by Vivi Anna
Sar’s lips lifted up in a grin. He already knew what she was going to do.
Dropping her knife hand, she pushed Sar away. He stumbled back, falling to his hands and knees. Locking eyes with Hades, she sighed, shaking with bridled fury. She’d been so close to unleashing the beast inside, she hadn’t stopped to think. Hades was strong, stronger than any man she knew, but not strong enough to take out three or more Dwellers.
Chuckling, Sar stood. Blood still trickled down his neck where she’d cut him. She had some small satisfaction in seeing that trail of crimson. But it wouldn’t be enough. By playing her emotions, she had let them win. Emotions completely and utterly tied to Hades. She couldn’t watch him die knowing that she could stop it.
Deep down inside, she knew they wouldn’t keep their word. They were going to kill everyone anyway. But the small fleeting hope that Hades would live, that she could stop his death, stayed her hand at Sar’s throat. If her retreat could mean a few more hours of his life, she’d give it freely.
Sar tossed her a pair of metal handcuffs. “Put them on.”
Kat sheathed her knife and then clasped the shackles around her wrists.
Once she was restrained, Sar began to take her weapons, stripping off her utility belt, knife holsters on each thigh and ankle, and her shotgun. When he was done, Kat felt quite naked and vulnerable. She watched in dejection as the other Dwellers stripped Hades of his weapons, too.
He kept her gaze as he handed over knives, his gun, and shells. She could see the awareness on his face. Awareness of their demise.
“Well, now that that is taken care of,” Sar said, “we can be on our way.” He grabbed hold of Kat’s wrists and pulled her toward the door. She wanted to kick him in the back and snap his spine in half. She hoped she’d get the chance.
“Get all the villagers in here, and barricade the door.” Grinning, he glanced over his shoulder at Kat. “We also need to take care of your boyfriend. Can’t have him following us, now, can we?”
Kat knew it was coming, but, still, the first punch across Hades’ jaw caused her to turn and jerk out of Sar’s grip. She didn’t get very far before Sar and his stupid partner were on her back, holding her down, forcing her to watch the beating. After Hades had finally fallen to the floor, Kat closed her eyes and gritted her teeth until she could taste blood in her mouth.
Sar would pay for that, too.
An hour later Kat was in the back of the Dwellers’ transport, chained to the roll bar. All the villagers were barricaded inside the church. Bound at the wrists behind his back, Hades was sitting on a horse tied to the vehicle, with a noose around his neck. The solid rope was tied securely over a thick branch of the tallest oak tree in the town square. He had survived the beating, but it was all for naught as he sat waiting to be hung.
His face was all cut up, his right eye swollen shut. Kat could tell he favored his right side by the way he sat on the horse. She imagined he had a few broken ribs. As she had watched them string up Hades, Kat agonized over how this could have been avoided. Was this her fault? Could she have saved him, the villagers, and herself all at the same time? Why did there always have to be a sacrifice?
With an aching heart almost too painful to endure, she held Hades’ gaze. She couldn’t turn away.
She respected him too much not to bear witness. And loved him too much not to stay with him to the very end. Yanking on the chain, she tried to break free. That did nothing but bloody her wrists. She pulled and twisted until she slumped to the metal bed of the vehicle, too exhausted and sore to stand.
Sar jumped into the transport and slid into the passenger’s seat in front of her. “It’s time to go, little Kitty Kat. Say good-bye to your boyfriend.”
Kat swung around her head and glared at Sar. She had some small satisfaction when he flinched.
“I will make you pay for this, rodent,” she growled low and menacingly. “Baruch will not be able to resurrect you from the tortuous hell I will put you in.”
Without waiting for a response, Kat turned back, wrapped her hands around the chain holding her to the roll bar, and heaved herself up. She couldn’t leave Hades while on her knees. He deserved her full attention.
“Kat?” Although hoarse and gruff, her name on Hades’ lips sounded like melodious music.
“Yeah?” She kept her voice even and calm, although she wanted to weep and rage until every last Dweller lay dead at her feet.
“This isn’t over,” he grunted. “I’ll find you again, and we’ll play ping-pong with these fuckers’
balls.”
Tears falling, she choked, “I can’t wait.”
“Tell me you love me one time before you go.”
Her heart clenched as if squeezed in his fist. She could hardly breathe with the agony of it. Tears streamed freely now. She was powerless to resist them any longer. She had been fighting with her emotions for far too long. For Hades she would release them. For Hades she would break down and sob. For Hades she would do anything.
“I love you.”
He grinned then. Through the blood, she could see the dimple at the side of his full, sensuous mouth wink at her. She had always loved his smile. It was sexy and mischievous, just like him.
Now it was full of love and sorrow. “I know.”
“How fucking touching,” Sar grunted. He stood up in the transport and waved his hand back and forth. “Too bad it’s for nothing.”
Within seconds Kat witnessed four flaming arrows soaring through the sky to land on the wooden roof of the church. She didn’t panic until she saw two red jerricans of gasoline tilted on their sides on the front steps.
Struggling against her chains, she screamed, “You cock-sucking son of a bitch! I’m going to fucking rip out your spine with my bare hands!”
Chuckling, Sar said, “Did you really think we’d let them live?” He patted the transport driver on the shoulder. “Let’s roll!”
With that, the transport roared to life and pulled away, tugging the horse with it.
Kat watched in horror as the animal walked out from under Hades and left him swinging by the neck with the church starting to burn behind him.
“No!” She yanked on her bindings again. She pulled and twisted until blood poured down her arms and dripped onto the vehicle. She pulled until a chain link burst. She pulled even more, but it wasn’t enough.
The metal held, and she fell to her knees, unable to hold in her grief any longer. As the transport sped up, she continued to watch as Hades struggled against the rope. She prayed to God that the branch would break. That it was not strong enough to support his weight.
But it held.
And Kat couldn’t watch anymore. She closed her eyes and curled into a ball as agonizing sobs racked her body.
6
I am going to die.
The thought circled his mind as Hades continued to struggle against the rope choking him. The more he struggled, the tighter the noose became. But he couldn’t stop and let death take him.
He’d been a fighter for too long to let go so easily.
His head pounded like a drum, especially behind his bulging eyes, as his air supply dwindled.
Thankfully he had a solid neck, but it wasn’t thick enough to keep the heavy rope from squeezing him like a vise. He had maybe another minute before he passed out and died.
He shouldn’t have let Kat make the deal. He knew the cowardly Dwellers wouldn’t keep their word. The sound of the raging fire behind him confirmed all his fears. He was going to die, so were the villagers, and so would Kat. He knew she wouldn’t allow them to take her to Baruch now. She would fight them the whole way and be shot down in the end.
Would they meet again in the afterlife? He certainly hoped so. There were many things he still needed to tell her.
Consumed by his maudlin thoughts, Hades almost missed the shape running through the town square. But he certainly saw the shotgun pointed at his head. Just as the blast resounded through the air, he closed his eyes
and prepared for the end.
“Hades!”
Someone slapped him across the face. Was he in hell and the devil himself had come to wake him?
Slowly he opened his eyes.
A pale, young face with big brown eyes stared down at him. Satan sure is scrawny looking. And female?
“Take in some air, my friend. I need to save the villagers.”
Hades rolled over onto his side and sucked in much needed oxygen, which just caused him to cough and choke some more. Through the tears in his eyes, he watched as Leucothea rushed up the church steps and tore at the barricade blocking the doors. He didn’t think she’d be able to push the heavy timber out of the way before flames encompassed her.
Flipping over onto his stomach, Hades pushed himself up to his knees and started to crawl toward her. Maybe he could make it in time.
With one final shove, Leucothea moved the wood, and the door to the church burst open as the villagers scrambled out and down the steps to safety.
With a sigh of relief, Hades collapsed where he was and closed his eyes against the dark pain reeling in his head. He was very close to passing out. Between the blossoming pain from his ribs, which he was sure were broken, and his throbbing head, it surprised him that he still was able to move.
He cried out as he felt several hands on him, trying to turn him over. He opened his eyes and saw a number of faces looking down at him. Leucothea and Mary included.
“Where did they take Kat?” Leucothea stuttered as her whole body was racked with violent shivers.
Hades finally had the presence of mind to look her over. She was soaking wet, dripping even.
“Why are you wet?”
“I hid in the well while everyone was busy in the church. They were searching houses for more villagers to burn.”
“Smart girl.” He patted her leg and closed his eyes. “You’ve done well. Kat would be proud.”
Leucothea pried open his eyes again with her icy fingers and peered down at him. “Where did they take her?”
“Inferno City.”
“Then what are we waiting for? We need to rescue her.”
“We don’t need to do anything. You need to get warm, and I need a doctor.” Hades glanced around at the people still watching him and settled on Mary. He reached out and grabbed her hand. “Could you get me the doc, Mary?”
“Doc’s dead,” she stated, her voice flat and emotionless.
Hades squeezed her hand. The village doctor had been her cousin. “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” She pulled her hand out from his and got to her feet. “Girl, get him up. I have the herbs to heal him.”
Hades closed his eyes again as more dark agony washed over him, towing him down into a swirling whirlpool of pain. Reaching out blindly, he grasped Leucothea by the arm. “Do as she says, and I promise you I will find Kat again.”
The black took him under. With a rush of terror, Hades knew exactly where it was taking him….
The dark. It was all-encompassing.
Hades reached out into the black to find hold of something. What he found surprised him. It was not the dreadful cold he expected from a dead body but warmth and vibrancy from someone still alive.
The lights flashed on then, as if he had really opened his eyes for the first time. And he realized he was mashed in a crowd of sweating, gyrating bodies. Men and women in various forms of undress surrounded him. They didn’t look at him as he pressed past them. Something ahead of them possessed all their attentions.
Hades kept moving through the sea of people until he pushed through to the front and met an iron railing, stopping him from toppling over into a deep shaft. Twisting the metal in his palms, he stared down into the circle and wanted to holler in rage.
Two stories down, a circular metal platform jutted out into the empty space. On that platform was a large bed draped in red fabric. And on that bed were four people writhing and undulating in passion. The crowd surrounding them on three circular levels watched and cheered in rapt fascination.
Hades closed his eyes, trying to erase the scene in front of him. But when he opened them again, they were still there, embracing on the bed, joined intimately.
Two he didn’t recognize. A man with skin so dark he was like living midnight and a woman with long fiery red hair and pale eyes moved together on the mattress like they were one. As they were joined at the hips, Hades had trouble telling them apart.
The other two, moving over each other, touching, kissing, caressing, he knew well. So well that he felt his gorge rise watching them together.
Baruch. Kat.
As if they could hear his thoughts, they both looked up and locked eyes with him. Smiling, Kat held out her hand, beckoning him to her.
Clamping his eyes shut, Hades didn’t want to see. Was this one of his premonitions? Was he viewing the future to come? Was Kat completely lost to him?
No! He wouldn’t lose her. She would never succumb to Baruch. The dream was a lie. She was much too strong. He would find Kat again, and this time he would hold on to her. No matter what she did, he wouldn’t let her push him away again. Even if it meant his own death.
Opening his eyes, Hades gripped the railing tightly, leaned over, and yelled, “I won’t let you turn into him, Kat! I love you too much to let you go!”
Kat’s smile faded, and he could see the look of confusion in her face, as if she had just come out of a dreamlike trance. Turning, she glanced down at Baruch, whom she had been sitting on, his cock embedded deep inside her. Shaking her head as if coming to her senses, she tried to scramble off him, but Baruch grabbed her around the waist and flipped her onto her back.
Dread surging over him, Hades watched helplessly as Baruch raised his hand over Kat, long talons poking grotesquely from his fingers. With a final glee-filled glance over his shoulder at Hades, he brought his hand down, imbedding his sharp nails into her chest, twisting them deep.
“No!” Hades screamed as he scrambled up onto the railing. Teetering there on the edge, he took a deep breath and jumped.
Hades bolted up from the bed, gripping the sheets tightly in both hands. Cold sweat slicked his entire body, and he felt dizzy and light-headed. He flopped back down onto the mattress, afraid he might vomit. By the taste in his mouth, he assumed he had already, once or twice.
The door to his bedroom opened, and Mary came rushing in, a basin of water clutched in her hands. She sat down on the bed beside him, setting the bowl on the end table and tucking the bedcovers up over him. Wringing out the wet cloth, she set it on his forehead.
Although he was vibrating from icy shivers, the cool, wet cloth on his skin felt pleasant, and he sighed. “How long have I been out?”
“Five hours, about. The sun is starting to rise.” Mary set the cloth back in the bowl. “You cried out earlier. Were you dreaming?”
Hades nodded. “Nightmare.”
“About Kat?”
“Yes.”
She looked away from him and fiddled with her fingers. “I was wrong about her, and I’m sorry.”
Hades grabbed her hand. “No, I’m sorry, Mary. I made a mistake coming here. I should’ve known I couldn’t hide from my past.” He squeezed her hand tightly. “I don’t belong here. I must leave as soon as I can.”
She nodded. “I thought as much. Leucothea has been pacing like an animal for the past two hours, anxious to be leaving.” She took her hand back and patted him on the side, where he knew she had bandaged him up with the skills she had gleaned from her doctor cousin. “I told her you were not quite ready to go. You still had some healing to do.”
“How long do you think?”
“Another day at the least. Your ribs need to set.”
“I can wait till the sun is at its zenith. Any longer and…”
Mary smiled and nodded. “I knew you would say that, so I have packed a bunch of herbs and healing remedies in a satchel for you to take with you. I have shown Leucothea how to apply them.”
“Thank y
ou.”
Nodding, she stood and walked to the door. “I will let you rest. You will need it.”
“Mary, I…”
She looked over her shoulder at him, and he could see the regret and loss in her eyes. “It’s all right, Hades. You never promised me more than friendship. And that is what you gave me. I see the love you have for this woman. I understand what you must do.” She stepped through the door and started to close it behind her. “I envy her that,” she whispered and then shut the door.
Hades stared at the closed door, feeling regretful. Mary deserved so much more than he could ever have hoped to give her. He wished she would not stay alone for long. A good woman like her deserved love and respect. He could grant her the one thing but not the other.
No, his love was reserved for one woman.
A woman so stubborn and hotheaded his lips twitched just thinking about all times they had argued. He prayed to God that he would get to her in time. That he was strong enough to reach her and keep her from turning. If he had to, he would offer his own blood to keep her his. If that meant being her food supply for the rest of his life, then he would do it. Anything to keep her from Baruch.
Because he knew the next time Kat encountered him, she would not be able to resist him. Hades had seen it in his dreams, and he felt it in his soul. The Dark Dweller had become too strong for either of them to fight.
And he had help. Hades sensed that the dark man and the fiery woman in his dream were his allies.
Fatigue swelled over him, and his eyes drooped. He knew he would need to rest while he could.
Inferno City was at least a three-day journey on the bike from the village. On foot, it would take a few days longer. Hades didn’t think Kat had that long.
As his eyes shut and he fell into unconsciousness, Hades thought of only one thing.
Hang on, Kat, I’m coming for you.