Brimstone Nightmares (Queen of the Damned Book 4)

by Kel Carpenter

  Unlike my own power, it didn’t settle and linger, but instead fought savagely like an animal trying to tear its way out of a cage, seeking out any weakness inside me. I grit my teeth against the intrusion, hoping, praying to an already dead devil that I’d taken enough out of the forest to get wherever we were going.

  That prayer went unanswered when some time later we stumbled across more fire and I had to repeat the same trick. This time it came easier, but holding it was getting more difficult.

  Instead of wrapping my arms around Moira’s waist, I rested my hands on my knees, fists closed and nails digging into my palms hard enough to pierce the skin.

  A copper tang hit my nose, making me grimace, but it was working.

  Pain brought clarity. It eased the churning power in my veins that pushed against my skin and threatened to unleash the deadly force.

  Taking slow, steady breaths, the muscle straining in my ribcage let up as the sun began to descend on the horizon.

  “Hey, are we going to stop sometime soon? My thighs are killing me,” I lied. Well, not completely. My thighs were killing me, but the pressure trapped just beneath the skin was far worse and I feared I couldn’t take any more fire if we came across it before stopping for the night.

  “Soon,” Julian said from up ahead. I clenched my teeth shut and focused on breathing through my nose. It was getting better, but not fast enough. The constant jostling wasn’t helping.

  It felt like forever when I asked, “Are we there yet?”

  Moira pulled Nessus to a stop and turned to look at me over her shoulder. “Are you alright?” she asked, point blank.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine...” My words trailed off as dark spots appeared in my vision.

  Too much pressure...

  “You don’t look fine.” She squinted in the setting sun as the horse gently rocked side to side. All the twisting and writhing in me had finally died down, leaving me heavy when the flames finally settled.

  “Sure…I am,” I said. My voice came out distorted, sounding far away. It echoed in the space between my words, widening the gaps of silence as it repeated over and over in my mind.

  “Ruby?” a voice asked. I tried to place it. To connect it to the face before me.

  To tell the green-skinned girl that I was not alright, because I didn’t realize until too late why the darkness was swarming in.

  But there it sat on the tip of my tongue as night finally took me and the sun slipped below the horizon.

  Chapter 4

  An uncomfortable crick in my side had me groaning. I rolled on my side and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, blinking hard to discern what happened. Then the thoughts came tumbling into my mind so fast and vivid that I lay there panting for a moment before asking, “Where am I?”

  I blindly patted around me for something to get a grip on. Rough edges pricked my palms and my hands came away dirty. Devil-damnit, what happened now?

  I placed my hands back on the rocks beneath me and pushed up, ignoring the pinching pain.

  “Whoa there, Rubes—”

  “What’s going on?” I breathed. My head swam as gravity worked to pull me back again and strong hands grasped my upper arms.

  “Easy, love,” a voice murmured behind me. “You fainted. If Moira hadn’t been watching you would have fallen right off Nessus.”

  I swallowed, tasting nothing but salty air and dirt. “I fainted?”

  “Yup,” Moira said, exaggerating the ‘p.’ She turned back for something and held up a bottle of water. I reached for it, nodding in thanks.

  The top cracked as I roughly turned it and drained the bottle in several long gulps. The plastic crinkled when it hit the ground. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

  “I really gotta stop doing that,” I said.

  “Littering?” Moira asked pointedly with a twist of her lips.

  “Fainting,” I snorted. Moira scowled.

  “My job would certainly be a lot easier if you did. As it is, I’m the one in charge of making sure the enigma doesn’t get up to anything...shady.” Two booms echoed behind her and Moira rolled her eyes.

  “What was that?” Not sure I wanted to ask.

  “Trouble.”

  Moira let out a small sigh as she looked at something over my shoulder. A silent conversation seemed to pass between her and the person on the other end of that gaze. The fingers at my forearms tightened, and I had a pretty good idea who that might be.

  “I need to go check on Jax and make sure he’s not asking for a death wish.” I quirked an eyebrow and she smirked dubiously before getting to her feet and walking out of the—

  “Are we in a cave?” I said, trying to turn so I could see behind me. Not that it would have mattered because it was all darkness. A cavern ceiling spanned one side to the other, not smooth, but rocky and uneven. Ahead of me, the low light of a fire lit the shadows under a moonlit sky.

  “Not quite,” said a second voice. Honey, seduction, and a hint of scotch permeated the air. I blinked up at Allistair. His dark hair seemed to absorb the night as it framed his pale skin with an unruly wildness that was unlike him. Instead of the standard suit that I’d come to know and love, he donned the same low-slung jeans and tight t-shirt I’d gotten a peak at just before we set off for Inferna.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” My voice came out huskier than I intended. Hungrier than before.

  “We’re in a tunnel on the edge of Lust’s province,” Rysten answered behind me. His fingers loosened their hold around my forearms and slid across my shoulders. I leaned into him.

  “Okay,” I answered. “Why are we in a tunnel at the edge of Lust’s province?”

  “Because this is Hell,” Allistair answered like that meant something. I raised my eyebrows and he inclined his head, his sensuous lips looming too close to be so far away. “Bad things happen at nighttime. Unless you’re in a city, you don’t want to be caught out in the open when the sun goes down.”

  My eyebrows drew together and I took a second appraising look of the tunnel because this didn’t really seem that much better. “A Kraken tried to eat Bandit ten minutes after coming through the portal. I feel like bad things are implied in the name.” My voice had more steel behind it than what I really felt. I was from here. Born here. And after only a single day, it struck me how incredibly out of my depth I was.

  I wanted to hang my head in my hands and plead to go home. Tell them that I give up. Keeping Bandit and Moira safe were more important. We could go live on some remote island in the middle of nowhere while this apocalypse business worked itself out...but I didn’t get that option. There was no ‘working itself out’ that didn’t involve me and my beast.

  And so, while it was scary as fuck and the first day here was more than a little disheartening—I was Ruby Morningstar—Satan’s one and only child.

  “Perhaps it is implied,” Allistair nodded. His lips twisted in a wry grin that did bad things to my libido. “But there are many good things too...if you look for them.”

  “Uh huh,” I said slowly, fighting the smirk threatening to break through. “What kind of good things are we talking about?” I asked, more than a little breathless. Allistair leaned forward, stealing a kiss with the briefest brush of his lips before pulling back with a chuckle.

  “You’ll see.”

  “What kind of answer is that?” I groaned, remembering the pressure in my head when it suddenly throbbed to life. I pulled away from Rysten and got to my feet. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel very weak after that—all things considered. I stretched my arms high and my joints popped like a kid shooting a coke can with an air gun. I shook my limbs free and turned to wink at the two Horsemen standing behind me, clearly enjoying the show.

  “See something you like?” I purred, not the least bit ashamed. I certainly liked the view from where I stood.

  It wasn’t Allistair’s sexy smirk that did me in, though, but Rysten’s soft eyes. “Always,” he whispered with conviction. I smiled softly
, emotion swelling in my chest.

  Unnamable, just the way it would stay.

  Behind them something stirred in the shadows. I froze, my eyes narrowing on the lumbering movements—not at all stealthy. Remembering Allistair’s warning, my hand came up to summon fire…when I saw Laran.

  “What were you doing back there? I almost set you on fire—”

  “You can’t burn me.”

  “Well, no…” I paused, running my thumb over my bottom lip before crossing my arms. “But I could set fire to the cavern, which would compromise the rock’s structural integrity and weaken it enough that it could potentially collapse on you...” I trailed off when they started snickering. “What?”

  “Well, it’s just...” Rysten paused when I raised an eyebrow.

  “We don’t typically see your more...calculating side,” Allistair said quickly. I snorted. “Sometimes I forget you’re the girl that kept a tank of chloroform in her office.”

  “Ah.” I smiled fondly at the memory of tattooing Kendall’s face. “You really shouldn’t forget that. If anything, I’ve evolved.” I lifted a hand, letting a sliver of flame dance over my fingers.

  “Where’d you learn that?” Laran asked as he slowly advanced toward me. His dark hair was pulled back into a low ponytail at the nape of his neck, revealing the slight scar that nicked the arch of his right eyebrow.

  “Moira,” I murmured, putting the fire away. “When she started college, she was going to school for civil engineering. She’d listen to her videos while I built a client base tattooing people in the studio apartment we shared before I bought the house that was blown up.”

  “And you learned that just from listening?” Laran asked. I nodded, scratching the back of my head.

  “I wasn’t much for school because I found the environment stifling. Some people can learn while being packed in a room and told to read from a textbook, but I’m not one of them.” I shrugged and picked at a leaf that was stuck to my flannel. “I learned a lot while she was in school.”

  Ironic as it was, I probably learned more during her four years than I did the past eighteen, between her videos and my ex’s. I’d seen a variety of men with very different professions while passing the time, some more helpful than others.

  “Why’d she switch to business?” Allistair asked. His eyes flicked behind me to look at Moira. I felt her change in emotion the minute she walked in. The erratic excitement and swaggering bitchiness she wore with pride.

  “Have you ever studied civil engineering?” she asked, her voice on the very brink of a screech. Ever since she’d transitioned, she seemed to stray the razor edge of screaming like a—well, banshee—and speaking like a normal person.

  “She got bored,” I answered in short. He blinked, reassessing Moira.

  “Bored? Studying engineering?” he asked skeptically.

  “Bored studying civil engineering. It’s fucking droll. Also, the other students were all pricks that had a pine tree up their asses.” I choked on a laugh as she sauntered up beside me.

  “She did very well and the guys in her classes were intimidated,” I explained as she flicked her dark green hair over one shoulder.

  “I switched to business because I could start my own company with Ruby. I had it all laid out and we were just getting started. With my brain and her fingers, we’d retire as millionaires,” Moira huffed. The three of them seemed more than a little surprised.

  “I don’t know why you’re all shocked. I may have a birthright, but she’s a fucking genius.” I rested my arm on Moira’s shoulder as she put one around my waist. Behind us a deep baritone let out a cough of derision.

  “If you two are done talking about what you wasted your lives doing while Hell’s been burning, I’d like to know what War found,” the enigma jested. I tensed, debating between saying something and letting it go when Moira shrugged.

  “He’s kind of an asshole,” I whispered to her.

  “You have no idea.”

  Was that a blush creeping up her cheeks? No fucking way. I snapped my jaw shut just as it started to fall open, and I turned to Laran.

  “What were you searching for?” I asked. Laran’s closed fists drew my attention as he glanced between me and the asshole at the mouth of the tunnel. Anger wafted off him. Aggression and....possession. “Laran,” I said lightly, pretending that I didn’t notice how he might throttle Jax for talking to me like I was the reason his world was ending. I mean, I was...but it was only half my fault. I wasn’t claiming responsibility for being shipped off as a baby no matter who tried to feed me that bullshit. “Laran,” I repeated. His attention wasn’t on me, and his feet were already moving. I made a split decision and the beast came forward.

  “War.”

  All it took was a single word and he stopped mid-step. Turning to look over his shoulder, the beast stared back at him expectantly. “Your mate has asked you a question. You’d do well to remember what she is capable of when you don’t answer.” Her words were chilled. Apathetic. The beast receded with ease and I stared up at him not even missing a beat with our shifting. I was getting the hang of this.

  “Of course,” he answered softly. Laran turned his back on the enigma, giving me his undivided attention. Out of the corner of my eye I didn’t miss the assessing gaze of the chaos demon, or Julian standing behind him—Bandit riding on his shoulder. “Did they tell you why we came here?” he asked.

  “Allistair said the boogeyman comes out at night—”

  “I did not,” he growled.

  “I’m paraphrasing.”

  “Can we get on with this—” Jax started, and like that he went one step too far. Laran’s eyes darkened, blotting out any white as his savage fury and territorial urges finally got the better of him. He lifted his hand without turning, and the enigma lifted off the ground.

  He clawed at his throat but there was no one there.

  “Dude, I already saved your ass once. You really don’t learn, do you?” I started, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “He’s slow,” Moira said, not sounding the least bit concerned as she toed a rock with her boot. In her nonchalance, she missed the way Jax’s panicked gaze flicked to her.

  I sighed. “Put him down, Laran. As much as he’s an asshole, Jax isn’t exactly here because he wants to be.” There was once a time that such a show of brutality would have sent me running for the hills, but not anymore. While I didn’t revel in the violence, I also didn’t shy from it when need be. This just wasn’t one of those cases.

  “He doesn’t treat you with respect,” Laran answered.

  “Yeah, he’s not the first jackass to and he won’t be the last. While rude, it doesn’t warrant death, so let’s dial it down. It’s awfully dark outside and we’re standing next to the entrance of the tunnel. I would like to know what the hell the next step is here.” At this, he appeared to see reason. His fist unclenched as his hand dropped and with it, the enigma did too. Ignoring his spluttering coughs and furious gaze, I focused on Laran.

  “I was searching to see where it let out. The vast majority of the tunnels in Hell lead to the Garden—Sloth’s province. I was hoping that this one did, but it’s collapsed,” Laran said. “We’ll have to find another way.”

  I frowned. “Another way?”

  “Another way to Inferna,” Julian answered.

  “What’s wrong with the way we’re going? We’ll get there eventually.”

  Utter silence.

  Laran looked at the ceiling while Julian looked on with...pity? I whipped my head around to Moira who was picking at the dirt under her nails with a dagger. I didn’t even bother to spin around on the two behind me, because they’d all come to a decision already. Without me.

  And here I was letting them distract me because I didn’t know any better—no, that’s not right—because I expected better. I expected honesty.

  Shame on me for holding these demons to the same standards they tried to hold me to.

  “You fainted today,�
� Julian said slowly. Softly. Hesitantly. “When you absorbed the fire, you were taking in too much power, weren’t you?” I said nothing. They didn’t get my answers when they withheld their own. “It’s okay, Ruby. We’re not mad at you because you took too much, but we didn’t notice in time when you started to shut down.”

  Emotion clogged my throat making it hard to breath. I swallowed down the hardness and infused my spine with steel.

  “We’re looking for alternative route to Inferna so that you don’t feel like you need to extinguish the fire. Once we get there—if the Sins have all truly gathered—then we can work to find a solution once you take the throne.” He continued, but I wasn’t listening. I brushed past Laran and strutted towards the mouth of the tunnel. I stepped around Jax, who finally had the good sense to not say shit, and I didn’t even look at Julian as I walked by.

  A hand snaked out to wrap around my wrist, pulling me up short.

  “Let go of me,” I snapped, rounding on him with a fierceness he didn’t expect.

  “No.”

  “Damnit, Julian,” I growled. Fire started in my hands, burning dark and deadly.

  “Put it out,” he ordered.

  “Fuck you,” I spat back. “You don’t get to order me around.” I tensed, recalling my transition, though hazy as some parts were. “You have five seconds to let me go.”

  “You’re not walking off into the woods—”

  “One,” I said simply. His eyes turned cold. Feral.

  “I would listen to her, Julian,” Moira warned.

  “Two.” Julian tightened his grip on me.

  “She’s going to get herself killed—” Laran started. He knew I would bolt if Julian didn’t back down.

  “Three,” I said. My arms began to shake, my legs trembling with the urge to run.

  “Damn you, Death. You do not want to see her temper—” Moira spoke faster now, trying to plead with him. Trying to reach me.

  “Four,” I snarled, baring my teeth.

  Power was building. It flowed through me and clashed together with a thunderous crack. All of the pressure from before…I realized it didn’t simply leave me while I slept. It integrated.