Hell Bound (Hellscourge Book 3)

by Diem, J. C.

  I was sporting a few cuts and slices, but was relatively unharmed when I turned to face the prince. My wounds healed quickly, leaving no trace of scars behind. Proving he wasn’t the sporting type, his massive blade was already whooshing towards my face. Morax spun away, but he wasn’t quite fast enough. Pain flared as my right cheek was sliced open.

  Blood sheeted down to drip from my jaw, but I could already feel it healing. The prince’s confident grin faltered when he saw the wound close. “That is not possible,” he grated in his guttural voice. “You are just a lowly human.”

  I’d had this debate before and I wasn’t about to indulge in it again. Repetition tended to bore me. My rage had flared along with the pain of being wounded. Morax was forced into the background as I allowed the anger to take over. “You have incurred my wrath, Prince of the seventh realm,” I said and his face turned ashen. He knew the prophecy as well as any demon. “I am going to take your life. It’s up to you whether your death will be quick and painless, or if it will be long and drawn out.”

  His forked tongue flicked out as he licked his lips nervously. He shifted his grip on his broadsword and his eyes moved to the doorway beyond me. They turned sly and I sensed danger a moment before a spear skewered me. I looked down to see a crimson blade protruding from my chest. It was yanked out and I went down to my knees. The pain was excruciating. One of my lungs had been punctured and I could hear a whistling sound inside me with each labored breath that I took. It had missed my heart by only a fraction.

  “And so the mighty Hellscourge has fallen,” the prince gloated. “Taken down by a minor demon, no less. I am afraid that the tales about you were wildly blown out of proportion.”

  He stepped in front of me and raised his sword over his head with both arms. He was going to split me straight down the middle. He didn’t realize that my wound had already healed. My weapon changed to a sword and I lunged forward to skewer him in the stomach. Replicating what the Wraith Warrior had done to me, I yanked the blade sideways, slicing a wide gash in his flesh and scrambling his insides. Bellowing in agony, the prince dropped his sword. It landed on the floor behind him with a deafening clang as he dropped to his knees.

  I stood and we were face to face even though he was still on his knees. Shuffling footsteps behind me reminded me that we weren’t alone. I spun around and my sword decapitated the lesser demon before she could stab me again. The Demon Prince was desperately trying to hold his guts in, but disgusting black things similar to intestines were slithering out through the gash. The wound was too catastrophic even for someone as powerful as him to be able to heal easily.

  I prodded him in the chest with my sword tip and he flinched. “Are you responsible for sending the Wraith Warrior after me?”

  He looked surprised for a moment then bared his teeth in a bloody grin. “It was not I, but I wish I could claim it was so. If you have been marked, then your death is inevitable.”

  My rage surged up again, but I didn’t give into it yet. I had two more questions that I needed to find the answers for. “Why are the Collectors harvesting souls and where do they take them?”

  Swaying on his knees, his strength was rapidly fading. He was doomed, but he fought against the darkness that was coming to steal his life. “I do not know. Our new master keeps that knowledge to himself.”

  I had one final question and knew I was running out of time. “Where is your piece of the object of power?”

  His upper lip lifted in a sneer, showing his ivory colored fangs. “I will never tell you what I have done with it.”

  “Wrong answer,” I replied and shoved the sword into him, making him roar in fresh agony.

  Several stabs later, he held up his hand in defeat. “Stop! I will tell you what you wish to know.” He’d given up on trying to hold onto his guts. They’d slithered out of him a while ago, around the same time that he’d lost the strength to stay on his knees. He lay on his back now and I had to step delicately around his entrails as I searched for a new place to stab him.

  “Well?” I prompted when he didn’t speak.

  Gasping for breath, he lifted his head weakly. “I had the object thrown into a forbidden place where no one dares to enter.” Even though he was dying, he still managed a sly grin. “Not even you will be able to retrieve it and return unscathed.”

  “Where is this place?” I asked, but his face had frozen in the creepy grin. Black blood had pooled around him, spreading out in a wide puddle. I hadn’t even had the chance to end him myself. He’d bled to death instead.

  Footsteps approached me from behind. I turned to see the six Demon Lords who had sprinted after Sam returning. They stared at their fallen leader in shock. “Where is my friend?” I asked.

  “He is all over the place by now,” one of them snarled nastily. “We have ordered his pieces to be scattered throughout the palace. You will never be able to find all of his body parts.”

  My fury rose again and I didn’t need Morax’s help this time. I ran at them and they turned to flee. My sword changed back into an axe. It sliced through their legs, cutting two of them down. The other four tried to look over their shoulders and run at the same time. Tripping, they fell over each other and clattered to the floor.

  I leaped among them, slicing and hacking until they were still. The other two had dragged themselves backwards, but they hadn’t made it far. Their scarlet eyes pleaded with me for mercy, but I didn’t have that capacity when I was this enraged. I ended their lives then fell to my knees in a puddle of sticky blood. Holding onto my sobs, I tried to get myself under control. Sam was an imp, which meant that he was immortal. They’d hinted that he would be able to piece himself back together if I could just gather up his parts. All I had to do was search every room in the palace until I found all of him.

  “Piece of cake,” I croaked. How the hell was I supposed to tell his body parts apart from the others? His flesh was more ash gray than black now, but it would still be almost indistinguishable from a demon’s when it was all hacked up.

  “What is a piece of cake?” a familiar voice asked from behind me. Whirling around, I saw Sam standing there, completely intact.

  Lurching to my feet, I leaped over the bloody corpses and wrapped my arms around him. “They said they hacked you to pieces,” I said.

  “They lied,” he replied. “Demons have a tendency to do that.”

  I laughed, but it turned into tears and I sobbed on his shoulder in utter relief. The thought of losing Sam had almost torn me apart. He was more than just my best friend. He was also my guide through hell. Without him, there was no way I’d be able to survive long enough to kill the remaining six princes then hunt down their master.

  “There, there,” he said awkwardly as he patted my back in comfort. “I am fine.”

  Finally regaining control, I pushed myself away and glanced over my shoulder. The prince seemed to be mocking me as he lay dead on the floor of his bedroom. “We should get out of here before anyone comes to check on him.”

  “His lackeys are a little busy at the moment. They are still carrying on with the dismemberments,” Sam said with a grimace as he took the lead. I kept my hand on his shoulder and he trailed his hand along the wall as we headed downstairs. He was ready to camouflage us if we saw or heard anyone approaching.

  “I’m sure they’ll stop once they realize their leader is dead. They’ll probably throw a party in my honor.”

  I could hear the doubt in his tone when he replied. “That is unlikely. I expect that they will instead flee in terror when they learn of his demise.”

  “Then they’ll probably set the hounds on us again,” I said morosely. “We need to get back to the secret entrance before they turn up and start searching for us.”

  “Did you find the object?” he asked as we reached the end of the stairs and stepped out into the hallway.

  “Nope. The Prince said he had it thrown into a forbidden place where no one dares to go, whatever that means.”

 
“We should ask someone who might know the answer,” he proposed.

  “Good idea. We’ll grab the next lesser demon that we come across and question them.”

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  We kept close to the wall and backtracked to the staircase that led to the second floor. Just as Sam had told me, dismembered pieces of lesser demons were still being carried to the rooms where the parts were being stored.

  Lying in wait, we saw a lone minion coming and got ready. Her arms were full, so we let her continue on. When she returned, I leaped forward and slapped my hand over her mouth while Sam opened the door at our back. I dragged her into the room and he shut the door. “Be quiet, or I’ll kill you,” I whispered with my dagger pressed against her throat.

  She twisted around enough to see my face and realized who I was. She nodded frantically in agreement and I let her go. “What do you want with me?” she said in a near wail and spun around to face me. “I am just a lowly servant.”

  “Shh!” I put a finger to my lips and she clapped a hand over her mouth in fear. “Have you heard of a forbidden place where no one dares to go?”

  Her face screwed up in confusion for a moment before her expression cleared. “You mean the swamp where a city once stood?” she asked in a hoarse whisper.

  I nodded, pretending I knew what she was talking about. “Where is it?”

  “I do not know,” she said with a frightened shrug. “No one has been there in eons. Not since the ground turned to marsh and destroyed most of the buildings.”

  “That’s just great. How are we going to find it?” I said to Sam.

  “The nightmares will probably know where it is,” he reminded me.

  “Oh yeah. I forgot about them.”

  The servant’s eyes had grown wide. “Nightmares obey your summons?” she said incredulously.

  “Why wouldn’t they?” I asked. “I defeated the master gate, so I’m entitled to use them whenever I need to travel somewhere.”

  “It does not work that way,” she said in flat denial. “No human has the power to command the creatures of hell.”

  “Then I guess the Demon Lords that are floating around inside me must be how I manage to pull it off.”

  Horror stole across her face as she realized what I meant. She let out a piercing shriek at the thought of her soul being added to my collection. She had no way of knowing that I couldn’t ingest her essence here, but the damage was already done. Feet pounded down the hallway towards us.

  We darted over to the door that was on the other side of the room, wincing at her shrill screams. We ran through a confusing labyrinth of hallways and rooms until we reached a balcony. I peered over the edge to see the throne room far below.

  Demons were reluctantly crowded in together to witness the dismemberments that were still being carried out. We watched as a lesser demon was dragged forward. He was pinned to the ground, screaming and thrashing as his arms and legs were chopped off. His body was hacked into two pieces and then his head was lopped off. His screams ended, but he was still alive as he was carried off in different directions.

  I wasn’t sure why the injured lackeys didn’t simply go back to the first realm. Maybe because, although they were in pieces, they weren’t badly damaged enough to be banished. Trust the demons to find a loophole that they could exploit.

  Feeling sick to my stomach, I didn’t protest when Sam pulled me down the hallway. We managed to find our way to the stairs and blended in with the stone as we hurried downward.

  Panic was beginning to spread as word got out that I was in the building. A roar went up when the prince’s body was discovered. We stayed close to the wall when a flood of demons entered the wide passageway. The exodus had begun and we just had to wait for the palace to empty out so we could leave.

  Following the fleeing minions at a slower pace, I found the door that led to the hidden passageway. I reached out, but the knob wouldn’t turn. I’d unlocked it from the other side, but it looked like I’d now have to draw the rune again to unlock it from this side.

  “Hurry,” Sam urged me when the first hollow howl rang out. The hellhounds had been released and they were already hunting for us.

  He opened the backpack and reached for the container of blood. He held it for me as I dipped a brush into the thick, clotted mixture. Working quickly, I painted a reverse copy of the symbol that was on the other side.

  A low growl came from behind us and echoed along the hallway. We turned to see three hellhounds approaching at a run. Three more started sprinting towards us from the other corridor. I tried to remain calm as I sliced my palm open and slapped my hand on the rune to activate it. I opened the door and we ducked through and slammed it shut just as the hounds reached us. I hadn’t had time to break the rune, which meant the door could be opened again. Everyone would be able to see it now that I’d broken the enchantment that had kept it hidden.

  “Do you think the hounds are smart enough to figure out how to turn the doorknob?” I asked as we started running downhill.

  “I do not know, but I sincerely hope not,” Sam replied.

  We’d been running for a few minutes when we heard the howls start up inside the tunnel. Either one of the hounds had accidentally managed to turn the knob, or someone had opened the door for them.

  From the number of howls, more than one pack was after us now. Their feet made no noise on the soil, but their barks, yips and howls echoed around us. We increased our speed until we were running flat out. Our foes were much faster than us and the hellhounds quickly gained ground.

  I cast a look back over my shoulder to see the scarlet glow from their eyes lighting up the darkness. They were just around the bend and would see us in moments. Sam caught hold of my hand and pulled me down to my knees. He didn’t bother to explain what he was doing, but merely disappeared inside one of the smaller tunnels that had been made by the rats.

  Seeing how tiny the opening was, I froze in fear. Claustrophobia clawed at me and I couldn’t bring myself to move forward. Now is not the time to succumb to your childish terror, Morax scolded me. When he realized that I was incapable of entering the tunnel, he took matters into his own hands.

  I tried to scream as he forced me into the rat hole, but he clamped my mouth shut. There wasn’t enough room for me to crawl, so he flattened me down to my belly. Sam was just ahead of me, looking back over his shoulder. Not realizing that I wasn’t following him voluntarily, he gave me a thumbs up.

  He slithered through the soil and Morax forced me after him. We halted when a howl sounded from right outside the tiny tunnel. I peered backwards to see several packs of midnight black hounds with red glowing eyes sprint past the opening. Morax motioned for Sam to keep going and I slithered after him.

  Shunted to the back of my own mind, I gibbered in terror at being in such a tightly confined space. The memory of being trapped in the toy chest when I’d been a toddler returned with a vengeance.

  You’re safe, Violet, a voice said inside my head. It was Heather. She’d left the home that I’d constructed for her to keep her safe from the demons. My terror had drawn her out.

  You are not alone, Hellscourge, Sy said. The hellscribe had also left the house to offer me what comfort he could. Mentally clutching at both of them, I could almost feel them holding my hands as Morax continued to propel me along.

  We headed downhill, taking what turned out to be a shortcut through the center of the hill beneath the palace. The rats had chewed their way through the black rock that lined the main passageway. All we had to do was keep going down and we’d eventually reach the exit.

  I had a few moments of relief when we emerged into the main hallway, but Sam quickly entered the much smaller tunnels again. Somewhere in the distance, the howls changed in tone and became frustrated.

  “The hounds have realized that the trail they are following is not fresh,” Sam said as he pulled himself along on his elbows and knees. Our hands, faces and clothes were fi
lthy.

  “I believe they are backtracking in an attempt to find us,” Morax said through my mouth. I was in no shape to respond to Sam.

  “You do not sound like yourself,” my best friend said suspiciously.

  “Hellscourge is currently indisposed,” the Demon Lord replied in a dry tone. “The tunnels are too small for her to bear.”

  Sam sent a stricken look at me over his shoulder. “I forgot about her claustrophobia. Is she okay?”

  “No. She is cowering inside her own mind so she does not have to deal with her terror.” Morax heaved a put-upon sigh for having to shoulder the task of using my body. “I do not understand how she can be so powerful, yet at the same time so pitifully weak.”

  “That is because you were never human,” Sam said in my defense. “You do not have the same capacity to feel emotion that they do.”

  “The longer I spend inside her head, the more I understand just how driven by emotion humans are. It is no wonder they are so easily tempted to sin.” He sounded so smug that I was almost pulled out of my misery to respond.

  When he reached the next exit that led to the main tunnel, Sam waited for me to emerge behind him then started sprinting. Morax retreated and I was thrust back into the front of my own mind again. I stumbled a step, but Sam caught my arm. “I take it you are back now?”

  “Yeah,” I replied raggedly. “Let’s try to avoid going into any small, dark spaces again.”

  “I am sorry I put you through that.”

  His guilt was evident, but I waved it away. “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just concentrate on getting out of here.” It hadn’t been pleasant to take the shortcut, but it had been clever. We now had a lead on the hounds and it would be smart to utilize it.

  Even the wide tunnel was too enclosed for me after the harrowing ordeal of being forced to slither through the rat holes. When I spied the door that led to freedom just ahead, gladness surged through me.