His grace be damned. Chay squeezed the demon’s arm until the bones cracked. He leaned close so that he filled her vision. “Threaten her again…” His voice trailed away because he didn’t need to finish it. He heard a gasp, spared a second to meet Scarla’s frightened eyes, then pressed his lips to the demon’s and shoved his tongue into her mouth for a single quick thrust, then spat. “Now get us out of here.”
She smiled as if she’d won something, then they weren’t at the farm anymore. Chay stepped away from her and—
“Where are we?” Sophie said.
She was there, standing a few feet away from him in complete danger. Chay rounded on the demon. “Send her back!”
“No. She is collateral to make sure you behave.” Then the demon was gone.
“How did you…” It was a stupid question that needed no answer. They were in a boardroom. Oval oak table, ten high back leather chairs, the floor to ceiling windows showed a panoramic view of a mountain range—which one, he couldn’t tell, and it didn’t really matter—and a deep crevice the room was perched over. Wherever the demon had brought them, the house was built into the mountains.
Chay had to get Sophie out of here. He linked to the UnHallowed and got nothing but silence. Shit!
He reached for the shadows, and… There weren’t any. Not a single shadow in the room responded to him.
What the hell? He touched the wall. His hand sizzled, flesh instantly burning. The entire place was lined with brimstone. Was it only the wall? He touched the tables and chairs with the same result, a burning hand.
Those motherfuckers! That’s how the Demon Army hid from the UnHallowed and the Celestial Army. That wasn’t all. This quantity of brimstone blocked the shadows, all shadows, and without any shadows, he couldn’t reach the UnHallowed and they couldn’t reach him.
“You shouldn’t have taken my place.”
The window was out, but… Sophie slipped between him and the glass. She gripped his arms, forcing his attention to shift from escape to her. “What is it?” he said impatiently.
“Why did you do it? I had ten years. I didn’t need you to play the hero and—”
Chay reversed the hold. Now, he held her. “Ten years,” he growled, furious at her naiveté. “You were dead the moment you made the pact because it was never about you. It was always about the Cruor and the UnHallowed because one doesn’t exist without the other. Or do you think you took an involuntary nap in your mother’s hospital bed.” He snatched her up by her hospital gown, got in her face. “And, on a whim, the medical staff decided to shock your heart three fucking times while I watched.” She died, right in front of him. Just like Daeden said.
He let her slap his hand away and expected her to run from his anger, she didn’t. “I couldn’t let my mother die.”
“And I couldn’t let you die.” He captured her chin and she came to him willingly. What he felt for her mirrored in her eyes. “I love you. No pact with a demon will change that.”
Tears welled in her eyes and he hated it, hated that he’d made her cry, until she spoke. “I love you too. Live or die, I want you to know that.”
Die? Not Sophie. Not while he lived. “You are not dying.”
Footsteps sounded outside the double doors to the boardroom. Their options were limited. Scratch that. They had no options. “Do you trust me?”
She nodded, determination, not fear torqued her features. “With what life I have left, yes.” She wouldn’t go down without a fight and neither would he.
Chay turned to the window, and with a single touch, he shattered the glass. A bracing wind slammed into the room.
“Shouldn’t we have tried the front door?” she shouted over the wind.
Chay caught her by the waist before she was swept deeper into the room or swept out of the window. He registered the paper-thin hospital gown covering her bikini. Not what a woman should wear in a snowstorm.
“What are you doing? You don’t have wings!” she screamed, curling her fingers into his leather jacket.
“Hang on.” As the door to the conference room slammed open, Chay, wingless UnHallowed, leapt.
~~~~~
Celine marched up to the four guards in front of Aiden’s private suite and demanded entry. They didn’t argue when she had the Cruor balanced in her hands. Three moved aside while the last one opened the door for her to enter.
She entered a hothouse garden full of lush greenery and vibrant flowers. It was a jungle in a reverse snow globe flourishing in the middle of the Himalayas. She was less impressed as she fought her way through to Aiden raking a rock garden located in the center of his hothouse amazon.
“How dare you…” His voice petered off at the sight of the Cruor. He dropped the rake and trudged through the sand. Celine met him halfway. “How did you get it?” He reached to take it from her, but she wouldn’t let him have it. Not yet. Some conditions had to be met.
“I got it through my UnHallowed slave.”
That caused his eyes to widen. “You have an UnHallowed? Which one?” he demanded when she nodded.
“He is called Chay.”
“Chayyliél, formerly the Powerful one.” He walked around her. “I know he was an archangel, but I’m not familiar with his powers. He must be one of the weaker ones, though his title suggests otherwise. I don’t think he’s the one we turned.” Carefully, his fingers curled around the Cruor and lifted it from her hands.
“What did you just say?” she asked as she relinquished the portal.
Aiden sighed, frustration and delight entwined in the sound. “When the UnHallowed were all in Hell, we caught one.”
Celine’s jaw hit the floor.
“We didn’t experiment with Darklings. They were too weak for what we needed.” He held the portal aloft, tilting it so the overhead light reflected off the surface. “We tried Spaun on the UnHallowed. It didn’t work either, until we used a particularly strong Spaun. The strongest one we’d willingly sacrifice.”
Enthralled, she wondered about the “we,” but didn’t waste time asking. If what Aiden said were true… “The results?”
He brought the portal close, studying the intricate detail on the outer rim. “I wasn’t present at the undertaking, so I have no definitive documentation of it working. That doesn’t mean it didn’t.”
Celine grabbed his shoulder to stop him from promenading around the room with the Cruor. She had to know more. “Are you saying a Spaun was able to inhabit an UnHallowed?”
His gaze traveled from the portal to her hand on his shoulder. He arched an eyebrow, but said, “Possibly.”
Celine removed her hand. “One of the UnHallowed is a Spaun? Has been a Spaun since they escaped Hell?” She re-stated more for her than Aiden.
He tilted his head as if in deep thought. “…Possibly.”
She couldn’t hide her excitement and her disappointment. “I can tell you it’s not Chay. He’s much too obstinate and thinks he’s in love with that human,” she spat. “So, which one is it?”
He put the portal under his arm and faced her. “That is the billion-dollar question.”
Oh, the possibilities. “We have to find out which UnHallowed is on our side. And can we turn another one? Or all of them? We can rule Heaven and Hell with all the UnHallowed under our control.” Victory was at hand, she could taste it, and she would be at the center of it all.
“First, let us meet the one we have.” He pointed to the way she entered. “Lead the way.”
Celine folded her arms and kept her place. “I’ve brought you the Cruor and an UnHallowed.” By his now guarded expression, he had an idea where she was headed and did nothing to stop her. Good.
Celine tilted her chin higher and addressed him as an equal. “I’ve achieved what you could not and what you didn’t dream off.”
“That is undeniable,” he said dryly.
“Let me be clear. I have no desire to rule, not on my own, or by your side. I don’t want to be your girlfriend.”
; Aiden chuckled. “I understand. It’s not me you want. You were very clear at the meeting. You want a Demoni Lord to make up for the one that jilted you.”
How dare he remind me of Malphas. She fumed.
“I keep my word. When my lord is freed, I will make the introduction. Whether you end up in his bed is up to him, not me.”
Oh, I will end up in his bed and much more. She smiled. “Let me introduce you to our new slave.”
She took the lead and led him out of the hothouse. “I left them in the conference room.”
“Them?” he asked, handing the Cruor to a guard. “Take this to my quarters.”
She smirked, highly pleased with herself as the guard marched down the hallway. “I snatched his girlfriend along with him.”
“Collateral.”
She nodded. “His obedience or her life. If he values her, then he will do what’s necessary to keep her alive.”
“He’ll do what’s necessary. The UnHallowed are sentimental that way. They keep women as mates.” He didn’t hide his disgust.
“Don’t knock it ‘til you try it.” Spaun were asexual beings, the poor things.
She stopped at the doors to the conference room. Back to the door, she blocked the entrance. “The UnHallowed belongs to me. I tell him what to do, where to go. Not you.”
Aiden’s lips peeled back, revealing several rows of serrated teeth. “This partnership is based on results. You have more than proven yourself. But do not push it. Now open the door.”
She obeyed because right now, she had the upper hand. And she intended on keeping it.
Celine stepped into the conference room in time to see her upper hand dive out of the shattered window protecting the room from the snowstorm consuming the mountain.
Chapter Forty
Sophie buried her face in Chay’s shoulder and molded herself to his body. The wind was brutal, no less than the cold, which pierced her flesh all the way to her marrow. If the fall didn’t kill her, the frigid conditions would. What was she thinking? No, what was he thinking!
She peeked over his shoulder. Big mistake! They were in a freefall, dropping into a deep, frozen chasm. Her scream lodged in her throat. They were going to die. Make that she was going to die the second she went splat, while Chay would bounce right off the mountain and be fine.
He shifted her around to the front of him. His leather coat flew open and flapped around them. If she’d hadn’t known better, she’d swear they were wings. “Hold tight!” His arms banded around her, unbreakable, but still didn’t seem enough. The landing was abrupt and hard enough to rattle the marrow in her bones. Chay set her on her feet. Oh God, the cold.
She crumpled, but Chay caught her. He shrugged out of his coat and wrapped it around her. She basked in his body heat, wondering how long it would last. “What now?”
He swept her into his arms and had to bend to enter a cave she hadn’t seen until they were inside the dank enclosure. He stopped when they were in the shadows at the back of the cave and set her down again. Did that mean the UnHallowed were on their way? Maybe Riél could fly her out of here. At least fly her to some winter clothes.
“This place. Thousands of years here, how did we not know of this place?” In amazement, he touched the rock wall behind them. “Brimstone threads through this range. I don’t know if all of it, but definitely this section.”
“Nice history lesson as I freeze,” she grumbled.
His hands dropped to her shoulders. “I know. We can’t go up. You’d die out in the open,” he said.
That she already knew. Not that he wouldn’t do everything in his power to keep her alive, but she didn’t believe him. Already she couldn’t feel her feet. She may as well be barefoot for all the protection a pair of sparkly flip-flops gave her. “I’m going to die here.”
He shook her, then tipped her chin up and forced her to look at him. “I watched you die once, I’m not gonna watch that happen again.”
Even though his fingers were gentle on her skin, his anguish came through his touch. She stroked the back of his hand, hating he had to go through that but also realizing it was all a lie. “I don’t think I did,” she murmured.
He reeled back. “What?”
How to explain what she experienced? “I know that’s what it seemed like, and maybe that’s what it was…” How to put it into words he could understand? “This may sound strange, but I didn’t feel dead.”
His brow furrowed. She expected no less. “There wasn’t any bright light. No angels coming to welcome me. Also, there was no fiery furnace waiting to roast me for an eternity.”
His gaze skeptical, he moved back to the edge of the ledge. “Forgive me, but the human perception of the afterlife is completely wrong.”
She tossed him a scathing glare and continued. “There was darkness. Only darkness. I thought I was in the shadows, then a way station between one place and another. A station on some alternate plane. But I wasn’t dead. Not in a true sense.”
He threw up his hands. “All right. I’m not going to argue about Heaven and Hell with you now.
“Good, ‘cause being a fallen angel doesn’t make you an authority on a place you haven’t been in a b-b-billion y-y-years,” she said through chattering teeth. He glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled. A wicked twist of his mouth that tugged at her heart. “Sorry. A bikini in a deep freezer makes me bitchy. I’m freezing my nipples off.”
He came back to her, hugged her tightly. “There’s nothing to burn.”
“Anything we b-burn would l-lead them t-t-to us.” She jogged in place to keep the blood flowing, the mind going. “I d-didn’t tell y-you h-how I got to the h-house s-s-soo f-fast.”
“Yeah. You didn’t.” His head cocked to the side, waiting for her to continue.
“An angel brought me.”
He scoffed, but she continued. “Her n-n-name is-is A-Axelle. She’s a w-warrior angel, b-but once, she w-was m-my guardian angel.”
“I met her once, at Caleb’s grave after you reamed me a new asshole.”
Her mouth fell open. He closed it with a finger beneath her chin.
She ignored the asshole thing and focused on what was important. “You d-didn’t tell m-me. M-maybe she c-can s-save us?”
He shook his head and went back to the edge. “The brimstone shields us from demons and angels alike. It doesn’t discriminate.
“W-W-What about a R-R-Reaper?” She was getting desperate.
Chay mumbled something she’d swear sounded like, “Last thing I want is a Reaper here.” He stalked back outside, to the ledge. Sophie followed.
Buffeted by the wind, she gripped his shirt and braced her body against his. She wanted answers and staying in the claustrophobic cave wouldn’t deliver any. “Ch-Chay I…”
She started, but her voice drifted away. His attention wasn’t on her. He stared at the ice wall on the other side of the crevice. “W-W-What is it? The Un-Un-UnHallowed.” Please. Let it be them. A deep shudder went through her, one she couldn’t blame on the cold. This shudder touched her soul and she knew. Someone had just walked on her grave.
~~~~~
It wasn’t the UnHallowed, that wavering form perched on the top of the wall, no, it wasn’t an UnHallowed.
“Someone just walked on my grave.”
His attention snapped back to Sophie, dread wrapped thorny fingers around his insides. “What did you say?”
She looked up at him. Frost clung to her hair and eyelashes. She was a snow queen, on her deathbed. Fuck!
“It’s a s-saying I g-g-got from my grandmother, an old w-wives tale, I think.”
He turned back to stare at the wall, searching. It could’ve been a Reaper, but they weren’t known to be shy. If a Reaper was here, it damn sure wasn’t here for Chay. And he doubted it was here to help. It wasn’t Daeden up there. But even if it was, that didn’t mean he’d come to help. There was a traitor amongst the Reapers.
“Sophie—” He heard the noise, recognized it for what
it was. An army approached. By the skittering across the ice…a lot of them.
He leaned out, as far as he could over the ledge and looked up. Spaun, a couple of thousand give or take, crawled down the ice wall. Their pasty bodies blending with the ice, their black eyes seeming to be the only thing moving, the only thing heading his way. A few caught fire when they bypassed the ice and touched the rock face. Brimstone and Spaun didn’t mix.
He had one option. One option alone.
“Get to the back of the cave and stay there.”
Instead of arguing, she took one look at him and hobbled as quickly as she could to the rear. He followed.
“Going somewhere, lover?”
He spun and faced the Crossroad Demon.
Chapter Forty-One
“Why hasn’t he linked to us?” Sammiél stood off to the side, his gut churning slowly. Everything about this was wrong.
Tahariél went to the bar. He snatched up the nearest bottle and poured. “He’s probably busy.”
“Ya think?” Zedekiél snorted and began pacing the length of the room, doing his caged animal routine. Along the way, he flung his filthy coat off. It settled in a dusty cloud on the floor.
“He’s getting the lay of the land before—”
“Bullshit!” Daghony cut Rimmon off. “We never should’ve let him leave with the Cruor.”
“Agreed, but the deed is done.” Ioath pointed out the obvious.
Bane turned from peering out the living room window. “The only thing he’s doing is protecting Sophie.”
“With his life,” Scarla added. Face stark, her frightened gaze found Sammiél. He didn’t need a link or the ability to read her mind. All he had to do was look into her champagne colored eyes to see her plea. Do something!
When you’re the most powerful being in the room, expectations were high. If they only knew the truth, a truth he was forbidden to share. There was only one thing Sammiél could do, but so much weighed in the balance. Before he took that drastic step, there was something else he had to try. He sent forth a command on a different link from the one connecting him to the UnHallowed.
Only One I'll Have (UnHallowed Series Book 4) Page 29