Hell to Pay (Blood for Soul Book 1)

by Alvin Atwater

  Hell, they didn’t even bother with the daggers right away. I felt an explosion of pain in my chest, as they collectively force-bashed me.

  The world spun as I hit the ground back first, head slamming with what felt like skull-crushing force against pavement. Blood streamed from my nose and mouth. I felt fucking tired, my eyes closing. Too bad the misthangers weren’t going to let this be easy. No, this bunch—they reminded me more of demons than heavenly-beings as they bashed me.

  They even played a little game of Pass the Demigod.

  Good for them. I hope they had so much fucking fun.

  What about me, you say? Let’s say this was just the best time ever. Best fucking time ever, that is, if diving into super-heated nuclear blasts was like going to the beach. Or if getting your head bashed by a baseball bat was simply a game. Yeah, fine and fucking dandy.

  God, did it hurt. Each hit, each bash hurt more than the last and threw me further. The assholes weren’t going to make my death quick. They had been ordered to make me suffer, demon-style. Not happening. Midflight, I manifested a beautiful fifty-caliber black Desert Eagle, then put a bullet in each of three heads before I landed. The massive hand cannon practically made their heads explode. Of course, stopping the assault there was stupid. Fighting the pain, I caught a few off-guard with force bashes of my own, while moving around. We were all wide open, no cars around to use as cover and, for some reason, no people. Probably Yulese’s doing. He seemed to have a knack for controlling humans, the asshole.

  I put bullets in the skull of one more before I turned to run. The first rule of combat is to get to cover, right? I may have caught them by surprise but it wouldn’t take them long to retaliate.

  As I turned to fire more rounds, I heard the distance sound of sirens. They were minutes away. Oh, now the cops get called, probably for loud noises and explosions. Goddammit, Yulese. For a god who loved to control humans, he sure as hell didn’t plan this assault very well. If a higher-up or even Conus caught wind of this, he’d probably be thrown into Hell for making a fuss in the face of humanity.

  Just then, a misthanger quick-ascended, appearing right in front of me. Before I could react, the flash of its dagger left a long slash across my arm—it only missed my neck because I leaned back in time. The creature then force-bashed me hard enough to send me to the ground. I hung on with dear life to my gun, fighting the pain. It took a second to land a bullet into the fucker’s face before it morphed into a bloody puddle.

  I hopped to my feet and looked around only to feel my heart drop upon the cruel realization that there were just too many of them. The sirens continued to get closer, the blue and white flashes of light getting brighter by the second.

  That provided a distraction. Not for me, but for them. I felt an explosion of pain on my chest as a mist-fuck stabbed me, followed up by force-bashes all over the place.

  My gun flew from my hand, skidding several feet away as I hit the concrete once more. I began to come to terms with the fact that I’d probably die here.

  Maybe things would be better for the others, without me in the picture. No hunters. Yeah right, as if getting stuck in Hell or forced into reincarnation would solve my problems. Giving up wasn’t my favorite option here, even if I was outnumbered. In reality, winning in a fight against this many misthangers was impossible.

  I needed to think outside of reality. I’m a demigod. That’s got to count for something, right? Maybe, maybe not. But I do have a sword made to deal with hunters. Note to self: enchant the Desert Eagle too. I scraped myself off the ground, unsheathing Ruin.

  The bastards were probably surprised how I suddenly charged them head on. I needed to be quick, demigod quick. I focused on pulling some of my power hidden behind Conus’s seal.

  At first it wouldn’t budge. With a single desperate thought, I willed some of it out. I used the power to increase my speed ten-fold as well as a slight resistance to force-bashes.

  I dashed toward the closest misthanger, stabbed into it, and watched as it turned into ash. The others attempted to hit me with more force and though I felt the pushes, I didn’t budge. I charged at them, lopping off the heads of at least five before they changed tactics.

  I didn’t wait. Not while I had the upper hand. My power tank felt low as I grew more exhausted. Not to mention a headache that just wouldn’t go away.

  I rushed another foe, swinging Ruin, but it dodged to the side. Then it retaliated with a force-bash that hurled me to the ground. The smack to the concrete didn’t exactly help my goddamn headache.

  Still, I hung onto my sword.

  Dammit, I couldn’t lose. What did I train for? Why did I go through Amelia’s sadistic training? How had I survived this long? I didn’t get this far to be taken out by these clowns.

  I viciously charged power into my back as I rolled to the side, dodging a dagger that stabbed into the concrete of my previous spot. I sheathed Ruin as I dove for my gun, took aim, and put bullets through the heads of five more.

  The sirens were too close now, the annoyances of the swirling blue and red lights brightening. I released my energy, ascending right as a misthanger lunged for me. Possibly becoming aware of the human cops, I saw the group simply vanish.

  You thought this shit was over? I did. Well, here came a sad state of affairs. I didn’t ascend to Amanda’s house—no, I stopped in the middle of an abandoned park to rest and heal. If I didn’t cover up the damage, Amelia would freak out. After five minutes of my body resting and knitting the slashes back together, they appeared. Ten misthangers.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me,” I hissed. “Fuck off!”

  The grinning bastards responded with simultaneous force-bashes so hard that when I hit the ground, the impact erupted a crater beneath me. I needed to get creative and fast, or else they’d kill me.

  Five minutes of rest-healing felt like three seconds, just enough time to think of one plan.

  I still had a low power tank, but it’d be more than enough to take down the bastards. Good thing Yulese left because if he joined the fray, my game would be over.

  I focused and then manifested a ten-foot-high brick walls around me. I would’ve tried steel if I had enough power to create it. Fortunately, the wall held off the force hurls, buying me just enough time to unsheathe Ruin.

  I spread a tiny bit of power into my legs and then hopped over the brick walls, right as the misthangers jumped right in. Holy shit, did they think I planned to hide inside? What fucking idiots. This was the break I needed. I aimed my hand at the closest wall and focused my remaining power to pull off one of the hardest forms of manifestation: conversion.

  Manifestation involved pulling power from my body and changing those atoms into whatever I imagined them to be, as long as I’ve seen the object before. Once an object is born, that’s it. It’s chemical make-up, atoms, whatever, is final. Normally I wouldn’t bother with this—manifestation feels more relevant, but a trap requiring less power would do the trick for now.

  I poured my power into the material and asked it to change for me. There was resistance at first, but I desperately sent the power through, silently begging the atoms to obey me. The wall gave in to my demand and turned into lava. With force, I made sure that lava crashed like a tidal wave onto the misthangers.

  “I hope it hurts.” I could smell the iron in the air as I made the jump into ascending.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  I crashed into Amanda’s front door, shattering it. Man, did it fucking hurt, but I ignored the pain, glad that I had made it back one piece. Word of advice, never ascend with low power.

  Amelia and the others rushed out to see the commotion. I just hoped the neighbors didn’t hear it because, holy shit, did that sound like a cannon ball crash. Fortunately, no one came out to investigate. Probably Amelia’s doing.

  “Epex, are you okay? What’s going on?” I couldn’t make out the voice, as my ears still rang from the crash. When we got inside, Amelia healing me, I told them what had
happened. I averted my gaze when I saw the worry appear in their eyes. Can’t blame them—he nearly killed us all.

  “It’s best that I pack my shit and get the f—” my cellphone rang, interrupting me. “Hello?” I said.

  Amony’s voice boomed from the other end.

  “Where the hell are you? Everyone’s waiting.”

  I glanced at the clock on my phone. 10:03PM. You’ve got to me kidding me. I swear, time has a way of screwing us all, no matter what situation we barely limp out of.

  “I’ve run into some trouble,” I said. “I can’t make it.”

  “You sound fine now,” Amony said. “You can explain it when you get here.” She hung up before I could object.

  “You’re not seriously going, are you?” Jade said. “That job’s not worth getting—”

  “We’re coming with you,” Amelia said. “No more lone wolf for you. Go get cleaned up and change into something that doesn’t make you look like you tried to wrestle a bear.”

  I couldn’t help but smile.

  After showering and changing into a plain shirt, camouflage pants, and combat boots, I joined the others in the living room. They were having hushed conversation as I approached.

  “Ready to go?” I asked.

  “This isn’t another one of those graveyard security death patrols, is it?” Keisha said.

  “No,” I answered. “Just some girls playing with Ouija boards at the university.”

  Amelia’s eyes widened. Not that this was a surprise. Nearly every heavenly-being despised the so-called toys. They were catalysts for summoning demons and with enough energy, could bring out some nasty creatures.

  “Let’s get moving. Amanda, here.” Amelia tossed her the car keys, game face on. She turned to me, placed a hand on my neck, and closed her eyes. Warmth spread as her healing touch cleansed the exhaustion from me.

  Well, the kiss that followed did most of the work.

  I could see Devante, Elly, and Sin waiting as we pulled up to the Secure Corps building. Elly’s frown told us how happy she was to see Amelia. Devante and Sin simply shrugged, hiding their excitement that I had brought more women along for the ride. Yep, somehow, I earned myself some cool points. Ah well.

  “I’ve got us reinforcements,” I said, without getting out of the car. “You guys ride with Sin. We’ll meet you at the university.”

  They piled into Sin’s Jaguar and we were off…to ruin the night of three unlucky college girls. And to think I could be sitting on the throne and ruling the universe right now.

  Sadly, the awesome night of college girls and partying that Devante and Sin envisioned wasn’t going to happen.

  The demonic energy slammed into us like freight trains when we arrived at the campus. Just then, Elly passed out. We tried to shake her awake, but in the end, we had to leave the succubus behind in the car, windows up, doors locked. Amelia’s human friends seemed unaffected, but as for Amelia and I—or at least me, I felt the dark power everywhere, causing me to cringe. Imagine if your paranoia went into overdrive. There’s something lurking in every shadow, someone watching, and every haunted house feeling ever power-driven into your senses. That’s what feeling demonic presences is like. It was goddamn uncomfortable.

  “I didn’t know Ouija boards can summon this much of the darkness,” I said.

  “They can’t,” Amelia said.

  “You don’t think they—”

  “Attracted a devil,” Amelia finished. “Follow me.”

  I gestured at Sin and the others, and we followed the goddess into the building. Amelia manifested her bow as we took notice of the uber-dark, uber-silent halls.

  “This isn’t your average, everyday darkness. This is advanced darkness,” I quoted to Keisha, smile on my face. She glared. I felt triumphant that I managed to deck her with a SpongeBob Squarepants reference. The woman loved her Saturday morning cartoons.

  She didn’t get the chance to fire back with a remark. Terrified screams rang through halls. I expected students to come out of their rooms to investigate but either they were a bunch of pussies or under a spell.

  Okay, the latter was more likely.

  I felt Amelia’s wrath hang into the air—a pleasant reminder that if you fucked with an elite super steroid six member, even an ex-member, you’re dead. Simple as that. She raced forward.

  We followed, barely keeping up. You know, I wish I would’ve turned the other way with the cliché, “I’ll check out this area,” declaration because the scene we walked in on reminded me why I didn’t want to go back to Hell. The devil was in a human form, holding the head of some poor girl. Blood was everywhere on the walls, all over the floor and the couches of the lounge. It looked like a shit-ton of kids had painted the room with giant paint brushes before running off to catch the ice cream man. Five other girls were scattered in various places with either their throats torn out, holes in their stomachs, or limbs ripped from their sockets.

  The devil took a bite out of the head, his crunching loud enough to send shivers throughout my body. Amanda groaned as she ran off, no doubt about to vomit.

  Just then, the room, scratch that—the building shook violently, as the golden glow of heavenly-light surrounded Amelia. Her wings burst from her back as she fired three arrows at the devil. Two landed in his skull, the other in the heart. That got his attention, because he looked at Amelia, then ran off into the next hall, his speed a blur. Amelia took off after him, also as a blur. I turned to the others.

  “Sin, you may want to tell the witch to get one of her magical cleanup crews out here,” I said. He pulled out his phone and got to it. I looked at the others. “Who’s up for witnessing how an angry goddess executes a demon?”

  “I don’t know,” Jade said. “Devils and demons aren’t on the same planes of power.”

  “They’re not gods, either,” I countered.

  “But they’re still powerful,” Jade said. “Some could—”

  “Aye, enough bickering,” Devante interrupted. “While we’re standing here, we’re going to miss out. And if something happens to Amelia, we’re fucked.”

  Sin put his phone away. “She’s on it. Now, let’s go.”

  We all raced through the dark halls. And, holy shit, it was like walking in the void. I noticed the windows were just a wad of darkness. We ran and ran but the hall seemed endless.

  Then a figure appeared a yard or two ahead of us. We stopped, drawing weapons. The thing was a humanoid mass of blackness with a grin of pointed teeth.

  “The fuck,” I said. “Shoot it, and let’s move on.” The guns didn’t sound. I turned around to see the others standing there, except Sin, eyes widened, and frozen, trembling with fear. A night terror demon. Just fucking great.

  “Can you snap them out of it?” I said to Sin.

  “Yeah but it’s going to take some time to absorb the influence off them,” he said. “You’re going to kill the demon by yourself.”

  I unsheathed Ruin as I focused on the night-terror. “I just hope we don’t deal with more of these goddamn things.”

  Let me be the first to tell you, I hated night terror demons. If you haven’t heard the myths, the legends or hell, every day talk, then you’re lucky. They don’t usually appear outside of Hell or the dream world, unless tethered to a devil or some unlucky host.

  We all know the dreams where you can’t move, maybe there’s some kind of monster in the room or on your back, and when you open your mouth to scream, nothing comes out. Yep, that is the good ole night terror, shape-shifting into a form that will make you as uncomfortable as possible, and terrified.

  The funny thing is, they do this for shits and giggles. The demons gain absolutely nothing from giving their victims nightmares. They don’t steal souls—nothing. All games, all laughs.

  I almost advanced toward the fuck when I realized that was a stupid idea.

  I didn’t get the chance to replace my sword with a gun when I felt the sensation of flying. Of course, it force-bashed me backward.
It didn’t take long before a claw raked across my face, delivering enough pain to make me yell. I picked up Ruin and swung but the night terror easily sidestepped just inches out of reach.

  “Ex-prince Sin, did you really side with this weakling?” the night-terror said in a truly demonic voice. Think of the movies—that dark voice that plays the demon. The deep, terrifying, haunting voice that will stick to anyone’s subconsciousness for the rest of their pathetic life.

  “Epex, you can stop fooling around,” Sin said, ignoring the demon.

  “You’re welcome to join in at any moment,” I said as I stood. I manifested my fifty cal. Night-terrors were fast, but not even they could match the awesomeness of a bullet. Too bad the demon wasn't stupid enough to stick around. It laughed as it vanished, leaving me the typical “until next time” bullshit threat. Next time my ass. I never want to see a night-terror again.

  “Well, congrats. You let him get away,” Sin said, as he walked over to Jade.

  “Win some, lose some,” I said, with a shrug. It took a few minutes for Sin to completely remove the curse from the humans. We made sure they had coherent thoughts, before sprinting to catch up with the Clash of the Titans dynamic duo. I wasn’t sure if Amelia actually needed our help. Still, who’d want to miss a good ass-kicking?

  A series of earthquakes shook the building every now and then, no doubt the aftershocks of fighting that didn’t belong in the city. A few times, they struck so hard, we nearly lost our footing. A trail of windows shattered as we got closer to the exit.

  “Holy shit,” Devante said.

  “Yeah,” I replied. There was a standoff between the devil and the goddess when we finally made it outside. “Ah shit, stay back guys.” My warning didn’t seem register as the dipshits rushed ahead. “Dammit.” I hurried behind them. Devante chanted something incoherent before unleashing a shit ton of blue light at the devil. I half-expected an angel of vengeance to scoop him up at any time.

  The devil wore the guise of a man in his thirties, five feet eight inches tall with short grey hair. This fucker had on an expensive-looking business suit, just like devil the misthanger queen crushed. What’s up with the damn suits anyway—I swear, they better not be showing off. We get it, you’re a rich asshole, scamming your money from human victims through false promises or shitty contracts.