by Kim Faulks
Kill him…kill Deimos now…
Desperation was a disease and it was eating me from the inside.
Hard, sawing breaths burned in my chest. Purity faced Irael, carving the air with her Nephilim blade. “Come on, you bastard,” she snarled.
A shattering cry tore through the air before it hit her. The Soulless clawed and bit, and her screams followed. I lunged, slashing the air as Irael smirked and stepped away.
The red glow of Hell spilled between his fingers to fill the air with a brutal thud…thud…thud…I clenched my jaw, fighting the pull toward them, and faced the shift in the air.
The Soulless were there, surrounding us in a violent storm, clawing as they passed. A sting came at my arm, then against my shoulder. Purity cried out, and slashed the air like a creature backed into a corner.
But it was Deimos I focused on…
It was Deimos I wanted to kill.
Rage spilling over, I slashed the air toward a Soulless, and then charged toward the bleeding sonovabitch Hound.
I hit him hard, taking the brunt with my shoulder, driving him backwards. “You killed my father!”
My tears blurred his face. But I didn’t need to see…my heart was in the driver’s seat now, as I slipped down that dark path…a path away from Purity.
But this was about family.
This was about love for my Dad.
I saw my Mom…
I saw Helkor…
Forever waiting for Dad to come back home.
He never would.
Not now…not ever.
I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. But it wouldn’t go down, instead, it clawed and dug in. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Hell’s keys sent out a tremor, and the air around us seemed to change. Stars sparkled overhead, and the silver glow of the moon filled the night sky again. And even though the screams of the Soulless were deafening, there was a change in the realm.
“It’s gone,” Purity gasped and spun. “The connection to the Unseelie world is gone.”
And in the distance, I caught Lucifer’s faint roar as it slipped away.
“He’s gone,” Deimos sneered. “He can’t save you now.”
Laughter spilled from his lips. Foul, revolting laughter. Blood splattered my arm with his laughter.
A blow came from behind, throwing me forward. I stumbled as the sharp lash of pain followed. The night air pressed frigid fingers against my spine. My shirt flapped, torn and open. I winced with the sting as Deimos crawled to his feet.
He took one look at Purity and then me, and stepped backwards. I spun, claws ready to spill his blood on the ground at my feet. But he was already moving. “You won’t kill me. You can’t. You don’t have it in you, kid. You never did.”
Purity cried out as a Soulless descended. She thrashed her blade through the air as Deimos and Irael moved together, stepping toward the towering mountain.
And as they moved, the Soulless moved with them. Deimos turned, took one last glance at the leader of the Demons, and then lunged. The mountain was where they were heading all this time.
Something about it called to me. Something that whispered of secrets left untold. Footsteps thrashed through the trees. Deimos was a blur as he left Irael behind.
But the leader of the Demons wasn’t following. He was watching us and backing toward the mountain, then in a heartbeat, he turned and ran.
The Soulless followed like the tailwind of an unmerciful storm. Purity cried out, swiped her face with her arm, and searched for me.
Blood dripped along her arm and soaked the front of her shirt. Still, she lowered her arm and reached for me with a trembling hand. I turned my gaze toward the sound of Deimos tearing through the trees.
“It’s your decision, Mel, you want revenge…or do you want the keys?” she murmured.
Hell’s keys called to me, and where they went, the Soulless followed. Of all the cuts and slashes I carried, none were as cruel as the wound in my heart. The one left behind by the death of my father.
Their steps were fading, slipping away second by second.
My body ached to hunt Deimos down. My hands were desperate to wrap around his throat and squeeze…
But I turned toward Irael, and the keys.
I’d been given a mission, a duty that spoke to my very soul.
I was a Hellhound.
Entrusted by the Lord of Hell…
I reached out, grasped Purity’s hand in mine, and raced forward, hunting the sound of footsteps through the brush.
I felt nothing. Not the fire in my lungs, not the pain in my heart…nothing but the weight of responsibility. We ran until the trees thinned out and we stepped out into a clearing at the base of the mountain.
There was a fissure through the base. A crevice big enough to slip through.
I couldn’t hear Deimos anymore. Not the pounding of his boots, not his jagged breaths. But the keys of Hell pulsed, matching the beat of my heart.
“We can do this on our own, right?”
She looked at me like I held the weight of her world in the palm of my hand, never realizing …she was my world. “Yeah, we can do this.”
Her dark eyes shone. The unknown waited. She clenched my hand and we stepped forward…together.
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