I hated these twisted horsemen as much as the fallen angels. Maybe more so. The angels couldn’t manipulate us into killing each other, as far as I knew. However, there was no way to fight a monster who could hide in the trees while he turned people and demons against each other with such ease.
I poked my head out around the boulder again. My teeth grated together when I saw the smile curving the corners of Greed’s lips. That smile, and the obvious joy he took in inflicting hurt on those I loved, pushed aside my lingering avarice.
My grip shifted on my gun, and leaning further out, I lifted it. Squeezing the trigger, I fired three rapid shots. One took Greed in the shoulder, the other in his temple and the third in the center of his forehead when he turned to look at me. His head barely moved an inch from the impact of the last bullet.
I gulped when those hideous green eyes fastened on me with a rapacious greed that opened an endless pit within my belly.
Greed can never be satisfied, never be filled. It always wants more and more and more.
This thing wanted all of me, and when it was done, it would still seek more. My hand shook on my gun as something sinister slithered through my mind. The empty pit of need swelled inside me until it threatened to possess me in a way no one should ever be possessed.
I opened my mouth to beg him to make the awful hollowness stop, but I closed it again. I would not beg this thing. No matter how empty I felt, I would not give it the satisfaction of seeing me plead.
Lifting my wobbling hand, I fired another bullet. This one went straight through Greed’s throat, spilling more of his black blood. Blinking, I tried to stand, but my knees gave out. All four of the horse’s eyes fastened on me when Greed turned his mount. With a kick to his horse, Greed came for me.
Chapter Forty-Two
Wren
I succeeded in getting my legs underneath me as I turned to face the rider. I had no idea what I could do against it, but I refused to go down without a fight. Lifting my gun, I fired again. I was about to squeeze the trigger once more when something burst out of the woods and raced toward Greed.
Corson leapt high, placed his hand on the horse’s rump, and propelled himself into the air. He landed behind Greed and plunged his talons through the horseman’s neck. Greed’s hands flew behind his head; he gripped Corson’s wrist to stop him when Corson started to saw Greed’s head from his body.
When Greed succeeded in tearing Corson’s talons from his neck, I slid my gun into its holster, pulled out my knife, and raced toward them. The horse rose onto its hind legs when I got close to it. Black hooves whistled in the air as they zipped past my head. I reeled away from the horse when it kicked at me again.
The horse’s abrupt movement caused Corson to lose his grip on Greed. Before he could topple from the saddle, he plunged his talons into Greed’s thigh. A strange, high-pitched hiss filled the air. It reminded me of the ouro, only this one was inherently more sinister.
Corson raked his talons down Greed’s thigh, slicing it open to reveal his black muscles and the black bone beneath. When I tried to dash to the side to help Corson, the horse reared again. I lurched back when the tip of a hoof caught my forehead. A burst of pain momentarily blurred my vision as blood trickled down my broken skin and stuck in my eyelashes.
I wiped the blood hastily away and blinked my vision back into focus as Greed rested his hand on Corson’s forehead. Misery and rage filled Corson’s bellow. My heart lodged in my throat as I realized Greed was making him experience the same emptiness I had earlier.
Swinging up with his other hand, Corson buried his talons in Greed’s back and jerked downward. More black blood oozed out of Greed as he strove to stay mounted. The horse twisted to the side in an attempt to throw Corson from it.
Seeing an opening, I lunged forward, but one of the horse’s heads swung toward me, and its teeth snapped inches from my face. Its fetid breath blew my hair back as its body spun toward me and it struck out again. This time, its hoof caught my forearm, breaking my skin open to spill more blood.
I refused to be deterred as I dodged to the side to avoid the next hoof the horse aimed at my head. Clutching a handful of the horse’s red mane, I jumped up. The horse spun, trying to shake me off as I swung my leg over and hooked it around the beast’s neck. I somehow managed to hold on and twist around to straddle its neck.
“Wren, watch out!” Corson shouted, and a hand landed on my back.
I screamed before I realized my mouth opened. Emptiness engulfed me until I was swimming in a bleak pit of melancholy. I fell forward, inhaling the sulfur scent of the horse as I struggled against the overwhelming impulse to drive my knife into my heart and end this torment.
“Shit!” Corson grunted, and that hideous hissing sound filled the air again.
I didn’t know where I found the strength, but I somehow managed to turn and swing blindly downward with my knife. The blade plunged into something and I yanked it when I felt the scrape of bone. The hand on my back fell away. I gasped in a breath as the emptiness within me eased a fraction.
Turning, I saw Greed lifting its bloody hand into the air. I slashed out again, slicing more flesh before grabbing his hand and yanking it to the side.
Want! Need! More! More! More! I didn’t know what I wanted or needed; I only knew the words hammered ceaselessly through my mind.
Somehow, I managed to work past my insatiable greed as bone broke, sinew snapped, and the last of the muscles holding Greed’s hand on gave way. I found myself gazing at the curling fingers of the hand when I pulled it away from the horseman.
Rings! I must have those rings!
With an angry shout, I threw the hand aside before I could pull those rings free and slide them on. I didn’t want to think about what would happen if I put them on, but images of becoming one of the horsemen or spontaneously combusting filtered through my imagination. My head lifted, and I found myself gazing into Greed’s hate-filled, astonished eyes.
Greed’s attention was drawn away from me when Corson climbed onto the saddle behind him once more. With a ferocious shout, Corson buried his talons in the side of Greed’s neck and sliced across his flesh. Greed swung out, backhanding me so hard across the face that bells rang in my head and blood burst into my mouth.
My hands clawed at the horse’s red mane when it reared again, and I started sliding to the side. Another heavy blow knocked my grip loose. Black hooves filled my vision as I toppled beneath the beast. I didn’t have time to roll away before it landed on top of me.
Corson
“No!” I shouted as Wren fell beneath the horse. “Fucker!” I snarled and sliced my way through what remained of the horseman’s neck.
The decapitated head bounced off the horse’s flank before falling to the ground. I was about to leap off the horse’s back when the animal dissolved beneath me. Red and black ash filled the air, sticking to my skin and filling my lungs as I hit the ground.
“Wren!” I shouted as I searched for her amid the cascading debris. “Wren!”
Through the falling ash, I spotted her limp form. “Wren!”
Something twisted and broke within me, rage built toward a breaking point as I scrambled to her. This rage had nothing to do with any of the horsemen and everything to do with the weakening I felt in my bond to her.
“Wren.”
Ash coated the blood seeping from the corners of her mouth and oozing out of the gash in her chest. Her breath wheezed out of her. I gathered her in my arms, careful not to jar the broken bones in her concave chest. The horse’s weight had crushed her; its hooves had sliced open her shirt and flayed her skin down to the white bone beneath.
I cradled her against my chest as she gazed dazedly up at me. “I should have come sooner. I should have figured out what was happening faster,” I whispered as I kissed her forehead.
Her blood-coated fingers curled into my forearm before she lost her grip on me. Her hand fell limply to her side as she inhaled a rattling breath. “Not your fault,
demon. It was only… a matter… of time… before my end came.”
Her body lurched as a convulsion rocked it. Her blue eyes rolled in her head and more blood spilled from her mouth. Helplessness and anguish rose to replace my fury. I’d just found her, and now I was losing her.
“Listen to me, Wren,” I commanded when she became still again. “You’re dying and that is one of the steps for the change to occur. If you tell me yes, I can give you my blood for the second step. If you survive the change, you’ll live, and you’ll be an adhene demon like me.”
Her eyes rolled toward me, their whites were bloodshot, and one had a starburst of blood in it. Her skin held the pasty sheen of death I’d seen many times before. Terror spurred me into speaking faster. “You’ll feed on wraiths. You may have a difficult time adjusting and controlling yourself in the beginning.”
I didn’t want to mention any of the bad things that could come with the change, but she had to know everything before she agreed to this. She was dying; she might say yes to life and later grow to hate me for what she’d become if she didn’t know it all.
“You could accidentally hurt someone until you adjust to what you are,” I told her. “However, if you survive the change, you’ll live forever. You’ll be stronger, faster, and you’ll be with me. No matter what you decide, know I love you, Wren,” I whispered as I kissed her forehead and silently begged her to choose life, to choose me.
“I love you too, Corson,” she said in a blood-choked whisper.
My name and those words on her lips caused me to groan.
“If I die, will I go to Hell? I’ve killed…” She broke off when a round of coughing wracked her. Agony twisted her features, her fingers twitched on the ground, but she didn’t seem to have the strength to lift them as they fell limply beside her once more.
“No, lahala,” I whispered, knowing I could be uttering the words that would take her from me forever. “You won’t go to Hell. You’ve killed because you had to in order to survive. You are not selfish or cruel.”
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Tears burned my eyes as I leaned over her. I wasn’t ready to lose her, but she was slipping further away from me.
Another rattle emitted from her, and I knew this was the end for her. If she said no to me, I would be holding her corpse. She loved me, but was it enough to chance becoming something she’d hated for most of her short life?
A small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Do it, demon.”
I froze, uncertain if I’d heard her right. “You want me to give you my blood?”
“Yes,” the word was a whisper on her lips before her breath stopped completely.
Panic filled me as the life faded further from her eyes. The tenuous beat of her heart slowed until I barely detected it. Shifting my hold on her, I sliced a talon down my arm. Blood poured from the deep gash as I held it over the wound in her chest.
My mother threw herself into the fires. I’d witnessed the love my parents had for each other. I’d known what a Chosen bond was, believed I’d understood why my mother had done what she did.
I realized that I’d never truly understood her choice before. I did now.
Wren was so new to me, this bond so fragile, yet the emptiness engulfing me made Greed’s touch seem like a gentle caress. My hand clenched on Wren before I released her to reopen my vein. I would pour every ounce of blood I had into her if that was what it took to save her.
Chapter Forty-Three
Wren
I’d been prepared to die since I was eight, and I’d been fine with dying all these many years. The few who would grieve my passing would continue with their lives afterward. They would probably never speak of me again, and when they were gone, no one would ever remember I’d existed.
Then, one day, my soul would be reincarnated, and if Earth still existed, I would start all over in a brand new life. The new me would have no memory of Wren or Bonnie.
I’d been good with dying for a while now, and being taken out while helping to destroy a horseman was not a bad way to go. It might make me a legend who wouldn’t be forgotten by everyone. Maybe, one day in the distant future and in a different person, I’d be sitting with humans and listening to the legend of the human, Wren, who had helped to slay Greed.
I might even smile and think how courageous Wren must have been. I might aspire to be like her, and maybe that reincarnation of me would one day go on to do better things than this version of me had.
Yep, I was all right with dying; it didn’t even hurt so much anymore. When the horse had first come down on my chest, agony had exploded through my entire body as the sickening sounds of my bones crunching filled my ears. Warm blood had burst from my mouth to trickle down my chin.
Then, the pain eased, the blood cooled, and so did the rest of my limbs. I’d watched the horse’s hooves kicking in the air and waited for the final blow to come as death crept in to claim me. It didn’t even bother me that I’d finally found love and the joy of being alive only to have it ripped cruelly away from me shortly afterward. That was the way life worked, I knew. What I did feel was grateful I’d had the chance to experience those things before I died.
Then the horse had burst into dust above me.
Beautiful. The thought had been crazy, and I didn’t know what made the ash so beautiful. Maybe it was the sun filtering through the trees to illuminate the floating dust. Perhaps it was because the ash consisted of the colors of the horse. Or maybe it was because I knew this would be one of the last things I’d ever see.
Whatever it was, the ash had been beautiful as it settled around me in a colorful wave that coated me from head to toe. If I hadn’t felt so broken, I might have laughed and thrown up the dust to celebrate Greed’s end, but my limbs were too heavy for that.
My eyes drifted closed as Corson’s arms enveloped me. His body eased the chill in me, but not enough. He would never be able to stop the ice encasing my limbs, and that was okay. I opened my mouth to tell him everything would be fine, my time had come.
The words stuck in my throat when I saw the sorrow emanating from his eyes and the misery etched onto his features. This would not be fine for him, I realized. My demon wouldn’t be okay with this.
There was no reincarnation for him. If he chose to walk his mother’s path, that would be the end of Corson. That comprehension was far more excruciating than the horse stomping on me had been. If Corson died, there was no chance future Wren might meet a demon with pointed ears and dancing citrine eyes, who would make her contemplate tearing her hair out at the same time she wanted to throw herself into his arms. There would be no demon for her to love because he wouldn’t exist.
I don’t feel the Chosen bond as he does. But I felt the stirring of an emotion so raw and primitive that it could only be a long-buried piece of my DNA coming to life.
Was this what soul mates were for humans? Was this why some people claimed they fell in love at first sight? Did some ancient piece of genetic material spark to life in those random few to show them they’d found their human equivalent of a Chosen? Or was I losing too much blood and completely delusional?
Either way, I knew I couldn’t tolerate seeing Corson like this. What remained of my life surged forth within me, and I did everything I could to surface enough to comfort him. I loved him, and my death would destroy him.
When he offered to change me, a piece of me recoiled from the idea and the uncertainty of what I would become. But a larger part of me was willing to do anything to take away the devastation in Corson’s eyes.
You can’t say yes only for him, my mind whispered to me. You’ll regret it if you do and that will only destroy him more.
Could I live with being a demon?
Yes, I could. I wouldn’t be evil, not like some of those I’d encountered over the years. I wouldn’t be cruel. I would live forever, with Corson. He warned me it would take some getting used to and I might injure someone in the beginning, but I would stop myself from
doing that, somehow. Even if I had to go away and couldn’t lead this group of Wilders, I would do whatever it took to stop myself from harming someone else.
I would have an eternity with Corson. How could I refuse that? We were good together. He made me crazier than any man should make a woman, but I loved him more than I could fathom.
So I said yes, and now I had no idea what would become of me, of him, of us, or even if I would survive what was about to unfold. I tried to get my fingers to clutch his shirt, to hold him closer, but they were too weak and clumsy. He sliced open his forearm and poured his blood over my wounds.
No, don’t hurt yourself, I moaned in my head when I saw his flayed-open flesh, but I couldn’t get the words out as the world slipped further and further away from me. Did my heart stop?
My eyes closed as Corson’s blood filled me.
Corson
“What are you doing?” the words were blurted from beside me.
I’d heard them coming, seen them approaching, but my attention remained mostly focused on Wren. A shadow fell over us, and I bared my teeth at the human beside me. Jolie, I dimly recalled her name. The woman gawked at me before focusing on what I was doing with Wren.
The humans knew something had changed with Hawk, but they didn’t know how or why. In case people one day got it in their heads to use demons to become immortal too, we’d worked to keep the knowledge of how the change from mortal to immortal occurred from them, but I didn’t care if they saw me with Wren now. The humans still wouldn’t fully know how the transformation worked, and even if they did, I would do whatever was necessary to save Wren. Let the mortals try to turn on us and use us, it would be the greatest regret of their lives.
Tears shimmered in Jolie’s eyes as she focused on Wren. “What are you doing?” she asked again.
Hawk rested his hand on Jolie’s arm and pulled her back a step. I sliced my arm open again to pour more blood into Wren’s wound.
Hell on Earth (Hell on Earth, Book 1) (Hell on Earth Series) Page 27