Hell Freezes Over (Hellscourge Book 6)

by Diem, J. C.

  Sy looked at me in stunned amazement when I finished talking. “You asked one of the angels that hates you the most to use holy fire to purge you?” He shook his head in bafflement. “How did you know you could trust her not to burn your mind to a cinder?”

  “Because she loves Leo,” I replied.

  “How could her affection for another angel have any bearing on her hatred for you?”

  Heather and I shared a look of pity for the demon who could never truly understand emotions. He’d lost the capacity to care for others and he’d never inhabited a human long enough to be influenced by their feelings. Angels had the ability to feel, even if they didn’t experience the same type of love that couples had for each other.

  Heather attempted to explain it to him. “Leo isn’t just her vessel’s twin. He’s like a real brother to her. If he knew she was hurting Violet, he’d never forgive her.”

  “But, they are enemies now,” he said. “Why would she care about what he thinks of her?”

  “Just because they aren’t on the same side doesn’t mean they’re enemies or that they’ve stopped caring about each other,” I told him. “They’ve been partners for tens of thousands of years. They share a bond that is far deeper than any hatred that she could ever feel for me.”

  “If you say so,” he said with an unconvinced shrug. He snuck a glance over his shoulder at the piles of sketchpads that were stacked up in the living room. I’d ensured that he’d never be without his beloved sketchpads or pencils. They’d just keep replicating whenever they were in danger of running out. “If you are not too busy, do you think I could test out a new rune?” he asked deferentially.

  Heather sucked in a breath and I had to stop myself from flinching. He’d helped me often enough that I felt I owed him, so I cautiously nodded. “Okay. I just hope it isn’t something too destructive this time.”

  “I cannot make you any promises,” he said with a sly grin. “In fact, if the rune works as well as I hope, it could prove to be very destructive indeed.”

  “What do you hope it will do?”

  “I would not want to ruin the surprise,” he said gleefully. “You shall have your answer once it has been unleashed.”

  Seeing Heather’s instinctive dread, I tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, I’ll take precautions to make sure we won’t be annihilated.”

  Clearing the living room of everything until it was just a bare space without carpet, I conjured up a cup of my blood. Sy held his hand out and I made a paintbrush appear between his fingers. We walked over to the wall that we’d used for our previous experiments. He dipped the brush into my blood and painted the rune that he was dying to try out. “It is ready,” he said in satisfaction and stepped back. “I suggest that you create a box rather than just a wall to contain the spell this time.”

  From his sly grin, he wasn’t going to give me any hints about what was going to happen. I created an invisible wall twenty feet away from the rune and dabbed a finger into the cup of blood. Pressing my hand on the symbol, scarlet light flared to life as it became active. Hurrying over to Heather and Sy, I conjured up another wall to box in whatever was about to happen. The two walls of the house should be strong enough to stand up to anything, or so I hoped.

  We waited in anticipation as a black circle appeared on the wall. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then we heard wind coming from the opening. It grew in volume and I gaped in surprise when a mini tornado erupted from the hole. Heather was just as astounded as I was when the whirlwind spun around in a frenzy. Clouds formed above it, complete with thunder and lightning. Sy was almost clapping his hands in glee. “It gets better,” he said and pointed.

  As we watched, the tornado began to grow. It whirled around the invisible enclosure in a fury. I had no doubt that it would have destroyed everything inside the house, including us, if I hadn’t constructed the barrier.

  The wind grew along with the tornado. Reaching the height of the ceiling, it dashed about in rage, trying in vain to get out. Lightning flared and hit the glass wall in front of us as if it was seeking a target. Thunder boomed and Heather flinched and reached for my hand. I held it tightly as we watched the unnatural disaster unfold. “How the hell am I going to deactivate it?” I shouted to Sy above the noise.

  “If the rune works correctly, you will not have to!” he called back. “It should die down in a few minutes!”

  True to his word, the tornado lost its fury a few minutes later. The clouds broke up and the wind ceased. Sputtering to a stop, it dissipated and the rune on the wall faded away.

  “It’s like the magic doorway that you created,” I said. That was the only other rune that I’d seen that only worked once before it became deactivated.

  “I did not create that particular rune,” he said. “I merely borrowed the concept and added it to my own design. I have been experimenting with attempting to create specific spells. I am pleased to see the result was similar to what I was hoping to achieve.”

  “How big can the tornado grow?” Heather asked. She was shaken by the experiment, but she was also fascinated by it.

  Sy shrugged. “I am not certain. It would depend on where the rune was cast. I imagine it could grow to fifty feet, or possibly higher.”

  “A fifty-foot tornado could definitely come in handy,” I mused. “Good work, Sy. You’ve outdone yourself this time.”

  He smiled in true pleasure, which was far from pretty on his hideous face. “I live to serve, master.”

  We all froze at that. “What did you call me?” I asked in horror.

  Sytry was just as appalled as I was. “I did not mean to,” he stammered. “It just slipped out.”

  “ Is she your master now?” Heather asked.

  Gulping, Sy nodded. “I do not know when it happened, but I no longer feel an allegiance to Dantanian. It has somehow been transferred to Violet.”

  Putting my hands over my face, I choked down a groan of anguish. Dropping my hands after I regained control, I saw Heather and the hellscribe huddled side by side. “Hopefully, the legion doesn’t know about this yet. Don’t say anything to the others.” Even to me, it sounded like an order.

  Sy nodded immediately and Heather’s agreement came a second later. I didn’t have any power over her, but she saw the sense of my words. Her light green eyes that were so similar to mine were wary for the first time.

  “I’d better go,” I muttered. With a wave of my hand, I restored the living room to normal then left the shadowlands and entered true sleep.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Nine

  Waking up an hour later, I lay on my side, staring at the wall and brooding about my future. “What future?” I muttered and winced at how cynical I sounded. According to Sophia’s vision, I had only a few months left before the toxin would finish me off. It was the end of May now and she’d estimated that I wouldn’t make it to the end of the year.

  Heaving a sigh, I sat up and realized that I didn’t feel weak now. Brie’s torture session seemed to have done the trick. Tucking the sheath that held my dagger down the back of my jeans, I opened my door to see Sam sitting on the couch in the living room. He tore his gaze away from the TV and did a double-take when he saw me. ‘You look better,” he said with cautious hope.

  “I feel better,” I replied with a smile that felt forced as I entered the room. I took a seat on my favorite armchair and saw a cup of coffee sitting on the table in front of him. “You seem to like that horrible stuff,” I said and motioned at the mug.

  “I prefer it to tea. Tea is too weak and tasteless.”

  “It just shows how much you’ve changed that you can drink at all now.”

  He nodded and grinned shyly. “Sophia believes that I will need to fuel my body with food soon.”

  “I’m guessing French fries won’t be on the menu.”

  He made a face. “Ugh. Certainly not. I am sure I will be able to find something that appeals to me.”

  There was a question that I want
ed to ask him, but I needed it to be private. Leaving my chair, I walked over to the wall where a silence rune waited. I only needed a small amount of blood to close it. Pricking my finger with my dagger instead of cutting my palm open, I repaired then reactivated it.

  Sam paused his program and looked at me with something close to dread as I took my seat again. “I need you to tell me something,” I said solemnly.

  “What is it?”

  “Can you sense any changes in me?”

  His eyes slid away from mine and his fingers twisted together in his lap. “What do you mean?” he asked. He knew what I was hinting at. He just didn’t want to answer me.

  “I just spoke to Sy in a dream and he called me his master.”

  Sam’s head jerked up and he couldn’t hide his horror. “That does not mean that you are becoming a demon!”

  “We both know that’s exactly what’s happening. At least it is when I’m in hell. Tell me the truth,” I said and held his gaze. “Can you sense evil inside me?”

  Looking away again, a tear slipped down his cheek. He nodded once then put a hand over his mouth to hold in a sob. “I did not have the heart to tell you,” he whispered.

  Rocked to my core by his admission, I slumped back in the armchair. “When did you first start to sense it?” I asked, feeling numb.

  “It was when the Wraith Warrior first marked you,” he confessed. His expression was stricken at my accusing look. “It was just a small change at first, but each time we travel to hell, it becomes worse.”

  “I don’t feel like I’m turning evil,” I said plaintively. I flinched away from the memory of smiling cruelly at Brie’s screams of pain when I’d trapped her in my room.

  “I do not believe that you are evil. At least not yet and not when you are here. It is when you are in the underworld that the transformation is more apparent.”

  “But, you can sense evil inside me even when we’re on Earth, can’t you?”

  He nodded miserably. “It gets worse with every demonic soul that you ingest.”

  Since I’d just absorbed thirty-six of them, that should have tipped the balance even more. Or it would have if Brie hadn’t purged sixty lesser demons from me. “We should probably keep this to ourselves,” I said, knowing it couldn’t stay a secret forever.

  Sam nodded and wiped his tears away with his sleeve. “I will never betray you,” he promised.

  “I know. You’re my best friend. If I can’t count on you, then I can’t count on anyone.”

  Leaving the chair again, I deactivated the rune before the others realized we were having a private conversation. Then I headed to the bathroom to check on my appearance. As I’d hoped, the dusky hue to my skin had receded and my face wasn’t as pale. The dark circles beneath my eyes weren’t as pronounced and my make-up was doing a better job of hiding my illness.

  Heading downstairs, I stopped in the kitchen to put the kettle on. Sophia kept a jar of homemade cookies on the counter. I reached inside to grab one and felt someone standing behind me. The flush that went through my whole body told me it was Nathan even before I turned around.

  “Caught with your hand in the cookie jar,” he said in a mock-stern tone.

  “Are you going to punish me?” I asked and took a bite of the oatmeal cookie.

  His eyes dropped to my lips as my tongue flicked out to catch an errant crumb. Our gazes locked and the room became charged with sexual tension that we couldn’t do a thing about. To do so would condemn Nathan and I wasn’t prepared to do that to him.

  “Nathanael,” Sophia said from the doorway. “We are running low on milk. Could you please go to a store and purchase some?”

  “You should get some more aspirin, too,” I suggested. “That stuff is magic.” I wasn’t sure if he believed that a simple drug was behind my miraculous recovery, but he knew it was best to leave before we were tempted to cross the line.

  He disappeared and I saw Leo and Sophia standing in the doorway. Leo shook his head reprovingly. “You should not tease him like that.”

  “I know,” I said and blew out a small sigh.

  Sophia crossed the room and put her hand on my shoulder in comfort. “It is hard for you to resist your hormones. You are only human, after all.”

  I took another bite of the cookie rather than responding to that untruth. She and I both knew that I was far from human. I was a hybrid and I had no right to exist.

  “You look a lot better,” Leo observed in relief. “I knew you just needed some rest.”

  “I visited the legion in my dream,” I said, diverting the conversation away before I had to come up with more lies. “Sy had a new rune for me to test out.”

  Nathan reappeared in time to hear that. Just as Sophia had asked, he was carrying milk and aspirin. Somehow, I doubted he’d actually paid for them. He hadn’t been gone long enough to make a transaction. I was pretty sure he’d just grabbed what we needed and had come straight back here. “What did this rune do?” he asked sardonically.

  “It created a tornado,” I replied with a grin and told them about it while Sophia finished making a pot of tea. Snagging another cookie, I followed her into the front room.

  “The hellscribe is very inventive,” Leo said as he took his seat. He spared a glance at the chair where his twin used to sit. He’d grown used to her absence even if it still made him sad that she’d defected to the other side.

  “Did you learn anything from the new recruits?” Sophia asked.

  “Yeah. Apparently, a Demon Lord called Vepar is behind the attacks on most of the demon packs.”

  “Vepar?” Nathan said a trifle sharply and exchanged a look with Sophia.

  “Do you know her?” Demons had been angels before they’d fallen. It made sense that they’d know each other.

  “We were acquainted with her,” Sophia confirmed.

  “She was one of the first to rebel,” Nathan said. “She whispered her insidious treason to as many of us as she could, attempting to sway us to her cause.”

  My eyes narrowed in instant jealousy that she’d tried to draw Nathan to her side. “I thought Lucifer was the one who recruited his followers.”

  “He used many different ways to attempt to persuade us,” Sophia told me.

  “What did Vepar look like before she fell?”

  “She was very beautiful, as are all angels,” Nathan said, unknowingly twisting the knife in my heart a little more. “She had short black hair and pale blue eyes.”

  “It sounds like she chose a vessel that looks similar to her real form,” I mused. From what I’d gathered, most angels gravitated to vessels that looked like them.

  “Why is she attacking other demons?” Leo asked. “It does not make sense. Is she trying to expand her territory in Manhattan?”

  “I don’t think she has actually claimed any territory here,” I responded. “She’s using three packs to cut them down, which seems like overkill to me. Morax doesn’t believe she’s trying to get rid of her rivals. He thinks she has another plan in mind.”

  Nathan was silent for a few moments before he spoke. “He believes that she is inundating you with evil so that you will be more inclined to side with the demons?”

  “That’s his theory,” I replied with a shrug and finished off my cookie.

  I wasn’t about to tell them that Vepar’s plan was working and that I was being drawn more and more to the dark side. How long would it be before I looked at all angels as my enemies and began to count demons as my allies? Putting some thought into it, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t happen anytime soon. My urge to seek out and destroy the Demon Princes and their master hadn’t waned. Not yet anyway.

  Feeling my cell phone vibrate in my pocket, I took it out and read the message. It was from Zach. He was wondering when I would return from my bogus treatment. Since I was feeling better, I texted him to say that I’d arrived last night and that I’d been resting up today. He replied straight away and said that he wanted to meet me tomorrow afternoon after sch
ool. He named the library where we’d taken to meeting as the destination. I texted him back that I’d be there. I didn’t realize that I was grinning until I looked up and saw Nathan’s displeasure.

  “I take it you were just texting Zach?” Leo asked.

  “Yeah. We’re meeting in our usual spot tomorrow at three-thirty.”

  Crossing his arms, Nathan looked away to hide his hurt. I hated myself for wounding him, but I couldn’t bring myself to break things off with Zach. I loved them both, in different ways. I just hope Candy doesn’t turn up and ruin our date again. My smile turned grim as I envisioned the various forms of revenge that I could inflict on her.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Ten

  “I will escort you to your date this time,” Nathan informed me the next afternoon when I was putting my makeup on.

  Pausing in the act of coating my eyelashes in mascara, I flicked a look at him. His mouth was set in a stubborn line that I knew well. Unluckily for him, I could be just as stubborn as he was. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “This is not up for debate.”

  Finishing with the mascara, I put it away and turned to face him. “Do you remember what you said you’d do to Zach if you ever met him in the flesh?”

  A slight flush stained his cheeks. “I spoke in haste. I would not actually harm him.”

  “You said you’d tear his insides out,” I reminded him. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to let you anywhere near him.”

  “You do not trust me,” he said flatly.

  “I do with most things, but not when it comes to Zach.” We had a staring match and it was clear that neither of us was going to back down. Huffing out a breath, I tried a different approach. “I love you, Nathan,” I said baldly and put a hand up to stop him as he swayed towards me out of reflex. “But we can’t ever be together.”