Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1)

by Brenda K. Davies

  Through the crowd, I spotted Bernadette in her dark green uniform standing with what had to be the possibility at her side. Colonel Mac, one of the few humans I could actually tolerate, appeared beside them. He stood on the other side of the possibility, keeping her boxed in between them. She scowled at the two of them before turning her attention to the crowd funneling past her.

  Definitely not a willing one. More than a few possibilities had arrived behind the wall against their will, only to discover they weren’t who we were searching for after all. If a few human lives were upended and sacrificed to save the many, so be it.

  The possibility folded her arms over her chest as the last of the new recruits trudged by her. “Now what?” she asked. “Am I some sort of sacrificial lamb or something?”

  “Not at all,” Mac replied.

  “That remains to be seen,” I replied as I stepped before her.

  Her black eyebrows shot up at my words. Her gaze remained on my chest for a second before her head slowly tipped back to take all of me in. A muscle in her cheek twitched when her eyes finally reached my face, but I saw the curiosity in her gaze as she took me in.

  Her eyes! I clamped back the small thrill that went through me as those amethyst eyes settled on mine.

  Looking at her, I realized more than her eyes marked her as different from the other possibilities I’d encountered. Unlike the other unwilling ones, or the new volunteers, I didn’t smell her fear. No, anger and resentment simmered beneath her outwardly calm surface. I may not look as different to the humans as some of my brethren, but I certainly didn’t look like a typical human male, either. This girl was only the second human to show no fear of me; Mac had been the first.

  I studied her more closely. Her black hair hung in waves about her shoulders down to the middle of her back. The tendrils of it emphasized her round face and proud chin. Sweeping black lashes framed the amethyst eyes currently holding mine. Her skin was tanned to a golden hue from the sun. Freckles speckled the bridge of her slender nose and a faint white scar marred her right eyebrow, but otherwise her skin was unblemished. There was no denying she was pretty, for a human.

  My gaze slid over her flat stomach, round hips, and long slender legs. I’d been with human women since arriving on this plane. Being with them had been more the slaking of a need in a willing body, but then that had always been my experience with women both human and demon alike. Pleasurable but not memorable. This one though, I was stunned to find myself actually desiring her as my gaze lingered on her plump breasts and my cock swelled with need. I had a feeling I would remember burying myself within her.

  Her shoulders thrust back, emphasizing her breasts in the thin linen shirt she wore. Her eyes burned with fire when I met them again. She may not be the one we were looking for, but she had more spirit to her than most of those we encountered, and I found myself enjoying it immensely.

  “And who might you be?” I inquired of her.

  Her full lips pressed into a thin line; it was Mac who answered. “Kobal, this is River Dawson.”

  “River,” I greeted.

  “Kobal,” she replied flatly.

  I felt my lips quirk toward a smile; this human was almost amusing, in a way.

  “Is it her?” Mac inquired.

  My brow furrowed as my attention was drawn to Mac. He knew it would be difficult to know if someone was the progeny until we had worked with them for a while. We were all growing tired of the search, but the normally stoic man had asked a question he never had before.

  “I don’t know. We will find out,” I replied.

  “Find out what?” River demanded. She tried to act indifferent, but I saw something like interest in her gaze as she surveyed me.

  “That will come in time,” I told her.

  My eyebrows rose when she glowered at me before turning to Mac. “Where am I staying, or am I expected to sleep on the ground? Or will it be a cell?”

  “No need for a cell; the only place you can run is out there.” I pointed at the empty night beyond the rows of houses. “And unless you want to die, I would suggest not going that way.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Kobal

  She stared out at the darkness as if she could somehow pierce the veil. From somewhere in the night, the forlorn cry of a creature not of her world echoed through the air. Her face remained impassive, but I caught a flash of uneasiness in her eyes.

  “I will escort you to where you’ll be staying,” Mac told her.

  River gave me a scathing glance before following Mac down the street through the row of houses toward the home where he resided. Over the past four years, there had been possibilities from around the world. All of them were housed away from the other humans until either myself, or whatever demon I’d left in charge of the area, cleared them of being a possibility. Afterward, the debunked possibility was moved in with the others to assimilate into their new lives.

  I stood and stared after the enticing sway of her hips, unable to believe she had absolutely no fear of me. Even if she took my eyes as some kind of deformity, my size alone caused most humans to stumble out of my way or gawk at me. It would be interesting to see how River fit in.

  Turning away from the tempting spectacle of her taut ass, I adjusted my erection and walked back up the hill toward the tents set up at the top. It had been a few days since I’d been with a woman, perhaps that was why she affected me so strongly.

  Mac would be joining me in my tent soon, so that meant it would be a while before I could attend the fire blazing hotly on the hill behind the tents. The flames leapt high into the night, illuminating the dark sky and the trees surrounding the clearing. Demons and humans alike would be gathered around those flames. Many of the women there would be more than happy to ease my lust after I met with Mac, but as my gaze drifted back to where River walked with Mac, I realized I wasn’t interested in any of the women attending the fire tonight.

  Get it together. She’s a human, and if she’s the progeny, then she may be the key to it all.

  I turned my attention to the canvas tents on top of the hill where we resided. Mine was the largest tent and the most noticeable with the meeting room at the front and another tent attached to the back for my sleeping quarters.

  We could have established ourselves in one of the homes the humans were so fond of, but living in a house wasn’t something we understood or wanted. If there had been caves in the area, we would have taken over those, but there weren’t any around here.

  Bale and Corson were waiting for me at the top of the hill. Behind them, the heavy canvas cloth of my tent flapped in the breeze. The fluttering sound was one I’d become accustomed to over the years.

  “Is it her?” Bale demanded.

  I quirked an eyebrow at her, she knew as well as Mac that it would take time to know. “Too soon to tell,” I replied.

  “How long do you think it will be before we know?”

  “As long as it takes.”

  Bale scowled at me and folded her arms over her chest. “I’m tired of waiting.”

  “We all are.”

  I ducked under the entrance to the tent and into the main meeting room where my book sat on the table. I released the pinned back flap, allowing it to fall closed over the entrance. The conversation to come with Mac would be held in private, something Corson and Bale knew. Walking over to the sideboard, I lifted a bottle of wine and poured two goblets. I would have much preferred the demon beverage mjéod to the wine, but it was brewed in Hell and I hadn’t had it since leaving my home behind.

  Returning to the table, I settled into my chair and surveyed the dark wood furniture in the room. All of the furniture within the tent had been collected from the abandoned homes in town. It would be left behind when we eventually moved onto another town bordering the wall.

  Leaning over, I placed the other goblet in front of the seat beside me and leaned back to wait. It took a full thirty seconds after I detected the spicy scent of aftershave for a low voice to
call out, requesting permission to enter my tent.

  “Come in,” I said.

  The flap pulled back with a rustle, and Mac’s boots thudded across the dirt floor as he walked over to join me. I gestured to the empty seat before he pulled out the chair and sat down. “Thank you,” he said as he took hold of the goblet. “I needed this.”

  “She didn’t come willingly.”

  “In the end, she did, but this is not where she wants to be,” Mac said before downing half the contents of his goblet.

  “This is not where any of us want to be.” I rose to my feet and moved to the sideboard. Retrieving the bottle of wine, I returned to the table and topped off Mac’s goblet. “How did you find her?”

  Mac’s gray eyes were haunted when they met mine. “On a door-to-door search; her mother turned her in.”

  I lifted an eyebrow as I leaned back in my chair. I had no offspring, and most likely never would, but demons cared for the children they had with their Chosen and had often perished to keep them safe. I’d been led to believe it was the same for humans. It was one of the few human attributes that I actually respected.

  “I thought you humans were so fond of your offspring,” I said.

  “Not all of us,” he muttered and drank down his goblet. He grabbed the bottle and poured himself another glass. I’d never seen him drink so much or so fast before; whatever had happened out there had rattled him completely. “River turned the tables on her though. Her mother will be fed, but she’ll get nothing else from us, and her other two children have been removed from her house.”

  “There were other children and you did not bring them?” I demanded. Bale’s vision had said there was only one progeny still alive, but if River had siblings then either Bale’s vision had been wrong or River was not the one we sought.

  “According to her mother, the other two children show no signs of being different and they have different fathers than River.”

  Then it can still be her.

  Mac lifted his head to look at me; his normally steely gaze was clearly disturbed. I’d never seen that look in the unwavering, unyielding colonel’s eyes. “Her mother said River sees things, but they weren’t close to each other, so she may have been making it up to receive what was being offered to her. Or there may be other things she can do that her mother never knew about.”

  “We’ve had other possibilities who could see things. It’s not common, but humans can possess extrasensory abilities.”

  “I know,” Mac murmured and drank the rest of his wine. He took hold of the bottle again and refilled his glass.

  “What happened out there?”

  “We tore that girl away from her family; I’d like for there to have been a reason why we did.”

  “Doesn’t sound like much of a family.”

  “The mother wasn’t, but she had brothers. The youngest, I can still hear his sobs…” Mac’s voice trailed off, and he focused on the far wall before finally looking at me again. “Her mother said she has the Devil’s eyes.”

  I took a sip of my wine as I contemplated his words. “They’re definitely unusual, but Lucifer’s eyes are a completely different color.” Now they are anyway, but I kept that to myself. River’s eyes were the color of another being’s though.

  “I see,” Mac said and ran a hand through his close-cropped, graying hair.

  “I will find out if she is the one we’ve been searching for,” I assured him. “Are you going out with the group tomorrow for more volunteers?”

  “I was supposed to,” he replied, “but I’ve decided to stay.”

  “This girl really rattled you.”

  “They had to pry her baby brother from her arms while he screamed for her.”

  For some reason, I didn’t like the idea of that happening to her. My fingers curled into fists on the table; I took a deep breath to steady the temper I felt rising within me. Too much time on the mortal plane is making me soft. I had to return to Hell soon and claim the throne, which was rightfully mine by birth.

  Mac finished off his wine and rose to his feet; he rested his fingers on top of the book I’d been reading. “One of my favorites,” he said. “It was the best of times.” His fingers fell away from the cover.

  “It was the worst of times,” I said.

  He stared at the book before lifting his head to look at me. “That it is,” he said. “I’ll see you in the morning, Kobal.”

  I listened to his boots thudding across the ground and the rustle of the canvas settling into place once more as he made his way out. My fingers rested on the binding of the book as I stared at the green canvas wall across from me. The image of pure purple eyes haunted me as I sipped at my wine.

  I had to find out what she might be capable of, and soon.

  CHAPTER 10

  River

  I pushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear as I surveyed the group of a hundred or so volunteers gathered around me. I folded my arms over my chest, feeling as though I stuck out like a sore thumb. I may only be six years older than most of them, but as I stared at their pimpled, youthful faces, I felt decades older.

  Maybe it was their enthusiastic expressions, the way they stood with their shoulders thrust back and their eyes riveted on the group of older soldiers gathered before them. They looked like puppies ready for a treat; I felt like a sullen cat looking to claw the eyes out of anyone who tried to touch me.

  Mac stood in the center and slightly in front of the soldiers across from us. The soldiers were all dressed in green uniforms, while us newbies had been given drab brown clothes to wear. The only color on my clothes, and on the clothes of the volunteers surrounding me, was the yellow band encircling our right biceps to differentiate us from the other groups of volunteers. Groups I could see training in the distance with other soldiers.

  Tilting my head back, I glanced up at the top of the wall. The red lights still flashed, but they weren’t as vivid or as noticeable in the morning sun. I could also see men and women walking on top of the wall now. The sunlight glinted off the scopes of the rifles strapped to their backs. Last night, they had blended in with the shadows. Now they were small figures moving back and forth as they surveyed a land far beyond what anyone on this side of the wall could see.

  Looking away from the wall, my gaze slid past Mac and the soldiers to the landscape beyond them. Past the houses and trees, the horizon stretched on endlessly. It all looked so peaceful out there, but all night, cries had echoed across the land. The awful sounds had to have been the ones igniting the rumors of monsters beyond the wall. They’d made my skin crawl as I tossed and turned throughout the night, caught between the urge to punch something or cry out my misery and loneliness.

  I knew one thing, all of these little sixteen-year-old volunteers may be eager to please and do what was expected of them, but if they expected me to run or do anything else, they’d be in for a rude awakening. They’d forced me to be here, but they couldn’t make me follow their rules. I’d come here without a fight because of my brothers; that didn’t mean I’d be a compliant captive.

  I stifled a yawn as I leaned against the cold concrete of the wall. Amid the exuberant young volunteers, I spotted Carrie with her head bent close to another young girl.

  What are we all doing here?

  From across the way, the man I briefly met last night strolled across the front of the soldiers. I frowned when he stopped beside Mac and they exchanged a few words. Around me, the others all stopped speaking and straightened up. I felt the current of astonishment that went through the crowd, heard the indrawn breaths, and saw the looks they exchanged when they got a good eyeful of Kobal. They probably didn’t know what to think about his strange eyes and imposing size, I sure didn’t.

  I remained leaning against the wall, my arms folded over my chest as my eyes ran over him again. There were mountains smaller than he was, I decided. He stood a good foot over my five-nine frame, and more than a head above most of the people around him. The width of his shoul
ders blocked out two of the soldiers standing behind him.

  A sheen of sweat coated the thick muscles of his biceps and caused the thin shirt he wore to cleave to his hard pecs and flat stomach in a way that revealed every etched detail of what lay beneath. While the men and women around him were all dressed in green, he wore a thin black tank top and black pants that hugged the powerful muscles of his thighs and ass. I had no idea where he’d found clothes big enough for him, but I couldn’t stop myself from admiring the way he looked in them.

  In the light, I could see that though his hair had appeared black last night, there were actually deeper shades of brown in it. Strands of his hair fell to the corner of one of his entirely black eyes. There were no whites within his eyes; I had no idea what had caused the odd phenomenon, but what should have been unnerving, I found fascinating and strangely attractive.

  Around me, people shifted back and forth uneasily, but I still wasn’t scared of him. He was the largest, strangest man I’d ever encountered, yet the only reason my pulse picked up around him was because I found myself wanting to get closer.

  I’d never seen eyes as black as his before, and though they were so black that movement was impossible to notice, I felt his gaze the instant it landed on me. His eyes burned into me like hot coal.

  Judging by the small lines around his mouth and eyes, he looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties, but it was difficult to tell for sure. I didn’t know if I’d consider him gorgeous, but there was something so striking, feral, and captivating about him, that it made me itch to run my fingers over those carved muscles in a way I’d never longed to touch a man before.

  His full lips thinned as he watched me, and his square jaw, which tapered into a pointed chin, clenched. His eyes narrowed over his aquiline nose as we stayed locked in a stare. I didn’t know what he was looking for from me, but I didn’t think he was going to find it.

  Mac said something that drew his attention away from me. Now that I could look away from his stare, my gaze was drawn to the intricate tattoo on his left arm. Black flames started at the tips of his fingers on the back of his hand. They wrapped around his wrist before rising up his arm to encircle two snarling wolves on his bicep. The wolves were so realistic looking they appeared ready to leap from his bronzed skin at any second.