Pandora's Box

by Miller, Gracen

  They circled Nix, and he swung punches, all going through their vaporous bodies.

  One grabbed an arm, another seized a leg. They elevated him into the air as the remaining three nabbed him with restraining hands and carried him toward the door. Madison struggled to get free and stop their exit. Between the untapped entity of Pandora swigging through her system and Micah restraining her, she remained powerless.

  Or…am I?

  “Ichnay, hura tep ulx xea zc pc tulx,” Ichnay, take him and die by my hand, she whispered. The words, not the whisper, possessed the effect of a shriek.

  The Skeleton’s scattered, releasing Nix midair. He landed on his back with a hard thud.

  “Fuck!” Micah screamed in her ear. He flung her to the floor and uttered a demonic command of his own. “Imal.”

  Open? What did he want opened?

  A black, swirling hole opened up four feet from Nix. Oh, shit! Micah had opened a direct portal to Hell. A bubble of putrid stench twisted from the gaping wound in the floor, and the screams of souls wafted out.

  She crawled toward Nix. Pandora’s power raping her nervous system, she executed the forearm-drag and foot-shove crawl, as graceless as a newborn baby in the beginning stages of the technique. The incessant, nonstop screaming of Pandora—Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!—in her head, detailed how badly she had screwed up. She’d blamed Nix for making a covenant? No question, her error was the bigger transgression.

  Retribution is coming your way, Yahweh. Pandora’s promise of revenge flavored hot and violent against her thoughts.

  Nix rolled to his side and saw her inching in his direction. He scrambled to her, sat on the floor, and pulled her into a seated position with her back against his chest. He brushed her hair out of her face as she turned her head toward him. Their gazes touched and she interlaced their fingers. The coolness of the ring on his middle finger glanced at the edge of her consciousness.

  “Phoenix, it’s time for you to submit to your partnership.” Micah moved to stand beside them. They ignored him.

  “Nix, break the freaking deal,” she pleaded.

  “I can’t. Too many will suffer.”

  “Including you, kitten,” Micah said. His words stung like salt rubbed into raw wounds.

  “Nix….” she breathed, overwhelmed by the sacrifice he made for her. “I’d rather suffer than know you’ve partnered with Micah.”

  “That’s rude, Madison,” Micah whined, the inflection of humor in his voice contradicting his outrage. “When I’m finished with him, he’ll be godlike. You’ll both thank me.” Only in his dreams. “It’s time to go, Phoenix.”

  Nix tilted her head back and kissed her, a soft touch of his lips against hers as she removed the ring from his finger. Their embrace was a painful parting of friends shrouded by the knowledge fate claimed its victim. A devastating crack of anguish and defeat carved through her soul.

  Mmm…I like the taste of this one, Pandora said silkily in her head.

  Madison wiggled the ring onto her thumb and held up her hand to show it to him when he leaned back. Her left eye twitched from a Pandora influx. The entity would have her basic cells imprinted into its consciousness soon. When that happened, she suspected Pandora would control her.

  “Htc Noaal mkihayhj htaa el Taqq.” Thy Queen protects thee in Hell.

  “Bitch!” Micah slurred and dragged her out of Nix’s arms.

  “What does that mean?” Nix asked, rolling to his feet.

  “She protected you from everything but me and my brother Kings. Smart move. You impress me, kitten.”

  “Yay fucking me!” She cringed as Pandora punished her for the remark with a stab of power to her temple. “It protected you from the baseborn demons sniping at you, Nix.”

  A slight smile curled her husband’s lips, pride glowing from his eyes. She hated his satisfaction. “Phoenix, step into the doorway to Hell.”

  Nix hesitated, and she smirked at Micah. “He second guesses his commitment.”

  “Phoenix, step through the doorway now, or….” Micah tapped his finger between her eyes, placed another rap above it and a third pat a smidge higher than the second. Madison seized uncontrollably on the third one, her teeth clenched, and her muscles spasmed worse than Pandora’s rancid deluge coursing through her nervous system. “An infinitesimal taste of what breaking the covenant will do to her,” Micah said as she went limp in his arms, her fingers twitching in the aftermath. “Your choice, Phoenix. Which one of you will suffer?”

  Oh, Sumerian’s delight…that was good, Pandora cooed over Madison’s pain.

  Nix responded by stepping through the doorway. He chose his misery over hers. Madison choked on a sob. She couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe she’d come to find a way to help Nix and ended up damning him faster.

  Her!

  The succubus whore of a King, the favorite prey of Sherlocks. Several wanted her dead—now they would laser-lock on her. Their commitment to her takedown mattered little when she couldn’t handle the guilt of causing Nix’s fall from grace.

  One tiny flaw could assist her rescue. Nix’s living body stepped through the portal. Whether alive or dead made a difference, a huge difference. Few knew a living body could be resurrected from Hell–a soul couldn’t. A slim chance to free him. First she must figure out a way to get him out of Hell with the covenant voided or traded to someone else. The odds were against them, yet she couldn’t give up. Not on Nix.

  Micah placed her on the floor, straddled her hips, and smoothed her hair off her sweat dampened face.

  “Protect him, will you?” He slapped her openhanded and gripped her cheeks between his fingers and thumbs. “You conniving bitch! I love it, even though I abhor the stench of your emotions for him. I will punish him for finger banging you today. I’ll make you watch every second of it.” Madison cringed. “Remember, kitten, he’s generally fucked, all because of you!”

  Madison managed to knock his hand aside. “You’re a selfish bastard.”

  “News flash, Madison. I’m a demon!”

  “Fallen angel,” she corrected.

  “Yeah, let’s get technical. Fallen angel. I fell because Father wanted me to bow to your ancestors. I will never bow to creatures as fragile and morally screwed up as humans. Mankind kills and mutilates each other! Demons stick together, kitten. We’re a loyal lot and never backstab one another. Never forget, I fell and created a resting spot for corrupted souls, which makes me a sick motherfucker. Sicker than the demons I’ve spawned because I was born out of goodness and perfection.”

  Madison fought to control her wobbly arms and smacked her hands against his cheeks. She dug her nails into the flesh near his ears and dragged them down across his face, leaving bleeding gouges behind.

  Micah laughed and dragged her arms above her head. “You want my blood, kitten?” He released her hands and gripped the edges of her shirt. A tug and the material ripped down the center. She swatted at his hands. A newborn baby owned more dexterity.

  “I must confess, Madison, I couldn’t be prouder of the deceptive, fighting bitch you’ve become.” A claw sliced through her bra, and he cut a design into the top of her left breast with the razor-sharp edge. “Every decision you make is for my benefit. Our benefit. You will learn to obey me. In everything!”

  “No,” she whispered, shaking her head, weakened from the relentless alien power pummeling her nervous system. “I promise you’ll regret taking Nix.”

  “I’m confident I’ll enjoy your efforts. I promise you’ll fail.” He dragged a claw across his wrist, a wide wound splitting open. Thick, black blood oozed out as he wrapped his fingers in her hair and held her head motionless.

  “You wanted my blood, drink me,” he said, pressing his wound against her mouth. Hair pulled from the roots as she tried to turn away from his dark offering. Her attempts were useless with his clutch on the strands. The dark taste of licorice and bitter spices hit her tongue and slid down her throat. “Drink my power, kitten. Become what
I intended.”

  Madison coughed and choked on the thick brew. As she ingested the demonic hemoglobin, her limbs grew hot, her nipples hardened, and lust pulsed between her thighs. She tried to pull away, but remained too weak. He continued to restrain her with one arm and apparently little effort.

  Wings arched over his shoulders, as blue as his eyes, reminding her of clear, summer skies. Not feathery or fuzzy, they reminded her of phosphorescent jellyfish—long, wispy, corkscrews of fiber-optic beauty. The grandeur of his wings belonged on depictions of fairies and other ethereal beings intended for good, not on a demonic spawn of Hell.

  His skin altered into a luminescent blue color. A blue angel, able to fly the heavens without being noted. Only his hair remained its shade of perfect, golden blond.

  Glorious. Yet, perverted for someone so rotten to possess such a stellar appearance.

  Madison cringed, and her back bowed up off the floor as a climax slammed into her with such force she screamed against his wrist. His blood, the catalyst of her release, fed her dark, succubus side. Shame hit her fast and hard, humiliation blinding her as tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and spread into her hair.

  “Keeping sucking me, Madison.” Erotic words laced with demonic subterfuge. He nudged her thighs apart and moved between them. His free hand moved to his jeans, released the button. The sudden rumbling of the Neko’s purr startled her as he said, “Suck me, wife, while I fuck you to your first real orgasm.”

  Whimpering, Madison tried to push him away. Painful electricity spiked through her system, shaking her limbs as if she’d stuck her finger in a light socket.

  He chuckled at her futile attempt. “You really shouldn’t have opened Pandora’s Box until you were more prepared. I’m glad you did. Your miscalculation is my benefit.”

  Desperation to halt Nix’s descent into Hell had caused her to act recklessly. She realized too late her grave error in judgment. Maybe, with time, she could control the foreign power. Right then, the ravaging effects of its strength left her defenseless. And defenseless in Micah’s presence couldn’t end well.

  He released his engorged shaft from his pants. Stroked the hard, blue length from base to tip, until red pre-cum beaded the head of his slit.

  She closed her eyes and summoned the look on Nix’s face as his fingers moved inside her. Thought of Nix the day she first met him, his smartass comments, his awkward charm. Remembered him as he laughed and horseplayed with Amos.

  Just remembered him….

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Madison gagged on a clot and whimpered at the hot path it seared to her belly. Dark lust built between her thighs again, and she knew if her husband shoved his dick inside her, she wouldn’t be able to fight the climax he’d force upon her.

  Something tangible shifted in the air and prickled her exposed flesh. She opened her eyes as iridescent prisms of rainbow orbs bathed the room like a disco ball.

  The spheres coalesced into a solid huge ball, grew brighter and more piercing to look at. She stared, hoping the end grew near. Instead, Zen popped into existence. She’d been unaware he could teleport. It shouldn’t have been such a surprise, since the immortal held innumerable powers she knew nothing about.

  Zen uttered something short and bitter in his language, grabbed Micah by the back of the shirt, and flung him across the room. Her husband struck the wall, his head hitting the wood paneling hard enough to crack it.

  “Madison, what have you done?” Zen stared at her with cool, silver eyes, his tan skin paling.

  “I fucked up.” Her voice sounded raw, as if she’d been screaming for a long time. Her body might never stop screaming in agony. Her heart shredded, bleeding with no hope for resuscitation because she had been the indirect cause of Nix’s damnation.

  “You!” Micah snarled, a mixture of fear and rage. He touched the back of his head, and his fingers came away black. “How’d you get out?”

  Zen whipped around and blasted rainbow balls toward him. Micah managed to dodge all except one, the final slug burning a hole through his shoulder. Madison could see the wall behind him. The edges of his wound sizzled and he grimaced, grave pain turning his lips white.

  “I don’t wish to fight you.” He held the palm of his uninjured arm out in a sign of surrender. “Give me Madison, and we’ll leave.”

  “No,” Zen said, his voice dead calm. His shoulders were squared and tense. “To end your plan, all I need to do is kill Madison.”

  “Yes,” she whispered raggedly. “Please do.” I can’t save Nix if he kills me, though.

  He better not try, Pandora added.

  Zen slapped his palm to his forehead. “Damn! Amos is psychotic in my head.” He winced and ground his teeth.

  Zen never cursed. His swearing divulged the severity of the situation.

  Clenching his head between his hands, his face paled. Finally, he slid his hands over his crown and back to his neck, facing Madison with jaw clenched.

  Their eyes clashed. She held Zen’s stare, his a thunderstorm of conflicting emotions….anger, remorse, and indecision were the ones she could identify.

  In the four years she’d known Zen, she’d never seen him anything other than stoic and composed. An altogether different man stood in her presence at that moment.

  “Please kill me, Zen.” She rolled onto her stomach, seeking comfort in the cool tile. Burning up, she feared she’d begin to liquefy from the inside out at any moment. “Sweet Jesus, put me out of my misery!”

  “Don’t lay a finger on her!” Even though Madison couldn’t see Micah, she heard the panic in his voice. Zen terrified him.

  Interesting.

  Madison laughed. The movement sent shivers of agony through her system, and her humor turned into whimpers. She still managed to cough out, “My crystal genie frightens you.” Zen wasn’t her crystal genie. She had gone to great lengths to keep Nix from referring to him as such. Only because the way he said it implied an intimate relationship. “I hope he kills you.”

  Zen knelt beside her, keeping his glare trained on Micah as he reached back to swipe a finger across her forehead. “You’re burning up. What’d you do to her after she opened Pandora’s Box?”

  Micah said nothing. She thought maybe he smirked by the half-harrumph noise he made.

  “Forced his gooey ass blood into my mouth,” Madison whispered, her heart pulverizing her ribs with its pounding cadence. She panted faster than a dog on the verge of a heat stroke. She would die soon, she realized, and welcomed the release from her insane life. “Amos….” she tried to utter past a tongue too thick, a throat parched. “Zen…please take…care of…Amos.”

  He gripped her arm and rattled off a bunch of lilting words in his foreign language, a language she suspected long dead and mostly forgotten. The pain eased off with his words, and her breathing regulated.

  “Keep a grip on my hand,” Zen said, confirming he restrained the Pandora power. He helped her to rise on shaky legs, lacing her fingers with his. “Do you see?”

  “Yes,” she whispered, staring at him in awe. What she saw…fragments of Zen’s life, the world before her own, and the utter magnitude of his age.

  “You understand what I must do?”

  Madison nodded and stepped closer to him. Micah panicked, attacked, and came up against an invisible shield she knew Zen created. Determined, her husband persisted, bellowing promises of revenge if Zen harmed one hair on her head.

  “Do it, Zen.” She squeezed his hand, hoping to reassure him. “I’m ready.”

  Don’t! Pandora screeched.

  “No!” Micah shrieked at the same time.

  Zen placed two fingers against her temple. “I’m sorry,” he said as a burst pulsed from his fingers. Madison cried out at the agonizing contact and a fog bloomed in her head, diminishing her hearing.

  Micah spouted omens and curses too fast for her to catch them. He kicked on the shield, screamed and begged her to fight back. Begged her not to leave him. She’d have pitie
d him if he’d been worthy of the emotion.

  Another discharge from Zen’s fingertips fractured every particle in her body…or felt like it. Zen wrapped an arm around her waist and steadied her against his lithe frame, proving the immortal possessed more strength than his short frame seemed capable of containing.

  Everything went numb, time suspended, and Amos’s screams penetrated the muddled fog of her brain. At first, his cries sounded like radio static. Panicked, he pleaded with Zen to save her, not to kill her.

  Her poor baby. He worried about her when he should be worrying about school grades or whether to pick the cheerleader or geeky nerd to be his girlfriend.

  Amos, it’s okay. She felt him settle immediately and knew he heard her. Picturing her son, she brushed his blond hair off his forehead. She loved him more than life.

  The third charge hit her by surprise. Back bowing, she jerked and shrieked before slumping in Zen’s arms.

  Amos went ballistic.

  It sounded like Micah cried, sniffling and gasping, but the fucker needed a heart before he could be brought emotionally low. Dropping to his knees, hands pressed to the invisible shield, Micah’s scratchy voice begged Zen to show Madison mercy and…to forgive him for his sins.

  “It is done,” Zen said, and ran his fingers down the side of her face.

  Yes, she thought. Finally! She dragged in a labored breath…blackness consumed her.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Nix and despair were one. Crouching in the corner of the cave-like room, he clamped his eyes shut in hopes the slinking shadows would disappear. Too bad closing his eyes wouldn’t deaden the sounds of the agony of the damned. The pain of souls never ended, and their screams stung worse than a hive of bees. He cupped his hands over his ears, but nothing drowned the sounds of misery.

  The worst mind-fuck ever, being forced to watch Micah parade Mads in front of him and fuck her after slowly disrobing her. Her screams of pleasure made his ears bleed.