I snarled at them before I knew what I’d done. Corson’s hand pressed down on my shoulder when I tried to rise. If he hadn’t been there to restrain me, I would have torn into them like a dog on fresh meat. The two women took a frightened step back when three-inch-long spikes erupted from the backs of my hands. My rage was briefly forgotten as I gawked at the white spikes suddenly jutting out.
Corson rose and slid his arm around my waist when I lifted my head to the startled women. A haze of red shaded my vision. He lifted me off the ground and held me firmly against him.
“Get inside!” Corson commanded them.
They didn’t have to be told twice as they scurried past us and out of view. Their disappearance didn’t ease my longing to see them dead.
“Easy, lahala,” Corson murmured as he carried me into the woods. “Easy.”
“I should have gutted them.”
“Spoken like a true demon when someone is messing with their Chosen.”
“Hmm,” I grumbled, not at all pleased he might be finding this amusing. Then my eyes fell to my hands on his shoulders, and the white talons. “I have spikes in my hands!”
“Baby spikes,” he said, and I realized he did find this amusing when I heard the laughter in his voice. “But then, mine were once baby spikes too.”
“Baby spikes,” I muttered and lifted my hands to examine the backs of them. I poked the tip of one spike with my finger and watched a bead of blood form there. “Does this mean I’m done with the transition?”
“You still have some way to go,” he said as he set me on my feet and claimed my hands to study them. “But I think it means you’ll survive it now. This was one of the bigger changes your body had to endure. My bones are different than other demons, harder. My flesh is different too, at least on my hands. Does this hurt?” he asked as he prodded the skin on the back of my hand.
“No,” I said, amazed that I didn’t feel any discomfort from the talons poking out of my flesh.
Lifting his head, he peered at me from under the thick fringe of his black lashes. The bird spun in his ear as a breeze flowed through the trees. “My little adhene demon,” he murmured.
Chapter Forty-Six
Corson
I thought I’d been happy when I’d claimed Wren and made her mine, but now the emotion swelled to near bursting within me as Wren looked from her hands to me again.
“I am no longer the last of my kind,” I said to her.
A smile curved her mouth. She reached up as if to run her fingers through my hair, but before she could touch me, she jerked her hands back as if afraid she would injure me. She held her hands helplessly before her.
“I will teach you how to use and control your talons,” I assured her. “I’d prefer if you didn’t accidentally stab me.”
“It might not be an accident,” she replied with a smile. “Will they stay this size?”
“Mine grew as I aged, but yours might not. They’re still a deadly weapon if they don’t grow.”
I pushed aside her hair to reveal her ears. Other than the dangling bird, they remained the same, but when I ran my finger over the shell of one, she moaned. Stepping into me, she went to grasp my arms before lowering her hands to her sides again. Frustration flashed over her features.
I took her hands and ran my fingers over her knuckles. Wren gasped when the talons retracted, and then another burst of laughter escaped her. I’d never get enough of hearing that sound.
“Amazing!” she cried.
“Yes,” I agreed. Clasping her face in my hands, I lifted it to kiss her.
With a sigh, she melted against me while I undressed her. The cold air brushing over her caused goose bumps to break out on her skin, but her shivers eased when I drew her into my arms. I lowered her pliant body to the forest floor and buried myself inside her.
“Harder,” she moaned in my ear as her nails dug into my skin.
The muscles of her sheath clenched around me, and she came with a loud cry. I was about to sink my fangs into her shoulder when her mouth turned into my neck and she bit down. My hands slammed into the ground beside her head; my body went rigid as her two tiny fangs pierced my flesh.
Complete. The knowledge blazed through my mind as I drew her flush against me.
“Mine,” she whispered when she released her bite.
“Yes,” I agreed as I lost myself to the marvel of Wren.
Wren
Being a demon wasn’t bad at all. I had that whole immortality thing on my side now, but most importantly I had Corson. His body warmed mine as he locked his leg possessively over my thigh. Leaves crackled beneath us, and the earthy scent of the dirt drifted to me.
The volatile sway of my emotions had eased when my newly discovered fangs sank into his flesh and I’d claimed him. As a human, I’d loved him enough to change for him; as a demon, I would tear this world apart for him. We were bound together now, for as long as we both lived, and nothing would change that.
My emotions didn’t completely calm with the claiming, but whereas before they’d felt like a tornado waiting to touch down and destroy, now they were more like a thunderstorm. It would take time, but Corson would help me gain control and learn more about what I was capable of now.
“I feel it, the Chosen bond. I feel it all the way to the core of my being,” I murmured and rested my hand over my heart.
He drew me closer. “It’s powerful.”
“Yes.”
“So that means you understand how there could never be another for me, or for you?” he asked.
“Yes.” The idea of being with another man made my stomach turn; the thought of him with another woman made my spikes reemerge. “Dammit. I need to control them before I accidentally stab someone.”
He gripped my hands in his. His soothing touch caused the baby spikes to retract once more. “They’re small enough that if you’re not touching someone, you won’t stab them. We’ll get through this together.”
“I know.” I closed my eyes. The scent and feel of him seemed ingrained in me now. His marks on my neck were tender but in a pleasant way. “You’re in every part of me.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “And you’re in every part of me, always.”
“When this is over, when we kill the horsemen and Astaroth, I want to start a family. I never believed I’d want one before, but I do, with you.”
He kissed my ear.
“The ears,” I groaned.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” he said with a chuckle. “And I cannot wait to have a family with you. We can return to the wall. It will be safer there, and if you start your fertile time, we can get to work on that family now. You may even still be on your human reproduction cycle.”
“I’d like nothing more than to be somewhere safe with you, but it’s not at the wall. Things are far too unstable right now. I also have to find Randy, or at least learn if he’s alive or not. We had a mission; there’s a chance he’s still carrying out his part of it. I can’t abandon him.”
“We’ll find him,” Corson promised.
“Besides, I’ve been in this fight since the beginning; I will see it through to the end, and I know that’s what you want too.”
“It is,” he agreed, “but above all, I want you to be happy.”
“I haven’t been this happy in years, demon.” I rolled over and cupped his face in my hands to draw him down for a kiss.
He grinned at me as he traced my ear, causing me to grow wet again. “And I can say the same to you, demon.”
I found I didn’t mind being called a demon at all, not as long as I had him as my Chosen. There was still a rough road ahead of us, still many obstacles to overcome, but I knew Corson and I would face them all together. For the first time in years, I looked forward to the future.
The End.
Look for Into the Abyss (Hell on Earth, Book 2) coming in 2018!
Into the Abyss will focus on Magnus.
If you haven’t had the chance to read the series that started
it all, then read on for an excerpt from Good Intentions (The Road to Hell Series, Book 1) which is available for FREE!
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Good Intentions
River
It has been thirteen years since the war started, the bombs were dropped, and the central states became a thing of the past. When the war ended, a wall was erected to divide the surviving states from those destroyed. I never expected to go beyond the wall, but unlike all the others who volunteered to go, I wasn’t given a choice.
With a dim knowledge of what I could do, the soldiers came for me. They took me beyond the wall where I learned that the truth is far more terrifying than I’d ever dreamed. Alone, with humans and demons seeking to learn what it is I can do, I find myself irresistibly drawn to the one man I should be avoiding most. One who intrigues and infuriates me. One who is not even a man, not really.
Kobal
My entire life, I’ve had only one mission, reclaim my throne from Lucifer and put right everything that was torn apart when he was cast from Heaven. It’s a mission I haven’t wavered from, not even when the humans tore open the gates and unleashed Hell on Earth.
Now, I’ve never been closer to obtaining my goal, yet I find myself risking it all because I cannot stay away from her, a human who may be the key to it all.
*** There are four books in this paranormal romance series which is now complete. Not all things will be resolved in this book. Due to sexual content, violence, and language, this book is recommended for readers 18+ years of age.***
The Road to Hell Series Complete Reading Order:
Good Intentions (Book 1)
Carved (Book 2)
The Road (Book 3)
Into Hell (Book 4)
Good Intentions Excerpt:
Prologue
River
I was nine when the first of the fighter planes flew over thirteen years ago. I remember tilting my head back to stare at them as they moved over us in a V formation. Excitement buzzed through me, but I felt no fear. They had been a more common sight before the military base closed last year; despite that status, they still occasionally flew over our town.
When the planes vanished from view, I turned my attention back to the game of hopscotch I was playing with my friend, Lisa. I was about to beat her, and I wanted to finish before Mother woke from her nap and called me away. Lisa stared at the sky for a minute more before turning her attention back to me. She bent to pick up the rock on the ground as four more planes flew over us in a tight formation. They left white streaks in the sky as their engines roared over us.
The rock Lisa had picked up slid from her fingers and clattered onto the asphalt. Together, we watched as the second wave of them disappeared from view. I don’t know why the initial wave hadn’t bothered me, but the second wave caused a cold sweat to trickle down my neck.
Following the noise of the planes, the world around us took on an unusual hush for a Saturday afternoon in July. Normally there were shouts from kids playing up and down the street. The rumble of cars driving down the highway, heading toward the beach, was a near constant background noise now that tourist season was in full swing.
Turning my attention back to Lisa, I waited for her to pick her rock up again and continue, but she remained staring at the sky. The planes had unnerved me, but what did I really know? At that point in my young life, my biggest problem was napping in the house a hundred feet away from me. I hoped their noise hadn’t woken Mother; grouchy was a permanent state for her, but when she was woken from a nap, she could be a real bear.
I glanced over at my one-year-old brother, Gage. My heart melted at the sight of his disheveled blond hair sticking up in spikes and his warm brown eyes staring at the sky. He lifted a fist and waved at the planes fading from view. His coloring was completely different from my raven hair and violet eyes, due to our different fathers. Mine had taken off before I was born; Gage’s father had at least stuck around to see his birth before leaving our mother in the dust.
Turning his attention away from the sky, Gage held his arms toward me before shoving a hand into his mouth. Unable to resist him, I walked over and lifted him off the ground. I cradled his warm body in my arms. I always brought him with me during Mother’s naps so he wouldn’t wake her, and because I couldn’t stand him being alone in the house while she slept. I’d been alone so many times before he’d come along that I refused to let him be too.
Gage wrapped his chubby arms around my neck, pressing his sweaty body against mine. Lisa wiped the sweat from her brow and brushed aside the strands of brown hair sticking to her face. Waves of heat wafted from the cooking asphalt, but I barely felt it. I’d always preferred summer to winter and tolerated the heat better than most others.
Six more planes swept overhead, leaving a loud, reverberating boom in their wake as they sped by. Car alarms up and down the street blared loudly. Horns honking in quick succession, and headlights flashing had all the dogs in the neighborhood barking. The relatively peaceful day had become chaotic in the blink of an eye.
Along the road, doors opened and beeps sounded as people turned off their alarms. Shouts for the dogs to be quiet could be heard over the noise of the vehicles. Some people ran out of their homes and toward the squealing cars to try and turn off the alarms that wouldn’t be silenced.
Gage’s arm tightened around my neck to the point of near choking. I didn’t try to pull him away; instead I held him closer when he began to shake. Then just as rapidly as the rush of noise had erupted on the street, everything went completely still. Even the dogs, sensing something was off, became almost simultaneously silent. The few birds that had been chirping stopped their song; they seemed to be holding their breath with the rest of the world.
I remember Lisa stepping closer to me. Years later, I can still feel her warm arm against mine in a moment of much needed solidarity. “What’s going on, River?” she asked me.
“I don’t know.”
Then, from inside some of the nearby homes, screams and cries erupted, breaking the near silence. Exchanging a look with Lisa, we turned as one and ran toward her house. We clambered up the steps, jostling against each other in our rush to see what was going on. We’d scarcely entered the cool shadows of her screened-in porch when I heard the sobs of her mother.
We both froze, uncertain of what to do. Tears streaked Gage’s cheeks and wet my shirt when he buried his face in my neck. He may have only been a baby, but he still sensed something was completely wrong.
Instinctively knowing we would be shut out of whatever was going on if we alerted them to our presence, it had to be grown-up stuff after all, we’d edged carefully over to the windows, looking in on the living room. Peering in the windows, I spotted Lisa’s mom on the couch, her head in her hands as she wept openly. Lisa’s father stood before the TV, the remote dangling from his fingertips as he gaped at the screen.
My eyes were drawn to the TV; my brow creased in curious wonder at the mushroom cloud I saw rising from the earth. A black cloud of rolling fire and smoke covered the entire horizon on the screen.
Beneath the cloud, words ran across the bottom of the screen. The U.S. is under attack. Nuclear bomb dropped on Kansas. Possible terrorist attack. Possible attack from China or Russia. Numerous areas of reported violence erupting.
“It’s World War III,” Lisa’s father said as the remote fell from his hand and her mother sobbed harder.
My heart raced in my chest, and my throat went dry as I struggled to grasp what was going on. I knew something awful had happened, but I still couldn’t understand what. How could I? I was a child. My time on this earth had been spent trying to avoid my mother as much as possible. It had also been filled with taking care of my brother, friends, TV, books, school, and the endless days of summer, that until then, I’d been so looking forward t
o.
I hugged Gage as I vowed to do anything I could to keep him safe from whatever was about to unfold.
Standing there with Lisa, I may not have completely understood what was happening, but I knew nothing would ever be the same again. The only world I’d ever known was now entirely different.
The cries and shouts in the neighborhood increased in intensity when more planes flew overhead with a loud whoosh that rattled the glass in the windows before us and set off some of the alarms again. Turning, I glanced back at the street to find some people running back and forth, hugging each other before running toward another house. Some got in their cars and drove away with a squeal of tires. Much like a chicken with its head cut off, they were unsure of where to go or what to do.
What could anyone possibly do? Were we next for the bombs? The hair on my nape rose.
I turned back to the TV and watched as the cloud continued to rise. More words flashed by on the bottom of the screen, but I barely saw them. I became so focused on the TV, I never heard my mother enter the porch until one of her hands fell on my shoulder.
Tilting my head back to look at her, I realized it must be worse than I ever could have imagined if she was touching me. It was the first time she’d touched me in a comforting way in years. It would be the last, that wasn’t by accident or in anger, for all the years following.
“What is happening?” Lisa inquired in a tremulous whisper.
“The end,” Mother replied.
I wouldn’t know how right she was until years later.
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Hell on Earth (Hell on Earth, Book 1) (Hell on Earth Series) Page 30