Hell's Gift

by Haigwood, K. S.

  Thoros shot to his feet and crowded the other demon’s personal space. “You understand nothing!” he shouted, then stepped back and ran his fingers through his hair, avoiding Murry’s scrutinizing glower. “Do not ever speak of Baddon in my presence again. You will never come close to being the prince he once was.”

  After a moment of awkward silence, Murry cleared his throat. “Right. Well—”

  A knock on the open door alerted them and they looked up to find Lameria, Princess of Greed, standing there, looking like sin waiting to happen. Lameria was petite, with pale skin and ruby lips. She appeared much younger than any of the royalty line under Lucifer; she looked to be only eighteen, but the princess was centuries older, and much wiser than anyone that was considered her equal. “May I enter?”

  Thoros glanced at Murry. “Now that’s how you make an entrance into my chambers and get invited to stay. Come in, Lameria. Have a seat. Have a drink. Join me in between my sheets the second I throw Murry out on his ass.”

  She laughed lightly. “I can’t stay now. None of us can, but I may come back later if the offer is still on the table…or the bed, if that’s where you prefer to have me this time.”

  Thoros walked to her, the heat of a furnace blazing from his eyes as his hand came up to mold the curve of her neck, then snaked around to fist his fingers tightly in her black curled mane. “You know the place matters not to me.” He brought his lips down to the painted crimson of her lipstick briefly, playfully, leaving her head spinning and craving more, but he wouldn’t give her more now. “We may discover brand new places to enjoy our activities.”

  Murry cleared his throat. “You said we had somewhere to be?”

  Lameria opened her desire-filled eyes to Thoros, then forced herself to look away from his raw hunger to answer Murry’s question. “We have been summoned by Lucifer. It’s something to do with Abigail. I think something terrible has happened to her.”

  Murry chuckled. “You could say that. Or you could say something terrible is about to happen to her,” he said, then strode out the door with Thoros and Lameria blinking in confusion at his back.

  Chapter 25

  Rhyan

  I couldn’t even begin to describe the pain. It was unreal and unlike anything I’d ever felt before in my life, and it wasn’t just the physical burns from the acid-ash. The emotional anguish my mind was going through from being separated from Abbi had literally brought me to my knees.

  I remembered how I’d felt the moment she’d taken her life, and this somehow seemed worse. It was probably because I knew she was in the hands of my immortal enemy, and in no way did I trust that he would hold up his end of the bargain. I could only imagine the things he was doing to her.

  There wasn’t anything I could do about that, so worrying about it didn’t help matters any. With that being said, it didn’t at all mean I would worry about it less. Concentrating on how to get out of the land of gluttony was my number one priority, though. The faster I could get through the seven sydes, the quicker we could both get out of Hell.

  I knew what I was up against. I wasn’t a fool in thinking that Lucifer had other tricks up his sleeve and, even if I succeeded in winning, that he was just going to let me and Abbi pop out of Hell with no other questions asked. I just prayed Malcolm would live up to his genius reputation.

  “I’m here, Rhyan. We are trying to figure out how to get you out of the current syde.”

  “We? Who is helping you?” I asked.

  “Josselyn—”

  “Why isn’t she with Kendra?” I demanded.

  “I will need her here with me to help you sometimes, Rhyan. I don’t think you have to worry about Murry showing up on Kendra’s doorstep anytime soon. You have caused quite the stir with your little plan, and Lucifer has called a meeting with the royalty.”

  “That’s right! You can read Abbi’s mind, too, can’t you? How is—”

  “He hasn’t touched her, Rhyan. He can’t. The contract is legit. He literally can’t touch her unless you give up. I posted two members of the LOD at the Chamberlain residence. Josselyn will go back down there when we are finished here. The meeting is about to start, and as long as they are all with Lucifer, they aren’t with Kendra. I’ll let you know what we find out.”

  Rhyan sighed. “You know where to find me.”

  Malcolm chuckled. “I’ll see you soon, brother.”

  Rhyan allowed the air to leave his lungs in relief.

  Abigail

  Lucifer hadn’t bothered tying her hands and feet, nor had he taken the time and troubled himself with locking her up in a dungeon somewhere. No, there wasn’t any need for it. There was nowhere she could go that he couldn’t find her or make her come to him just by calling out her name.

  Right then, Abigail sat in a chair atop the conference table with seven pair of eyes staring up at her.

  “Tell them what you’ve done, sweetheart,” Lucifer said; barely more than a whisper, but everyone heard him.

  She didn’t hesitate. Lucifer hadn’t touched her since before signing his name, in his own blood, under her soulmate’s name, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t find a way around the binding of the written agreement.

  “My husband has come for me. Soon, we will be leaving Hell to spend the rest of our eternity in Heaven.”

  There were gasps all around the table. Everyone was confused and befuddled by her words except for two people. Murry gazed up at her with a full out grin spreading across his face while Lucifer stared at her, fist to chin, with a blank expression.

  Lucifer gestured with his hand to first the left side of the table, where a scroll appeared in front of Thoros, Lameria and Fallis, then he gestured to the right side of the table and a scroll appeared before Murry, Velan and Damien.

  Murry grabbed up the scroll and unrolled it, revealing the promise between angel and devil. “You agreed to this?” he asked, stunned by his master’s actions. When Lucifer’s glare fell on him, he continued, “Rhyan is no ordinary angel, Lucifer. He will not stop—”

  His next words were not spoken aloud, because Lucifer’s massive hand was suddenly around Murry’s throat and he was quickly lifted from his chair and brought nose to nose with the King of Hades.

  A growl, low and full of warning, came out of the male’s chest. “You are not here to question the decisions I make.”

  Murry swallowed around Lucifer’s knuckles, then nodded in agreement. Lucifer dropped him and he fell to his knees, immediately begging for forgiveness. “Please forgive me, master. I now know the error of my ways, and questioning anything you do will never happen again.”

  Lucifer looked down into Murry’s eyes. “Don’t make me regret bestowing upon you the title of Prince.” Lucifer placed his palms on Murry’s temples. “See what will happen if you are ever relieved of your position.”

  Murry’s eyes grew wide as images of Baddon’s beaten and broken body was slammed time and time again into the walls, ceiling and floor of the very room he kneeled in before Lucifer. He was made to watch in horror until Lucifer had deposited Baddon in the center of the table. The scenery changed over and over as countless princes and princesses were tortured and relieved of their positions as Lucifer’s favorite demons, then Murry was left panting and gasping for air as Lucifer took his hands away and returned to his seat as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired.

  “If you will have a look at the contract before you, you will see a pure soul has agreed to a deal on my terms. He, at one time or another, will be placed into your syde, given he doesn’t give up first. Your job is to make him give up.”

  Damien glanced up from the parchment to look at Abigail’s tear streaked face. She wouldn’t meet his eyes. He huffed, and then looked to Lucifer. “If for some reason he makes it through each syde, she is then free to leave Hell with this angel?”

  Lucifer smiled mischievously. “If the angel makes it through all seven sydes I would imagine that my other six protégés aren’t doing what their du
ties require of them and I may need to consider replacing them all.”

  Abigail turned in her chair to glare at Lucifer. She’d known he wouldn’t play fair. “Why must you always cheat to win? Why can’t you just let the pieces fall where they may and see if someone is actually strong enough to do the impossible?”

  The room was eerily quiet. Nobody had ever been so openly disrespectful to him, and everyone nervously waited for Lucifer to knock Abigail across the room.

  It didn’t happen.

  “I don’t see it as cheating, sweetheart,” he replied in a calm voice. “I see it as good offense—”

  “I see it as weak and cowardly!” Abigail shouted.

  Lameria gasped, then quickly covered her mouth, but Lucifer was too distracted by Abigail’s bold words to pay her any mind.

  He stood slowly. “You think of me as a coward? That I am weak?”

  Abigail took a deep breath and stood from her chair.

  “Sit down, Abigail,” Damien growled. “Your careless actions have already gotten you into enough trouble.”

  “He can’t hurt me, not unless Rhyan gives up. Rhyan won’t give up. He won’t stop until he has saved us both.”

  Lucifer smiled cunningly as he walked up behind Murry. The quick movement was too fast for anyone to follow. Murry’s body fell to the floor in a heap as Lucifer took a slow step toward a very nervous Velan.

  “So, you’re just going to torture and hurt them because you can’t touch me? It won’t make them hate me, you know? They will hate you!” she screamed, and then jumped in front of Velan just as Lucifer’s hands came up to snap his neck like he had done Murry’s.

  A violent rage instantly flooded Lucifer’s veins at her insubordination and he attempted to grab her arms. The contact was never made between his flesh and hers. Heart-stopping electric fingers reached out and kissed at his hands and arms, attaching to his skin and not letting go, bringing the immortal fallen angel to his knees and then his palms to the stone floor. Veins bulged at his neck and temples, and his jaw was wrenched open as if he were screaming out in pain, but there was no sound, not even breathing.

  Abigail stared wide-eyed and disbelieving at what was happening, what she was doing to the ultimate evil. She took a step back from him and the electric current vanished. She quickly examined her own arms and hands: not a scratch. She hadn’t felt anything, either, but it was obvious Lucifer had.

  Abigail glanced to Fallis, Prince of Envy. “I didn’t mean…I—”

  Fallis closed his eyes and shook his head, then walked around the table to help the groaning Lucifer to his feet again.

  Lucifer ignored the outstretched hand and slowly managed to right his form on his own. He glared red-faced at Abigail. “It looks as though the contract is legally binding, so not even I can break my own oath. No worries, there are other ways to bring you pain without physically touching you. I confine you to my chambers for the duration of the angel’s efforts to win your soul. Go,” he growled, nostrils flaring, fists clenched at his side, restraining himself from beating one of the others to a bloody pulp because it wasn’t possible to touch her. “I will deal with you later.”

  Chapter 26

  Rhyan

  After Malcolm transmitted through my brainwaves what Abbi had done to Lucifer in the meeting, I chuckled, then got to my feet, ignoring the fact that my skin was on fire from the acid burns, and concentrated solely on how to get the hell out of that syde.

  I’d made it under Pogo’s bridge, but he wasn’t there. The ash falling from the dark sky had only gotten heavier since my arrival, and I assumed Lucifer was the individual controlling the atmosphere since my dearly beloved had been relieved of her position. I never expected him to make it easy on me.

  Then I remembered he had promised me an item to help me get through each syde a little easier. “Where is my item?” I shouted out into the blizzard of ash. The stuff was so thick I couldn’t even see the small huts a hundred yards away from the bridge I was under. I would never be able to find a way out in all that mess.

  A shuffling noise brought my attention around to the opposite opening of the bridge. Pogo was jogging toward me with something in his arms.

  “Pogo!”

  He shook the hood of the jacket free of his head as his bony legs guided him under the bridge with me. He was laughing as he handed me the package wrapped in brown paper. “Got yourself in a bit of trouble, did ya? I’m sure the whole syde knows about it by now. East Court is sure spreading the word fast, and we are always the last to know anything.”

  “East Court?” I asked.

  Pogo nodded. “This here is East Court—”

  “Wait—what is everybody saying about me?”

  “That you’re an angel and you have come to steal Princess Abigail from…from him,” he finished quietly.

  I sat in the muck and placed the package on my lap, then let my face fall into my hands.

  What in God’s name had I got myself into? Had I really just made a deal with the devil and expected to win? I thought about that for only a few seconds, then Abbi’s smiling face popped into my mind. Yes, yes I had, and yes, I would win. I wouldn’t give up.

  I tore into the package Pogo had given me and pulled out an acid-jacket in my size. I guessed that meant I wasn’t going to find my way out of the syde by staying under the bridge.

  “Who gave this to you to give to me?” I asked.

  “The barkeep—”

  I looked at him in surprise. “Barkeep? Why is there a barkeep here if there is nothing to drink?” I asked, and suddenly realized my mouth was cotton dry, and knew I would have done just about anything at that moment for a drink of something, anything, to quench my thirst.

  Pogo shook his head and frowned. “There is no fresh water. There is drink.” He nodded. “There is a never-ending supply of drink, but it doesn’t matter how much you consume, your thirst will only worsen.”

  “I suppose there is food as well,” I stated, then placed my palm over my stomach when it growled. “Look, I’ve been here several days and not had an urge to eat or drink anything. I know I don’t have to have it, any of it.”

  Pogo shuffled his way over to his make-shift bed and sat down. “If you eat the food, you will lose weight. Soon, there will be nothing left of you except for a really hungry pile of bones. It’s our punishment for indulging while on Earth. That is what’s wrong with Miles, Princess Abigail’s minion, the one that bit you—”

  My head jerked in his direction. “My wife is no longer a princess here. She has no minions anymore.”

  Pogo nodded. “So, it’s true? You really did make a deal with…him?”

  I stood quickly and put the ankle-length jacket on, being careful to make sure all the buttons were fastened and secure, then I looked down at my bare feet. They were covered in burns from my earlier run to the bridge for cover. If I trudged out in the acid blizzard without footwear it would only be a matter of minutes before the acid ate my flesh to the bone. Guess I should have asked for two items.

  “You’re not going out there, are you?” Pogo asked.

  “I have to. I’m not going to find a way out by sitting under a bridge.”

  “You ain’t gonna find a way out, period. There is no way out.”

  “I can’t believe that. There must be, but if there isn’t, then I will make one.” I looked from the falling snow-like ash to Pogo. “How far have you heard of anyone traveling across this syde?”

  “All the way.”

  “So, what’s past the edge of East Court?” I asked.

  “West Court,” Pogo replied.

  “No, what I meant was the other way. If a person keeps going East, does it ever end?”

  “Yes,” Pogo nodded, “they will walk right into West Court. And if you walked through North Court and kept going, you would eventually arrive at South Court.”

  I sat there for a moment in confused silence. “And if you continued on in the same direction you would end up back in North Court
?”

  “Yep! See, there is no way out. Each syde is like a small spherical world of its own.”

  “But the royalty and Lucifer move to the different sydes—”

  “They have abilities that allow them to do that.”

  I thought out loud to myself, “And if I had the ability to do that, too, I’m sure it wouldn’t count, because I could just place myself in and then out of all the sydes. Not to mention the negative attention I would get from Lucifer for having an ability. Hmmm…”

  I looked up to see a pair of boots in my line of vision. Pogo’s sore-covered hand was holding them out for me to take, to use them. I shook my head.

  “Take them. They are an old pair.” In his other sore-laden hand was a long strip of cloth. I imagined it was to cover certain body parts under the concealment of the new jacket, and I took it from him, then got to work making the undergarment. “You need to get going so you can get this all figured out. Nobody is saying anything out loud, but we are all rooting for you. And that is all I’m going to say, too.”

  I cleared my throat around the forming lump. Maybe Pogo wasn’t that bad after all, I thought. “Thank you.” I took the worn boots and slipped a burning foot into one of them. I screamed and my eyes watered when my burnt flesh peeled away from being forced into a boot too small. It took me a few moments to catch my breath enough to attempt putting my other foot in the other boot.

  Damn, that hurt!

  “Let me know of something you may need and I will try to get it to you. It can’t be anything really obvious, because we don’t want Lucifer knowing that you are being helped. That may forfeit your chance of winning and automatically offer your pure soul up to him on a silver platter.”

  “Thanks, Malcolm, I could use some of that magic healing love that Josselyn has so much of. It’d be awesome not to feel any pain right now. Oh, and some boots that fit would be nice, as well.” I didn’t hear anything for a little while, so I stopped trying to lace my second boot up as a chill traveled down my spine and fear consumed my mind; I dreaded him telling me something else bad had happened. “Malcolm?”