Hell Hath No Fury (Hellscourge Book 8)

by Diem, J. C.

  Leaping over boulders and small streams of lava, I headed for the decapitated mountain. I was nearing the base of it when the ground rumbled. Skidding to a stop, I looked up at the peak just as something erupted from the opening. At first, I thought it was a shower of lava. Then the creature spread its wings and I saw that it was a gigantic red dragon. It roared a challenge and fire spewed from its maw.

  Diving to the side, I barely managed to avoid the flames. Dust whirled through the air as the dragon beat its wings and prepared to dive at me. Leaping to my feet, I turned to see the Hellmaster’s carriage approaching. The door began to open and I saw a cloven hoof that was as red as the dragon’s hide emerge. Leviathans, crab beetles and other creatures moved to cut off my escape.

  A screech from above alerted me that danger was imminent. Talons the length of my arm clasped me around the chest and I was lifted high into the air. My armor was impenetrable and not even the dragon could claw it open. It tried another tactic and fire washed over me. I gave a gurgling shriek as my face began to melt. Scaly claws closed around my head and squeezed, fracturing my skull like an egg.

  On the verge of unconsciousness from the sheer agony of my injuries, I went limp. With a shriek of triumph, the dragon opened its claws and let me fall. Wind rushed past me as I picked up speed. I saw a flash of something bright in the dragon’s nest as I fell past it, heading for the pool of magma far below. It was hoarding treasure just like in the fairytales.

  “NO!” the Hellmaster shouted in rage when I dropped out of his sight. He’d thought he finally had me in his grasp, but his triumph had been short lived. Instead of being at his monstrous mercy, I was about to burn to a crisp.

  I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to see the molten death that was rapidly approaching.

  A hand touched my shoulder and I woke up with a scream. Leo started back when I grabbed him and hugged him for comfort. He remained stiff for a few moments while I held him and shuddered. Then his arms came around me almost reluctantly. “I take it you had a bad dream,” he said dryly.

  “It was the mother of all nightmares,” I agreed and let him go. He didn’t trust me now. I didn’t think things would ever be the same between us again.

  “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  I appreciated the offer, but I was pretty sure he was just being polite. “Nah. The details are already fading anyway.” That was a lie. Every image was burned into my memory.

  “Sophia has made waffles,” he said. “You should head downstairs before they go cold.”

  The weather was turning chilly and they wouldn’t stay warm for long. I nodded and he left the room to let me change. Nathan’s sapphire stone had fallen out of my hand at some point. I slipped it into my pocket after dressing. I added Dom and Jed’s rune stones and the small carving of an angel to the collection.

  Hurrying downstairs, I entered the front room to see steam still wafting from my waffles. Sophia knew they were my favorite and I gave her a grateful smile. Pouring syrup over the waffles, I dug in. The room seemed empty and the table far too large for just us three. I would have preferred even Brie’s prickly company to the silence that fell over us.

  I had the whole day and half the night to kill before Leo and I would head to our watch point. Again, I spent the day hiding out in my room attempting to read. I left my door open this time and I had a direct view of the empty couch in the living room across the hall.

  We hadn’t turned the TV on since I’d returned from hell with Sam’s body in my arms. Leo had allowed his budding addiction to television die. He couldn’t stand to be inside the living room any more than I could. Sophia only entered to dust and vacuum.

  Tears welled up and I used the sleeve of my hoodie to wipe them away. Fate had told me I’d have to fall into the depths of despair before I would find the cure to the toxin that was killing me. With Sam gone and Nathan chained up in a cell, I was feeling fairly miserable. Sam’s death had hit me almost as hard as losing my mother. If I lost Nathan as well, there would be no end to the despair that I would feel.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Ten

  Leo wanted to get into position early. I grabbed my favorite faux leather jacket for added warmth then he teleported us to our vantage point just before one am. Appearing in the vacant office across the street from the warehouse, we crossed to the windows. The angels’ lair was dark and quiet. A door opened and ten angels stepped outside. They disappeared and another ten returned from their patrol moments later. It was ironic that they were most likely searching for us while we were watching them right now.

  A dark blue sedan cruised past on the street below. I couldn’t see Reynolds from this angle, but I knew it was his car. He didn’t slow down or bring attention to himself as he turned the corner and left our sight.

  The next hour passed by at a glacial pace and my tension increased by the second. Leo shifted from foot to foot restlessly. He sent me occasional wary glances, but he had nothing to worry about. I’d left my dagger behind just as I’d promised. I was too worried and nervous to descend into another irrational rage that would bring my demonic half to the surface.

  Right on two am, a car alarm went off just around the corner from the warehouse. Seconds later, a horde of fake demons appeared in the yard on the right side of the warehouse. At their loud bellows, doors flew open and angels spilled out. Red and blue weapons blazed to life as the ancient enemies confronted each other.

  “That must be the team Reynolds organized,” Leo said and pointed to the left of the warehouse. I saw a fleeting glimpse of six figures dressed in black before they were hidden by shadows. They entered through the same door that I’d escaped from when I’d been held in the cells. Wards could keep angels and demons from teleporting in and out, but they couldn’t prevent humans from entering and leaving the building.

  Brie, Dom and Jed were among the angels fighting the small army of fake demons. It looked like the entire host had been called outside to do battle. Hag and Orifiel were bureaucrats rather than warriors. They merely stood on the sidelines and watched.

  Dom’s control over his creations was impressive. He made them seem as though they were teleporting away from the strikes that came towards them. They reappeared moments later to engage another foe in combat. The ruse wouldn’t last long. I hoped the extraction team would get the job done while the bulk of the angels were distracted.

  A few minutes passed, then two pure white souls floated around the corner on the left side of the warehouse. They were followed by the six men dressed in black. Two of them supported a seventh man. His head was slumped forward, but I was pretty sure it was Nathan. They hustled him into a black van that was parked down the road. The angels hadn’t seen the grace of their fallen comrades, or the extraction team. They were still engaged in trying to kill the phantoms that kept popping in and out of existence. None of the humans had witnessed the loud battle that was sure to draw the cops soon. Reynolds wouldn’t have to come up with an explanation for the hideous demons.

  Instead of taking off with screeching tires, the van came quietly to life and took off at a sedate pace.

  “Brace yourself,” Leo warned me then the angelic essence squeezed in through a crack in the window.

  Assimilating angels was a very different experience to ingesting demons. I saw flashes of their time spent in heaven and the battles they’d had with their brethren before they’d fallen. Both angels were male and had been paired up for many missions to Earth.

  When they’d been locked out of heaven, they’d made their way to New York. Word had spread that the city was under threat from demonkind. Hagith and Orifiel had brainwashed them into believing I was as evil as the demons they’d come here to fight. They’d convinced their handpicked guards that Nathan had fallen beneath my influence. His punishment was to be purged in a similar manner to what they’d done to me, but he didn’t have evil to eradicate and holy fire didn’t work. Instead, they were using various forms of elemental magic to torture
him.

  I saw fleeting glimpses of Nathan chained to a wall. He was screaming in agony as the angels sent fire, lightning and other forms of pain through his body. His suffering brought my wrath close to the surface. Any guilt I felt about the angels being evicted from their hosts fled. The next time I ended up in the shadowlands of my mind, I’d be hard pressed not to give them a taste of what they had done to my guardian.

  “Are you alright?” Leo asked.

  “I’m fine,” I rasped. “Let’s head to the vacant building. I want to be there when Nathan arrives.”

  He knew I’d seen things that I didn’t want to describe and merely put his hand on my shoulder and teleported us to the designated meeting place.

  We appeared in the lobby of what had been a small hotel. Everything had been cleared out and only a bare concrete floor remained. Even the sconces had been ripped off the walls, leaving ugly scars on the faded maroon wallpaper.

  Shoving my hands into my pockets, I tried to hold onto my rage at what I’d seen. Angels were always depicted as kind, benevolent beings. In reality, they could be almost as petty and flawed as humans. Without God to guide them, they were descending into a pack of power hungry tyrants.

  “What did you see?” Leo asked me.

  He was torn between wanting to know and fear that what he would hear would be too much for him to take. “They’ve been purging him,” I said in a clipped tone.

  “Nathan is not infected with toxin,” he protested.

  My response was bleak. “They think something worse than that has happened to him. They think he’s obsessed with me and that I’ve gotten my evil claws into his soul.”

  “Why would they think that?”

  “Because he’s given me so much of his essence that we’ve become linked. We can sense each other in here.” I put a hand on the scar on my left breast where my essence had been taken from me.

  “Surely they should have realized by now that purging him will not work.”

  “They aren’t using holy fire on him. They’re using other methods to cause him pain.”

  His expression became drawn. “Was Brie among the angels who were torturing him?”

  “No,” I replied and he relaxed slightly. “The two angels I just ingested were the main offenders. There are a few others who’ve also been hurting him.”

  “He will be here soon and then we will take him home. His pain is over and he will be okay.”

  I almost uttered a harsh laugh. Leo had never been tortured and he had no idea of the mental scars that it left. Bob had carved me open with the knife that I’d stolen from him. He’d been careful to heal me whenever I was on the verge of losing too much blood. He’d actually been pretty skilled at keeping me alive. “Yeah,” I said instead of the bitter words that wanted to escape from me. “He’s almost home free. In just a few more minutes, we can put all this behind us.” I only wished it could really be that easy to do.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Eleven

  Several minutes later, we heard a vehicle pull up. Leo opened the door and we stepped out as the back doors of the van were pulled open. The windows were heavily tinted and I couldn’t make out who was driving. Two men wearing black balaclavas helped Nathan out. His head hung forward and his chin length hair hid his face. He was too weak to stand on his own.

  “Tell Reynolds that the package has been delivered safe and sound,” one of the men instructed us.

  Leo stepped forward to take hold of Nathan. They relinquished their hold on him with dubious glances at the much smaller teen. “You have our deepest thanks,” Leo said.

  Reynolds’ car eased around the corner and parked across the street. He didn’t climb out and just watched as the anonymous men climbed back into the van and it drove away.

  “Are you okay?” I said to Nathan. His clothes were torn and filthy from being kept in a cell with a dirt floor. Something was very wrong, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I almost felt as if something was missing.

  Hearing my voice, he jerked and lifted his head a little. Cobalt blue eyes peered at me through his stringy hair in a foggy panic. “Run,” he whispered in a ragged voice. “It is a trap!”

  Before I could even think of running, a cold voice spoke right behind me. “Did you really think we would allow you to rescue Nathanael so easily?”

  I turned to see Hag and her sidekick, Orifice, standing a few feet away. Tall and slim, her blond hair was tied back in a tight bun. She was beautiful and wore a haughty, triumphant look in her gray eyes. Orifice had dark hair and eyes and wore a suit in the same shade of charcoal as hers. They’d brought a dozen lackeys with them and they were blocking Leo’s ability to teleport. Brie was among them. Her eyes went to Leo and she flinched at his accusing glare.

  “How did you find us?” I asked in dismay.

  “Nathanael is not the only angel who has the ability to track objects,” Orifice said. He stepped forward and pulled a necklace out of hiding from beneath Nathan’s t-shirt. It was made of cheap string and had been crudely plaited. Even the leather bracelet that Zach had made for me was better constructed than it was. He tore it free and Nathan flinched in pain.

  “What are you going to do now?” I demanded. “Lock us up in your cells forever?”

  “Briathos has convinced us that Leo might be able to be redeemed,” Hag replied frostily. Brie stood at attention when her name was mentioned. “But we have realized that there is no hope for you or your guardian.” She sneered as she said the word and my blood tried to run cold. “You will both be taken to where creatures such as you belong.”

  “What are you talking about?” Leo asked in a frightened tone.

  “I will be taking custody of them,” a new female voice said. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Vepar and her kill squad of eighteen demons standing behind us. “You will both be accompanying me to hell.”

  “Nathan is an angel,” I said in disbelief. “He can’t go to hell. He’ll die before he even reaches the shadowlands.” I flicked a look at Brie to see she was genuinely astonished to see the demons. Orifiel looked uncomfortable, yet resigned. He’d known they would be turning up.

  “Perhaps he will, or perhaps he will survive,” the Demon Lord said with a careless shrug. “He should have thought of that before he made his deal with me.”

  “Speaking of which,” Hag interrupted. “There is the matter of our bargain.”

  “Ah yes,” Vepar responded and moved to stand in front of me. “Where is the metal object that you brought back from the third realm?”

  I hesitated and she flicked a glance at one of her minions. A red dagger appeared in his hand and he moved to stand behind Leo. If he rammed the dagger into Leo’s chest, it might pierce his heart and he’d end up inside me along with Sam. “It’s in my back right pocket,” I said quickly. The lackey kept his weapon pressed up against Leo as he stepped closer to me and slid his hand into my pocket. I held in a shudder at the sensation of his hand on my backside.

  He withdrew the object and tossed it to Vepar. She caught it with one hand and turned to Hag. They stepped forward until they were only a yard apart. “As per our agreement, here is the piece of the object of power in exchange for Nathanael,” the demon said and presented it to the being who should have been her enemy.

  Greed flashed in Hag’s eyes as she snatched it up. Mastering herself, she turned to me. “It took my soldiers a week to break Nathanael, but he finally told us the truth about what you are.” Looks of disgust came from her lackeys, including Brie. I wasn’t sure if her emotion was real or if it was feigned. “I cannot believe he willingly gave an abomination like you his holy essence,” Hag continued. “It is yet more proof of how insidious your evil truly is.”

  Nathan flinched and looked down at the ground when I stared at him in horror. “You know what I am?” I said to him. Leo looked at me in confusion. He was still clueless about my origins, but he was about to discover my secret. “When did you find out?”

  “He alway
s knew that you were a Nephilim,” Vepar said before he could respond. “Who do you think removed your essence when you were a baby?”

  I blanched and stumbled back a step at that revelation. “You were the one who stole my soul?” I said in a heartbroken whisper.

  Nathan nodded miserably. “I was sent to rescue your mother from the Collectors.” He might not have known it at the time, but Fate had surely dispatched him for that mission. “Asteraoth told me what had happened to her and that she had fallen pregnant. I knew that the offspring of a demon would surely be monstrous. It was my hope that removing your essence would prevent you from turning evil as well as hiding you from the demons.”

  “I saw Nathanael purely by chance in Chicago what must have been a short time after your birth,” Vepar said. Her profound satisfaction at her good fortune was obvious in her tone. “His vessel looks so much like his real form that he was unmistakable. My entourage and I captured him and he proposed a deal that I simply could not refuse. He asked for one of the vials that is used to harvest souls. In exchange, he agreed to owe me a favor that I could extract from him whenever I wished.” From the salacious grin on her face, I knew exactly what that favor would entail.

  “You know where my soul is,” I said to Nathan, focusing on the only thing that wouldn’t drive me insane. “It could be the cure for the toxin. Tell me where it is, so I can get it and try to stop the poison from killing me.”

  He sent me another miserable look and shook his head. “I cannot do that,” he said in a low voice.

  “Why not?” I asked in bafflement. He was supposed to watch over me and keep me safe. I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me where it was.

  “Nephilim are despised by God himself,” he said. “I would rather see you die than to watch you become an abomination.” He met my eyes and I saw his desolation at how much his words had hurt me.