Even with the lanavours weight gone from my chest, I remained lying on the ground, unable to move. Images of death and failure continued to batter against me and that hideous sensation of being encased in ice kept me immobile. Hands grasped my arms, dragging me to my feet and hauling me away from where the lanavour’s body lay bleeding on the floor.
“River, are you okay?” Erin demanded. “River!”
I tried to clear my head, but the bloody pictures of my brothers and Kobal would not be so easily shed. It had been so real.
Hawk took hold of my chin and turned my head toward him. I blinked at him, trying to bring him into focus, trying to put myself in the here and now. “River?” he inquired.
I fought the tears clogging my throat and chest. My lungs burned as I labored to get air into them, but they felt as frozen as the rest of me. Erin stepped before me. Lifting her fingers, she brushed them over my cheeks, wiping away the liquid warmth there. I dimly realized her fingertips shone with red when she pulled them away.
“What did they do to her?” she whispered as she stared at what I now realized was my blood on her fingers. “We have to get her out of here.”
Turning away, she pushed aside the crowd of bodies trying to cram through the doorway to the hall beyond. With a wrenching of metal, the door was torn from its hinges. The weight of the people caused it to be flung aside.
Vargas helped Erin to shove the people the rest of the way through as more pushed against us from behind. Hawk kept me cradled protectively against his chest, his arm around my waist as he maneuvered his way through the crowd behind Erin and Vargas.
Stumbling through the door, we broke into the hallway beyond. Air finally rushed back into my lungs, causing me to wheeze as my system flooded with oxygen. The images haunting me diminished as warmth returned to my body. My feet finally found their own way across the rug and through the doorway. I inhaled greedily again as the sensation of holding Bailey’s broken, tiny body in my arms finally faded away.
“Better?” Hawk asked as he dragged me out of the way of a bawling girl with blood streaking her face.
“I… I think so,” I managed to stammer out.
“What did that thing do to you, River?” Erin demanded.
“My nightmares… the worst of them…” I broke off as the last of the ice melted from my lungs.
Erin rested her hand on my arm. “It wasn’t real.”
But it could be. I didn’t say those words out loud though. I couldn’t admit them to myself right now, never mind someone else.
Hawk and I moved faster toward the door at the end of the hall and the gateway beyond. Glancing behind me, I spotted a handful of lanavours still making their way toward us. Most had been taken care of by the guns and fire, or they were too busy feeding on their victims to pursue us. They nearly blended in with the smoke drifting down the hall behind them as they floated forward. How many more might be behind them, hidden within the choking cloud?
I focused forward again. Thrusting my hand out, I pushed open the door at the end of the hall. Hawk released me as we stumbled down the steps behind the others. Across the way, people used the butts of their guns, feet, and fists to beat against the back wall of the room the skelleins had built around the gateway. No matter how haphazard and unsteady the wall looked, it held up beneath their battering.
Some of them turned away from the wall and ran to stand at the edge of the pit. My heart leapt into my throat when I realized what they were contemplating, but going in may be our best and only hope. My gaze went to the ceiling. Despite the holes the gargoyles left in the roof when they’d burst free of Hell, there was still enough wood and beams there to crush someone if the back wall collapsed.
“The roof,” I whispered.
Hawk lifted his head to take in the rafters over our head. “Stop!” he shouted at the people battering the wall. “You’ll collapse the roof onto us!”
Most of them stopped beating on the wall to take in the ruined remains overhead. “What do we do?” a woman asked, and I recognized her as Jackie, a woman who had voiced her displeasure with this mission many times since we’d left the wall.
I looked to the pit, and then back to the closed door leading to the bar. I could practically feel the lanavours steadily approaching from the hall. Smoke spiraled under the edges of the door and up to the openings in the ceiling. It was only a matter of time before this part of the building was on fire, and I would make it happen a whole lot faster if I blasted the lanavours with my flames again.
“Does anyone have any ammunition left?” I asked.
They all glanced at each other before looking at me and shaking their heads. Some of them pulled out knives and others removed swords or katanas from their backs, but most had either lost their weapons or been caught unprepared when the lanavours arrived.
We either tried to topple the wall over, most likely collapsing what remained of the roof onto us, stayed here to face the fire and lanavours, or climbed into the pit with the hope of finding some place to hide until it was safe to come out again.
I might be able to take out the lanavours with my ability to wield life; it had certainly grown over the months. However, I didn’t know how many of them remained, and even if I killed them, I couldn’t put out a fire with my bare hands.
But how far into Hell would the humans be able to go until they were unable to continue? How far would I be able to go?
I’d go as far as necessary to keep these people safe.
I lifted my head to take in the hundred or so faces before me. There had to be other human survivors, ones who hadn’t made it into the bar, but right now this was all we had, and there weren’t many options.
“Hawk,” Sarah whimpered and separated herself from the crowd to come toward him.
“Stay there!” he commanded brusquely.
She froze and tears glittered in her eyes as she watched him.
“We have to go in,” Erin said from behind me. “Before the lanavours catch up with us. At least down there you can set their asses on fire without worrying about the flames spreading.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Jackie blurted.
“No, she hasn’t,” I said coldly. “You can stay here and deal with them if you want, or you can try to beat down the wall and have what remains of the roof collapse on you. It is your decision to make, but our best option is to find somewhere to hide in there, or a place where we can at least make a stand against them. We can’t do that here with the fire surrounding us. I can try to blast them with a burst of energy, it may even kill what remains of them, but the fire is still growing. We can’t stay here, and the fire won’t spread into there,” I said, pointing to the pit.
“She’s right,” Hawk said.
“Wait for me!” Sarah cried and practically tripped over her feet to follow Hawk when he walked to the edge of the pit.
I was fairly certain the girl had lost her mind. There was obsession, and then there was “I’ll happily follow you into Hell” obsession. Erin’s lips skimmed back as Sarah rushed to stand by Hawk’s side, and even Vargas no longer looked amused by her bizarre behavior.
“Anyone who would prefer to stay, stay!” I called out. “Everyone else, let’s go! The lanavours will be here soon!”
People rushed toward the edge of the road as it wound deeper into the shadows below us. I stepped back, allowing them to go first while I kept an eye on the doorway. My toes curled into my shoes as I sought out the pulse of life beneath my feet and drew it forth in preparation for the lanavours.
Golden-blue light leapt across my fingertips as I watched the door. I didn’t know what the lanavours were waiting for, but they should have been here by now. The last of the people filed onto the road and into the murky depths of Hell.
“Let’s go,” Hawk said, drawing my attention to him.
Standing on the roadway a few feet into the pit, Erin and Vargas waited for us. I was willingly taking people into Hell, and I realized now the lanavours had bee
n herding us like cattle since they first came out of the woods.
“Kobal was right, this wasn’t a coincidence,” I said as Hawk’s indigo eyes burned into mine. “This attack, it was planned. Lucifer somehow lured them here,” I said to Hawk. “I think we’re doing exactly what Lucifer wants us to do.”
“Maybe so,” Vargas said as he took a step toward us. “But we have no other choice. Not right now.”
That was true; however, I couldn’t help but feel as if we were dead men and women walking. I was in no rush to encounter my ancestor, but it seemed he was in a rush to meet me. Swallowing heavily, I turned and stepped onto the rocky road. Black dirt shifted and slid beneath my feet as I hurried to catch up with the people gathered a hundred feet away.
Turning, I glanced at the top of the pit as the Hell shadows rose to encompass us. Angela stood at the edge of the gateway, her eyes wide and horrified as she watched me move further away. My hand instinctively reached for my necklace in an attempt to calm me. My heart sank as I realized what the tearing sensation had been when Hawk had knocked the lanavour off of me.
My necklace, my one tangible piece of home, was gone. I pulled my hand away from my bare throat and straightened my shoulders as Angela remained unmoving at the top of the pit while lanavours slipped through her to step onto the roadway.
I spun away and didn’t look back at the monsters as we raced down the road and into Hell.
CHAPTER 11
Kobal
My shoulders heaved as blood from the lanavours I’d slaughtered trickled down my fists. Drops of it plopped onto the ground as I stared at the crumpling bar. River had done this; I didn’t have to witness it to know that she’d lit the building on fire, which meant she was afraid and somehow the lanavours had gotten inside.
My teeth grated together as Crux circled my feet with his hackles raised. Blood oozed from the large gash on the side of his head and across his muzzle from a blade one of the lanavours had stolen from its downed victim. Phenex sat at my side, watching her mate’s seething anger.
What remained of the demons and humans were gathered near the vehicles that hadn’t been destroyed by bullets. Fire shot from two of the trucks, and the others had gas leaking from them or tires now flat against the ground. Almost half of our numbers had been eradicated by the nightmare-devouring lanavours.
I had to get to River, but first we had to get rid of the bodies of those the lanavours had fed from. Otherwise the surviving lanavours would return for the dead they had created, slice off their ears, sew their mouths and eyes shut, and work whatever magic they used to get them to rise from the dead in order to become one of their ravenous own.
Striding across the ground, I grabbed the arm of Captain Timothy Tresden. His eyes were dull and unfocused when I turned him toward me. I didn’t have time to deal with his human bullshit right now.
“You’re to get the humans to gather all of the bodies and throw them onto the fire,” I commanded with a rough jerk on his arm when his eyes slid lifelessly away from me. He’d picked a bad time to mentally check out on me. “Listen to me or I’ll fucking kill you myself. Gather these bodies and put them on the fire, or we’re going to have a bigger problem to deal with!”
He blinked at me as a woman stepped forward. “I’ll make sure it’s done,” she said.
Releasing Tresden, I shoved him away from me and focused on the woman. “Some demons will remain here to help you, but I have to get into that building, and all of the dead have to be burned. There is no other option.”
“I understand.” She turned away from me. “Gather the dead!” she yelled at the crowd closing in around us. “Throw them onto the fire.”
“Shouldn’t we bury them?” someone protested.
“No, they must be burned,” she replied crisply.
Satisfied she had it under control, I turned away from her as humans and demons started to collect the dead. “Verin, Morax, stay with them and make sure the dead are taken care of,” I commanded.
“We will,” Morax replied, and the two of them hurried away to help gather the remains.
“We’re going to have to circle around and tear down one of the walls,” I said to Corson.
Corson’s talons were red with blood as he strode toward me. “There’s only one place for them to go to avoid the fire.”
My teeth grated together; my claws lengthened and dug into my palm. “I know.”
Turning away from him, I loped across the ground toward where the skelleins had gathered before the burning building. They had their arms around each other’s waists as they swayed back and forth in commiserating misery.
“Some of you help them burn the bodies!” I barked at them. “The rest of you come with us before I heave your bony asses onto the fire myself!”
They released each other and scrambled away. My heart thudded as I ran toward the back of the burning building and the room surrounding the gateway. Terror like I’d never known drove me. I had to get to her, to stop her before she could enter Hell.
The heat of the fire beat against my skin, but I barely broke a sweat as I moved faster than I’d believed possible with the hounds close on my heels. Arriving at the back of the building, I stopped at the wall on the far end. Flames were already crackling over the wood and snapping toward me.
No screams. No one is screaming inside.
The realization should have been reassuring; instead, it made my blood run cold. They’d gone into the gateway. Lucifer had gotten what he wanted by drawing the lanavours here. River was in Hell.
“Shit,” Corson breathed from beside me as Bale and Shax raced around the corner.
The hounds circled my legs, brushing against me as they moved between me and the burning wall. Striding forward, I ignored the flames eating at the wood as I rested my hands against the wall. Bale stepped beside me. As part fire demon, she didn’t have the ability to wield fire, but she could withstand its flames almost as well as I could. Her eyes met mine before she rested her hands against the wall and shoved with me.
The fire enveloped me as I dug my feet into the ground to get better leverage. It surged over my skin, but though I felt the heat of it, it didn’t burn me. With an ominous creaking sound, the wall started to sway inward. Something gave way with a loud crack before the wall fell straight to the ground.
I stepped back as flames shot up like a geyser and sparks danced high into the air. The wall to the right released a strange keening noise before it bent forward and crumpled to the ground in a wash of heat that rolled over the ruined earth. With two walls broken away from it, the ceiling came down with a resounding crash. Beams bounced across the ground and some spiraled away into the pit.
“River!” I bellowed when I realized they would be heading toward her.
The hounds leapt through the flames and raced forward to circle the gateway. The flames and sparks caught at my clothing when I walked through them. They burned away the bottom of my pants and melted the soles of my boots as charred spots spread across my shirt. I tossed and kicked aside burning boards to clear a pathway through the debris for the others.
Stepping up to the edge of Hell, my boots kicked dirt and rocks into the pit. The rocks clattered against the jagged sides as they spiraled away into nothing.
I could feel River in there, moving further away from me. How far will she be able to go? The humans wouldn’t be able to withstand the fires of Hell for long, but she wasn’t human, not entirely.
“We have to go.” I rested my hands on the heads of the hounds, drawing them back into me.
Beside me, Corson pulled the earrings from his ears and tossed them aside. I didn’t look back at him or the others as I broke into a loping run that ate up the ground beneath me.
With every step River took, the more likely she would be to end up in Lucifer’s clutches.
***
River
“Look out!” Hawk shouted.
Frightened cries echoed around me as flaming boards went flying by. I fla
ttened my back against the jagged rock wall lining the road. The flames on the boards sputtered as they plummeted past us. Leaning over, I watched as what remained of the boards lit the spiraling road descending deeper into the pit before the fires went out.
“The ceiling collapsed,” Erin said from beside me.
“Kobal,” I breathed.
My head tipped back, but the darkness around us was so complete I could barely see a hundred feet above me, never mind the thousands of feet we’d already traversed. The small penlights a few people had barely pierced the gloom around us.
“They’re coming!” someone from the back of the group called. I’d taken over leading the group deeper into Hell with Hawk, Vargas, and Erin. We knew what was behind us, we had no idea what awaited us ahead.
Those words spurred me into action once more. I wiped a strand of damp hair from my eyes and took a deep breath of the muggy air. This place smelled of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Like fire and maybe brimstone, though I had no idea what brimstone smelled like, but something sulfuric burned my nostrils with every breath I took.
I kept expecting my lungs to burn with every breath, but that didn’t happen. It became increasingly hotter with every step. My breath came in ragged pants, and sweat coated my body, but I believed that was due more to exertion than my environment. My throat burned with thirst, but Hawk and I fared better than any of the other humans who were already beginning to tire behind us.
The small beams from the penlights played over the black rock beneath us as we ran. Grabbing Hawk’s arm, I tugged him back when I spotted a side tunnel carved into the rock wall. Stones kicked out from beneath his abrupt stop. They bounced against the walls as they fell away into nothing. I was acutely aware that I never heard them hit bottom.
“Look,” I whispered and pointed at the tunnel.
Hawk’s gaze followed my finger. He gave a brief nod before gesturing for the large group to enter the tunnel. “Go on,” he said to me when they were tucked securely inside.
The Road (The Road to Hell Series, Book 3) Page 9