I ran a brush through my raven-colored hair before setting the brush on the bedside table. Ducking through the flap, I entered the main part of the tent with the table and sideboard inside of it. I tried not to look at the cot Kobal had been sleeping on since our fight, but my eyes completely disobeyed the commands of my brain.
My heart plummeted when I saw his bed was undisturbed, again. Where had he been staying? Had he returned to the bonfire and the humans and demons who went there to have sex? He had killed one of the humans, but the women in town still desired him. I hated the way they watched him, practically drooling whenever he walked by. Despite his lethal, foreboding air, he still oozed sexuality, and women were attracted to it like bees to honey.
You ended it with him.
For the life of me, I couldn’t remember why when I stepped out of the tent and spotted him standing beside the flap with his arms folded over his chest. The warm July breeze ruffled his hair as his eyes raked over me. The moonlight caressed his body, making him appear as if he were a part of the night—which, I guess in many ways, he was.
Looking at him, I couldn’t help but recall the flex and bunch of his muscles when my hands ran over his unrelenting flesh, the salty taste of his skin beneath my mouth, and the pulse of his shaft within my body. The sounds of ecstasy and possession he’d released while inside of me echoed in my head.
I fisted my hands and looked away from him as memories threatened to drown me within their depths. He’d ripped the head off a woman. He may care for me, but he may not ever be able to love me in the way a human loved another human. In the way I loved him.
He could love you more, in his demon, Chosen way. Besides, you know there’s something more than human about the bond between you.
I felt my defenses slipping when his eyes met mine and his head tilted to the side. Lucifer vowed you would become like him. He flat out told you he would use you as a weapon against Kobal.
Lucifer lies. He’s Satan; he knows the Chosen bond will only make you both stronger.
Kobal said you were acting hysterically. Okay, the fact he’d said that to me during our fight still rankled. Maybe I had been a little hysterical while I’d still been covered in the blood of the woman he’d killed, but he could have kept his thoughts about it to himself. Although Kobal had never been one to keep his thoughts to himself, and tact was not something he considered, ever. His honesty was one of the things I liked most about him, even when it hurt to hear. However, now, I could admit I’d been overwhelmed by his actions that day and not entirely thinking clearly.
He hadn’t been sleeping in the tent with me recently; Bale had been staying with me instead. He was most likely passing his nights in between someone else’s legs now, I reminded myself. I managed to gather my pride again and tilt my chin up at him. He’d proven to be just like every other man who had passed in and out of my mother’s life over the years. I tried to latch onto that idea, but inside, I knew it wasn’t true.
If I hadn’t pushed him away, he never would have turned to another.
CHAPTER 2
River
“Come with me,” he said and stepped away from the tent.
I frowned at his broad back, but followed him down the hill toward the town. The moonlight lit the way well enough that a lantern wasn’t required to see. The red lights on top of the wall cast shadows over the ground as they blinked on and off repeatedly. I’d grown accustomed to the lights over the two months I’d been here and rarely noticed them anymore, but now their red glow seemed almost ominous.
“What’s going on, Kobal?” I asked when we were halfway down the hill.
“Afraid I’ll hurt you?”
I didn’t blame him for being surly, but I could feel my pride pricking as I glared at his back. “I never have been before. I’m not going to start now.”
He glanced over his shoulder at me, his eyes narrowing when he found me giving him the death stare. “Because you can take care of yourself?”
My teeth might fracture from the amount of pressure I put on them while trying to remain somewhat pleasant in my response. “I can.”
That wasn’t a lie; I could take care of myself. I may not be able to tear off someone’s head or have waves of fire erupt from my hands like him, but I’d gotten a lot better at harvesting power from the life I felt pulsating in the earth around me. I could also shoot enough flames to set his ass on fire.
The flames he knew about, but I’d kept my growing ability to wield the power of life to myself with the intention of surprising him with it. We’d stopped talking before I could show him how much better at it I was getting, and we hadn’t trained together since. I also kept my growing ability hidden from Bale and Corson, the two demons who had taken over my training when things between Kobal and me had ended. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, I did, but Kobal had once warned me to keep the extent of what I could do a secret, and I was still taking that advice.
“It’s a good thing I trained you so well then,” he said and turned away from me.
Well, that officially ended any softening I’d been feeling toward him. I was tempted to throw a ball of life-filled energy at him to show him how well I’d also trained myself lately, but though I wanted to choke him half the time, I’d never do anything to hurt him, physically.
My nails dug into my palms, and I glowered at his back until we reached the school where the people ate their meals every day. Curiosity tugged at me as I followed him into the building, but I didn’t ask him what was going on again.
Our feet slapped against the tile as we walked. The fluorescent lights above us reflected on the floor, causing it to be almost blinding. Whatever was going on had to be important as all the lights in the building were always turned off at night. Electricity was precious and most of it went to maintaining the wall now separating the destroyed states from the still-intact, outlying areas.
I’d resided in one of those outlying areas and been happily oblivious to the war humans and demons waged against Lucifer and his followers, until my mother turned me in for being different. The soldiers had taken me away from my brothers and brought me here afterward.
We rounded a corner and my step faltered. Standing in the hall were the rest of the men and women I was supposed to be leaving with today. They all glanced at me before hastily looking away and finding something else to focus on. Ever since I’d flame-broiled an ugly, boar-like creature known as a madagan, they’d been uneasy around me. They’d really avoided me since my ex popped the head off one of them like she’d been nothing more than a Barbie doll.
Gathered with the humans were the five demons who were closest to Kobal. Corson leaned against the wall, chewing on some gum while he smiled flirtatiously at a pretty, redheaded woman. Yellow birds dangled from the tips of his pointed ears. Kobal hated that Corson wore the earrings the women he slept with gave to him; I found it funny and it made him stand out as the only demon with a sense of humor.
Kobal had once told me Corson was an adhene demon, a mischievous elf-like demon, and it was entirely fitting for him with his ears, personality, and lithe build. His black hair was so dark in color it looked almost blue in the lights shining down on him. It stood out in spikes around his narrow face.
His citrine-colored eyes locked on me; he popped a bubble with his gum as he gazed between Kobal and me. I could feel the tension radiating from both of us as we stood rigidly in the hall and resolutely refused to look at each other.
“Is someone cranky when they’re woken up or are we having another lovers’ quarrel?” Corson inquired of me.
I suddenly understood why Kobal had said he often had the impulse to rip the earrings from Corson’s ears. Kobal spun toward him. Corson straightened away from the wall and tugged the earrings out. He grinned at me when Kobal turned away; I scowled back at him, which only caused him to chuckle.
Corson and Bale had become the two I’d spent the most time with recently. Bale was always reserved when she was around me; Corson
was slowly becoming my only friend in this place. As much as he annoyed me at times, I enjoyed his company.
He may be my only friend here, but I knew he would always choose Kobal over me. Kobal was his king, and they’d been together for centuries as they fought and battled together to fix what Lucifer had torn apart when he’d entered Hell. I was simply the woman fate had saddled Kobal with, and fate had one twisted sense of humor when it came to the two of us. The king of Hell’s Chosen was the descendent of his worst enemy and a mortal to boot. Oh yeah, someone was getting a good laugh somewhere over this one.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Corson when Kobal moved on to speak with Bale and Morax.
“You’ll find out,” he replied and slipped the earrings back in.
“Corson—”
“It’s a good thing,” he assured me.
I glanced at him questioningly, but he conveniently turned to speak with Verin. Stunning, was the only word I could think of for Verin. If she’d been glimpsed from our dimension by humans who could see beyond the veil, as some things from the demon world had been, Verin would have been the origin for the legends about sirens or succubae.
Her hair and eyes were the color of the sun. The ends of her hair brushed against the curve of her tiny waist. Most of the men, and some of the women, would stop to watch her when she walked past, but she was Morax’s Chosen, and no one was going to mess with him.
Morax appeared formidable and strange to any human he encountered and probably more than a few demons too. His green skin had the appearance of scales due to the deeper shades of green swirling across his flesh. Add in his six foot two height, long powerful tail, razor-sharp teeth, two sets of simultaneously blinking eyelids, orange snake eyes, and most people were ready to run before they ever saw the six-inch horns growing out of his bald head and curving toward each other.
No one was going to hit on Verin with Morax in a mile vicinity. I had no doubt he would make the death of anyone who tried as unpleasant as possible. My gaze landed on the bites on both of their necks, marking them as each other’s Chosen.
Even before I’d known what those marks on them meant, they’d fascinated me in a strange way. Now I knew it was because the demon part of me had instinctively recognized what they were.
Kobal’s marks on me were fading. The ones I’d left on him were nearly gone, and I wanted them back so badly I could almost taste Kobal’s flesh yielding beneath me as I sank my teeth into him. I shook with a racking need and closed my eyes against the pull trying to draw me toward Kobal. A pull I would never be free of no matter how much distance I attempted to put between us. Our bond would never be broken.
Feeling a little more in control of myself again, I opened my eyes as Shax approached Verin and Corson. Most of the women’s eyes turned to follow Shax as he moved. At six foot one, he was the most human looking, and the most handsome of the demons. His blond hair hung in waves about his chiseled face, a face probably better suited to an angel than a demon. His sunflower-yellow eyes glimmered warmly and the clothes he wore fit his body like a glove.
“They’re filling the last truck full of food now,” Shax said to them.
“Good,” Verin replied.
Movement at the front of the row of people drew my attention as Colonel Ulrich MacIntyre, or Mac as most called him, poked his head out from the cafeteria. He said something to Bale and Kobal who nodded in return.
Bale’s fire-red hair flashed in the light when she turned to face the people standing behind her. Her red-hued skin made her look as if she were made entirely of fire. She flashed a feral smile at the guy closest to her, who had made the mistake of getting caught staring at her ample cleavage. Eyes the color of limes raked over the man as he became riveted on his boots.
Kobal spun and walked down the row of people to stand beside me. My skin pricked at his nearness. His fiery scent filled my nostrils as I deeply inhaled it into me. I resisted the urge to hug myself in a vain attempt to hold myself together when he turned to face the others.
“Once you step through that door, you will all be closely monitored. Everything you say will be overheard, so keep that in mind. If even one of you reveals anything about what is on this side of the wall, every person within that room will be forced to stay here,” Kobal said. “There will be no turning back for them either.”
Murmurs slid down the line as people tried to figure out what he was talking about. I stared up at the straight line of his jaw as I puzzled over his words.
“Nothing is to be revealed about what we do here, absolutely nothing, or you and your families will all be made to pay the consequences of your actions,” Kobal continued.
My eyes went to the door as the murmurs in the crowd died instantly. It couldn’t be; no one who hadn’t volunteered was allowed to come to the wall. I’d been one of the exceptions, taken unwillingly when they’d still been trying to find Lucifer’s descendent. They’d finally hit the jackpot with me.
Mac held the door open further. People glanced at each other before starting to move forward into the connecting room. When the first people disappeared and cries of joy could be heard, the line moved faster and faster through the doors. I stood, frozen, as I tried to process what was going on and my heart hammered in my chest.
Were my brothers in there? Were they waiting for me? I was too frightened to find out the answer, too scared my mother had somehow managed to mess this up and I would go through the door only to find no one waiting there for me. As the last person filtered through the door, sobs and laughter drifted down the hall toward me. Mac pushed the door open a little further and looked at me expectantly.
“River?” Mac inquired.
Kobal’s obsidian eyes were unreadable when they met mine. He’d told me he’d try to arrange it so I could see my brothers again before we left on our mission, but that was before I’d told him to get out of my life. Had my refusal of him changed his mind about me having a chance to see my brothers again?
No, he wouldn’t do that. He may have little regard for human life, but he wasn’t cruel. He wouldn’t have brought the families of the others here and not my brothers, but I still found myself unable to move.
Something in his expression changed; there was an easing to him I hadn’t seen in days. “Go on,” he encouraged, his tone far kinder than it had been earlier.
It took everything I had to make the first step. Once I did, I didn’t think my feet hit the floor again until I was on the other side of the door. The cafeteria was a teeming mass of people, crying and laughing as they embraced and spoke eagerly. Rising onto my toes, I frantically searched over the crowd for Gage and Bailey.
“Pittah!”
I spun to my right, tears filling my eyes when I spotted Gage running toward me with Bailey in his arms. It had been months since I’d heard him call me by his nickname for me and seen their beloved faces.
A strangled cry escaped me as I took a stumbling step forward before running toward them. Bailey lifted his head from where it laid on Gage’s chest when he caught sight of me. He removed his thumb from his mouth and cried out my name, “River!”
I flung my arms around them and hugged them close.
CHAPTER 3
River
“What is going on here, River?” Gage asked when we’d settled into a corner behind a table in the far back of the room. We had ignored the table and settled onto the floor. While all the other families had a couple of older military men and women like Mac hovering around them and monitoring their conversations, I’d been assigned the only demon in the room, the only one who could pass entirely as human, Shax.
“I can’t talk about it,” I told him as I took Bailey from his arms and settled him into my lap.
I brushed back strands of Bailey’s fine, blond hair from his chubby face. He curled up against my chest and nestled into my neck. I’d almost forgotten how warm and soft he was. Almost forgotten the scent of his baby powder and the milk he drank. He’d grown so much in these pa
st two months and I had missed it. I may miss all the rest of his days too.
I’d tried not to let thoughts of my brothers and the hole that being torn away from them had created in my chest consume me while I was here. Now all the sorrow and loneliness being away from them had caused flooded me with emotion.
Bailey pulled his thumb from his mouth as he stared at me. “Don’t cry, River.”
I bit back a sob and bent over to kiss his forehead. “I can’t help it. I’m so happy to see you.”
He closed his eyes and nuzzled closer against my chest, his tiny hand fisting in my shirt. I hugged him closer before focusing on Gage. “How have you been?”
He pushed back a strand of his sandy blond hair. It had grown longer since the last time I’d seen him. His brown eyes were troubled as they searched mine; the freckles across his cheeks and nose more visible from his tan.
“We’ve been fine,” he replied.
“Are Lisa and Asante treating you well?”
“Yes, we’re fine, really. We miss you.”
I rested my hand on his cheek. “I miss you too, so much. Are you being fed well?”
He leaned back and held open his arms. “Do I look like I’m going hungry?”
“You look like you’ve gained some weight,” I admitted.
“Ten pounds,” he said proudly. “Between Asante’s work as a peace keeper and the food we were promised when they took you, we have too much and often give it to those more in need.”
“That’s great,” I managed to say around the lump in my throat. At least something good had come of me being taken away from them. I kissed Bailey’s head when he released a small snore. “What about her?”
“She has to go out more now that we’re not there to take care of her, so I’ve seen her in town a few times, but I won’t speak to her. Few will.” Gage knew immediately who “her” was. Our mother, the one who had turned me in with the hopes of getting more for herself. Fortunately, she ended up without her children and with nowhere near what she expected she’d be given.
Carved (The Road to Hell Series, Book 2) Page 2