“Obsidian warned me. I know the levels are going to become harder for me to get through. I’m willing to go through them as fast as possible.” I nod. That was my plan.
“It’s good that he warned you, but even if you try to mentally prepare yourself for it, seeing and hearing it, is different. But you’ll have us by your side the whole way.”
“I know,” she whispers.
“All done,” Verkor says, kissing the back of her head. She looks over her shoulder and smiles at him.
“Thank you. Brushing my hair isn’t so bad when I don’t have to do it,” she laughs. Verkor just smiles and shakes his head. He loves brushing her hair. It’s a way for him to be able to show that he cares. He doesn’t have the animal urges to protect her since he’s not a shifter. Verkor is more human than Obsidian and I. I know he’ll use his shadow magic to help and protect her. “Well, as much as I would like to relax here all day, and eat my weight and more in food, we should probably get going,” Finley says, rising from the bed. We all watch as she goes to her bag and pulls out an outfit. No one speaks as she closes the bathroom door behind her.
“How fast can we make it to your place? We have three levels to get through before then,” Obsidian asks as he gets off the bed.
“She’s going to want to play in the greed level, and I say we let her. The next two levels aren’t too dangerous, but if we don’t engage in anything, we should be fine,” I respond.
“Good. We’ll just have to keep her focused on moving forward. I know in the last few levels she’s not going to want to stick around, and it'll be hard for her to take. She’s never seen or heard anything like it.” Obsidian’s right. It takes a special kind of demon to be able to live and work in the lowest levels of hell.
“Let’s pack up, she should be out here any minute.” Verkor turns and looks at me. “You going to put a shirt on?” I grin. I thought about it, but I really want to show off my claiming marks.
“Nope,” I say. Verkor shakes his head.
“Why am I not surprised?” Verkor says with a roll of his eyes. I laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Finley questions as she exits the bathroom.
“Stolas doesn’t want to wear a shirt,” Obsidian replies. Finley turns her attention to me.
“Why not?” she asks. Obsidian walks over, taking her dirty clothes from her hand.
“Because,” I gesture to the mark on my shoulder. “I’m proud of these marks and I want everyone to see.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
“Really?” A frown washes over her face. “I think you should put a shirt on.”
“Why?” I don’t see a problem with it.
“Because,” Finley stalks closer to me. “I don’t want anyone seeing what is mine.” She growls the last word, and my hellhound perks up. Both of us love this show of possessiveness.
“But I want everyone to see my marks.” She’s close enough to me that I reach out, grip her hips, and pull her close to me. Her hands automatically rest on my bare chest.
“Fine, I’ll make you a deal.” I nod. “If you walk around without a shirt on to show off your marks, then I get to walk around without my shirt to show off mine.”
“No,” I growl. I can feel my hellhound rising to the surface. “No one gets to see you like that but us.” I would have to rip the head off of everyone that dared look at her.
“Exactly.” She smiles feeling proud of herself for making her point. Finley goes up on the tips of her toes placing a kiss on my cheek.
“You’re lucky you’re damn cute.”
“Eh, you love me, that’s why you’re doing what I want.” I move my hands from her hips to her ass, giving her cheeks a good squeeze.
“You’re damn right I do.”
I capture her lips with mine. I pour every bit of love I have for her into that kiss. She moans, digging her nails into my pecs. I growl. She licks the seam of my lips, and I part them, giving her what she wants. She plunges her tongue into my mouth. God, she tastes like heaven. Well, more like hell, but in the best way, because the things she’s doing with her tongue are downright sinful. A throat clears somewhere behind us, but we don’t stop. Finley moves her hands up my pecs and over my shoulders. When her fingers skim my mating mark, I shiver. The area is sensitive, but it increases my desire and I deepen the kiss. I feel Finley’s small hands in my hair, tugging at the strains. My hips thrust forward.
“Stolas, Finley, we need to get a move on.”
I know Obsidian’s right, but I want my mate more than I want to leave this room and go to the next level of hell. I would rather have Finley naked, panting beneath me, screaming my name. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. My hands go to her hips, lifting her in one swift motion, never breaking our kiss. Her legs wrap around my waist, as I walk back toward the bed. But we don’t make it that far. One second Finley is in my arms, and in the next she’s being ripped away from me. I growl, my canines lengthen, and I whip my gaze to the person who dared take my mate from me.
“Enough,” Obsidian bellows, placing Finley on her feet, before standing in front of her. “Get it together. We need to get moving if we’re going to make it to your house today like you want. You can have our mate when we get there. But for now, calm the hell down.” I growl and take a step toward him. Obsidian crosses his arms over his chest and glares at me. “Look, I’m not trying to keep you from her, but we need to get going so we can be somewhere safe tonight. Think of the safety of your mate and pup. You don’t want them in a dangerous area, do you?”
Protect.
Must keep safe.
I agree with my hellhound. We will, I tell him. We’ll keep them safe. The thought starts to calm me and my hellhound down. I take a couple deep breaths, which was the wrong thing to do, because I scent Finley’s arousal. I want to rip her clothes off. No, I can’t. We really need to get moving. It takes me a few minutes, but I finally get myself under control.
“I’m good.” Obsidian nods moving out of the way. I stare at Finley, with her pink swollen lips. “We’ll continue this later.” She winks.
“I can’t wait.” I groan at the desire laced in her voice. A shirt smacks me in my face. I catch it before it falls.
“Put that on and let’s go,” Obsidian states.
He grabs his bag and Finley’s before opening the bedroom door. Verkor grabs his bag and Finley’s hand, tugging her out of the room. Quickly, I put the shirt on, and grab my bag following right behind them. I’m not mad; I get to watch my mate’s ass sway side to side in front of me. It’s a glorious view.
It doesn’t take us long to get through the gate to enter the fourth level of hell. I watch as Finley stares wide-eyed, and I smile. Her gaze flits to mine.
“Welcome to the fourth level of hell. Welcome to greed.”
Chapter 7
Finley
Holy shit. This place looks like Earth Realm’s Las Vegas strip, glittering lights and all. Everywhere I look, there are bright lights, casinos, hotels, and restaurants lining the road on either side of me. My head swivels from side to side, trying to take in all the sights as we walk down the road. There are street performers. Most of them are doing tricks with fire, such as the fire dancing and fire breathing. Well, okay that demon just set another demon on fire. I watch to see if the demon will put him out, but he turns and walks away. So, not part of the act. After seeing that, I move a little closer to Stolas. There are more demons in this level of hell than there have been for any of the others I’ve been in so far, who knows if they’re human friendly.
There are red, black, blue, green, and even purple demons. They range in height from shorter than me to taller than Obsidian. Obsidian is the tallest of my guys at around six four. There are demons with no horns and some with two. Some have wicked looking sharp teeth, and some have none. Their eyes range from solid black to solid white with every color in between. I’m trying so hard not to gawk and stare at them, but it’s difficult. I’ve never been to the Hell Realm and everything is new
to me.
As we continue our journey down the strip, I see two things. One is a giant Ferris wheel that I am so going on before we leave this level. And two, there is a massive lake in the center of the road. There are buildings and a walkway around it, but that’s not what catches my eye. It’s the fact that the lake is lava instead of water and there are fountains in it, spouting lava in the air. It’s an amazing photo opportunity, but I’m not getting that close.
“So, love.” I jump at the sound of Stolas’ voice. I place a hand over my heart.
“Good Lord, don’t do that.” I feel my rapid beating heart under my fingers. “You scared me.” I reach over and slap his arm. All he does is laugh.
“I’m sorry. I just wanted to know if there was anything you wanted to do while we were here. We have a little bit of time before we have to go to the next level.” I look around at my surrounds. There’s no way I’m passing up a chance to gamble in hell.
“We are definitely riding the Ferris wheel. I do want to hit a casino, and obviously we have to hit up a place to eat.” Stolas throws his arm around my shoulders.
“That sounds like an excellent idea. Which of those things would you like to do first?”
“Casino, then Ferris Wheel. Which I fully expect each of you to go on with me at least once. Then before we hop, skip, and jump to the next level of hell, we get food. I may snack between then; it depends on if I get hungry.” I lean forward, eyeing each of them. “I don’t necessarily mean hungry for food.” Two growls and a moan reach my ear, and I smile.
“Hell, woman,” Stolas groans. “Let’s go before we decide taking you right here would be a good idea.” He moves his arm from my shoulders to my hand. He starts tugging me down the street, and around the fire lake. “I know just the place to take you.” I just go with him because I trust his judgement. I was proven right.
We walk up to this casino and it’s like nothing I’ve seen. The building is red brick, the door is shaped like a pitchfork. You know the ones the Earth Realm depicts the devil carrying. A huge marquee, in bright lights, hangs above the door, with the words Sinner’s Paradise. Stolas ushers me inside, Obsidian and Verkor are close on my heels. A little too close, because I stop abruptly and Verkor walks right into me. Sinner’s Paradise is accurate. There is every kind of gambling table. Blackjack, Craps, and Poker are going on to the right. Slot Machines take up the center of the floor. Off to the left Roulette, Baccarat, and Pai Gow games are being played. Stolas tugs on my hand, pulling me through slot machines. My feet are silent on the black carpet. I look up and gasp. There is a chandelier hanging above the slot machines, but not the crystal kind. This one looks like it’s made of demon horns. A loud scream pulls my attention. A few rows in front of me, I see a black demon with two white bone, twisted horns and solid white eyes raise a clawed hand in the air. He turns to the green demon next to him and shakes his shoulders, pointing back to his slot machine. The green demon yells, just as a blaring ringing sound fills the air.
“He must have hit it big,” Stolas yells.
After a few moments the ringing stops. The black demon is buzzing with excitement, which causes me to start getting excited. I’m more than ready to try my luck.
“Come on, I want to take you to see the pony races. I think you’ll do better over there. The slot machines will be a bust.” I nod and smile, bouncing a little on my toes.
We end up on a back patio with chairs and tables. On the tables are tablets. I turn to Stolas.
“You guys get Wi-Fi down here?” I can hear the shock in my own voice. He shakes his head.
“No. All our power comes from the souls of the damned.”
I sigh. “I know I said I didn’t want to know what you meant by that, but now I’m rethinking my stance.” Stolas guides me over to the closest table, pulling out my chair for me. Once I’m seated, Stolas take the chair next to me, while Obsidian and Verkor take the seats on the other side of the table.
“Damned souls are the souls that no one wants. These are the souls that won’t be reincarnated. They are undesirable. These souls are the worst of the worst. They fuel the lights first by their screams and then by blood when they are being tortured. Once they’re close to death, their bodies are thrown into the abyss, which Abaddon guards.
“Remember what I said earlier, if Abaddon chooses, he could just throw you into it. That pit tears you apart, breaking your mind first, then your spirit, then your soul, and once it’s done with that, it breaks apart your body. The abyss is something that you cannot come back from. It’s where souls go to be unmade. Only the truly vile and cruel are sent there. It’s the essence of those soul that fuels the electricity until there's nothing left. The soul disappears for good.” I stare at him wide-eyed.
“How long do the souls stay?”
“It depends on how long they want to hold on for. Some are fueled by rage and anger. Those are the ones that tend to last the longest. The souls filled with sadness and depression tend not to stick around.”
“What makes a soul undesirable?”
“Rapist, murders, pedophiles.” Well, I don’t feel so bad for those souls then. They shouldn’t have a chance to be remade. “I thought Charon uses those to pull his boat and to form his skeletal staircase?”
“There are so many that what he doesn’t use gets sent to the abyss,” Stolas answers.
My body tightens as my mind drifts to the wizard that I killed. My soul will be undesirable and I’ll end up just like Charon’s skeletons or worse I’ll be thrown into the abyss and unmade. Stolas notices the difference in my posture.
“What’s wrong? You have nothing to worry about. Your soul won’t be considered undesirable.” I wring my hands in my lap, keeping my gaze on the table, too afraid to look them in the eyes as I say my next words.
“Yes, I will.” Stolas places his fingers under my chin, forcing me to look at him. Tears well in my eyes. He cups my face.
“What is it, love? What makes you think you’ll be an undesirable soul?” He uses his thumbs to wipe away the tears I didn’t realize were falling.
“Because of what I did, of what I had to do,” I whisper.
“And what was that?” He keeps his voice soft. There is concern etched in his eyes. I close my eyes, squeezing them tight. “Whatever it is, we’re not going to love you less. Please, love, tell us.” A hand grabs mine, and I feel more hands on my shoulders. When I open my eyes to see that I am surrounded by my guys. A myriad of emotions cross their faces. But seeing them around me, showing their love and support, gives me the courage to tell them what I need to.
“I was sixteen, out running jobs. I was on my way to deliver an item and the fastest way there was through this alley. I didn’t see the guy until it was too late. He came at me from behind and tried to pin me to wall. When I screamed, he covered my mouth with his hand. I did everything I could to get away. I bit his hand, elbowed him in the stomach, stepped on his feet. I know the only reason I was able to break free was because he was drunk. He stumbled and fell, and I turned to run, but he caught my ankle. I fell, hitting my palms and knees off the concrete.” I close my eyes, trying to block out the smell of the dumpster, the sound of his voice when he called me a bitch and a tease. “I rolled over and started kicking his face with my free leg. I kicked him over and over again. The grip he had on my ankle fell away. When I looked at him, he was staring at me, eyes wide open, lifeless.” I try to turn my head away but Stolas won’t let me. “I checked his pulse before I took off. I knew not to stick around.” My tears are freely flowing, and I don’t bother to hide them. They know my darkest secret now. The only other person I told was Izzy.
“Finley, doll, look at me,” Obsidian’s voice calls out over my shoulder. Stolas lets go of my face and Verkor releases my hands, so I can turn and look at Obsidian. “You did nothing wrong.” He moves my chair out, then kneels before me, placing his hands on my knees. “If you didn’t kill that fucker, then I would have asked where this alley was, what he looked l
ike, and I would have hunted him down and killed him myself,” he growls. “You did what you had to, to survive. You know what he was planning on doing to you would have been far worse.”
I nod because I know he’s right. He leans forward placing a gentle kiss to my lips before pulling back. I stare at Obsidian not knowing what to say because that is so unlike him. I expect the gentleness from Verkor, not him, but I’m not going to say anything. My hamrammr has a soft side that I don’t get to see that often, but when I do, I love it.
“Besides,” Stolas says, drawing my attention to him. “You’re not going to hell when you die. You’re too good for a place like this. You’ll go to heaven.” I snort.
“I can’t go to heaven. I’ve stolen, lied, and killed,” I whisper. I’m ashamed of the life I’ve led. “Aren’t those big sins to commit?”
“Everyone sins. Very few souls are pure and good. I know that you don’t like what you do, you said so yourself. That goes a long way. You want to redeem yourself, if you didn’t then there’s a very good chance you would end up in hell.”
“There is no need for you to worry about that right now,” Verkor says as he moves into my line of sight. “You’re not going to die for many, many years. You have plenty of time to right your wrongs.” I sigh.
“You’re right. One day at a time.”
“Exactly. And for today, right now, I’m going to show you how to bet on the ponies.” Stolas smiles and I give him a watery smile back.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Obsidian and Verkor reclaim their seats, as Stolas helps me fix my chair.
Stolas
I hate seeing Finley struggle, and I wish I could magically make everything okay, but I can’t. The only thing I can do for her is to try to ease her mind and prove to her that I am going to be here for her every step of the way. I hope that over time the thought that she has to do everything by herself will fade. I want her to be able to depend on me...on us.
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