tried to roll, but he wouldn’t let me.
“We’ve got you now.” His growling voice snarled in my ear.
“That’s what you think,” I muttered and mentally pushed. Nothing happened. I kicked my foot and miraculously hit the magic spot between the bastard’s legs.
He “oofed.”
I was able to roll enough to send a blast of fire at him that threw him into the wall, where he crumpled to the ground before exploding to dust.
I struggled to my feet and crossed to where my knives had gone, then sheathed one them with shaking hands. I obviously needed my hands free in case there was another attack.
“Six down...” I muttered to myself and took a deep breath. It seemed only my fire powers were consistent, and I glanced around at the building again, thankful that it was concrete and not wood.
My side ached where I had been punched. I closed my eyes, mentally searching my immediate surroundings. Nothing came through. I snarled low. Now I was sure Lucifer was on the grounds somewhere, and I wondered if he was the one who was stopping me from using the Ryans’ powers and not my own epic failure.
I let flame lick my fingers and took a deep breath before stepping through the darkened doorway. I didn’t even make it over the threshold when something grabbed my wrist and swung me around into the wall hard enough to knock my breath from my lungs.
Another hand gripped my free wrist and raised both hands over my head. Weight pressed against me with enough force to nearly crush my ribs.
“You’re a feisty one,” he growled in my ear.
I wiggled my hands to the right angle and let them ignite with the same kind of fire I used to cauterize CJ’s wounds.
The pressure holding me to the wall released with a hiss, and I was tossed farther into the room. A yelp ripped from my mouth when my hip connected with the concrete.
The shuffle of more than two feet catapulted my pulse into overdrive. I clenched my fists, dousing the flame and plunging the room into absolute black. I crouched low and listened as I attempted another force field.
Even with the panic slowly filling my cells, I couldn’t muster up the same energy that I had on the island with Kylee. Nothing buzzed in the air to signify success. I pressed my lips together and concentrated.
Is Lucifer in here? Is he watching this slow torture?
Noise came from my right. I shot a plume of flame in that direction, lighting up the entire room and missing my mark by a couple of yards. My stomach plummeted at the six demons surrounding me. Six armed demons with feral grins that nearly let my bladder loose.
I had nowhere to run either. The only exit was the door I had come in, and there were three demons blocking my escape. I closed my hand again, and spots flared in my vision.
I stood and put my arms out, splaying my fingers and sending jets of fire in both directions, hoping I would hit at least two. My aim was off, and I only succeeded in torching one before the business end of a whip lashed around one of my forearms.
I screamed at the sting. The yank that followed nearly tore my arm from the socket. I fell. But this time I had a lead on where the whipping demon was. One blast took him out. I rolled away, grabbing the whip and pulling it towards me so no one got the same idea.
The others had moved closer. With only four, I wasn’t sure just blasting haphazardly would work, but that was my only option. My hand knocked the knife hilt on my thigh as I turned clockwise.
I bit my lip and pulled one out, listening closely. I launched the blade towards the nearest shuffle and was rewarded with a groan. I opened my palm in the same direction and unsheathed the second knife.
I blasted the demon trying to remove the knife from his thigh and shot the knife at the closest one to him. Unfortunately, that one dodged the blade, but he wasn’t able to dodge my flame.
I didn’t have time to turn before I was tackled by the last two demons. The fool who stepped on my wrist to try to pin it obviously didn’t understand physics. My aim was dead on, and he went up like an old dried-out Christmas tree.
The one lying on top of me went to slap something on my wrist, his lips peeled back in a growl that promised all sorts of pain. But he wasn’t fast enough to stop my initial blast before metal encased my wrist.
His dust choked me, and I coughed and rolled onto my hands and knees. I waited, mentally counting my attackers in my head. I thought that made a dozen demons, but I was so disoriented in the dark that I couldn’t be sure. My hands wouldn’t spark and the spit in my mouth dried as I tried to pry the metal off my wrist.
A chain attached to the cuff scraped the ground, and I yanked at it, pulling link after link until I reached the other end holding a similar cuff to the one clamped on my wrist. Relief flooded through me. I wasn’t attached to anything.
I needed to get out of here and wait for CJ. I could not do this on my own. Not with whatever this thing was on my wrist. I turned around, searching the dark until I could make out the door. I took a step toward the change in light, and something hard connected with the side of my head. Stars transitioned to blackness so thick, I could hardly breathe.
Chapter 12
The first thing I became aware of was that every inch of my body ached. The second was the foulest smell I’d ever encountered. Worse than the subways and worse than anything I ran across in hell, including the slaughter yard.
I couldn’t turn my head away from the stench, and my arms and legs wouldn’t work to turn me so I could run.
Blinking, I tried to reconcile what my eyes were seeing through the limp strands of my red hair. I gagged and tried to curl up against the cramping. Bloated bodies lay on the concrete a few feet from where I stood, and a couple of bodies were chained to the wall, each form in various stages of decay.
I attempted to flip my hair out of my face, and that’s when my gaze landed on him.
He smiled at me, and my heart melted. Damn my father for using Alex’s smile against me. Grace knelt next to him in shackles, the necklace holding Alex’s soul hanging from her neck. She looked every bit as insane as Gabriel had said she was. It wasn’t a surprise to me. I couldn’t envision spending twenty minutes with Lucifer, never mind close to six months.
She straightened so I could see her fully. The protrusion of her belly made my throat close against a thin stream of vomit.
I looked away, and my eyes caught what held me in place. My wrists were chained, each to an opposite wall, and shackles held my legs in place. At least I was still wearing my boots, which meant he probably hadn’t done a full search of the weapons I had at my disposal.
I closed my eyes, searching the shackles with my mind, trying to feel it out like CJ had taught me. When my silent command to release echoed in my mind, nothing happened. I opened my eyes and yanked. Again nothing.
These were the same type of cuffs that the demon had secured on my wrist. Hot panic pulsed in my temple.
He looked on with a bemused smile and his hands cl
asped before him.
I struggled, yanking at both my wrists and my ankles. The panic mounted at my inability to break free. The power coiled inside, but I couldn’t release it.
“Sigils.” He nodded towards my wrist bonds. “I had them specially forged to keep you from tapping your power. They would work on CJ Ryan as well if he dared show his face.”
“You son of a bitch,” I breathed. The curse felt dirty in my mouth.
I glanced down at my legs. None of the weapons I’d had when I stepped onto the asylum grounds were still attached.
“Looking for these?” he asked as he stood and dropped the knives I’d had attached around my legs. And then he crossed, reached around me, and pulled out the gun I’d had tucked in the back of my pants.
Just his close proximity and his arms around me sent my heart into overdrive. Both attraction and revulsion brewed in my blood. He undid the clip and tossed it away. Next, he raised the ninja stars that had been on my belt before he shot them into the bodies hanging from the wall.
“Or this?” He held up the potion that had been in my coat pocket.
I glared at him as if he had stripped me of all my hidden gems, and I tried to move my legs.
When he pulled heaven’s blade out from behind him, my heart plummeted.
“I’m guessing this is what you really were hoping we wouldn’t find. It was so cleverly hidden inside your boot. The boots that the boy recognized immediately.” He inspected the knife in the small space between us. “You do understand I have the memories associated with this body.”
I held my breath, staring at the blade, terrified.
He looked beyond the blade, wearing Alex’s thoughtful expression.
“Let Alex go,” I said with authority. I knew it was foolish, but I had to try.
He smiled, and amusement danced in his eyes. He placed the tip of the knife to my neck. “You never should have been born.”
I swallowed and the chains started to rattle with the shakes that gripped me.
Instead of slicing my skin and erasing me from existence, he leaned closer. “I am conflicted.” He leaned back and met my gaze. “While I would love to run you through with this knife, that would annihilate my grace which lies within you.” He turned and placed the blade on the bench and returned to the spot in front of me. “Just in case I get carried away.”
The hardness in his eyes belied the softness of his voice. I broke out in gooseflesh, more scared now that he didn’t have the knife in his hands. He grabbed my shirt and tore it in half, exposing my skin.
“I find the attraction that this boy feels for you strange.”
He was close enough for me to feel the heat radiating from him. He ran his hand down my cheek, but I pulled away from him.
“The boy is having an all-out fit right now. He’s worried that I might act on his feelings.” Lucifer enunciated feelings as if it were a dirty word.
If I could have kicked him, I would have, but all I could do was level the kind of glare that I hoped would give him pause.
He just laughed. “He knows your greatest fear,” he whispered and ducked under my bound arm. He pressed against my back and wrapped his arm around my throat, squeezing my neck with the inside of his elbow. “And he knows you are going to die today.”
I couldn’t claw him away. I couldn’t fight. I was completely helpless. My airway constricted with the force of his tightening arm. I yanked at the cuffs holding me in place, and they dug into my skin.
His arm released slowly. “But you won’t die of asphyxiation,” he whispered in my ear as he reached around my waist and unbuckled my belt from behind.
I snapped my head back, connecting with him. The growl that came from behind was followed by a punch to my kidney. My breath locked in my chest as spiraling pain pulsed through my body.
He went back to pulling my belt loose. He smacked my legs with it, pulling a hiss from my already tight lungs.
He slowly paced in front of me. “You’ve caused me quite a bit of grief since your mother died. I think perhaps it’s only fair to repay the favor.” He spun and his fist connected with my nose.
White light flashed, and then heat like someone had put an iron on the middle of my face blasted through my nose. I gagged on hot liquid sliding down my throat. My face throbbed in time with my heartbeat. I didn’t scream though. I was too shocked to make a noise. I blinked the lights away and spit at him.
The light in the necklace around Grace’s neck became chaotic, like Alex’s soul was struggling to be freed from his glass prison.
I couldn’t wipe the blood from my face. It dripped on the black leather of my jacket.
Lucifer licked his lips as he stared at the blood dripping from my chin. His fist connected with my stomach. “When I am done with you, the screaming fool in my head will finally shut up.” He landed bruising punches to my torso and then swiped one of my knives off the ground.
He stared at me with a cruel expression I had never seen on Alex. He twirled the knife and looked at my wrists like he was contemplating cutting my hands off. Instead, he flicked the knife, cutting my chin.
He looked at my pants, and the evil gleam in his eyes chilled me.
He leaned closer and pressed the blade against my stomach, leaving a thin cut. “He’s always wanted to taste you.” Lucifer dropped the knife, and it clattered on the ground as he swiped a thin strip of blood onto his finger. He slid it into his mouth suggestively and closed his eyes as he sucked it clean. “I’m sure that wasn’t what he had in mind.” He winked at me and picked up the belt, moving behind me again.
Drawing air was difficult, and he made it more of a challenge when he wrapped the belt around my throat and yanked, nearly crushing my airway.
“Do I kill you now?” he whispered in my ear. “Or do I make you watch.”
I shivered with revulsion and struggled in the chains, pulling one foot up and then the other. The wheeze from my mouth was the only noise I could make.
He snapped his fingers. Grace crawled over the arm of the chair, and she had the audacity to grin at me as she spread her legs in a wide invitation.
He sauntered to Grace with a grin. “Here kitty, kitty,” he said in the same seductive tone I’d heard in my dreams.
I screamed breathlessly and struggled in the chains, closing my eyes against what I knew was coming. Lucifer whistled.
A hand grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled my head back, tightening the belt on my neck. A large hideous demon stared at me. His disfigured face made me blink. It sported the scars of a burn. A burn I probably delivered. His slow smile sent a rush of frigid air over my body.
I didn’t think I had left any demons alive, but then again, I had been knocked out by something. My guess was it had been this monstrosity.
“Make sure she watches,” he said and approached Grace from behind as he unbuttoned his pants. “If she doesn’t, make sure she feels it.”
In that instance, I hated him with every fiber. I didn’t care who he was wearing, I was going to rip his heart out with my bare hand.
I kept my gaze on the ceiling. Even when the demon’s hand started to wander on my torso. He pushed down on a bruise and chuckled when I winced.
“She feels so good,” he purred in my ear.
I clenched my teeth and yanked at my legs. The bolt holding my feet loosened. I kept struggling and staring at the ceiling as this creature held my head in place and rubbed his body against my back like we were at an orgy and I was fair game.
“I will burn his soul,” Lucifer growled.
My gaze snapped to him. He smiled as he held Grace’s hips and rode her hard. He knew that threat would bring my gaze to him, and he knew I wouldn’t ever be able to unsee the lewd scene. He closed his eyes, and an expression of ecstasy appeared on his face. The same one I had seen on Alex’s face in the panic room when he’d made love to me.
My heart clenched.
“You bastard,” I whispered, choking on blood and tears.
&n
bsp; He smiled.
I had inspected enough of CJ and Tom’s memories to understand what he was doing. If by some blind luck, we made it out of here, this moment was meant to make it impossible for me to fall into Alex’s arms again.
I knew his tricks.
I knew his twisted mind.
And there was no way this side of hell I was going to let him win.
He shuddered with a throaty groan and then pulled out, swatting Grace’s behind. She obediently sat back down on the floor by his throne, her face pained, like what he had done was no pleasure for her whatsoever.
That small tell gave me a flair of satisfaction.
He zipped himself up and crossed, waving the demon back to wherever he had been stationed. The belt around my throat loosened. He stared at me, and I struggled in the chains, yanking one foot and then the other.
“Want to know a secret?” he whispered and stepped too close. “He thinks she’s much better than you were.” He pulled back enough to look into my eyes.
His close proximity offered me an opportunity, and the sudden flare of fury took control. I slammed my knee upwards, and the bolt in the floor sheered, freeing my feet. My knee connected to his groin.
“Liar,” I hissed.
The “oof” that escaped his lips, followed by his slow descent to the floor, gave me a weird sense of satisfaction. I kicked out, aiming for his reddened face.
He rolled out of the way. His glare was as deadly as the fire raging through my blood.
His hands curled into fists again and he slowly stood and stepped close like he was purposely tempting fate.
I tried to knee him again, but he grabbed my knee in his hand, and squeezed. Hard. Hard enough to do damage.
Burning pain gripped my leg. I ripped it from his grasp with the small latitude of movement I had. I kicked his shin with a growl.