Into Hell (The Road to Hell Series, Book 4)

by Brenda K. Davies

  I bristled when her curious gaze raked over me, and Kobal released a rumble of warning. “Do you honestly think I would tell you that?” I retorted.

  “No, but I figured it was worth a shot,” Wren replied with a shrug of one of her shoulders. “What you did at the gateway was impressive.” A few people nodded behind her while the others all eyed me as if they were trying to solve a puzzle. “You died to close it though, so you’re mortal, but the angel saved you and the demon looks like he’s about to tear my head off for speaking to you. I bet it’s a fascinating tale, and one day I hope you’ll trust me enough to share it.”

  I blinked at her, unsure of how to respond to her blunt words, but she was already focused on Kobal again.

  “Okay, Beastly, here’s what I think of you. You’re a demon, you’re a prick, and from what I’ve been told you’re the king of Hell, but you’re on our side, so the rest of it doesn’t matter if it keeps this world from going to complete shit. We’ll fight for you if we believe it’s the right thing to do, but we’ll follow her,” she said and pointed her finger at me.

  My eyebrows shot into my hairline. I was fairly certain her time in the wilds had rattled Wren’s brain, but I kind of liked her brazen insanity.

  “Fair enough,” Kobal replied. “But she is my queen and will be treated as such. If any of you try to harm her, I won’t kill you. Instead, I will have you pleading for death every day for the lengthy lifespan I will allow you to have.”

  Behind her, the others all blanched. Wren remained unfazed as she studied me. “A fascinating tale,” she murmured to me. “Understood,” she said briskly to Kobal. “If all goes well here for us, I can and will bring you more fighters. We’ll also help you map out the wilds that we know. Some of us have been to areas others haven’t, and there are some areas none of us have ever been to.”

  “What do you expect in return?” Kobal asked her.

  “The added protection of demons fighting on our side, honesty, and the respect we deserve.”

  “You will get all those things if they’re earned. One foot out of place and you will be destroyed, as will everyone who came here with you. No questions asked.”

  “Good thing I’m pretty nimble then,” she said and hefted her rifle into her hands.

  “Well, well, well, what do we have here?” Corson drawled as he strolled out from behind us and crossed the field to where Wren stood.

  She frowned at him as he circled her. From the tip of his right ear dangled a little star earring, a fish hung from the top of his left ear, and a gold stud was in the bottom of his right ear. He’d been extremely busy last night, I realized.

  “What’s your name, beautiful?” Corson inquired.

  Wren tapped the barrel of her gun against her palm. The malice behind the gesture had Corson grinning back at her.

  “Her name is Wren,” Kobal said.

  “Wren,” Corson purred the name and stopped circling to plant himself in front of her. “I like it.”

  “I don’t care what you like,” she retorted, and his smile widened.

  “Tell me, Wren, do you wear earrings?” The look on her face almost made me laugh out loud as Corson flicked back a strand of her hair to reveal her bare ears. “Pity,” he murmured. “I’d be willing to go without them though, for you.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “Fucking demons.”

  “Oh yes, we are quite capable of fucking. All. Night. Long,” Corson said slowly.

  Wren gawked at him like he was an alien life form. The color creeping through her cheeks wasn’t something I’d expected from the brazen woman. A demon threatening to kill her was fine, but one flirting with her completely rattled her.

  “I’d be more than happy to take you for a spin,” Corson continued.

  “Enough, Corson,” Kobal commanded.

  Corson remained where he was, his eyes locked on Wren’s before he winked at her and stepped away. Wren’s mouth dropped before she clamped it closed and gripped her gun against her chest.

  Kobal turned to face Shax. “I intended for you to come with us today, but I think it best if you stay and get them situated here. I’ll send Mac to meet with you once I’m done speaking with him. He’ll also have to agree to these humans staying here, but I don’t see him turning away help.”

  “I will take care of it,” Shax said.

  “Let’s go,” Kobal said to the others and turned on his heel to head back toward the wall.

  I glanced over my shoulder at Wren as Corson gave her a sweeping bow. He claimed her hand and planted a kiss on the back of it before she yanked it away from him. He leapt back in time to avoid the punch she launched at his face.

  “Until we meet again, my sweet,” he said to her and sauntered away to catch up with us.

  “She didn’t appreciate your pitiful attempt at flirting,” I told him when he fell into step beside me.

  “She enjoyed it,” he replied with an arrogant smile.

  “She tried to knock you out.”

  He did an odd little skip step. “It was meant to be a love tap.”

  “I think you’re mistaken about that.”

  “Or I’m right and you’re going to be eating your words.” He pulled the earrings from his ears and tossed them aside. “Now, let’s go find your brothers.”

  CHAPTER 46

  Kobal

  River squirmed in the seat beside me. From the driver’s side, Hawk shifted away from her. “It looks mostly the same,” she whispered as she stared out the windshield.

  Resting her fingers on the dashboard, she leaned forward before sitting back again. I placed my hand on her knee when she started tapping her foot on the floor.

  “It does,” Hawk agreed.

  I’d never been to this area of Earth as the demons had been kept secret from the humans residing here. Dotting the landscape were crumpled and burnt-out homes. Many of the wrecked houses were being reclaimed by vegetation.

  “We’ll be there soon,” Hawk said.

  River started wringing her hands in her lap.

  “Easy,” I said and clasped her hands.

  Her eyes were turbulent when they swung toward me. “It doesn’t look all that different, but something’s not right. I feel it.”

  I drew her closer against my side as Hawk eased the truck over a series of ruts. In the passenger-side mirror, I watched more pickups and a larger truck traveling behind us. Calah, Lopan, Lix, and some of the skelleins rode in the truck following us. Through the trees lining the roadway, the hounds loped beside the road. A shadow fell over us as Raphael circled above, and to my far right, a drakón plunged into the woods to feed.

  “Why are the drakón still out there?” River whispered. “Don’t they have somewhere else to go?”

  “They’ll move on. They’re feeding as they go,” I assured her as her foot started tapping again.

  A thud behind me drew my attention to Erin, Vargas, Bale, Verin, and Corson sitting in the bed of the truck. Caim cawed loudly from where he’d landed beside Corson and shifted into angel form.

  “Anything ahead?” I asked through the open window behind River.

  “No,” Caim replied. “Nothing that I can see, but I only went so far as the collapsed bridge.”

  “What collapsed bridge?” River’s voice took on a hysterical note. The truck slowed further when Hawk’s head whipped toward the window.

  “Ahead, less than a mile, a bridge has collapsed into the water below,” Caim answered. “I’m sure it has happened to many of them over the years.”

  “The bridge was intact when I left,” River whispered, and her foot tapped faster as she started wringing her hands again. Hawk focused on the road and pressed on the accelerator.

  “Careful, Hawk,” I said.

  He eased off the gas when the truck was rocked by a series of holes in the pitted road. Chunks of asphalt clanked off the bottom of the truck when the tires threw them up.

  Turning back to the window, I met Caim’s gaze. “Stay low enough th
at nothing can see you in the air, keep to the trees, and stay within a half-mile radius. Tell Raphael to do the same. We can’t risk either of you being spotted if something more than a simple bridge collapse awaits us.”

  Caim shifted to soar up to Raphael.

  “Something’s not right,” River said again.

  “The people on the Cape could have collapsed the bridge themselves,” Hawk said. “It would help keep things from getting over the canal and stop people from flooding onto the Cape again, like they tried to do after the gateway opened. Destroying the bridge could have been a measure of self-preservation. They may have destroyed the other bridge too.”

  “Or they could have been evacuated,” I reminded River, “and the bridge collapsed on its own from time and water.”

  She barely glanced at me before focusing ahead again. When we crested over the top of a hill, the broken remains of a bridge came into view. River’s breath sucked in; she leaned forward until her nose almost touched the windshield. I rested my hand on her shoulder, drawing her back as I gazed at the twisted pieces of metal sticking into the air. Looking over the embankment, I spotted more of the massive structure jutting out of the water.

  Caim landed in the bed of the pickup again when Hawk started down a road running parallel to the rushing current of a canal. The sun lit the dark blue water, and I scented creatures living beneath its surface. The aroma reminded me of River, but this was tangier than her scent, and it left something sticky on my mouth. Curious to the taste, I licked my lips and found it salty but not unpleasant.

  “Did you see anything else?” I asked Caim.

  “No, it is clear on this side.”

  “Good.”

  Caim inhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes. “The ocean,” he murmured. “It reminds me of home.”

  “The ocean reminds you of Hell?” Vargas inquired.

  Caim smiled at him as he leaned back to spread his wings over the side of the truck. The tips of them almost touched the asphalt. “No, I still consider Heaven my home. Heaven is not only made up of endless clouds and sky, but of rivers and seas so deep a purple they are nearly blue. The angels rose from those waters as surely as the varcolac rose from the fires.”

  River’s amethyst eyes widened, and her fresh rain scent intensified. A part of River had also been forged from those Heavenly waters.

  “I’ve always felt a special affinity for water and the ocean,” she said.

  My hand tightened around hers as I gazed from her to the sea. The powerful current of the water reminded me of her strength; it didn’t waver.

  Rising over the top of another hill, River cried out when more broken metal sticking into the air came into view. Hawk stopped near the crumpled remains of a second bridge as he put the truck in park. He gripped the wheel as he gazed at it with a dejected expression.

  “I have to get out,” River said.

  I opened the truck door and climbed out of the vehicle. Hawk pushed his door open. River scrambled out behind me and ran toward the edge of the hill with Hawk and me at her side. Dirt and rocks kicked up beneath her feet when she skidded to a halt.

  Gripping her elbow, I pulled her back a step when she showed no sign of knowing her toes hung over the edge. In the waters below lay another structure with rust creeping over its silver paint. The water surged over the sides of the banks. It poured over rocks, and a pathway, as it sought to find a new way around the bridge blocking its natural course.

  “The railroad bridge might still be standing.” River jerked her arm away from me. She ran back to the truck and jumped behind the wheel before anyone could stop her. “Get in!”

  I didn’t climb into the cab of the truck again, but lifted myself into the bed. Bracing my legs apart, I rested my hand on the roof and searched for any hint of danger. If something came at us, I would be prepared for it. Around me, the others all rose in the bed and braced themselves as they drew their weapons.

  Hawk slid into the passenger seat and slammed the door as River hit the gas. She didn’t stomp on it as I’d expected, but she still drove faster than Hawk had. The jarring impact of the ruts shook the truck and caused it to groan in protest as it bounced over the road.

  “This thing’s going to fall apart,” Bale muttered.

  My eyes scanned the buildings lining the broken street with their faded signs hanging on the front or lying on the ground. Broken windows marred almost every building, but nothing moved through the shadows within them.

  Bending, I spoke through the open window. “Is it always this quiet here?”

  “Yes.” Hawk braced his hand against the roof when River hit a bump that nearly sent all of us flying. I planted my heel against the side of the truck to maintain my balance better. “This used to be a tourist area mostly, stores and stuff catering to them. After the war, there was no need for the things sold here and these buildings were too far from residents to be of much use for anything else.”

  River pulled into a burnt-out parking lot. The truck lurched and made a grinding noise as she shifted it into park before coming to a stop. Shoving off the side of the truck, I leapt over the edge as she flung open her door. Landing beside her, I stayed close to her side, searching for any hint of danger as she raced toward another metal structure rising into the air. Unlike the other bridges, this one created a pathway across the water.

  ***

  River

  I ran down the embankment toward the railroad bridge. The tracks had been lowered to extend across the canal. Against the blue sky, the two turrets of the bridge stood proudly in the air on either side of the canal.

  When I was younger, the tracks were usually in the air to allow the passing of boats and ships beneath it, but they would lower when a train came through. After the war, the trains stopped running so the bridge remained raised. I hadn’t seen it down in years.

  I went to leap onto the tracks when Kobal pulled me back. “What are you doing?”

  I tried to jerk my arm free.

  “Slow down.” He scanned the trees on the other side of the canal before looking to the sky. “We have no idea what might be ahead.”

  “Kobal—”

  “We will not run into a trap,” he said.

  “It might not be Lucifer. It might be something else entirely.” I was unable to keep the desperation from my voice. I had to get to Bailey and Gage, now. “How would Lucifer even know to look for me or my brothers here?”

  “How do you know things that no other does? You’re not the only one who receives visions.”

  “And he is Lucifer,” Caim said as he strolled toward us. “He has his ways and followers with abilities too.”

  My gaze went back to the bridge. “We have to find my brothers.”

  “We will,” Kobal said before turning to Caim. “You and Raphael stay ahead of us and stay close. Do not allow yourselves to be seen.”

  “I don’t have a death wish, varcolac,” Caim replied before shifting and taking to the sky.

  Kobal turned to the others. “Grab your weapons. We have to leave the vehicles here.” They all scurried to do as he commanded before joining us near the bridge. “Stay by me,” Kobal said to me.

  “I will.”

  Releasing my arm, Kobal moved in front of me and onto the tracks where he broke into a loping run. I followed behind him, my heart thudding with every step as my feet pounded over the railroad tracks. Hawk ran beside me, while the others followed us.

  Through the slats in the tracks, I could see the deep blue water of the canal beneath us. The cool white spray dampening my cheeks reminded me I was home. I’d yearned to return, to see the ocean and my friends and family again, but this felt so wrong.

  “This was never down before,” I panted to Kobal. “The Guard kept the railroad bridge up to prevent people from entering our side when they weren’t supposed to.”

  “Members of the Guard were always posted on both sides of it too,” Hawk said.

  Now, no one stood watch.

  M
y feet landed on the asphalt of the bike path next to the canal, a place where I’d spent so much time over the years fishing to feed my family. Frowning, I tried to figure out what was wrong as I gazed at all the familiar things that felt so foreign to me now. The large rocks looked the same, small waves still crested in white peaks and the current still swirled throughout.

  My stomach sank as I finally figured it out. No one was here. No one stood on the rocks. There were no fishing poles, no laughter, no greetings called out to others. No one walked the water line, picking crabs from the rocks. There were no seagulls or heron perched on the light poles or bobbing on the water. No caws pierced the silence, no mussels or clams fell from the sky as the gulls dropped them in attempt to crack their shells. Remains of those shells littered the walkway, but nothing picked at them.

  It didn’t matter what time of day it was, there was always someone here fishing, collecting crabs, or checking their lobster pots. There were always birds feasting on the bounty the canal offered them.

  The absolute silence and stillness of it all made my skin crawl and frightened me more than being pinned to the seal had.

  “Something is so wrong,” I whispered.

  “Where do we go?” Kobal asked as he rested his hand on my shoulder.

  Taking a deep breath, I turned away from the canal and focused on the bike path. “This way.”

  He released my shoulder, and I raced down the canal path before veering off onto a trail that wound through the woods. My feet landed effortlessly between the tree roots breaking through the dirt of the pathway, but the others grunted as they were caught up in, or tripped by, them. I knew this trail as well as the back of my hand. I hadn’t traversed it in months, but I still recalled every detail of it and nothing had changed. Well maintained, not even vegetation crept in to reclaim it.

  The last time I’d traveled this path, the birds had been singing and the squirrels chasing each other through the trees. Nothing moved now except for the leaves overhead as they swayed in the breeze of the early September day. Where did all the animals go? Something horrific had to have happened to chase them all away or scare them into hiding.